Back from Hiatus

So I know its been a long time, and I apologize, but we've had a lot going on in the Giesen household.  There was Christmas with both families in Birmingham, Christmas with the Giesens in Huntsville, New Years with dear friends in Dauphin Island, and then the dreaded busy season for me began.  So I'm at work for 12 hours, home for 2 before I fall asleep, and then back to the grind. Needless to say, that leaves zero time for blogging.  Sorry to disappoint!

However, I will do a quick recap of what's been going on.  We decided to have both families to our house the weekend before Christmas because we had a surprise to share and thought it would be great to do it at the same time and in person. The week before, Joey and I found out we were pregnant, yes you read that correctly, there will be a future Natalie/Joey in the world - heaven help everyone!  So we took a picture of the pregnancy tests and wrapped it for the families to open at the same time, and waited, very impatiently, for EIGHT WHOLE DAYS to share the news.  Both of our families were extremely excited, but instantly upset at the fact that they couldn't tell anyone for another six weeks.  (BTW - next time, we just won't tell them until twelve weeks and see how they like that).

Unfortunately, Christmas at the Giesens was at the height of my morning sickness.  I couldn't get up without feeling nauseous, and had absolutely no appetite whatsoever.  So although I did enjoy my first ever "white Christmas", it wasn't an all-together enjoyable experience.

For New Years, we packed up Berkley and headed to Montgomery to meet Julie and Ryan and Pickles to then head down to Dauphin Island to meet up with Suzy, JD, Luna, and Benny.  For those of you that aren't familiar with our animals, that meant 6 people and 4 dogs in one house. Insane?  Definitely not ... we had a blast, and it was SUCH a relaxing weekend.  Big shout out to the Bakers for hosting, and we can't wait for our summer trip or two.

Since then, we really haven't had much going on.  I've been feeling OK, however I have lost count on how many times I've gotten sick.  It seems that brushing my teeth, taking my vitamins, coughing, and chewing meat have been the worst for me, but I've pretty much reached the clear, I think *fingers crossed*.  Either way, its been totally worth it!  We are twelve weeks along, due August 16th, and are both very excited about this new adventure.  Joey has even started looking at college saving plans ... for those of you that know him well, that shouldn't surprise you.  I keep telling him if the baby gets my families standardized test taking abilities, we won't have to worry about tuition, but he just rolls his eyes :)  Joey thinks its a girl, I think its a boy, so either way we have our bases covered.  We're hoping to make it home during Noah's birthday weekend in a couple weeks and get a sneak peek to see if we can tell already.  If not, we'll have to wait until week 20, which is really lame.  What are your guesses?  Overall, we are very excited about this new adventure and are looking forward to the many changes this will bring to our lives.

On a side note - please pray for my Pop.  He had back surgery a couple weeks ago, and sometime last week, sitting became unbearable for him, so something is going on, but unfortunately they don't know what yet. Pray for comfort for him, and knowledge for the doctors to figure out what the heck is going on so he can get well again!