Fall Break in the Panhandle

After spending time in Tennessee for our baby showers, I traveled to the FL panhandle to hang out with my family for their fall break. We spent time at the beach enjoying the wonderful weather, eating lots of yummy seafood, and just enjoying being together. Trey and my brother-in-law Jesse weren't able to come, so it was just the original Marlin Four, plus the kids. It was a fun time and I loved getting to be with my family : )

 My sweet mom and me

 The girls

 Not my idea, but I am sure one day I will want to remember my huge belly

 Nonni and two of her babies

Rob loved the carousel

Baby Showers for our sweet baby

Trey and I are so blessed with amazing family and friends. It is so true. We have people who love on us and care for us deeply, which is now spilling over to our sweet baby. We are so thankful for these people and the impact that they have had on our lives.

The first shower that we had was at my childhood church. My parents still attend the sweet little church and they are so generous to host wedding and baby showers for those that grew up in the church. On September 14th, they hosted a precious shower for our little baby. I loved getting to see the ladies of the church and spending time while celebrating our upcoming arrival.

My favorite girls: )

Ready to celebrate our little one

My mother-in-law hosted our second baby shower in Trey's hometown of Chattanooga. It was a late afternoon drop-in shower and it was wonderful. There was wonderful food, great company, and lots of celebration. This baby is the first on Trey's side of the family, so everyone is so excited about the new baby.

Nonni, Care and me at the shower : ) Caroline is super excited to be a big cousin!

 

My family with the hostesses: )

The last baby shower was given by my sister and four of my best girlfriends. It was a precious pink and blue dessert shower. They served ice cream sundaes and yummy cupcakes.  I loved getting to spend time with lots of family and friends that I normally don't see on my visits to Tennessee. People guessed what they thought baby Lloyd was and we played a fun game with Old Wives Tales about baby gender. I am so thankful for these people and love that our baby will be loved by them all.

 All the hostesses, minus Patty who lives in California : )

Jess is due about 6 weeks behind me and is having a little boy. Can't wait for our babies to meet: )

PHS Class of 2004

Ten years ago, I graduated high school. Wait, what?!? It still

 seems crazy to me that I have been out of high school that long. Back in September, Trey and I traveled to Franklin to go to my reunion. I still keep in contact with a few of my girlfriends, but I hadn't seen a lot of my old classmates. We had the reunion at the Bunganut Pig and it was sooo fun. I enjoyed seeing everyone and catching up on our lives post high school. Hopefully, it will not be 10 years before we all get together again : )

 

Sweet, sweet lifelong friends: )

Trey and I (and the huge bump) right before the reunion: )

Mom's visit to Florida

Trey has a couple of times throughout the year where he has to travel out of Florida for business. One of these times is always the first week of September, so my mom comes to stay with me during that week. I always enjoy spending time with her, but this particular trip, she was a huge help. She helped me with registering for baby Lloyd and getting ready for my upcoming showers. We registered, exercised, and ate a lot. I can not wait for baby Lloyd to know his/her Nonni sooo soon.

Baby Lloyd at 22 weeks

My sweet mom and me before she headed back to Tennessee

A lot happens when you stop blogging...

So, when I left off the last time, we were gearing up for Christmas. It is now almost Labor Day and I have A LOT of news to share. To start, I am growing a human. Yes, Trey and I are expecting our first sweet little baby this January. To say the past five months have been a whirlwind would be the understatement of the year.

Let me back up a little and do some more updates before I go into detail on our new arrival. We had a wonderful Christmas and were able to spend lots of good time with family. Then January came and we began the craziest month of the year. January is always crazy for Trey and his job because he has lots of trade shows and is out of town most of the month. That is why it is such a great idea to bring a baby into this world in that month. I know that God's planning is always right, but it is a little comical to me when our baby is due.

February and March weren't super crazy. We had some weddings and worked. Not too bad. Then April came and we headed to South Africa for a week. My amazing husband won a trip with his company to South Africa on a hunting safari. Of course, I packed myself and went with him. I didn't give him a chance to ask anyone else to go. It was the most fun week and we had a blast. After South Africa, my family came for a visit.  They were here for my 28th birthday, we went to the beach, and Disney. Oh, yeah, and I found out I was pregnant with baby Lloyd on my birthday and kept it a secret from my mom the entire trip. So, that was fun. And by fun, I totally mean the hardest thing ever.

Now to the fun part, we are for real having a baby in January. It still does not seem real to me. That is until I get kicked in the side by this baby. Our baby is due right after New Year's on January 8th. So, as of right now, I am almost 21 weeks. So crazy and completely slightly terrifying. We are not finding out the gender. We are going to be surprised come January. I think it is killing our family and friends more than us. We still do not have names, a plan for the nursery, or anything that we need for a baby. I should be freaking out. I am not YET. Give me a few more weeks.

