Our little chunky monkey

I've had so many people ask to see belly pictures and pics of Harrison's sonograms.  To be honest, I don't feel the best at the moment so showing off my big belly does not seem appropriate.  It somewhat freaks me out to see sonogram pics on social media but I feel comfortable with posting here because I hope to make a memory book out of my blog.

Kolby and I took our families to the 4D ultrasound on the day before Thanksgiving.  There were eight of us so we had quite the audience.  Harrison was very active that day and wanted to show out.  He smiled, pouted, frowned and snuggled up to the side of my stomach.  It was precious.  Watching him be so active and the learning what he looks like was quite freaky but SO much fun and worth it.  I know that it's cheating by seeing what he looks like but neither Kolby nor I can handle surprises so this was fun and special for all.  Here's a sneak peek of our little bundle.  We're already so in love with these little chubby cheeks and precious smile!

I can smile and look just like my mommy and granddaddy! ( My dad's name is still not determined)  I even have my mom's right cheek dimple.

I can open my eyes and see the world!

I have my mommy's nose!

I love to snuggle up to my mommy's tummy and with my hands constantly on my face.

Such a happy happy happy baby boy!

Sweet baby boy showing off his chubby cheeks!

A year later and a baby on the way

Last time I made an appearance on my blog, I thought that I would be consistent in posting; however, I haven't been back since.  In the past year, our family has made some significant changes!  In June, we found out that I was expecting our first child and in August learned that our baby was a sweet little boy.

Back up to June when I found out that I was expecting.  My dear husband loves the Delta and agricultural.  Not only that but he has always wanted to learn how to fly.  So, after doing much research and obtaining the appropriate funding, he was accepted to attend Flying Tigers Aviation in Rayville, LA.  This would mean that he would be gone anywhere from 3-5 months depending on how hard he worked towards finishing.  So, he took off to Louisiana in late September to begin his training and I have been enjoying the calm before the storm.

So back to mid-summer and the news of our little bundle.  We began meeting with Dr. Cesario in the beginning of July and was able to see our little joy on the ultrasound monitor.    In August, we had an appt. with Dr. Brewer at Maternal Fetal Heart Medicine and my cousin Jenny was the one scanning me.  I was at 13 weeks and were told that we may be able to find out the gender at that point but not 100%.  After scanning me for a few minutes, Jenny said, well, do you want to know?  I had been saying boy the whole time and Kolby thought girl so when she said that she knew, I knew that I had been right the whole time.  IT'S A BOY was announced and displayed on the screen.  There is NO doubt that our little bundle on the way is all boy nor is he one bit shy in showing his man parts!


We could hardly contain our excitement so I called my parents and told them that we had news to share. So in the following few days, we had fun gender reveal parties with my family and his.  We surprised my mom, dad at their house and called my brother and sister through Facetime.  Everyone but me and my sister were guessing Girl but after mom and dad took their first bite of their cupcakes, they quickly realized that he was a BOY!  The next evening, both of my grandmothers, Uncle Mark and Aunt Donna came over and we played the same game with them.  They all had predicted Girl as well and were fairly shocked at the sight of the blue.  My grandmother Stockton thought that the inside of her cupcake was green?!?!  The next day, we drove to Indianola to share the exciting news with Kolby's family.  I made a sign that said, Team Football or Team Cheerleader.  I would say that the guesses were close to 50/50.  I bought blue silly string and wrapped Boy or Girl paper around each of them.  Kolby has close to 30 family members and around 20 were there for the revealing.  We all went outside, I counted to 3 and everyone began squealing as they saw the blue silly string spray across the lawn.  So everyone in the family finally knew that William Harrison would be joining the family in February! So, what's in his name?  William is Kolby's maternal grandfather's name as well as his name.  Harrison is his fraternal grandfather's name.  We decided to call him Harrison because it seemed to be something we fully agreed on.

Our last sonogram was at 18 weeks and this is a picture of our little bundle.  

This was the very best picture that we could get of our little wiggle worm.  He is a very active little boy already.  Looking at his profile, he has my nose and his daddy's chin and lips. He loves to wave his hands at the camera so we were lucky to capture this sweet photo of him waving at the camera. 

We will go back to see Dr. Brewer on Nov. 13th and Dr. Cesario on the 18th.  As always, we look forward to sharing our progressions with everyone.  We are thoroughly blessed for God's timing and his blessing that he has been bestowed upon us. 

 

I am BACK!!!! But with a different last name and slightly different life!

 After spending time with my sister, I have been encouraged to start blogging again.  So I am back with a d ifferent last name, husband, additional dog in the house and new family members.  Kolby and I married on Sept. 17, 2011 and needless to say, we have had one heck of a marital adventure ever since.  Through Kolby losing his job, me having a kidney stone, suffering a surprise miscarriage and hip surgery which resulted in being on crutches for 8 weeks, things have been quite crazy.  In the midst of it all, he took a new job, I am still thoroughly enjoying my job at MRHC and we have three furry kiddos that love us unconditionally.

Last week, I decided to take a spontaneous yet MUCH NEEDED short vacay to stay in Jacksonville with Em and Brad.  Life at the beach definitely helps one in need of a break and especially when it's spent with your best friend.  I am very thankful that my sister only lives 10 hours away and will let me visit at any time.  Over the next few weeks, I will try and post pictures of everything that has happened over the past few years, even though anyone who reads my blog more than likely already knows everything!  I will leave you with this picture because it makes me smile!

My big surprise to my husband, dad and wedding guests...BULLY

Oh.......Mexico

So the time has arrived and me and my wonderful friend, Melissa Thompson will be Cozumel bound on Thursday at 6am.  Words CANNOT explain how badly this trip is needed and how excited we are to be heading somewhere tropical and not in the U.S.  More pics to follow. 

