Christmas & 25-26 Weeks!

Christmas has come and gone yet again! ...and so has our vacation and break from work :( BUT I'm actually okay going back to work because I have an even better vacation to look forward to in just 3 months...time with our sweet baby girl!!

25 & 26 Weeks pregnant:

We had a busy but fun break!

December 23rd: Enjoyed Christmas celebration with the Powell family in Florence with dinner and the annual games of Bingo!

December 24th: Went to Sumter. Visited with my Dad and Jane, attended Christmas Eve church service, celebrated Christmas with Taylor and Caroline's family. So much fun watching the kids open all of their gifts!

December 25th: Christmas with my family in Sumter and then hit the road again for the beach to celebrate with Joseph's family.

December 26th: Happy 28th Birthday Joseph!!! Joseph doesn't exactly love the date of his birthday and I can understand why but we try to make it semi-special every year. Next year I am going to make him wait and open his birthday presents on his actual birthday so it's a little more exciting!

December 27th: New York City here we come!! We left early Thursday morning and flew out of Myrtle Beach to NYC for a little anniversary trip. My sweet sister allowed us to use her Hilton hotel points so we stayed in the super nice Double Tree suites located in Times Square. I have been to NY recently but Joseph hasn't been since elementary school and didn't stay in the city so it was a good experience to stay in the crazy, touristy part of the city! It was a wonderful trip!

We visited: Times Square, Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree and skating rink, American Museum of Natural History, 9/11 Memorial, China Town, Wall Street and the Bull, Central Park, and various shopping locations :)

December 30th: Flew back home and lounged around recuperating from our trip and getting ready for the new year!

December 31st: Packed up Christmas, cleaned our house, and celebrated New Year's Eve via a very low key evening. Kim, Zach, and Jeremy came over for grilled steaks and we watched the Clemson bowl game before watching the NYE ball drop in NYC (Joseph & I both agreed we were very glad we were not still there in the mix of that chaos ;)

January 1st: Mckenzie and I did a little New Year's shopping while Joseph stayed home and watched the Carolina bowl game. I got home in just enough time to see the amazing ending! Proud of the Gamecocks this year!!

And today we returned back to work. It's hard to believe that it's actually 2013 already! We were engaged in 2010, married in 2011, got pregnant in 2012, and will welcome our daughter into the world in 2013! What a great few years!! We thank God for blessing us so richly and ask that He continue to do so and work in our lives throughout this next year!

SO much to look forward to in 2013: Our baby, Morgan and Adam's second baby, Kim and Zach's babies, Rebecca and Branford's wedding, Lyndsay and Breck's baby, hopefully a diamond for Mckenzie ;), and I'm sure there is much more to come!!

24 Weeks!

Christmas is less than a week away!! Joseph and I are both officially off of work through the New Year so we couldn't be happier to relax and spend time with one another and family!

I think we're ready!!



The past week:

Friday: Joseph had his wisdom teeth out :( All went well overall but recovery is still in process. He did wake up in the middle of the surgery but they were able to put him back under immediately. I think he's just glad to have it all behind him!

Sunday: Joseph's extended family Christmas party! The annual tradition is a chinese gift exchange which is always a fun time :) This year, Joseph ended up with a food scale (his own purchase) and being the sweet wife I am, I stole the Bobber cooler for him! Here are some pics from the fun chaos:

 

I worked Monday and Tuesday, and we had our 24 week appointment on Wednesday. Appointments are always reassuring and exciting when you hear the heartbeat. The heartbeat was fast and strong!

Thursday: I hit the road for Columbia to celebrate Christmas with my best college friends! On the way, I made a pit stop in Pinewood to visit Morgan and little Liza Barwick. Liza is absolutely precious and it was so nice to catch up with Morgan. She is due with #2 only one month after me so we had lots of baby talk and she is full of mommy advice, which I always love to hear!!

In Columbia, we all met at Macky's and ate apps and enjoyed our annual ornament exchange. We also celebrate birthdays that were missed/in December. Baby girl even made out in the gift exchange!!
Baby Toms, beach wear, and a passy clip:

Lyndsay and I had a fun slumber party at her parents' house and then I headed to Sumter for the day to babysit my 3 favorite babies!! Caroline needed to get some last minute Christmas shopping done so she went to Columbia while I played with the kids all day (Mom and Kenzie came over after naptime and helped/played with us!) Wells and Sarah Sloan did so well playing together/destroying the house and Benjamin just crawled around and took it all in. He is quite the calm baby!!

Wells and Sarah Sloan love singing Holy, Holy, Holy:) 

 This weekend Joseph and I will probably celebrate his bday with a few friends and we're heading to Florence Sunday for Powell Christmas before we go to Sumter on Christmas Eve! Excited about the next few days and next week when we go to NYC!!

