Have a Holly Jolly Christmas!!!!

Yay our Christmas shopping is officially finished! Waiting on a few more gifts to come in the mail but no more stores for us :) All the wrapping is done too......with the exception of a few! Only 4 more days

* Family is the key to happiness *

Today was cookie baking day, a tradition I started with Dalton and Madison about 4 years ago. Last year Hope and Faith were old enough to participate! The kiddos had a blast, but I think they were more interested in eating the cookies than decorating :) My vision years ago was to create memories with the kids that they would carry with them into adulthood! I look forward to doing the very same thing with Wyatt! I really wish we had more moments like this!

Who knew????

Just to update everyone, the bigger scrubs helped a ton :) I was a little nervous at work wearing bigger, baggier clothes than usual, but I have to say I worked 13 hrs and felt great at the end of my shift! It's a shame I didn't buy bigger scrubs from the beginning, but better late than never.
Today we are 23 weeks yay! Only 17 weeks to go. Wyatt is getting stonger by the day, I feel his little kicks and punches more and more! Next appt is Jan. 4th not really looking forward to this one......I have to drink a glucose cocktail then be tested for gestational diabetes....fun fun :)

Growing pains

Up until now I have felt almost 100% normal. Now these 12 hr shifts, pushing wheelchairs/hospital beds, and lifting patients are really getting to me. Wednesday evening I began to have severe pains in my lower stomach and lower back. I still had 4 hrs of work left so I tried to make do as best as possible. My scrub pants were feeling super tight, pressing on my bladder and Wyatt, so I cut them on both sides of my hips. This didn't relieve my pain, and in fact it kept getting worse. Once I got home I changed into comfy sleep pants and layed on the couch for awhile. I started feeling better after about an hour and by today felt great! I decided it was time to go buy bigger scrubs! I work tomorrow, Hopefully with the bigger pants and taking it easy with the lifting, I'll feel ok enough to get through the day :) only 17 weeks and 1 day left!

Wyatt Lane Jolly

Update!

I know this is all past due but here is the latest:
- I now have internet again at my house.....technically we have had it since october, but my wonderful husband refused to buy th modem att was offerring so they hooked our internet up and sent us a bill anyways lol. I recently bought us a modem from bestbuy and today I set it up with the help of ATT!
- Baby Jolly was confirmed to be a boy on November 14th! His name will be Wyatt Lane Jolly! Baby looks good and is moving around like crazy....mostly at night or early morning is when I can really feel him.
- Ryan and I are completely done with the house updates until Wyatt arrives. Carpet and new paint are all finished. Now we have to finish his furniture and put it together.

Baby Update

We are 17 weeks today and still feeling semi-normal, just the usual bloating feeling. No morning sickness or fatigue so far. Last doctor's appt was november 3rd, we listened to the baby's heart beat and had blood drawn. so far I've only gained 6 lbs. Doctor says I should start feeling the baby move in the next 2-4 weeks :) Our first real ultrasound is on November 14th, we should be able to see the sex of the baby that day! Up until this point I have been squeezing myself into my old pre-pregnancy clothes......not good for one's self esteem lol. I then went shopping for bigger pants, bought size 9 and they worked out for a couple weeks. Today is the day I've dreaded for awhile......maternity clothes shopping. Hopefully I find some things I feel comfortable in.

:)

Baby Jolly!

Baby Jolly is due April 14, 2012 Next appt is October 7th :)

Magnolia Fires

Please pray for all the families in magnolia that have lost everything, and for all the firefighters and emergency responders working this massive fire. Ryan has been in magnolia fighting the fires for the past 2 days. He didn't get to sleep at all last night, so when he got home this morning he tried to get a few hours in. From what we know the fire is headed towards stagecoach, still about 10- 14 miles from our house (per ryan). The sky is black, in fact looking down our street the smoke looks like it is coming from the back of our neighborhood. I made Ryan drive me down 1488 to make sure people weren't evacuating somewhat close to our house. One thing Ryan said is that the forest department's efforts to cut down trees and turn the dirt over to stop the fire has been pretty much useless. He said the fire is 100-200ft high and it's catching the tops of trees on fire. It even jumped across 1488. Please pray that no lives are lost and that these guys can get the flames under control soon. Ryan goes back to work Saturday and Sunday. He is expecting to be deverted back to the magnolia fires.

