Baby Hardison is on the Way

And one more shower...

2009-04-06T19:36:00.001-07:00

More gifts for Baby Lucia! Rachel Tatum had a

sweet baby shower for me with my Nashville friends!

What a joy!!!

Once again, our little girl is showered with gifts!

Another Baby Shower

2009-04-06T19:10:00.001-07:00

On March 21st Paul's Mom and Sister, Cathy put together a wonderful BBQ Couples Baby Shower for us!

Cathy had everyone at the shower "pass the BBQ tongs" to give us ADVICE on having our first baby. Here is some of the advice:

"Nonna" (Grandma Erbel) and Grandma Helen at the Baby Shower

Paul and I were overwhelmed with gifts. This is one spoiled little girl.

How Cute is our BBQ themed party and our Cowgirl Cake!

Surprise!!

2009-04-06T16:49:00.000-07:00

Yummy Pink Cupcakes

I went to visit my dad for Valentine's Day in Miami and to my surprise he and Victoria had put together a baby shower for me. I was overwhelmed and I am still in shock. My dad picked me up at the airport and took me to lunch on South Beach. Then we "ran errands". I knew something was different, but had no idea. To my surprise when we got to his house, there were a few of my old friends and lots of baby decorations and gifts !!!

Above are all the party guests! Courtney, me, Becky, Aunt Lauren, Lucinda, Julie, Monica, Victoria and Aunt Leni.

I opened a million gifts that were all so precious! Can't wait for Baby Lucia to arrive so I can dress her in so many cute clothes!

I think my dad and Victoria cleaned out my registry. My dad bought his new granddaughter everything he could off the registry. :)

Here I am with my Aunt Leni. I am about 7 1/2 months pregnant here.

clothes, clothes, and more clothes

2009-01-30T16:09:00.001-08:00

Here are her first new outfits. Our wonderful neighbors Alison and Brian gave our little one her first baby gift...new clothes! Three beautiful baby girl outfits.

This photo may not look like much, but as a new mom this photo is huge! Rachel and Jason Tatum passed down their daughter Eva Louis's outgrown clothes, shoes and toys!

What a huge help!!! Thanks guys.

Officially in the 3rd trimester and we got our Bugaboo!!!

2009-01-28T18:44:00.001-08:00

We are so happy our Bugaboo came in the mail! Yeah! Paul couldn't wait and immediately put it together when he got home from work. We can't wait to put our baby girl in the bassenet and roll her around for walks. We got the stroller in black and tan!

Check out our baby girl! she is growing! I am officially 27 weeks and now in my 3rd trimester.

She is dancin' and movin' all the time, however, I typically don't pay much attention until I sit still. I love to take time in the morning and evenings to be still and just give my attention to feeling her move around. I am in the car a lot too for work and that is a good time for me to give her my attention. She gets quite active when we play music on my belly. It is so fun to watch her and feel her moving around.

She's a GIRL!!!

2009-01-01T08:27:00.000-08:00

I was so surprised on Christmas when we opened up the envelope from the doctor! Paul and I waited until Christmas with his whole family (and my family on the phone). I was certain the paper inside the envelope would read "boy", but boy was I wrong! It read GIRL! We are having a little girl and we are very excited. It was hard to wait those few weeks/days after our ultrasound to find out, but we are glad we did. It was very special to have everyone find out together. Now we have to decide on a name for our little girl. We think we have it! But will wait a little longer to make sure it sticks. She has been moving a lot and kicking quite a bit! She is an active little monster. We are so happy and can't wait to meet our baby girl.

2008-12-19T22:06:00.000-08:00

We had our big ultrasound on Wednesday. Our baby has 10 fingers and 10 toes and a 4 chamber heart. The ultrasound tech was very encouraging that our little baby is healthy and measuring perfect! The baby's hartbeat is 158, weight is 14 ounces and length is 18cm, almost 7 inches!!!! The two photos are of me at 20 weeks, 8 lbs heavier...and counting.

We also bought our baby's crib yesterday from a couple in Nashville who listed their used crib on craigslist. We still paid more for it than we wanted to, but is is so beautiful. In our defense it was 1/2 the price it would have been if we had bought it in the store new, so that is good. Our baby is going to have a beautiful bed to sleep in.

