Trying to Conceive and Finding Out About Baby McKinney

As some of you know Jonathan and I have had a fairly difficult time maintaining pregnancies and then finally getting pregnant. If you read back in my blog you will see the stories of our miscarriages. After two back to back miscarriages and then 1+ years of TTC (trying to conceive) for the third time we were finally referred to Dallas IVF to try and move things along for us. We went in and had the preliminary tests done and nothing unusual was revealed to us. Our infertility doctor mapped out our new plan and we immediately placed the order for the fertility drugs. The fertility drugs arrived on Friday, March 1st and we were to begin our first cycle of injections the next week.

On Sunday night (just two days after the drugs arrived) I decided to take a pregnancy test because well, why the heck not? I also decided not to tell Jon I was taking a test. A few minutes later I found myself staring at the test saying to myself "Holy CRAP!!" about 10x over. At this point I still decided not to tell Jon I was pregnant because I knew he would want to see another test, so I hid the positive test in my dresser drawer and went to the kitchen to get a huge glass of water (or three glasses). As I passed Jonathan in the living room he stopped me and said "what are you doing back there? It's Sunday night. Come out here and hang out with me." I told him I was just taking care of a few things in the bedroom and would be out soon. I shut the bedroom door behind me and began chugging water. About an hour+ and one frustrated/ignored husband later I had a second positive pregnancy test. At this point it was after 9:00pm and I knew I couldn't wait until the next day to tell Jon I was pregnant. I had little time to come up with something cute. I went in the gift wrapping drawer and got some ribbon and tied each of the positive tests to the dogs collars, told Jon to call the dogs, and started recording. His reaction was great because he was so annoyed with me not hanging out with him that I couldn't get him to call the dogs. The great news I had for him made up for my absence in the living room but his sour attitude on the first part of the video is pretty funny. ;)

 

Our official due date is 11-12-13 and I'm just over 12 weeks along! Thank you Jesus for our sweet miracle! We are so honored and humbled the Lord is making us parents!

25 Things You Don't Know About Me

I love this theme I've seen on blogs, as well as in gossip magazines, so I'm jumping on the band wagon!

Here it is... 25 Things You Don't Know About Me!

1. I despise rainsons. I've hated them my whole life and will continue to hate them until the day I die.
2. I cry every time I think about Wrigley getting older. He will be 7 in April. We just bought his first bag of "senior" food last week and I nearly have a panic attack every time I look at it.
3. I can kill a plant by just looking at it, which is funny because I'm amazing with flowers and even worked as a floral designer for 4 years.
4. I'm allergic to olives. I use to be allergic to olive oil as well, but not anymore.
5. Bacon is a food group in our house. No, seriously. The coach and I go through 2 pounds on Saturday and Sunday.
6. I'm obsessed with natural disasters. I have been ever since I was a young child. Tornadoes are my favorite. For graduation I asked to go on a storm chasing tour. My request was denied.
7. I make Migas for breakfast about 5 days a week.
8. Nobody gets me quite like my husband does.
9. I was paralyzed from the neck down caused by a major neck and back injury at the age of 14. I recovered, obviously. And nearly 3 years ago I broke my back in a head on car collision going over 65+  mph (accident caused by other driving. (DON'T TEXT & DRIVE)
10. My sister Lindsay woodslifeblog.com  is my other soulmate.
11. I love camping, but rarely as in hardly ever, do so.
12. I have ADHD, big time. I developed several learning disabilities due to neurological damage after my cheerleading accident when I was 14.
13. I graduated in a class of 6. Not 600, 6 individuals.
14. In my graduating class 5 out of the 6 were girls.
15. As a going away present when my sister left for college, she gave me a kitten. I named her Pheobe. And she grew to be 20+ pounds.
16. There has not been a day in the past 2 years that I have not made our bed. A made bed makes your whole room look sharp.
17. I have vanilla ice cream.
18. I could eat my body weight in fried pickles.
19. When I was a child I had a singing solo to Muddy Water.
20. I can't stand Toby Keith.
21. I never had McDonald's until I was in college.
22. I just got my passport for the first time last fall.
23. My hair is naturally curly and I look like Julia Roberts in Erin Brockavich when I wear it that way.
24. A horse ran away with me into the woods while riding on a camping trip when I was just a little girl. I was safely found.
25. When it comes to home decor, there is not a spec of red to be found in my house unless it's Christmas time.

