White Christmas 2009

It's been a while since I have had the chance to blog, holidays are so busy.We spent the first part of our Christmas in Houston, Tx visiting with Dad and Kelly. We had fun and actually were able to take some family pictures in which I cant wait to order. Then I worked the first part of Christmas week and by chance my name was drawn out of a hat to be cancelled on Christmas Eve. I was actually picked as number 1 cancel which is so awesome considering its been 6 years since I have had a Christmas holiday off. I feel so fortunate to have had the whole holiday off even if it was last minute.

We opened our gifts at the house and then Michael was able to come up and we went to the Warren's house for dinner and the last part of our Christmas. We had so many gifts the floor was covered. Even baby Warren had a few gifts over the holidays. I think the best part of Christmas this year ,other than actually being off was the WHITE CHRISTMAS. It snowed all day and the ground was covered before we went to bed.. It was really fun to wake up to a white christmas even if it didnt last long. Tomarrow we head to Henderson to visit with my grandparents and hang up mom's new t.v. and also to pick up my grandmothers family piano. My uncle has had it for years and was wanting to get rid of it , so we gladly took it in . Its been in our family for over 80 years. It needs lots of love but we cant wait to work on it and fix it up. Who knows I may even learn how to play. Well I hope everyone has had a great and blessed Christmas . I can't believe its almost 2010, and the start to one of our most exciting years yet . I have a doctors appointment next Tuesday so i will keep everyone posted , we should be finding out the sex of the baby soon. Even though i buy stuff all the time these days. Here are a few fun pictures from the holidays.

Brad and Mom's Holiday Cookies

(Jenns baby bump cookie) :)

Brad with his new engraved drum sticks and his Drum Bum shirt mom got him.

The backyard with all the snow.

One of my favorite gifts.( The Prego Pillow) and guess who fights with me for it at night??

Princess Emma thinks its her's now...

"ICE" in Grapevine,Tx

Ice: 12-7-2009

Today we decided to get up and drive to Grapevine to the Gaylord Hotel and go to the ice exhibit. So mom, brad and I had breakfast and drove out there in the nasty cold weather ! The exhibit it only 9 degrees in tempeture but they give you special coats to wear. I wish we would have thought about it because the only thing we were missing were GLOVES... I researched and it takes about one month to complete the exhibit but with 40 men from China working in 12 hour rotating shifts and two million pounds of ice. Wow , what a job if you ask me. It take one ice factory three weeks to make and ship all the ice to the exhibit . The only thing I wish I would have asked , is what happens to all the ice after the exhibits over? Maybe we will go again next year and I can ask. So if you have a chance to take your family , you should go. Kids would love this. The whole time I was thinking hopefully soon , Brad and I will have our first child to be able to take to these fun things. The whole exhibit is based around Dr. Seuss"How the Grinch Stole Christmas".

Mom and I before we went in to the exhibit.


Mom

Brad at the entrance of Who-ville

13 week Update!

Just a quick update on Baby Warren...

Things are moving right along, we went back to have our Nuchal done, since the baby wasn't in correct position the first time, and things went really well. So far everything remains on track and looks good. We were able to get some better pictures , which i was really excited about, because the ones in the past were harder to identify the baby on. I also went to my regular appointment this past week as well, and everything was great there. Still remain below pre-pregancy weight by alittle but im hoping to feel better soon and catch that up. :) I thought this was going to be one of those times i could gain weight without question.... Baby warren has other plans... We were able to doppler the babies heart rate for the first time and it was 157 as normal . It seems to always be 155-160. I also got my Swine Flu vaccine. I had been really going back and forth with the vaccine idea, but the doctor really felt i was High Risk working in the hospital and working with children. So here are the most recent pictures of little Baby Warren.

This one is a head shot from behind , showing how the baby was trying to clasp its hands together.

One Thankful Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year was extra special. First year to celebrate Thanksgiving in our new house, first Thanksgiving with new baby warren, my grandparents first trip to Rockwall to spend the night away from the farm, and officially the first Thanksgiving Day that I had off since i began my nursing career 6 years ago. Thursday my grandparents came up and we all had a great day spending time together and then for Thanksgiving feast we all went over to Jenns house to celebrate with the Warren Family as well. We all had so much fun and tons of good food ! On Friday my grandparents had to leave but soon after that my brother and his girlfriend Kristi were able to come up and visit for the weekend. We lounged around the house, cooked good food and put up all the Christmas decorations. Thanks again Michael for helping Brad put up the lights outside. So here are a few pictures from the weekend .

