38 weeks

This proved to be the most eventful 2 weeks of pregnancy BY FAR! First we had a trip to the hospital that caught us all off guard. After taking medicine to stop the contractions we were sent home and from that point on its been crazy!! I continued to have contractions just about every night after but they were never the real deal, only enough to drive me crazy. THEN right after this picture was taken I came down with a terrible sinus infection. Sadly I can only take over the counter medicines at this point and therefore recovery has been slow. Feeling like my throat is shutting, as if an elephant is sitting on my forehead and the flood gates in my nose were WIDE open... all not fun at all, AND especially when I am a week away from delivery. BUT... my sweet husband has taken very good care of me and I am very hopeful that I will be 100% by Monday to meet Carter.

WHAT?!?! We really get to meet our son on MONDAY? Man I cannot wait! SO many emotions and the day that felt like it would NEVER get here... will soon come. Oh I am so so so so excited :)

Your baby has really plumped up. He weighs about 6.8 pounds and he's over 19 1/2 inches long (like a leek). He has a firm grasp, which you'll soon be able to test when you hold his hand for the first time! His organs have matured and are ready for life outside the womb.
Wondering what color your baby's eyes will be? You may not be able to tell right away. If he's born with brown eyes, they'll likely stay brown. If he's born with steel gray or dark blue eyes, they may stay gray or blue or turn green, hazel, or brown by the time he's 9 months old. That's because a child's irises (the colored part of the eye) may gain more pigment in the months after he's born, but they usually won't get "lighter" or more blue. (Green, hazel, and brown eyes have more pigment than gray or blue eyes.)

Project 52: Week 4- The Lion King

I have SO been looking forward to this date night since we booked our tickets back in November. We were completely blessed by an anonymous donation from a church member and decided to use it as a time out for the 2 of us since we hardly ever get to have them! JR had never been to a Broadway play before and my all-time favorite Disney movie is the Lion King- therefore it wasnt a hard decision to go and see it at the DPAC!

It was a lot of fun to get dressed up and have a night out of the house... especially knowing it would be our last before we became a family of 4. Griffin wanted in on the picture taking and I am glad he did because this just might be our last picture of our family of 3!

The show was EXCELLENT! We were both amazed at how cool the costumes were and all the details that went into it. I had to make myself not burst into song the whole way through... love the music :)

Another huge blessing was that Griffin got to hang out with Uncle Phil while we were gone. They have become BIG buddies these days and Griffin didnt even care that we were gone. I love seeing them together... Griffin just laughs at EVERYTHING Phillip does ha!

At intermission, I decided to check and see how he was doing and this was the response I got. FUN TIMES no doubt :)

This will definitely be one of the most memorable date nights this year!

Celebrating Daddy's bday

We had a great time celebrating Daddy on Tuesday! The day started with his favorite... waffles and coffee with his family!

I found this shirt for Griffin to sport in honor of Daddy's day... he looks handsome showing off the brownie on his face from where he licked the spoon, huh? :)

The birthday brownie sundae... he doesnt do cake so I have to get creative!

Griffin was thrilled about one of Daddy's gifts, flashlights! It entertained them for hours ha!

First time playing with a flashlight... its the little things :)

Little Slugger

My bad!

Evidently I have caused some confusion with my last post.. sorry about that! No... Carter isnt coming on Thursday.. or at least not that I know of ha! When I said "We get to celebrate more for his brithday with one last date out before Carter comes on Thursday... more on that to come!... I really meant, "We get to celebrate more for his brithday on Thursday with one last date out before Carter comes (which is in 2 weeks)... more on that to come!"

My bad choice of wording ha.. I can totally see the misunderstanding. I needed to clarify though because I already had people asking AND someone told my Dad that Carter was coming Thursday and he got concerned that he didnt know that!

God knows Carter's bday and we will just wait patiently to see when that is, but all I know right now is that he has a c-section scheduled for Monday, February 7th if he doesnt decide to come before then :)

Hope that clarifies... sorry again for the extra excitement!!!

Happy Birthday Daddy

Today is JR's 29th birthday! Griffin, Carter and I are completely blessed to have the most amazing husband and daddy in the world and we are so thankful to celebrate him today!!!