Well, there it is! 25 things you don't know about me but now you do!

Mexico!

I am very blessed to work for the type of company where everyone truly is family. The founders are husband and wife and two of the most generous people I know. To celebrate a year of hard work we all headed down to Mexico for 5 days for some much needed R&R. We stayed at the beautiful Secrets of Maroma Beach. This resort was absolutely breath taking and the trip of a lifetime. Unfortunately, Jonathan couldn't go because he is in the middle of basketball season. I was so sad to not share the experience with him but still had a great time.

My sweet and dear friend Chelsey was so sweet to be willing to put up with me on the plane. I'm a TERRIBLE flier and she got me through it!

Air Traffic Control Tower at the Cancun International Airport brought to you by no one other than Corona. Because why would they be sponsored by anyone else?



How gorgeous is this resort?

We spent our time doing nothing but mastering the art of relaxation. We spent all day lying on the beach and cooling off in the water. The weather was absolutely perfect!

Chelsey and I at breakfast our first mornin!

My friend Sarah and I. I love this gal!

Swim up bar. Amazing. Enough said.

We spent the evenings at the resorts lounge, sports bar, and feasting on scrumptious things like lobster, lamb, duck, and filet.

The resort had a great "setup" for New Year's Eve. They have a theatre and put on various live shows every night. New Year's Eve was the "seduction show". Y'all this was hilarious, not exactly "Vegas" quality, but so hilariously entertaining. Hey, it's the effort that counts, right? :) After the show we went to the resorts party in the ballroom. There was a DJ, dancing, countdown, and lots of fun.

It was an amazing trip and loved spending time with my extended family!

Seriously, this water doesn't even look real it's so perfect.

Our final stop before boarding our flight back home, Margaritaville!

 



I'm Back From the Dead

Well hello there. It's been a very busy year for the McKinney's. I'm not going to even try to sum up all we've done, but boy has it been a year of fun! Let's dust the cob webs off this blog by recapping some fun times Jon and I had in 2012.

Our Best Friends Got Hitched
Our best friends (Brittany and Jamie) got married. I was the Matron of Honor and my husband was a groomsman. They were both in our wedding as well. Brit and I have been friends since we were little tots in dance class together. Jamie and Jonathan were pledge brothers. We set them up and the rest was history. For Brit's bachelorette party we went to the Texas wine country. So fun! Brit's sweet dad offered to fly us on their family's plane so that we wouldn' have to make the 5 hour drive. I don't fly well at all and this was my first time on a private plane (note the glass of tequila in hand in one of the pics below).

 

 

 

 

Gulf Shores/Orange Beach

We also went back to Gulf Shores/Orange Beach for a family vacay! We had such a great time. We stayed in a different house this time and loved it even more. One of the best parts was our private pool being on the beach and not the front of the house. It was great getting away and having so much family time. I loved having nearly 8 days with my precious nephew Hudson! We went deep sea fishing while we were there and it sucked. And that is an understatement. I was miserable and wanted to die. I remember asking my mom to pitch me overboard because I'd rather be feasted on by sharks than stay on the boat. A bit dramatic, I know.

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New York/New Jersey

Jonathan and I went to NYC and New Jersey over Labor Day weekend with our good friends Matt and Justine. This couple has become such dear friends of ours this past year. They got engaged while we were there! Justine is from NYC and her family now resides in Jersey. Each year her HUGE ITALIAN family has a massive labor day celebration and they were so sweet to include us this year. We started off the trip in the city and then spent the rest of the time in Jersey. I absolutely fell in love with New Jersey. Such a beautiful state. It was awesome to do NYC with a native. The first set of pics are NYC. Jersey pics start with what is clearly a backyard labor day party.

 



(Diva?)

