Baby Showers

I'm having my baby showers this next month (August). I made the invites and I'm almost done addressing them and sending them out.

My first baby shower is going to be on August the 2nd at 10 in the morning and it's going be mostly family since my Aunt is throwing a party for my Grandma Marges 75 birthday.

My second baby shower is going to be for my friends and the rest of my family that couldn't make it to the first one. It is going to be on August 16th at 10 in the morning. Here is what some of the invites look like.

If you got something different for the 2nd don't feel bad. I ran out of patience and bought some. Sorry.

My First Pregnant Photo Shoot

My friend Sarah Trickey took some of these for me one day and edited them. They are so cute! She did a great job.








She didn't take this one but I thought it was so cute.
I was laying on my moms bed with Sage and Ender (my sisters dogs) and Ender snuggled up with me and put his paw on my belly. He's such a good snuggler.

Every two weeks

So I've been trying to see how I progress in size. I've been taking pictures of my belly every couple of weeks since I was 8 weeks pregnant. Here's what I have so far.

8 weeks

12 weeks

16 weeks

18 weeks

20 weeks

22 weeks

24 weeks

26 weeks

28 weeks

30 weeks

32 weeks

35 Weeks

38 Weeks

House Hunting

So, Derek and I moved out of the 1207 E. Main Apt 52. Thank God! One of the last nights we stayed there my mom came over to help us move. I was getting clothes out of my closet when I saw a spider in between two of my shirts. It wasn't just any kind of spider though. It was a BROWN RECLUSE! Yuck! Well, I freaked and made Derek and my mom try to kill it. Well, they didn't get it. I tried to forget about it and go to bed after my mom left but had to get up and go to the bathroom at around 10:30. I turned on the light and made my way to the bathroom when I heard a "WHOP!" Derek found it crawling across our bedroom floor. He smashed it. We went to bed and tried forget that it was even there. Until the next night. We were ready for bed and Derek was getting ready to turn off the TV when I gasped as I watched ANOTHER brown recluse climb up the wall behind him. That was my last straw. I was NOT sleeping there. Two spiders in two days was too much! We packed some clothes for the next day and drove over to his grandparents house and never came back. We packed all of our stuff that weekend and were finally out of that 3rd floor apartment.

So now what? We're staying at his Grandma Mona and Grandpa Bill Williams' house until we find a house.

Stone Temple Pilots!

Our first concert as a married couple was on June 8, 2008. We went with some of our friends. Lauren Loftis and Alex Skelton. We left early in the day so we could stop by the Bass Pro Shop and do a little shopping at Gordmans. The concert gates opened at 11 so we figured it was going to be a day show and we would get home early. Boy were we wrong. Come to find out there were 7 opening bands that day. There were only a few that we even remotely wanted to watch so we all spent most of the day under a tree since it was SO HOT! Water was $4 a bottle and beer was $9 dollars a cup. Two words: Rip Off! We had lawn seats but saw a sign that said we could upgrade to chairs for only like 5 bucks a seat. So we all did. We weren't that close but at least we had a chair to sit in. The only thing Derek hated was that he couldn't smoke. But he did anyway. Even after being asked 4-5 times to stop smoking. He's such a rebel. Haha. ANYWAY, we got our seats and sat for most of the show until STP came on. I stood for most of it but couldn't really see even when standing up. I enjoyed the music though. It was a good concert but it was very hot and very expensive. The best part of the day was when Derek though he "lost me." We both went down so I could get something to eat and drink. He stayed next to the fans and I waited patiently in line. (for 30 min) After about 20 min of waiting in line Derek was starting to get worried and called Lauren and Alex to see if they had seen me. They of course hadn't because I was IN LINE! So once I got my food and drink and went back over to the fans where Derek gave me a big hug and asked where I'd been. I told him I had been waiting in line and he told me he thought that he lost me. That made me feel good. He worried about me. He's such a good guy. The show got over at around 11 or so and we made our way back to the car. Kind of. It took us about 20 min just to find the car. Haha. Once we got back to the car Derek and Alex passed out in the back seat and Lauren slept in the passenger seat, It was a Sunday night so Derek had to work the next day (even though he didn't) so I drove us all back in Lauren's car and got home from STL in about an hour. I sped a little bit. Shh. I got Derek home and we went to bed after our long hot day.

Moral of the story: if you're going to go to a concert, bring your own water and beer or else you will spend way more than you expected.

I got a new J.O.B.!

