The Beginning

Hope Everyone had a fabulous Christmas we sure did we were spoiled rotten and so was our sweet girl. My favorite gifts included a maya wrap baby sling from my sweet husband, and a necklace with a heart charm since Carys means love in Welsh from my mother in law, but my special gift was that my father in law had taken his mother's pearl necklace and had it restrung for me. They are beautiful and mean the world to me.

Christmas Eve we held our annual after church appetizers and family gifts time at our house and it was extra special knowing it was the first of many Christmas Eve's to be spent in our home that we have been blessed with. While we had our family there we took advantage of the time and had them do something for us. We had the idea to have family members write prayers or letters to Baby Carys on her wall before we painted them and then we'd just paint over them and they'd be forever on her walls. So we did just that we handed each of our family members a pencil and asked them to write a prayer or message in the nursery. It was so special reading those messages and I can't wait until Carys is old enough for me to show her the pictures we took of the process. Then the day after Christmas we  began painting our sweet girl's room. The color is called Afternoon Delight by Valspar and we just love how bright and cheery green it is.

Merry Christmas my friends

It's safe to say 2010 is a year Mr. A and I won't soon forget we purchased our wonderful home in March and found out in July we'll be adding a two feet addition next March. God's timing is more than perfect and we are thrilled to meet our Little Lady. Our Christmas this year is filled with anticipation of things to come and dreams of future Christmases with our baby girl. It's safe to say that the thought of my own little girl being here next Christmas is overwhelming to say the least. In some ways I can't wait to be a mom and in others I'm terrified.

In reading through the Christmas story in Bible study I've found this year that I have been particularly interested in studying Mary. I never understood before the fear that seemed present in her from the time she found she would  be the mother of Jesus I think maybe this year as I anticipate our own special delivery that I understand just a touch of what she must've been feeling.

As I gather with family and friends and we celebrate this glorious Day I am reminded of Mary's story and her strength and I thank God for using this amazing gift I've been given to understand the story of Jesus just a little better than before. My heart, thoughts, and prayers go out to all of you for a wonderful, Merry joyous and perhaps peaceful Christmas celebration.


From our Growing Family to yours:

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Til after Christmas.....

Mrs. A

Nursery Decor Plans

Our baby girl's nursery finally has a plan officially. I was going back and forth not wanting to do pink because everybody does to, to wanting to do all pink. When I really sat down and thought about it though all pink just isn't my style we're adding touches of pink but the walls will be a soft springy green and we'll add in the pink with her bedding and accessories. Then I struck gold and found an inspiration picture I just loved.

We knew we wanted to incorporate cherry blossoms in her room because they represent good fortune and love. Two things we want our baby girl to be surrounded by. We chose to incorporate cherry blossoms with a vinyl decal cherry blossom tree on the wall and in her bedding which we have finally chosen.



So there we have the beginning stages of our little Miss's nursery.



My Best Friend's Baby Shower

I got the privilege of hosting Mrs. G's shower in my home and I loved every minute of it. Our theme was Pink Winter Wonderland so everything was pink, glittery, and sparkly. We played some fun games and I had an absolute blast decorating for the shower. Here are some pics from the event.


My entryway table all decked out for the shower:


close up of the pink floral arrangement, yes the flowers are fake you try finding pretty pink flowers in season in December.


other side of the entry table and a good shot of the million snowflakes we had everywhere!


the guest sign in page.


close up the mirror with the congratulations banner on it


mantle close up


I made a banner with Mrs. G's baby girl's name for above the fireplace mantel out of snowflakes. Her name is Kinsey Noel and I just love it!


close up of bow and baby blocks on mantle


a whole view of the mantle and name banner above it


I even decorated the tree with pink crete paper :)


close up of table centerpeices


the cake admittedly not my best cake work it bulged when I moved it :(


guests at the shower and another shot of the table


my sweet friend Mrs. G opening presents!


Mr. & Mrs. G behind the baby clothesline I put up to display Miss Kinsey's new clothing items


A shot looking into the kitchen with the snowflakes and clothesline.  (this isn't a great representation of the color in the kitchen it's more green than that I need to take a better pic)


Ok that's a lot of pictures but this shower was so much fun to put together I absolutely adored planning Mrs. G's shower and I hope she realizes how much I adore her. Can't wait to meet her baby girl in January!

Later Alligators....

Mrs. A

knee deep in baby shower plans

I've so enjoyed looking at all of your beautiful Christmas decorations as you've posted them this week. But right now my house isn't exactly Christmasy it's baby showered up. My bestie's shower is Sunday and I've slowly but surely been putting out the decorations all week. I'll be sure and snap pics and tell you all about it.I'm so excited to have found my camera cord again after losing it a third time since moving into our home. So hopefully my posts will become less boring :) Mr. A and I were busy in our kitchen over Thanksgiving break and painted our trim and walls there's still some work to do but our house is a continual work in progress. Anyway keep the great Christmas decor posts coming and hopefully I'll have some to add to the mix after the Baby Shower on Sunday. Short but sweet but I wanted to post because I just loved looking at all your Christmas pretties :)

Give Thanks

 




 I'm remembering today to be grateful for all the blessings in my life. Traffic was just awful this morning, and people seem to be ruder than ever this year. I'm trying my best to smile through it and remember my happiness doesn't depend on them but on me. I'm making it a goal to not get irritated by Holiday craziness this year my mother did a great job of spreading Christmas Cheer when I was younger I remember being in awe of her and her ability to let little things roll off her back, I learned from her that Christmas craziness wasn't a reason to let my spirits die and I hope I teach the same lesson to our sweet girl :)

   I have so much to be thankful for this year:

 Wonderful doctors who've helped give my mom another year of Holiday celebrations with us.

Family who although drive me crazy are mine and I wouldn't trade them for anything.

