Thanksgiving

What a treat we had this year for Thanksgiving, Dave's Uncle Steve, Julie and Pop Pop Fish came down from Baltimore to visit. Isabelle was so excited, as we all were, to see everyone! We picked them up from the airport and had a fun filled week to spend with them. We took them to the Omni in Fort Worth to see the Polar Express, we went to the Willie Nelson concert at the WinStar in Oklahoma, attended an engagement party for Beth and Danny, celebrated my birthday at La Hacienda Ranch (yummy), did some shopping on Black Friday, and visited Stonebriar church to see Julie's favorite pastor Chuck Swindell.

I am so disappointed in myself though because I hardly took any pictures while they were here, but here is what I did get..

Thanksgiving Day... Isabelle smelling the flowers outside, she said that it smelled like peanuts LOL, I think it had to do with the fact that Dave and Uncle Steve were frying a turkey in peanut oil right next to her. This was Steve, Julie and Isabelle after a big Thanksgiving dinner =)

Dave and Steve frying the turkey.. sorry about the lighting

Belle's Thanksgiving Party

The same day that I found out I was expecting Isabelle had her Thanksgiving party at school. She was so cute, the class sang "Bless the Lord oh my Soul" again and showed us all of the great things that they have learned about God and the Bible. We ate a Thanksgiving Feast and had a wonderful time with all of her class friends =)

Can you believe this??

I could hardly believe it either?? I was suppose to take a pregnancy test on Friday but instead I woke up on Thursday morning after telling Dave the night before that I was going to take the test a day early. I completely was NOT expecting to get a positive result. I had already talked to the doctor about what our next step would be, researched IVF and was fully prepared to start with the IVF process. I had pretty much given up on the thought of actually being pregnant. Anyway I woke up Thursday morning and had to pee sooo badly. When I woke up I one of my contacts had fallen out in my sleep or something, which has never happened to me (so weird). So I am in a frantic race to get pee with only one functioning eye I am trying to read the direction on how to take the test. (Seriously, at this point I have taken over 30 test throughout the past 20 months of trying I am an expert at the test taking process but I still feel the need to read the direction because maybe I have been taking the wrong?? I don't know whatever). I do my business, set the test down and within 30 seconds look down to what I think is 2 LINES!! I frantically cover the eye that I have no contact thinking that maybe I am seeing double because there is no way that I am actually pregnant! I run into the kitchen to have Dave verify and HOLY COW there are 2 lines, we are actually pregnant!! This was exactly a week from my birthday, what a wonderful birthday gift... Thank you GOD!

It would be nice for me to tell you all of the creative ways that we told the family and Isabelle about how we were finally expecting but it would all be lies! We were so excited and after 20 long months of trying we called EVERYONE! There was no waiting, no special way of surprising them, just tears of joy calling people to share our good news.

I have to say that I have been so nervous about the whole thing. I have had so many friends and acquaintances that have had miscarriages recently that I have been terrified. Now at 10 weeks and after seeing two sonograms of a baby with a heart beat I am feeling a little better. It is just so scary to think that we could loose a baby after such a long time of trying but so far everything has gone beautifully, so we expect one sweet cuddly baby on or around July 29th! Yeah!

My Song

While I am in the office working on updating the blog Isabelle is "checking her email" (which means she is playing on her websites). This song came on and she started yelling "Mom it's your song", I love this song and I love that girl. I just had to share, it is the best song ever!



Family Reunion- November 15th

In November Dave, Isabelle and I drove up to Oklahoma for the day for a family reunion. The reunion was for my mom's side of the family. I have to say that it is absolutely amazing what two people can start (my Grandma and Grandad Hanlon) so many years ago. I hope that Dave and I can build such a huge family by the time our days are done. Here is the group picture (and there are actually quit a few people that are missing, many were not able to attend):

The reunion was at Lake Murray lodge and it was the perfect place! There was a place where we all sat down and ate and afterward we all headed outside. There was a beautiful lake with a dock, ping pong tables, volleyball nets, games for the kids, etc. Everyone had a great time and it was the perfect day for getting a bunch of pictures =)

Isabelle with her cousins Collin and Conner

Having a blast in the leaves

Jennifer (my sister-in-law), Tosha (my sister), Baby Sophie and me.. Jennifer and my brother Randy

These are two of my FAVORITE photos ever! This is my grandma and grandad with all 5 of their kiddos! From left to right Kristi, Andy, Grandma, Grandad, Kathy, Kelly and Karmen (my mom).

Grandma, Grandad and grandma's brother John... My mom with all the grandkiddos

The loving couple

Isabelle tries, tries again...

For some reason Isabelle has an aversion to writing her name, I am not sure why but for some reason she just does not want to do it. I know that she can, she has most of the letters down in the alphabet but for some reason she refuses. On this day Isabelle was going through the Toys R Us Big Book, you know the one you get before Christmas, and was circling all of the things that she was going to ask Santa for. Well she came across the doll section and circled three baby dolls in a roll. When I asked her why she circled all of the babies she said she really wanted a baby that pooped and peed and all three of these babies did that. I read the descriptions and only 2 out of the 3 babies pooped and peed, so he made a huge X threw the baby that didn't. Then she asked "mommy, how do you spell I changed my mind"? So I started to spell it for her, and she did REALLY well that is when I put my foot down and told her that she was going to spell her name. When she finally wrote it she was so tickled with herself, I knew that she could do it! We still struggle with getting her to do it on a regular basis but we are getting there, what a big girls she is =)

Holy Cow, WHAT HAPPENED??

The Wink family did not fall off the face of the earth, we still have internet access and we are all fine! I cannot believe that it has been 2 MONTHS TODAY since my last post. One of my many New Years resolutions is to be better about updating my blog. I am so mad at myself about falling so far behind, this is such a great way to "scrapbook" all of the great memories that our family shares so I have to get better about it. I give you permission if you see that I have not blogged for let's say a week then feel free to send me a nasty email calling me on how much of a slacker I have been =)

So today, I am going to do my best to get us caught up from November 1st through the rest of the year.... so much to do!