For Your Viewing Pleasure.....

Here is my first FlipVideo post! :) It's a clip of David and Hudson playing with Hudson's new Lightning McQueen bop bag that he got for Christmas. Pretty funny and sorry, my voice is a little loud in this one (not to mention the lovely baby talk accent I've got going on).....well, I'm pretty loud most of the time, so it's not really anything new, but for those of you that know me IRL already know that! ;)

Oh, and notice Hudson's weapon of choice.....it's a SPATULA, LOL!

For Auld Lang Syne

One of my favorite scenes from one of my favorite movies....I thought it was most appropriate for the occasion. I want to wish everyone a very happy, safe and prosperous New Year! Be good to one another and be careful as you celebrate the beginning of a new year tonight!

Oh, and yes, I realize this video is NOT in English...I couldn't find an English version.

Prayer for Strength

One of my good friends shared this special prayer with me recently and I just had to share it as it definitely struck a chord with me and made me really think about some of the things I need to do in my life and some areas that I need to work on within myself in the future. I know SO many people in my life that are struggling in their lives with varying obstacles and challenges and no matter how big or how small this prayer definitely reminds you that the Lord will provide, he will never give you more then you can handle and to give up your burdens to him and he will take care of you. Psalms 55:22: "Give your burdens to the Lord. He will not permit the Godly to slip nor fall."

A Prayer for Strength

My Lord God, through whom strength is made perfect in weakness, I pray to you, give me the strength I need.
You have said, that to your children who have no might, you will increase strength.

I am weak. Bless me with a measure of strength, as may be sufficient for me.
When I am tempted by evil, deliver me, by granting me the power to overcome it.

When my daily work is too hard for me, give me the strength to be able to do it.
If my burden oppresses me beyond my bearing, lighten my load, that my strength may be equal to it.
You have helped many, I beg you to help me.
Thank you my Lord

Nifty Fifty

50 Things You Possibly Didn't Know About Me

1. What is in the back seat of your car right now? Britax Decathlon car seat, a diaper bag, one of Hudson's hoodies and some other random stuff in the floorboard.

2. What's your favorite curse word? You would like to know, wouldn't you?? Probably the f-bomb....I say it more than I should that's for sure.

3. Name 3 people who made you smile today? David, Hudson, my mom, my dad, Lucy (okay, that's more than 3!)

4. What were you doing at 8 am this morning? Driving to work

5. What were you doing 30 minutes ago? Looking online at Ugg Broome Boots and a Michael Kors Bag I've been eying.

6. What will you be doing 3 hours from now? Sleeping

7. Have you ever been to a strip club? Yes, several...

8. What is the last thing you said aloud? "I am not sure where I want to go for my birthday dinner Saturday. Is it just us or what?"

9. What is the best ice cream flavor? Tipsy Sailor from Marble Slab

10. What was the last thing you had to drink? Sweet ice tea

11. What are you wearing right now? Jeans, a v-neck sweater and fuzzy socks.

12. What was the last thing you ate? Leftover pasta salad I made on Sunday (the recipe makes enough to last for days and to feed an army!!! j/k)

13. Have you bought any new clothing items this week? Not for myself, but we did buy Hudson some new shirts/sweater, sunglasses and a belt over the weekend.

14. When was the last time you ran? God only knows.....I run around chasing Hudson pretty frequently actually.

15. What's the last sporting event you watched? Mavs game and that horrible Cowboy game this past weekend

16. Who is the last person you emailed? A client

17. Ever go camping? Does sleeping in a tent in someone's back yard count?? No, really I have never been, but would love to go once Hudson gets older. If there are provisions at least, otherwise I might not be too interested. I am not the biggest wilderness woman, ya know!?!

18. Do you have a tan? No, I don't tan too easily and don't go tanning in general because of the health risks. If I could find a decent artificial tanner then I would probably use it religiously because I am SO fair complected.

19. Do you drink your soda from a straw? Yes, if it's in a glass or a can from a restaurant.

20 What did your last IM say? I rarely IM, but it would have been on Facebook and I am guessing that it was talking about pregnancy and babies from what I remember my last conversation to be.

21. Are you someone's best friend? Yes, David is my best friend, but I also have several very close girl friends as well.

22 is missing!

23. Where is your mom right now? Probably in BED.

24. Look to your left, what do you see? David on the other end of the couch

25. What color is your watch? Silver with chocolate toned pearl face

26. What do you think of when you think of Australia? Beautiful scenery, people and accents!

27. Would you consider plastic surgery? Yes, definitely. Not until after I am done with baby making though, ha!

28. What is your birthstone? Garnet (my birthday is Saturday!!!)

29. Do you go in at a fast food place or just hit the drive-thru? Depends, but most often we drive thru.

30. How many kids do you want? I personally think I want 3 or 4, but ask me once we have baby #2 because it is likely that I will have a different point of view then.

