Best. Weekend. Ever.

Or should I say busiest weekend ever? I’m always amazed what we can fit into the weekends when we are home in Birmingham. So much happened this past weekend that I just had to post about it. Here goes...

Here goes the shortened version so I can get to the best part.

1. Arrived at Mom and Dad's for our Friday night catch-ups. I love going home to Mom and Dad's and we always sit in their breakfast area/nook and talk to them, catching up on everything, telling stories, munching on homemade goodies. Settling in if you will. This is my favorite time of the weekend probably. There's something about going home. Something about being in your parents house, or at least that's how I feel...

2. Saturday we got up early to hit up the bargain sales at several churches, including ours, to rack up on baby gear. It was very successful! Kudos to the cousins for finding all the sales and helping me rack up while also getting some stuff for themselves as well!

3. Then off to the "fake birthday party" for my uncle at Mom and Dad's. Let me explain...Originally, my cousin Katherine planned a surprise party for her dad, my Uncle Jim, for Saturday night. Obviously since Uncle Jim didn't know about it he was trying to get the rest of us to get on the band wagon for a birthday party during the day Saturday since a good number of out of town relatives would be in town. When no one would agree to hold the party he came to my mother and asked if he could cook his OWN birthday lunch and have it at our house during the day, which of course pulled on Mom's heartstrings and thus the fake birthday party was born.

4. At the fake birthday party I called my sis in law, Leakhena, because it was odd she wasn't at the house yet. Turns out her water had broken that morning and her and Andrew were getting ready to head to the hospital. WHAT?!?! Earlier that week I told Leakhena to have a conversation with my future niece to come on the weekend so I could meet her, and guess what, she listened to her aunt. It's already the beginnings of a beautiful relationship! :) Also, how the heck we had not heard the text message of Leakhena's water breaking is the true mystery and cannot believe it took us so long to respond and get on the band wagon.

I could not have been more excited. I mean, I knew I would be excited. I've always wanted to be an Aunt Ashley, but seriously didn't know I was going to be as excited as I was once I found out they were heading to the hospital. I wanted to do something. I wanted to be her own personal cheerleader, root her on, give a few pushes for her, something! So excited!

5. After exciting news, headed off to get my hair colored (for the first time...ever). It was quite difficult for me to sit still the entire time. I was constantly texting to get updates and such. I am not a huge fan of my hair now. I call it my tiger stripes. I'm not even sure I'll put a picture on the blog of the hair until I'm accustomed to it a little more. Every time I catch a glimpse in the mirror I have a second where I'm like, whoa, what happened. eeh....

6. The best part! Baby Cora finally arrived around 11 o'clock that night and of course we were there to see her when everyone was settled down. There's not many pictures from that night, but more from the next morning. You should be thankful of this because 7 month pregnant Ashley after she's been asleep for a couple of hours, and then at the hospital until around 2 am is not a cute look. Really. She's beautiful and I can't imagine loving her anymore than I do. It was literally love at first sight. I sure hope she loves her Aunt Ashley as much as her Aunt Ashley loves her. And now I'm super sad I'm not there to hold and squeeze her until my own bundle of joy comes along...

Isn't she a little burrito of cuteness!?! This was the night we all were able to meet her. I think she's pretty excited to meet us too. :)

7. The last big even of the weekend was my baby shower which was the original reason Ryan and I came into town. Luckily is was at 2 in the afternoon on Sunday so we had time to sleep late, go by and see baby Cora one last time, run around doing last minute details and make it to the shower on time. I am so blessed to have so many people want to our lives who want to celebrate in this exciting time with us. I had such a great time catching up with everyone on Sunday. Such a great time that I in fact had no idea what I had received as gifts from the shower. See, I am a fan of the "tea" instead of the "shower". (so I guess technically I should be calling this party a tea this whole time, but oh well) I like the tea model because while someone else is opening your gifts, you're getting to socialize with everyone who came to see you. So since I was a Chatty Cathy and didn't help pack the car back to Athens I had no clue what was given to us. Thank goodness for the gift list. We packed the car literally to the ceiling and headed back to A-town. Whew! I'm tired all over again. 

This was the view of our backseat from the passenger side of the car. Backseat was packed! Sadly, my comfy clothes to change into after the shower were underneath all of these things. It was all worth it though! 

