29 Weeks!

*29 weeks

*3rd Trimester!

*Knox is the size of a butternut squash.

*he is weighing around 2.5 pounds. 

*taught 12 classes this week but did not participate in all of them. 

*energy has been moderate. 

*sleep has been better. 

*still craving almonds, bananas and oranges... and chocolate!

*appetite is still good. I feel like all I want to do is snack all the time but I think its because I can't eat a lot in one sitting.. 

*Knox has still been very active. He really enjoys playing on my bladder!

*next appointment is April 2nd. 

I made it to 29 weeks teaching roughly 12 classes a week. I am sad to say that I am now having to cut out the 4 spin classes each week. I started feeling some pain/cramps in my right side during Monday's class. I ended up getting off the bike after 7 mins. Same thing happened during Tuesday morning's class. I called the nurse later on Tuesday and she said that since my body is so used to all the classes, that this is my body's way of telling me to stop. Thankfully, I did not experience any spotting or bleeding and Knox is still moving around just fine.... esp. on my bladder. I am still teaching spin but just not on the bike participating. 

Hail Week Update:

We finally made it one step closer to finding out about our cars. 

Basically, they are both totaled. 

We will know more in 3-5 days. The adjuster has to send off his paperwork and pictures to be evaluated. On my car, this is not very good. I will still have to pay quite a bit for a car that I won't even own anymore. Zach's car we should break even. So, now we wait some more. 

Roofer and adjuster are coming a week from today to inspect our roof. Roofer has already determined it needs to be replaced and everything was caused by the hailstorm (which is very obvious) BUT the adjuster will make the final call. 

We are just waiting to see how much everything totals up to be. Hopefully, with some miracle, it all gets worked out and we won't have to pay as much as it is looking out to be at this moment. 

All we can do is be patient and wait. Words can not express how thankful we are for the Jeep the couple from church is letting us borrow. It has made this process a little easier. 

Closing with a positive note....

Zach and I have done extremely well on our Lent challenge. I will update you on Sunday. 

AND...

Knox is still doing great! Growing fast and furious! Oh, this belly of mine now! Just a few more weeks! 

Hello 3rd Trimester!!!

*28 weeks

*3rd Trimester!

*Knox is the size of a Chinese cabbage.

*he is weighing around 2.25 pounds. 

*taught 8 classes this week.

*energy was low. thanks to the hailstorm I wasn't able to get much sleep! 

*sleep was good for the few hours I would be asleep. woke up pretty often

*craving almonds, bananas and oranges.

*appetite is still good. I get full very quick! some days its hard for me to breath I get so full so quick. I feel like a stuffed turkey some times. 

*Knox has still been very active. get very nervous if I don't feel him.

*my so-called appointment went well this week. I got to hear that sweet heart beat. It was in the 140's. Dr. walked in and then had to immediately leave to go deliver a baby. 

*next appointment is April 2nd. 

We had our 2nd shower this week. My co-workers threw Knox a great shower. 

The got me a gluten-free cake from Campbell's Bakery in Fondren. 

It was chocolate and absolutely delicious!!!

Thanks to the couple who loaned us their car, my handsome husband got to come to the shower!!!

Me, Martha, Kim and Brandi. They did an awesome job at the shower! We are so thankful for everything they did!!

So excited that Katie is doing her last rotation for PT school at Baptist. I get to see her and little Avery more often! 

Knox got a few SOOOO MANY gifts!!!

boppy, pacifiers, safety first basket...

clothes, blankets, toys, bibs...

books, book and more books, bottles, towels, washcloths...

diaper genie, high chair, more toys, diapers, gift cards and soooo much more...

AND this awesome diaper cakes!!!

I don't want to take it apart! It has washcloths, spoons, bottle, pacifiers, toys, blankets and that super cute elephant on top!

Knox is one loved little boy and I know that every single bit of what we got is going to come in handy!

I really can't thank everyone enough! After everything that happened Monday with the hailstorm, this was the perfect way to get our minds off of all the damage and focused back to our little man that we are so ready to meet! I can't believe he will be here in a little over 11 weeks. 

Hail Hath No Fury....

Monday 3 am: Zach and I get up for work.

4 am: We leave the house in separate cars (this only happens one week out of the month)

430 am-1215 pm: I work my daily shift and headed home.

5 am-1 pm- Zach works his daily shift and headed home.

1230 pm: I get home shower, play on the computer and relax.

