My How Time Flies....

This pregnancy seems to have flown by really quickly for me.  Life has been so busy and hectic that I haven't had the time to update as often, but we're all doing great!  I'm 33 weeks along as of today, and everything seems to be right on schedule.  I did have some strong contractions and pressure a couple of weeks ago that resulted in several hours at the hospital being monitored, but thankfully, the contractions stopped, and I was able to go home.  After a sonogram to check my cervix and a hormone test to check for pre-term labor (plus monitoring my contractions), the Dr. determined that I was having some uterine irritability (apparently common in 3rd pregnancies), and that we wouldn't go into labor within the next 14 days at least.  That was a BIG relief for this Mommy!

Avery is very active which reminds me of my pregnancy with Presley (uh-oh), and I am in that stage of pregnancy where I am just plain miserable.  I can't wait to meet this sweet little girl!  It's been sooo long since we've had a baby in our house that some days I have a bit of anxiety (especially since we have yet to get the baby things out of the attic), but I am excited to see Makenzie and Presley as big sisters.  Makenzie was so young when Presley was born that she doesn't really remember Presley as a baby so technically this will be the first time she'll be able to remember experiencing life with a newborn lol.  They are counting down the weeks until they meet their little sister.  They have prayed for this baby since before she was even conceived, and they love her so much already! 

Thanks to my awesome sister-in-law, we were able to have a 3D sonogram done in Jackson at 27 weeks, and since I haven't been able to share the pictures, I thought I'd do so!  The sonogram was amazing!  We even have a good 10 minutes of video in which we get to see Miss Avery suck her thumb and yawn.  We even got to see the hair on her head! Yes, I'm sure if she's anything like her sisters, she'll have a head full of jet black hair when she's born! 

Here's one of her sucking her thumb...



She's definitely a little girl! She was sunny side up, with her head down, and the minute they put the little wand thing on my stomach, I was like, yep, no doubt...she's a girl! LOL

Look at her foot!  HUGE!

Tiny little toes...Can you see how she's laying?  Her feet are over her head!  They tried to get her to cooperate for a 4D, but she kept her hands and feet over her face the entire time. :(

We are sooo in love already! Can't wait for Miss Avery Kathryn to make her grand entrance.  Love my little girls!

Christmas 2011

I have to just say our family is extremely blessed.  We had an amazing Christmas with our large extended families, and what could be better than celebrating the birth of Christ with those we love?  I am so thankful to have each and every one of you in my life.  Here are just a few highlights of our Christmas with family.

Christmas at Papaw and Yaya's...

 

Oglesby Christmas...

We always let the girls open gifts from each other on Christmas Eve.  I LOVED seeing my girls act so sweet toward each other!

Christmas morning...

VERY excited about her new Ipod.

Yay! New Toms! 

Morgan Christmas...

My Dad with his Grandbabies...

Makenzie, Britlee, and Presley

Such a wonderful Christmas! I was shocked at how easy it was to get up and open gifts and still manage to make it to church on time Christmas morning.  We weren't rushed, and it made for a beautiful day.  We enjoyed lunch with my parents and Christmas with the Morgan's that night.  We wrapped up our family Christmas time on New Year's Eve with the Fulgham's.  The girls were sad to have to go back to school today, but overall, it was a GREAT two weeks of family time.  Hard to believe next year we'll have a 9 month old to add to the mix....can't wait!



Christmas Cookies Galore!

Baking Christmas cookies is a tradition at our house, and this year we baked TONS.  We started off by cutting out and baking cookies to take to the Templeton's for some decorating fun.

Brennan and Presley worked hard on those cookies....

Addison and Makenzie

And...the whole gang. They had so much fun decorating together and then playing for a bit afterward.

We then had the Ballard bunch over for our annual Cookies for Santa decorating party. 

Goodness...I think our families grow each year lol...We have too many more kids and we'll have to find a bigger table!



Christmas Card 2011

Wishing you all a blessed Christmas!

With love from our family,



First White Egg!

As many of you know, we have chickens...13 hens to be exact.  Our four Buff Orpingtons have continually surprised us with their egg-laying and sweet docile nature.  Even with the weather turning colder, they have continued to lay an egg a day.  Love them!

Our nine White Leghorn hens on the other hand have been a handful!  They are NOT sweet like the buffs nor are they nice to each other.  We started out with ten, but they ganged up on one little hen and swiftly did away with her by pecking her to death :(  They also have tormented our poor buffs (who are very broody and love nesting) by scratching all the hay out of their nesting boxes and trying to peck their eggs.  We promptly decided the best course of action was to build a seperate coop to house the White Leghorns so they would leave our buffs in peace .  I have to say my hubby has been a trooper for building two seperate coops and such a huge help with the hens (really he has taken them over- he enjoys them as much as I do!)

