It's Christmas time at the Nunley's house

This weekend I decorated the house for Christmas for the first time since we have moved to Maryland. The first year we moved up here we were still unpacking and settling in so I was not in the mood to drag out all the Christmas stuff. The next year I thought what was the point. It was just us two, we were not having anyone over for Christmas, and we bought only a few gifts right before Christmas. Our shopping list for family has been whatever will fit in a card and we pretty much just went and bought what we wanted for our gifts. I did pull out a mini tree that is suppose to go outside and decorated it a few days before Christmas. Last year Doug was in Alabama in Nov/Dec, then we were both there for the funeral, and then I went home for Christmas.

So this year with baby on the way, both of us home, and in the new house I finally felt like dragging everything out. Bad thing is, now I have a shopping list of so much stuff we need! This year I have a yard, lots of windows, and three floors to decorate. I have done pretty good in the past by stocking up on stuff in the after Christmas sales. Now I just need to get a few more things to fill up this big house. I will post more pictures when I get everything else on my list and get the outside decorated but here are a few for now.


As you can see, we are in need of an extra stocking. :)

Christmas was always such a magical time of the year at my house. Mom redecorated the entire house (every room, every object, every inch), we hung lights outside, made yummy treats, went shopping for gifts, and we had lots of parties with family and friends. I have so many cherished memories of all my childhood Christmas's. The traditions (Merry-Go-Round, treats, reading the actual Christmas story from the bible, setting up the mini nativity set (my main decorating job), etc), the family time, the excitement. Christmas is always more magical/special when children and family are involved. I think that has been the big reason why we lost the spirit the last few years up here. But now, we have a reason to be excited. I have motivation to get up and make this time of year magical again. I cannot wait until next year when he/she is here to celebrate with us. I hope I can make it as special for him/her every year as my parents did for me.

Thank you Mom and Dad for teaching me the real reason for the season and for giving me so many wonderful Christmas seasons. I love you! Can't wait to keep the traditions going!

1st snow of the season

We got our first bit of snow of the season today. It started around 10 and came down pretty good. When I left work I had about 1-2 inches on the car. Then it tapered off, rained, melted, sleeted, rained, snowed, rained.... you get the picture. We were right on the snow/rain line so the cities north and west of us got way more. We don't have much to show for our little snow shower other than a wet sloppy mess. Wish I took some pictures when I left work but here is a snap of what is left.

20 weeks

Look what popped up! Not my best picture but it shows off the bump pretty well. I mean, are any pregnant, from the side photos of yourself that flattering?

Football Player VS Cheerleader - The Vote

We are a week away from the doctors appointment that should tell us if we are having a boy or a girl.

So what do you think?

Football Player or Cheerleader?

Mama update

So this mama has been feeling a lot better. I have more energy but I am still sleeping a lot. I usually get up at 5:30 (sometimes later :) ) and by 7 pm I am done. Doug is having a bit of a difficult time getting use to me going to bed that early. He just doesn't know what to do with all that time by himself. Ha! The weekends are even worse because I will sleep in and end up sleeping around 10-12 hours. And I will even nap sometimes! I am so behind on my shows. I try to stay awake and watch them but it is so hard!

I have definitely been eating more. Last doctor visit, I had gained more than half of the weight back that I lost. Hopefully by next appointment I will be on the positive side. Still eating very limited things and no meat. No crazy, consuming cravings. I usually think, hey that sounds good. Then I eat it and I am over it. Right now I am stuck on pickles, chicken salad, fruit, and sweets. I literally have these almost everyday. I have never been a sweets person but I have been wanting them now. From Starbursts to donuts, chocolate (we bought two boxes of Russell Stover) to cheesecake, I have to have a little something everyday. (And some days its more that a little :) )

It's hard to believe in just a couple of weeks we will know the gender. Time is starting to fly by! He/She will be here before we know it. We still have tons to do to get ready but I know it will all work out in the end. I still haven't felt any movement. Every time we do an ultrasound he/she is boogieing so I know when he/she is big enough I will feel it. I use to think (well, I guess I still do) it is so weird to have another life inside my belly. Now I think it's more weird that I can't feel the human growing inside my body. You would think you would be able to feel something like that.

One thing I am excited for... to give my child a puppy for Christmas! (Oh yall thought I gave up on the idea of getting a new puppy? Ha! I just got the perfect excuse to get another one!)

Christmas Card Pictures

This year I finally had the perfect excuse to get the Christmas card family pictures that I had been wanting for years... baby belly. Well, kinda. I figured we could do a Merry Christmas / We're Pregnant Christmas card this year. Unfortunately, my belly hadn't shown up to get the whole pregnancy theme across. So we had to improvise a bit. I poked my belly out as far as it would go and arched my back some to help emphasize the bump. You can see "it" in some pictures but not all.

We had a great photographer, Anna Schmidt, to take our photos. She had tons of ideas to combine the pregnancy and Christmas theme. I told her what I had in mind and she literally blew it. She has this ability to capture light that just makes the picture stunning.

The day of the shoot it was extremely cold and windy. Of course, with our luck, we would have that weather with an outdoor photo session. We tried to keep our jackets off but it was very hard to do. The wind also made it very difficult to get good pictures with our props. We spent more time waiting on a break in the wind than we did taking actual pictures. Ha!

This was Auburn's first trip to a park. I know, bad mama! But she doesn't have very good manors so it is hard to take her places with other animals and humans. She either barks at everything that moves or attempts to meet everything that moves. I think she knew we were doing something important because she behaved well. Getting her to look at the camera versus everyone else was a bit of a challenge but she did sit still when asked. Even better, when we tied her up so Doug and I could take pictures without her she sat still, kept her eyes mostly on us, and didn't bark her head off. For a second I thought someone switched her with another dog. Ha!

So here are a few of our favorite pictures from the day. I am saving the ones we used for the card so you'll have to stay tuned for those. :)