The Wehrman's

A Girl...

2012-02-12T14:34:00.001-05:00

...and the love she has for her snuggle bear.

31 Weeks

2012-02-09T11:38:00.001-05:00

Ok, so even if no one other than my mom reads these, I'm glad I do these updates. I love being able to look back at Kylee's pregnancy and compare. Just like I am now, I was exhausted with her at this point. That makes me feel a little better. Nesting with her set in just a couple weeks from now so hopefully that happens soon! I had her room almost completely finished by 33 weeks. I'm not even close to that! I know I can't set up a room before he comes because we're not going to put the older two in the same room before we have to, but I've barely started a thing. Reading what I'd accomplished with her motivated me to try and start organizing closets though. I got some good progress done in her room yesterday and we bought a drawer organizer to help get Hunter's toys better organized. And I've officially started a "Items Needed for Baby Boy" list in my phone.

In other news, WE HAVE A NAME!! My baby boy is no longer nameless! It feels good to be able to say that! Just last week before we were even close to having a name, we were talking about him and I almost called him by this name, like we'd already decided on it. It was the weirdest thing. Since then, I was pretty sold on it and Greg decided he was too. And it feels right for him. I'm very happy with our decision. :) Just a reminder, we're keeping it a secret until he's in our arms. I've had 2 friends just yesterday give me a hard time about it but you're not getting it out of me!! ;)

Pregnancy Comparison #3

2012-02-08T22:10:00.004-05:00

Well here we are at Pregnancy Comparison #3! I know you're excited. Don't try and hide it.

Hands down, I was biggest with Hunter, and I think baby boy fits right in between. I was definitely smallest with Kylee...which is odd because I still weigh less now that I did at this point with either of the other two...but I've thought for a while that baby boy's birth size would be between his two siblings, and according to these pictures, it looks like I may be right.

What do y'all think???

Big Girl!

2012-02-06T18:12:00.001-05:00

Trying to feed herself Mac and cheese!

30 Weeks and Ultrasound

2012-02-02T14:05:00.002-05:00

WOW, I'm 75% done already! That's CRAZY!

Sleep has been better lately thanks to my HypnoBirthing book! As I said in my last post, I've been able to use the relaxation techniques in the book to make my RLS go away and get to sleep without taking medication to help me. I'm very excited about that!

Here's this week's pic:

I had a little girl at church last night come up to me and say, "You're having two babies. I can tell."

I didn't think I looked that big! ;) Children...they certainly don't hold anything back, do they?

Look at my new boots! Aren't they adorable?! (Thanks mom!) I didn't care that it was 60 degrees when I went to church...I wore them anyway! :)

I had an ultrasound this morning. If you remember, there was a slightly abnormal number during my anatomy ultrasound with something having to do with his kidneys and so my follow-up ultrasound was today. His kidneys look fine. However, the tech noted some prominence in his third and forth ventricles in his brain. No enlargement, just prominence. I'm not totally sure what this means, and the doctor told me not to worry. But he'd rather be safe than sorry and is referring me to East Carolina University to have a Stage 2 ultrasound done so a specialist can look at it. As far as what it means if there is an issue...he said it could mean 100 different things. So I really don't know. I just know that I'll schedule this next ultrasound at my appointment tomorrow and we'll go from there. My mind has 100 different thoughts running through me head about it all. The doctor told me it's probably nothing to worry about, yet I wonder how much they say just to ease our mind and make us feel better. What what I DO know is that God's got it all under control. And I'm resting in that. Prayers for our baby boy are very much appreciated though.

Here's a couple pics of our (approximate) 3lb 5oz sweet baby boy. :)

Car Seat Graduation

2012-02-01T23:19:00.001-05:00

Our kids are so big! Hunter meets the "4 years and 40lbs" criteria for the booster car seat, so we switched him to that and Kylee got his old car seat. She's still rear facing because she's not quite 20 lbs but the picture shows she loves the switch nonetheless! She was talking up a storm and laughing when we strapped her in. And Hunter loves his too. I think his favorite feature are the built-in cup holders. Too bad we don't eat in the car...

January Goals Recap and February Goals

2012-02-01T14:58:00.000-05:00

January Goals Recap
*Study 5 days a week in 1 Corinthians. Once again, fail. But I did finish the book of 1 Corinthians.
*Make a weekly to-do list, and complete it! I found this printable yesterday, so I'm going to print a few out and give them a try this month. This was a success! I like this printable. I think I'll keep using it as long as it keeps working! I LOVE crossing things off a list, so it definitely helped me.
*Do at least one load of laundry 5 days out of the week. Success, but I actually upped this to 2 loads/day sometime last month. Even if I keep up with 1 load, I start to fall behind by the end of the week.
*Memorize at least 2 more verses, and still remember the last 6. Success! The new verses under my belt are Romans 10:13 and Romans 6:23. And because my mom is so totally awesome, she gifted me the "Fighter Verses" app for my phone. I added all my verses on there and can periodically quiz myself of my old verses, and it has pre-made quizzes for any new verses to help me learn them. I love it!
*Continue making all our breads. Success! I made a couple new recipes this month.
One of those were pita pockets using this recipe. They were good! And WAY cheaper than the package of 4 for $3.50 at the grocery store!

Check out that pocket!

They made some yummy chicken pitas for dinner one night!

I also made Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Bread.

This thing was so good...we all loved it. It didn't even last 24 hours. I guess that's a good thing, but my goodness, it took like 6 hours to make and was gone so quickly!

I also made the cupcakes that we had on Kylee's birthday from scratch...but they were not good. I definitely need to try them again with a new recipe...and make sure I don't over-beat my batter. It'll take some practice, I'm sure.
*Stop over-eating! Well, I'd have to say that numbers don't lie...according to the doctor's records I gained 4 lbs in 2 weeks...so I guess this is a total fail. But that happened the first 2 weeks of the month and since then I've been logging my calories again (like I did with Kylee's pregnancy.) I have another regular checkup on Friday and I think these numbers should be much better!
*Send out Kylee's birthday invites. Success! I do have 2 more to deliver, but those are being hand-delivered on Friday.
*Be consistent with Hunter's chore chart. Success! My little man earned over $5 this month! We have divvied up his earnings into Giving, Saving, and Spending envelopes and will be making a trip to Target soon so he can spend what's in his "Spending" envelope.
*Be consistent with Hunter brushing his teeth! Success! Most days I was good about having him brush his teeth when I brushed mine. Just need to continue the good habit!
*Read through Hypnobirthing. Well technically this is a fail, because I haven't finished it. But I'm more than halfway done and have been practicing the techniques in the book. I won't be doing HypnoBirthing to a T, but I'll definitely use a lot of the techniques in it during my labor. I've been using the relaxation techniques at night when I'm trying to sleep and they've actually been so successful that I've been able to get myself to sleep despite my RLS without the help of meds! I haven't needed a sleeping pill in about a week!
*Break Kylee of nursing at night. Success! I actually got right down to business with this one and did it in the beginning of the month. And actually, I weaned her completely. She is a big girl who is now a champ at sleeping through the night and is 100% on cow's milk. Momma was sad to wean, and I cried just like I did with Hunter, but I'll have another nurser soon enough. ;) This past month, (when my bladder cooperated) I had more uninterrupted sleep than I have in over a year! It's been totally awesome.

February Goals
My theme this month with most of my goals will be organization. I could have a baby next month (oh my goodness!) and I really need to get this house in order!
*Do at least 2 loads of laundry 5 days a week.
*Stop over-eating.
*Memorize 2 more verses, and still remember the last 8.
*Organize the kids' closets. In this house, we are blessed with a TON of closet space. The kids each have 2 closets in their rooms, Greg and I each have our own walk-in closets, I have two linen closets, and I even have an extra closet in my kitchen for stuff! The problem with this, however, is that I've kind of exploded behind each closet door. Since there's so much room, I just throw stuff in there and close the door. Since the older two kids will be sharing a room once baby boy is here, I want to go through all 4 of their closets and organize and consolidate.
*Organize my walk-in closet. I kind of exploded in there, too, with all my clothes...
*Organize this shelf:

As you can see, this shelf is in our bathroom. It's right next to my sink and it's where I keep all my makeup and stuff. But as you can also see, it's ~~kind of~~ a total mess. And I know Greg hates it. So I want it to be a little more aesthetically pleasing by February 31st.
*Throw a totally-awesome 1st birthday party for Ms. Kylee.
*Have an amazing time with Gregory on the couple's retreat with our church. I'm so excited for this! The last time we had time with just the two of us (for longer than just a dinner-date) was about a month before Hunter was born...over 4 years ago! I'd say a little getaway is LONGGGG overdue!

Silly Kids

2012-01-30T18:50:00.001-05:00

Hunter sat and ate his food like this for about 5 minutes just holding his bacon. I guess he was saving the best for last! And Ms. Kylee loves this ring and just crawls around with it in her mouth. What a nut!

Field Trip to the Post Office

2012-01-27T10:30:00.000-05:00

We're part of a homeschool group that does pretty frequent field trips and this past Tuesday, Hunter, Kylee, and I got to go on our very first one!

We went to the local post office. I'd never been in the back of a post office before so I think it was more exciting for me than it was for Hunter.

For a 4-year-old, I think he did quite well. He wanted to see everything our guide was talking about.

The thing he wanted to see most of all was the other side of the slot when we drop mail off.

Here he is in front of it, although I couldn't get him to stand still!

Here is the inside of the PO boxes...

And what I found most interesting of all were the little cubbies for each of the mail carriers. They stand here and sort their mail for each address they deliver to, then put it in bins, load up, and deliver it! It's crazy to me to think there's a slot for every address in New Bern. I guess it makes sense...I'd just never given it any thought.

We were encouraged to bring a letter to mail to someone so the kids could see what happens to it. Hunter decided to mail a letter to daddy. He colored a picture for him and wrote his name on the envelope. Our guide even let him stamp the envelope himself!

After about 45 minutes he started asking to go home, so I'll have to remember for other field trips that that's about the length of his attention span! He did have fun though. I'm excited for the next 4-year-old appropriate field trip!

29 Weeks

2012-01-27T10:09:00.002-05:00

29 weeks! Can you believe it?! I don't have anything new to report really...although I've started the relaxation part of my HypnoBirthing book that I'm reading through this month to help prepare for birth. It's only been a couple nights though so it's still early to report.

I will say that I have deemed Gregory the "baby whisperer." Every time that poor man sticks his hand on my belly, even if baby boy is doing jumping jacks, he immediately stops. It's quite funny actually. I told him that I hope he has the same effect on him even after birth! But he just claimed that they already have a special bond. :)

Anyway here's the belly pic...followed by a series of silly pics. There usually are a few pictures every week that I have to delete but I decided to include them today. Enjoy!

Official 29 weeks with Hunter making a silly face...

and me looking to see his face...

and me showing him another silly face to do...

and him imitating mommy...

and mommy and daddy being silly with Hunter as the photographer :)

Weekly Family Night

2012-01-26T18:40:00.001-05:00

Playing the Cootie Game!

Update on Hunter

2012-01-20T14:34:00.002-05:00

I haven't really updated with where Hunter is lately so I thought I'd do that now...

He has a super-silly personality and is always making us laugh with things that he says and silly faces he makes.

He loves our church here in North Carolina. He is excited every time we go and he really enjoys going to AWANA!

In school, he's doing excellent in math. I think it will definitely be one of his best subjects, just like Greg and me. Every day when it's time for school, he is excited to do it and even asks to do it some days before momma is ready! He can write his name and stay in the lines doing so, and we're working our way through writing the alphabet and learning each letter's sound. Just recently, he will pick out the beginning sound of a word that he knows which letter it is, or will ask if he doesn't. He is definitely ready to begin learning to read soon!

Just like his sister, he adores his sibling. He doesn't like when she is upset, and gives her hugs and kisses all the time. He is also extremely excited for a baby brother!

