Fun Easter Weekend!

I hope you all had a great Easter weekend! We did!

Here are a few pics. Have a fabulous day!! Love love

Where have I been??

So, I have taken a LONG break from blogging! Sorry! But I am back. :-)

Where have I been? Well, no place exciting. But I have been very busy. The last you heard I am having a GIRL! and I still am! LOL I do have good news! If you recall on my previous post from forever ago I wrote that I have placenta previa. I am happy to say that my placenta has MOVED! As of my 29th week ultrasound it is 1cm away from my cervix. They want it to be 2cm away so I am hoping and praying that at my 35 week appointment it will have moved another cm. I am HUGE so surely it has moved! I am not really that worried about it right now. My OBGYN felt pretty confident that it would move.

Now - let's talk about this pregnancy. To be honest I don't really remember much from when I was preggo with Ava Grace but this pregnancy has not really been that bad. I feel good for the most part. Like any preggo person I have trouble getting going and if I am up for long periods I get really tired easily. I am SUPER HUNGRY for pretty much anything and you can tell that by looking at me :-) The only thing this time is SHE IS REALLY REALLY LOW! I mean like I feel like she might fall out at any moment. My doctor said it is prob because this is my 2nd pregnancy and everything is not as strong as it was before. When I went in for my 33 week appt this past week he said something about her being low when he was measuring me. He did say that I was measuring right on time so that's good news.

I think I am nesting a little around here. This past week I have organized my closet, bedroom, and office. It looks and feels great for everything to have a place. Next week I am tackling the laundry room and Ava Grace's closet. I need to change out fall clothes for Spring/Summer clothes. I am loving this organizing zone I am in :-)

Ava Grace is doing great and loving school. She is doing better using her nice words and manners. This week she has said yes mam or no mam pretty much everytime I ask her something. That's HUGE! Her daycare was closed today for Good Friday and I was off work so we were able to spend some time together. We dyed eggs this morning and then went to see Rio and the Easter Bunny this afternoon. She had a BLAST! Then we ate dinner with daddy and came home. Oh and we had about a hour to kill so we went to Toys R Us to look around. Believe it or not this was the 1st time I have taken her to Toys R Us since she was about 6 months. She was in TOY OVERLOAD! So excited to be there! and She LOVED everything. I told her she could have 1 toy and out of everything there she chose a little stuffed Pluto that was only $6.99 so I think I came out pretty good! Bless her heart because she inherited my decision making. She looked EVERYWHERE in the store and had such a hard time choosing just 1 toy. When I was little I did the same thing! Heck - I still do that. I look and look and pick out things and then talk myself out of buying all of it. So - she gets it honest and I can totally feel her pain!

So - that is what we have been up to! Tomorrow we have the Easter Egg Hunt at the park that our church is hosting and then we are going to Nana and Pop's cabin to grill out and make smores! Ava Grace can't wait to play with her cousins, Braylen and Sarah. They are all about the same age and love to play together. It will be a fun weekend! I hope you all have a HAPPY EASTER!!

Guess What!?!?

We are having another baby GIRL!! YAY!!

Ava Grace is pumped and is determined that we are naming her Strawberry Shortcake. She has said the whole time that she is having a baby sister. She knew it all along!

So... on to the ultrasound. My sweet baby girl looked great. She weighed 8oz and her heart rate was around 145. Her little heart looked great - all 4 chambers were there. Her little kidneys and her brain and all of the other organs they look for were there and working away.

There was one little issue that they found. As of right now, I am calling it a little issue until my next ultrasound. I have placenta previa. That is where the placenta is covering the cervix. There is complete previa and partial previa and I think mine is complete. So, basically what that means is that I don't need to go into labor and I will need to have a c-section early with this sweet girl. I also will need to be careful with myself and watch for bleeding. My doctor said that alot of times as the uterus gets bigger the placenta will move and in that case I would be able to have a vaginal delivery. So, I will get 2 extra ultrasounds for them to monitor the baby and me. My next ultrasound will be in March. If it is still there I will most likely need to have a c-section around 37 weeks if everything goes as planned. Now, we all know that when it comes to life and everything in this world WE don't have the plan. God is the ONLY One that knows what will happen and when it will happen. So I am just going to take things one day at a time, try not to read too much on the internet, and go ahead and get everything ready for her to be here so I can be prepared if she comes early. At this point a c-section scar, stretch marks, and brown spots on my face don't really matter that much to me. I just want to make sure this sweet girl gets here safely and healthy and that I stay healthy so I can take good care of her and my sweet Ava Grace.

