Pregnancy = Crazy Woman!

So - I'm finishing up my 14th week tomorrow - starting into my 15th week - and I have never felt more crazy. Seriously. I. Am. Going. Crazy. I NEVER thought I would be one of those moms who is CONSTANTLY worrying about their child. I'm pretty easy-going... most of the time... and I just always like to remind myself that God is in control and why in the world should we worry when we know that! Well - that theory is getting harder and harder to live by. IT'S AWFUL! I know.

So, I guess I just read too much or watch too many medical t.v. shows, but I always think that something is wrong with my baby! It's an awful way to live. I have dreams EVERY NIGHT that I am having a miscarriage or that they can't find my baby's heart beating at my next appointment. And LAST NIGHT - I went out with some girls from church and Stephanie tells me about this show she watched before her daughter, Caroline, was born and she was always worried that her baby was a HERMAPHODITE. Okay- I knew I was crazy when I woke up this morning - SURE that my baby was going to be a hermaphodite. I have no clue what I dreamed, but I seriously had to re live the past few days before I got out of bed to make sure we didn't go to the doctor last week and they told us we were having a hermaphodite.

It's exhausting. And I DO know that God is in conrol and whatever is supposed to happen with my baby will be His will... but I guess maybe God is testing me to really see if I trust Him fully? Ugh - I need some love (or prayer) here... I'm seriously going crazy!

OKAY - on to my next topic this week! Since I will be in my 15th week next week - I have the OPTION of possibly paying about $80 or so to have a 4D ultrasound done to find out the sex of my baby FIVE WEEKS EARLY! Is it worth it? Chris and I are on this CRAZY budget right now and $80 really can't fit in there somewhere... but knowing the sex early is like AHHHH! I don't know what we should do. I have a week or so to think about it. What do y'all think?

XOXO-Hillary

FLOWERS!

I was INCREDIBLY confused today when a florist comes to our door with flowers for ME! We have florists drop stuff by pretty often for guests who are dining that evening - and sometimes for our private parties - but hardly ever for me! (Chris got me some STUNNINGLY gorgeous flowers for my 25th birthday this past year, but other than that, I never get flowers!) So - I asked her if she was sure they were for me and she said yes! I was shocked! Then she asked - did you buy a new home recently? OH YEAH! I forgot about that whole home thing we did this past weekend :) The biggest purchase we have or ever will make! OH YEAH!

I thought that was incredibly thoughtful and very sweet! However, when I called Chris to tell him - he was a little upset that they didn't send him any flowers! Oh well! I am happy that I got them! :) Thanks Ashton Woods! :)

House pictures - and we're homeless til then!

Here's just a peek into the designer model of our new home! :)

This is NOT our floor plan - but it is the color of brick we are going to use and the shutter color we are going to use!

This is our plan - garage on left - siding on top, brick on the bottom. Just pretend the shutters are black and the brick color/style is what you see above.

Our Heavenly Master Suite! :)

My favorite part of the home! This is standing in the den and looking up. There are 3 bedrooms, a master bedroom and 2 bathrooms and a laundry room upstairs.

This is standing in the kitchen looking in the den. We are contemplating on whether we should have a flat screen television mounted above the fireplace or not... any ideas/suggestions from anyone? The nook on the right is optional and we aren't sure we want it. Chris thinks it looks unproportional. But where would the TV go otherwise?

This is standing in the den and into the breakfast nook/kitchen area.

There is also a beautiful dining room, a formal family room, an office and a powder room downstairs.

It is the most perfect home I can ever imagine for my growing family :) I know we will be here for awhile and will make lots of fun memories here. AHHHH if only March could get here SOONER than 5 whole months!

NOW - as for that. Chris and I are planning to leave our incredible rental home on December 31 because that is when our lease is up... which means there will be about a 3 month period where we just aren't sure where we will live! How fun does that sound! SO - I need you all to brainstorm and let me know if you know of anyone in the Atl area who has a basement apartment or an in-law suite for rent. We are really trying to save up as much as possible before we close on our home in March so we'd really like something super cheap. We are GREAT renters :) We do have 2 dogs (well, 3 right now but we REALLY need to find a home for Harlee PRONTO!) and if they don't allow dogs in their rental, then we will figure something out... Kate, Diane, Christina, etc etc etc ---- want to dog sit for 3 months!!!! We are pretty desperate and need some options!

THANK YOU! Email me at hillaryhull@gmail.com with any suggestions.

xoxoXOXOxoxoXOXO

Some pix from my dad's camera...

Here are a few cute pictures from my dad's camera from this past week. :)



This is my middle sister, Ashley, her son, Jac, my dad (Hoppy) and my oldest sister's dauther, Kayley!

Ashley, Jac and Buzz at the GT game this past Saturday. Jac wasn't so sure of Buzz!

Daddy with baby Jac and the Ramblin' Wreck! This was a few minutes after Jac put his hand out to slap ALL the football players hands in Yellow Jacket ally! Too cute.

Baby Jac didn't make it through much of the game!

