And that's a wrap!

I got to spend today shopping and getting a pedicure! That is the perfect way to end a wonderful year! 2009 was filled with many wonderful things for us:

celebrating our 1 year anniversary in our house
ending my successful first year of teaching in the Plano district
celebrating marriages of close friends
giving praise and experiencing much joy at the birth of friends' babies
our wonderful trip to the beach in Mexico
and the best of all - finding out we are pregnant and then finding out it is a girl!

We are going to Karson and Sharon's house tonight to celebrate New Year's Eve with friends, which is the perfect cherry on top! We are so unbelievably blessed!

Dear Father in Heaven,

Thank you for this year and all the wonderful memories it holds. Thank you for our many blessings. May we always remember that we are most blessed by the salvation that you have provided us through your son, Jesus. May our blessings be turned into praise to You. We pray for the new coming year and all that we look forward to experiencing.
Amen.

Our 2009 Christmas

We started our Christmas celebrations the weekend before Christmas with the Epperson side of the family. My parents are so great at making our Christmas seem like "the real thing" even if it is not on Christmas day that I kept finding myself thinking that Christmas was almost over. Then, I would get happy again when I realized we had a whole week to celebrate before Christmas Day even arrived! We went to my parents' house in Buda on Friday night after school was out and then on Saturday morning we woke up to open presents! We stayed through Monday morning and had a great time of catching up, hanging out, and movie watching!

The tree before gifts were handed out

Aaron, Jessica, Aaris, Titus, and Skylyn

Mark, me, and baby Charlotte

Dad, Grandma, Mom, and Jeremy

Titus sporting the Tony Romo jersey we gave him.

The cutest little Texas cheerleader ever!

Skylyn relaxing with Uncle Jeremy surrounded by wonderful dancing/singing characters.

After we got home on Monday, and after we checked on little Oreo of course, we headed over to Mark's parents' house. We no longer spend the nights like we used to. We are lucky to live close enough that we can sleep in our own bed and make sure Oreo isn't lonely at night. We had a great week of spending time with the Fowler family! It is so great to be able to catch up with Clay and Emily, and the kids are so fun to watch and play with. We were also so blessed to have Mark's grandmother, Wilmama, be able to join us this year!

Clay and Emily's dog Chopper. He loves to sit in laps! Every time he would hop into my lap he would lay his paws on top of Charlotte!

Grammy helping the kids dig into their presents!

Ben lighting the way with his lantern to help grammy unpack his new toy.

And here it is - a storm trooper helmet! It was no easy task for his dad and Uncle Mark to assemble, but he was so happy when it was finished. I think he might need to grow into it a little bit!

Merry Christmas everyone! We had a great week with both families!

All about the baby

Let's start with the fun things! Being that it is Christmas time, I had lots of opportunities to take pictures and got several belly shots.

22 weeks

24 weeks

Christmas Day - 25 weeks

As my pregnancy progresses, everything has become more and more about the baby, which I think is fabulous! More every day I want so desperately to hold her in my arms. I want to stroke her soft baby head, play with her little baby hands, and tickle those little baby feet. I have come close to saying, "I can't wait until she gets here." But, in actuality, I can wait. I will wait as long as I need to for our sweet Charlotte to grow into a healthy baby. So, from now on I am going to say, "I am excited for when she gets here."

Over Christmas, we were so blessed to receive some wonderful things for Charlotte. Here was her first ever Christmas gift! She got a pair of Longhorn booties from her Uncle Aaron, Aunt Jessica, and cousins Aaris, Titus, and Skylyn.
The next gift has a very special meaning. Mark's grandmother, who we call Wilmama, is a wonderful seamstress. When Mark's girl cousins were younger she sewed matching dresses for each girl and her cabbage patch doll. Those dresses have been saved all these years. Mark's cousin, Debi, and Aunt DD have passed along one of the dresses to Charlotte. It will be so special to put this on her next winter knowing that it was made and passed on in love.
Charlotte also received a beautiful sweater, pj set, and some toys from Santa!

The next section are some of my recent reflections on pregnancy.

