Getting back in the swing of things

Since stepping away from my blog, I've found it harder than I thought to return. I feel quite confident that it is due to my pregnant brain. The simple things become hard. And such is writing and blogging.  

This is such a sweet time for our family and I want to document it, but it's hard to determine between the important and irrelevant.  

So here are a few random tidbits. And I do mean random...

I spent last weekend in San Marcus at a wedding for my friend, Brooke. Brooke is such a sweet presence in my life and since I don't see her as much as I would like, it was so good to be around her.  I had a fun girls weekend and was able to catch up with many friends that I haven't seen in several years.  

     

The belly was a big hit this weekend. :)

I am making dinner for my dad tomorrow for his birthday. I'm going to cook a brisket. Can you believe that I have never made brisket before? I always opt for roast and leave the brisket making to the more experienced cooks.  I am not the best at trying new things. I prefer to stick to the known.  It's a downfall.  

I got a great pair of maternity Long and Lean jeans on sale at gap.com if anyone is looking for some. 

Yesterday I wore tennis shoes to the grocery store. I forget what an adjustment it is to return to closed toed shoes. Anyone else have this problem? 

For some bizarre reason, Noah thinks popsicles are an appropriate breakfast item.???? 

We were planning to paint the outside of our house this weekend. The forecast: rain. sigh.

A Master Birthday Boy in Disguise

Happy Birthday (yesterday) to my very own magician!

We love you babe/daddy/funny man!

The video wouldn't post yesterday, so I'm a day late in my blog birthday wish. We had a fun few days of celebrating our birthday boy and closed the celebration with a great night with friends!

  Can you tell what Noah is wearing? Boys. (sigh)

This old video brought back memories of our old house. Fun times.

Transparent through the Transitions

Why does summer seem to come in with such great expectation and then it leaves with much hesitation? 

We've spent many summer days working on our house. Remodeling always takes much more work than anticipated, but we are happy with our progress. We still have many projects ahead of us and things that we would like to do, but we are living in our home and looking forward to many traditions and memories we will make here.  I'm realizing more and more that life is just one project after another. It keeps things interesting.  

We found out that our third child will be another precious GIRL! Brad and I are both so thrilled. Noah knew it all along. He called the 'it' his baby sister from day one and  I should have known better than to doubt the innocence of my child who hears from the Lord. 

To answer your question: she does NOT have a name yet. And she may not until she arrives. We feel no urgency to give her a name and will just wait to hear from the Lord. Plus, I'll just add it to my list of things that need to be done before the baby arrives.  It's growing  by the day. My list, that is. And myself, if we are going to get technical. 

We have traveled some and Brad and I spent a great week of spiritual retreat together.  My hubby took a new position at our church, so he has been learning the ropes of the college/young adult ministry and transitioning into an exciting role. 

Overall, this summer has been one of transition. I've learned several hard lessons through the clashing of my planned personality and the all of the unexpected, unplanned days that this summer held.  I have began to weed out all of the non-essentials in my life in order to focus on and devote more time to the things that mean the most to me and I have seen how God meets not only the needs, but also the desires of the hearts of his people.  He has shown that to me through my own life and his goodness poured out. Yet I have also realized, now more than ever, how undeserving I am of anything good.  It truly is... amazing grace.  

I'm Baaaack!

I enjoyed my unplanned, unannounced blogging sabbatical, but I've missed the blogging world a lot. I'm looking forward to catching up with everyone's lives over the next few days and putting myself back out there.  

Until tomorrow...

Red, White and Blue

I just love the forth of July.

I love patriotism, fireworks, family and Lee Greenwood. :)

I've celebrated a lot of holidays with my guy. 

My sweet, sweet children who absolutely adore one another. 

My favorite boys!

A little bounce house fun.

Lovin' on all the puppies around. 

Hope you had a wonderful holiday weekend!

And...

We plan to begin moving in this week, Hooray!

A work in progress

We closed on our old house the beginning of June and moved in with my in-laws to begin working on our new house.  Projects always take longer than planned, but we are hoping to start moving into our house this weekend.  We still have work to do, but I am getting anxious to see my furniture and dishes again.  

