Christmas presents

This year Christmas was not as big a to do as other years have been. Both because we are in a recession, and because we need to save all of our money for the little bundle I am growing. SO my hubs and I did not exchange gifts this year. Which was fine with me. Maybe we will keep this tradition going. I don't mind not trying to find something that he will actually like. Selfish of me, maybe, but I don't really care. He is really hard to shop for! We did still get gifts from our parents, I not one to turn away from free stuff! We got a new flat screen tv from my husband's parents, needless to say he is very excited by this. He finally pulled out the surround sound that we got for a engagement present and hooked it up. Not to mention we finally graduated to a household that now has a flat screen tv.
My step dad is apparently very excited about this baby, who woulda guessed. We have never had the best relationship, he didn't even come to my wedding. Maybe this is his way of trying to make up for all of that. Anyway, he was a contractor in a previous life, okay not really a previous life he has had a lot of different jobs and a contractor was one of those. He made Addison a toy box for all of her toys. My mom told me after they gave me the box that he had started on it when I was first pregnant with Peanut. He planned it out and made it all himself. It is like a big letter block with a different color letter on each side of the box.

It has green, yellow, pink, blue, and a grey color.
Then my mom got me a Pandora bracelet that has a little baby carriage charm on it. I am guessing that she is going to get me a charm for the bracelet every year now. I love it!

We spend every Christmas eve visiting my extended family and my aunt surprised me with a blanket and some other things she had made for Addison.

Its all about baby this year!

Merry Christmas

Merry (early) Christmas everyone! I will be far away from civilization tomorrow so no Internet or computer or even cable for that matter. Hope you all have a wonderful, spirit filled Holiday!!!!

What's happening with Judas week 21

Your baby now weighs about three-quarters of a pound and is approximately 10 1/2 inches long — the length of a carrot. You may soon feel like she's practicing martial arts as her initial fluttering movements turn into full-fledged kicks and nudges. You may also discover a pattern to her activity as you get to know her better. In other developments, your baby's eyebrows and lids are present now, and if you're having a girl, her vagina has begun to form as well. ~babycenter

How far along? 21 weeks
Total weight gain: 4 lbs
Maternity clothes? Yep
Sleep: I wish it was better
Best moment this week: feeling the baby move more and more each day
Movement: Yep
Gender: GIRL!! Addison Hope
Labor Signs: No thank goodness
Belly Button in or out? In
What I miss: Not having to think about what I need to take with me to leave the house (water bottle, where the closest bathroom is)
What I am looking forward to: When my husband can feel the baby move too!
Weekly Wisdom: I got nothing.
Milestones: Feeling movement every day!

Free stuff!!!

I am so excited! My sister works for a family in our town that has a little girl that is almost 1 year old. This family lives in the "very rich" part of town. By very rich I mean people that live in this section of town can afford to have a nanny (rich people don't call babysitters well babysitters) when they are home. Yes they pay someone (my sister in this case) to watch their children when they are home!!! So this family happened to be cleaning out the newest additions closet and my sister mentioned that I am expecting a little girl. BANK! I got all the clothes that they were going to throw out. Some even had the tags on still!!! There are onesies and sleeper sacks and swaddlers and burp cloths and blankets and dresses and pants and well you get the picture. All in sizes from newborn to 12 months. Which is great seeing that so far I had about 10 articles of clothing for Addison. Well now she has lots of clothes, rich people clothes that we would have never purchased for her!

The black trash bag of treasures!


Everything spread out on our coffee table, Showtime, our American Bulldog, decided to protect the clothes by laying under the table and keeping everyone else away. I think she is going to be very protective of the baby. That is her rear on the left.


Everything hung up in Addison's closet. I didn't have enough hangers so I had to put the onsies and pants at the top of the closet.


This is my favorite thing out of the bag. It is just the cutest little dress, I can't wait for Addison to wear it!!!

salt bad, water good.

This is what to much salt, not enough water, and standing or sitting all day will do to a pregnant women.


Say hello to my little friends!
Cankles!

