Catch up again...

It's been a couple of months since I posted. I have been diagnosed with gestational diabetes, just as I was with Rylan. They are giving me a different type of medication and its making me quite sick. It's hard for me to hold down any food. I tell ya, after months of morning sickness and finally getting over that by the middle of the second trimester and now dealing with nausea/vomiting all over again...I'm just plain sick of it!! I'm supposed to go to the doc for my checkup and ultrasound today. I'm going to beg them to try a different medicine. I have at least 6 weeks left and I'm just sick of being sick. (Especially when I know there is other medicines they can try). We will see how it goes. I'm looking forward to seeing Aislinn tomorrow and praying for good results on her daughter cyst. I'm believing and trusting God that He hears my every prayer concerning her. I'm so excited to meet her and see her beautiful face. We don't have much longer!! Ry is finally realizing there is a baby in mommy's tummy. He loves to feel her kick and move around. I'm excited for him to be a big brother. He has become such a great helper and I know he will love to help me with Aislinn once she is here. It will be an adjustment for him regardless of how prepared I think I have gotten him. The fact of having another human being in the house taking up some of his time with mommy and daddy...he may or may not adjust as well as I hope. But he is 4 and can understand things a lot better than if he were younger. Lets just hope and pray for the best!! Well that is my update for now. Thanks for reading.

IT'S A GIRL - AISLINN HOPE

So everything is going great so far. Aislinn is growing perfectly and I am finally not having to deal with morning, afternoon and evening sickness. I have never been so sick all the time...whether I ate or not.  Thank goodness for phenergan. I've been on a sweet and sour kick for last few weeks. I mean, eating donuts and dill pickles is crazy right? Anyway....I was going to share a few of the ultrasound photos but for some reason they won't upload.  Maybe I'll get some on here soon.

I'm sure some of you are wondering how we came up with the name Aislinn. It can be pronounced 4 different ways and we chose the way we liked which was As-Lin. When I came across this name a couple years ago, I really, really liked it a lot.  I talked to Butch to see his opinion and he liked it too. We looked up the meaning and it meant vision. We know that we need vision in our lives or we perish. So knowing everything we've been through with losing two babies and other trials in our life, this name became more special to us. As I began to research more on the name is also means Ashlyn in it's Irish form. Ashlyn was always a special name to us before we were married, but it has become so popular and we didn't want to go that way. Aislinn will be a reminder of keeping a vision, God's vision and it will be a memory of things we had dreamed of when we were courting...having a little girl and naming her Ashlyn (but in Irish language - Aislinn.) I have no idea if that makes any sense to you or not, but it means a lot to us. We've dreamed of having a little girl for the past couple of years. For this to be happening is so overwhelming....and simply wonderful. Rylan told us from the beginning that he was having a little "stister". LOL He is very excited and loves seeing the little girl clothes and gifts that people have already started giving (which has been very helpful seeing we have NOTHING for a girl and EVERYTHING for a boy. LOL)

We are soooooo very excited and very thankful for our little miracle girl, Aislinn.

Waiting.....

So here I am at 5 am wide awake. I have been awake since about 3:30 thinking about my ultrasound. I am so anxious to find out what we are having and its literally keeping me from sleeping (which is something I usually have no trouble doing!) At least my ultrasound is early and I don't have to wait all day to find out. I'm gonna make sure to drink some mt. Dew before we go so the baby will be active for sure. Hopefully no crossed legs!!! Well I just had to share my anxiousness. We are really excited and I can't wait to make the announcement!!!!! God is good for being with us every step of the way.

Family Update

Soo...it's been a while since I've written on this blog. I am not even sure who still follows it or gets updates when I do post something. I may be writing strictly into the internet world for people who may come across it accidentaly and not care what is written. BUT, it will be here nonetheless.

