MARCH!!

WOW, it has been a while.. Sorry faithful blog readers! March was a crazy, crazy month and a lot has happened so this could be a long post!

Carissa and I have felt incredibly blessed! We had two awesome baby showers that have completely filled our extra bedroom with diapers, clothes, furniture and all the wonderful baby necessities!
Our first one was in College Station, thrown by Erin Mosier and Jenn Bacak. This was a female only shower so Matt and I hung out and ate breakfast tacos in downtown Bryan... wow, I have NEVER seen a breakfast taco so big. Anyways, the shower was a diaper shower and we got around 600 diapers!! We were told that should last about a week...haha! Kristin, our sister-in-law, made an awesome diaper cake, check out the pictures bellow.
Our second shower of the month was hosted by an awesome couple from our church, Curtis and Cheryl Nikelson. This was a couples shower so I (Nick) got to open gifts too... WAHOO!!! Again, we were overwhelmingly blessed by all the stuff that we got. Our little girl is going to be set!



Matt and Erin came in for Spring Break and stayed with us for about a week. Matt was in town working at the National Weather Service for his internship and Erin hung out with Carissa. It was awesome getting to hang out with them for such an extended time. Erin and Carissa took turns making dinner and we all hung out in the afternoons. Carissa and Erin took on the project of making the letters for the baby's name to hang in her room. They turned out AWESOME!! We have two names picked out and we are pretty sure we know which one we are going to choose but have not made the FINAL decision yet... tune in to find out :D


On a sad note, we had to put our little Tucker to sleep while Matt and Erin were in town. He got extremely sick and the Vet. told us that there was nothing that we could do to help him. He would have suffered his whole life which wouldn't have lasted for very long. Carissa and I had a really hard time with having to put him to sleep but we both new it was for the best. We miss him sooo much but are thankful that for the short time that he was alive we got to spend it with him. Just before he started to get sick we took him to the park, here are some cute pics...







We participated in a 5k called Stride for Stroke. You might remember that a member of our church passed away a couple of months ago of a stroke, so Carissa decided to do the 5k in memory of her. Carissa walked it and Connor(Carissa's brother), Chad (Our Assoc. pastor) and I ran it. I was SO proud of my amazing, 8 month pregnant wife for doing this, what an awesome accomplishment!!



Our friends, Krista and Henry got married on March 22... YAY... We were so excited for them! The whole weekend was awesome! Krista and her parents made everything but the actual wedding completely about everyone else. I dont think that Carissa was even spoiled as much on her wedding day as she was on the days leading up to Krista and Henry's wedding. Unfortunately Carissa got VERY sick the morning of the wedding and we had to be admitted into the Labor and Delivery at the hospital. She was throwing up, running a fever, and having lower back and abdominal cramping. We got to the hospital and they determined that she was experiencing contractions because she was so dehydrated and sick. They ran a bunch of test, hydrated her, and monitored the baby over night and we were able to leave the hospital around noon the next day. It took a while for her to recover but now she is doing much better. Sadly, we weren't able to go to the wedding but Carissa sure did have an awesome hair-do at the hospital, she had sucked it up that morning and actually got her hair done for the wedding.



Only 33 days until our due date!! We both think that she will be here earlier but I guess we will see. Carissa has already decided that she has overstayed her welcome!
Hope everyone is doing well! Sorry again for the lack of posting!
-nv

The Vann Clan grows!! (And new belly pics)

Hello all!
Sorry we haven't posted in a while. The Vann clan is growing! Last Sunday afternoon, we got a puppy! He is the most adorable little guy. He is a Maltipoo and weighs only 2 pounds (about as much as our baby weighs right now).He will only grow up to be 5-7 pounds. His name is Tucker because he gets "Tuckered" out so easily! We just love him so much. He has such a sweet and fun personality and is doing well with the potty training. I think this is good practice for us as we will be parents so soon! We are now in our 27th week of pregnancy. Time is flying by so incredibly fast. In less than 13 weeks Nick and I will be Mommy and Daddy! So crazy. We are looking forward to meeting our sweet baby girl and cannot wait to hold her! We are in the process of organizing and decorating "Mini" Vann's nursery. It has been so much fun hanging her cute litte clothes in the closet!
Anyway, we appreciate all the prayers and sweet comments from our previous post about our friend from church. Her family is doing better after the loss of their loved one, but could still use your thoughts and prayers. We hope all is well and hope you enjoy the cute pics of our newest addition and the belly!! ;)
-Carissa

Update...

