Babymoon

This weekend we have went on a mini-getaway to spend some time together before baby girl arrives in just 4 short weeks!

Saturday we attended the wedding of my best friend from my WKU days Beth Pope Lau! We both were in the nutrition undergrad program at WKU and spent lots of time together for those 4 years studying and studying and studying. And this girl brought me a baby gift to her own wedding-the most selfless person I know!! I pray that God blesses their marriage and continues to use them to further His kingdom! Congrats Beth and Ming Woei!

Saturday night we stayed at the Southern Charm Bed & Breakfast in Harrodsburg, Kentucky. It was built in 1829 and is the oldest Bed and Breakfast in the Commonwealth.

Our room was amazing!

The bathroom was almost big enough to live in. It had another vanity, shower, and toilet on the other side of the room.

Sunday morning we headed to the Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill. It just happened to be their Harvest Fest so we were there at a great time.

The two of us :)

Central Kentucky's famous limestone fences

The Harrisons in Harrodsburg

Shaker Village Harvest Fest 2012

Tonight we ate at Eddie Montgomery's Steakhouse. It was such a beautiful restaurant with delicious food. A definite must-do if you are ever in Harrodsburg.

I will post more tomorrow about the Beaumont Inn (where we are staying tonight). It has been such a fun and relaxing getaway so far-just what we needed!

35 Weeks & TLRMC Shower

I'm 35 weeks!

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 35 Weeks

Size of baby: Georgia is around 5.25 lbs - about the size of a honeydew melon

Total Weight Gain/Loss: Gained 22 lbs

Maternity Clothes: I wear maternity jeans and pants but everything else is regular. I'm down to just a few things I can still fit into. ha!

Gender: It's a girl!!! Georgia Grace Harrison

Movement: She is active with lots of hiccups and wiggling ha! She has what I believe to be an arm positioned in my right side that tickles when she moves :)

Sleep: Once I am comfortable, I sleep like a baby

Cravings: I just eat anything and everything these days

Symptoms: None to speak of, I feel pretty good considering I'm 5 weeks from my due date!
Best Moment this week: Thinking about all of my papaw stories I am going to share with Georgia Grace<3

 The countdown is on! 35 weeks/35 days! This is the countdown in Mr. Harrison's classroom. They have also all picked what day they think she will arrive--too sweet!

I think I have arrived at the point in the pregnancy that I look full term. I have gotten a lot of "How much longer?" and "Now when are you due?" comments lately ha! Friday we have our final ultrasound and I am anxious to see how big she is. Thankfully I haven't gotten to the uncomfortable stage yet (I still take the stairs at work) and I don't have any swelling. I hope it stays that way!

Last Wednesday the department heads at work threw me a shower! It meant so much to me that they would honor me in that way.

Georgia Grace is loving all of this cake :)! It was really good.

Kelly and I diving into the cake!

I am blessed with a great workplace with great "work family". My trunk was full of goodies! Marcus' school is throwing him a shower tomorrow as well. We are both lucky to work at places where we are appreciated and loved!

Remembering Papaw

My papaw Denzel Porter was born to the late Luther Porter and the late Luda Mae Cook Porter on November 24th, 1930 in the Boston community of Butler County, Kentucky.

There were 5 children- L to R Papaw, late Maurice Porter, Rollie "Bubby" Porter, late Loyce Porter Neely, and late Clarence Porter. Papaw was the youngest of all of the children (actually the way they are seated is youngest to oldest).

He joined the service in 1951 and served 4 years in the Army and National Guard.

When he came back home, he started dating my mamaw Carolyn McCoy and they married on August 10th, 1957.

They had one child-my mom Stacha Porter Murphy on November 23rd, 1964. Mom and Papaw's birthdays are just one day apart! [And what about the personalized Christmas card?!? This was in the 1960's! Only my grandparents!]

He worked as a milk delivery man for Holland Dairy, a school-bus driver (which is actually when he started dating my mamaw because he drove her bus ha! They are 10 years apart in age.), and as a shipping supervisor for Kellwood Industries where he retired from after 35 years.

