Georgia Peach & Sweet Home Alabama

Happy Friday!!! Today I am linking up (a little late) with Andrea from Momfessionals to talk about hometowns! I thought I would do my hometown that I grew up in, and where we live now and plan to raise our family.

First up - the town I grew up in....Acworth, GA!

Acworth is a suburb of Atlanta, about 40 minutes north, up 75. We are the red star in the map above! I actually spent the first 9 years of my life living in  Marietta, before moving to Acworth when I was in the 4th grade. When we moved out to Acworth, there wasn't much around compared to now. It has grown SO much. Everytime I go back I feel like they have built another neighborhood or shopping center or restaurant!

The last time I saw the house I grew up in! My parents moved to Birmingham about a year and a half ago and it was super super bittersweet saying goodbye to this house

Acworth was a great place to grow up. It was close enough to Atlanta that we always had something fun to do in downtown (braves game, coke museum, GA aquarium, etc), yet far enough away from the hustle and bustle of the city.

I attended Harrison High School, where I cheered all four years as well as cheered on an allstar team called Singray Allstars. That pretty much sums up my high school career. I don't remember studying much, but was very involved with cheerleading and our youth group at church!

The glory days!

Some fun things to do in and around Acworth include:

1. Kennesaw Mountain - hike, picnic, walk, etc. It's really gorgeous if you go around 9/11 because they cover it in American Flags. It will take your breath away!

2. Go see a Braves Game! They are actually about to move the Braves to Cobb County (the county Acworth is in) from downtown Atlanta. I am assuming the traffic is about to become a nightmare...yikes! But very exciting for Cobb County for sure!

3. Check out the World of Coke! This place is awesome! It is in downtown Atlanta and right beside the GA aquarium.

4. Go to the GA Aquarium! It's a wonderful aquarium & a family friendly place to go!

5. Go to the Marietta Square for shopping, food local restaurants, and ice cream!

There's a little train right in the middle of the square I remember playing on when I was little, our family's favorite Crepe restaurant is on the square, lots of people take prom and wedding pictures here, and we took our senior cheerleading pictures on the square! This place holds lots of special memories!

I loved growing up in Acworth - it was a wonderful, family friendly town that is very dear to my heart. So many memories! It is for sure weird going back now that my parents have moved over here to Birmingham. It still feels like home, but I don't have a "home" to go to now when I am there.

Ok, now onto my hometown now!

Ty and I bought a house this summer in his hometown of Trussville, AL. Trussville is a cute little town northeast of Birmingham. I fell in love with place when Ty & I started dating. I was familiar with the area because my parents grew up near Trussville. When we started talking about where we wanted to raise our family, it was kind of a no brainer. This little town already had my heart!

It has a cute little downtown area with old houses, gorgeous tree-lined streets, a grassy "mall" area where people play, picnic, bring their dogs, etc. (if you've been reading awhile, this is where Ty proposed to me!)!), and they also have a very charming Main Street. They are about to revamp our little downtown Main Street area, which is kind of sad because I love the old business buildings, but I think it will be great when they are done!

Some things to do in Birmingham:

1. See a Barons Game - we may not have a major league baseball team but the Barons bring quite the crowd! They are the White Sox AA team and Thirsty Thursdays are pretty popular around town during baseball season!



They even do Friday Night Fireworks that I must say are pretty impressive!

2. Oak Mountain State Park - hike, picnic

3. McWane Science Center - awesome place to take kids!

4. Eat your way through Birmingham

And there you have it! Love my hometowns!!!

18 - 20 weeks!

Happy Thursday friends! I'm a little behind on my pregnancy updates so today I am combining weeks 18-20! I cannot believe I am halfway through the pregnancy already! In one way it feels like we have forever to go, but I think it will go by just as fast as the first 20 weeks went (or I hope so..)!

How Far Along:
18 weeks (2/23 - 2/29)
19 weeks (3/1 - 3/7)
20 weeks (3/8 - 3/14)

Size of Baby:
18 weeks - 5.6in, 6.7oz, size of a sweet potato
19 weeks - 6in, 8.5oz, size of a mango
20 weeks - 10in & the ultrasound tech said he was 13oz!!!, size of a banana

Maternity Clothes: I feel like on a daily basis the words "the jeans are goners" come out of my mouth. My regular jeans with the band are just SO uncomfortable now. I only have 1 pair of maternity jeans though. I'm not sure if I should buy another pair though because it's about to be shorts weather! I'm just not sure if I can make it another 9 weeks of work without another pair of maternity jeans. Today I told my pregnant friend, Amanda, that I might just have to drive home with no pants on because I was so uncomfortable! Before you judge me, my drive home is close to an hour & by 3:15 I am already so ready to put my yoga pants on! If you're local and you spot me on 280, just don't look! (ha!!!) I broke out my maxi skirts this week and they were HEAVEN!!! So comfortable! I think they will get a lot of use the rest of the pregnancy!

18.5 weeks!

 

Sleep: I am sleeping pretty good, but I feel like I am waking up a lot during the night. Only once last week I slept through the night without waking up! I am sleeping with a pillow between my legs and trying to stay on my side the whole night. I have been falling asleep a lot on the couch in the early evening (like 7-8pm) and then going to get in the bed around 10 each night.

What I miss: wine (duh)

Cravings: I really haven't had many cravings throughout the whole pregnancy. Everytime I'm at the store I want to buy ramen noodles or kraft mac & cheese and I've been wanting DQ on the weekends!

Symptoms: I have had 2 cramps in my calf this week (I call them Charlie horses but I've said that to 2 people this week and they had no idea what I was talking about so I will just call them cramps from now on!!) and I've only had about 1 my entire life so I think it is pregnancy related. They wake me up in the middle of the night, are SO painful, and then my calf is sore for days after. I have been drinking lots of water, OJ, and milk so I don't know what else to do to help prevent them!

Best Moment of the Week:
18 weeks - feeling him move more frequently
19 weeks - he dropkicked me for the first time while I was driving to work and I loved it
20 weeks - seeing him at our 20 week anatomy scan. That is probably our last ultrasound, which made me sad, but the next time we see him he will be in our arms!!!!!!!!! That makes me so excited!

Someone didn't want his picture taken yesterday!

What I'm looking forward to: settling on his name....we are in a pickle right now - we can't decide between Tate and Garrett! Cast your vote if you'd like. :)

20 weeks, 1 day - before our Dr. appt!

Yesterday when we had the anatomy scan, he had his feet stretched out the whole time, he held his hands together for us, and kept his legs closed most of the time (little stinker)! I am so thankful we did the gender scan at 16 weeks because if we would have waited until yesterday, we might not have been 100% sure it was a boy! He was being a little shy. ;)

Our tech gave us several pictures and a CD with some short 10 second videos on it. They did this at the gender scan to and We LOVED watching the videos! Our pictures were better at the 16 week appt but our videos were way better this time! He sucker punches me several times, waves to us, and gave us a thumbs up once. :) Oh how my heart longs for the day he is in my arms!!!