Goodbye Christmas

Goodbye Christmas tree that made my Living Room so cozy.
Goodbye Snowmen that make me smile.
Goodbye Christmas music that lifts my spirits.
Goodbye outside house lights that make the neighborhood and city look so festive.
Goodbye Christmas books that remind us why we celebrate Christmas to begin with.
Goodbye Christmas cards that made getting the mail fun.
Goodbye yummy Christmas candy and food.
Goodbye excitement and anticipation of Christmas Day and presents.
Goodbye Christmas ornaments that hold such special meanings.
Goodbye Neal's week and a half off.

Everything is back in it's boxes, in storage, for another year. Now it's back to real life.

Goodbye Christmas blog template.

I got Photoshop Elements for Christmas this year, so once I figure out how to make a new fun blog header, we are just sticking to plain and boring! Stay tuned!

Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa

My parents flew in from Houston the day after Christmas to spend a few days with us. I always love getting to hang out with my parents. We did alot of just hanging out and had a few mean games of Phase 10 and Spades. The boys always love playing with them and having all that extra attention. On Thursday, Neal and I left around 2 for a day and night out on the town while my parents stayed with the boys. We went to the mall, Barnes and Noble for coffee, and then to our favorite restaurant in Nashville. For the past 3 years, we have gone to F. Scotts to celebrate our anniversary. It's a fancy restaurant, but we never feel bad treating ourselves to a super nice meal, at least once a year! It's one of those places that I've come to trust, so I'll really just order anything on the menu and know that it's going to be fabulous. There is always at least one thing Neal and I get that we will talk about all year. This year, my Tenderloin and Neal's dessert were the winners. Neal got this AMAZING Dark Chocolate Mousse thing that was like eating the inside of the best chocolate truffle you have ever put in your mouth. Then it had this wonderful cinnamony cream sauce on top of it. If we hadn't been in such a nice place, I would have seriously been licking the bowl. Yum! It was so nice to spend all that time with Neal outside of the house, just enjoying each others company, laughing, talking about serious stuff and NOT talking about the boys! I just really like being with him and hearing what he has to say, he is so interesting! I love him so much. So, thanks Mom and Dad for our wonderful day/night out...we really needed it.

It always makes me so sad when my parents leave, but this time it wasn't as hard, knowing that they will be back in just a few short weeks to be here when Luke is born. My mom will stay 2 whole weeks with me, I'm so excited to have her here for all that time. There is nothing like having your mom around to help out when you really need it! I love you Mom and Dad!

Christmas Day

We had a lovely Christmas day, complete with all our favorite traditions and lots of being lazy. I took 2 naps! The boys had so much fun opening gifts and then playing with everything...Neal did too! :)

We hope your Christmas was blessed!

Merry Christmas Eve Day!

I hope all of you out there in blogger land have a wonderful Christmas with your families. Ours has already been so nice, I love having Neal home for a full week, not having to go into the office every day. We've been enjoying time with our little family these past few days, hibernating in the house, watching movies and being lazy. The boys are excited for Santa to come tonight, although they say that they don't want to see him and they want to be asleep when he comes. They have already decorated and picked out the cookies they are leaving for him. Neal and I have a busy night tonight! I love the magic of Christmas and seeing it all over my boys faces. My parents are coming in from Houston on Wednesday to spend a few days and I can't wait to see them! It's been a long time. I'm excited for them to see all the new stuff we have done to the house and to have my mom help me out with some last minute things to prepare for Luke's arrival. Hopefully, we will finish in the nursery this week and I will post some pictures of the finished room. The timing of this pregnancy has been great because I'm at my biggest and most tired at a time where we are having tons of family come in to occupy the boys and help out with them a little bit, so that's been nice. The first week or so of January will be a tough when company is gone, Neal is back to work and the boys are out of school. I'm sure there will be lots of TV watching that week!

Anyway...Merry Christmas!

Poppy

Neal's dad was in town for a few days to celebrate Christmas with us. The boys had a blast playing with Poppy and having him around for 2 days. They always love to have a willing participant to help them get the bad guys and to have someone to "fight" with. He was really brave and took both of them to Cracker Barrel Friday morning...I think they were all exhausted after that excursion! When we were talking about who would be going to Cracker Barrel, Sam told us that he wanted alone time with his brother and his Poppy! Thanks for coming Poppy! We love you!

Happy Anniversary!

