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 :)