His favorite thing to do is play with cars and trucks, as it has been for years. His favorite playmate is daddy.

If you ask him, his best friend is David and loves any chance to play with him.

He loves playing games, and loves our new Thursday night tradition of Family Night where we play board games as a family.

He is such a joy and he's my handsome man. We love him to pieces and love watching him grow, which is happening faster than mom likes!

Kylee's First Birthday

2012-01-20T14:15:00.001-05:00

Has it really been a year already?! I can't believe how fast it went.

Our sweet Kylee is such a joy. She has such a fun personality and loves to dance to anything, including the agitator on the washing machine. If it has a rhythm, that girl starts bouncing! She's as sassy as all get out and knows what she wants. She's tested us a few times too with sassiness.

She is pulling up on everything and walking along things and while holding our hands, but no standing alone or steps yet. She's certainly a fast crawler though!

She knows exactly who "dada" is and is starting to learn that I'm "mama." She says "UH!" for "uh oh" and has her own alien language that she talks in all the time.

She loves any toy with a face, but has a special place for her snuggle bear. We give it to her at bedtime and she grabs it, smiles and gives it a big hug.

She adores her big brother and loves being in his room with him playing with his toys.

For her birthday, we did a special cupcake with just us after dinner. We sang to her, and Hunter helped her blow out her candle. When we gave her the cupcake, that girl did NOT mess around. She touched it for just a second...

picked it up...

and went to town!

I think she liked it!

We are so thankful for our sweet girl and couldn't imagine life without her! We love you, Kylee Ann!

28 Weeks

2012-01-20T10:32:00.001-05:00

I'm so tired!!! I know I keep saying that but it seems like it's just getting worse. If i just sit down to read or something, I'm so tired I feel my RLS set in from exhaustion. My RLS is so bad that I've been taking the little bit of sleeping pills I have left from the end of Kylee's pregnancy every night. Otherwise I'll lay awake for hours. It's miserable. And I forgot to talk to my doctor about it at my appointment this week! Which brings up another symptom...it seems my brain has left me. Example: while making baked Mac and cheese this week, I poured my noodles into the roux for the cheese sauce instead of the boiling water. Oops!

Some good news is that I passed my glucose test! And my iron levels are good, which makes me really happy because I haven't been taking my prenatals because they were upsetting Kylee. It's good to know my diet is sufficient enough without them! However, I gained 4 lbs in 2 weeks! It occurred to me that I never compensated my eating habits for the fact that I was weaning Kylee. I'm thinking that may have something to do with it. So as of this morning, I'm being a grown up and logging my food again like I did with Kylee's pregnancy. I'd rather log and keep it under control than throw caution to the wind and wonder what happened 50 lbs later.

So that's that. I'm exhausted. That's pretty much the bottom line.

Big Helper

2012-01-20T09:18:00.001-05:00

This Girl LOOOOOOVES Her Daddy!!

2012-01-17T13:12:00.000-05:00

The Theme of Today's Grocery Shopping Trip

2012-01-16T22:39:00.001-05:00

Seriously?! Maybe God was saving me from buying half the things on my list because it's going to be super-cheap at Harris Teeter next week!

27 Weeks

2012-01-13T09:33:00.001-05:00

I can't believe I'm in the third trimester already! Time is FLYING!!!!

While I can't believe it, I can definitely feel it. I'm wearing a maternity support belt full-time now. I'm starting to feel the weight of baby boy which is just causing a lot of pressure so the belt helps alleviate some of that.

I can definitely tell he's growing in size too. Just this week I've started to feel kicks and rolls that are beginning to be painful. I'm anxious to see his estimated size at my ultrasound in a few weeks.

Although we aren't sharing until his Birth Day, he still doesn't have a name. We seriously can't agree on one...hopefully we'll be able to decide on one soon!

Blue Eyes <3

2012-01-08T22:59:00.001-05:00

Please ignore the crazy hair from the baby girl. She was having quite the wild hair day. ;)

26 Weeks

2012-01-05T09:09:00.002-05:00

Me and my two baby boys, haha. Hunter wanted to be in the picture, ring pop, water and all.

This typically happens to me at least once a pregnancy where I lose count of how far along I am. I had a Dr's appt and they mentioned me being 26 weeks and I thought I was only 25. Yay for gaining a week!

I definitely feel that the third trimester is right around the corner. I'm starting to feel the weight of the baby...something I never really felt with the other two. My dr said to start wearing a maternity support belt to alleviate some of the discomfort. My appointment went well though. I was actually shocked I only gained 5 lbs this past month. I seriously thought it would be double that. I guess this making stuff homemade thing is good for more than one reason! My weight is still low though. I weigh one pound less at 26 weeks pregnant than I did when I got pregnant with Hunter!

I'm going to biweekly appointments already too! In two weeks I'll have another glucose test, yuck! Now that the holidays are past, I'm sure April will be here before we know it!

December Goals Recap and January Goals

2012-01-03T12:27:00.005-05:00

December Goals
*Complete all of my 25 Random Acts of Kindness. Success! Posts can be seen here, here, and here.
*Study 5 days a week in 1 Corinthians. Fail. I did really well until Christmas and family was in town...then that totally threw me off schedule.
*Make a weekly to-do list, and complete it! I learned a while ago that a weekly list is way better than a daily one. I'm much more successful with this. Again, fail because of Christmas.
*Do at least one load of laundry 5 days out of the week. Can we just talk about before Christmas? I did great the first few weeks though.
*Memorize at least 2 more verses, and still remember the last 4. Success. Proverbs 31:26 and Romans 3:23
*Homemake any bread-like side (sandwich bread not included) that I serve to my family. Total success!!! I am SO proud of myself with this one! I lost count on how many cinnamon rolls I made...
And Parker House Rolls...

(If you make them, I suggest standing them up in a cake pan as opposed to putting them on a cookie sheet. I've made them both ways and this way keeps them softer and super delicious.)

I also made Cheddar Cheese Biscuits (with no Bisquick since the idea here is to weed out trans fat.)
And homemade pizza dough...I'm still trying to find a really good recipe though using google, so I don't have one to share since I wasn't sold on the couple I tried.I even made my own pie crust! Here's a tip...if you don't have a pastry cutter like me, use a food processor to cut the butter in. It was so simple!I think we definitely benefited from all the homemade breads, and I felt good knowing we weren't consuming all that trans fat. AND I seriously ate so many carbs this month and I only gained 1 pound over what I should've with the pregnancy, which totally could be attributed to all the Christmas sweets! I'm thinking that it was so much healthier than store bought stuff that it's ok to have a bit more. I'll definitely be continuing to make all our bread homemade...especially since Parker House Rolls are so delicious and my family LOVESSS them, AND because of my new KitchenAid mixer, so I don't have to hand-knead the dough for 8-10 minutes. I can stick it in the mixer and walk away!

And here's my January Goals
*Study 5 days a week in 1 Corinthians.
*Make a weekly to-do list, and complete it! I found this printable yesterday, so I'm going to print a few out and give them a try this month.
*Do at least one load of laundry 5 days out of the week.
*Memorize at least 2 more verses, and still remember the last 6.
*Continue making all our breads.
*Stop over-eating! Although my weight gain didn't necessary show it, I know I eat too much at meals sometimes. I need to stop when I'm full instead of overindulging.
*Send out Kylee's birthday invites. Her birthday is in a couple weeks, but we're doing a party in February because of finances.
*Be consistent with Hunter's chore chart. Greg and I sat down and reevaluated our list of chores with him and I want to be better than I have been in the past about making sure they get done.
*Be consistent with Hunter brushing his teeth! Typically, we would brush his teeth every night, but we've been having him also brush them himself in the mornings. I need be better about making sure he does it!
*Read through Hypnobirthing.
While talking to a friend about my desire to labor without an epidural, she suggested this book. I want to finish it before the month is over and decide if it's right for me and baby boy.
*Break Kylee of nursing at night...can you believe my almost 1 year old is still waking up at night?!? I know it's ridiculous, and it's totally my fault for not having the will power to break her of it sooner. I've tried multiple times in the past but would give in...but I'm not giving in this time! I want a bit of sleep before I have another baby waking me at night!

RAOK #10-25

2012-01-03T11:41:00.002-05:00

While I may not have kept up with blogging my Random Acts of Kindness throughout the month, I did keep up with doing all of them! Here's the recap:

RAOK #10
I was parked in the very back of Harris Teeter and as i unloaded my cart, I noticed two more that were sitting on a grassy area, so I grabbed them and took all three back to the inside of the store. Not that this is why I'm doing it, but I got a "thank you" from the cart attendant!

RAOK #11
I was at Target and I noticed a "buy 2, get 1 free" coupon for bags of Hershey kisses. Since a hungry pregnant woman at the store is never a good combo, it caused me to go back to the Hershey end-cap I saw. As I walked up, I saw an older gentleman put 2 bags of kisses in his cart, so I have the coupon to him.

RAOK #12
I shipped some packages for a friend that didn't have time to before leaving for vacation.

RAOK #13
We were having a Christmas party at church and a tree needed to be decorated for it. It was a pre-lit tree...but none of the lights worked! I spent a couple hours taking off all the lights on the tree. What a pain! Pre-lit trees are definitely not meant to have the lights taken of of them!

RAOK #14
I went back the next day and decorated the tree for the party.

RAOK #15
I made homemade cinnamon rolls for the church staff.

RAOK #16-18
I made a variety of Christmas cookies for 2 of the pastoral staff and families (the 3rd was out of town) and for friends of ours who live down our street.

RAOK #19
I have a local friend who was asking me about training for a half marathon. I mentioned a book a friend gave me when I trained for mine that really helped, and when I remembered my RAOK's, I thought to let her borrow it since it was such a help to me.

RAOK #20
I got up early and took the dog to the groomers for Gregory. Normally he would get up a bit before work and take her, but I surprised him and saved him the trip.

RAOK #21
After dinner the other night, my mom told me she would wash the dishes in a few minutes, but she just wanted to sit down for a bit first. I washed them for her so she could relax.

RAOK #22
My brother bought Hunter a remote controlled car that needed a 9-volt battery. When we went to the store to get it, I bought it instead of my brother.

RAOK #23
While at Walmart, I noticed someone had stuck meat that they decided not to buy on a shelf, so I put it back in the refrigerator section so it didn't go bad.

RAOK #24
I disposed of a stepped-on Pop Tart at church before it got permanently ground into the carpet.

RAOK #25
I gave my fellow cloth-diapering friend some of my cloth wipes. I told her I'd been given some and she wanted me to let her know if I liked them because she was considering getting some. Since I love them, I gave her some of mine.

Now that it's all said and done, I'm really glad I chose to do it throughout the month instead of trying to cram it all in a day. Not only did it give me the opportunity for spontaneity and to bless someone I saw could use it, but it also got me in a totally different mindset than I was before the project. Every time I went out, I was looking for ways to help people. It got me really trying to find ways to bless people without expecting anything in return. I want to have that mindset all the time. I'm praying I don't lose it, and I can continue finding RAOK's to do, simply because that's how we, as Christians, are supposed to be.

How Cute Am I???

2012-01-02T09:51:00.001-05:00

Foot in my Mouth

2011-12-30T08:43:00.004-05:00

So along with my birthday card from my parents with my new mixer came a printout of this text conversation...

Never in my life have I been so grieved to have been caught on record saying something!

However, they're ignoring the fact that my mom said don't take the deal!

