Designing JMO

Well my goodness time sure does fly. My last post was an update on moving back to our home town, renovating my grandparent's house to live in while we build our dream home and starting our life on the farm. SO much has happened so lets do a quick catch up sesh shall we? We are still at my grandparent's house but we have added a big coop and 14 chickens, a fabulous garden, a little farm stand, a new barn cat named Mavis, Miss Shelby (our almost one year old Golden Retriever aka Bennett's wife since they will be making some babes soon) and still have the donkeys plus Moo girl our paint mare and Pirate Parade our thoroughbred gelding. Next up? We are checking out some mini Galloway cows and beef cattle next week to add to our ever-growing farm. I think Seth is really coming around to all the animals and homesteading so to speak and I am loving it - and also a little shocked!

We decided on the name Buffalo Church Farm for our forever home and used the old native American marker tree on the property as the logo. We just wrapped up our final meeting and revisions with the architect and have our finished plans IN HAND Y'ALL as of last week! I cannot believe it - two years in the making and we are finally ready to break ground on Buffalo Church Farm. I'll share a little sneak peek below and definitely stay tuned as that journey starts to take shape.

2025 has brought us joy but also heartbreak as we navigated the loss of a baby boy back in March. Although it was a surprise, our hearts definitely felt content knowing he would be apart of the Otey crew and never would we have guessed that a miscarriage would be in the cards. We were smitten to say the least. While we will never know why he didn't make it to my arms, we find peace knowing that God has a different plan for him and that one day I will hopefully see him. He is now by the marker tree and will always be in our hearts. The girls celebrated their 10th and 4th birthdays on a trip to the mountains shortly after and we are just soaking up all the family time we can. They are literally growing like weeds and bring so much joy, laughter and love to our hearts daily. How lucky I am to be their Mama.

With heartbreak and loss also eventually comes reflection and healing and we decided to not give up on trying to expand our family. Around mid July we found out we were pregnant again and though our hearts were guarded, we started letting ourselves feel joy and happiness again slowly by counting each day as a gift and thanking God for the blessings we already have. My doctor has been heaven sent and I am so looking forward to the relationship that will develop with her. She called us after hours one evening to let us know that genetic testing came back and that all was well. She also asked if we wanted to know the gender and informed us that it was another little Otey girl. My heart swelled up with so many emotions and we were all together as a family to receive the news that evening. It just felt right. I am 15 weeks as of yesterday with this little baby girl (when I wrote this post I was 14 and not sure when I would share but it feels good to start writing again) Andi also informed me that this new baby may want to look back one day and see these posts since I did them for each previous pregnancy. Oh the nostalgia of the good ole' blogging days. (Good idea Andi!)

If you've made it this far, thank you for reading. I'm so excited to bring back the blog and document both this new home journey and also this new pregnancy journey. I hope everyone has a wonderful week and I hope you all know just how thankful I am for each and every one of you.

Xoxo

Jessi

2025 2020 2014

How far along? 14 Weeks

Size of Baby: an orange - 3.5 inches and 2oz

Total weight gain/loss: Lord have mercy who knows? 125 start

Symptoms: Big ole' sore chest, SO tired but feeling good and thankful

Maternity clothes? Oh yes- 100% when it comes to pants. Living in dresses thus far

Stretch marks? No - incorporating the oil already though

Sleep: Sleeping great and heading to bed way earlier than usual. Still waking up to pee every night 5x or more!

Best moment this week: Writing this for future me and future babe

Miss Anything? Wine while cooking

Movement: Nothing prominent yet! Can def feel uterus/tightness of left lower side though!

Food cravings: Texas Pete/Buffalo Sauce haha and Pizza at first!

Anything making you queasy or sick: thankfully no

Have you started to show yet: Oh yea

Gender prediction: Baby Otey #3 is another girl!

Nursery: Not so much in this house but have a theme in mind

Workouts: At least 3x a week plus farm chores, whew!

Labor Signs: no

Belly Button in or out? In

Wedding rings on or off? On

Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy but nervous, deep breaths!

Looking forward to: Feeling movement!

Never in a million years would I have ever thought that I would be living in my Grandparent's house & making meals, etc for my family. There is something so lovely and so heartwarming every time I walk through the mudroom door. The nostalgia is at an all time high that's for sure. The first time I baked a cake in Dolly's kitchen, I texted my aunt Betty and definitely teared up a bit. Every time I step into that big pantry it is like stepping back in time when I used to literally shop in there for things I needed and didn't feel like 'driving into town' for in high school and in college.

My Dad offered the home to us as a place to stay while we build our lake home. It is perfectly situated about 2 miles from the building site, 1 mile from my parents, 40 minutes or so from Seth's parents and about a half a field away from Betty. The house has been empty since both Dolly and then Clinton passed away but the memories are still in every nook and cranny. So many wonderful holidays and SO many wonderful meals were shared in that very kitchen. I remember bringing my college friends over almost every Sunday (usually slightly hungover) just for Dolly's famous Sunday lunches which brought us all back to life. We knew it needed a little sprucing up before we could totally move in so about a year ago, we decided to dive right in and start getting some things done. Most of the renovations were cosmetic minus the wall we decided to knock down in a dark hallway to expose the front door and lots more natural light. Things were cleared out and moved, carpet was pulled up, floors were sanded, walls were painted and lots and lots of cleaning was done before we could envision a plan.

We are still working to finalize floor plans for the new build but I will share some inspiration next week for sure. Today, lets take a look at some before and afters I was able to capture during this 'sprucing up' process. We moved in fully in July and it has been the perfect little homestead ever since. We love the out buildings and fields, having our horses there, the creaking in the floors, the interesting upkeep that comes with well water, having to drive your trash to a dump, the banging the furnace makes (think Kevin in Home Alone) and of course, the treasured memories of the life my Grandparent's made here.