Since my last update, which I think was in September 2012, we have found out some news that was all together great and frightening at the same time. We are pregnant and expecting a new baby! For some, it is the greatest news on earth, for some it is the scariest because maybe it wasn't planned, and then for some it is great and scary - well, that was us. You see, I have a problem.... It wasn't discovered until after my second miscarriage in August 2012. My doctor wanted to do fertility testing and see if they could determine what was happening before we had to miscarry again. I was very thankful that she wanted to go ahead and do that, but I was scared of what she would find. Having the two miscarriages were completely unexpected to me because I had gotten pregnant with Rylan and not had any problems during my pregnancy that threatened a miscarriage. But, your body can change, and apparently mine had. I waited a few weeks and got a call from the doctor that I had a blood clotting disorder, also known as, antiphospholipid syndrome. The good thing about this "problem" was that they could put me on a baby aspirin a day and when I got pregnant I would start taking a blood thinner injections twice a day along with the baby aspirin. It seems like a lot of trouble, but to me, every shot, every pill, is worth it!!

My mom, brother, Rylan and I were on our way to Grandma's for Thanksgiving and we had stopped to eat and I got kinda nauseated. I had also been sick with a sinus infection and bad cough. We had been trying to get pregnant so I was being very cautious with what medications I would take. After  we went to eat we went by Walmart for me to run in and get some cough medicine. I had picked up the Delsym (knowing I wouldn't need to take it if I was pregnant) and a Robitussin DM. Then I stopped by the family planning section and bought the cheapest pregnancy test. I checked out and headed straight to the Walmart restroom! Well it didn't take but a 30 seconds and it was positive! Butch was at home because he was having to work that weekend, so I sent a text message of a picture with the positive pregnancy test - then I called him! The reality of what was happening hit me while I was on the phone with him and I was scared....scared of losing another precious baby. When I got to the car I pulled the picture of the positive pregnancy test up on my phone and showed my mom and Chase - they were of course excited! When we got to my grandmother's I had to go back in the bedroom and just pray that God would give my doctor and nurses the wisdom they needed to deal with my pregnancy and I prayed for PEACE! I knew I was going to have to have the peace of God to get me through this day by day. I litereally couldn't wait to call my doctor on Monday and get the ball rolling. When I did talk to them on Monday, I had to come in that afternoon and do bloodwork and then Wednesday as well. In the two day gap, my HCG had tripled so that was a very good thing. Even though everything seemed to be going ok, I was taking the shots, taking my meds and doing what I could do, we still didn't tell many people. I eventually just got to the point where I thought, either I trust that God has this in control and everything is going to be ok, or I don't. I think I posted on Facebook and made the announcement after our first ultrasound at 7 weeks. I had another ultrasound at 9 weeks and a doc visit at 12 weeks and the baby was still growing strong. I have a fetal doppler which helps me from being so nervous in between doctor visits. I love listening to the heartbeat and feeling the little kicks and rolling around. It's an amazing feeling and I thank God every day that our baby is healthy.

Tomorrow is my 16 week visit, pretty uneventful one. But in two weeks, we will be having our ultrasound to determine gender! It has went by pretty fast this past month. I never thought we would get this far in a pregnancy ever again, but God has been right beside us the whole way and given us peace about our miracle baby.

Just wanted to share our news and how it came about...thank you all who kept us in your prayers!!!

OH YEA---OUR BABY IS DUE AUGUST 1, 2013

Preschool K3

Day ONE

Day TWO

Day THREE

Rylan started preschool at New Life this week and had a great week! I'm so proud of what he has already learned in just a few days. I can't wait to see how much progress he makes over this school year. He is very excited about going and I hope it stays that way!

Labor Day Weekend

Rylan and I joined my parents, Chase, and MawMaw in Destin this past weekend. We left Friday evening and went half way and stayed in Greenville, and got up Saturday, went to breakfast at Shoney's (been a while for you too, huh?) and then we finished the rest of our drive to Destin. As soon as we got there Rylan was headed for the pool at the beach house we were staying at. We had a great time. I missed Butch so much while we were there. I felt bad because he was having to work all weekend out of town and I was relaxing by the pool and playing with our boy in the sand on the beach. BUT he encouraged me to go...and I'm glad we did. Rylan had a great time and MawMaw got her first vacation in a while. So needless to say, we enjoyed it. MawMaw, Rylan and I came back home on Monday and ended up taking the old route and we went through some interesting towns and cities that we were not at all familiar with, but we had  lots of laughs and a good trip overall. (some of my photos mess up when they are uploaded... :(   )

not sure why this is messed up, but it's Ry and Gappy in the pool

Chase in my dad's very outdated shirt as a joke.

