Exciting Baby News!

This past week we had even more exciting baby-related news of several kinds! First off, a huge congratulations to our friends Beth Anne and Doug who told us on Wednesday that they are expecting their first baby as well! It seems a little belly love is in order from this mom-to-be to a new mom-to-be! I am so happy and excited for them... Beth Anne and I have grown up together since sophomore year of high school and now we will have wee ones about 7 months apart! It's funny that we used to commiserate together that it felt like it would never be our "turn" to have babies for a good long while. And now my ready-to-pop belly is sending love to her just-starting-out belly:
Congratulations to you both, you will be such great parents (Beth Anne, you will be the most organized mom the world has ever seen!) and your baby has no chance of being anything less than beautiful and adorable!

Our exciting news is that as of our OB appointment on Tuesday, the baby is officially

1. head down
2. approximately 6 pounds
3. and dilated 1 centimeter!
   

One down... nine to go! We have appointments every week at this point, so we will be able to find out often if we are making any more progress... and she is officially out of the premature range, so she can come anytime she wants! We can't wait!

Belly Update

In the busy-ness that has become our daily lives, I've fallen sadly behind on posting belly pics! It's getting crazy now to take them, because sometimes I feel huge, and sometimes I don't feel that big... until I see a picture of myself. Then I can see clearly why I only have 2 pairs of pants that actually fit! Here is a quick catch-up of the belly pics since we haven't posted one since our anniversary, 31 weeks.

32 weeks- Matt bought me a pink tshirt at Carowinds... he was upset because he asked for a medium and the lady gave him a large, I was happy because the large actually fits and the medium wouldn't have! This is pretty much the only tshirt that fits right now (other than Matt's, which I definitely have been stealing!).

34 weeks- On the way out the door for youth group. Now that the weather is getting colder, there has been some interesting layering going on, based on what still fits. And of course, wearing the one pair of jeans that fit (as seen in the previous picture too!).

35 weeks- Hanging around the house today and getting ready to run some errands. I almost threw this shirt away because I bought it and wore it often when my mom was in the hospital, but I had shoved it to the back of my closet and forgotten about it. It's really comfortable without looking like a tent.

Other fun changes/things going on:

-I can't get up off the couch at all without help. Matt and I have developed a specific push/pull technique to keep me from being permanently stuck there.

-I'm at least 20 degrees hotter than anyone in the room at any given time, including Matt, which is insane since he is like a human heater.

-We start going every week to the OB starting this week! I can't wait to find out if we are making any official progress!

-I can tell the baby is starting to drop lower a little bit. My ribs still haven't gotten much of a break, but I can see a difference and tell there is a little more space at the top of my belly than there was.

-I've become very fidgety, especially in the pews at church. I try to keep my wiggling to a minimum if possible, but last night a sweet grandfatherly member gave me a big hug and said you're starting to get a little uncomfortable, aren't you? :)

-We're at 5 weeks this week, which is almost in the one month to-go countdown! We have a really busy week ahead, but if I can get through it, I should be able to focus just on getting things prepared and finishing the nursery.

-It's getting really hard to sleep comfortably. I'm a big tummy sleeper, and I could finagle it for a while with lots of pillows and blanket-scrunching, but now it's just not happening. I'm not sure how they expect you to sleep when you can't lay on your stomach and you're not supposed to lay on your back to keep from cutting off your own blood flow!

-I can tell she is running out of room because she squirms more now instead of kicking... she gets the hiccups almost daily, and last night Matt could feel them through my belly!

Church Baby Party!

Baby K has been completely spoiled that she has now had not one, but two baby showers! Our church celebrated her soon-to-be arrival this past weekend... we are so blessed to have a church family that wants us to feel prepared and that can't wait to love on our little one!

A huge spread of food including cake, slushee punch, and a chocolate fountain, was waiting when we walked through the door! Luckily, I sat far away from it so I didn't completely stuff myself.

Matt and I sat in the chairs of honor to open all the many adorable gifts! What a generous church family!
We were given so many helpful things, some of which I hadn't even gotten around to stocking up on yet, like baby wash, diaper rash cream, and wipes!
We also were given some bigger unexpected items, like our bedding set and most unexpectedly of all, a new crib from several of the sunday school classes! This was the last major thing we needed for the nursery and we are so excited to have it set up and ready to go! I don't have any pictures yet because I'm still working on getting the baby room set up and pretty enough to post :)



What an amazing blessing for the three of us as a new family! Thank you so much to any of our FPBC family that may be reading... you are wonderful!

Up to the Mountains

Matt has been wanting to drive up to the mountains to take pictures of the changing leaves for weeks now. Like me and the beach, the mountains are the place that rejuvenate him, and if he hasn't been at a higher elevation for awhile, he misses it. We were worried that if we waited too much longer, there would be a real cold snap and the fall colors would be gone (or the baby would come early!). Saturday we drove through Boone and Valle Crucis, NC along part of the Blue Ridge Highway to take some pictures and breathe some cold, fresh mountain air.
We stopped at Mast General Store in Valle Crucis where we didn't realize a county fair was going on! Basically all it meant was that the store was packed out and there was a kettle corn vendor across the street that smelled fabulous. The General Store is famous for their barrels of candy that you can buy by the pound... if you want to know what about 25 bucks of candy looks like, stop by our house!
There was a beautiful church across the street, and an army of pumpkins on the back porch from local growers.
Along the way, we found our dream house tucked between the folds of the mountain. It's rare that Matt and I immediately agree 100% on something, but we did on this one... we laughed even harder when we saw the 'for sale' sign out front!
We didn't stop to ask, but I'm sure it's likely that the horses and working barn come included!
The Blue Ridge Parkway was where we actually stopped to take the pictures. It was so cold and windy, but it still felt good to stretch the legs after all that driving. We found lots of gorgeous fall colors and a couple of cool places to play...
And of course, not mentioning any names, but one of us slept the whole way home... what a great fall day!

