Revealing our Baby News to our Parents

As I mentioned yesterday, I'm going to share a few of the special moments we've had since we found out we were pregnant back in late March.

I've kept a private journal for myself and this entry is from that.

Here's what I wrote just a few days after the Easter reveal to our parents.

==============================================

It's still very early along in this pregnancy but I think because of everything we've been through we're ready to shout it to the world.

(Or, at least I am)

I have probably shared with too many people but I can't help it.

Knowing that we were going to be with both sets of parents on Easter weekend I decided we should share our big news with them too.

Brad on the other hand?

Totally against the idea.

He felt like it was too early and going to jinx us.

I felt like it was going to be obvious since I wouldn't be indulging in wine and some of my favorite cheeses(that of course, had been bought).

I'm not a good liar, and I finally convinced Brad it was the right thing to do.

At first I thought about all sorts of fun ways to do a reveal.

Then, I decided maybe it wasn't the thing to do but quickly changed my mind.

From the very beginning I knew I wanted to do something with a plant and about growing and life growing inside of me.

I was having a hard time putting my thoughts on paper.

I finally asked my friend Patra(I Do Declare)and took what she suggested along with some of my own ideas and made it happen.

When we first got into town Friday afternoon everyone was there except for my Dad.

Of course he was out running errands.

So, for an entire hour I hung out with my brother, his fiancee, my Mom and in-laws counting the minutes until Dad would get home.

When he did I told them Brad and I had a gift for them.

We made them all stand together and read the cards.

 My MIL told me afterwards that she knew something was up because I was standing there with a camera and the whole thing seemed fishy.

So, of course she went straight to the bottom of the card and saw the word 'baby'.

Check out the look on her face.

 Needless to say.

Everyone was overjoyed!!!!

These pictures were taken right after.

 I didn't get a picture of my brother and his girlfriend but they were equally excited!

 My brother then took pictures of us with our parents.

The excitement was UNREAL!

 Definitely a day to remember!

 Both Moms both plan on planting their roses in the yard and of course, keeping the note card.

We told all of them to keep their lips sealed for several more weeks.

We haven't told Brad's brother and his wife and children but plan on doing so next time we see them in person.

My MIL thinks we should find a cute way to reveal it to them as well.

HMMMM...

6-weeks and 4-days today. The baby is the size of a blueberry!
===========================
Of course our due date changed after this reveal.
We told them our news BEFORE we ever even heard the heartbeat and had an ultrasound.
Kinda risky.
When we went to the doctor a week later we found out that the baby was actually measuring at 6 weeks 6 days instead of almost 8-weeks like we thought.
That's why our due date in December instead of November like written on the note.

Memorial Day at the Lake - 2012 Version

Summertime is here!

 Before the week gets away from me I thought I would post about our Memorial Day weekend at the lake house.

 Nephew Reed's birthday always falls around Memorial Day and this year he brought some friends with him to enjoy the weekend.

These kids were truly amazing!

I'm not one to go on about other people's kids but I was astonished at just how well behaved and mannered they were not to mention mature!

 They had a blast riding around in the boat, swimming, tubing, a few of them even tried to ski!

 The kid's parents, who are also friends with my BIL and SIL, joined in on the weekend fun.

Darrell got his ski on!

His wife, Tess, took all of these amazing pictures in this post and is letting me use them.

She, unlike me, has a big fancy camera and did a great job!

 While Darrell skied, my husband lounged.

I swear, this is Brad's total happy place.

 A few more photos from the weekend.

We are so lucky to have such a beautiful, fun place to escape to on the weekends.

Now, if I can only get my parents to retire in the mountains!

 After fun on the water, we got ready to celebrate Reed's 6th birthday starting with a tongue tattoo.
Never had seen them before.

The kids thought they were great.

 Then, onto gifts.

Little man got tons of Spider man gear.

 There was even a Spider man pinata.

Who knew you don't have to beat pinatas anymore?

You just pull strings.

Seems like it takes all the fun out of it.

 Reed had a fabulous birthday.

 As we all had a fabulous weekend!

We ended it with what is becoming our annual Stephens family Memorial Day photo.

 And, homemade pizzas by Uncle Brad!

How was your Memorial Day?

13-Weeks Pregnant

First off -- THANK YOU guys so much for all your sweet comments yesterday!

During our journey I promised myself that if it ever did happen I would NEVER forget what we have been through or what others are STILL going through.

