Pikey Family

moved my blog

2010-07-26T15:05:00.000-07:00

i probably won't be posting on this site anymore. i've made a page at pikeyfamily.shutterfly.com i also have one for my photography called pikeyphotography09.shutterfly.com

i hope to see you all there!

my puppy

2010-07-11T17:55:00.000-07:00

Van has this puppy that sings and says things when you push his paws that he got for Christmas and it's been one of his favorite toys since then. The other night he was in the living room playing with it when he ran to his bedroom. He came back pushing it in his hippo that you can ride on. It was the cutest thing!! I love my little munchkin so much!!!

Alligator Creek

2010-07-11T16:26:00.000-07:00

me and my baby! he stole my sunglasses!

van was adament that he was going to plug those holes with his fingers even when they were spraying him in the face!

there really was a lot of pressure coming out of those things but he got it!

Vanderlei and I were DYING from the heat yesterday so we just HAD to go swimming! Vanny love love love's water! He had a blast just running around and playing in the water! He was really good while we were there. They had the big pool closed off that day for some reason and it was way over crowded but we had fun. Van loves it when you hold him and he can kick his feet like he's swimming! Next time i'll take a waterproof camera so I can get better pictures...

it's been awhile

2010-07-11T15:35:00.000-07:00

i kept procrastinating posting on here b/c i was behind but i'm just going to post the most recent stuff and go on. things are going great for us!

we're finally able to move out of the in-laws! not that i don't appreciate all that they have done for us but i'm ready for it to be my little family! we found the perfect place for us in columbia. it's a little past our price range but it's worth it! we'll make due! i'll take pictures when we move. it's kind of nice that we can take our time moving our stuff too.

brad will be officially moving in the last week of august when school starts. van and i are staying in o'fallon until the end of september so i can help finish the remodel at my warrenton store. but we'll be going to columbia on the weekends. i'm so excited to move back to my friends and closer to my family! anyway, hopefully i'll be better about posting more frequently!

first time vanny danced

2010-01-02T20:18:00.000-08:00

CHRISTMAS 2009

2010-01-02T19:13:00.000-08:00

so pretty much this was the best Christmas ever! i love every single minute of Christmas with Vanderlei! he makes the whole season a million times more fun! he, of course, was very spoiled this year. pop pop had a lot to do with it! he is growing like a little weed! audi got him 18 month pjs and i thought they would be big on him but they're almost too small! he is quite the chub-a-lub!

great forest park balloon race

2009-10-14T08:52:00.000-07:00

jessica got onto me for not blogging more (hehehe) so i'm going to TRY!

this is my sister-in-law, sheri and her nieces...

this was a really neat event and it was free! they had pony rides for the kids and play houses. they had a lot of tents set up with businesses set up in them. curves had one. they also had these trampoline gymnast kids there that were amazing!

these are pictures from when brad and i took van to the hot air balloon race. it was so windy that day that the balloons were supposed to go up at noon but they didn't go up until after 5pm. we had to leave before them but sheri took some pictures of them for me.

van was so cute! he just LOVES being outdoors.

2009-09-15T06:17:00.000-07:00

Jesus wants me for a sunbeam (teacher)!

2009-07-12T16:28:00.000-07:00

I was sustained today as a sunbeam teacher at my church! I teach the 3 going on 4 year olds. They have to be the cutest kids ever! I have 3 boys (Keaton, Carter & Zach) and one girl (Eliza). I thought I would start a post on the funny things they do and say.

7/12/09
This week wasn't too eventful. I only had the 3 boys today. I told them a story about a boy that wanted to grow up to be a missionary and I asked them all what they wanted to be when they grew up. Keaton said he wanted to be a "fire truck boy", Zach wanted to be a "peace man" (I think he meant police man) and Carter wants to be a farmer that drives. I asked them if they wanted to be missionaries too and Carter said no just a farmer. I gave them pictures of a missionary to color and Carter turned his into a pirate with a sword. So far i've learned that they love going outside, bubbles, and "mother may I?"....until next week....

our little family

2009-07-11T12:25:00.000-07:00

i'm going to try to be better about writing on here more often....but who knows if i'll actually do it.

this last week brad's brother, rob and his wife, sheri went with us to a park to take a few family pictures! i'm usually the one behind the camera and if not me, brad is. so we only have like 3 pictures of me, brad and van all in one picture!! rob did a pretty good job. we had to wake van up from his nap to take them so he wasn't the happiest baby in these pictures but at least he wasn't crying!

