Sorry for the delay, but time is spent preparing or resting these days. Here are a few updates. Jennifer, I can't post the picture because I don't have it here. Send it over and I will add it.

Two Week's Before The Last Visit

I am miserable! My feet and ankles are swelling and my back is killing me. But other than that I could not be happier.

We are measuring at 35 weeks and I am 34.5 weeks prego. We are going every week now. My next appt. is Thursday at 3pm. Brylee’s heart rate was at a little over 140 and everything else was good. Blood pressure was normal and I gained 3 lbs., so a total of 28 lbs so far.

She said that I needed to watch my feet and ankles because swelling in normal from here on out but should one of my feet/ankles swell a lot more than the other that I need to give her a call. All the other Dr.’s in the practice seem to be booked up and I will probably only see Dr. Moore and Redden from here on out. Which is Ok, since a lot of you see Jones and McGowan delivered Claire I am Ok if I don’t meet them and they are the ones that deliver her because obviously you guys trust them! She told me to eat a banana a day because I have been getting leg cramps. (The first I have had the entire pregnancy came on the other night in BOTH legs, it was horrible) She said that the other pains I was feeling were just my ligaments getting ready for her debut.

This Week's Visit

Well, well, well, we went to the Dr. yesterday and her heart rate was 150, I gained 1 lb, and was measuring at 37 weeks and I am in going into my 36th week. They did the Strep B test on me which is to test and make sure there will be no complications in delivering naturally. We go back next Friday morning at 10:30am. I am also dilated to a 1. I will be able to see the rest of the Dr.'s in the practice over the next three weeks. Thanks goodness. We will keep you posted!

Brian and I also celebrated out TWO YEAR ANNIVERSARY! He bought be a beautiful bouquet and the sweetest card. Then when I called to thank him, I was surprised with out wedding song Wonderful Tonight as my new ringback tone. I just LOVE him and could not be happier.

Fall Break!

Emily had her fall break this week and I took a few days off to spend some extra time with her. Rowena dropped her off to me Wednesday afternoon at work and had made some cinnamon rolls (sorry no pics, we ate them). You saw the bread and I know your mouths were all watering and the cinnamon rolls were just as fabulous. She and Emily even had a little one for Brylee, which of course I ate on the way to the house that afternoon. Tara was laughing because she called and I was trying to drive, talk on the phone, and eat my cinnamon roll. She asked if I couldn't have just waited til I got home, but Brylee wanted hers right away.

We had a very busy and very fun fall break. Thursday we got up and watched some tv, then went and visited Lindy's class. Emily attended music with them. Then we headed to get Brylee a large diaper bag and I swear I still don't think it is big enough for all the stuff I think I am going to need. We then headed to Dr. Kazmarska's office to talk with her about becoming Brylee's pediatrician. She is very nice and seems to care a lot about the kids. She knew Emily right off the bat. If you have used her or have an opinion I would appreciate it. Brian likes her and so does Emily. My only concern is that should she ever need to be hospitalized she would have to got the BCMC and then bee referred to Vanderbilt, due to Dr. Kazmarska's privileges there. I am a little eerie of that because as you all know I am no fan of BCMC. **Let me know your thoughts** We then met Amanda Crews and headed to the Boro for dinner and a tour of the hospital. I got a little light headed in the delivery room, but I am not a hospital person.

Friday we headed back to the Boro and met Aunt Jennifer and Molly Kate at Chuck E Cheese's. Emily had a ball and got 229 tickets. She was so sweet and shared tokens with all of us. Molly Kate seemed to like the pizza a lot. If Jennifer was to slow about handing her a piece she just reached out and grabbed for what she wanted. We had a ball. I cannot wait to do it again.

Saturday Brian and Emily met up with the rest of the family at Applebee's for a pancake breakfast benefiting St. Judes. Me, Mama, and Tara headed to the craft fair. I did GREAT this year, I bought some gourmet dog treats, Brian a peach fried pie, and two Elf stakes for the yard and had Emily and Brylee placed on their little hats. They are adorable. Tara bought a few things and needed to drop them at the car so I sat on a hay bale and ate some roasted corn and waited for them to return. Then we had some lunch, not as good as it normally is and I never found the peanut brittle for Brian. We left around 1:30, I was still hungry. Emily and I came home and talked Daddy into taking us to Mexican were we ran into Rochelle and Sondra. Rochelle kept tickling Emily on the neck and we had her thinking there was a bug in El Mexico getting her, until she caught Rochelle in the act. We decided that since we canceled the Halloween Party this year that we would roast hot dogs and marshmallows anyway. We got Chance and then built the fire and cooked our dinner.

