I'm back!

Over a year has gone by since my last blog post.  It is shameful!  I still enjoy reading everyone else's blogs, but I just have been lazy when it comes to blogging.  With baby Abby due in just 45 days, I figured now would be a good time to start back.  I want to be able to journal her life with pictures and share what is going on with friends and family that we don't get to see as often.  

We are hurriedly making final preparations for her arrival just in case she decides to come a little early.  The nursery walls are painted, the baby furniture is all here, her bathroom is currently getting remodeled, but we still have to hang curtains and hang wall decor.  I'll post pictures as soon as her nursery is complete! 

We have had 2 showers for Abby over the past 2 weekends. I have decided that being a mother-to-be is even more fun than being a bride!  It is so much fun to be showered with things for her!  She has yet to take her first breath and is already SPOILED ROTTEN!  

Our first shower was in Birmingham and was hosted by some of my best friends from high school and college.  It was so much fun to spend the afternoon with these girls.  

The sweet hostesses (we missed Alana, Taylor, and Mary Neal)

It has been so much fun to be pregnant with so many close friends and to be able to experience this next stage together!  Erin is due June 2nd, I'm due April 18th, Jenny is due May 12th, and Lindsay is due May 2nd.  That is 4 babies within 6 weeks!!!!!

Me (and Abby) with both of her grandmothers and one of her great-grandmothers!

My sister, Sarah, did these farm animal watercolors for Abby's nursery.  They are absolutely beautiful and will hang over her crib. They will be a keepsake that we will cherish forever!

This past Saturday, some of our dearest couple friends hosted a baby shower for us at Acre in Auburn.  It was so much fun!  This group of friends originated because each of the guys was at some point an Auburn firefighter, but we have so much more in common than that!  These couples love the Lord and love each other so well.  It has been so much fun to go on beach trips, and to celebrate weddings and babies with this group over the past 7 years that I have known them. Most recently this group has rallied around each other and prayed for each other through some hard times!   These friends truly are such a blessing from God.

Abby will be the 12th baby girl from this group...and there is ONE boy on the way!  Adam and Adrianne will have the only baby boy in the whole group any day now!  We are all convinced that the fighting fire must affect the ability to have sons...(and that is perfectly fine with me!)  But I do have a feeling that these little girls will all be competing for Knox Harris's affection one day!

33 weeks

Meet our first nephew!!!

Well, this past weekend was a little crazier than usual!  Our first nephew, Jon Charles, decided that he wanted to enter this world several weeks before any of us had planned.  Jennifer (Wesley's sister) had to have an emergency c-section on Friday afternoon.  Fortunately, Wesley got off work earlier than usual on Friday, so when we got the text message at little before 4pm on Friday saying that Jon Charles was about to come, we were able to be packed, ready, and filling the truck up with gas within 18 minutes!!!  And we didn't forget to pack a single thing!  We made it to Nashville at 11pm on Friday night and got to go back and see Jennifer and her husband Jon.  Wesley's brother, Drew, and his fiance, Sydney, made it to Nashville around 12:30am.  We were all just so thankful that Jennifer was doing well!!!

The next day when we got to the hospital, Wesley and I were able to go into the NICU and meet Jon Charles.  Since he was just 33 weeks, he had to be placed on oxygen and have a feeding tube.  AND he had to be under the phototherapy lights which is the reason that he is wearing his sporty sunglasses in the pictures!

I have to say though, I have seen many 33 week babies (and term babies for that matter) while I've been a nurse, but there is just something about this sweet baby boy that tugs at my heartstrings even more than usual!  He is so precious, and I think that his fuzzy blonde hair is the cutest thing ever!  I am one proud aunt! Wesley called and got an update a few hours ago, and the nurse said that he is doing great!  They are going to try to take is nasal cannula out of his nose today, they are increasing his feedings, and he is under just one phototherapy light instead of 2.  She said that by tomorrow he should be considered a "step-down" baby and no longer a NICU baby!  We are all so thankful for the prayers and for God's blessings!

Progress on the house!

Just when I thought that Wesley and I were so much alike and had so much in common....he proves me wrong! If someone told me, "Kathryn, you have 2 weeks before starting work to relax," I would enjoy every second by RELAXING!  Not Wesley!  He cannot sit still!  I must say though that I have benefited from his work ethic!  Our study got finished this week, he has replaced 9 brass/gold light fixtures with more modern brushed nickel ones, he has vacuumed, swept, and our front and backyard look so much better!  

Here are a few BEFORE pictures of the 4th bedroom which we made our study.

And AFTER pics:

 

Wesley still has 4 days off before he starts work. There is no telling what else will get accomplished!!

He did it!!!

Whoohoo!  I am still celebrating!!!!  This past Saturday, Wesley graduated from CRNA school and received his Masters of Science degree in Nurse Anesthesia AND not only that, but he graduated with a 4.0 GPA and received an Academic award!  I couldn't be any prouder of him.  While I am celebrating this week, he is studying for boards....which he will hopefully be able to take this week before my baby sister's wedding this weekend!  Here are a few pics from the ceremony!

Since the day Wesley started back to school, his Grandma said that as long as she was well enough to travel, she wouldn't miss his graduation!  God is good and blessed her with the health and the ability to make the long drive to watch Wesley graduate!  She was such a proud Grandma!

Wesley getting hooded!

Wesley 's fan club! 

God blessed us with such great friends to go on this journey with! We are so glad that Nick, Joy, Jillian, and baby Emma Joy (who should arrive in a few weeks) will be in Dothan with us as we begin this next chapter!

I'm still here!

I didn't realize how long that it has been since I have posted anything!  Time is going by so fast!  I seriously cannot believe that Wesley is graduating in 4 weeks!  I told him the other day that I feel like I have wished away the past 2 and a half years.  Not that they have been bad, but I have been counting down the months until he would be done with school and would no longer have to study.  Well, graduation is approaching fast!  Wesley only has 2 more clinical days as a student.  He is getting to use up his vacation/sick time and will have 3-4 weeks off to study before boards.

Here is a quick update on what we have been up to since my last post:

I started my new job at Flowers Hospital in the nursery!  I LOVE it!  Everyone has been so welcoming, and it has been nice to be around healthy babies for a change....although we have had our share of sick ones too!  I definitely think it's a MIRACLE when a baby comes out and is perfectly healthy and can go home with it's mom in 48 hours.  Working in the NICU has definitely changed my perspective on healthy deliveries!

We had Sarah's bachelorette weekend in Watercolor.  It was so much fun getting to know all of her friends better!  She got some beautiful lingerie!  I'd say she is all ready for the New York honeymoon!

Wesley and I spent one Sunday afternoon in October at Aplin Farms picking sunflowers. (They also had a corn maze, hayrides, and a pumpkin patch....but we figured that we could wait til we had little ones to participate in all of that!)   It was such a beautiful fall day!  We got way more sunflowers than we could ever use!  We made 3 arrangements for our house, gave some to my mom and some to our next door neighbor.

Nick, Joy, and Jillian were here for Halloween!  Jillian was a "Jag-wire" as she says it!  She was adorable and had a diet that consisted of candy the whole day!!  I can't believe she didn't have a tummy ache!

Wesley and I spent 2 weekends ago back in PC.  He had to work his last weekend at Bay Medical Center, so I decided to go with him and see friends in PC while he was in the OR.  It worked out for me to be there for Kelly's (one of my co-workers at GCMC) bachelorette spa day.  And I loved going back to our Sunday school class there and seeing church friends.

So that's a quick update....or not so quick!