Hello, 2014! I'm ready for you.

Well, hello there! It's been a while. There has been more excitement in the last month than I can handle. For one... we bought our dream home! :) As you may remember, we previously had our offer accepted on a house that ended up being a maintenance nightmare. It was old, in bad shape, and not in the greatest area. God definitely rewarded our patience and willingness to step away from that. We ended up getting a gorgeous 2 story home in our price range! It was incredible to watch this all play out. I found the home on Zillow, but it was a lot more than we were willing to spend. I jokingly asked my realtor if we could just low ball on this one since I would be happy living there forever. He texted back and let me know that the realtor selling that house actually sits next to him. Not only that, but the home was bank owned so he knew they'd be willing to take a lower offer. The other realtor was out of the office for two weeks, so I hadn't heard anything back for a while. My husband randomly encouraged me to bring it back up and the next day our realtor friend said "let's go look at it!" Everything fell into place. Even the other realtor helped encourage the bank to accept our offer. It was an awesome situation. It's so much better than we ever could have dreamed! I can't wait to raise our baby here. It has four bedrooms, and 3 bathrooms. My favorite part? It has TWO walk in closets in the master bedroom! EEK!

2 more months until Baby L is here! :) He will be full term in 6 weeks! AH! We have nothing ready, so hopefully he stays put! I can't wait to meet the little guy.

The bump definitely makes me laugh. I will wake up one morning and hardly look pregnant, and the next I'll feel huge! It all depends on how he is sitting that day. So weird to watch! I'm still not having any cravings. I'm feeling pretty good aside from back pain! I have to admit, I'm definitely ready to have my body back. It's so discouraging trying to get ready and feeling so large. My confidence level hasn't been very high. I have to keep focusing on the fact that my body is doing an extremely beautiful thing even if I don't feel attractive at all. It's been an odd experience, but I've admittedly always had body image issues. I'm almost to the end of this pregnancy, so thankful for that. If you see me in person, just try not to point out of the fact that I look like a cow. Ha!

Christmas and my birthday are within 9 days of each other, so I always feel so spoiled this time of year! My birthday was a bit of an odd one. My poor husband forgot all about it. Ha! I'm pretty sure I will tease him about that one for the rest of his life. I spent the whole day in the hospital for appointments and an ultrasound. Definitely not the most exciting birthday, but at least I got to see the baby! :) I was truly spoiled by my family. My mom, sister, and grandpa all went in on a kitchenaid mixer for me! I cannot wait to use it. I've wanted one forever! I plan on painting it a fun color (aka pink!) to make it unique. Maybe Even adding in some gold chevron accents? Or a monogram? Can't wait to play with this! I was overwhelmed with Christmas presents. So, so blessed! Everything I received I loved. I got lots of great new goodies for the new house. Joe's mom even got me my first coach bag! I received enough gift cards that I might be able to buy the iPad I've been wanting for years. 

Through all the excitement of the last few months, we also lost my husband's amazing, witty grandmother. We celebrated her life on Saturday, and she will definitely be missed! I'm thankful for the time I got to know her and spend with her. 

I hope you all have a wonderful New Year! Here's to making it the best year yet. :)