31. Do you have a dog? Yes, we have a 10 yr. old Lhasa Apso.

32. Last person you talked to on the phone? David, when he called me on his way home from work.

33. Have you met anyone famous? Yes, I've met quite a few celebrities....probably the coolest to meet were Steven Tyler, Dave Matthews and Tommy Lee....

34. Any plans today? Just working for a bit and then headed to bed.

35. How many states have you lived in? Texas born and raised!

36. Ever go to college? No, however I may still pursue a degree someday.

37. Where are you right now?In my living room

38. Biggest annoyance in your life right now? Several things that are more or less out of my control which makes it even more annoying, oy.

39. Last song listened to? Where'd You Go by Fort Minor

40. Are you allergic to anything? I am mildly allergic to certain fruits like bananas, mildly allergic to nuts and avocado, but I am able to eat all of these things. I just will usually experience a mild reaction depending on what it is and how much I eat.

41. Favorite pair of shoes you wear all the time? Recently, none, but I wore the hell out of my Diesel tennis.

42. Are you jealous of anyone? I try not to be

43. Is anyone jealous of you? Not that I am aware of

44. What time is it? 10:42 p.m.

45. Do any of your friends have children? Yes

46. Do you eat healthy? I try to at least some of the time

47. What do you usually do during the day? Most days I work

48. Do you use the word 'hello' daily? Yes, quite often!

49. How did you get your scars? I really only have one visible scar and that's from my c-section

50. How old will you be turning on your next birthday? 33 (yikes!)

Some Like It Hot!

I just love, love, love this red hot cherry cookware from Le Creuset....I have been lusting after it for years and think that I am going to have to break down and buy myself a set before too long! I just can't resist! Plus, like I keep telling David, having pretty and good quality cookware / bakeware will make me want to cook more, ha! Or at least, that's the plan....eventually...my day will come, ha! ;) Do you like??? I like some of the other colors as well, but I *think* that the cherry is still my favorite. What do you think??

Oh, and if any of you out in the blogosphere are lucky enough to already own some of your own Le Creuset, please do leave me a note and let me know how you like it - pros vs cons, etc. TIA!

Christmas Rounds 2 & 3

We had 3 Christmas celebrations on Christmas Day including ours at home, my family's at my parents house and David, Hudson and myself also did a Christmas with Marcia (David's mom) on Christmas night. We also still have one more this upcoming Sunday for David's extended family, so there will likely be a few more pictures yet to come, but for now here are some more pics from round 2 & 3 at my parents house and Marcia's house.

I don't have any pictures of any of our gifts from either get together, but at my family's David got the cookbook he wanted from LaWanda and she even ordered it to where it had Guy Fieri's signature! David was TOTALLY pumped and has been looking at it constantly picking out new recipes to try. He actually made some steak tacos from the cookbook Saturday night and they were to die for! So freaking delicious and we had the leftovers for dinner last night too! I got some jewelry and a really cool mercury glass hanging candle chandelier from my niece, Kayla. We had a great time and of course, Hudson made out like a bandit. His cousin, Lindsay, got him some really cool gifts including toy dinosaurs, Thomas the Train toys and a Hot Wheels carrying case among other things as she drew his name for our gift exchange and although we drew names for my family's get together, he did get a couple of extra gifts from Aunt Karen too! Some Hot Wheels, flavored chapsticks and a Cars rug. She insisted on breaking the rules I guess.

Nana (Marcia) spoiled him rotten as usual too and got him all kinds of toys, books, etc. and even a Radio Flyer wagon, a Batman scooter and Spiderman helmet, which he will be wearing when he rides that scooter, ha! He also got some cool clothes, pajamas and a toy tool stand from Uncle Marc and Aunt Jessica, which I am sure he will love. He was totally thrilled with everything and has turned our house into a disaster area filled with toys everywhere!!! He LOVES everything though and has had a blast playing with all of his new toys. Marcia also spoiled us as usual and we both got some fun gifts, a movie gift card and some $$$ that will probably go towards something we need for the house.

All in all, it was a wonderful Christmas, although not perfect, but close to it in many ways and we cannot thank everyone enough for all of the wonderful gifts too! The best part was spending time with everyone and enjoying the holiday as a family because truly, that is what it is all about!

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Christmas Pics....

We had an amazing Christmas and have been trying to recover, recoup, re-energize for the past two days, but I have finally had time to at least upload all of the pictures from our Christmas at home from Christmas morning. Hudson was definitely spoiled beyond imagination, but he was SO happy and it was so worth it seeing the smile on his face, the light in his eyes and the joy from his absolute laughter! He definitely had a wonderful day and I loved seeing him really get into it this year. He was in heaven!