Mr. A my wonderful thoughtful caring husband who daily I look at and wonder how I got so lucky. I cannot wait to see him become a daddy :)

Amazing people I'm blessed to call friends

a church home where we are not judged for who we are but accepted: broken, bruised, tattered, and torn though we may be. It is amazing to know that no matter what struggles we face the bonds we've created in our church home will be there to support us through it.

a home of our own to spend the Holidays in this year and looking forward to many years to come of watching our sweet baby girl grow up in that home

my relationship with Christ and being secure in the knowledge that I am His child and no one can take that away from me

the sweet baby girl growing inside me who daily reminds me with her playful kicks, and sometimes crazy dance parties, that I am not alone and no longer am I just a woman contemplating my future, but I'm a momma with the chance to leave a legacy by being the Light to my baby girl and teaching her about our Heavenly Father who already loves her so much so that she may also become Light to a broken world.

My little piece of the internet in which I'm free to write my thoughts however often or sporadically I choose it's my place, my private little oasis where I can be alone with my thoughts and whatever comes to my head is what usually goes on the screen :) the wonderful relationships I've formed with so many other bloggers is an added bonus :)

There are so many more things I have to be grateful for but these are just a few. My prayer for myself as well as all of you reading is that you will remember your own gratefulness list when your in the midst of Holiday chaos and it will make you smile regardless of how many times you just got cut off in traffic or how long of a line you have to stand in to get those Holiday purchases made.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Later Alligators....

Mrs. A

22 weeks and wow Thanksgving is close.

Wow this pregnancy has really started flying. I'm so sorry for posting the name and then basically leaving my blog un-attended for a long period it wasn't intentional life just took a turn for the crazy. Thanks for all your comments regarding Lil Miss's name we love it and we know she might have some mis-pronunciation and we're ok with that. We fall more in love with our little Carys every day :)  We've had some sweet moments in the last couple of weeks including Mr. A getting to feel our little girl move for the first time that was a sweet moment I won't ever forget. He talks to her every night with his hand on my belly and one night he was talking and I felt her move but didn't think he could yet but his eyes got really wide and he looked at me and said "she kicked me"!  It was very special. She has fallen into a pretty recognizable pattern of movement in that she is mainly still during the day and then around 11PM she thinks it's time for a dance party.

I can't even begin to fathom that Thanksgiving is so close it's like I blinked and my beloved October was over. I can't believe we only have one more full week after this one and the following one is Thanksgiving week. Mr. A and I are hosting this year and I am so excited about that. It's been a dream of mine since I was a little girl to host my very own Thanksgiving Dinner in my home and this year I get to fulfill that! So as you can imagine the Mr. and I are busy bees preparing our home this week we've been focusing on cleaning out and organizing our fridge and pantry in preparation for the shopping to come.

In other news our baby girl's nursery is starting to come together in my head. We've decided on a sweet pink and green color scheme with cherry blossoms and birdies as a sort of unofficial theme. We're excited to go start our registry this weekend. I'm also busily planning my bestie's baby shower that is set for December 04th. We're doing a winter wonderland theme with sweet pink, silver, and white colors. I'll be sure and post pics the more details I get pulled together. I can't wait to throw her shower she is such a blessing to me and I really want to give her a shower to remember.

Ok this is sort of a hodge podge post and it'll probably be more of the same in the coming weeks but I promise to not leave the blog completely un-attended for an entire week at a time again. I wish I was a better blogger but sometimes life just takes over.
Later Alligators...
Mrs. A

You named her what? and other reactions we've had to baby girl's name.

Oh my goodness I knew revealing the gender would bring on the name questions and comments, but I just can't believe the number of people who have a comment on what we should name our baby girl. Mr. A and are non-traditional we don't like to be ordinary and we want our little girl's name to stand out. Here's just a few of the comments I've heard:

1. don't name your daughter after family members unless you want to curse her with their problems

2. you should give her a name that means something to you and Mr. A (edit I really liked this one and we did)

3. don't name her something off the wall or hard to spell

4. you should give her a plain name so she'll fit in once she gets to school age

5. and my personal favorite just don't name her something stupid!

So without further ado our baby girl's name is going to be

Carys Kaylenn

Carys is pronounced : (kaw-riss) and is the welsh word for love. Mr. A picked out this name because he has a Welsh background and wanted to honor that.

Kaylenn is pronounced Kay Lynn but spelled the way it is because it is a hybrid of my mother's middle name Kay and my mother in law's middle name Glenn.

So there you have it our little girl officially has a name. When we told our family the name they instantly fell in love with it but in telling other people we've noticed that we get a mixed reaction some people like it and some people think we're crazy. But we love her name and in the end we're the only two that matter.


Later Alligators..

Mrs. A

finally some house updates

so it's been almost 6 months since we moved into our cute little house and we've been slow getting updates done but we finally do have the living room sort of how we want it and remember that table shopping excursion we had so many months ago well we finally went back and bought the one we liked best. Yay for our house starting to look like grown ups live there instead of two broke college kids.



here's the living room the day we moved in.




fireplace after we painted it white and flanked it with our two large bookcases; if you look closely at the one on the left you can see Baby Girl A's toy collection already started. We still need a screen and fireplace tools but hey we're all about baby steps. Oh and sidenote for all the pregnancy police that glass has sparkling grape juice in it which has been my replacement for wine.

and the new dining room table and Finnegan says hi :)

We did opt to paint our trim white and we're finished in the living room and hallway but still have a ways to go. More pictures to come soon and of course now that we know little miss is on the way we have a nursery to work on :)

Later Alligators.....

Mrs. A







and the verdict is.....

