Happy Weekend and Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone has some great plans for the weekend! Sadly, I am not dressing up this year :( We dont even have any great plans for the holiday- probably just passing out some candy to the trick-or-treaters. BUT I am looking forward to some other fun things we have planned for the weekend: tonight we will be celebrating my father in law's bday and tomorrow night we are going to have a night out with some of our best friends. Oh and I almost forgot the best part of this weekend- lots and lots of shopping! Husband's bonus check this month was more than we anticipated and you know what that means- I am hitting the mall :)

Hope everyone has a wonderful AND SAFE! weekend!

What I've Been Up To.........

Wow, its been quite a few days since I last posted! I had such a busy weekend and am just now getting a second to breathe..........

My entire weekend consisted of putting together THE PERFECT wedding shower and bachelorette party for one of my besties! They both turned out to be a huge success and I, of course, have to share the pics with all of you!

I didnt get too many pictures from the wedding shower because most of the time I was running around playing hostess, but here are some of the pretty decorations:

Picture of the groom and bride with some beautiful flowers

Our food table



The adorable cupcakes I ordered for the shower

Once the shower was complete, I was able to let loose and enjoy myself for the bachelorette party!

The beautiful bride and me

Our bachelorette party girls- ready for a wild night out in Dallas

We enjoyed oursevles at dinner,

Had some fun in the limo,

And got a little crazy dancing at some bars

What a great night out! :)

I enjoyed spending several hours this morning catching up on all of your blogs as well- I missed all of you over the past couple of days!

Day 12 and the Weekend!

Todays topic for the blogger challange is What Do You Believe?

I believe:

Husband is my perfect match

laughter is the key to a lasting relationship

my family consists of the most amazing people

shopping is the best way to have fun

being nice to others goes a long way

you should say I Love You every day

But most importantly, I believe that Husband and I are ready to be parents and that there is a reason for our struggle; that this hardship is making us stronger and has helped us realize what is truly important to us in life.

I hope everyone has a great weekend to look forward to! Mine will consist of throwing a wedding shower and bachelorette party for one of my besties!

I have been planning this weekend for a long time and cannot wait to see everything come together! I have so much shopping to do today for the big event tomorrow :) Pictures will be coming your way!

Something You're Afraid of........

Hmm.....what am I not afraid of? That would probably be an easier question for me :)

Here are some of the things that scare me:

Spiders



Crickets


....basically any kind of bug- I cant kill them either when I find one in the house. Last night I found a cricket in the kitchen- I tried forever to get the dogs to kill it for me, but they werent interested in it at all. So instead I ended up putting a cup over it and waiting for Husband to get home :)

People touching my neck- I know, its very weird. I cannot stand people touching my neck! Whenever I watch a scary movie I have to wrap my hands around my neck to "protect" it. And when I go to sleep at night I pull the blankets up around my neck so that it is covered and "protected" while I sleep.

The dark. Yep, I still act like a 5 year old if all the lights are out. I go into full panic mode if I am ever trapped in a dark room- which Husband thinks is funny to do sometimes.

Small spaces. Especially if other people are in them- aka elevators. I get very claustrophobic in these type of places.

So, yes, I am a big fat scared-y cat (or however you spell it). I also get scared when I am home alone and the list goes on and on, but I will just leave it with the ones above.

Go to Katie's blog to link up and play along in the blogger challange!

Day 8

Today's topic for the blogger challange...........A Place You've Traveled To:

You guys already know all about my most recent trip- Vegas- so I've pulled some pictures from our big trip from last year......our honeymoon!! We took an amazing Caribbean cruise and visited St Lucia, Barbados, Antigua, St Thomas, Dominica, and St Kitts- this was the MOST AMAZING trip ever and I would highly recommend it to anyone that loves beautiful beaches!

Beautiful Dominica:

Overlooking St Thomas:

Ignore my silly arms in this pic- just look at how clear the water is! This was Barbados:

Boating and Kayaking in Antigua:

And playing with some local monkeys in St Kitts:

Looking at all of these pictures really makes me want to go back- or at least go on another trip somewhere! :( I think I may spend the rest of the night on Expedia..........

Days 6 and 7

Oops! I didnt get a chance to post yesterday, so here is Day 6: a picture that makes you happy......

My sweet little family:

We are just missing a "little one" to make us complete!


