Pray.

One of my bridesmaid's, Robin, is going to become a Grandmother again, soon. Hopefully, not too soon. Please pray for her Daughter, Ryan, and her unborn Daughter. Ryan had been having contractions that were progressing her cervix. She was put on bed rest, and the contractions stopped. She had a Fetal Fibronectin test yesterday, and it came back positive. From everything that I read last night, this is terrible. 77% of women with that result will more than likely deliver in 7-10 days. Hopefully, the information that I was reading was wrong. She is only 25 weeks. She is supposed to be having a sonogram today to assess the baby. All indications are favorable that the baby, a little girl, is healthy and developing normally. But, she would have a fight if she were born now, obviously. Ryan's first son had open-heart surgery, and prayer saved his life. He is happy and healthy and beautiful.

My other bridesmaid has a son that is having surgery today. He is such a little angel. He is my Jegerator! His name is Jeg. He has double cleft palate and lip. They are repairing the right side of his lip today. The left side was repaired in a previous surgery, and it looks incredible. They need prayer also.

Every time you think about it today, pray.

This is Ryan and her son, Joshua, at our house on the 4th:

This is my Jegerator with his Mom and Dad at our house on the 4th:

VOTE FOR KYLEEEE!

I entered Kylee into the "DFW's CUTEST BABY" contest on Mix 102.9. It's a great station, and they stream online, if you're interested in listening to a family-friendly "mix". Anyway, click the radio button next to "Kaylee Hall"... I emailed them and asked them to correct it, so we'll see how long that takes, but it's her! The site will send you an email to the email address that you enter at the bottom. You can vote once per email address that you have, so if you have more than one - USE THEM!!!!!!! We win a trip to Mexico, if she wins..





This is the picture:
Here is the link: http://www.mix1029.com/pages/contests/cutebaby/index-voting-2.html

One Month to Go...

We have one month, until we are "official"! I am not sure whether to be nervous, excited, stressed... I'm hoping we have a decent turn-out. After having to cancel my bachelorette, because noone was coming, I'm expecting the worst. I'm usually not that pessimistic, but at this point I guess stress has taken over.

We hired Cinderella Stories to do our cakes, because my Great Aunt decided that she would rather not try to do them. She is having knee surgery a couple of weeks before the wedding, so she really isn't going to be strong enough to do it.

I'm in the process of putting the bridesmaid's gift bags together. I also have to tie ribbon on the bubbles.... oh how stressful tying a freaking bow can be! I'm actually going to have my bridesmaid Robin's daughter, Ryan, do it. She's prego with her second baby, and she is on bed rest for now. I know how frustrating bed rest can be, so I'm trying to come up with crafty things for her to do. I'm making the flip flops for the bridesmaids and myself, so I might have her help with that, as well.

So far 26 people are coming... crickets.... I hear them now...

I finally got Kylee fitted for the wedding. She looks like a little doll. She really wasn't into the whole standing still thing, but we got it done. She actually was very well behaved for it being her bed time. Kristin went with me and got fitted, as well. We had a heck of a time with David's Bridal. I had asked Kristin months ago to step in for my best friend and Matron of Honor, Melinda, in the event that she became pregnant and couldn't make the wedding. Well, she is not sure if she will be able to make it. She and her husband live in Florida. She is going to be 33 weeks pregnant with her first little angel on my wedding date. His name is Colin Ryan Smith, and bless his heart, the doctors found that he is having problems with his left kidney function. She is going to the doctor on the 22nd, I believe, and she will ask then about flying. She is a nurse, so she is well-equipped to know whether to take the risk or not. I told her if there was any risk in flying at all that I would be very upset if she made the trip. It is just so not worth it. I would love for her to be there, and it won't be the same without her. I never pictured anyone else as my Matron or Maid of Honor. I won't have one now, really, but if she makes it here, I will be ecstatic. I can't wait to see her pregnant belly. I can't wait to meet my nephew, either! Anyway, my point in rattling on was to explain the situation. When we ordered the dresses a year ago, they assured me (they, being the David's Bridal staff) that we would be able to return and/or exchange the dress if we needed to, no matter when we needed to. So, we get to the store for Kristin to get fitted, and they informed us that we would not be able to return or exchange Melinda's dress for Kristin's. Well... it was so late at that point, that I wasn't in the mood to argue, and I just wanted to get a dress ordered for Kristin and go home. It was after 10 at this point, and we had to order a different dress, because apparently my style had been discontinued. Oh, the drama. I was so tired of "issues" that I agreed to a dress that was basically the same, with just a different neckline.

At work the next day, I told Shelley (John's sister) about our ordeal. She reminded me that they had assured us that they would exchange the dress, yada yada. I'm not good at confrontation, so Shelley said she would call and get it straightened-out. Sure enough, within 10 minutes she had gotten them to agree to refund Melinda's money and order the correct dress for Kristin. Crisis averted.

So here are a couple of pictures of Kylee getting fitted.

Starting to freak out....