Our extended Anniversary weekend was a blast :)

we started out at the OKC Baron's game on Tuesday night this outing was a surprise planned by my sweet man. The  best part we had seats right on the ice :)

Then we headed out Wednesday afternoon to the ultrasound that we had oh so much fun at staring at our sweet baby, then the hard part came since we weren't telling family until Friday we had to keep our news to ourselves.

Finally Friday came and we were able to tell the world :) we chose to do a cake with the middle tinted the color of our sweet kiddo.

we let the grandmother's to be cut into the cake :)

we had asked our family member's to wear the color of the gender they thought little Baby A was, and the blue way outnumbered the pink.  Surprisingly enough both Grandmothers got it right :)

our baby GIRL will be gracing us with her presence in March. Mr. A and I although surprised as we both thought we were having a boy are over the moon excited to meet our little lady!!

The tinted cake after we devoured it :)

The next day this mommy had a blast shopping at our local craft fair and came home with this adorable little outfit for our Little Lady.



Why yes that is a green tutu  Baby A wouldn't be Baby A if her first outfit didn't have some green in it since it is her mommy's favorite color :)

Saturday evening we had a fellowship outing with our Sunday school class and I wore my pink proudly :)



Mrs. G and I are ecstatic we're both having Baby Girls and just a few months apart. I love this pic of me and my bestie ;)

Later Aligators....

Mrs. A



National Pregnancy & Infant Loss Awareness Day

Did you know that October 15 is National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day? Many people aren't aware that this day has been designated a national day of remembrance for miscarriage, stillbirth, and infant loss.
The resolution to declare October 15 a remembrance day passed the United States House of Representatives on September 28, 2006. It was the result of tireless efforts by a group of miscarriage awareness activists led by Robyn Bear, who had six first-trimester miscarriages in the span of 1997 through 1999.
In honor of Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day, Bear suggests on her website that grieving parents and those supporting them light a candle at 7 p.m. in their respective time zones to create a wave of light around the world in memory of babies lost to miscarriage and infant loss.



These aren't my candles I will photograph them this evening for the women I am supporting including Leah Marie @ Marital Bless, Katie @ Loves of Life, Ashley Paige @ I Love You More Than Carrots, Melanie @, Country Roads, Megan @ In This Wonderful Life and any others I may have forgotten, or who may have been silent about their losses. These women and their strength constantly amaze and inspire me. I encourage you to also light candles this evening for any in your own lives who have gone through such loss and post them on your blogs as a sign of support for all those remembering their losses. To the ladies I am supporting we will never forget your angels.


Love and Strength to you all,

Mrs. A

Baby A Stats

I haven't done one of these before so I figured why not :)

How far along? 18 Weeks today

Baby's size? Our baby is the size of a sweet potato.

Weight Gain? 2 pounds.

Maternity clothes? started wearing maternity pants this week but still mostly in my regular shirts

Stretch marks? so far so lucky not to have any

Sleep? Sleep is good. 

Foods I am loving? mac and cheese

Foods I am hating? Nothing at the moment which is such a blessing

Best moment this week? feeling flutters

Movement? I've felt my first flutters can't wait til it's more

Symptoms? mostly just a few headaches and backaches

Gender? cannot wait to find out! in 7DAYS!

What I'm looking forward to? finding out the gender next week 

Weekly Wisdom: I think it's important to remember every baby is different and you shouldn't be alarmed when every woman in the world is telling you they've already felt their baby's move and they aren't as far along as you are.

Milestones: Gender Ultra-Sound next week

Emotions: I'm a rollercoaster!

Changing our vocabulary and 30 days of prayer

Mr. A and received two challenges for the month of October one during Sunday morning services, and one during our Sunday night small group study. The first was issued from our pastor to our whole church and that was to commit to 30 days of praying for one hour a day. My first initial thought was pray for an hour! Are you kidding me I get distracted during prayer time at church how am I ever going to pray for an hour?! So during invitation I prayed hard for God to give me the desire to do this and I decided I was just going to give it a go yesterday and not beat myself up if I couldn't do it. You know what I didn't pray for an hour I prayed for nearly two.

 I learned that praying can be praising and singing hymns, it can be cleaning or doing manual labor all the while carrying on a conversation with God, and of course it can be reading and praying scripture over those you love. In our series at church we've been doing a lot with prayer and why it's so difficult for so many of us to commit to and it's because in my pastor's words we have "professionalized prayer". I learned that when I let go of what I thought prayer looked like and to embrace what prayer meant to me it became a lot easier. While I'm not sure I'll get an hour of prayer time in every day I'm sure going to try for 30 days. So today marks day two of our 30 days of prayer challenge and if anyone wants to join me please feel free to do so. In fact leave a comment so we can support each other!

Our next challenge came from our Bible study leaders on Sunday night and it really struck a chord with me. We're going through Gary Smalley's From Anger to Intimacy study and one of the things we talked about was changing our thinking about situations instead of believing when you get hurt that the person meant to hurt you which is often not the case we should turn to God and ask what am I to learn from this. We also talked about how often we are guilty of bemoaning simple tasks that are really blessings. We learned to replace the words "have to" with "get to".

So this morning while lying in my extra comfy bed instead of laying there whining "I have to get up, I have to go to work" I instead thought how fortunate am I that I get to get up at 6AM to go to a steady full time job that so many have been praying for and it made dragging myself out of bed a little bit easier. On the way to work I kept thinking man I have to drive to work with crazy people today and then I caught myself and changed it to thinking how fortunate am I that I get to drive to work instead of take a bus or walk and how fortunate is my family to have two vehicles completely paid for. So I encourage you if just for one day anytime you catch yourself saying the words "have to" replace them with "get to" I guarantee you by the end of the day you will be so thankful for the blessings you've been given.

Later Alligators.

FAIL

 So I haven't yet posted pictures of my clean fall dressed home for you all to enjoy because....I'm a failure. Although the house is cleaner than it was we're not finished :( and the fall decor although we got the boxes down has yet to be put out, but we did make progress and we are getting there so hopefully by Friday I'll have lovely pictures to post.