You are the love of my life and I continue to be blown away with how God continues to bless me being your wife. I couldnt imagine going through this life with anyone but you and I cant wait to celebrate many more years of YOU! I could have never imagined that when you became my 16 year old boyfriend that we would be here now... I am so thankful! Your love for Christ and passion to share Him with others carries over into every area of your life. You are truly a "family man" and I couldnt be more grateful for the love you show me and our boys. I simply cant thank God enough for you... and I love you more and more every day :) Love, Your Bride

Daddy- Thank you for being my hero. I wuv you Daddy, Griffin




We get to celebrate more for his brithday on Thursday with one last date out before Carter comes in 2 weeks... more on that to come! Until then, we hope you have an incredible day sweetie! We love you so much and HAPPY BIRTHDAY :) :) :)

Carter update

We went to the doctor today and there was no change since when we left the hospital Saturday night. I am still 1cm and having contractions at random but not in labor. He said that I could carry on with activity as usual and Carter will simply come when he is ready. At this point he is full-term and therefore OKAY to come!!

I am feeling okay. Lots of pressure still and more and more contractions, especially at night, that are just enough to annoy me. I have finally caught up from the exhaustion from our late night and have found a new burst of energy which I am thankful for so that I can get all of those things crossed off the "to do" list!!

For now we will just wait patiently and see when his birthday is supposed to be! Daddy is shooting for tomorrow so they can be birthday twins :)

A bit of excitement

Yesterday was an eventful day to say the least. My sweet friend Amy surprised me by coming in town and took me to get a pedicure! On our way home at about 4pm, I started feeling not so well. Carter was EXTREMELY active and was causing me to be nauseous. I came home and kept having tons of pressure and so I just stayed seated. After dinner by 8:00pm, I started to realize that my uncomfort might actually be contractions and decided to start timing them since they were getting worse. Sure enough, they were coming every 5 minutes and I decided to call my doctor at 9pm. He said I needed to come in and be checked so we RUSHED to get our bags packed, something that was on my to do list for this week but wasnt done yet! I was SO thankful to have Amy here to not only help us get ready to leave but also stay with Griffin while we were at the hospital. I continued the contractions the 30 minute drive there and by the time they had me hooked up to the monitors they were 3-4 min apart and measuring between 70-100 (100 being the highest I could see... at least on the charts). Anyways, after being checked I was only 1 cm dialated and they decided that since I was not quite full-term yet (2 days shy of 37 weeks) that they needed to see if they could stop the labor. They gave me a shot and hooked me to an IV for fluids and proceeded to watch us until 2:30am. My contractions finally stopped after 2 1/2 hrs and they discharged me.

I wasnt sure whether to be bummed or excited ha! I definitely was in denial that anything could really be happening that soon, and of course the planner in me said, "Its not Feb 7th yet, and I have too much to do!" Once we got in the car and was on the way there though, I got excited about the thought of getting to meet Carter and was a little sad I had to continue to wait. I am so thankful though that he gets to finish being crafted a little longer, as I would have hated for him to have any complications because of being born too early.

Now the hard part is just literally MAKING myself not do anything. I finally caught up on my rest after staying home from church today but am already finding it hard not to be up and doing things around the house... not to mention chasing around Mr. G. I appreciate your prayers during this time as I really hope nothing else crazy happens until February 7th... and that I can be resting until then. Praying for no more surprises and that he and I both safely arrive at the hospital in 2 weeks.

Celebrating Carter with sweet friends!

I was so grateful for my sweet friends here in Wake Forest who honored Carter and I today! I have truly been blessed by friends who are more like family here over the last 4 years. It was fun to just sit around and have girl chat time with my dearest girls...

refreshing to just share mom stories and laugh together!!

My lovely hostesses, Christina and Haley

And this little stinker surprised me and came in from TN! Love you Ames... even though you are still in big trouble :)

the adorably decorated cupcakes

My favorite sisters- Maisy and Lily

Carter's nursery

I have been working hard all week to turn Griffin's old room into Carter's nursery! I couldnt quite justify buying all new bedding AND totally changing everything (1. b/c of $ and 2. b/c I honestly dont like anything out there better!). I did however make a few changes, as you will remember this was Griffin's nursery when he was born.

I was so excited to add an end table beside the rocker so that I could have a place for things during the late night feedings. Susu also made a fabulous blanket for his carseat so he can stay extra warm! And as you can tell he isnt hurting for clothes either... thanks to big brother and a few new additions as well!

