Super-duper good news...

After 3 years of of school, I took my certification exam this morning (at 37 1/2 weeks pregnant) and I PASSED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So now I am an official Pediatric Nurse Practitioner! Yippee! (The reality hasn't set in yet) I feel a huge weight lifted off of my shoulders... just thinking that I'm now officially through with school, tests, exams, etc. (I can always go back for more certifications if I want, but this was the biggie!!) Crazy to think that Carson and I have only been married for 4 years, but 75% of our marriage I was in school. So I give the Lord all the praise for my success, but I give Carson all the credit for putting up with me!! :) I love that man!! Thanks babe.

Update on Charlie: he was kicking me a lot during the exam so I guess he could feel my stress (sorry little guy)... we're constantly preparing ourselves for a very active little booger! :) I'm grateful I didn't start contracting during the exam too! Now that it's over, I can finish getting things ready for his arrival, but we're actually pretty much set. Last week at the doctor, he looked great and they estimated him to weigh about 6lbs! Any day now he could make his appearance. CRAZY!!!! We are praying everyday for Charlie's continued growth and health... and constantly in awe of the fact that we're so blessed to be parents to this little guy!!

Fort Worth shower - 09.12.09

Some of my sweet friends threw a BEAUTIFUL shower for us this past Saturday. Ironically, it "showered" on my shower with a light rain outside all day. It was actually very beautiful!

This was a gift that my friend, Tami, made. It welcomed all of the guests to the party... but now it's hanging on our front door as we get ready for Charlie's arrival.
Cute litte decoration of his name was hanging from Tami's chandelier over the food!! (Debbie, me, & Tami)
I was so excited and blessed to have my mom (Gigi) and Carson's mom (Nonni... or Nonna, she's can't decide, but I like Nonni) at the shower!
My sweet friend, Amy, and her daugther, Emery, drove over from Dallas! It was completely the Lord who brought Amy into my life. I met her my 2nd semester in nursing school and couldn't have made it through school without this girl!! We spent way too much time planning our pregnancies and talking about babies when should have been studying. :)
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this little searsucker outfit! My friend, Meaghan, monogrammed it for Charlie! This is going to be his outfit to wear for my friend, Kendall's, wedding next May in Belize!!! She even gave him some cute little brown shoes to go with it. I can't wait to see him all dressed up in it, he's going be precious!!
Cute little onesie from Carson's cousin, Robert & Wendy Poling. Now he can get all dressed up for church!! :)
Carson's other cousin, Monica (due in 2 weeks) and her daughter, Shelby were able to come too! This is them with Carson's aunt (Wendy's sister), Linda. Thought this was a cute picture of the three generations!
My sweet friends from Marshall came too, Alise and Lauren, who now live in Dallas, but I just don't get to see them often enough! I love these girls!!
This is Tricia, is one of my very best friends from college (UT). She was one of the hostesses too!! I should give a shout-out to Tricia because she is a faithful follower of our blog :) Thanks Trish for always being such a great friend. Love you!
My big belly (almost 35 weeks)! Again, this picture makes Charlie look bigger than he actually is in person. At my doctor's visit this week (09.17.09) he is estimated to be about 5 lbs 6 oz right now, which is at the 50th percentile. I was relieved when my OB said I have not started dialating and because of his steady growth, I should expect him to be between 7 and 8 lbs. Whew.... I sure hope she's right!! I'm still on my strict low-carb diet (splurging for the cake and cookies at my showers of course) and giving myself insulin at night. Everything looks great! I'm still spoiled with the weekly sonogram and fetal monitoring every Thursday until he arrives. This week he was still head down, with his little hands by his face. It was so cute!
The beautiful hostesses: Tricia Gittemeier, Debbie Slay, Tami McLean (not pictured Ashley Upham and Ashley Kovacs). Ashley U. couldn't come because she had a weekend already planned in Austin and Ashley K. couldn't come because she gave birth to her beautiful little girl (Lilla) 3 days before the shower. Thank you girls so much for a wonderful shower that I will always treasure! It was such a blessing for our little growing family.

