Maternity Pictures

I wasn't sure if this was something I wanted to do. Actually, I had already decided I didn't want to do them and backed out of having my sweet cousin shoot a few pictures of us. I was struggling with "oh, I am going to look so fat and hate the pictures" and "I'll regret not doing this in the long run." 

I came across a sorority sister who does photography on the side that I wanted to do Makenna's newborn pictures. We got to talking and she offered to create a "maternity and newborn" package for us.  Scott and I talked about and decided to do it. I am SO glad I did. She did a fabulous job. You can check out her work at www.thephotobakery.net! It was so much fun to see her again and have her be apart of this special time. Thanks so much Madison!



Here are a few that are my favorites:

It's been awhile...

Wow. Time has FLOWN by. I am 35 weeks and 2 days today.  I haven't updated in awhile because of the busyness of life. Working, preparing for the holidays, and of course Makenna's arrival have taken over our lives. I will try to recap the past few weeks.

28 week appt: At our 28 week appoint we got a bit of shocking news. Makenna was measuring in the 13th percentile for weight. Our doctor felt that it was important we go see a specialist to check things out. Our appt with our doctor was on a Thursday and the appointment with the specialist was on Monday. It was a rough 3 days between but our faith in God and prayers from close friends and family was our comfort. We knew now matter what was wrong we were going to love this baby girl, as we already do! Monday rolled around and we had our appointment with the specialist.  She conducted a sonogram and concluded that Makenna was small BUT nothing major. By her sonogram she was in the 30th percentile. THANK YOU JESUS. Our first question was why the discrepancy between the 2 percentages. It was explained to us that the specialist has higher quality equipment and a PhD in reading sonograms. We were very thankful for this and praised our Lord for such good results. He is always faithful.

30 week appt:  Throughout this pregnancy I have been seeing different doctors within this practice. At first I didn't believe it would bother me. Well it has. I saw a new doctor this appointment and she was not my favorite. She measured my stomach and stopped to look at me. Out of her mouth comes "has anyone told you you are measuring behind?" I wanted to SCREAM. Yes lady, if you would look at my records you would see this has been an issue. I left that appointment very frustrated because the doctor I was trusting to care for me and my sweet baby girl didn't even take the time to look at my records before I walked in the room. At 30 weeks I was measuring at 27 weeks. Again, I left an appointment discouraged even though I knew the specialist wasn't concerned.


Tuesday before Thanksgiving: It was the last day of work before the Thanksgiving holiday. I woke up not feeling so well but didn't think anything of it. I was a bit nauseous and light headed. I drank a bottle of water thinking maybe that would help. As the day progressed I just felt worse and worse. My nausea turned to cramps. After dealing with that for 2 hours I finally called the doctor because I knew something wasn't right. After describing my symptoms they sent me to L&D. Scott picked me up at work and drove me to Triage. This was an experience I was for unsure of. After 4 hours in Triage the doctor concluded I was having "pre-term contractions" 3-4 minutes apart. They were not causing me to dilate, thank goodness! I was hooked up to an IV to stop them and sent on my way. It was my first time having an IV (that I can remember) Scott did SO good and was able to calm my nerves. I now know what to expect when true labor arrives. :)

32 week appt: The day after my L&D experience I saw a different doctor at a different office. By this point I knew I could not go back to the same office I had been seen at up to this point. The group that I am with has an office in N. Arlington which has a very good reputation. The doctor I saw was alright. Not very friendly but knew her stuff. She was aware that I was in L&D the night before and was prompt to answer our questions...well sort of. We have noticed a lot of times they are vague with their information as if we don't need to know too much. Well if you know Scott and I you know we want all the details. We got the fabulous news that I measuring on track. First time the whole pregnancy. That gave us encouragement that baby girl was growing fast. 

2nd appt with the specialist: I had a 2nd appt with Dr. Burton, our specialist the following week. (33 weeks) We had a sonogram and got even better news. Makenna weighed 5lbs and was in the 46th percentile. Dr. Burton was very pleased with the progress. She released us from seeing her because she had no concern at all out with precious girl. This was the best news we could have received. Scott, my mom, and mother-in-law were both there. It was such a neat time for us all to hear after all of this "worry" our sweet angel is doing just fine. 

