Here She Is!!

Well, here is one of the copies of a picture from the big ultrasound! We had several of them, but this is the only cropped one (the rest have my social security number on it - probably not the best to post online)!! I think it is so cute...it looks like she is waving at us! I still sit and watch the DVD of the ultrasound that they gave us. It is so neat to see all of the details of our baby - from the heartbeat to the brain and the spine and the rest of the bones...truly amazing!! What an exciting year 2008 has been, and we are very much looking forward to 2009! We hope everyone has a fantastic New Years celebration and will post again in the new year!!

Christmas Memories

This picture was taken at the Christmas celebration with my dad's side of the family. We finally were able to celebrate with only minor bump in the road - someone else's place 2 floors up caught on fire and we had to wait in the lobby for almost 45 minutes!!

Clearly this is me and Brad on Christmas Eve when we celebrated Christmas with his mom, grandmother, aunt, and uncle. It was so great to relax and be able to visit with everyone! Sadie really enjoyed having everyone at our house so that she got some extra love!

This was Christmas morning before we headed to Meme's house for round two. Props to excellent photography by Brad - great picture of me and mom!


Here is a picture of me, Brad, and Will on Christmas morning at my mom's house. Will almost had his eyes open...I guess this will have to do!

And my Christmas Day belly shot...I am 21 weeks 3 days here.

Merry Christmas

I just wanted to write really fast and say how lucky we are. We have the best family and most wonderful friends ever. We both have jobs. We have food on the table and a roof over our heads. We have a sweet baby girl on the way (who, by the way, really enjoyed Christmas - she was quite active!). We are just so fortunate and I am reminded time and time again, but especially on Christmas. I always enjoy seeing everyone and catching up while enjoying some delicious food. This year was no different. We were able to enjoy each celebration and not rush from place to place. I know we are so thankful for every blessing and celebrate each day.

I hope each and every one of you was able to enjoy Christmas with friends and/or family and remember the reason we celebrate is not all the wrapping paper and presents and sales....it is Baby Jesus' birthday!! :)

First Annual GNO Ornament Exchange

A group of us girls got together for dinner at Red Pony last night and we started a new tradition - an ornament exchange. It was a great time to get together and catch up over some delicious food and not have to stress about any number of things holiday-related. It was very low-key, and all we had to bring was a cute ornament! We drew names and whichever name you drew, you got the ornament that person brought to the dinner. I got the ornament that Cat contributed (see picture below - it's already on the tree!) even though she was not able to be there - we missed you!! I can hardly wait to get together next Christmas and add another memorable night to the books and another pretty ornament to the Christmas tree!!

Sadie & Callie = BFF

It's A Nursery!

Well, we definitely had our work cut out for us when it came to cleaning out the office/catch-all room. As I mentioned in a previous post, we stayed up super late the other night clearing everything non-baby out of that room. What a great feeling - it actually echoes in that room if you go and talk in there! Here are a couple of pictures of what emptiness looks like....now let the painting begin!!!

Picture: 21 weeks

Here is the latest...I think my belly looks kind of awkward, but I guess that pretty much summarizes how pregnancy can make a woman feel....awkward. It is absolutely amazing to feel Baby Katie kicking and squirming around in there - pretty neat that there is a living, growing baby in my belly!!!

Old Friends

Make new friends, but keep the old, one is silver and the other gold....

On Saturday night, we went to celebrate my friend Jill's graduation from Lipscomb University. Jill and I have known eachother since kingergarten. She is an amazing woman who has been through a lot, but she has kept at it, and it definitely payed off! We all had a great time - it was nice to see her family and catch up, as well as seeing old friends from when we were growing up.

CONGRATS, JILL!!!!!

Work Christmas Party

Third Time's A Charm

Well, I am officially a Baptist!! In order to become part of Brentwood Baptist Church, they really like all of their members to have had a uniform experience of baptism. I was raised Methodist and had been baptized twice growing up - once as a baby and once as a young girl - though both of those experiences were just "sprinking".

