Good News...

That is right...we will be welcoming our 2nd child into the world sometime at the beginning of September! We were probably just as shocked this time as we were the 1st time but still very excited!

We actually found out the week of Christmas, December 20th to be exact.  There were a few complications in the beginning so we tried not to let ourselves get too excited but everything turned out to be just fine! Thank You God!

My 1st doctor's visit was last Tuesday, the 18th.  I actually ended up being about a week and a half later than I thought, I should have been about 8 weeks and 5 days at the appointment but I was only 7 weeks 3 days going off of the gestational size of the baby.  We ended up being there for almost 3 hours which was a little nerve racking but it was totally worth seeing our little peanut and getting some Five Guys Burgers and Fries before heading home! So good! Baby Dodd's heartbeat was a strong 170 and he or she was measuring just perfectly! 

I am 8 weeks and 4 days today and the nausea is defiantly starting to kick in.  I have had a little here and there for a few weeks but the "real stuff" started Saturday morning and hasn't really stopped since.  Please say a prayer for me.  It is hard enough being pregnant and tired with a toddler but morning sickness on top of that pretty much makes me feel worthless. lol I pray that it doesn't last long :o)

So far, we think its a boy.  Just going off of the majority of our family members, most females (my mom, Michael's mom, Michael's aunt, and my grandmother) have had a girl then a boy. Plus I have 3 brothers and boys just run in my family.  Either way I will be equally excited...after having a scare in the beginning I just want a 100% healthy baby! We want 3 kids so if we don't get a boy this time around, maybe the 3rd times a charm ;o)!

Here is our sweet little baby's 1st photo!

Here is a photo from Christmas Eve...we told the family on Christmas just because we had to tell a few people! ;o) We wrapped Big Sister pajamas (very last minute) for Briley to unwrap...that didn't really work out as planned since she was not into unwrapping gifts this year so at my parents house my grandmother helped Briley open them and at Michael's house his mom opened them.  Only a few people got it at first but it quickly caught on.  I think everyone was pretty surprised.  We definatly got an array of reactions this time around (as we did with Briley, just different) and thats all I will say about that ;o) We had told Michael's dad and step mom a few days before when we celebrated Christmas with them (we didn't have the pajamas then, so we just told them).  I will say they get the award for being the most excited for both baby #1 and baby #2! Way to go mamaw and papaw!



Papaw's B-Day

Michael's dad's b-day is on Jan 3 so we celebrated after church on the 2nd.  We all went in together to get him a grill and he was very surprised! He was also very surprised to learn he had to grill steaks for lunch! lol
He thought we were having another dish that Becky had made before hand but we were really having steak! I think he was the most shocked at how she hid it from him for almost a week! A pretty large gift to hide I will say but it worked! Yeah!

Here are a few pics from the day!

Sweet Briley taking a nap in the car ~ a miracle!

Shes going through a shy faise right now

Boo Boo ~ her favorite dog! She says his name at least 100 times a day!

Surprise!

Pretty Pretty Reagan! Love those dimples!

New Years

So I am playing catch up once again...we have had alot of sickness in our house over the last 3 weeks! Defiantly not my idea of fun, let me tell you...

Anyway, this is going to be a short post because we didn't do a thing this year for New Years, which was perfectly fine with me. :o) We didn't get in from the Music City Bowl till about 4pm-ish.  My parents had kept Briley so we headed straight over there to get her when we pulled into town and then headed over to Michael's mom's for a little bit.  Briley and Reagan had a sleep over at Nana's house that night.  Michael and I went to eat and Chilli's and then came back to hang out a little while longer.  We ended up heading home around 12ish and going to bed.  Real eventful huh? lol
At this point I don't even remember what we did the next day besides sleep in.  I got a pretty good nap that day as well so that was nice!