23 Weeks!

I can't believe we're almost 6 months along in this pregnancy! Only 17 weeks left (if baby decides to stay for the full 40 weeks). She's kicking away as I type right now! She is about the size of a grapefruit this week. She weighs a little over a pound now and is beginning to fill out with some fat deposits around her body...Translation: her weight gain = weight gain for me too! Here goes ;) She can hear and sense all of my movements too! What a little miracle :)

Christmas really is my favorite time of year! I love Christmas decorations, Christmas music, Christmas activities, spending time with family, and anything else that has to do with Christmas! Our calendar has filled up with Christmas activities:

This past weekend I had my work Christmas party and then went with Jo, Kim, and Zach to Mellow Mushroom and to see the drive-thru light show at the Pelicans Stadium. It was really neat. We set our radio to the Christmas station and the lights danced accordingly!

Saturday we headed to Charleston for Phil and Kristin Richardson's big day! The ceremony was at the Citadel Chapel, which was all decorated for Christmas. The reception was at the Creek Club at I'on and it was beautiful! We had a great time catching up with old friends and then went and stayed with Murph and Laura for the night. It's always fun to visit with such sweet friends :)

Sunday we hurried home to our furry girl (who stayed at home by herself for the night and couldn't go outside to go potty bc we left the wrong key for friends to let her out...whoops)! We had a pretty lazy day until supper club group arrived around 6:30, dressed for Christmas of course! We had salad, shrimp and grits, bread, and apple pie with ice cream for dessert! We also had fun doing our annual ornament exchange. That's another Christmas favorite of mine...ornaments!!

 

Tuesday night, we concluded our Bible study on Esther. It was such a blessing to study this book with all of these sweet girls. I think everyone enjoyed the study but also enjoyed meeting other girls who live in the MI area. We celebrated the final night with a pot-luck dinner and another ornament exchange!!

This week Joseph and I plan on finishing our Christmas shopping because Joseph will be resting all weekend after he gets his wisdom teeth out on Friday :/ Pray that it all goes smoothly and for a quicky recovery because we have his extended family's Christmas party on Sunday.

Christmas countdown= 13 days, Baby countdown= 17 weeks!

22 Weeks

22 weeks = 5 1/2 months! Wow- it's going by quickly...and I'm growing quickly!

Over Thanksgiving break, I definitely popped out! Mckenize and Joseph agreed that I didn't look pregnant and then two days later, it was quite obvious that there was a growing baby in there :)

Things have been pretty uneventful over the past couple of weeks. Joseph was in training in Charlotte for the entire week last week and then traveled to "the swamp" near Sumter for a boys only camping trip. They had a lot of fun but I think he was excited to come home and sleep in a real bed on Sunday! Since he was out of town, I went to Sumter for the weekend. Mckenzie also went home so it was a nice and relaxing weekend at home with the parents! I love these weekends spending time with family having no agenda. We didn't do much except eat and decorate for Christmas:

I'm excited about Christmas this year! Besides the camera Joseph and I are giving each other (yay!!), there isn't much I want but I'm looking forward to seeing all the kids this year. Macy will be walking around and is apparently loving Christmas trees! Wells and Sarah Sloan are both at fun ages and have really enjoyed birthday parties this year so Christmas should be interesting! Benjamin will probably just sit back and take in all the craziness, as usual. Sweet boy graduated from his "helmet" this past week!!



 

We're looking forward to another busy weekend this weekend. Friday- my school Christmas party, Saturday- Phil and Kristin get married in Charleston, and Sunday- supper club at our house!

It's a...

GIRL!!

 

We are thrilled that we will be welcoming a sweet baby girl into our family in just a few months!! Because Joseph has so many brothers, I have always pictured us having all boys, but I guess I was wrong! The Lord knew I needed a little girly-girl shopping buddy :)

 

Last Tuesday, November 20th, Mom, Joseph, and I went to our 20 week ultrasound. Baby appeared to be growing and healthy. She weighed about 11 oz and her little arms, hands, fingers, legs, toes, and body parts appeared to be there! It was difficult to see on that little screen so I am excited to get the 4D ultrasound soon. When the doctor wrote the gender on the screen, Mom was the only one to look. She was sworn to secrecy for the next 2 days until Thanksgiving!

Joseph and I went to Sumter Wednesday afternoon and ate dinner with my family before heading over to Lauren and Chris Locklear's for a little Friendsgiving get-together. It was SO much fun being with the girls. We don't get to see each other often so we had a late night of talking and catching up.

 

 

Thanksgiving arrived and we were anxious for the reveal but waited patiently until after lunch. My entire immediate family (minus Robin) was in town so it was fun to celebrate Thanksgiving with everyone...even all 4 kids, 3 and under :) Can't believe we're about to add another to the wild mix!!

 

 

After our "real" family picture, everyone guessed if they thought baby Jones was a boy or girl with a balloon:

 

With everyone gathered around us, Mom gave Joseph and me each a cupcake. We quickly took big bites of the cupcakes looking for pink or blue icing in the middle, only to discover green icing!! Mom then handed us a package wrapped in green paper. We carefully unwrapped the green to find pink paper and then blue paper. She definitely kept us in suspense for as long as possible!! When we opened the box, there was a small package wrapped in tissue paper and, of course, that was in 3 layers of different color tissue paper! When we finally got to the bottom of all of the colors, we pulled out two adorable pink and white gowns :) They were so sweet and we were so excited to finally find out that we will have a little girl!

