Baby Shower!

My high school friends threw a baby shower for Patrick this weekend and it was so much fun! Every little detail was so perfect... from the party favors, to the food and they even made a mocktail which was so delicious! Patrick definitely got some cute stuff for sure! Unfortunately I forgot my camera, but Emily took a picture of the group. Below is a picture of the hostesses, minus Lauren who we missed!

The sweet party favors. Chocolate covered strawberries which are my favorite!

It was also a fun treat for two of my college friends to come in town. They both live 4 1/2 hours away and they drove in for it which was so nice! We don't get to see each other much so its always fun when we can find time to hang out! It was also so sweet of the two hostesses, Emily and Christina, who had to travel! I have such great friends and I am so thankful for yall every day! Thanks for making everything so special this weekend!

Patrick- 32 Weeks

I had my 32 week appointment yesterday. I am measuring well and Patrick's heartbeat sounds good, however my blood pressure was really high again. The doctor was pretty concerned about it so she ordered lots of blood tests. The Dr. called this morning and said all of my blood tests were normal, which is wonderful news. My blood pressure has been high at my last two appointments, so i'm praying it goes back to normal next time. I have also had some of my morning sickness come back. Not nearly as bad as the first trimester, but still not very fun. I have been so busy lately and just need to remind myself to slow down and listen to my body and rest a little more.

My friends are throwing me a baby shower this weekend and I can't wait for it!

Knoxville Shower and Valentine's Day

I'm a little behind on my posting, because we have been so busy getting ready for Patrick, but this past weekend we tried 2 restaurants we hadn’t been to before, traveled to Knoxville on Saturday for a shower and then picked out a glider and rug for Patrick’s room. Phew!


On Friday night, Michael and I went to a new place called the Tavern. It was so good and reminded me a lot of Whiskey Kitchen.

Last Saturday, Michael’s grandmother and aunts threw Patrick a baby shower in Knoxville. So my mom, Sharon, and Michael’s other grandmother headed to Knoxville on Saturday for the shower. Michael has a large extended family that we never get to see, so it was fun to see everybody. Patrick got some really cute stuff. It was a really fun shower and I appreciated all the hard work everyone put into it! I thought that it would be a good time for Michael to stay home and catch up on his sleep while we were at the shower since he has been working so hard, but I came home from Knoxville to a really clean house that he had been working on all day! It was so sweet of him and definitely a nice surprise!

On Sunday night, Michael and I went to dinner with Michael’s boss and his wife. Michael has been working so hard (and long hours!) to finish up their year end close and the audit. The audit wrapped up last week, so we went to Prime 108 in the Union Station Hotel to celebrate. Michael and I had never been there and it was so good! It was a fun treat and it was so nice of his boss to do for us!

We had a low-key Valentine’s Day this year, but it was still really fun. For the past four years Michael and I have gone to Mellow Mushroom and a Predator’s game. Since there wasn’t a Predator’s game on Valentine's Day this year and we have been so busy we decided to pick up Mellow Mushroom and eat at home. So we ate pizza and chocolate covered strawberries on our fine china. It was perfect!

In other Patrick news, we picked out his glider. It’s so comfy and I’m so excited about it! Michael’s parents are giving it to us as a shower gift for Patrick and so Sharon went to pick it out with us! It’s so sweet of them and I know we will be able to use it for a long time! I also went with my mom to pick out a rug for Patrick's room. They gave us the rug for a shower gift and I love it! Its such a cute little boys rug. I can't wait for everything to get in so I can finish up his room!!

Patrick- 30 Weeks and Showers!

I'm 30 weeks, so just about 10 more weeks to go! We also had our 30 week doctor appointment today. Everything looked really good, except for my blood pressure. It was pretty high, so I guess I need to try and relax and not stress out so much!

This Saturday was so much fun. I had a cupcake & champagne monogramming shower for Megan. It was such a cute idea and one that I had never heard of before. It fit Megan perfectly!

We also had a work shower on Saturday night. I specialize in state and local tax and there happens to be two of us expecting their first in our small group. Jason and his wife Abbie are expecting a baby boy in March and its fun to hear the male's perspective of pregnancy at work. It was a couples shower and so much fun! The main reason I love working at E&Y is because of the people I work with. It's a pretty wild group and we always have so much fun when we get together! They made Michael and Jason open all of the presents, which was really funny for Abbie and I to watch. The idea was that they would have to announce what the present was after they opened it and if they didn't know what it was they would have to take a shot. We didn't actually end up making them take a shot for wrong answers, but it was funny to watch them try really hard to figure out what the present was. I think they were both getting a little nervous about the amount of shots they were going to have to take after the game! The first present Michael opened was the boppy. He kind of looked at me and then said ummm...a large neck pillow? haha! It's definitely one of the harder ones to guess and he was such a good sport! On our way home Michael commented on how hard it was to open presents in front of people so I think it was good for him to experience it!

