Parents In Waiting, Week 34-37

Week 34
Our really good friends Kate & Dave hosted a couples gift card shower at their house for us (& Carley) along with our other close friends Julie & Colin, Ashley & Wade, Laurie & Drew, Melinda & Matt. We certainly have some really wonderful friends that we cannot thank enough for their love & support! We really had a great time filled with wonderful foods & decorative petits fours, beautiful flowers & a fabulous table presentation, adorable diaper cake (made by Melinda) & "L" napkins and great guests came to celebrate the night. God has truly blessed us in soo many ways!

Kimbo & Kates & cute diaper bag for Carley from the hostesses!

Love my girls, the hostesses!
Mama Laurie, Kates, Ashley, Mama Kim, Melinda, & Julie


The food was excellent ladies & the Ashley did the fab job on the flowers!


What would we do without Willie?


Three mama ducks in a row! Ha! Laurie & Melissa are too cute!


Sunday school girls & Mike!



Week 35 Vegas Vacation
Sean, Alan & Adam took a five day trip to Las Vegas for a "last" get-a-way guys trip! Vegas, Vegas, Vegas...baby! They got an upgrade & stayed at the Treasure Island hotel where they wined & dined all week long on the strip! They went to see the Criss Angel, Believe, Mind Freak magic show at the Luxor Theater. Sean thought it was definitely not worth $100+ for the ticket. That is now money taken out of Carley's college fund. The boys checked out a lot of the hotel casino's while they were there & they all came back with more $$ than they put in! Cha-ching! Who would have thought those good baptist boys were gambling men? The boys had a celeb sighting of Jesse Jackson at the airport! Sean also got stopped at baggage check for having hairspray & a pocket knife! Sean, suspicious? Nah! Glad Sean is back! It is just not the same without him here! Mazie & Polly kitties missed him terribly!

The usual pose. They are BFF's!


Mazie May


Polly Esther


Week 35

Week 36
We had a packed full, fun weekend! Sean's work audiology department (Lesley, Laurie, Mary Kay, Janice, Martha, Marilyn, Shannon & Fred) gave us a "Bear Necessities" baby shower for Carley on Friday night! The shower was very, very nice & it was at Janice & Daniel's house! We ate lots of yummy hors d'oeuvres & chili made especially by Janice & Laurie's husband, Tracy! We feasted on a delicious cake too! It was most enjoyable to hang out with Sean's work friends & get to spend some QT with them outside of work! Sean's department is mostly a talkative, energetic group comprised of lots of women...& Sean & Fred! Sean is definitely out numbered by the "X" chromosome!


Marilyn gave Sean a book titled, Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters, 10 Secrets Every Father Should Know!


Yay for diapers & wipes & much more!


Lara & Marilyn


The group


Thank you Lesley for writing down of all our gifts!


Resound Hearing Aid Team gave us flowers! Awe!




Soon to be parents!

BOO!!! AGAIN! We celebrated the 2nd Annual Hallowen Costume Party at the Lowery's house again this year filled with ghosts & goblins, spiders & spirits! We had a great party of about 12ish & ate lots of ham potatoe sandwiches,
Mrs. Hardy's famous zesty corn dip (Thanks to Kate), artichoke dip & pinwheels (Thanks Papa T), veggie tray & cheeses, punch with the smoking dryed ice(Ewww, scary) & finished off with Marcia's "to die for cookies!" Thanks for everyone's help this year! It would not have happened unless some people had not requested it again this year!


Emily & Austin are Elliot & ET!


Disco, groovy Julie & Colin!


Michele & Jason are the Dentist & the Tooth Fairy!


Preggo Pumpkin Mama Kim & Pink Camo Marcia


Garth (Papa T), Vampiress (Shannon)(She wants to suck your blood, or already did!)& Jolly Pumpkin


The Stewart-Lowery clan


What a cute dancin' pair!


They look like they are straight out of the horror flicks that Sean & Kim watch! Better watch your necks!!


The Oversized Cowboy Papa Sean & Preggers Pumpkin Oversized Mama Kimberly. Happy Halloween!

Week 37

Update on lil' Carley this week: MD said that she is "maybe a one" (dialation). Good report on everything else! I guess we have to play the waiting game for Carley & when she is ready to be a "ten", we too hope to be ready! We are getting excited, anxious & nervous, but bottom line, it will be wonderful to finally get to meet our precious angel Carley!

