Maternity Pics!!

Our friends, Justin and Ashley, came over to our house recently and took some AMAZING maternity pictures for David and I.  We could NOT be more pleased with how beautiful they turned out!!  Here's a quick preview:

To see the rest of the pictures, go to http://bradley8009.zenfolio.com/p1032833773.  I promise to update with a new post VERY soon. 

We love you!

Happy Father's Day, David!!

Happy Father's Day to my amazingly wonderful husband, David!!  Although Grayson hasn't yet made his appearance, I have been able to (and continue every day to) see what a fantastic daddy David is going to be.  Grayson and I are so blessed!!!  We love you!!

David had to work this weekend, so he didn't get to make the trip to Humboldt to celebrate Father's Day with my family.  Instead, my brother and I drove up to my parents' house and spent the afternoon.  We gave Dad a firepit (which, after seeing, now I really want one!), and then cooked-out.  We also rode around on all of Dad's "toys," including his mule and motorbike.

It was a lot of fun.  It was HOT, but still a lot of fun.

Speaking of hot, this heat is just AWFUL!

The heat index has been above 100 degrees all week long, and it has been getting more and more difficult to stay comfortable.  I am in and out of my car so much during the week that, just as soon as I get cooled off, it's time to get back out in the heat again!  Today, I spent more time outside than I had all week, so I am hoping that helped to acclimate me a little better.  We shall see, I suppose. I wish every day that we will have rain...at least a little shower!  So far, no real rain, and no real relief.  UNTIL......

(Ignore what I am wearing in this picture.  :)  I had put on a pair of David's shorts because they were just SOOOOOO comfy!  HA!)

That's right!  David surprised me (and Grayson!) by purchasing a pool!!!  Oh, I am so excited.  When we went to Target to get it, I just couldn't stop smiling.  I can't wait to just go "jump in" whenever I want to!!!! YAY!  I am so so so so so so happy!!!!  :)  We (well, David) is still working on getting it set up...but, I am still excited because I know I'll be able to take a dip as soon as I get home from work tomorrow!!  :)

(Cordi did a GREAT job of supervising Mommy and Daddy!!)

Bailey and I just came back in a few minutes ago...she was WORN OUT!

I hope all the dads in my life had a wonderful Father's Day!!!  We love you!

P.S.  I have been asked to keep the "preggo pics" coming...I guess my family and friends that don't see me every day are interested (for whatever reason) in watching me get fat!  HA!
Anyway, here is a picture taken today.  I am 31 weeks and a few days....so 31 weeks.  (And, again, please forgive how I look.  I was exhausted from being in the heat all day and getting ready to lay down for a nap!!)

Who will he look like??

So, I was looking through some of our old pictures, and I am wondering who Grayson is going to look like...

Here is a picture of me as a baby:

And here is a picture of David as a baby:

Who do YOU think Grayson will look like when he is born?

Everything is perfect!

It's another quiet Saturday at the Bledsoe house.  We both slept in this morning (which was soooooo nice), and then we just spent some time being lazy.  We don't have many of these days, and I know we won't be able to have many more of them in the future, so we tried to enjoy it while we can!  We have finished up a few more things in the nursery, and are just waiting for the last few items to arrive in the mail.  I cannnot wait until it all comes together!  I was surprised yesterday with some presents from one of the kids that I work with: a bouncy seat and a tummy-time mat!  So, I spent some time this morning putting the bouncy seat together.  Bailey was very very curious about what Mommy was doing, so we had her check it out:

I think she was comfortable!  :)

