Knox's Houston Shower

Some very special friends threw Knox and I an incredible shower in Houston recently. It was located at the St. Regis hotel, and I'm not sure it could have been any more perfect!

The invitations were done by Hayley Hardcastle, and they set the tone for the entire day! She made place cards, guest list paper, and even a beautiful painted canvas for his nursery! Check out her website...you won't be disappointed!

The gorgeous centerpieces matched the invitations perfectly! I brought one home and placed it on my dining room table to savor it a little bit longer!!

The moms and the preggo :)

The beautiful hostesses (L-R, Cindy, preggo, Emily and Kathy)

The Dotson ladies: My Sister-in-Law Kelly and Mother-in-Law Glenda

My sister, Hayley and my mom, Jan

The cake was absolutely delicious, and of course matched the invitations and cookies perfectly!

We sipped Mommy's Mocktails and ice-cold water out of glass bottles!

Loved the added detail of the wire "preggo"

And another adorable detail...our napkins were folded and pinned like cloth diapers! So cute!!

A cute sis shot!

The tables were set perfectly! Loved the orange accent bows!

"For this child I have prayed..." 1 Samuel 1:27

Knox's parents in their prime :)

His bedding was "wrapped" in this adorable monogrammed sack, great for toys and football equipment down the road!!

We lunched on this incredible salad and then had a fantastic chicken and vegetable pasta!

Glenda with her amazing friends and hostesses! Thank you ladies!! It was a shower to remember, and we're definitely grateful!!

The Bears!!

Stephen and I have been following the Bears Basketball team as they play in the NCAA tournament, and have loved the fact that they're dominating!! Last week our friends Michael & Sarah (and DEAN!!!) called and offered to share some tickets with us...on the 7th row! For the Elite 8 game! Seriously?!? Amazing...

We watched BU roll over St. Mary's and packed our bags! We had dinner with the adorable Feigleson fam last night and we're headed to the game tonight, where we'll have a blast rooting Baylor on to the Final 4!

**Update: We lost, but had a great time anyway!

Knox's room so far...

We still have a ways to go...but here's his room so far!!

Knox's first shower!

This past weekend we had Knox's first shower! My sister-in-law Kelly, Aunt Jeanette and cousin Jolene threw me an amazing shower to spoil the little guy! Most of my sweet friends were able to join in the fun as I opened the most adorable clothes and fun accessories!

My mother-in-law made this ADORABLE diaper cake! One of the pacifiers said "Mute Button!" Love it!

We had an amazing spread of fruit, sandwiches, cakeballs, and the best part...Neiman's chicken broth! It was awesome!!!

Kelly made some great blue punch...I'd never seen blue punch, but it was yummy!!

They even had cute take-away gifts for all the guests! It really was so wonderful, albeit surreal to be preparing and spoiling my soon-to-be son! I'm going to have to get used to saying that! We had a great time, lots of ooohs and ahhhs, and plenty of laughs along the way! Thanks everyone for joining in the fun! I'm so thankful for each of you!

30 weeks and SNOW...

I know I promised a picture last time...I'm mean! But I promise at the bottom of this post you'll get what you've been waiting for, flattering or not :)

Things have been nuts around here lately! We had record breaking snow a week and a half ago...8 inches at our house! It was insane! It was nice to build a snowman for the first time and to see the neighborhood in a blanket of snow. It was not nice, however, to lose power for more than 18 hours. We survived, though, in our little cocoon near the fire all night! The pups loved it!

Last weekend we headed to Houston to see a friend get married. We loved having a weekend away, and of course seeing all of Stephen's high school friends we don't see often. It was fun, but with a few long nights we both ended up with colds the next week. Stephen got over his quickly, but of course the preggo holds on to hers for weeks!!

These next few weeks will be just as busy as the last, but that just brings us closer to our little man! We can't wait!!!

26 weeks!!

I can't believe it's been 26 weeks, yet at the same time I feel like it's been a year since I told Stephen that morning we were pregnant! Anyone who knows me is WELL aware that I'm not exactly the most patient person. My yoga instructor said that technically you are "full-term" at 37 weeks, so that's just 11 weeks away...AHHHH!! We.Can't.Wait!! These next few months are going to kill me :)

I promise I'll take a belly pic soon, though I hate these! I always feel so silly taking a picture of how BIG I am and posting them for the world to see, but I realize that is all you readers want...so I'll oblige. Just know I hate them, k? Until then...here's some things the little man is doing in utero:

-Kicking like crazy. Really, he's just beating the beat (for all you Jersey Shore fanatics)! It feels like he's rapid fire kicking most evenings!!

-Swishing around in there. It most resembles a water bed motion, freaky and a little cool at the same time.

-Dancing on my bladder. Since the sonogram revealed just how much he likes to jump off my bladder, he's decided to keep it consistent. We'll just say he's like his dad and loves a set routine!