34 week appt: I had been recommend to Dr. Gardow, a new female doctor at the N. office. I was anxious to meet her. I arrived at my appt and had to sit and wait a good 30 minutes becasue she was the only doctor in the office that Friday. Let me tell you the wait was well worth it. She walked in, pulled up a stool, and SAT DOWN TO TALK TO ME. This was the FIRST time that any of the doctors took the time to carry on a conversation with me. It meant the world to me. Scott was not able to attend this appt. so her and I just had a little girl talk. I ended up venting to her about my past experience with the other office and their staff. She was very apologetic and wanted to do something about. WOW, someone does care about my feelings and how this experience goes. After our "counseling session" (LOL) she checked out Makenna's HB which was strong, as usual and measured my fundal height. I was a week off again but she said it was nothing at all to worry about especially with the good report we had from Dr. Burton.   I left that office feeling better about the pregnancy and that I was in good hands. It is sad to say that it took 34 weeks to find that. 

Again, this is a lot of information shoved into a summary. It has been a crazy few months but we are so blessed by God's love and faithfulness to us. We have an amazing support group of family and friends who pray for us and with us daily. We are beyond excited about the arrival of Makenna. It is only 4 and half weeks away that she is due so we are aware that it could be anytime now. My prayer is that she waits until at least 37 weeks and then our little girl can meet the world. 

Sweet Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 26 weeks 3 days

Size of baby:  Approximately 1.75lbs and 14 inches long. WOW she is growing fast! 

Weight gain: +16
Maternity Clothes: All clothes are maternity expect some dresses I wear are my pre-pregnancy dresses. :)
Gender: It's A GIRL!!!!! Makenna Grace...

Movement: I am pretty confident that Makenna will be going to the 2032 Olympics as a gymnast  She is VERY active. Scott felt her move for the first time a few weeks ago. That has been the only time though because as soon as he places her hand on my tummy she stops.  Lucy has even felt her kick. Her head was laying on my stomach last Saturday morning and Makenna kicked the fire out of her. Her head popped up and she looked at me with that "WHAT in the WORLD was that?" Haha It was priceless!

Sleep: I sleep great but wake up frequently for bathroom breaks.  

Symptoms: Frequent potty breaks, tailbone is sore, lower back is sore after long days at work

What I miss: Sweet Tea!! 

Cravings: Spicy foods and SWEETS

Best Moment this week: We had our 3D/4D sonogram today! It was absolutely the neatest, amazing, sweetest experience EVER. Being able to sit there and watch her move around so simply amazing. She is such a a wonderful blessing and I cannot wait to meet her. Her arrival is greatly anticipated by many. 

What I am looking forward to: Getting ready for her arrival and meeting Makenna in just a few months!

Sweet Pregnancy Highlights:

(I was 18 weeks when this picture was taken-my bump is a bit bigger now.)

How Far Along: 20 weeks- I am HALF way there! I cannot believe how fast it is going.

Size of baby: 8.0 inches long, about the size of a small cantaloupe and weighs about 10 ounces.

Weight gain: +9

Maternity Clothes: About 2 weeks ago my momma and I went on a bit of a "Back to School" shopping spree. I bought a few dresses, several long shirts, and leggings. Also, I bought a pair of maternity jeans and surprisingly they are VERY comfy!

Gender: It's A GIRL!!!!! We are VERY excited about our little princess. :)

Movement: She is moving a lot but only I can feel her. She is not kicking hard enough to feel it on the outside yet but I feel like it will be very soon and her daddy will feel her kicks. 

Sleep: Sleep is still frequent but I do wake up as a turn over. I sleep with a body pillow that I prop under me. 

Symptoms:  Stomach muscles are stretching, frequent potty breaks, feet hurt, and lower back is sore

What I miss: Sweet Tea!! 

Cravings: Spicy foods and milk

Best Moment this week: On Thursday we found out the gender of our little one. We had a Gender Reveal Party at my parents house. The lady that did our wedding cake make cupcakes for the party. She filled 1 of the cupcakes with the gender color (pink). Everyone was instructed to wear blue if they thought it was a boy and a pink if they thought it was a girl. Let's just say the majority wore blue, including me! It was a lot of fun and lots of SHOCKED faces when it was revealed we would be having a baby GIRL!

