THE BUG IS BORN!!!!!!!!

February 3, 2010 was a day that changed my life forever. But, lets go back a few days before that. Throughout my pregnancy I struggled with high blood pressure. Actually, my blood pressure raising was the first sign that I was pregnant, although we just thought that I was suffering from chronic high blood pressure as it runs heavily in my family. To our surprise, we were pregnant!

January 27th, 2010 I left work early to go to a doctors appointment. While at the doctor my blood pressure was running around 200/110. Yup, not good. I was immediately sent to the hospital and put on bed rest. I was told at that point that if my BP did not go down, I would have an emergency c-section that evening. I started crying instantly and having a near panic attack because in my mind, I was no where near ready, I was not due until February 24th! We got in the car to drive to the hospital and called my parents. Through heavy sobs I explained to my mom what was going on and that I needed her to come. It amazed me that even as a 24 year old about to become a mommy myself, all I wanted at that point was my mommy. Luckily, once I was in the hospital and had calmed down from the initial shock (and had tons of drugs pumped into me) my BP went down to a manageable level. I called my parents to let them know they could wait until the morning to come.

I spent 2 sleepless nights in the hospital, (not sure who's idea it was to have the doors to the rooms made of glass, they stay bright as day all dang night) and was sent home on Friday with strict instructions to stay on bed rest, only getting up to potty and take quick showers. I was told to come back on Wednesday, February 3rd, for a scheduled c-section. Now, I don't know how in the world I was supposed to stay laying down being 8 1/2 months pregnant and nesting like a crazy woman, but some how my parents managed to keep me laying down (for the most part). Over the next few days my parents and Aaron's parents were in a state of constant motion. They did not stop all day trying to help get everything ready for us to welcome our little girl into the world. Not to air my dirty laundry (literally, hehe) but I had fallen quite behind on laundry and with our clothes and new baby clothes I believe my mom did somewhere around 15 loads of laundry that week (not exaggerating).

**Note to all the pregnant ladies: When you are a million months pregnant, it is NOT a good idea to tear up all of the carpet in your house and lay all new baseboards, and carpet! In my mind that was the perfect time because everything would be fresh for the baby, however, it is horrible timing! I do have to say, it looks amazing though. I also have to thank my brother and sister in law (John and Terri), my parents, and Aaron's parents for all of their help getting rid of the old and getting everything new put down. We did not realize what a big task we had taken on and were so lucky to have all of their help and support.

Now, where was I. Oh yeah, bed rest! So, there was actually a baby shower scheduled for me that weekend. Aaron being the wonderful husband that he is went in my place, pink button down shirt and all! Not only did he have cake and punch and open presents, he also played games that involved tasting baby food and measuring his belly (with a pillow stuffed under his shirt). He will say that he just did it for me, but we all know he loved every minute of it.

February 3rd, I woke up and took a shower and was trying to psych myself up to go to the hospital and have my stomach cut open and have baby. A lot scarier that I thought it would be. Luckily there had been a cancellation so my doctor called me about and hour and a half before I was even supposed to get to the hospital and told me to come right away and he would get me in quick. I blow dried my hair and we were off! Within about 30 minutes I had gone through tons of paperwork, gotten my IV, my epidural (eek), and was in the operating room ready to meet my girl. They only left me alone for about 10 minutes where I tried with great persistence to get Aaron to just take me home. I begged and begged and begged him to please just take me home because I was so scared. He didn't listen, jerk!

At 11:00 they started the surgery and at 11:15 I heard the most amazing noise I have ever heard in my entire life. My baby girl, Helena Hope Pullin was here! She was 6 pounds 4 ounces and 18 inches long. From there everything gets extremely fuzzy. The anesthesiologist gave me "something to relax me" even though I asked him to please not because I don't do well with heavy pain medication (it makes me extremely sick). So, from 11:30 a.m. till about 2:00 a.m. I really don't remember a whole lot. I was in an out of it and don't really remember seeing Lena too much. But, I do remember that she was beautiful and perfect and I couldn't believe that she was actually mine.

