People move on

It's kind of weird. Within 2 months our two neighbors several miles down the road on either side of us moved away :(

To be fair, they both only moved about 30 minutes away, into the city.

But it still feels like forever away.

Their new houses are beautiful and it's where the Lord wanted them!

The first weekend of November, two days before my due date, we helped Christopher and Bethany move into their new house.

(Tyler's way of helping them decorate in their new house)

We piled high three trucks and filled a car and a van and only had to make one extra trip with the truck.

By the end of the day they were mostly unpacked and moved in! It was really fun and I'm so glad we were able to help them out.

Though, it is sad not being able to swing by their old house on the way home or have them over spontaneously for dinner or just cookies and hang out time. 

I went thru the same type of withdrawl when Todd and Hannah moved from being 5 minutes (4 miles) down the road from us to 30 or so minutes away!

I kept thinking "Who am I going to borrow brown sugar from? Or butter? or ask to pick something up for me at the store?"

Hannah and I played the violin together alot over the spring-and even played in a wedding together. I miss having her and her two girls so close.

Hopefully one day next year we will be able to move and maybe be closer to one or even both of them! :)

41 weeks and counting

Today I am 41 weeks pregnant. Kinda hard to believe. But I am following in my mothers footsteps and carrying my baby late. Seriously though, this baby is SO content inside!!

I keep getting LOTS of questions about the baby and when it's going to arrive, how I am feeling, if anything is progressing etc....so instead of responding to all of the facebook messages and wall posts and texts etc, I figured I would post a blog post and give a general update :)

First let me clarify that I REALLY appreciate everyone asking about the baby and me and for all of the prayers. They are so greatly appreciated.

I had a doctors appointment today with my OB/GYN and they did a non stress test on the baby. I was hooked up to two different monitors. One monitored the baby's heart rate and I had a little button I pushed every time he moved, so that the print out knew, and the heart beat spiked every time that he moved. It was really cool to see. He did such a good job and that's what they were looking for. The other monitor monitored contractions. But I didn't have one the whole 30 minutes I was hooked up-which was odd; but not concerning.

Next I went to get an ultrasound. There they checked my Amniotic Fluid Index. The normal index is supposed to be anywhere from 5-24. Baby's was 11. So, everything looked great!

Baby is just hanging out in there. I have an appointment with my midwife tomorrow at nine and then, if I am still pregnant, I have another appointment with my Dr on Thursday to basically do a repeat of today.

Soooo hoping baby comes before Thursday!!!

That's just about it! :) My little update. We know this baby will arrive when the Lord wants him/her to. And we are just fine with that.

(btw, I know I said "he" several times through out this post, but we really don't know the gender. It's just easier to type out a "he" or "she"....)

That is me at 40 weeks. And I have gained a total of 48 pounds.

This was me at 20 weeks, I believe. Crazy how much this baby has grown. My midwife says baby will be a nice and good size and that he fits quite nicely inside of me.

Who knows, maybe my next post (not counting the other posts I plan to do today to get a little caught up) will be about a baby in our ARMS! :) I wouldn't mind! Even though right now it seems like it won't happen (just NO signs except for an occasional contraction :) ), it very well could happen at any time. :)

Have a most blessed week!

of samples, babyshowers, anniversaries and due dates :)

I am blessed.
So very, very blessed.

And this post is just a glimpse into why I am so blessed. Just a few reasons.

I have a baby inside of me that is still cooking away and is totally content to just stay inside me for a while longer. Who knows how much longer-but I am sure whenever he/she is ready-the appearance will be made :)
Due dates are silly things anyway. Babies don't listen to them. I can tell my baby hundreds of times today if I wanted, that today is the day it's" supposed to" come out-but it doesn't care :) And believe it or not, I am not terribly disappointed if he/she doesn't make their appearance today. I know I am like my mom in pregnancy-and her tendency is to go over-due. So that's what I am planning on :)

My very pregnant pumpkin belly on Halloween :) We dressed up to go to Chipolte to get $2 booritos :)

All that being said- I can't wait to meet this baby and Brandon can't wait either, but we are happy everything looks good so far, and waiting isn't that bad.


Everyone has been SO kind and we had two more baby showers in September and October.