Sunday we packed our bags for the hospital. I am sure that I have forgotten something so if you have any suggestions of can think of something I may have forgotten please tell me. I had a great helper Emily, checking things off the list and counting down 6 MORE WEEKS! Brian and Emily played horse shoes hung out at the house after that and I ran to T-town with Mama. Guess we will all have to suck it up and go to work tomorrow.

Love You All!

So much to do, so little time...

Well in case you were wondering we have been very busy lately and I feel like there is still so much to do. I am almost finished washing all Brylee's clothes from the shower. Emily has a couple of BIG SISTER shirts that I am getting ready for her. One for our house if she is with us when Ms. Brylee decides to make her debut and one for her to keep at Mommy's house in case she is not. She has been such a big help and I just cannot wait to see the two of them together.

Now, let's see there is just so many things to tell you. I will start with the KENNY! In case you all did not know Kenny Chesney was in Wartrace a few weeks ago shooting a video. I had planned to go over on my lunch break but got busy. Luckily I received this picture from someone who was there.

I was informed later the following day while talking to Mama, that Daddy came home talking about how Wartrace was all blocked off and there were police cars everywhere. He said he did not know what was going on. Mama informed him that Kenny was there shooting a video then Daddy realized that it was Kenny walking down the street waving at him as he passed through the town. I should have went to work with Daddy that day.

My shower was last Saturday and we got a lot of GREAT and MUCH NEEDED stuff. Thank you all for everything, it was wonderful. Here is a little collage that Lindy put together for us as well as a picture of me and Emily with the tiny bracelet that we received from The Coop's with her little name engraved on it.

As you can see from the above Ms. Molly Kate was having the time of her life! Claire decided to have some watermelon before she headed home and it was too funny to watch her.

We headed to the pumpkin patch Sunday with Grandma, Molly Kate, and Chance. Everyone had a really nice time. We had a very bumpy hayride which Molly pretended to be asleep while laying on Grandma's shoulder, but when I looked over she was wide awake just looking around. I think she really enjoyed all the pumpkins. Below is a video on Grandma, Brian, Emily, and Molly searching for the perfect pumpkin.



They also had a glider rope that Grandma and Emily went on.

My wonderful husband came home the other night with the dessert of my dreams. I am not a big ice cream person and I have really been wanting hot fudge a lot lately. So I asked him to get me a hot fudge cake sundae from Sonic without the ice cream. He thought I was joking at first but got it anyway. He was just grinning when he walked in the door holding my cup of fudge. He said the girls at Sonic came out several times to confirm his order of a hot fudge cake sundae with no ice cream but extra hot fudge. When the girl finally brought him his order she asked if he was having a major sugar rush, he replied nope got a pregnant wife.

OK - Now for the funniest story. We went yesterday to get Brylee's travel system from USA Baby in Franklin. Well once we finally decided on the prefect one we approached the counter to find out if it would need to be ordered or if they had it in stock. There was a couple around 50 I would say that was talking to another person behind the counter. The woman was holding a tiny baby and asked the clerk if she would like to hold her. She passed the baby over the counter and the clerk was holding it and looking at it very strangely. Mama, Lindy, and I thought it was very odd that she was passing off this baby to the clerk. As we walked closer to the counter you could see the babies head and a little pink bow in her short hair. Mama says OH HOW PRECIOUS - at which time to our surprise the lady starts to unwrap her from her blanket. The baby appeared to be a very newborn baby lightly colored and of oh so tiny. She then proceeds to tell us...

SHE IS NOT REAL!!!! We all take a closer look at this point Mama is touching the baby and sure as shit, it is a doll. At this point we are all a little confused but whatever. This child looked as real as any baby I have ever seen in my life. Well the sales clerk follows us over to the travel systems as which time she is so flustered she apologized to us but continued to say that she wished the woman, husband, and DOLL would just leave because they creep her out. She said it just was not normal, they were weird.

