thanksgiving!

well my mother called me last week and said she wanted to have thanksgiving at my house. of course we live so far away from my fam the only ones that could come were the ones that rode with her. it was my mom and step dad, my sisters, abbie, allie, anna, and angel and my brother austen. they all went and picked up andy at the airport wednesday night. i had to work so i didn't go to the airport.

i met them at vista grande. a mexican restaurant. it was fun with the 10 of us eating out. especially since my fam is so entertaining. andy told us a few things about life in iraq and allie entertained us with her gullibility. you can get her to believe anything!

mom and doc rented a hotel room so our apartment wouldn't be so crowded. angel went with them b/c she wanted to go swimming. the next morning i woke up at 8:30 and they were all up already! andy, anna, austen and i played monopoly until mom got there. andy won. then mom and i cooked a small lunch and prepared the food for thanksgiving. mom kept telling me to sit down and that i shouldn't be on my feet so much but i didn't want her to have to do everything!

we ended up eating around 1:30 and it was delicious! then we played uno and scategories. my family loves board games!! anna beat us all pretty bad at uno. and doc won scategories. we had pumpkin pie and brownies for dessert. i made brownies b/c i hate pie! after dessert my family headed back to macon. it would be 8 before they got back. brad and i went over to his parents for about an hour. he has so many relatives that every family event there's a good 10 people there that i don't even recognize. we were both so exhausted that we didn't stay long. it was a nice thanksgiving! i'm sad i have to wait until christmas to see them all again....

i should be cleaning...

just wanted to write a quick note because i'm procrastinating getting up and cleaning. tomorrow is thanksgiving! i can't wait! i'm so hungry just thinking about it. i ended up having to work today. i think i could get out of it if i really tried but we need the money so i'm just going to do it.

my little brother, andy is flying in today from germany. he's been in iraq for about a year and a half and just got back to germany a couple weeks ago. he's in the army. infantry. he wanted to be like his big brother that's a navy seal but andy's just too nice! he gets to be home for 40 days then he's back to germany. his 4 years is up in february and he doesn't plan on re-enlisting. so he'll be moving home soon too! he's always been the comedian of our family. when he was little he told mom he didn't want to be called andy anymore. when mom asked him what he wanted his name to be he said "funny boy".

so mom is going to bring abbie, allie, anna, austen, and angel up from macon and along with my step dad and brad they're going to meet him at the airport. i get off work at 5 and his flight comes in at 5:18 so i'll just be waiting at home for them to get back. mom rented a hotel room so half of the kids are staying with me and half are staying at the hotel tonight. tomorrow mom and i are going to cook dinner! and at some point we're going to try to make an appearance at brad's parents too! at least i know with my crazy family the next two days will be eventful!

little brother and sister...

last weekend my baby brother and sister, zackary and lindsey. came up to st louis to visit for the night. well they're not babies anymore. zack is 9 years old and lindsey is 7. they'll always be the babies of the family though.

it was fun having them here. lindsey and i made bacon and eggs for dinner then we made and frosted sugar cookies. then we took them to brad's cousin's first birthday party. there were a few kids there that were their age so they had a lot of fun. actually it was 4 hours later before i could get them out of there. it was late when we got home so we just watched a movie and went to bed.

the next day i was still fighting this cold that i can't seem to get rid of so we stayed home. zack and brad played xbox and lindsey watched hairspray. later brad, zack and lindsey finger painted. i made a chain counting down the days until van is born. here's a few pics from this weekend! all in all it was great spending time with them! of course if i wasn't already pregnant they would have been great birth control!

I stole this one from Krystal...

8 T.V shows I like to watch:
1. Law & Order SVU
2. Supernatural
3. Smallville
4. America's Next Top Model
5. Lost
6. Fringe
7. Privileged
8. South Park (I know it's dumb but my husband is an addict and some of them kind of are
funny)


8 things that happened yesterday:
1. Went to work
2. worked out while i was at work
3. did the dishes
4. started dinner
5. called my mom
6. surfed the net
7. watched halloween 6 & 7 (which gave me michael meyers nightmares)
8. tried to take a nap but van kicks so much i can't sleep


8 favorite places to eat:
1. Red Robin
2. Quiznos
3. TGI Fridays
4. Taco Bell
5. Chili's
6. Steak & Shake
7. Panda Express
8. Outback


8 things I'm looking forward to:
1. Van being born!
2. buying a house
3. Twilight to come out!
4. to be comfortable again
5. brad to finish his guitar
6. seeing my family again
7. going on a cruise in april...hopefully if all goes well with van
8. A hot bath

family fun shots!

