The start of a new beginning!

Well.... I have decided to start a blog for a couple of reasons. The first being that I am pregnant with my third and last child and I want to capture memories that I have lost with my first two children. Second, I love reading my friends' blogs about their families and how their lives have changed from the not so responsible high school days that I remember. Third, I am a stay at home mom who just needs some adult interaction and for some reason this makes me feel like I am accomplishing something.  I guess I am working it into my schedule... And last, I want to share this precious gift from God with all of my family and friends so that they can see just how my life is changing over the next 7 months... I promise this is the only post that will seem like a novel!! So..... here we go!!!

        Last year was a hectic year for my family... My grandma passed away after a horrible battle with cancer in January and my husband took a promotion with his work that left us in a bit of a "pickle."We knew that with him taking this promotion he would be gone during the week and come back home on the weekends until our house sold. Although I had high hopes that our house would sell quick, I was realistic in knowing that with the economy the way it was(is) that it was more than likely that we would be separated for quite some time.            Well... I was right. He left on February 1st and our house sold on August 22nd. That may not sound like a lot of time to some of you but I assure you that it felt like a lifetime to me. This meant that I was home alone with a 2 year old and a 10 month old all week long with no family anywhere around. I had to keep the house spotless at ALL times because I never knew when  someone wanted to pop in and take a peek inside the mess of a life that I was living. Needless to say.. I was miserable. My kids missed their dad, I missed my husband, and I really missed my sanity. 

        Thankfully August arrived and movers came and packed us up.... Then we moved into a hotel for 8 weeks... Yes, I said EIGHT weeks. Why?? Because there was a lapse in the time between when our old house closed and our new house closed. Not to mention that our new house needed work done on it before we could move in. So, although my kids had their dad back and I had my husband back, my sanity had yet to return. For eight weeks it was the free"hot breakfast bar "food in the hotel for breakfast and McDonalds, Taco Bell, Papa Johns, Chic Fill A, Bojangles, Sonic, and almost any other fast food place you could think of for lunch and dinner. Not to mention that I was "stuck" in a 300 square foot hotel room all day every day with two toddlers.. 

        I was at my near death when I got word that we could move in. You would have thought I had hit the jackpot!!  I am pretty sure all of my neighbors thought I was crazy because the very first thing that I did when we got the KEYS was pull weeds at 8 in the morning.. ( I haven't pulled weeds since and probably never will again..As my stepdad would say, "I'm just too prissy for that!!")

       So all of that craziness led me to believe that 2011 had to be a much better year!! This is where our "bundle of news" comes in. Aaron and I had talked about having another baby but hadn't really agreed on when the time would be right. I said NOW and he said in 6 months. After talking and griping and talking and griping he finally decided to hear me out. My main reason for wanting another bundle of joy NOW was that I wanted all of my children to be close in age. Evan and Landon are not quite 2 years apart and although it was tough at first I look now and am so thankful that they are close in age. They play together and entertain one another and they are just best buddies. They also fight like brothers and I have had to learn to let them get "tough" as Aaron would say. Anyway, seeing how close they are and how much they get along made my ovaries start talking to me and hence made me convince my husband they needed another sibling. 

       Don't get me wrong... I had my doubts too. My first two pregnancies were horrible. I mean HORRIBLE!!! I had morning sickness for 5 months with both of them, I was put in the hospital for severe dehydration from puking so much, I was put on bed rest with both of them at 32 weeks. I developed preclampsia with my first born, therefore I was transferred to bed rest in the hospital for the last 10 days of my pregnancy with him. I was also induced both times and had to receive the epidural THREE times on each pregnancy because my spine and the needle apparently have a love/hate relationship. 

     But even after the horrible morning sickness, peeing my pants ALL the time, high blood pressure, prickly needles 2 times a week that ended up making me look like a drug addict, bedrest, and that stupid epidural, being able to hold my babies in my arms for the first time made it all worth it. I swore that I could and would do it all over again if God would allow me one more chance at Mommyhood.