(Anyone know how to secure cookies for mailing?) :-/

25 Weeks

2011-12-29T09:44:00.003-05:00

All of the sudden this week, I feel like baby boy has grown leaps and bounds! I could only feel him low in my pelvis, and now all of the sudden, I feel him up by my belly button, and I've even felt him two places at once at times. It's odd that there was no graduation. Feeling good though...just not looking forward to stepping on the scale next week because of Christmas! :-|

Early Birthday Presents

2011-12-29T09:22:00.002-05:00

My parents and brother were able to come in town for a few days for the holiday. I was so excited to see them and even though I wasn't expecting anything, they brought presents for my birthday! And boy, do they know how to make me happy. A couple years ago, my brother let me borrow one of his guitars so I could learn to play. It's an acoustic guitar, very basic, and doesn't plug into anything. I've been wanting to play and sing a song at church instead of using a track, but had no guitar to do so. Well because my brother is so awesome, he brought me one of his acoustic/electric guitars and GAVE it to me!!!! I'm so excited! The neck on it is thinner than the other one, so it's easier for me to play too.And look at the design on it. It's black and an emerald green color. I love it!And look what my parents got me!!!!I have wanted one of these for a long time, but especially since I discovered the Pioneer Woman and make a lot more things homemade than I used to, I've REALLY wanted one. And my kitchen is red, and I've always been afraid that we wouldn't have enough money to get me one before red stopped being trendy. I love my red so much though, that my goal is to have a Coca-Cola kitchen so my red will always fit. I am so excited to break it in!

My birthday isn't until Saturday, but my mom wanted to have the fun of breaking in the mixer with me, and my brother wanted to be able to play guitar with me while they were here, so they wanted me to open them early.

Aren't my family the best!? Turning 25 isn't so bad when it comes with super-awesome gifts like this!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T18:15:00.001-05:00

Pregnancy Comparison #2

2011-12-24T14:52:00.002-05:00

(Click on the picture to view it larger)

Well, I remember with Kylee, this ivory shirt didn't fit me anymore, which is why I had that purple one on. Well I must carry my boys a bit similar since I can still wear the shirt with baby boy.

It's funny that my belly is distinctly different in every photo though! I think I'm definitely smallest with this one in comparison to his siblings!

24 Weeks

2011-12-24T13:12:00.001-05:00

I feel like my belly is oddly shaped. Like it comes to a point or something...

Anyway, 24 weeks. This little man does quite the flips and rolls at time. I'm a little apprehensive for the third trimester considering he is only about a pound right now. I hope he doesn't cause too much pain!

I need January here, pronto. He has me craving anything sweet and unhealthy, and with it being Christmastime, it doesn't help at all!

Hunter got to feel him kick for the first time! That was exciting. Except now Hunter thinks he's big enough to come out, but we still have a bit to go. ;)

Handsome Man

2011-12-20T08:47:00.003-05:00

So ever since Kylee has been born, Hunter has shown an interest in girly things. Mom and Kylee get to wear skirts, dresses, hair bows, etc.

Then one day when Hunter filled his hair with flowers and hair bows, I decided it was time to find some boy things for him, that were just that - just for boys.

Since mom and Kylee get dressed up on Sundays in skirts and dresses, I decided to start with the same thing with him. He had a couple sweater vests I put him it, but I still wanted something more.

I've been searching everywhere for neck ties for him but couldn't find anything I liked that I was willing to pay the cost for. Then I thought, "There's got to be a tutorial for making neck ties for boys at home." And of course, there was! The one I found starts with a man's tie and then you alter it. Well since I had such an amazing sense of style when I was a teen and wore my dad's ties as belts, and because I don't get rid of anything, I had a tie to start. And guess what? My dad is so awesome because he doesn't get rid of anything either, and one of his ties I had is from the 80s and is really thin. So all I had to do to make it fit Hunter was shorten it and repair the end.

So Sunday for church, he sported his first neck tie. Isn't he handsome?!I mentioned the tutorial to a friend at church who ended up giving me over a dozen ties that he doesn't wear that I'll be making into more ties for Hunter. I'm so excited!

I was at the store buying Hunter's oxford shirt and I found this for baby boy for $2.80.
My boys will be so cute together!

How to Make a Fake Pregnant Belly

2011-12-17T08:54:00.009-05:00

Now I know what you're thinking...yes, I'm already pregnant. However, the person that played Mary for our Christmas Cantata is not! I was in charge of making it look like she was.

After considering lots of different ideas and consulting with a master costume-maker (thank you for your help, Andrew!) I decided a stuffed pillow would be best.

I started with stretchy polyester that I had laying around. It was a royal purple, but I knew it would be covered up, so color didn't matter.

First, I cut a piece of fabric about 12-13" wide, and I turned the fabric so that if I pulled it on the sides, it wouldn't stretch. The length wasn't really important at first, so I left it about 2' long.

Next, I blew up a beach ball about halfway to serve as stuffing while I pinned. Since I already have a 5 month pregnant belly, my poor husband had to keep stuffing the beach ball under his shirt to see if it made him look 9 months pregnant, haha. Needless to say, he wouldn't let me get a picture of that.

After I got it to be a good size, I set it on top of my cut fabric.

Next, I draped another piece of fabric over the ball, making sure it was turned 90 degrees from the other piece of fabric so that if I pulled the sides, it WOULD stretch. Then, I pulled the fabric tight on the sides so the beach ball would flatten on the bottom and pinned the sides in a straight line to my bottom piece.

Next, I pinned the bottom corners in pleats to work around the curves of the ball, like this:

Then I did the same thing to the other side, and pinned a straight line at the bottom. Like this:
I then sewed the U shape on my sewing machine. Here is what the underside looked like with the flat piece of fabric. No pleats, just flat:

And here's the top side with the pleats:Next, I left the beach ball out of it, and pinned pleats around the top part of curves, but made them smaller than the bottom, since this would be the top of the belly. I made sure to leave the top open for stuffing it. I then trimmed the excess fabric around the edges.

I used fiberfil for stuffing, and did the same thing as the beach ball...my husband had to keep putting it under his shirt while we adjusted the size.

Sorry it's not a great picture, but here's the finished pillow.

You can tell it's a bit lumpy from the fiberfil but it wasn't a problem, because she wore it under a BellaBand like this so it could be easily slipped in and out:

I already had the BellaBand, which I got at Target for about $20, but it's just a tube of spandex. It could be easily recreated.

She wore a maternity tank over the belly which helped smooth out any last lumps, and then here's the finished product:
Doesn't it look great?!

23 Weeks

2011-12-16T16:34:00.001-05:00

Ok, I feel huge!

Whenever I look at my belly lately, that's all I think. It looks so big to me.

Here's the belly pic of the week.

Greg took it right before I left for church for our AWANA Christmas party. I'm not sure whats up with my camera, but my tank is a Christmas green color. I finished my outfit with these:

When I came out of the bedroom from getting dressed, Hunter looked at me and said, "Why are you wearing that?" LOL!

Oh well. I liked it. ;)

Not much to report this week though. Things are still going well, thank the Lord!

Provisions

2011-12-16T16:05:00.003-05:00

With Christmas right around the corner, things have been extremely tight financially.

Greg and I have been wrestling with what to do about Christmas, because we grew up with good Christmases, and would like to be able to bless our children in the same way.

Ever since we took Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace last fall, we haven't used a single credit card. God has been so good and met all of our needs. For over a year, all of our bills have been paid without using credit. He even moved us down here without them!

Unfortunately for us, not many people go to get their cars fixed in December. That translates to low paychecks for us since Greg is paid on commission.

Last paycheck, we didn't even have enough money for groceries. We started talking about the possibility of using a credit card just to get some groceries, and then use it for Christmas too, since we didn't have money for that. We knew we could just pay it off in a couple months when our tax return came.

Friday night, I had to run to Walmart for some medication, so Greg told me to take the credit card and buy some stuff for the kids.

On my way to the store, I had a mental battle the whole time. I knew God had provided every single paycheck for us for over year. He had been faithful. Yet my flesh wanted so bad to just use to credit card and buy the kids some gifts.

When I got to Walmart, I just walked around the store. I looked at toys, and even found some I would have liked to buy for Hunter and Kylee. But I just had this guilt while I was there. I felt like it was a sin to even have the credit card on me! It was crazy. In the end, I purchased only the medicine and went home.

When I got home, I told Greg that I just couldn't do it. Not only did I not want to break our streak of not using them, but I just felt like God was telling me everything would be ok. Food would be provided, and even though some gifts under the tree for the kids isn't a necessity, I felt like He was saying He would provide that too. I didn't know how, but I was going to trust that He would.

Saturday morning at 8:30am, we got a ring on our doorbell. I was changing Kylee's diaper so Greg went to go answer it. A moment later, he came back with this in his hand.

Inside of it was $100 cash.

We don't know who it's from. We saw a girl running to get into her car, but didn't recognize her or the vehicle.

We do know that God provided through someone being very generous to us. That $100 put much needed food on our table, and even provided some gifts for our babies.

I keep thanking God for meeting our needs even when we don't see how it's possible.

And to whoever gave us the $100, if you're reading this, THANK YOU. Gregory and I appreciate it more than you know.

Philippians 4:19
"But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus."

Christmastime

2011-12-13T14:05:00.001-05:00

RAOK # 4-9

2011-12-10T21:33:00.002-05:00

RAOK #4
A girl from church's husband is deployed, so I offered to babysit her kids so she could get some kid-free shopping done. Her boys are so sweet, but another crawler in the house is crazy! I couldn't handle crawling twins. ;)

RAOK #5
I took out the recycling for my husband. All I can say is YUCK! Thank you, honey, for making that your responsibility every week!

RAOK #6
I asked the person in charge of costumes for our Christmas Cantata at church if she needed any help. She asked me to make the pregnant belly for Mary, so I'm in charge of that. Blog post coming soon on how to make a fake pregnant belly!

RAOK #7
While at the mall today, I went into Hallmark with a coupon for $5 off a $10 purchase. I saw a middle-aged man looking very out of place as he shopped the figurines. I asked if he could use the coupon, and he, of course, said yes. Hopefully I helped him save some money for buying a gift for a special lady.

RAOK #8
Target has had a coupon for a $10 gift card when you spend $50. I was in the infant's section and saw a couple about my age buying a stroller/car seat system, so I asked them if they could use it.

RAOK #9
I mailed my friend a pack of Kroger coupons, some of which included free items.

These random acts of kindness are so much fun! It's awesome to see a smile on people's faces!

BBQ Chicken Pizza

2011-12-10T21:07:00.005-05:00

So I made BBQ Chicken Pizza tonight, totally homemade!

Since one of my goals this month is to make all of our breads homemade, I even made my own pizza dough.

I started with this recipe.

The rest of my ingredients were:
Cooked, diced chicken, about 1-1/2 cups
BBQ sauce
Mozzarella cheese
Parmesan cheese
Colby/Monterey jack blended cheese
Diced onion

Once the dough had doubled in size, I just sprinkled a pan with corn meal, and stretched it to fit my pan. (The pan I used it 14x10 inches.)

Like this...

Then I brushed my dough with BBQ sauce. I tossed the chicken in some BBQ sauce to coat it and then put it on top. Next, I added all my cheeses. I know I don't have amounts on here becuase it's totally up to you and how much you love cheese. If you want a ballpark figure though, I'd say around 1 cup per kind of cheese. After the cheese, I just sprinkled the onions on top and a tiny bit more BBQ sauce to make it look pretty and popped it in a 400 degree oven for about 20-25 minutes, when my crust was golden and my cheese was bubbly and slightly browned.

Here's the finished product. YUM!

22 Weeks

2011-12-08T08:26:00.001-05:00

I had a regular appointment today. Everything looks great. I have another appointment in 4 weeks, and then I'll be going every 2 weeks already. This pregnancy is flying by! They said at my ultrasound last week, baby boy was 12 oz. How sweet is that??? He's currently in the 22nd percentile for size. But, she said the later on in pregnancy is when babies differentiate more in size, so at my ultrasound in February, we can look at his size and get a better idea to how he compares with other babies. I'm fine if he wants to stay little while he's in there though!!

