Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is always such a fun time, but it's also very busy for us!  We had thanksgiving dinner on Wednesday night with the Walkers, Thursday at lunch with the Gilland's, Thursday afternoon with the Goldings, and Thursday night with the Whitesides - needless to say we were stuffed and tired!

This is from the Gilland's - we went to Jerome and Debbie's for Thanksgiving this year...it's sad because most of my cousins live out of town, so our gatherings keep getting smaller and smaller - I am excited about Christmas though - Everyone should be here!

The girls hung out in the kitchen, and as you can see, the guys watched football most of the time.

My dad had decided he was going to ride the 4 wheeler for a while, but then the bottom let out and he got soaked!

Jonathan holding sweet Miss Marley - she is such a beautiful baby!

This transitions to the Whiteside's get together - it was raining so hard when we got to the Golding's, I forgot my camera in the car and wasn't going to dare go back and get it.

Miss Kaleigh and Ellie playing so sweetly together.

Once again, the guys watching TV and the girls all in the kitchen - except here they are watching hunting shows.

 We were matching for our family Christmas Card photos, so I thought I better get one while he was still in the picture taking mood!  This is almost 30 weeks pregnant.

On Friday we celebrated J's birthday out at the new house - under construction and all!  We had planned on having a bonfire, but it rained so much on Thursday that we had to cancel the bonfire and just had chili and hotdogs with cake.

This is the pre-party - they were working on taking out all of the remaining doorway so we can completely open up the two rooms - Very exciting!

 Jonathan was opening his present from his parents...

 A nifty knife that he had wanted last year, but it couldn't be ordered in the state of Tennessee, so Mrs. Pam ordered it and had it shipped to Aunt Cynthia in Texas...sneaky!

His 25th Birthday - last one before little man gets here!

 Katherine and Jenny trying to stay warm - the heat was working, but with them working all day, it was hard to keep it in the house with the doors open!

 Everyone having a good time and just relaxing...

I hope your thanksgiving weekend was a good as ours!  I can't believe how quickly 2010 has flown by.  Before we know it, we'll be saying that about 2011.



Happy Birthday!

 Today is J's 25th Birthday!

 I can't believe how old he is :). I'm so proud to call him my husband! Jonathan I love you so much and I am so thankful for the years we have had together and can't wait to spend many many more with you! Love you with all my heart! I hope it will be a great day!

And, in case anyone wasn't aware...tomorrow is officially opening day of Duck Season - His favorite day of the year!  Thought this picture might be good luck for the start of the season.

Officially Home Owners!

This was probably the most hectic weekend I can remember in a VERY long time...and the hectic ways started on Wednesday. 

I received a call on Wednesday night right before church from Ruch Clinic telling me that I failed my Glucose test and I would have to take a 3 hour test within 7 days.  This was tramatizing to me because 1. I was so worried that maybe I had done something that would affect little man and 2. I don't do needles.  I was so upset and just cried forever!  I finally pulled myself together and J and I started researching the causes and the effects it has on you if you truly do fail.  Come to find out though, I was supposed to fast for 12 hours before going in for the test, but was only told not to eat sugar, so I had eaten all day long.  (I have my test tomorrow - they will draw my blood 4 times, so I hope that I can handle it!)

On Thursday I had the busiest day at work I can remember having since I started in March.  We have been trying to sell our Malibu because we were wanting something a little larger for when the baby gets here.  On Thursday night, J told me that 3 people had called and were interested in seeing the car that night.  We ended up selling the car to the second couple who looked at it. 

Friday morning we closed on our house and got all the windows/glass repair kits we needed to start working right away.  We were very busy with correcting all the FHA Loan items that had to be ready by Monday morning.  We worked fairly late on Friday, and then Saturday we were back out at the house bright and early for a long day of work. 

I was able to get all the ugly wallpaper off the walls - YES!!  And they had our list of items that had to be fixed well under way... It's going to be a long process, but we are really pushing to be in by the end of December, first of January.  I am hoping that we can be completely moved in by January 1st...we'll see if that's just a dream!

