Kicks, kicks, and more kicks...

These two pics were taken by one of his VBS teachers. I have more VBS photos that I will eventually get around to posting, hopefully :)

I hope this post doesn't get too lengthy but I just want to share. A few weeks ago I told you I would tell you what I thought about all of this kicking going on in my stomach. Now you can see if from the outside when she kicks. She is sitting extremely low, so low that the only person who can put their hand where she is is Jason, otherwise I would feel totally violated!

It's pretty obvious that I'm not too crazy about being pregnant. And I'm not one to hide my feelings and I'm sure some people think I'm just horrible. Call it what you want, I'm real and honest maybe a little brutal at times, sorry about that. But I never had a desire to get pregnant, we never even considered any form of fertility treatments, it's just never been a big deal for me. The thought of adoption, however, thrills my soul. Seriously, when I found out I was pregnant I went through a grieving period because we had to stop the adoption we started., I'm talking major tears. I had a very hard time reading about people adopting and I cannot wait to start our next one. Some people think we are nuts for our future plan of only Miss Hollynn as our biological daughter and adopting one or two more children, so nuts we'll be. Don't give me your opinion until you have stared in the face of orphans who have no one to love them, no comfort, no clothes of their own, no one to hold them when they cry, or kiss them. You may be able to sit through the commercials on t.v., but I bet if you saw it in person, you wouldn't even have to close your eyes to remember those sweet, lonely faces.

For the most part of my pregnancy, I just felt like poo! I've never have anything be able to get me down like that. I went through so much physically, emotionally, and I feel like Satan came after me. I've never felt like that. The worse part was feeling so alone and like every day was eternity. I'm doing better now, despite being sick several times over the past few weeks. I've realized that I don't have much of a choice except to go through labor and most days I'm pretty conviced I can do it-I know, I've turned into a sissy! You've never heard me complain about anything after having the baby because I'm looking forward to another child, Jason and I want another child and then another. But something changed when two things happened. The first time I felt her move and knew it was her. And when we found out she was a girl (although I was pretty convinced the entire time). It made it more real, like there really is a little something inside of me, and it gave her more identity, a girl, Hollynn to be specific. That name was picked out long before she arrived in my belly.

After I got over the total weirdness of feeling her move, my first thought went to a lady who is somewhere in Russia. This pregnancy has made me love Hudson birthmom even more than I already did. I don't know her situation, but I know mine. And happy I was not about being pregnant. She may not have been as well. But once I felt her move, I don't know, I just can't even put it into words. I just know that his bm felt the same things and must have thought it amazing as well and yet she still walked out of that hospital without the most precious thing I've ever seen. The only person I know more selfless than that is my Jesus! I think about her all the time but even moreso this past month of feeling my baby girl move. I've said it several times but I'll say it again. I hope that she is in heaven because when I finally let go of Jesus' feet, I'm gonna wrap my arms around her. Please pray with me that she knows my Jesus or will come to know Him.

Don't doubt that I love my baby girl in my stomach. I look forward to seeing her sweet face and I love feeling her moving inside of me. No, I don't like being pregnant but I'm sure I'll love the end result. And she'll have the best big brother :) And one day she'll be a wonderful big sister :) to a little boy or girl, whom God willing, will arrive on an airplane :)

The kids...

This picture was taken two months ago for our church directory. I remember this day very clearly, I was soooo not feeling good and wanted some potato salad so we very quickly took the pic and headed to a nearby bar b que place!



It has been so hot! I've never been so affected by the heat, I'm blaming it on being preggo. I was sick 3 times last week when I got too hot. I've handled it a little better this week. It doesn't slow Hudson down a bit, though. We walk everyday, about a mile, and he runs most of it. We make the same loop and he LOVES it because we go to my Uncle Charles' and he gets to see tractors, all kinds of equipment, bobcats, etc. Sometimes I have to jog to catch up to him!




At church he was telling everyone that his sister's name is Olive! However, it is not! Her name is Hollynn. We have always like Holland as a name but we don't pronounce it with the d so I started playing with the spelling of it one day and we both like it spelled with the combination of Holly and Lynn.