6 weeks...only 42 days left to go!

We cannot believe that there are only six weeks left! Where has the time gone? I have not done a very good job these last weeks keeping you all updated on the progress of the Lowerys! It seems as if everything is moving in fast forward! Little Carley has really been hitting some growth spurts & she is definitely a mover & a shaker! I have really enjoyed Sean & mine tummy time with her! Sean talks to her and feels her many motions, especially when she does the wave! If you were wondering about our MD appts over the last 8 weeks, everything seems to be on target for Carley! I have gained a total of 19 pounds...& more to pack on as we approach the big day! We wanted to briefly share a little about what has transpired over the weeks leading up to this point!

Week 27

Week 28

Week 28 Arkansas Weekend, trival pursuit fun with Sean's cousin Kenny & friend Adam

Week 29
I had the most incredible baby shower that some of my amazing friends helped host for Carley & me (& Sean)! We are really grateful for all of their hard work, dedication & support for Carley! Just a few things that were at this PHENEMONIAL baby shower: yummy foods including chocolate covered strawberries, cute bennie babies & cabbage patch dolls for decorations ;) , beautiful flower arrangements & roses, personalized Carley chocolates & pink Carley napkins & thank you notes, well wishes/advise notes for friends to fill out, a precious diaper cake, & adorable hand painted wall letter especially painted by the talented Lauren! Take a look at some memories that were captured at the baby shower! I had the most lovely time with all of my friends & family...if you can tell!


My BFF Lauren who made all this possible!


Shannon (my sister) & lil' blonde Kimberly (roommate from Texas Tech)


Look at all of those pink gifts!


Umm...

Pam, "La La" (Sean's mom)








Mrs. Hardy made me a stylish gown & pillow case for the hospital, not to mention a fabulous quilt for Carley!


LOVE all of you girls!


The hosteses gave us a wonderful carseat & stroller! WOW!


Week 30
Sean & I are participating in a somewhat intense 10 week financial bible study through our church called Crown Financial. The Bible addresses more than 2,350 verses that deal with how God handles money & possessions. Over the course of the class, we are learning how we can better serve God because all of our money & things ultimately belong to Him & not us. This class will also help prepare us to have a financial plan for our family & Carley's future. We are staying busy!


Week 31
We had a busy week with the installation of laminate wood flooring put in our 3 bedrooms/hallway & ceramic tile in 2 baths in our house this week! It was a giant, dusty mess & I am completely glad we did it before Carley came into this world! No more dirty men with dirty shoes & sawing wood in the garage with the door open anymore! Yuck! We are very satisified with the end results of our floors! Praise the Lord it's over!


Week 31, Kimberly's work baby shower


Week 31, Kimberly's work baby shower with "Maggie"


Week 32
This week was a busy week too! My placement for Junior League this year is Girl Power Summit. It is a one day retreat for 6th grade girls with motivational speakers, educational programs, & team-building activities held at the Boys & Girls Club. The keynote speaker was Dominique Dawes, a gold medal winning Olympic gymnast (a huge idol of mine in hs) She was apart of the Magnificant Seven in the 90's & she was MAGNIFICANT! My responsiblites for this placement were to line up her transportation from Dallas, make a welcome basket for her hotel room, set-up at club on Friday night before event & to coordinate & schedule 60 junior league members & sustainers hour by hour! It was a stressful, yet successful event & all 250 girls seemed to have a great day! I got to meet Dominique & she was very personable, nice & even liked my preggers belly! I got some video footage of her talking to the girls! Check out her calves, they look like rocks! I am not her stalker, it was just for giggles & fun!! ;)





Week 33 with Mazie kitty cat & Polly Esther kitty cat


Carley's bedding arrived!! We are very PLEASED with how her bedding turned out!




It is still a work in progress! Still waiting for the drawer part!!!

We Finally Have a Name!!

We named our precious baby angel, CARLEY NORA LOWERY! We love her name & are thrilled to share our news with you!

It was definitely harder than I would ever have imagined to come up with the PERFECT name! Nearly everyday a new name would come to the table & it was either taken into consideration or shot down immediately. We wanted to include a family name in the mix which makes things complicated & fun at the same time. As Sean so eloquently stated, if you don't like it, you don't have to pretend you do!