In other baby news, I love love love my doctor, Dr. Dewane, for many reasons.  BUT, this week, I "fell in love" just a little more.  I went in for my 30 week check-up, as well as a shot for being Rh negative.  (By the way, I HATE shots, and this one was no fun!)  Anyway, the nurses went through the whole routine of weighing me (I have gained 7lbs in 3 weeks!!! Ooops!), checking Grayson's heartrate, peeing in a cup, etc.  (I LOVE the nurses, too!!  They are WONDERFUL!)  After a few minutes, Dr. Dewane walked in the room and said, "Esther, everything is perfect: Grayson's heartrate is perfect, your weight is perfect, your blood pressure is perfect.  Everything is perfect!"   Ahhhh!  I love it!  :)  David and I couldn't be more blessed to have such a perfect pregnancy!!  :)  And, while I'm talking about baby stuff, here are the most recent pictures at just over 30 weeks:

I don't really think that I look that much bigger than I did at 26 weeks, but I definitely FEEL bigger.  It has been so much fun seeing how much my body changes, even with each day!  I feel really blessed that I have only gained 21 pounds this entire pregnancy so far, and as long as Grayson is healthy and strong, that's all that matters!!

We finally received the nursery bedding....his room is really starting to come together!  I think most of you know that we had planned on doing a sock monkey themed-room, but the cost of the bedding and accessories was just outrageous!  So, we changed our mind and went with a monkey theme (with sock monkeys being included, of course!).  Here is the bedding:

I think it turned out really cute!  Now, we are just waiting for some "things" to put on the wall that we ordered from Etsy, and then the room will finally be done!  YAY!

There isn't much other news here at our house.  We are just trying to survive this hot weather, and spending as much time together as we can!  As always, thanks for thinking enough of us to read about our lives!  We love you!!!

29 weeks and counting...

Well, today wasn't as easy of an ultrasound as we expected, but we were still pleased to get some good looks at our little boy.  We arrived at the office, and as soon as the ultrasound started, Grayson started kicking and punching.  It was really neat to feel him move and then see him move at the same time!  Unfortunately, I was having contractions most of the session (which I have been having all weekend), so it made it hard for us to get a good view--he was laying with his arm in front of his face, and he just didn't want to move!

Lori, our friend who was so awesome to do the ultrasound, showed us his little feet, his little hands (which were fists punching mommy most of the time), and all his internal organs.  It was so amazing to see his spinal cord, ribs, all the chambers of his heart, and the parts of his brain.  And, my biggest relief, he is indeed a boy!  (I had a nightmare this week that we went in for the ultrasound at found out that we were having a girl instead...I only say it's a nightmare because of all the preparing we have done for our little boy!)

I just LOVE his little chubby cheeks, and I can't wait to meet him and kiss all over him.  David and I have really enjoyed deciding who he looks like and what features he gets from each of us.  :)

Also, here are some pictures of Grayson's room as it looks right now.  We ordered the bedding, so it will hopefully be getting here in the next few weeks, and then we have some special things to hang on the walls.  I promise to update with pictures as soon as it's all complete!!!  :)

12 more weeks?!?!?!

There hasn't been too many exciting things going on in the world of the Bledsoes since last week. 
Last Friday, I defended my comprehensive exam....and passed!!  WOOHOO!!!!  I am one step closer to graduation--and praying that I can make it through my dissertation and graduate in August!!  But, passing my comps is a huge relief.

Last weekend, Karen and Adam (David's sister and brother-in-law) came into town to visit.  They arrived on Friday afternoon (after an eventful trip), and stayed until Sunday afternoon.  On Friday night, I met them and David in Overton Square, and we ate at Bayou Grill...yummy!!!!  It was delicious, and so much fun to hang out with!  After dinner, we decided to stop and get some dessert: a chocolate french silk pie.  Well, when we arrived home, as David was eating a piece, he set his pie on the table.  Before we knew it, Bailey ate some of the pie!!  It was so funny! 

On Saturday, I woke up early, and went to get my hair done.  It was so nice to have some time to myself, and, trust me, my hair needed to be done....BAD!  The rest of the day was spent just relaxing and hanging out.  Then, Saturday night was our first baby shower!  :)  David's friends, Ashley and Donna, organized an amazing couple's cookout/baby shower for us.  We had so much fun visiting with our friends, and Grayson was blessed with some awesome gifts.  It's hard to believe that he is due to arrive in less than 12 weeks!!!!

