May Fun and The Waiting Game

May was a busy busy month for us. It was also a very fun month! We had an awesome visit with some friend's and their little one. Matt and Jarrett were good friends in college, and it has been such a joy for me to get to know him and his wife Jamie over the past few years. Their son Luca just turned a year old, and is super cute!! We enjoyed showing them Indianapolis and exploring new parts of the city for ourselves. We took them to the Indianapolis Museum of Art where they have several acres of garden space that is open to the public. It was a nice day to walk around. We also went to an air show. The pictures below are from the air show.

Cute Luca walking on the grass

The Blue Angels doing a fly by

Matt and I right before we left. The belly is definitely getting bigger!!!

Then Memorial Day weekend, Matt's parents came into town. We had a great couple of days with them! Matt and his dad went to the Indy 500 and they had a great time!! His mom and I also had a great day. We went shopping at the mall, got pedicures, and out to lunch!

And finally, we get to the last part of the post. I am 39 weeks pregnant as I write this, and I'm definitely feeling every bit of it!! I feel pretty good, but am just HUGE!!! I am often asked if I am due today and if I am having twins. But the baby is healthy and we are crossing our fingers that he or she will come sometime in the next week! The ultrasound I had today is estimated our little one at 9 lbs......generally these measurements are super inaccurate, but they are definitely thinking it's atleast 8 lbs already. So, by my calculations that means that this baby is cooked!!! I am so ready to meet him or her and hold him or her in my arms. The picture below is me at 38 weeks. Doesn't seem like too much room to grow!!!!

34 weeks and counting

Last friday I was at 34 weeks, which means less than 6 weeks till the due date! It is really crazy how fast this pregnancy has gone by. But at the same time, I am beginning to understand why people say that the last couple months creep along. Sleeping has become increasingly harder, which is probably the design to get me ready for baby's eating schedule once he/she arrives, and the number of little aches and discomforts has continued to rise. Overall, I feel great, but daily tasks are getting harder and even resting or being lazy is harder! I am getting ready and excited to meet this little one and know if it is a he or a she! Either way we will be thrilled! In April, "nesting" definitely set in. I was out running errands and putting furniture together and trying to find a home for everything in our house! The house still has some work to go, but I may take some pictures later in the week for you all to see. But, the nursery is as ready as it's going to be prior to knowing if it will be the home of a little boy or a little girl. April also brought Easter! We had a great time celebrating Jesus' sacrifice for our sake with Matt's family in St. Louis. Everyone was in town because it was also the weekend we had a college graduation party for Matt's younger brother Michael. It was so fun to see everyone in the family and also see some of Matt's extended family and family friends that we don't see very often. There were a few people that I got to meet for the first time! Enjoy the pictures!!!

33 weeks, this shirt sure is getting stretched now!

Matt and I on Easter Sunday

Elizabeth, Margie, me, and Lauri in our Easter best!

The nursery!

The crib

Our changing table

March Madness

March Madness is a little bit of a play on words. The basketball tournament was exciting this year as Indianapolis' own, the Butler Bulldogs made it to the championship for the second year in a row. As a side note, people say or rather write "Go Dawgs" up here too......I'm thinking maybe they copied that saying and spelling from my beloved Georgia Bulldawgs.....because they definitely don't have the southern twang to get the pronunciation right up here! But, it is fun just the same to see Go Dawgs everywhere.

The last two weeks of March truly were "madness" for me. The most wonderful kind of madness! I spent two weeks with my family split between Atlanta and Asheville. I drove down (wow, the luxury of being able to drive home rather than having no choice but to fly!), and stopped halfway in Nashville, TN with our good friends the Radbills. Andy and Rachel were good friends from Boston who moved to Nashville for Andy's new job as an attending at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital. They have two lovely kids Jack and Kate, and it was just a blast catching up with their family! They were gracious and welcoming hosts!

Then the second day I was in Atlanta my sister and I threw a wedding shower for our future sister-in-law Melissa. It was so fun to be a part of her very first wedding shower and to meet those special in her life, as well as catch up with some of our good family friends. It was also so fun to spend time with my family including my sweet nieces, the oldest of which were very eager to serve every one their desserts and refill their drinks during the shower!

Then I spent a few low key days hanging out with my mom. One highlight of those few days was getting lunch with the mom of my sweet friend Jennifer who passed away when we were in 8th grade. Mrs. Dailey is so sweet and it was such a blessing to see her! I also joined my mom, sister, and nieces on a little photoshoot that my sister had set up for my nieces. They were so cute and it was a joy to watch them smiling for the camera!

The following weekend was quite busy and so fun! One of my best friend's, Kristen Polstra (now Vestal), got married!!! The festivities began Thursday night with a little bachelorette party at a mexican restaurant, then Friday we had the bridesmaid's luncheon and the rehearsal/rehearsal dinner. And then all day Saturday I was busy with the wedding! It was such an honor to be a part of this special weekend for Kristen. She was an absolutely BEAUTIFUL bride and I am just so happy for her! It was a great chance to catch up with an old college roommate and see a few other college friends as well as meet new people! After the wedding, a large group from the wedding and then some of Matt and I's friends from Atlanta came down Virginia Highlands to hang out for a bit. I was so glad to see everyone and that Matt was able to fly down for the weekend.

