The greatness about the year 2009...

...the year Lola is born. The year Clay and I have expanded our family to three instead of two. The year we become parents! Clay and I are so excited to now have our own family. A real little family of three. So cute.

Lola is doing great. I don't think I mentioned my last appointment. It was easy and everything looked to be going perfect. My next appointment will be followed with appointments every two weeks now that I am in the home stretch!

I feel like I have been in a car accident though because Stace and I spent hours painting and working on the nursery and I moved and worked in ways my body isn't use to. My stomach is sore, my feet are bruised, and my back could be broken. Well, maybe not, but my exaggeration is just showing you, I am out of shape and in pain. I big thank you to Stace who spent her winter break hours helping me paint a heavily textured wall and ceiling, cleaning up the messes we made, scrubbing paint off the floors with chemicals I couldn't inhale, moving heavy furniture, and making sure she could help as much as possible while she is in town. She wanted Lola's room done just like I do. Thank you Stacy. You are an amazing friend, selfless and a joy to be around always.

ALSO I huge thank you to my mother... (I warned that this was coming). My mom has been my guiding light, my hero, and already a fabulous Nonna to Lola. She has helped me in several ways with several things. She helped Clay and I get the paint color to what we had in mind by sparing a few dollars as we went through a couple of "oops" gallons. She slaved at my house painting the built ins with an oil based paint so I didn't have to hire someone. (And I think it made her sick.) She made sure she left everything clean and did everything perfect. AND my dear mother found all my baby clothes. Lola and I will be born around the same time so all my newborn clothes fit the time of year Lola will be born as well. She spend days trying to get the stains out (they weren't stained from me, but from being in a box for 25 years) and her and God managed to get all the stains out. I officially do not need any more newborn clothes. We got over fifty outfits overnight!!! And of course they are super sentimental to me since my cute little booty wore them! Some super cute and dressy and some comfy and cool. My mom has been a lot of fun through this and now she is rethinking some things at her house. After some thought and discussion, we thought a room she has downstairs would be a perfect spot for grandkids to play. She is going to have an old toy chest of ours in there, a book shelf, and a sitting area and make it a place for the grandkids to play. We both liked that the kids weren't having to go up and down the stairs (her stairs are pretty big) and this away if they want to be near us then they can be down in that room playing. You all do remember... there will be at least 12 grandkids between the three of us. Should be 15, but (no names mentioned) some people are holding back. Not me or Kebby though. So I am excited about her having that little playroom for Lola.

Okay and the biggie, least but not last. My husband. Clay has been super, super man over the last couple of days and really stepped in to being a daddy and fabulous husband for his wife whose belly is taking over. He spent those same hours my mom did painting and cleaning and prepping and more cleaning and more painting. He painted the closet which was fabulous because I wanted it to feel clean, he painted the shelves, the doors, and then after my mom left the house and he kicked me out for the night because of the heavy odors and he surprised me and painted the walls and ceilings with the final color we choose. Tree Branch is the name and fits the description of the paint. I told him I wouldn't mind painting the walls, but I am so glad he did it because after just cutting in and rolling lightly over the walls one more time my body is in a state of shock. I couldn't have had the nursery the way it is now without all his hard work! He had to paint several things in stages so it's been drawn out over a couple of days and every day he gets back out that oil paint and does another coat and cleans the brushes back up. He is sooo sweet. He went to Lowes and picked up several things we needed. It has been fun watching him do these kind of things. I feel bad because either the paint thinner or paint has gotten him out of whack a little. He seems to be getting sick and his lips are blistered from the paint thinner. I know he is glad this part is over. I am glad he has been taking such an active role and this is so much fun. Thanks Clay for being amazing and I can't wait for us to meet our little girl.

We are growing a little collection of things for Lola thanks to our families. We got several items from Clay's family at Christmas and I can't wait to build out the closet so I can start putting everything up as we get them. Also the shelves in the room will serve as decor and storage so I need to find cute little bins and baskets that I can use to hold things. I think they make a cute wicker holder that holds DVD's or CD's that is long and skinny. I thought that would be cute on the shelf for diapers. :) The closet stills smells of paint so I didn't want to put the clothes in there quite yet. They are piled up on our rocker in the den. I love looking at them. I have video footage over the last few days so I will load it up later. It's not on the computer I am using.

Well I need to get busy with my to-do list today. I'll talk to everyone soon. I hope everyone had a great New Year's Eve. Happy 2009. What a great year it will be.

Love Nat