 I'm trying not to beat myself up over this but it's hard I'm sure there will come times in the next year in which my house will again be a disaster and I've got to work through feeling inadequate. I've learned through the Bible study we're doing with our small group that keeping a clean home is something that I equate with self worth and if I feel that my house is out of order then therefore follows my life. But you know what my house didn't get spic and span completely this weekend because I chose to spend some of the time I could've been cleaning getting together with family and sweet friends and cultivating and growing those relationships which is by far more important than having a spotlessly clean home. I must remember that my worth is found in my relationship with Jesus not in how clean and organized my house is. So I'll get there it just takes me a little longer than I'm used to.

In other news we've scheduled our big gender reveal ultra-sound for the date of our third wedding anniversary 10/20/2010 @ 2:20 in the afternoon and I am so beyond excited. My lovely blogger friends will have to wait along with everyone else though because we're not revealing to family until that Friday evening and everyone else after that so I promise I'll be a weekend blogger just this once for you guys.

Later Alligators.....

Mrs. A

Happy Fall

So I gave the blog a makeover in honor of the first official day of Fall!

Confession

Oh dear I realize that it's time to pull out the fall decorations but I can't just yet. Why you ask well because my house is one big disasterous mess seriously I'd show you pictures but I'm afraid you might stop being my friends :( So here's the deal I have allowed being pregnant to turn me into a slob. Not just a little bit like a whole lot there were things I could've been doing little bite size tasks that I put off because well I'm pregnant and tired. First trimester kicked my booty and my house paid the price. Well no more I've created a new cleaning list and I'm slowly but surely trying to bring our home out of disaster mode.

Yesterday we worked in the kitchen scrubbing down appliances, cleaning the sink with bon ami and sweeping and mopping the floors. But still to be done is a pantry re-organization and cleaning out my baking/cake decorating cabinet. Tonight we're tackling the living room which seriously has bags of maternity clothes that have been given to me and random crap everywhere :( I'm so tired of a messy house it makes me sad.

So my goal by this weekend is to get our home clean, organized, and dressed for fall. Hopefully I can share pictures of the decor by Monday. I'm posting this here because I need some motivation 1 and 2 you lovelies can hold me accountable. I will get it done!! I will!

Later Alligators...

Mrs. A

weekend plans

Can you feel it.
It's there in the air the slightest bit of chill, the smell of pumpkin spice, the gentle breeze, the roar of a crowded football stadium, It's almost officially FALL!! 

So I have lots of fun weekend plans this week and most of them have to do with prepping for the beautiful season ahead.

Along with week 14 comes a much needed burst of energy, now don't get me wrong I'm still crashing by 10:30 but I no longer need a nap right when I get home from work. I'm hoping this good feeling lasts at least a few weeks. Anyway I've used my energy wisely spending time deep cleaning my kitchen after the wedding cake madness, and preparing for our new table that we have officially saved the money to purchase and will be getting next month!!

Tonight Mr. A has a boys night planned so I have the house all to myself and a special cake to work on my momma's birthday cake. I'm making her a special cake with her fave flower yellow roses on it :)

tomorrow our furbaby has a vet appointment and then it's party time!

What are you all's fun weekend plans?




Later Alligators...

Mrs. A

weekend recap!

Well dear bloggie friends,

I've been a blog slacker lately but I've had good reason I've been knee deep in cake and icing. Last week I completed my very first official wedding cake :)

It was a giant 4 tier cake and took pretty much the entire week between making fondant,baking 4 tiers of cake, and the decoration. I'm glad my first one is behind me I feel a lot better about it now then I did this time last week. I seriously doubted myself through the whole process but my husband the encourager helped me pull through it. I thank God everyday He knew I'd need someone who could lift me up when I doubted myself.

So here it is my first wedding cake :)

Saturday after the wedding I pretty much slept the rest of the day away since I was pretty much exhausted mentally, and physically.

Sunday it rained and rained so we went to church and came home with good intentions of doing housework but decided the rain was a great excuse to snuggle up on the couch with blankets and watch some Netflix. Hubs and I started watching the Lost series recently and we are totally hooked but we just started it so all you Lost fanatics out there don't spill any secrets :) Sunday evening our small group started a new Bible Study we're doing "From Anger to Intimacy" by Gary Smalley and I'm really excited to see how God will be working through this study.

I'm actually really excited about this week because we don't have big plans it should be a nice relaxing week with the usual activities but nothing extra thrown in it will be wonderful to hopefully get caught up on housework and lets not even talk about the gargantuan pile of laundry waiting to be done :(

Well anyway hope everyone had a lovely weekend and the week is starting off great :)

Later Alligators....

Mrs. A

Friday Fun and a bump picture :)

Since a few of you asked here it is the first official bump picture taken at the end of week 12 :)
Happy Friday of a 3 DAY WEEKEND!! Woo Woo!! Football games on television tomorrow and 3 whole glorious days of freedom! Hope everyone has a lovely weekend :)

Later Alligators...

Mrs. A

So Many Reasons To Smile!!

First and foremost yesterday we got to hear the sweet sweet sound of our baby's heartbeat. I know other mama's had told me that the moment you actually hear your sweet child's heartbeat is magical but I kind of shrugged it off til now. Oh my goodness the emotion that welled up inside of me when that little woosh woosh was heard was indescribable. It is a most magical moment for sure.

Second Fall is near and it brings so many things to be excited for this year. Football season starts this weekend, beautiful fall decorations will make their way out of hiding soon, the end of my first trimester is soon, my mama's birthday is the 18th and I feel we have so much to celebrate this year, there are fall parties, and state fairs to attend, in October Mr. A and I will celebrate 3 years of marriage and shortly after we'll learn the sex of our little lucky charm. October just keeps getting better for me and I think it will always rank up there in my top favorite months although I have a feeling March will be in the running come 2011.

