OUR FIRST BABY SHOWER!!!!

After our mostly uneventful black friday shopping, we headed up to the mountains. We normally alternate Thanksgivings with mine and Evan's family but this year we got to see everyone because they were throwing us our first baby shower! It was seriously awesome, they went ALL OUT! They made candies in the shape of bottles for the cupcakes, and not only made, but also PAINTED some candies in the shape of ABC blocks, teddy bears, cradles, giraffes, hippos etc. There was so much good food, the whole family is amazing!



Above is a picture of the table where Stephanie made a board with a timeline of mine and Evan's life pre-each other and when we met and after, with pictures. She did a really really good job! Then there was a jar of pink M&M's for everyone to guess how many was in there, and the person who was the closest won them. And there was a sheet for everyone to sign that would go into a photo frame afterwards, another adorable idea. I'm really bad at describing things, I'm noticing that as I'm reading this back, but you'll have to take my word on this ;)

Here is the cake, yes it is a dinosaur shaped cake and it was awesome! Evan had a dinosaur birthday cake when he was younger, and since everything was going to be all pink and girlie, I guess they thought throwing in some dinosaur shaped cakes, and chicken nuggets would help! The table was all brown/pink and cutsie, loved it :)

Here is the beginning of the presents, and the woman in charge of the organizing this fabulous baby shower, Stephanie! She is now telling Evan that although baby showers are typically for the women, Evan is here because it's his family and he will get the honor of opening the first present, but the only stipulation is that he has to wear everything he opens! Here is what he opened:

If you can't tell what this is, it is a monkey suit! It is perfect for a Halloween costume because it's 6-9 months, there's a whole for her head to go in and stirrups for her feet, and even a built-in tummy! It is so cute! Well he couldn't fit that on, but his next present was a black shirt saying "Real men change diapers" and he had to wear that the rest of the shower :)

I won't bore you with the hundreds of pictures of all of the presents we got, but here is something really cool that we weren't expecting. Stephanie got us a bookcase/dollhouse that is really really cute. It will work as a bookcase, and then when she gets older it can be a dollhouse for her. We really needed a bookcase but hadn't really picked anything out yet and this is just adorable. Evan put it together yesterday and it brightens her room and makes it look all girlie, I love it!

Our daughter is going to be one stylish chick, she got so many clothes just at the first shower, I was so amazed. Here is a preview of her closet with all of the clothes hung up and her furry friends above.

Thank you to Evan's family who spent hours preparing for the shower, and for everyone who came and brought us gifts. A special thanks to Stephanie who I know organized the whole thing and spent countless hours preparing down to the very smallest detail. We are so blessed to have so many people who love and support us! We love you all :) 4 comments

Posted by Evan and Jen at 9:02 PM

Where do I even begin?

I have a lot of stuff to update on, we've had quite a few busy weeks. I kept telling myself that I was going to post so I don't forget anything, and I kept forgetting. Now if I update on everything we did this would be incredibly long, so I'll try to spare you and give you the short version.

About a month ago my sister gave us a onesie that was sooo cute. I can't find a picture of it online and my camera batteries are dead so I can't take a picture of it, and I'm out of batteries, so I'm completely out of luck. It's a black onesie that says in pink letters "I can't wear pink everyday." It's adorable though, and Evan loves it :)

My co-worker Dawn gave us a sock monkey! We love sock monkeys, especially Evan, and we were going to do a monkey themed nursery if we were having a boy so we really like monkey! The one she got us is adorable! He has magnetic hands, feet, and hat :) How cute is JoJo? He even has a whole family, and Christmas ornaments and everything!



Thanksgiving was awesome, as usual. This was my family's year for Thanksgiving, we alternate between my mom's family, and Evan's mom's family because those are the only 2 that really "do Thanksgiving". This year was a little different though, my dad decided he wanted to go to his family's Thanksgiving in Reidsville so Evan and I rode with my parents for lunch on Thanksgiving day. I don't see my dad's family very much (none of us do, but he's trying to change that) so I didn't really know that many people but I got reacquainted and that was fun! Then we headed to my Grandmother's in Greensboro for Thanksgiving dinner. Every year the family keeps growing, we're practically running out of room to have everyone eat in the house, we have a big table in the formal dining room, a small table in the kitchen/dining room/living room, and a small table in the family room. We are outgrowing that house very quickly. All in all it was a fun day with lots of food and family, and I absolutely love my family.