We weren't surprised with the colder weather and the move to the new coop that they hadn't started laying eggs yet.  They are only 22 weeks old afterall and the buffs didn't start laying until 24 weeks old.  However, we were surprised to see our first white eggs appear just this past week!  The White Leghorns are also nesting in their boxes correctly and not scratching their hay out.  I guess they are finally starting to mature! LOL 

As you can tell I am VERY partial to my buffs (who by the way have rebuilt their pretty little nests and are much happier now that the White Leghorns are gone), and the brown eggs they produce are big and taste wonderful.  It was my idea to get the White Leghorns so that we could have both white and brown eggs, and while I don't regret it at all, I would suggest going with the buffs if you're thinking about getting some hens for fresh eggs :) They are MUCH less trouble!



Gender Reveal Party!

After being asked by quite a few people to have a gender reveal party, Wayne and I decided it might be fun.  What were we thinking??? It was the  hardest thing we've ever done- waiting to find out the sex of our baby with everyone else, that is!

Gender reveal parties have become quite popular, and I honestly never considered having one (especially since this is our 3rd baby), but after thinking and talking about it for a bit, we decided that if nothing else, it was a great way to get all of our family (and there are a LOT of them!) together.  We have a HUGE combined family and hosting a party for 75 people is NOT easy, but we managed to pull it off with a lot of help from my Mom, Grandma, and Aunts (thanks ladies for cooking!).

Here is a copy of the invitation we sent out:

The original plan was to have the party at the camphouse with a hayride over for the kids.  However, due to rain (and mud) we decided to have the party at our church's fellowship hall instead.  It was quite a bit more cozy, but the camphouse would have been fun too.

As guests arrived we sat down to a dinner of chili, potato soup, and chicken noodle soup along with hot dogs for the kids.

I have to say the potato soup was delicious! I have craved soups more than anything else with this pregnancy.  Along with soup, my cravings have been pickles, apples, and club sandwiches.  Crazy, huh?

Before we could cut the cake, we had to get everyone together for Team Blue or Team Pink pictures.  As you can see, everyone was predominantly Team Blue!  I guess after having 2 little girls everyone expects the 3rd baby to be a boy!

And Team Pink....all 8 of them lol!

I thought it was too cute that Makenzie was all for Team Pink while Presley was Team Blue all the way.

Our Cake:

I LOVED the great job the girls at Cups and Cakes did with our reveal cake!  You may not can make it out from the picture, but it actually says, "He? She? Open to See"  I got this idea from Pinterest, and Hailey put her own spin on it.  Turned out great!

Everyone was so anxious to find out what we were having (so were we!) that we barely finished eating dinner before everyone started asking us to cut the cake.

Here we go.....

Wayne and I get the first peek....

We both had a feeling what color the cake would be....but it was still a surprise nonetheless!

And the verdict....

PINK!!  Another sweet little girl!

We brought along the envelope the sonogram tech gave us so that we could open it up and see the sonogram picture for ourselves...

Let me  see that better....where does she say the girl parts are?  I can't see anything!

We truly were disappointed with the sonogram pictures.  You couldn't make out a thing really.  Basically, you saw a blob with the word girl typed out.  Nothing special.  It didn't do much to ease our minds especially after being told at an earlier sonogram that it was more than likely a boy.  Odds are we're having another girl since we have two already, but we think we'll go ahead and get that 4D Sonogram around Christmas just to be on the safe side ;)

Until then or unless we find out differently....

Yay for girls!! 

We love our girls, and we'd be tickled pink with another pretty little lady in our family.

Thanks to everyone who came to help celebrate with us.  It really was a fun night, and we enjoyed having you all share in that moment with us (even if it was nerve-wracking!).  BIG thank you to Julie for taking all the pictures for us.  We love the memories we made, and we appreciate you capturing each one for us.

Love you guys!

Halloween 2011

We were sooo rushed, but we managed to have fun anyway!  Here's my pretty little mermaid and precious pirate princess :)

And here's how they looked the morning after trick-or-treating...exhausted but adorable!

I LOVE that Makenzie is soo sweet to her little sister.  Every morning for the last few weeks, she has gone into Presley's room, climbed into bed with her to snuggle, and given her sweet kisses to wake her up.  They really are the best of friends (most days!).