He constantly let's me know he's doing well with kicks and turns. He was a stinker for the dr though while she was trying to get his heartbeat. He kept moving and kicking her! Do we have another feisty child on the way? We already have two; isn't that enough?!

All of the sudden this week, I have been getting terrible lower back pain if I'm doing any kind of activity that could be possibly marked as lightly physical. Even doing laundry and picking up the baskets will make my back hurt for the rest of the day. They gave me some exercises I could do so hopefully that will help alleviate some of it.

I gained 6 pounds since my last month's appointment. I was trying to stick to the "1 pound per week" rule, but that apparently didn't happen. They aren't worried about it though because even with the 6 pound gain, I'm only at 1 pound over my pre-pregnancy weight. I guess that explains why I still fit in my pre-pregnancy jeans with the button rubber banded closed!

RAOK #1, 2 and 3

2011-12-02T14:20:00.002-05:00

ROAK #1
My first RAOK took place on Thanksgiving. I decided I wanted to show the local fire station how much we appreciate them, especially because of the fact that someone always has to man the station. They don't always get Thanksgiving off to spend with their family because they have to be at work to keep us all safe.

So I baked a pumpkin pie, and after dinner we all went up there to give it to them and say 'thank you.'

We didn't expect it, but the firefighter who answered the door when we showed up blessed us too! He let us come inside and showed Hunter the fire truck and let him sit in it.

He loved it!! We were very appreciative.

I hope the pie we brought let the firemen know we really appreciate them.

I hope the pie we brought let the firemen know we really appreciate them.

ROAK #2
While grocery shopping at Harris Teeter last night, I discovered that someone (or some people) decided to leave their expired coupons on the shelves throughout the store instead of throwing them away. Whenever I saw some, I picked them up and disposed of them myself.

ROAK #3
It was after 10pm when we finished, and the majority of the grocery carts were already collected and in the front of the store, so I took ours back up with the rest of them.

November Goals Recap and December Goals

2011-12-02T13:58:00.003-05:00

Well, to recap November, I basically was a big fat failure...

*Study 5 days a week in 1 Corinthians. I studied...but not 5 days a week.
*See a movie with Gregory. Wow, I totally forgot this one was even on here...we just didn't have the money though.
*Continue making bed. I did do this, but not as well as I would like.
*Stick to our budget again. It's pretty easy to do when there isn't too much money to budget with! ;)
*Clean at least 15 minutes per day, excluding Sundays. I discovered the FlyLady in October, and I'm trying to implement her suggestions to get in a good cleaning routine before I have three little munchkins. Total fail...I didn't keep up with cleaning like I'd like. Boo.
*Do (at least) one load of laundry per day, excluding Sundays. It stresses me out when I let it pile up and I have a ton to do at one time. Fail...didn't do it every day. I did do it majority of days though!
*Memorize (really memorize) at least 4 Bible verses. SUCCESS! I am very proud that I did this one. I memorized
Philippians 4:6-7
Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, present your requests unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

1 Timothy 2:11
Let the woman learn by silence with all subjection.

Ephesians 4:29
Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

God definitely used one of the verses to convict me too...so they're doing their job!

So...I definitely get an F for my November goals...I think part of my problem is that a lot of my goals are daily ones...and if I miss one day out of the whole month simply because it was an off day, I failed...and then I get mad at myself and don't even want to continue.

I need a solution to this. I think I'm going to give myself weekends off, and hopefully that will help me be much better.

So here goes...
December Goals
*Complete all of my 25 Random Acts of Kindness.
*Study 5 days a week in 1 Corinthians.
*Make a weekly to-do list, and complete it! I learned a while ago that a weekly list is way better than a daily one. I'm much more successful with this.
*Do at least one load of laundry 5 days out of the week.
*Memorize at least 2 more verses, and still remember the last 4.
*Homemake any bread-like side (sandwich bread not included) that I serve to my family. I really want to weed out trans fat from our diet, and store bought bread, cinnamon rolls, etc. really have so much of it. So I will homemake all that stuff. I do have one more package of store-bought cinnamon rolls that I'll serve, but after that, it'll all be homemade. I made homemade dinner rolls last night so we're off to a good start!

21 Weeks

2011-12-01T08:01:00.003-05:00

I'm tired. I'm so tired. (And I think this week's picture shows it.) And this might have a little bit to do with staying up too late at night (which will probably result in a new December goal) but I have to think the pregnancy plays at least a little part in it!With the extreme fatigue has come my pregnancy RLS. This is very discouraging since it wasn't until months from now that I got it with Kylee! I need to try to get to bed at a decent hour to see if it helps it because I just want to cry when it sets in as I am trying to sleep.

In other news, I had a stranger comment about the pregnancy this week...I think that may have been the first one. We were all checking out at Target and the cashier asked Hunter if mom and dad went on vacation. I was actually surprised it didn't make me mad since my sister tells me I overreact when I'm pregnant. But I just thought it was funny!

I have officially lost my feet if I look down. I even had pointy heels on last night and couldn't see the ends of those either.

Gregory got to feel the baby kick this week for the first time! That's always exciting. :)

Baby *boy* has me craving anything sweet...this is not good during Christmastime! I'm trying to fight it and remember I want a small baby! I have been wanting to bake cookies galore but don't want to eat them all myself!

My next appointment is Wednesday so we'll see if I've been doing well with saying no to sweets and have steady weight gain...

Ultrasound

2011-11-30T08:41:00.003-05:00

Well, we had our anatomy ultrasound yesterday and we have a healthy baby BOY on the way!!!
He was sweet and cooperative in the ultrasound. Here's a profile picture. Greg and I think it looks JUST like Hunter, with maybe a little more of daddy's chin than Hunter has.
Here he is looking at the camera...
and here's his sweet little foot...
The tech asked me if I'd had a feeling one way or the other for boy or girl. I told her in the beginning I totally thought a boy, but lately I wasn't so sure. When she said it was a boy, Greg said, "That means you get to have another one." For years he has been telling me that we're done after 2 girls, but we have yet to mean that quota!

We talked to the doctor after the ultrasound once he had reviewed all the pictures. He said something about the tubes going to the kidneys, and the normal level being 1, and mine and baby boy's is .9. He said if it's off, it can result in pressure going up into the kidneys. I didn't totally understand what he meant, but he said it's not something to be worried about because the number is barely off, but just to be sure everything is ok, they're going to do a repeat ultrasound in the beginning of February. Other than that, he said everything looks great and we have a healthy baby!

Hunter is sooo excited that he's having a baby brother. It hasn't been 24 hours and he's already talking about sharing his boy toys with him, and things he's going to do with him. I am excited to pull out all the boy clothes again. When I went through the boy stuff to get out the neutral clothes for Kylee, I had so many memories of when Hunter wore it and I'm excited to pull it all out again!

I am a little apprehensive about baby's size though. Hunter was 10 lbs 8 oz, and being that this is another boy, I'm a little scared I'll have another gigantor baby. It's that much more motivation for me make sure I'm gaining slow and steady though!

Gregory and I are so excited for a sweet baby boy to add to our family though. This is the first time we have both wanted the same gender, and I am so grateful that the Lord is giving us another boy. He has been so good to us and I feel so blessed. God is SO good!

It's Christmastime!

2011-11-26T21:15:00.001-05:00

We decorated the tree tonight.

Hunter had so much fun!!! If you notice though, we kept the bottom of the tree clear of ornaments and lights. We have a little crawling monster this year that will eat them if we don't!

My Birthday Project

2011-11-24T18:17:00.003-05:00

So next week, it will be my birthday month.

Typically for my birthday, it's a time for me to get a couple things that I've been wanting, but because money is tight, I can't just go out and buy.

However, while on Pinterest, I discovered a woman who spent her birthday a little differently than the average American, and I decided I wanted to do the same thing. You can read about her here.

Instead of getting gifts, I want to use the money Greg may have spent on a gift and complete 25 random acts of kindness (RAOK) for other people (because it'll be my 25th birthday.)

I have every thing I need. God has been so good to me and I have a beautiful family, a great roof over our head, and good food on the table.

If you look at the original woman who did this, she completed hers all in one day. But for a few different reasons, I decided I'm going to do it over the month of December. For one thing with my kids, it would be really difficult to get them all done in a day. But the main reason I want to give myself the month is becuase I really want some of the opportunities to bless people to be spontaneous. I pray the Lord will give me opportunities throughout the month to show His love to people who really need it. If every RAOK was preplanned, it could really take away from that.

So that's that. 25 RAOK for my 25th birthday.

And I'd love if you joined in. If you're out, and you see the opportunity to complete a RAOK and think of this post, could you do it for me? Maybe the person in front of you at the grocery store is just smidge short on their bill and needs a little change, or maybe you decided to take a few carts from the wayyyy back of the parking lot up to the store, or maybe you feel like paying for the toll fee for the car behind you, or you see an elderly person that could use some help loading their groceries in their car...(the list goes on!)

If you decide to participate because of this post, could you let me know what you did? I'd love to compile a list of all the blessings we bestowed upon people!

I will be keeping up with each random act on my blog, so stay tuned!

Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T17:45:00.007-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving!!

We had a good day over here in New Bern.

We ended up having an intimate Thanksgiving with just our family. We stayed in our pj's...and just relaxed. It was an enjoyable day.

We started our day with Pioneer Woman's Monkey Muffins.

She topped them with sweetened condensed milk, but I had leftover icing from the Pumpkin Cookies I made the day before, so I used that. The boys really liked them!

Even though it was just the 4 of us (and one of us doesn't eat meat,) I bought a 12.5 lb turkey...because Greg loves it that much. I made quite a bit of sides too because, let's be serious: it's all about the sides.

We had turkey, green bean casserole, Gulliver's corn (a Wehrman) family recipe, sweet potatoes, stuffing, Pioneer Woman's Potatoes Au Gratin, cranberry sauce, and olives. It was all delish!

Here's the boys enjoying the food. :)

And Kylee learned a new trick during dinner! Here's a video. :) I can't believe how big she's getting!

For dessert, we had pumpkin pie, no-bake cheesecake, and raspberry cobbler. Greg and I dipped into the cheesecake last night...I figured with how many desserts we had and how little number of people we had eating them, the two pieces wouldn't be missed today. ;)

After dessert, we went up to the local fire station to take them a pumpkin pie to say "thanks" for keeping us safe, even though that means working on Thanksgiving.

It was a good day. I am so thankful for how the Lord has blessed me with such a wonderful little family, and how next year we'll have another member!

How was your Thanksgiving?

20 Weeks

2011-11-23T22:16:00.001-05:00

Wow, I'm at the halfway point already. I can't believe it! I had a lady in choir mention that I'll be in maternity clothes soon. Hah, I've been in them for a while now! I don't think she realized how far along I was either. This pregnancy really is going by soo fast!

Not much to update from last week I don't think. But our ultrasound is Tuesday so, Lord willing, we'll find out if it's a boy or girl. Can't wait!

Pillows

2011-11-17T20:10:00.001-05:00

This girl loves 'em! She just constantly lays and hugs it. It's so cute!

19 Weeks

2011-11-17T14:55:00.004-05:00

Baby has been a little acrobat in there lately! The kicks are strong enough to feel outside of my tummy, but I'm still the only one to feel them. No one wants to sit there for 20 minutes with their hand on my belly to wait for a kick, I'm sure.

I'm feeling totally normal...definitely in the second trimester. I do feel a little tired, but that might be because we've had Revival all week. But my appetite is good, and I feel pretty good. However, my belly is big enough now that it hurts my back to stand for a long period of time. My lower back hurts after every dish washing session at the sink, and I know it'll only get worse! EEK!

Here's the latest pic...

Only 12 more days until my ultrasound...YAY!!

18 Weeks

2011-11-11T16:40:00.001-05:00

I can't believe how fast this pregnancy is going now that I'm feeling good!

