Take Time to Appreciate and Remember...

While many of us will be celebrating the long weekend with cookouts, an American summer tradition.....remember to take the time to appreciate all of the men and women in the Armed Forces. Another American tradition, protecting our freedom and liberty, should be our focus. Many men and women have fought and fallen for the rest of us to be able to have all the luxuries of living in a free nation. So, take some time to remember...........

Memorial Day is also the official kick off of summer!!! Yea for summer!


What will we be doing this summer??

Well, Michael will be policing. ( I think that is a word. If not, I just made it up.)

And I will be studying. Yes, back to the graduate school work! I am proud to say that is down hill from here. I have met the half point, and now I am on the other side! Two classes in June and one in July.

No worries, we will make plenty of time for relaxing and fun! Michael's brother, Brandon, is GETTING MARRIED! We will be getting our nursery ready! and enjoying the last few months with just the two of us:)

Baby Registry-Check!

This weekend, Michael and I registered baby Audrie at BabiesRUs! I was super excited, and when we got there....I got really overwhelmed! There is sooo much stuff for a baby! I think we registered for everything...but I am sure we missed something. After long hours of looking...we finally found a girl nursery that we love. Yes, it does have some pink, but no too much. I absolutely LOVE IT! I think the cow lamp is my favorite:)

This is a pic from the BabiesRUs website.

An Unexpected Sweet Surprise

On Friday, I got an expected sweet surprise from my 2nd period class. I get called from my room at the end of class to go see the counselor (little did I know, she was the staller). I was a little nervous, because I had never been called to see her. Fortunately, she just wanted to talk about the Orleans-Hannah test (Algebra test) I had recently given the students. (remember...just stalling) So, after I had said everything I thought I could say about it, she told me that my team had an impromptu meeting. I was thinking..."A parent conference on a Friday?" Well, when I walked in the room my students were all there and yelled "SURPRISE!" I had NO IDEA! Thanks to my lovely hormones (sarcasm), I cried. Not a lot..but a little. If you know me, I am not a crier. Anyways, the students had secretly been taking up money for a mini-baby shower for me. It was the sweetest thing ever! They definitely hooked me up!

To start off- 5 cute outfits

Then a laundry basket filled with goodies!
List of goodies in laundry basket:
diapers
baby wipes
baby laundry detergent
burping clothes
baby socks
cute clip-on frog
receiving blankets
super soft baby blankets
Snug-Hug head support 2 in 1
dishwasher basket for baby bottles

Then, a diaper bag filled with even MORE goodies!

List of goodies is diaper bag:

baby bottle scrubber

pacifiers

butty cream

diaper sacks

baby bottles

Johnson's baby wash

Johnson's baby lotion

Johnson's baby powder

Also, they gave me a Winnie the Pooh baby bouncer! (sorry, no picture of that) I was so taken back....I was left speechless! I feel so blessed to be surrounded but such wonderful children and co-workers. Thank you Kathleen, I know you were the master-mind behind all of this.

I was really excited that the majority of the gifts (excluding some of the outfits) were neutral :) I know that might sound strange to some, but I like to think that I can use stuff for more than one child. I can't help that I am Ms. Practicality. Yes, I will get some special girly stuff too. But, I really do like and appreciate neutral presents.

Which leads me to my next topic-The Nursery. I have NO CLUE how I should decorate it! I had originally said that I would NOT do pink, BUT I am finding some really cute nursery's with pink. But, I also like brown and turquoise together or yellow is pretty too! I will take any suggestions.

BABY CASE IS A..........

GIRL!!!!

Yesterday, Michael and I got the joy of finding out our precious baby is a GIRL! I have to admit that I was completely surprised, and so was Michael and everyone else we told. I totally thought baby Case was a boy. And, man was I wrong! But, that is perfectly okay. It made the surprise that much sweeter. I absolutely loved having the sonogram. She tossed, turned, flipped, and did all kinds of moving around. The sonogram tech even made a comment about it. I just thought to myself, "I am sure that Starbucks mini drink I had on the way has nothing to do with it (Can you detect my sarcasm?)" I wanted to make sure the baby was NOT asleep. I couldn't wait any longer. My plan worked :) We got to see her open and close her mouth, the sound of her heartbeat, and my favorite was when the tech was pushing pretty hard on my stomach...I could see little girl pushing back! The sono pic above is with little girl looking with her mouth open (my favorite pic)

little girl on her side

And no, we did not decide to name her little girl. Her name will be:

Audrie Louise Case.

We stuck with family names. The name is a combination of both of my grandmothers on each side. My dad's mom is Audrey, and my mom's mom was Louise. Also, my middle name (before being married) was Louise. I changed the spelling from Audrey to Audrie to be more like my name Katie. So, the -ey was changed to -ie.