Black Friday was almost uneventful for me, I'm usually a hardcore shopper with a timeline and a plan for every store I'm going to hit with the appropriate coupons etc. Last year I went out to Smithfield outlets at midnight to start the night off right ;) but this year, I'm pretty pregnant, and waking up at the crack of dawn just didn't appeal to me. Neither did standing in line or getting pushed around, so there was no plan of going out shopping...BUT of course I had to look at the sales papers, I mean who doesn't? I found a couple things I would love to check out but decided that I would just let myself wake up whenever and if the deals were still there when I went there, then great, and if not, no big deal. I wanted to check out bikes for Evan and my dad, a GPS for my father-in-law, and a Keurig for Evan. Evan didn't like the idea of me going by myself so about 8:00am we went to Wal-mart, CompUSA, and Kohl's, pretty much striking out everywhere. I did buy Evan his Christmas present at Kohl's, which he was unaware of until I walked out of the store with it in my hand as he was picking me up...I said "Merry Christmas, you won't let me go shopping by myself so you get no surprises ;) " He was excited either way, and so was I...I got this Keurig Elite for HALF PRICE! I was so excited and I've yet to see a better deal thus far! If anyone sees it for less, DON'T TELL ME :)


I really like this thing too, I don't drink coffee but they have teas and hot cocoa (which is my favorite!) and it's so quick...so I can just throw my thermos under there while packing my lunch in the morning and I have hot chocolate on the way to work!!! LOVE IT!

I don't guess that was much, but I skipped a lot 1) because I don't remember everything and 2)I don't want to bore you.

Coming up on the next post: OUR FIRST BABY SHOWER! (This one's going to be long and with many pictures, so beware) 1 comments

Posted by Evan and Jen at 6:56 PM

It's about time :)

Ok, so right now I'm very angry with this blog AND my computer. I just spent the past 2 hours writing a post, granted I was watching TV, eating dinner, doing laundry in-between but it was a fairly long post, and then I try to upload a picture and my computer freezes!!!! I get back on to my blog and it didn't save :( I have a blank post titled "It's about time", it was last autosaved at like 6:00pm. I'm watching this blog draft autosafe or whatever every time I stop typing now, so why didn't it save last time...ugh! This is why I don't enjoy blogging! This post is going to have to be shorter than the last one because it's already 9:00pm and tomorrow is Monday so it's going to be a crazy day, I need my rest people!

I can't believe it's already the middle of November, before we know it, Thanksgiving and Christmas will have come and gone and it will be 2010. Scary! I'm really excited about these upcoming weeks though, lots of exciting events. This week my work is having a Thanksgiving dinner of sorts. We're having a potluck and Evan's taking a half day off of work so he can come. I absolutely love the people I work with and can't wait for all the good food and a chance to hang out with everyone AND EVAN! Then this weekend is my dad's birthday, so lots of family time :) And then next week is a short week because it's THANKSGIVING! I love love LOVE Thanksgiving, good food, family, it can't get any better than that! We will start out with my dad's side of the family for lunch, then my Grandmother (mom's mom) for dinner. Then Black Friday shopping with my sister begins! Then Evan and I, and the dogs, are off to the mountains to spend the weekend with the Chaisson family. That Saturday will be our first baby shower, I'm so excited! It's going to be weird having a bunch of baby stuff in the house, and we'll hopefully be bringing back an Ashe County Christmas Tree, they're the best. I can't wait to decorate our house and Christmas tree...Christmas is so much fun!

Our house went on the market about 1.5 weeks ago, and was shown last Thursday, Friday and yesterday! 3 showings in 3 days, not too bad. That's a lot better than last time we tried to sell it, which makes me more hopeful. Even if nothing comes from these showings, at least we know the price isn't too high, and that people like what they see online enough to see the house in person. We haven't gotten any feedback on the showings yet, but hopefully we'll know any good/bad/or indifferent feedback early this week! We're definitely praying for the perfect person to see our house and buy it!

A few weeks back, my pregnant friend Lindsay was telling me about how sometimes when she's extremely tired she would just start crying for no reason, and although that was not happening to me then...this past week it began :( I bet I cried every single night last week, and I don't mean just cry, I mean BAWL! I'm not sure if it was just exhaustion, or hormones, or actually being overwhelmed, probably all of the above but it was rough. For the first time I actually felt like I was moody, and mean to my husband, which I can't stand! I have been overwhelmed the past few months (who wouldn't right?) but I have been trying to just let everything fall into place and work itself out because I know there's nothing that I can do about certain things. I think it just all caught up to me this past week, and I couldn't handle it. Aflac visited my work discussing short-term disability/accident ins./life ins. etc. and I'm in the midst of switching insurances to Evan's company policy, and trying to get different quotes and make decisions on life insurance. I usually can handle quite a bit on my plate, making important decisions, figuring out what's best for us, what we can afford, but it was just too much for me. I would just start crying during lunch at work, at home, by the end of the week I could tell when it was coming so I would go and take a shower so I could be alone and cry so I wouldn't freak Evan out. Poor guy!

Can I just brag on my husband for a minute? He is one amazing guy...if you've known him for any amount of time you will agree with me. It's so interesting to think back to 2001 when I met him, and how he and I have both changed, for the better, and what we are now. I knew when I met him he was special, and within weeks of knowing him (not even dating) I knew he was the man I was meant to be with, boy was I right! He is such an amazing man of God and I am so blessed to have him. He treats me so good, better by far than I deserve. He takes care of me like none other, and he did this before I was pregnant too! He is downstairs right now as we speak, making me a salad for lunch tomorrow and taking the dogs out for the night. I mean I do things around the house, don't get me wrong, but he helps out more than I can even ask for. He makes sure I have everything I need, always thinking about me even before himself. He is amazing, the best husband I could ask for, and I know he's going to be an amazing father. I can't wait to see him with our daughter, she's going to love her daddy so much :) I love my husband so much, sorry if that gagged anyone, but I just had to share!