Day 7 is all about Your Favorite Movie- I dont have just one movie that is my favorite, but here are the ones that I can continue to watch over and over and still love every single time:

I still have to watch Elf every holiday season and it still makes me laugh hysterically every time I see it!

I am looking forward to reading everyone's answers for the 30 Day Blogger Challange!

My Siblings and a Blog Award :)

Day 5 of the blogger challange is all about your siblings:

I am very lucky to have 4 amazing siblings whom I love very much! I am the oldest and have enjoyed watching each one of them continue to grow and develop their personalities.

I am the only child from my mom and dad, which at times can have its perks! BUT, there are also some downfalls: 1) I do not look like my siblings (since each one of them has had 1 different birth parent) and 2) It can be harder to develop as strong of a sibling bond because of our age differences

I do share a special relationship with each and every one of them, though, and would not trade that for the world!.......

My brother, Jordan:

(me, Jordan, his girlfriend)

Growing up Jordan and I were very close! We are only 3 years apart in age so practically all of my childhood memories include him. Out of all of my siblings he is the only one I actually played and fought with. Now, at 20, he is living on his own and going to college- I am so proud of him for getting on his own 2 feet!

My (only) sister, Maddison:

Maddison and I are 9 years apart. This means that most of my memories with Maddison include me helping take care of her- rather than actually growing up with her. Since we are each other's only sister, we have a very special bond: she asks me for advice and I always want to make sure she is taken care of. At almost 14 years old, she is in the 8th grade and spends most of her time cheerleading.

My brother, Teagan:

Teagan is my little "goof ball". We are 18 years apart so by the time he was born, I was already living on my own. We have never lived in the same state, which means our time together is very limited (and that makes me sad). Everytime we see each other we have so much fun just being silly together. At 5, he is in pre-K and I am looking forward to watching him grow up.

My brother, Christopher:

Christopher and I are also 18 years apart. He is the only other child from my dad, which makes it easier for us to have a close relationship. He is my baby brother so I probably worry about him the most. He is almost 5 and is also in pre-K.

I love all 4 of them so much and definitely wish they lived closer! Its been very hard to go such long times without seeing any of them!

On a completely separate note, I received another blogger award! Al from Traffic Jelly gave me a Lovely Blog Award! Al has recently gone through a life changing event and is learning how to start over on her own. I love reading her blog because each day I see her getting stronger and she is starting to learn even more about herself during this difficult time.

Thank you Al!!!

For this award, I am going to list some of my new favorite reads: A Babbling Brunette, Katie's Journey (host of the blog challange), More Than Enough, and The Smelly Life.

Meet the Parents

Day 4 of the Blogger Challange at Katie's Blog is all about the parents!

Hmm......where do I begin? There are quite a few to discuss........

1) My stepmom, Michelle, and my dad, Cory:

These two are my support line- my dad has always backed me 100% on any decision I've ever made and when Michelle joined the family she did the exact same. I did not live with my dad growing up so he has had more of an influence on my "adult" life and I am so grateful to have his encouragement every step of the way. These two have definitely helped me get where I am today and have always offered unconditional love to both me and Husband.

2) My mom, Gina, and my stepdad, Rich:

These two are the ones that raised me. My stepdad has been in my life since I was 1 year old so he was involved in most of my childhood. I lived with them until I moved on to college and I learned from them who I wanted to be as a person. My mom was my best friend growing up and I could always talk to her about anything. They have both taught me so many important life lessons and I can not thank them enough for helping me become ME.

3) My "adopted parents" Penny and Alan (aka the in-laws)

These two are the ones that took me in. When Husband and I met 6 years ago, they immediately treated me as family (little did we all know that I would become an official member several years later). When I left for college, both sets of my parents ended up in different states. Penny and Alan stepped in so that I had someone to fall back on during the difficult years of college and becomming a "grown up". They opened their home to me, helped Husband and I get on our feet, and have been there every step of the way since. I love them as if I have known them my entire life.

Now, obviously I could have gone the easy route and just done my "mom and dad", but that wouldn't have been fair because each and every one of these people have helped shape me into the person I have become. I am beyond blessed to have such wonderful people in my life and I have seen that even more in light of our recent events. Thank you to ALL of my parents- all 6 of you are truly special people :)

Im a CopyCait

I know......cheesey title......but I thought it was cute!