The service was really nice - it was a special baptism service where a total of 28 people were immersed. It had a really nice, personal touch yet did not last all afternoon. Here are some pictures from the day - the first is me getting ready to be dunked, and the second is after the service with Mike Glenn, Senior Pastor at Brentwood Baptist.

Celebration of Pink

To celebrate the exciting news, my dad and Robbin sent us flowers!! How exciting...Brad had never gotten flowers (even though this arrangement was to both me and Brad), so that was pretty exciting. Here are some pictures of the beautiful arrangement!

Thanks, Dad & Robbin, for such a beautiful arrangement - what a fun surprise!!

Proud Mamma

Brad took a picture of me with a picture from the ultrasound - notice how happy I am that we have found out we are having a BABY GIRL!! In this picture, I am 19 weeks 4 days. All I have right now is the DVD of the ultrasound and some pictures of our sweet baby. I am going to try to do screenshots from the DVD as well as scan the pictures so I can put all the ultrasound photos on here. Maybe that will occur sometime while I am off of work for the holidays...we shall see :)

21 weeks

I love the emails I get that let me know what is brewing in my belly. What I do know is that she has been quite the active little lady for the past day or so. Another weird pregnancy-related thing is that I have been SO thirsty...and water with lots of lemons is the only thing that really tastes good! One of the things on this message that is different here is that she weighed 11 ounces at my big ultrasound, so she definitely weighs more than just 10.5 ounces at this point! And I believe when it comes to weight gain, I am on the lower end of average (THANK GOODNESS) at about 10 pounds!! Anyways, here is what my email said this morning:

Congratulations, Ashley! You're 21 Weeks Pregnant. Your baby measures about 7.2 inches from crown to rump and weighs about 10.5 ounces. He is steadily gaining fat to keep warm. Growth rate is slowing down but organ systems, like digestion, are continuing to mature. A waxy film, called the vernix caseosa, is being produced by your baby's oil glands and covers the skin to keep it supple in the amniotic fluid. Buds for permanent teeth are beginning to form. Friends, relatives, and even strangers can probably tell you're pregnant by now. Your uterus is starting to extend above your navel. You've likely gained between 10 and 14 pounds.

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice...

I just wanted to comment that GOOD GRIEF all of the sweets this time of year are killing me!!! I do not have enough self-control to "only eat one". We went to a graduation celebration for one of my best friends from growing up (pics to come later), and of course they had some deeeee-licious desserts. I told Brad on the way home that I had a headache from all the sugar and really needed about a gallon of water to drink.

Sweets are definitely my weakness - they always have been. I am starting to get a little nervous about the 1-hour glucose tolerance test at my next doctor's appointment. I have to drink some kinda stuff and then get blood drawn to see if my body is still processing it properly. If it does not, this equals gestational diabetes (not good).

So my point is...thank goodness the temptations of the holidays are thankfully coming to a close within the next few days. This will make me practice self-control (hopefully).

On a different note, I went today and had a 1-hour prenatal massage and a facial...how wonderful!! I wondered how they do do the part of the massage where you lay on your stomach...at this spa, they actually had a cushion with a hole in it for the belly! I kind of giggled when I was getting situated because it is rather strange to lay down and put your belly in a hole! It ended up being very comfortable, though. I think Baby Katie was glad that I was taking care of myself some today...she did some serious kicking and squirming in there!!

I will do some more posts maybe tomorrow, but for now, I am gonna hit the hay. I was up til 2:00am last night because Brad and I cleaned everything out of the office/catch-all room/nursery - it is amazing to think that that is going to be our sweet baby's room! Next on the baby preparation agenda....painting!! The bedding came one day this past week, so we can take that and match the paint color to one of the colors in the bedding. Then we will get the carpets cleaned, and then finally we will get the furniture and Brad can assemble it. I think we put our own personal deadline of finishing the nursery at Valentine's Day...I guess we shall see if we accomplish that daunting task!!