We are still a little confused at this point only to find out that this woman, whom has two houses in the Franklin area has just purchased TWO: cribs, armories, changing tables, changing pads, covers, bedding sets, and all the other necessities for a new baby for this DOLL! The clerk tells us that she has spend over $5,000 just this visit on the DOLL! We are completely dumbfounded at this point. We pay and are told to go to the back dock to pick up our travel system.

Well guess who else is making a pick up at the back dock with us, oh yes THE DOLL FAMILY! We sent Lindy up to the dock to get our things and are looking around at their vehicle. They had a Dodge truck with a camper over the bed and a large trailer on the back. Mama and I are in the car laughing so hard, we were discussing where the baby was because both the man and the woman were out side at the dock. Mama says she is in her car seat I am sure. I am like whatever, Mama says I'll bet you $10 that doll is in a car seat. So I got out of the car and headed over to the truck acting as if I was checking on Lindy. Well you can bet your ass that DOLL was in the car seat, buckled in, pacifier in her mouth, and wrapped tightly in her blanket.

We are cracking up when Lindy arrives back at the car with our stuff only to inform us that we should have been on the docks. The employees were are freaked out by this couple whom we later found out his name was Steve. Well Steve and his wife had called in advance and wanted the dimensions to each box so that they could carefully plot out how everything would be loaded into the truck and trailer and that this was not there first trip to USA Baby for the DOLL. We were very disappointed with the fact that Lindy had spent so much time up at the docks with these people and never once asked the babies name.

You have to feel a little sorry for them because we have no idea the circumstances, but it was by far the strangest thing I have ever witnessed in my entire life. I called Robyn as we were leaving at which point she informed me to get out of there because she was probably one of those people scoping out the baby store looking for a pregnant mom to kill and take her baby from the womb.

9 more weeks!

I am still a little shocked when I say it out loud. It seems like just yesterday we were telling our friends and family the wonderful news and in approximately nine weeks we will be able to look at our beautiful baby girl. We are going to the Dr. every two weeks until the end of October and then we will start going weekly. She moves all the time and it is so neat. We went to the Dr. Friday and I had gained 3 lbs. (total of 24 so far), I was so excited to not have gained 7 lbs. like I did that one month. Then Good Ole' Negative Nelly piped in: Mama says "Well it's only been 2 weeks!" We all laughed, because I hadn't realized it either and of course when Mama did she had to share. We start childbirth classes this week and will be touring the hospital soon. We are pre-registered and ready to go. Our next appt. is the 11th.

Our friends Lindsey and Chad had their twins Gavyn and Grayson a week ago today. They are in the NICU at MTMC. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers, everyone seems to be doing really well from what I am told.

I am very excited about the Baby Shower this coming Saturday. I just cannot wait!

Brian is working his last week on night shift this week, and will be back on days after this. We are very excited although I will admit me, Laney, and Lilley have taken over the bed, but we have no problem making room for Daddy!

We have the house decorated and are ready for Halloween. We hope you can make it to the Party October 20th.

Rachel's Recipe

I was looking through one of my older Rachel Ray magazines yesterday, for those of you who get the magazine or watch the show; you know she always has some fun idea for animals. Well, I came across this fabulous salad recipe for both people and their pooches. Laney and Lilley LOVE raw carrots and I give them to them as treats daily, because they seem to help with Laney's allergies.

So I decided to try this little mixture out on them last night.Brian was at Wal-Mart and text me to see if I needed anything and I am sure he was thinking I was having so off the wall craving when I requested: shredded carrots, creamy peanut butter, and an orange. He got everything without a second thought and brought it home for me.

When I arrived from work he was at the grill making dinner and I started dumping the carrots into a bowl and heating the peanut butter so that it would be smooth. He came in and looked at me like I was crazy. I then explained that I was making the girls a salad. (He then gives me the, you are a total weirdo look)I began mixing the peanut butter and carrots together and then grabbed the orange (which he had bought several of) only to hear - let me guess the orange is for them too. I said of course. He then had to leave the room. He told me several times that they would just make a big mess with the salad, which I agreed they probably would. Well we were both WAY WRONG.

Laney and Lilley ate every single bite of their salad and wanted more. The mixture made four servings, but I did not want to give it all to them in one night. I kept telling them they would have to wait until tomorrow. They were so precious just licking their lips for about thirty minutes after eating their fabulous Rachel Ray salad. It was a refreshing, healthy treat that they really enjoyed. Love their little hearts!The recipes calls for some other ingredients for people so if you are interested in the recipe for you or your pooch, let me know.