As far as the pictures go, there are tons, but I figured it would be easiest to just upload all of the pics to Picasa and just post a slideshow of everything instead of going through all of pictures and picking out only a few. I will definitely post pics from my family's get together later as well as pics from David's mom's house also, but for now....this is all you get, ha! On a side note, I think I really like Picasa and will probably use it from now on in order to share most of our pics with family and friends.

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Merry Christmas!!!

Wishes to all of our family and friends for a very merry and blessed Christmas!!!

Twas The Night Before Christmas....

For Hudson ~

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,

While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;

And mamma in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap,

Had just settled down for a long winter's nap,

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,

I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.

Away to the window I flew like a flash,

Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow

Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below,

When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,

But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer,

With a little old driver, so lively and quick,I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.

More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,

And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;

"Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!On, Comet! on Cupid! on, Donder and Blitzen!

To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!

Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!"

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,

When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,

So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,

With the sleigh full of toys, and St. Nicholas too.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof

The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.

As I drew in my hand, and was turning around,

Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,

And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;

A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,

And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.

His eyes -- how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!

His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!

His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,

And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,

And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;

He had a broad face and a little round belly,

That shook, when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly.

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,

And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;

A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,

Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,

And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,

And laying his finger aside of his nose,

And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,

And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.

But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,

"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night."

More Pics...

Here are a few more pics of our holiday decor and also some pics of my two favorite men!

Our mantle / fireplace decor complete with a nice warm crackling fire. :)

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care....

(I so do not love our stockings, but decided that I would wait until next year to replace them so I can splurge and order new personalized ones from Pottery Barn for the entire family!)

I thought this was a cool angle of the tree lit up

He was holding David's PS3 controller over his eyes and saying :CHEEEEEESE!!!

David has his classic DO NOT TAKE MY PICTURE face on, ha!

AW! How cute are they!?!?!

Hudson LOVES his new dinosaur pajamas!

Spoiled Rotten....

Yep, that's what it is sounding like Hudson is going to be this Christmas....I am a bit scared that he might let it go to his head too, ha! We are so bad, I tell you, we keep saying we are done with his Christmas shopping and inevitably, both of us keep buying things for him anyways! Just last night I stopped at Target on the way home to pick up a few last things for David as well as his stocking stuffer stuff and what did I do?? I picked up two more toys for Hudson too! Because he really needs more Cars movie cars and a Santa themed Mr. Potato Head, lol! I swear I shouldn't be allowed to go to Target alone....I had to stop myself and leave before I just kept picking stuff up and putting it in my basket. Now David just called me a few minutes ago from Wal-Mart and bought Hudson some more toys there too! Yowza! I am sure that Hudson is going to have a blast opening up all of his cool new gifts on Christmas day though.....and, we did actually say that we were going to do a little more for him this year since next year there will be another baby in our household and it will likely be a bit different. Oh well, hopefully we haven't created a monster!

Maybe we should go ahead and get this onesie for Baby B too as I am not too sure if we will be able to work on our self-control THAT much over the next six months, of course it is pink so it's probably not a wise purchase as of yet. Good thing that I have promised myself that I would not buy anything or very little for the baby until AFTER we find out the gender or otherwise we would probably already be in trouble! ;)

The Naked Man....

ROTFLMAO! This clip from a recent episode of How I Met Your Mother is seriously one of the most hilarious scenes from any show this season. David and I watched this episode when it aired and truly thought it was the funniest ever! It is one of our favorite shows and we avidly watch it weekly, but the Naked Man episode was truly LEGEN.....wait for it.....wait for it.....DARY! :)

Enjoy!

My New Hairdo!

Here's a few pictures of my new haircut and color....it's basically a bob with a few layers and slight graduation in the back. It actually looks a bit darker in the pictures too, but it is pretty blonde now. Michelle did a lighter overall blonde color for my base and then heavier bleach / highlift highlights throughout. The back is still a bit darker this time, but will probably lighten up quite a bit more once I go in for my next set of highlights. I am so glad I decided to go ahead and make a change this time around and I absolutely LOVE the way it turned out!

A Few Hudson Pics....

Just a few pics of Hudson from right before Thanksgiving....which by the way, I know that I have never posted pics from Thanksgiving, but I've been so busy, scatterbrained and have forgotten countless times...my bad......I might still post some eventually. ;) We'll see.....

Bah-bye Yucky Roots!!!

I am about to head out for my hair appointment and will be getting a complete overhaul, hehe! Color, highlights and haircut....well, I do that pretty much every time, but I think I might mix it up a little today. Ready to say bah-bye to those nasty roots and hello to some rejuvenated gorgeous blonde locks! Now, if I can only find time in to sneak in my badly needed manicure and pedicure this weekend as well that my friends would be absolute perfection!