Thus far we have: 

taken up flooring

scraped ceilings

removed wallpaper

put up bead board

textured

painted

taken out a wall and added doors

replaced doors

painted a bit more

tiled

replaced appliances

had countertops installed

We still have to:

paint the utility room, master bedroom and master bathroom

have flooring installed and carpet laid... in progress

replace light fixtures

install canned lighting

paint the outside

trim trees and bushes

replace windows

We are on the homestretch.  

The home is slowly beginning to have appeal and we are really excited to move in and make it our own.  It's been a fun, busy, encouraging, discouraging, crazy project.  

...summing up the summer of 09'.

Can you believe...

this is the last full week of June? Where is the summer going? Please slow down and stay awhile, Mr. Warm Weather. 

Noah started his first Vacation Bible School this week.  It is only three days, but he has had a great time.  When I took him into the room with all of the big kids, he was so nervous.  I was fighting the lump in my throat the entire time.  I looked at all of the other moms chatting and appearing to be so light hearted about the entire thing and forced myself not to cry until I got to my car.  Noah was so brave and it made me realize how much he reminds me of myself in new settings.  He would never let me know how hard it was for him, but his face told it all.  He tries so hard to protect me by being brave and happy.  

Brad has been off all week and this is how he and Kayt have spent their mornings.  She is such a daddy's girl! He has also been really busy working on our house.  As I type, he is there tiling one of the bathrooms.  He has been so helpful and I've loved not having to meet all of the random people at the house throughout the day.  I am hoping we can spend a day or two enjoying his week off, free of work.  But we are also getting really anxious to get settled in our new home, so we are working hard.  We are staying with my wonderful in-laws right now. They have been so great to let us bombard their schedules and space.  

And here is the baby bump at 15 weeks.  It's a funny angle, but I promise it is there.  I am beginning to feel better and have a bit more energy.  It came at a great time since we spent all of last weekend painting our house. If I could only make it to the gym, I would be a happy camper.  

Because June is halfway over...

I want to blog. 

I really do.

But each time I sit down, my brain says, "uhhhhhhhhhh." 

And that's all I get. 

Nothing else. 

Right now I'm thinking, "It's Wednesday." 

And that's all I got. 

I would show pictures, but I can't seem to remember to buy a new battery so my camera is dead. 

Therefore, I have no new pictures. 

Not a cute picture.

Not a creative thought. 

Not an interesting thought. 

Not even a complete thought. 

And before I know it, I forget why I'm sitting down and I fall asleep.

That's what you have been missing out on in my life. 

Thank you and goodnight. 

The 4-1-1

on the baby news.

I am twelve weeks along (and some change) and due mid-ish December.  Our very own early Christmas gift!

I'm not feeling too hot. I mean, some days are better than others. Heck, some hours are better than others, but I'm sure that having two little ones, packing, moving, re-doing a house and preparing to be at high school camp next week may also have something to do with the sleepy, nauseated feeling that keeps coming over me.  I've found a new friend in Zophran.   

We were not planning this pregnancy. In fact, we were planning to not have a pregnancy for at least another year, but here we are.  God knows us and we are really excited to expand our family tree again.  It's amazing how a little life begins to stir so much excitement inside of you so quickly.  

Due to early 'issues' (we will call them) that God healed, I have had several sonograms and there is ONE baby. Yes, one.  And not that I am biased, but it's a cute little freak (please hear my sincere love and affection when I say 'freak'). It flails his/her arms and waves like mad each time I look at the screen. I love that little nugget. 

Every time we have bought a new house I have been pregnant. I DO know that there are better ways of getting out of painting, but why change what's worked, ya know? Kidding.  

This will more than likely be our last baby. Not 100% guaranteed since we've yet to control that aspect of our life, but again... more than likely.  With that said, you may get more baby pictures/tracking/progress than you would like.  Just roll your eyes, click the red X on the top left corner of your screen and carry on with your day.  Kidding again.  Just humor me for six more months.

Now....

I need your help.

I have to come up with a good color for our den by THIS weekend. I need help finding a good, neutral color. It doesn't have to be beige, I'm open to other colors, but it needs to be fairly light. The room has no natural lighting (yuck) and I want to keep it as open and fresh as possible.  

So lemme have em'. Please give me the color name and brand. 

My brain is working a bit slower than normal and I just cannot seem to find anything that catches my attention.  Hence, I need YOU!

From the mouths of my babes...