I feel like noone is coming. We have gotten several R.S.V.P.s back from people that we felt sure wouldn't want to miss our wedding, and they are not coming. I have to blog about this, because I can't bug John about it anymore, and my Mother thinks I'm worrying too much. Um.. HELL-FREAKING-O I am the bride, and noone is coming to my wedding. We invited over 300 people and we will be hearing crickets with only 20 people showing up! It's my nightmare. We didn't invite people for gifts or any other reason. We want to have a party. It's been 6 years, two kids, a hellacious road at times, and we finally are happy and content. I just thought people would want to see that to fruition.

I'm stressed...and sad...

What a great weekend...

We BBQed on Friday, and had the neighbors and Randi and Jevon over. I'm not sure what time we stayed up until, but I thought it was a good idea to drink lots of beer. I didn't think it was such a good idea on Saturday...

We registered at Home Depot on Saturday, and John was about to kill everyone. He's not the most patient of individuals, so when he found out that we had to find, write down with our actual hand and wait for the the sku to be input into the system to create the registry, I thought he was going to just scrap the whole idea. Looking for man-toys to register for helped, though. His demeanor changed pretty quickly, when we got into the power tool aisle. The girls drove us nuts, however, and Kylee just didn't understand what in the heck she needed to stay in the basket around sharp things and she just wasn't feeling the Depot vibe. We got through the ordeal, and what an ordeal it was, of taking the two of them with no naps to Home Depot. We were brave. I'm not sure that will happen again.

We had a great Father's Day, too. I'm getting John and myself tickets to Seinfeld. He's a freak about it. I think he's excited. I had texted him asking what we had planned for that weekend, and he replied, "That's the weekend Seinfeld is here.." Jackass. I can't surprise him with anything. Sunday morning Kayden was making him a card by doing handprints, and he walked in and ruined that, too. Oh, well. We spent the rest of the day at the water park down the street. Yes, down the street. It's awesome. For the four of us it was 8 dollars. We didn't have our water bill, or it would have been cheaper. Kylee was worn out after about an hour and a half. The water came up to her mid thigh in most places, so I'm sure that was difficult to walk in. I was holding her at one point, and a basket full of water a the top of the toy in the middle dumped directly on us. I'm not sure she was feeling that, either. Other than that, she walked around with her chi-chis out. She had a great time.

Babies, Wedding planning and ladybugs...

I had an exhausting weekend, and the girls had a blast! We drove to College Station on Friday night and got there around 10, and the girls played until midnight with their MeMe and PaPa. I went to bed pretty soon after, because Saturday was incredibly NUTS for me!

This was my schedule:

9:00 A.M. - Meet with Ashley from the Hilton to go over the menu and take some shots of the room. I also made a mental note of the approximate location of the outlets for some of the decor. My Mom and I met "Chef", and he was very friendly. Apparently, that's what we're supposed to call him?

This was set up for Bryan High's prom...

10:45 A.M. - Autumn's shower at Traditions (Allison's Mom's house). I got there late, because I had to go and get her bouncey seat. I had intended to get her gift earlier in the week, but I was dealing with laying tile and bugs! Anyway, that is for a later time... So, I wrapped her gift in the back of my Tahoe in blazing heat, only to discovery that not only was there not a bag big enough to buy to fit the box, the wrapping paper roll was also too small! I used the entire roll, and I'm sure it looked a little strange. Oh, well. I guess it was the fact that I got it there that mattered! I am so excited to meet baby Mcewen!


12:00 P.M. - I had to have my hair done for my bridal pictures that were to be taken at the Admin building on campus. I had never heard of the place, but it was recommended by John's sister. She did exactly what I wanted her to, so I was pretty happy. I'm a little hard to please with my hair. I may hire her for the wedding, if John's cousin Amy cannot make it. I would rather Amy do everyone's hair. I thought it would be special to have her do it, but she just had back surgery, so I'm not sure what the plan is.

1:00 P.M. - I picked up my bouquet from Post Oak Florist. It was beautiful! I ordered an all-white bouquet of different varieties of white/ivory roses to add interest. There is one single red rose to signify rememberance of my Father. I will also have his class ring wired into my bouquet on my wedding day. I didn't have it done for my Bridal pictures. My bouquet is actually still alive, and it is still beautiful! My girls are going to carry mini versions of my bouquet. I can't wait to see it.

4:00 P.M. - We moved the picture time from 3 to 4, because the photographer had some things to do, and we did, also. We ran to the mall to get earrings. I had no idea, but my Mom wanted to get me whatever I wanted, so I picked out a pair that was in an "antique vintage" setting. They have one diamond in the middle with a ton of smaller diamonds around the center diamond, and another layer of diamonds facing out under that. They are hard to explain, but I saw them when I bought John's ring, and I fell in love with them. I am wearing them in my pictures. If I didn't send the link to you, email me and I will send it. I don't want to put a picture up here, in case John decides for once to read my blog. It would figure that he would want to look now!

