I am filled with thanks!

Today we will head east to my grandmothers house at noon and then to Lance's grandmothers house to share thanksgiving dinner with his mom's side of the family.  Both will be filled with a spread of food, from turkey & dressing to sweet potato casserole and corn, cranberry salad to green beans and desserts to numerous to name.  We will spend time with our family and enjoy the day together, our last Thanksgiving just the 2 of us.

On this day every year, I try to make a conscious effort to THINK about all that I have to be Thankful for.  There are so many things that I am thankful for, things both big and small.  This year in particular, we have a little tiny baby boy growing inside of me (1 lb and about 12 inches long now who really enjoyed my lucky charms this morning...) to be thankful for in addition to these below:

I am thankful for:

• a hardworking husband who loves me- who understands my anal ways---and loves me despite of those.
• the sweetest little weiner dog who brings me joy and happiness every day; who as I speak is laying on her bed in the floor in front of her little heater soaking up the warmth, but soon will be at my feet because she got to hot.  ;)  Seriously, I LOVE this dog!
• my mom, who has not only been the best mother in the world, but my best friend from day 1.
• my dad, who is in his 19th year of sobriety! I am thankful for the AA program who helps countless others every day to take it "one day at a time."
• my sister, who never ceases to amaze me with her wit, humor, style and personality.
• the greatest in-laws anyone could ever ask for- Lance's mom and dad along with his 3 brothers have made me feel like I was "one of them" since the very beginning.  I couldn't have hand picked a better family.
• Ronnie, my step-dad, who loves and cares for my mom and adores the ground she walks on.
• Donna, my dad's fiance, who loves my dad for the man that he is.
• The rest of our family- I have 2 grandmothers, 1 great-grandmother and 1 great-grandfather still living.  Lance has 2 grandmothers still living.  We have countless aunts and uncles and cousins that are so special to us both!
• My friends- I have the greatest group of friends.  Bridget & Brooke are my 2 besties.  Bridget and I grew up together and have such a common bond between us.  No matter the distance, a phone call can join us just like we were side by side.  Brooke and I have been best friends since the summer after our senior year.   We have been through many trials, but with her by my side, I feel I can conquer anything.  I am also thankful for both of their healthy babies- Brooke with another angel on the way!
• a wonderful job and the best coworkers in the world. 

These are random things, but nevertheless, I'm thankful for these things:

• time with above family & friends
• my church
• the tanning bed- really, this no tanning while pg is for the birds!  I'm about to invest in some self tanner or spray tan
• hair products
• chocolate
• sweet tea & dr. pepper
• rustic items in my home
• flea market finds
• my home
• my salvation
• the courage to share my salvation with those I come in contact with
• pedicures
• yarn- or anything crafty for that matter
• yoga pants & victorias secret hoodies
• flip flops
• sun
• spreadsheets
• books, books, books
• flowers- in particular the ones I can buy at Lowes or Needhams and plant in the spring
• BLACK FRIDAY & the hoopla that comes with it

These are just a few of the things that I am thankful for. 

As you go to and from today and through the weekend, take time to thank God for all that you have.  We are so fortunate and have so much to be thankful for.  What are you thankful for?  Leave a comment and let me know!

Happy Thanksgiving,

Lance & Annie

Birthday Festivities

It seems only appropraite to celebrate for a few days when you turn 16 right?  So, that's exactly what we did.

Thursday night we celebrated at a Japanese restaurant in town.  Lance and I joined my mom, Ronnie, my dad, Donna, Nana, Ganny, Uncle Bubba, Savannah, John and the Birthday Girl for dinner and cake!  We had a great time!  Here are a few pics from the night.

My Dad and his beautiful fiance Donna

Me & The Hub's

Me & Ali with Nana (Dad's mom)

Ali & I with Ganny (mom's mom)

Left to right

Lance, Savy, Ali & John

And- a birthday is not complete without a Sweet-n-Sassy's Cake!