I had another MD appointment today that Maggie went with me to at 8AM for Week 26. It was the lovely glucose tolerance test. This is where you fast for at least 2 hours prior, then you drink this sugar 10 oz drink & they draw lab work one hour after the drink to test for gestational diabetes. Fun, fun! The MD said that I had gained another 4 lbs (in 4 weeks), a total of 12 lbs. I may not continue to give you this information if that number gets abundantly higher and higher! ;) We got a good report...MD said that Carley was very active! I believe that because I can actually see Carley move in my belly! It almost takes my breath away, in a very good way!


Week 23







Week 24


Week 25














During this week, I picked out the 2nd fabric swatches for Carley's bedding! The 1st bedding I ordered came in & it was neon green & brown paisley! It hurt my eyes the green was so bright! It was not what I anticipated one bit for Carley's nursery & the store I ordered it from was nice enough to let me pick something else out! Yay!



This is a brown & cream twall with a green stripe pattern & brown trim! Hopefully this will not be as bright as the other bedding! I think that it will be PERFECT!! We added pink bows & pink ruffles!!


Sean is such a wonderful husband, once again! I got to pick out a Best Chair glidder chair & ottoman that is suppose to be the "best chair", as recommended by my sister-in-law, Rebekah! The green swirl is the fabric I picked out for the chair & ottoman! So excited!


Week 26














Sean painted Carley's room, a beautiful, neutral blonde color all by himself because the pregnant woman is no help with the paint fumes! Sean also put together Carley's crib! I picked quite the best HANDYMAN husband! The furniture is dark chocolate brown although it looks black in the pictures! We also added cream blinds to the windows.




Okay, the story with this hutch is that we ordered it as a combination hutch, thinking that the combo included the bottom drawer part too, obviously not the case! It is now on order & backorder! We are patiently waiting for it to arrive! :)

Girls Getaway Trip!

At the end of Week 20, my BFF, Lauren & I took a girls trip to Charleston & Kiawah Island, South Carolina to attend Beth & Jake's wedding! The red heads unite again, finally! 1st thing at 5:30AM at the airport on Friday, "are you girls sisters?" It took almost 12 hours of travel to get to our hotel room in Charleston to take a "disco nap", as Lauren calls it! Ha ha! We were fortunate enough that we got to go to the rehearsal dinner on Kiawah Island, where we reconnected with Beth's siblings & got to know Jake & his family a little better! We got to sight-see & browse around the island to observe the beautiful ocean-view mansions! It was like HEAVEN on a golf course slash island!


Amazing homes on the island.

Don't you think it looks like a postcard?


A beautiful family of deer crossing the street in the neighbor hood.


This is the closest that we have ever been to a deer. Definitely not scared of people!















Our buddy Lindsey that played tennis with Beth in hs.




Lauren & I did some more investigating on culture of Charleston on Saturday & went down to the attractions at Market St to experience some fine dining at the Original Charleston Crab House. We ordered a seafood sampler & neither of knew how to eat the steamed snow crab legs...I needed some scissors! We bought some souvenirs from the vendors & enjoyed the no humidity weather of SC! Boy, we had a GREAT time! We made it to the wedding back on the island & it was truly a dreamy site! The 3 course meal was a highlight & danced the night away with the rocking band...Lauren even broke out her MJ Beat It moves! I just LOVE me some Lauren...she is the life of the party!! It could not have been a better weekend spent with my best red headed gal!


Cute Charleston homes in front of pond.

Beth & Jake's reception site! Love the moss hanging in the trees!








Love Beth's gown!

Half-way there...Week 19-22

Here are the lastest preggo pics:



Week 19



Week 20



Week 21, this is the week Sean 1st felt our baby move! She is getting so BIG & strong, it's AMAZING!!



Week 22, Maggie went with me to a MD appt on July 22nd & everything looks normal & great! Her heartbeat was 160! Definitely a little girl! =) I have gained 8 lbs total!




We have been busy around the Lowery house thinking about little girl things such as the nursery..cribs, paint colors, bedding & everything else! We need to make some important decisions in the next few weeks due to we do not have that much more time before she gets here! We are over half way there & we can't believe how time has flown by these last couple of weeks! Sean said that I am getting ready for the "nesting" phase! It maybe early, but I am trying to get prepared!!

We also have been trying to come up with our little girl's name! We have not decided on a name yet for our little girl, but we have narrowed it down to 3 names: Hayden, Audrey (my grandmother Stewart's middle name) & Nora (Sean's grandmother Roussel's 1st name)! It maybe a combo of some of these names! Let us know what you think!