SO.EXCITED!

A Collection of Great Quotes and Life Sayings

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Great Quotes To Use & Repeat When You Can’t Find A Better Way Of Saying It

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: quotes advertising)

Elf Yourself -- Country Version, ha!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Hudson's Christmas 2008 Ornament

We decided when Hudson was born that we would start a family tradition of buying him an ornament every year as well as one new special ornament for the family every year as well. Ou intention is to collect these ornaments from year to year, label them with the year we purchased them once we pack them away after each Christmas and then once Hudson has grown up and leaves his mommy and daddy then we will send all of the ornaments along with him to carry on the tradition once he starts a new family of his own. This is Hudson's 3rd Christmas and here is the ornament that we got for him this year. It's the red enamel train on the right and he just loves it. When we bought it at PB he insisted on holding it the entire time and kept saying "Woo Woo!" like a little train over and over and over again as we shopped. It was SO cute! Hopefully, we will stay committed to this tradition and I am excited about starting it when our new little one is here with us come next Christmas!

My New Holiday Decor......

I just bought a couple of these at Pottery Barn yesterday and just love them! I couldn't resist and got two of the smaller ones, but might buy a couple more if / when they put them on sale after Christmas. They look great seeing that our stocking holders are almost an identical color and are also reindeer as well. I will post some pics later of some of our other decor as I have been bad thus far and only posted tree pics.

I *almost* bought some of these very cool birch wraps as well that I plan on using to display miniature cypress trees and / or holiday floral, but decided why would I buy them at PB when we always have birch at the studio and I could get a much better deal on it as well. So, hopefully I will be doing a couple of pieces similar to these to add to our holiday decor also and since they are not super Christmasey, they will look great for the remainder of the winter months too!

The Power of Prayer....

This is a sweet story and great reminder of the power of prayer.....it is especially appropriate given the season.

In September 1960, I woke up one morning with six hungry babies and just 75 cents in my pocket. Their father was gone. The boys ranged from three months to seven years, their sister was two.

Their Dad had never been much more than a presence they feared. Whenever they heard his tires crunch on the gravel driveway they would scramble to hide under their beds. He did manage to leave $15 a week to buy groceries. Now that he had decided to leave, there would be no more beatings, but no food either.If there was a welfare system in effect in southern Indiana at that time, I certainly knew nothing about it. I scrubbed the kids until they looked brand new and then put on my best homemade dress, loaded them into the rusty old 51 Chevy and drove off to find a job.

The seven of us went to every factory, store and restaurant in our small town. No luck. The kids stayed crammed into the car and tried to be quiet while I tried to convince who ever would listen that I was willing to learn or do anything. I had to have a job. Still no luck.

The last place we went to, just a few miles out of town, was an old Root Beer Barrel drive-in t hat had been converted to a truck stop. It was called the Big Wheel. An old lady named Granny owned the place and she peeked out of the window from time to time at take a look at all those kids. She needed someone on the graveyard shift, 11 at night until seven in the morning. She paid 65 cents an hour, and I could start that night.

I raced home and called the teenager down the street that baby-sat for people. I bargained with her to come and sleep on my sofa for a dollar a night. She could arrive with her pajamas on and the kids would already be asleep. This seemed like a good arrangement to her, so we made a deal.That night when the little ones and I knelt to say our prayers, we all thanked God for finding Mommy a job. And so I started at the Big Wheel.

When I got home in the mornings I woke the baby-sitter up and sent her home with one dollar of my tip money-- fully half of what I averaged every night. As the weeks went by, heating bills added a strain to my meager wage. The tires on the old Chevy had the consistency of penny balloons and began to leak. I had to fill them with air on the way to work and again every morning before I could go home.

One bleak fall morning, I dragged myself to the car to go home and found four tires in the back seat. New tires!There was no note, no nothing, just those beautiful brand new tires.

Had angels taken up residence in Indiana ? I wondered.

I made a deal with the local service station. In exchange for his mounting the new tires, I would clean up his office. I remember it took me a lot longer to scrub his floor than it did for him to do the tires.I was now working six nights instead of five and it still wasn't enough.

Christmas was coming and I knew there would be no money for toys for the kids. I found a can of red paint and started repairing and painting some old toys. Then I hid them in the basement so there would be something for Santa to deliver on Christmas morning.

Clothes were a worry too. I was sewing patches on top of patches on the boys pants and soon they would be too far gone to repair.

On Christmas Eve the usual customers were drinking coffee in the Big Wheel. There were the truckers, Les, Frank, and Jim, and a state trooper named Joe. A few musicians were hanging around after a gig at the Legion and were dropping nickels in the pinball machine. The regulars all just sat around and talked through the wee hours of the morning and then left to get home before the sun came up.