Some personalized things too that I love! The bottom right picture is hard to see but its a frame I made that I will put his newborn picture in and there is a spot for his birth stats as well.

I sure hope he likes everything!!! :)

Project 52: Week 3

Week 3 was our game night! We both love to play games and are pretty competitive so it makes nights like tonight very interesting. Luckily we have come a long way since the days when we were both SO competitive and HATED to lose that we couldnt play anything together without fighting ha!

The night started off good for me... I beat him in checkers for the FIRST time! He loves checkers, especially the table set at Cracker Barrel. We found this set today actually at the consignment sale for $2!

Part of our date night was to play a new game together. I had played Phase 10 once before, but he had never so that was the game we chose. It started off slow since it is harder to play with just 2 players but someone got the luck of playing for the first time and just BARELY beat me ha!

We ended the night with Yahtzee.. one of our all-time favorites. As you can see from the picture, he got lucky again. Ha jk... but he really beat me bad and I was very mad at the die :(

We had great laughs nonetheless and enjoyed another date night together!! Next week we actually leave the house and head somewhere I have been waiting to go since back in November. Stay tuned!!

Shower with Tennessee family and friends

We were blessed again this past weekend by our sweet family and friends! We took a short, but also wonderful trip to Tennessee to celebrate Carter and it was SO good to see everyone!


Its always hard to have events like this because there are so many people that mean so much to me ALL in the same room for a limited amount of time... ah its so great yet so aggravating because I just want to freeze time. SO thankful for everyone who came!

Cici out did herself yet again with the decor

Baby Briggs and Baby Carter... and the crazy Aunts making fun of us :)

36 weeks

36 weeks today and Carter is gaining an ounce per day now. WOW, I guess that explains my weight gain as well... now up to 22 pounds! The doctor says I am right on and no worries, however since I only gained 21 with Griffin I am feeling even more huge ha. We had a doctor's appointment yesterday, as they come every week now. Dr. Henderson said both Carter and I are boringly healthy, praise the Lord! He always asks if Carter is moving around and I just laugh because that is a constant thing with him and he saw for himself this time. As soon as he put the monitor on my belly to check his heart rate, Carter kicked him.. TWICE "Enough said," he said, "that kid is fine" :)

Your baby is gaining about an ounce a day. He now weighs almost 6 pounds (like a crenshaw melon) and is more than 18 1/2 inches long. He's shedding most of the downy hair that covered his body, as well as the vernix caseosa, the waxy substance that protected his skin during his nine-month amniotic bath. Next week, your baby will be considered full-term. Most likely he's in a head-down position, but if he isn't, your practitioner may suggest scheduling an external cephalic version, where she'll try to turn your baby by manipulating him from the outside of your belly.

Project 52: Week 2

Week 2 was pretty low key for us. Our planned date was for JR to pick a movie at Redbox and us enjoy it on the couch together.. and that we did, with our candy, in our pjs and it was great! We ended up watching Despicable Me which was actually pretty cute.

The movie wasnt that long so once it was over we werent tired enough for bed and decided to extend our date night by watching the UT men's team play Florida in basketball and played Yatzee at the same time. It was very good to just laugh together and have fun :)

I sadly forgot to take our picture this week... oops!

Wordless Wednesday: Daddy's Mini Me

I peed and pooped in the potty!

So tonight after dinner, Griffin went running into the bathroom saying, "Potty!" JR followed him in and decided to take off his pants and diaper since he was trying to pull them down. Next thing I know I hear JR say, "Good job buddy!" I couldnt believe it... he ACTUALLY peed and pooped in the potty!!! ALL ON HIS OWN!

Griffin has often amazed us but this has to top them all. It was if he was saying, I'm ready to use the big boy potty so why dont I just do it :)

Now if only the whole training process would continue to be this easy..... we shall see!!!

Blessed by our Bethesda family!

We were completely blown away by the generosity of our amazing church family! They had a shower for us this past Saturday and with it being our 2nd boy, we know it was not at all something they had to do. Although, I'll be honest, they have been the sweetest to us since we joined their family a year ago, so I shouldnt think this would be any different. We are so so so thankful for them!