Me and my traveling companion

our resort

Another Stockton is getting married....and no, it's not me!

So the day finally arrived (that we all knew was coming soon) that my baby sister (6 years younger than me) called to inform me that she had just gotten engaged.  Brad and her have been together on and off since they were in the first grade.  How did they meet?  ME, of all people.  Brad and his family moved from Michigan and I was his and his brother's fun babysitter.  In the back of all of our minds, we knew that she would marry Brad. 

Well their day has come, they're now engaged and looking to get married sometime in August or September of next year.  Brad is training to become a pilot for the Navy so he'll have to wait and find out if he'll be stationed in Jacksonville, San Diego or Hawaii. 

I love this kid more than life and am so happy that I was the first person she called, after my mom and dad, because she said I was her best friend. PRECIOUS!!!

Congrats to Em and Brad...here's to #18 as a bridesmaid...wonder if I'll beat her to the alter. :)

Back to the good ole stomping grounds (for the weekend)

I believe all of my "avid" readers know about my obsession with my hometown.  Well.....me and Kolby are leaving Jackson and heading back to C-Town for another fun-filled weekend.  I cannot wait to be back in Northeast Mississippi and hopefully sooner than later!

So this is how our weekend is going to go.....

We're leaving Madison after work in hopes of making it there by 9:30ish.  If we make it in time, we're going to support a good family friend's (Ben Mathis) band, Nash Street at the annual Slugburger Festival.

So what is Slugburger Festival???  If you've never been, it's a must see.  You eat Slugburgers, enjoy rides, great music, people-watching and hanging out with friends from childhood past.  I haven't been in several years so I thought that it was appropriate to break go back and break the boyfriend in "true Corinth style."

On Saturday, we're going shopping around town (not that he wants to be is being sweet and coming along) and then I'm going to take him to....

 

to try his first ever.....

What's this you may ask?  The infamous slugburger!!! My mouth literally waters thinking about these delicious things...notices I said things because you have to eat more than one they're THAT good! 

Don't really know what else is planned for the day but I do know (that night,) we're going to one of my next favorite Corinth restaurants.....

and can't wait to visit with my best guy friend from home and owner of PG.....

Joshua Bryant (the goofy one on the left.)

The dinner is special because Sunday marks one whole year that I was lucky enough to meet this sweet guy....

who called and bugged the mess out of me for the longest.  I finally gave in around October and went out with him.  He took me to.....

in Canton and wined and dined me.  I somewhat developed a mini-crush and then he told me that he wasn't ready for what I was ready for....which is my luck to start crushing just to have a guy that's been actively persuing me for so long to say, "I'm just not ready for what you're ready for."  What exactly was I ready for????  Well....our problem was that he was 24 at the time (yes, I'm robbing the cradle a little) and I was 28; however, I wasn't necessarily looking for marriage but wasn't wanting to play games either.  Since he had just graduated college, he was ready to play games.  Make a long story short, I told him that was fine and I knew that he would be back.  He would talk to another girl, break it off and then call me again.  This pattern repeated almost every month until the middle of February.  We ended up going out again one night, had a blast, he started calling again, asking me out and I knew that he was back to his old tricks again so I wasn't 100% invested in it.  Well....something happened and we've been together ever since the middle of March.  I will save all of the sweet gross stuff for later but I will just say this....I have been in several relationships before where I was SO in love with that person and it was never reciprocated the way it should be, I wasn't treated kindly and was hurt 80% of the time.  Now, I have finally found someone who truly cares, loves me unconditionally and even in the bad times, does anything and everything he can to make me happy and is happy when he does these sweet things, goes above and beyond in everything that he does and has so many of the same great qualities I see in my dad with my mom (which is SO appealing to me.)  I'm not going to lie...it's been a hard transition and actually at first was a huge turn off to me for someone to be this sweet to me but GOD brought this special guy into my life and I love him for it.  So there's a little history for all of you that don't know the whole "kid and grown woman relationship" story. 

Back to the agenda......

After dinner we're heading back to....

Downtown Corinth to enjoy some more "rednecking" it up at the Slugburger Festival.

I cannot wait to see some of my hometown friends (of all ages!)

On Sunday, we're going to this place, (which I love)....

and then to eat a good lunch somewhere in town. 

That afternoon, I am hosting a baby shower for this sweet friend....

(both of these gals are preggers and due on the same day!!!) 

I'm looking forward to seeing a lot of these girls that I haven't seen since Sal's big day.

Kolby and I took off of work on Monday so we're going to hang out with these special people and enjoy the rest of our day....

I wonder if I can talk this special man...

into taking us to one of my other 2 favorites places......

OR

If you've ever been to either, what's your vote?

Monday morning, we will be heading back to the daily grind in Jackson but first we're stopping here to finish our fat eating for the weekend......

So.....after I've gained 50 lbs., I will have successfully shown K how wonderful Corinth truly is.

One of my favorite holidays with some of my FAVORITE people!!!

For some reason, I have always loved the 4th of July holiday weekend.  I used to love it because I would go home, well actually to our lakehouse in Pickwick, spend tons of time with the family and friends.  The big highlight of the whole weekend, Freddy T's.  If you've never been there, I apologize because you're truly missing out.  I always feel like the most sane person when I visit the Freddy's; however, we always have the best time!  Now that I'm an old foogey, all I crave these days is to drive from Jackson to Pickwick, sleep, eat, drink and be merry on the lake.  Something about that place is therapeutic and I never appreciated it until now.  So here's to a relaxing and great weekend with several of my favorite people at the lake!!!

Me & my sweet man

My wonderful siblings

The Ladies in the Stockton family

The Parentals with their favorite daughters