Wordless Wednesday!!!

It Came and It Went!

It came and it went! Christmas went by so fast and we had a lot of fun! I feel like I just put up my decorations and now it is time to take them down! Enjoy all of the pictures from our festivities!

Hunter baking cookies at Granna's house for Santa! He was a big help in the kitchen!

We made cookies, Christmas mix (the white chocolate stuff), fudge, iced cookies, and a Christmas tree cake! Needless to say, it is not helping me lose the rest of my baby weight!

Hunter opening up Lightning McQueen at Papaw's and Nanny's! They also got him a CARS car wash! He played with it the rest of the time we were there!

Brody, Nanny, and his Tickle Me Elmo! He's so alert and really enjoys looking around now!

Edwin (Brett's brother) holding Brody while we get the presents ready at Granna's! The boys were ready to dive into them!

And Brody decides to eat instead of open presents! :) Lea Anne (Edwin's wife) is expecting their second baby due in June! They find out what they are having in January and I can't wait! Maybe she'll break the cycle and have a girl!

Kase and Hunter playing together before they have to head home! We cleaned up Granna's house and headed home to go to bed so Santa could come visit us!

Santa has arrived! "Santa" wanted to take everything out of the box so it would be ready for Hunter to play with, but "Mrs. Claus" convinced him to leave some in the box because she likes how it looks by the tree better! Brody also received a note that his new swing would arrive January 15th! Santa figured it was OK since Brody didn't really know what was going on this Christmas!

What a sweet looking present! We woke Brody up when Hunter got up, so shortly after this, he was out for a nap! He is such a good baby and look at that chubby face! I could just eat him up :)

Hunter admiring all of his new toys! He must have been a good boy this year!

Playing with his new Geotrax Toy Story train! He played and played and played with it all day!


Now it's time to clean up all the chaos and my house is an absolute mess! It is worth it though and we had a great time! Happy Birthday Jesus and we are very thankful for the reason for the season! I hope everyone had a blessed Christmas!

Yikes!

Yikes! The ice and cold weather are here! I love Brody's expression in this picture! They called off school here so Hunter does not have preschool again until January- yeah for Christmas break! It was so bad, they even shut down the plant where Brett works! We are enjoying the extra family time and plan to finish our Christmas shopping this weekend!

Santa Claus is Comin' to Town!

It is officially Christmas time in the Spradlen household! The tree is up, garland hung, and the decor is out! Our SIL invited us to go to Bass Pro with them to meet Santa and we waited five hours for him! They arrived there first and got our Santa Bass Pass! We didn't get to see Santa until 8:30!!!

Brody was a little upset when I first handed him to Santa! Santa rocked him and was saying, "shhh!" It was a sweet moment!

His fussiness didn't last long and we got a great, first picture with Santa! We woke Brody up to do this, so of course he was tired, but was a great trooper!

Now, I know there is no picture of Hunter! Every time we asked Hunter if he wanted to see Santa, he would say, "No thanks!" We decided we wouldn't force the issue because what's the point of getting a bad picture and causing a scene! At the very end, he walked up to Santa with Brett and on the spot, we decided to do a family picture! Now it is quite comical!!! Hunter has an upset look on his face, Brody is turned funny, I'm talking in it and Brett looks the best out of all of us! I need to post the link to the picture from Bass Pro! I'll try and do it soon!

We are looking forward to Christmas and it will be here before we know it!

I'm Stuffed!

After this Thanksgiving holiday, I am stuffed! We celebrated a little early on Wednesday. Brett's brother Edwin is a high school football coach and his team has made it to the state championship! They had practice on Thursday so they all came down Wednesday night to eat! We then had leftovers on Thanksgiving and for the rest of the week!

This little guy was thankful for his bottle of milk! He was also excited to see Lorelai!

