18 weeks and excitement about the upcoming week!

Hey guys!

I hope everyone had a great week and weekend. My week went well and the weekend was good too. Yesterday Nathan and I went to Lexington to run some errands. I had to get fitted for a bridesmaid dress for a wedding I am in in August. One of my closest friends, Brittany Hamilton is getting married on August the 8th and I am in the wedding. I have to admit that I was not looking forward to it because I didn't even want to think about what size I was in. The good news is the dress I tried on was the same size as the one I had tried on before I got pregnant, which was nice. But I did go ahead and order 2 sizes up to make sure that the dress fit for the wedding. I figured, it's always better to have it too big than too small. I was also super excited because I got to meet my new cousin Harper Gray! She is gorgeous and her mama looks great too! It was so nice to get to visit with Katie, John and little Harper. Her room was adorable and she was so great. She let Nathan and I both hold her for a while and didn't cry, which I always love. It's so awesome seeing Nathan with babies and children, he is so great with them! He is going to be a wonderful daddy : )

So I decided that it was time to take a belly picture where I looked half way decent, so that I could share with others, lol. See below.

We will be finding out on Friday the sex of the baby and I am SOO excited, I know Nathan is too. We really want to prepare for our new little one, and it will be much easier knowing whether to buy blue or pink : ) I will definitely keep you all updated on what happens on Friday and how everything goes the rest of the week. I hope everyone has a great week!

17 weeks & a baby shower

Hello family & friends!

I hope everyone has had a good weekend so far. It was been absolutely beautiful in Pikeville. This week hasn't been incredibly pleasant as I have been sick and have now passed the nasty cold on to Nathan. I'm not sure what it is, but we have been miserable in bed together this evening : ) On a lighter note, a childhood friend of mine, Miranda Coleman-Layne is having a baby and I went to her baby shower today. Miranda and her husband Shane are having a little girl and she got some ADORABLE stuff today! She has picked some cute names out for the little one. She said that they were either going to name her Shelby Peyton or Sidney Peyton. The shower was fun and the food was wonderful, I ate my weight in broccoli casserole! But anywho, Miranda is due May 17 and she looks great. I look like I am further along than she is haha! I'm fairly sure that before too long, Nathan is going to have to roll me out to the car to go to work in the morning like the little blueberry girl from Willie Wonka and the chocolate factory! But I am so excited for Miranda, she is going to be an awesome mom and I am glad that someone else I know will have a baby for our little one to play with.

Well, I have to say that all the adorable things at the baby shower REALLY made me want to start buying stuff. I have bought a few small things, some plain gowns and Nathan bought a teddy bear, but I didn't want to make any large purchases until we found out the sex, which is coming up soon. We will find out the sex in 12 days and I am ridiculously excited. The first thing I am going to do is go by something pink or blue immediately following my ultrasound. This ultrasound is really meant to check on the babies organs and make sure that everything is developing correctly which is very important. I am also really excited about this ultrasound because this will be the first time that my mom will go for an ultrasound. They only allow 2 people in the room when the ultrasound is performed so we will have to take turns with my mom and Nathan's mom to get to go, haha. I have decided through this entire process that I want my mom a lot more now than I have in a long time. I just need to be around her...weird I know lol. But seriously, it's nice to be so close to our families, because the support is awesome.

Oh, just to let all of you know, the little one is now the size of the palm of your hand and weighs about 5 ounces this week. I also think that I have felt the baby move some this week. It is very difficult to tell this early if it is actually the baby moving or if it's gas pains. Weird how the two can be confused haha. Well, I hope everyone has a great rest of the weekend and a good upcoming workweek. I will be counting down the days until the BIG ultrasound!

Hillbilly Days and week 16!

What a wonderful weekend! First of all, I just wanted to say that I am completely blessed and am so glad that I got to see so many friends and family that I don't get to see often. First off, it was Hillbilly Days which is always a fun event. Although I wasn't able to have a glass of wine and a cigarette for the yearly festival, it was so nice to be around loved ones and think about next year when we will be able to take the new little one to listen to the bluegrass music and begin know the ceremonial "smell" of Hillbilly Days!

Not only was this weekend Hillbilly Days, but we also had a surprise 50th birthday party for my dad and it went great! He claimed that he had no idea that anything was going on and that he was completely surprised and excited about the big bash! It was great because so many out of towners were here. Family friends from Hilton Head, Lisa Black and Amy Black Cross were as were Denny and Nikki Bailey of Shelbyville. Also, friends and former neighbors Jeff & Myra Miller came on Saturday which was great since I hadn't seen them in about 10 years. Myra was the one that I went to when I didn't want to talk to mom or dad or anyone else about anything. She was never judgemental and always talked to me like I wasn't 8 like everyone else. She also made these awesome french fries in the oven and Tyler and I loved!

Weekends like these make me so excited about the baby. I want our baby to get to know and love all the people that we loved during our childhoods. I know there are a lot of people out there that helped mold me into the person that I am today including my parents. I can't wait to see who those influences are for our children. Well, I guess it's time to get dinner ready and get ready for another work week, hopefully all of you had a great weekend and an awesome Hillbilly Days!

Our Saturday.

