Valentine's Day

Don't you just LOVE Valentine's Day??? Well, I do!  I like how you have an excuse to do something special for the one that you love... not that we can't do something special whenever we want, but it's kind of cool to know that something will happen on that day.  For Chance and I it's kind of nice to have that day because our anniversary is in June, so I feel like we get something sweet to say "I love you" for each other twice a year that we know will happen for sure...

Anyway, the other day Chance and I were talking about all the cute stuff that we've done for each other on Valentine's Day over the years... Chance and I started dating in March of 2005, so we just missed Valentine's Day that year. So, February 14, 2006 was our first Valentine's Day together and it was SOOO sweet!!! When I was in class Chance covered my bed with rose petals and spelled out "I ❤ U" , he left me Dr. Pepper (my favorite drink which I gave up for a New Year's Resolution a few years ago), Reeses Peanut Butter Cups (my favorite candy), big balloons, and of course a mushy gushy Valentine's Day card! Here is are a few pics:

For him I put balloons all over his room, got him a cute little monkey, a calendar, put a bunch of chocolate hearts on his bed along with some candles (I was terrified about putting the candles on there though so I moved some to the nightstands instead)... Here are some pics:

That was definitely a great year!!!

I think every year since then we've done something a little smaller, but always something special.  I have always given him candy and a card of some sort and I know that every year on Valentine's Day I will be getting a dozen roses at work (which I love because I can show off how sweet my husband is!!!).  This year I made him this cute little jar that says "Sweets 4 my sweet❤" on it, a card using my cricut, and this cute little bannder to hang in our living room.  Here is a pic of the jar and banner:



I can't wait for next Valentine's Day to come already!!! :) I'm going to try to be a little more creative... and Caycen will be here for our next V-day too!!!!

Well, I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day as well!!!

~Aimes



Baby Update

Hey everyone! Well I have only a week and a half left until my 2nd trimester is over!!! I'll post a pregnancy journey update when I hit the 3rd trimester :) 

I figured I should give you guys a little update about what's been going on lately with our decisions about the baby, so here goes...

NAME:
So we have FINALLY decided on a name!!!! YAY!!! Our little buddy is going to be named Caycen Edward Darley, initials CED just like his daddy!!  We have talked about Caycen for a while, but were really nervous about making it official because we were scared that we might find something that we liked better.  But we started calling him Caycen weeks ago and I told Chance that I can't think of him as anything other than Caycen now.  We waited to announce also because we weren't sure of how we wanted to spell it.  First we said Cayson, then Caison, then Kacen (that was what we liked for a while)... but then the other night I was sketching out a door hanger that I wanted to paint for his room and I wrote Kacen on there... Chance told me to see what it would look like spelled Caycen... so I did, and we just LOVED the way it looked.  So it's official... I will be buying letters soon so there is no way that Chance can change it again haha! :)   We can't wait for our little CAYCEN EDWARD DARLEY to arrive!

BEDDING:
We picked out the bedding and it's the same bedding that I posted on here a few weeks ago.  We are going to do frogs, turtles, and alligators in the room.  SO EXCITED!! If you want to see the bedding you can go here to look at it:

http://www.babysupermall.com/main/products/coc/coc7033-890.html

I'm a dumby though and when I ordered the bedding and accessories to go with it I only ordered one valance, but we have a double window!!! So I had to order another valance yesterday... oh well... Caycen's room will be so stinkin cute :)

Next step is to buy the furniture... I think we are going with target furniture... it's not too expensive, but seems to be great furniture.  If anyone has a different suggestion, let us know... we love any advice we can get!

Well, I think that's really all of the updating on the baby stuff that I have until my post that I write on the 2nd trimester... I can tell you that I definitely have a baby bump now!!!!! You know it's a bump when it starts to get in the way, when you drop food on your tummy, and when you can't see as much of your feet when you look down! haha!

I hope everyone has a WONDERFUL rest of the week!!! 

