Wow, 2 in a month....

Here I am being faithful to my blog...yay! Well, first of all we have been working on the house. We painted our den, put in some new light fixtures, got a piece of carpet bound that my aunt gave us and put up the chandelier in the baby's room. (That stubborn border is still there, Josh has determined that our greatest weapon against it is water and vinegar, so at least that is a step in the right direction!)  We also had the boys from our friend Chris's ministry, Memphis Youth Leadership come and clean up our yard.  These boys, anywhere from 4th grade on, work on Saturdays in people's yards to earn money.  As part of the requirements to be able to work they must atten church in their neighborhood the Sunday prior to the Saturday that they work.  It was so fun to watch them work and to know that they are being mentored by the men with them.  I love seeing Jesus work through people!!!    

It was so cold, we had to open the windows so the primer fumes wouldn't get us!

Also, Corina, the little girl I am friends with who goes to the Collegiate School, had homecoming week and borrowed our MTSU jersey.  I embarrassed her to death by making her get out in the carpool line and I took her picture...mortified. It was hilarious, I realized that everything my Mother did to mortify me was just so she could have documentation of memories...it all comes full circle.haha

Also, big news, Lala (Lalesha Jones) another one of the girls that I am friends with from when I worked at Streets, had her baby.  Her name is Latosha (La-tow-sha) Tucker, the baby's father's last name.  She was 5 lbs. and because of that had to be in the NICU for a week, but she's doing great and is eating well.  Hopefully she will go home tomorrow. 

Finally, Josh is about half-way through his first batch of homemade beer.  He siphoned the beer out of the bucket and into this big glass jar where it will sit for a week or two, I can't remember. He is going to save me a bottle from every batch he makes from now until the baby comes so that I can try it!

  Waiting for the first bubbles to make sure it's working. Addison was very patient!

Josh tried the halfway finished beer, just like beer but flat. Interesting...

Ultrasounds

Also, I forgot to put up pictures of our little boy! He's so teensey! He is about the weight of a large mango (1 lb) and about 11 inches long...cute!

T minus 4 months!

The other night I received a text from my mother as I was lying in bed (feeling the little kicks and wiggles that I usually feel when I lie down to go to sleep) that said, "Four months from tomorrow is the arrival of baby boy! YIPPEE!"  And then it hit me...we have 16 weeks until little Nemo gets here!  That's soon...
As I have been thinking about how soon the arrival of the little kicker is, I have really kicked into gear as far as getting ready for him. (Beginning with taking down the Christmas decorations!)  I have been searching and searching for a chandelier for his room.  Ever since I saw a chandelier in a baby's room in a picture a few years ago I have always wanted one.  So I have been checking craig's list and the pottery barn outlet regularly over the past few months searching for the right one.  So, the other day (because the PB outlet is so dangerously close to my work) I just did a routine sweep of the store ($3 pillow cases, $2 decorative plates, the usual) and as I meandered through the lighting section I spied a little cream colored arm on the top of a box, way up high (thank you God for making me so tall!) Lo and behold, it was a cream colored 5 arm chandelier with leaves and plants on it....exactly what I've been looking for!! Yay! Of course, no tag and about 1.5 hours later after approval from Josh that it is not "girly".  We put that cute little chandelier in our car! I have also picked out bedding that we are registered for at PotteryBarn.com. So cute. White with green scallops. The room will be a pale yellow and I am toying with the idea of painting some trees on the wall in the non-window corner. This is his cutest little outfit yet, my mom got it for him for Christmas, I can't wait to tie him into it!

Also, I have a decorating plan for my house that I am very excited about and am trying to finish before the baby gets here. It is mostly inspired by www.designspongeonline.com and their before and after tab. (On the left when you open the page.
No news on the name front, but we're working on it...sometimes.  You may all be getting a text with the name when he's born, we are that far from agreeing on or finding a name.
Also, we went on our second ski trip as leaders this Christmas break with our seniors from Independent Pres.  I did not ski, but it was awesome to see God's hand in the beautiful mountains, in my life and in the lives of the students.  

 Addison being cute and looking out the window on "her chair" which may be getting recovered to go in the baby's room! Poor thing, she's like the outcast little daughter with us taking her chair away.

Christmas Time is Here

Our Christmas Lights!

A fuzzy picture of our tree! I'll get a better one...