Third my bestie found out last Friday that she and her husband are having a sweet baby girl come January!!


What are some reasons you lovely ladies have to smile lately?


Later Alligators....

Mrs. A

I could get used to this

Ever since finding out about Baby A other than his immediate response Mr. A has been ecstatic he is so excited to be a father and right now he's showing that by pampering me. My nightly routine has been come home change into comfies and pretty much immediately fall asleep on the couch seriously folks it's bad Mr. A's favorite game has become asking me if I want to watch a movie and then starting it and seeing how long it takes me to fall asleep. Needless to say along with my newfound love affair with naps comes the slacking on the cooking and housekeeping front. I felt so awful about my wifely skills that on Saturday I actually broke down and cried because of this. So yesterday Mr. A did all the laundry, dishes, cooked dinner, cleaned up dinner and even washed the sheets on our bed and remade it. Seriously!! A girl could get used to this :)

weekend recap

What a full weekend we had. Friday night started off  very peaceful Mr. A had planned a guys night at a friend's house so I had the house all to myself. I got take out for dinner as I didn't feel like cooking and curled up on the sofa with my furbaby and armed myself with a full water bottle and the Netflix instant play account at my fingertips. I chose "Confessions of A Shopaholic" because I'd been encouraged to read the books by a friend so I thought I'd watch the movie before diving into the books. It was a great quiet evening just me and the dog as Mr. A didn't get home until well after midnight and I fell asleep sometime around 9:45. Sigh unfortunately this is par for the course lately I just can't seem to hold my eyes open much past 9:30. I hope at least a smidgeon of my energy returns in my second trimester :)



My Saturday's are always a bit hectic because I teach classes on Saturday but this weekend we spent the remainder of our Saturday at the local waterpark with friends I was fearful of being to hot and tired to really enjoy the outing but you know what we had an absolute blast we spent the better part of the afternoon there and while my hubs and his buddy ran around riding every ride in the park I soaked up the cool water in the wade pools and lounged around getting some much needed sun. Seriously it should be illegal to be this pasty white in the middle of summer :(

Sunday we attended Sunday school and then church and afterwards our amazing group had our monthly lunch outing to a local restaurant it was great fun and good laughs had by all. I spent the rest of my afternoon working on a cake order for a sweet lady who's an employee at the store where I teach my cake classes. I'm delivering that cake today.

This week I have big plans of catching up on the housework that I've just been too tired to mess with. I'm hoping that waking up not sick this morning is the start of a good trend!

How was everyone else's weekend?


Later Alligators....

Mrs. A

The Details

First off thank you so much for all the well wishes and congratulations you lovely ladies are the best :) Mr. A and I are overwhelmed by the love we've received since revealing our news!

So here's the details:

First were we trying?
yes and no
We had given everything over to God and were just waiting on his timing.

When we found out July 10th at 7:00AM
I was late but not super late so I wasn't planning on testing until the following Tuesday which would've made me a week late but I was certain that my dear friend was just late in showing her ugly face and that she'd appear before I tested. But Friday night or should I say Saturday morning I had a very vivid dream in which we had a positive pregnancy test I woke up lay in bed for a good hour and then decided I had to know. Luckily I didn't have to go out and buy a pregnancy test because remember when I announced my Bestie was expecting well she had some left over unused pregnancy tests she had given me saying you never know. So I got up took the test set it down on the counter with the little hour glass ticking away, decided to brush my teeth and wash my face finished washing my face looked down on the counter and there it was PREGNANT plain as day there was no not in front of that word. Thinking my eyes had deceived me I picked it up to look closer then proceeded to freak out drop the test on the counter and run downstairs to get my trusty laptop and google "false positives".

How I told Mr. A:
I always thought I would be one of those women who planned some cute creative way to tell my hubs we was going to be a daddy. Umm nope not so much after deciding a false positive was unlikley I ran back upstairs mind you my hubs has been sleeping this whole time since it is 7:00 AM on a Saturday. So I grabbed the test off of the sink counter and ran into our bedroom flipped on the light screaming wake up wake up!! Mr. A begrudgingly agreed. Now let me back up for a minute on Thursday night of this week I had told him I was late and that I might be pregnant but that it was unlikely and more possible that my cycle was just off this month. Mr. A's response that night was well babe that's potentially really exciting :) Aww I love my hubs. So back to the moment I kept repeating wake up and I had to know over and over again of course poor Mr. A in his sleep induced state had no idea what I was talking about. Poor guy so I showed him the test he read it and said and I quote "well that's exciting, can you turn the light off" I of course way too excited, freaked out etc to sleep wanted to talk so I babbled away while Mr. A mumbled responses back. It was so umm us. I had to go teach cake classes on Saturday after finding out and had a baby shower to attend so there was no time for us to celebrate right then. BTW attending a baby shower only hours after finding out you are pregnant is a very surreal experience. When I got home around 5 on Saturday Mr. A had showered and dressed really nice and took me out to dinner at our place to celebrate. He then babbled on and on about how excited he was and my heart just melted.

How we told the grandparents to be:
Well we waited til after my confirmation bloodwork came back before we spilled the beans but poor Mr. A I think would've exploded if he'd had to wait any longer to tell his parents that they were going to be grandparents so we told them at 7 weeks. So we went out to Babies R Us which has become one of my newest favorite shopping hang outs and picked out two bibs one for my mom that said "If Mommy Says No  Ask Grandma" and one for Mr. A's dad that read "I Love My Grandpa" 

So one evening we met my mom at her place had dinner and told her we had a gift for her for completing chemo and because we were so excited she's feeling good :) she opened it said "oh that's cute" and put it away. Mr. A just looked at me and said "she doesn't get it does she" at which point the light bulb moment occurred and she then proceeded to scream cry and hug me and Mr. A.