Our daughter remains nameless, we haven't really worked on her name the past few weeks, we're kind of at a stand still. Yesterday Evan jokingly said why don't we just settle with Riley Austin and be done with it! That's just it, neither one of us want to settle on a name, we want it to be perfect and something we truly love, and that just hasn't happened with a name yet. But we're not coming up with fresh names, so anyone have any ideas on what we should do?

Like most of you know, there are 4 pregnant women at Hope Chapel and we're all really close. Well a few weeks ago we were all together under the same roof so we had to take a picture. All the other girls have made this same post (weeks ago) so I had to share the picture too. Now all my non-Raleigh friends will know about the girls I talk about :)



So, here we are, from the right: Lindsey Davis--expecting Samuel Grey (spelling?) on February 16th, Me--expecting our daughter on March 3rd, Lindsay Hege--expecting Lila Addison on March 7th, and Casey Martinez--expecting her daughter on March 30th.

I hope I got all of that right, aren't we cute? It's so nice having other women around the same age all going through this together. Lindsey Davis and I are even trying to share a nanny together. A woman who goes to our church is wanting to nanny up to 2 children and we're hoping everything works out to where it can be Sam and our daughter :) How fun would that be?

Alright, time for me to go to bed, this week is going to be a crazy week! 1 comments

Posted by Evan and Jen at 6:48 PM

22 Weeks!!!

Hello all...it's been a while, I know, and again I apologize. I'm sure there is a lot that has happened since I last posted, but nothing too huge that I felt I needed to blog about it. We did buy the stroller that I posted about last time, it's all put together and in her room, YAY! We have a good amount of stuff registered at Babies R Us and Target which seemed to take FOREVER, and I'm sure there are things missing, but I'm so tired of registering so I'll have to come back to that a little later. We also bought the crib mattress, Babies R Us came out with a 30% off coupon for 1 day only and it was on the brand of mattress that we had picked out so we got it for about $80 which is a good deal for those! Yay for having a couple things in her room now :)

I've been kind of out of it lately. Just tired, a little down, too. We have 4 months until our little girl arrives, and I really really want to be in Apex. It just seems like it's just gettting farther and farther away :( I want to be close to my parents, my sister, my church, etc. When our daughter gets here, I want her grandparents to be able to come over whenever they want. I want to be able to run to the store, leave 10 min. before church starts instead of 35min. I mean it's ridiculous the amount we drive to and from things. Almost everywhere we goes takes 30 min. or more to get to. We're going to take a leap of faith and put our house on the market, within the next week or 2 and I just ask that you all would pray for us. I pray that somewhere, God would send us a buyer and we would get a decent amount for the house (considering the crappy economy) and that we would find a house. That's a lot of prayers I know, but we're really praying for a miracle.

Our Hope Chapel playgroup is now complete! Casey and Joey found out today that they are, too, having a baby girl which makes it 3 girls and 1 boy! Lindsay & Brian are having a girl and they have picked a name out! And Lindsey & Todd are having a boy and they have chosen a name as well! It's so exciting!!! I can't wait to be able to call our little girl by her own name, but it looks like that may not be in the near future. We can't seem to decide on anything, well really we can't come up with too many names that we are in love with. Everyone says not to worry, it will come....but I want to name her now!!!

I'm growing a lot as of late. Everyone is commenting now on how pregnant I look. One of my coworkers said "Man you really blew up this past weekend didn't you?" Not in a bad way, but it did make me realize how much bigger I am now then I was just a few weeks ago. I don't mind being big, gaining weight, nothing like that but I definitely physically feel bigger. The way I walk, the way I sit down and get up, and especially when I get in and out of bed I can really tell how big my belly is. It's funny how I feel, it's unexplainable, but cool! I'll try to take some more pictures, but I honestly don't wear real clothes much and when I do, I don't do much so I don't have a reason to take pictures. I don't think anyone wants to see my "naked" belly pictures that I take every week but it's crazy to look at the difference between 5 weeks and last week at 21 weeks...crazy!!!! Oh, and she's moving like crazy. She's most active on my drive home from work and right before I eat. Yesterday I felt like I was going to fall off the couch she was moving so much, and I can usually see when she's moving just by looking at my stomach. And I can feel where she is sometimes, it's like my stomachs tense and hard and I can massage it and feel her move over to the other side...it's really kind of cool. My co-worker felt her this morning and was like oh yea, that's totally her head!

