Crafty Mama....Well Maybe One Day...

So this past weekend I decided to try and tackle a few projects for Jace and mommy. I saw a tutorial on Pinterest or somewhere recently on these cool little carseat blanket inserts. It's a blanket that you put in the carseat before baby and that way you can wrap up your little babino like a burrito and not have to worry about the blanket falling off in the car.

 I got my fabrics at Hancock Fabrics because they were all 50% off and I love me a deal. I got three different minky material ones in three neutral colors and then three different patterns to go on the reverse sides.



Can you guess what I paired with the chocolate minky...if you know my husband and you know what season is just a couple weeks away you can guess it. That's right, camo! And I was even able to get it in his "pattern" Realtree Breakup Brown.

The first one I did was the Ivory minky and a baby blue soft tanktop like material. Well let's just say that one had to be handed off to a more experienced sewer for some reconstruction and repairs. My second one was the Camo and Chocolate minky, and it turned out better. Way better than the first one but still not perfect. The last one was the best by far but I still need to figure out the seatbelt cut-outs. Overall this project went well and once I perfect it, I will hopefully have quite a few to use.

The second project, which technically is the first since I messed up the first carseat insert so bad I didn't count it, was the Infinity Scarves/Breastfeeding Covers. Now these could be done in about 5 minutes and are probably what this re-virginized sewer should have started off with. It literally took more time to cut out my material than it did to sew them.

With these you simply take a yard of fabric, needs to be 60" wide, fold it in half so it's 30"W by 36"L and cut the fold. Pin the shorter ends together and sew them so you have a loop. That's it. It's really that simple. Now because I've turned into a "use every bit of anything usable from anything" I turned some of the scrap pieces into little blankies for Jace man.

I even did one in the shape of a broadhead in honor of Daddy's bow hunting love. I plan on doing several other small projects for this little boy before he gets here. And just to add something cool, I'm sewing all of these projects on my great-grandmother's sewing machine that I got after she passed away.

All I want for Christmas...

is a happy, healthy baby boy! It's hard to believe that in just 13 and a half weeks or earlier I will be a mom and Jared will be a dad. We are beyond excited about this baby and when we found out it was a boy, I don't think you could have slapped the smile off of Jared's face. 

It's hard to believe that last Christmas I was at my mom's house and Jared's family was going through a very rough time. The tornado that hit on 12/25/12 actually hit Jared's grandparents farm. It was such a scary situation for all of them and it about killed me not to be there helping. Jared even stayed behind from his family vacation to the mountains to help his Granddaddy and Grandmama work on the damaged areas. 

This Christmas I get to celebrate the birth of Jesus with my husband and son. I couldn't ask for a better gift than that. I'm so happy to know that my first Christmas as a Jordan will be as a new mom. Poor little man may not like his birthday being so close to this time of year later on but we'll figure something out when he's older. 

Now before Jared and I were even engaged, we knew that we were meant to be with each other and planned on spending our lives together. With this being so, we discussed children early on and had our future children's names nailed down fairly quickly. And my son's name was his daddy's pick hands down. David Jace Jordan will be the most spoiled little man ever I do believe. "David" is Jared's paternal grandfather's name as well as part of his dad's name. Now "Jace", can you guess where that came from? If any of you know my husband and what time of year is his favorite (Hunting Season), you know that Duck Dynasty and hunting have a constant presence in our house. So when I mentioned the name Jace one day he said that's it. So "David Jace" is our little man's name and we can't wait to kiss on this little baby come December. 

This past week was my glucose test at my doctor's appointment and I was dreading it. Throughout this whole pregnancy I have craved close to no sweets. I want salt and yummy avocado! I don't even really like Coke anymore, and for those of you who know me probably just fell out reading that. I still drink sweet tea but it has to be half and half and more so unsweet rather than sweet. 

And I need to take a step out right now and say that growing up I was told by my old doctor that he thought I would have a hard time getting and staying pregnant. I have really bad ovarian cysts and they have caused complications since I was young. Alot of pain and medication trying to get them under control. 