When it was time for me to go home at seven o'clock on Christmas morning, to my amazement, my old battered Chevy was filled full to the top with boxes of all shapes and sizes. I quickly opened the driver's side door, crawled inside and kneeled in the front facing the back seat.

Reaching back, I pulled off the lid of the top box. Inside was whole case of little blue jeans, sizes 2-10! I looked inside another box: It was full of shirts to go with the jeans. Then I peeked inside some of the other boxes. There was candy and nuts and bananas and bags of groceries. There was an enormous ham for baking, and canned vegetables and potatoes. There was pudding and Jell-O and cookies, pie filling and flour. There was whole bag of laundry supplies and cleaning items. And there were five toy trucks and one beautiful little doll.

As I drove back through empty streets as the sun slowly rose on the most amazing Christmas Day of my life, I was sobbing with gratitude. And I will never forget the joy on the faces of my little ones that precious morning.

Yes, there were angels in Indiana that long-ago December. And they all hung out at the Big Wheel truck stop....

THE POWER OF PRAYER. I believe that God only gives three answers to prayer:

1. 'Yes!'
2. 'Not yet.'
3. 'I have something better in mind.'

God still sits on the throne, the devil is a liar.

You maybe going through a tough time right now but God is getting ready to bless you in a way that you cannot imagine.

This prayer is powerful, and prayer is one of the best gifts we receive. There is no cost but a lot of rewards Let's continue to pray for one another.

Here is the prayer:....Father, I ask You to bless my friends, relatives and other ones dear to me reading this right now. Show them a new revelation of Your love and power. Amen.

Hudson Meets Santa 2008

This year was a MUCH better experience, in fact, Hudson seemed to really enjoy meeting Santa and was all smiles the entire time! We had initially planned to see the Santa at Northpark, but the wait was a bit long and we had a lot to do, so we decided to check out the Galleria instead and were pleasantly surprised when we only had to wait about 20 minutes and Santa was SO nice and sweet with all of the kiddos! In any case, we were absolutely thrilled that he had such a good time and LOVE the way his picture turned out! I especially love how prominate his huge dimples look in the pic, I know I am completely and utterly biased, but I just think he looks SO cute!

A Walk Down Memory Lane......

This is how Hudson's trip was when we went to meet Santa last year....he was NOT thrilled and was in tears the entire time, poor baby! Not a great first experience, but still memorable nonetheless!

Long Action Packed Weekend

We truly had a long action packed weekend this past weekend and actually, it's not really over yet since I had a three day weekend and am off today as well. Saturday we took Hudson to his Nana's to hang out all afternoon while we went to do some of our Christmas shopping and ended up having him spend the night with Marcia because it turned into a longer shopping adventure then what we had planned. Thank you Marcia! It really helped in our efforts to find Hudson that perfect gift we wanted to get him, but in the end, just couldn't quite find it in stock anywhere on Saturday!

We had a late start and actually only hit a couple of places before having lunch at Mi Cocina and then started our long afternoon and evening of shopping. We started in Irving / Las Colinas and then came back our direction before heading for a trip that would take us around the entire metroplex! In the end, we went to 5 different Toys R Us stores and I think 3 different Super Targets among other things. We ended up in White Settlement and then some other far out area of Fort Worth and by then it was after 9 pm. We had dinner at Pei Wei and headed home, although we did make one more stop at the Toys R Us in Arlington as well before we made it back to our house. Whew! It was a LONG day and we didn't get home until after 11 pm, but we did get quite a bit of shopping done which was good. However, we didn't find one of the big gifts we were wanting to get for Hudson, so once we got home I got online and started searching as well, ha! I found the darn thing online and on sale, but the shipping was outrageous SO we decided that we would make a couple of last minute attempts on Sunday morning instead.

Sunday we went and picked up Hudson from Marcia's before heading to Target and SCORE!, we FINALLY found the toy for Hudson and it was on sale and they had 3 in stock. We had already made a plan before going into the store so that Hudson wouldn't see it, so basically I had to take Hudson in one shopping cart to one side of the store while David took another cart to the toy section. He went and bought it, brought it to the car and came back to meet us in the store. We picked up a few other things as well as breakfast and went back home. We had breakfast and then hung out at the house for a while before heading to Costco to do some shopping and then Wal Mart to finish our grocery shopping. It was a very productive weekend and I even did quite a bit of catching up on emails and design orders in between as well. Last night I wanted to have movie night, but I went to take a nap and David yet again let me sleep all night again instead of getting me up like I had asked. Well, he did try I guess, but not hard enough, hehehe! I guess I needed that sleep pretty bad though so I can't complain. Now I need to get him out of bed since he is still sleeping so that we can have breakfast and head out soon because we have more shopping to do today and we are going to see Santa today as well! That should definitely be interesting considering the way that Hudson reacted to Santa last year, ha!