So this morning Nathan and I decided to go to Big Lots. We decided to stop by my Mom and Dad's because I knew that my Mom had told me she needed to run some errands today. So while we waited on Mom to get ready, she informed me that she needed to go to K-Mart too. We decided to start to K-Mart and work our way back to town. (On a side note, we had been to Bruce Walters Ford a few times and not really found what we were looking for.) As we pulled into the parking lot at K-Mart, Nathan said, they usually have SUV's at the Walters Mazda-Mitsubishi lot. So of course we drive through the parking lot to the car lot and drive around for a minute looking. We looked over and there was sales guy running after us, we felt bad so we stopped and asked him how much one of the cars was. He told us and then of course we had to go look at other cars. Long story short, we went to K-Mart for garbage bags and I ended up with a new car, haha. We had been looking for something that was of course kid friendly and had plenty of room. As most of you know, I had a Ford Mustang, which I'm not even sure you can put a car seat in? But anyway, we ended up buying a Mitsubishi Endeavor SUV (see below).

I am usually not an impulsive person, but after I saw it and the price, I couldn't not do it. I am really happy with it, and I'm really glad that we needed garbage bags today : ) The baby will also be happy that he/she won't have to be crammed into the backseat of a 2 door Mustang! Although, it was really sad to drive away and leave my little car behind. Ol' Betsy's been with me for 6 years...

15 weeks and a doctor's appointment

Happy Good Friday!

So today is good Friday and I am 15 weeks, a good day overall. Nathan and I went for a check up today at 15 weeks. I somewhat heard the heartbeat with the doppler. Nathan heard it more than I did, but it's hard when you are laying down, they are pressing on your stomach, and your own heart is beating really fast because you're nervous. All was well thank goodness and I left feeling a little more sure about everything since the first trimester is now well behind me. I also left very excited since they scheduled me for my ultrasound at 19 weeks to find out the sex of the baby, yay! On May 8 we will find out (as long as Baby Ratliff is cooperative) whether we are having a boy or girl, so exciting! Ohh and also very interesting...I lost 3 pounds. I told my Gran about it and she said that she lost weight with Dad and Boo Boo. Nathan and I went to Wal-Mart this evening and he bought the baby it's first teddy bear...he has had his eye on it for awhile. Everyone remember to cast their vote as to whether it's a boy or girl on the survey.

Easter is this weekend and after going to the doctor today, it really made me feel blessed to have a healthy pregnancy so far. I also feel blessed to have a wonderful husband who does things he might want to do and a supportive family that puts up with my whining. Also, there will be lots of chicken and Dumplings consumed! In other exciting news, Hillbilly Days is next weekend! Not only that but on the 21st my daddy is going to be 50. Seems weird, I remember his 40th and I have seen pictures of his 30th, I was only 4. Hopefully he has a good day and he likes what we got him : )

Hopefully everyone has a wonderful Easter weekend with their families!

14 weeks, 80 degrees and snow...

We have now entered the 14th week and things seem to be moving right along. I am not as tired as I had been, I could still sleep quite a bit but I'm not exhausted. I go back for my next check up this Friday, April 10th, and I will be exactly 15 weeks. Hopefully pretty soon we will find out the sex so that we can figure out what to do the nursery in and buy some fun stuff!

On to non-pregnancy/baby related items....this weekend has been beautiful and it is so nice to be able to spend time outside. Friday I was a little hormonal so we didn't do much of anything. Yesterday, however, we slept in and then went to Nathan's mom and dad's so that Nathan could help his dad with some of the remodelling that they are currently doing. Their house is looking wonderful. Last year about this time, they redid the kitchen which looks great and now they are redoing the living room, bathroom and hallway. They have completely gutted the bathroom and Nathan had to help with the tub surround. Things are looking great and Nathan's dad is doing very well. He is not taking chemo right now and has been working with some of his buddies on the house, I think it's been good for him. I, of course, sat around and watched : )

Today, we went to my mom and dad's house so that Nathan could help my dad and brother get the pool cover off. It has been such a beautiful day, in the 80's. The boys got the pool cover off and we vacuumed the pool and when we left, poor Tyler was power washing the deck and the patio. After we got home, Nathan and I went fishing and got a nice little farmers tan. Nathan caught one fish and of course I didn't catch anything. Nathan just got back in from taking Toby out in the yard to play. I'm not sure who wore who out. Overall, it's been an eventful weekend. We are getting ready to go back to my mom and dad's for dinner. Oh and speaking of nice weather, we're supposed to get snow for the next 2 days...lovely.

Everyone seems to be getting more excited about the baby since we are moving along. Even after opening the pool today, we were talking about teaching the baby to swim next summer which will be fun. Alright, well hopefully everyone has a good week!

Britney's 100th Post Giveaway!

I was inspired by fellow Pikevillian, Britney (Tackett) Moughamian to start a blog keeping all of our friends and family updated on our new little one and to also keep everyone in the know about our lives. Britney has just published her 100th post and in honor, she is giving away a beautiful green polka dot picnic basket.

Go check out her blog at: www.daveandbrittplusone.blogspot.com It definitley gives me some ideas of things to come in my pregnancy. Britney is 33 weeks pregnant and is expecting a little girl that she and her husband Dave have decided to name Kennedy Brooke. Everyone also keep Britney in your thoughts and pray that she can carry little Kennedy to term!