-Disliking cold things. My mom made a comment that when she was pregnant with my oldest brother, Andy, she would place her cold glass on her stomach and he would try and kick it off. We tried this with Knox and within a few seconds he was in hot pursuit of the offending glass. It's pretty cool to watch. This also goes for Stephen's cold hands...loves his Dad's voice, but hates his cold hands!!

Hope this gives you a little insight into little K-dub's world...until you can meet him face-to-face!

Kissing Cousins??

Avery and Knox got a little cozy at dinner the other night :)

Merry Christmas...

Stephen and I travelled to Katy, TX on Wednesday afternoon to spend Christmas with his family. Thankfully, our drive was relatively "eventless," and we arrived in a little over 4 hours. We've been eating, drinking and playing games ever since...so much fun! And very relaxing!

This evening we'll head to see "It's Complicated." Seeing a movie on Christmas Day is a Dotson tradition, and I love it. This year, we're going to Alamo Drafthouse, so we'll be able to have an appetizer or two while watching the movie (if we're even hungry after turkey and the fixings!).

Here's a pic of the "kids" before heading to Christmas Eve Mass...please excuse the dots--we'll clean the camera later :) For those of you requesting a bump, this is as close as your getting until I feel brave enough :) Knox is peeking out, though!!

Wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas and Joyous New Year!

Love,

The Dotson Family

It's a...

HEALTHY BOY!

We're so excited. I was sure it was a boy, I've known since I found out I was pregnant. Not sure why I felt so strongly about it, I just knew. Stephen was iffy as to the gender, but eventually chose girl as his contender. As we watched the sonogram screen, holding our breaths waiting for his cute profile, he waved. How perfect is God's creation, and sense of humor. We continued to watch as he did jumps off of my bladder and twirled as we tried to see him head on...he's a stubborn one! We're a wee bit apprehensive yet EXTREMELY excited to start this journey!

Please keep praying for us, for the sweet yet-to-be-named Dotson, and for a safe pregnancy!

Happy Holidays!!

D-Day

Today's the day! We find out if we're having a boy or a girl...I can't WAIT :) We'll update of course, so stay tuned!!

Chasing Squirrels

It's fall around here, and that means more time outside running around in the leaves. Not for me, particularly, but for the dogs.

This also means more time chasing squirrels! Gracie and Bella LOVE to chase squirrels...and this picture captures their typical reaction. Please click on the picture to enlarge, you need to see Bella up close!!

So happy with this fall weather, hopefully it stays!!

Three years...

x

Conner William Kampen

Conner is here...we now have a nephew! Born on Monday morning, November 16th around 4:4oam, he weighed in at 7lbs 14oz. He's adorable, and we love him so much already! Congrats Jeremy, Lindsay and Mackenzie!!

(sorry for some of the blurry pics...as you can imagine, at 12 hours old he was a little squirmy!!)

How we found out...

A lot of you have been asking for the details on how we found out we were pregnant! I woke up, the Wednesday of the first week of school (yikes!) and felt a little funny. I just had this feeling, and thought that taking a test couldn't hurt anything. I wasn't necessarily late or anything, but just wanted to see if maybe my hunch was correct.

At 6:05am, the first test was a little fuzzy. It took a long time to go either way, but finally a VERY faint line appeared. I about fell over. Literally. I composed myself enough to walk out and wake Stephen up to get his opinion. My entire life I've wanted to be a mom. That's it. And I had dreamed of how I would tell my husband, the little clues I would give through fun gifts to make him guess. It would be so romantic and magical. Well, waking your husband up at 6:07am to look at a wet pregnancy test is not exactly the same. I just needed affirmation. His response? "I'm not going to believe that. I can't really tell one way or another. I'd have to see another one."

Nice...I don't have to pee anymore. How can I take another one. I took his brutal honesty as a sign that I needed to wait. I went about my day, surprisingly if you know me well, not thinking about it much. When I got home that evening, I decided to take another test. I figured if it came back positive at night, it was legit. I took another test, and by "another" I mean 4. They were ALL positive. Stephen was in the other room, so I collected them all and put them under a little note in his bathroom. Looking back, that's really gross. I bunch of pee sticks on his bathroom counter, where his toothbrush is. But I didn't care!

He came to bed a bit after I did, and went directly to take his contacts out. I snickered quietly as I watched him open his card...

He turned around, laughing. "You took 4? These are expensive!" We hugged, laughed and talked about the surreal reality that we were going to be parents. It still hasn't completely sunk in.

We're now 16 weeks (4 months for all of you out there that don't do things in weeks...I was a hater before this, too!) and thriving! Heard little Dotson's heartbeat today, a solid 153. Can't wait to find out what it is...just two short weeks :)