Exhausted!

It's been a LONG week and I am so ready and excited that the weekend is finally here. I have a nice long 3 day weekend, but we will likely stay fairly busy with Christmas shopping, taking Hudson to see Santa, getting rid of our old monster of a t.v., possibly looking for new furniture for Hudson as well as a new armoire / media center for our living room and then of course working to catch up a bit on design projects, etc., but I am determined to have some relaxation time and to sneak some naps up in there too! Oh, and we have a couple of new movies to watch as well, so hopefully we'll be able to snuggle up and have movie night at least one night! :)

I'm going to be off to bed soon tonight though as mama needs some sleep! I sure am ready to start my second trimester so I can get past this first really tired period and get a little burst of energy again before I get all huge and won't be able to sleep anymore in general, ha!

Charlotte's Colorstrology

This is SO cool! Check out this fabulous site to find out your own birth color traits from the standard Pantone chart. Totally fun! Here is what mine says about me! :)

Your Birthday Color is TOAST

YOU know what you want and you are not afraid to go and get it. You enjoy committing yourself wholeheartedly and won't settle for anything that isn't completely up to your standards. It is your ease not your muscle that makes people support your endeavors. Although you are charismatic and jovial, you are definitely not a pushover. Your personal color helps you stay on an even keel. Wearing, meditating or surrounding yourself with the color Toast reminds you to have the basics in place before you go out on a limb.

David's Colorstrology

Here is David's colorstrology! :)

Your Birthday Color is BOK CHOY

YOU are highly magnetic and people find you attractive. You are a wonderful friend, mate or ally once someone has earned your loyalty. You are not afraid to work and you often delight in a job well done. Your personal color helps you release old thoughts and outmoded behavior patterns. Wearing, meditating or surrounding yourself with the color Bok Choy helps you resonate with your perfection and reminds you of the magic that you have within.

O' Christmas Tree.....

I just LOVE our Christmas Tree and always love how beautiful it looks once it is completely decorated and filled with sparkly ornaments. Here are a few pics from when we decorated our tree the weekend after Thanksgiving.

Our one and only ornament casualty

Hudson inspecting the ornaments, lol!

Ornaments on the dining room table

Yes, there are a TON of ornaments!

The finished tree! LOVE it!

Baby B's First Picture!

As promised, here is the sonogram pic and first glimpse of our little baby B taken last Friday. Such a tiny little miracle at only 10 weeks, 5 days! My next sonogram won't likely be until my February appointment so our little one will have grown quite a bit by then and hopefully, he/she will cooperate on that day and we will be able to find out the gender. Will baby B be a boy or a girl??? Hmmm.....the Chinese gender predictor says girl! I guess we will just have to wait and see......David is rooting for team girl too though!

Not Your Typical Friday......

Yesterday was by no means a typical Friday for me and in fact, it was probably one of the scariest days of my entire life. It started out normal enough, as I woke up shortly after 7 am to get ready for work and was greeted shortly thereafter by my sweet little Hudson peeking into the bathroom to say good morning, in his own way of course! I hurriedly changed his diaper, got him some milk from the kitchen, turned on some Noggin and tucked him into our bed next to his daddy before returning to the bathroom to finish getting ready for the day. I had to run by the bank on the way into the office, so I was trying to get out on time, but was already running behind which has been the case a lot these days. It was around 8am and I was almost ready to go when something happened that caused my heart to sink and my eyes to well up full of tears......to put it bluntly, I had started bleeding and was automatically completely terrified. I started to tremble as I shouted from the bathroom to David in the bedroom and told him what was happening. Of course he was in shock and didn't really know what to do, say or anything at the time, which is completely understandable. I decided to take a few minutes to catch my breath and assess the situation as my first thought was that I was possibly having a miscarriage as the blood was bright red in color and there was a lot of it....this is probably totally TMI for most people, but seriously, I was bleeding as if I was on my cycle although there was absolutely NO cramping or any other pain or symptoms. At this point, I was hysterical and could not stop crying. Against what I truly wanted to do, I grabbed a ton of tissue and decided to go ahead and leave for work because I did have a couple of deadlines that morning that I absolutely could not put off. My thought was that I would go in and that I would call my OB and get further instruction as to if I should go in to see her or not based on whether or not the bleeding was continuing by the time I got to work or if it had stopped. Either way, I was fairly certain that she would have me come in, but I knew that it might take a couple of calls before I was able to actually speak to a nurse and get an answer. In any case, I headed to work, crying as I drove the entire way....I swear I was swerving because I couldn't see through the onpouring of tears. I made it to work and got caught up in a few things right when I arrived, but called my OB and left a message as soon as I could. After I didn't hear back within 30 minutes or so, I continued to call until I got one of the nurses on the phone. In the meantime, the bleeding had lessened, but was still quite a bit and I had also passed a rather large clot as well. Once this happened, I was beside myself and almost threw up in my office because I was in full on hysterics and was certain that I was going to lose our baby....I finally spoke to the nurse who told me to come on in and to be there by 12:30 to see my OB. It was almost 11:30 am at this time, so I called David promptly and told him that I was on my way to pick him up and go straight to the hospital where my OB offices. I also told David about the fact that I had passed a large clot and that I thought it was over....those were my words exactly....not that the worst was over by any means, but no, that my pregnancy was over. It was horrible....I felt so heartbroken, scared and angry.