10 years ago today I married the love of my life. TEN YEARS AGO!!! We were both 20 (TWENTY) when we got married and had no idea what we were doing. Neal and I have known each other since he was in 6th grade. He was in my mom's Sunday School class at CFBC and I thought he was SO cute. I had a huge crush on him through my Middle School years and finally, when I was a Freshman and he was a Sophomore, he figured out that I existed. We went out on our first date the day after my 16th birthday (in 1993). Neal had just turned 16 a few weeks earlier. We went to Wednesday night church and then out on our date. When he opened the door to his truck for me, there were a dozen roses sitting on the seat, how sweet is that? Then he took me to The Empress of China for dinner. We dated 2.5 years in HS, until he went off to OBU and the Lord told him to break up with me. What a jerk, or so I thought back then! A year and a half later, January of 1997, we got back together. We got engaged in May (he took me back to the same restaurant as our first date) and then married in December '07. It's been a hard 10 years, we hit some really rough patches, especially the first 4 years when we were trying to figure out who we were and what we were doing. It was right around our 4 year anniversary, when we were driving back to Nashville from Christmas in Houston, we looked at each other and realized that Nashville was our home and that we had made that home together. It was a good feeling to know that we had solid ground to stand on after 4 years of moving every year. It felt good. We got pregnant with Sam that March and took him to his 3 week checkup on our 5 year anniversary. After 10 years of marriage, Neal is my rock. He takes such good care of our family. I know, without a doubt, that we are the most important thing to him and that he will do whatever it takes to take care of us. I know that he loves me, and that he will always love me through whatever life brings our way. He makes such an effort to make me happy, to communicate with me, to meet me halfway. He certainly is the calm to my storm. I've never loved him more than I have this past year when we were going through all the miscarriages and this pregnancy. I've never felt so close to him and so in love with him than in those moments where he was just with me, listening to me spew every thought that came and went in my head. I love watching him with our boys, being their dad, sitting on the floor for hours playing Leggos with them, or throwing them around on the bed, or making them grilled cheese sandwiches or watching his face when he walks in the door and they come running to him. Seeing the joy that they bring him on his face is priceless. This man I married, this man God so obviously had picked out for me, he is a treasure, a jewel, a man that I look forward to having 5 or 7 more 10 year anniversaries with. I love you Neal!

Christmas Program

I know you are all dying to hear about the boys Christmas Program today at school. I love watching my boys up on stage, standing there, staring out at all the parents occasionally singing a verse or two of the song their class is doing. The are adorable up there and I think they are for sure the cutest in their classes. I have to say, that watching all the other parents runs a close second to watching my cuties. I can't remember what movie, but I remember a scene at a school program with all the parents watching through their cameras and video cameras. That's what it was today. I turned around at some point and just had to laugh at all the cameras running and clicking away. Obviously, I was right there in the midst of them. I EVEN left my seat to go to the front of the aisle to get a better shot of Gabe, so I was laughing at myself as well. I have to say Gabe looked mighty cute in his Rudolph get up and Sam did a great job in his part of the 12 Days of Christmas. He held up the sign for 11 Pipers Piping and did a wonderful job! :) The last picture is of the priceless look on Sam's face when he finally spotted Neal and I in the audience. It sure does make my heart want to burst to see him so happy to see us!

Luke's Canvas

When I was pregnant with Sam, my amazingly artistic friend Christy offered to make me a canvas to hang in his room, I picked out a Bible verse for him and she made it into art. I loved it so much, I had her do one for Gabe too. All of their verses have something to do with their names. Sam's is from Samuel, Gabe's talks about the angels praising God. For the past 3 months I've been praying for the perfect verse for Luke. I knew I wanted it to have something to do with the heart. A few weeks ago, Neal and I decided on the perfect verse and I sent it on to Christy to get started on Luke's canvas. She gave it to me this weekend and I was blown away by her ability to put in art how I feel. In the close up picture, you can see that she found an actual diagram of a heart, then took some gauzey material and made a cross to place over the heart and then put Luke's name at the foot of the cross. It's the perfect image of Luke's life so far and one that I'm praying continues on.

35 Weeks

My Sister-in-law

My sister-in-law, Laura, has been in town this week visiting with Neal's family. She and Adam (Neal's brother) have been married 5 years. I'm so glad that Adam had the good sense to pick a bride that I would love so much! It's always a special treat to get to spend time with Laura, and normally, we only get a few hours here or a day there when we are in Houston visiting. To have her at my house for 3 and half days was so much fun. We got to go to Starbucks and sit for awhile to talk about the Bible Study we are doing together (Believing God) and were able to encourage each other in person, rather than on the phone. We spent lots of time on the couch chatting, laughing, eating, sharing hair products and make up and just enjoying being together. It was so cool to have her at the baby shower so she could meet all of my friends and so they could meet her. Laura is one of the most encouraging, genuine people you will ever meet. She is so straightforward, honest and just so much fun to be around. I know that when I ask her to pray for something, that she is commited to following through with that request. She is very special to me and I'm so blessed to have her as my family and my friend. I love you Laura!