Looks like I am "one of those lucky women" that gets to enjoy swelling most of her pregnancy. According to my doctor "some" women start swelling around 20 to 25 weeks. Great! I am JUST 20 weeks. Lucky me! I guess it is me and the sausage feet for the rest of the time. I have been drinking so much water today I feel like I am floating. Not to mention running to the bathroom every hour. From here on out less salt and more water is my motto!

*On another note please forgive the horrible toes, it is winter after all and I have been sorely neglecting going to the nail salon.

What's happening with Judas week 20

Your baby weighs about 10 1/2 ounces now. She's also around 6 1/2 inches long from head to bottom and about 10 inches from head to heel — the length of a banana. (For the first 20 weeks, when a baby's legs are curled up against her torso and hard to measure, measurements are taken from the top of her head to her bottom — the "crown to rump" measurement. After 20 weeks, she's measured from head to toe.)

She's swallowing more these days, which is good practice for her digestive system. She's also producing meconium, a black, sticky by-product of digestion. This gooey substance will accumulate in her bowels, and you'll see it in her first soiled diaper (some babies pass meconium in the womb or during delivery). ~babycenter

How far along? 1/2 way!!!!! 20 weeks
Total weight gain: 4 lbs total, I think that is mighty good!
Maternity clothes? Yep
Sleep: Last night was BAD but the 2 days before that were okay.
Best moment this week: Registering! iIt was so much fun.
Movement: Yep more and more each day.
Gender: GIRL
Labor Signs: Nope
Belly Button in or out? In, and I have to say my belly button is a cavern so I will be very surprised if it becomes an outie at all!
What I miss: Being able to take Advil.
What I am looking forward to: When my Hubs can feel Addison moving!
Weekly Wisdom: Take water with you when you go to register. I thought I was going to pass out it was so hot and hard being on my feet that long.
Milestones: 1/2 way!!!!!!

My FIRST ever blog award!!!!!!

AAAHHHHH I got my first EVER blog award today!!!!! SSSSOOOOO exciting thanks Natalie at Hope Springs Eternal!

Rules for the Happy 101 Award

List 10 things that make you happy, try to do at least one of them today, and tag 10 bloggers that brighten your day. For those 10 bloggers who get the award, you then link back to my blog and create your makes you happy list.

Things that make me happy:
1. Feeling my little Addison moving all around and knowing that she is happy and thriving!
2. Spending time with my DH.
3. Spending time with all of my pets, nothing puts a smile on your face like seeing a crazy dog or cat, and I have plenty of them.
4. Blogging, I mean why else would I do it.
5. When it gets cold outside.
6. Christmas lights.
7. Curling up on the couch with a good cup of Joe and a book.
8. Sleeping in.
9. When I walk into the barn and my horse comes over to see me and doesn't run away, even if he is just looking for food.
10. Saturdays and Sundays

10 Bloggers I pass this award on to:
1. Katie at Baby Bumble Bee
2. Meegs at A New Day
3. Christy at Almost a Mother
4. Murgdan at Conceive This
5. Kristy at I love you to the moon and back
6. Lindsay at La La Land
7. Iris Savea at Daily Musings of a Crazy Cat Lady
8. Tina at Our Journey to Parenthood (and Hopefully Beyond)
9. Elisabeth at Rainbow After the Rain
10. We're Expecting

YEA! Thanks so much Natalie!!!!!

Registering fun!

We are going tonight to register for little Addison Hope! I'm super excited. My DH warned me that he is only going to indulge this kind of thing once so I guess I better enjoy it! He is defiantly a man when it comes to shopping, he HATES it! With a passion! I am surprised I could even get him to agree to registering with me. Maybe it is the sad face I gave him, or the guilt trip that this is his first and possibly only daughter! Plus we are going to make a evening of it, and go out to dinner once we are done. He warned me that we had to eat after since he tends to get tired and cranky when he is full, or when he is hungry so this should be very interesting!
Oh and on another note I have been, in my head of course, calling this little one Nugglett since we found out she is a she. Hopefully I won't accidentally slip and say it out loud it just sounds like a bad word to me.
I can't believe it is already time to register, I thought I would never get to this point! WOW.

