Partied Out!

Both of the kids had their Christmas parties yesterday. Maxwell's class performed 5 or 6 songs during their program, it was really sweet and I think he enjoyed performing, such a little ham! Maxwell's best buddy is next to him, Eliah lives right across the street and they have so much fun together.

Olivia's class made gingerbread houses during their party. She had a fun and sticky time, Maxwell enjoyed getting in on the decorating too.

Living Christmas Tree performance

Olivia's been having a blast this week performing in our church's Living Christmas Tree program. They are doing a total of 7 shows; I was afraid she'd be exhausted but she's hanging in there and having a blast! Enjoy the video. Merry Christmas!

8w1d

In this picture, the baby's head is down, you can see a black spot on the head that is the beginning of his/her brain. The heartbeat measured 160bpm today.

This is a 3-D image, in this picture the head is up and you can see arm and leg buds if you look closely (click on the picture for a larger view). It's hard to believe that he/she will look like an actual baby in 3-4 weeks!

Going to see Hannah!

Olivia was excited to get a chance to see Hannah with her Aunt and cousin. They had a really good time. Olivia got home late last night so I haven't had a chance to talk to her about it too much, but she definitely enjoyed it!

6w5d

We've got one little bean with a nice strong heartbeat. Nothing is more beautiful than seeing (and hearing) that little heart beating away. Despite the fact that he heard the heartbeat, Maxwell still refuses to believe there's a baby in there, I think he's waiting on my stomach to be huge before he believes it. I'll have another ultrasound in about 3 weeks. Already counting the days until that one!

Maxwell

Maxwell's preschool choir performed a few songs the other night at church. It's cute watching him trying to keep up with the sign language. Turn your volume down some!

Pregnant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It almost doesn't even seem real. It's been such a long journey. Even though our chances of pregnancy were high (60%) given that we did IVF, I still felt as though it couldn't possibly happen. I guess that comes with almost 2 years of trying to have a healthy baby. We are now one step closer to bringing a baby home from the hospital.

I'm amazed that God has blessed us with another pregnancy. I pray that he will once again bless us with a healthy child; a child of His, to love, teach and watch over. I pray that each of our children are molded in a way that will give glory to God and that His light will shine through them.

Tiger

To say the kids (especially Maxwell) are enjoying the cat, is putting it mildly. Thankfully we chose a cat that tolerates the kids very well!

Maybe Baby/Babies?

I thought I'd post a picture of our little embryos. They are both 8 cells, which is exactly where they are suppose to be for 3 days past retrieval, the one on top is the prettiest but the one on bottom may actually be the harder worker, it's not as pretty b/c it's beginning to divide into a 10 cell embryo.

Trunk or Treat

Our church had a fun evening planned for everyone Wed. night. A bunch of people get their cars and theme out their trunks for the kids. For example, our sunday school class had a Christmas theme so there were a bunch of Christmas decorations and music playing, etc. There were Native American themes, Pirates, a tailgating theme....just a bunch of different stuff. It was really fun and of course, there were jumping castles and slides. The kids had a great time!
Our Fireman and Pirate

Retrieval and Transfer

Exactly a week ago on the 24th, I had my egg retrieval. This was the easiest part of it all, I had conscious sedation and don't remember a thing. My doctor's office took very good care of me, they have a surgery suite at their office so I was able to avoid the hospital's O.R. The doctor (mine was at a conference at Harvard) retrieved nine eggs, six of which were mature and four of which fertilized normally. I wasn't real thrilled to hear this report the day after. My worst fear was that I would get there Saturday and they would say, "sorry, none of your embryos made it.". Well to my surprise not only did they all four make it, two were high enough quality to freeze. So on Saturday, our two "gorgeous" (to quote the embryologist) embryos were transfered. I won't get into the details b/c most people don't have an idea how it all works but the doctor stressed that it could not have gone better, the "environment" for the embryos was perfect. So now we wait and see. Even with the best embryos and best transfer, it still may not work. We're prepared for that but hoping we won't be in that situation. Any and all prayers are appreciated, thanks to everyone for their love and support!

Cheerleading

My niece, Katie had a cheerleading competition at a high school here last Saturday. Katie did a great job! Olivia and I really enjoyed watching all of the squads compete. It definitely pumped Olivia up about her tumbling class, she wants to be able to do all of those handsprings and back tucks!

My Lazy Right Ovary

During my ultrasound, the tech said I had a "benign right ovary". I call it "a dud". Tuesday there were no dominant follicles on it and they were miserably smaller than the follicles on my other superstar ovary (at least 8 on it). Today, however, there were two follicles that may just be mature enough at the time of retrieval. My lining was great, "couldn't be better" the tech said. I thought there was such a thing as too thick of a lining for IVF, she said no way. I was worried about that, I've never had a problem with my lining, thankfully!! It can cause a lot of women problems when trying to conceive. My estrogen is too low so the doctor has increased my Follistim for tonight. Hopefully I'll have an increase in that tomorrow (Saturday) when I go for another ultrasound and blood-work. More than likely I'll have to go in Sunday morning too, I hate missing church, but this is well worth it. One advantage to going to appointments on the weekends is no TRAFFIC!