Sunday, we all slept in, and then ate a homemade breakfast that my amazing husband made.  Karen and Adam left in early afternoon, and David and I spent the rest of the day spending time in our new upstairs room.  I was so excited about getting Grayson's bouncy chair and swing at the shower, that I just had to put them together!  I also worked on organizing some of his nursery...although there still is a LOT to do.  It's all starting to come together, though...I can't wait until it's done and he is spending time in it!  Overall, we had a GREAT weekend...I certainly did not want Monday to roll around again.

The rest of this week was spent with work, work, and more work.  David has been more than patient as I navigate my way through this new job, and I appreciate him more and more every day!  I know that I am very very lucky because he has arranged his schedule to stay home with Grayson during the week for the first four months.  I am not sure how many husbands would do that, so I am definitely not taking it for granted. 

This weekend, we are in Nashville spending some with David's family.  I think this weill be the last time that we will get to travel to visit them before Grayson makes his arrival.  Then, this next week, we are going for our 4d ultrasound...one of David's friends hooked us up with this amazing gift, and we are sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo excited!!!  It will be neat to see how much Grayson has changed in that past 9 weeks.  I will be sure to post the pictures so you all can see!!

We love you so much!!!

Our first shower

Last night was Grayson's first baby shower, and, again, David and I were overwhelmed with how blessed we are to have the amazing friends that we do.  The shower was a couples' cookout shower held at Brad and Donna's house.  The food was DELICIOUS, the company was wonderful, and we just had so much fun!  :)

As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, so instead of writing about it, I will just show you pictures:

I will write some more about our weekend (with Karen and Adam!) very soon!  :)

Hello, friends!

Well, it's been a crazy long time since the last time I updated.  But, since today is a cloudy, rainy day in the land of Memphis, I figured it would be the perfect day for an update!  Now, where to begin.....

The last several weeks have been absolutely insane in the Bledsoe house.  It all started with our emptying out the attic to get it ready for remodeling.  It took almost 3 weeks for it to get done, but we finally got it framed, wired, walls, new air conditioning, and floor.  It looks completely different, and we love it!!  As we were in the middle of remodeling, we ordered new carpet for our entire house.  What an adventure that was!!  Since we were getting carpet in every room and closet (except the kitchen), we had to get EVERYTHING that sat on our floors up off the floor.  What a job!  Plus, on top of everything, I had to study and sit for my comprehensive exams: 2 days of 7 hours of writing answers to essay questions.  Needless to say, I was overwhelmed!  Anyway, we finally got the house ready for carpet, and almost 10 hours after the workers arrived, the house looked like new!  I think putting everything back where it goes was more overwhelming than taking it all apart, but the carpet looks GREAT! We absolutely could not be happier with our decision!  :)

Once the carpet was done, we picked out paint and a ceiling fan for our new bonus room.  We also ordered Grayson's crib and changing table/dresser!  We have had SUCH a hassle finding his furniture, so I was relieved when we found some online for a really good deal!  We ordered it the day that the carpet was being put it, and got the changing table dresser about 4 days later.  I couldn't believe how quickly it came!  Unfortunately, the crib was put on backorder...I got an email that said it wouldn't be available until May 25, and I was soooooooooooooo bummed!  (David calls this kind of thing the "Bledsoe curse," and I am starting to believe it really does exist!!)