We feel so blessed to have little Audrie in our lives. I know we still have 4 months left, but I can not wait to meet her!

Love you sweet baby girl!

Mother's Day 2010

Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms and Moms-to-Be!

I was excited to celebrate my very first mother's day this year. Of course, my sweet hubby made me feel special all day. We went out to eat for lunch @ Sweet Peppers. Then, he gave me the perfect present:)

Before church on Mother's Day- 18 weeks

The perfect present-Willow Tree figurine-Cherish (pregnant woman) and sweet card

To Our Mommas
Michael and I have been very blessed to have been raised by wonderful, loving, nurturing, caring, Christian women. We both cherish our moms dearly. They are truly irreplaceable! Today is all about them! We love you both!

Back to the Blog World

Yes, I know it has been over a month since a blogged, but I am back now! April was crazy busy. This is mainly due to me having to do 3 to 4 hours of graduate school work every night after working all day. I am not complaining, because I did it to myself...kind of. I decided to take six hours of graduate school work this semester, after the decision, I found out I was pregnant. Nothing can prepare you for the tiredness you feel during the first trimester of pregnancy. I mean I knew I would be tired, but I did not know 12 hour "naps" were possible until now. Needless to say, not much graduate school work got done during this time. I am not a procrastinator, but nature took over. So, I basically had to complete the majority of my work during the latter part of March and April. Thank goodness for the second trimester and the return of some energy and appetite!

But, all the hard work paid off. I am officially half way through with my master's degree! YEAH!!! I am going to talk nine hours this summer and take the fall semester off, so when baby Case gets here, I will only have 2 classes left. At least this is my plan for now:)

Since I am on the subject of school, I have some congratulations to hand out-

1. Big Brother, Luke- finished his first year of law school!

2. Little Brother-in-Law, Corey-finished his Senior year of high school!

3. My BFF, Emmylou- completed Law School!!! I will also add, she kicked butt in law school! In fact today is her graduation day! I wish I could be there. LOVE YOU EMMYLOU-WHOOO!

Okay, I know Easter was a while ago, but I never blogged about it. My momma and Benny came to visit Easter weekend. It was so good to see them. I got some quality mother-daughter time :) We went shopping for maternity clothes, and yes, we racked up on some deals. Why pay full price when you don't have to?

The pics are from Easter morning before church.

Momma and Benny

Me and my handsome hubby:)

Answer me this....when did my sweet little Colby turn from a little puppy....

to a full grown dog???

This our Colby full grown, but he is still ALL puppy. He doesn't understand the words "no" and "don't jump." We are trying to train him...trying is the key word. He is lucky that he is cute. It is his redeeming feature. We do love him very much too, but he just have sooo much energy. Michael always teases me and says that Colby is MY dog. But, it is so obvious Colby is more attached to Michael. For instance, one Saturday Michael was mowing the front yard. I could hear Colby crying/whimpering in the backyard. Well, I assumed that the loud noise must be hurting his ears (since dogs do have more sensitive ears than us). Well, I open the door for him to come in. The noise did not hurt his ears. He went straight for the window just so he could watch Michael mow! So, whose dogs is he??? The proof is in the picture.

Speaking of mowing....my husband LOVES to mow the yard. In fact, we will water the yard in hopes that the grass will grow quicker, so he can mow again. I posted pictures of our little rose bushes.

They were beautiful! I use "were" because when we had the tornado weather, all the little blossoms got rained off or blew off. They were really nice while they lasted. I was proud of them!

This week was TEACHER APPRECIATION WEEK! I hope everyone loved on their teachers this week. At our school, we got to wear jeans all week, and they gave us little goodies each day:) Now, I teach 7th graders, so really didn't expect anything from any of my students. Normally at this age they don't want anybody to know that they like their teachers. It would not be "cool."

So, I got a wonderful surprise on Friday morning. One of my sweet little students brought me a precious little gift of baby booties and a hat. Yes, I teared up, because they were so adorable! and yes, I showed them off to everyone:) Can you blame me?

Then, another student brought me this rose! How thoughtful! I also got some really precious cards. What a fabulous way to end teachers appreciation week!

Okay, here are my baby bump pics. I only have two so far. I guess I need to be better about taking them.

I think I am about 13 weeks here.

I am 17 weeks here. We find out Monday, May 17th @ 3:00 whether baby Case is a boy or girl!

I can't wait!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NINA!

Today, is Nina's birthday, so happy b'day!

I think I am all caught up now!

By the way, Whitney, I agree with Emmylou. I am ready for you to start a blog!