The Last Few Weekends

The weekend of January 8th-10th we had some amazing friends come into town. Our friends Adam and Lisa came to visit from OKC. Adam and Lisa used to work with Trevor and they recently moved to OKC to work for Devon. We haven't seen them in awhile, so it was so nice to hang out and catch up. On Friday night we made chili at our house and just had a hang out night. We also played a lot of Wahoo! I had never played prior to this night, so I had fun learning although my strategy was not on par.

The next day we got up, made waffles and then headed to a home and garden type show at the convention center. It wasn't very big, so we walked through pretty quickly. We were glad we had free tickets and didn't actually pay to get in. Haha! We then went to Panera and got some lunch. At this point, the boys and the girls split. Lisa and I went to get our nails done and then went to the movie Joy. The boys went and...who knows what they did and then went and saw the movie Revenant. We planned it so our movies would get over about the same time so we could head to dinner. Trevor and Adam had made a bet over the Bedlam game. If OSU won, the Moody's would take us to a steak dinner. If OU won then we would take the Moody's to a steak dinner. Well, it was obviously our treat this year! So off to Molly's Landing we went. It was amazing! I've never had anything bad there. When we got back to our house we decided to try a new game that Trevor and I got for Christmas called telestrations. It was a blast! If you are looking for a new game to try/buy I definitely recommend this one! We stayed up past midnight playing...which is super late if you know me! 

The next morning we decided brunch would be the best way to end our weekend, so we tried the new place in BA called Toast. It was pretty good, I definitely would like to go back and try some more things on the menu. 

Thanks for an amazing weekend Moody's!!!! Sadly this is the only picture we took all weekend!

The weekend of January 15th-17th was pretty relaxing. On Friday morning we had no plans for Friday night so we decided to draw a a Popsicle stick from our Christmas gift last year for a date night. We drew Puzzle Night. So after work we headed to Walmart for a puzzle. Well, you can't do a puzzle without a card table...so we bought one of those too! 

Puzzles.are.hard! 

This is how far we got Friday night...wow we have a long way to go!

After puzzling for hours we decided to start the documentary Making a Murderer. We are hooked! 

On Saturday we did some shopping and then went to this pretty girls birthday party! 

I had to leave early because I was leading at church Saturday evening. And after church I had plans for a girls dinner. There was a group of 6 of us that went to Tallgrass Prairie Table. The food was of course delicious, the company was even better! 

On Sunday Trevor went hunting and I sang at church...love this place!

That night we watched some more Making a Murderer and kept on puzzling. 

I think the rest of the puzzle is going to be really hard!

This weekend has been pretty relaxing! Wow, I see a pattern developing. Busy busy weeks, relaxing weekends! We went to dinner with our amazing neighbors last night at Andolinis, and went baby dresser shopping today. Here are the ones we like so far. 

The first one is my favorite, I'm just waiting for the guy to come down on his price! We'll see what happens in the next couple weeks. Tonight we've got a sushi date with some friends we haven't seen in awhile. So excited to try a new restaurant. 

Definitely not the most interesting post, but we are loving life right now and enjoying our time as just a family of 2. We are so excited to see our family grow and the changes that will come with that. 

How We Told Our Family

Telling our parents was definitely a highlight. We had initially planned to wait a while before telling anyone, but our brothers were both in town for different reasons the weekend after we found out and we knew that we wouldn't get to tell them in person if we didn't tell them then. We also didn't want to tell our siblings before we told our parents, so we spilled the beans pretty early to them. 

My brother was in town because of the OSU vs TCU game. So, on Friday, November 6th we were headed to Stillwater because we had plans to tailgate and go to the game with my brother that Saturday. Since we were planning on staying in Stillwater Friday night my parents had volunteered to babysit Winston. We figured this was a great time to tell them because we knew we wanted to incorporate Winston in our big reveal (they consider Winston their grand dog, so it was only fitting). We got to their house and ended up chatting for about 30 minutes. When we were about to leave to head to Stillwater I pretended that I left Winston's jersey in the car (he always wears his OSU jersey for games, so he had to wear it while we were gone) so we went out to the car to get it. Here is what was attached to it. 