I went to my mom's this weekend for anna's play and her 16th birthday. we set up a spot in the living room for taking pics. these are some of the fun pictures we took. we had a blast just being silly!











this is my sister, anna kaye

this first one is of my sisters angel and anna, the second pic is of my sisters, allie, anna and abbie. allie has a brownie in her mouth so abbie's laughing at her. the third one is of all 4 of them.

these 2 are of all of my mom's girls. allie, angel, anna, me, audrey and abbie. it's hard to get a serious picture out of my family!

jezlyn is such a good sport. she must be used to having her picture taken! she was soaking it up until we tried to put her in the pumpkin! then she was so sad it still breaks my heart when i see the pictures.

here's my niece, erica and my sister, angel. they're in the same grade. then brad and i posed for some shots.

prego belly shots. here's brad and i trying to decide who's belly is bigger. brad always jokes that i have a bun in the oven and he has a loaf.

it had been a good 5 minutes since we jook jezlyn's picture so she had to get in front of the camera again. she's lucky she is so dang cute!

now she wants to get behind the camera.

this is a scarf that angel made me. isn't is beautiful??

then of course we had to get one more of jezlyn. she's has the prettiest eyes. i just love her to death!

i took like over 200 pics. these are just a few of my favorites! my family is so entertaining to be around. i probably would have taken more if i had more room on my compactflash card.

A-Z

i stole this from tanis who apparently stole it from someone else!!

A- Attached Or Single: Attached
B- Best Friend: My husband, Brad
C- Cake Or Pie: cake...i hate pie, unless it has a graham cracker crust
D- Day Of Choice: Friday
E- Essential Item: camera
F- Favorite Color: pink
G- Greatest Accomplishment: being prego
H- Hometown: Macon, MO
I- Indulgences: chocolate!
J- January Or July: July
K- Kids: One on the way
L- Life is Incomplete without: the gospel (I agree with Tanis!)
M- Marriage Date: August 11, 2007
N- Number of Siblings: 10 younger siblings. 6 sisters and 4 brothers.
one brother and sister-in-law
O- Oranges or Apples: apples
P-Phobias or Fears: suffocating
Q-Quotes: i don't know
R- Reason to Smile: life!
S- Season: Fall
T- Tag five friends: i don't know what a tag is
U-Unknown Fact about Me: i think i have obsessive compulsive disorder!
V- Very favorite store: Hobby Lobby!!
W- Worst Habit: i have a horrible sweet tooth
X- X-ray or Ultra sound: Ultra Sound
Y-Your Favorite Food: steak quesadilla fajitas
Z- Your Zodiac sign: Aquarius!

my prego belly

brad has been so kind as to take my picture every week on my week mark of my pregnancy. so we can see how much i've grown. we've missed a couple weeks but we've been pretty consistent. a few of them are a little blurry but my camera is really confusing and brad is getting better.



13 weeks







16 weeks







17 weeks







18 weeks







19 weeks







20 weeks







21 weeks











22 weeks











23 weeks











24 weeks











25 weeks

26 weeks

27 weeks

Pooky

well i prayed and prayed that God would give me a baby someday. i never thought i'd be pushing 30 before i had a child. when i was diagnosed with endometriosis i had pretty much accepted that i would be adopting someday. then this april i had to have another laproscopy which just reinforced my thinking that i would never be able to have my own children. 2 months later i found out i was 6 weeks pregnant!! my little miracle baby!

i called my baby pooky until i found out the gender.
this is what he looked like at 9 weeks. like a little bean! but he was there and in the uterus. my doctor was worried b/c of the recent surgery that it might be a tubal pregnancy.











at 18 weeks, september 18, 2008 brad and his dad, richard and i went to find out what the gender was. it was a boy!! we had decided that if it was a girl her name would be brooklyn rae and if it was a boy his name would be van allan. so now i have baby van in my belly!




the pic on the left is his profile and the pic on the right is of his baby manhood. he'll probably never forgive me for posting it online but oh well. he weighed approximately 9 ounces.


at 21weeks i had another ultrasound because he wouldn't cooperate during the first one and there was also a small flash they saw in his heart they wanted to keep an eye on.



here's his profile. they said he weighed approximately a pound here. the average weight at 21 weeks is 12 ounces so he's a healthy boy. the flash in his heart wasn't as noticeable either. it was a little scary because the flash meant there was a 2-4 percent chance that he has down syndrome but my blood test came back negative too. the doctor said that the flash could have been because i was so little it was a reflection of the ultrasound.




so far i'm 25 weeks along. and i really think he's going to be a ninja! he kicks me 24 hours a day. i wonder if he ever sleeps! it's reassuring though. at least i know he's still ok. although it does get tiring that he won't sit still!!! brad felt him kick for sure for the first time a couple days ago. it used be that as soon as brad put his hand on my belly he'd stop kicking. now nothing stops him! we've decided that we're going to name him vanderlei allan pikey. brad served his mission in brasil and speaks portuguese fluently. vanderlei is a portuguese name. i found out that a well known UFC fighter from brasil that is named vanderlei silva. which is fitting because van's a ninja.

Our Wedding Day

Here's a few photos from our wedding day...

August 11, 2007


Brad and I coming out of the St Louis Temple.

Brad and I outside the temple.

My new in-laws!
Rob, Sheri, Me, Brad, Patty & Richard.

Brad's Groomsmen

Nathan Miller, Rob Pikey, Kaleb Hitchcock, Brad, Kasey Fabrizio and Adam Marsh.

My Bridesmaids.

Audrey Ford, Amber Griffin, Corinna Sommerfeldt, Kristal Redfearn, me & Charity Elliott.

My family.

Grandma Kathy, Aunt Amy, Audrey, Angel, Me, Austen, Anna, Allie and Abbie.

Brad, me, my mom, my step-dad.