I'll leave you with a few pics of Cora and Aunt Ashley. So proud of her. Congratulations to Andrew and Leakhena! I know y'all are going to be fantastic parents and I can't wait to be part of watching beautiful Cora grow up!

Can you tell how excited Aunt Ashley is?!?!?! 

Week 27 Post

This was a crazy week and thus there is not post for week 26. It's okay, don't be disappointed, you didn't miss much I promise. I'm still just as pregnant as I was a week ago.

Let's start from the beginning. Ryan and I went home for Labor Day because we had the long weekend and it was my birthday, and well I just wanted to go home. So since I have an amazing husband we made a last minute trip to the Ham. We had a great time with family and I was very spoiled while I was there. It was a great birthday weekend. What's that you say? You want to see pictures? Oh, I'm terribly sorry, Ryan and I are those people who never take a camera. Even when we do remember the camera we don't take a single stinking picture. I believe there is a picture somewhere of me blowing out the candles on my cake, but I'm just not sure where that picture may be, not with me, obviously. So just use your imagination! :)

Onto Week 27 Weeks Post

Symptoms: No major issues or symptoms going on except for a growing belly. I still occasionally have swollen feet at the end of a long day. No more leg cramps in the middle of the night although they are pretty tight and sore at night.

Maternity Clothes: Officially in all maternity clothes all the time. I'm almost to the point where my tshirts are no longer comfortable. This is sad for me. I'm a tshirt wearing kinda girl and the day I can no longer fit in my normal sized tshirts to wear around the house or out and about on the weekends is going to be a sad day for me.

Sleep: Ryan and I have a queen sized bed. Before the appearance of the bigger better me the queen size was big enough for us. Now, let this be said now before I get too far in this post...I'm a snuggler. Not too terrible, but I tend to snuggle just a wee bit. Ryan has gotten used to this over the past year and has adjusted accordingly. However, now I have to sleep with a pillow to lay all over since I'm not so sure Ryan would really go for that all night. I explained it to him this way. Imagine having this huge pot belly that you're not accustomed to and when you lay on your side (the only comfortable position for you) you pot belly just flops over and hangs there. Doesn't sound too appealing does it? It actually kinda hurts. Thus the need for the body pillow to prop yourself on. Now our queen bed that was big enough for Ryan and myself, isn't quite roomy enough for Ryan, myself, and the body sized pillow. I don't need it all night long or all the time, just when I want to get good sleep. We're working through this. I'll let you all know if we suddenly feel the need for a bigger bed or another bedroom altogether.

Cravings: I have never been a candy bar kind of girl. I have too much guilt for that. However, its amazing how you can justify an entire roll of Rolos to yourself when you're pregnant. It hasn't happened often, because I won't buy them often, but an entire sleeve of Rolos sounds divine at any moment in the day. Luckily I don't go into too many places that have Rolos on display right when you check out.

Baby Size: According to What to Expect When Your Expecting Cullum is around 2 pounds and just about 15 inches long. All this makes for a big belly for Mama. I've had more people rub or pat my belly this week than before so I'm taking that to mean I'm starting to show more and more. I told Ryan its amazing how many people stare at you when you're in public. I was used to this from school because the students tended to stare at my growing belly in amazement or horror I'm not sure which. However, out in public, people tend to stare and I can't call them out on it like I do the students at school. I mean I guess technically I could, but its just not polite. Of course they are the ones staring.

Movement: Cullum is a stinker. He only moves when he really really wants to. He will not kick Ryan unless Ryan gets right up on my belly and talks to him and even then its usually just a one kick to pacify us so we'll leave him alone. However, if my mother sings to Cullum she gets all kinds of kicks. While in town for my birthday she leaned down talked to him. I don't know what she did, but whatever it was he literally felt like he was vibrating in there. Apparently Gam has the special touch. I have noticed that his kicks and punches are harder than they used to be. So maybe he'll start kicking on command, but if he's anything like his mother and father then he isn't going to do anything he's not good and ready to do.

Looking Forward To: Having another ultrasound. I feel like I've seen in forever. I'm wondering when they'll do the 4D pictures. We had them done at 18 weeks when we found out Cullum was a he, but then he looked a little like Skelator and not like the cute chubby baby I had pictured in there. I can't wait to see who's features he has which I guess I won't really know until he's officially here. It all still amazes me.