Becoming An Aunt…. Again!

Hello there!

I did not think I would ever write that sentence “becoming an aunt” because my sister was adamant about how she wasn’t going to have any more children after the birth of my nephew four years ago. It’s definitely been a long time since those days, and we need to discuss some things before we get too involved into this post.

Sadly, my sister and brother-in-law separated and eventually divorced in 2020, they just grew apart as some couples do and we wish nothing but the best for them. We still love Brandon and see him from time to time, the most recent was when Nolan was playing T-Ball back in mid-May, as he helped coach his team a little bit, I always felt bad for when he was out on the field with Nolan and his little teammate directing their next movements.

My sister had started dating last fall, and we got to meet her boyfriend Zach (who is now her husband!) on Christmas. They didn’t have the kids that day, so it was a bit awkward to see them hanging outside in like 75 degree weather! I say “kids” because Zach also has a four-year-old son, named Isaiah, and he is literally the splitting image of his daddy. It’s still weird that I have also gained a second nephew through this part. I am happy to say Nolan and Isaiah are the best of friends, Nolan considers him his “brother” which he proclaimed one afternoon sitting at the table with us, and we almost started crying because it was so adorable to say something like that!

SURPRISE!

And then, January came around, and everyone was thrown for a loop when my sister announced to us, she was pregnant. Since her pregnancy with Nolan and everything that happened afterwards went a little topsy-turvey, we just assumed she couldn’t get or even wanted to become pregnant again, so this was a surprise for some of us. I wasn’t too shocked by the news honestly, although I didn’t expect it at all! I had respected her thoughts on not adding a sibling for Nolan in the future. Although this is a totally different pregnancy, it hasn’t been an easy one either. She’s been having contractions since late February I think, which is what happened last time. She’s been put on bed rest, monitoring her heart rate, blood sugar, etc. all throughout the ordeal.

BOY OR GIRL?

Towards the start of spring, we were very anxious to learn the sex of the baby. Despite the similarities between each pregnancy, there has been some odd things happen with this one. She has a better appetite in the beginning, but she’s also had a lot of heartburn too. This was sign number one that we could expect a girl, and it didn’t really settle until she began hearing the heartbeat early on and it was very fast, which is another telling point for when mothers are expecting a little girl, so we all called it around 16 weeks it would be a girl and we were right. They will be welcoming a baby girl in the fall.

Now, let’s discuss what her name will be, but first we have to go back to February and March, because at this time we still didn’t know the gender so there were many name combinations passed back and forth between the early months. I think I might save her actual name until she is finally here and do a whole post about the labor, delivery, and bonding with the boys. However, I will tell you the boy names that were in the running though, because I seriously doubt they will ever be used with them; never say never though!

THE NAMING PROCESS

Anyways, they had a fairly large group of names in the beginning.

After the second or third doctor’s appointment, they started to think of certain names, and they had a boy combination from the start and it didn’t really change that much, the first name never really went away, they still enjoyed the full name but thought using part of it as a good nickname. They were very attached to Jaxon Emery, and honestly, I was thoroughly impressed with this. I mean, I’m the namer in the family and yet I wasn’t asked for assistance!

We were kind of surprised that my sister wouldn’t want to use our papaw’s name: David. She explained they weren’t going to honor anyone because both Nolan and Isaiah have their fathers’ middle names. I understood this but yet it was a bit of a bummer to leave him out of this child’s name. Well, obviously, I wasn’t the only one who agreed with me on this and within a few weeks later they switched everything to Jax Morgan. We actually approved of this! The name Morgan was our papaw’s middle and his mother’s maiden name, it was on the list while she was pregnant with Nolan too, but for a little girl instead.

Speaking of girl names, this was another pairing they had picked out in the early days. They had watched the show Euporia when the second season had begun back in late January, and they were thinking of using Rue, but they had only switched it when they decided it was too close to our dog name’s which is Rumer. Later on, they were talking about Remy Mae, and I was not a huge fan of it. I mainly thought of Remy’s popularity in general, and that’s why I enjoyed Nolan so much because it hadn’t exploded in the naming charts, of course it did surge a bit after he was born, but I hardly ever see it now! For a solid four months they were set with it and I just hated it. I was fine with “Mae” as that is one of my sister’s middle names and another name that is huge on both sides of our families too, so it just seemed likely to come up than any other name, and it’s the only one that had stuck throughout this pregnancy and it does fit well with her first, so I can’t wait to see how much she manages it in the future.

NOW WE WAIT…

As I said in the beginning of the post, Blondie has had contractions all throughout this pregnancy, but we are hoping for little miss sweet pea will keep inside the womb a bit longer. Once my sister makes it to around 32-36 weeks, her doctor will just let her go on with the early labor like she did with Nolan. I was also an early bird, but I was born three months in advance. We still don’t know why I wanted to break out so eagerly–hell, even I don’t know the answer to that question! We just hope she will be content, just a tad bit longer..