OH AND I NEED MORE FOLLOWERS!!!!!! ;)

Love, Aimes

Journey of Pregnancy - 1st Trimester

Well, I decided that I should be recording all of the things that are happening to me during my pregnancy so that when I look back I will remember every little detail.  Also, I thought this might be interesting for first time mommies to read as well (I know that I had no clue what to expect).  Today I will touch on just the first trimester and I will post on the 2nd trimester in another post.  So here goes:

Finding out I was prego:
So, no we weren't trying to get pregnant, this was a surprise to us.  I know exactly how it happened though...  Hopefully I don't sound like too much of an idiot when you read what's coming up...  I was on a new birth control last January and it was causing me to (EAR MUFFS BOYS) spot throughout, so I talked to the doctor in March and she upped some of the hormones to help with this.  Well the new dosage that I was taking was making me gain weight like crazy... I gained about 10 pounds within 4 months of starting the new pill.  I decided that I would try to go off the pill for a little bit to see if I could lose the weight that I'd gained and then I would tell the doctor that I needed a different type of birth control.  Well, I lost 10 pounds within that first month of going off of the pill!!!! I was so excited! So I just didn't get back on.  I went off at the beginning of August (for those of you keeping up with my timeline :) ) 

One day in October (about 2 months after going off of the pill) I was telling Chance that I was a week late, but I thought it was just because I had gone off the pill and maybe my cycle was a little messed up.  After church that day I decided to take a pregnancy test, JUST IN CASE... Right before I went to take the test, Chance tells me "don't lie to me and tell me you're pregnant"... hmmm, like I've ever done that before ;)   so I went and took the test and from the bathroom I started yelling "Chance it's POSITIVE!!!!!"  My voice was more of a panic sound.  Of course, Chance had to see for himself.  He was about to go play golf at the time so he was in a hurry to get going while all of this was going on.  He told me "maybe the test is wrong, you need to take another one".  So he decided to go to the driving range instead of playing a whole round of golf, while I went to Rite Aide to get some more Pregnancy tests.  He didn't stay at the driving range very long (I guess he was in a little bit of a panic too).  So we went back home and took 3 more pregnancy tests... all were positive!  Wow... what a surprise for us!  From that moment we knew that our lives were about to change, but we were both very positive about our new situation.

How I felt: 
During the first few weeks that I knew I was pregnant (from when I was 4 weeks pregnant to about 9 weeks) I didn't feel like I was pregnant at all.  At the end of my 9th week I started to get the dreaded morning sickness... ugh... the worst ever!!!!! I don't know why they call it morning sickness... I was sick about every couple of hours during the day.  I was very scared that I would be sick throughout the whole pregnancy because my sister was with all three of hers.  I got to the point where I would put food on my nightstand the night before and I would eat before ever rolling out of bed in the morning... some days this helped, some days not.  Fortunately for me, at about 14 weeks the sickness went away.  Thank God!  Other than the morning sickness, I still couldn't see any signs that I was pregnant.

Body:
During the first trimester my body really didn't change much.  I could tell my hips were starting to get a little bigger and my stomach was getting a little harder at the bottom.  Other than that there was much difference.  Here are some pictures from the first trimester...


9 weeks



11 weeks


Cravings:

During the first trimester I didn't really have too many cravings... I really feel like it was more of finding stuff that I DID want to eat.  I WAS a Chick-fil-a LOVER before I found out I was pregnant.  I would go by and get a chicken biscuit at least once or twice a week before work.  During my first trimester I started to feel sick to even THINK about eating Chick-fil-a! I know I know... what's wrong with me?!?!  I also couldn't stand to think about eating grilled chicken that we cooked at the house.  I could eat grilled chicken from a restaurant, but if we grilled it at home then I would get nauseous!  I did notice that I wanted more pasta during the first trimester... I've always been a pasta lover, but I think I wanted it even more.

Best and Worst Moments:
The best moment during the first trimester was definitely when we heard the baby's heartbeat for the first time!  It was AMAZING!!!  We actually saw him on the screen before hearing the heartbeat, but the heartbeat was what I was looking forward to.  Knowing that there was a heartbeat made it all feel real.  When we heard that beautiful sound, Chance and I looked at each other and just grinned.  God gave us something so beautiful and our lives are going to be completely changed because of it.