So when we found out, I was ecstatic! That quickly wore off when morning sickness hit me hard for about 9 weeks. I couldn't hardly tolerate any type of food and what did go down didn't stay long. I told Jared that if this stayed the whole time, this may be our only child. Thankfully it went away and I'm feeling great! 

However, I am having a hard time adjusting to this belly. And yes I do have a belly. I know I shouldn't complain because there are women who would kill to get pregnant and would gladly put up with morning sickness the entire time just to have a baby so I'm shutting my mouth about the unglamourous parts and focusing on the amazing parts. 

Like feeling Jace kick for the first time; seeing Jared's face when he first felt him move; telling my parents and siblings that they would have a baby boy to play with as their Christmas presents. (I was serious about that you guys, Jace is your present so don't ask where your real gift is.) 

And after weeks of people asking me where the belly is, I'm proud to say, it has finally popped out and I don't know that it will ever go away. But hopefully so, as soon as he's out :) 

Back to our appointment earlier this week, we headed in for my glucose test. For those of you who don't know what that is I'll explain. After fasting since midnight, you go in get your blood drawn, then drink this nasty (or so I thought) sugary liquid, wait an hour then have your blood drawn again and they test this blood for elevated levels of glucose. The normal range is 70 - 140. 

I was dreading this test for two reasons, 1)I don't like sweets right now so a sugary drink that people have been telling me was like drinking syrup didn't entice me at all and 2)I had to fast from midnight till after the appointment was over. Now if pregnancy has taught me anything it's that eating within an hour of getting up is key for me to have a good day. Jace and mommy love breakfast so I have usually eaten by 8am. Being that my appointment was at 8:45, I was about to kill for some Chick-fil-a! (Which is where my husband took me as soon as we were done at the doctor). 

So anywho, at my appointment our nurse ushered us into the back to get my stats done and told us she had some bad news, we weren't scheduled for an ultrasound but if we wanted to get one we could since it was slow. Um yes please! I always want to see my son. So we did my weight, blood pressure, then I headed around the corner to the lab to get my blood drawn and drink the eww. Now I have no problem with blood or needles, I use to give blood all the time before I got pregnant. I swear Red Cross had me on speed dial since I'm O-, the universal donor. So the nurse drew some blood and handed me my Lemon Lime cocktail. I call it a cocktail because I thought it was going to be like a Gatorade lemon-lime so I brought salt to go with it :) But it ended up being like Sprite and it really wasn't that bad. It was really cold which helped but I wanted to get to my ultrasound so I drank it really fast which gave me a little head rush but I was good so I headed to get Jared and off to ultrasound we went. 

Now since this wasn't a scheduled ultrasound, it was simply going to be, hey here's your baby, aww isn't he cute, okay bye. But as soon as our US tech put the wand on my belly she jerked it off and said "Oh no, we're doing a 4D right now! He's in too perfect a position not to and I don't want to miss it if y'all come back for the actual 4D in a month and we can't get him to cooperate." Hey that's great with me, you go right ahead little lady. Based on other 4D's I've seen I was partly expecting a kind of potato looking image but our girl was good. The first image popped up of his little face and I was speechless. He was right there; perfectly formed and beautiful as can be. Up until this point I hadn't really felt connected with the baby yet. I knew there was something inside me and I was getting bigger but that was the extent of my pregnancy emotion. This one image sent that feeling away. That was my baby, my son, something I created with Jared, actually growing inside me. He was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen and I was instantly in love. The ultrasound tech took multiple pictures for us and we got to see him rubbing his face and pondering on the fact that mommy hadn't eaten yet. 

As we watched I had a couple tears roll down my face and Jared just held my hand and smiled. He was as much in love as me. We didn't get a look at his goods because she was saving that for our real appointment but we did get his measurements. He is around 1lb 3oz right now and about 13 inches long :) Absolutely perfect. We met with Dr. Reed after the US and we discussed my due date. My current due date is 12/22 but Dr. Reed wants to induce me at least the week before and being that he doesn't induce on Tuesdays, our little man will be here by the 16th or sooner. I'm getting a little nervous but so excited! We have our next appointment October 2nd so hopefully we will have more pictures by then.