I left work and drove quickly home to pick up David....I swear I drove way too fast, but I was desperate to get to my doctor to find out what was going on. Thankfully, Hudson was already at my mom's as she had offered to watch him even though David was not working so that he could put up our Christmas lights during the day. At this point, Christmas lights were NOT going to happen and truly, I thought that we were going to have the worst Christmas ever. I continued to pray as I drove home and as I had been ever since this nightmare began hours earlier. I got to the house and David was standing in the driveway waiting on me....we switched places so that he could drive and we headed to the hospital. Not many words were spoken during the drive, which so happened to seem like the longest car ride in history I might add. I continued to cry, shake my head and generally feel like I was in the middle of some bad, bad dream. I was irrational of course and decided to take my anger out on everyone that couldn't drive on the way there.....I blurted out far too many expletives between our house and the hospital, but I really couldn't help myself at the time, like I said, I was irrational and angry.

We arrived at the hospital just minutes before I was scheduled to see my OB and we hurriedly parked the car and went to the doctor's office. I quickly signed in and thankfully, the nurse came out and called my name within minutes after our arrival. We headed back and of course, the first thing I got to do was pee in a cup yet again. This was a good thing as I did get to acknowledge by this time that the bleeding has virtually subsided, so I was a bit more hopeful....well, let me just say that I never fully gave up hope and fully believe that God will provide and take care of us in any situation, he will not give us more than we can handle and I wanted so very badly to believe that we would be protected in this horrible situation and that our baby would be saved....with that being said, everything seemed very grim to me up to that point purely just because I was bleeding so much and it's so hard to believe everything would be okay when everything clearly seems so wrong. I get weighed, have my blood pressure taken, the nurse asks me some questions and then quickly ushers David and myself into the ultrasound room. She explains to me that my OB will be doing a sonogram first, then asks me to undress from the waist down and to wait for my OB. Again, more waiting, the room was so quiet and David was just sitting there reading magazines while I stared blankly at the wall. I was thinking what I could have done to have caused this or why was this happening to us and then I looked over at the ultrasound monitor and saw my name and remembered the last time I saw it......with Hudson. For some reason a peace came over me at that time, I felt more at peace sitting on that table looking at that screen then I had felt the entire day. I was still terrified, but something about seeing that screen made me breathe a slight sigh of relief even if it was just for a brief moment. Finally my doctor came in and immediately made me feel so much more at ease just by her demeanor and her warmth, she seemed so concerned and caring and although I was scared to hear what she would have to say, I knew that she would take the best care of me and of our baby. She explained what she was going to do and continued to prep my poor little belly for the sonogram, she waved the wand over my abdomen and continued with the words....well, let me tell you first what I do see...I held my breath at this time and clinched my hands really tight awaiting the words to come from her mouth....I wasn't sure at that time what she would say but I was terrified of what she might say....she continued and said, I see a strong heartbeat....and I also see a completely healthy little baby....WOW, I was beside myself....Thank God, these words were the most beautiful words I have heard in a long time and I seriously started to tear up from joy just from hearing those perfect words coming from her mouth.....it was the answer to my prayers, I smiled and looked at David and we both breathed a HUGE sigh of relief. A couple of minutes later, I actually even cracked a joke and asked him if he was mad at me for scaring him like that! We were in a moment of complete happiness and even better, we were able to soak in the amazing news while looking at our little one, completely healthy and active too! My OB did show me that for some reason, my placenta is really low and she explained that with the placenta being so low it could have contributed to the bleeding. She also said that any cramping, intercourse, dehydration and many other reasons could contribute to such bleeding and that based on everything she saw she did not think that it was anything too serious. She did say that I should definitely report any further bleeding or if it did not completely subside, but that other than that, the placenta should move upward as I progress in my pregnancy and that I should not anticipate to have any other problems. With that being said, it is not completely out of the question that I might have further bleeding and she did say that I could have complications if the placenta did not move up and continued to stay low, but again, she said that normally it moves upward so it should be okay. I did explain to her that I was sick for two days earlier in the week and that I threw up quite a bit and she did say that between the cramping from throwing up and the dehydration from the same thing could very well be why I started bleeding. She said that I should be on pelvic rest for some time and that she would see how I was doing on my next visit. She went ahead and did measurements on the baby and gave us an official due date. Amazingly enough, she gave me the EXACT same due date that I had previously calculated on my own based on my last cycle dates. We all got a little chuckle out of that....David was pretty shocked that I called it right on! She also sent along one of the sonogram pics of our little one with us as well, which is the cutest little peanut I have ever laid my eyes on! (I will post the sonogram pic later since I need to scan it first) So, the official due date is June 28th, which makes me 11 weeks along right now and I will be having a scheduled c-section that we will schedule later in my pregnancy. Since my next appt. was supposed to be this next Wednesday, she said that I did not need to come back again until 4 weeks for my normal appt. in January. She said that she probably would not do a sonogram next time unless there was a reason to do one, but that she would do one at the following appt., so we will likely find out our little one's gender on the next visit after which will be in early February. On that note, she did say that the baby was being stubborn when she was trying to measure it and told us that we might just have a stubborn little boy in there, ha! So, everything is fine.....it's more than fine actually, it is perfect in my eyes as my worst fears and what I had presumed to be the beginning of the worst day of my life had ended with such a beautiful thing......a perfectly healthly little heartbeat and the image of a perfectly healthy little baby girl or boy that was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. It was absolutely incredible, especially after thinking that you would never get to see such a thing. I already love this baby more than I could ever imagine and I absolutely cannot wait to meet our little one in just a little over six months away. We are both just so relieved and so happy, it's simply amazing and we couldn't ask for anything more. What a blessing we truly have been given! God is good.