I do really want to meet this little babe and teach her the same things I taught her big brother, but I know the longer she keeps in the den the stronger she will be out here. Since she will have a pair of brothers going into preschool this year, she’s going to need all of the good fortune around her and mommy too. The boys are very excited to meet her, Nolan has been really curious of her while in Blondie’s belly. He’s already said he won’t change any dirty diapers though! Apparently, Zach will be in charge of that department! It’s going to be interesting to see how they react when she gets her first poopy diaper too…

I think I will wait until she is finally here to give you another update and tell you her name as well once she’s born and we’ve adjusted to the chaos of having a baby around again. Now if you’re on my Instagram, you might get a little treat as I may announce her welcome to the world on there. If you can, please send my sister and the baby some positive thoughts and prayers starting in early September to help ease the labor and delivery process for everyone involved.

Do you have any guesses as to what her name will be? Also, if you know, please don’t ruin the surprise of others commenting on this post.

snowflake

Blogmas: Holiday Reads & TV

Hello!

This Christmas, I wanted to go all out on my celebrations, which really means absorbing as many books, films and TV specials as possible that relate to the holiday season. In this post, I am going to tell you about my reasons over this decision, plus give you some ideas if you’re in the mindset to basically do anything (or everything) I’m doing this December, so I really hope everyone enjoys this little thing.

Books:

Since I finished my reading challenge very early, it has allowed me to devote a chunk of my time to finding some wholesome and maybe not-so-wholesome reads about the holiday season. All but three of the books I’m reading this month are available on Kindle Unlimited, so they were free! So I have three full-length novels and the rest were novellas.

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Title: Unwrapping His Package
Author: Fiona Davenport
Genre: Erotica/romance
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

This was amazing start to the holiday season! I always have a rough time with novellas because they can lack organization, but I didn’t have any problems with this one. It was a very steamy read, but exactly what I wanted to read at that moment of time. 


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Title: A Christmas Carol
Author: Charles Dickens
Genre: Classics/contemporary fiction
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I have always wanted to read this book. I’ve seen two or three film adaptions but have never actually made to read it, and this has always surprised me because it is the ideal Christmas story, but then again, when I was in school, I only read a handful of classics!

Anywho, I found the audiobook on YouTube and I thought I could listen to it while working on my Christmas cards this past weekend. I don’t know who the narrator was, but he definitely brought the characters to life with his deep, but welcoming voice! If you have about three hours to yourself, you should listen to it as well, and if you want, click here to start reading the book.


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Title: On His Naughty List
Author: Kat Baxter
Genre: Erotica/Romance
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Despite the fact that these two books are in the same series, I did not follow the order, because there were some that sounded cheesy, so I ignored them and found this bad boy! This one definitely had a lot of things missing from the storyline but obviously I didn’t care as much since I gave it a higher score…


The other books I have on my TBR (to be read) list are: Secret Santa by Mayra Stratham, (which is another book in the Filthy, Dirty Christmas series.) A Very Bossy Christmas by Alexis Winter, How to Ruin the Holidays by Becky Monsoon, Christmas in the Scottish Highlands by Donna Ashcroft, and finally Finding Love at the Christmas Market by Jo Thomas. Technically I am (as I write this post) reading A Very Bossy Christmas and it is absolutely hilarious, which is exactly what I want right now, so I see myself enjoying this and the one by Becky Monsoon the most, but we’ll see how things turn out in the end.

TV

I am not one to have my television locked on the Hallmark channel this month–honestly, it is one station I have locked out until the second of January when they turn The Golden Girls back on!

Last year, there was a film premiering on Lifetime called, Christmas Ever After and it starred Ali Stroker. Ali is a wheelchair user like moi, but most importantly she won a Tony away for her performance in “Oklahoma” in 2019. Honestly, the overall concept of seeing someone in an overwhelming holiday romance on my television that I was thoroughly exciting! Unfortunately, I never got a chance to finish watching it, that I feel like I need to find it again and give it another chance before Christmas is over.

I already have a small selection of films in my movie folder, and I am still stunned by my reasonings for wanting to watch them. There is Christmas in Tahoe that apparently was inspired by a Train song or album, and the band itself or just the lead vocalist Pat Monahan is in the actual film too! I adore the band’s music, I’ve been a casual fan over the years, but I thought the concept of this movie was interesting, so this was the first. The second was, A Christmas Dance Reunion, and it has Corbin Bleu and Monique Coleman, who played “Chad” and “Taylor” in the original High School Musical films. And finally, I am recording Sister Swap: A Hometown Holiday which has real sister Kimberly Williams-Paisley and Ashley Williams. It honestly looks really fun and hilarious, so it is on my list as well!