This past week has been probably the craziest of all.  David painted the bonus room, and we put together Grayson's changing table/dresser.  We love it!  And, the best surprise of all was, literally in the middle of us putting together the changing table/dresser, the doorbell rang.  We ran downstairs to find...our crib!!  YAY!!  So, David started putting together the crib one day this week, and, when it's finished, the room is really going to start coming together!  :)  Then, yesterday, we finally moved furniture into the bonus room.  We have our futon, coffee table, tv stand, tv, desk, and a bunch of other stuff in there.  I am sooooooo glad that it's finally done!  We have to wait for DirecTV to come and set up the satellite, so we can't watch TV up there yet, but we are really excited to have our new room (and our house) complete!  :)

Work has been fabulous the past couple weeks.  It's been crazier than ever, but it's been so rewarding.  Luckily, David is the most amazingly supportive husband in the whole world, and he has been so very understanding with me as I navigate through all the learning that I have to do.  Also, I am blessed with a fabulous boss who encourages every step of the way.  I really have learned so much,  I couldn't be happier with my new job!!!

And, of course, Grayson is still doing wonderfully!  He has really started to kick Mommy HARD!  I love the feeling of it!!!  My favorite part of everything, though, is watching how exciting David gets about every part of us being pregnant: Grayson kicking and moving, getting the room set up, and talking about the dreams we have for our son.  This is absolutely the most magical time I have ever experienced!!!  I go back to the doctor tomorrow for my glucose test.  I am definitely not looking forward to drinking the nasty stuff, and then sitting there for an hour, BUT, I am making the best of it: I plan on taking some work with me that I need to get done...maybe that will take my mind off of what is actually going on.  HA!

I hope to get some pictures of our new room and Grayson's room sometime very soon so everyone can see.  We hope you love it as much as we do!!

Grayson and Mommy at 26 weeks pregnant!  :)

We love you!!!

I can't believe it's already Thursday!  This has been both the longest and the quickest week I have had in a long time.  I am liking my job more and more every day, although I am VERY ready for May, when I won't have to drive nearly as much.  I am also learning that I am going to love the people I work with--the system isn't something I adore, but I certainly enjoy spending time with my clients.  :)

We have started the reconstruction of our upstairs, which has been an adventure in itself.  So far, I love how it is turning out.  Now, if it would just hurry up and be finished so we can move stuff in!  For now, we are holding off on working on the nursery, which I am actually very relieved about.  I don't think I would have time to even think about it in the midst of everything else!  Plus, I'm working a lot of long days this month (which is the other reason that I am looking forward to May), so by the time I get home, I just want to spend time with my hubby and the doggies!  Once construction is done, though, I will be able to get the house a lot more organized, and then not feel so overwhelmed, I think....well, I hope.  HA!

Thank you for all the prayers, good thoughts, and concerns about my dad.  He is doing much better.  I actually got to see him on Monday of this week, and he doesn't have the boot on anymore.  His foot is still really swollen and bruised, and he said it hurts a lot.  And, most of his foot is completely dead to feeling due to the nerve damage.  Hopefully he will just keep taking care of it and going easy on it at work...we shall see!  I encouraged him to go back to the doctor for a check-up because the bruising is spreading up his leg.  I'm just not sure if that's a good sign or not!

Grayson is doing fabulous.  He is moving and kicking and doing flips in my stomach ALL THE TIME!   David has tried to feel him move a couple times (and I think he did once), but hasn't really felt it for certain.  Well, on Tuesday night, we were sitting and watching "Glee" and eating ice cream.  (Grayson LOVES when Mama eats ice cream!)  He started kicking a lot, so I told David to come over so he could feel it.  Well, David sat down and started talking to Grayson, and Little Man PUNCHED me really hard twice!  It was amazing.  I am so so so glad that David got to feel it, and know that that's what he was feeling.  I am so glad to finally have him share this part of it!!  :)  OH!  As I speak Grayson is kicking and punching me.  I love it!! :)

What a week!

Well, I have officially survived my first week at my new job.  In this past week, I put almost 500 miles on David's car, became the next UNO world champion, and successfully managed my first crisis.  My boss has told me that I have been doing a good job more than once, so I would say it was a successful week.  We'll see how this next week goes....