Griffin and I with all of the sweet hostesses

A few of my sweet mom friends: Paula, Laura and Janice

JR with some of the sweetest ladies who are more like adopted grandmothers to us: Shirley, Joan and Betty

More of my friends.. man am I blessed! Meredith, Caroline, Stacey and Ashley

Uncle Jake, big brother Griffin and Daddy

showing off their muscles.. he has so much fun with Uncle Jake :)

Stacey loving on Carter

The mom-to-be and sweet baby boy Carter

Project 52: Week 1

For Christmas this year, I decided to do something for JR that would last ALL year... and best of all it was FREE! I follow this blog where she has done a project for the last 52 weeks of the year, deeming it Project 52. Each week she has planned out a date with her husband so that the two of them can guarantee some concentrated one on one time at least once a week. What was so appealing to me was the fact that most of her dates were held in their home once the kids went down for bed. This is key for us since we will soon have a newborn again and thus have 2 small kids making it very difficult to get a babysitter and go out often.

So.. my present was a copy of the pledge that we both must sign, saying that we agree to complete the project for 2011 AND a list of the potential dates we will have each week. This took a lot of planning for sure, but anyone that knows me knows that planning should be my middle name :)


Here we are at week 1. (Another rule is that we have to document each week so that we can look back and remember our times together.) This week's date wasnt all that exciting, but nonetheless essential as we look to the new year: Goals for 2011! We purposely stayed in normal clothes (another rule is you cant be in your pjs), had some coffee and cookies to enjoy and talked about what we wanted to accomplish this next year.

These are some of the ones we came up with for our family:
-complete our dates each week for Project 52 :)
-sell our house
-establish a budget and meet it
-have family devotion after dinner
-2 couple devotions a week
-take a day trip to the beach
-take a day trip to DC
-save for a car
-community outreach once a quarter
-send Gift (our Compassion International adopted girl) a letter once a month


We also made personal goals as well as some for Griffin: be potty trained by 2, learn his ABCs, 123s, shapes and colors!

We now can say we have officially started the project, but both agreed that these serious goal setting ones arent too fun ha!

Looking forward to this special time with my sweetie each week!

Praising God for His faithfulness!

I just received a phone call from the hospital that we will be delivering Carter at and they proceeded to tell me that we have been approved for 100% assistance. This means they are covering our ENTIRE hospital bill and typically with a csection its around $6-8K!

I'm simply speechless. I broke down on the phone with the woman and then again when I called JR to tell him. My sweet husband just responded, "God is good to us sweetie." Man is He ever!

With me staying home and JR just started out at the church we are by no means rolling in the dough and in fact our savings would have pretty much been depleted after the delivery. It was okay though because the blessing of a child has no price tag and we were fully prepared for it. It just amazes me though that when we are faithful with the money He has given us, He blesses us 10 fold. Just last week we gave sacrificially to our Christmas missions offering, as in gave so much it made me gulp. But isnt that what our money is for? Ultimately our mission is to share His love with ALL peoples and ALL nations. So again, didnt think about it anymore once the check was written and then less than a week later this is His response to us.

He takes care of us and is truly faithful. I do not say any of this to say, "Hey look what we did, " but instead hope to point you to Jesus. May our lives be a testimony to Him....for He is the faithful, constant Provider, and loving Father!

34 weeks

35 days and counting! We have been busy setting up the nursery and it has officially become Carter's room! His clothes are in the closet and all of Griffin's stuff has been moved to his big boy room. This was a big relief for Mommy, however it started some intense nesting too. I am cleaning out everything these days ha. Still feeling great but am started to get tired again. My body is definitely telling me to slow down. I started walking again after taking off the month of December (not on purpose it was just COLD!) and hope that it will give me some energy back. I'm also already at the 20 pounds gained mark.. YIKES!

Marking lots off the to do list and just cant wait for him to get here :)

Your baby now weighs about 4 3/4 pounds (like your average cantaloupe) and is almost 18 inches long. His fat layers — which will help regulate his body temperature once he's born — are filling him out, making him rounder. His skin is also smoother than ever. His central nervous system is maturing and his lungs are continuing to mature as well. If you've been nervous about preterm labor, you'll be happy to know that babies born between 34 and 37 weeks who have no other health problems generally do fine. They may need a short stay in the neonatal nursery and may have a few short-term health issues, but in the long run, they usually do as well as full-term babies.

A little sewing

I finally am getting around to sewing Carter some burp cloths. I have had very good intentions but just no time lately.. imagine that! BUT of course he had to have some and with the 5 week countdown quickly approaching, here are some of my favs!

too sweet :)