I think my first baby shower is going to happen at the end of next month up in Ashe with the Chaisson family. It's a little early but I don't plan on making any more trips to Ashe past Christmas they're going to have it before the holidays! I'm so excited, it's going to be crazy having a ton of actual baby stuff everywhere, I can't wait!!! Alright, I think I've filled most of the gaps. Hopefully I'll have something to blog about soon, take care :) 2 comments

Posted by Evan and Jen at 7:10 PM

Strollers

I need your opinions. Evan and I had picked out a stroller for a boy, but we are having a girl so we're trying to decide whether this particular stroller is too boyish---or if it will be ok. We really like everything about the stroller otherwise, so tell me...do you think it's ok for a girl, or is it too boyish?



Blue, tan and brown polka-dots are cute, but it's a lot of brown, that's the only thing that really bothers me. Honestly, there aren't too many neutral designs out there, and we definitely don't want something pink and girlish. We hope to be able to use the same stroller for our next child who could possibly be a boy...but we also don't want our girl to look silly in a too-boyish stroller. So serious opinions would be appreciated. It won't upset me, I just want to know what other people think. 4 comments

Posted by Evan and Jen at 7:45 PM

Crazy, busy weekend part 2

Ok, so Evan's parents and Stephanie (his sister) spent the night last Friday night. Saturday morning we slept in a little and had a nice bacon and eggs breakfast, YUM :) Donna had brought us some newborn diapers from Luvs that were on major clearance so that was exciting, we had baby diapers in the house!!! Then, Tammy, a woman from Evan's church back at home sent a book of soothing CD's for the baby. They're really nice and include Mozart, washer/dryer noises etc. really really neat! That was exciting because it's really the first baby stuff we had in the house. We decided to go shopping a little! We went to World Market, Kohl's, and Target. They bought us a couple gowns/body suits for the baby girl. They were cute, green with monkeys, giraffes etc. They also bought the cutest pair of brown shoes with pink polka dots, and boy am I a sucker for polka dots. Kohl's was selling some of the collection of "If you give a mouse a cookie, If you give a mouse a muffin" etc. for $5.00 and the proceeds went to help out children so we bought 2, and Steph bought the pig and the mouse that went with the books!! She's going to have so much fun playing with the stuffed animals while we read her these stories!!! Our little girl is going to be so sick of polka dots by the times she's 2, LOL! It was so much fun looking at girlie clothes, they have a lot of cute CUTE stuff :)

This is very random but we bought a dining room table about a month ago from World Market (our favorite store) because we've had a free table that some friends passed down, their dogs had chewed almost every leg off of every chair, and we thought it was about time we got us a nice one. Plus, they were having an awesome sale! I just thought I would post a picture of it:



I didn't feel like cleaning it off for a good picture, so here you see the diapers, stuffed animals, and the clothing we got. Plus, my new Target purse (love it) and Evan's PEZ dispensers (uh, the boy is 25 and having a child, really you still want to collect these?) But anyways, here's the table, love love love benches, so very happy we finally have a grown up table!

Sunday we went to church and me, Evan, my mom and my sister and Mackenzie met at Babies R Us to get the crib and dresser! Evan and I really need help on what to register for and had some questions about things like strollers, car seats, bottles, monitors etc. and she really really helped us. We've registered for a couple things already, but I think it's going to take us a while, it's so hard, so many tough decisions. So we got the furniture loaded up in the truck, took it home only to find out they gave us the right crib and wrong dresser. Boy was it an ordeal to call them and figure out what happened, and I was not very calm or happy because it's a good 45 min. drive home and my brother-in-law was so kindly letting us use his truck. Well they got it worked out and gave us 20% off of the dresser which was nice, but we had to drive all the way back over there (without Evan b/c he had huddles) and I got to watch as my mom and Amber tried to get this enormously heavy dresser out of the back of the truck and into our garage since there was no way they could get it upstairs. All that work, but we finally have the crib and the dresser, YAY! Here's the pic from BRU



Aren't they cute? They're really heavy duty and seem like they will last! The crib will convert to a toddler bed and eventually a full size bed as well :) Our friends Wes & Diana came over last night to help Evan get the dresser upstairs since the dresser came completely put together (which is nice for Evan not to have to do, but was extremely heavy). We are going to aim to put the crib together tonight after Evan mows the yard :)

I have another treat for you as well. I know some people read this from miles and miles away and do not get the pleasure of seeing my cute little pregnant belly, so I took some pictures. Nothing fancy, and I'm not photogenic but Evan took some pictures. I hope you're happy because normally after wearing scrubs all day I jump into some nice comfy pants and a tank top but I changed into normal clothes just for you guys ;)



I don't know why these pictures look so fuzzy to me, they don't look like that on the computer, but oh well...you get the picture, I have a belly!

We found out that one of our friends Lindsey (who's 2.5 weeks ahead of me) is having a boy, and our other friend Lindsay (who's like 4 days behind me) found out today and I will know tonight (super excited) and Casey (who's almost a month behind me) will find out soon enough! It's so much fun, I can't wait for all of us to have our babies and have play dates :) I'm off for now, have a great rest of the week! 1 comments

Posted by Evan and Jen at 5:53 PM

Crazy, busy weekend 1

Last Thursday, at 18 weeks 2 days, I felt the baby move! I was calling my parents for our nightly talk, and the baby kicked me. Immediately Evan put his hand on my belly and felt it too! A few minutes later it felt like the baby had the hiccups, it was so cool :)

Friday was the big day! IT'S A GIRL! We found out that everything is perfect, her weight/size is measuring great, heartbeat is great, they checked a ton of things like 10 fingers/toes, spine, skull etc. and the doctor says everything looks great!!!



