Beach Bums!!

Jason and I took a much needed vacation to Destin, FL last weekend. We had a great relaxing time! The weather was a little chilly, but we still got lots of sun and had lots of good food.

I told Jason this was the last year we could relax at the beach! Next year we will be building sand castles and playing with Leland in the pool!

7 Month Check-up!!

I have been to the doctor twice this week. I had my first glucose test bright and early Monday morning and failed. I had to go back for the 3 hour test this morning. I was not a happy camper!! I had to get stuck 5 times, 2 of which were drawing a vile a blood from 2 fingers because the lab person said I was "dry". Not fun, but worth it because I passed the second one!!

Leland is measuring just as he should and we are still on schedule for a July 24th due date. I am still on the small side to be 7 months pregnant, but I have been reassured that everything is OK.

We go back on May 18th for the 4D ultra sound and I will also start my Rog am shots because I am a negative blood type. Time is flying by!

Happy Easter!!!

Jason and I went to Newnan this weekend to spend Easter with family. We had a great time!

Granpa LOVES Tisyn!!

Welcome Anslee!!!

Anslee Elizabeth Williamson is our newest little cousin!! Jason had a good hour of practice with a newborn at the hospital.....

Say a little prayer! She is currently in the NICU at St. Vincents. They believe she has reflux, but will be there until the can run more test tomorrow. We are all hoping all is well! Hopefully she will just need a formula change and will be able to go home!!

Prayer's needed now more than ever.....

I posted a blog a while back about our dear friend, Danielle, waiting to have her bone marrow transplant. To update, she had the transplant last Wednesday. I went to the hospital to visit her, and all was well. She was doing great and was in good spirits. The nurses on the floor came into her room with a cake, t-shirt, and a poster signed by all the nurses. They proceeded to sing Happy Birthday to her, as Wednesday 4/2/2009 was the birth of her new life! It brought tears to my eyes, and I was very excited that I got the opportunity to share that moment with her and her mom.

Over the weekend, she started to decline, but this was OK because we knew things would get a lot worse before they got better. Last night I received a text stating that they were taking her for a cat scan because they thought that one of the tumors was causing serious problems and pain. This morning she received some rather bad news. The tumors appear larger now and she is having some abnormal enlarging of the esophagus. This is not good!! It seems as though she is moving backwards instead of forwards with the BMT. I am not sure what the doctor's will do to treat this issue, but I pray that they do something quickly to get her out of pain and misery from thinking that this may be the end of the road.

Please take time to pray for Danielle and her family as they are going through the most emotional time of pain right now. It has been one LONG road this past year as she has fought with all her might to beat this cancer. I know in my heart that God has a brand new life of all the world's blessings in store for her after this battle is over. Please just keep them in your thoughts and prayers and just know that you can't take things for granted and you don't need to sweat the small stuff!!

6 Month Check-Up!!

I went to the doctor today for our once a month check-up. The doctor said everything is great. I however, did not think so when the scales informed me of my 7 lb weight gain! I did not think that was normal, but the doctor assured me that it was fine as I have only gained 8 lbs my entire pregnancy. I simply gained back what I lost in the beginning! In fact, 8 lbs is excellent for almost 6 months pregnant. I am just excited to have an appetite for something other than saltine crackers and Sprite! Hopefully the warm weather trend will continue and I can get a good walk in every afternoon.

Leland is VERY active these days! Jason finally felt him kick several times. I can tell he his growing like a weed because my belly is getting larger and his kicks are getting a lot stronger!

The Nursery is Complete!!

We got our newly recovered chair back on Sunday. It looks great! It makes the perfect spot to sit and read or just cuddle with our little boy!

My mom and I took a 4 week sewing class. We learned a lot, and I can't wait to make more outfits for Leland to wear. They are identical to outfits in a baby store right up the street for $65, minus the monogram. Here is what we learned how to make over the past month....

Lovin It!!

We are loving this warm weather and longer days! It is so nice to come home and have a good 2 hours of daylight to go for a walk and cook dinner on the grill!

We are also loving that I am at the half-way point of the pregnancy!! I can tell a huge difference in the past few weeks. I am not getting sick near as often, I am getting more energy, and most importantly I can feel Leland kicking up a storm!! Jason has not felt a good kick yet, but I can definitely feel every one of them from the inside!

The past 20 weeks have flown by, so before we know it, our little boy will be here!!

Happy 1 Year Anniversary!!!

This time last year, we woke up to temperatures in the 60's and beautiful weather for our perfect wedding! After the wedding, we stayed at the historic Tutwiler Hotel in downtown Birmingham. Scenes from our balcony a year ago looked like this..........

We did not have a good experience at the Tutwiler a year ago and were given a gift certificate for the "romance" package to be used within a year for a do-over! We chose to use our gift certificate on our first anniversary. We stayed at the hotel again last night and everything was perfect! We walked in to this.....

The room was complete with chocolate covered strawberries, champagne for Jason, and sparkling grape juice for me! We got all dressed up and had a fantastic dinner at 26, a restaurant downtown!

We had a GREAT night! Quite different from last year, we woke up to 2-3 inches of snow on the ground! The view from our balcony looked quite different!

Here's to a great first year of marriage, and many more to come!!!

I've been busy!!!

As you can see, I did a few arts and crafts today! I made each of these by hand including the letters... no stencile! They add the perfect touch to the nursery.