He loved the Lord, his family, lawn work, UK basketball, traveling, anything to do with cars, and meeting new people.

Papaw, me as a baby and my cousin Clint

Beach Trip-2005

WKU Graduation-May 2009

My wedding day- May 22, 2010

Gender Reveal Party-May 2012. He knew she was a girl!

Our last family vacation, Hilton Head Island- July 2012

And probably my favorite picture of all. This was taken in late July after he bought Georgia her "first car" :)

Again, thank you to everyone for the calls, texts, visits, food, gifts, and prayers over the past week. We are blessed with loving friends, family, and a community that provides comfort during a time of loss. He may be gone from us in body but his spirit lives on. I hope and pray that Georgia Grace has some of his characteristics and we will make sure to tell her plenty of stories about him! What a sweet day it will be when we are all reunited in our heavenly home. I love you papaw!

My Papaw 1930-2012

On Thursday my Papaw Porter went home to be with the Lord. He was 81 years "young" and left this world without a day of suffering or sorrow. As heart-broken as we are to lose him so unexpectedly, we are comforted in knowing he went pain-free and never lost his quality of life. You are never ready to say goodbye but it is so much easier when you know their name is written in the lamb's book of life and we will see them again one day when we are all called home. I feel blessed I was able to spend 25 years of my life with him here on earth....and eternity with him in Heaven. I love you papaw!

Denzel Lee Porter

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Phillipians 4:6-7

34 Weeks

I'm 34 weeks!

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 34 Weeks

Size of baby: Georgia is almost 5 lbs - about the size of a large cantaloupe.

Total Weight Gain: Gained 22 lbs (Whoa!)

Maternity Clothes: I wear maternity jeans and pants but everything else is regular. Lots of dresses and yoga pants!

Gender: It's a girl!!! Georgia Grace Harrison

Movement: She continues to have lots of movement. She loves when I drink juice!

Sleep: Once I ever get comfortable I sleep like a baby!

Cravings: My appetite has improved. I have been indulging in cinnamon rolls before bed so I guess that's my latest craving.

Symptoms: a few Braxton-Hicks, mild back pain

Best Moment this week: Making big progress on her nursery!

Here is a little reminder of my growing self. And I thought I was big at week 18 ha! I am so glad I have these pictures to look back on. It is such a special time for me!

Yesterday I had a doctor's appointment and scheduled our final ultrasound for next Friday. This is basically to make sure she is still positioned head down and to see how big she is. I will start weekly checks after that. We are getting down to the wire! Everything looked great yesterday. I am proud of my healthy growing girl!

Today the department heads at work threw me a shower! It was so sweet of them to do. I am the youngest of the group and they have all taken me in as one of their own. I will post pics later this week when our director of marketing emails them to me. I am so blessed God led me to TLRMC! 

Getting Ready For Baby & Fall

Saturday was just the day that I needed. Marcus and I were both home and the weather was dismal so it was a perfect time to get some stuff done to the house and nursery that we had been procrastinating. My mom also came over and was a big help! I think I needed another mom to just tell me, "You should put this here", or "She won't need this for a while so put it in storage".

Our kitchen is not huge so we have have to be strategic with where we put things. I spent a lot of my time reorganizing the kitchen and finding new places to put things. We cleaned out the top shelf of our antique green cabinet and it is now the "baby feeding shelf".

Everything was cleaned and sanitized. It felt good to get that project out of the way and to get my kitchen put back together after it was done!

The bedding is ready to go and (I think) all of her clothes are washed (thanks to mom and mamaw!). I made her "first aid" bin and organized all of her bath things. This girl is already high maintenance and she's not even here yet :).

The rug for the nursery came in Saturday! And just as I suspected Owen has a new favorite spot. He instantly took right up with it and is spending most of his time on it. We have quit looking for him when we can't find him because we know where he is ha!