Already On A Schedule

It is so strange...I was sitting at my desk this morning thinking of all the times I feel sweet baby kicks. It seems as if Baby Katie is already creating her own schedule. I feel her moving around when I drive to work, around the time I eat lunch, around the time I eat dinner, and then when I go to sleep at night. This could also be that she is awakened by my eating, but I still find it interesting. I think she likes chocolate as much as I do - she definitely gets to movin' in there whenever I eat a couple pieces of candy!!

Halfway There

Twenty weeks....I can hardly believe I am at the halfway point already! What an amazing experience it has been so far, and I can hardly wait for the rest of it!! We are thrilled beyond belief that we have a healthy baby girl growing in there and cannot wait to meet her. There are a lot of things on the To-Do List that we need to take care of, but I am trying to remind myself to slow down and relax when I can because in May, that will be a lot more difficult! We can't wait to meet you, Baby Katie!

Already A Daddy's Girl

We got home from a Christmas production at Brad's mom's church and were sitting on the couch relaxing. Katie (still trying that one out - would name her Katherine Elizabeth and call her Katie) started moving around a lot and Brad put his hand on my tummy and felt her moving!! How exciting :)

Baby Coulter's Bedding

Well, after weeks of anticipation waiting to find out the gender of our sweet bundle of joy, I could not wait to select the bedding and buy it!! Something about being able to visualize what the nursery will look like just is really exciting to me. Brad and I had looked at several types of bedding while looking at furniture and those type of things, so it made the choice a bit easier. We had definitely picked one out if the baby was a boy, but we had a few to choose from for a girl. We sat down yesterday afternoon and looked at the bedding choices for a girl and both of us kept going back to the same one we liked the most weeks ago.....and we bought it!! Here is a picture below of what it is - it is called Cocalo Tropical Punch. I think it will look really good with dark wood furniture since it has some brown in the trim of the bedding. The top picture is just the bedding set that we have ordered, and the second picture is an example of a nursery with every possible element that matches! Be sure to keep in mind that we will not necessarily have every element that this room does (I think it looks a bit busy in this picture but I just LOVE the bedding!) We will probably register for a few of the other items, but not all of it!! I can hardly wait to be able to set everything up now!!

Today Was The Big Day!!!!

IT’S A GIRL!!!!!!!!!!

December Snow

Well, I thought I was finished blogging for today, but I couldn't resist commenting on all the snow falling this evening! We just got inside from playing out there with Sadie - she is hilarious in the snow. She runs all over the yard at full speed, sometimes digging her snoot in the snow and throwing it around. Here are just a few pictures showing the fun we had! As much as I love the snow and playing in it, I would be perfectly fine if it melted now so that we can make it to the doctor on time with no problem in the morning :)

Baby Items & Funny Snacks

One of my coworkers has a son who just turned 1 yesterday! She brought me the swing that she used so that we can use it too!! We are starting a small collection of baby goods and it makes me so happy. We also have a stroller already, thanks to some of our friends! Now if we can just find out whether a baby boy or a baby girl will be using these items...not too much longer!! My appointment is at 8:30 in the morning, so look tomorrow afternoon for an update!! When I come back to work, I have to go straight to a meeting, so I will be sure to update soon thereafter :) YAY! I can hardly wait...

This is the swing our sweet little one will use!

On a different note, I was hungry and looking around my desk the other day at work, and I had to take a couple of pictures. I had lots of snacks stashed two different places on my desk. I know they are not the healthiest options, but when you're hungry, you're hungry!

Drawer stashed with snacking items...

The good stuff...on my trays on my desk...

More Holiday Fun!

This past weekend, Brad and I also went to see the Rockettes. We ventured out to the Grand Ole Opry House on Sunday afternoon for the matinee. Unfortunately they did not allow photography inside the building, but here is a picture of the outside. The show was wonderful - I love all the music and dancing!! Going to the show was part of my birthday present from Brad - he had a great time, too, I do believe!

