Christmas 2012

Christmas has come and gone and it doesn't seem like it is already New Year's Eve! I LOVE Christmas time and always look forward to it. We had many family gatherings and probably ate way too much but I am going to cherish all the memories made! I have pictures from most of the family get togethers...still have one last party tomorrow night. 

Pre-Christmas party before Jarod's brother moved to Florida 

 These two are best buds!

Brothers

I didn't get everyone to look because we had too many cameras going off but I love Dre's face

These took forever to make but I loved them thinks to pinterest

Our Christmas card

Khloe was snooping like dad

She knows whats inside....this is the look she gives when she wants something. Her tail is moving like crazy. haha 

Nelson Christmas 

Second cousins

Some of the family

Family 

G-ma and her kids

Knepp Christmas

Katie loved the tissue paper/wrapping paper! I am a Katie hog but just love her to pieces!

Opening gifts

Ahhhh! I found this for Katie and she looked so cute in it:) 

Bother-in-law and sister-in-law

Chicken run smile

I buy an ornament in memory of Lindsey every Christmas and decided to make one this year. Burlap is really hard to work with (or I thought so) and it didn't turn out exactly how I wanted. But, it was the thought that counted. 

Miss you Lindsey

Once Khloe opened her bone she wanted nothing to do with her other present....she is trying to escape. lol

Jarod surprised me with a beautiful necklace this year! LOVE it but he totally caught me off guard! 

P.S- I know may hair is a mess but I didn't care:)

Jarod with his gifts. I always have to ship them to my parents because he snoops way to much.

This will be perfect for when we travel;) I am becoming more of a Vera fan every year.

Christmas morning

I LOVE him more than words can describe! 

And.......the blizzard that came the day after Christmas. Feels like I am in a postcard! 

I hope everyone else had a MERRY CHRISTMAS and remember the true meaning of Christmas.

HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!

Maybe 2013 will be the year God will give us a miracle. I know I HOPE so because this Christmas felt like we were missing something.  

Khloe turns 5

Yesterday Khloe turned FIVE or 35 in dog years! I can't believe we have had her almost 5 years! Don't know what I would do without her. She is one of the sweetest dogs, playful, loves to go on walks, drives, snuggle and can be timid at times but I think that goes with her breed. She also loves to play ball....I really think she dreams about her ball. lol. She can play for HOURS!

I remember the day when we went to pick her up after finding her on the internet. We couldn't decide on naming her Lexie, Kenya or Khloe. Well, when we seen her we just knew she was a Khloe:) 

For her Birthday we took her on a car ride and picked up a McD's ice-cream cone. The first time she had ice-cream and she loved it! I have some pictures of when she was a puppy and a couple others over the years.  

She is still cute but was one of the cutest puppies!

She was so tiny!

The older she gets the darker she gets. You can hardly see her spots anymore:(

On the drive looking at Christmas lights!

Oh yeah!

And one last one of our niece. I just LOVE her!

OBX 2012

We took one last trip this year and debated about where we wanted to go. Well, we decided on the Outerbanks!!!! We knew we wanted to drive somewhere this time and couldn't decide on going more south or east. We knew it would be colder if we drove east but then we knew it would be beautiful in the fall time. So, since we always go somewhere tropical we decided we would do something a little different. I am so glad we did!!! We LOVED OBX!

I have some pictures from our trip that I wanted to share!

On our way to Asheville (half way stop). We drove different roads to and from OBX so we could see a little more. My favorite state to drive through was Virginia. Especially this time of year!

We get excited about tunnels:) We are the people that have to honk our horn! I didn't get a picture of the long tunnel in Norfolk, Virginia but that one was pretty neat too. We drove under the sea!

We have always heard people talk about the Biltmore Mansion so we decided to go. It made me feel like I was in a movie. It was BEAUTIFUL!!! Highly recommend! 

I love this!

On one of the trails! 

Perfect day

The visitor center! They have to have one of the cutest visitor centers.

 The view from our condo that I didn't want to leave:(

In our hot tub! I made Jarod go in it every night with me!

Homey (if that is a word) gas stations. The one we stopped at before this had a sign on the door that said, be back in 5 minutes! lol. I think they would only do this during the non-busy season.