LUAU

2009-06-23T07:47:00.000-07:00

our friends, chad and christy had a luau this last weekend and i had to go. i can't wait scrap pictures of vanderlei in a lei! i'm going to call it vanderLEI. i know i'm a dork! but i got some cute pictures! here's a few...

Father's Day

2009-06-23T07:06:00.000-07:00

this was brad's first father's day! of course i had to take pictures in the same spot that van and i took on mother's day (for scrapbooking purposes)! brad is such a proud daddy. i love watching him with van. he's always saying how much he loves van and how he can't believe van's our baby!

i'll never forget when we were in the hospital, brad was holding van and he said he would go kevin bacon for van! LOL for those of you who don't get the reference. kevin bacon plays in a movie called 'death sentence' where his son is killed by a gang and kevin bacon pretty much goes crazy and kills everyone in the gang. brad's also wants to be the punisher when he grows up...hehehe.

vanderlei is fearless when daddy's around!

i'm just so grateful to have such a wonderful husband and father to our child!

my baby van is 4 months old!

2009-06-15T15:12:00.001-07:00

my little angel gets bigger (and cuter!!) every day! i can't take it! i keep telling him to stop growing but he's not listening to me already. we made a deal yesterday. i love his little toothless smile so much that we decided he could get bigger but he could never grow teeth! i don't think he'll his word on that one but i can always hope!

i think this is my favorite month of his life yet! well nothing can top the day he was born but i'm loving 4 month vanderlei! everyone made fun of me because i swore that i was going to get the first time van rolled over on video. and i have hours of van just laying there! of course i proved everyone wrong!!! the night before van turned 4 months old (6/11/09) he rolled over!! from his back to his tummy! i was SOOO happy that brad and i both got to see it!

so far 4 month van still love, love, loves bath time! his face lights up just hearing the water come on! all you have to say is "splash splash" and van's one hyper baby! we put his little bathtub down inside the tub so when ever he makes a noise it echoes. he "talks" his whole bath! i tried to talk to my sister the other day while van was taking a bath and i couldn't hear her over van! it's so adorable though! he talks a lot actually. not just in the bath. he's so funny too. he kicks and kicks until he's in the deepest part of the tub. he likes to get so far under the water that his legs are hanging off the side and his ears are under water. it makes me laugh! he also pees almost every time in the water. i've gotten to where i hold him so just his legs are in the water for just a minute then i pull him out so he doesn't pee in the water.

he's also realized he can blow bubbles and he does it all day long! of course he already drooling because he's starting to teeth so we spend most of the day wiping his mouth!

i love that he loves food so much. i'm not talking about formula or rice cereal (he definitely loves to eat those) but i'm talking about no matter what we are eating his eyes get so big and he follows every bite you take!

he gets more and more animated every day too! i love his many faces! he smiles on demand all the time now. he also laughs daily now. it's the funniest laugh i ever heard! i wish i could bottle it up and listen to it forever!

anyway, i could go on and on all day about how cute my kid is! i just love being vanderlei's mommy so much!

Mother's Day

2009-05-14T07:05:00.000-07:00

This was my first mother's day! I love being a mother! I love holding my baby and I love it when he talks to me and I love it when he's sleeping and when he's awake and how much he loves taking a bath and getting his diaper changed! i love happy baby and sad baby and angry baby! i love how cute he is all the time! i love it when he's sleeping and thinks there's a bottle still in his mouth and he makes a sucking face. i love how good it feels when he's sleeping on your shoulder! i even love staying up all night with him..which i'm pretty lucky because that doesn't happen very often. he sleeps most of the night! pretty much he's perfect...hehehe.

Here's some pictures of the page that Brad and Van made me. Sheri also helped.

van and the bass guitar

2009-04-30T15:33:00.001-07:00

every month we take a picture of van next to brad's bass guitar to see how much he has grown....here's a couple of his 2 month pictures.