Those were pictures from a fantastic shower that my dear friend Bethany and her mom threw for us at their house! So much fun and everyone was so generous!!
Bethany even took some maternity photos for us after the shower. It was the first time we had some of Brandon and I and baby together :)

 Lovely ladies from our church threw us a Pumpkin themed baby shower the first weekend in October. I loved all of the decorations.

 My sister made me a nursing cover and Brandon wanted to try it on.

Brandon's brother, Jeff, carved us a pumpkin :)

Brandon and I celebrated one WONDERFUL year of being married on October 1st. To celebrate we spent the Saturday before the 1st having a picnic and taking a hike in the beautiful BlueRidge Mountains. And then getting to see my darling nephew Asher James for the first time.

On our actual Anniversary we went out for dinner and a movie :) I'd say it was a great celebration for one year of being married!

 My brother is a DAD!!!

 He is a pretty precious little guy!! :)

Lately, I have been getting a TON of samples in the mail!!! I keep forgetting to take pictures of all of them...but here are a couple :) I've gotten cereal, lotion, shampoo and conditioner, coffee, tea samples, dog and cat food, dish detergent, laundry detergent and the list goes on.

Makes getting the mail quite exciting :)

Anyway! I am off to go take a nice long walk. Maybe that will get things moving along :)

Have a most blessed Monday!

fall swap #2 :)

I participated in yet another fall gift swap! :) They were just way to much fun to be apart of!

 

This time I was paired up with Mei from http://fairweatherdiver.blogspot.com/.  Super sweet :)

Her package to me arrived early this morning-9:30 am! It was so unexpected and exciting to get a package with goodies in it first thing in the morning :)

 

Inside were some fuzzy, comfffyyy socks, candy corn ( :D ) and a box of note cards! I am in love with the cards! I can't wait to get started in using them! :)

Such fun!

Make sure you head over to Life of Meg to see what others got in the mail and next year make sure you sign up to participate in a fall swap! :)

 

baby Chloe

My sister asked me to take a few newborn shots of Chloe, so we got together not once, but TWICE and got some adorable pictures. (At least *I* think they are pretty stinking adorable! :) )

Meet Chloe Elise.

She is absolutely precious.

Gideon and Tirzah love her and it's so fun to watch them interact with her! Tirzah loves to say her name :)

I love just holding this sweet baby. Seriously everyone, being an Aunt is SO.MUCH.FUN!

I was also able to grab a few family shots while there :)

Beautiful, right?

 

*these are the photos from the second shoot I did...I might include a few from the first one later on.

Have a wonnnderful day!

It's about that time...

to start planning your Christmas/Holiday cards!!! :) For me, that means going to Shutterfly and trying to figure out WHICH one of their Holiday cards to choose. It's a hard decision for me :) I would like to use them all.

But I can only choose one.
So which one should I choose?

I am already coming up with ideas for what we could do for family photos this year! :) Since, after all, we WILL have a sweet little baby this time in our photo :) So, which one do YOU like best out of the three I listed?
Make sure you check out all of Shutterfly's cards!

Right now, Shutterfly has some really good special offers going on. Like 40% off photobooks, and 20% off of all cards right now with FREE shipping on orders of $30 or more!
Have I persuaded you to go check them out and use them for your cards this year?

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post. I was compensated in the form of free product. However, all opinions are of course my own.

Fall Friendship Swap

I love this time of year! :) It is just way too much fun. And fattening I am sure.

A few weeks ago I signed up with Kristen, for a Fall Friendship Swap. :) She matches everyone who signed up with a different blogger and then the two of you swap addresses and information about each other and you put together a box of fun fall goodies for her.

I was paired with Jennifer! We are both expecting mommies, so that was something neat that we had in common :) Her box to me arrived this past Friday. I loooove getting packages in the mail and this one was just so fun.

  Scarves and candy corn-definitely spells Autumn to me!

When I opened the box and saw the nail polish, I knew I needed to use one of those immediately :) Brandon offered to paint my toe nails so I got a free pedicure out of this whole deal too! I say I scored pretty high ;)

 Isn't the wreath just beautiful? Jennifer made it for me! I can't wait to find a spot to hang it in our house!

Annnnd, I am a candle freak, I do believe. I am planning on lighting this tomorrow afternoon so I can have my kitchen smelling like an apple pie :) YUM.
Wasn't the package so cute and fun? Next year you should sign up to get a new blogging friend and some amazing goodies in the mail!!

:)