So Winston came running in the house and my parents eventually got him to calm down so they could read the sign. They were ecstatic!

I wish I could upload the video of them on here, but I haven't figured out how to do that! :( so this picture will have to do. 

That night we got to Stillwater and had plans to meet Wes and his friends at Murphy's. I had to pretend to drink a beer for about an hour before we told him. We waited until Wes needed a beer and Trevor said he'd get the next round. We delivered my brother's beer in a baby bottle. He was very confused for a minute or so until it finally dawned on him! I think he was more shocked than excited, but it eventually turned into excitement! 

On November 7th we got up, went shopping for some new OSU gear and then headed to the tailgate. We hung out in Stillwater until about half way through the game and then headed back to Tulsa to Trevor's mom's house. Trevor's brother and family were all in town, so it was perfect. When we first got there, his mom wasn't home, so we snuck around and got the scene ready. 

A bun in the oven. 

It seriously couldn't have worked out any better. When Trevor's mom came home she said that if we were hungry we could heat up a lasagna in the oven that they had earlier. We told her we were going to but something else was in the oven. She kept telling us that nothing should be in the oven and then she walked over to see what it was. 

She probably said "why is there a bun in the oven?" 5 times before it clicked and she realized what we were trying to say. Everyone else was in the living room so we kind of told everyone at once. 

The next day Trevor's dad and Beverly were eating at Louie's and we were out riding the bike, so we met them at Louie's and chatted for a bit. When we were about to leave we said "well the 3 of us are going to go riding for a bit."  Beverly caught on right away and Trevor's dad figured it out shortly after!

It was really fun coming up with a unique way to tell everyone. And we just loved that everyone was so supportive and shared in our excitement! I know that Baby M is going to be LOVED! 

All About the First Trimester

1^st TRIMESTER OVERVIEW

Whenever we got pregnant through January 6^th

I have been writing down things that have been going on weekly and of course taking weekly photos, but I decided I didn't want to share all of that. Most of the info is just stuff I want to know and remember, so I doubt anyone would really enjoy reading 40 posts breaking down each week of my life. Haha! Plus, that would be a LOT of posts. So I decided I will just do an overview of each trimester. ;) And I can't believe I am already a week into my 2nd trimester! Seriously, time flies!

Here we go...

Baby Size: Baby M has gone through many fruit stages. :) 5 – Appleseed, 6 – Sweetpea, 7 – Blueberry, 8 – Raspberry, 9 – Green Olive, 10 – Prune, 11- Lime, 12 – Plum and 13 – Peach. The big thing to gather here is Baby M is GROWING!!! . It’s crazy to think that most of the baby’s critical systems are fully formed and now it’s just time to grow baby, grow!

My Symptoms: Not all weeks had crazy symptoms, so I’ll try and make this short and sweet.

5^th – Nothing

6^th – NAUSEA! I would wake up and feel so hungry, but I was too nauseated to eat. I ate a lot of saltine crackers and ginger ale.

7^th – NAUSEA AND SINUS INFECTION! The only thing I could eat/drink in the morning was chocolate milk. That usually made my stomach feel a little better and it filled me up through lunchtime. I also found that when I would sit down to eat a meal, I couldn’t really eat as much as I used to. I got full much faster, but because I wasn’t eating very much at one setting, I was hungry about every 2 hours. I also came down with a sinus infection this week. I have been coughing a lot, my throat hurts from coughing, I have a runny nose, sneezing, and my voice is pretty hoarse. When I talked to the doctor, she said to just use Robitussin DM and cough drops. Neither really helped.

8^th – NAUSEA AND SINUS INFECTION! Still wanted chocolate milk in the morning and I couldn’t eat much at one setting. The sinus infections just got worse and the coughing was AWFUL! I even missed a couple days of work from being sick and just being exhausted from coughing all night.

9^th – SINUS INFECTION!! The nausea lightened up. I still could only drink chocolate milk in the morning and I felt like I needed to eat a little snack every couple hours. 3^rd week of being sick. I ended up going to the doctor on December 5^th because I just couldn’t take it anymore. I found out that I could take a z-pack. So I started that on Saturday and by that night I was feeling 10 times better. I still was not close to 100%, but I was happy with any progress. The one thing that got worse were my ribs. I have been coughing so much that I have bruised my ribs. It.hurt.so.bad!