Music City Bowl

The hubby and I decided a long time ago, if TN went to a bowl game even remotely close we were going to go (this actually ended up being what I gave him for his b-day since his bday is in November) So it was exciting when they went to the Music City Bowl, 1) because Nashville is only 2 hours away and 2) because it's our "old" home.  We LOVE that place.  I miss so many things about it but I don't miss the traffic, having to work full-time and not getting to spend time with my sweet baby girl, or having a sick baby 24/7 because she is stuck in a daycare.  :o)

So we headed up around noon on the 30th and went to check on our house (we just had a deck put on so the tenants are loving that) and then it was time to head downtown to meet up with the guy we were buying our tickets from.  On a side note, it was like 50 degrees and here was my attire for the game, leggings, blue jeans, 2 pairs of socks, a long sleeve undershirt, a long sleeve t-shirt, a sweatshirt, a rain jacket, and a winter coat...oh and lets not forget the 2 pairs of gloves, hat, and scarf.  lol  Michael thought I was crazy and

I could barely move but I am so COLD natured!  I was still freezing even with all of that.  But anyway, we didn't park as close as I had hoped but thats ok.  Lord knows I need the exercise. lol  The game was fun minus the fact that we were sitting smack dab in the middle of the UNC fans and they were pretty obnoxious.

brrr...

So in the end, we thought they "had it in the bag" and we had dinner reservations at our favorite restaurant, Ruth's Chris so we ended up leaving a few minutes early.  If only we knew what was going on while we were gone.  We ended up jogging to the car and rushing to the restaurant so he could see the end.  Low and behold we were sitting next to half of the Tennessee Titans football team.  Michael seriously stopped breathing for a few minutes.  He was freaking out, lol.  His favorite player, Chris Johnson was sitting closest to us.  So we barely talked the entire night.  Michael just wanted to sit and stare and listen to what they were saying.  Sounds like fun, huh? lol, maybe for a guy but not for me.  It was fun seeing him so excited though! I've definitely never seen him like that before.  Michael was able to get his picture made with Chris so that completely made up for TN loosing!  I am so glad, because he probably would have been in a bad mood the rest of the night. lol

All in all it was a great time and Michael said it was the best Birthday present ever! Whoot Whoot!

Christmas Fun!

Well Christmas was great as always.  It feels so magical having a child running around.  I really tried to soak up every minute I could, because it was over far too quickly.  Eventhough this was Briley's 2nd Christmas it almost felt like her 1st.  I think it was because she had no idea what was going on last year since she was only 8 months old.  She was MUCH more in tune with everything this year.  I was surprised that she had no interest in opening gifts, though.  For some reason I thought she would be into that a little more.  Next year I'm sure she will be into it all ;o)!  We plan on doing elf on the shelf next year as well so i'm very excited about that, we will see if it helps with her "tantrums" a little before Santa comes to visit, ha!  We defiantly had a time with the tree this year...she loved pulling all of the ornaments off and throwing them.  she thought they were "balls".  Technically she was right I guess, lol. 

Briley's Tree

Wednesday the 22nd kicked off our Christmas fun at Michael dad and step-mom's house.  They have a farm in Henderson so we headed that way to celebrate Christmas with them.  We had a non-traditional dinner which was great since we would be eating alot of  turkey and dressing in the days to come :o)!  It was a great night.  The girls got the cutest little tutus, Briley's was orange for the Vols and Reagan's was purple for LSU!  That was by far one of my favorite gifts she got!  Briley acted a little shy that night and she didn't want to eat anything.  She just wanted to play and run around.  Guess who was hungry as soon as we got ready to leave?!? lol. 

Thursday I didn't feel great so I sort of layed around most of the day and started cooking around 5pm and lets just say I didn't finish until about 1am.  I was pooped.  Guess I shouldn't have layed around all day, huh? lol I made, 3 hashbrown casseroles, 1 squash casserole, 1 sweet potato casserole, 2 apple pies, and 1 caramel pie.  I also layed stuff out for the overnight breakfast casserole I put together on Christmas eve night. 

Melt-down mode...Someone was ready for bed ;o)

Friday around 1pm we headed over to my parents house to celebrate with them.  Everyone was running late as usual.  I think we finally ate around 2 or so (we were supposed to start at 12!).  Briley was so tired by that point so we ended up laying her down for a nap.  Unfortunately we had to wake her up to head to the next stop.  Around 4:30, after my grandfather read the Christmas story from the Bible, we headed over to Michael's moms house.  Briley had a "costume" change there.  We have so many Christmas outfits, I wanted her to be able to wear them all, lol.  We ate dinner and all opened gifts there.  It was a very fun day! I guess we headed home around 9:30-10pm to get ready for Santa.  Santa came to visit Reagan at our house this year so Stephanie and Jeff stopped by too :o)!  Again, we were up till about 2am.  Santa couldn't decide how he wanted to display all of the toys and we had some last minute cleaning to do and I had to put together the breakfast casserole.  Busy, busy, busy...non-stop! lol

outfit 1

Sweetness!

outfit 2! we coordinated their "fun" Christmas outfits for Christmas Eve! They are so bright and festive!!