Saturday night rouned out the festivities.  We had all her friends come out for a birthday celebration at a local park.  We rented a pavilion and ordered bbq with all the "fixins'" and had cake and smores which we roasted the marshmellows over 2 firepits.  Roughly 50 15-18 year olds were in attendance.  Lance was the DJ for the night and did his best to get the dancing started- but it didn't work.  I think they were all embarrased! They're at that age...but they had a great time nonetheless.  My dad had put together a slide show of about 200 pictures of Ali from when she was about 4 or 5 till now.  It was priceless.  I for one, shed a few tears! 

Here are some of my fav's from the night:

Until next year Al!  For now, drive safe- no texting while driving- always wear your seatbelt!

WE LOVE YOU!

November 19, 1993

On this day, 16 years ago, my little baby sister was born.  Weighing in at 7 lbs 11oz she was sure to make her mark on the world. 

16 years ago today, I went from being an only child, to having a baby sister. 

16 years ago, my life would never be the same.

Never in my wildest dreams could I have thought that my sister would be as wonderful as she is.  She is a lover of Jesus, strong willed, independent, creative, merciful, caring, tender, artistic, crazy girl.  If I had to get my drawing board out and create someone as unique as Ali, I would fall short.  She is indeed molded by The Maker and is perfect in every way to me. 

Happy Birthday Ali!  I hope 16 is FABULOUS!

Be safe driving and make good decisions!

I LOVE YOU SAS!

Mom took this of Ali this morning before my dad took her to get her license!

She is official!

She now has her TN Drivers License!

Watch out world- Here she comes!

Bed & Dresser...CHECK...

This weekend Lance and I spent some much needed time together. With all the home improvements, fantasy football/football in general, P90X (Lance), craft fairs, etc. our time together has been sparse. 

Saturday started with a trip to the granite warehouse to look at some options for countertops.  We've narrowed our selection down to 3 different colors\textures.  Depending if we paint the cabinets in the kitchen or not will help to determine our final selection.

We did some more errands and ended up at Pickles & Ice Cream.  I had a major need for some maternity pants.  I found a great pair of everyday black work pants and a pair of Citizens Jeans.

We also saw this celeb while we were there! 

We headed to Franklin to a couple of other baby stores to look at baby beds.  He now has a place to lay his head!

We eventually decided on the bed and dresser below.  This is the bed that we chose but in the black finish of the dresser shown.

This is his dresser- shown in Antique Black.

My Nana (dad's mom) had told me when we first found out that we were pregnant that she'd like to help buy his baby bed.  Many thanks to her for helping with this first big purchase!

It'll be 12 weeks for delivery on these 2 items but that will give us plenty of time to get our other home improvements done and get to work on his nursery. 

Painting has continued in the living room and hopefully will be finished by this weekend leaving the kitchen, master and nursery left to be painted. 

It's a lot of fun preparing for a little one, but a lot of work too. I'm tuckered out!

In other news: our little boy sure is active.  He moves all day long.  I've got my speakers rigged at work under my desk and I play him classical music through the day.  He seems to like it. 

We have two names that we are stuck on- Lance's likes Easton Garrett and I like Levi Garrett.  I'm pretty sure that his name will be Easton, but I don't want to give in just yet.  I do love both names though, so I don't think we can't go wrong. 

This is a big week outside of our house- my sister Alison will be turning 16 on Thursday!  It seems like just yesterday I was at the hospital anticipating her arrival with my mom and dad.  It doesn't seem like enough time has passed for her now to be doing the same with me.  More to come about her on Thursday...

That's all for now.

Good Night, Annie

Happy Birthday Kirby!!!

Seven years ago in Orlinda, TN, Ms. Mary Evans had a litter of puppies.  Little did I know that my husband had his eye on the one with the kink in her tail.  Kirby became part of our family at 6 weeks old, but 7 years ago today was the day she was born.  She has blessed our home since she joined us some 7 years ago!

Happy Birtday Kirby!!!  We love you!!!

Every year Kirby gets Frosty Paws!

This year, being the wonderful mother that I am- I didn't want her to eat alone- so I got a small cake for us too!  How sacrificial and selfless of me- I know! 

Happy Birthday little Lovie!  You will always be our little baby!

Here are a few pics of Kirby from her 7 years that I love:

(Donuts compliments of my sweet friend Diane at work!)