There's a profile of our baby girl, and the crotch of our baby girl ;) I have a lot more pictures too, Evan posted them on facebook and I probably will too eventually, but right now I figure these 2 can satisfy you for a while!

Evan and I both just wanted a healthy baby, we really didn't prefer one or the other, but we had only been able to decide on a boys name, boys bedding/room theme/stroller etc. so I guess maybe for that reason we were almost expecting a boy. We are thrilled about a girl though, we have a lot of work ahead of us, especially with her name because we CANNOT find a name we really like, but we have time!

On the way home we went to hallmart and bought a balloon that read "It's a Girl" and they gave us a box so we could put the balloon in the box, and wrap it and that's how we planned to reveal it to our parents! Then we went home and met the carpet cleaners who cleaned practically the whole house. They were really good and quick and now I feel like our house is so much cleaner!

Dinner was great, we sat down and immediately had Mackenzie opening the box that would reveal what everyone had been waiting for all day...here's the short video




After dinner, we immediately headed over to Babies R Us to look at girlie stuff!!! My parents decided a couple months ago that they wanted to buy us a crib, but we hadn't been able to find one we liked in the color we wanted but it was our lucky night, we finally found one! And this one even had a matching dresser/changing table combo which we love :) My parents bought us both of these and they were a decent price too. They were both in stock but we didn't have a truck with us so we were going to come back on Sunday to pick them up. It was so exciting just to know that we finally found the furniture for our girlie :) Ok...that's all for tonight, will post more stuff tomorrow! 1 comments

Posted by Evan and Jen at 8:26 PM

Long time...

Yea, yea, it's been a long, long time. I warned you at the beginning that I'm not a good blogger. Maybe if I did more, or took more pictures to post of things I was talking about I would feel like my blog was more interesting, but I don't. I'm alive and well. The past few weeks have been pretty uneventful, which in my book is good, we've just been counting down to October 2nd when we hope to find out what we're having!!! 1 week and I cannot wait. I feel like I'm stuck until next week. I can't buy anything, register for everything, pick out nursery stuff...I'm so ready to do that, and to know if we're having a boy and girl, and pick a name out etc.

That's about the biggest news as of late. My belly is getting bigger, it's hard for me to tell how much though because it feels a lot bigger than it looks in my opinion. I'll make a comment that I don't feel much bigger than I was, and then Evan will show me the pictures of me at 6 or 8 weeks and I'm like, oh wow, ok maybe I am bigger but I can't really tell yet. My belly isn't very round, or hard, and I'm not fitting into any maternity clothes, but my normal clothes look ridiculous. I'm ready to be in cute maternity clothes and have a cute little belly but it seems like it's taking forever. I know that probably sounds weird but oh well.

Well, that's all for now. I know it was short, but I updated, just for you Jessica ;) 2 comments

Posted by Evan and Jen at 1:19 PM

So sorry for the last post...

I hope I didn't scare you away with my last post. Great news!!! I have the miracle drug Zofran and I feel better than I ever have pregnant. My two co-workers, Karen and Dawn are awesome and would not let me take no as an answer, bought me said miracle drug which was ridiculously expensive. I seriously felt really bad as they were doing it but they kept saying over and over that that's what friends are for, and we want to help, etc. but still it's a LOT of money. BUT IT WORKS! It was amazing, and instantaneous. I started taking the meds mid Thursday and Friday morning I was up at 5:00am taking a shower (which I used to not be able to do). I fixed my hair, put make-up on (which has been a rare occasion lately) and I even went by Chick-fil-a and had a chicken biscuit at 7:30am. It was amazing---seriously. I have not been the least bit nauseous since I started taking it, I have so much more energy, it's awesome!

Friday after work I met up with my mom and sister and did a tiny bit of shopping. I got a couple maternity shirts, and a sweater. Then we went to Babies R Us and it was a lot less overwhelming this time. My sister helped me out a lot, giving me little tips that only a recent mother would know about certain products. I feel like I'm getting a better grip on the things that we will need and how to pick out which ones will work best for us. YAY! My sister's awesome, and has been and will continue to be a really big life saver I think :) She brought me a basket full of maternity clothes to see if they would fit me, and my coworker Melissa brought me like 5 pairs of maternity jeans as well to try. So exciting, until I tried them on :( There are 2 pair of jeans that could be hopeful, but I'm not quite sure. They were all smalls from motherhood/old navy, places like that, but most were still so big, not even just in the waist, but everywhere. I am a size 0, have been for the longest time, and it's hard enough for me to find adult clothes when I'm not pregnant, so I knew this was going to be a struggle.