I had a Dr's appointment on Tuesday. I gained 9 pounds back from what I lost, hah! So now they told me to just go with the normal 1 pound per week weight gain. Everything looks good though and baby's heartbeat was nice and strong.

My anatomy ultrasound is scheduled for the 29th!!! I can't wait! But for some reason, I have this odd feeling like the baby is going to be stubborn and not let us find out. I hope I'm wrong though! I've been feeling like its a boy but lately I'm wondering if it's a girl. I'm only 60% sure it's a boy when before I was about 80-90% sure. We'll find out soon though!

Pregnancy Comparison #1 :)

2011-11-08T15:54:00.003-05:00

Guess what time it is...
Pregnancy comparison time!! Woohoo!

I know you're all excited. Don't try to hide it.

Anyway, here it is. Same dress, not necessarily at the same time. And I actually just threw it on for this pregnancy for the picture. It's too cold for a sleeveless dress!

Little Stinker

2011-11-08T15:08:00.001-05:00

Someone thought shed help herself to my water.

17 Weeks

2011-11-02T22:17:00.001-04:00

This boy cracks me up!!

Not too much to report this week. Although I have officially gained at least a few pounds. I have an appointment on Tuesday so I'll find out how much for sure, and that's also when well be scheduling my anatomy ultrasound! I can't wait!

Greg told me today he feels like this is a boy...and he felt like Kylee was a girl. So we'll see if he's right!

Hunter's Birthday

2011-11-01T09:20:00.011-04:00

Hunter's birthday and party were a huge success!

His actual 4th birthday was Thursday, the 27th, and I did my best to make it as special as possible.

Wednesday night, he took cupcakes to his AWANA class to celebrate. Here he is decorating them.

He was so excited when he woke up as a 4-year-old the morning of his birthday. He had been excited to be able to run as fast as his 4-year-old friend David when he turned 4, and according to him, he was going to be bigger and stronger too. I think he thought he would wake up a foot taller or something! When he woke up, I asked him if he felt stronger. He made big muscles with his arms and said, "YEAH!"

He was a stinker that morning, and this is the best birthday photo I could get.That morning, our friends Jenny, David and Aiden stopped by for a surprise birthday visit and they brought Hunter an adorable suit for church! Then for lunch, our neighbors, the Hair family, invited us over. They were so sweet and got Hunter a present, and made a couple birthday signs they hung up for him too. I told Donna that he likes anything with cheese, so we had a yummy mac and cheese lunch, and this for dessert...
That night after dinner, Greg and I sang Happy Birthday to him with a cupcake with candles, and gave him a small gift.On Friday, my parents flew into town for the weekend to celebrate with us.

Saturday was his actual party. We had a monster truck theme. Here is a picture of his invites (click on it for a larger view.) I found the idea online and my brother designed them, and then had them printed on glossy card stock so they looked like a real ticket. I absolutely loved them, and Hunter loved them too. He constantly wanted to see himself in the truck.
Three of our favorite families, the Coghills, Friedleins, and Goodfellows, were able to come to the party and it was so much fun!

Greg got old tires from work and we build an obstacle course in the backyard. I think that was everyone's favorite activity.

Here's a video of the kids doing the obstacle course race:

After the kids finished doing it twice, we decided that the four dads needed to compete. Here's a video of that:

We also played Pin the Tire on the Truck:Here's a picture of all the kids...

My mom and I made his monster truck birthday cake the day before. He loved it!

Kylee had a party bow on but wouldn't let me get a good picture of her...
All in all, it was SO much fun! Hunter had a wonderful party and he won't stop watching the home videos of it on the computer. I think that means it was a success! Thank you, everyone, that had a part in making his birthday so special!

November Goals

2011-11-01T08:56:00.004-04:00

Recap of October Goals
*Continue my studying in 1 Corinthians, studying at least 5 days per week. This was a total fail...I got out of my studying routine when we moved here because I was so exhausted and would sleep in instead of getting up before the kids to study. After a few weeks, I realized my fatigue was because of another pregnancy, but still, I need to get back into it. I did study some, but not the 5 days per week like I'd set my goal of. I'll try harder in November!
*Deep clean the house, since morning sickness has put a damper on my regular cleaning. Success! I even did things like scrub my washer with a toothbrush...you'd think I was nesting again or something!
*Go out on a date with the hubby for our 6th wedding anniversary. Success. We went to dinner while my parents were in town and they babysat. We still have to go see Courageous like I wanted to though.
*Throw an awesome 4 year old birthday party for the best little man. Success! Working on my blog post about it...
*Stick to our Financial Peace budget! Success!
*Make the bed every morning. (I never do this. I don't see the point in making the bed when you're just going to get in it again that night...but I know my husband appreciates climbing into a made bed.) This was half success/half fail. I did NOT make it every morning...however, I DID make it most weekdays throughout the month. I stink at it on the weekends. I'm usually out of bed before Greg on the weekends (especially Sundays) so I don't go back to it to make it. On a side note I must admit, climbing into a made bed is kind of nice!
*Don't let clean laundry pile up before folding it. With a made bed, I'm way better at this because I fold it on our bed, and then since it's there, I HAVE to put it away!
*Learn "Your Great Name" on guitar. Total fail. I'd wanted to sing it for a special at church and I found out our Ensemble team is singing it this Sunday, so I put this one on the back burner...
*Repair Kylee's bows...not really "repair," but I want to add a strip of hot glue to all of them to make them "non-slip" in her hair, and I just haven't dug out my hot glue gun to do it. Success! *Hang pictures in Kylee's room. Success! I ended up putting them on the top of her dresser, but at the beginning of the month, I didn't even have them in a frame.
*List everything on Craigslist I've been meaning to sell. Success!

November Goals
*Study 5 days a week in 1 Corinthians.
*See a movie with Gregory.
*Continue making bed.
*Stick to our budget again.
*Clean at least 15 minutes per day, excluding Sundays. I discovered the FlyLady in October, and I'm trying to implement her suggestions to get in a good cleaning routine before I have three little munchkins.
*Do (at least) one load of laundry per day, excluding Sundays. It stresses me out when I let it pile up and I have a ton to do at one time.
*Memorize (really memorize) at least 4 Bible verses.

I think that's it for now!

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T20:12:00.001-04:00

16 Weeks

2011-10-26T23:13:00.000-04:00

Do you see my bug showing his belly off too? He wasn't even trying to be silly; he was just simply showing his belly. I laugh every time I look at the picture.

This week has been decent. Still trying to gain weight though.

I feel the baby move every day! Yesterday the movements were so strong I noticed it while I was doing other things, like driving. It's been where I have to concentrate to feel it but now baby is getting so big that I feel it all the time. I love it!

Random Pictures of the Kids

2011-10-21T11:17:00.004-04:00

15 Weeks

2011-10-19T23:05:00.001-04:00

I feel like I popped this week!

I have had 3 people comment on my baby belly, yay! All of the sudden this past week, I have been searching through maternity clothes trying to find stuff to wear because my pre-pregnancy stuff is NOT working anymore.

As far as how I feel, God sure does answer prayer, doesn't He? I was hating that I was taking 4 prescriptions meds a day for my indigestion and I kept praying that it wasn't going to be like that the whole pregnancy. Well in the last 4 days, I've only needed to take it twice! I've been able to eat meals without getting sick. Yay!

I'm trying to log my food each day to see how I'm doing on calorie intake. After my first day of logging, I saw that there was no way I was even eating close to what I needed to. 2800-3000 calories is a LOT! But I'm going to continue to log and hopefully see some good changes on the scale!

I think I've felt the baby a few times this week, so exciting! Hopefully that will be happening more and more so I know that it's the baby for sure. :)

14 Weeks

2011-10-12T09:18:00.004-04:00

I have had 3 appointments in 3 days for the baby...everything is fine, that's just how it worked out.

I had my normal first appointment on Thursday...besides my weight loss, everything looks good. They're pretty concerned about that though. I've lost 14 pounds, and they told me if I don't start gaining I need to stop nursing Kylee. I have to eat at least 2800 calories a day...the normal 2000, then 300 for the pregnancy and 500 for nursing...that's a lot of calories! And actually, they want me to gain back the 14, and then gain the normal pregnancy amount so I should be eating a bit over 2800. And although nausea has subsided, I have had TERRIBLE indigestion. However, they did give me Reglan for that and it has done wonders, so now I'm trying to eat as much high calorie (yet not totally unhealthy) food as possible. I snack whenever I want, and I have been trying to include peanut butter whenever I can! So please pray I gain some weight! I seriously have not weighed this little since I was in middle school...and I was way shorter back then.

Friday I had an ultrasound at a diagnostic center for an accurate due date. She said I'm just a few days off according to my LMP so they're keeping my due date the same, which is April 11. So that means I totally skipped over 13 weeks because of how I was counting, and I'm 14 weeks today! It's like I gained a whole week!

Monday I met with the doctor again because they wanted to do an early glucose test, just like they did with Kylee, because of my 10 lb 8 oz first born child. I passed with no problems though, thankfully! Apparently Hunter was just a big baby! But guess what is abnormal again? Apparently my thyroid doesn't know how to get it together during pregnancy and I have slightly abnormal levels again...stupid thyroid. I'm barely over the normal level though, so it's not worth medicating. Hopefully like with Kylee's pregnancy, it will just level itself out. They'll test again in a couple months to see the levels.

So that's it for now...just trying to gain some weight! I laughed at the nutritionist when she told me to eat whatever I wanted...never in my life have I gotten that ok before...and it was quite the opposite from Kylee!

Anyway, here's the week's belly pic:
2 comments concerning the photo...
1. Please excuse the wet hair...at least I showered! ;)
2. I can't believe how thin I look!

More October Goals

2011-10-05T10:58:00.002-04:00

I have some to add...as I walk around my house, I see all the things I've been putting off. Maybe if I blog about needing to get them done, I'll do them because you will hold me accountable!

*Repair Kylee's bows...not really "repair," but I want to add a strip of hot glue to all of them to make them "non-slip" in her hair, and I just haven't dug out my hot glue gun to do it.
*Hang pictures in Kylee's room.
*List everything on Craigslist I've been meaning to sell.

Ok, that's it...for now. ;)

12 Weeks

2011-10-04T09:29:00.001-04:00

Ok, according to my last menstrual period, I'm 13 weeks. But according to my ultrasound, I'm 12. So I'm going with baby's age. It won't line up with the due date my doctor gives me, but I just can't seem to go with 13 weeks when I know the baby is a week behind.

Anyway, here's 12 weeks. I texted my mom a belly pic last week and she said, "I don't know if it's the angle or the mirror, but you look really thin." Uhhh, it's the 12 pounds I've lost. I've been extremely sick, throwing up multiple times a day. However, it's been about a week since the last time so I think I may be out of it. I still get stomach aches quite frequently, but it's not as bad as it was.

If I had to choose, I'd say I feel more like I did when I was pregnant with Hunter rather than Kylee. Greg wants a boy, and Hunter already talks about the boy in my belly. We'll see if they get their wish!

First doctor's appointment is Thursday so I'm excited for that!!

October Goals

2011-10-03T14:43:00.005-04:00

In honor of my friend Keri, who posts monthly goals each month, and then her progress at the end of the month, I think I will start too...or at least try it for October... I keep telling her I need goals like her, yet I never sit down and do it. Shame on me!

Anyway, here goes. My October goals are...
*Continue my studying in 1 Corinthians, studying at least 5 days per week.
*Deep clean the house, since morning sickness as put a damper on my regular cleaning.
*Go out on a date with the hubby for our 6th wedding anniversary.
*Throw an awesome 4 year old birthday party for the best little man.
*Stick to our Financial Peace budget!
*Make the bed every morning. (I never do this. I don't see the point in making the bed when you're just going to get in it again that night...but I know my husband appreciates climbing into a made bed.
*Don't let clean laundry pile up before folding it. Haha, I've been terrible at this too...
*Learn "Your Great Name" on guitar.
*More goals listed here.