The next evening we had invited Mr. A's parents out to dinner under the guise of a belated "Father's Day" celebration because we had to put our original plans on hold when Mr. A and his parents made the sudden trip to Florida for Mr. A's Grandmother's funeral. So they stopped by our house first and we had wrapped up the grandpa bib as my Father in Law's Father's Day day present. So we had him open it before we left our house for dinner there was a few gasps a few squeals and even some tears from Mr. A's dad which I totally did not expect.


How we told our friends:
a few weekends after we had told the grandparents our group of friends was getting together for a movie night and we were signed up to bring cookies so I made a plate of baby onesie and baby carriage cookies on which I piped "OASIS MAKES THE CUTEST BABIES" because our group seriously has I think 6 pregnant women right now. So I put all of the Oasis baby due dates on a onesie and slipped mine it at the end. It was absolutely hilarious watching the women in our group go through the due dates going ok this is is so and so, this is that person, and then the gasp when they got to my due date as they figured out there was a newbie in the group who had yet to reveal themselves haha so one of the ladies yelled out across the entire lawn "OK who needs to come clean that they're expecting" It was hilarious fun to watch people guess and wonder who it was and finally I walked up to her as she was talking and took the cookie out of her hand only then did they realize it was me it was so much fun :) I do have pictures but not with me so I'll add pictures later.

Our first appointment was August 02nd and we got to see our little lucky charm (nickname explained in a moment) for the first time I held my breath as the screen popped up and there he or she was it was a magical moment only to be topped a few minutes later by seeing that little flicker of a heart beat I'm pretty sure both Mr. A and teared up at that. Doc says at our next appointment we should be able to hear a heart beat and boy I can't wait for that!!

Nickname Explained:
at my confirmation appointment in which the pregnancy was confirmed by blood test and they did my family medical history and all. My doc was giving us our estimated due date which is March 16th and she said "oh we have a little St. Paddy's Day lucky charm on our hands" I went home and told Mr. A that doc called baby our lucky charm and he loved it so it stuck so Little Lucky Charm is what we call our little one when we're talking to each other and I love that we came up with something special.

Are we finding out the sex:
Yes we are and it's actually really cool the week we should be able to find out what we're having will be the week of our 3rd wedding anniversary :)

do we have names:
yes but we won't be discussing them til after baby gets here we actually have both a boy and a girl name picked out.

What are we hoping for?
well more than anything we just want a healthy little baby and the gender doesn't matter but if I had to choose I would say girl and if Mr. A had to choose he would say boy :) so one of us will be thrilled come October.

Holy long blog post batman!! If you're still reading you rock :)

I do have some "Hidden Mommy Chronicles" that are all saved in draft form from the last few weeks I think there's ten total most of it is just my thoughts or things going on with my pregnancy that I wanted to remember. I don't necessarily have to post them but if it's something anyone would be interested in I can.

Big shout out to 5th Belle Avenue for this post on this incredible book that I bought two days after finding out I was pregnant it is a huge blessing :)  http://www.5thbelleavenue.com/2010/07/belly-business-18-wks.html.
Well I guess that's all for now.



Later Alligators.........

Mrs. A

how can something so small

have stolen my heart?!

Baby A is on the way expected March 2011.



Later Alligators....

Mrs. A

PEOPLE PLEASER

As I sit here typing this message I am angry with myself and searching for an answer as to why I have become such a people pleaser lately. Seriously I cannot say no to people and I find myself caring way too much what others think of me :( Why is it that when I take my focus off God I shift it back onto myself and  I become obsessed with pleasing people when I should be worried about being a good and faithful servant. Lately I've been so busy that my devotions have fallen out of step and my quiet time well it's back to being my drive to work instead of an actual set time. Don't get me wrong my word for the year is SERVE and I want to be in service to people in anyway I can, however I don't think this means putting myself last and sacrificing my free time to the point I become burnt out!

Recently I agreed to help with a cake I had no interest in doing, I agreed to have a make up cake class with one student, I agreed to a dinner I didn't really want because it was what someone else wanted, I can name numerous other occassions where I chose to play the people pleaser instead of standing up for myself. ARGH!! Why do I do this?

Is anyone else a people pleaser? Does anyone have any tips on becoming more assertive with your opinions and why can't I say NO?!!

where did July go?!!

Excuse me can anyone help me I seem to have misplaced the month of July anyone care to help me find it?
I cannot believe that July has gone so quickly don't misread me I'm thrilled about that it just means I'm one step closer to my favorite time of the year but dang this year needs to slow down it'll be 2011 before we know what hit us.

So since I missed blogging in the month of July almost entirely here's a quick update on my summer.

I had entirely too much fun hanging out with friends on the 4th watching the boys shoot off fireworks and listening to the kiddos ooh and ahh at the pretties

I had a ton of fun at girl's night we ate lasagna and had cake for dessert and sat around just talking it was lovely.

Mr. A and I finally completed the task of refinishing our bedroom dresser and it looks lovely

I got a lot of paint on me and a little on our trim work as we slowly started painting all the trim in our home

I got covered in little turquoise dust particles as the horrible textured turquoise paint in our master bath started coming off

I spent a little time in the pool and got burned to a crisp

I enjoyed the week of rain and cooler temperatures that gave me just a taste of my fave season

I weeded flower beds and played with Missy our labrador in the sprinkler while we were trying to water the grass

I spent a week getting trampled on and tackled by kindergartners at Vacation Bible School

I started my 3rd month of teaching cake decorating classes.

and here we are late July it's hot ridiculously so and tonight is cake class then I have to go home and continue my work on wedding cake trials I'm doing for a wedding cake in early September. The trials are necessary to get the shape of the carved cake just right. Tomorrow is Wednesday and mid-week which means movie night with friends, then Thursday we're having dinner with my mom just because she wants to see us :)
Friday brings the weekend closer and we're going to host game night at our house it'll be the first time hosting more than just 1 couple at our house. Then after this weekend we'll wake up only to realize that we only have 1 week left of this dreaded month of ridiculously hot temperatures, and then it'll be August and once August is over it will once again be September my 2nd favorite month of the year :)

Later Alligators.....