Yes, I am following everyone else and joining the 30 Day Blog Challange that is being hosted by Katie. This seems to have come at the perfect time since I wont be able to blog about our infertility for several weeks. As I mentioned a couple posts back, Husband and I are trying new things during this time so I figured it would be fun to join this challange- but I will also be mixing in posts about what we are up to :)

I have to catch up a bit, so I am going to cram the first 3 days into this post........

First, introduce yourself with a recent picture and 15 facts:


**This is not the best picture, but its the most recent one I have of just me (it was taken in Vegas)

Fifteen Facts- I am going to do short ones since I am trying to catch up:

I have a unique name- Caitrin, I am 23 years old, Husband and I have been married for 1 year and 1 month, we have been TTC for almost that long, I have to have a cup of coffee or iced tea everyday (caffeine!), I was born in California, but have lived in Texas for the past 17 years, I am the only child from my mom and dad, but I have siblings from both sides, I watch waaaayyy too much tv, I have to plan everything in advance, I hate to exercise, I love to travel, I am addicted to shopping, and I am fairly new to the blogger world but have loved every minute of it so far!

2nd- Meaning Behind Your Blog Name:

As you already know, I love shopping! So when I was trying to come up with a name I knew I wanted to incorporate that somehow. This blog was started as a way to discuss our infertility struggle and our long journey towards parenthood. I began thinking of names that included shopping and babies and then one night came up with this!

3rd- Your First Love

Quite a few people have debated on what exactly this one is supposed to be about, so I am going the easy route and using a person in my life- Husband :) Since we met in highschool I didnt really have the chance to truly love anyone else before him. I had said it to other boyfriends, but never knew what it really meant. He is my best friend and has supported me unconditionally for the last 6 years- and I know he will continue to do so for many more!

Now, hopefully, I can keep up with this challange everyday! I am so excited to meet new bloggers and learn more about the ones I already know!

Golfing and My Top 2!

This week's top 2 topic is: Top 2 places in your home

1) Since our wood floors are coming along, the family room has now become my favorite spot in the house.........its amazing how different the room looks now:

The room/hallway that we were working on are still not entirely finished (as you can see in the pic below) but we are slowly getting there and this whole process has definitely been worth it!

2) My other favorite spot is here:

Technically, this is OUTSIDE of my house (on the front porch) but I figured I can cheat a bit :) I definitely do not spend enough time out here, but now that the weather is cooler, I will be finding my way out here more often- with my Kindle in hand! (Oh and ignore the wood scraps on the swing- we are still in construction mode here)

And, of course I have some pics from my attempt at golf on Friday!

Here is my "before" pic- see how I am all happy and excited about trying golf??

Now here is my attempt at golf:

There are several things very wrong with this picture.............First of all, my form is HORRIBLE! I now know that after seeing this picture! 2nd, I am pretty sure I missed the ball after this picture (and the next 50 times too!). 3rd, I did not realize that its not really appropriate for me to wear flip flops to the driving range- Husband pointed that out very quickly upon our arrival!


Husband, of course, looked great trying his swing:

I did end up enjoying myself quite a bit and I did not hit anyone (which I thought was a major plus in my favor!).

Trying New Things

Let's be honest: I have been in a rut lately. With all the stress from trying for Baby Hill and then all the bad news we have received recently, I have not been my normal self and was worried it would then reflect on my blog too. I hate when I am a "Debbie Downer" (as Husband calls it) and over the past couple of days I have been thinking long and hard for a way to adjust my outlook on life- because I definitely do not want to be bitter over this whole baby process.

So, Husband and I have decided to use this waiting period as a time to just enjoy life. We both want to try some new things (things we couldnt do if I was pregnant) and we think this could be the perfect way to help us give this hard time a positive spin! For example, today I am going to give this a try:

Seriously, I am not a very athletic person- and I definitely have not actually played golf before (only the miniature kind). Husband is the most athletic person I know (he can play practically any sport) BUT the one sport he always has trouble with is golf- its actually quite funny to hear him get frustrated by the fact that he's not good at it. So, we will be hitting the driving ranges today (we are going to start there because I dont think I could actually start on a golf course- baby steps!).

We have some other ideas of fun things we would like to try (wine tastings!) and are actually looking forward to making the best of this time. Hopefully, all of you will enjoy watching me try my hand at some of these new things too!

