Catching up!

Well, it's now December 3rd...Keller is more than 6 weeks old.  I may or may not have fallen a little behind on updating this.  Well, the whole reason I started this was to have an electronic scrapbook of sorts for me to look back on, and to keep family and friends who are far away up to date!  So hopefully I will get this somewhat caught up and then I will be able to post a few times a month on all of Keller's newest tricks :)    Okay, so catching up.......

Moving...

This post is a little belated, but better late than never right :) So a little more than a month ago Chris was able to interview for an Area Field Specialist position in Lawton, OK. We had been praying for a while that God would make a job transition possible for Chris. As most of you know, he has been with State Farm almost 2 years now and he was a GREAT team member for Kirk. He helped Kirk start his agency from the ground up and was able to get lots of great insight into what building an agency really takes. Well, as with any job, after some time you want to move on the the next developmental step and use those things that you have already learned to further your career.

Well God not only blessed us with Chris being able to interview for this job, but the job was offered to him on the spot! His new boss is a woman who he greatly admires and knows he will learn alot from! Like I said at the beginning of the post, the job is actually in Lawton...so for our family that means MOVING! We are going to be moving to Duncan, OK (my hometown). This comes at great timing, with our first baby on the way. We are both very excited, but it is very bittersweet as we do not want to leave all our friends in Edmond. We have been very blessed to meet some great people up here and we know we will miss all of you very much even though we will only be 90 miles away.

I can not even begin to count the ways that Chris and I have been able to see God's grace, mercy and love in this entire situation. First, Chris' new job is exactly what he wanted, where he wanted to be and with a fantastic boss and group of support. He is really going to be able to help this AFO, which will in turn help make him a better agent when the day comes. Second, our house sold in 6 DAYS!! That is something that I had so much useless stress and worry about. Thirdly, we found the perfect house in Duncan for us and will be able to close on it the same day we are closing on our house in Edmond. Also, State Farm is moving us, so we do not have to do any of the hard stuff...packing, loading, moving, unloading...which is very nice considering I will be 29 weeks pregnant at the time. I know there is so much more but, like I said His grace and mercy have been so overwhelming that I can not put into words how humbled we continue to be every day. In the words of someone very wise "God is so provideth!" :) He really is!!

Chris started his new job July 6th and will be commuting between Lawton (and the rest of the southern half of the state) and Edmond. We officially move on August 7th. Like I said before we are very excited to start this new part of our lives, but so sad to be leaving Edmond...we do know for sure though that God is going to take care of our family during this transition and are thrilled to see what He has in store for us!

Chris is very sad to be leaving Kirk Fuqua State Farm :)

Ladies and Gentlemen....the new Southern Oklahoma AFS

24 Weeks!!

Just an update on the growing baby and the growing belly! I had an appointment this week and Dr. Hall told me "Everything looks great!" We didn't have an ultrasound or anything, just measuring blood pressure, measuring where he is in my belly, checking his heartrate (150 bpm) and I had to get the shot for mommy's who are RH-. It was mildly unpleasant but I am sure the worst is yet to come as far as pain goes :) According to everything I have been reading he is somewhere in the 12 in. long range and weighs around 20.8 oz. More than a pound!! He is a very active little guy and I can always tell when he's awake because he does quite a bit of kicking and moving around...which I really like, it makes me smile to know that he is having a good time in is temporary living quarters!

Here is a belly shot at 24 weeks...you can compare it to the others from a few posts back. I feel like we have some major growth now, and am pretty confident that I will continue to grow quite a bit each week until he's here....I can't wait!

Atchley Family Vacation

Carrie took on the daunting task of planning a family vacation for 10 people...all who are pretty opinionated :) She ended up picking Orange Beach, FL as our destination, we stayed at the Grand Pointe resort and it was BEAUTIFUL!! It was right on the beach, but also had it's own indoor and outdoor pool. Also it's own indoor and outdoor hot tub! It had a workout room, sauna etc...but who could enjoy all that when all you wanted to do was be out at the gorgeous beach?!? Our room was also perfect! It accomodated all 10 of us fantastically! It had 3 full bathrooms, a full kitchen and an incredible balcony that we all got to sit around and socialize on everynight! Thank you Carrie for planning such a fun, smooth and care free trip!! I think you may have earned yourself the planning privledge for next year ;) Here are a few pictures from the trip, I say a few because I was very bad about taking any at all! I had good intentions, but ended up with about 10 :)

Chris and I on the first night we got there, a little dark but you can see how great our balcony was!

The second day of laying out (and the only day I took pictures) Chris of course was being as goofy as possible...

Carrie and I. Note to self, when you are 6 months pregnant (or when your 0 months pregnant for that matter) don't stand next to Carrie in your bathing suit :)

Jackson and I on my birthday. We have this same picture from his first birthday...except in that picture he was a little more smiley...I'm not sure if it's because he wasn't getting any presents this time or if he was still mad at everyone for singing me happy birthday

Blowing out the candles on my 25TH birthday cake! It was the yummiest ice cream cake I have ever had!!

Chris and I on my birthday...Thanks babe for giving me the best 25th birthday ever! Who could ask for a better birthday than spending allllllll day laying out, relaxing with family and then a delicious dinner and ice cream cake!!

Jackson in the cutest little striped outfit that Mimi brought him! He is pretty cute in whatever he wears, but this one was precious!

My handsome husband posing on the rocks next to the ocean, it was sooo hot on the rocks, note the bottle of water in his hand

Chris and I on our last day at the beach, I wanted 1 good "framer" from the trip and I think this will do the job :) He is such a good looking guy!