What I am looking forward to: Scott being able to feel his little girl kicking!

Sweet Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 15 weeks

Size of baby: 4.0 inches long, about the size of a naval orange

Weight gain: +4

Maternity Clothes: Since I have bought a few pair maternity shorts I have grown to absolutely LOVE them. I still wear work-out clothes often too because they are loose and cool. If we are headed to a nicer dinner or church I put on a dress. 

Gender: Not sure...yet! We will find out at the end of August/beginning of September.

Movement: Little One is moving but cannot feel it yet.

Sleep: Sleep is still frequent but I do wake up as a turn over. I sleep with a body pillow that I prop under me. 

Symptoms:  I had an amazing week between week 13 and 14 but between weeks 14-15 was rough. I started throwing up again last Sunday. Had no energy all week and then starting Thursday around 9:00am I couldn't keep anything down. I called the dr around 2:00pm that day and they called me Phenergan because Zofran was not having and effect.  I slept from 2:30pm until 9:00am.  I got up a few times to drink water and eat apple sauce. That stayed down. When I woke up at 9:00am Friday I ate more apple sauce but within 10 minutes that was up. I made a call in to the dr. They sent me to see Dr. Steidl because Dr. Finke was busy all day.  Dr. Steidl basically said "this is the unfortunate part of pregnancy."  She checked the HB (152 BPM) and said everything thing looked fine. Told me take the medication as needed and send sent me on my way. VERY glad to hear Baby Evans was doing great.  That was my biggest concern. 

What I miss: Sweet Tea!! 

Cravings: Coffee Ice Cream, Salad, and Chicken

Best Moment this week: Putting Baby Evans' crib together! My wonderful in-laws purchased our crib for us and gave it to us early so Scott could put it together while we are off.   We ended up assembling it together. :)

What I am looking forward to: Going back to the dr on August 2 and hearing that precious HB. 

Week 11

Sweet Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 11 weeks

Size of baby: 1.6 inches long, about the size of a lime

Weight gain: +3

Maternity Clothes: I love to wear my workout shorts with t-shirts. BUT I did break down this week and buy maternity shorts. I am glad I did because the hair tie trick was not working anymore.  Also, I love to wear dresses because they are cool and comfy.

Gender: Not sure...yet! We will  find out mid-August.

Movement: Little One is moving but cannot feel it yet.

Sleep: HAHA, ask Scott about this. I sleep just fine pretty much ALL the time. :)

Symptoms:  Morning sickness comes and goes.  Monday and Tuesday were rough days but seems to have gotten better as the week moves on. I am always tired so I tend to nap a lot. 

What I miss: Hands down Chick-Fil-A Sweet Tea

Cravings: Cantaloupe, Strawberries, and Salad

Best Moment this week: Going back to the dr. July 2. 

What I am looking forward to: Celebrating our 1 year anniversary Monday!

The BIG 3-1!

Today is Scott's 31st birthday! We celebrated with our families last Sunday and then today him and I celebrated together. It is so nice to be able to have each of our families together in one house. God has blessed us with the joining of 2 families. That is what it is all about! 

 Here are our nieces and nephew's minus Paxton. 

Scott LOVES Ice Cream cake so I ordered one from Cold Stone. Look at the message. :)

Scott bought himself a new handgun last month which was considered his birthday gift BUT I LOVE giving gifts so I decided to do something small. I decided to give him a small something every hour.  I started the gifts at 10:31 (since he turned 31) and he received a gift every hour until 4:31.  It was a lot of fun watching him wait for it to be :31. HAHA 

First "surprise" started off with breakfast at 10:31!

 Here are all of his gifts laid out

 He LOVES M&M's

 Summer Tee

 Nothing beats the Texas heat like Icee Pops!

He needed something to organize all of his stuff that clutters my counters. :)

I planned on ending the evening with a dinner out of his choice but unfortunately he woke from his nap with a headache. :( We decided to stay in tonight and get ready for our garage sale.  Our anniversary is coming up on June 25 so we are going to celebrate the 2 together at Texas de Brazil (if I get to choose). YUMMY! 

Until next time!

Lucy has an announcement...

We are SO EXCITED to announce that we have a little one on the way!  We are due January 12, 2013.