Isn't she too cute?! Lorelai is Roy and Amanda's daughter. Roy and Brett are childhood friends and Amanda and I have become close through them. It's hard to believe that she will be one in March! I remember telling Amanda I was pregnant and the next day she went into labor! Time goes by too fast! They stopped by Viv's on Thanksgiving and Amanda brought her phenomenal banana pudding! Lets just say it didn't last long! :o)

Hunter and Roy were having a good time at Viv's too! Hunter just loves Roy and he loves to tackle him! I wasn't the greatest photographer on Thanksgiving, but it's hard when you're trying to visit with family, play with the kids, and rest!

I also had decided NOT to go black Friday shopping, but I couldn't stand it! I ended up going to the outlets with my MIL and we found tons of bargains! The Childrens Place ( my favorite clothing store for the boys) was 50% off the whole store and they also let you use your coupons this year! We also went to Carters, Under Armour, Stride Rite ( I got Brody his first pair of shoes), and back to Childrens Place! Brett and I also went on Saturday to Toys R Us and Target! I meant to take a picture of our trunk, but I forgot! We cleaned up and don't have too much Christmas shopping left to do!

We are looking forward to Christmas and we're hopefully getting our decorations out this weekend! Happy Holidays everyone!!!

A Suprising and Busy Weekend!

What a wonderful, busy weekend! I went to the mailbox Saturday expecting our normal mail and found a surprise! My childhood friend Erin had sent me a package! I opened it up........

And this is what I found! I absolutely love the burp cloth and bib! Thank you so much Erin and these will definitely get a lot of use. We played babies and house all the time when we were in elementary school and now we are both married with children. She has an adorable boy named Ty who will be one in February. We hope to get our boys together soon for a play date!

We also took Brody to meet his girlfriend Olivia! Brittany had her on November 4th and she is just too cute! Brittany was in an earlier post with me at my baby shower- we were showing off our baby bumps! Brody and Olivia had a great first date of pacifiers, sleeping, and just hanging out!

And the fun continues! We decided to take the boys to the park since the weather has been so nice! Brody hung out in his stroller and slept most of the time. Although, I did snap this picture with his eyes open!

Hunter had a great time on the playground and loved this bridge! He was on it most of the time we were there!

And of course he had to go down the BIG slide! Brett had to go with him the first time! We were there for about two hours and it was wonderful to get out of the house!

I have no pictures of this, but we went to a Christmas light show in Sevierville! You drive through the Smokies Stadium Lot and they have it decorated in thousands of Christmas lights! They have music that goes along with the lights and at the end of one of the songs, it played jingle bells! Hunter said, " Listen, do you hear that? I hear Santa Claus!" It was priceless and I will never forget that moment!

I hope everyone else had a wonderful weekend and I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving! My mouth is already watering! ha :o)

Sleepy Monkey

Sleepy Monkey :o)

And that's what mommy should be doing right now, but of course I'm not sleepy! He is so precious and we just love him to death! Love those chubby cheeks!

Can you believe Brody will be four weeks old tomorrow?! He's already changed so much! He will be Hunter's age before we know it!

Truthful Tuesday

I thought Truthful Tuesday would be easy enough to blog while Brody is asleep and Hunter is working a puzzle! So here we go!

1.) We are all now going to bed at 10:30, which is so NOT me! I am such a night owl and would stay up late to watch all of my reality shows, but as you all know our situation has changed!

2.) I have never been happier in my life! Brody is such a good baby and Hunter has done well with the family change. He tells Brody how cute he is and pats his head all of the time! I truly realize how blessed I am to be the mother of two, wonderful boys!

3.) Shower? What's that? The boys always look cute, but mommy, not so much! I find myself trying to do stuff around the house while Brody sleeps and sometimes it's just easier to take a shower when Brett gets home! Lets face it, I don't have to rush if he's here!

4.) I'm sooo ready for the holidays! There's just something magical about it and we are going to do Christmas cards for the first time this year!

