Loving this Weather

Natalie loves being outside. We try to go out daily (weather permitting)! She loves picking flowers, running and kicking the ball around. She is really getting to the point where she is active all the time and is none stop till you make her nap or go to bed.



She loves going around the yard and picking up those little poky balls.



We are looking forward to spending lots of time outside this summer. Hopefully this summer will not be totally rained out!!

Tea Party

Natalie joyfully invites you

to a tea party

at

her house


That is if you don't mind sharing with the dogs and sitting on the floor!!

Show Us Your Life-How Nathan and I Met

This week I'm joining Kelly's Korner "Show Us Your Life". This week the topic is How You Met your Husband/fiance. To start this story we must go way back.....

Once upon a time back, Nathan and I attended the same middle school. We were not what you called friends or even acquaintances, we just went students at the same middle school. My Sophomore year of high school I moved to Georgia where my family and I stayed until returning back to Alabama the summer I graduated high school. That is were our True Love Story begins!

I started working as a Hostess at Chili's where I met another hostess by the name of *Sue*. Sue was dating a guy who had a friend that she just felt obliged to set up. That is when Nathan enters the picture. Sue called me one night asking if I wanted to hang out and told me to met her at the local Tractor Supply store. Nathan just so happen to be the guy she wanted to set me up with. We met (again) and reconnected. After 2 months of were just friends hanging out we finally decided to make if official. After 1o months of dating Nathan asked me to Marry him and of course I said yes. On October, 2006 we were married in a little church down the road and have never looked back.

*Names have be changed due to...well because as this part of my pregnancy my brain is still jello and I can't remember to save my life*

Here are a few pictures of Nathan and I in our younger days:

The Road to Stay At Home Mom/Wife

I always thought I would have to be a mom who works full time. We were always going to be a two income household. To be honest I never gave it to much thought, it was just something I knew had to be done to keep the life style I wanted (keeping up with the Jones)! Until the very minute I held Natalie everything about what I wanted changed.

I wanted to stay at home with her and take care of her full time. Unfortunately after 8 wks of maternity leave I was headed back to work. We were very bless that in Natalie's first 6 months of life she either stayed with Nathan or her Paw Paw (they both have a awesome schedule that rotate and they never work the same shift) But with my late hours and working weekends I still was not happy. In June of 2009 I decided to go back to the daycare I worked at when Nathan and I got married. I figured I would be much happier if Natalie was with me through out the day. I was for a while. I still really just wanted to be home with Natalie. Nathan and I discussed it and at that time we saw no other way. Until some good friends of ours asked it we wanted to start a new class with them at there church, Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University.

To be honest when Nathan first explained Dave's theory I was skeptical. I wanted to stay at home but I wanted to do so without changing my life style. With much pushing from Nathan and prayer for the lord to open me up to a drastic change in my life we decided to join the class. To explain Nathan is the geek and I'm the free spirit. I spent money then thought about it later. My life changed the very first class. Dave's motto is "You must live live like no else, so later you can LIVE LIKE NO ELSE'. So basically Nathan and I (mostly me) had to stop the unnecessary spending and start plucking away at out debt. We did not have a lot of debt to begin with, 1 credit card, 2 car payments and our house. We started right away building our emergency fund and paying of debt. We finished the class with a better understanding of what goals we want in our lives and how to manage our money to be able to obtain those goals. To date we have NO credit cards and only 1 car payment and of course of house. After hard work and a lot of changing our lives for the better I can officially say I'M A STAY AT HOME MOM/WIFE!!!!!!!!!! We are no where finished with Dave's plan but we are working on it and trying our best to make the best possible live not only for us but our children. We are comfortable enough financially that allows me to stay home. I would 100% recommend these classes to everyone. I firmly believe they must be a prerequisite to getting married!! If we knew what we know now when we first got married I believe the way we handled and looked at our finances in the beginning of our marriage would have been completely different!

And that is how I went from a working full time mom/wife to a STAY AT HOME MOM!!

18 Weeks

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 18 weeks

Total Weight Gain/Loss: At my last appointment (April 7th) I have lost a total of 6 pounds since my first appointment at 8 wks

Marternity Clothes: 90% of the time. I can still fit in some of my jeans but they are becoming a little tight.

Sleep: I sleep through most of the night up until about 4:00 a.m. when I need to use the bathroom, after that I usually toss and turn

Best Moment this week: Feeling a few movements and kicks

Gender: Not Sure Yet...we find out May 5th

Movement: a few here and their some days more then others

Food Craving: mostly anything I can eat (I don't understand why I'm losing weight, I eat everything in sight)

What I miss: Nothing comes to mind

What I am looking forward to: Finding out the gender and start planning the nursery

Symptoms: Lower back pains and aching all over

We have a lot of things going on these past couple of weeks! I officially became a stay at home mom and I'm loving it so far. I'm only 2 days into it but love it so far. I have a lot of projects going on...Natalie bedroom will hopefully be finished in the next month so we can get her moved into her "big girl" room. I'm also going to start trying (see how I said try) to get Natalie potty trained before the new babe comes. I don't know how it is going to work. I have probably potty trained 20 kids at work but none this young so this will be a new adventure for both of us. What a blessing it will be to not have to buy diapers for two kids!!! Thats about all thats going on in the Reed household these past couple of weeks. I'll be sure to blog about all the projects I have going on and Natalie's potty training (wish me luck)!!!

Easter 2010

Last Easter Natalie had just reached the 5 month mark! What a huge difference a year makes!!!

This Easter started out by us heading to church for a every powerful and wonderful message. After church it was off the Nana and Pappy's for lunch and an egg hunt.

Checking out what the Easter Bunny brought her!

After lunch it was off for an egg hunt!Here is our growing family on Easter!