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving weekend!  Mine starts this afternoon when I get off and I won't be back until Monday morning...definately looking forward to the break (as little of a break as it might be - we will be working on the house every spare second we have).

Baby G Update

Yesterday I had my 28 week checkup with the glucose test.  I was really nervous going into the test- knowing they had to take so much blood and I had to drink some nasty stuff.  I actually did very well (no thanks to my nerves!).  They took my blood without me passing out and I didn't cry or anything! :) I think I got over the crying part a while back, but the passing out still seems to be an issue.

 

Little man is doing well and is still growing.  I go back to the Doctor the week before Christmas and then I start going every two weeks.  I can't believe how quickly time has flown by. 

 I found these fun facts on a website that I thought would be neat to share: 

199 days down, 81 to go!

Fun Due Date Facts

1. Zodiac Sign: Aquarius
2. Half Birthday: August 7
3. Birthstone: Amethyst
4. Birth Flower: Violet or Primrose
5. Your baby will be born in the Chinese Year of The White Metal Rabbit
6. This time next year your baby will be 40 Weeks Old!
7. Your baby will start kindergarten in 2016, be old enough to drive a car in 2027, finish high school in 2029, and will graduate from college with the class of 2033, give or take a year. Can you imagine?

 Famous People Born On This Day - February 6th

1.  Babe Ruth was born in 1895
2. Ronald Reagan was born in 1911
3. Tom Brokaw was born in 1940
4. Bob Marley was born in 1945
5. Axl Rose was born in 1962

On This Day In History...

1. Massachusetts became the sixth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution. in 1788
2. For the first time in Olympic history dog sled racing was introduced into competition in 1932
3. Britains King George VI died. His daughter, Elizabeth II, succeeded him in 1952
4. For the first time the U.S. successfully test-fired a Titan intercontinental ballistic missile in 1959
5. Astronaut Alan B. Shepard swung three golf balls on the surface of the moon in 1971
6. The oldest U.S. President in history was Ronald Regan he turned 76 years old this day in 1987
7. Between Ethiopia and Eritrea common border heavy fighting resumed. in 1999
8. Ariel Sharon was elected Israeli prime minister. in 2001
9. John Walker Lindh was ordered held without bail pending trial. in 2002

On another note, we close on our house Friday!  I can't believe it's already here.  I am so excited to start working on it and helping out as much as I can - but ultimately seeing the major change in what a lot of paint and flooring can do!  It's going to be a good few weeks! We are so hoping that we can stay there Christmas Eve and then move in hopefully by the beginning of January. 

Closing Next Friday!

WARNING::  This might be an extremely long post!   

                                                               

We close on our new house a week from Friday!  I can't belive it...I thought I would post some photos to let you see the before photos.  And just FYI, we WILL NOT be moving in until the renovations are done...well in most part.  The entire house needs several coats of paint, along with new flooring, light fixtures, etc.  It will be such a fun process - a lot of work, but very rewarding - and it will really be ours! (well the bank and ours - mostly the bank's).

This is the back view of the house:       

 The entrance we will mainly use will be the one in the back - the "den" which was at one time a garage and was closed in.  It's a huge room, but needs a lot of work - We are planning to make this our entertaining room - our den/game room/etc.  My goal for this room is to make it our main den.  It will have the TV, Couches, and hopefully a game table for the front corner of the room - I think it would be so great for crafts and games!

Once you go up the stairs into the main area of the house, our laundry room/ half bath/ and pantry are directly to the right.

Half Bath:                                                                   

 View of Laundry Room (obviously with no washer/dryer)

Our kitchen/eat in area is at the end of the hallway and opens up into a sitting area (which the previous owners had as a third bedroom) and the entry way.

My goal for the kitchen is to evenutally replace the countertops, sink and faucet.  Also, we have discussed moving the refrigerator to the side of the kitchen - where the dishwasher currently should be going.  We think this would make it more functional - and provide a little more cabinet space as well...we will see.  I'm also going to eventually paint (or have painted) the cabinets with a white glaze and replace all the appliances with stainless steel - this is about a 5 year plan or so.