I stayed in the hospital for 2 nights and Friday at noon we took our sweet baby home. Lena was a wonderful newborn. She slept great, ate great, loved her bath, and just snuggled and loved all the attention she got. Everyone kept telling me to enjoy every second that she was tiny because it goes by so fast and boy oh boy were they right. It went by way too fast. I wish I could do it all over again. So, that's the short (yup, that was short for me) story of how the Lena Bug got here. Trust me, you will be hearing PLENTY more! She is my favorite subject now a days.





At my baby shower January 16th, 2 weeks before delivery

Shes Here!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Daddy and his girl!

Our little Aggie!

Watching the Super Bowl (11 days old)



1 week old

Marriage is what brings us together today...

Well, not today, but it brought us together December 29th, 2007. That was one of the best days of my entire life. I have never felt so blessed and so loved. It was such an exciting experience to have so many people coming in from so many different places just to celebrate us! We had visitors from California, Iowa, Missouri, Tennessee, and ALL OVER Texas! It was such a wonderful weekend.


Since I had a year to plan, I had a year to stress over every single detail. Thankfully, my Mom is the most amazing woman in the entire world. She spend countless hours sitting at the computer searching for different things to decorate with, or different ideas. Without her, I honestly don't know what I would have done. She really should be a professional wedding planner. She made every single part of the day absolutely perfect for me (and Aaron).


For the most part the day went off without a hitch. I do have a couple favorite parts though. So, here are my top 5 favorite things from my wedding day.


5. Aaron's Grooms Cake - Picking out our cakes was the one thing that Aaron had a very specific "vision" about. He knew exactly what he wanted and it turned out amazing.

4. My dress was also one of my favorite things! My mom and I are pretty much professional shoppers. We have done a lot of it in my 24 years with her. We went to Weddings by Debbie in Houston, and as soon as we started walking around I saw MY dress. It was the first one we picked up and the first one I put on. It could have been the only one I put on as far as I was concerned but we knew I couldn't just try on one dress. Where was the fun in that? So, while we waited for my Dad to come to the store to see the dress and make sure he approved we played around and tried on some more. When I came out of the dressing room in my dress and my Dad teared up I knew for sure without a doubt that it was the dress I was going to be married in.

3. Our wedding party. They were INCREDIBLE! I'm not sure if there was anything that they wouldn't have done for us that weekend. From driving 15 hours to get there, to getting up at 7:00 a.m. to get their hair done, to dancing into the reception to "Walk It Out", to making a baseball bat arch for us to leave through. They were fabulous and we were so thankful and lucky to have them in our lives.

2. My Maid of Honor. Yes, she falls into the category with the wedding party but she is the most amazing girl I know. She is my cousin, Michelle. We were not lucky enough to live close to each other as she grew up in California and I grew up in Texas but she has always been such a special part of my life. I am so happy that her (and the rest of her family... her brother was an usher) were able to come to the wedding, and that she was able to be such a big part of it.

1. Falling and getting a HUGE grass stain up the front of my dress 2 hours before I was supposed to walk down the aisle. No, this was not my favorite part of the day at the time. But, looking back this was one of the unique quirks that made it OUR wedding. I am a klutz and always have been. Aaron has always made fun of me for it, so it was typical for me. The groomsmen made me feel much better by telling me we were just going with the baseball theme and it looked like I had made a great catch playing center field or something. So, at the time I wasn't thrilled, but now I can look back and laugh .

There were many other things that stand out to me as favorite things. Like my center pieces. My mom and I worked for hours and hours to come up with something that would be both beautiful and different from normal center pieces. The candles made the room light up just perfect and the coffee made it smell amazing! Another favorite was my best friend Ember "Catching the bouquet". She made quite an attempt to catch it as gracefully as possible, however, it ended badly with her flat on her hiney on the dance floor. Thank goodness she was a trooper though and doesn't mind me reliving it numerous times on our wedding video.


Finally, one of my other favorite things was just the whole experience! From the planning to the day of, its was wonderful. My mom and I sat down right after Aaron and I got engaged and talked about the fact that this was going to be a once in a lifetime experience so instead of getting upset or worked up or stressed out, we were just going to take our time and enjoy it. I loved every last second I got to spend with my parents planning the wedding and am grateful beyond words for everything they did to make it a perfect day for us. They went above and beyond anything I ever though possible! So... thanks Mom and Dad!