10^th – SO TIRED!! The sinus infection was finally gone! My ribs still hurt though, but I wasn’t coughing as much, so it wasn’t bad. I’m also over having chocolate milk in the morning. It just doesn’t taste good anymore. I just “feel” hungry all the time, so I’m trying crackers and pretzels between meals to help that. I usually have some celery and peanut butter when I get home so I can try to wait until Trevor gets home to eat dinner. If it were up to me, I would eat dinner at like 4! I also have been sooooo tired! We have silent reading time shortly after lunch and I seriously almost fall asleep every day at this time. Also, when I get home from work, if I sit on the couch I am done for. I have to keep moving or I just fall asleep on the couch.  

11^th – SO TIRED!! And because I am so tired it seems like all I want is carbs when it’s time to eat because I want some energy. I also just crave a “full meal,” something hearty and filling! I definitely took full advantage of the first week of Winter Break sleeping in and taking naps.

12^th - SO TIRED!! Nothing crazy.

13^th - Still a little tired, but I can tell that it’s slowly getting better. Nothing crazy this week!

Weight: I honestly refuse to weigh myself at home. I think it all just depends on how you feel. Based on the doctor’s appointments, I believe I have gained 2 and ½ pounds over the 1^st Trimester.

Gender: We are actually NOT going to find out the gender! It will be the biggest SURPRISE on July 7^th…or whenever s/he decides to make an appearance. Gender neutral nursery here we come! So excited about this decision

Names: We are actually not sharing names! :) Again, super excited about this decision. We have basically decided on names if we have a boy or a girl, but we have enjoyed keeping it to ourselves.

Maternity Clothes: Never had to wear any maternity clothes, thank goodness. I would really like to get by with buying as little maternity clothes as possible. I’m sure I will have to buy some staple pieces eventually.

Movement: Nothing yet.

Sleep: I have always been a great sleeper, so this hasn’t changed yet. Thank goodness! At this point, I usually have to get up in the middle of the night to pee (tmi??) but I have no problem falling right back asleep!

Cravings: I have not had any crazy or unusual cravings, but there are definitely things I want more than others. For a while all I could drink in the morning was chocolate milk. I crave ice cream, but that is nothing new. I probably just give into that craving a little more than usual. The only unusual thing I have been wanting is pickles. I’ve always liked pickles, but not to this extent! And I am always thirsty. I have water with me all the time and I prefer to just crunch on some ice.

Work Outs: I was pretty good at first and would get up about 3 mornings before work and get on the elliptical. But that slowly died down, especially when I came down with the sinus infection. That had me down and out for over 3 weeks. And then came the crazy tiredness. So basically I am failing in this department right now. I hope to change that during the 2^nd trimester.

Best Pregnancy Moment: We have had a lot of cool pregnancy moments, but the best part so far is just sharing the news with our family and friends. It has been so uplifting and exciting to have the amount of love and support that we have been given. We were already excited, but everyone we have told has joined us in celebrating and it has made it all very heartwarming! It makes me smile and tear up all at the same time! J

Goals for next trimester: To enjoy every moment…and try to squeeze some more workouts in my schedule. I know I will feel better if I do!

Thoughts: I am just so excited to see what our lives will look like with a baby. I’m excited to see Trevor as a “dad”! We have been together for a long time (over 11 years now) and I feel like we know each other really well, but it will be so exciting to get to see him in this new role! I am also just so thankful! I know that God has his hand in our life and he chose the perfect timing for us to get pregnant and I am just so thankful and feeling extremely blessed.

NYE

Only 7 days late on posting...I'll consider that a win!

We are lucky in that we are really good friends with everyone in our Lifegroup. It's definitely not just a meet once a week kind of friendship, it's so much more! 

Reagan and Chad hosted it at their house, and they are amazing hosts! 

They had quite a few activities with prizes planned for the evening! First up...pin the tail on the Kemp! It was Kemp's birthday on New Years Day, so we had to have a celebration for him! 

