back to our old stomping ground.... Louisville.

It was nostalgic driving back into the town where our romance began.... oh the memories!

Ever since the 2nd trimester I have craved Chili's queso dip, so I was delighted when Courtney and Jeff suggested going to Chili's for supper once we arrived into town! It was such a wonderful encouragement over dinner. We love spending time with the Mixons and we even closed out the restaraunt!

Then we headed to our B&B at the Colsons! They took such great care of us... making home cooked meals every night! We were spoiled! And Sebastion (the dog) has ALMOST convinced us to get a puppy! (okay... not really, but he is awfully convincing!) It was great to relax and catch up with Gentry and Christian and be super comfy while Michael was BUSY with school.

Michael did GREAT in his class! I dropped him off EARLY every morning and then he would call me to pick him up in the evenings when he was done... we would eat dinner, then he would head to another room to read one of his books for class. The focus and dedication was inspiring! (o:

While in class, he actually ran into several old friends. The funny thing about this is that those he ran into no longer lived in Louisville, so that was an encouragement from God.

Michael was really blessed by the teaching and assignments in his class and came away renewed for ministry! It was awesome. Praise God!

I came away refreshed too!... from all the R&R at the Colsons, but also from my pregnancy massage! The most amazing thing ever! I felt like a new woman afterwards... its funny how much the baby changes you!

awwwwwwww........ headed home to WV.

oh yeah... I cannot forget my lunch/afternoon I spent back at the bank I used to work at! It was AWESOME to see all the ladies, catch up and enjoy some Steak-n-Shake! I feel so blessed to have such great friends!
(p.s. Courtney works there now!)

Michael and I at SBTS where we met.

My 20 week belly at the Chapel at SBTS.

My 20 week belly... we'll find out if our baby is a boy or girl next week!

Music City, Nashville TN

After leaving the foothills of NC we headed to Music City in Tennessee.

Our drive took us up to Johnson City because i-40 was closed due to a landslide. So our 5.5hr drive turned into almost 7 hours! (but it felt like 10!)

We arrived at the Opry Land Hotel while it was still decorated for Christmas. It was beautiful! The hotel was HUGE! We checked in and pretty much went straight to bed.

The next morning was the start of the conference we were attending with three other ladies from our church. It was the Children's Pastors Conference.

There were some GREAT resources and we had fun spending some ministry money and gaining lots of ideas to bring back to use in our children's ministry! There were also some disappointing "sessions" where an unbiblical perspective on parenting, men and women, and ministry was taught. We are praying that God will allow us to speak this truth to the church about this conference, and also to point them in a different direction.

The trip to Nashville all in all was a good trip. It was great working with the ladies from our church and finding our VBS curriculum. Also, enjoyed eating at "the aquarium" where we ate and watched a guitar shark swim in the tank!

We ended up staying a few extra days to celebrate our two year anniversary...but we moved to the Sheraton. We actually enjoyed the KING size bed more than the double at the Opry Hotel and it was more comfy for me too... after all I am like the princess and the pea! (o:

It was great to relax and spend one-on-one time with Michael. We feel blessed to have received some Anniversary money and used it on this portion of our trip. We went to the hardrock in downtown Nashville for steaks, the wax museum and cooters/dukes of hazard museum.

It was a great trip. Then we headed to Louisville for Michael to take a class at SBTS toward finishing his degree!

My 19 week belly at the Hard Rock Cafe in Nashville, TN

My love and I at the Hard Rock.

Guitars at the Hard Rock.

Michael and I at the Phil Joel concert!

CPC Conference.

Phil Joel of Newsboys!

Dukes of Hazards Car.

Me in front of the Cooters/Dukes of Hazard Museum.

Michael and I with Reba!

can't believe we paid $10 for this!

seriously... Brooks & Dunn

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

I LOVE Christmas! I love it for what it means... for understanding that God came to earth as a baby to save me from my sins so that I can have eternal life! wow! Thank you Lord!