We had our first Sono today. Little One measured at 8 weeks 3 days with a heart beat of 178bmp. God is good!

I will be updating this blog weekly to keep everyone posted. Please feel free to check back with updates. We would appreciate your prayers during this time. We are so excited for each of you to meet our new addition and cannot wait to see what else God has in store for our little family. 

Much Love, 

Courtney and Scott

Spring Time in Texas

It is officially baseball season.  This is probably one of my favorite times of year. I absolutely love to watch the Texas Rangers, always have! For my dad's birthday I took him to one of the games.  We both love watching baseball and have enjoyed many games over the past years together. We had the privilege of going to the debut game of Yu Darvish.  Of course, this wasn't his best game but it was still neat to see him pitch AND we won!  Here are a few pictures. 

 We had AWESOME seats!

Yu's first pitch!

 Murphy and Hamilton playing outfield

Love me some Ron Washington!

Painting with a Twist

 I had a girl's night tonight with a friend...we enjoyed every second of it.  She invited me to go with her to "Painting with a Twist."   It is a group painting class that takes you step by step on how to create your artwork.  They have different paintings each class so you may choose which one you would like to go to. This is a super cute place to go with a group of friends. Tonight we painted a chandelier. I am by no means an artist (as you will see you below) BUT it was still a lot of fun and it turned out much better than I expected.

 We started with a black canvas.

They then have you draw with chalk to create the outline...this was VERY helpful.

 

This is the complete chandelier in chalk. 

 

We then went over the chalk with white paint. I really liked the way it looked in all white. 

 

Last, we added color to it.  I did not really care for the color choice but here is the final product!

 

My friend Amber and I. As you can see she is a bit more artistic then me. :)

Even though I may not be an artist it was still a lot of fun and I would love to go back again. I highly recommend it for a girls night.  They have them all over the US so visit www.paintingwithatwist.com to see if there is one close to you!

Power of Prayer

       I have really struggled this year with my class.  I can't tell if it's me, my students, or both. I love each of them SO much but my patience with them is lacking. So I guess you could say the problem lies within me. :/

      This past Monday I decided I needed to pray while I got ready instead of listen to the news. I began by thanking God for my job and then asked for him to give me patience.  I prayed for each student personally and asked him to prepare them for the new week.  We had a wonderful day.   We had so much fun learning about contractions, writing about what we think the Tooth Fairy does with our teeth, and how to keep our teeth healthy. Since then I have prayed each morning while getting ready. I have a MUCH better week and have truly enjoyed being in my classroom each day.

I believe with all of my heart that God hears my prayers and helps me work on my faults.   And thank you Lord for that.

    My prayer is that each of you feel the grace of our Lord and Savior by investing your time in conversation with him every day. It truly does change EVERYTHING.

The End of 2011

This has been a VERY busy but exciting weekend.  A dear friend got married and my precious nephew turned ONE.

It seems like yesterday that my SIL was in labor.  Paxton Russell was born December 31, 2010 at 10:00 am.  Such a sweet little baby that has grown to be such an independent boy.

On Friday night I was apart of an incredible wedding.  It was a beautiful wedding in so many ways. The sanctuary was packed with 800 guests as Natalie walked down the isle looking incredible.  This was such a sweet ceremony conducted by Dr. Wiles of FBC Arlington. I must say it is the sweetest wedding I have ever been too and been apart of.  Such a wonderful time started with decorating on Wednesday, to the bridesmaid luncheon on Thursday, and the wedding on Friday. I cannot even begin to describe how much work was put into this wedding and reception.  I was very blessed to apart of this special day for Natalie and Stephen and cannot wait to see how God uses them in their ministry.

This is for you mom! You have been requesting pictures of our precious pooch.  Lucy is growing everyday.  This evening Scott and I sat on the couch and watched one of our favorite shows, Dog Whisper.  This episode was very useful to us and I am already seeing a change in Lucy.  This little stinker loves to get a hold of things that are not hers.  Instead of demanding her to give them up, you wait until she drops it.  I tested out this technique tonight and within 2 minutes she had put the blanket down, slowly laid down and put her head down as well.  She was be submissive.  I showed her who's boss! :)   We are also off to puppy school in 2 weeks.  Lord, help us and her. :)

I hope your New Year's weekend was as wonderful as mine!