Saturday Evan and I decided to venture out into the madness of tax-free weekend (Friday wasn't bad at all) just for fun, not really looking for anything in particular. I had Kohl's cash and I found a bra that I wanted but refused to stand in the line that wrapped around half of the store to purchase it. We went to Target where I bought the bella band! We looked at all the baby stuff again, of course, and then went to lunch. I decided I wanted to look at Motherhood at Crabtree and maybe try on some of the jeans just to see---bad thinking. It was so depressing, one of the ladies who worked there even got the smallest jeans for me, "these have the skinny legs so they're bound to work" NOPE. Then another saleswoman told me to go to "A Pea in the Pod" they will definitely fit you! For those of you who don't know, they carry designer jeans like Seven and freakin expensive clothes BUT just to see, we went there. I tried on some non-designer (still like $70) jeans, nope. I also tried on a few shirts that weren't horribly priced, then Evan saw something hanging on the dressing room door, a whole outfit and was like try it on, it's cute. So I did, I LOVED IT, looked at the price, oh my gosh. How in the world can anyone afford a $200 sweater, an $85 t-shirt, ridiculous! So, needless to say, I don't know what I'm going to do about the lower half of me when I really do start showing, but I think I'll stick with Target on most of my maternity clothes needs.

Today is Sunday and I was able to go to church, YAY! I even wore a dress (which I never do) to celebrate being at church for the first time in 3 weeks! It was amazing too, we had just a very chill worship day, which I needed. Now, after a 2 hour nap today which was wonderful, I'm here updating the blog while Evan makes lasagna for homegroup tonight. Speaking of that, I should probably go get ready and see if he needs any help. He is still being amazing of course, I couldn't ask for a better husband and that's the truth. He's so good to me, so very excited about this child---just typing about it brings tears to my eyes. He's going to be such an amazing father :) 0 comments

Posted by Evan and Jen at 5:29 PM

Yes, I'm having a breakdown...

I'm warning you, if you want to read about how everything is perfect and wonderful you should stop reading right now. I am really close to have a complete breakdown so I'm hoping writing this down and getting it out of my system will help the situation.

So I have had pretty bad morning sickness all along, and it was tolerable and under control for a while after they prescribed me phenergen. This past Saturday it got bad, I started throwing up again every morning. Sunday was bad, and yesterday and today were not good at all, plus I'm back at work this week and being this sick really affects me. Since it had been 5 straight days being incredibly sick I decided to call my OB. I called them at 8:10am this morning and asked to speak with a nurse. I explained that I was throwing up like crazy and I need to know what to do, if I should start taking something else, anything. It took them 8 hours to call me back. They close at 4:00 and the nurse called me at 4:20, talked to me for 2 seconds and said ok i'll prescribe you something else, she said she needed to talk to the Dr. and would call me back when she called in the prescription. So 5:10pm she calls me back and says she called it in. Evan went over to the CVS to pick it up, the generic was $200 for 90 pills. Everyone I know gets generic prescriptions for $10 or even less, but no not me. I still pay $227/month for health insurance which including maternity coverage and yet I can't get a generic prescription for less than $200. So did I decided to break the bank so I can stop throwing up? No, I guess I will live with being miserable or try to fight the nurses again tomorrow. I think I would rather be sick than fight and beg my doctors to give me the time of day.

I'm so tired, and tired of being sick and exhausted. I'm unhappy because I never feel good. My coworker at work is pregnant but she's not sick, not yet at least and I have a couple of other pregnant friends who are not sick, or have gotten their morning sickness under control. They all seem to have it together and it really makes me sad. I've wanted this so bad, to be pregnant, to have a baby, and now that I have it I can't enjoy it. I feel like none of my friends, even the closest ones who know me well don't understand. I feel like they see me as a horrible person, an unhappy person, someone who doesn't appreciate what she's been given. Trust me, I am happy that I'm pregnant, I can't wait to be a mother, and when I feel decent, I enjoy talking about the nursery and baby names, and how we're going to do this and that, I really do. But, no one knows exactly what I'm going through. Everyone I've talked to did not have to deal with sickness, or this much anyways. This morning sickness getting worse, freakin expensive prescriptions, uncooperative OB, is just too much for me. I'm overwhelmed, I'm tired, and exhausted. I used to see the light at the end of the tunnel...and I know there is one, but I just don't see it.

I apologize that this has been so negative, but I have to be real. 0 comments

Posted by Evan and Jen at 8:00 PM

Weekend with the In-laws

Have I mentioned how much I love Evan's parents? Well, I do! Last week was our office's vacation. I didn't go anywhere, but Evan's parents came down on Thursday so we got to spend a long weekend with them and it was great! We ate and ate and ate some more, which was great because I really needed to catch up on my eating. We had Olive Garden, and Japanese, and Chili's...oh, it was great :) Plus, we don't get to see them very often so spending some quality time with them was very nice! We browsed around Babies R Us which I have to say is very scary and overwhelming, but it was fun nonetheless.

