A boy and his dog- photos from last summer!

It took a while, but Maggie and Owen are officially best friends. Maggie resisted him for a while, probably because she was jealous of the attention he was getting.
 
 
but now they are inseparable, and beautiful!
 
 
 
 
 
 

Charlie Dog

Over the summer this silly doggie kept finding her way to our house. I not sure what happened to her, but we sure did love our time with charlie dog. We would occasionally take her back to her house and she would return a few days later only to start the process again. HOpefully she has made her self content back home. 

She was a great doggie and brought us tons of happiness!!!

Potty Training

This is from several months ago, but now cute is my little boy! He has been fully potty trained since December... but I found this gem hidden away! :)

Cute presents

I have so many talented friends who made me super special things for the Sprinkle!
Leslie V made these for me. I just love the personalization!

Heather M. made me these great personalized burp cloths with airplanes and even an HERK!!! (the airplane John flies!)

Now this is not homemade, but how cute are these little outfits for Owen and Grey. I still can not believe Owen will be the big brother!!!! I can not wait to see him take on that role. I can not wait to dress them up in these outfits!!

Grey’s Sprinkle

I am blessed beyond all belief because I have the most amazing friends. In April they threw me a baby sprinkle to celebrate Grey!
 
Leslie, Susie, and Eleni did a great job of making me feel so incredibly special!

Watch out, this belly is getting out of control!!! And I still have 10 weeks to go from when these photos were taken!!!!

Unfortunately I did not get any pics of me and the individual girls who attended the shower… poor planning!!!
But the decorations and the food (including nuggets from chick-fil-a) were absolutely amazing!
Thank you to Leslie, Eleni, Susie, Momma, Michelle, Kendra, Marissa, Leslie V., Gretchen, Heather, Nicole, Maria, Sarah, and Jill for making me feel so special. I am completely blown away by the generosity of the friends. And the amazing connections I have made while here in NC!

Moving stinks

 

One of the worst parts of being a military family are all of the moves we encounter. As soon as we get close to friends it feels like one of us is about to leave. I tend to put up walls in order to avoid the whole getting too close just to have my heart broken scenario.
We have lived in North Carolina for 3 years now. I cant believe. Prior to this we have been in Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, and we began in Pennsylvania. I feel like we are basically pros at the emotional side of moving.
However, where we always need help is buying a house, refinancing, should we rent, should we sell, etc.???  Some of our best friends just moved and they had to deal with this exact thing. Watching them going through this makes me dread the day our orders come in (probably within like a year) and we have to start making these decisions for ourselves.
Something that has made our decision to purchase the two homes we have in the past (one in Oklahoma and now one here in North Carolina) is using the VA Home Loan Process. I encourage you if you are in the market for a new home or are looking to refinance,  to check out this site : http://www.militaryvaloan.com. I have personally found it helpful when it comes to buying a house, refinancing, etc.
 
Disclosure- compensated post . However all opinions are 100% mine.

Well hello there meltdown

John has been away for 7 weeks.

In that time… :

• I have been sent to the hospital twice, once was 4 night stay where Grey tried his hardest to come out. Thankfully modern medicine prevented me having a 28 week old little one but the medication really did take its toll on my body. (he also tried to come out at 23 weeks)
• another short hospital visit where we were pretty sure my cervix was falling out. Come to find out it was JUST a urethral prolapse and while I am in constant pain, I should be ok.
• my best friends have moved away and I have no idea when will see them again
• my other best friend may not be able to attend Greyson's birth and I can not even start on the emotions that is pulling out of me right now!
• I am on partial bed rest.
• Owen left for Pennsylvania exactly 10 days ago and I am broken hearted. I have spoken to him almost every day but it is not the same. I miss him climbing into bed with me, our little laughs. Etc. I cant wait for next weekend when we are all reunited.
• the strep throat I am currently rocking does not help.

And there in lies my meltdown. I have wonderful friends and family, but I have hit my breaking point.

Grey’s room!

We have been so blessed with amazing items for both Owen and Greyson. Honestly there is not much I can say we need for our upcoming bundle of joy.

 

However, with the help of family and friends, I have started  nesting and I am getting excited about the new little guy that will get to use this space!

Grey will reuse  both Owens crib and his crib bedding (airplane theme) since they are both in such great condition.

That giraffe in the corner was picked out by Owen himself to give to baby Grey once he arrives.

Another thing Owen so unselfishly has decided to pass along are all the chew marks he put on the sides od the crib when he was about 8-11 months old. I thought abut covering them but honestly I like the character it brings to the room. A little piece of Owen, a little piece of Grey.

