Emerson Noel

Our sweet girl is here! She was born Tuesday, November 15th at 3:33pm.  7 pounds 10 ounces and 20.5 inches long. 

We are so very in love and enjoying every minute of this newborn cuddly stage! 

We are expecting to be released from the hospital today as long as everything stays on track! 

Thank you so much for your prayers- they have been greatly appreciated! Please continue to pray as we being this next stage of having a baby at our house! 

a preggo halloween

34 weeks :)

brunch and a baby shower

Early October we made the drive to Virginia Beach for the last time before the baby gets here.  My Mom and some of her friends threw us a brunch baby shower while we were there! So much fun!

First off, the food we had was AMAZING.  They had a huge variety of drinks, breakfast dishes, fruit, and desserts.  Yum!! 

Love this chocolate/coffee punch.  Best stuff ever. 

Adorable pink cake balls! 

The dessert spread! Cake balls, cookies, and oreo truffles.  

The food table! Muffins and bagels from panera, and amazing breakfast casseroles.  Sausage, French toast, and a pineapple one! I want to make these all right now!

Of course someone got a picture of me digging in! ;)

Opening presents was so much fun- as usual!

Love this newborn size tutu! Can't wait for Emmie to wear it!

My Aunt, Angie- all the way from Arkansas sent the most adorable outfits!  The tights on the dress have pink shoes on them!

An adorable pink fuzzy coat! Love this!

My grandma got us LOTS and LOTS of diapers! What a huge blessing!

Love this dress from H&M! Can't wait to make a trip in there when we are home next! 

Auntie bibs

And my parents bought Emmie her crib!

My Mom bought Michael this bib- with threats of taking it back when he made fun of her ;)

And of course, some family pictures:

Me and my Mom :)

 Me, my Mom, and my Dad

Me and Michael with my parents

Michael's sister, Amber won every single game!

The baby bump at 35 weeks

Me and Michael

Lots of pictures- thanks to my Mom and Michael's sister Amber.  Such a fun shower- and we were so blessed with receiving our crib, pack n play, clothes, toys, diapers, all sorts of baby essentials!

decisions...

 There's so much with getting ready for baby! And here we are at 34 weeks {yikes!} and I'm starting to freak out a bit.  The nursery is painted- and clothes are organized in bins by age! The newborn and 0-3 month clothes are hanging in the closet! I've bought a dresser, but it needs to be painted.  We've mostly got all of the office out of the room and merged into the guest room! It's really exciting, but we are really feeling the pressure to get everything done soon!

One thing I've been spending a ton of time researching is a diaper bag! I really don't want a baby-ish looking bag, and so many of my friends are so frustrated at how quickly their bags fell apart.  Here are a few of my favorites...

This look is probably my favorite. It's like a gray/blueish color that will match our travel system well.  This is from Timi & Leslie, who do a great job of keeping the bag not looking like a baby bag.

It also comes with some great stuff inside as well!  This particular bag comes with a changing pad, a bottle holder, a wet bag, stroller straps- and a little clutch to keep my personal things that I can grab when I drop her off at day care or at the nursery!

Here's another one from Timi & Leslie.  Same thing, super cute, and not a typical look for a diaper bag.

This one comes with lots of goodies inside too {changing pad, wet bag, bottle holder, stroller straps, shoulder straps, and Mom's clutch}

This one is super cute too. I like the pink in it, but not sure if it will look too little kid-ish: The pink and browns will match our travel system really well though!

Lots to think about- and a few more on the radar.  We are going to the Prime Outlets this weekend, so I will be looking around there- and then will make my final decision :)

Any suggestions? Moms- anything I'm not thinking about when checking out diaper bags- or a favorite bag of yours?

our very first earthquake

Yesterday, I experienced my very first earthquake! I was at work when everything started shaking.  At first, we thought it was construction, since there's always something going on around campus {see behind us in these pictures as cubes are being torn down and re-constructed- smaller of course.}  When everything continued to shake, we all stood up and were trying to figure out what was going on.  Thanks to facebook and twitter, I quickly found out that everyone felt it- then the news of the earthquake came. Luckily, no one was hurt- it was just a creepy thing to experience an earth quake- in Virginia {i know, all you West Coasters are laughing at all of this!}

We decided to have a little bit of fun with it, especially since four of the girls in the office are pregnant right now {yes- 4 out of the 15ish in the office are having babies! I'm due in November and then the rest of the girls are due starting late January and early February!} 

Here we are, with our signs showing how we all survived the quake of 2011! ;)

Here's a picture to kinda document 28 weeks.  I am def sticking my back forward a little bit- but crazy how much that belly is growing!!

24 weeks

Miranda took these pictures of me at 24 weeks.  I can't believe how quickly this pregnancy is flying by!

So far, I've been feeling pretty good.  After the 15-16 week mark, the 'morning' sickness subsided. I've gotten a little bit of energy back- I just have to make myself not do as much as I could before! This is a very difficult task for me.  I really like for things to be done exactly when I want them to be done- it's not so easy delegating and waiting for Michael to get to it!  This week I've switched over to all maternity clothes- I was still able to wear my shirts for a while, but they are all pretty much too small now.

