Babymoon!

Well, it's getting towards the end of the pregnancy and we decided that we wanted to get away from the house for a little while one last time before the baby comes. Since Bradley's work schedule is picking up on the weekends, we thought that this week was our best bet to get away. We went to Boone (which we both LOVE to go to) and it ended up snowing! We were able to see Jarrett and Lara and meet their precious newborn Colby. It was a quick overnight stay, but it was wonderful.

We had just pulled up to the hotel and it was just starting to snow. The snow got heavier as the day progressed and really started coming down that evening. Unfortunately, my feet have been swelling so I'm limited to wearing crocs all of the time so my socks were kind of wet if I stepped in the snow. But, I didn't care...I was just so happy to be in Boone!


We were on our way to meet Jarrett and Lara for dinner. This time I decided to bundle up, but I still had those crocs on! :)


Sweet Colby Whiteside. He is so precious!

Not only did we get to hang out with Jarrett, Lara and Colby, but we were able to go out to dinner at a yummy Japanese place. What a treat!

When we got back to the hotel the snow was really coming down! We rarely get photos of us together in the snow so we couldn't pass this up!

The next morning the snow had tapered off around 11:00 so on our way out of town we decided to drive up to a high point in Boone to overlook the town. About halfway up, we came across a wrecker truck trying to get someone out of a ditch. So, we were forced to back down the mountain (not far, but it was still scary) to the nearest driveway so that we could turn around. I was totally scared and could feel my heart pounding! The funny thing too was that the baby started to react to my nervousness...he/she started kicking and punching like you wouldn't believe! Thankfully we were turned around safely and just started to head home. This pic is of the mountainside as Bradley was backing down. I was trying to take my mind off of what we were doing. :)

On our way out of town we drove by Jarrett and Lara's new house to take a pic during the day. (We'd seen it the night before but it was too dark to take a pic). This picture is taken from the road as we were making our way to their house. I just think that this area of the state is so breathtakingly beautiful!

Jarrett and Lara's new home. They should be moving into it any day now. We can't wait to visit them in their new home. It is beautiful!

Working on the nursery!

Over the last few weeks, Bradley and I have finally begun working on setting up the nursery. We have pulled up the old carpet and put down new carpet (thanks Papa), painted the base boards and put them back on and put together all of the furniture. It's still not a finished product, so I'll post more pics once I get it all set up. :)

Old carpet has been pulled up and the new padding and carpet is ready to be installed.

Bradley is putting the base boards back on after I sanded them down and painted them. I felt so accomplished that I actually did some "work" on the room. Yes, I used sand paper! He he he!!(We painted the walls the color that we wanted when we moved into our house last year and I'm just keeping that color and accenting it with greens and cream colors for the baby.)

Bradley is putting together my glider.

And here am I enjoying the glider! Thankfully he put this together first, so when he was putting together the crib I had a place to sit other than the floor (it is getting more and more difficult to get off of the floor lately).

I love the crib.

And finally we put together the stoller (which is a total travel system with a baby carrier and everything). I just can't wait to put my precious little child in this room!

New Year's Eve

This year for New Year's, we invited some friends over for lasagna. We had a wonderful time with everyone and are so thankful for the friendships that we have here in Coats. 2009 will be a wonderful year for us all because everyone that came to our house will either have a new child of their own in '09 or will have a new child (or 2) in their family. Bradley and I truly had a blessed 2008 and look forward to what 2009 will bring us. Happy New Year!

Bradley's Duck Hunting Trip

Who wants to get up at 2:30 am to go duck hunting on a cold December morning? These 3 guys do. Tyrus, Chad and Bradley went hunting the day before we went to Texas for Christmas.

Bradley hunting.

Bradley with the ducks they all got.

Tyrus' dog, Leroy.

Chad, Bradley and Tyrus. Is this before or after Tyrus fell in the water...:) Must be before...he looks dry.

I think this is Chad. :)

Merry Christmas!

Angy helped Santa put out presents for the boys on Christmas Eve.

John and Bradley put together Charlie's new Diego bike.

Charlie LOVED his bike that Santa brought him. He didn't want to open any other presents after he saw this.

Charlie's showing off his new Diego helmet, elbow pads and knee pads. He wore them all morning.

Bradley received a new camo jacket to wear on cold mornings that he goes hunting.

Jake helped pass out presents to everyone at my parents house.

Charlie is waiting patiently while I take a toy out of a package.

Mom is giving Grandma a gift to open.

Christmas at the Tomlinson house.

Hanging out in TX

We LOVED spending time with our nephews Charlie and Jake this past week. Since we've seen them last they've both grown up SO much. Charlie can sing his ABC's and Jake has started school and lost 4 teeth!! We miss you boys!!