2 months old

2009-04-30T14:47:00.000-07:00

ok so i've been a little busy lately! it's amazing how much time a little one can take up! well van has turned two months old! i can't believe it! he just gets cuter and cuter every day. he doesn't look like a baby with all his hair. he looks like a little boy! i keep thinking he's gonna jump off my laugh and run around....i know i'm a dork! well here's a few pictures of him...isn't he just the cutest baby ever?

Vanderlei is one month old!!

2009-03-13T12:13:00.000-07:00

my little baby is already a month old! i can't believe how fast time flies!! he seems like a totally different baby now. he has so much more personality already. and he's way more spoiled now! he knows that he has mommy wrapped around his little baby fingers! he was in such a good mood all day too! i love it when he gets that coy little smile! we took van's picture by brad's guitar so we can see how much he grows in comparison each month!

birthday dinner

2009-03-12T18:18:00.001-07:00

jeremy, russ, amber, brad, corinna, van, melissa, reese, amber g., and tara

my friend's, amber griffin and melissa power have february birthdays like me. actually our birthdays are all 3 days apart. mine's the 2nd, amber's the 5th and melissa's the 8th. so starting 4 or 5 years ago we started going out to dinner at la tolteca (a mexican restaurant in columbia, mo). 2 years ago it closed down. we went to red robin last year. this year i was too prego to go anywhere and we decided to wait until i could make it to columbia. ANYWAY, long story short, this year we went to huhot in columbia march 8th. it was nice to see my friends again and huhot was good too!

i'm having a baby!!

2009-02-15T21:12:00.000-08:00

van on february 13th

the first time brad saw van

right after delivery

me after the epidural with anesthestist sarah and nurse donna

me before the epidural

i thought i would blog my labor while it's still somewhat fresh in my mind...

well to begin with on tuesday, february 10th i had a doctor's appointment in the afternoon. last week i was dilated to a 3 and 70% effaced. i had horrible contractions all week and i was excited to go to the doctor to see how much i've progressed! of course when i got there dr. wolaniuk said that she wouldn't even say i was dilated to a 3. closer to a 2! and that i was 80% effaced. she took me off of "house arrest" and all other restrictions. she said they would induce if i made it to the 20th. i was devastated. i cried all day. i was in so much pain and i didn't think i had the strength to make it 10 more days!

the next day (february 11) i woke up and i felt a lot better. i had finally accepted that he wasn't coming anytime soon and i made plans to go visiting teaching and had my boss put me on the schedule for the next week for a few hours to keep me busy. so around noon i went to wal-mart and picked up some treats to make valentine buckets for the girls we visit teach. emily morrison wanted me to come over to get to know each other before we went visiting teaching. i stopped at mcdonalds on my way to emily's and got a chicken nugget happy meal. i visited with emily from about 1 to 3. when i got home i hung out with brad a little and watched 'die hard 2'. around 5pm i started getting contractions. they were like 5 minutes apart. patty made potato hamburger helper for dinner. i said that i was going to watch 'Lost' and if my contractions hadn't slowed down i would go to the hospital. i started watching 'american idol' and by 7:45 the contractions were so constant and painful i told brad i wanted to go ahead and go to the hospital.

brad was so good about not freaking out! although he kept speeding and saying the cops wouldn't care b/c i was in labor and i was getting upset saying if we wreck the cops wouldn't have a chance to pull us over...hehehe when we got to the hospital brad dropped me at the door then went to park the car. it was kind of funny b/c neither of us could remember where labor & delivery was. we walked and walked and couldn't even find anyone that worked at the hospital. finally some guy told us it was on the 3rd floor and we found it. patty came a little while later.

to make this a little shorter they admitted me and put an iv drip in for the pain. after 9 hours of one contraction after another i was still only dilated to a 5. my nurse, teresa, asked me if i wanted to continue being in pain or if i wanted an epidural. i was scared to death but i'm also a BIG baby and i couldn't take the pain anymore. brad held my hands and it hardly hurt at all. i know everyone says you should try to have your baby naturally but that was the first time in months that i felt no pain! it was amazing! i got the epidural at 2am.

i slept pretty good after that. except for every hour when they came in to examine me. around 9 am i was still between a 5 and 6 so they said at noon they would induce. no one came in until 1:30. after they induced me i got really hot and dizzy and i couldn't breath. they gave me some oxygen and told me to relax.