A Watson Family Visit

Neal's mom, brother and sister-in-law have been in town the past few days for an early Watson Family Christmas. It was really special to have us all together. It doesn't happen very often, especially getting them all up to Nashville. We had a wonderful time. We opened presents the first night they were here and Uncle Adam spent two days with Sam putting together the Leggo Spiderman set that Sam got from Mimi. You'll see a picture below of them hard at work, complete with their head lights to help them see all the teeny tiny leggos. Grandmother got the boys those head lights and they were a big hit. The boys spent alot of time with Aunt Laura and Mimi building with the Lincoln Logs too. The Living Room was a complete mess, but all the fun was worth the mess! On Thursday night, we went out to dinner and then headed over to the Opryland Hotel. It's beautiful all year round, but at Christmas, it's exceptionally gorgeous. We had fun walking around and looking at all the lights. We also loved seeing the Nativity Garden, with beautiful statues of the Nativity Scene. Friday afternoon, the boys and I dragged them to Pump It Up, so they could experience the joy of the bouncies! It was a hoot watching Mimi, Aunt Laura and Uncle Adam going down the slide (they will probably kill me for posting some of those pics, but it just shows how much fun they all had!) Once again, I was left on the bench to take pictures and watch them have fun. No preggos allowed on the bouncies. The boys loved having them all here. It's so sweet to see their individual relationships with each of them and to see how much the boys love their Aunt, Uncle and Mimi. We already miss you guys!

Baby Shower

Some of my dear friends threw me a baby shower last night. Kandice and Stacey went to so much effort to make it a wonderful night. Luke got some adorable clothes, some great monogrammed items and diapers! It was so special to have all my best friends in Nashville in the same room along with my mother-in-law and sister-in-law. They were all so sweet to pray over Luke and me at the end of the shower. After the news we received on Thursday, that time of prayer really uplifted me and gave me a new perspective. The power of prayer and friendship...it's priceless. Here are a few pictures...

Baby Shower

A Luke Update

We went today for a check up with the cardiologist. The initial problem with Luke’s heart has all cleared up, no more fluid, no irregular heart rate and no tachycardia. However, he did find a new issue. Luke’s Aorta Valve is measuring on the small side and there is a possibility that he will have a Coarctation (blocks the blood flow???) in his Aorta once he is born and the ductus closes (in utero, babies have an open ductus that closes a day or two after they are born.) The plan at this point is to get to my due date, have a normal vaginal birth and watch him closely at Baptist until we are discharged. Upon discharge, we will go straight over to Vandy and they will do a full Echo on him so they can get a clearer look at his heart to see exactly what it is doing. If he does have a Coarctation, he will have surgery within the first 7 to 10 days of his life to repair that. If he does not have the Coarctation, they will just continue to keep a close eye on the small Aorta Valve. He gave us a 50% chance that he will have to have surgery.

We are, once again, praying that the Lord heals his heart and that it will end up being a non-issue upon his arrival. Please pray for us these next 4 weeks, that we can look at this situation with eyes of faith, that all the Doctors and nurses between the two hospitals will have clear communication and wisdom on how to treat Luke specifically. Please pray that labor is quick, easy and not stressful to Luke at all. Pray against fear for us.

This is my feeble attempt to explain something that I really have no grasp on understanding, especially this late a night. I just wanted to get enough information in this email to get you all updated. I will go back to my OBGYN on Tuesday for a normal visit, but I really don’t know that I will have much more to update on until after he is born. We are back to playing the waiting game…

Thanks so much for your prayers.

Sam's Birthday Party

We had the big 5th birthday party yesterday at Pump It Up. We split the party with Sam's good friend, Tucker, whose birthday is two days after Sam's. His mom, Julie and I are good friends. It was great to have someone to split the cost with! They all had a blast at the party, jumping, climbing and sliding. They were all dripping with sweat by cake time. I think the adults had just as much fun as all the kids! I was sad that I couldn't go down the slide and do the jumpies this year, Neal didn't complain about that though. He and the boys had a blast going down the slide together. It's so cute watching your kids just have FUN, pure fun. Sam got tons of superhero toys, but I think his favorite toys so far have been the Lego City kits he got. He told me that his favorite thing about his party was his presents! Here are a ton of pictures from our day...