Happenings....

Now that we've got the Christmas post over with, lots of other happenings have been going on in our lives since we last blogged.....

We finally got packed up & moved out of our home in Nashville. Although we were thrilled to have sold our house, Moving Day was a very emotional day. John kept asking me if I was going to break down & lose it while the movers were there. Surprisingly, I didn't. Moving is serious work, even when you hire a company to do it for you... Cleaning the rooms after all the furniture is out & double checking to make sure everything is packed definitely keeps you occupied.

It wasn't until John & I drove back up later that afternoon to grab the last carfull of items that we wanted to keep with us & take to the cabin is when it hit us.

This was the first house that we moved into when we first got engaged. We have had many parties, friends staying the weekend with us, birthday celebrations, bridal showers, holidays, etc, etc in this house. Even though there were tons of times when, "I can't wait til we sell this house!!!" was yelled in frusteration with dealing with an older home, it was sad when that day actually came. We spent our first 3 years in this house...

My mom told me once when I was venting to her about the house, "Neelley, you & John's next house will be better. And I know that you get frusterated with an older home. There are some things that you learn that you want differently in your next house that your current house has taught you. But I promise you this, you will look back one day, & say, "Gosh, that was an awesome house. We used to think that this house was HUGE!" And you know why? Because it was y'alls first house together. Lots of other houses will come & go in your lives, but nothing will ever be able to be compared to y'alls first house, because it will always be the most special."

As we were going through the house one last time turning off the lights in each room one by one, the emotional breakdown came.... I replayed what my Mom had said about this house in my mind & thought, "This is such a great house!" In the car, John & I were talking & I told him I thought the reason why I was so overly emotional wasn't just us selling the house, it's the thought that, 'you can't ever go back'. It won't ever look the same as it did when we owned it. New buyers will come & change things, like we did when we moved in. And that's ok. That's change & it just happens. John grabbed my hand & said, "Yeah, but you have to think that we get to start a new chapter with our next house." And in that, it did make me feel better. Seeing it like John, this wasn't just an ending, but a beginning of something that we wanted---

a move to Columbia to start a family.

Which brings us to our next exciting happening.....

We are expecting a little baby!

Baby King is due to arrive at the end of the Summer....

August 13th to be exact.

I am in for one HOT and looooong summer!

We found out at the beginning of December that we had a baby on the way! I hadn't been feeling good at all. We were planning on going out with friends for dinner the next night, so I took a pregnancy test, just to see if I was in the clear to have a couple of glasses of wine or not... Came up negative. So I thought, No biggie! Just didn't want to be thinking later on down the line- "Oh crap! 'Baby got..... drunk!"

Still wasn't feeling good the next morning, so I thought, "I'll swing by my drs office to see what they say." Long story, short- Blood test came back positive for pregnancy! :)

Now, I'm a planner..... I knew that John & I were getting close to wanting to start a family, and I knew the exact way I wanted to tell him, when that day arrived.

Ever since John & I got engaged, I have heard the story of how his Mom had this wooden rocking horse custom made for John when he was a baby. She looooved this horse. She said John looooved this horse, and that she always wanted John's babies to have it one day. Well, the story gets sad, but to make it short,- the horse fell into the wrong hands at one point & got given away in a yard sale many many years ago.

So, being the planner that I am, I thought, "I'm going to make a happy ending to that story."-

I couldn't find that rocking horse, but I did the next best thing & had one shipped over from Sweden. It's just the most precious thing you've ever seen. And I've been hiding this rocking horse in the laundry room for the past couple of weeks. (Shows how much John is actually in the laundry room- HA---- I will say that it was in a box & hidden)

So, later on that night, when John got home, I told him that I had purchased something for the new house, pulled out this rocking horse & he said, "YOU'RE PREGNANT?!" - It was such a wonderful & exciting thing! John has been wanting a little baby since the day we got married.... So needless to say, HE WAS ESTATIC!!

So, we decided to keep quiet on the baby news (even to our parents!) until the 1st Doctors Appt which was scheduled the week of Christmas. Doctors appointment went wonderfully and he said everything looked perfect! We heard the little heartbeat & it just seemed so surreal.

On to Christmas- We told our families by each giving them a big box at the very end of all the presents & said, ' This is something that y'all have been wanting for your house.' Well, each set of parents all want/need something for their house, so they didn't think one thing about it.

I had gathered sweet baby items that I had seen & put them in a cute basket. Wrapped it up in muslin/ burlap material. Took out some stencils, stamped 'STORK & CO' on the material & tied it with a bow.

As soon as each of them pulled it out, they shot John & I a look of: 'Does this mean what we think it means?' John & I quickly said, "Oh no.... It's just the name of a company.... Keep opening!" It took just one flip of the fabric to reveal the baby items & jumps for joy, tears of happiness & lots of laughs were let out by all!

What the packaged looked like.

(I moved the tag to the inside of the basket, since I didn't want to give away the surprise before they unwrapped it)

I filled the basket with sweet items like:
Baby book, Hand knit baby booties, stuffed animal,

white baby pillow with a silver rattle, & 2 wooden pull toys

Tag that was inside:

I purchased these adorable push toys from Etsy!

We have video of each set of parents unwrapping their gift. However, it's on both of our phones & we can't seem to figure out how to upload them.... But once we do, we will definitely share them on here!

So, from here on out, I'm going to switch up our little blog just a bit.
Mondays will be our baby updates that week
Tuesdays will be recipes- Tasty Tuesdays (I'm copying my friend, Allison, on this)
Wed-Fri will be random things....

Thanks so much for all the love & support!!!