Back To Work!

Well, tonight is Brian's 1st night on 3rd shift and none of us are looking forward to it. He left a few minutes ago and I am already hating it. We keep telling ourselves how lucky we are that this is only going to be for a short time rather than potentially a few years. Hopefully, we will both be able to adjust to sleeping for this short period of time. He can sleep through almost anything and I barely sleep at all these days so hopefully it will all be over soon. He will remain on 3rd shift until they get someone trained and then he should be back on days. We are praying that he will be back on days before Brylee arrives.

He will be able to join me at a few of my Dr. visits now, and we are both excited about that. Only 11 more weeks!! It just does not seem like it has been that long at all. Minus the sickness at the beginning this has been a pretty pleasant pregnancy.

We had a pretty relaxing weekend and that was very nice. We both went out with friends Friday night after work, and had a great time. Brian went with some friends from work to Toot's for dinner and I went for a Girl's Night Out to Fuji's. I know us girls had a very nice time and the food was very good, of course Christina and I had to stop on the way home at Sonic for a little chocolate. IT WAS FABULOUS!

Lindy and I went and had our nails done yesterday and it was wonderful. I had a mani-pedi combo. The chair massaged me the entire time and the lady massaged my calves, ankles, feet, forearms, and hands. This is MUST for all the Prego's at least every other week. I was so relaxed I could have fallen asleep if the room were not so bright. Lindy had her toes painted and her nails done. We had a great time.

Mama and Daddy celebrated their 29th Anniversary Saturday, and we sent them to Olive Garden for dinner.

Chance and his friend Kody stayed the night last night. They went to the movies and then on the way home I had a craving for cake. We stopped by Kroger's at which time Chance and Kody were acting so silly. I never realized boys acted so weird. It was hilarious. We ended up with a cake and brownies, both of which were very good, but it turned out that I really wanted a piece of the cake we had a Lindsey's Baby Shower. But I made due.

I went today and bought some good supportive shoes so hopefully that will help with the swelling. I will keep you posted.

EVERY TWO WEEKS!

Well let me start by saying THANK YOU ROWENA!! For those of you who do not know Emily's grandma makes the BEST EVER homemade bread, and when Brian arrived from taking Emily home Sunday night he had quiet the surprise for Baby Reese. Rowena had baked a loaf of bread for Ms. Brylee Taite and I can tell you that we all enjoyed every bite. It was sooooooo gooooood!

We had a Dr. Appt. today which went very well. We are at the point that we will be going to the Dr. ever two weeks. And as Robyn informed me tonight, only eleven more weeks to go. I am thinking she will arrive between Dec. 11th-15th. Brian thinks she will arrive the weekend of Thanksgiving. Please tell us your thoughts.

Our visit today was with Dr. Moss, whom we liked very much. Mama and I felt that she was very thorough. I only gained 3 pounds this month which was far better than the 7 pounds the month prior. So all together I have gained 21 pounds so far. Say your prayers that I can keep it below 30. We are exactly 28 weeks and 4 days prego and measuring at 30 weeks which she said was good. She felt for my uterus and said this baby was everywhere. She also noticed some swelling in my ankles and told me to get some better shoes for support.

The one think that she told us that we found very funny was about the heartbeat. Dr. Moore does not guess because she said there was no truth to it, well Dr. Moss does. She asked what we were having after telling us that the heartbeat sounded very good and when I said GIRL, she was shocked. She said that she would have definitely guessed a BOY, but that the ultra sound tech had never been wrong before. Of course my Daddy said there was a first time for everything.

Annette that I work with is constantly saying that Brylee will be a BOY. She has said it so much that I dreamt the other night that I called her from the delivery room to tell her to get to the hospital and to make sure she brought my child something blue because she was right it was a BOY and if someone did not get there fast he would be going home dressed in pink to a pink room. Of course she thought it was hilarious. Either way we will be thrilled, although I am sure that we will be bringing home a Baby Girl, it was pretty funny to hear. We go back the 28th.

Brian will be starting 3rd shift Sunday night. He got very lucky though, because the guy on days turned in his notice thus leaving Brian as the Sr. Controls Tech. So, once they get someone else trained he will be back on days. Say a prayer that he is back on days before Brylee arrives.

Love You All!