I think I'll stick with those...I don't want to make a huge list my first go-around and then get discouraged if I totally fail.

New Bern Update

2011-09-28T15:26:00.003-04:00

I have been terrible...I know. I was such a busy blogger the couple months leading up to our move, and now I have just fallen off the face of the earth!

It's amazing that we're closing in on 2 months already since we moved...it's gone by SO fast. And to think that the crazy time of us waiting on a job was 2 months, and that felt like an eternity!

We are just so busy now that we're here. Sundays consist of morning and evening service, choir practice for me, and "Being a Success" class for Greg and me(which is our church's membership class). I try to sneak in a nap somewhere in there, but it doesn't always happen. We have co-op for homeschoolers during the week, football practice, Wednesday night church, and football games on the weekends. Compared to Virginia where we didn't have anything, we have quite a busy schedule here! And I'm still trying to figure it all out amidst the morning sickness. But praise God, that has been better the past couple days. Hopefully it's on its way out!

Anyway, I LOVE being back here. Downtown New Bern is set on the water, and when you're driving on the highway, you can look over the water towards downtown. Every time I see it, I just think, "Thank you, Lord, for bringing us back here."

We live about 10 minutes from downtown, but because New Bern is so quaint and small, we're on the outskirts of town.

Our house...let me tell you about our house. It (of course) fell into place for renting it once we found it, and our landlords are WONDERFUL. They sincerely care about taking care of their property but let us make little changes to make it our home. We built a fire pit in the backyard and can have s'mores whenever we want! :)

It's situated on half an acre, with a big two-car-garage for Greg to work in. Our backyard backs up to a horse ranch. I don't think I'll ever tire of hearing the horses "nay" when we have our windows open.

As far as the house's location, that couldn't be much better either. It takes Greg 4 minutes to get to work. He has to go through one stop sign and he's there. Because of this and the hour for lunch he gets, he's been able to come home everyday and we get that extra time with him. Church is only 6 minutes away in the opposite direction, and we don't go through any traffic lights for that trip either.

This house is definitely where God wanted us, and we really like it here. I will post pictures of the interior soon for those interested! Please forgive me for my lack of blogging!

This is What Happens When...

2011-09-21T12:10:00.001-04:00

...I tell Hunter to give her some toys to play with.

Guess Who's Mobile?

2011-09-14T11:52:00.003-04:00

Ms. Kylee has figured out how to low-crawl! She only does it if it's something she really wants...like one of her big brother's toys! But she's getting better at it and has even learned to get her knees under her, so we may have a full crawler soon!

Another Blessing

2011-09-12T15:30:00.001-04:00

We are having another baby!

I know I've been slacking on blogging, and it's because I have no energy past making sure my family is fed. That's pretty much all I can handle these days because of morning sickness. But I will catch up on blogs once I'm feeling better.

Anyway, according to the ultrasound measurements, I'm 9 weeks along. We are, honestly, still trying to get used to the idea of another baby since Kylee is just shy of 8 months, but I know once I start feeling better, I'll be more excited.

We weren't exactly trying for another baby, but God had different plans. But I'm so thankful for this blessing of another child. I'm so grateful He has been so good to us with our children, and we get to add another! Just like Kylee, I'll keep the blog updated for those interested. :)

Downfalls of Living in the Sticks

2011-09-06T22:23:00.001-04:00

This was in my LAUNDRY ROOM!!!!!!!!!!

Love this Face!

2011-08-25T16:25:00.001-04:00

Perks of Living in the Sticks

2011-08-18T19:41:00.001-04:00

Insert Caption Here

2011-08-18T09:35:00.002-04:00

What caption should this picture have?

Enjoying the Outdoors

2011-08-12T19:42:00.000-04:00

Shoes

2011-08-11T21:45:00.002-04:00

I haven't forgotten about you, blogger world. However, we don't have Internet yet so I can only post simple blogs from my phone. While I'll show the whole house once we have Internet, I want to give you a glimpse into my (yes, MY) walk in closet. (The Lord is spoiling me!)

I have finally found an awesome flip flop storage idea and because of the shelves in my closet, for the first time EVER, every pair of shoes I own has a home!

I'm in heaven!

We're not Homeless Anymore!

2011-08-02T11:29:00.002-04:00

And we're all moved in! ;)

New Bern, Here We Come!

2011-07-30T19:37:00.001-04:00

All packed up. It only took 2 days, a 26 foot truck, a last minute extra trailer that will be gotten on Monday, and pretty much all our energy. But were on our way!

It Makes Me Happy When...

2011-07-28T09:03:00.002-04:00

...Kylee's pacifier matches her diaper. :)

(and if you can't tell, this girl loves her tootsies!)

Lessons

2011-07-26T07:39:00.003-04:00

These past two months have been such an experience for me.

I can't even begin to tell you how much my faith has grown through it.

Though this should have been true before, I now can honestly say that I have 100% faith in God that when He says something, it is so. It WILL happen.

If there is anyone we can trust in, it's Him. As long as we are continuing to follow His will in all areas of our life, He will come through on His promises to us.

We have moved quite a few times...this will be our 7th move, and we'll be celebrating our 6 year wedding anniversary in October. This will be our 5th BIG move, as in - moving to another state.

That's a lot of house shopping.

And again, we are house hunting.

Because of these past two months, I honestly have NO apprehension about the process of finding the right house for us. I know that we are following God's will in moving back to New Bern, so I know He also has the perfect house for us...we just have to find it!

I have also learned a lot of other lessons through all of this...and one of those is that we have absolutely amazing friends and family.

I am overwhelmed by the amount of people that said they have prayed for us through this. When I say "thank you," please know that I mean it.

It really means so much to me that you care enough for us to pray with us in this situation.

James says "Every good and perfect gift is from above" and our friends and family are one of those gifts! I am so thankful for each of you!

Now that He has answered us with a job offer, will you please send up a prayer of thanks? He is such an awesome God, and I hate to think that He gets so many requests, and maybe not enough praises when He answers us.

Again, thank you all! :)

I trust that God has some pretty awesome plans for us in New Bern...if you'd like to follow our journey, I'll continue to update the blog. :)

Mysterious Ways

2011-07-25T20:00:00.000-04:00

I remember talking to my sister last week about this whole waiting situation.

I told her that I felt like once our answer came, it wasn't just going to be a phone call with a job offer.

I didn't know why, but I just felt like however it fell into place, it would come out of left field.

Boy did it ever.

Greg's hours have been cut drastically at his current job because of new management, and we knew that something had to change, whether that meant getting a second job here...or since we were so set on going to New Bern, possibly finding something else there.

All last week, we were very confused. For whatever reason, we felt like the phone call wasn't going to come, yet we had been so prepared to go to New Bern that we wondered if we were just supposed to go...with no job offer...but be in the right place in the right time for if/when it came.

Our prayer so many times last week was, "Lord, we want to do Your will...we just don't know what that is!!!"

So, Greg called the manager again on Thursday with all of that in mind, and left him a detailed message. He told him that he (Greg) needed to make a decision on what to do by Friday afternoon. He wanted to work for him, but he couldn't wait much longer and needed to look into something else if it wasn't going to work out with Volvo. He asked the manager to call him when he had time to talk.

Guess what?

The phone never rang.

So...Greg called our pastor in North Carolina. We'd heard of an opening at the New Bern Toyota dealership and knew the service manager goes to our NC church. For whatever reason, Greg felt led to make that phone call and see if there was anything there to look into.

Long story short, Greg got in touch with this guy and everything just fell into place.

All this weekend, just like that.

We got the OFFICIAL phone call this evening (about 10 minutes ago!) and we are officially employed by them.

And this offer is way more than we were even *hoping* for at Volvo...

God is SO good.

So, we move this Saturday, as in - 5 days from now!

I HAVE SO MUCH TO DO!!!

But I'll be praising the Lord through it all!!!

Thank you so much everyone for your prayers!!

Guess Who?

2011-07-24T16:18:00.001-04:00

Two stacks of neatly piled hangers.

This is the work of my husband.

I wish some of his organization skills rubbed off on me...my method of packing hangers is grabbing the biggest box available and just throwing them in!

Oops!

2011-07-22T19:02:00.001-04:00

Somebody's hand caught the bowl!

Random Thoughts

2011-07-22T12:11:00.004-04:00

I feel like there's a battle going on inside me.

I have so many thoughts that are running through my head, and I think they can be classified into two categories.

1. Thoughts (worries) of my flesh
2. Thoughts (known truth) of my spirit

My flesh keeps throwing ideas at me...ideas of what could happen...what should happen...what hasn't happened...

But I have two choices.

1. I can worry, and freak out...throw my hands up in the air and say, "What on earth is going on? How could this possibly all work out?"
2. I can go to His Word, and stand on His truth that He's given me. I can remember what His word says, and BELIEVE it.

It's so much easier to let my flesh win. But with every worry my flesh is telling me, I need to combat it with Scripture.

Psalm 119:147
I rise before dawn and cry for help; I have put my hope in your word.

Psalm 143:8
Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love,
for I have put my trust in you.
Show me the way I should go,
for to you I lift up my soul.

Worry #1 - Seriously, God? This can't be part of Your plan.

Psalm 18:30a
As for God, his way is perfect;
Psalm 34:19
A righteous man may have many troubles,
but the LORD delivers him from them all;

Worry #2 - Why does none of this make any sense?

Proverbs 3:5-6

⁵ Trust in the LORD with all your heart

and lean not on your own understanding;
⁶ in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight.

Worry #3 - How are we going to pay our bills?

Philippians 4:19
And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

Worry #4 - I really can't feel You with me right now, God. Are you really taking care of everything? Are You really still here?

Psalm 55:22
Cast your cares on the LORD
and he will sustain you;
he will never let the righteous fall.
1 Peter 5:7
Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
Psalm 34:18
The LORD is close to the brokenhearted
and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
Psalm 139:7-10
⁷ Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
⁸ If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
⁹ If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.

Worry #5 - I'm so afraid of all the "What if's."

Psalm 56:3-4a
³ When I am afraid,
I will trust in you.
⁴ In God, whose word I praise,

in God I trust; I will not be afraid.
Joshua 1:9
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”
Deuteronomy 31:8
The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”

Worry #6 - There's no way I can be at peace with everything that's going on right now.

John 14:27
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

Worry #7 - Why does it have to be like this? Why does it have to be so hard?

1 Peter 5:10
And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.

Amidst everything that's going on, I still want to make Him proud. It's easy to follow Him and praise Him when things are fine and dandy. But just because we're going through a difficult time does not mean I should forget about Him. No matter what I am going through, I want my honest prayer to be:

Psalm 19:14
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be pleasing in your sight,
O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.

So even though it's not easy, I'm going to choose to remember and believe the promises of His word over the worries of my flesh.

Prayers are Appreciated

2011-07-19T15:30:00.001-04:00

We have some decisions to make here in the very near future pertaining to the whole New Bern thing.

We really want to make the decisions that are in line with the Lord's will for us...we just don't know what they are yet.

Any prayers for wisdom for us are very appreciated.

And I know many of you have already said a prayer (or more) for us...please know that we are very thankful for them!

Family Pictures from Michigan

2011-07-15T16:33:00.010-04:00

While we were home in Michigan, Greg and I were able to see much of our family! My brother and his sister both live out of Michigan like us, but they both came home to visit too, so we got to see them. It was for a short time, but it was still wonderful to see them.

My brother lives in Knoxville, and he came up for the weekend while we were there.

My parents and both of my siblings and I went out to dinner, just the 5 of us (and the nursing child.) ;)

It was so weird to be out to dinner with just us again. It's been so long since we did that...probably about 8 years!

Here's me, my sister, and my brother:

This picture was taken before my brother said, "Hey can I borrow your phone for a sec?" and then put a password on it and locked me out... :( My antagonizing brother...just like old times.

