Luau.....

Casey & Doni
Hercules & Boo even got to go
More pics of Hercules and Boo
You can really see their outfits here
Roxy was ready for everyone to go home

We had a luau/wedding shower for a couple in our small group this past Wednesday. The couple has actually already gotten married. He is in the music business and when they were on tour last year they got married in Vegas. They already had a date set in July of this year so they are still having a church wedding in a few weeks. We decided to all give them a party so we went with the luau theme. It was so much fun. I didn't do a good job of taking pictures of the people there, just the dogs. Hercules already had his shirt (it's from a few years ago if you couldn't tell......its just a little tight). We found Boo a grass skirt and lei to wear. Roxy is our friends dog and she had on a aloha shirt. The dogs were the most dressed up!

Nothing too exciting yet....

Here's a picture of the crib as promised. This is also the lamp shade my sister made and this is what the bedding will look like. There will also be a striped fabric that will be the bed skirt.
I know it's nothing that exciting now, but I wanted to show everyone what it looks like. I was very pleased with it. We ordered the crib online so you just never know how it will actually turn out. I can't wait because in two weeks my parents come and they are bringing the bedding. I will definitely post pictures then.

FINALLY.....

We have decided on a name.........
Aiden Mark Carothers
Now everyone can call him by his name instead of "baby boy carothers". We have always really liked Aiden, but couldn't decide on a middle name. Mark is Jonathan's middle name so we decided to go with it. We have painted the room (well not we, Jonathan). I love it. We got the crib in yesterday and Jonathan put it together last night. I love it, too! I will post pictures of it tonight. It's nothing exciting though because we don't have the bedding yet. It is being made, but atleast you can see the color of the room and the crib.
I am in my 29th week (hard to believe) and feeling great. I feel him move constantly and it's the neatest feeling. I just can't wait for Aiden to get here and be able to hold him. We met with a Pediatrician this morning and really liked her. We feel blessed to have found someone that we feel comfortable with, she's a Christian and she's really close to the house. Please continue to pray for him and me during my last few months. I am trying to stay positive and in a good mood, but I can really tell the heat is getting to me. I'm sure by the end of August I will be miserable, but that's okay because he will be all worth it.

Hercules' favorite gift

Hercules loved the pug blanket Dayle gave us at the shower. He thought it was the coolest gift we received. I know our little boy will love it just as much. Thanks so much Dayle!!!

No Orange in this house....

Just because we live in TN now doesn't mean our little boy will be wearing any orange (sorry Kristen). He will PROUDLY be wearing Razorback attire. I loved this onesie, blanket and bib my parents got for him. How cute will he be. I can't wait to put it on him. He'll be the cutest li'l Razorback in TN!!!

My First Shower...

My wonderful Hostesses (minus Megan who was hosting from South Carolina)
My sisters!
My sisters-in-law Kristen and Nekayeh!
My OBU girls!
Room dogs!

I had a wonderful first shower over the weekend. It was with my NLR friends and OBU friends and let me just say it was AWESOME! I could not have asked for a better time. The shower was at Erin's mothers house and everything was so nice from the food, to the gifts and all the wonderful people that came. My sweet sisters-in-law even drove down from Memphis that morning for the shower. We received some wonderful gifts for our little guy and let me just say he is already spoiled. We are very blessed to have such wonderful friends and family. Thank you to everyone that helped with the shower because I know a lot of hard work went into getting ready for it. I love you all and it was so nice to be back home in Arkansas. It makes me sad that I won't be able to come home again until after he gets here since I can't travel after 28 weeks. Just know that anyone is welcome to come visit us any time!

Don't sweat the small stuff...

Yesterday I was at Kroger and the cashier asked me how far along I was. I told him 25 weeks. Well this blew his mind and he was like, "Whoa, Whoa!!" and making all this commotion. I thought it was going to start calling me over to look at me. He then continued to tell me how I was going to have a BIG baby (since he was such an expert) and kept staring at my belly. I said well I am having a boy and I do hope he's a healthy littly baby. I smiled and walked away, even though I wanted to do something else. So for the rest of the day I was pretty bummed because I'm really sick of people commenting on the size of my belly. I mean what do they expect? I'm over 6 months pregnant, I'm not going to have abs of steal right now.
Well that evening our small group served dinner at the Ronald McDonald house. (A place where families that have children in the Vanderbilt Children's Hospital can stay). There were a lot of families there that had premature babies that were in ICU. One couple I spoke with really touched my heart. They asked me how far along I was, I told them 25 weeks. She said she had her baby at 23 weeks, 2 weeks earlier then where I am. Their baby weighed less than our baby weighes right now. It was amazing to see these people's strength and faith in God remain strong. It really makes you put everything in your life in perspective and realize that you are very blessed. I made a comment without thinking that I'm going to have a "Big boy" and the woman told me, "That's not a bad thing". I've been so worried about how big I'm getting and if I'm too big for how far along I am when those woman would have loved to have been as big as I am. So my lesson learned last night: I'm going to enjoy my pregnancy because I have been VERY blessed so far and I'm not going to worry about how I look or how big I am getting (as long as the baby is healthy). Remember: DON'T SWEAT THE SMALL STUFF!