Hey Howdy Hey!!!

Well I'm so happy to start this blog! I figured it would be the best way to keep all our families up to date on our life and up coming events. Here's just a brief run down on the last few months for you.

Back last December, Jared Jordan and I reconnected in a deer stand :) For those of you who know us, know that our relationship couldn't have started in any better place. After that day of hunting we knew that we had each found the one God had made for us.

I'm so thankful that this man I've known for 15 years is now my husband. He is such a wonderful man. He has treated me like a princess from day one and I couldn't be happier.

 

Let me take you to our wedding day...or the days before. Our wedding was scheduled for July 6, 2013 and if you live in the middle part of Alabama you may remember God sent a test flood in the days before.

 

On July 4th I woke up to multiple phone calls from my family members saying that they didn't think we would be able to have the wedding at my grandparents house.

 

This was my dream location and had been for years. They had already put up the arbor that my dad, Jared and brothers built and things were all being sent to that address, including the 100+ guest we
invited. The decision was made that I should call the small church across from our local country store and see if by some chance we could use their church for the wedding.

I tracked down the preacher, who was on vacation in the mountains, and explained our situation to him, and this is when I love being from the South. Without hesitation (okay maybe a little) he told me where the key was, where the thermostat was and how to turn on the lights and everything we needed to have our wedding there.

 

My family who lives out there went straight over and took pictures and deemed it worthy of our small
country wedding. I thought it was cute and perfect. Disaster averted.

 

Well fast forward an hour or two...My dad called me back and said that he and the grandparents thought that we could have it at the original location with a few changes. Perfect! I didn't care where they were having it at that point just pick a place and let's go with it. So they moved the very heavy arbor down to the front yard and the planning resumed.

Friday was the bridesmaid luncheon and rehearsal dinner. Being that I didn't have a wedding planner, I wrangled up a list for the processional and coordinated everything as best I could. My man about lost his head since most people wouldn't shut their mouths and listen but it all worked out in the end.

We got through the rehearsal and then headed to dinner at a local Mexican restaurant. Jared took me to my mom's hotel room and we said our last goodbye as a "dating/engaged" couple. That night I stayed up with my mom, Noni, Granddad and Uncle Shawn putting together various wedding goodies.

On the morning of our wedding I just knew I would wake up to a beautiful sunrise and everything would be perfect...WRONG!!! I woke up to grey skies and rain. We had breakfast as a family and then parted ways.

My sister, Jensen, and I waited to be picked up by my friend Courtney, then headed to get our hair done while my mom and grands and other family headed out to the wedding site to get it ready. All the maids arrived at the salon and got our "hair did" no joke. :)

Then we went to lunch and headed out to the farm. When we arrived it was pouring down rain but didn't that stop my family from busting their butts and decorating for my wedding...hell no! Almost every person who was there, was soaked to the bone but let me tell you, the end result was the most beautiful wedding ever set up.

As my girls and I started getting ready we prayed, along with others involved in the wedding, that the rain would stop. If anything, just long enough for pictures and the ceremony. Well you can probably tell from the pictures that the rain continued during our outside shoot. But man my family or should I call them "umbrella holders" were on top of it.

Wait, back to me getting ready, after my hair and makeup was done, it was time to step into my dress. My mom zipped and hooked me up and my stepmom put on my red cowboy boots. This is when they handed me my gift from my groom. I knew what he had gotten me, a Diana Warner necklace with my new last name initial on it "J" but I wasn't expecting his hand written note. I was asked to read it aloud for the videographer but by the second line I knew that was impossible if I wanted to keep my makeup in tact.

I then made my way outside for our "First Look". This was something I had been looking forward to for a while. They escorted Jared out of the barn, blindfolded, and directed him towards me where I was waiting under some mossy trees. After taking a few pictures with his eyes still hidden, I was instructed to untie his handkerchief.