Here are just a few more pictures from our special day. Thanks to everyone that was there... 3 years later! :)

Our Engagement!

December 11, 2006 I finished my finals and headed back to Sugar Land for the Christmas break. Aaron was planning on meeting me there the next day and we were going to fly to Florida for a friends wedding that weekend. This was our first trip where we were actually going to fly together and I wasn't making a trip alone to visit Aaron somewhere, we were both super excited. On December 12th, my mom and dad took me to the airport in Houston to pick up Aaron who was flying in from Midland. When he got off the plane he was acting very strange. As usual my first thought was, "Oh no! Aaron's breaking up with me... and I really wanted to go to Florida!" (I have never been). I tried to hug him and he gave me a from the side friend hug. I tried to kiss him and he would give me a kiss your mom on the cheek kiss. I knew something was up but in my mind he had just realized he was crazy and had flown all the way to Houston to break up with me.

We finally got back to my parents house after what seemed like forever in the car. The whole drive, Aaron wouldn't hold my hand, wouldn't sit close to me... nothing. We hung out for a little bit and then headed upstairs to get ready for bed. Aaron was in his room "spending time with Caddie" and I was in my room trying to figure out what I was going to do since I obviously was getting broken up with. The next thing I knew Caddie wad running into my room with a maroon bandanna around her neck with Aaron close behind her. I sat down on the ground and was petting Caddie when she laid down and rolled onto her back. I then saw the most beautiful thing in the world... a gorgeous engagement ring hanging from the bandanna around Caddie's neck. When I looked up at Aaron he was down on his knee and asked me to marry him. He said some amazing things... I wish I hadn't been so excited and had actually listened to them... oops! I wish I had a better way with my words in that moment because my response to him was... "Shut Up!" Eventually I calmed down and was able to say YES YES YES! I ran downstairs to tell my parents. My Dad was in bed already and his response was... "That's nice." My Mom's response when I showed her my ring was... "Is that fake?" All the way around it was a wonderful night and I was thankful above all that I was not getting broken up with and was going to Florida still (only joking, I was thankful beyond any words that I was going to marry my best friend and the most amazing man in the world).

So, we went to Florida and had a fabulous time! Aaron bought me my first bridal magazines while we were at the airport, and we spent the whole trip calling friends to tell them the good news.The whole time I couldn't help but think that in one more year that was going to be us getting married with all our friends and family around us. Since baseball players have such a short amount of time between the end of the season and spring training starting again, pretty much all baseball couples will have their wedding anniversary during November and December. It made it easy to pick a date though, which was nice!I was so incredibly happy, I couldn't believe that things just kept getting better and better!

The Booger

Aaron grew up a "dog person". Our family was pretty big so adding a dog to the mix would have just been too much, so I never had a dog. My brother, John, got his wife a yellow lab puppy while they were dating. I instantly fell in love. Shortly after they got married, while they were living in North Richland Hills, they decided they were going to breed her. I knew that I needed one of those puppies and Aaron would be the perfect Puppy Daddy to share that with. It took about 5 minutes to convince Aaron that getting a puppy was a good idea (as I said, hes a dog person). After the decision was made that we would get a puppy the hard part started, what in the world to name her. I am not exaggerating when I say that this almost caused us to break up. My choices were sweet names like Bella (this was before Twilight), or Texa (I wanted to name a boy dog Tex, so I thought just making it a girly Tex would work). Aaron was having none of that. He wanted to name her things like Jalapeno. Can you imagine?? HERE JALAPENO! SIT JALAPENO... I dont think so!! This eventually led to the biggest argument Aaron and I ever had, eventually leading up to me crying (not a rare occurence I might add). I dont quite remember exaclty how it happened but out of no where the name "Caddie" was brought up, like a golf caddie. This was just girly enough and just goofy enough for both of us. So thank goodness, our puppy had a name ( I might add this was 2 months before she was even born).

So, in August of 2006 I was visiting Aaron in Rancho Cucamonga, California and I got a call from my brother... THE PUPPIES WERE COMING!! I was so excited, I couldnt believe I was about to be a Puppy Momma. Aaron was playing in High Desert that night so while I sat and watched the game, John and Terri would call me everytime another puppy was born.