     So in October we decided that we would give it a go but were cautious to let family and friends know because we didn't want to feel "pressure" of always hearing, "Are you pregnant yet??" November came and gone with ONE big, fat pink line... (For those of you not familiar that is a negative sign for being pregnant.) Although I was a little dissapointed I knew that I couldn't expect to get pregnant right away. So another four weeks rolled around and I decided to take another test. (4 days before my missed period.) There it was, VERY faint, but it was there. The second line had appeared. When I showed it to Aaron I didn't get the response I had wanted. He said, "Ashley, you are crazy. There is no second line there." (For those of you out there like me who have taken your share of pregnancy tests in hopes that the first one was wrong you know what I mean when I say IF YOU ARE NOT PREGNANT THERE IS NO FAINT LINE.... NOT EVEN THE LEAST BIT OF A FAINT LINE.) So I pretended to somewhat agree with him and told him I would take another test in 3 days.... Well I couldn't wait three days so I took another one the next morning... Same result.. Faint line.... And other the next day.... Faint line.... This meant that I had now used my entire three pack of tests... (Damn it Ashley! Now you have to go and spend another $20.00  for two reasons... 1- you are impatient as hell and can never wait... and 2-your stubborn husband believes that a faint line is not a line...) So off to the store I went and bought another 3 pack just in case I decided that I needed to pee on a stick two times in one day..... Much to my surprise I didn't. TWO days later, the day after I missed my period I took another one... BAM!!! Clear as day, there were TWO lines staring back at me and I was ecstatic... He was too but I think he was a little more cautious than I was... Side note: the other two pregnancy tests that were left in the package are now gone.. I randomly decided that I needed to pee on those too.. Why? Because I couldn't let them go to waste.... It's not like you can return two tests and get your money back!!

       We decided not to tell ANYONE until Christmas because I had devised a cleaver way of breaking the news to the family. Now I found out on December 9th that I was pregnant and it is VERY hard for me to keep secrets so this was a disaster waiting to happen BUT I did it... I held the can of beans without spilling it!!! Well almost, but that is besides the point...  Christmas Day arrived and my anxiety grew stronger throughout the day.. My cleaver plan of how to tell my family I was pregnant was to have them play a game. This game consisted of homemade cards that each had a word on it and they had to unscramble the words to form a sentence.The team to unscramble their set of words first got a point. There were 7 groups of these sentences and there were 4 teams. The first set of words for them to unscramble was a breeze. Unscrambled it read, "Rudolph the red nose reindeer had a very shiny nose." The second- sixth sets were just as easy all relating to Christmas..... The last sentence to unscramble was the "spilling of the beans" I guess you could say. Unscrambled it read," There will be a new bundle of joy arriving in late August!" As everyone tried to figure it out I was so giggly inside. Finally, my mom of all people started shouting," I know what it is.. I know what it is... Ashley is pregnant.. Oh my GOD!!!" Then the shouting and screaming began.. It was priceless! I will post the video on here when I figure out all of the technicalities of this blog....

       Fast forward 5 weeks and that is where we are today. I am getting close to being 10 weeks pregnant and we had our first ultrasound two days ago. We saw our little peanut moving her/his little paddles (fingers and toes) around and even jumping a little bit. The heartrate was perfect... 182 beats a minute and my heart just melted when I heard that angelic sound. It still brings tears to my eyes thinking of how perfect and precious this little life is and to think that she/he is just a growing in my belly.... What a great gift from God!!          And for those of you wondering.... I have NOT been sick at all.. No throwing up for me. I am giving the credit of this to my sweet, dear grandma who is now in heaven. I believe she had a good, long talk with the man upstairs and told him that I was not allowed to be sick this time. So Thank You Grandma!!! You truly are an ANGEL!!  

         I hope you enjoy my little stories throughout the next 7 months on how my crazy life  is getting even crazier!! I hope you can relate to some, laugh at some, and maybe even cry at some of the stories that I am sure are yet to come!! Until then..Here are a few pictures to enjoy!!
~Ashley

 6 weeks pregnant!!! No big change yet

 7 weeks pregnant.. still not much.

 8 weeks... There is a little bump forming!!

9 weeks along..

Our little peanut at 9 weeks and 2 days old!!