All our waiting has come down to this- this 45 minute appointment that would set the stage for the next 20 weeks of pregnancy and the rest of our lives!  We couldn't be more thrilled!

We got to our ultrasound at 8:30 and after about 20 minutes with the sonographer and a what seemed like a million snapshots of our little babies brain, organs and limbs we got to see that our little baby was a boy.  When she first tried to see what "it" was, he was sitting on his feet, but after some moving around and some additional pictures of other orgnans- she tried again.  It was then that we found out that our little one was a boy! 

To say that Lance is excited is an understatement! The look on his face when she told us it was a boy was priceless.  He had a smile plastered on his face the rest of the day.  Our main concern was health first...and once that was clarified- it was all smiles and praise for our healthy baby boy!

As he was moving around his little arms and legs were very active.  Lance said he's pretty sure he's a lefty!  I'm left handed and Lance was a baseball player, so that would be a good combination.  Leftys in baseball are a hot commodity. 

A few times it appeared as if he was waving to us and giving us a thumbs up.  He was very active all day.  He must have known that we were thinking of him and all he would become.

Lance and I both had the day off and spent it telling our family and friends.  I told my dad first.  He had originally said he didn't want to know but when I called him he couldn't resist. We went by my mom's work and I text Ali at the same time I told mom. Ali likes to know she's not the last to be in the know.  Afterwards we went to Lance's parents house and told Cindy (his mom) and Tyler.  We called his dad and filled him in on the news.  He's pretty excited to eventually get all the baseball gear back out!  Everyone is very excited to welcome this new little boy into the family. 

As I prayed for him this morning, I was almost brought to tears thinking of what he will be one day.  It's so real now, to pray for HIM and to have his little face in my mind as I pray for him.  What a blessing to carry this child and to be his mother.  Lance and I are thrilled with the thoughts of raising this child and watching him grow.

I Samuel 1:27 says "For this child, I have prayed and the Lord has granted me what I asked of Him."  This is the verse that fills my soul today.

Thank you Jesus for this good news and for the blessing of this baby boy.

(From the side- this is his profile- sorry about the quality...)

(Front View- 3D Ultrasound)

On the Home Front

So, when we found out we were having a baby, out came the Honey-Do list.  We had lots of things on the list, the first being our front bathroom.  This project took a little over a month to complete because we kept thinking of things that should be done.  We did the following in the bathroom:

• Painted the Vanity Black
• Painted the walls a burnt orange
• Changed out the light fixture, bath fixtures and hardware
• Lance built the frame around the mirror above the vanity

And...here are the results...

I am very pleased with the results!

We took a week off from home improvements to build up our stamina for this next project. 

The next project was to paint the front bedroom and the hall.  After a brief setback on Thursday night of the wrong paint color from Lowes, we started on Friday.  Tyler, Lance and myself got our trim brushes and rollers out for the task.  We worked all night Friday night and most of the day on Saturday.  We checked those 2 rooms off of our list.  Painting the front room led to rearranging the room to make room for the items that are were in the back bedroom- soon to be nursery.  We still have a few items in the back bedroom that need a home, but for the most part, the back bedroom is almost ready to become a nursery.

Today the boys (Lance, Tyler, Matt & Chris [brothers]) went to Talladega to the race.

Here's the boys at the race!

(Left to Right: Matt, Lance, Tyler, Chris)

My chore for the day was to clean up the paint mess and get the rooms\house back in order. 

This took most of my morning!

Pictures have not been hung yet, but for the most part, this is the front room...

The bedding will soon change out too- but for now, this is what we have.

We are in search of a "headboard" to make this a day bed look. I'd like some old shutters or old doors to stand up behind there to make that look complete---similar to this but painted black and mounted longways.

The rest of my day was spent cleaning, organizing, napping and a little shopping.  It was nice to have the day to myself but my mind was getting the best of me.  I was glad for Lance to get home because sometimes my mind wonders.  I didn't realize just just how anxious I was about tomorrow.  I just pray that all is normal, healthy and visable.  We will know tomorrow if our little baby is a he or she. 

Lets just hope we can get some sleep!