Love love. My thought for today... NO WORRIES!

We LOVE Snow!!

We had a blast yesterday! Ava Grace woke up at 6:30 ready to play in the snow! After a yummy breakfast of blueberry pancakes, bacon, biscuits, and eggs that is exactly what we did. First we built a snowman and then we let her ride down a few little hills next to our house. Then we jumped in the car and went to the golf course to go down the BIG hills there. It was so much fun!! I wanted to go down the hill so bad but thought I better not take the risk with Baby South #2. So I took LOTS of pictures and Daddy and AG went down the hill! We were out in the snow for about 4 hours! Then we were all hungry and went to Mc'Ds on the way home. We had a great relaxing afternoon in the house. AG and Daddy rested and I did some work. And to top it off - Kyle went and bought groceries and made Chili for supper. It was so good! AG LOVED it!! Then we got on our PJ's and watched the Bachelor - which I am LOVING by the way! - and the National Championship.

Here are some pics from the day. Love Love

SNOW!

Okay! I am super excited right now because it is snowing! And just so you know - this hardly EVER happens in the south where I live. I can't wait to play in it tomo and take LOTS of pictures!!

I hope it keeps coming down. Ava Grace is pumped about building a snowman in the morning! She didn't want to go to bed...

We had a fabulous weekend! Friday night we went to eat for Kyle's grandmothers bday. Saturday we stayed in our pj's til around 2! Then got AG ready and off to Nana's house and we went to eat dinner for a friends 30th bday! It was delish and alot of fun! Today we went to church then AG and I took a nap on my big comfty chair for about 2 hours. It was a VERY RELAXING weekend!!

Also - this is a big week! I am 19 weeks this week and we will be finding out Wednesday what we are having. We are thinking girl... Which will be fine since we have LOTS of girl stuff and a nursery already decorated for a girl. BUT if its a boy we would be happy too! I would love for Kyle to have a little boy that he could take to play golf! And I would love to see some blue in my house and go to some baseball games... We'll see! I will be sure to blog an update!

For now I am going to bed! I will post pics tomo of our adventures in the snow! :-)

Love Love

Happy New Year!!

First of all, sorry I have been a little MIA for the past couple of months! The holidays kept me a tad bit busy. I did read everyone else's blogs but just didn't post :-( BUT - I am back! :-)

I will do a post on Christmas soon but right now lets talk about new year resolutions. I decided to go back this morning and look at my post on new year resolutions from 2010 to see how I did. And sad to say I didn't do so hot. Uh Oh! Maybe I will do better in 2011!!

So - here's the list...

1.) Get ORGANIZED and STAY THAT WAY!! This is so super important. Esp with baby #2 on the way. I am going to take a room a week and try to get organized. Any organization ideas PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE send them my way!! The worst room right now is Ava Grace's playroom.

2.) Exercise more... so right now I am not really exercising much at all so more would be like 3 days a week or so. Surely I can handle that!

3.) Menu Planning!! I already do this each week for the majority of the time. Some weeks I try to cut back on grocery expenses so we eat a lot of soups and sandwiches those weeks and obviously there is no need to plan :-) But thanks to Nana and Pop we got a deep freezer for Christmas!! So I am contemplating making up some meals in advance and stocking up on some things from Sam's Club. We'll see how this one goes :-)

4.) PAY OFF DEBTS!! This one should have been FIRST on the list. I seriously want to pay off my short term debts. I know my student loans and our mortgage will take a LONG time to pay off but I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to get any credit card debt, car loan debt, etc paid off. Ideally before the baby gets here in June!

5.) Read the Bible all the way thru! Okay - really this one should be been first and the debts #2. I have wanted to do this for a really long time. For Christmas this year my sweet little sister in law gave me a daily planner that also has a daily reading schedule to read the Bible in 1 year. I am so excited to get started on this!!

6.) Spend more time with friends and family!!

What are your plans for 2011?? I hope everyone had a great Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

love love

I love fall...

I absolutely love fall. I love it when the air starts getting crisp. I love to watch the leaves change colors. I love watching the wind blow the leaves. I love the coolness in the air. I love that it is easier to breathe.