Christmas survey

Borrowed (well actually stolen) from Natalie over at Hope Springs Eternal
1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? - Wrapping paper all the way, well unless something has a really strange shape.
2. Real tree or artificial? - REAL!!!!!!! I have never not put up a tree and it has always been real! I LOVE real trees!
3. When do you put up the tree? - The day after Thanksgiving. Always. We go and pick one out and put it up no matter how much trouble (this year was full of tree trouble)
4. When do you take the tree down? - Sometime between the day after Christmas and New Years
5. Do you like eggnog? - Gross, so NO
6. What about Fruitcake? - I have never tried a fruitcake but it looks pretty darn gross if you ask me.
7. Favorite gift received as a child? - My bouncy horse. We wore the springs on that thing out. My mom had to throw it away while I was in school. Best gift ever!
8. Do you have a nativity scene? - Yep
9. Hardest person to buy for? - My husband.
10. Easiest person to buy for? - Me (does that count?)
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? - I'm not really sure about that.
12. Mail or email Christmas cards? - Cards but I have been very slack about it this year I don't think it is going to happen. On another note people actually send it out in email form?
13. Favorite Christmas movie? - ELF!!!!!! I watch it the day after Thanksgiving while putting up the tree. SANTA....... I know him! Hehe
14. When do you start shopping for Christmas? - Black Friday!
15. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? - No
16. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? - Pecan Pie with cool whip and we always have chicken salad sandwiches and sausage balls for breakfast on Christmas morning. Yum!
17. Clear lights or colored on the tree? - Both, colored on the inside (close to the trunk on the branches) of the tree and white on the outside.
18. Favorite Christmas song? - Xmas Blues by Bigtyme. Hilarious if you have never heard it!
19. Travel for Christmas or stay at home? - I always go to my Grandma's in NC and then I come home on Christmas Day to see my DH's family
20. Can you name all of Santa's reindeers? - Dasher Dancer Prancer Vixen Comet Cupid Donder (yes it is Donder not Donner) and Blitzen were the original.
21. Angel on the tree top or a star? - Star
22. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? - Morning
23. What is the one present you want most this year? - For my Addison to continue to grow big and strong and to stay where she is!
24. Most annoying thing about this time of year? - All the crazy people out shopping!
25. What I love most about Christmas? - EVERYTHING!!!!!! I love Christmas!

Name Game

Can you guess her name? Anyone? These are her little girl parts! I posting this for future use in case she is bad! Anyone say blackmail, is that illegal if it is your own child?

Her little profile so cute already!

So I am sure you have all guess by now what her name is, that is unless you can't read and then well I guess you still won't have any idea since you can't read this either! We have decided on the moniker Addison Hope for our little girl. No i don't care if you don't care for it, please keep those thoughts to yourself. Thanks. There is a little story behind her name and I will share that with you right now. I mean when have I been one to keep things to myself?
So Addison Hope. As most of you know I had a miscarriage before I became pregnant with this little girl. That was the worst thing ever! Very difficult time for me. I spent a lot of time trying to find things that made me feel better. A lot of that time was spent on the computer looking up things others had written about miscarriage and ways they were coping. A few things I came across were poems and songs that helped people. One song in particular I had never heard so I looked it up on You tube. It was called Hope Now. As soon as I started listening to it I was crying. I added this song to one of my play lists, and listened to it all the time. The song Hope Now is by a Christian band named Addison Road (this is the blog of one of the member's of the band). See where this is going? I actually started listening to my local Christian radio in hopes that other songs like this one would help me feel better. This song just spoke to me. I felt a peace when I would listen to it, however hokey that sounds. We had already been thinking of the name Addison before we lost our little Peanut. Now I felt that God was telling me that everything was going to be okay, and I felt pulled to name our daughter (if we were so blessed to get pregnant again AND to have a girl) Addison Hope in honor of not only that song, but how it made me feel. Not only that, but Hope is my and my mothers middle names, so it just seemed perfect to me. In fact I was (in my head of course) referring to the little one I was carrying now Addison as soon as I found out I was pregnant again.
So there is the story behind my little ones name. I am so very blessed to have the chance to carry my little miracle Addison Hope!