5.) And finally, I hope you read this Lori! I'm so thankful for you and for all of the pictures you are doing for us! What a special time you are documenting at a fraction of the price. This means so much to me! I love you and appreciate you more than you'll ever know! :o)

Family Pics

My friend Lori took family pictures for us on Halloween! These are a few of our favorites and the session went really well. Now, I usually wouldn't take pictures so soon after having a baby, but it was Brett's idea and I had to jump at the chance- he HATES having his picture taken!

Everything is going so well! Brody is a wonderful baby and Hunter is blossoming as the big brother. Brody sleeps well at night- he slept for eight hours three nights ago! His usual sleeping schedule is four to six hours so it allows me to feel somewhat rested! I have been able to clean, cook (nothing big), and do laundry so the house isn't falling apart like I thought it might!

Our hearts are full, family complete (for now- Brett talks about a third, but I don't know), and the feeling of joy never leaves!

Baby Brody

I'm sure you already guessed it since I haven't blogged in over a week, but Brody is here!!! I did not make it to my induction date and to be honest, I barely made it to the hospital! I started having a funny sensation around 3:00 on Friday, October 22nd! I didn't have any pain and it was totally different from how I felt when I went into labor Hunter. I finished packing my bag, packed a bag for Hunter, and waited for Brett to get home from the doctor. He thought he had strep throat, but luckily he didn't. We called Brett's mom, who was at the mall, to tell her to meet us at the hospital. My hospital is right down the road and she called us about five minutes later to tell us she had locked her keys in her car! Her friend took her spare key to her and she arrived at the hospital a few minutes after we did.

Everything was fine until we were about five minutes down the road. In a split second, everything changed. My contractions were coming back to back and I was now in a huge amount of pain. When I got to triage, I was fully dilated and they rolled me at a fast pace into a room. I started crying as I told Brett, "I'm going to feel everything!" My birthing plan included an epidural because I do not have a high tolerance for pain. There were ten people in the room setting it up, nurses telling me to breathe and that I could do it, one putting an IV in, one holding the monitor on my belly, my water breaks, the doctor walks in, and within five pushes he was out!!! I felt instant relief! I was in the hospital a total of just 26 minutes and he was here! The positive side of all of this, is that is was quick and I did feel better after this birth compared to my experience with Hunter.

Brody was born at 7:16 pm, weighing 7 lbs, 10 ozs and 20 inches long! He is a wonderful baby and only gets upset when you change his diaper! It was amazing to see him for the first time and he is Brett the III as I thought he would be! We had a ton of visitors to the hospital and big brother Hunter responded well to his brother!

We are all doing great- minus the fact that I had a stomach virus and Brett has pneumonia in his right lung! He couldn't be around Brody or I for 24 hours which led to my first emotional spell! Luckily, my mom and sister were coming to visit that night and to stay for a few days!

I plan to keep updating my blog, although the entries will probably be less frequent. I wonder why?! Thanks for all of your prayers and continue to pray for us! We are so blessed and couldn't be happier!!!

The Bags are Packed!

The bags are packed, but don't get too excited! I went to the doctor Friday and NO changes! I didn't get to see my doctor because she got called to deliver and she had three more patients in labor! The nurse asked if I would be ok seeing the nurse practitioner and I said yes because I didn't want to be there all day!

I had an ultrasound and Brody now weighs six pounds, eight ounces! He's still a little below average, but the NP did tell me he scored eight out of eight on a test for movement and health! He's just going to be small, which is fine with me. I didn't realize when I had Hunter at seven pounds, two ounces, he was below average. It was big enough for me though :o) I would post pictures, but Brody is so smushed in there, it's kind of hard to tell what is what in the picture without seeing it in person.

His diaper bag is packed, the newborn lounger is ready, and thank God Brett's brother and wife bought me a new Boppy! I used my old one so much that it is basically flat! Those things are wonderful and I couldn't live without it!

I have an appointment on Friday, if I make it until then! I probably will since I've been telling everyone that I will go early! I'm just ready and we are ready to meet our newest family member!

Baby Bump!

I had a baby shower this past weekend and it was wonderful! I am blessed with many friends and family who showered Brody and I with tons of gifts!