Well, Thanksgiving has past and I am now in my office at school putting off the last 4, 2-page papers I have to do for my Adolescent Literacy Instruction class.  I am very pleased with how my grades have come out this semester, but it is so hard to make this last push to finish! Maybe now over the holidays I will have more time to talk about our little coming nemo!!
The big news in our family over the last week is that my dear mother has turned 50! We celebrated with a big surprise party at Owen Brennans which included almost all of the out of town family and some of her closest friends.  This party was preceeded by Josh's car needing some kind of part for his car with platinum in it and a new muffler and my car having a flat tire at midnight Friday night and all of us freaking out before the party because the entire block at Poplar and Ridgeway was out of power up until 30 minutes before we were supposed to be having the party!! Crazy weeked, but it was really fun to see how excited and surprised Mom was. 

Well in, Nemo news, during the dinner for Mom's birthday, I felt three little taps on my tummy from the little baby! It was so much fun! I was hoping that we would be able to feel it from the outside, but for now it's my own fun little sensation! He/She is quickly becoming a little wiggler! It's funny how you can go from not feeling anything to feeling little wiggles and kicks!
Another fun thing is that my friend and Bible study leader, Lori, had her 5th child this weekend.  SL and I went and saw her on Saturday morning and had a really good time looking at her sweet little face! Anne Harper, 6 lbs. 2 oz., so tiny and cute!!

We find out what we're having on Monday the 21st! So excited!

I am finally going to do it

So, after starting and stopping another blog, I think I will stick with this one.  I love reading everyone else's blogs to find out about their kids and their lives in far away from me places, so I figure they would like to hear about what's going on with us! I am currently working as a Graduate Assistant at the University of Memphis in the Reading Masters program.  I am 15 weeks pregnant so I guess I will start with how we found out we were going to have this little bundle and what has happened since then:
It was September 11th, 2009.  We had just pulled into Murfreesboro to see all our dear friends and to watch the MTSU vs. Memphis game.  We were staying at the Straka's house and just loving being around Graham! (I wish I could see him everyday!)  When Jen and I got to talking, I told her that I was feeling strange and both of our thoughts immediately went to I bet I'm pregnant! So, having taken one pregnancy test the day or two before we had come to the boro, I asked Josh if we could just get one more to make sure.  He said, "No, you have to wait til we get home (we had a test sitting waiting in the bathroom in Memphis)." 
So the night went on and finally, Jen needed to run to the store for something for the tailgate.  So JEN asked Josh if we could "puleeeze" get a pregnancy test! He finally said yes and we went to the store.  While at the store, the Kroger actually, we asked the sole person working (it was around 11:00pm) if she could open the case with the tests and stuff in it.  She sort of rolled her eyes and said, "In a minute."  After she begrudgingly walked over to the case I noticed she was sniffling so I asked her, "Are you feeling badly?" After that her whole demeanor changed! It was wild, after helping me get the test out, she said, "I don't know which way you want it to go, but I hope it's the way you want it. I just want to tell you that 23 years ago I had one that was positive and it was the best thing that could have ever happened to me."  It was so sweet! SO...back at the Straka ranch, we decided that I should take the test when I woke up in the morning, accuracy and all that. So, at 4:00 am I woke up and had to go to the bathroom...so I took the test and it was positive! I speed walked back to the room where Josh and I were staying and tapped him (sound asleep at 4am, mind you) and said, "We're gonna have a baby!" to which I received a "[groan] that's great! [snore]"  So the next morning sweet Jen and Graham were playing in the den when I got up from not really sleeping the rest of the morning.  I told her and we giggled for a while, it was really fun to be there with all our friends when we found out! After that weekend we knew we needed to tell our families, of course! So we planned to have dinner with Josh's parents on Tuesday and with my parents on Thursday (Sally was coming in town that day, so we were having family dinner anyway!).  To surprise the families I bought some bibs from Target and monogrammed them to say: "I love my aunt Rachel and I love my uncle Allen, etc."  We gave one to each family member. Josh's parents suspected something, so they weren't terribly surprised, but they were very excited! My family was not suspecting anything at all so they did the whole, "Really, really, really?!" thing and cried and such! It was really fun! Sally even insisted on wearing the bib around! Allen of course ran straight to Facebook and put it on his status, so after making him take it down, we made many speedy phone calls to make sure that people didn't find out on Facebook! SO that's the story of how we found out and how we told our familes!  We had our first doctor's appointment on October 9th, which was pretty anti-climactic since they basically just told us we were pregnant.  The next visit was November 13th and we heard the heartbeat! It was amazing! Also, the baby will be referred to as Nemo (a nickname coined by lovely Aunt Tracey Clairmont) from this point on...well I guess until we know the sex and have a name!  Tracey also wants everyone to know that she is not responsible if Nemo comes out with a damaged arm, it is just a nickname. :)