What's happening with Judas week 19

Your baby's sensory development is exploding! Her brain is designating specialized areas for smell, taste, hearing, vision, and touch. Some research suggests that she may be able to hear your voice now, so don't be shy about reading aloud, talking to her, or singing a happy tune if the mood strikes you.
Your baby weighs about 8 1/2 ounces and measures 6 inches, head to bottom — about the size of a large heirloom tomato. Her arms and legs are in the right proportions to each other and the rest of her body now. Her kidneys continue to make urine and the hair on her scalp is sprouting. A waxy protective coating called the vernix caseosa is forming on her skin to prevent it from pickling in the amniotic fluid. ~babycenter

How far along? 19 weeks
Total weight gain: 4lbs
Maternity clothes? Yep
Sleep: Well it would probably be better if my hip didn't fall asleep and send shooting pains down my leg.
Best moment this week: finding out the sex and that all the tests and measurements came back normal.
Movement: Yes more and more each day!
Gender: GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!
Labor Signs: Thank you no
Belly Button in or out? In
What I miss: Sleeping comfortably on my back.
What I am looking forward to: Registering and buying little girl stuff.
Weekly Wisdom: Once you start showing people are going to say inappropriate things. Like the cell phone guy!
Milestones: Finding out our nugget is a GIRL.

Big ultrasound

So we had our big ultrasound this morning. I guess everything looked great. I have my appt with the Dr at 2:30 but I just had to go ahead and post that we are excited to announce our new baby is a

GIRL!!!!!!!!!

Cracked berry

This is not the way anyone's Crackberry should look.

Unfortunately, this is exactly what mine has looked like since about 4:45 pm last night. Oh yes I cracked my Crackberry, and I am sad as sad can be. It is not a good idea to simultaneously drop your phone, and try and close the door to your vehicle. It could result in the aforementioned picture. Yep I slammed my phone in the door of my car and let me tell you the crunch was bad. Needless to say I rushed to my nearest cellphone shop where it seems the rest of the city was gathered and proceeded to wait in line for a rep. Oh and did I get a great one. Let me just tell you how our conversation went.

Stupid unnamed phone carrier rep guy: How can I help you Mrs. Stoneyville?

Me: (Holding phone up in front of his face pointedly)

SUPCRG: Oh did you throw it at your Husband? (giving my belly a knowing look)

Me: (Incredulous stare) Uh, no I dropped it in my car.

SUPCRG: Well, was your Husband in the car with you? (knowing grin)

Me: No

SUPCRG: Well we can get you a replacement no matter how it happened. We don't have one in stock so we can send it to you, but it will be 2 days until you get it. To late for overnight shipping.

Me: Okay. (puling out credit card for the replacement fee)

SUPCRG: So do you know what you are having? It looks like a boy to me from the way you are carrying.

Me: (slowly raise my head to blankly stare at him) No we don't.

SUPCRG: Well at least you know you are having a human right? (chuckles to himself) (turns to the guy sitting next to him) She is having a human!

Me: (How do respond to such stupidity? I was in shock at this point so I just swiped my card and waited for him to finish)

SUPCRG: Congratulations, is this your first? My sister just had a human a few weeks ago. (another little chuckle to himself)

Me: Thanks (I grab the receipt and rush out of there)

I wish I was making this up people but that is pretty much how the convo went.
So now I am minus a phone and apparently having a human AND a boy for all of you that wanted to know.