Our Christmas Tree and My Grandmother's Nativity she made.

I also love it for family. It has always been such a sweet time with my family, immediate and extended. It's one of the times of year where everyone tries to get together and catches up on what's been happening throughout the year. It's always encouraging to see how God is working in their lives and to share what God is doing in ours.

This year we had decided to head to the mountains of NC for Christmas. Since I have had nausea problems traveling in the car we really didn't know how far I would make it... so we chose the closest relative! My mawmaw!

18 " and counting!

Michael and I in our snow in WV!

Bambi & Cambi, our twin deer!

Bambi, Cambi and the mama deer in the snow.

After receiving 18+ inches of snow in WV we packed our car for 3.5 weeks away and hit the road. It was great to get there before all the crowds arrived and spend time with her and some Aunts, Uncles, cousins and even two second cousins! It was a great time of recouping and catching up. I think Michael slept in for the first time in FOREVER! So that was nice.

Michael enjoyed spoiling my mawmaw by completing her list of chores! (o:
and once some of the other men arrived they even put in a new shower door and cleaned out the entire garage for her! hopefully soon she can park her car IN the garage!

On the 26th, some of my family arrived from FL! My parents, sisters, Jessica and Melissa, and Levi, Cooper and Micah, and bro-in-law Mike. It was so fun to see the boys react to the snow! They loved it! They were busy exploring and the grownups were busy catching up.

Then on New Years Carrie and Eric drove up and surprised everyone by picking up Jennifer and Cheyenne on their way! (It was fun to see Eric see the snow too because he had never seen it before!)

It was SO sweet to be able to see all my sisters and niece and nephews! I didn't think I would get to see them all and then one by one they decided to come! yeah!

Although I did not participate, we even enjoyed some sledding and snow boarding! (I took pictures!)

Here are a few:

Michael opening his presents from me Christmas morning.

My presents from Michael Christmas morning.

Our lamb nursery has begun! We received lots of lambs for the baby!

Uncle Barry reading the Christmas story from Luke, a family tradition.

Jessica and I watching the snow sledding!

Melissa and Copper being silly.

My love and I.

Princess Cheyenne wearing my scarf like I wear it!

Carrie and Eric.

Mama and I.

Can't hardly believe it, but my mom braved the hill with my Aunt Martha!
(The video is hilarious!)

Micah figured out how to get a ride back up the mountain!
Hitch a ride with his two Uncle Michaels!

L to R: Dad, Melissa, Jessica, Cooper.

Micah after my dad hit him in the face with a snow ball... AND AFTER we tried to get him back!
Oh the tears!


Watching with the baby.

Michael had a great time playing with the nephews.

Being silly with some of my dad's winter gear!

The boys love their Papa!

Cooper conquering the mountain at Mawmaw's.

Levi conquered the mountain at Mawmaw's too.

It was such a wonderful time and we feel SO blessed by family!

It's beginning to look a LOT like Christmas!

When I laid down for my morning nap, I had no idea what would be when I awoke.
I walked outside our bedroom and was blinded by the brightness. Then my jaw dropped! It had snowed 4-5inches!!! It was beautiful!

For some reason snow makes me happy!  I can't wait to put up our Christmas decorations!

Here are some pics of our snow...

 

 

our Pet Deer, Bambi

13 weeks Miracle!

I am constantly amazed at what God is doing with our baby!

I cannot get out of my head that last week God designed our baby's fingerprints!  We can't wait to see what they look like!

I got to see the baby again yesterday and hear the heartbeat. I TOTALLY cried! To see our baby moving, stretching, and scratching it's head just overwhelmed me. The heartbeat was strong and everything checked out well!

We can't wait til the next time we catch a glimpse of the miracle!

As far as how I am feeling, surprisingly, even though I was nauseous the entire 1st trimester 24/7, I have actually gotten sick more often the last two weeks. We are hoping this isn't a pattern that continues!

Thanks for all your love and support!