Woohoo! Speaking of traffic,it was HORRIBLE this morning. Hudson had called to give me a head's up about it. I was 20 mins late for my appointment, it would have been worse if I didn't have the kids with me however. Due to the fact there was more than 2 people in my car, I was able to cruise down the carpool lane and fly by all of the creeping traffic!! It was interesting to see all of the cars that had only 1 person in them, more people need to carpool!!!!

After my appointment the kids and I swung by The Fresh Market in Buckhead. What a fun store!! I picked Hudson and I up some great looking Hereford Filets for dinner tonight. YUMMY! Can't wait, we have missed that place since moving from Greensboro.

Airshow

Sunday afternoon we took the kids to an airshow in Peachtree City. Lots and lots of people and rather warm but we had a good time. There was an F-16 flying, wow! How fun would that be to ride in one one day? I can't imagine going that fast, but it would be fun!

WWII fighter plane and an F-16

Olivia on the rock wall

IVF...a long road

The last year and a half has been a long, hard road. Hopefully we are nearing the end of it, or at least the beginning of the end. I started my meds for IVF last week (lots and lots of shots) and we have an estimated egg retrieval and embryo transfer for the week of Oct 22nd. We'll be transferring the 2 best embryos of the bunch and then the long 2 week wait to see if it worked. The Emory Clinic in Atlanta has one of the highest success rates in the South. My doctor has been involved in many, many studies and is quite impressive when it comes to answering my questions...she backs everything up with statistics, and that's exactly what Hudson and I like to hear. If all goes well and we get that long awaited positive pregnancy test, I'll be due July 15th.

I've definitely learned a lot over the last year or so. I'm a lot stronger than I ever gave myself credit for and Hudson is the most supportive and compassionate person I know. God has been with us every step of the way, we've both felt his peace and guidance through all of this. We have no idea what God has in store for us, of course we hope it involves another baby, but if not, we have a wonderful family and thank God everyday for the infinite blessings he's been gracious enough to shower us with. We'd absolutely appreciate any and all prayers, specifically praying for God's will for our family!

Three inches gone.

Olivia decided she wanted her hair cut to her shoulders. I think she feels much sassier now!

What A Game!!!

It's amazing Hudson and I (okay mostly me) didn't wake the kids up during the game. I guess they can sleep through just about anything! The only thing sweeter than a victory at the Swamp is one in Tuscaloosa (but we've grown so accustom to that!).

It's amazing a freshman kicker kept his composure under all of that pressure. To be able to kick both of the field goals, back to back, WOW! I particularly loved his Gator chomping at the end!

Toomer's Corner after the win.

An addition to the family

Meet the newest member of our family, Tiger (the kids named him). He is really sweet and very outgoing, he's not skiddish at all. We adopted him from "Four Paws Rescue"; his mother only has one eye and was about to be put to sleep, while pregnant, at an animal shelter when the rescue center saved her. Tiger is very affectionate and follows me around like a puppy...and won't stay out of my lap! The kids are loving him!

His response to Maddie

Hudson's parents and grandparents came this past weekend. We had a wonderful time and the kids soaked up all the attention. We were very appreciative of all of their help in adding a lot of landscaping to our backyard, it looks great!!! Here are a few pics.

The Big Game!

We headed down to Warner Robins friday afternoon to watch my niece, Katie, cheer at her first high school football game!! The big Northside vs Warner Robins rivalry in full swing! There had to have been at least 12-15,000 people there, it was a great atmosphere. Unfortunately my alma mater (WRHS) got beat, but fortunately for Katie her school won! No surprise there, they won the state championship last year (they still don't have the four state titles that WRHS does though!!). Mom kept Maxwell and Hudson and I took Olivia to the game with my sister and her family. Olivia really enjoyed watching the cheerleaders cheer and do stunts and tumbling. While we were there Olivia got a chance to check out the horses, I'm waiting for her to ask for one any day now!

Maxwell playing around outside

Macey and her dog


I'll post a pic of Katie cheering as soon as my sister emails me one!!! (hint, hint)

Starting School

Olivia and Maxwell are back into the swing of things and enjoying school. I cannot believe that Maxwell is starting his last year of preschool, our little guy will be in Kindergarten next year, he's going to grow up so much during the coming year! Olivia is in 2nd grade and is having a great time. She has the same teacher and classmates that she had last year (a process called "looping") so there was no anxiety over meeting a new teacher and classmates. She's really excited b/c they are getting down and serious with science this year. She's even had her first science quiz already! If there's one thing that is different about 2nd grade it's the number of tests she takes. I think her class averages about 5-7 a week! Speaking of tests, all of the 2nd graders in the county are taking a standardized cognitive test this week....GA loooves testing their students! Here are some pictures from the first day of school.

Orange Beach, 2007

Our annual beach vacation was wonderful this year. The kids are at an age when it's sooo easy. Their favorite thing to do was swim in the pool; I think the beach was a bit hot for them. We had a lot of fun with the whole family and it was great to catch up with everyone and relax for a week.

The WHOLE family.


If only it was always this sweet.


Maxwell really enjoyed being tossed around, he LOVED it, and the guys got a good workout!


Olivia and Anna Kate


Pool Time!


Off to play golf!


Enjoying the beach


She's never minded the sand! :)




Adam and Nana worked with the kids on their diving skills, I think Maxwell may need a few more lessons!