A couple more pics and then he was able to turn around and see me. That was a moment I will never forget. He looked at me in a way he never had before. He told me how beautiful I looked and how happy he was and how much he missed me.

We held hands and kissed and took I don't know how many more pictures before we started our group and family shots. After the million pictures were over we all headed inside to get ready for the ceremony.

My family and new family learned my drill sergent style early because they started walking down the aisle at exactly 7pm. I however didn't realize this and neither did my hair and makeup girl because we were still curling my hair when my dad said, "Peyton, we've got to go. It's our turn."

But to my defense, the only reason I wasn't ready was because I was told that we were going to wait till the rain stopped. Well wouldn't you know God shined down on us and the rain stopped just a few minutes before 7pm. God is so good!

After my dad escorted me down the aisle while my brother, Tristen, played the guitar, the preacher began his speech. At some point during the first 30 seconds I had a gut wrenching realization, I had forgotten Jared's ring inside the house.

I was at the point of no return, the front of the ceremony with every eye on me. I panicked and looked at my sister, hoping and praying that she had remembered it, but nope. She just smiled and shook her head. I came to the conclusion that we would just have to fake it. Who would know anyway.

 

 

After my dad gave me away, Jared and I joined hands and the preacher continued. When it came time for us to repeat our vows another flub up hit. Our preacher, a dear family friend, said "Now Jared repeat after me, "I Blake"" hahaha! Everyone laughed but only me and Jared knew what happened. He had sent us a script from a wedding he did last year in which the grooms name was Blake. He had just simply forgotten to change the name in his revised version. It's something we'll always remember.

Then we prayed and as we had our heads bowed I couldn't help but notice the movement coming down the line of bridesmaids. I thought, "Oh thank God, they somehow got the ring!" When the preacher asked for our rings Jensen did in fact hand me a ring, BUT it wasn't Jared's ring.

My Uncle Shawn had gotten wind of the emergency and slipped his to my mom to use as a stand in. I knew right away it was the wrong one but it would have to do for now. However, my ever so observant husband did not.

As I slid the yellow gold (not titanium) ring down to his top knuckle (as far as it would go) he still didn't notice it. But when we let go of hands, I caught him trying to force the ring down onto his finger and I quickly jumped into my first wifely snap and said "don't do that, that's not your ring!"

He looked down and saw why I told him to stop messing with it. And if that wasn't enough, now I didn't know this happened until after the wedding, but someone arrived during the ceremony. Like they pulled down the driveway during the ceremony. I was so into our wedding and probably freaking out about the ring that I didn't even notice. I was blissfully happy and nothing could ruin it.

Once we were pronounced husband and wife, my man planted a huge kiss on me and we walked back up the aisle to nothing less than the best "Sweet Home Alabama". When we got inside we promptly got Jared's actual ring and gave my Uncle Shawn his back.

The guest headed to our reception in the barn and the party began! Even though most of the beer was consumed by my family and groomsmen and groom prewedding we made it through the whole night with everyone having a good time.

We had amazing BBQ, delicious cake, and enough beer and wine to take down a small army or our wedding guest. I never understood before how people didn't get to see and talk to everyone who came to their weddings or even how they didn't get to eat.

Well I understand it now! I did get to sit down and eat but I didn't eat much. I was just too excited but it was nice to sit for a while. After we ate and signed our marriage license, we made our way to the dance floor and had our first dance to George Strait "I Cross My Heart".

 

 

Back in January or February, can't remember which, Jared had come to see me in Birmingham and we watched Pure Country and both agreed that would be our wedding song. Everything went perfectly.

 

 

We had our sparkler send off and climbed into my Noni's old pickup truck and then got back out. Sike!!! Haha everyone thought we were leaving but we just wanted to do our send off while the photographer and videographer were still there.

We stayed until about 10 or so and then being the old married couple we were, we decided to head home :) It was the best day ever and I'm so thankful for everyone who made it possible!