Remember that time I started a blog… and then abandoned it
for 2 years? Oh yea… now I remember. Life got busy, and although I have had
lots of fun things to talk about, I haven’t stopped to fill you in about them.
Here are the high points that have happened since I disappeared:
We went under contract on what we hoped would be our first
house. The seller was kind of terrible, and we had to walk away… heartbroken.
We made an offer on another house, a foreclosure, and were beat out by someone
else. Again, we were heartbroken. We decided to take a break until we got back
from our holiday travels.
We spent our first married Thanksgiving in New York. It was
amazing… one of my all-time favorite trips! (I’m sure that had nothing to do
with the fact that I was travelling in newlywed bliss with my all-time favorite
person J)
We went to look at one more house. It was under construction…
ripped down to the studs the day we saw it. We immediately knew it was perfect
for us, we left the house, made an offer, and were under contract by that
afternoon… what an exciting day! Alabama also happened to play in, and win, the
SEC championship that night. I’d say it was a good day!
The next few months focused on our first home. Picking out
fixtures and finishes, paint colors and floors. It was a very stressful but
very exciting process, and oh my goodness, do things play out the way they are
meant to be. I wouldn't trade our home for either of the houses I was so
desperately eager for us to own. We ended up with the best of both worlds… the
charming, older cottage in the neighborhood we absolutely love, but with a
completely gutted and renovated inside, which alleviated some of the worry of
the ‘old house’ by providing new wiring, new plumbing, etc.
We moved in at the
end of March 2013… although we've been here a little over a year and a half, I still
have A LOT to do!
In April 2013, we decided to expand our family by 4 legs.
This little girl immediately stole my lap and both of our hearts. My sweet
husband thought a dog would hold us over for a little bit on the ‘expanding our
family’ front, but God had other plans…
The day after we celebrated our 1st wedding
anniversary, I took a little test, and received some very unexpected results. I
always imagined that the day we found out we were expecting our first child,
Michael would be without words… and I would be cool, calm, and collected. Man
did I have that backwards. I was in complete shock. Summer 2013 was supposed to
be our ‘last summer’ before we expanded our family. I had trips planned. I was
going to ‘live it up’ this summer, so that we could think about babies that
fall. God had other plans. The best plans. I wouldn't change a thing J
In June, my mom and I traveled to Ireland. My poor, poor
mother. I was NOT the best travel companion. I was eight weeks pregnant,
terrified to fly that far (although I didn't want to admit that to mom!),
exhausted before the time change (so you can imagine what a treat I was when
you added that in…), and very easily nauseated. I was a fun, fun, fun travel
companion! Although it may not have been the best timing, the trip was
wonderful – we saw some breathtaking sights and explored some family history. The
weather was a nice change from the Alabama heat and humidity, and the Irish
countryside was absolutely spectacular. The towns were charming, the people
were warm, and the food was actually pretty good! If life allows, we’d like to
have a redo trip, when I am more energized and a better travel buddy!
Two weeks later, Michael and I traveled to Mexico to be a
part of our dear friends’ wedding. I was feeling much better on this trip,
probably because there was a lot more lying around on a beach and a lot less
walking and sightseeing! Mexico was more beautiful than I had imagined, and I would
love to vacation there again in the future.
The next several months were spent getting bigger and
getting ready for our precious little bundle. We had a gender reveal party for
our family and friends, and we had a very joyful celebration sharing the news
that our little joy was a baby boy! Once we knew that blue was our color of
choice, we quickly chose a name and began working on the nursery. {To this day,
the nursery is the only room that I feel is ‘finished’ in our house. My
decorating focus went 100% towards the nursery until Charlie arrived, and now I’m
slowly working on the rest of the house.}
We registered, we attended classes,
we did everything we could possibly do to get ready for our little guy. I don’t
know if you’re ever ready, but ready or not, he came (by schedule c section…
breech little stinker) on January 22, 2014.
There are no words to describe the
love and the joy we felt. Obviously, as new parents, we were overflowing with love
and joy for our new, perfect little person. But in addition to that, what I wasn't
necessarily prepared for was the indescribable emotion I would feel as I watched
our family and friends fall in love with him. They were as excited as we were.
They traveled to meet him. They sat with us in the hospital. They brought
gifts. They fed us. They allowed us to sleep. They loved this tiny little person
with their whole hearts, and that was enough to make 2 new parents’ hearts full
enough to explode. And yes, of course I am crying as I recount those first
days.
Since that perfect day, January 22, 2014, our world has
revolved around one person. And we wouldn't change a thing. Over the past
{almost} nine months, we have seen a very scrawny, whiny newborn blossom into a
chunky, happy, 8 month old, who is full of personality and determination, and
if I do say so myself, is pretty brilliant!
photo credit: CBM Photography
I vow to keep you in the loop on our adventures with
Charlie. And I’ll try to do another post soon with more details, and pictures,
of his first 8.75 months.