Chris, me, baby Kayley and our little Buddie this past Saturday night!

Kayley's already in the tanning bed! Jac's Hair! And More!

Kayley was a little bit jaundice a few days after birth so the doctor prescribed her to lay in the tanning bed for a few days! So funny - it really isn't a tanning bed, I don't think. But it definitely looks like one! :) And she LOVED it! All we needed was some bronzing lotion to make her smell like one!

Chris and I were in charge of bathing baby Jac on Saturday night and we had some fun with his LONG hair that Ashley really needs to get cut already!

Our house was COLD yesterday! It was colder in our home than it was outside thanks to the HUGE HUGE trees that cover our house! Anyway - it's funny that the only place you find our doggies on cold days in our home is where the sun is coming through the windows! They love to find sunny spots and take long naps!


Chris finally got to hold Kayley this weekend for more than a few minutes and he loved it :) Buddie of course had to get in on the attention action too :) I guess this is where we'll be in 6 months... and yes... our baby WILL have on a GT hat and NOT at UGA hat :)

Buddie will never go hungry!

Thanks to baby Jac - Buddie will never go hungry! :) He was doing it on his own accord and then it took me forever to find my camera... so when I found it, Jac was a little over the whole feeding Buddie thing, so it took him a second to do it again :) But - how precious is this!

Guessssssssssssssss what?

Well - Guess what? Chris and I FINALLY did it! Well - we think so at least. There is one more little hoop we have to jump through and if all goes well there -- we will be on our way to building our very first home! We've signed on the dotted line though.... Whew. Talk about a stressful signature!!!

It's honestly the most beautiful home I've ever laid my eyes on and I cannot even believe how blessed Chris and I are to be able to build and own a home as perfectly beautiful as this one. We are so blessed with such a wonderful family and more wonderful family to help support us to make this decision and get us through this next step in our lives.

After some more things are final - by the end of this week - I'll post some pictures.

Blessed - Chris and Hillary

Pregnancy Brain or Blonde Brain?

So - I have had MANY pregnancy brain moments the past few weeks - at least that's what I'm blaming them on.... I'd love to hear any of your pregnancy brain moments, too! Make me feel better for being an idiot :) Here are a few I can remember right now - I seriously have so many - I forget them all...

Moment #1 - I was making Lori's yummy homemade chocolate cake and homemade icing a few weeks ago and when I got to the icing recipe, I read 5 cups of flour versus 5 tbsp of flour. Yes - I mixed 5 cups of flour in my little pan with 1 cup of milk. It was ALL FLOUR as your can imagine. I thought - wow, I wonder how long it takes to become soft like icing... so I keep stirring. After a few minutes of burnt flour smelling up my kitchen, I check the recipe again and my mind sure enough reads AGAIN - 5 cups of flour versus 5 tbsp of flour. I go back to the pan and turn it off thinking surely I have done something wrong. I go BACK to the recipe page and finally realize it's 5 tbsp of flour. I throw all the flour away - really mad that I just basically wasted 3/4 of a bag of flour. Ugh... I haven't made that mistake again.

Moment #2 - Today I had to run home when my manager got to the restaurant to go let all the doggies out. Chris and I are both working all day today and after work we're going to look at some new construction homes in Cumming and it was going to really be a time strain to get back home before the dogs pee all over the floor. Don't get me wrong - our dogs have actually only peed in our house once, I think - but it was a few weeks ago when we went to Cumming after work on a Friday and they were basically left inside for about 12 hours straight. That's basically abuse and neglect. So anyway - we're really, really careful to make sure that if we're not going to be home after 10 or so hours, that we can get there some time in between to relieve their little bladders. Poor pups. Also - we've stopped crating Harlee when we're gone
(and it's rainy) - she just hangs out in the office with J and B and hasn't' done anything bad or wrong so far... she's getting to be so good... make it ever harder to give her away one day. OKAY - ANYWAY - back to my pregnancy brain moment! Today I had to run home to let the dogs out and also had to run by the bank for my manager. Well I was going to pass our bank on the way back to the restuarant and I figured it was the same bank but a different branch, I could still make our deposit right? Well, I wait in the commercial line for about 15 minutes and it's finally my turn and I realize that I am at a Bank of America (our bank) and not a Wachovia (our restaurant's bank). So. Yes. I held my head high and drove right through the bank line and back to Cobb Parkway. Ugh.

Moment #3 - Another cooking moment. Last week, I was making a carrot cake for some neighbors and for our small group that night. As I'm making the icing - yes again with the icing - it said to mix 1/2 a cup of butter with a box of powdered sugar. Well instead of reading 1/2 cup of butter, I read 2 cups of butter. So, I take an ENTIRE box of butter out of the fridge and dump FOUR butter sticks in the bowl and start stirring. I filled the entire bowl with all the powdered sugar and let it mix for about 10 minutes. I came back and it tasted VERY funny - pretty much like butter. I go back to read the instructions and see the little detail I missed. So - I threw away an entire box of powdered sugar and an entire box of butter.