Waiting in the airport to head back to Oklahoma...we should have taken a before picture so we could compare our newly tanned faces. I am also wearing one of my new birthday cardigans although you can't really tell

I saved this picture until the end...that way the post could end on a happy note from the beach :) We had so much and can't wait until next year!!

Riggs visits Aunt Katie and Uncle Chris!

Riggs' mommy and daddy went on Grantham family vacation...so he is staying with Grandma Jana and Granddad Rusty, but they were in San Francisco during the exchange, so we got to keep Riggs for Saturday and Sunday!  We need all the practice we can get, considering we will be parents in 4 and half months time.  I don't really feel like it was very good practice considering Riggs was a perfect angel for us!  We had so much fun playing with him and listening to all the fun sounds he is making now...gurgles, mamamamama, giggling, belly laughing etc.  He was cracking us up with his clapping and shaking his head "no"...we worked on his crawling, he's getting pretty close but doesn't quite have the hang of it yet :)  I was so sad to have to send him back to Duncan with Grandma Jana and Aunt Maggie, but I suppose I did get to spend a lot of time with him this weekend...we can't wait to see him again this next weekend!  Thanks Sally and JJ for letting us hang out with him this weekend...we definitely offer our babysitting services again whenever you need us, have fun in Santa Fe, here are a few pictures to keep you updated.  Have a fun trip, see you this weekend!

Riggs playing with his toys...

He really liked the baseball toy...he was lol'ing at it

He sat on my ribs and kicked my face for a long time :)

Morning bottle....chug a luggin'

Fruit time!  He ate it all...

Well, at least what wasn't all over his face!

We sat outside and played with our toys, we left his bib on so he wouldn't spit up on his cute shirt

He liked watching all of our cardinals in the backyard

Such a sweet little boy...I miss him already!

Riggs with Aunt Maggie, Aunt Katie and Grandma Jana before Baby Dagan's shower.  Riggs was the man of the hour at the baby shower, and of course the CUTEST baby there!

After the shower, we changed his diaper for the long car ride to Duncan, and put him in more comfy clothes...he looooved being nakey baby :)

He was smiling....

and laughing so hard!!

We practiced crawling...but not yet mom and dad don't worry

Just chillin' in the living room floor

 

There are few things I enjoy more than making this little man laugh :)

Good-bye kisses   :(  I didn't want him to go!!

We had so much fun Riggs!  Come back and play anytime!

Bump Progression!

I know these are popular...I always enjoy watching my friends and family when their bumps are growing :) At our last dr. appointment on June 5th, my OB said she thinks he has had a growth spurt in the last 4 weeks, and I agree! Here are the pictures from week 6 through 20, periodically anyway...

6 weeks

10 weeks

14 weeks

20 weeks

I have promised several of you that I will keep this up and post pictures at least every 4 weeks, maybe more often as the growth gets more exciting :)

Where we are now!

In February of 2009 we found out we were expecting our first baby! We now know we are due October 27th with a sweet little baby boy! I feel like I can call him those sugary names now, because when he gets here I'll have to come up with something a little more masculine :) We are at 20 weeks now, half way there! We know that his name will be Keller Oran Atchley. His middle name, Oran, is a family name. It is my dad's middle name and was his dad's middle name also. We are getting more and more excited by the day and just can't wait for our healthy baby boy to be in our arms!

Here is baby Atchley at 7 weeks, he was just a flickering light of a heartbeat

Here is Keller at almost 20 weeks...this is his sweet little profile :)

Where we came from?

Chris and I met in college at Oklahoma State University(Go Pokes!) in the fall of 2004. We were just friends for a very long time, but obviously enjoyed spending time together! With God's help, we ended up dating and in December of 2007, Chris proposed to me on Christmas morning! It was, and still is the best Christmas gift I have ever received! We started our planning right away and got married April 5th, 2008 in my hometown of Duncan, OK.

We have a great combined family and I feel so lucky that both of us love our in-laws and have been taken in by them as blood family! We have been blessed with new additions to both sides of our family in the last couple years. Chris' sister and her husbandhad a precious little boy Jackson in August of '07, and then my sister and brother-in-law had a little boy Riggs in October of '08. I mention this because I know there will be plenty of pictures of each of them as I start getting this updated with friends and family.

Friends and family for Chris' 28th Birthday bash!

Chris, Carrie, Me, JJ, Sally, Ian, Betsy, Brent, Maggie, Hollye, Scott, Mom (holding riggs) and Dad



Chris and I now reside in Edmond, OK. We love our home, our neighbors, our church and our community. We think Edmond is a wonderful place to live and look forward to raising a family here if that is what God intends. We both work for State Farm Insurance agent Kirk Fuqua here in Edmond. Chris as a multi-line sales specialist and me as a bank specialist. We both love our job and we LOVE working together. We had some skeptics early on that we would get sick of being around each other 24/7, but I think we get a pretty good balance of time away as well, and honestly feel absolutely spoiled to get to spend this much time with Chris!

Our Family!

So, this is my first "blog" post, bear with me as I am sure I'll be working out the kinks for next few posts. I saw this idea from another mom, who posted pictures of her kids growing up and just updating on what all was going on in her family's life. It is almost like a year round, constantly updating Christmas card letter :) Anyway, I loved the idea and though with our family being spread out all over the place, what better way to keep everyone updated with stories, pictures etc. I also figure it will be fun to look back on several years down the road...if I can keep up with it!