A Baby Shower for Jo

Maybe it's the winter blues or 1st trimester fatigue, but I just haven't felt like blogging lately. To be honest, I haven't felt like doing much of anything. I haven't picked up the camera any this week. Seth and I have stayed in the house most days and if you had stopped by we most likely would have been in our pajamas until late afternoon. I'm ready for sunshine and warmer weather and a lot more energy. So until my blogger's block wears off and life gets back to a peppier pace, I thought I would share a few photos (few because I really didn't take many) of the baby shower I hosted at our house last Sunday. My friend Jo Ellen is expecting a little girl very, very soon. Several gals came over for snacks, games, and a showering of gifts to hopefully welcome little Elyse Marie into the world. Here is a glimpse of our afternoon...

Pink Tipped Roses

Apple Berry Salsa
Chocolate Mini Cupcakes (with just a sprinkle of pink)
My first diaper cake

Jo opening gifts

It was a fun afternoon and I had blast hosting!

Seth's Reading Nook

As I was getting ready the other morning, I peeked around the bathroom door into Seth's room. I didn't hear him rustling around with the toy he was playing with so I was a little concerned until I saw this...

I just couldn't help but smile (and grab the camera)!
Now at least once a day, you can find Seth reading in his room in the glider rocker. It's just too precious!

Building a Bear for Baby #2

We feel like we can officially announce it now because we have built our bear (sort of a tradition for us). Keeping the news a secret, since finding out the week before Christmas, has been killing me. This morning Bryan, Seth, and I headed to Nashville to Build-a-Bear to build a bear for Baby #2 who will be making their debut into the world sometime in August (depending on the scheduled c-section). The official due date is August 21st which makes me 8 weeks tomorrow. On Tuesday, we were able to see the heartbeat and this little one's spine which always seems so miraculous.

Here is the little one at 7 weeks, 2 days old:We are super excited to be welcoming him/her into our family!

Much Needed Follow-Ups

Every year I like to look back at the posts that I have written and reminisce about all the things that we have experienced. As I was looking over a few posts during the last few days I realized that there were a few things that I never followed up on throughout the year. So my dear readers, for all of you out there dying to know how a few things turned out, here's what I should have shared sooner...

I am trying to keep a lemon tree alive for two years as part of the lemon tree challenge. I had a shaky start but finally thanks from the help of my mom, the lemon tree was growing. Here's where we are today:Just a year and a few months left to keep it alive!

I posted about a bedroom makeover in the works back in May. How in the world could I have forgotten to post the bedroom makeover reveal? I am not sure, but here it finally is...

This is a picture of our room shortly after we moved into this house
(after the walls were painted but before the fan had been replaced)

and then here is the new look...

The red wall is gone and I am so thankful. We were able to get the new headboard and one nightstand from Target after saving some money from our No Spend Month.

Our room is pretty small so there is only a dresser along the wall by the door. We have had it along with the one nightstand that matches it since we have been married. I absolutely adore the new look!

At the beginning of summer I made some goals. Here's how things turned out:

• I wanted to read at least 5 books. By the end of the summer I had finished The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, I read Throw Out Fifty Things: Clear the Clutter, Find Your Life by Gail Blanke in order to help with the personal organizing job (a job put on hold for the time being). I also read The Sound of Hope by Lois Kam Heymann to help a tutoring client. So I didn't reach my goal, but I did manage to read four more books during the autumn season. So I wasn't too disappointed with not reaching my summer reading goal.
  
• Seth and I were able to read about 60 books from the 100 Books Every Child Should Read Before Kindergarten list. We had a lot of trouble checking out the books on the list because they were already checked out or on hold at the library. There were a few books on the list that I didn't care for and we might just leave those off next summer and there were a few that we read that I thought should have been included. So all in all we probably read close to a hundred books, but they just weren't all from the list.
  
• I lasted about two days doing the Sit-Up Challenge. Oh well, at least we got out and walked a lot instead.
  
• I did manage to drink more water. Some days I don't make it to the 64 ounces or more, but I have increased the amount I drink each day significantly.
  