For me every pregnancy announcement stung.

I hope that mine was a little different giving what we've been through.

I'm 13-weeks pregnant today, our actual due date is December 5th so I'm officially in my second trimester.

For the record - I don't plan on this becoming a pregnancy blog but I will share things here and there and hope that you all will stick around. 

For those who are still trying, I'll understand if you delete me from your reading list.

Not going to lie, I did the same thing during our journey.

I have kept a private blog for myself and have documented everything so far, I'll be sharing a few of those posts including when we shared the news with our parents.

The big question I keep getting is, 'how are you feeling?'.

Well, in the past week a lot better than I had been.

The first trimester for me included a lot of the nagging nausea feeling(without actual vomiting), and extreme exhaustion.

Believe it or not though, even with all of that I have pushed myself to keep up my 5-days a week walking 2-miles routine.

Some days were better than others but I hope to be able to keep this up as long as a I can.

I have found that it makes me feel better both physically and emotionally.

I'm still in regular clothes but I am starting to show.

Over the Memorial Day weekend at the lake we had Robyn(SIL)take our first official prego pictures for us.

Here's take #1.

And, take #2.

I think you can see my little belly better in this picture.

There's so much more to tell!

I feel like I having been keeping the biggest secret ever, and I guess I have!

Stay tuned for details of an upcoming 'babymoon' in just 2-weeks, a gender reveal party and more!

Thanks again, I truly feel like the luckiest girl alive!!

Infertility

It’s time to come clean and be honest on here.

The past two years have been great ones but also very tough on both Brad and I.

Why?

Infertility.

Our story begins with Brad and I meeting and falling in love in June of 2008. By the next June we were engaged and by February we were married.

During that time we talked a lot about our future and children was top on our list. Something we both agreed we wanted to start on sooner rather than later.

Our wedding was three years ago this February. I was 34 and Brad was 32.

We started trying to conceive just 3-months after our wedding. I thought it would be easy. I really did. It seemed to happen easily for most everyone else I knew.

Unfortunately though, it was the beginning of our long path of infertility.

Doctors, tests, drugs, and more tests.

Our diagnosis?

Unexplained infertility.

While we struggled to enjoy life as newlyweds by taking vacations and throwing parties -  we were also going through intensive fertility treatments and procedures...all of which, month after month, proved to be unsuccessful.

The reality of what was happening caused us great sadness, and I personally felt an overwhelming sense of mourning...mourning for the woman I always thought I was, fertile, and mourning for the life I had dreamed of with my husband, with children.

At a time when I started to distance myself from friends and social gatherings, I found a new community with my blog friends from around the country. It may sound goofy to some -- but the days in which I couldn't bear to get out of bed, were days I found comfort in the words and warmth of bloggers near and far.

After 18-months of extensive fertility treatments including a round of IVF I hit a low point. We stopped treatment I shut a lot of things off. I started praying for peace in the fact that Brad and I would be childless.

With time,and God’s grace I was finally able to find that peace.

Even so, Brad and I decided to give it one more shot.

A last ditch effort.

We found a new fertility clinic and decided to try one more round of IVF.

And that’s where our story ends,

I never had to endure that second IVF.

It’s with great happiness that I share with you something I never thought possible...

I am pregnant.

And, it happened naturally.

We are due just before Christmas.

God is good and I want to thank all of you who prayed for us.

Kickoff to Summer - Fresh Strawberry Cupcakes

There is nothing I love better than the fresh produce that the Summer brings!

As a kid I remember holidays such as Memorial Day would mean fresh strawberry flan cake with ice cream filling, watermelon, and anything and everything on the grill!

Of course right now it's strawberry season around the Carolinas and knowing that we are going to the lake this weekend I wanted to bring a treat that screamed Summer and was yummy too!

So...

I chose fresh strawberry cupcakes.

I'm not expert baker but I think I'm getting better.

I even made the cake from scratch this time with fresh berries as well as the icing.

I looked all over Pinterest (@DeNanner)but most of the recipes I found were in other languages and then the ones that were in English?? Were in grams?

I didn't feel like dealing with that.

So, I said the heck with it and went to google and food.com and found this recipe.

Click here.

Last night I put my apron on and went to baking!!

...AND...

Didn't they turn out pretty?

Two things about the recipe that I did different.