Honeymoon

For our honeymoon we decided to go to the Smoky mountains in Tennessee. Since we would have to break the drive into 2 days we decided to stay in Alabama and visit Ryan's cousins Jonathan and Caleb. The Alabama, Florida, and Mississippi family were here in Texas for the wedding so Uncle Ronnie and Aunt Sug both said that we could stay in their homes on our way to Tennessee. We left out a little late on sunday evening around 4ish, that left us arriving in Monroeville, Alabama at approx. 1am. This wouldn't have been so bad if our GPS would've been accurate. IT told us to turn into an empty pasture "Arriving at your destination"......we could tell right away that wasn't right so ryan drove about a 1/4 mile and found his Uncle Ronnie's driveway on the right lol the next day we met Jonathan, his girlfriend Shannon and Caleb for dinner. FYI mexican food is not the same everywhere.....I do believe there was wolf brand chili on my burrito. Monday night we stayed in Aunt Sug's house then headed to Tennessee Tuesday around 9am. Many potty breaks later we arrived in Tennessee around 4pm. The cabin was beautiful. It just so happen to be located on the top of Mt Bluff, this turned out to be very stressful for my new husband lol. After driving through the narrow twisting roads of the mountain we pulled into our cabin's driveway, Ryan proceded to inform me that I would be getting no dinner tonight....he was not leaving the cabin. His mind quickly changed when he saw "the look". We drove down to the main road grabbed a pizza and headed back. The following days we spent in Gatlinburg and pigeon forge seeing the exhibits and shopping. On Thursday we went to Cade's Cove and saw a wild black bear and her cub. On friday we drove to Nashville and stayed in the Opryland Hotel, and on Saturday made the 11hr drive home. Somewhere around Henderson, Texas a nice police officer pulled us over to give us a fast driving award.....otherwise known as a speeding citation ughhh. The optimist in me stated "well babe we can both do defensive driving, you for this here ticket, and mine will go towards an insurance discount"

At the aquarium we were able to pet certain fish.....we got yelled at for petting the hammerhead shark.....in our defence there was no sign posted!

Wedding :)

Let me start off by saying how perfect our wedding was! Both of us agree that all the stress was worth it ;) The weather was extremely hot, but what can you expect in August....I don't have all of them yet but here are a few pics!

Our Hotel room for our wedding night (Thanks to My wonderful in-laws)

Another Chapter begins!

On August 3rd I took a pregnancy test and much to my suprise it had 2 pink lines, 1 was very faint, but never the less there were 2 lines. I was a litte shocked, well actually I was really freaking out. So many questions running through my mind. How are we going to afford this, how did this happen, all my doctors have said I would have issues with fertility ever since my IUD was taken out....due to complications from the copper damaging my cervix. So while driving to work I called Shelia (My best friend) and she confirmed that 1 faint line indeed counts.....She said I was pregnant and of course was so excited. I stayed at work for half a day....I was pretty much useless, scattered brain to be exact. Long story short Ryan and I wanted to know for sure so after 3 more home pregnancy tests and 2 Blood tests later it was determined that we are approx. 7 weeks. On September 9th we will have our 1st actual appointment! I'm told we will hear the heartbeat :)

On another note, we only have 1 week until our wedding! Last minute things are coming together with the much needed help from our families! Thanks to Amy everyone will have cardstock fans to help make this August heat a little more comfortable. I didn't realize when buying them that they came in peices. She offerred to glue all 100 of them on top of arranging all the flowers for the wedding. She has been such a blessing in our lives! The rehearsal will be Friday at 7, with dinner to follow at vernons country catfish( hosted by the Jolly's) I couldn't have done it without everyone's help. Thank you all for everything!

Brought tears to my eye

Driving to work today I heard this on KSBJ, it had me in tears all the way to Tomball. When I played it for the girls at work, I cried again.

Patience

Sorry guys, this blog was intended to keep everyone informed about our wedding plans and our life in general. As I read back in the posts I see it has been taken over by our fur babies! After last week I had a profound realization... God must be teaching us patience through Huck. He is the most loveable dog yet the most destructive little thing I have ever seen. I cannot turn my back without him trying to steal socks out of the hamper, chew the window frame or as you can see below...his brand new hobby.......carpet removal!!!!

This kid is amazing!!!

Eat less move more!

Here lately I have been trying to eat healthier and have been telling myself I was going to start exercising. well......Huck gave me the motivation I needed to start doing just that! For the past month I've noticed him chewing things that he is not supposed to. For example, the window frame in the game room, the firewood outside, soap he found in Beau's bathroom....the list could go on. On Thursday night i fell asleep with our bedroom door opened (usually it is closed and the dogs sleep under the bed). At some point during the night/morning Huck decided it would be fun to rip up the hallway carpet connecting beau's room and the guestroom. I looked up causes of this destructive behavior and what I found is that he must be bored. He is a working breed and not meant to be in the house 14+ hrs a day. He needs vigorous exercise. So Ryan and I took both dogs on quite a long walk. Hopefully we are able to keep this a habit. The dogs seem pretty worn out....yay!!!!!

