Getting Ready for Christmas

We got our Christmas tree this weekend. We stayed up late last night decorating the tree and taking our yearly Christmas photo to send in Christmas cards. I wanted to show you some pictures that didn't make the final cut.
Anyone will tell you that working with animals can be difficult.

Getting ready for Baby

So, we finally got a crib for Baby. It wasn't too bad putting it together. We don't have the mattress yet. It should arrive this week. The baby's room is coming together!

We have chosen a name. Cameron James. We are having our 3D ultrasound tomorrow so we get to see Baby Cameron again! Can't wait. Here are some pictures of us putting together the crib.

Belly Shots

I know, it has been a long time. I wanted to put a least one picture of me pregnant on the blog. It will only be one picture because after I saw the pictures, I decided there should not be any more taken. So here is a picture of my pregnant self several weeks ago at 6 months.

Exciting News (a little late)

Well, I am really late getting this posted. We are getting another addition to the family (officially). Simon's brother, Adam and his girlfriend, Catherine are engaged!! The wedding will probably be Baby Maddox's first trip to the UK! I hope he behaves. Congratulations Adam and Catherine! We are really excited for you.

Beach Trip 2009

At the end of September we went on the annual Honeycutt Beach Trip. It was great. Simon and I had not had a vacation since we went to Paris/England in March. Here is some advice: Don't take your big vacation early in the year; it makes the year extremely long. Anyway, 5 days at the beach are never enough. Of course, this was Jackson's first trip to the beach. He seemed to have a good time. He is such a cutie. We spent time on the beach, went shopping, the guys played golf, and we ate some yummy food. I can't wait until next year. We will probably have to find another place to stay because with 2 young children, we need more room. It will be so exciting. Here are some pictures.

Jackson and his mommy

Me and Simon

Jackson in his pool. The pool ended up smaller than we though. We never put water in it, but he did sit and play with his toys.

David, Ashley, and Jackson enjoying the beach

Jackson and his favorite Aunt. If you don't believe me, just read his bib.

Who doesn't like sleeping on the beach.

20 down and 20 to go!

So I am halfway there. The first 20 weeks seems to have gone by pretty fast, but February 1st seems like a long way off. We have lots to do: finish clearing out the junk out of the baby's room, get the junk that has come out of the baby's room out of the house, get furniture for baby, decide on a baby's name, register for who knows what, and I am sure there is much much more. OH, and we have Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's in there. That is Simon's busiest time of the year at work. HELP!!!

We have signed up for childbirth classes. I am sure that they will be very informative. It think it is 5 weeks of classes. I am sure we will learn everything we know so when baby comes we will know it all!

Oh, one more thing coming up that we have to get past, Simon's interviews. He has BIG interviews coming up in a couple of weeks for a STL. That means Store Team Lead, which means Store Manager. He will stay at Target, but will probably change stores sometime, probably around the time the baby is born.

Ok, well I have to end this post, I am getting stressed!

Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails.......

That's what little boys are made of.. It's a BOY!!! Lexie is going to have a little brother! We are really excited! Of course we would be excited either way! Our sonogram this morning was wonderful. We saw about our baby for about 30 minutes. We saw his bladder, kidneys, brain, nose, fingers, toes, heart, and of course the important boy parts. It is amazing to be able to see all of this. You really realize how much of a miracle a baby is. God is Good! What I really found amazing was he was so active and yet I couldn't feel any of it. At one point he stretched his legs straight out. I wish I could see him every day. We have a DVD of the sonogram and I am going to try to see if I can upload it to the blog (if anyone knows how to do this, let me know).

Thank you to everyone who voted. 43% of you were right.

Happy Anniversary!

6 years ago today Simon and I stood in front of the minister next to the lake at the camp where we met and SWEATED LIKE PIGS!!!! Oh, and we got married too. We apologize again to everyone for the extreme heat and humidity. It was a very special day. I have enjoyed every minute of the last 6 years together. I am really looking forward to the next year and many years after that!

Thanks to everyone who has voted on our poll. If you haven't, be sure to do so.

16 weeks and counting

Pregnancy is going good. I am feeling great! My belly is getting a little bit bigger below my belly button. Trying to find some pants that fit and are comfortable is getting harder. Next week I have an appointment for an ultrasound. This should be the one where we can see the sex of the baby! If you look to the side of the blog you see there is a poll. We want to know what you think we are having. I don't have any "feeling" as to what the baby is. We will be happy either way. Pink or Blue. Our appointment is on August 26 at 9am. I hope to update the blog that night or the next day with the results.

Prayer Request

Please pray for my friends Chad and Holly. Holly was 27 weeks pregnant when she had to go into the hospital for an emergency c-section last week. Unfortunately Baby Matthew did not survive. As you can imagine they are devastated. They had a very hard time getting pregnant and went to the same fertility clinic we did. After the delivery Holly developed an infection and had to stay in the hospital a couple days longer than expected. She is home now and will have a long physical and emotional recovery. Please keep them in your prayers.

Big News from the Maddox House!

Well, we decided it was time to announce to the blog world that..................we are having a BABY!!!!!! I am at 13 weeks, so that is just over 3 months, the beginning of the 2nd trimester. We are very excited! We have waited so long for this. After several years of 'trying,' I did not have successful pregnancy. We went to see a specialist at Wake Forest Center for Reproductive Medicine. We finally had success! I know that it wasn't all us and the specialist. We have said many, many prayers and God answered them. God is good! The due date is February 1, 2010. Things are looking good so far. We went to the Dr. today and he said that we have a very active baby! Great! At out next appointment in 4 weeks we should be able to find out what the sex is. Yes, we are going to find out. We have waited three years for this, I think that is long enough. I think it will be a wonderful surprise to see our baby for the first time.

