It's a...

     We had our gender reveal party last Saturday the 24th over at my parents house. We invited our family and a few friends and it was just the perfect day. Cam's dad came over bright and early to our house to smoke the meat with Cam. He came with donuts and Starbucks in hand and as they were getting the fire going outside I was cozied up inside on the couch and a soft blanket. The boys were in charge of all the meat and the girls, mainly my mom, mother in law, and sister in law, were in charge of the rest. The menu included smoked pork shoulder, smoked chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, mac and cheese, rolls, and of course pecan pie and banana pudding. It was delicious!

I had hoped we would be able to decorate and hang outside during the party, but the soggy weather kind of put a damper on those ideas. My sister did an amazing job of decorating and helping with the party and we stuck with a neutral fall theme for the decor. We had two different tables set up and a chalkboard where people could mark their guess.

The rain did hold off when it was time to do the reveal and it allowed us to stand outside to pop our confetti poppers. As soon as everyone had arrived we were all boiling over with excitement so we decided to pop those poppers right away! Cam wanted to be in charge of the surprise, so he is the only one who knew the gender. I had ordered a set of boy and a set of girl poppers just in case we didn't get the results in time, turns out we would have, but oh well. I ordered the poppers on Esty from the Gender Reveal shop and they turned out fantastic. The ladies at that shop were also very sweet and responded quickly to all of my questions.

On to the results...

and for some blurry I phone pictures! 

We are completely thrilled that Baby Mav is a girl and can't wait to welcome her into our family next year.

How we found out we were pregnant

We found out we were pregnant on Monday August 24, 2015.

I have always imagined how I would tell cam in some super cute way and get it all on video. After all, I do read these mom blogs all the time. And I had always dreamed about how one day I would get to explain to my kids the memories we had from "finding out".

On Monday morning the 24th I woke up not feeling "pregnant" but wanted to put my mind at ease so I took a pregnancy test before work. Little did I know that in less than a minute there would be TWO blue lines on that test. I was kind of shocked as I had not expected to get pregnant so soon. Let me back track. Cam and I traveled to Cabo at the beginning of July and after that trip we decided I should get off my birth control pill as I had been on it since I was a teenager and he had heard some stories about people not being able to get pregnant for over a year. I had also read that sometimes it could take 6 months to a year for the pill to get completely out of your system so I was on board with Cam's idea. I ended up starting my period the last day of our cabo trip, also happened to be my 24th birthday so I remember the exact day. That period was normal and I quit taking the pill and didn't experience anything too crazy for the weeks following. I did notice that I had some mood swings, but associated  that to stress. I was super nervous about what this cycle was going to be like because it would have been the first cycle in 10 years without bc and I had heard of and read some horror stories.

Well the estimated time for my first period without being on the pill came and went so after being a week late I took that test. Back to August 24th, one positive pregnancy test hidden in the guest bathroom and I head into work like nothing is different. And for a little bit more background, I work with Cams family. I am in the front office with his mom all day long, his brother works there and his dad. Oh, and Cam works at the other office down the road. So I kept this crazy secret all day long. When I got home after work I immediately took two more tests. This time I took the Clearblue digital pregnancy tests and just as quickly those two little things flashed the word PREGNANT at me.

So after containing myself and looking at myself in the mirror I decided that I needed to tell Cam as soon as he got home. So I set up a little onesie that I had left over from one of my sister in law's gender reveal parties last year, a baseball that I wrote "World's best dad" and all three pregnancy tests on the coffee table. Cam has a routine of coming home from work and plopping down on the couch so I assumed that is what he would do on this day. Nope, he didn't. I was in the kitchen organizing our filing cabinet that I had just created and he decided he wanted to come in the kitchen and look through the papers with me... So I didn't say anything and let him go on with being nosy and after what felt like forever he headed over to the couch. He sat down reached for the remote and saw my little set up.

He immediately turned to me and asked "are you pregnant" "really"?! I smiled and nodded my head yes from the kitchen and he came and gave me a huge hug. Then we both let it all sink in and started calculating how far along I was. I asked if he was happy and he said of course! We also were wondering how in the heck we were going to keep this secret from our people. We had guessed that I was about 6 weeks at that time according the my menstrual cycle. Later that week I scheduled our doctor's appointment but it wasn't for another 3 weeks so that meant our lips were sealed for 3 weeks. It was a huge secret and one that I have no idea how we kept! Welcome to the beginning of the story of Baby Mav!

8 years

    September & October are always fun months.... they are the beginning of fall, football, campfires, and really the start of all the Holiday fun. These months are even more special to me because they hold memories of first meeting and starting a relationship with Cam. This year, 2014, marks EIGHT years of being with Cameron.

8 years.
423 weeks.
2,964 days.
71,136 hours.

That is a lot of time spent together, a lot of time spent apart, a lot of time spent watching football, even more time watching baseball. There were a lot of hours spent traveling across state lines, family trips, and family dinners. 8 years means we have spent 8 Christmas Holidays together, 8 Thanksgivings, 8 New Years, and all of the others. I have been there to meet his baby nieces and nephews. We have seen each others' siblings grow up. With all that time there are tons of memories. Good, bad, beautiful, and ugly. I wouldn't change them for the world.

Cam and I have not only grown up together, but we have grown as individuals. I was only 15 when we started dating and he was 16. Y'all, teenagers... we were basically babies. We have grown in Christ, in our families, and within each other. I can honestly say he is the one I can count on for anything. I am so grateful God crossed our paths and that He has been there to hold us accountable to each other.

I love reminiscing on the past with him and I look forward to the future. I dream of raising kids with this man. I dream of building a home. I dream of telling our kids our story.

8 years is only the beginning... bring it on life!