Headed to The Back Porch

The Back Porch

Mr. Swimmer

MawMaw telling him to stay away!

Mr. Cool

absolutely loved the beach, but wasn't thrilled with the sand all over him!!

Catch up

Over the past 6 months we have had a lot going on! I have completely just ignored my blog. :(

February - March ~ Feb 4th (Butch's bday) we moved in a house on a 50 acre farm that we found for rent. We absolutely love it here. God really blessed us with this place. It gives us the privacy that the country living gives you and peace and quiet (well when all the birds aren't chirping, but that's a beautiful sound you don't hear in the city!)

In March we just continued settling in....
In April, Butch started the best job he has ever had. I had a birthday on the 5th and my baby boy turned 3 on April 24th!!! We just had a small party at home with family. It's so hard to believe he is preschool age. He amazes me everyday with everything he knows and has learned. He is using sentences and we can understand him MOST of the time!! :)

OHH I also did my first senior portrait session/family session! Dane and his family are just the best and I had a great time with them for 3 hours! :)

Photography has become something I'm EXTREMELY in love with. It's also a very good advantage when I want to have Rylan's pictures done...because I'm doing it myself!  Here are some of Rylan's 3 yr old pictures....

Ok, so May was a very eventful month....first, Butch and I went away for our anniversary on May 11-13. We went to Gadsden for the first time together and spent some time at Noccalula Falls. The color on some of my pictures is messed up when they upload...but you can get the idea.

Second, I went to Dane's graduation and had a great time....I used to babysit this kid and now he's graduating - CRAZY!

Thirdly, there was a VERY unplanned event that happened on May 17th. Butch went to work that morning feeling fine and we talked at lunch break and he sounded ok to me...he went back to work after lunch and had a seizure and because of the seizure he of course fell to the floor and ended up hitting his head on a pipe (which resulted in a concussion). I got a call from his work and they told me what had happened and that he was driven by ambulance to St. Vincents in Pell City. So I leave work in a rush and head to the hospital...crying and praying, crying and praying. I get there to the ER and get to his room and he looked horrible. They ran every kind of test and we waited. In the process of waiting Butch began to lose feeling in  his legs and arms. He was getting frightened, as was I, but I had to keep my cool. They admitted him to the hospital to keep a watch on him. They led me to his room while he went for an MRI and Bro.Sutton had arrived (thank God!!!) and found me. When they brought Butch into the room he got confused and was talking to Bro.Sutton and got very emotional...and started having another seizure. I immediately ran to the bathroom so I didn't have to watch. At this point, the doctor and nurses decided to put him in ICU for closer observation.  We stayed in ICU for 4 days and finally went to a regular room on Sunday night (5/20). We finally thought it would be ok to have Rylan come see us since Butch wasn't hooked up to monitors anymore.. No doctor was able to explain what had happened...all they did know was that all the CT scans and MRIs were normal. On Monday (our 7th anniversary) they did one final test and sent us home! He has been off the anti-seizure meds for a month now and is doing great! God is so very good to us.

 The swelled head

 resting in ICU

 First kisses in 5 days - special reuniting

 they watched Go Diego Go together

hugs before Ry had to leave :(

Due to the seizures Butch had to go a certain period of time without driving and so that left me as designated driver. With me working three days a week..I was getting up at 4 am getting ready for work, taking Butch to  Pell City, taking Ry to Dana's and then to Homewood for work. Round trip was 150 miles a day - without other errands or stops! It was a 2 hour trip in the morning and the afternoon. Sooo...I had to quit my job. But I know God is going to be with us every step of the way. It's been really good for a family to be together so much. God definitely knows what we are in need of!

The below pics are from Memorial Day weekend:

 swimming @ home

 swimming at Aunt Neida's

Then in June, my brother in law, Mark,  got married and we celebrated with them.

And here we are, at the end of July in 2012....and just got finished with VBS!!

And then...finally, Dane's graduation party that was so much fun. I'm glad I had the opportunity to be a part of it from beginning to end.

So there you have it in a nutshell!!  I hope you enjoyed all the "catch up" :)