Claude and Helen Hardison

2008-11-04T17:09:00.001-08:00

We went to Chattanooga this last weekend for John Riad's 35th birthday. It was a nice excuse to get up to Chattanooga to see Paul's parents since we have not seen them since we found out we were pregnant. It is always relaxing to be at their home. Claude and Helen gave me some fun pictures. One is of Helen when she was pregnant with Paul in 1976. Another photo is of Paul when he was born and what a sweet baby he was. Can you believe he was 8 lbs 9 ounces! Yikes! I hope our baby doesn't have his big head. She also gave me his birth announcement and a photo of Paul's footprint. I am posting all photos. We hope our little baby Hardison is the perfect mix of the two of us.

Election 08

2008-11-04T16:33:00.000-08:00

Today is a historic day, of course we won't know the results of today until tomorrow or more accurately the end of the week, but today is a historic day.

The day is a historic day for America!

Paul and I voted for McCain. I was able to early vote last week when I was in Nashville. We are both still registered in Nashville even though we have been living in Huntsville since April 08'. Many Americans believe that Obama is going to be our first black president. They may be right. But to me there is something funny about him. His speaches are too perfect and he says everything you want to hear. Maybe that is just being a politician. He reminds me of a child that tells his or her parents everything they want to hear, but behind closed doors is doing all the opposite. However, I understand why people want him in office since we have had a very bad economy these last few months. Paul and I put our home in Nashville on the market the first of August and we turned down offers, only to find out later, that the market tanked and now we've pulled it off until 09'. I wish we could sell our home so we can get more settled in Huntsville. Which brings me to the second reason today is historic...

The day is a historic for my career.

I've been debating whether to stay put at my current job working for a contract furniture dealership, or to take a new job as an independant manufacturers rep. With Baby Hardison on the way, there are a lot of things to consider. While Paul would love for me to continue to work at my current job for the next 6 months and then stay home with the baby, I would like to continue to work and still be able to stay home with my baby. Changing to the independant manufacturers rep side of things, I feel will give me more flexibility to continue to work and spend time with family. I am very excited about this opportunity and plan to accept the new position with in the next week. It has it's challenges going from a salaried position to a commission only. But I am thrilled about it and through prayer and discussions with confidents feel it is the right choice.

I am posting a current photo of our baby. The baby is 15 weeks today!

Lightning Bean

2008-10-27T13:11:00.000-07:00

The name Lightning bean came about because Paul wanted me to describe what it felt like to be pregnant. Trying to explain I told him the only thing I felt were little bolts of lightning flashing in my stomach (uterus). Hence, our bean became Lightning Bean. That of course, was right around 4 weeks along. The baby of course, was only 2 weeks in the making since they chart pregnancy from your last cycle and not the actual conception.

Well since then, when I hit about 9 weeks I began to get nauseated, but only at night. It would hit right at 4:00 or 5:00 every evening. I tried to load up on as much food as possible in the day, becasue I knew there wasn't a thing I'd be able to eat come 4:00. Poor Paul would come home each night looking for dinner. He'd have to heat up whatever was left over, or whatever I had made that afternoon (before 4:00 on days I worked from home). But then he'd have to eat it in the next room because the smell was too much for me.

Today I am 13 weeks and 6 days. I saw my doctor last Friday and she used a doppler to hear the baby's heartbeat. It was 165 which is just perfect! It was kind of funny though because every time she'd find the heartbeat, we'd hear it for a second and then we'd hear a "swoosh". The doctor said that was the baby moving. So she'd have to move the doppler around again to try to find where the baby went. As soon as she'd find the heartbeat again on the opposite side as the last try, there would be another "swoosh". It took a while to get the baby to stay still so we could hear the beat for longer than a second. So...LIGHTING BEAN seems to have been a good pick to describe this little one.

I am posting two ultrasound photos. The first one is of Lightning Bean at 6 weeks. Paul and I got to see the heart beat and that was about all there was there, a little heart. The second ultrasound is at 8 weeks. The round circle is the placenta and next to that our Lightning Bean looks just like a little gummy bear standing straight up in frontal view. You can mostly see the eye holes and the belly button area. Lightning Bean gave us a pose.

Our Wedding November 13, 2004

2008-09-12T20:18:00.000-07:00

Here we are! We met January 18, 2004 and we were married on November 13, 2004. We had such a fun courtship that led to a beautiful wedding day. November 13, 2004 left us with great memories and we looked forward with anticipation and excitement for our future together.