I'm going to have to start buying double of everything before I cook something - expecting to screw something up!

Videos

Now, I realize that to most of you - these videos are incredibly boring! But my little nephew, Jac, LOVES them and loves to see Kayley on the computer screen :) Love you JAC!

Sweet Kayley

Pictures of Kayley Lane - 2 days old.

Check out those LONG legs! And her toes are GINORMOUS!

Sleeping away... something she doesn't do yet at night!

Kayley says, "TOUCH DOWN!"

Hoppy with Kayley.

Hoppy and his first grandDAUGHTER.

Aunt Hillary with the teeney one.

Kayley says, "Hey, stop taking my picture!"

We thought this one was SO funny - and decided to try and make the same face as Kayley. I don't think we were quite as cute while doing it :(

Camera phone - from Whitney

Whit sent this out yesterday when they were on their way home :) I love this picture. Kayley is SO TEENY and so, so very sweet. She loves to suck on her pacie - the doctors seem to think that Kayley was sucking on her fingers while she was in the womb so the feeling of sucking is comforting to her. So sweet :)

UPDATE WEEK 13!

Whew! We made it to week 13 - I'm OFFICIALLY out of the 1st trimester and well into my 2nd! Thank GOODNESS I was FINALLY able to HIGHLIGHT my hair again! I had to wait til my 2nd trimester and let me tell you - that was a SACRIFICE! :) Just kidding, it wasN'T that bad. But I have literally worn my hair in a pony tail for about 2 weeks straight because it has been since MAY 5 since I had a hair cut and since APRIL 20-SOMETHING since I've had my hair colored. GEEZ! I waited way too long. I had planned to schedule an appointment for mid-Summer and it got away from me - well - when I finally was going to make an appointment - lo and behold we found out baby Hull was forming in my tummy so I had to wait it out a few more months. See - I can't be THAT bad of a mother if I am already sacrificing my wonderfully - so-not-natural looking hair to keep my baby growing strong! Way to go mother instincts for kicking in :) Here's a peek at my NEW DO I took with my camera phone.... YAY no more ROOTS!





Anyway - I had my 12 week check up earlier this week and everything is going GREAT! I didn't get to SEE our baby this time, but we did get to hear the heart beat and it was SO strong and SO wonderful. I was so relieved to hear it, it made me feel so good. Chris texted me and told me I was doing such a good job keep baby healthy :) I thought that was sweet.

I go again in 3-4 weeks when I'll be 16 weeks - I don't think I'll get an ultra sound that time - but then the appointmet after THAT I'll definitely get one and we'll find out the SEX OF BABY HULL! I'm going to add a poll to this blog to see what you all think we'll have! I have a feeling it will be a GIRL but the Chinese calendars say I'm going to have a boy. WHO KNOWS! I can't wait to find out!!!

Here are the names we've picked out SO FAR.

Girls:

• Taylor - just cause we've always liked it!
• Caroline - my mom's name is Caroline and Chris's mom name is Carol - and I just think Caroline is such a sweet sounding SOUTHERN name :)

Boys:

• Carter - we had never really thought of it until one night I was telling Chris about Heidi Zawiza's kids names and he was like - HEY I like Carter :)
• Parker - we have always liked this name!
• Keller - it's a name that Luke Testani (the boy I babysit) suggested and we both liked it! Thanks Luke!
• Walker - Chris likes this name - I'm still thinking about it... I keep thinking of Walker Texas Ranger when I hear it.... not so sure.

CAMERA CORD!

I WAS ABOUT TO UPDATE MY BLOG WITH ALL THE WONDERFUL AND CUTE PICTURES AND VIDEOS I TOOK OF SWEET KALYLEY LAST NIGHT AND MY CAMERA CORD IS MISSING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT AM I GOING TO DO? ALL YOU FAITHFUL READERS WILL HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL TONIGHT SO I CAN FIND MY LITTLE CORD THAT TRANSFERS MY PICTURES OVER TO MY COMPUTER! AHHH! SO SORRY!

Coming home today!

Whit and Doug are coming home today! Kayley is very healthy and very sweet. Sorry for no updates yesterday - I wasn't able to see her precious little self yesterday - but I'm heading up there tonight to see her. Look for more updates then!

I looked into getting a giant stork for their yard -but we decided to get flowers sent to her room instead! But I found this picture and thought it was funny!

XO-Hillary

I am such a proud Aunt!!!

I am such a proud Aunt! Here are pictures of the new and improved Appenfelder family, me and then Chris with the little sweet heart... then a picture of my grandparents - Nano and Poppy - with her.

Kayley Lane is a beautiful baby with lots of light hair... we thought it was dark at birth - but it's definitely a lighter color. She hardly cries and when she does, it only lasts a few seconds. She is precious. A precious gift from God.

Dr Marcus and Baby Kayley

More video and pictures!

Thank Goodness for the Internet and technology!!!

HERE ARE 2 VIDEOS - JUST CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON.