So, let’s see, this week, as with probably everyone, was really busy for us too. After the baby shower last Sunday, my friend Kim came down Monday and cut my hair for me. She did a really good job, she basically just trimmed it up for me with some long layers. She’s still in hair school so it was good practice for her too, and it was just so relaxing for me!
Tuesday and Wednesday Anya and I stayed busy getting ready for Thanksgiving mainly and trying to stay caught up on laundry.
Thursday we went down to my parents house in Prattville for dinner and a combined early Christmas exchange with my Dad’s side of the family. Since the baby is going to be appearing soon, we decided to combine Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, although they will probably still come meet Peanut once she gets here. I made green bean casserole and banana pudding this year. My Uncle Woody brought a smoked Turkey and my Uncle Ricky brought the sweet potato casserole. My Mom and Dad handled the ham and dressing. Everything was yummy. My brother brought cake and drinks too.
And my Mom made her Chex Mix, which I love, but was having a hard time eating this year as it kept making me cough from the cold I’m still trying to fight off. We also played Dirty Santa. Travis and I brought gift cards this year, one for Olive Garden and one for your choice of Longhorn, Red Lobster, Olive Garden, or Bahama Breeze restaurants. The idea is that you bring a gift you yourself would want and then when your number comes up you can either open the gift you brought, open another gift, or steal a gift. I was number 4 and Travis was number 9. I stole my gift card from my sister in law Cindy as I really wanted to go to Longhorn! Nevertheless, my Aunt Judy stole it from me and I stole a set of umbrellas! We actually needed some new umbrellas. My poor brother got stolen from about 4 times though! Travis ended up with a digital key chain photo thing, that we already had 3 of from last year, but that’s okay, its a fun game. Anya even got in on the action and opened a special gift just for her number which was number 11! She got a Cinderella Castle sand art thing. She seemed really excited about it and I know she’ll have fun making it because she loves sand art! My Dad ended up with the other gift card from Olive Garden.
Thursday night Anya stayed with my parents for the first time without us. We came back home to Cullman because Travis had to work Friday. However, Travis and I did escape to the movies Thursday night. We went to see Quantum of Solace, which was okay, not my favorite James Bond movie though as the plot to this one was a bit confusing, but it was a good action movie and more realistic than the Pierce Brosnan ones, especially once he started having the invisible cars! Daniel Craig makes a pretty good Bond though.
Friday while Travis was at work I didn’t know what to do with myself without Anya around. I ended up doing a little shopping, but got pretty tired pretty quickly, so I came home, had lunch with Chance, watched Desperate Housewives, finished reading my Dean Koontz book “The Darkest Evening of the year” and took a bath. A nice day for me. Anya did well with my parents, she had some moments where she really wanted Mommy and Daddy, and she was very happy to see us, but she had a grand time with Pop Pop and Granny, as she always does! Friday was also Travis’ birthday, so once we got to my parents house we decided to go out to dinner. We went to Logan’s Roadhouse which was okay. Nothing over the top great about it, but it was a good dinner. Anya loved the rolls and thought it was so cool that she could throw peanut shells on the floor.
Saturday morning we just relaxed a bit and then went to Travis’ mother’s house for a while and had lunch with her at a Mexican place in Prattville. Then, we went back to my parents house and watched the sad Auburn/Alabama game. I’m sure Nick Saban wishes the game had been a tougher fight as it would have been better practice for their playoff game next week, but alas Auburn was trying too hard I think and just had a rough game. Doesn’t matter to me I still love Auburn, but I also hope Alabama wins next week against Florida.
We came home last night and slept until almost 10am this morning. We were all very tired. We are going to grill some hamburgers in a while if the weather holds up for us and other than that, I’m just getting ready for the baby from here on out!

I had my first baby shower today! We didn’t have a baby shower with Anya because in Vegas we didn’t really know anyone and the people we did know didn’t offer… for various Religious reasons, so today was a first for me and I had a great time. It was given for me by some girls that Travis works with that I’ve become friends with. And since his office is pretty large, we kept it to just office employees and a few of my friends. Originally, it was going to be a surprise that Travis had been working on for me with them, but I kind of sneaked up one day in the middle of a conversation about the whole thing; but it was still a surprise for me to have one so today I was super excited. We had it at our house because it would be easier for transporting presents and for one of my really close friends from Wetumpka to come. I managed to get a really bad cold on Friday, so I wasn’t feeling the best and I definitely sounded a bit rough, but I always have a cough that sounds worse than it is and today about 4am I actually got up and could breathe again, so today I felt a good bit better. The girls did a great job on the shower too. We had a cute cake, yummy sandwiches and snacks, and great punch and coffee! I also had lots of people come! We had about 15 total and I got some wonderful gifts as well. Travis and I felt really blessed to receive all of this and are very thankful to everyone. Below are some shots from the shower…

So, puppy mills and breeders that sell dogs…not a good thing. Thought it was about time that I made a post about this situation; I’ve been reading Dean Koontz’s “The Darkest Evening of The Year” and he makes lots of these points in his book. It is so important to give a rescue or shelter dog a chance and here’s some reasons why. Most puppy farms or breeders have 10 or 20 “breeder dogs”, these dogs will begin being bred at 6 months old and will have up to 2 or more litters a year for 5 or more years. And some large operations have more than 1000 in very cruel conditions. They usually live in a cage about 2 feet by 2 feet in perpetual darkness. Stores, Internet Merchants, and newspapers who claim to have puppies from small breeders and loving “farm families” are usually selling animals produced by brutalized breeder dogs. The AKC will register a purebred dog, this does not mean the dog has been bred humanely! I don’t imagine that I’m changing the world, I know it won’t change, not completely, but so many people are indifferent to the suffering of these animals. When, or if, breeder dogs are rescued, they still come to people with apprehension but with a hope that they will have a better life. There are no accounts of breeder dogs biting their rescuers, they accept treats as gentle as possible from the rescuer’s hand, with barely their lips touching the fingers. Their eyes have an emptiness to them, but the soul that will love you unconditionally still exists behind that emptiness. They will not and do not understand why they were treated the way they were, but they still have their dog spirit. It is so important not to buy from a breeder, or a family farm, or a pet store for these reasons. Plus, did you know 4 million dogs are put down each year at shelters because there are not enough homes. 4 million a year!
This is a subject very important to me and if you don’t agree that’s fine, but thank you for taking the time to read it. And finally please…don’t breed or buy while shelter pets die!

Yep, its a girl! Everything looking good still, I’ve gained another 2 lbs, and the baby is measuring just right at 34 weeks. Travis will probably post the photos tomorrow on his site, although it seems we have another shy little girl, as she kept her hand in front of her face for most of the ultrasound today, so we couldn’t get a really great photo. No worries, I’m sure I’ll get plenty of photos of her once she makes her debut! Still considering names so please send suggestions.

So, our next ultrasound is this Wednesday. Hopefully we will find out for sure that the baby is a girl. However, we won’t be disappointed if its a boy of course! Our biggest dilemma is a name for a baby
girl. We have three or four we like, but nothing that jumps out and says that’s it! With Anya’s name we had it picked out about 3 months before she was born and we were just sure that was her name. Boy’s names we have had picked out for years. Travis and I have always had a name we really liked for a boy since we were dating actually! Nope, not giving away any of the names we like…sorry, you’ll have to wait and be surprised.
If you want to leave a suggestion for a baby girls or boys name, just click on the discussion button and leave us a comment or e-mail us your ideas! We are open to all kinds of names, but we tend to like the more unusual ones and the old fashioned ones. I will let you all know that one of the middle names we are considering for a girl is Noelle.