That same night, Greg stayed at his parents and was able to spend his evening with his whole family too. (His sister came into town from Missouri.)

The boys wouldn't stay serious long enough for a good shot, so this is the best they got. ;)Saturday morning, we got pictures of all of Greg's parents' grandbabies. It was quite interesting in that little room with all those kids! Here is every single one of Hunter and Kylee's cousins!

The next day, we got pictures with my family. We went to a local park and a photographer took our pictures. Here is my whole side of the family:

My lovely sister and her kids:My dumb brother:
My momma and daddy :)She got some of just our family too:
And I even made Gregory suffer through some couple photos too ;)

Here's a candid shot of my sweet baby boy:And my precious baby girl. I really like this next picture, and I'm so glad she got it. If you follow my blog, you may have noticed that I'm usually the one behind the camera so there aren't many shots that show my existence! ;) But I absolutely love this next shot.

*If you need a photographer in Metro Detroit, check out Jessica O'Donnell Photography!

We had a wonderful visit with family. We love you all and can't wait to see everyone again!

Blessings

2011-07-15T14:38:00.002-04:00

I'm having a hard day.

I really really really want it to be 11:59. I'm so tired of waiting. I'm so tired of not knowing if we'll have a house to move into in 2 weeks. I'm so tired of not even knowing how much we'll be making to even know what kind of house we can afford.

I'm so, SO tired.

Have you heard Laura Story's latest song? It's called "Blessings."

It's kind of my anthem for this whole thing...though I'm not always 100% with it, because I just want it to be over, I know God is bringing us through all of this for a reason.

Here are the lyrics:
We pray for blessings, we pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering

All the while You hear each spoken need
Yet love is way too much to give us lesser things

'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears?
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You're near?
What if trials of this life
Are Your mercies in disguise?

We pray for wisdom, Your voice to hear
We cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough

And all the while You hear each desperate plea
And long that we'd have faith to believe

'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears?
And what if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You're near?
And what if trials of this life
Are Your mercies in disguise?

When friends betray us, when darkness seems to win
We know that pain reminds this heart
That this is not, this is not our home
It's not our home

'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears?
And what if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You're near?

What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst
This world can't satisfy?

And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are Your mercies in disguise?

Story of my (Adult) Life: Part Six

2011-07-13T23:22:00.006-04:00

Read Part Five here.

Since then, God has spoken to us more and more through the waiting process.

Both Greg and I have grown SO much through having to wait.

I've written quite a few cryptic blogs in the past month or so about my faith being tested. This waiting for the job offer that He promised us is what this has all been about.

It is July 13th. We still don't have a job offer, but over the last two months, God has reassured us enough that we know we're moving to New Bern at the end of the month.

We've kept this quiet for a few different reasons, but one of the main ones is that when we tell people that God told us we're getting a job offer and we're so sure we even ended the lease to our house, they look at us like we're crazy.

The devil is pretty good by himself in getting us discouraged sometimes. It's even harder to stay positive when we get crazy looks from other people. ;)

I remember back in May, I wondered if I felt strong enough in God speaking that I should start saving newpapers for packing material...

Now I laugh at that. We have to be out of our house by the 31st of this month. I'm packing boxes, yet we still don't have a job offer.

But praise God, the Holy Spirit is constantly giving us His peace over this. We know what God said. We know we're moving.

Two months ago, I never would have imagined we'd have enough trust to be where we are, but God is good, and He is growing us so much through this.

Now the latest with the job offer...

Greg spoke with the manager on Friday.

The manager told Greg that he was actually planning on calling him early this week because he has another tech leaving soon, but he's just waiting for him to leave. So he said they would get together again on the phone this week.

Greg called him today but he's out of the office, so he plans to try again tomorrow.

God has many reasons for making us wait...some that He's revealed to us, and some for reasons we may never know.

But Deuteronomy 31:8 says:
The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”

Thinking about how God has worked in our lives for the past few years even when we weren't asking Him to, it's clear that this is His will for us.

God has gone before us to New Bern and has been working behind the scenes and preparing everything for us to move there.

I know everything will work out.

He may like to work at 11:59, but He's still on time.

And people can think we're crazy. If there's one thing I want people to call me crazy for, it's my devotion to the Lord.

Prayers while we're still waiting are very appreciated! And don't worry, I will keep you updated! :)

Update: Read the conclusion here.

Story of my (Adult) Life: Part Five

2011-07-13T22:51:00.003-04:00

Read Part Four here.

I was on pins and needles that whole next week.

I would anxiously answer the phone when Greg called just sure he was calling to tell me that the manager had called and extended a job offer.

But the call never came that first week.

Amidst my disappointment, God in His infinite grace and mercy, kept reassuring us that we'd heard Him correctly. We were, in fact, going to get the job and move back there. We just had to wait for the offer.

Every day, I'd grow more weary of waiting, but I would pray for help in trusting and keeping faith.

One day while praying, God reminded me of Hebrews 11:1 which says:
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

I clung to that verse when He gave it to me. I have had that verse memorized for over a decade, but never before has it given me such peace than in this situation.

Now, Greg went into the dealership on May 16th. While our lease was set to expire at the end of July, we had to put in our "Termination of Lease Notice" by June 1. So we took that as: If we have a job offer by June 1, we move to New Bern the end of July, and if not, we stay here.

On May 30th, after (still) no job offer, but lots of reassurance from God, Greg and I felt like He was prompting us to put the notice in that we'd be vacating the house.

So, we did.

Greg would call the manager about once a week to touch base with him and see how things were looking.

The manager always said something about him not having a chance to look everything over, or being busy and in meetings, or something along those lines.

It was never a job offer, yet, it was never discouraging either. He did tell him that Greg impressed him when he met him in person, but he just wanted to make sure he had the work for him.

So we kept waiting.

In early June, God reminded me of Abraham and Isaac. Now, if you're unfamiliar with the story, in a nutshell, God told Abraham to take his son up to a mountain to sacrifice him to the Lord. God wanted to see Abraham's devotion to Him and this is how He chose to do it. Finally, as Abraham's arm was in the air ready to strike, God told him not to touch Isaac. He spoke to me through this story, reminding me that even though He waited until Abraham's arm was in the air ready to strike, it was still on time.

Because God is so awesome, He also reminded Greg of the same story. He spoke to Greg about how this is God testing and growing our faith and trust in Him. He also reminded us about how Abraham had to wait 25 years for Isaac to be born from when God promised him a child. We'd only been waiting a couple weeks! But Abraham stayed faithful, and so did God.

He gave us both the same stories on the same day, even though we hadn't even talked about it.

So my mom and I were talking one day, and she has a friend that always looks up verses for promises of God when she has a big date of something. (Example: today's date is 7-13 so she would look up chapter 7, verse 13 in different books until she finds a promise of God that she can apply to her situation for that date.) The manager had told us to call on June 15th, so I decided to look up 6-15 for a promise of God. The very first book I looked in was Hebrews. Hebrews 6:15 says: And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised.

Let me spell this out for your just to make sure you get this God-moment:
God reminded both Greg and I (independently) about Abraham needing to wait for God to fulfill His promise of blessing him with a son. Then on this date that he was set to call the manager, this verse is in the very first book I looked in.

God is pretty awesome.

That was definitely reassuring in our decision to end our lease.

Read Part Six here.

Story of my (Adult) Life: Part Four

2011-07-13T22:26:00.004-04:00

Read Part Three here.

Here's another excerpt from a previous blog about that first visit to New Bern last year...

"We decided to drive by New Bern's Volvo dealership. When we lived there, it was a Honda Volvo dealership and it was right down the street from where we used to live. We pulled in and noticed it was only Honda now. I was a little disappointed, but I couldn't imagine that a Honda dealership sold many Volvo's anyway. As we were driving back to the preacher's house, we passed by the Lincoln Mercury dealership, and I saw that they are Lincoln Mercury Volvo!...I was at least happy to see Volvo with Lincoln Mercury, because the same people that would be shopping for them would be interested in Volvo's too. Also, Greg is certified to work on Ford's just the same as he is on Volvo's. Isn't it funny how perfect this all sounds? ;) Greg knows I would move back to New Bern in a heartbeat, because I didn't even want to move away. If the Lord's will is for us to go back, I know He will change Greg's heart to feel the same way."

This past March, we felt God prompting us to look into New Bern a little sooner than we'd originally had planned because of some changes at Greg's current job.

Our lease for our current house was set to end at the end of July, so that was our timeline for possibly moving.

We went down to New Bern for a weekend trip in the middle of May. We made it a long weekend and Greg went in to the Volvo dealership on Monday to see if they needed someone.

The Sunday morning before he went in, I woke up really early and decided to pray about the dealership visit. This prayer time was much like the one I'd had a year earlier. I just prayed that if it was God's will to bring us back there now, He would make it clear when Greg visited the next day. And if not, that would be clear too, so we could be content with Virginia Beach.

Greg had 4 dealerships (3 that were different auto makers) on his list to visit, since, at this point, we really wanted to be back there.

Since Volvo was number 1 on his list, he went there first.

He talked with the service manager, and was able to give him his resume and a letter of recommendation from his boss that had just retired a couple months earlier.

The service manager informed Greg that they normally run 3 Volvo techs and had actually just fired one and were looking for a replacement.

How's that for God speaking?

Greg left the dealership and felt like God was telling him there was no need to go to the other dealerships.

And think about it. With what we've been through, God made it pretty clear that He wanted us working for Volvo. And Volvo is the ONLY dealership in New Bern that has an MSAT program.

Anyway, we felt pretty good...well, we felt REALLY good about the dealership visit, and were sure we were getting the job, and we just had to wait for the phone call with the official job offer...

Read Part Five here.

Story of my (Adult) Life: Part Three

2011-07-13T21:55:00.003-04:00

Read Part Two here.

So off to Chicagoland we went.

Greg went to school, and we both worked to make ends meet.

We found a great church there, where we met great people, but Illinois never felt like home. And we knew that after Greg got his certificate from the school for general auto mechanics, we would go on to a Manufacturer Specific Advanced Training (MSAT) school, which is where you pick one auto maker, get accepted to their school, and then you learn the specifics of their cars to be a mechanic at a dealership for that auto maker.

Greg's number one choice was to work for Audi.

Leading up to his interview with the school, we really prayed for God to make it clear to us if Audi was where He wanted us or not.

Greg got accepted in the first interview. God made it pretty clear where He wanted us!

Audi's school was in Phoenix, AZ so we made plans to move there after he finished school in Chicago.

A week before we were set to move, we got a call from the Audi MSAT saying they were postponing Greg's start date (which was, at that time, 5 weeks out) because they still had some graduates without jobs.

We decided to move anyway so we would be in the right place when the school started up again (and because it is WAYYY cheaper to live in Phoenix than in Chicago!)

So we moved. And we waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Here is an excerpt from my blog when we were in Phoenix:

When God brought us out here to Phoenix, we thought we were just waiting for Audi's specialty school to start. Greg had been accepted, but they had postponed his start date so we just had to wait for them to start up again. Then, after moving here and about 2 months of waiting, we got a call saying that they decided to close the school indefinitely. Greg's only option was to attend Volvo's specialty school. There was lots of questioning when we were going through all of that, but I trusted that God's original plan all along was for Greg to become a Volvo mechanic and this was just the only way for Him to get us to agree to it. ;)

We got the job at the Volvo dealership here in Virginia Beach (our only job offer) and so we were sure that this was where God wanted us.

Now let me pause for a second.

If you have been reading my novel of a story up until now, you've read that we've moved quite a few times.

Our 6th wedding anniversary is coming up in October, and Gregory and I have called 6 different places our home.

We're ready to settle down. And stay in one house for more than 1.5 years.

So when we came to Virginia Beach, we were really hoping we'd like it enough to retire here.