Mrs. A

I survived :)

First of all thank you all so much for your kind words for Mr. A's grandmother she's in a better place and we are at peace with that. Sometimes it's hard when you have family pretty much across the country from you but we make it work and have resolved to spend more time in Florida in the future.

My weekend was very full actually my wonderful friends took it upon themselves to make sure I wasn't lonely without Mr. A and I had fun hanging out with the girls. Not to say I didn't get lonely at night by myself especially when Missy started barking at some random noise, and I'm sure my neighbor's got a good laugh at this girl trying to tip a trash can full of water to empty it so I could put the trash at the curb for pick up. I'm also sure they enjoyed my shrieks when the bee that was in my flower bed landed on me when I was watering on Tuesday. I must express my sincere gratitude to my friendly neighbor who helped me tip over that wretched trash can next time it rains I'll be sure to pull it inside.

It's true that you don't know what you've got til it's gone I know when Mr. A got home I had a newfound respect and love for everything he helps me do.

Thanks for all the movie suggestions I didn't get to watch any of them but I have them all now lined up in my Netflix cue :)

I hope everyone has a lovely Independence Day and nice long relaxing weekends.

Later Alligators....

Mrs. A

The weekend planning sans husband :(

We lost my husband's grandmother on his father's side of the family on Thursday afternoon thus losing the only living grandparent either of us had. So with that said Mr. A is spending some time in Florida with family and well I'm left all by my little self in our great big house well it's not really that big but it'll seem like it without the hubs hanging around. So I have plans to tackle a few projects, lounge around and watch girly movies, go to the gym at least once, and in general miss my sweet husband.

So here's my agenda for the weekend.

Saturday I teach cake classes in the morning, then I have plans to stop by Lowes and pick up some spray paint  to revive that chandelier that's hanging out in my garage. I've got some pillow cases that are begging me to finish sewing, and then I'm taking a hot meal to a lovely couple from our Sunday school class that recently had a baby. After I return from my meal delivery I am taking my evening to make cinnamon rolls for my Sunday school class breakfast we rotate who brings breakfast and it's our week.

Sunday I'll attend church by myself :( and then go home and probably head to the gym, clean up whatever mess didn't get cleaned up in the kitchen from the night before watch way too many episodes of Glee, and then work on the trim painting project that is currently taking over my life. :)

Hubs probably won't be home til Thursday so I've got nearly a whole week of being alone to deal with anyone have any good chick flick movie suggestions?
Later Alligators..

Mrs. A

Mrs. A versus the june bugs!

So you'd think being born in June and all I'd have this innate ability to ignore june bugs umm no not so much. They are the bane of my existence! They are just plain creepy they make that awful buzzing noise when the fly and the tend to go precisely where I don't want them to go IE in my house.

So last night I was sweeping our front porch for what seems like the 100th time in the last week or so (mental note to self big tree equals random debris on porch anytime the wind blows)  and a june bug flies right in my house so I run inside fight with it and I think it's disappeared so I go back to my sweeping and finish up. All's well that ends well right? WRONG!!

Fast forward 30 minutes or so and I'm standing at our kitchen sink looking out our window with a big sink full of soapy water and that darn june bug (I'm convinced it was the same one) makes another appearance this time flying way to close to my face BLECH!! So I did what any girl would do I mindlessly swatted at it all the while yelling at Mr. A to "come kill it" in my squeaky I'm freaked out little girl voice. Mr. A my valliant hero rushes to my aide to kill the big scary june bug he stands in the kitchen looking around for that pesky bug while I stand in the living room repeating "did you kill it yet, did you kill it yet" he walks over to me and says in his sweet I think you're so cute when you act like a baby voice "honey there is no bug" I stomp my feet and whine "yes there was, it flew right at my face and it's icky....... kill it!!" Readers please note bugs and I do not get along and I turn into a whiny baby when faced with them. 

Well all of a sudden Mr. A stops dead in his tracks looks at me and says "honey hold still"  as you can imagine I launched into a myriad of questions "why, what's wrong, what's going on, what are you doing?" slowly Mr. A reaches up and pulls something out of my pony tail. Dear reader I'm sure you can see where this is going but no not me I was totally clueless. So I snap at my dear husband, and say "well now that you've finished grooming me will you please go kill that bug!!" Mr. A calmly looks at me and says "I did"  at which point I realize that icky bug had been in my hair the whole time!

Which led to me dancing around like an idiot convinced I had more bugs in my hair. All this succeeded in doing was getting the dog excited thinking mommy wants to play and well let's just say my husband collapsed into fits of laughter in the kitchen over my neurotic june bug extraction dance going on in the living room that my labrador seemed to think meant "play" and proceeded to knock me over and stand over me proudly as if to say "look daddy I captured her" ah the joys of summer! Can you see why I love the FALL?!!

Please dear readers tell me I'm not the only one who can't stand june bugs.

Later Alligators...

Mrs. A

not my favorite holiday

So I'm going to be real instead of posting a belated Happy Father's Day I'm just going to go against the grain and say that Father's Day is not my favorite holiday. To be completely honest it doesn't even scratch the surface of my top ten. My biological father and I haven't spoken since I was 7 and my stepfather left my mom right after I graduated highschool. To say the least the father figures in my life have been less than stellar. But I find solace in the fact that I have a Heavenly Father who can encompass all an earthly father should be and so much more. I have struggled with feelings of bitterness and resentment over missing out on that special bond that a father has with his daughter but I know that God has plans that are bigger than my own and I can trust Him to provide all that I will ever need in a father.