The puppies stayed at John and Terri's for a few weeks and then they took them out to Terri's parents house in Snyder where they had more room to run around since they were pretty big puppies. Not long after Aaron got back from baseball for the off season he met John and Terri in Big Spring to pick up our little girl. After a little mix up and a second trip to Big Spring, we finally had OUR puppy, although, I wouldnt get to see her for a few weeks.

Caddie made quite a few moves over the next few months, living in Midland and Houston and visiting College Station and Little Rock, she was a wonderful puppy! We left her in Houston while I was in school and Aaron was playing baseball and my mom raised her for us. I have never known another dog like Caddie. I'm still not sure if it is Caddie or if it was the way my mom trained her but she is so smart. My mom is kind of a clean freak so when it was wet outside on the grass (every morning) she taught Caddie that she had to wait and have her feet dried off before she could come in the house. This became such a habit for Caddie that once we had moved back to Midland and were living with Aarons parents, she wouldnt come through the Doggie Door when her paws were wet.

Caddie has been such a fun part of our lives and such a great learning experience. I cant imagine life without her! she is too special.

The Dating Years

Aaron and I had a very interesting "courtship" so to say. Before we got married, I believe the LONGEST we were in the same place at the same time was for about a month (and that is being very generous since I cant remember back that far.) Although, Aaron was the one doing all the traveling since he was playing minor league baseball at the time. While we dated, Aaron "lived" (I use the term lived lightly, unless you honestly consider 6 weeks living somewhere) in:


-Dallas, Texas
-Little Rock, Arkansas
-Rancho Cucamonga, Californi
-Midland, Texas
-Salt Lake City, Utah


While he was "living" in those places he also managed to travel to:


-San Antonio, Texas
-Corpus Christi, Texas
-Tulsa, Oklahoma
-Wichita, Kansas
-Springfield, Missouri,
-Albuquerque, New Mexico
-Colorado Springs, Colorado
-Las Vegas, Nevada
-Tacoma, Washington
-COUNTLESS cities in California


Needless to say, most days I had to look at a schedule to try to remember where he was and what time zone he was in. Although I'm making it sound horrible, it was the most fun we have ever had. We met such wonderful people (2 of which were actually in our wedding) and were able to experience so many exciting things and interesting places.


When Aaron wasnt playing baseball he made a point to come visit me (or have me go visit him) as much as possible. We wore out the road between College Station and Dallas. He came for a couple sorority parties, and luckily (for me) he never missed a birthday. I'm sure everyone I went to school with was just sure that I was making up this "boyfriend" of mine who was never around.


I'm sure that kind of lifestyle is not for everyone, but it worked for us! I'm not pretending that it was all rainbows and sunshine. We had some tough times, one time I even broke up with him! But, apparently I wasnt very good at it since I had never done it before, and he didnt know we were broken up until I told him I wanted to get back together. Thank goodness for him I guess. I'm sure if he knew he would have cried his pretty eyes out.

Since I am 4 1/2 years younger than Aaron, I was much younger than most of his friends that he played ball with also. The first season we dated I do not believe I had a name to most of the guys. They just referred to me as "the kid". (ex: "Hey, AP, when is the kid coming to visit", "Hey, do you and the kid want to go eat with us") Luckily I had grown accustomed to being made fun of from growing up with 3 brothers so it never slowed me down. A lot of the time I ended up bringing most of the jokes on myself. Like the time I drove to San Antonio to watch a series, and it just so happened to be the first time I had ever driven on the highway. I went right to Aarons hotel room where about 6 other guys were sitting playing video games and proudly announced ... "I DROVE ON THE HIGHWAY ALL BY MYSELF!" This was not Aaron's proudest moment.

So this went on from February of 2005 to December 12, 2006, which just so happened to be the most exciting day of my life up to that point,but we will save that story for another time!

Aaron and I on a "fancy" dinner in Salt Lake City (Summer 07)

Before Kappa Delta Semi Formal (12/06)

Aaron, Brent, Bob, and Bill - Little Rock (2006)

Rancho Cucamonga, California (Summer 06)

Signing autographs in San Antonio, Texas (Summer 06)

My brother, Johns, wedding (12/05).... cant you tell how much he loved spending time with me?