I sifted the powdered sugar to make the icing(doesn't call for that we all know that's how it's done), and instead of using a knife to spread the icing I used a cake tip and bag.

I'm keeping them in the fridge until serving to make sure the butter cream frosting doesn't melt in what is suppose to be a sweltering weekend here.

I think they're the perfect way to kickoff what is the official start of Summer this weekend, don't you!?

19 Years Later...

I'm going to be honest...

I haven't kept in touch with a lot of the people I went to high school with in Arkansas.

In case you don't know, I moved my 10th grade year from Louisiana up to Arkansas.

So, I was the newbie in town and while I had friends and a crowd I ran around with, all I could ever think about was moving back to Louisiana and being with all my best friends there.

I did just that after high school graduation.

I left 2-months later to go to Louisiana State University and never looked back.

Granted, I visited because Hot Springs is literally where all my extended family lives as did my parents for quite some time, but I didn't make an effort to keep in touch with friends from Lake Hamilton High School.

(high school homecoming my junior year)

.........Then Facebook was invented........

And, 19-years later I find myself having lunch with one of those old friends.

Crazy stuff.

I literally haven't seen Nancy since graduation day but when I saw her FB post about being in Charlotte I knew it was destiny!

Nancy and I are one of the few people in our high school class that left Hot Springs and never moved back.

Not to mention, one of the few people who don't currently have children graduating from high school either!!

Nancy lives in Orange County, CA and has been working in television just like me for the last 10-years!

So fun to catch up and hear about each others lives as adults!

I told her next time I'm in Cali for work I'm looking her up!

(BTW - in the picture at the top Nancy is the 4th one from the left on the back row and I'm sure you find me in the second row)

Farro is my new Favorite

Maybe I have been living under a rock but I tried farro for the first time over the weekend and totally LOVE it!!

After the Junior League event Saturday night we went to 300 East for dinner and I ordered the farro saute  trying to keep it healthy.

I really had no idea what it was but figured it would be good and OMG it was!!

It was farro with sauteed kale, zucchini, tomatoes, and topped with a chicken breast.

It wasn't until the next day when eating my leftovers for lunch that I looked closer at the actual farro.

(it was dark in the restaurant)

It looks like oatmeal but it's not.

It's an ancient Italian grain.

I immediately googled farro and found all kinds or recipes that I plan on recreating at home.

 Then guess what?!

Yesterday, Gina from Skinny Taste posted this farro recipe!

I couldn't believe it!

Is farro the new thing or am I just behind the times??

Now, the question is.

Where in the world do I buy farro?

I'm thinking Trader Joe's?

Ideas, thoughts, recipes?

Have you tried farro?

Let me know!

Mission Accomplished!!

As many of you know I am an active member of the Junior League of Charlotte and proud of it!

For the last 2-years I've served as the League Historian which has been a fun job but a lot of work too!

My tenure as Historian is coming to an end though and so has the big project we've worked on the past 2-years!!

It all came to fruition over the weekend at the Grand Reopening of the JLC Building at Freedom Park.

The building just underwent a much needed renovation and everyone was invited to a reception Saturday night to see the finished product.

I wish I had before pictures but I don't.

 The reception was lovely with food from Dean and Deluca.

 Part of the renovations was adding a bar and butler pantry.

Great addition!!

 Even husbands tagged along for the big reveal of the building.

 All new furniture throughout.

 And, the women's bathroom?

WOWZERS!!

Before it was just a 2-stall bathroom that was less than desirable.

Well, it was expanded and there's even a dressing area now!!

 The kitchen was expanded too!

It was more or less a closet before. Now it's HUGE with new cabinets and top of the line appliances equipped for larger events!

 My committee's contribution to the newly renovated building?

Milestone boards!

You might recall my post last year about our 1920's board.

Well, now we've completed a board for each decade the JLC has been around.

It's basically a high-level overview of what happened during that particular decade and includes a few pictures.

It was definitely a labor of love to get all of these completed.

I even took it upon myself to 'cold call' former Presidents for information and pictures that I couldn't find anywhere else.

One of our League member's created the design and put it together with the information I gave her.

Everyone enjoyed getting to see the new building while having a few cocktails and catching up.

 Even the President's wall got a refreshed look!

 So, there you have it!

My mission has been accomplished!

Milestone boards for the 20's, 30's..

 40's, 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's and 2000 are done!!

I feel so proud and relieved all at the same time!!!