Eat in kitchen area:  My table will go here!      

Sitting Room:  I was going to make this a dining room, but we will be ripping out the current closet in here, so I figure that it would be a great sitting room for little man to play in when I am cooking dinner or whatever.

Once you have passed through the entry way, you will see the master bedroom and bath on the left, a second bath on the right, and the nursery a little further down on the right.

Master:

Nursery:  This room was renovated after the initial move in, so it has a neat little corner nook - I am going to make it a reading/toy area.  I think it will be great space for a baby/little boy - it can be his own hiding place.

                  

This is the second bathroom - the only shower in the house.  We are going to hold off on renovating the master bath, so this will be our main way of showering for now.

The last area of the house is the upstairs, which for now will be our guest bedroom.  We will probably expand it one day to accomidate more children, but for now it will serve it's purpose for guests.

As you can see, we have our work cut out for us, but I'm so excited that we got this property with the house - it's going to be the perfect place for us to raise a family.  I can see our kids playing here for years to come!  I can't wait to show the final reno pictures!

Also, we have a few items that need to be addressed before we actually "qualify" for the FHA loan, so we worked at the house last weekend to get it ready for the next inspection. Here's a list of what we have already done:

1. Have a certified plumber make sure the pipes are all working and operational - this actually was completed, but we need a new water heater - so we will be installing this the weekend that we close. 

2. Building stairs for the back patio area - Jonathan, Mr. Mike, and David worked on this for several hours last weekend - they look great!

3. Adding a shower head to the 2nd bathroom


What we still need to have completed for the loan:
4. Fixing a loose faucet in the 1/2 bathroom - there was a piece missing, so we need a whole new faucet
5. Replace the broken glass in the patio door
6. Replace the broken glass in the front bedroom window (these will actually be completed the day we close).


Hopefully we will be in by Christmas or the following week - there's so much going on right now I feel like my head is spinning! 

Little Man is growing!

I was 27 weeks on Sunday.  Little man is really starting to stick out!  I can't believe he will be here in just a few short months.  Time is flying by.  We finally chose a name - not that we are telling anyone, but we have chosen what we will call "little man."

For those of you who don't understand why we wouldn't tell - here's a little glimpse of where I am coming from.  When I was born, my name was originally going to be Ashley Renee, but two weeks before I arrived, one of my parents good friends had a baby girl and named her Ashley Renee...hence my name was Brittanie Nicole. 

Nothing wrong with my name, but I want to make sure that little man gets the name we want him to have and not someone else!  Can't wait for everyone to know him!

Going to the chapel, and we're gunna get married!

Well we had a very exciting halloween weekend!  We don't do anything special for halloween, so when my brother in law was having friends over for a bonfire, we thought we might tag along.  Since there is still a burn ban, they did not have a fire, but had chili and hotdogs and watched scary movies - I just participated in the food part! 

We were getting ready to leave when Katherine and Scott came in glowing from ear to ear!  They had some super exciting news - they were engaged!!  As you can see in the photo below, they were glowing with excitement.  They have been dating for 9 months, but had known each other for years, so it got pretty serious quickly.  We all knew it would happen sometime soon, but not this quickly! We are so excited for them.   They are thinking a June/July wedding will be perfect.  Scott will be done with school at Union University, and Katherine will only have a semester left of nursing school.

Don't let the look fool you...I don't think her daddy was quite ready to be giving this precious girl away, but I think he did a great job pretending to be happy! :) He know's that he's really gaining one and not loosing one anyways.

It worked out perfectly that Sarah came in for a few things and decided to stay for the night, so the whole crew was there to congratulate them!  It was so perfect.  I know they will always remember October 30, 2010! 

Scott didn't get any help with the ring...I thought he did a great job!  It's beautiful and sparkles so much. (And of course she absolutely loved it!)

Congrats Scott and Katherine!  We love you guys so much and are so excited about seeing what the Lord has for you in the future...wishing you years of happiness!