 

We headed back to the beach Thursday afternoon to reveal the gender to Joseph's family. When we arrived, they had all made gender guesses along with name suggestions:

...my speech kids at school also made some predictions:

 

We quickly handed out cupcakes and Grandma was the first to bite in and say "It's a girl"! It was so much fun to share it with everyone and watch their reactions.

 

Mckenzie came to the beach Thursday night and we promptly started our "Black Friday" shopping at 9:30 PM at Target. We did wait an hour in line but it was very organized and fun to get some good deals for gifts! Friday we woke up early to head out again and we shopped all day long!! This pregnant girl was tired but was excited to head straight to the baby girl section in every store!! I did contain myself and only bought her one sweet little outfit, but get ready because Aunt Mckenzie is ready to spoil this baby! I love spending time with my sweet sister and am very grateful for her!! I pray that Baby Jones will have a sister and best friend just like I've been fortunate enough to have. Mckenzie stayed until Saturday afternoon and even helped us decorate for Christmas. I love Christmastime SO much and I love when our house is decorated!

 

We ended the weekend with a Gamecock victory over Clemson for the 4th year in a row!!!! Kim and Zach came over to watch the game and the guys had fun cheering for the cocks while Kim and I discussed all things baby because they're expecting twins in June!! We're so excited that Baby Jones will have lots of sweet friends :)

 

What a wonderful Thanksgiving break! We have SO much to be thankful for and it's wonderful to have a day set aside to recognize all of the rich blessings God has poured out on us over the past year! "Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; For His lovingkindness is everlasting." 1 Chronicles 16:34

 

P.S. Joseph has officially felt Baby Girl kick multiple times now and thinks it's really cool!

19 Weeks!

Counting down the days until we find out BOY or GIRL!! We will go Tuesday for our 20 week ultrasound and then the reveal will take place on Thanksgiving day so a little less than a week before we find out. I'm ready to buy some pink or blue :)

19 week pic:

 

Joseph still hasn't felt Baby kick because he/she stops every time Joseph puts his hand on my stomach but I can clearly feel the kicks from the outside now. Hopefully, Joseph will catch it at the right time soon!

This week has been good but longg!

Monday: Supper club at the Nobles house. We had a Thanksgiving feast and everything was delicious! It's always fun to spend time with good friends.

Tuesday: Bible study with sweet girls. We had a great study this week and all got to know each other a little better, which was great! Can't believe we're already halfway done with our Esther study.

Wednesday: Sweet little Wells turned 3 years old!! Here he is after his little bday party, finishing off his candy cake. Boy loves candy!!

 

Thursday: Joseph's last day as the FCL at the Surfside branch is today so last night his sweet staff took us to dinner at Abuelos. It is bittersweet that Joseph is leaving because he has had a great experience at Surfside with a wonderful staff but we know that his new job is a great opportunity. Please pray for Joseph as he transitions into this new phase in his career!

Joseph always takes pictures of people with mullets so his staff gave him his very own mullet wig (and they even had one for me to wear too!):

The great Surfside branch staff (+me):

Today: We are heading to Columbia when I get off of work to celebrate the marriage of Joseph's good friend, Charlie, and his new bride, Meredith! They were married 2 weeks ago and took a nice, long 10 day honeymoon to the Dominican and tonight is their "reception" party!

We are thankful for another great week!!

18 Weeks!

18 weeks = 2 weeks away from finding out if sweet baby Jones is a boy or girl!! Baby is now the size of a sweet potato and I'm feeling a lot of movement, which is so much fun!

18 Weeks pic:

This week recap:

Joseph and I went home to Sumter this past weekend to babysit our sweet nephews and niece! I just love those wild little munchkins :) It is quite the handful having all three of them at once (Caroline, I don't know how you do it every day)! We had fun playing and spending time with them while Taylor and Caroline were involved in activities for Caroline's sister's wedding.

Joseph getting in some practice with the two babies:

When the kids left for their wedding, Joseph and I hurried off to Meg Saunders' wedding in Columbia. Meg was a beautiful bride and it was fun catching up with Natasha and Lyndsay at the wedding!

Sunday, we returned to Sumter to pick up Hippy and spend some time with Mom, Mike, and Kenzie! I love spending time with family!!

Monday was a BIG day for one of my very best friends! Rebecca and Branford got engaged!!! We've been waiting on this day for a longgg time now and I'm so excited for them! Looks like we'll be celebrating shortly after Baby J arrives...the big day is tentatively set for June 1, 2013! Isn't her ring gorgeous?!

Last night was Joseph's Mom's birthday so the family girls and some of Charlotte's friends had a get-together to celebrate. Charlotte always makes the party fun!

Another great week! Can't wait for the next week and a half to fly by so we can find out the gender! Yay :)