This is my little nursing nook I have set up for when he arrives. I remember how hungry I would be nursing Owen. I plan to stock up  on lots of water, trail mix, and some episodes of shows to keep me company during those wee hours of the morning feedings.

More on this later, but a couple of weeks ago my friends threw me a baby “sprinkle” this is like a shower but much more low key. Greyson got so many amazing new things including handm

Looks like I am all stocked up and great for little Greys arrival (in several weeks)

Owen’s Room

I can’t believe my baby Owen is over 3. I cant believe he is a big boy sleeping in a big boy bed! Here is his beautiful new bedroom set that I am absolutely in love with!!!

This is an amazing painting my best friend Erin made for him a couple of Christmas’ ago! Isn’t she crazy talented?!?!?

I am so in love with his big boy room!

A little art work

A few weeks ago I ordered some awesome vinyl stuff for the walls in Grey’s room! BUT being a military family we never know when we are going to move, so we decided it would be best to put it on canvas instead. Now we will be able to take it with us wherever we go!

I ordered the vinyl from a great shop on etsy (GraphicSpaces). I was in no way compensated for saying this… but her product is wonderful! I absolutely love the quality of the product and she threw in a ton of extras.

This is the product that I ordered . There are a few bubble looking places but that is because I need to smooth it out still! I plan on hanging this right above his crib. You can’t tell from this picture but the canvas is about 2 1/2 feet wide and 2 feet long.

I was able to make these 3 with the extras the shop owner sent me. I love the extra airplane, birds, and cloud.  They are about a foot wide each.

I am so in love with this wall art! I can’t wait for John to get home to hang it all up for me!

High Five for Friday

I am linking up with Lauren from My Grey Desk for High Five For Friday!


1. After a ridiculous scare this week where I thought my cervix was falling out, I found out it is "only" a urethral prolapse which is less harmful for Grey.

2. I went to Michaels yesterday after my doctors appointment (he gave me permission to go run a couple of errands) and had a great conversation with the sweet check out lady about Greyson. She was so in love with his name and said he sounds like he will be a doctor. It got me excited about his name all over again!

3. My besties threw me the most wonderful baby "Sprinkle" last weekend and I was so incredibly blessed by the generosity and kindness of my friends. I can not believe how nice the people are that I get to hang out with!

4. One of my besties above is moving this week. That is not high five worthy- at all! But she gave me a new willow tree figurine last week and it got me all excited about Willow Trees again! I normally am not a collector of things at all but I just love the simplicity of these amazing girls.

 

 5. Only 2 weeks until I get my husband back from Alabama! He has been gone for 6 weeks and I am pretty over him being away for long periods of time. He has been gone constantly since LAST May. Hopefully he will only have to be gone for one more week between when he gets back and when Grey is born- which is pretty good considering our track record. 

Make sure to check out Lauren's blog at From  My Grey Desk. Her sister Kate is my hair stylist and wife to a friend  from church camp! 

30 weeks- bed rest

This blog is about to get real.

Really real.

Last week I was pretty sure my water had broken. I had a huge gush of blood/water and I just knew it was not good. My mother in law was here for the week so I was not worried about Owen. I immediately called my friend Leslie and told her I needed to go to the hospital. She was here in record time and we were seen very quickly by the doctor.

Honestly I do not remember a ton of what happened after this. I know they tried to stop the contractions (they were pretty intense and close together), they did a quick ultrasound to determine that my water had NOT broken (instead my doctor believes my placenta is beginning to detach and it was a gush of blood/fluid), and gave me all kinds of medication.

The first medication I was given, Terbeutaline, did not work to stop the contractions. They then put me on magnesium which is very very harsh on your system. I was on this for 24 hours maybe and it did slow down the contractions. Thankfully :)

I spent the next several nights in the hospital under doctors supervision and now I am thankful to say that I am home.

Unfortunately I have been placed on bed rest, I have a 3 year old, and my husband is in Alabama. So Owen is heading to Pennsylvania in a couple of days for several weeks until John gets home. I am absolutely devistated. I know that it is for the best as I can not care for him properly while on bed rest- but the other part of me feels like the most terrible mother in the world.

I (unrealistically) feel like a terrible mother choosing one child over the other. I hate that John has been gone for 5 weeks and now I am making him lose his mother for 3 weeks. I am just a mess.

I am so thankful to have great friends and family as a support, but I am just a mess right now. Please keep me, Grey, Owen, and our whole family in your prayers!!!

a visual

Even though I have done the whole child birth thing before, it is kind of scary to think of the changes my body is going to go through when July comes around. I saw this picture tonight and it is such a crazy visual reminder of what happens when you dilate!


YIKES