So i have had 4 jobs now since the beginning of this year. I started this year working at a family owned company called Identity Elements and was fired the Monday after my wedding. Thanks guys for the awesome wedding present. Next was Old Navy where I worked with my sister-in-law Maddie. I hated it there. I worked crappy shifts that made it so I never got to see Derek. I always had to close and it was non stop folding clothes. WHICH I HATE! But what did I expect working at a clothes store right? After that short little job experience with Old Navy I got a job (still out at the mall) at a place called the Shoe Dept. It was so easy and the people that I worked with were great. Only bad part was that the pay wasn't that great and the shifts weren't long enough to be worth driving from Jackson and back everyday. I still had my job at the Murphy's barn where I cleaned stalls and fed horses but I was getting too far along in my pregnancy to keep cleaning stalls and lifting the water buckets so I had to stop until I have the baby. (I'll be back there as soon as Stratton gets here) So what was I to do now? Thankfully my step-mother-in-law asked if I would come and work at RapcoHorizon with them as a graphic designer in their marketing department. So, now I have a real job that I enjoy and will look great on my resume as soon as I graduate. YAY!

IT'S A.......

Derek and anxiously waited for our appointment on Monday May the 19th 2008. We would be finding out the sex of our little one. We had an appointment at 1:30 and it couldn't come soon enough. Derek got off of work and came picked me up. We went to the Dr and waited in the lobby. The nurse came in and did the usual tests then we went back to the ultra sound room. Here's the pictures we got back that day.


IT'S A BOY!


this was the most perfect profile of him


he was showing us that he had all 5 toes


relaxing with his hand on his head


Here's our little guys profile


Here he is all scrunched up

Garrett & Steph's Wedding!

April 19, 2008 I got another sister!

Garrett and Steph got married up in STL and their wedding was beautiful. Derek was Garrett's best man. (and he looked so handsome)

Here are a few pics from the wedding.

Dr. I'm never going back to him M.D.

Most people don't know this but the first time I had ever gone to and O.B. was when I found out I was pregnant. My first Dr's apt was with a local Dr which will remain un-named. Being my first time I really wanted someone there with me. So I took Derek. It was his baby too. We showed up for our appointment at 8 o'clock. The nurse called my name and the two of us went back into the back where they did the usual. Took my blood pressure, weighed me, and took a urine sample. We were guided to the back were I had to strip down and get into the AWESOME robes. I sat down on the cold paper covered table and Derek sat to the left of me in the chair. The Dr (that is still going to stay un-named) came in and felt around on my stomach and them proceeded to have me scoot down in the stirrups. I'd never done this before so of course I scooted a little and put my feet in the holders and my knees went together like any other girls would have on their first visit. This didn't make him happy and he roared at me to scoot down more and open my knees up. I did what he said when all of a sudden he got up and went and got a nurse. AHH! I don't know you! He did what he had to do and didn't inform me of anything that he was doing. I was scared and felt a little violated when he said "ok, you're all done." I raised back up to the sitting position and he sat and took a few notes on his paper. I spoke up and tried to ask him a question and he snapped at me to hold on a second. (well excuse me!) He asked if I was planning on breast feeding and I told him I was. He then got up. Pulled my gown down and tugged on my nipples informing me that I needed to "toughen them up." I looked at Derek with a what the hell just happened kind of look and he just shrugged his shoulders. As the appointment went on Dr. (you fill in the blank) would address things to me but spoke and looked directly at Derek the whole time like I wasn't smart enough to understand what he was saying. Finally, I was done. I put my clothes on and asked the girl at the desk if there was any way I could get a different Dr. I changed immediately and am very happy with my decision. I'm now going to Dr. Morton and he is GREAT! I highly recommend him.

My New Truck was JUNK!

Stuart (Trucky) my old truck

As most everyone knows I love driving a truck. My first truck was a 1983 GMC S-15. It was white and red with some rust for character. It was my first truck and my first vehicle that wasn't automatic. I learned to drive a stick after about 2-3 weeks of having it. Needless to say I cried the first week I had it because I was so frustrated with it. But I learned to love it. I drove it until it wasn't very reliable anymore then I got a new truck. It was a 1998 Toyota Tacoma and I was IN LOVE! It was a beautiful green color and had 4 wheel drive and sunroof. It was great! Until one day my dad said that my bed was sitting a little crooked. He reached up under the bed and grabbed hold of the frame of my truck and pulled a chunk of it off. He looked up under it and realized that my entire frame was cracked and completely rusted. GREAT! So, my dad called a few of the maintenance guys that were good at welding and all that good stuff to see if they could fix it. No dice. There was no fixing it. It was going to be junk. My awesome truck was junk! I cried of course like and pregnant girl does. BUT, we got lucky. My sister and her boyfriend decided to take a trip out to Kentucky to see my aunt and cousins. (which both work at Toyota) My sister was telling them about what was wrong with my truck and how terrible it was. When one of them told her that there was a recall on all Toyota Tacoma's from 1995-2000. Apparently there was a defect in the frame where they "forgot" to drill holes in the frame so when water got in it the holes would allow the water to drain out. No holes = no drainage. No drainage = a rusty frame. My dad heard about this and to make a long story short we bought my truck for $7,600 and got twice that back. I got a new mommy car (2007 Kia Optima) from the whole deal and my parents got a peace of mind that their little girl was driving a safe vehicle again. Hooray for happy endings!