I love the smells of fall. Pumpkins. Pumpkin Spice Candles. Pumpkin Spice Lattes from Starbucks. Sweet Potato Casseroles. Fried Turkeys. Thanksgiving Lunch. Fall makes me want to bake muffins every morning... I love the smell of muffins baking in a cozy house early in the morning. I love the smell of hubby's coffee in the morning.

I love fall clothing. I love AG's cute little fall clothes. I love wearing skinny jeans and boots... and I love that AG shares this love with me. I love wearing sweatshirts. I love wearing cutsy long sleeve pajama sets from VS. I love snuggling with AG in her fun PJ's (that she chooses very carefully I might add) every night and morning.

I love the excitement of the fall holidays. I love watching AG get dressed up for Halloween and fulfilling her character to the max. I love seeing how excited she gets over the pumpkin patch at our church. I love how AG love love loves "scarecwows" and "pumpkins with lights." I love that my hubby doesn't play golf as much and we get to spend more family time together on the weekends:-) I love planning for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I love that there is so much to look forward to from October til January.

I love fall...

AND

I love my proud little Jessie...

My Little Cowgirl...

"YeeHaw I'm a cowgirl!" She cracks me up :-)

Fun Treats!!

Yesterday after school Ava Grace and I made some fun treats!! She had a blast. Her favorite part was sticking the eyes on! Oh yeah - and eating all of the oreos and nutter butters! :-) I think she ate about 5 cookies and who knows how many M&Ms?!?! :-) But she had fun and that's all that matters! and she was REALLY PROUD when we took all of them to school this morning for her to share with her friends :-)




Have a good day! I think today will be a good day to carve a pumpkin :-)

Guess What?!?!?!?!

Ava Grace is going to be a big sister!! That's right! We are super excited! I know she will be a great big sister and a my big helper.

I am only 7 weeks and we just had our 1st ultrasound. So far everything looks good :-) We are due June 9th and couldn't be happier :-)

I hope you have a great weekend!!

Weekend Recap

We did a little singing and dancing...

We played dress up...


We played with blocks...



And Sunday was Ava Grace's 1st time to sit thru the entire church service :-)

Yesterday Ava Grace had her first field trip! They went to the pumpkin patch at our church and I was able to read to them during story time. Here are a couple of pictures!

Rest...

of knowing I have done everything I can in this situation.

of knowing the He loves me for me.

of knowing that He will fight for me, I don't always have to take up for myself.

of knowing who I am and who I am not.

of knowing where I am going.

in the Word that God has given me.

of believing that I am forgiven and I can stop repenting for the same sin.


We become servants to whoevers approval we are trying to get. The only approval I need to seek is from God.

So, some of you may or may not know this. Right now I am doing a Beth Moore Bible Study, Breaking Free. I look forward to this time every week and EVERY WEEK God has spoken TO ME directly thru this study. Honestly before I started this study I was completely blind to the bondage I have been experiencing in my life. Since I began this study I have experienced many not so pleasant situations. I kept asking God - WHY?? WHY am I feeling this way?? WHY is this happening?? Sept/October has been extremely stressful for me. As soon as one situation was getting better, another situation would arise. And I don't just mean little things... they were things that are a really big deal to me. During my study tonight I just wanted to cry. I mean, if I was sitting there by myself I would have prob just screamed out. I KNEW that God was speaking to me. I have been praying and praying to not let things bother me so much and to give it all to God. And for some reason it was still lingering in my mind and hurt. Literally I was hurting - like someone had taken a knife and stabbed it thru my heart. Tonight...as I type this... I truly feel like a different person. Like the weight of it all is being lifted. It is still there... a teeny tiny part... but I know that with God's help this hurt will be removed from my heart. NOW THAT MY FRIENDS IS WHERE MY REST COMES IN...

I have always been the type person to want to make everyone happy. I can't stand tension. I seek approval from several people in my life and strive to make them think good of me. I say YES sometimes when I am really thinking - No, I don't have time. Some might call me out on this because I know I have not always made everyone happy. And I am positive I have created lots of tension in my life. But... deep down I just want everyone to be happy. DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW EXHAUSTING THAT HAS BEEN FOR ME??

I need to REST.