Now I am this selection says “TV” but of course, I’m enjoying all of my other favorites like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Annabelle’s Wish and Home Alone. Speaking on that film, I am also looking forward to checking out the newest Home Alone on Disney+ too! I really enjoy the sequels of these films, so this is just natural for me! Now that I have everything done, I can do everything that I love doing in this festive season.

What are you looking forward to the most? Do you have a new favorite holiday book or movie yet?

Are There Two Babies?

Howdy!

Well… I’ve got one heck of a surprise for you today!

You’re all probably thinking by the title of this blog post that I am going to be an aunt of two little babies, but as far as I know, there isn’t a second baby in there, but I do have some interesting news to share with you.

My cousin Kristi is expecting baby number two!

Right now, she’s ten weeks into her pregnancy! And I guess we’re calling this one “peanut” again, since we already have a “nugget” I don’t know why everybody is choosing to give their fetuses foodie nicknames at the moment but I’m not arguing! Especially with two very pregnant women! Anyways, it came as a shock to everyone; maybe even to Kristi the most who we all definitely heard back in November say that she wasn’t going to have another one for “a long time.” And then this was announced on Facebook!

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Speaking of Facebook! Another reason why I wanted to do this post is because originally I was going to talk about the gender reveal party for Blondie and Brandon, but since we had that big snow storm last month, they’ve been a little worried that we’d get a second or third storm in the meantime and nobody would be able to come down or get stuck here, so they ended up cancelling it and decided on announcing the sex of the baby on Facebook. My mom got the idea of putting all of their animals in their bathroom and wrapping the string of the right color balloon on their collars and after the door opens, they run out of there and it reveals the gender! The video itself was a bit chaotic because both Chipper and Gru ran out of there so quickly that you couldn’t really see the balloons at first and then Otis, Samuel and Toni had different colored balloons, so although it was a cute announcement, it had its moments of confusion as well! It was a nice and belated Valentine’s Day gift.

Unfortunately I’m unable to share the video on here! So this is all you’re getting for a while!

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IT’S A BOY!

Considering I was thinking it would be a girl, I was a bit stunned on the fact I was very wrong! Nolan Wayne is going to be his name. They’ve changed it a lot. So I’ve been debating whether or not I wanted to share it on here in case they decide to do it again.

Now we can start buying things that are not white or gray for the little nugget! Trust me, it’s a little harder to find neutral stuff at Walmart or Dollar General. At least for me it is! I am happy that his life will be fill of Legos, trains, cars, sports, muddy clothes, and of course superheros! I’m going to invest on a pair of Avengers sneakers and a Butler University onesie for him! Oh, I’m going to have so much fun spoiling this little guy!

 

I wanted to share some of Blondie’s baby bump pictures on here! The first two I had to edit myself because she didn’t put how many weeks she was on the actual pictures like she’s been doing lately! She’s also not constantly putting them up either. Kristi wasn’t that way either when she was pregnant with Joseph, so I don’t think she’ll do it with the new baby, but since Joe is away she might consider it down the line. If she’s comfortable with sharing any of them on here especially whenever I do a baby shower (that is if she has one!) post for her!

I just thought I’d share some of the exciting news with you all! And considering it’s a Monday and everything, you might need that little bit of happy news! Hope everybody has a wonderful day!

Can you guess what little nugget’s name going to be? Or do you have any name suggestions that go great with big brother Joseph? 

snowflake

 

Another Baby In The Family?!

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Howdy!

So I have some news…

Blondie and Brandon are pregnant! As I announced on Twitter back in October, I’m going to be an aunt to a non-fur baby! The reason why I said it like that was because the way Blondie posted it on her social media accounts was a picture of Otis, Toni, Gru, Samuel and Chipper’s front paws and the last one were the two strong lines on the pregnancy tests!

The day she did it of course was kind of weird. She texted me because she couldn’t reach mom, as she was doing laundry at the time I think, so she was distracted and for once I actually could read her message (my phone has been a bitch lately!) to have mom call her and it was so strange I kind of felt in my gut that she was calling to tell us she was pregnant. I’m not joking or saying this for the blog either! I get these strong gut feelings sometimes.  When mom finally did call her and they talked for a couple of minutes, and she came into my room to put her on speaker and I instantly knew that I was right. However, I think I was so in shock that I was correct that I didn’t necessarily know how to react or what to say to her. I actually started laughing because it was the only thing I could do.

We were told not to say anything, but um… mom made the mistake of telling our dad while he was over at our neighbors and he just automatically told all of them that he was going to be a grandpa! So any notion of keeping it between family members on both sides was kind of out of the question at that point!