Abbie and I also had a good laugh about some of the things Michael and Jason have been saying lately. So I thought I would share our best two stories. Abbie is 35 weeks pregnant and has had a lot of trouble sleeping lately. So when talking to Jason about it he said that maybe she just wasn't trying hard enough to sleep and that maybe she should just try harder to close her eyes and visualize sleeping! haha! My best story was that one night I put on a maternity shirt that I hadn't worn in a while and looked at myself in the mirror and said to Michael "wow, I am really growing." His response happened to be honey your just getting "pleasantly plump." My jaw immediately dropped and I looked at him and he was just laughing! If you know my husband, he is a huge jokester so I took it with a grain of salt and told him that he better not make one of those jokes again!

I also realized that I do not have a single picture of Michael and I since I have had a bump, so i'm going to get better at taking pictures!

Happy Birthday Turk and Bailey!!!!

Happy Birthday Turk and Bailey!!!! I can’t believe my sweet little pups are 2 years old today. It has taken us a long time to get here, but I think we are finally starting to turn a corner with them. They have gotten so much easier over the past few months, but I still think they have a long way to go! This winter has been pretty tough for them. They are dogs that need lots of exercise and when they don’t get it they can get pretty irritable.

I figured most of the posts will be about Patrick from here on out so I thought I would share some fun things about T and B. They both have such different personalities and are so fun in their own way.

Bailey
Most of the time Michael and I call her “crazy Bailey,” “Miss B” or “pretty girl”. She is very demanding about not getting enough attention and lets you know by barking constantly until you pet her for about 15 minutes. She is a very vocal dog and barks a LOT! My dad and Michael are her very favorite people. She sleeps in between Michaels legs most nights and much prefers to cuddle with him than me. If Michael doesn’t let her sleep between his legs, she will get in the middle of us but if I move close to her she will move away. She is definitely a daddy’s girl. She gets up at 7 almost every morning. Most of the time she goes outside for a few minutes and has what we refer to as her "morning coffee," where she sits on the top step for 5 or 10 minutes and looks over her backyard. After her coffee she runs back inside the house to find Michael and make sure he hasn’t left yet. She follows Michael around the house every morning while he is getting ready and gets so close that he nearly steps on her every morning. One of Bailey’s favorite things to do is to play games with Michael. She loves playing hide and go seek with Michael in the house and is really good at finding him. She also loves any other game Michael will play with her. It’s pretty funny when Michael yells “That’s It!” at Bailey and she knows she has done something wrong and makes a bee-line to hide under the bed. Turk is so much bigger than Bailey that he hits her pretty hard with his tail, by accident. But, she patiently waits while we pet her brother first since he is big enough to knock her out of the way. She also frequently gets her food stolen because Turk normally blocks her from eating any of her food until he is full. She sits there patiently and waits for him to finish, even if he eats some of her portion too. I try to watch them in the morning while they eat their food, but sometimes I’m too busy and have a feeling that Bailey doesn’t get any food at all in the mornings.

Turk

Michael and I call Turk “Turky Dog, ” “big galoot”, “Handsome” or “Turkimus J”. Turk is a big boy. When we got them, they told us they would be around 50 pounds. Turk weighs 85-90 pounds and is almost pure muscle. Turk is our laid back dog, but he is very set in his ways. He has to sit in the same spot on the couch every night or he gets very frustrated. He doesn’t bark much around the house, except for when we say “Whose That” (my dad) is coming over or “Want to go for a Walk.” Turk’s favorite thing to do is to go for a walk. He starts shaking when he sees my dad drive down the driveway because he is so excited and he knows that means he gets to go for a walk! Turk also gets really excited to see people. His tail is quite lethal and he wags it so hard that his whole body moves. I have lots of bruises from his tail. Turk sleeps on my side of the bed. He is pretty strong and cuddles so close that my legs end up halfway off the bed most nights. Turk could probably sleep all day long if we let him. He hates when Michael and Bailey play hide and go seek and doesn’t understand that he is supposed to go and find Michael. He sits there and barks this whine bark so loud because his dad is missing. Turk is constantly wagging his tail and is just such a happy dog. He loves when you tell him that he is a “good boy” and paws at you to pet him for being such a good boy. He also gets really upset if Michael and I are mad at him. If Michael is yelling at Bailey, Turk thinks he did something wrong too and tries to give you kisses to apologize.

Turk and Bailey
Turk and Bailey are inseparable from each other. Bailey kisses Turk each morning when she wakes up. They freak out if you take one somewhere and don’t take the other. If one of them is sick, I normally take both of them with me to the vet. However, this last time it was too difficult to take both of them while pregnant so I had to take Bailey by herself. Bailey had a panic attack while we were there and the receptionist asked if there was something wrong with her besides her skin infection because she was crying so loudly. They love hunting together and cuddling together. They both hate when Michael and I are in separate rooms. They sit on the stairs if one of us is upstairs and the other downstairs. Although they are really needy dogs, I can’t imagine our life without them. On the occasions my dad has taken them for an overnight stay I come home and don’t know what to do with myself. I’ve just gotten accustomed to paying attention to them for 15 minutes before I do anything at home. Michael and I are really interested to see how T and B react to Patrick. They are pretty needy dogs, so we are hoping they don’t get too jealous of Patrick!!

Below are a few pictures of them:

Their first night home with us!

This is about a year ago, but you can tell how big they have gotten!

And of course if Mom and Dad aren't around we love cuddling together!

We love you Turk and Bailey!