I still want others to be happy but I need to get my priorities straight. I will serve the Lord with everything that I have. I will continually seek God and only God's approval. God has invited me to rest in Him and I have accepted. And it feels GREAT!

"Come to me, all of you who are tired and have heavy loads. I will give you rest. Accept my work and learn from me. I am gentle and humble in spirit. And you will find rest for your souls. The work that I ask you to accept is easy. The load I give you to carry is not heavy." Matthew 11:28-30

5 years ago today...

I married my best friend :-)








I love you Kyle!

Stormy Night

Last night was a stormy night here at the South Family house. Luckily we only lost power once for about 30 seconds so it didn't ruin our fun game of Toy Story memory Ava Grace was playing. Here are some pics from last night.



And for some reason this picture has white dots all over it. I read online that it was either bugs or dust particles in the air. It said that sometimes the flash illuminates them and makes it look like huge white dots. It looks a little scary to me!


On a completely different subject, for the past week we have been letting Ava Grace sleep in big girl panties at night. She really could have slept in them since she has been potty trained but I was just too nervous. I knew the first night that I let her go without pull ups that she would have an accident in the bed. Thank goodness she didn't! Well, we ran out of pull ups last week and I decided that I was not going to buy anymore. Let me tell you what she did last night... I woke up around 5am and saw that the hallway looked bright. I got up and saw that her light was on in her room. I went to her room and she was asleep in the bed so I just turned her light out and went back to sleep. I figured she was afraid of the dark since it was storming last night... When she woke up around 6:30 this morning I asked her why her light was on. And then she said "I had to go to the potty! I'm a big girl!" so I went and looked in the potty and she did! She got up without waking me up, turned her light on, and teeteed in the potty and wiped herself. I can't believe she didn't wake me up. She said "SEE!!" and was so so proud of herself! She is growing up so fast!

Randoms...

**Ava Grace’s conversation with a little girl on the playground per her teacher…

Little Girl: (Crying…)

Ava Grace: What’s wrong with you?

Little Girl: I want my blanky!

Ava Grace: Well, ask Mrs. Mochelle because Mrs. Mea will say No!

HAHAHAHA! She has it all figured out! :-)



**Ava Grace’s prayer tonight at bedtime…

“God is great, God is good, let us thank Him for our food Bed! In our work and in our play, God be with us everyday!”


**Another funny thing from the playground per her teacher…

Ava Grace to a teacher on the playground: Can we play Simon Says?

Teacher: Sure

Ava Grace: Simon says touch your nose… (AG touches her nose)

And per the teacher watching this, Ava Grace goes on and on and on with the game wanting to play and it gets to a point that I think it might be driving the teacher crazy…

Teacher: Simon says GO PLAY IN THE SANDBOX!

And Ava Grace runs away and starts playing in the sandbox!!


**Ava Grace is addicted to Oatmeal Crème Pies and I am addicted to Chocolate Peanut Butter bugles!


**Tonight I asked Ava Grace to clean up her toys ONE TIME and that is all it took! She put all of her toys away and then turned off the light in her playroom. She is such a sweet girl! :-)


**I am doing a Beth Moore Bible Study right now called Breaking Free and tonight was one of those nights where I just KNEW that God was speaking DIRECTLY to me. Isn't it amazing the words that God throws in our faces right when we need them the most! God is so good!


**Yesterday we went to Nashville for my sweet nephews 4th birthday party! I can’t believe he is 4!! Everyone had a blast and Daddy won Ava Grace a Hannah Montana pillow that looks like a boom box and has a handle on it. Earlier today it was her boom box but tonight it is her purse and she told me that she has lots of gum in it! And I can have some but I better not swallow it! She cracks me up!


I hope you all had a wonderful day!! Our week is off to a great start!

Family Day!

Today has been a GREAT day! It started with pancakes from McD's and then we all put together puzzles for about an hour! Ava Grace had a blast and she was really good at putting the puzzles together. We were amazed! Then she played with all of her babies and put them down for a nap so they could sleep while we went to buy some pumpkins to decorate. We bought pumpkins, a carving kit, a few other things and headed home. We had bagel bites, bananas, and strawberries for lunch then she napped for about 2 hours. After dinner tonight she painted pumpkins and had a blast!! Now she is snoozing in her bed...

She is now officially sleeping all night in her own bed!! YAY!!

Here are some pics from today!








I hope you are having a wonderful weekend!