My back is starting to feel a little strained and sore, and I am definitely having a harder time getting comfortable at night, but nothing has been too bad.  And hey, it's always a good excuse to get a back rub!

catching up

{I have a ton of posts coming catching up from the past few weeks! This summer is flying by- I can't believe it's already August!}

I don't know what happened, but I haven't been taking my camera with me everywhere lately- so I'm not really taking pictures of anything- and really don't like to blog without at least one picture! Luckily, my dear friend Miranda has been documenting all sorts of fun activities we've been doing lately, so I'm stealing these pictures from her! I do want to continue blogging, it's a great way for me to look back on all the things that we've done- not just the big things like vacations that we will of course remember, but the everyday little things.  I know this will be especially important once Emerson comes around.  Work has been so busy, and I've just been over-committing myself- making me absolutely exhausted all the time.  I've been an awful friend, and my house is hardly ever clean- so I've cut back on a lot of activities.  Between work being so busy and demanding to taking two classes this 8 weeks, I've just got to limit the other things I'm doing right now.  I'm not so great at this- I hate saying no and hate missing out on things, but I'm also no good being constantly exhausted!

Anyways, these pictures are a few weeks old, but still a lot of fun and needing to be shared!  Miranda invited us to go out to a friends pool with her, and we eagerly accepted.  It was so much fun to sit and relax... well until Michael showed up and splashed us all!

There were so many different rafts to choose from.  We were trying to figure this one out- don't think it's made for two adults!

Michael found a speed boat float and was speeding along bumping into everyone! :) I love that he still loves to goof off and finds ways to have fun.  He's going to be the best Dad ever!

I think this was around 22 or 23 weeks. It's funny how my belly feels so big to me all day, but when I see a picture of it, I'm surprised with how small it is! My non-maternity bathing suit is still fitting... hopefully it will last me until the end of the pool days- have you seen those awful maternity suits! {ps: notice all the water on the sides of the pool around me... we have Michael to thank for this!}

Miranda didn't put real sunscreen on, and when we noticed that she was starting to burn, Michael built her this 'tent' so she could stay in the water and relax, without getting more sun exposure! Told you- best Dad ever! ;)

Then we ended our pool day by hitting up Chick-fil-a that was giving out free ice cream! Yes please!

Dear Baby GIRL,

Wednesday, June 15th,  I went to my first doctors appointment without Michael.  So far, his work schedule has worked out where we could schedule an appointment when he was off, but because he recently was switched departments, his schedule changed and he wasn't able to make it.  It isn't a big deal, these regular appointments are really simple.  I have to show up, get weighed, blood pressure taken, a few other medical things, and then discuss questions with my doctor.  I didn't have very many this week- mostly about sleeping on my back since my back has been hurting more sleeping on my side.  My doctor said it's fine- baby is still small enough to not effect me sleeping on my back, but once it gets a little bigger, then it will be painful to sleep on my back. We also listen to your heartbeat each appointment.  It is so fast.  She just has it up for a few seconds- no more than 15- but I love it.  It is so crazy that that fast little heartbeat is my baby! I wonder if I will ever get used to the idea! We talked a little about the 22 week appointment- if we will find out the sex, and how they will give me an ultrasound where we will be able to see you, and measure you.  I am so excited to find out if you are a boy or a girl, so I ask the doctor about their extra ultrasound appointment- where you can pay to have an ultrasound to find out if the baby is a girl or a boy- they call it a pink/blue appointment!  She tells me we can for sure do this- as soon as tomorrow! I am so excited! As soon as I set up the appointment- Thursday for 1:00pm, I call Michael- even though he is at work.  We decided not to really tell anyone- we want to be able to surprise our friends and family with this news.  It is so hard to lie! I ended up telling a few of the girls at work that I was going because I was so excited!

Michael and I decided to take off work on Thursday, he was supposed to work from 12-9 and I was supposed to work from 8-5.  I hate these opposite schedule days! I am so excited for our appointment tomorrow that I have the hardest time sleeping! I really cannot wait to know!! We slept in a little, a rarity these days with work schedules, and how many times I have to get up to pee- and a luxury we will really miss when you come along.  {Maybe you'll be like us and like to sleep in late too?} I woke up starving so we went over to Cracker Barrell for some pancakes and hash browns.  It was so nice out, that we sat out on their patio and rocked in the rocking chairs and talked about how much things are going to change.  What a perfect morning.  I love being able to spend time like this with your Daddy! We sat out there until it was almost time to head over to our appointment!We were a little early so I took the long way.  As we were walking in, I realized that Michael was wearing a blue polo shirt, and I was wearing a pink shirt! Totally not planned, but still really funny!

We were called back and the ultrasound started.  So totally amazing! You were in there! You had the hiccups too! That was my favorite part for sure! She showed us your heart, your stomach and your bladder. And then moved to the money shots.  We found out PINK wins! We got to see you on the big tv screen for almost 30 minutes.  She showed us your feet, your booty, your girly parts {a lot}your hands, just everything.  It was so cool.  It totally made it so real.  The last time we had an ultrasound, you were the size of a peanut and we couldn't see anything- but this time, we could see so much! She even turned on the 3d side for a little bit- wow.  The cord was in the way of your face so we couldn't see your whole face- but we saw your cutie little nose! Once it was over I couldn't stop smiling.  I was so happy I knew what you were- I guessed girl before we went in too! Daddy was a little nervous- but he's really excited too.  He said that girls scared him. :) 

After the appointment, we went to Kohls, Old Navy, and Target.  I wanted to get you your first official girl outfit! Yes, we already had some girl and boy stuff that friends have given us, or good deals I found at yard sales- but this was the first thing that we bought you.  I found an adorable little pink jumper at Target from the Calypso line.  I love it! I can't wait to see our adorable little girl in it! 

We then went to Cold Stone and got some Ice Cream.  Cotton Candy with Sprinkles and a waffle bowl for me {always one of my favorites!} and Michael got something with Oreos.  

We ended the day by telling your Aunt Miranda- but that is another story- complete with more pictures! :)

It was so much fun- I'm so glad we took the day off and were able to spend the entire day together and really start planning more details on your arrival!

18 weeks

 A few pictures of the belly at 18 weeks! The same weekend where we told our families we were having a girl! :)