Dog Mom

Since the last post my poor baby Huck has been so sick. At times I thought he was getting better, (with the help of pepto, rice and yogurt) but at midnight this morning I was faced with the disgusting reality that he was not well. I cannot remember waking up to such a foul odor or sound in my entire life. Like I said at midnight I heard a nasty squirting followed by the most terrible smell known to man. I immediately got out of bed and turned on the lights, and of course Ryan slept through it all. I let the dogs outside and began cleaning. The smell just lingered, so I had to open our bedroom window. Ryan then wakes up and tells me, "You know it's going to get hot in here." Ok so you'd rather smell dog poop???? I got the dogs back inside and got ready for bed again. I left our bedroom door open to try and create a breeze. Of course at this point I'm wide awake. It took 1 1/2 hr to fall back to sleep. When Ryan and I woke up to go to work, we found that Huck got sick again.....this time in the hallway. So now instead of going to work I'm sitting here waiting for a 3pm vet appointment. Dogs are supposed to be easier than babies......right now changing diapers sounds alot more appealing than scrubbing poopy carpet...........what are moms for right?????

River Trip!!!!!!

Just got back from a great weekend at the Guadalupe river! We rented a nice little house in Canyon lake and the two of us with a few of our close friends celebrated our upcoming wedding! Taking a trip these days seems so much more stressful than before. Not only do I have myself and Ryan to pack, we have Gracie and Huck that have to be taken to the kennel.  One problem....Gracie was a bad girl last time and bit 3 other dogs. So now Huck goes to the kennel and Gracie went to her Papa's house and played with the girls! Once we got on the road and the dogs to their designated locations my stress was relieved! We were the first ones to arrive at the house, so we went grocery shopping for everyone. Dinner that night we decided to have hamburgers but we for got any seasoning. FYI picante sauce mixed with hamburger meat makes for some yummy burgers!!!! Saturday we floated the river then ended the night at River Road Ice House for an old school Pat Green concert! This by far was the highlight of our trip!!!!  Sunday morning my wonderful husband to be woke up and made some awesome breakfast tacos for everyone.....gotta love a man that cooks! After cleaning all the dishes and packing up, we all parted ways....Ryan headed to Round Rock for the fire fighter olympics and the rest of us headed home. When Blair dropped Beau and I off we had to leave right away to get the dogs from tomball. Gracie had a great stay at my dad's, Kimber was a life saver in offering to watch her! Huck caught a stomach bug and has been throwing up and having diarrhea since we picked him up....poor baby :( Things are so much easier with Ryan here..... It kinda stinks that all of his days off I either have to share him with everyone or in the case of these fire fighter olympics, not see him at all :(  I can't wait for our honeymoon...I'll have a whole week with him......just the two of us!

Happy 4th of July!

Hope everyone had a great 4th of July! Ryan picked up over time, so once again I spent the holiday without him :( I do get the pleasure of seeing him though! I'm on laundry duty.....taking him uniforms for the next 48hrs. I pray that everyone on and around  Lake Conroe uses  some common sense so that Ryan has a safe uneventful night. I try not to worry about him so much, but movies like ladder 49 doesn't help any. Well I guess that's it for tonight. Here is a picture just for yall's viewing pleasure!!!!!!

Thank the lord for small blessings

Today, with the exception of Ryan being at work, was a great day! Went out on the boat with My mom, mike, tracy and the kiddos! After getting a work out pushing the boat off the island, then doctoring my mom's newly injured, freshly healed post-op foot (she kicked the cooler), we went back to nana's and I got to see some more of my family! The weather started getting nasty so I decided to come home and wait for Ryan to get home. For some reason when i got home I parked behind Beau instead of my usual parking spot........Thank the lord I did. This is what happened less than an hr afterwards.

Our Adventure with Hope!

For those of you who do not know, I have 2 little sisters, Hope is 3 and Faith is 16 months. On Wed. morning I picked Hope up then Ryan and I took her swimming! She went from being scared not wanting to get off of the steps to dare devil jumping in with a swim ring around her waist! On Thursday we decide to take her to Sam's Boat on the Lake.....one problem, the little princess didn't want to wear anything she had in her overnight bag! So Ryan tells her we will go shopping then procedes in putting shorts and boots on her. We ended up at JcPenny's where Hope fell in love with this fluffy purple princess dress. We tried for a good 20min. to hide/ ditch this dress the whole time Hope is throwing the biggest fit known to man!!!! Needless to say the boots did not go with the dress. Not only did she get the dress, then we had to buy shoes to match lol On our way to Sam's boat I txted Kimber to tell her the story just to find out Hope has almost the same dress at home. I also was informed that it had been taken away from her recently because she pooped in her panties..............Ryan and I were tricked by a 3yr old :)

This is a first!

Thanks to my future Mother and Cousin in-law,I have now been introduced to blogging...yay! Since deleting my facebook, some of my family and friends have been out of the loop on mine and Ryan's life! So here it is:

Wedding planning is in full force! We have been receiving several RSVPs, if you haven't sent yours, please do so asap! We were asked to report the final number attending to the wedding facility by July 27th. As some of you know, our photographer cancelled on us an hour before we were supposed to meet for the engagement session. We then asked for our money back. Long story short, she refused to reimburse us the $675 so now,with the help of my Step Dad, we are filing in small claims court Monday. On a brighter note, Our good friend Chad saved the day and took our engagement pictures, and Ryan's Aunt Gracie has offered to take our wedding photos!