Have a happy weekend everyone :)

Here We Go Again.....

Ok, I am sure a few of you are wondering what exactly happened with our last round of treatment and what this means for us now. Husband and I went to our appointment this morning and now that we have gotten some more information on where we are headed, I feel more comfortable sharing......

Not only did last months treatment not work, but my body (once again) is not wanting to cooperate. At today's appointment, the doctor confirmed what I have been fearing for several days: I have another cyst. This one is even larger than last time, but again (luckily) our doctor is hopeful over time it will shrink and disappear. It seems this is just my body's way of rejecting the treatment we are doing. We know that we can (and will) continue trying the injections/IUI's for several more cycles, but at the same time Husband and I are starting to consider if we will ultimately have to move into more aggressive treatment.

For now, we are back to the waiting game- no more treatment until the cyst has gone away! This means over the next several weeks I will probably not have any "baby updates" and during this time I would like to incorporate some more fun things into my blog- so suggestions are welcome!! Hopefully you all enjoy reading about our lives outside of our "baby drama" because thats mainly what I will be posting for a while :)

Emails and Top 2 Tuesday

First of all, I wanted to thank all of you who have emailed me recently for advice/input on infertility. I have received several emails lately and I can honestly say this is why I am so open about our struggle- I love that I can bring light to such a taboo topic and it has made me feel so much better knowing that I can help others that have similar struggles to ours. If any of you EVER have any questions or need to vent to someone, please feel free to send an email my way- I love reading them! Husband and I did face another setback over the weekend, but I probably will not share more information until Wednesday after my next doctor appointment- in the meantime just know our struggle is nowhere near over yet and I will look forward to spreading our story to more people as our journey continues to lengthen.

Now on to Top 2 Tuesday- this weeks topic is Top 2 Dream Kitchens:

I do not really know what my dream kitchen would look like because I tend to like lots of different designs, but I was able to narrow it down based on the following criteria that they must include: dark cabinets (both Husband and I prefer dark colors in the kitchen), big island, stainless steel appliances, and A WINE RACK (for all my fancy bottles of wine I would be able to afford- cuz we are talking about DREAM kitchens, right?)

So here are 2 pictures I found that definitely represent this criteria well.......

1)


2)

I have already enjoyed looking at everyone's picks and cannot wait to see more!!

Weekend Recap (Finally!) and 1 Week Appointment

I know, I know- I am about 5 days late with my weekend recap- BUT this week has been extremely busy for me! And I still wanted to share our weekend with everyone because it was quite eventful!


First of all, Friday night I enjoyed some much-needed girl time with these lovely ladies:

Since our last Bunco night was so much fun (I posted about it here) we decided to have another one- this time with some yummy Greek food :) Oh, and of course, there were still plenty of margaritas on hand! Although, Husband has made it very clear that I am not allowed to drink any of those until we get our pregnancy test results next week (more on that below).

Saturday night was a very special night for Husband's parents: they celebrated their 30th Wedding Anniversary! They rented out a private room at delicious restaurant to celebrate along with 40 of their closest friends. Husband and I enjoyed meeting everyone and spending some time with his brother and his brother's girlfriend:

Here's our happy little family:

Husband's parents have been such an inspiration to us and we can only hope to be as happy as they are 29 years from now! It was so sweet to see how much their love for each other has grown after all this time.

Then, on Sunday we started a MAJOR home project:

Yep, we are laying wood flooring (and yes, we are doing it ourselves). Call me crazy, but I thought it would be a great way to save some money by not having to pay a professional to install it. The floors definitely look great so far.........

.......but in the meantime my house has been a disaster! There is dust and mess EVERYWHERE but I havent been able to clean yet because the room is still not quite done. Hopefully within the next week everything will be complete and I can post some pics of the room for everyone to see!

Finally, here is an update on Baby Hill: we had our 1 week appointment on Wednesday (1 week after our IUI). I had some bloodwork completed to check my hormone levels- and so far everything is normal :) Which means, I finally ovulated (after 11 months of trying to get to that point), now we just have to see if everything worked. We will be going back this coming Wednesday for the official pregnancy test- and hopefully I will get the results by the afternoon that same day! We are praying and thinking good thoughts each and everyday hoping that we will finally get the answer we have been waiting for!

Happy Friday to everyone!