(Kate Spade. I die.)

 

 

 

 

(She just said YES to Matt, not me, as this pic makes it look like)

 

 

 

(The humidity really did wonders for my hair)

(The most GRACIOUS & BEAUTIFUL Italian family. We love them!)

(That's Jus. She's Italian. I just love this gal.)

 

Lady turned 60!

My mom (who we call Lady) turned 60 in August. She's one smoking hot 60 year old. Us kiddos threw her a party. Super fun!

 

 

 



 



 

 

 

Alright, that about sums up 2012. I just got back from vacation, but that overlapped into 2013 so I'll save that for my next post! It's nice to be back!

 



Dear Baby

Dear baby,

Your dad and I wish so badly that we could have met you today, but there is comfort in knowing you are with the Lord. The day we found out we were expecting, we prayed and gave you to the Lord, as you were a gift from God and always His.

We are thankful for our journey because we know that one day the Lord will bless us with a precious child, and you, sweet one, will always be a part of our family, our story, and the parents (and people) we are shaped to be.

We think about you everyday. We have always loved you. We will always love you.

Love,

Mom and Dad

A Struggling Heart, A Happy Heart

This is my heart...

This coming week marks my due date for my second pregnancy. Nothing can take away the pain of this kind of loss. There are certain things that make "coping" the loss our second baby even harder; although my peace and trust in the Lord and gratitude for life struggles was something I did not experience the first time, and I will not trade such blessing and lesson for anything. I was much further along in my second pregnancy, so naturally planning and preparation began to take place. I do not like that when I pull luggage out from underneath the guest bed that I have to see a stash of diapers. I do not like that every day when I go into our garage I have to see nursery furniture and a crib that should welcoming a baby but there is no baby.

Call me crazy, but I really thought I would coast through these couple of weeks unmindful by the whole thing. I was dead wrong. My heart is heavy and I'm sad. I know it's normal for me to feel this way as I approach a day that had such a life changing event attached to it, but I have such tremendous joy and gratitude for my family, friends, job, and life in general that I thought this week would be a cinch. Lesson to me and I'm thankful for this lesson. Although it sounds odd, I'm thankful that the Lord allows us to "feel". I'm not an emotionally numb person by any stretch of the imagination, obviously, as I sit here and blog about my most personal emotions and vulnerability, but in all honesty it was a feeling of "numbness" I hoped for in regards to coasting through these couple of weeks. Lord, thank you for loving me so much that I have the gift of feeling and reality. Thank you for letting me feel the sadness and grief of never meeting our sweet baby until the day you call me Home. Lord, thank you for loving me so much that even in sadness I'm reminded of your Grace. Jesus, please remind me over the next week that I'm guarded in your love and grace. Lord, thank you for my sweet husband and the godly man you shaped him to be.  Even when it's most hard, I will be still and know that you are God.

This is my story, this is my song.

It's Been A Long Time...

Hey friends,

So I realize it's been way too long since my last post. What can I say other than life has been BUSY. We are finally out of basketball season and Jonathan is now full swing into track season. I LOVE basketball season so much, but it is one looooong season with almost zero time for us to spend together. Track season is a little easier because my man is home by 5:00 everyday! Praise the Lord!

In bigger news, I have a new job and HOLY MOLY do I love it! It's been the most amazing and rewarding journey. I started right at the first of the new year and I've loved every second of it. I'm coordinator of business operations for the Dallas Patriots (largest select baseball organization in the country). We are so blessed the Lord brought this opportunity to me, as it has been the perfect fit for Jonathan and I.

This is what happens everytime I head go to my car to head to one of the baseball academies or to a meeting. Judge Baylor makes a b-line to drivers seat. He's so fast it's near impossible to prevent the situation. Once Wrigley sees Judge in the car he thinks there is an open invitation for the whole family to go and I'm left trying to pull 2-100 lb dogs out of my car. Good times. :)

We done some new things around the house the past few months. We finally got a bed for our master room, patio furiture, a leather club chair for the living room, and window treatments for the living room. I promise to post pictures soon!