My bestie, as we call each other, Lori made this diaper wreath for me to hang on the door at the hospital! Too cute, right?! She is so creative and I absolutely love it!

And here is a baby bump picture for everyone- actually two baby bumps! My friend Brittany is due November 10th with a little girl! This is their first and we are so excited for them! We have already arranged Brody and Olivia's marriage! :o)

Sorry it's such a short post, but this pregnancy is nearing the end and it is definitely taking a toll on me! I don't sleep much at night, my heartburn is out of control, etc. It's all worth it though and I wouldn't trade it for anything! I have a doctor's appointment Friday so I will update everyone then!

Update and 37 Weeks!

Here is why I have been MIA!!! Brett and his good friend Matt put down hardwood (laminate) flooring throughout our house! It is gorgeous and ten times better than our carpet! No matter how many times I steam cleaned the carpet, it never seemed clean to me. We had to unhook our computer, but now I am back in the Internet world!

I will be 37 weeks this Saturday and I have my preadmission appointment that day as well. We will take care of the paperwork and what not- this way Brett won't have to worry about filling everything out when I arrive to have the baby! Sorry, no belly shot today, but I have a shower this weekend and will post pictures from it!

We are busy working on Brody's room- nothing like waiting until the last minute!!! It's going to be a beautiful nursery and we plan to finish it this weekend!

Also, Brett says I'm a dork, but I think it would be neat to have him this Sunday! Why you ask?!?! His birthday would be 10/10/10!!! How cool, right?!?! We're not completely ready for his arrival, so it might not be the greatest as far as timing, but we are anxious for him to join our family! And if he decides to come this weekend, we won't complain!

36 Weeks and Progressing!

Layne, I dedicate this baby bump picture to you! I forgot to take one this morning and she insisted that I put one up :o)

It was great to see Brody today! This is a picture of his profile- I wonder who he will look like?

Here's his face and to be honest, you are probably looking at Brett the III! Hunter is a spitting image of Brett and so I am assuming this one will be too!

Another profile picture, only the umbilical cord is going over his mouth like a moustache! Can you see it? At one point in the ultrasound he was asleep with his hand behind his head! Maybe it's a sign that he likes to relax!

My appointment went well and I go back next week! She wants to do another ultrasound in two weeks. He measured a little small, but she said she's not too concerned, she just wants to see his growth then. He weighs 5 pounds, 12 ounces and that puts him in the 38th percentile-not too far from average. She said he will probably be small like Hunter. And I know she's not worried because as I was leaving, she said if you go into labor, I'll see you tonight because I won't stop it!!! I am progressing, but not packing my bags quite yet! Keep praying for us!

Also, I don't know who all reads this, but we have an extra prayer request. Viv's ( Brett's mom) dog Coal is not doing well. He has been having some health issues and has been diagnosed with severe kidney disease. He is starting to have some other problems as well. I know this is hard on her and the more prayers the better!

35 Weeks

I had a doctor's appointment today and everything looks great! While she was checking the heart rate, Brody was kicking up a storm! It's so neat to hear his heart and his movements. He is a very active baby during the day!

Whoa BABY! I feel like all of the sudden, my belly has popped out! Gorgeous picture- I know! Yes, I chopped my head off in the picture, but be happy I even posted one! It's a million degrees here-can someone mention to the weather/mother nature that it is FALL, not summer?! Also, Hunter had preschool today and guess what?!?!

He had a PERFECT daily report!!! He was also the blessing leader, but in the notes section you can see that he did not eat any lunch! Too funny! He is a very picky eater and usually has two good meals a day and I guess lunch wasn't one of them today! I got his lunch out in the car and he gobbled it up-late afternoon snack is what we will call it!

So, for perfect behavior we stopped at Dairy Queen for some ice cream! It was a perfect treat on this HOT day! I'm a very proud mommy!

I have an ultra sound next week so I will be sure to post pictures of Brody! I'm now going to the doctor once a week and he will be here before we know it! We can't wait to meet the little guy!