Swimming lessons...well, we've worked on it one time and he did well. He kicks much better and blows bubbles. He has also went under all the way several times and he seems to like it. Next week is world show week and we are only showing there one day so the other 5 days I am going to take him to a friend of ours awesome pool and work really hard on it. I want him to be swimming on his own some before we take our vacation to Florida later this summer. I can't wait for next week. It's gonna be all Hudson and Mommy time! Yes, I spend everyday with him since he gets to go to the barn with me while I work but I just want to take next week and do lots of fun stuff. Swimming, Monkey Joe's, park, creek, and maybe even a spur of the moment trip to Chatt. town to visit my sista! I love spending time with my little man. He is so much fun, and when he's not, it's usually better after nap time :)

It's a...

Drumroll please...

Dad cutting the cake...

oh yeah lots of pink!!

I was so worried that we weren't going to find out if we were having a boy or girl. She had her knees bent and her feet pulled up in the way for about the first 30 min. of the ultrasound and finally she stretched them out a little bit but we still couldn't be sure. So I had to roll over on my side where they could get a different angle and THANKFULLY we could see right in between her legs. The lady typed Girl up on the screen and like the jocks we are, me and Jason high fived (we are so not cool)! Of course, I said I knew it all along! She was in a position that they couldn't get a few of her measurements so I have to have another ultrasound so that they can get everything. But right now everything looks great. She weighs 12oz.!

My mom and Granny are in Florida so they were the first to know with a big bouquet of flowers and a card that read: Dear Meme, I'll see ya in October! Love, Your Grandaughter Then Casey got her flowers in Chattanooga with a similar card. We had 2 cakes made as you can see from above. One went to Jason's parents and one went to my Dad. Everyone was excited. My mom was crying so much that she couldn't talk and had to hand the phone to Granny who was also crying. I saw a tear in Meemaw's eyes, too. When we cut the cake at Dad's, Meemaw, Melissa, and Jordan were there and Tracy, Brandon, and two of their kids came over. Although Hudson wanted a little brother he was happy when we told him he was getting a little sister.

I'm excited about going shopping for a little girl! Never thought the words "I'm excited to go shopping" would come from my mouth! But pink is my favorite color!

The cake is AWESOME! If you live around here and want one of the best cakes you've ever eaten, e-mail me for the number of the lady who made these. Very tasty and great price!

Mr. Smiley

I like both of these pics of him playing with "my commuta"!

This shirt wasn't so white after church and lunch! He was showing me his sword. He loves the veggie tales, Pirates Who Don't Do Anything, and walks around with his pointer finger up wanting to sword fight!

I grabbed the camera the other night as he emerged from his room after some drilling and work with his skill saw. He was so cute with his safety goggles pushed up on his head.

We had a nice Memorial Day weekend. We celebrated Lauren's graduation on Saturday and Hudson loved swimming in their pool. Then went swimming with U. Will and A. Casey on Monday afternoon. Jason and I both worked on Memorial Day but not our usual long day of work so we enjoyed some down time that afternoon. Hudson LOVES to swim. He is not afraid to go off the slide and on Monday we started working on kicking more correctly and blowing bubbles. I was going to get him swimming lessons but I think I'm going to try to teach him how to swim instead. We shall see how this goes, it could get interesting!

On the baby front, I felt it kick for the first time last Friday. WEIRD FEELING! I had no doubt that it was not gas or my stomach growling. It felt like popcorn popping in my lower stomach. I'm more used to it now and no longer look at my stomach with my head turned sideways in that puppy sort of way. It's pretty neat and I try to sit still sometimes just to see if I feel it. I'm so excited to find out if it's a boy or a girl! I'm feeling so much better that I started exercising and riding again. Wow am I out of shape after 3 1/2 months of sickness and laying in the fetal position! But it's good to be back in the saddle and on the elliptical. I'm not overdoing it, though, I just don't want to be out of shape and turn into some fat blob!

When I have a little more time I'll share with you more of my thoughts on feeling the baby move!