It’s been a whole month but the reason why I waited was because I wasn’t exactly comfortable in coming out and stating that she was pregnant on here just yet. The only reason why I can say it now is because on the first day I wrote this post which was Nov. 8th, she went to get her blood worked on and got some tests done and they were the ones that told her that she was “very” pregnant. I know, that when a doctor says that she’s just making sure that she was right and that she is with child, but as soon as her that, I thought to myself, it almost sounds like she”s having twins. In my defense, everytime Blondie has kids in my dreams she always has two: a boy and a girl. Same goes with our cousin Kristi, I’ve always seen a boy with her, so maybe I will be right again!

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She went to her first baby appointment and the little “nugget” is doing good! Blondie was wrong at how many weeks she was, she was seven weeks at the doctor so she is nine weeks when this post goes up! Our mom figured she’d have it in early June around papaw’s birthday, which would be really sweet since she was so close to him, but now it’s been changed to July 4th, but like I keep telling myself, he/she can make an appearance on June 30th too, which is Arthrogryposis Awareness Day! I’m gonna buy a newborn onesie in blue just in case! Anyways, in this last picture I’m including above everybody thinks he/she looks like an alligator or a shark, but Blondie and I don’t see it. I think it looks like a bite size nugget if I’m being honest!

snowflake

 

EP Review: “New World: Part 1” by Krewella

18921687_1470247963034588_4553843728616117241_nJune 8th was a BIG day for the ladies of Krewella! They released their new EP called “New World” which had part 1 right next to it, which means we’ll probably be getting another one either sometime later this year or early 2018. They released an EP last year called “Ammunition” that I had a lot of fun reviewing considering I had no Spotify whatsoever. They put up their songs on their YouTube/Vevo account, which is what they did for the seven songs included in this sucker!

Jahan and Yasmin released one of these songs earlier this year, “Team” and the second single “Be There” went out last month, but I will go in order of the setlist and review them that way! Krewella generally does house, dubstep, techno, & drum and bass! They’re also known to be very personal in their lyrics and if you didn’t know both girls also lend their voices onto the tracks.

We begin with “Calm Down” and it was the first one I found on YouTube when I got online that evening! Jahan and Yasmin are kind of known for being very vocal and go heavy in their beats. They definitely don’t “pussy out” of their music or personalities and I love that and I feel like that this one represents that as a whole! It does have some soft moments but I actually like that, it gives the listener a break from the hard and increasing beat you hear throughout, I’ve already fallen in love with it. Second is “TH2C” which means “too high to care” if anybody wanted to know, and this has an exotic sound to it, sort of has a Japanese flare to it in the introduction. At least, that’s what I heard! It definitely has a pop sound, but it’s a fun one so I like it.

Next is “Fortune” that features Diskord, if you heard their last EP the first track “Beggars” also features Diskord on the track, so I’m liking to see that friendship go on into this EP as well! Sadly, I’ve still not heard of their music so I feel bad! This one is pretty chill, the tempo is slower but towards the end of the choruses and the girl’s voices become distorted the sound just sort of changes, but I think it could be the perfect summer anthem! “Love Outta Me” was a song that was released the week before, I hadn’t even heard it until like the day before this EP came out. This one gives me more of a house vibe, but it’s still pretty upbeat. I like it.

The next two songs were the ones that were released as promos. “Team” came out in December? I’m pretty sure around that time. All I remember that it was really cold outside when I heard it on the radio. It’s pretty catchy and almost sounds more pop-y, but I really the bass drop. I think this was our warning that something else was coming! I just didn’t think they’d release a new EP! After that is “Be There” and they just put out the music video of this track, I hadn’t heard it before I watched the video but I really enjoy it! I also loved seeing Jahan and Yasmin in those home videos and the road trips they’re family seemed to take a lot growing up. I also love that it could be a song for the two of them since they’re sisters! The last is “Parachute” and I will say when I heard this, I didn’t exactly like it as much. I was worried because it was like the second song I heard on YouTube after I realized they had released a selection of songs together. My in initial thought of it remains, it definitely has a pop-y sound to it, but it’s very soft and chill, more like a house track. It’s not bad for the second time around.

One thing I always like when Krewella release these EPs is that they’re always so experimental. Music is about evolution and the ladies stick to that motto and I love that! I think “New World” is a good title for this selection of songs since they all have a different flavor. Some have exotic sounds and pop-y vibes. I like this route and all I want now is more! I want to know what kind of sounds we can hear in part two! We’ll just wait out until they’re ready!

Have you heard of Krewella’s new extended play, “New World: Part 1”? What did you like or dislike about it!