We bought 2 baby gates, mainly to use for the dogs for a while. Their room is now turning into the nursery so we're gating off the kitchen/dining room and that's where they will sleep and spend the day. Abbey, my puggle, is still whining when we first put her in there and early in the morning when she hears us. She's very needy and she's going to have to get over that soon enough, but it breaks my heart because she just wants to cuddle with me :) We also bought a baby name book, which we thought would be helpful, but hasn't been so far. I cannot believe some of the names in that book, some I couldn't even pronounce, LOL.

We have 4 dogs running around which made things interesting, but it was fun. It was much easier to lock them out of the kitchen when we were cooking, and lock them in the kitchen when we didn't want them playing and barking in our faces :)

Sunday I wasn't able to go to church with everyone because I was so sick, which was unfortunate. Our homegroup had bought tickets for a durham bulls game so although I was not feeling up to it, we went anyways. It was ok, it was a pretty good game although they lost. 0 comments

Posted by Evan and Jen at 7:23 PM

Yea...it's been a while :(

I apologize for not posting for the past couple of weeks. It has been a tough few weeks for me, with all of the sickness, exhaustion, and hormones. It seems like the worst has past (knock on wood). My medicine is working fairly regular for me, I am able to eat so much more than I have been lately which is so nice! I am still tired but I am getting used to it. I have not been myself which I think has bothered me the most. I have been so moody, and it sucks :( I don't like being sad for no reason but I do think it's getting better. And before I tell you what happened yesterday, here's what's going on according to babycenter.com:

Your pregnancy: 9 weeks

See the big picture

How your baby's growing:

Your new resident is nearly an inch long — about the size of a grape — and weighs just a fraction of an ounce. She's starting to look more and more human. Her essential body parts are accounted for, though they'll go through plenty of fine-tuning in the coming months. Other changes abound: Your baby's heart finishes dividing into four chambers, and the valves start to form — as do her tiny teeth. The embryonic "tail" is completely gone. Your baby's organs, muscles, and nerves are kicking into gear. The external sex organs are there but won't be distinguishable as male or female for another few weeks. Her eyes are fully formed, but her eyelids are fused shut and won't open until 27 weeks. She has tiny earlobes, and her mouth, nose, and nostrils are more distinct. The placenta is developed enough now to take over most of the critical job of producing hormones. Now that your baby's basic physiology is in place, she's poised for rapid weight gain.


Now for the best part---yesterday was our first OB appointment!!!! Although we had to wait a lot, and I had to give blood for the first time (yikes!) all went well. It was very very cool to see our little grape on the ultrasound machine, moving like crazy. Baby Chaisson is not even a full inch yet but it was moving around so much that the Dr. had to chase it around. When we got to hear the heartbeat it was amazing, so loud and fast! 179 bpm to be exact. The Dr. said that was great, and it was measuring perfectly for 9 weeks! NOW, I would like to present to you for the very first time---Baby Chaisson :)







I can't describe how cool it was to see the inch long babys brain, legs, arms---it was amazing! It definitely made the pregnancy that much more real for me. I think I was too scared that something was going to happen to fully be able to be excited, but after the doctor's visit, I'm stoked!!! 0 comments

Posted by Evan and Jen at 12:06 PM

Week 6

This week, "morning sickness" has begun. Monday was minimal, Tuesday was pretty bad all day but luckily my boss and co-workers are very understanding. Ginger ale & crackers and goldfish have become my best friends! It's funny, even before my morning sickness began I still wasn't feeling like eating. Anyone who knows me knows I love to eat, and I tend to eat a lot. I know I need to eat and I know I'm hungry but I'm afraid to eat, afraid I'm going to get sick. I almost can't distinguish whether I'm hungry or feeling sick. Like this morning, I thought I was hungry so I ate something, and I got sick minutes later--uh :( And I used to eat salads for lunch EVERY day at work, they would all pick on me, but now I can't stand to eat a salad. It's so weird. Being pregnant is not at all what I expected.

Yesterday I felt better than I had in a while so after work I went to Old Navy (thanks to Lindsay for the heads up) and bought my first maternity outfit! I felt a little out of place in the maternity section but soon enough I will fit right in :) Karen, my boss, also gave me quite a few pregnancy/name books which was super nice! And my co-worker Colleen gave me some bigger scrubs for when my tummy outgrows my own scrubs. I have such great friends and I feel so blessed! After Evan cooked me dinner, we went through the name book and talked about a few names, then I fell asleep, LOL. When I woke up, Evan had tons of windows open on the computer with "dude bags" (diaper bags for dudes), baby clothing websites, baby furniture websites etc. It was super cute, he was getting really excited :) I just love him more and more every day. He has already been an amazing help to me, especially this week not feeling well at all. I usually take out the dogs in the morning and feed them, now he does it. He gets up at 5:30 (he's not a morning person and doesn't HAVE to get up until 7:30 to get ready for work), sometimes he gets up earlier if I am not feeling well, to bring me sprite and crackers, or to make me breakfast. AND he always cooks dinner, and cleans the kitchen. I normally do most of the cleaning in the house, and he's been picking up and keeping things tidy. I haven't asked him to do any of this either. I love it! I brag on him all of the time at work and my co-workers really wanted to meet him. We had a last minute cancellation for a cleaning this morning so Evan came in and got to meet most of my co-workers. They loved him, they said I had me a hottie, and they told him how much I bragged on him. It was a fun time, I love showing him off :)