Some interesting things happened during the picture session... A white feather to Lynda signifies that her Mother-in-Law, who is deceased, is looking down on the situation or whatever is happening at the moment. A ladybug to me is my lucky charm. When I found out that I was going to have Kylee, I picked out a ladybug theme right away, and I have adopted that as my good luck charm. I have never seen more ladybugs in my life since. During the session, I saw three feathers flying around, as did Lynda. When I was sitting by the tree, a beautiful little ladybug crawled up onto the bottom of my dress and she just sat there. It was also raining every so slightly on and off. I don't know how many more signs that were significant to us we could have seen, but it seemed like everyone was trying to tell us something... I think the raindrops were my Dad in a way :-) There was also a crazy squirrel that sat next to me for a little while and he seemed to want to hang out...
The pictures were done around 5:45, and I came back to Joel and Lynda's and was exhausted! I think I first tried to go to bed around 7:00, and that didn't work. I tried again at like 8:30. No luck. I don't remember when I finally went to bed, but I slept soundly all night. Kylee had already been up for a while at 7:45 when I woke up on Sunday, and I hadn't even heard her playing with Lynda. My mind is starting to work overtime in anticipation for our wedding. I had no idea really how much time we DIDN'T have, until we started planning the remaining weekends out and what we still needed to do with them. We don't have a whole lot of time.

We went to the park on Sunday morning, and I would have put Kayden in a cuter outfit, had I known that I was going to take so many pictures...

I took a nap on Sunday, because I had a bunch of dental work last month, and I got a peanut stuck in the open socket of one of my wisdom teeth that had to be cut out. I had to have it packed four times, and it still gives me trouble. Apparently, it takes six months to heal. Eating mashed potatoes and soup is getting really old, but it's better than digging a peanut out of an open socket. Oh, well, if that's the worst that I have to deal with, then I'm doing pretty well...

Next week is Nicole's 13th birthday, so we will be in town again for that, and we will probably try to find time to meet with the music director at the church. So much to do, and so little time. I have to work on Memorial Day, which is disappointing. Our friend Matt is getting married on Monday, so I will only be able to make the rehearsal. The cool thing is our rehearsal will be at the same location, so we can get an early preview. The bad thing is that I have to leave right after. I took two days off when I had to keep Kayden home last week. I took one vacation day and I have to make up the other by working on Monday. I need all the time that I can scrounge to take off for the honeymoon. Cancun here we come!

A year ago Friday...

Next year, we are going to decore much more...

This was her favorite toy.

We welcomed our second little angel into this world. I can't believe it has already been a year. I remember thinking I was pregnant, taking the test, confirming the suspicion, running across the street and telling my friend Robin, and telling John when he got home during a light drizzle that we were going to have another baby.

The short of it... really...

Kylee's pregnancy was uneventful and easy, comparatively speaking. Unfortunately, Kayden's pregnancy was not the most enjoyable. With Kylee we were able to relax. Unlike during Kayden's pregnancy, we now had a house, jobs and we had settled-in to the most wonderful life, and it has since only gotten better each day.

I went into labor two nights before I was to be induced. I was folding clothes on the floor, and we started counting contractions. They were erratic, so we went to bed. I woke up at about six on the morning of the 25th to active labor contractions, and informed John that we were going to need to "do something" with Kayden, because Kylee was on the way. I decided to sit in the tub for a minute to see if they would subside, since I was to be induced the next day, but they only got more intense the more I relaxed. She was on her way! I wish we had taken a picture of what we had dressed Kayden in that morning for school. I'm sure it would have been a sight to see. Jodie, the assistant director of the center, could see me through the glass front door in my Tahoe during my contractions, while John was taking his sweet time taking Kayden inside. I think she was just as excited as we were. The cool thing is to think that she saw me in labor with Kylee, and yesterday morning was the first other than me to tell her happy first birthday... pretty neat. Anyway, my doctor is about an hour away with moderate traffic. She delivered Kayden, and I love her. She was my doctor when we were in school, thus the reason for the distance... BUT a good OB is like a good girlfriend... hard to find and worth every effort to keep. John ran every red light and went around every line of traffic we encountered. I was on the phone with my dear friend Robin that was in between laughing at me and calming me down, because I would hand the phone off during contractions to John, and then I would get back on the phone and chat with her between them. I was a five by the time we got to the hospital, and they took a decade to find all the dumb paperwork thatI needed to sign to get my epidural. My water broke before they administered it, which I didn't experience with Kayden. I was induced because of high blood pressure with her. By the time I was given my epidural, I was about a six, and I had sweat through my clothes and John hadn't been allowed to go and get a cigarette, so he was pacing.

She finally graced us with her presence about 8 hours later, and she flew out with one push. The nurse had me try to push once and then stopped me. My OB came running in, and Kylee had been blocking part of the bag of waters, so she gave everyone a shower. They all actually laughed. The epidural hadn't worked on my right side, until they had given me a third bolus, so it was almost a full twelve hours afterwards, before I was able to use my left leg. I had feeling back in the right almost immediately, but the left was spaghetti haha.

She has been the most gentle and happy little soul you can imagine. She is always smiling and laughing, even though she STILL does not have a single tooth in her little head; bless her heart. And no, the doctor is still not worried in the least about that, she tells me. She's an Aggie, so I just have to believe her :-).