The worst moment was definitely the morning sickness... some people say that they would rather have food in their stomach when they got sick, but it was almost better for me when I didn't... for some reason if I didn't have food in me, it didn't hurt so bad and didn't seem to last as long.


Closing thoughts:
Well, the first trimester has come and gone... at the beginning it seemed to go by so slow.  But now I am more than halfway through my pregnancy and it seems to be flying by!  I am so excited about meeting this little bundle of joy inside of me!  Stay tuned for my next post on the 2nd trimester... it gets a little more interesting :)


~Aimes

Meet Me Blog Party

Welcome to the MEET ME BLOG PARTY!!! Since I just started blogging recently, I don't have very many followers on my blog, so I decided to do a Meet Me Blog Party so that others could get to know me and I could get to view other peoples' blogs as well.  All you do is tell a little about yourself by posting a few pics for a bio and then copy and paste my Q & A part to your blog and fill in your own answers, then come back here and post your link to my page so that others can view your blog as well!

Time to start the PARTY!!!

Bio:

My name is Amy and I'm a born and bread Georgia girl.  I am married to a FANTASTIC guy, Chance, and we've been married for almost 3 years.  I played all sports growing up, but my passion was cheerleading.  I went on to cheer at Valdosta State University, where I met my future hubby, who played football for VSU.  I am now teaching, this is my 4th year as a teacher.  I taught 1st grade for 3 years and I'm now in 2nd.  I have the most wonderful family ever!  I have two dogs - a shi tzu (Sugar - 5 years old) and a chocolate lab (Cooper - 2 years old).  We are expecting our first baby in June and it's a boy!  I'm so excited for what God has in store for our family!

Q & A:

Q: What would you be doing if you weren’t a teacher (insert your profession here)?                                             

A:  Definitely a STAY AT HOME MOM when the baby comes

Q: What are your hobbies?                                                                                    

A:  Reading, blogging (now), and I've just gotten into painting and crafting with my cricut.                                                            

Q: When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?                     

A:  At first it was a teacher or a vet

   

Q: What are your guilty pleasures?                                                                   

 A: Reeses Peanut Butter Cups, Cheesecake, Red Bull, a glass of wine or a margarita from Jalapenos (not the last three right now because I'm prego.)

Q: What is your biggest fear?!                                                                        

 A: probably roaches... I'm not too scared of much...

Q: When you’re on vacation, where do you like to go?                                    

 A: The beach! My favorite vacation EVER was to St. Lucia on my honeymoon because it was just perfect.  We stayed at the Sandals Grande. The food, view, drinks, EVERYTHING was perfect!!!!

                                                         

Q: What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?                                                   

A:  Treat others as you would like to be treated... I am the type of person who LOVES to be LOVED... so in order for others to love me, I have to love them first!  I love to shower people and make them feel special just like I would like to feel.

Q: What do you value most in others?                                                                   

A:  Honesty…  I just want people to feel like they can be themselves around me because I try to do the same around others.

Q: If you could choose one of your personality traits to pass down to your kids, what would it be?                                                                                                        

A: My goofiness!!! I'm not afraid to be goofy and I think it's what gets me through the day sometimes.  You have to look at yourself and just laugh sometimes!     

Q: If you could have lunch with anyone in the world….living or dead…who would it be?                                                                                                                

A:  Carrie Underwood because she is AWESOME!!! She has totally been herself from American Idol to Best Selling country music singer and has never swayed from knowing who she was.  She is such a great role model for girls and women everywhere.

Now tell us something random about yourself:

I was on the cover of American Cheerleader Magazine in September of 2005 (one of the greatest experiences ever)... I love to sleep... My favorite color is pink, but I don't have too much of it in the house because apparently when you get married you have to give up some things :)... I love spending time with my friends and having a great time.

Now it’s time for YOU to join the party!!!!  Here’s what you need to do:  Write a post titled “Meet Me Blog Party”.  Start with a brief “biography” and then copy & paste the Q&A {using your answers, of course!}  Copy the web address of your “Meet Me Blog Party” and post your link in a comment!  It would be GREAT if you could visit at least 3 other people…get to know a little bit about your fellow bloggers…and leave a comment!!!!