Bradley and I went to Cabela's one day while in Fort Worth. We love to go to the Bargain Cave there to see what kind of "deals" there are. Well, we found this amazingly huge 6 person dome tent. Since it was in the clearance, we wanted to make sure that we had all of the parts we were supposed to so that night we "conned" my parents into helping us set up the new tent in their enclosed back patio. :) We had a great time!

Bradley's reading the instructions to make sure that we are setting it up correctly.

Finished product...we love it! And the inside height is over 6 feet tall...which will be wonderful to be able to stand up inside the tent!

Charlie loves his Uncle Bradley! The last evening that we were in Fort Worth, Charlie told Bradley that his "face was awfully hairy". We all CRACKED up...where in the world does a 2 year old learn how to correctly use the word "awfully"?? So cute.

John and Angy

Why we celebrate

This year, Bradley and I will not be at home for Christmas...we'll be in Texas with our family. So, we decided last night to go ahead and exhange our gifts from each other (plus a few that our family had sent to us here at the house). One thing that we absolutely want to be reminded of throughout the Christmas season is why we celebrate Christmas and exchange gifts...especially now that we are starting a family.

Bradley and I celebrate Christmas because it is a time that we remember the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Jesus is God that came to earth as a man. He lived a sinless life and as a young adult took the punishment of death for all mankind. Man is sinful and is seperated from God and because of that we could never have an intimate relationship with God without Jesus's payment for our sins. When Jesus died, he took the sins of all people. The miraculous part of the story is that Jesus did not stay dead. He rose from the dead, conquering death and sin for us all. Now, in order for a person to have a relationship with God, all we must do is acknowledge that we are sinful, that Jesus paid our debt and accept his perfect Gift that He gave us. Both Bradley and I have this relationship with God and enjoy a relationship with Him. We want all people to know about this and throughout our lives will be sure to keep Jesus in the forefront of our family's minds so that our children will know why we really celebrate Christmas...the birth day of our Lord.


Papa (our cat) was interested in what we were doing.


Bradley's about to open one of his gifts.


Thanks Angy and John for the baby food "cook" book! I can't wait to look through it.


Bradley loves his "fishing" cart that my parents got him. He can load up all of his fishing gear on this cart and take it to the beach with him. That way he doesn't have to make a dozen trips to the truck for all of his stuff! Thanks Mom and Dad!


I LOVE my new food processor! Hopefully I'll be using it lots!!

15 weeks to go...

Well, I'm at the point now where I've decided to count down instead of continuing to count up. Our baby is definitely moving around tons now and I've begun to notice patterns of his/her movements. Most noticebly...it moves a lot in the mornings and after I eat. I think it's going to take after it's dad...ha ha ha...

Working on the fence

Bradley took on a huge project when we moved into our house. We live on almost 3/4 of an acre of land and probably 1/2 an acre is our backyard. Well, in Fort Worth we really got spoiled with our privacy fence and really wanted one here too. Problem is...here in NC, privacy fences (and actually no fence at all) is more of the style. So, we rarely see fences on the properties around here. So, we knew that we would have to likely put one in wherever we bought. And this was true for this place too. But, Bradley has a great amount of construction experience and figured out how much lumber to buy and how many fence posts and panels etc that we'd need. But, it just took a lot of time to do. It rains a lot here, it was really hot this summer and when he had his accident a few months ago he couldn't work on it at all until he healed enough. But, finally we're done. Or as Bradley says..."99.9% done". :) He's still got a few things to do on it...but for the most part we're done. Our backyard is completely enclosed and on Wednesday we were finally able to let Baxter run around, leash free, for the first time in months! I'm SO proud of Bradley and actually never thought that I'd get so much joy from the look of a privacy fence. I love it and am so thankful for Bradley's persistance with the project.

On a side note, I didn't help with hardly any of the project (most of it was heavy lifting and very physical labor...and that is NOT for me!). :) Well, on Wednesday Bradley was able to find a project that I could do. There were a few extra boards that needed to be nailed onto each panel so he showed me how to use the nail gun and off I went...6 months pregnant. :) But, I had a great time with it. I felt like I was getting a good workout and helping my husband and my dog too! :) But, let me tell you...I was SORE that night and the next day...that nail gun is kind of heavy!




Look at the awesome looking fence!

Baby Names

While I was in Fort Worth Jake told me that he thought that our baby was going to be a boy. So, I asked him if it was a boy, then what should we name him? He suggested "Megatron" (which is some kind of super-hero something or other). Stiffling a laugh, I asked what other name he'd suggest. He said "Optimus Prime" (who is a Transformer). Well, at this point I was totally cracking up. I told him that I didn't think that those names would be ideal for a little boy since they were super heros. I asked him to suggest a little boy name. He said "Charlie" and I said that we already had a Charlie in our family (his little brother). So he suggested another super hero..."Bumble Bee" (another Transformer). Oh well...I may not have any new baby names but I sure did get a good laugh out of it!