Busy, busy, busy!

This week flew by! It was my first "full time" week back in my classroom since the beginning of March. It felt so good to be back with my sweet class all day long. It was also Rose Show week!!! I love this time of year in our fun town! Our roses are blooming, so I added a few here and there!


We took Blakley to the park after work on Monday. Who cannot resist all the roses and gorgeous spring weather?


We are finally getting plantation shutters! Our house was fitted for them on Tuesday. I am excited and thankful! However, writing that big check was very hard to do.


I went in Mimi's this week to pick up a few gifts and fell in love with this little wall of stud earrings. I wanted them all!


Molly Caroline is growing! I had the longest Dr's appointment of my life on Thursday...but of course loved every minute! We find out how big she is in a little over 2 weeks. If she is still breech and big enough...we might just have us a May baby! :)


I think someone just realized that she is getting a baby sister. Blakely got kicked in the face.


I rode in the Rose Bud Parade on Thursday night. My Principal drove me in a golf cart behind our float!!! So fun!! I was pretty chawed though. :) I teared up when Matt stood up to take my picture as I passed and when my nurses from the Shaw Center saw me and cheered. Emotional? YES! Always.


I had my big teacher of the year interview on Friday morning with members of our community. It was nerve wracking and I didn't exactly say everything that I wanted to say. It went well, but let's face it, my mind is on having a baby right now. I left the interview making them laugh so that is a good sign!

We also celebrated Miss Brittany's last day on Friday with a little surprise party after lunch!

Matt worked late into the night on Friday finishing up the crown molding in MC's nursery. It looks amazing!


Saturday Matt worked so hard! Do you notice a trend? I'm one lucky girl! He planted some flowers and started laying pine straw.


Lots of my family came to visit too. My aunt, uncle, and cousin brought me a pretty big gift and we were very surprised and blessed by it! We all went to dinner before they had to go back! It was too short of a trip!



I went to a shower this afternoon for a teacher friend that is getting married this summer. It was a recipe shower. Wasn't the cake adorable?


I am actually going to help finish laying pine straw tonight, iron my clothes for the week, and we are grilling chicken and vegetables for supper and enjoying the evening in our favorite spot...our back porch! These are my favorite kind of nights!!!! We are dreaming of sweet summertime and holding a little baby! Thank you, Lord...what a difference a year makes!!

So much to catch up on!

I kind of stopped blogging in the middle of my Spring Break week. But I don't like not documenting what we are up to! I love looking back and don't want to let how busy or tired I feel get in the way!

So catching up....I'm just about 33 weeks pregnant! Eeek!!! :) I'm still feeling great! Third trimester thoughts and updates are coming!!! I did survive sitting in the back of the schoolbus for 2 hours of riding and a full day at Chehaw with my 25 kindergarten students. I went to an appointment right after and my BP was normal and I wasn't having any contractions, so I feel like that was a feat in itself! And no swelling! Now to make it through conferences, graduation, relay for life, and a few other important events!!!

Spring Break was AMAZING! We packed a lot into our week. I rested a lot. We went out to eat with several friends, several different nights...SO FUN! We met with the anesthesiologist and signed up for an epidural. We also worked on projects, and I read two books!


We spent a few nights over in coastal Georgia! Super fun! We visited Baxley and CB!


Tried out baby gear that I had heavily researched at Buy Buy Baby!


Enjoyed seeing our Passion friends at Let the Future Begin tour in Jax. Amazing night of Worship!! It was pretty cool having Shelley and Louie Giglio sitting just a few seats over from us. I love Shelley and kind of wanted to talk to her. My friends wouldn't let me! :)



We also enjoyed a little St. Simons Island!


The next week I had my first shower (more pictures coming soon)!


I was given a rose and became the official corresponding secretary for the 2013-3014 Junior Service League year. My rose and position will represent the link to community! I'm so mushy about tradition. :)


The deadline for all of my Teacher of the Year essay questions was bumped up and so I felt like I was in college again staying up super late trying to make sure that my entry was worthy of being submitted. I do not like being a perfectionist. I've actually really chilled out about it, but every now then those tendencies creep back up in high stress times. Anyone else? Matt was a trooper. He stayed up late with me and got up early. He also proofread everything. His favorite thing to tell me was to "elaborate." Haha! I have pregnancy brain...it is not possible for me to elaborate right now! :)

We spent a long weekend in Destin with Matt's family. It was beautiful (more pictures coming soon)!! Blakely went and stayed with my parents for over a week. It killed me. I missed her more than ever. It was also my last trip away per my doctor. :)


Molly Caroline's wooden monogram came in! The only things left to do in her nursery are hang curtains, print pictures, and put up crown molding.


We are organizing machines this weekend. Then next weekend we are going to do yardwork. I'm also going to finalize our hospital bag lists! We've been out of town the last 3 weekends I think, so it is nice to be home!!

My obsession with nests, eggs, and our sweet small town registry.

Lately, I love nests, eggs, birds, etc. I mean I'm completely obsessed. I know Easter is over, but I'm not entirely sure that I'm going to take down my decorations. I will take down by bunny towels and burlap door hanger, but the rest of it...I think it can pass for Spring. :) Well maybe the colored eggs need to go too.



I'm also obsessed with our sweet little baby registry at DDP. Gotta love southern traditions! I can't believe that we are the only ones having a little girl. The pink kind of jumps out at you, doesn't it? We love seeing Molly Caroline's name typed out! And those red boots? They should fit her in the fall...perfect!!!!

Surprise, Shopping, and Sunday!

We had a wonderful Easter weekend! Friday night we hung out at our neighbors house for Jim's surprise 30th birthday party! I'm not sure how surprised he actually was, but it was fun anyway! We ended our night with a little trip to DQ with just our PS3 gang (us and two of our other neighbor couples)!!! I found that they have these sugar free orange bars. Oh my! I want one every day now!