Hunter's in Preschool!

It's official- Hunter is in preschool! And there is no question about it, I'm the one having the harder time with it! I had my first emotional breakdown of the pregnancy last week when I dropped him off on Thursday! When I picked him up, the teacher told me he had a little bit of a rough day, which only added to my emotions. I was a basket case as the week went on and was dreading yesterday! Good news though- he had a GREAT day!!! Now I can stop giving myself and Brody heart attacks on Thursdays! They worked on the letter B and I received my first artwork for the fridge!

Who knew glued on cotton balls in the shape of a B could be so special?! I am a very proud mommy and plan to continue to show off his artwork!

I'm now (well tomorrow) 34 weeks along! I guess at my last doctor's appointment, she put things into perspective for me! At 36 weeks, if I go into labor, she will NOT stop it! I know this sounds a bit dramatic, but if I go into labor in two weeks, we will have a baby!!! Did I mention his nursery is still a hodge podge, catch all room?! We are going to start working on his room this weekend and I will post pictures when it's complete!

Brody now weighs around five pounds and is about twelve inches long, which is the size of a loaf of bread (head to rump), plus an additional five inches or more in legs! I have an ultrasound in two weeks and I can't wait to see the little guy! I will post pictures of him too! Keep praying for our growing family!

My Madisonville Sprinkle!!!

I went home this past weekend to Madisonville for my first baby sprinkle! With your second baby you don't need a shower, you need a sprinkle! Get it?! Too cute! My best friends from high school all got together with their mom's and planned a wonderful party in honor of Brody!

The yummy food the girls worked hard on! There wasn't much left by the end of the night!

More food-the way to a pregnant girl's heart! And the delicious Welcome Brody cupcake cake!

In the middle of opening gifts, I realized that I wasn't having anyone take pictures! I only got a few snapshots, but this is one of the best- a UK onesie, UK hat, and UK socks for Brody! Brett loved it- NOT! He is a die hard VOLS fan! I love it!!!

And of course, by the time I realized I hadn't taken a picture with the girls, Layne had already left! Oops! Now, let me add that this was the first day I was swollen! I don't know if he was laying on a vein that night, but I felt huge and uncomfortable! It doesn't help either that I had stuffed myself full of food :o) Also, they tell you not to wear horizontal stripes because they make you look wide, but I think you can get away with it when you're pregnant!

I really appreciate everything you all did for me and for all of Brody's gifts! We love you all so much and I know he is going to have four fabulous Aunt's!!!

My Birthday, Eight Months, and Labor Day Weekend!

My 27th birthday was this past Saturday and it was wonderful! I went shopping Friday night with my Mother-In-Law and went out to eat. Saturday, Brett surprised me with my gifts- he told me to buy new clothes when I went shopping with his Mom, but he had a few tricks up his sleeve! He spoils me rotten!!!

He bought me a Flip Video, which we have been looking at purchasing for a while. It's a video camera that fits inside my purse and can record up to three hours! It's great to have for when we are on the go, especially since we will have Brody soon and I don't want to miss anything! The other great feature is that you can connect it straight to your computer and send videos via email! I'm so excited to be able to do this for all of my friends and family in Kentucky!

Brett also sent me flowers for my birthday! I LOVE getting flowers and it was such a surprise! He is wonderful to me and I love him very much!

My birthday was also a special day for another reason! It marked the eighth month of my pregnancy! I feel as big as a house now and this picture is terrible-I look like I'm about to sneeze!! Brody is now the size of a small watermelon and is practicing swallowing, sucking, and breathing!

We had a great Labor Day Weekend and we were able to spend some time with our friends on Sunday! We went out on the river on our friend's boat and watched an awesome fireworks show! Of course, since it was late, we had to make a stop at the Waffle House on the way home!

Hunter starts preschool on Thursday and I don't even want to think about it! I'm so excited for him, but it makes me want to cry! I can't believe he is old enough to be going! Say some prayers on Thursday morning because I know I will be crying as I pull away from the church!