The State Fair

This weekend, Matt and I took some time together after the stresses of the past couple weeks to do something fun together, just for fun! We had decided not to go to the NC State Fair this year because of expenses, but some extra blessings we hadn't counted on made it possible! We usually go every year and it had become a bit of a tradition for us, so I was really happy we were able to go again this year. We got on the road to Raleigh a bit later than we had planned, but met up with our friends, the Creech family, just after lunch. The Matts picked the scariest ride they could find but unfortunately, didn't get to ride because of an overly picky carnie worker (with no explanation he said it "wasn't safe" for them).
It was chilly and drizzled light rain nonstop, but even cold rain can't dampen the fun of the fair! We ate polish sausages (well, Matt did) and funnel cakes almost to our hearts' content... we mostly just walked and ate this year though, since I couldn't ride any rides, and Matt was sweet enough to keep me company. We also had to get a giant pickle, which is also tradition. Shockingly enough however, I couldn't finish it (usually I eat two and have to talk myself out of a third. I blame it on the baby).

And yes, Matt won me and K a giant Hello Kitty.

Raleigh is still a bit of a drive for just a day trip, but we're glad that it is close enough to not miss out on things like this! I would have missed the fair if we hadn't gone!

Many Thanks

Throughout this past week, we have seen God move through the hearts of those around us in our church, community, and families. Thank you for your prayers for us as we minister to those that are suffering and for your prayers for the Byrd family.

Today, the Greensboro newspaper printed a front page story as a testament to who our God is and his role in Tina's story. Check it out if you get the chance. She's an amazing woman.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all of you who have been praying. If I have not thanked you in person or on the phone, please know that I remembered you, but ran out of minutes in my day.

Requesting Prayer!-updated

***5:03pm on Sunday- We just returned from visiting Tina Byrd, the mother whose legs were amputated last night, in the hospital. She awoke and praised God for her life over her legs and we are thankful. She is going through a whirlwind of emotions and feelings, but she is stabilized and recovering in the ICU. Her two children are doing well, Chase and Taylor, and her husband, Jason, has been so kind to let us love on him. Please continue to praise God that no lives were lost, praise Him that more were not hurt, and pray that many lives would be eternally saved through this time. Also, please remember the family as they begin this new path. -Matt***

Tonight on the way home from our Carowinds trip, our youth bus full of our kids was hit by an oncoming car that ran a red light. We all made it roughly but safely to the side of the road, quite a bit shaken up but not physically hurt. Matt and several other parents rushed to the other car to assist the driver when they realized that everyone on our bus was safe and not injured. However, when they arrived at the car, Matt and another parent were hit by a second oncoming car that didn't see the stopped car, and may have even been distracted by our bus on the side of the road. Matt is completely fine other than some bumps and bruises, but we're asking prayer for the second parent who sustained massive injuries to her legs and was airlifted to the hospital.

Please be in prayer for this Mom who rushed out to care for someone else and was terribly injured herself in the process! Please also be in prayer for Matt who is understandably very shaken up as we pray for this Mom and her two kids in our youth group, and of course the rest of their family as well. Never forget as you pray that God has a plan, even when it is totally incomprehensible to our earthly eyes and faith, and we're praying that God will use this situation to His glory and to reach people's hearts in the way only He can. Please keep praying!

Four Years Today!

Today Matt and I celebrated four happy years of marriage! I think this past year in many ways has been one that has given us the most opportunity to learn and grow together, as it has been full of changes, some good and some not so good. It's hard to believe how fast it's gone... together this year we have survived the death of a parent, finding out we are going to become parents, searching for and finding a new job, selling a house, buying a house, moving to a new town, and by the end of the year the birth of our first child. God has blessed us through all these circumstances by giving us each other as best friends to hold hands through it all.

We decided to take advantage of our last anniversary that we won't need a babysitter yet by making a full day of it! We slept in ridiculously late and drove into Greensboro for "breakfast" at IHOP (aka breakfast food but it was really more like lunch time) and a double feature of two movies in a row at the theater (Matt picked one movie and I picked the other). I wanted photographic proof that three people celebrated this anniversary, so we asked the poor innocent teenagers working the soda/popcorn counter to take our picture:
After we finished the movies, we splurged for dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Macaroni Grill! We both got our usual favorite pasta dish, and wrote silly love messages back and forth on the paper table cloths with the crayons provided (I admit this is one of the reasons it's my favorite restaurant!):
(You can tell one of us was reading this upside down, and we were both writing upside down to each other).

We got our completely delicious cheesecake to go because we were so full, managed not to get lost on the way home, and ate dessert in our pjs while watching, yes, yet another movie. Then Matt decided that the new swing we were given for the baby needed to be put together tonight:
We both got a little excited thinking of all the many toys this Daddy will be putting together in the next several years! The swing was a gift from our good friends the Creech family, who always amaze us with their generosity! About half an hour later (about 1:15 am) the swing was complete!
Now all we need is for our wee one to arrive (8 weeks and counting!) Insert baby here!

Happy Anniversary, my love, and here's to 104 years together, wherever the Lord may lead us!