To kick off the fall season, I got up and put a roast in the crockpot this morning. It was nice coming home to that aroma in the house! The temperatures have finally started to drop and the Halloween decorations are on the shelf (yippee!). Marcus got the fall decorations down from the attic for me tonight so I will be getting the house ready for fall this week! I cannot believe it is the middle of September. We are getting so close. I am going to try and enjoy each and every day I have left of my pregnancy and the season!

Bride-To-Be!

Last night I hosted my sister-in-law Shanna's bridal shower at her new house. She pretty much just let us do whatever we wanted to so she got a few surprises ;) It was a lot of fun planning everything and I am glad we were able to do it at their home so she could show it off to all the girls! They have really been working hard on it and it is beautiful.

The spread: parmesan chicken alfredo, italian bread, caesar salad, peach tea, and cake of course! The chicken dish turned out great, I will definitely be making it again. And I love her kitchen-she made a great choice with the red.

The beautiful and delicious cake! One of the bridesmaid's mother-in-law made it for us. It was the perfect size with a little left over for Jake :)

The beautiful bride-to-be! Just 28 days until she will be Mrs. Hall :))

I think the tissue pom-poms gave the party a nice touch! Thanks to Kathy for climbing up on the island and hanging them for us. Funny story--I told Shanna to go see if they had any floss and she couldn't find floss but did find some fishing line ha! She is marrying a true outdoorsman!

The personalized wedding dress hanger I got her. I kept my gifts G-rated, I think her brother was glad I did ha!

This one was for Jake ;)

She is using peacock feathers as decoration at the wedding so when I saw this wreath I knew she had to have it!

The bride and 4 of her bridesmaids-me, Amy, Shanna, Bethie, and Olivia. And yes, I am 8 1/2 months pregnant if you can't tell :). I just hope baby girl doesn't decide to come before 10/13/12!

It was a fun night and a great way to start all of the wedding festivities! I can't wait for their October barn wedding in just 4 weeks. She will be a stunning bride and Jake will be a handsome groom. I am lucky to call them sister-in-law and brother-in-law!

DIY Thank Yous & Nursery Progress

We have had a very busy week around here-work, appointments, revival every night, practice, night class (Marcus) and there's probably more that I can't think of. By the time I get home each night, I am exhausted and don't want to leave the couch. If you know me, I can't just sit idle so I've got a lot of work done on all my thank you cards!

I love the way they turned out! These were total DIY. And I didn't intend on coordinating the fabric on the diaper pin with the envelope but I saw packs of pastel color envelopes and thought why not?!

I am no where near close to finish but I have a good start!

And I had to post the newest addition to Georgia's wardrobe! The onesie is too much-could that not be a more true statement? Ha! I'm just kidding but we do bleed blue through and through in these parts. My Mamaw Porter found all this here. Now she can watch all the UK games in style!

We have made some big purchases this week for the nursery. We ordered an off-white shag rug that I think I am going to love! It should arrive next week sometime. I hope it is as piled and plush as the picture shows. I want to be comfortable when we are playing with her toys and baby dolls. I can see a certain brown dog taking a liking to this piece as well...

And we ordered her bassinet! This is a gift from her great uncle Pat and aunt Kim. I was so conflicted on what type of bassinet/playard/bouncer to get her for sleeping--to be honest I was very overwhelmed by it. I did my research and we decided to go with a bassinet/playard combo. It is a mini so it won't take up a lot of space. It's portable so we can move it from room to room! As I have learned from other moms, every child is different and their sleeping preferences vary. She may absolutely hate this but that's ok--we will try something else if we need to :). It's all trial and error with the first one, right? I keep telling myself that.

Tonight is my sister-in-law's bridal shower that I am helping host! I am making a chicken alfredo dish that I hope will be delicious-I am no Betty Crocker but I try :). Saturday looks to be a completely free day for Marcus and me both--and it will be our last free Saturday until the end of October! The husband is already dreading the "honey to-do list" I am working on ha! TGIF everyone!