Shower at work - 09.11.09

Some of the sweet nurses that I work with threw me very fun baby shower! Here are some of the pictures:
I'm ready to party!! (Here I'm 34, almost 35 weeks)
I was very excited that my mom was able to come! She enjoyed talking "nursing" and "sewing" with all of my sweet, creative friends at work.
I love this towel my friend, Jessica, made for Charlie! The concept is I hang it around my neck while Charlie is in the bathtub so I'm not soaking wet (in case he likes to splash and have fun in the tub) and then I just pick him up and wrap him up in this big towel when it's time to get him out. Cute and creative, huh?
I guess he will be a pumpkin for Halloween this year!!
Tiffany, Jessica and my another nurse, Amy Hixson threw my shower. Thanks girls!! It was so much fun!! This was a "Charlie sandwich picture." (Tiffany, her daugther Rylee, me, Jessica, and her daugther Madelyn)

Labor Day Weekend: Sept 3rd-6th

Sorry for the delay in posts, we've been busy with Carson starting his new job and I've been studying for my boards... oh yeah and finishing up Charlie's nursery too!! :) By the way, everything is going well here. Praise Jesus for all the answered prayers!!

Here are some pics from our fun weekend in Kerrville visiting Carson's family and some of our friends. Carson's brother, Andrew was still on crutches too that weekend so we got a picture of the two crippled family members together. It was humerous to go to restaurants together and see all of the people staring at us!! I don't have a boot anymore, but Andrew lost his blue cast and now has a black boot.
We got to spend a lot of time with our sweet friends, Nathan and Ashley Henry too. Carson and I are God parents to their son, Blake, so we spent the majority of our time playing with him cause he's so stinkin' cute! He was pretty infatuated with my crutches... which I've learned all kids love them!!
Everyone was giving Carson and Nathan a hard time about how crazy they were togeter when they were younger... saying that Blake and Charlie were going to be little trouble makers like their fathers!! Apparently Carson and Nathan were punks to Carson's younger brothers, shot arrows up in the air to see how long it would take for them to come back down, and pretty much shot EVERY living thing they could... I guess some things never change. As you can guess, the emergency room knew Carson and Nathan very well. :) Here's Blake sitting on his future best friend/trouble maker/partner-in-crime, Charlie...
Ashley and I enjoyed catching up and relaxing, so she left Nathan and Carson in charge of feeding Blake, but they wouldn't leave the couch because some football game was on that they couldn't miss. I thought this was hilarious...
Carson got in a few dove hunts that weekend (opening season). This was before Carson, Nathan, and Justus attempted to shoot some birds... but it started raining right after they left so they came back quickly. (That's a cookie in Carson's hand... even though it looks like a cigarette)
It was such a fun weekend with family and friends! We got to spend some time with our other friends (Jeffrey, Allison, Danielle, Jason & David) too! Sorry no pics, but it was great to catch up and show them my big belly :) I forgot to get a picture of my belly with Landon's belly... maybe the next pregnancy!!

Marshall shower

Mom, me and Mom A (Carson's grandmother)

The prego chicks at the shower! :)

(The picture above was taken after the shower, I'm almost 33 weeks there... I think the picture makes me look bigger that I actually am... but I'm still getting bigger!!!!!!). We had our first shower in Marshall, Saturday August 29th. It was hosted by 11 sweet ladies from Cental Baptist (my parents' church, the same one I grew up attending). Charlie got tons of cute and useful stuff!! We unpacked it all when we returned to Fort Worth which made us so excited to think about seeing him in all of the cute little outfits and swaddled up in the warm blankets! The blog is acting crazy and I can't put the pictures in the order that I want to so sorry for the chaos of this post, but here are some pics from the shower:

My sweet friend, Ashley, drove in from Jonesboro, Louisiana just for the shower. She was one of my dear friends from TCU! She made me feel welcome as soon as I transferred from UT and she was such a strong prayer partner while we were there. I loved seeing her and catching up! She also wrote down all of the gifts for me while I opened them... thanks girl!! And you fed my love language too... QUALITY TIME. :) Love you!

Here's all of my family from my mom's side. My sister-in-law, Laura, and her daugher, Ava. My Aunt Terry, my mom, Aunt Shela, Cara (my cousin's wife) and her daughter, Madeline. I felt very loved to have everyone there!!
Me with the hostesses (minus 2). All of these ladies have been a wonderful support and love for my parents and our family too. We are blessed to have such a great church family in Marshall too!
Cute little outfit that I can't wait to put on Charlie!!
My mom found these precious little rain boots for Charlie... at a garage sale! Funny thing is they are one of my favorite presents because they look just like the ones Papa (my dad) wears every night when he goes out to feed the dogs. She thought that Charlie needed some boots like his Papa Jess to help him feed the dogs! As you can tell, I think I'm saying "cute" here. :) Loved the shower and all of the cute stuff for Charlie! Thanks everyone.