Where does the time go...

I know that I am way overdue on posting. So much has happened that I need to post about so I will begin with my the oldest events and bring you up to speed on the current events. 

First,  the last weekend of February, our wonderful friends and neighbors, Robert & Kathyrn Belville threw us a neighborhood shower where we had a great turn out of wonderful friends and neighbors to celebrate the upcoming birth of our baby girl. We were overwhelmed by the outpouring of gifts and support from our wonderful neighbors. We are so lucky to live in a neighborhood where we are truly one big family! 

My work family also threw a baby shower for Baby Madi in early March. It was a Thursday afternoon after work and was so wonderful to have the support from the people that you work with daily. I am blessed to work in a position that I love with people that I love.

That Saturday, my wonderful friends, Cici, Brittney, and Rhonda threw us yet another beautiful shower. We didn't need much by this point, however anything that was missing was found at that shower. I don't have a lot of pictures from that shower yet but will post them once I do get them. I have one of the hostesses and myself. What a wonderful group of friends!

This is a picture of our "swing"... its called the Mama Roo and it looks so neat. I can't wait to put Baby Madi in it. I just know she will love it! Thanks Patti for this wonderful gift!

My mom, my sister Sheryl, and my niece Peyton came in town for the shower on Friday and helped me get the nursery organized, and get all of Madi's clothes washed, folded and put away. I couldn't have done it without them! They were such a big help! 

After the shower Satrday afternoon, we went back to my house to finish the nursery. Cici was my designer... I do not have an eye for decorating so my best friend Cici took charge! I told her what I wanted as far as colors and things like that and let her go. I am so happy that I did because it turned out beautifully! Her mother, Toni, made the window treatments, the pillow for the glider, a runner for the dresser, and a french picture board. They both are extremely talented in decorating and Toni is especially talented in sewing! I am so lucky that they were wiling to help! There are still a few things that are not hung yet but that will be taken care of this weekend!! My dad, Jim, made a beautiful shadow box to hang on Madi's wall that will hold her dress, bonnet, and booties that she will be wearing home from the hospital. I absolutely love the nursery and know that Madi will love it too!

The lighting in the pictures isn't great so some look like the nursery is much pinker than it is. The walls are a very pale pink with some darker pink accents from the window treatments, lamp shade, etc. Cici had a beautiful sign made that will go over her crib that should be here this weekend. It is painted to look like barn wood with the peeling off paint look and then her monogram is on that. It is beautiful and really gives the nursery a vintage feel among its modern look. I absolutely love it and can't thank Cici and Toni enough.

Baby Shower in Atlanta

My sisters, Sabrina & Sheryl, and my best friend from middle school, Bailey threw our first baby shower in Atlanta. It was a beautiful shower with lots of little extras from the personalized decorations to the delicious cake made by my sis, Sheryl. 

                                      

The cake is a cake that I have always wanted at my baby shower so Sheryl has waited to make this cake for my baby shower. I love the silhouette of the pregnant belly... she did such a great job!

It was so wonderful seeing everyone and sharing this special time with everyone. It was great to be able to spend some time with Bailey... as a child, you talk with your friends about being pregnant at the same time and the plans you have for your future but you rarely get to see them happen... it really happened for us. I can't wait to meet Baby Rourk #2 and make memories with our children. 

My mom and sisters made this beautiful diaper cake with lots of necessities. What a cute centerpiece! 

I cannot believe the how many gifts we were given. Everyone was so generous. I was especially excited about the strollers and carseat that we were given. The turquoise stroller is a jogging stroller that will work great at the beach with its big tires! We were also given the stroller that is a frame for the carseat so while Madi is small, she can be wheeled around in her carseat on top of the frame. When we go for walks, we will use the jogging stroller. 

We received so many cute outfits and other necessities. My car was so full driving back to Savannah that I even had the passenger seat and floorboard full of stuff. It took some magic but we made it all fit... thanks to Mom, Dad (Jim), Aunt Linda, and Aunt Sally. 

We are truly blessed to have such wonderful family and friends! Thank you all so much for everything!

We are having a GIRL!!!!

We found out last Thursday, October 25th that we are expecting a little girl and we couldn't be more excited. We had out gender check ultrasound at 16 weeks where we got to see our little girl once again. At first she didn't want to cooperate. She was laying face down and very low. The ultrasound tech tapped my belly a few times and that must have waken her up because she was extremely active after that. She barely held still long enough to get a good look however, after about 10 minutes of looking and lots of fun pictures, we were able to get a good shot to determine that she is indeed a girl. She waved "Hi" and showed off her beautiful spine. She is much larger than the last ultrasounds that we had done. It is amazing how fast she is growing and how the time is flying by. She will be here before we know it.