Deck the Halls take 2

Okay so I don't know how many of you remember the tree fiasco from last week. Not fun at all. I figured that had to be the worst of the Christmas decorating problems. Well I was wrong. I noticed a few days after the tree came tumbling down that the tree did not seem to be taking in any water. I usually have to water it every day and I had not added water to the stand since the day we finally got it to stay in the upright position. I didn't think much of it, problem number one. Then I noticed that the house was not really smelling like Christmas tree. Oh well I was to busy to pay much attention. Then I started cleaning the house on Sat. morning and I happened to brush past the tree and noticed a lot of needles falling off. I mean A LOT. bad sign. Rush to computer and Google "A LOT of needles falling off Christmas tree". Sure go ahead and laugh but I didn't want to jump to any conclusions. yet. Google confirmed it. My tree was dead, gone, and a fire hazard. So I put on my best smile and rushed to find my husband and said sweetly dear our tree is dead and we are going to have to go get a new one. *Smile* *bat eyelashes* Then ran away real fast before he could respond. Followed by lots of cursing and yelling at the tree while I tried to find all of the ornaments and remove all of the lights. Luckily the hubs was pretty patient with me about removing the dead tree and then trying to pick through what was left of the trees at the big box hardware store. They happened to be putting out new trees when we got there so I stealthily followed the hardware man around while he untied all the new trees, and then made my very patient hubby hold up each one while I decided on which one was best. So we got a new tree, got it home and I did the whole tree trimming thing all over again. I have to say though I really like tree number 2 better! I think my neighbors probably think we are crazy though since we now have a tree laying in front of the house waiting on the trash pickup and a tree in the window. Oh well.
So here for your viewing pleasure is tree #1 and tree #2 and some other household Christmas decor!

Tree #1 had some big gaps in the tree that made it look a little lopsided

Tree #2 even though it was a little less full it did not have the big gaps that tree #1 had.






This is only part of our stocking, we have a bunch of animals and everyone has their own stockings. The rest are around another door.

Things no one tells you about pregnancy

One day when you are walking around or getting ready to sit down minding your own business, out of nowhere, your underwear are going to revolt and decide they have had enough of the stretching and ROLL right on down. They will continue to do this until you decide you have had enough and it is time to get your lazy butt of the couch and head to the nearest maternity store and purchase new underwear. I have yet to do this and am still living with the roll. No where in any of my pregnancy books did it warn me of the rolling panties phenomenon. Just another of the endless joys and surprises of pregnancy.

What's happening with Judas week 18

Head to rump, your baby is about 5 1/2 inches long (about the length of a bell pepper) and he weighs almost 7 ounces. He's busy flexing his arms and legs — movements that you'll start noticing more and more in the weeks ahead. His blood vessels are visible through his thin skin, and his ears are now in their final position, although they're still standing out from his head a bit. A protective covering of myelin is beginning to form around his nerves, a process that will continue for a year after he's born. If you're having a girl, her uterus and fallopian tubes are formed and in place. If you're having a boy, his genitals are noticeable now, but he may hide them from you during an ultrasound.~babycenter

How far along? 18 weeks
Total weight gain: 3lbs
Maternity clothes? yep, but I had to "modify" the pants so they would fit and not fall down.
Sleep: I wish it was better
Best moment this week: I felt the Nugget move on Monday for the first time.
Movement: YES!!! Twice on Monday once a brush and once like a hunger pain without the pain part
Gender: 1 week! I can't wait!
Labor Signs: Nope
Belly Button in or out? In
What I miss: Sushi and a good beer. At least this week that is what I miss.
What I am looking forward to: Finding out the sex!
Weekly Wisdom: People can not drive in the rain (not pregnancy related but I had to share).
Milestones: Maybe not a milestone but I smile every time someone I know looks at me and then at my belly and gives me a funny look. Like they are waiting for me to jump up and down and yell "I'm Pregnant". I just act like I don't see them. Is that mean? Personally I think it is really funny!

songs about miscarriage

For some reason I felt compelled to put up the list of songs that personally helped me deal with my miscarriage. Some of these songs can still make me cry listening to them. They also help me not forget my little peanut.
Natalie Grant: Held
Addison Road: Hope Now
Selah: I Will Carry You (Audrey's song) I promise if you watch this you will cry!
Kellie Coffey: I'd Die For That
Sarah McLachlan: Angel
Watermark: Glory Baby
Tori Amos: Spark
Casting Crowns: Praise You In The Storm
Sarah McLachlan: I Will Remember You
K.T. Tunstall: Other Side of The World
Please feel free to add any songs that helped you.