The Honeymoons

Our wedding went beautifully but it seems that nothing can be perfect. Our first honeymoon was great. We went to St. Louis and stayed in the Millennium Hotel right after we left the church. I drove since Derek hates the St. Louis traffic. We made to our hotel and it started to snow as soon as we got there. We got to our room and... well we'll skip this part. Once we were settled in we got dressed nice for our dinner. Before dinner we went down to the lobby to watch the ball game and wait for a little while. We rode down with a whole elevator full of guys our age celebrating something. Come to find out one if them was having his bachelor party that night. They asked what we were doing and we told them. They got SO excited for us and offered to buy us a few drinks. Well Derek a few drinks at least. While we sat at the bar a girl to the right of us kept looking at her left hand and just smiling. Come to find out her boyfriend just proposed to her that night. So that was two people celebrating something that night so far. Once 8 o'clock rolled around we went to the top floor of our hotel where there the restaurant was. It revolved so it gave us a full view of St. Louis. You could see the river, the stadium, and everything in between. For an appetizer we ordered a variety plate that had duck tacos (that neither one of us would recommend), crab cakes (which were awesome), and some other kind of vegetable that was green and did NOT taste that great. Everything was going great. They even offered us a complimentary glass of champagne. Which neither one of us drank. Two tables over was an older couple celebrating also. They were celebrating their 30th anniversary. That made three other people that day celebrating. How cool. We ordered our dinner. Derek got some kind of steak (that he didn't much care for) and I got the seafood pasta (which was awesome). Only problem was that I still had that all day morning sickness and that spinning restaurant didn't make anything better. I didn't feel good at all and was ready to go to bed. We made the full rotation in a little over an hour and half and finally got our check and went back to the room. I was ready for bed but Derek was ready to go watch the rest of the ball game. I was ok with that since all I wanted was sleep. So he went down and watched the game and I went to bed. The next morning we woke up to a sheet of snow. It was so pretty. After we left the hotel we went to the mall and did a little shopping then went home to our apartment.


Our second honeymoon did not goes as well. We received tickets to go see Tennessee play against Kentucky in basketball. Which Derek was SO pumped about. I was too until I woke up the day we were supposed to leave with a nice case of the flu. We left on Friday the 29th of February in the morning. I woke up and did a few errands to the bank and such but felt like I was going to pass out the whole time. We made our last stop at wal-mart and picked up some stomach medicines. These didn't help me at all. We made the 8 hour trip and I slept the WHOLE WAY THERE! Poor Derek didn't have anyone to talk to. Thinking that the sleep would make me feel better I got out of the truck as soon as we got there and immediately felt sick again. I rushed to the bed they made me and slept until the next day around dinner. Derek went out that night with his cousins which was good. I felt so bad that I couldn't get out of bed at all. Saturday for me was spent in bed while Derek hung out with his Uncle Jimmy and family. Saturday night I mustered up enough energy to at least go eat dinner with Derek's family and his cousin Ashley's new fiance's family. We ate at a very nice restaurant and as soon as we got done we went back to the house and changed clothes. I felt better and agreed to go downtown with Derek, Ashley, Justin, and Whitney to a bar downtown. After the bar Whitney took us to a house party. We stayed out a little too late for me and I wound up getting home and an hour later getting sick. Looking back it was a little funny but at the time I was miserable and so was Derek. I wanted him in there with me to get me a washcloth and such but I didn't want him to see me throw up. I yelled for him to be in there with me but as soon as I started to get sick I told him to go back to bed. Which consisted of a blow up mattress on the other side of the basement. (we had to sleep in separate blow up beds because even him being on the same bed as me and moving just a little bit made me sick) Frustrated and tired he went back to bed. The next day was the UK vs UT game. I was in no condition to go and really felt bad that I didn't get to. But I still wanted Derek to go. Being the good husband that he is, he chose to stay home with me to make sure I was ok. He's so good to me. After the game everyone came home and we all sat outside where it was in the high 60's. We woke up Monday morning and drove the 8 hours home. So even though it was awful, it wasn't what either one of us had in mind. I think my favorite moment of the whole weekend was when Derek and I were sleeping on opposite sides of the room on air mattresses and he yells over at me "it's my honeymoon and I don't even get to sleep with my wife!" Poor guy. He puts up with so much from me. I love him so much.