145 pm: Zach gets home and takes the dogs for a walk.

4-430ish pm: We were being lazy watchingTthe Bible on The History Channel.

430ish: All.HAIL.BREAKS.LOOSE!!!!

 Oh you know... 

just a little hail. 

Since we have our garage pretty much set up like a gym, we just always park in the driveway. Unfortunately, our cars took a little MASSIVE beating. 

Neither one of our cars can be driven right now. Both back windshields are completely gone, front windshields are full of "spiderweb" cracks, and no telling how much water/electric damage was done. 

We couldn't go out to move at least one of them in without risking our safety. 

Do you want to be hit in the noggin' with a tennis size ball of ice?!?!

Yea, didn't think so. 

As soon as it started slowing down and the balls were getting smaller, Zach ran outside with a clothes basket as his shield to move the cars under the garage. 

Here are just a few pics...

My back windshield.

 My front windshield.

 My sunroof.

 Zach's front windshield.

 Zach's back windshield.

\

HAIL HATH NO FURY!

So thankful for a couple from our Lifegroup (aka Sunday School... I can't get used to calling it Lifegroup) class! They are letting us borrow their extra car until we get word on ours. And who knows when that will be??

Thankfully, only our roof has a little damage. All of our windows are still in tact. Look how gross our house looked afterwards. The hail was bouncing off the ground and hitting our house.  

Zach pressure washed it yesterday and now you can really tell where all the paint is chipped on the shutters. Thankfully, we still have the paint in our attic. We will just have to get out there and get to work. 

We walked Duke and Delta this afternoon and inspected the neighborhood. Not one house escaped this crazy afternoon hailstorm. 

I'm not going to lie. I was in huge panic Monday when all this was going down. I have never seen such a thing. I keep telling myself that they are just cars and can be fixed/replace. I am so thankful that we were home with our 2 furry babies and we were all safe inside. 

Hope you all were okay and only had minimum damage, if any!

Sunday Funday!

Zach and I always give Brooklee an Easter happy. I decided to go ahead and give it to her yesterday while they were at our house. 

She had so much fun looking through everything. Emilee was out of town so it was just her and Britt. Everything she pulled out of the bag she would say, "Daddy, look!" 

 Her Easter basket bags are always very random. Anything within the last month or so that I thought she would like I snatch it up. 

 Random things like these bunny glasses. How stickin' funny/cute are they. She put these on right before they were leaving and she was talking to her dad. Britt just laughed and said, "I can't take you serious right now." 

There were clothes, backseat bingo games, notebooks (for her to color in on car rides), puzzles, chalk, hula hoop, crayons, golf club set and some more things that I can't remember.  

 We, of course, had to play with as much as we could while Britt and Zach hung the pegboard in Knox's room. Look how great she can write her name. 

All.by.herself!

After they got done with Knox's room, Zach and I headed out and about. We headed up to Highland Village to make a return. Check out this tulip! It is called a Parrot Tulip, I believe. It is absolutely gorgeous! 

Before we left Highland Village we ran upstairs to run to the restroom. I came out to find this! 

Smallest water fountain ever! Zach had to turn sideways to even get anything! They definitely weren't thinking clearly when planning this layout. I could barely walk down the stairs because I was laughing so hard! 

Random post for this Sunday afternoon, but so much happened yesterday! 

Hope you all have a great week!

Nursery

It's been a busy day/week for us. This is my last free weekend until the second weekend in May. I knew that we had to get in Knox's room and get to work. 

Every afternoon this week we were doing some kind of prep work so today would be somewhat on the easier side. I think his room is really coming together and I absolutely love it! 

My wonderful family are planners. Huge planners! We like to plan things way in advance. We were driving back from the coast and we were already picking our vacation for the next year. Brooklee's birthday always gets planned starting at least 6 months before. We picked boy/girl names within the first couple of weeks of our pregnancy. We picked out girl/boy bedding before we ever found out what we were having. The day after we found out, all I had to do was go online and order his bedding. I feel much better now that 90% of the work in his nursery is done! 

We were originally going to go with blue as our accent color. Well, we quickly changed our minds!

 Orange it is!

I knew I wanted his name above his crib. Zach and I went to Hobby Lobby yesterday to look for letters. Zach was having a difficult time (or I just was not explaining it clearly) understanding what I was wanting. I finally found the letters and the wood to make frames and I got on the floor in Hobby Lobby to put it out. After he saw it he was on the same boat as me. We painted our kitchen orange when we moved in our house and thankfully we still had some. 