How we got our name?...

well... our "slogan"... Big Name ♥ Big Heart

One day I was at the walmart pharmacy and the pharmacist ran around the corner up to the register where a lady was helping me check out. He said "is that your maiden name!?" I hesitantly said ..."nooo." I wasn't quite sure what he was getting at. He could tell I was confused and then tried to back peddle. "Oh I just figure it had to be your married name, because if it wasn't you'd be in a hurry to get married!" I wasn't smiling yet... "so he added... you know what they say.... "Big Name... Big Heart!" ...and it fits! So that is where our blog name came from.

Valley Falls.... Labor Day...

SEPTEMBER, Labor Day.

This was a great day! Michael and I took a mini-vacation to Valley Falls State Park. It was beautiful and we really enjoyed basking in God's creation!  This was a great break from "life" and we spent some time literally counting our blessings!
God is soooooo good to us!

 

 

 

 

  

 

Highlights over the last few months...

so I was going to try to catch up with everything that we have done here, and it is just WAY too much!

So here are some highlights to share of our wild and wonderful adventures here in West Virginia:

SEPTEMBER

Dr. Davis gets his white coat!
We really enjoyed being able to see my cousin, Tyler receive his white coat! What an awesome and proud experience!

Dr. Davis!

 

Tyler, Mom, Me, & Michael

So Proud!

 

My love and I.

Michael, Me, & Tyler.

 

Me, Mom, & Mawmaw trying to take a pic of ourselves! 

 

Aunt Martha, Nate, Tyler, Uncle Ron.

While there Michael enjoyed a car show!

 

We did some cloud surfing...

 

 My nephew Cooper called us while we were driving and we tried to figure out if we were

seeing the same clouds!  (in west virginia and florida!) it was so cute!

I saw a whale! and the big one did look like a BEAR before i took the picture!

Cooper said he saw the bear too!

OCTOBER:

We loved visiting with family in NC! It is always nice to see family and catch up! We got to hear a lot of Uncle Mike's (at that time) upcoming mission trip to Africa! We are so excited to see what God does!

We also got to spend some time catching up with my cousin Perry, hearing about the old ladies at the YMCA... he had some funny stories!

Uncle Ron and Aunt Martha drove down from a long day of work... catching up and hearing about family and new jobs.... we feel so blessed to have such an awesome family! We enjoyed every bit of it!

And while we were there we got to see the quilt show that Mawmaw (aka. Granny) had entered some of her quilts in! The pictures do NOT do them justice! They are truly AMAZING!   .... and she won! We are so proud of her!

Mawmaw with her "mystery quilt" she made for Carrie!

 

She should've one 1st!

(I even found a mistake on the one that had won 1st place... there was a spot that was not quilted and it clearly was supposed to be! Obviously they didn't have me as a judge!)

A baby quilt!

 

Mawmaw and I by the baby quilt.

... I am 6 weeks pregnant in this shot!

...for those of us who are dying to have one of Mawmaw's masterpieces,

she currently has a surplus of baby quilts... so lets get crackin'!  (o:

I also was able to see my GREAT college/seminary friend Sarah and attend a baby shower! I had wanted to go and see her and celebrate with her, and the timing worked out perfectly! We were headed to the NANC Conference in Spartanburg, SC and they live about 45mins from there in NC. She also was happening to have a baby shower that weekend, so I got to go and see all her goodies! We had Sunday off and really enjoyed sitting in a service together.  It was a great visit!

 

 Sarah & I at her shower!

When we got back, our GREAT friends from Louisville came to visit for the weekend. We had a WONDERFUL time catching up with Jeff and Courtney. We spent a LOT of time just relaxing and talking. They braved our airmattress in our living room and were great guests.

At church on Sunday Michael announced to the congregation that we were expecting. It was great to have Courtney and Jeff sitting next to me when he made the announcement.

... and I am glad Courtney had some tissues!

Courtney & Jeff

Courtney and I at Valley Falls

Courtney, Jeff, Michael, Me.