Baby Kicks
I never realized how completely wonderful and miraculous it is to feel your baby kick and move. Even as I am typing, little Charlotte is moving around and I just absolutely love it. Yesterday during church, I looked down and my stomach was bouncing here and there from her little movements. I love that the other night, while I was laying in bed reading and Mark was listening to his ipod, his hand was on my stomach and we could both feel her move, move, move. It is a miracle that I didn't know I would cherish so much, but have come to love every flutter I feel. Those flutters (and large jabs!) remind me that my baby is thriving, growing, and that God is watching over her each day. Thank you, Lord, for the gift of our baby girl's kicks.

My growing stomach
It seems that every time I get dressed, I never know quite what to expect. I never before in my life realized how wonderful it was to have a wardrobe full of clothes that I knew fit and didn't have to think about while getting dressed. That is no longer the case! I joke that every day I have a wardrobe dilemma. I am so grateful for my friends and their never ending supply of maternity clothes that seem to keep coming out of the woodwork as I need it. I had to laugh the other night when I was getting ready for bed. I put on a tank top to sleep in and it was finally at the point that I could not longer stretch it down over my stomach. I just had to let my belly hang out!

What is that feeling?
There are several things that are happening to my body that I have never really experienced before, although I was aware of the possibility of them happening during pregnancy. The first would be my hot-naturedness. I have always been cold . . . my entire life. Well, not anymore! The last few Sundays in church I have been overwhelmed with how hot I can get in the auditorium. While the people around me are cold, including my husband wearing his coat, I am fanning myself and trying to fight off a sense of nausea caused from becoming too hot. On Christmas Eve morning I bundled up for the drive to Mark's parents' house. Halfway there, I was about to have a heat stroke! We had to turn the A/C on full blast right in my face while Mark shivered in the driver's seat.
Another thing is acid reflux. A week and a half ago when I was at the doctor for a check-up I told her I felt like I had food in my throat. She told me it was because I did have food in my throat and I was experiencing acid-reflux. I now cannot leave home without tums!
Finally, my mom told me she suffered from this a lot during her pregnancies, but I didn't expect it this bad - charlie horses in my calves! These are not a wonderful thing to wake up to in the middle of the night! The other night, I could have sworn that there was literally a golf ball under my skin because I could feel my muscle in a giant ball.
That all being said, I am not really complaining. I will happily deal with these things and more for the blessing of our baby girl!

Nursery
We are starting the first planning stages of our nursery! We have ordered and picked up her crib and changing table. However, they will stay in their boxes until the nursery is cleared and painted. Our goal is to have that done by the end of January! Anyone want to help? :) We also have purchased her bedding. It is so adorable!

Mark and I are both so very grateful that the first 25 weeks of pregnancy have been exciting and smooth-sailing, and are looking forward to the next 15!

12 days well spent :)

This year I decided to do the "12 Days of Christmas Movies". I started the weekend after Thanksgiving and would watch a movie a day as often as I could. I actually talked Mark into watching a few with me, but flew solo on most viewings. I ended the 12 movies on Dec. 23rd with Mark and my favorite Christmas movie of all time - A Christmas Story!

P.S. This post is dedicated to my movie-loving brother-in-law, Aaron!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all! We enjoyed an actual WHITE Christmas! Starting yesterday morning, it snowed. It took about half of the day before it started to stick. By last night, the sidewalks and streets were even covered in snow. This morning, it was still cold enough for us to wake up to a white Christmas. It is starting to melt now, but I will take what I can get!

Our house Christmas morning

My in-laws house Christmas Eve

Family photo session

This past weekend my family took professional pictures together. We were on location at the capitol building in Austin. The one with Mark and me in a gazeebo is extra special to us because that the spot where Mark proposed to me! Check out the slideshow!

http://cozyimpressionsphotography.com/Epperson/

Sweet baby girl

One of my best friends, Joy, and her husband, Kevin, just had a sweet baby girl. Reagan was born on Dec. 11th. Mark and I had the chance to visit them this past weekend when we were celebrating an early Christmas with my family. Reagan is an absolute doll! She was so sweet to hold and made me even more excited for the arrival of our little one. Congrats Joy and Kevin!

The rejected ones . . .

Every year we get the most beautiful Christmas cards from our friends and family. We also send out a card. For the past few years, we have borrowed Mark's parents nice camera and tripod. Of course, I always want to pick the best picture to send out. However, it is the ones that we did not pick that really show our true personality and make me laugh. Here are a few of the "rejected ones" this year.