I think it turned out great! Zach put the frame together, primed it and painted it. I painted the letters. 

Thanks to Pinterest, I came up with this pegboard idea for the changing table. Zach's parents gave us this beautiful antique dresser that fits just perfect in this itty, bitty room. Since the dresser is only big enough for the changing pad, the pegboard was a perfect solution for extra storage. 

We painted it the same color as the letters and gave a boring brown pegboard some life. We searched and searched for baskets. Finally found some online that were pretty pricey but went ahead and got them since they were the only ones we had found. Well.... Home Depot has the same set of 3 baskets for 10$!!! Are you kidding me!?!?!?! Oh well!!! We have wipes and diapers in the big baskets, onesies and lotion/ointments will go in the middle baskets and I am not quite sure yet what will go in the small baskets. I'm sure we will figure it out. 

I posted this pic in my last post but here it is again. 

Our rocker!

His little closet is filling up too. We washed all his clothes. Those blue baskets were originally for the shelving unit we got but decided to change them to orange. I put them in the closet for shoes and such. 

When you look at the clothes (there are more in the dresser), it doesn't seem like there is a lot but once you get to hanging and folding them... they are never ending! It was fun though, getting to go back through everything he has gotten. 

I am so thrilled and relieved that we got all this accomplished today. 

Now, only 12 weeks and 1 day to go! 

But who's counting?!?!? 

ME!!!!!!

27 Weeks!

*27 weeks

*Knox is the size of a cauliflower.

*he is weighing around 2 pounds. 

*taught 8 classes this week.

*energy has been somewhat on the good side this week. 

*sleep was better. had a few nights of really good sleep.

*craving chocolate, almonds and fruit.

*appetite is still good. I get full very quick! starting to get hungry earlier between meals. some days I couldn't eat enough and then some days where I couldn't breathe from being so full.

*Knox has still been very active. get very nervous if I don't feel him.

*next appointment is March 19th. 

We finally purchase the chair for his nursery. It is not your typical nursery rocker. We decided to go with leather. It looks black in the photo but its actually chocolate. It is the perfect size for his tiny nursery. 

We are doing a lot of work in his nursery this weekend. I can't wait to post pics of everything. 

Zach has been on a mission to get Knox tons of "workout" gear. Yes, he knows that he won't be able to do anything for a really long time but no one can have to many workout outfits or tennis shoes. 

Zach and I are Under Armour snobs but when he came across these Puma shoes and shirt he couldn't pass them up. We are still searching for the perfect Under Armour shoes. 

Stay tuned for pictures of the nursery!!!!

Amanda Price Memorial 5k/10k

Last year, I blogged about the Amanda Price Memorial 5k. 

Yesterday, I got to participate in it again. 

Amanda was a Phi Mu at Delta State. She had graduated by the time I got there. My sister and a bunch of other older Phi Mu's that I looked up to talked nothing but good things about Amanda. One good thing about a sisterhood, like Phi Mu, no matter what age, we are always sisters. Forever. 

I might not be active in an alumni chapter but that doesn't mean that I still don't hold a special place in my heart for this wonderful chapter. Wonderful friends/sisters were made during those 4 years of my life. 

Yesterday, they had the 2nd annual memorial walk in honor of Amanda Price. My sister and I drove up Friday night and stayed with one of her college room mates in Batesville. We got up early on Saturday and drove to Oxford to pick up another one of their roommates/suite-mates. The four of us made our way to New Albany, MS to get our walk on. 

The morning started with an opening ceremony where Amanda's husband and brother spoke. Definitely a tear-jerker moment! Amanda's family all released white dove balloons in her honor. 

It was a pretty chilly morning but I believe that Amanda was shinning down on the walk and breaking the clouds away to warm us up!

I wanted to take a pic of this sign and wasn't really paying attention to who was standing in front of it. Later I realized that it was Amanda's husband and daughter. 

Rebecca, me, Emilee and Brooke. Waiting on the walk to begin. 

The suite-mates from college. I was always in their room. 

They never seemed to mind... or at least I hope! :)

Knox did a great job at finishing the race. We were definitely not trying to win a medal or anything but just to have a good time. 

My number is covering Knox up. I was 26weeks&6days pregnant! So thankful that I am still able to do things like this!

