'Tis the Season

I'm a little behind on my blogging! I meant to have this post up a couple of weeks ago but, better late than never. We had a wonderful holiday season this year. It was busy- but that's the way I like it. By New Year's, Brandon and I were just ready to spend a night at home in our pjs. Here are a couple of pictures from Christmas I wanted to share!


This year, we declared our first ever "Grandkids Day." Us grandkids wanted to spend a little extra time with Grandmother around the holidays so we all decided to come together and make a day of it. We listened and sang along to Christmas tunes, decorated a fabulous Gingerbread house, made homemade pretzels for a snack, ordered pizza for lunch, and, most importantly, spent some time with Grandmother. We all voted to have "Grandkids Day" be an annual event!

Since I did not decorate a tree or put up any Christmas decorations this year (I know, I know- I'm a Scrooge!) I realized I did not have to match my wrapping paper to my decor. This gave me the opportunity to be really creative and outrageous with my color choices for wrapping paper- so I was! This is a picture of my "Who" (as in the Grinch) presents. I got bright colored paper and ribbon and decorated them just like all the Who presents in the movie. I thought they turned out really cute!

Brandon and I on Christmas Day at Nancy's.

I think Ruby got more presents that I did. I just could not resist giving her some gifts early, which meant I kept having to go back and buy more presents for me to wrap up! I did give her a Christmas scarf early so she could look festive on Christmas Day:)

St. Jude Marathon Weekend!

What a FUN weekend this was! The Brandons, Allie, and I all decided to participate in the annual St. Jude race in downtown Memphis. Thousands of people are involved in this event every year and it felt so good to be a part of such a great cause. Mom, Dad, and Will all came down to cheer us on, which made it even MORE fun!

Allie and I started training in October for the 5K run. After what my body had gone through the past couple of months, it was quite a challenge getting back into shape. I used to run quite often, so thankfully my body remembered that! This however, was my first real organized run, so I was very excited. I was so proud of myself and Allie- we finished faster than we did in all our training runs. Brandon C ran the half marathon, and we were all waiting at the finish line to cheer for him. This was so much fun and I can definitely see us all participating again next year!

Life Goes On

I've been procrastinating with this post. I almost skipped it completely because I knew it would be hard to write about everything that has happened in the past few months. But then I realized that just because this is not necessarily a "happy" post, it doesn't have to a negative one. I didn't want to not address the past few months, because it is a part of mine and Brandon's life, and this blog is dedicated to just that.

Around my fifth month of pregnancy, Brandon and I learned that there were several complications associated with the baby. We were sent immediately to a high-risk pregnancy physician to get more information on his condition. After extensive tests and ultrasounds, we learned that our little man had what they refer to as a Trisomy 18. This means that he had 3 chromosomes of #18 instead of the normal 2. This is a very serious condition, and most babies that have this do not make it.

Brandon and I were devastated when we learned the news. Our little boy was already so much a part of our lives, and the thought of losing him seemed so unbearable. Around the 22nd week of my pregnancy we did, in fact, lose him.

After going through what seemed to be the hardest 3 weeks of our lives, Brandon and I learned that life does go on. We are surrounded by a wonderful group of family and friends. We have loving parents that support us and our decisions. We both have great jobs that we both enjoy. We are happily married, and will always have each other to lean on. And lastly, God had blessed me with the most wonderful sister in the world. Without her support through this ordeal, I don't know how I could have survived. She is my sister and my best friend- all rolled into one! So to Allie- you will never know how grateful I am to have you.

I will now move on to happier posts; ones that talk about fun events, family get-togethers, etc. I don't want to forget all that has happened- I just don't want it to be painful to remember. And, as life goes on, it will get easier.

Tennessee Road Trip

I had so much fun this past weekend on my little road trip across Tennessee! I drove into Jackson Thursday night after work to spend the night at my parents.On Friday morning I got up and headed to Knoxville to see my good friend Diana and her new baby boy, Kiser. Diana and I were so close in pharmacy school but ever since she moved to Knoxville we don't get to see each other often. This was the first time we have visited in over 2 years! Needless to say, it was a great visit. Her 10 week old baby boy, Kiser, is the most adorable baby I have ever seen.

Friday night I drove to Pigeon Forge to meet up with Allie for the weekend. We found a wonderful little Italian restaurant to eat dinner at. Afterwards, we were both too tired to do much else so we decided to have a fun little PJ party back at the hotel and watch.........QVC!! Yeah, good times! After watching the Friday late night QVC special showing, we decided it was absolutely necessary for us to go get some Bare Escentuals makeup the next day. The QVC people told us we could not live without it!

Saturday morning we were up bright and early and ready to shop til we drop! We hit the outlet mall in Sevierville first. We found a couple of cute outfits for baby Max, stocked up on some fall scents from Bath and Body Works, and bought some really cute boots and jean jackets from Old Navy and Gap! Success!

After lunch at Shoney's, (yes, that's right- I said Shoney's! We are Mark Hopper's daughters after all:) we drove into Knoxville to hit the West Town Mall. First stop was, of course, Bare Escentuals. We purchased our must-have products that Leslie from Bare Minerals insisted we needed! We then found a cute little Mexican restaurant to eat dinner at before heading to the movies to watch Step Up 3D!

Sunday morning we went to the Titanic museum before I left. It was absolutely amazing! Apparently it is the largest collection of Titanic memorabilia anywhere! It was well worth the $25 dollar admission fee.

I then started on my road trip back to Memphis. I stopped in Nashville to meet up with one of my old Zeta sisters, Nicole. She has recently moved back to Tennessee and we are just starting to reconnect. We had the best time catching up over lunch! Our lunch date also helped to break up the long drive back. Allie let me borrow a book on tape (by Sophie Kinsella) to listen to while I drove. Books on tape are now my new obsession. I LOVED it! I was almost finished when I got back to Memphis, so I had to listen to the last little bit on my laptop before bed!

It turned out to be a fabulous weekend! I had so much fun catching up with old friends and hanging out with my sister!