Saturday morning, 7:15am came far too early.  Stephanie, Jeff, Reagan, Nana, and Jeff's mom arrived around 8ish or so (everyone was supposed to be there at 8...go figure my family were the late ones, lol :o) We ended up letting Briley sleep till the food was ready, which was about 8:45. She probably would have slept half the day if we would have let her.  She was pooped!  My grandparents arrived around 9am.  My grandfather came dressed as Santa which was a nice treat!  I don't think the girls knew who he was and they really didn't care much for him either, lol. Reagan is scared of Santa and Briley just wanted to play her her toys, or should I say Reagan's toys.  Yep, Reagan was more interested in Briley's toys and Briley was more interested in Reagan's toys.  It was pretty funny actually!  They got a few of the same things but mostly different.  I think Briley's favorite Santa gift was her kitchen, she loves to "cook", her play make-up, and a little elmo etch a sketch doodler.  Anyway Santa went back to the North Pole to rest up for next year and my parents trickled in (they got to see santa for a few minutes before he left).  We all took a break to eat.  Our menu included Overnight breakfast casserole, hashbrown casserole, blueberry muffins, sausage squares, fruit salad, and Panera Bread bagels and cream cheese.  It was all so yummy!  The girls must have been extra good this year because Santa sure was generous! They got lots of goodies to keep them busy for the year ahead! It was defiantly a fun and memorable morning!   Can't wait for next year ;o)!!

After getting some rest we headed over to Michael's moms house to do gifts with her and to eat leftovers for lunch.  I wasn't feeling too great that day so we ended up coming home around 5pm or so.  Briley and I were able to get a good nap in.  After she was fed and bathed, my grandparents came to pick her up.  We let her spend the night with them because all they wanted for Christmas was to take her to Church.  So we let them ;o).

cookies and milk for Santa

Briley's toys!

Playing with Briley's new make-up case

Santa!

horse-back riding in the living room ;o)

riding her mini princess 4-wheeler before heading to Nanny and Maw's house to go night night!

Sunday, we had planned on going to our church like normal but we were both so tired that we slept straight through the alarm and didn't get up till almost noon.  I haven't slept that late in years it seems like.  The sad thing is I still felt tired :o/ We got ready and grabbed some lunch at Rafferty's and headed over to my parents house.  We were told Briley did great at church which was nice.  After church she also got to meet her great, great, great aunt! Yes, that's 3 greats, she is 95 years old and my dad's great aunt. She lives nearby my parents/grandparents church so they went to spend some time with her for Christmas.  We let Briley finish opening gifts over there.  There were several things she didn't get to open from my grandparents because she fell asleep on Christmas Eve and 1 big gift from my parents.  My parents ended up getting her the cutest little table and chairs which was a nice surprise. It wasn't out on Christmas Eve because it wasn't put together yet! Apparently my dad had a time getting it together and we actually had to finish one of the chairs on Sunday because he was too frustrated to finish. lol We actually ended up having to drill one of the holes where the screws went because it just wasn't lining up right.  We finally got it!  She is almost tall enough to sit in them by herself too!!  I think her favorite gift from my grandparents was a Disney princess keyboard! She loves to play the keyboard and piano.  I hope think she is going to have some musical talent!  Her daddy has a great voice, so how cool would it be if she sang and played the piano in the Miss Tennessee Pageant?? lol, just saying...ha! 

All in all it was a great week! We defiantly spread things out a little more this year but it wasn't as hectic and as compact as the years past, which was nice.  It was also nice to have all of my shopping done and wrapped this year several days before Christmas!  I hope everyone out there in blog land had a great Christmas!  I feel so blessed to be surrounded by the ones I love during the holidays!

Merry Christmas!

May your days be merry and bright!!

What we've been up to...

A little of this and a little of that...