Yesterday I decided to go ahead and paint. Those of you that have seen this room before know that it is COMPLETELY different now!! We still have to get the chair and ottoman recovered, but at least we picked out the fabric! Here are some pictures of how things are coming along....

It's a BOY!!!

We went to the doctor today for our big ultrasound that shows all of the babies organs and how they are progressing. It was a lot of fun spending the afternoon with Grandma and GiGi and seeing how much our little one is growing!

Our little boy was not very cooperative during the scan. The nurse had to jiggle him around several times to get good pictures. We did get one good one showing that it is in fact a BOY! We have decided on the name Leland Matthew Rooks and will call him Leland. The doctor said that everything looks great, and we are still on schedule for a July 24th due date.

Before the ultrasound, GiGi brought a surprise for Jason and I (well more for our other child, Tisyn!). We now have a cute little baby doll that makes all the baby noises. Why a baby doll you ask? Well we have been told that the best way to introduce a new baby to a very spoiled dog is to get a baby doll.

Now that we know which colors are appropriate for the nursery, it is coming right along! Here are some pictures of the super cute crib set!

Now all we like is some paint on the walls and putting new upholstery on an old chair and ottoman!

Nursery Cont'd....

We went to Georgia this past weekend to visit Jason's family. While there, we went to downtown Atlanta on Saturday to experience Ikea. This store is awesome! They have anything and everything you could possibly want to decorate the inside of a home. While there, we picked up piece #2 for the nusery....

Here is the dresser/changer table (minus the changing pad)!

We figured since we bought a convertible crib, we would opt for a piece of furniture that would last as long as the bed instead of the traditional changing table.

After Ikea, we had the best lunch at the famous Varsity. It was WELL worth the drive!

On another note, a few weeks ago, Jason installed a class door on the front of the house. We love it, but I think someone enojoys looking out more than we do....

I imagine this week will go by slow as we anticipate the big reveal of girl or boy on Friday!

Nursery in Progress!!!

I got a call today stating that the crib we ordered for Baby Rooks was finally available for pick-up! Of course you naturally start praying that it is the right one and that it is not too complicated to put together.....

I am happy to announce that it is the exact crib we wanted AND it was very easy to put together!

Here are some pictures of the finished product......









We love it! It makes having a baby so much more real when you put a crib in your home! Our child will get many years of use out of this convertible crib! We can't wait to find out if we are having a boy or girl in just another week. The painting and crib decor will have to wait until then!!

ALL PRAYERS WELCOME!!!

Please take time to pray for my best friend Danielle Castle as she is going through the final stages preparing for her bone marrow transplant to hopefully end her battle with cancer. She has had such a long fight and it is now up to God! We love you Danielle!!!

This is the most precious video clip!!! We can only hope that our Boxer Tisyn is as sweet to our baby as this one is!

4 Month Baby Rooks Check-Up!

Today we went to our new doctor. I am very pleased with our decision to change! Everything is fine with me and baby. I am still getting really sick quite often, but hopefully not too much longer and I will be able to enjoy the pregnancy and actually start showing instead of loosing weight.

We heard the heart beat again today, and it is down from the normal high 160's range. It was down to 147 today. This news threw a big halt to me thinking it was a girl because of the heartbeat being so high. They say if it is above 140 it is a girl, and below is a boy. However, now even though my gut says girl, I am starting to wonder if it is a boy??

Good news, we don't have to wait long to find the answer to this mysterious question. We go back February 20th for the big ultrasound that shows all of the babies organs including the sex. Grandma will be joining GiGi, Jason, and I from Georgia to witness the big ultra sound and the even bigger news of is it a boy or girl??

Stay tuned to find out if we will be stocking up on lots of pink dresses and bows or lots of blue and green all boy stuff!

Caught up!

I think I have hit all the high points since we got married back in March. Our first year of marriage is flying by and the pregnancy is going by pretty fast too! We can't wait to find out if it is a boy or girl so we can start decorating the nursery!!

Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Birthday Jennifer, and SURPRISE!!!

I have always been a Thanksgiving baby and this year my birthday fell on turkey day. Jason surprised me with a surprise party at our house the Saturday before. All of my friends and family came from all over to help me celebrate. We had lots of fun!





Well needless to say, that was the last of my partying stage! We found out the very next day that we were expecting our first!





Baby Rooks is due July 24, 2009!!






I am now 16 weeks pregnant. I have been very sick the entire time! Other than me being miserable the majority of the time not knowing if I am going to be sick or not, the baby is doing great. Hopefully as everyone keeps telling me, the good pregnancy days are just around the corner! We go back for a check-up tomorrow and will find out what we are having the last week of February!! Any guesses?

Race for the Cure!

A group of friends and I decided that we would participate in the Race for the Cure in Birmingham this year. For those who don't know, it is a 5k run/walk in memory and celebration of those that have breast cancer. This was special for me as I ran in memory of my Ninny and in celebration of my aunt Cissy that won her battle with breast cancer.

Happy Halloween!

Project Fence!!

Now that we have a house, Jason is always finding some project that needs to be done. Number one on our list was putting a privacy fence in the backyard for us to enjoy, but most importantly for Tisyn to enjoy! After 3 long days and nights, the finished product is perfect! Thanks to all of our helpers!

It was VERY cold the weekend we decided to put up the fence. Our spoiled dog loves the new fence, only if you put his jacket on and bed down for him to lay outside!

When the project was finally done, Jason enjoyed sitting by the fire in our now private backyard!