It has been 26 days since we said I do along the Carolina shoreline..... An amazing, wonderful, fast paced day. My father made it in around 11pm the night before from California, the most special portion of the ceremony a young woman could ask for is to have her father give her away. An experience I never had previously. Tears of joy filled my eyes as I walked barefoot down the sandy path; it took all I had to not let the tears pour out. Standing there staring into my soon to be husbands eyes, surrounded by our family and friends, (my mother on video conference attending from California), everything came together so perfectly.... Our special sand ceremony that included our 7 year old son, joining us all together as a family, was a unique addition to our ceremony that was special for just the three of us. Alex's parents providing us with a lovely spiritual blessing that again brought more tears to my eyes. 
And once the ceremony was over, pictures galore (aside from the ceremony) went underway along with a race to ocean! :)
It was wonderful to be there for my dad's first time ever in the Atlantic ocean too and him coming together with a long lost friend that he hadn't seen since I was only months old!! :) SO much happiness, meetings of extended family, spending time with friends and family, and our little man thoroughly enjoying himself with the water, sand dunes, and coming up with different ideas of photographs (if he can't take the pictures he'll direct which way he wants to be photographed, lol). 
After this we made our way to a local diner that is one of my all time favs out here, Chef's 105. Dinner was beyond yummy and desert was amazing!!! A little bit of wine was consumed, less than a half glass, and then soda was added to my glass so I didn't feel left out... LOL. :)
(2 weeks before the wedding we found out we were expecting Baby B, my biggest fear was not fitting into the absolutely gorgeous dress that I had just bought that fit perfectly right off the rack!) :) But as the good Lord would have it, everything went smoothly, and the dress was unzipped after dinner on the way to the hotel. lol :) Fortunately enough I have only gained 2 pounds... However, the expanding process (bloating and swelling) of the chest area and a little bit of the tummy area has become further pronounced at 11 1/2 weeks more so than they did when I was prego with Jake. Testing’s have gone well, and having to inject myself with a blood thinner daily has been a little easier than I thought it would be, with the wonderful help of ice of course. Now it is just a manner of not cutting myself or running into things (obtaining bruises). Mother of a 7 year old boy and owner of two large dogs, with a hubby who is deploying..... This part will be most challenging. Wrap myself in bubble wrap... lol. Doubt my employer would be too impressed with that and our son would enjoy that too much, finding different ways to pop as many at one time... So it will have to be a continuation of practice on my ninja skills. :))
Well, was side tracked a bit there, that does tend to happen often with me, as you may have already noticed. Sooooo, the wedding and dinner after was amazing. The following afternoon the 3 1/2 of us and Alex's family headed out to a location that we had all never been to before. Asheville. Visited the Biltmore Estate, which was pretty but so very hot indoors with so many people.
After, we all caught our breath and refueled at Panera Bread, one of Alex's and now Jacob's favorite places to eat! From there off we went to Sliding Rock! Can you say cold?!? How cold? ICE COLD!!! But so much fun, daddy went with Jake twice and I did also..... Jake would have stayed and kept doing so until it was too dark to see had we not told him we were going to the waterfall next. :) Even that was freezing... I stayed back and practiced my photography skills, which I'm better at with nature shots because nature doesn't move, than with people who twitch, blink, or just move in general! :) FUN FUN!!!! It was great spending time with my and Jacob's new family members. The following morning, we drove home in the pouring rain...
Since then it has been a whirlwind month. Jacob's 7th birthday, his party with friends and family, work, Alex getting ready to leave, Alex being told he's leaving the week before he deploys for "special work" out of country and returning for a couple days before leaving for months, more work, doctor's visits to hear the baby's heart beat and have ultrasounds done (including an ER visit that I could punch the lady in the face for what she "decided" the issue was), cleaning house, homework with the man-child, figuring out finances to have everything paid off (but the house and 2 cars) before April next year, getting the to-do-list together for the Chevelle, finishing a few more items on the house to-do-list.... If it were not for lists, our lives would be in uproar!
