So blessed.

We have been so blessed to have such great support since we found out we were pregnant last Spring.  Luckily we have great family and friends that have been so generous with gifts, advice, and offering any help that we need before and after Addison arrives.  Friends, family, and coworkers have thrown us showers, gifts have arrived on our doorstep, and emails with tons of advice from new and not so new moms have appeared in our inbox.  We can't say enough how grateful we are to everyone for thinking of us.  Addison is going to be such a blessed little girl when she gets to meet all of these wonderful people. 

Yesterday we received a box from Aunt Debra all the way from West Palm Beach.  Baby Addison will be burping in style with these custom burpies!  She also sent us a a custom made security blanket and hooded terry cloth bath towel.  They are all so cute!  Thanks Aunt Deb!

 

The Nursery

Addison Marie Jennings will be here very soon!  We are finally done with the nursery and are ready to bring our baby girl home.  Addison's nursery used to be our combined office.  It was a mish mosh of old desks and bookshelves so that we could each have our own space and computers.  The only real improvements we had done in this room is a new window and ceiling fan.  So when we chose this room for the nursery we decided it all needed to be re-done.  In the midst of putting down the floors we had less time than we thought to get it all done. Brandon insisted on installing the flooring here first so that no matter what, his baby girl's room would be complete even if the rest of the house wasn't.  He even installed new trim as he said it had to be perfect for Addison.  Here is the completed room. 

 

Home Improvement

 So as everyone knows we have been remodeling our house for about 5 years now.  Brandon bought a house across the street from the apartment complex I was living in.  Now I know it's because free labor was so close by.  Just a few weeks after closing he left for Alaska and here I was with this fixer upper in desperate need of a woman! :)  We've come a long way but we are always still finding things that need replacing or updating. We've gutted the family room, two bathrooms, replaced drywall, scraped ceilings, and so much more. So this fall we decided to replace the flooring throughout the house and get rid of the carpet.  Have you ever pulled up 10 year old carpet?  I was happy being ignorant thinking my carpet was clean after a vacuum and a shampooing every now and then.  But oh my, pull that stuff up and you realize IT WAS NEVER CLEAN!  Hello hardwoods, I love you!   So here are some pictures of our flooring adventure.  Unfortunately I was too pregnant to assist too much with the project but luckily we have some great friends and family that pitched in and helped with the progress. Here are the finished photos with a few before photos. 

Dining Room

Living Room Before

Living Room After

Guest Bedroom Before

Guest Bedroom After

Hallway Before

Hallway After

Master Before

Master After

Christmas 2011

Wow, I can't believe the holidays are behind us already. I have always loved Christmas and it seems it takes forever for the holiday season to get here and then poof, it's gone so fast.

This year we stayed in Huntsville for Christmas. It was Brandon's first Christmas away from home in 29 years, so it was especially hard on him to be without his family.

On Christmas Eve we traveled to Cullman to spend the evening with my family. We had dinner and played dirty Santa. I'm thankful that Jamie got to come into town and the whole family was together.

On Christmas Day we stayed home. We got up, opened presents and then took naps on the couch! For dinner we cooked a roast and planned to go see a movie that evening. Everyone else in Huntsville apparantly had the same idea, so instead we drove around looking at Christmas lights. It was a great day and I'm so glad we got to spend it together. I've been working at the hospital for 7 years now and 5 of those 7 I have spent working. Most of the time I have sent Brandon home for Christmas since there was no reason in him sitting here at home while I worked. I felt guilty that so many of my coworkers were spending their Christmas at work taking care of others, but thats what we do.

Here are a few pictures from our Christmas weekend.

 



Pictures of Christmas Past.

Christmas is just 7 days away!!

This year Brandon and I will be spending Christmas at home. Over the last five years we have spent Christmas several holidays apart.. I'm very excited that we get to wake up on Christmas morning together. So this morning I was looking through our Christmas pictures from the last five years and thought I would share a few. It's funny to see how much we have changed.

2006 At a work Christmas Party.  We spent this year apart.

2007 At home before he left for Tennessee.

2008

2009  I spent part of the holiday break in Kingsport and then drove home on Christmas Eve.

2010 We spent 7 days in Kingsport, 3 of which we were snowed in with no electricity!

14 Days until Christmas!

I'm so excited Christmas is almost here.  We are "grounded" this year and can't travel too far so we will be home for Christmas.  I love getting to see family around the holidays.  Last night we received a visit from Nonnie, Aunt Sharon, and Johanna all the way from Birmingham.  It was great to get to have dinner with them and visit a little while afterwards.  Here are a few pictures. 

Catching up

I haven't blogged in a while so let me catch you up on what we have been up to.  For Thanksgiving we traveled to South Carolina.  In the past Brandon's family has celebrated Thanksgiving at his Mom's house in Kingsport, TN.  This year we celebrated in North Augusta/Aiken, SC.  We stayed with Brandon's brother and enjoyed 4 days with the family.  We ate good food and did a little bit of shopping.  In no way did I intend to do my usual Black Friday shopping, but we did get a few good deals over the weekend and online too.
While we were there we had a little surprise baby shower given by Brandon's family.  It was very sweet and we are so grateful for all the wonderful things we received.  Here are a few pictures.