So far it has been a great pregnancy. I have not had any morning sickness. I have felt a little icky a couple of times, but nothing big. I have been tired. Bedtime is usually about 9pm. No weird food cravings. I think I am using the pregnancy as an excuse to eat some things and not others. That's ok, right? Simon is doing a great job of making sure I am eating right. He is asking me daily if I am taking my vitamins, eating fruit, and resting. He is great.

I will keep you updated as to how things are going.

Have you seen this?

I know this came out last week, but I wanted to make sure everyone has seen it. I love this video. Some may believe that it is an awful thing to do in church. I think that if your marriage can start off like this, the rest is going to be great! Click on the link and enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0

Paris: Then and Now

Simon and I went to Paris back in March. I know probably everyone has the same picture of the Eiffel Tower from the same spot, but I thought these pictures were neat. The first is the picture Simon and I took on our trip and the second is one my grandfather took on his trip to Paris in 1944 after the allies liberated Paris during World War II. The third picture is my grandfather in front of the Eiffel Tower. I know that thousands of people have stood in that same spot and taken a pictures, but as far as I know my grandfather and I are the only two in our family that have been to Paris.

Happy Father's Day

Love you Dad and Robert!

Baby Jackson's First Visit to Lexington!

Earlier this month David and Ashley brought my nephew, Jackson to Lexington to meet his Great-Grandmother, Nana. She was so excited to see him. I don't know that I have seen her smile like that in years!

This was the first time Simon and I had seen him in over a month. He has gotten so big! We had a great day. We had hamburgers and homemade ice cream! Jackson also got to meet his Great-Aunt Debbie and Great-Uncle Tom.

My Dad is such a great Grandpa. He loves holding Jackson. Good luck trying to get in between those two!

I tried to help out, but was not very successful. I fed Jackson a couple of times. The first time I did good. The next time was not so good. He spit up on me. I tried to change his diaper and he peed on me. I am going to have to practice some more. He is still such a cutie!!

Happy Birthday Simon

Simon also celebrated his 30th birthday again this year! It is the 3rd year in a row! For Simon's birthday we went to Blowing Rock for 'Art in the Park'. My parents met us there and came home early with Lexie. Simon and I stayed to shop some more and ate dinner at the Six Pense Pub, one of our favorites!

The Garden

We have planted a vegetable garden. We tried to grow everything from seed, but that didn't work. We had to buy some plants. We have squash, zucchini, eggplant, cucumber, peppers, lettuce, and okra. We have already picked some lettuce! We have strawberries that keep coming back each year. Simon likes those on his cereal.

Another Birthday....

another year of turning 29! It was a great birthday weekend. I took Friday, May 1 off from work and Simon was off too! We got to work in the yard and went to eat dinner at Texas Land and Cattle (PF Changs had a 2 hour wait!!!). Saturday, Simon and I were part of Hayden's Pack in the March of Dimes walk in Raleigh. Sunday, we had brunch at Village Tavern with my parents and then opened gifts.

Apology

I am sorry I haven't been keeping the blog updated. I have posted some pictures from our trip to Paris/England. That was almost 2 months ago. I haven't been in a blogging mood. I don't think my life is that interesting enough to do weekly post. I don't have cute kids to take pictures and Lexie is looking pretty rough these days. I will try to do a better job in the future, but please forgive me if is another 2 months before I post again.

England

After our trip to Paris (see post below), we went to England to see Simon's family. We saw lots of Simon's family and friends at an party hosted by Pauline and Robert. Below are some of the pictures of our tip.

We took a walk to a waterfall that is really near Simon's house. It was beautiful!

We went to a Derby County football game. Go Rams!

nter>This is at Bolsover Castle that dates back to the 12th Century.

We visited Kedleston Hall where scenes from the movie, 'The Dutchess' were filmed.

Paris

Way back at the beginning of March Simon and I went on vacation. We began our trip in Paris, France. We saw a lot in the few days we were there. We saw Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower. We took a boat trip down the Seine River. We went to the Louvre where we saw the Venus de Milo and Mona Lisa. On a cold rainy day we went to Versailles where we saw the Hall of Mirrors. We also went to Disneyland Paris. I have never been to a Disney park wearing long pants, a coat, and a scarf. I had to buy a hat because it was so cold. We loved Disneyland! Below you will see a few of our pictures from the trip.

Paris

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

SNOW!

I did not believe yesterday that we were going to have this much snow. It poured down rain yesterday and I thought it would be too wet for the snow to stick. I was wrong (one of the few times i am). Last night it began to snow and by the time we went to bed the ground was covered. Simon and I both went into work late this morning. Simon was supposed to be in at 6am and he went in at 8am. I was supposed to be in at 9am and went in at 11am. The exciting thing was the bank closed early today, so I had a really short day. I took Lexie out this morning to see if she would like the snow and she loved it. She ran around everywhere. She started pulling sticks out of the snow and was surprised when they were covered in snow and ice. She would have stayed out much longer, but I had to get to work. It was a good snow day. It has been a long time since we have had one.

Walker Family Christmas

As I mentioned, my mom's family (the Walkers) gets together on MLK weekend to Celebrate Christmas. We learned several years ago that it was too hard to get together on Christmas, so we picked MLK weekend to do that. It works great. My parents hosted everyone this year. On Saturday we went to my Uncle Mel and Aunt Peggy's house. There are 21 of us now. It seems like we are growing every year. It seems kinda crazy at times, but I love it.

The Family

Ashle, Baby Boy Honeycutt, Becky and David

Becky and Sam

Uncle Mel and Sam

Uncle Mel and Mom

Me holdin Sam and Mom holding Lexie

Me holding baby goat

Junior

Ruby

Annabel and Grace