Mark testing the shot and me . . . well I'm not really sure what I'm doing.

Our attempts to include Oreo in the family photo.

Dear Mrs. Fowler,

Last week my class went to our regular library time. We were about to do a project where the kids had to take a digital photograph, load it into Word, and print it on the computer. Another class was finishing up and gluing their pictures to their projects. My class was trying to listen to the instructions from the librarian, but the other class kept talking. When I got back to my room, I found a stack of letters on my desk. The teacher of the other class made every kid write me an apology letter for being so loud and disrespectful. I wanted to share some of them b/c they are hysterical. I will type them with the spelling/grammar mistakes, b/c they are better that way!

Dear Mrs. Fowler,
I'm sorry for yelling why your class was doing a lesson. And i am also sorry for you having to come over to use and say stop three loud times.

Dear Mrs. Fowler
I am sorry that we were not being quiet I am very sorry & I shouln't have treated you like that you teach us for IC & we do really fun expiraments & activities I promice that I will never do again & it's not fair you class does nout get to do the activity too your really a great teacher I'm glad your my tutering teacher.

:)

Merry Christmas to Us

This year for Christmas Mark and I decided that our gift to each other would be to go to the Big 12 Championship game to watch Texas play Nebraska. In the very last second of the game (literally) we got a VERY Merry Christmas! If you didn't watch this game, my friends, you missed an incredible one. It was the kind of game where you go through every human emotion in a matter of mere minutes. Crazy! As a huge fan, this is the kind of game you live for. There is nothing like a game that comes down to the wire when your team is the one that pulls it off! It actually made me think of the Rose Bowl game we went to on Jan. 1, 2005 when we beat Michigan by a field goal in the last seconds of the game. What a high! However, I must say that from a football standpoint, the amount of turnovers, mess-ups, lost chances, and bad officiating was ridiculous. I'm not so sure Charlotte enjoyed the whole experience. It was loud, exhilarating, and exhausting all in one. During the last minute and a half of the game my heart was beating at a very unhealthy rate. She was kicking away! I am SO glad I got to experience that game with my wonderful husband and I look forward to many more Longhorn games in the future! Merry Christmas Mark!

Outside the new Cowboys stadium

Our view of the field (we were in the top section!)

Love the Longhorn band!

My maternity Longhorn shirt

Before the game started - we didn't know what we were in for

Big 12 Champions!

Smiles of happiness and relief

I can't help myself!

I LOVE Christmas! I know that sounds very cliche because most people say that. But, I really do! I just love everything about Christmas. Here is a list of some of the things I love:

- putting up our Christmas decorations
- buying new decorations
- going to stores and seeing them filled with decorations
- putting up the tree and remembering the ornaments and where they came from. Some are so very special because they represent certain points and memories in our lives.
- turning on my Christmas tree each night after I get home from work
- saying "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays"
- all the Christmas music
- buying gifts for other people that I can't wait to give them
- making yummy Christmas sugar cookies
- all of the delicious homemade candy my mom makes
- visiting family - we really treasure time with Mark's brother and his family because we don't get to see them very often
- playing with my nieces and nephews
- playing Wii games with Mark's family
- opening a new ornament each year with my family
- Christmas movies
- driving around and looking at Christmas lights on houses
- the way my brother-in-law, Aaron, hugs each gift giver after he opens each gift
- that my mother-in-law, Nancy, puts on a Santa hat when we start opening gifts
- that fact that my family exclaims after each gift we open, and that I still do that when I am with Mark's family and they think it is funny
- wearing red or green on Christmas day. I have even got Mark to start following this tradition!
- the fact that someone (usually 3-4 people) will receive burnt orange Longhorn items as gifts in my family each year
- the fact that most people are in a happy and giving mood!

I could go on and on, but that would take forever! Here are some pictures of Mark and I decorating.

While we were at my parents' house for Thanksgiving, we helped put up the Christmas tree. Here was what Mark would prefer to do!

Mom and Jessica hanging ornaments

Skylyn is having a great time!

Unpacking Hallmark ornaments from their boxes

Putting together this tree is a whole family affair

Uncle Jeremy keeping Skylyn occupied