The house all lit up!

The Christmas Tree!

The mantle with all the stockings...Notice Riley and Emma are waiting for Santa!


Kristi working hard on our Gingerbread House with a little help from Emma:)

And last Mom with our special new guest ( Mercedes)! Cheri , brads mom, got a new puppy a few days before Thanksgiving and we watched her over the weekend for them. Such a cutie!

Another Thanksgiving is gone now and it wont be long until Christmas. We hope everyone else was able to have such a great holiday.

Appt #2

Just a quick update! Went to our doctors appt last week and had our sono. The baby looked good but didnt cooperate with pictures. The doctor was looking for defects of any kind, and to check for downs syndrome or trisomy 13 or 18. To check he needed to measure the back of the babies neck. The baby was really active but would not turn around for the measurement. So we will have to go back in the next week or two to have the scan redone. Already stubborn:) But he was able to tell us that there were four chambers in the heart and that there was no gastroschesis , which is great as well. So we were really happy to see the baby again, but we didnt get any good pictures. I apparently have a big fibroid tumor that grows with pregnancy hormones so it was hard to see the baby. We will have to continue to monitor the tumor to make sure it doesnt interfere with the babies growth . Our regular doctor appt is tuesday of this next week and im sure to learn more details about the tumor at this appt. So here is the only picture we have, we joke because it looks like the baby is wearing a mask. I promise to post a better picture after our next sono. Everything else is going great, we are looking forward to seeing everyone for the holidays. We plan on decorating the house for the first time and I am so excited. Happy early Thanksgiving to everyone.

Our Little Big News!!!

Brad and I have some exciting news to announce. On September 26 th we offically found out we are having our first baby. We are so excited and yet nervous at the same time. We are about to enter a new stage in our lives and we are so glad we have such good friends and family to be able to share this time with. We told our parents quickly after we found out and announced to our friends the news on Halloween night. We are currently at about 11 weeks and so far doing great. Some sickness and really tired but looking forward to feeling better I hope in the next few weeks. We had our first doctors appointment at 8 weeks and saw the baby for the first time. Everything was great at our first appointment and next friday we have an appt. to have a scan done to check to make sure the baby is progressing as it should. We are praying that everything again looks good. Since most people know I am a NICU nurse , I worry about everything. Life is fragile and I work daily with children who have struggled to be alive. So each day am so grateful for a healthy growing baby. I know God has an amazing plan for Brad and I , so here we are along for the greatest ride of our lives.

Here is the first picture of our Little Baby Warren #1

Its hard to tell what everything is in the picture. But I promise to post a better sono picture from the next appointment this next weekend. We hope everyone is doing great and we will keep you updated on the pregnancy as it progresses.

Halloween 2009

We are sorry for the delay in posting the last few weeks. It has been extremely busy around our house. We did have a great Halloween this year hosting our first party at the new house. Kristen and Bobby McNulty went in with us to host a Halloween themed party. We had such a great time. We had a costume and a pumpkin carving contest and tons of Halloween related food and drinks. We ended up getting to see alot of our friends and some of the costumes were so funny. Costume contest winners were Kami and Darin with there JUNO costumes. And the winner of the Pumpkin Carving was BOB's group with baby delivery pumpkin. This year we dressed Emma and Riley up for fun as well, and lets just say they completed our costume. Brad and I were Bacon and Eggs and Riley was the pig and Emma was the Chicken. My favorite picture of the night was with Emma dressed up in her costume drinking and eating ice out of the blow up coffin cooler. So here are a few pics from the weekend.

Everyone Carving the pumpkins

Bob from the "The Hangover"

Winners: Juno ( Kami and Darin)

My favorite picture of the night. Ms. Emma as a chicken:)

White Family Reunion

This past weekend was the first annual White Family Reunion. This was a first for us and my mother did such a great job of getting it all together. It all took place down in Minden , Texas at the Community Center where my grandmother and father had there wedding shower years ago. My grandma also had her prom at the community center as well. Its a really old building but had lots of memories for our family in it. We had a country themed reunion and it went really well. About 40 people were able to come and we had BBQ and games. It was really good to also get to see my brother Michael and his girlfriend as well. Hopefully the tradition will continue next year. Thanks again , MOM , for all your hard work!