after that it was kind of a blur. they examined me, the nurse told the other nurse to go get the doctor and they had me turn over on my knees and put my elbows on pillow. i was in so much pain. it felt like he was coming out already. it was also a little awkward with my butt in the air and brad and his mom sitting in chairs at the end of the bed but i couldn't think of anything but the pain. i kept asking what was wrong and all they gave me was that he had "nose dived". i didn't know what that meant but they started wheeling me into surgery.

they put me on the operating table and i heard them saying they didn't have time to put me to sleep. i heard someone ask why they had done and epidural and someone said it was already in there. they said they were going to do a c-section and put a blanket up in front of my face. i remember they kept asking me if i could feel it and i could and i was crying and scared. finally they got me numb enough to start. they said it wouldn't be a sharp pain. they should have said it would feel like someone is ripping out your insides and someone else is pushing around your insides with as much pressure as they could! the anesthesiologist and nurse donna were so good about telling me what was going on and when i couldn't take the pain i asked them to just talk to me and they were really nice. the sound of van crying was the most beautiful sound i ever heard!

i kept asking if he was ok and if he had 10 fingers and 10 toes. when they told me he was perfect and they held him up for me to see i really cried. i told them they had to let brad know we were ok. i couldn't imagine how scary it would be for him for them to just take us away and not let him come.

of course the worst part wasn't over. they still had to sew me up! this hurt even more and it took even longer. just when you think it's finally over they say they have to push on you to get the rest of whatever out. talk about awful! i would have rather had him naturally with no pain medicine at all! when they finished my arms felt like they were asleep and i couldn't stop shaking so they had to lay van on me and wrap my arm around him for me. then they put me against the rail of the bed to hold him in.

it took about an hour after the surgery for the morphine to kick in and i was shaking so bad i felt like i was having a seizure!! all in all february 12, 2009 was the scariest and happiest day of my life!!!

Vanderlei Allan Pikey

born February 12, 2009 at 2:23 pm

7 lbs 0 oz and 20 1/4 inches long!

thanksgiving!

2008-11-28T06:49:00.001-08:00

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...

2008-11-26T09:08:00.000-08:00

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...

2008-11-25T15:17:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-11-18T15:39:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-11-17T13:41:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-11T11:49:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-09T15:41:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-09T14:53:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-01T17:14:00.000-07:00

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.

my first blog entry...ever!

2008-11-01T15:44:00.000-07:00

i'm married to a wonderful man who continues to amaze me daily! i used to wonder if i could spend every day with the same person and not need my space. and now i can't spend a day away and not miss my husband. he really does "cherish" me. his name is bradley allan pikey.

we're expecting our first baby. i'm exactly 6 months today! i'm due february 20th. it's a boy! after trying and trying to convince brad that van is a funny name if finally gave in. it's really growing on me. my baby van. his name will be van allan pikey. all i can think about out is how i just can't wait to hold him. i love him more and more everyday! i had my 3rd surgery for endometriosis in april and i always thought i would have to adopt if i wanted children so he really is my miracle baby!

we currently live in o'fallon, mo. we've lived here for a year now. i'm getting used to the "city" life. i miss the small town life but it is nice having everything so close. our lease runs out on our apartment the first of december. we had originally planned on moving to scott, la then to spend some time with my grandparents, uncle and cousins but with a baby on the way and me being a momma's girl we decided to stay in mo for a while. we're moving in with brad's parents until we find a bigger place to live. so hopefully just until van's born.

i was working full time for anderson merchandisers. although a hectic job i really enjoyed it and i was good at it. but my baby's health is so important to me that i quit. i got a part time job at curves. i think i'm going to like it a lot. it's a very relaxed environment and it encourages me to exercise and eat healthier.

brad works for a-z laminating. pretty much they make cabinets, dining room sets, and other furniture. he likes it there and it gives him an inside view on woodworking. his real dream is to build and customize bass guitars. he's working on his first one right now.

i've recently started dabbling in photography. i have no idea what i'm doing but i'm getting better. i got a professional camera in july and i'm finally getting the hang of it. i'm going to have to take a class on it and lighting and photoshopping before i'll really feel good about it. until then it's good to have a nice camera to capture all the wonderful moments in my life!