At one of the beaches looking for wild horses!

We finally found two after walking 2 miles on the beach and sand dunes.

Just having fun! Really no one on the beach except cars driving back and forth...too bad we didn't have a 4 wheel drive. 

In duck, NC where we ate lunch.

At Jockey ridge. It felt like we were in the desert becasue there was sand everywhere!

My favorite picture of us from the trip! We didn't get many though.

Another sign. ha

We were on another barge like this waiting to go back from the island. It felt so weird to be on the ocean with our vehicle.

And it makes me wanna take a back road...... ;)

We got a thumbs up!

The beach behind our condo

Sunrise the last day in OBX

And one last picture of fall! I Love this one! 



Until our next little trip..........

Looking Back

I wanted to do a little update on "looking back" at our first IVF. It still doesn't seem real we did IVF! I know it didn't work but we tried, we had hope, we beleived in God and are accepting that it wasn't our time. The first couple weeks I could start crying just thinking about it but I am doing MUCH better now. I will admit that first week or so after we found out we weren't pregnant I was kinda angry with God. We have been through so much and I just didn't understand. It has only been a little over a month since they transfered our little embryo but during that time I feel like I have grown through all this. I whole heartedly believe in His plan!! And can't wait till that day!

My body has been through so much and my poor ovaries have probably been stimulated a little too much this past year. We are going to take a break and sometime next year we will transfer the only two little embryos we have left. We still talk about adoption and I think we always will even if we get pregnant (hopefully:))

We talked to Dr. J about when we are ready on what we need to do. He told us about it and from the sounds of it when they do a FET (frozen embryo transfer) it is going to be like a walk in the park compared to IVF. I was surprised about how much less we will have to do. So we were both happy about that:) I did bring up to Dr. J about getting a little discouraged about this IVF not working with such a great looking embryo. Wondering if something else could be wrong, but he had no worries. He gave us some options and told us we still have two very good embryos. Which is reassuring! So....until our time I probably won't bring much "baby" stuff up. 

I do have some pictures looking back at our IVF. And in my next post I will post some pictures from a vacay we took to the OBX (Outerbanks). It was a much needed vacay and we had so much fun!!!!! We left just in time before Sandy got there. And through all of this I did make a change at work. I felt like a change was for the best and I am looking forward to being able to do more with family and friends on the week-end:) I still work on the same unit but changed my position and I DON'T have to work every other week-end 12 hours shifts!!!!!! 5 years since I have been able to say that!! Woo hoo.....happy girl here. hehe

    

Before surgery. I don't look nervous but I was! My heart rate is normally in the 60's and it was in the 90-100 range.

After surgery. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. You can tell I had a little medication in me.

 This was while I was on bedrest. A picture with the embryo in me.

And this was the night I had to go out in the car to take my trigger shot. I thought this was going to be my last time having a drink in 9 months:(

The guy's

With the one I love the most!!!!!

The same news we always get

I guess it is time to tell everyone the news. This week I have thought about blogging a few times about what we found out but then I just wouldn't have any urge. I really don't feel like talking about it now but I know people are wondering. The ladies at work I have already told because I am around them a lot and just wanted to put it out there. I didn't want to go through them asking and me feeling like I could break down each time.

We are NOT pregnant. I had so much hope on this! So many people were praying for us that it brought tears to my eyes. So many GREAT people in our life and they too are the one's helping us get through this hard time. I know it wasn't guaranteed that we would get pregnant. I think the doctor gave a statistic of a 64 percent it would work for us. Even though I didn't think of this IVF transfer as a statistic. I knew we had a good chance! In all it had to be up to God to give us this miracle child. I don't know why this wasn't our time. I just cried and couldn't sleep the night we found out. I still get emotional and don't feel like talking about it much. Well, Jarod I do want to talk to about it.

I hate bringing this up but it is hard seeing other couples get married and get pregnant right away. When I feel like it should be our turn. I'm confused on what we should be doing. Should we start looking into adoption or keep trying?? Like I have said before, I still have the desire to keep trying. It shouldn't be this hard to have a child. This year we decided we won't do anything more with baby stuff. We see our doctor at the end of this month to talk. So we will see what 2013 will bring us! I am so ready for something good to come!