My Beautiful Wedding

I woke up next to two of my favorite people that morning. My best friend Sarah and my sister-in-law Stephanie.

Right off that bat I got a call from my mom crying. She was scared that I wasn't going to be happy. Of course I was (and still am) though. My sister was giving my mom a hard time about the whole thing and my mom of course was upset. She just wanted the best for her baby girl and wanted to make sure that I was 100% ready to do this.

I reassured her that I couldn't have been more happy in my entire life. I was marring my best friend and my other half. His family was also behind us all of the way and I knew that I was marring not only an amazing man but I was marring into an amazing family as well.

Once I calmed my mother back down we all got out of bed and headed for the church on that cold icy morning of February the 23rd. My heart was in my throat and my stomach was upset from the morning sickness. But nothing could stop me from getting married today. Nothing could ruin my day. NOTHING!

All the girls got to the church with me and we designated the room right next to the bathroom. Of course. We hung my dress and got everything in line for the big day. My dress was beautiful!


This is the beautiful dress I got married in.

My dad's friend Tom Holland (Uncle Tom) was trying to make his way from Arkansas but the roads were super icy and he didn't make it to the wedding but he sent his love and I got to sew a little blessing from him into my dress. A glass bead that he hand made.


The glass bead was sewn into my dress before I went down the isle.

We planned our wedding so fast that my rings hadn't came in yet so my band still had the sizers on it. But it still looked pretty in the pictures.


My and Derek's rings in the gorgeous roses

So everyone was starting to get to the church and the butterflies in my stomach turned to bats and I started to get so nervous. I had everyone I loved around me. So I calmed myself down. Put on my dress and my shoes and topped it with a smile. And a little bit of make-up.


Putting on my dress and smile to get ready to see my other half.

All during the 3 weeks of planning I told myself I did NOT want to wear high heels in my wedding. I don't even wear high heels anyway. I wanted to be comfortable and wear something that was ME. Since I couldn't go barefoot I picked out the next best thing and got the cutest pair of flats that I could find.


Like the shoes? I loved them. They were so comfortable and they were SO me.

The preacher (Keith Price) came in and said that it was time and immediately my stomach went up in my throat. Those bats in my stomach again changed into eagles! Oh gosh was I nervous. But it was ok. In less than a matter of minuets I would get to see Derek and it would be ok. I gave my final hugs to all the girls and let them go sit in the church for my big moment.


This is such a good picture. This is Derek's cousin Whitney. She helped with my hair.

It was just me, my mom, my dad, and my sister left in the room. My last moments as Emily Brennan. The last time all four members of my family were Brennan's. We stopped and took a few final pictures and I helped my mom straighten her flower before she went in.


Mom fixing her flower before we all went in.

Before my mom walked in all four of us were standing in the lobby waiting to go in when all of a sudden we heard clapping coming from the sanctuary. Puzzled, my dad popped his head around the corner. Derek's step brother Danny was one of our candle lighters and apparently it was a little harder than what he expected. He couldn't get the candles lit. So once he did everyone gave him a round of applause. That made me feel a little better and gave me a little laugh. (thanks Danny) But now it was time to walk down the isle as Emily Brennan and walk back as Emily Williams. My dad gave me a kiss on the cheek and my sister helped put my veil on. First my sister went down the isle and then the music started playing for me and my dad to come down. I took one deep breath in and it was me and my dad.


Ready or not. Here we come.

As soon as I got halfway down the isle and could see Derek's smile I knew from then on that everything was going to be just fine. I was still going to be my daddy's little girl and I was still going to be Derek's wife. I could do this. I could do both. Just because I was getting to a new chapter of my life didn't mean that I had to burn the rest of the book. Everything was ok. I was ok. Everything was OK! I'll always be my daddy's little girl.


It's ok. I'm a daddy's girl. Doesn't he look so handsome?

We did our "I do's" and we walked back down the isle as Mr and Mrs Derek Williams. Ahh. Life was good. Now it was time to relax and let things soak in for once. Oh yea, and take pictures. Lots and lots of pictures.


Finally a minuet to sit back and prop up my feet. But not for long.


Nothing but smiles. We were done. We had done it!


He always knows how to make me laugh.


Mr & Mrs Derek Williams

Grandma B read a passage from the bible during the wedding. She did so good. I was so proud of her. She is go wonderful.
She prays for Derek and I every morning and every night. She really is such a blessing.


Didn't she look beautiful? I love my Grandma B.


Mrs Derek Williams and her beautiful rings.

Finally we get to EAT! We had the best food ever. We had Dexter Barbecue. It was so good but my dress was so tight that I couldn't eat as much as I would have liked to. But there was ALWAYS room for cake.


He got me pretty good but I got him better!