• During the month of July, we did in fact participate in No Spend Month. You can read about what we learned here in case you missed it the first time.
  
• My goal to learn how to can didn't happen, but I am still anxious to learn the art of canning in the near future.

Bryan decided he would start roasting coffee at home this year. It was a shaky start, but he is roasting regularly and enjoying his coffee each and every morning.

At the end of August, I opened up and shared about our struggles with finding a church home. The Sunday after I wrote that post we started going to a big church for a few weeks before finally settling into a newer church in town that we are really trying to plug into.

At Seth's one year checkup, the doctor thought he heard a heart murmur. We ended up going in for an echo cardiogram and the nurse called with the results the next week. Seth's heart looked perfect and if there was a small hole causing a murmur it was not detectable on the monitor. We were relieved and at Seth's 15 month checkup a murmur could not be heard. We are so thankful!

One final followup is to Bryan's Professional Engineering Test that he took at the end of October. We heard just a few days ago that he PASSED. I couldn't be prouder of my man and I know he is so relieved to have it over and he won't have to worry about it ever again. Yay!

I hope that helps ease your mind about a few things in case you were dying from me leaving you hanging. :)

Enjoying the Unexpected in 2011

Wow, 2010 was a wonderful year! So many fun and exciting things happened. As I was looking over some posts just from last January I was amazed at how different things are now. Seth has grown so much. We learned a lot and have grown so much as parents. We have made lots of changes with our home. We have had adventures in gardening and composting. We have even stopped using paper towels (one I thing I thought would never happen)! We made new friends and had lots of celebrations! We have had such a great year of unplanned greatness, but I know that 2011 is going to be even greater! So here's to a new year of enjoying the unexpected.

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Bryan and I ate some delicious chocolate earthquake cake for breakfast on Christmas morning. Because of that and the fact that we left Jackson a little later than expected, we decided to make a "Happy Birthday, Jesus!" brownie this year instead of our traditional chocolate cake. Seth was excited as soon as we sat it on the table...

and he just loved the candles!

We sang the Happy Birthday song to our baby Jesus (from our nativity scene)
and then we enjoyed our brownie.

Then as we were eating we used our laptop at the table to make our donations to different charities. We are hoping to make this a tradition each year before opening our presents. I saw the idea of reading the book, The King's Christmas List from a blog called Impress Your Kids a few weeks ago and loved the idea of giving before receiving. I bought our copy of The King's Christmas List about a week and a half ago and we read it that night, but in future years we will probably read it while we are eating our cake or brownie or whatever else. This year I chose to donate a goat and Seth picked out a flock of chickens (by pointing and signing "yes") from Heifer International. Bryan decided he would like to give to Charity Water. Then we finished our Advent Study by reading the entire story of Jesus' birth. Afterward we gave Seth his gift.

It was a homemade car mat. My mom and I were rummaging through her closet during Thanksgiving and we discovered an old piece of fabric that she had used in her classrooms throughout the years. The fabric was more than 25 years old and I remember playing with it as a kid. It was in great condition, but it needed a backing fabric and the edges needed to be hemmed. So I brought it home, washed it, and added the backing to it. It was such a special moment when Seth figured out he could drive his little cars on it. I hope it provides him with lots of years of fun, too. This Christmas was filled with such special memories and we were truly able to focus on the birth of our Savior!!!

Touchable Nativity Set

At the end of November I got an email from a friend asking me if I would like a Fisher Price Nativity Set (ours does not play music). So a couple of days later I went by to pick up the brand new in-the-box set to include in our Christmas season. It has been one of the highlights to Advent in our home and Seth has played with it more than just about anything else during the month of December.
Sometimes some of the characters turn up missing for a while and other characters are added to the scene. For instance, Tommy the Tonka Truck visits sometimes and mechanics stand in for shepherds since it didn't come with them. Even though our set isn't always perfect, Seth has figured out the most important part. He loves to keep Baby Jesus near. It makes our hearts swell as parents.

This little scene has been so meaningful this season it even inspired this year's Christmas card, so Merry Christmas from our family to yours!