We're Pregnant?!

Here is the backstory for all our friends and family that we love so much that have been dying for us to pop out a little Wiley:
We were originally going to start trying last summer (2012), that way I would deliver in the spring. However, life happened and I got laid off from my job in March of 2012. I wasn't able to find a job I was happy with until late July, and therefor, no short-term disability coverage until December. And much to my mothers dismay and lectures about not being able to plan out your life, Stephen and I were not willing to get pregnant without maternity leave. We thought it would be too stressful for us and our unborn baby. Therefore we waited, and in the meantime got 1001+ questions about 'when' 'when' 'when!'

So finally the right time came. It was December. Stephen and I decided to give it the ol college try assuming it would take a good 4-6 months. I did my research, kept track of my cycle, counted the calendar, figured out my ovulation days, you know, all of the romantic stuff that goes into baby making :) January came around, and so did my monthly cycle.
Strike 1.
No big deal, our hopes were not set too high, by no stretch of the imagination did we think it would take one try.
So we did the song and dance all over again in January.
February 3, Nothing.
February 4th, Nothing.
February 5th, Me: "Stephen, I think we should stop on the way home from work and pick up a pregnancy test".  Stephen "Are you late?" Me "Well yes!" (This was of course after I scoured the Internet about every possible pregnancy sign, the good/bad pregnancy tests, and recalculating my ovulation days since normally I run like clockwork, TMI). So we went home, I took the test and we waited. Talk about a NERVE WRACKING 2 minutes! We sat in our bedroom and talked ourselves out of being disappointed when the test came back negative, because let's be honest, who gets pregnant on the second time trying (we have had a lot of friends and family that have struggled with pregnancy). The two minutes were up. We closed our eyes and held hands and walked into the bathroom. "Ok, count to three and then open" Ready?
PREGNANT!
Clear as day.  I think that we were both so dumbfounded that we didn't know what to do. We just looked at each other in disbelief. And then excitement and hugs ensued! (no crying, as most of you know, I am not a crier). We seriously couldn't believe it. What a strange feeling for your entire life to change in the blink of an eye. Knowing that I was with child and that this was the beginning of the most exciting/scary journey of our lives. Talk about an impactful day. We were so giddy and excited that we really didn't know what to do with ourselves. Typically we would celebrate with a few beers or a glass of wine. First dose of reality, that is off the table. Instead we cooked dinner, talked about babies and life and cheered with a water, this would take some getting used to. The funniest part of the evening was the fact that my dad came home about 2 hours after we found out. We just had to pretend like our world wasn't just turned upside down!! Just business as usual. It was the hardest thing ever.

Welcome to our blog!

I have quite a few friends that keep their friends and family up to date on their children and lives with their own blog, and thought it would be a fun way to share pictures and our lives with you without oversharing on Facebook :) We are going to try our best to keep everybody up-to-date with our happenings. I (Ashley) originally was going to make this a pregnancy journey blog, but since we have so many other things going on at the same time, we thought it would be fun to include everything. So come along with us on our crazy journey through babies, new home ownership, and life in general.

Background info for those that don't know:

Stephen and I have been together for a little over 5.5 years now, thanks in large part to my brother, Shannon. See, Stephen and Shannon were fraternity brothers at Purdue. Luckily Stephen and I didn't start our journey together until well after college, once we got our craziness out of our system :) I was living with Shannon and Amie for a short time when I first moved down to Indy and would hang out with their friends occasionally. Long story short, Stephen and I started to hang out 'in secret' until we were ready to tell our family, and most importantly, Shannon that we have been dating for the past few months. His only advise? "Don't get her pregnant".

Five and a half years, two cats, two houses and a wedding later, I AM PREGNANT! Sorry Shannon.

We both come from very close families and groups of friends. And with those close friends and family, comes lots and lots of babies as well. At the moment we just were a part of our 6th and 7th niece and nephew born! - my SIL's were 3 weeks apart (which means all 3 DeVon children were pregnant at once)!  This brings our total baby count of closest friends/family to 23 infants and toddlers under 4. Yikes!

We also just moved into a new house at the beginning of January. It just so happens to be across the street (literally) from our old house. Yep, subtract nine digits from our previous address and you have our new address. It sounds like it would have been easy, however due to our crazy neighbors and working directly with them, as opposed to how civilized people buy a house, aka with a realtor, there were numerous trials and set backs along the way. So now our focus is on making the house 'ours'. The decor and style of the previous owners was, shall we say, interesting.... So lucky for me, I have a handy husband and friends that are helping us make this house our home.