Santa Clause is officially done coming to town for little miss Briley! I think she is going to be one excited little girl on Christmas morning! BUT, I defiantly want her to know what CHRISTmas is really about.  Not about shopping, not about presents, not about Santa, but about the birth of Jesus Christ.  I want her to experience the magic of Santa and everything that entails but to also know and understand why we really celebrate Christmas.  I do believe you can do both it's just how you go about doing it that matters.  I was so excited when I found this this last week at toys r us.  It really wasn't in the budget but we felt it was a very appropriate toy to "splurge" on, not to mention I have been trying to find one for months, plus it was on sale and I had a coupon!  Briley loves Jesus, not that she really understands Him right now but she loves saying His name 100+ times a day, she loves when we sing Jesus Love Me and Jesus Loves the Little Children, etc, and now she loves to hold baby Jesus (and the Camel or Mamel as she calls it, HA!).  We also got her a "Jesus Loves Me" DVD for Christmas.  It's basically a bunch of children's Christmas songs and they dance and sing her name in all of them.  She has already watched it a few times (before I wrapped it) and she loves it! I think we are off to a good starting point so far!

Most of our other Christmas shopping is done and wrapped too! I am very proud of myself for that because I usually wait till the last minute. We still aren't 100% done but i'd say about 85% done, which is great!  I have certainly neglected my house in the process so I know what I will be doing the next few days...cleaning! Yay me! lol

We have had a pretty relaxing last 2 weekends which has been nice but not so relaxing weekdays. 
Let me explain...I have had car trouble multiple times, nothing major...for instance 1 day I rolled my windows down because they were fogging up, well it was so cold that the front passenger window would not come back up. Luckily I hadn't gone very far so I had to turn around and go back home because I couldn't drive Briley with the car window down. I took Michael's car and he took mine.  The motor ended up freezing and now it needs to be replaced. Great, right?! They got the window up but we have yet to get it fixed yet.  Hopefully we can cross that off the list very soon. 
The other issue with my car happened yesterday, the heat stops working. Great! Especially when it's 18 degrees out. Oh, and did I mention that the rain falling on my windshield is freezing as i'm driving so I have to pull over to scrape my windshield so I can see.  It was like a sheet of glass and I might as well have taken my contacts out because that's how clear it was! Not Good! Luckily all I needed was some antifreeze and the heat is perfect again. 
My 3rd dilemma for the week was Tuesday when I locked myself and Briley out of the house. Genius, huh? That was by far the worst day we have had because we were outside for 20 minutes before we were "rescued" (and it was 15 degrees out).  I just got in a rush trying to get out the door for work, well we got out the door alright.  Got out without the keys.  Briley did ok for the first 10 minutes or so and after that it was pure melt down mode.  I had her in my coat (luckily we were both bundled up) trying to keep her as warm as possible and I was trying to blow warm air on her.  That was a very traumatic experience to say the least, mainly because of how cold it was.  I was so paranoid I ended up calling the pediatrician but luckily they said everything would be fine and there was no need to worry.  We were supposed to go get Briley's picture made with Santa that night but lets just say we decided to wait on that one ;o) Hopefully we can make it to see Santa either today or tomorrow. 

On a better note Briley turned 20 months yesterday, the 15th! I can't believe she is almost 2! Holy Cow! It blows my mind to think we will be planning her 2nd birthday in a few months.  I really am loving each stage she goes through but sometimes I wish I could just freeze frame time for a while.  She is such a joy! I really feel so blessed to be her mamma!  Here are a few pics from the last few weeks :o)

After church one day, throwing one of her little fits (terrible twos are coming, I can feel it!)

 

Get these shoes off of me

Before her 18 month check-up last week...we didn't do her 18 month check up until then, mainly because I was dreading the shots.  Well guess what? She didn't need any shots, besides the flu shot she was up-to-date.  Ha! Makes me feel sort of silly for putting it off now but oh well! She was 32 1/2" long and 26lbs 9oz (she was 30 1/2" long and 24lbs 14 oz at her 15 month check up)

Brushing her teeth like a big girl!

Check out the bows on my toes!

And the B in my hair!

Playing at Gi Gi's...she loves the STEPS!

Pretty girl in her Christmas dress!

This smile melts me heart <3