That wasn't the case.

However, we're only 3 hours north of where we were stationed in North Carolina, so after we moved to VA Beach, we went to visit for a weekend trip.

We'd been gone for 2.5 years at this point, and I never stopped missing our friends and our church. I never wanted to leave in the first place, and for some reason I could never let them go.

Visiting seemed to intensify this ache to be back.

I remember driving back home after our visit, and Greg could sense how badly I wanted to move back. He basically told me that I need to get over it because we weren't ever moving back there.

The next day, I sad down and cried and prayed and cried some more about the whole thing. I asked God to change my heart away from wanting to be in New Bern. I didn't want to long to be there for the rest of my life, and I wanted to be on the same page as Gregory with where we wanted to grow roots. I prayed and prayed for God to let me let them go.

That night, Gregory came home from work and told me that maybe, in a couple years after working here for a bit, we could look into moving back to New Bern.

I never told him, but I knew that was God telling me that, one day, we'd be back in New Bern.

Read Part Four here.

Story of my (Adult) Life: Part Two

2011-07-13T21:53:00.002-04:00

Read Part One here.

So, right on schedule, Greg deployed in March. I was pregnant with Hunter at the time, so I had monthly appointments to occupy me...but aside from that, I didn't have much going on.

I worked at Ruby Tuesday at the time, so I worked 40 hours waiting tables for 6 days a week, went to church on Sundays, spoke to no one while I was there, and spent the rest of my time...sleeping.

Needless to say, I was really bored and REALLY lonely.

A month after Greg deployed, I went home to Michigan for Easter.

While I was there, I realized just how lonely I was in North Carolina all by myself. I decided that I must have heard God wrong and so the next phone conversation with Greg, I asked him if I could move back to Michigan like we'd originally planned.

He said no. (Being a grown up and having to live with your decisions stinks sometimes.)

So, at the end of my vacation to Michigan, I went back to North Carolina and carried on with my routine.

Then one random Tuesday night, I waited on three ladies.

They seemed like they were such good friends and having such a good time enjoying each other's company. Then before they ate, I noticed them pray for their meal.

I'd been waiting tables for months before this and seen many people pray for their meals, yet something compelled me to ask if they went to church.

Maryn, Jenny, and Rosa told me what church they went to, and then I learned that Maryn and Jenny's husbands were deployed also.

They were my only table on this slow Tuesday night, so I ended up just sitting and talking with them for like an hour.

Maryn invited me over for a get together that Friday for lunch. I ended up spending the whole day with them that Friday. I remember my mom saying that they were either stalkers or sent from God.

I can tell you it was definitely the latter of the two.

For the rest of the deployment, we spent countless hours together and, not only did those ladies become my best friends, but that church they attended became my home, more than any church ever had.

Greg came back from Iraq at the end of September, and the church welcomed him like we'd been going there for years.

We attended as a family (along with Hunter being born in October) until January, when his enlistment was up. We were accepted into the Chicagoland Universal Technical Institute, and he had a March start date.

I was heartbroken to leave New Bern.

The church had become home for me. I had grown so much spiritually, and had wonderful friends. When we moved though, I knew God telling me to stay was so that I could at least find the church to get me through the deployment, which aided in drawing me closer to Him.

Read Part Three here.

Story of my (Adult) Life: Part One

2011-07-13T21:52:00.001-04:00

I have been married for a little over 5.5 years. I graduated high school in June of '05, and married my love in October of '05.

I was silly and accidentally (another story for another time) fell in love with a Marine.

I lived in Michigan; he was stationed in North Carolina.

Naturally, when we married, we packed up my bedroom and I moved to New Bern, North Carolina, with him.

Greg and I both grew up in Metro-Detroit. Its approximate population is 4 million people.

In comparison, New Bern's population is about 28,000.

Now, 28,000 may seem like a decent amount to you for one town. But what you must know is that the next biggest town is an hour drive. Drive 5 minutes outside of New Bern and you're in corn, cotton, or tobacco fields.

They're big enough to have one Lowe's, one Wal-Mart, and one Target. But where I grew up, if the Target I was shopping at didn't have what I wanted, I went to one of the other 5 Targets within a 5 mile radius. I also had 5 malls within a decent distance too.

Uhhh, can we say culture shock?

Needless to say, Greg and I couldn't wait to get out of there.

I knew from the time we started dating that his plan was to finish out his 5 year enlistment and attend Universal Technical Institute in Chicagoland for training to become an auto technician.

When we got married, he had just under 2.5 years left of his enlistment.

After LOTS of church searching, we settled on one to regularly attend. It was a long, boring 45 minute drive, but we liked the worship and the pastor was decent. We didn't know a single person at the church, nor did anyone reach out to us but, nonetheless, we attended there for a few months before he was to deploy to the Middle East in March of '07.

For months leading up to the deployment our plan was to put all of our stuff into storage, and I would move back home to Michigan for the 6 months he was gone.

Then a few weeks before his date to leave, storage deposit placed and everything, I felt God telling me to stay in New Bern. I had no idea why...I had no friends, and I wasn't attached to our church in any way, but I kept hearing Him tell me to stay. (Silly me) but I hadn't even asked what He wanted me to do. I assumed the right thing to do was to move back home, yet He was loud and clear in telling me not to do it.

So...two weeks before I was set to move home, I called my parents, broke my mom's heart, and told them I was staying.

I didn't know why, but I knew that God had clearly told me that's what He wanted, and that was reason enough...

Read Part Two here.

Random Pics

2011-07-12T17:46:00.001-04:00

Cereal Day 2

2011-07-12T08:11:00.003-04:00

Ok, so tonight we tried the cereal with breast milk.

She still had the look of disgust...

Although it wasn't quite like the night before.

I've decided that it's for two reasons.
1. She's not used to the texture. She's had only milk for her whole life and she just has to get used to the fact that it's quite different!
2. I think we'll definitely have a picky eater on our hands. Hunter took anything we put in his mouth, and to this day his favorite food group is still vegetables. I think she's going to fight us on anything we try to give her (except maybe fruits.)

It will be interesting to see how she "likes" vegetables in a few weeks!

On the bright side, I put her to bed at 8:30 and she didn't wake up until 7am to eat! I can get used to this!

Piggie Tails

2011-07-11T08:37:00.001-04:00

Need to work on the execution a bit, but momma is loving all this hair!!!! :)

Cereal

2011-07-11T08:07:00.002-04:00

I decided it was time to start Kylee on cereal. She’ll be 6 months next week, and we’ve taken a step backwards with nighttime feedings. She was being a good girl, and only waking up once around 4-5am. Recently though, she’s added another feeding about 1am, so I thought it was time to give her some cereal to help her sleep better.

We tried it when she was 4 months, but her tummy wasn’t quite ready for it.

However, she did great with the spoon last night! She opened up as soon as it came to her mouth (because she opens up when anything is near her mouth these days.) Her first bite reaction looked like this:

I tried to get away with making the cereal with water. I don’t have any stored up breast milk and she nurses enough during the day that I know she gets enough nutrients, so I thought the water would be way more convenient to use. But as you see from the reaction, she wasn’t crazy about it.

With each bite, that face slowly turned from that disgusted look, to shuddering, and then to finally gagging on it because she didn’t like it. I decided we were done then. ;)

Hopefully tonight we’ll have better luck using breast milk!

Michigan - We're On Our Way!

2011-07-01T06:17:00.001-04:00

Cookie Dough

2011-06-27T14:17:00.005-04:00

Who doesn't love raw cookie dough?!

I usually ignore the fact that it's recommended to NOT eat it raw because of the eggs. Who doesn't?

However, I actually abide by that rule when I'm pregnant. That's why I was super-excited to come across an egg-less cookie dough recipe meant to be eaten raw!

(Note: No, I'm not pregnant!)

Ingredients:
2 tbsp butter, room temperature
1 tbsp brown sugar, NOT packed
1 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp flour
a drizzle of vanilla
milk
chocolate chips

Mix the first five ingredients. If it's still a bit stiff, drizzle a teeny tiny bit of milk to thin it out, until it's the desired consistency.

Mix in chocolate chips.

Get a big glass of milk to go along side it and enjoy!

A cookie dough recipe that won't make you sick! Well, as long as you can control yourself on not quadrupling the recipe and eating it all in one sitting...

PS-Don't try to bake them. They won't rise without the egg!

PPS-I am not responsible for the guilt and desire to run 3 miles you may feel after eating these. However, I WILL take credit for any feelings of euphoria you may have.

Daddy and Daughter

2011-06-26T20:11:00.001-04:00

Awesome Friends

2011-06-24T11:23:00.004-04:00

I have amazing friends.

Sometimes these amazing friends, for none other reason than the fact that they're totally awesome, do nice things for me.

This week, I received a package in the mail from Brenda.

Bren had her first baby girl just a few weeks after Kylee was born, and she too, has been bit by the crafting bug.

Inside this box, aside from a very sweet letter that I'll keep forever, was tons of crafty stuff! My favorite item was a homemade (by Bren) pocket diaper made especially for my sweet miss! (Brenda even made sure it would fit by asking for Kylee's measurements "to compare to her daughter's." Sneaky, sneaky!) She also included prints of the pattern for the diaper (in case I wanted to make it myself, which I will be doing!), little storage bins, a Ziploc bag FULL of ribbon, and lots of other stuff.

Let's go back to that ribbon. Oh boy...have I been busy. For a few days, ~~when~~ if my children nap at the same time, I've been making bows. I've had some ribbon of my own that I'd been meaning to use so I pulled that out, and I also repaired some of my older ones.

I made these.And these.This one was made especially for Independence Day.

And before I go on, I have a question. Is it possible to be in love with a hair bow??
Please don't judge me. I have an addiction to adorable bows.

Anyway, I have made many many more bows!!

I love seeing her holder with all of them on it!
Why yes, I only have one daughter. Why do you ask?

Thanks Bren!!!

Camouflage

2011-06-18T22:07:00.001-04:00

Ok so I'm not really crazy about my feet. I'm sure it has something to do with the fact that they're extra-wide and one of my toes is always trying to make a right-hand turn because of being broken as a child. But whatever. I mean really, who likes their feet?

However, there's a retired Marine in choir at church with me. (I have a point.)

He's aware that Greg is a former Marine. And to get to his seat in choir, he has to walk past mine. And for the past few weeks, he keeps looking at my toes! (Marines can be strange characters.)

Anyway, he keeps telling me he wants to see camouflage toes.

I took that as a challenge.

And lucky for him, I have quite an array of pink colored nail polish!

And that brings me to my point. While I'm not crazy about my feet, I was too proud of myself not to post my finished product! :)

Owl Lunch

2011-06-18T13:06:00.001-04:00

Hoo Hoo!

A Lesson in Trucks

2011-06-17T14:08:00.001-04:00

He started this all on his own. :) He's pointing to each kind of truck and telling her what it is.

Letter

2011-06-17T12:54:00.003-04:00

To the Evil One (whose name isn't even worth being mentioned):

I am writing this letter to inform you that I see what you are trying to do.

You are very aware that God has been working in our lives for the past few years towards something very big. We are finally in the final stretch for His Will to be revealed, but we're in the waiting process for it to finally come to fruition.

Through this waiting process, it has occurred to me that you are trying everything possible to get Greg and I to become so discouraged that we give up on everything, move on with our lives, and foil this part of God's will for our family.

I would just like to tell you that you aren't as sneaky as you hope to be. I am on to you, and want you to know that this is happening, just as the LORD told us it is. We will NOT be discouraged, and we will NOT throw our hands in the air in surrender. The LORD is our strength, and HE will sustain us. (Psalm 3:5)

He is on our side. and Romans 8:31b says "If God is for us, who can be against us?"

That being said, in the name of Christ Jesus, get behind Greg and I. And you can kiss my butt while you're at it.

In Christ,
Emma