A Mustache Cowboy Family Picture.

My Grandparents

The Tables

Also, Brad and I celebrated our ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY this past Sunday. It was the first date of course when we actually married at the church with only our family. But what a huge day for us. Its amazing how fast time has gone by. We are planning to celebrate in two weeks on vacation to Puerto Plata , Dominica Republic.

Here is a picture from the first offical day of marriage for Brad and I.

Love you Brad, cant wait to spent many more together...

A U2 Birthday!

So I am yet another year older. Yesterday I turned 28 years old. Wow how time fly's when your having fun. To celebrate Brad and I had a relaxing day sleeping in , and then met Amy , Robey, Tim and Tiffany for dinner and then of coarse the U2 concert. We had such a good time. It was nice to see everyone and to get to see the new stadium. Its really awesome and there were so many people at the concert i was suprised how easy it was to get into the concert. The craziest part of the concert was the HUGE stage that U2 is known for. They told the audience the huge stage was SPACE COWBOY... Space stage except in the new cowboys stadium. And in attendance was Romo and a few other cowboy players. So here are a few pictures of the stage.

Before the concert started.

A little upclose and personal shot

The stage all lit up ...

I wanted to tell everyone who wished me a Happy Birthday or sent me a gift,"Thanks you so much ". We are so lucky to have such great family and friends.

Courtland Way

Its a raining Sunday, and Brad and I are cooking for the Warrens and watching the Cowboys play. All the windows are up in the house and its around 62 degrees outside. Its so nice to have a day off together with nothing to do but just enjoy the weather and each other. As most of you know, Brad and I bought our first house together April 16th, 2009. Its been so much fun to have more room and actually have a backyard for the dogs. We miss the condo, it was so neat living on the lake. I loved watching the boats from that condo and listening to the Thursday night summer concerts at the harbor from our balcony. But its time to upgrade to a more family friendly household I guess. So I thought I would post a few pictures of the house for everyone who hasn't been able to come visit since we have moved in. It's still a work in progress but ill keep you posted on all the changes we make from here on out. We are looking forward to having our first Thanksgiving and Christmas in our new home.

The house from the street.



Livingroom and mantle

Our mantle with its holiday decorations.

Our Bedroom, the master!

Diningroom

Kitchen with Brad cooking:) Breakfast nook

Livingroom

Front Door

One of the guest bedrooms

Better known as Donna's room...

So these are just a few , it has 4 bedroom and 2 .5 baths and a game room. Hope you like it as much as we do. Hope everyone is having a good week .

Crazy Hummingbirds

Well, it's Thursday morning and its been a really busy week so far as usual. Brad is down in Port O Conner working on House #2 . We are so excited to be breaking ground on the next house this week , although i think its been a little hard for brad due to weather and a bad cat experience. I will keep some pictures posted as I get them of the progress on the house for the next few months. And for me I have to tell a little story of the week. As some of you guys know, a few weeks ago I became obsessed with the new hummingbirds in our backyard. So we went to walmart and Brad put together this pole outside to hang our feeders on . The next day we had a few hummingbirds all day and we spent a lot of time outside trying to catch some good pictures and watch them play. Over the next week I started researching about them and come to find out what we thought was playing was more like aggressive guarding behavior. Apparently hummingbirds need to eat every 10 minutes and twice their body weight daily and when they find a food source they become very protective of it. So yesterday when i got home from work I took the dogs out as usual and when I first let them out Emma is always a little hesitant to walk on the wet grass so I was trying to convince her to go to the restroom ( okay, actually I was forcing her to go ) when I stepped off the concrete next to the feeders out of nowhere this big bug looking thing started charging at my head. So I ducked down and then it flew back at me the other direction. As I ran for my life back into the house I realized it was the hummingbird that considers its home in our back yard. So all this said, I am now scared to go into the backyard due to a hummingbird that is smaller than most birds yet really good at guarding what he thinks is his... I guess Brad will be moving the pole away from the house this weekend for some distance. So here are a few pics of our new backyard friend. But just so you know, I still enjoy them so much and we are going to miss sitting out there watching them when they migrate to Mexico..

Looks innocent doesn't it...

And on an ending note, here is Brad as a banana.... :) Just trying out some Halloween costumes in the Target aisle.. I think he makes a pretty cute banana actually..