Weekend of Fun - Limo Lights Tour

I know it is a few days after the fact, but I wanted to comment on what a fun weekend we had last weekend!! We had the Third Annual Limo Lights Tour that my brother, Will, coordinates. That is his Christmas gift to those that he invites (quite the honor to be on the guest list) and it is so much fun!! We have Hammies to eat and Christmas cookies for dessert - such the tradition. This year we went to some different neighborhoods, including driving down to see our house all lit up and ready to celebrate the season! Here are a few pictures of the outting.

This is Will and his friend Amy! Holy crap - Will's eyes are open!! (only took like a billion tries)

I think this picture is hilarious....Will looks as if he has seen a ghost, Brad looks slightly awkward and I look a bit goofy too!

This is our house lit up at night! Brad worked really hard to get all of those lights set up and it turned out wonderfully!!

Feeling Creative

I just wanted to post a picture of my cute, festive plate. I got it all ready for Christmas last week and was so proud! That was the same night that I got 124 Christmas cards ready to send out the next morning - talk about productive!!

Fun Feeling

Today is the first day that I will be sitting at work and feel Baby Coulter jumping around in there consistently. I started feeling him/her more around the time I ate lunch and have been feeling little movements pretty consistently since then - an incredible feeling for sure. I think it could also be because I was sitting pretty strangely and it probably cramped the space in there for Cletus. Regardless, I just wanted to comment on how amazingly neat it is to feel your baby move inside your belly. I really look forward to being able to feel the movement from the outside so that Brad is able to experience the joy also!!

Santa Claus' Gmail Account Exposed

You have to click on this to see it larger...it is hilarious...Enjoy!!

Bump Update - 18 weeks 1 day

You will have to excuse the lack of makeup, as well as the bra straps. Yes, I did wear this to work today...and yes, I did wear a hoodie over that tank. I just figured you could see the bump better without that extra layer!!

It's the Most Wonderful Time Of the Year...

I have to first start off by saying that I absolutely love Christmas. I love the decorations, the music, the togetherness, shopping for others, and the time off work, of course! We decorated our house the day after Thanksgiving, and here are a few pictures of the fun!!

The finished product!!

Me & Cletus decorating the tree (I am 17w4d here)

The first ornament on the tree - Brad gave it to me last year :)

Sadie was supervising us

Brad and Sadie pausing to smile for the camera!

Family Photo

Since it was the first time that the majority of the family was together (we missed Will!), we got my aunt and uncle's neighbor to come over and take a picture of all of us! I thought it turned out pretty well, especially considering the folks in it :) Here is a pic of my dad's side of the family!!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Sadie!!

Sadie's birthday was on Thanksgiving Day this year. Because we would be leaving her all by herself all day while enjoying all the fantastic food, we took her to the new Bark Park near our house. Here are a few shots of her resting after running around with some other dogs!

I Should Know Better....

My mom gave me quite the hilarious gift for my birthday. It is based on a very embarassing story from my youth that I will not get into right this moment. Anyway, she wanted to go on and give it to me even though wearing it likely won't happen anytime soon. She asked me to model it (on top of my clothes, of course), so I thought I would post this as a funny belly picture as well :)

So here it goes - me in Santa lingerie over my clothes, 16 weeks pregnant!

Better Late Than Never

Well I know my birthday was a few weeks ago, but I just wanted to take a moment to comment on what wonderful family and friends I have!! I was able to celebrate for almost a week - dinner with friends, dinner with my dad and brother, celebrating at my mom's house, celebrating at my mother -in-law's house, dinner and a movie with Brad...oh and a celebration at work!! It's hard to believe that this was my last birthday as a daughter, granddaughter, wife, employee, friend...and not a mother. This time next year I will have a 6-monthish old son or daughter, and I can hardly wait.

Below are a few pictures from my birthday celebrations!! Enjoy!

The Group Shot!! What fun :)

Melinda & Jonathan (the newlyweds)

Katherine & Ashley

Whitney & Cat

Best cake...EVER!! It is from Darlene's in downtown Nashville...I highly recommend that place!!