On that Sunday I had my first baby shower!! It was so much fun and I am so thankful for my sister, Emily C, Lauren D, Emily L, and Ashley S for all of the hard work they put into making it a very special afternoon for me. It was again a great time to see people dear to me and get even more excited about this little one on the way! Speaking of the little one, I am almost 30 weeks!!! It is crazy how fast this is going, but also very very exciting!!!

Then I spent the last few days of my trip up in Asheville, NC with my sister's family. It was so fun to be there and celebrate my littlest niece Molly Ryan's first birthday!!

Enjoy the pictures!!!!

28 weeks!

Sweet Kate before I left Nashville

With my brother and sister before the shower festivities began

Celebrating with Kristen (they made two special non alcoholic drinks for me and the other pregnant bridesmaid)

At the rehearsal in Perimeter Church's beautiful new chapel!

The stunning bride

The pregnant bridesmaid, a.k.a me, and my wonderful husband

With the best hostesses in the world!!

Happy Birthday Molly Ryan!

My beautiful sister with my beautiful niece!

Baby Bump

I've had several requests to see how big my belly is getting! So here you go! This baby is certainly growing! I was bad about taking pictures early on so the progression probably isn't super dramatic at this point.

This first one is me at 20 weeks

And here I am at 24 weeks

I'll be 25 weeks on Friday so this brings you up to date. I'll continue to take pictures every 4 weeks. It's pretty fun now that I am really starting to feel the baby move around. Such a cool feeling and really it's hard to believe there is a little person inside there!!!

It's been a long time

I'm not sure if anyone reads this anymore, but hopefully I have a few faithful readers who will discover this post. The lack of posting has not been due to a lack of adventure in our lives, it's been one of those things I have continued to put off and put off and put off. However, I am back, and hopefully will be more consistent in the future.

We had a very exciting fall! In October, we found out that we were expecting a baby! We are thrilled and excited, and it was so much fun to tell all of our family and friends. I will be 24 weeks on Friday and am feeling pretty good. We have decided not to find out the gender of our baby, and the suspense is not killing me yet, but I am definitely pretty curious. Over the last 2 weeks, I have really started to feel him/her move a lot, and Matt has been able to feel it to! It is very fun and definitely makes it more and more real. It amazes me that there is a little tiny baby in there! As of last week, the baby was about the size of a large mango. The baby is due June 17th and we can't wait for June to get here! I'm so excited about holding my baby and seeing what he/she will look like!

Our other exciting news happened the first week of January. Matt got a promotion at work! He is now a Mutual Fund Wholesaler which is what he has always wanted to do, and the reason we moved to Boston in the first place. He has worked really hard and I'm so proud of him! Becoming a wholesaler also meant a big move for us! We moved at the beginning of February to Indianapolis, IN. We loved our time in Boston and miss all of our friends there, but are so happy to be in Indy! Boston was always a temporary home for us, an adventure for a few years, and especially after finding out about the baby, we were just itching for a more permanent home to settle down in. We feel that we were really able to experience everything New England had to offer and we are so thankful for the time we spent there. But now, we are thrilled to be in Indy, we love our new apartment and have felt really welcomed by our new church. It is definitely still the beginning of our journey here, but we are so excited to see it all unfold.

I hope to be settled enough soon to get some pictures of the apartment and as the weather warms up, I'll take some pictures of our new adventures here! I hope to update the blog a bit more often, so check back for pictures and more!

St. Augustine

In August, Matt and I headed down to St. Augustine, FL with my family. My mom grew up in St. Augustine, and that is where we always vacationed when I was a kid. It is fun to be able to continue that tradition and see my nieces enjoy the beach like I did. All of my cousins and 3 aunts and 1 uncle live there too, so it's always a blast to be able to spend time with them! We also went down to Disney World for a day, so that was also a blast! It was Matt's first time as well as my nieces first time in the Magic Kingdom. It was so fun to watch my sweet nieces stare with awe and wonder at everything there!

Fun feeding popcorn to the birds with Grandaddy!

Molly Ryan took some good naps on the beach!

Caroline and Abby were doing awesome on the boogie board!! This is Caroline riding a wave in.

My three nieces by the bay in downtown.

Matt and my dad inside Space Mountain at Disney

Matt and I on a ride.

Caroline and Abby watching the parade, you can see Cinderella's Castle in the background.

Mom and Dad Branen came to visit

Sorry for the delay in posting. The following pictures all from my parent's visit back in June. We had such a great time with them and got to experience even more of New England!!

This is my dad at the Sam Adam's Brewery tour. Matt and I have been on this tour many times, and each time you get one of these 7 oz glasses to keep! It is a very fun thing to do while in Boston!

These are my parents on a sailing cruise we went on in Newport, RI. It was so much fun, and so beautiful!!! It was our first time in a true sailboat.

This is the four of us in back of the mansion from the movie The Great Gatsby. It's hard to see in this picture, but the awning behind us is red and white striped, and I immediately recognized it from watching that movie in school. This was also in Newport.

We took a little day trip to see Lexington and Concord Mass. It was neat to see so much history! Lots of battles were fought here, as were books written. This picture is from a small boathouse behind a historic home. Not pictured, but another place we saw was Walden Pond, where Ralph Waldo Emerson did much of his writing.

Louisa May Alcott wrote her books in the house (also not pictured). I love the book Little Women and was so excited to see the home that inspired her!