Our second activity was like on the movie Just Go with It where they started with a coconut (we used grapefruit) between you and your spouses belly buttons and you had to work the coconut up between your lips without using your hands. I am so glad there were NO pictures taken of this. Kim and Kemp won!

We then did something really neat. Reagan and Chad bought Chinese Wish Lanterns, so we each got to light one and set it free. Before we did though, we got with our spouse and prayed over specific things for 2016. 

What a neat way to look ahead to 2016!

About that time 12:00 struck, so we had to take some fun photos!

Our last and final game was a nerf fun shootout! 

I don't remember who won this...but I know I didn't!

Trevor and I ended up staying until 3!!! Seriously, that is insane compared to the hours I had been sleeping. We had a great time though and we got to have some great conversations that meant a lot to me! These seriously are the best friends and we are so thankful for each and every one of you! 

I hope everyone had a safe and happy NYE!!

Word for the year

A few years ago Life.Church did a sermon on finding a word for the year that you want to focus on. They probably did this way before Trevor and I started attending, but 2014 was our first year to do this. Since that time, we have kept up the tradition. We write or type up our words and they are hung in our bathroom as daily reminders.

Before I start in on my word for 2016, I want to reflect a bit on 2015. 

My word/verse for 2015 was Educate: Fear of the Lord is the foundation of wisdom, knowledge of the Holy One results in good judgement -Proverbs 9:10

I chose that word because I felt like a lot of my beliefs were just by word of mouth from my parents, friends, Lifegroup, etc and I wanted to have a head knowledge and foundation for myself. Not saying I never thought for myself, but I needed to go deeper. I needed to educate myself a little more before I felt like the Lord could really use me in a way that I felt confident. My one big goal for the year was to read/listen to the bible from cover to cover with Trevor. He did this the previous year as well, but we decided to do it together in 2015.  

I am proud to admit that we accomplished that goal. Honesty moment: There were definitely times I didn't feel like reading and there were definitely times when we were listening that I had no idea what on earth was going on, but we mustered through it. Most days it was really uplifting and I knew that we were on a journey together that would help us grow in our relationship with God and each other. I definitely learned so much and the discipline of reading every day was really fulfilling. It is definitely something I want to do again, but maybe break it down a little more, so I can study what I'm about to read first, and maybe grasp a little more understanding on the books I was once confused about. 

I love looking back and seeing the growth that this one goal had on myself and Trevor. 

2016:

My word/verse for the year is ACTION: Yes, just as you can identify a tree by it's fruit, so you can identify people by their actions -Matthew 7:20

In the past I have really had to pray about my word and really work to find the right fit for that year, but this word came to me weeks before the new year. I was leading worship at Switch, which is our Wednesday night youth ministry and we were doing a worship night. So instead of worship first and then their activity/message after, they were all mixed together. We were on stage the whole time so we got to hear different speakers throughout the evening. One of the pastors on our campus said something that really struck a chord with me. He said we need to turn our intention into action. I feel like I have good intentions a lot, but there are many times they stop there. I don't take that intention and turn it into action. Let me just lay out a couple instances. 

I usually get home from work before Trevor, there are so many days that when he walks in the door I think, I should get up and greet him with a hug, kiss, excitement to see him, but instead I stay put, say "hey, how was your day" and continue working on whatever I'm doing. Wow. Saying (typing) that out loud seems cold hearted. But I'm just trying to be real here. 

There are times when I have the intention or thought to reach out to someone, call someone or text someone to see how they are doing, especially if I know they are going through something tough, but I get too busy and forget. 

I go into a month having the intention to cook more, save money on eating out and make health a priority, but the convenience of just going out to eat takes over my brain and I don't cook, we go out to eat and make unhealthy choices. 

There are times when I have good intentions to discuss my faith with someone who needs to hear about Christ, but I chicken out because sometimes I don't think I have the right words to say, or they will have a question or have a defense that I won't know how to answer or combat. 

But these things stop January 1 because my word for the year is ACTION. I am turning my intentions into actions. 

In years past I have shared my word at the end of the year because I don't want to tell too many people just in case I fall short. But this year I wanted to be more transparent, share at the beginning, and make it a public goal. 

Here's to turning intentions into ACTIONS.