For those of you who have read our previous blog about our friend Sandra from church, let me give you an update.
They have moved her to a more specialized hospital in Downtown Houston. The Neurological Doctor that specializes with strokes did a full evaluation on her when she arrived. She is still asleep and not responding. The Doctor didn't give her family much hope. He said that by the 5th day she should be showing some progress if things have a hope of getting better but there has been none. He said short of a miracle they will have to decide whether to take her off of life support or do a surgery to put a feeding tube in. This has been devastating news to John, her husband. John is asking us to pray for a miracle but as we all know God is the ultimate physician and he knows what is best for Sandra and John realizes that as well. Please keep this family in your prayers. They have two children 9 and 6 whom have been under the impression that their mom was sick and at the hospital but they will soon have to break the news to them on the extremity of their mom's illness, I cant even imagine how hard that would be.
Thank you for your prayers I know that they have been felt by the family.

URGENT, PRAYER NEEDED!!!

Carissa and I have been attending Trinity Baptist Church in Missouri City, TX. It is incredibly small but we love it and have gotten to know everyone very well. This is the Church my parents have been going to, I also did youth ministry there last summer. Just this past week one of our members had a stroke, her name is Sandra Davis. Her and her husband, John, have two kids under the age of ten. She is a Librarian and he is a school teacher. Anyways they discovered that she had fluid on her brain and a blood clot, so they did emergency brain surgery on saturday night. During the surgery they found numerous other blood clots and discovered she had an annurism on her brain stem. She is currently in a coma in the ICU department and is being transferred to a better hospital in Downtown Houston.
We have come to realize that alot of people read our blog, many that we dont even know. So if you are reading this PLEASE just take some time out to pray for this family. They are near and dear to our Hearts and huge servants for His Kingdom. Pray that God will send confort to their family and that He will bring Sandra to a full recovery. Thankyou in advance for your loyal prayers, we are so blessed to have such dedicated prayer warriors as friends!-nick

Our Anniversary Weekend & Its a _________!!!!

This weekend was so much fun. Nick is one amazing husband. As busy people, our ideal get away would be relaxing, which it was very much! We went downtown Houston and stayed at the Magnolia Hotel. The Magnolia is the hotel we stayed at on our wedding night so it was special to go back there. We didn't really get to enjoy the hotel last year as our flight left very early the next morning, so it was nice to explore and enjoy the Magnolia. Nick had a weekend of memories planned out for us. We did things that we had done while we were dating. On Friday night we went and ate at the Aquarium for dinner, Saturday we ate at Chuy's for lunch, went to the movie, and then ate at Birraporeti's on Saturday evening. We did a lot of eating, can you tell? All of these places are special to us in different ways so we were reminising all weekend. It was so much fun. The best part was that it was super relaxing and it was just us. It kind of felt like we were in a different town and it just felt good to "get away" from life's craziness and enjoy spending time together. Thank you Nick - it was amazing and I LOVE you!!!



Now for the part I know you all are waiting for me to share. :) Yesterday, we went to the doctor and got to see our baby moving, punching, and kicking around on the ultrasound machine. It was so amazing to see how big the baby has gotten since our last ultrasound which was nearly 2 1/2 months ago. We also found out that we need to start thinking PINK, because we are having a baby GIRL!!! We could not be happier for this exciting news. Our precious little girl is healthy and growing beautifully, praise the Lord! He is so good and we are so blessed for this little miracle. Here are some sweet pictures of our little Mini Vann!

Our Very First Anniversary!!

I am so excited today! I woke up with a smile on my face because today is the day Nick and I start our anniversary fun weekend!! I can't believe it has been a whole year...well almost, Sunday is the official day, but WOW! This past year has flown by so fast. It has been amazing! I absolutely love marriage and especially because I am married to Nick! He is so wonderful and everyday I love him more and more. So this weekend Nick has planned a surprise weekend away just for us. If you know Nick well, you know that he's not very good at keeping secrets. He knows this and will admit this to you. But, he has been so good at not telling me anything. I'm very proud of him. I LOVE surprises!! So I was told to pack every type of shoe I own...I assume that means, tennis shoes, dress shoes, flip flops, casual shoes...I will need a bag just for shoes. Who knows where we are going - and honestly as long as I am with Nick it doesn't matter to me. At 2 I am going to pick up our wedding cake replica. When we moved to Sugar Land our cake topper got ruined because I think we moved on the hottest day of this entire year! But, that's ok - I think fresh cake will be much better anyway.
Also, stay tuned...............MONDAY is a special extension of our anniversary weekend as it is one of our big exciting baby days! We find out if we are having a boy or girl!!! We will keep you updated as we can't wait to find out and tell you all! This has been an exciting baby week too as I ordered our baby furniture yesterday. Here is a picture of it.



Well, I will definately let you all know how the weekend went when we get back! I'm off to packing :)

~Carissa

Here Ya Go Belly Stalkers!!

OK so, Here is the picture that all you belly stalkers have been waiting for!! There is an ever-so-slight baby bump!

However, we have learned not to underestimate our little one because he/she has been very active in his/her mommies belly. He/she plays most of the day and Nick is even able to feel he/she sometimes. Very Exciting! Hope everyone is doing Wonderful and enjoying the Holiday Season!