The four of us in front of the sign. I asked a random stranger to take our picture and to please get the WHOLE sign in the pic...

He, obviously, got the memo. 

Me and my wonderful sister(by blood)! 

Sharing a wonderful bond with someone who you already have a great bond with is pretty great!

A few of the Phi Mu's after the race!

A few more Phi Mu's came up so, of course, we had to take another picture! 

Amanda's daughter is the precious little blond next to me. This wasn't all the Phi Mu's there but with a large crowd it was hard to find everyone. 

Anjanette got to be interviewed after the race. It was pretty emotional listening to her talk. Amanda was her Matron of Honor in her wedding. They were very close. 

It was a great morning! I am so glad to be apart of such a wonderful organization. 

¹² Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.

1 Timothy 4:12

Here is a news clip from the walk. 

http://www.clipsyndicate.com/video/playlist/29555/3972988

26 Weeks!

I didn't get around to decorating my board this week and before I knew it I am just a few days away from 27 weeks. So, I figured I would just skip this week and take one in a few days. Our intern, for this semester, was watching me in laughter while I was drinking this awful glucose "cola." She took this picture for me. It wasn't the worst thing I have ever had but by the end of it I was definitely gagging. 

*26 weeks

*Knox is the length of a English hothouse cucumber.

*His heart rate was in the 140's. I have a recording on my phone that I wanted to post so you could hear but can't figure out how to get it on here :(

*passed my glucose testing! YIPEE!!! 

*iron level was great. 

*my belly measured at 27 weeks. 

*taught 10 classes this week but only participated in 8. energy has been LOW! 

*energy has been MIA. 

*sleep... what is that?!?! 

*sweet potato fries and dark chocolate

*appetite is still good. I get full very quick! starting to get hungry earlier between meals. 

*Knox has still been very active. get very nervous if I don't feel him.

*next appointment is March 19th. I start going every 2 weeks now! 

I have a new recipe that I would like to share...

Chocolate Chip Cookies!!! 

Who doesn't like chocolate chip cookies???

I got the recipe from cookieandkate.com 

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup almond flour or almond meal, firmly packed
• 1/4 coconut flour, firmly packed
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
• dash cinnamon (optional)
• 1/2 cup butter or coconut oil, melted
• 1/2 cup real maple syrup (preferably grade B) or honey
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 6 ounces dark chocolate, chopped, or 1 cup chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Pour in the melted butter (or coconut oil), maple syrup (or honey) and vanilla extract, and mix thoroughly. Stir in the chocolate.
3. Let the dough rest for 5 minutes so the coconut flour can absorb some of the excess moisture (or let the dough chill in the fridge for 10 minutes if you want fat cookies, like those shown here). Scoop dough, one tablespoon at a time, in mounds onto the baking sheet, leaving a couple inches around each cookie.
4. Bake for about 11 minutes, until golden brown. (I cooked one batch for 11 mins and they were a little over done, so the second batch I cooked for 8 minutes and they were perfect! Just watch them closely!)

I have tried several gluten free chocolate chip cookies and this is the best one yet! Give it a try!

Hope you all have a great Friday tomorrow and weekend!!!

Goodness in a Jar!

Zach and I had our first baby shower for Knox this past Friday. You can read all about it here. Several weeks ago when the date was set, I immediately starting thinking about hostess gifts. For a few of our wedding showers I gave the hostesses mason jars filled with ingredients to make M&M cookies. They were fun to make! I knew that I wanted to make something similar but make it gluten-free and paleo. 

I came across this recipe on MarthaStewart.com. Zach and I of course sampled it to make sure that it was worthy to give someone else. It was absolutely delicious!

I'm calling this "Goodness in a Jar!" 

Ingredients:

(You can go to MarthaStewart's website for the exact measurements.)

Toasted Walnuts

(Place them in a skillet on medium heat and toast for about 5-10 minutes. You will smell them when they are done.)

Dried Cranberries

Dried Apricots

Honey

Mix all ingredients except honey and fill a mason jar (size of your choice).

Pour honey on top. I used a butter knife to move around the nuts and dried fruit so the honey could get all the way to the bottom. 

Find fabric of your choice to add a special little touch. 

I placed them in these burlap sacks with their Thank You card.

You can either tell them or write a little "instruction" card...

Enjoy on your favorite toast, yogurt, ice cream, or whatever your heart desires!

I think they turn out super cute and believe me... it is delicious!