On Tuesday, I got a text message from my dad asking me if I heard what had happened to him that morning.  I hadn't, but I soon did.  My dad is a tow-truck driver, and he was taking a truck that one of his co-workers had loaded to Jackson.  He turned the corner, and said that the truck felt like it almost rolled right off, so Dad immediately pulled over to re-tighten and load the truck.  He unhooked it, and was moving to the other side of the flatbed when the truck started to roll backwards (straight at him)!  Dad moved out of the way before he got smashed, but his foot was crushed and stuck.  Dad was able to attempt to reach his arms out to flag down some cars passing on the highway, but no one stopped to help.  Finally, after about 10 minutes, he called 911 from his cell phone.  Unfortunately, if you don't already know, when you call 911 from a cell phone, they don't know your location.  So, it took Dad 3 times of telling operators what happened before he was connected to the Madison County department.  About a minute after he got off the phone, a state trooper saw Dad stuck and came running up to him.  Dad was able to talk him through what to do to release the truck from his foot.  Then, 2 more state troopers (who had heard the call go out on the radio and came to help because they just had a feeling it was my dad), an ambulance, Dad's boss, and co-worker all showed up.  Dad went to the hospital, and, thankfully, no bones are broken in his foot.  His ankle is crushed into his leg and he has no feeling in the back half of his foot or his heel.  He is in a walking cast for now, and hopefully will have no long-term tissue damage.  For now, everything is too swollen and black and blue for anyone to really look at it well.  I was able to go up and visit Mom and Dad this week, which I am VERY thankful for!!

On Friday, Sara and I went to Jennifer's house to say good-bye.  :(  She and her sweet little family moved to Nashville this weekend.  I am going to miss her so much!!!  I really enjoyed the visit of talking, laughing, crying, and loving on Baby Adalyn.  THANK YOU, Jennifer for the tips (and the presents...ha!)!  And, I promise I do know what a washcloth looks like!!!!  :)  WE LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!

Saturday was Ally's 7th birthday party for her church friends, but Mom and I drove down to join in the fun.  Ally had her party at Jump! in Southaven, and I think everyone was exhausted by the time we left.  After the party, we went to lunch, and then back to the Pollard Plank's house to watch Ally open her presents.  She really cleaned up!!  I can't believe that my little Bug is growing up so fast!  It seems like just last year that she turned 1.  She is such a sweet little girl with a HUGE heart, and I love her so much.  I am more than honored to be her Aunt.
After we hung out for a bit, I had a surprise email about some work that I had to take care of, which totally put me in a sour mood.  Mom and I decided shortly after that it was time to head home.  When I got back to Memphis, David and I drove out to Arlington to pick up a BBQ butt that we had ordered from our friend Justin's BBQ cooking team.  As we were driving home, we decided that we would stop by the Nissan place so that we could look more closely at the Rogues.  David had been researching them online, and we thought we would like one, but we wanted to see for ourselves.  We test drove one, and of course I fell in love.  Before I knew it, we had signed the papers and the Rogue was ours!!!  I was so happy, I cried.  (Yes, I am a DORK!)

It's the first brand new car I have ever owned.  :)  It will be just perfect for all the driving I am doing for my job AND for all the new baby stuff that I will have to start hauling around soon.  (And, I think Grayson loves it...he kicked the whole time we were signing the papers AND the whole way home!)  I woke up this morning and walked outside to make sure it was still in the driveway because I still can't believe we bought a car last night!  And, I HIGHLY recommend Wolfchase Nissan.  The guys there were GREAT, and they stayed 2 hours past their closing time.  (I know, they were getting a sale and all, but they really were very helpful and wonderful).

So, today we just plan on having a David and Esther day.  We haven't been able to have one of those in quite a while.  Of course, I have some work I need to finish up, and I am sure there are some errands we need to run....it wont' be a completely lazy day.  But, it will be fun just the same!  :)

I hope each of you have had a very happy and restful weekend.  We love you!