A New Look for the Holidays....

Whew....now I remember why I don't ever update our layout, ha! Flirty Snowflakes is the theme for this holiday season. Enjoy! :)

All I Want for Christmas is You.....

LOVE this movie!



This is a GREAT video too and includes all of the holiday classics we all know and love! Same song though - it's one of my faves! :)

My New Favorite Thing....

Sea Bands....need I say more???

I wore these on both wrists ALL day today and did NOT have any bouts with nausea the entire day...coincidence??? Maybe...but, I've heard that they work from many of my friends that have used them in past pregnancies, so I figured I would try them out. So far, so good and this is even after I had a stomach flu on Monday and Tuesday and my poor little tummy felt completely fine today. I guess only time will tell, but I'll be wearing these babies 24/7 for a while! :) Thanks to my hubby for getting them for me! I think that these might be my saving grace and will make life much better for all of us!

I am Hudson - Hear Me Roar!!!!!!!!!

So Ugh....

I am feeling SO horrible today and just want to go back to bed. I hate to complain because we are so very blessed to be expecting and I don't want to seem ungrateful or whiny, but I just feel SO awful - this morning sickness is truly kicking my booty, it SO much worse than my pregnancy with Hudson. I am SO anxious for my next appointment with my OB next week and I am starting to wonder if I am going to have a girl or if there might be more than one little bebe because of the fact that I have felt so bad these past several weeks. I have felt like I was going to hurl my head off since 6 am this morning! Just now after lunch, is the nausea FINALLY starting to subside. Between this and the fact that I am constantly exhausted and am on one wild emotional / hormonal roller coaster I completely do not feel like myself at all....but more like a cry over just about anything and everything alien type being has invaded my body and turned me into a blubbering idiot of sorts. Ugh....hopefully, things will get better soon...I don't have that much longer till I am in the second trimester so I am hoping that most of these lovely symptoms go away and I can get back to feeling a bit more like my normal self. I also know that hearing little baby B's heartbeat and *fingers crossed* getting to have a sonogram and see our little one next week will help me muster through these worst of days. I am so glad that we had a nice weekend though, were able to at least get our tree up and decorated and had a wonderful time with David's family yesterday to celebrate a late Thanksgiving. I will definitely post pics from Thanksgiving and the weekend later, but just had to have a quick vent to distract myself from wanting to vomit in the trashcan sitting beside my legs, lol!

Oh, and we did have one bad incident this weekend - Hudson must have had an overnight / 24 hour stomach bug and decided to wake up twice on Saturday night / Sunday morning and throw up all over me and then almost all over David! It was lovely, but the important thing is that he was back to normal yesterday and has been feeling fine ever since. Now David on the other hand, I just talked to him a few minutes ago and he's gotten some stomach thing going on now too! He sounded horrible....we are all just a bunch of sickos lately, huh?!?!