It's A Girl!

We are very excited to announce that we are having a baby girl!  We found out on Tuesday afternoon and since then this whole pregnancy has taken on a new reality.  It was already an amazing experience but somehow knowing that it's a girl makes a huge difference.  The responsibility we feel to prepare for her and pray for her is suddenly so much greater and the connection is so much deeper, especially for Brandon I think.  It was sweet to see how things like names, which were a joke a few days ago, suddenly became serious because now it is no longer just a baby but his daughter that we're thinking about.  What an awesome responsibility and gift we've been given and we are praising God for that today!

As soon as we found out that we were having a girl we began spreading the news.  My best friend Melinda surprised us the next morning with this great sign posted on our garage announcing the news to our neighborhood. :)

Here she is.  She's waving hello, although it's difficult to see and was difficult to get a picture of as she is very active at this point.  The Dr. says she's enjoying her space and growing well.

Open House Madness!

Open House always brings with it a whirlwind of projects and never enough time to get it all done. This year was especially challenging as it was scheduled later in the year than I am use to and only 2 1/2 weeks after state testing.  Anyway, so this week had its moments.  Moments of being driven crazy by kids done with everything and constantly bugging me for what next and moments of being driven crazy by kids who never seem to be done with anything.   Ahhh! 

However, like every year somehow it all ends up getting done.  We make it to the big night and the kids have a great time showing off all their work to their parents.  

These are a few of the projects my kids did this year.

We're Growing

It's hard to believe but I'm already into my 2nd trimester.  The nauseous feelings have finally subsided (yippe!!!) and my tummy is starting to grow enough for a few people to notice which is fun!  Also, I just started feeling the baby moving a few days ago.  It's incredible!  I think I've felt it before but never enough to be absolutely sure.  Brandon has been working hard on the baby room which is looking great and now we are just waiting to find out if we are having a girl or a boy so that we can paint.  I've been helping where I can but there are a lot of thing I can't really help with so while he works I've been enjoying reading and searching the web for nursery ideas.  Also, I'm counting down the days until the end of the school year, at which point I have lots of projects I'm looking forward to starting. (23 Days to Go!!!)

4 Weeks

8 Weeks

12 Weeks

16 Weeks

The Blessing of Family

This weekend we were blessed with a visit from Amy and Brian.  It was great getting to spend some time catching up with them and I have to say I just love the way relationships grow, especially with siblings. They go from being something that you had no choice about into something that you'd never trade, for many reasons, but partially because there is no one else with whom you've shared so much history.  So, it was fun this weekend as always to get to spend some time with my sister and to hang out with our husbands who are WAY to much alike in some ways. :) What a blessing!

Along with that, I can't stop thinking about what a gift family truly is from God.  It's crazy how we sometimes don't recognize it when we are able to see them all the time.  We take for granted our time with them until one day they're gone or move away and suddenly we don't get to see them whenever we want. At least that's how its been with my family.  I grew up surrounded by family and then over the last few years a geographic distance has grown between us.  I went away to college and got married.  My parents and younger siblings moved to Oregon and Amy and the rest of the relatives stayed in Arizona where they've always been.  So, suddenly that which was common, being together, came to feel like a unique blessing.  I'm realizing more and more how blessed I am to have grow up in this way with 5 siblings, both my parents, and extended family all around.  What a great thing and so I encourage you today not to take the ones you love for granted.  You never know how much time you're going to have with them so get busy loving them today!

Robert's New Truck

We were very excited to get to spend some time with Robert and his friend Jeremy this weekend.  Robert picked up his new truck in Arizona on Thursday and then stopped by to see us on his way back to Oregon. What a blessing it was to see him back to his old self!  It made me thankful all over again for the way that God protected him and as he left I found myself literally overwhelmed by these emotions of gratefulness. There's just nobody quite like Robert and I know I'm his sister, so of course I'd say that, but really for those of you who know him you know that it is true. There's just something about his genuine, caring, fun loving spirit that draws people to him and it's always been like that.  So, for today we are especially thankful for Robert and excited about his cool new truck!