We're....

Baby Ireland is due on October 25!!! Chris and I are absolutely thrilled and are so excited to finally share our news with you all. I will be 13 weeks tomorrow- I can't believe it! I found out that I was pregnant on February 25th and had to wait ALLLLL day for Chris to get home from work so that I could tell him the amazing news. I spent the afternoon trying to come up with a creative way to tell him and this is what I came up with....

Every day when Chris gets home from work Bailey will greet him at the door. On this particular day she greeted him in her new t-shirt (which she HATES, by the way).He was speechless for a minute then immediately picked me up and gave me a huge hug! It is so sweet watching him get so excited about our little one.
We went for our first ultrasound during my 11th week and were able to see the little arms and legs and hear the heartbeat, which was 165. What an incredible experience. I don't even know what Chris' facial expressions were throughout the sonogram because I was so entranced with the image of our little baby on the screen. I seriously didn't look away from the screen once- not even to look at the doctor as she was talking to us. Seeing Baby Ireland for the first time was amazing and we are so thankful for the God's blessing to us. We go for our next OB appointment on May 5th and then on June 2nd we will find out whether Baby Ireland is a boy or a girl!
Please pray for us as we prepare to become parents and also for the development of our sweet little baby. I am now through the first trimester but and still nauseous, so please pray that I will begin to have more energy and less sickness in the next few weeks!

Question for my blogger friends...

I've been informed that when you click on my pictures that I post here on the blog they do not enlarge. I've noticed some of yours enlarge and was wondering if you can help me! Thank you!

Fun weekend

What a great weekend! It has been absolutely beautiful down here in Florida so Chris and I have taken advantage of it! We live about 10 minutes from one of the largest Air Force bases in the country (if not the largest) and this weekend they put on an air show. Chris has really been looking forward to going to the show and has been talking about it for weeks, so yesterday we leave our house around 10:15 to drive the 10 minutes down the road to Eglin Air Force Base. We get about 1/2 a mile from the gate and are in complete stand-still traffic. After sitting in traffic for 30 minutes we debated on whether or not we should even go. We decided "yes" we would wait. It took us about an hour and 15 minutes to FINALLY get onto base and find a parking spot. Once we parked we then had to wait in line for a bus to pick us up and take us to the show.... we proceeded to stand in line for an hour and 45 minutes for a bus. By this point we were getting pretty frustrated, but we had waited so long by that point that we REFUSED to leave! We finally made it to the show around 2pm and am happy to say that it was a GREAT show! We were really happy that we stuck it out and got to experience the show and walk around to look at the different aircraft around the base. It was a perfect day for the show and seeing the different fighter planes and thunderbirds soaring above us was truly incredible. Here are just a few pictures from the day.

Chris and the inside of a tanker.

The Thunderbirds

The show ended just after 4pm and after walking around looking at the different planes and helicopters we found ourselves waiting in another line to get back on a bus that would take us back to our car. Sure enough... after about 1 hour and 15 minutes we finally made it onto a bus. Overall the show was awesome, but the base could have prepared a little more. They were expecting over 35thousand people and had only 17 buses- REALLY PEOPLE!??!?

Today has also been a wonderful day starting with a great church service, then lunch on our patio. We then took Bailey to the dog park and let her run around for about 45 minutes or so. She is still very submissive and immediately lies down or rolls over when other dogs approach her (resulting in a bath as soon as we got home!). However, we noticed that she has gotten a lot better about coming to us when we call her name!!

Now we are enjoying the Masters. I'm pulling for Phil Mickelson and Fred Couples. I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend as well! Look for more updates later this week! Love you all!

Back to blogging!

WOW... has it been a while since I've blogged, or what?!!? Not too much has been going on around the Ireland household these past few weeks other than work, work and more work. Two weekends ago Chris' parents and cousin David came down for a few days- it was so great seeing them and spending time with family. David lives up in D.C and had been down in south Florida for spring training and decided to stop by our place on his way back up north. We are so glad he came and enjoyed catching up with him. Ed and Cheryl brought their sweet little pup, Holli for the weekend and Bailey just wouldn't leave her alone. You have to have the full picture though- Holli is a 6.5 pound yorkie who is about 5 years old.... Bailey is a 46 pound Boxer PUPPY full of energy. Bailey would chase Holli around all day and night and poor Holli just didn't want any of it. Bailey just wanted to play but doesn't quite understand that enough is enough sometimes! Overall, we had a fabulous weekend and enjoyed our time together. We wish we could see more of them, but always enjoy the time we do have together. Well, that's all for now. I hope all of you faithful readers are having a great week, and maybe I won't wait another month before I give you another post again. Love you all!

Bailey girl

It's been a while since I've posted pictures of our sweet little Bailey. She is just over 6 months old already and weighs 40 pounds. She's growing up fast! (Yes, I talk about her like she is my child... but I guess she kind of is!) We are so proud of her because she obeys most of her commands-- she is just a little stubborn when it comes to one of the commands--"come". Her newest trick is that she can shake! What a smart dog! :) We recently bought two baby gates and are now able to leave her in the kitchen during the day instead of leaving her cramped in her crate. She has done SO well and hasn't had one accident since we put her in the kitchen! She still sleeps in her crate at night, but we are excited about the baby steps of allowing her more space. Here are a few recent pictures of our growing little girl!

She will sit by the door or paw at her leash to let us know she needs to go to the bathroom

Chris put a t-shirt on her the other night- she wasn't a fan

After going on a run with Abby, Bailey found her towel by the front door and crashed for several hours.

This has been her favorite spot during the winter months. We have this space heater for us- but it quickly became Bailey's space heater. She will sit/lay by this all day and night if we let her.

She is not allowed on any of our furniture, but Chris left this pillow on the floor one day and she curled up on it. I can't believe she got her entire body on it!

She loves her Christopher!

Green

We decided to liven up our house a little by adding some color to our kitchen. We chose to paint the walls green-- a subtle green. However, when the color went on the walls it turned out to be a much BRIGHTER green than we expected. At first, I was a little nervous about the color and thought it might be too bright, but as time goes on we both have grown to really like the way it turned out. So, for Nanna and Poppop- here are the pictures of our newly painted kitchen!

BEFORE

AFTER

Thinking...

It's been a bit of an odd night and it's left me doing a lot of thinking. I've been faced with the challenge of trying not to think the worst in a situation when I do not know all of the answers-- if any, to what is going on. I'm learning how to rely on God even more and it is comforting to know that He is in control. The unknown is scary, but with God on my side I know that I can make it through any situation that comes my way. Just needed to write down some feelings. Thanks for letting me do so.