So I signed up for weekly e-mails about the development of my baby through babycenter.com. I thought it might neat, and it is. I thought I would share:

Your pregnancy: 6 weeks

See the big picture

How your baby's growing:

This week's major developments: The nose, mouth, and ears that you'll spend so much time kissing in eight months are beginning to take shape. If you could see into your uterus, you'd find an oversize head and dark spots where your baby's eyes and nostrils are starting to form. His emerging ears are marked by small depressions on the sides of the head, and his arms and legs by protruding buds. His heart is beating about 100 to 160 times a minute — almost twice as fast as yours — and blood is beginning to course through his body. His intestines are developing, and the bud of tissue that will give rise to his lungs has appeared. His pituitary gland is forming, as are the rest of his brain, muscles, and bones. Right now, your baby is a quarter of an inch long, about the size of a lentil bean.


A lentil bean huh? It's weird to think that my baby being the size of a lentil bean is make me feel so sick, but I'm hoping that will soon pass. Either way, I know that it will all be worth it come March! Oh, on another note, my puppies are acting very clingy and lovey lately. I think they know that something's going on, they're always around me and want to lay on top of me, haha. I think it's cute now, but they're going to have a rude awakening when I told have all of my time for just them. 0 comments

Posted by Evan and Jen at 4:10 PM

July 1st, 2009

Wednesday, July 1st 2009---Went to the doctor, felt weird, about 1 week late---surprise---WE'RE HAVING A BABY!

Are you surprised? Haha...so were we. If you know us at all, you know that Evan and I want nothing more than a family and we've been wanting to start our family for a while now. I, being the stressing, tight budget keeping freak that I am always said "we don't have the money" and Evan would say "who cares, lets do it". Although, neither one of our philosophies were probably great, God always knows whats best! As of July 1st, they say I am 5 weeks--I go to my OB on July 28th for my first pre-natal exam and ultrasound!!! I cannot wait to see our baby's heartbeat, plus get a more specific due date!!

I still do not think Evan and I have had time to really digest the fact that we're having a baby. It was such a surprise for both of us, but we had to tell our parents right then. I came up with an elaborate story about why I needed to go to Winston-Salem THAT night so Evan's parents would meet us there (halfway for both of us) and have dinner. They bought it (suprisingly enough) and we were off to Winston. We stopped off to my parent's house who were not expecting us at all. They came out on the porch and were like, what's going on? I non-chalantley said "Oh, we were on our way to Winston and thought we would drop by and let you know we're having a baby." LOL...it was great, they were so excited, and couldn't believe it. Back on our way to Winston, had dinner, Evan was in charge of telling his parents and nearly waited until the end of the night for the "perfect" way of telling them. I was going crazy, I just wanted to tell and he was putting it off...but finally he told them and they were like really? seriously? really? It was great! It's the first grandchild on that side, Donna was jumping around looking for someone to tell. She was so giddy. On the way out she found our server and was like "I just found out I'm going to be a Grandma" It was great, definitely worth the drive to see their reactions. So we didn't get home until 11, and we started packing since we were leaving for the Lake the next day.

Thursday, July 2nd---I told my whole office about being pregnant. Everyone was so very happy for me, even the dentist who hasn't known me long but gave me a hug and said he would do anything he could for Evan and I. He's such a nice man, really! After work we were off to the lake house for our long weekend celebrating the 4th.

I had such a great time this weekend, laying out on the lake, spending time with my family, watching Mackenzie play in the water etc. I did start feeling a little queasy this weekend, and I had a little food aversion which is so very hard for me because I LOVE food. I even had one night where I broke down crying myself to sleep for no reason. I mean I did have a reason, but it was probably mostly because of the hormones. I did start to freak out, I mean my body is quickly changing, hormones are going crazy, I'm constantly tired and feeling uneasy, not sure whether I can eat or not, if I can keep the food down etc. We're having a baby, how are we going to do this? How are the dogs going to get along with the baby, which room will be the nursery now? I know we have plenty of time to figure things out, but these are the things that go through my head a lot and I have to tell myself to take a deep breath, and that everything will work out.

We have told most of our family at this point, and I have told a few extremely close friends, but I am waiting a little while longer to tell all of my friends, not sure why either. I think I'm still not completely swallowed the fact that yes, I am indeed pregnant, and I am also scared that something's going to happen between now and my doctor's appointment. So if you're reading this, and I did not tell you right away, please do not be sad or get upset, it's not because I don't love you.

To be completely honest---I am not good at blogging, but I am going to try so I can keep people up to date and so I can have somewhat of a keepsake and hopefully I will continue this when our baby is born. That is all for today. 0 comments

Posted by Evan and Jen at 8:40 PM