I am going to try and update on the pregnancy, but we all know how well I do with updating this blog. The next post that I write may be when my child is here and walking. Just keeping it real.

 One of my dearest friends got married in February. Love this girl sooo much.

 Our friends, Thomas and Kelsey, got married in March. We were able to have a fun weekend with our sweet friends.

 Trey and I celebrated our FIVE year anniversary in June. Still can't believe it. #bestdecisionihaveevermade

 We had to include Moe on telling our BIG news. We sent this picture to our friends to tell them about baby Lloyd.

 This is how we announced on social media to everyone.

 Baby Lloyd making its presence known at 18 weeks. 

 Getting BIG at 20.5 weeks, right before we got to see its precious face at our big ultrasound.

 Baby Lloyd at 20.5 weeks. Crazy. Thankful for a good report and an active little baby. God is so so good.

Rocking around the Christmas Elk...

If you know my husband, you know that he is an avid hunter. He doesn't discriminate. He hunts them all. Ducks, deer, turkeys. You name it. He probably hunts it. This is why we have animals in our house. I know that a lot of women would totally not have any of that, and that's okay, but this is my husband's hobby and I respect that. Plus, they are mostly in one area of our house : )

Anyway, since college, Trey has had an elk that he mounted when he shot it in Utah with his dad. His name is Moe. He has become part of the family and everyone who visits our house is amazed by Moe. I would almost miss him if he was not a part of our family.

Since we go home for Christmas (Hallelujah!!!) we do not get a Christmas tree. We would put up a Christmas tree if it was up to me because I would be hightailing myself to the nearest Wal-Mart and picking up a fake tree. My husband, on the other hand, always wants a real tree. He says they smell better. Ummm... that is why you get an evergreen scented candle!?! So, instead of getting a tree for the house, I just decorate Moe. Yes, I decorate our stuffed elk. I mean, can you blame me? The answer would be no to that question.

For your enjoyment, I present to you Moe the Christmas Elk.

 Moe in all his glory. You know, just chillin' like a villain.

 I guess that I should have started a fire in our fireplace to make this picture 10x better, but it is 83 degrees in Central Florida, so that will not be happening. Just pretend there is a pretty one in there. #notintosweatingforapicture

 Look at those monogrammed stockings. #southerngirlproblems

 This picture is from last year. It almost made the Christmas card, but lost out to the picture below. 

Oh yes, we did. My husband won last year with the Christmas card. And yes, we did put Moe's name on the Christmas card. This year, he did not win. Moe did not make the card. He got his 15 minutes of fame last year.

Making a List, but not checking it twice...

If you know me, you know that Christmas is one of my favorite holidays. If you really know me, you know that Christmas time also gives me high anxiety. I love Christmas lights, carols, and spending time with my favorite people. I absolutely hate shopping for presents when I don't know what people want, Christmas shopping traffic, and crowds at the mall. It seriously gives me a panic attack. That is why you will never find me Black Friday shopping in the early morning. Just typing that makes my heart rate skyrocket.

In all of my crazy anxiety seriousness, I really do love Christmas. So, I have decided to compile some ideas that I want to do this Christmas. If my completing of this list is anything like my blogging, I probably won't even check one thing off. Let's hope that is not the case : )


Christmas To Do:

1. Watch " How the Grinch Stole Christmas." Okay, so I have already done this, but I just really wanted one thing to go ahead and cross off the list. Sometimes, I write things on my to-do lists that I have already done, just so I have something to cross off. I know that some of you do that too. Don't lie.

2. Go get hot chocolate and ride around looking at Christmas Lights. I hope to do this with my family in Tennessee because if we try and do this in Florida, we can not drink hot chocolate. We will need something with ice because it is not cold. at. all.

3. Make Christmas Cookies. Probably going to do this with my mom, my sister, and her kids. Here's to hoping that my niece makes more cookies this year than just eating more of the raw dough. #sheishermothersdaughter

4. Get all of my Christmas shopping finished before the week of Christmas. I should be able to do this. I think I can. I think I can.

5. Have our Community Group Christmas get-together. We will be doing this sometime this week, so it should help to kickstart Christmas  : )

*Also, I have started the She Reads Truth Advent: Emmaunuel, God with us study plan. If you are looking for a study to prepare your heart for the reason of the Christmas season, you should check out this study.

Throwback Thursday: Christmas Edition. For your enjoyment:

 Because nothing says "Merry Christmas" quite like sitting in a wooden sled with an ugly and huge teddy bear. My mom sure did love a good matching outfit for her girls, complete with sponge rolled curls and headbands : )

I am fully aware that I had a huge head as a baby. I mean, I still do. Yet, I think that my head is normal size, it just looks ginormous because Amanda has a small head. We have always said she has a pea size head because every hat she tries on just swallows her head. Love you sweet sister.