So to end this gloomy note I do have something positive to say about Father's Day, and that is that I have a fabulous Father In Law without whom I wouldn't have my amazing husband. It was his relationship with his son that made Mr. A the man I married so for that I'm thankful and blessed.


Later Alligators..

Mrs. A

happy news and the summer blahs.

First off by popular request here's the cheeseburger cake I made for a dear friend's husband's b-day :)


I have been a real blogging slacker lately as life and it's complications weigh on my mind. I still love my little peice of the internet, but it has become difficult lately to post as there are just things that don't need to be voiced here. 

In happy news my mom gets a break from chemo treatments and blood tests. At her doctor's visit yesterday the team decided she was strong enough to get a 3 month break from treatments. She is over the moon excited and so am I. We're having a girl's day this Saturday afternoon to celebrate. I am seeing a visit to our favorite little cupcake bakery downtown in our future! This break couldn't have come at a better time. We thank God for His goodness and graciously accept our 3 month reprieve.

 Mr. A and I joined our hometown's community center last weekend and they have open gym night, and for our date night tonight we're going to go play a little one on one basketball. Mr. A will probably school me but it'll still be a nice break from the stress of everyday life. Since we're both moping around lamenting the end of the NBA playoffs and realizing we now have 2 months to wait until college football season which by far is both of our fave time of the year we decided to just make our own games for a while :).

Saturday starts bright and early with cake class I absolutely love teaching cake and find I learn more teaching it than I did when I was the student :) After class I'm picking up mom for our Girl's Day extravaganza.

 I have a confession to make Mr. A and I have missed church for 4 Sunday's in a row we've either had something going on or overslept so I am beyond thrilled that Sunday we will make Sunday school and church services I am thrilled that we're getting back to a regular routine that includes church I miss it when we don't go. After services our Sunday school group Oasis is meeting for lunch together and fellowship we are so lucky and blessed with this group and I feel like I haven't seen them in forever so I'm thrilled to get to spend some time with them. After lunch we're meeting our friends Mr. and Mrs. D and their puppy Tito at the dog park with our baby girl Missy.

So now a question to all you wonderful bloggie lovelies, anyone who knows me knows that I am not a summer girl I am an autumn girl through and through so I often feel I have to make an extra effort to enjoy myself in the summer and I'm going to do that anyone have any tips on fun things we can do this summer to keep ourselves entertained?


Later Alligators.....

Mrs. A

Quarter Century

That's Right I turned 25 today. Officially a quarter century old.

The day started off great with sweet gifts from Mr. A he got me the Glee soundtracks Volume 2 & 3 I already had 1, and the season 1 DVD. I got to work greeted by my lovely friend's beautiful strawberry shortcake :) which happens to be my fave. I'm being taken out tonight but I don't know where I was told it's a surprise. I got some pretty green things from my secret pal at work, my fave soda and candy bar from another co-worker and the coolest birdhouse ever from my boss. So far 25 has been fabulous :)

Later Alligators..

Mrs. A

I'm behind

So the lovely Lindsay of  Just The Two Of Us tagged me for this award a few weeks ago and because I have an awful memory I'm just getting around to posting it.

The rules are you're supposed to post the award and tell 7 things about yourself and tag 7 other bloggers for the award.

I think I've told you all most of the weird little quirks I have so instead I'm going to tell you 7 things I hope to accomplish this long weekend :)

1. I need to make a display for my store to advertise my classes

2. I hope we get the entry way trim painting done and I can take some decent pictures

3. I was given an old chandelier that needs some paint and can be brought back to life so I hope to start that project

4. we need to finish mulching the back flower beds now that my beautiful lillies are about to bloom :)

5. Mr. A and I need a serious veg out night

6. I hope to organize the bill filing cabinet and take home inventory pictures

7. I have a cheeseburger shaped birthday cake to finish for Sunday :)

to continue with my rebel ways I'm just going to say anyone reading is tagged.

Thanks Lindsay for the sweet award you're awesome :)

Later Alligators...

Mrs. A

home inspirations and projects:The metamorphosis beginning

So Mr. A and I have now been homeowners for nearly 2 months. In that time we've unpacked boxes, re-arranged furniture and made plans for what we're going to be doing to our home to make it truly ours. We don't plan on moving and bought our home with room to grow so there are some big changes coming to our home to make it a space we'll love for years to come.

We're starting with a pretty blank slate as far as decor goes we know the basics of what our style is but we haven't really gotten a chance to fine tune it and make it truly our own. So we've had a lot of evenings spent scouring home decor magazines, and websites weeding out exactly the ideas we want to implement in our home and we feel we've got a good start.

We're budget shoppers so this will be an adventure in how little can we spend without sacrificing quality. Should be fun.

So we're starting in the entry way and working our way in concentrating on the first floor first and then moving upstairs.

the first big thing we're going to be doing is painting all of our trim work I know I know some of you are gasping in pain. But we have a white kitchen that we love and don't want to change so to make the house flow better we feel it necessary to change out our oak trim.


here's a not so great picture of our trim that we will be painting. I'm also on the look out for a new fireplace surround but I kind of want something with some character so I've been looking in thrift and antique and haven't had any success yet.




The half wall that separates our sunk in living room from the kitchen is going to become a bar area to add extra seating to our little eat in kitchen.


these are the first major projects we'll be undertaking soon.

Here's some inspiration pics I'm starting to pull together a few at a time.

some of these are from other bloggers some from Rate My Space some I have pulled off various websites. If the pic is yours let me know I'll give you credit.

Later Alligators...

Mrs. A