Once the ultrasound was complete, we went to wait to talk with the doctor for my 16 week checkup. He said that everything looked great and then he listened to her heart. It was hard to hear the heartbeat because she was moving around so much. The doctor warned us that we may have our hands full with an active little girl. Whit and I just looked at each other and laughed... active dog, active daughter!! I guess we wouldn't know what to do with less!

After leaving the doctor's office, we had to notify everyone of what we were having. I wanted a fun way to tell people but it had to be fast and something that would work in a picture. So I ordered cookies from a store in Savannah called Two Smart Cookies. They have the best tasting and best looking cookies in the area. I ordered six cookies, three pink for a girl and three blue for a boy. I figured that I could take a picture of those and send that out to reveal the gender. Below is the picture that we sent.

She already has Whit wrapped around her little finger! I told him that we needed to go buy her a little outfit since we finally knew what we were having. He agreed and told me exactly what he wanted to get her so we went to TJ Maxx to see if we could find a pink Polo dress just as Whit said he wanted. Low and behold they had one. It happened to be 12 months but it was on sale so we decided to purchase it.

We also discussed names. We had one picked out already but we needed to verify that we were going to use it once we knew what we were having. So we decided on Madison Mae, but we will call her Madi. We have both always liked the name Madison and Mae is my late grandmother's middle name as well as Whit's late great-grandmother's name. So it worked perfectly that to keep the family name as her middle name.

Now all we need to do is find some bedding so that we can begin setting up the nursery!!!

Whit and I are beyond thrilled to announce that we are PREGNANT!!! Our first child is due on April 11th, 2013 and we couldn’t be more excited. On Friday, August 3rd, we had a blood test to confirm our pregnancy and then went for our first ultrasound on August 29th where we were able to hear our baby’s heart beat for the very first time. The doctor commented on how strong the baby’s heart rate was at 143. What a relief to hear the heartbeat and see our baby for the very first time. There is no greater gift from God!!! We had another ultrasound at 9 weeks and again at 12 weeks, which both went very well and showed the baby right on track with size and heart rate. We made the official announcement on Facebook Sunday with the picture above that our friend/neighbor Kathryn took for us using an idea that she found on Pinterest. I thought it was such a cute idea and believe it or not, Whit actually agreed to take the picture and was excited about it. I am amazed at how excited he is about our little one on the way. He was so nervous and reluctant to get excited in the beginning, but now is very much a part of everything and all the decision-making. I guess he was just worried that things wouldn’t go as smoothly as they have. So far, the pregnancy has gone extremely smooth. Knock on wood, but I have not had any morning sickness or other terrible symptoms. I have been very fortunate. Whit of course is a great and attentive husband… as if he were ever anything different!!! I love seeing his face light up with excitement when we talk about our baby and when he/she is here. I can’t wait to experience parenting with him. I know that he will be the best dad ever! We are anxiously awaiting the time when we are able to determine the gender. On October 25th, we are scheduled for a Gender Check Ultrasound. We will only be 16 weeks at that time so hopefully our little one cooperates. We will update the blog as soon as we know!

Jimmy Buffett Welcome to the Fin Land Tour Charlotte, NC

We had a blast at the Buffett concert Thursday night.  Some neighbors/friends (Robert and Kathryn) from Savannah joined us in Charlotte where we met up with Gary, Mandy, Mom, Jim, and a few others.  We had a great time tailgating and of course the concert was fabulous.  We were also able to see Macy and Makayla and spend some time with them. They are growing too fast. Unfortunatley I wasn’t able to get by to see Bailey, Brian, and Baby Hudson but I plan on getting there soon to see the sweet little baby and great friends. Enjoy some pics!

 

View Full Album

Spring Break in Wine Country

My mom was in San Francisco on business at the beginning of my spring break so I flew out there to spend the rest of my spring break with her. We stayed in San Francisco for one night and then headed to Napa and Sonoma to enjoy wine country.  We had a wonderful time on our wine tour and absolutely recommend those to anyone who visits.  Here are some pics from our trip.

My Surprise 30th Birthday Celebration

Free scrapbook design personalized with Smilebox