Saturday we literally shopped until we dropped. I'm 30 weeks pregnant but really haven't had any days where I've felt pregnant...until Saturday. We went to 11 different places and we were trying to pack so much in that we were both miserable and exhausted by the time we got home. I sat on the floor of at least 3 different stores. Our goal was to get everything accomplished for Miss Molly Caroline and some house projects in one day...which we did. That way we can just have one more trip to Target to pick up things that we didn't get from our registry in May. I'm glad it's done, but it was just a bad idea.

Sunday was Easter. We always miss our families so much on Easter, but like being at our home church. We went to early service and then Sunday School, then came home and ate our Easter lunch. We gave Blakley her Easter basket. Of course we had to set Molly Caroline's up too. :) We had the best nap of our livws! I think we were still recovering from our Saturday shopping trip. Haha! Matt also put together some little things in MC's room. It was a really good, quiet day.


I would've loved to be in Atlanta on Friday night for Good Friday at Verizon....I just live too far away! Maybe next year!


Romans 1:4-5
And Jesus Christ our Lord was shown to be the Son of God when God powerfully raised him from the dead by means of the Holy Spirit. Through Christ, God has given us the privilege and authority to tell Gentiles everywhere what God has done for them, so that they will believe and obey him, bringing glory to his name.

Spoiled

Molly Caroline isn't even here yet, and already she has been spoiled by so many great friends and family members! We waited a long time for this and we are very thankful!

We went home to Dublin this weekend and had the best time. We basically shopped and relaxed. I loved getting to visit with my parents, brother, and sister in law! We enjoyed the rainy weather and played lots of catch phrase too! I forgot how much fun that game is! Mama and Miranda spoiled MC with pajamas, summer outfits, and frilly things from The Exchange. (Matt's favorite thing to do is hang up Molly Caroline's clothes....really! It melts my heart)


Monday night our friend from college, Stacy, came over and basically gave us a mini-shower! More spoiling going on! Stacy has 2 precious boys and a blog! :) She couldn't resist all things girly! I loved catching up with her!


I truly feel bad even inviting people to my showers because everyone has already been so generous to us and Molly Caroline. I am going to pick up some cute thank you notes over Spring Break and my goal is to start writing because I'm already behind on that!

Oh. This pup is pretty spoiled herself. She brings her toys into the nursery, plays really hard, then gets worn out. I love that she loves the nursery as much as we do!

Hello THIRD Trimester!!!

Matt snapped this picture of me on the way to do bloodwork yesterday morning! A scarf and sandals...that is Spring in south GA!


It took 28 weeks but we finally have our first monogrammed item! Molly Caroline Whelan will be here before we know it!


Me and Etsy are best friends. I've been compiling a list of little things to order and made all my purchases last night! One thing that I finally ordered was a wooden monogram.

I feel so good and just want it to continue for the rest of the pregnancy. I told Matt that we are going into the "final trimester lockdown" mode...where we work really hard and eat really healthy. Our goal is to be mostly finished with everything by May, so that we can rest. Hopefully she won't come too early. In all seriousness we are loving pregnancy. We are soaking up everything...making time to rest, going on quality dates, and dreaming of spoiling little MC! Most days we feel prepared, but then there are days where we feel overwhelmed with what is left to do or purchase. Mainly, we are praying hard for a healthy baby and pregnancy these last few months!!!

I found this gem from when Christy was at Saddleback a few weeks ago! I never get tired of this song or her style of leading worship. She is the real deal, y'all!! And yes, her music will most definitely be playing in Molly Caroline's nursery. :)

26 and 27 Weeks!

Best moment this week? There have been a lot of sweet moments the past two weeks.

I loved my appointment on Thursday morning. My doctor had her sweet 4 year old with her at work because she was on the mend from a sickness. I could hear them talking outside of the room I was in and the little girl was begging her mama to come in to my room with her. I had seen them in the hallway and she was precious!! I heard my doctor tell her, "Only if Mrs. Nicole says it's ok, and you only get to go in Mrs. Nicole's room!" Haha! I loved it! Of course it was fine, I got to talk to the sweet girl and she listened to my baby's heart beat. She was all smiles when she heard the heart beating at 161! I got measured, and then my doctor tucked her back into her office to watch a movie and then came back to discuss some test results and tell me our game plan. I got my Rhogam shot and a Tdap vaccine too while I was there.

Another sweet thing was that Matt felt some huge kicks this weekend. I love hearing his reaction! I always tell him that he over-reacts to everything and this was no exception. He is going to be the best daddy, I just know it!

Miss anything? Not right now. I'm feeling great!

Movement? All the time. Dr. McCollum wanted me to start doing kick counts, so I've been doing that and she is kicing away.

Sleep? I can't get enough lately. :)

Cravings? Strawberries. Water with a lemon in it. Grilled vegetables. Sweets...I'm hoping to get over this newest craving soon. Not good!

Sickness? I'm still coughing a lot but I feel fine. It doens't hurt so that is good!

Other symptoms? My hips and tailbone pop all the time. Like every time I cough. It never hurts though. Dr. McCollum said that it is completely normal and that it will hopefully go away after I have the baby. She said it is because of increased hormones during pregnancy and that my tissues are softening up and becoming spongy?!! :)

Gender? GIRL!!

Looking forward to? I have 3 appintments in the next 2 weeks. Is it sad that I'm looking forward to them? I'm looking forward to buying our stroller this weekend! I am also looking forward to organizing her closet and drawers. Also, a litle medicine drawer in our laundry room, and a cabinet for all of her bottles, bibs, etc. !!!!! :)