Friday, November 30, 2007

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

A Happy Thanksgiving

We are home from Seattle and MI and really enjoyed our trips. Next time we venture anywhere there will be three of us! I imagine it will be much different :)

Seattle was great. We were able to visit the ocean shore, Mt. Rainier, had fun downtown shopping and sightseeing, and enjoyed some great restaurants. We were able to see Michael, Ryan's brother who is stationed in the army near Seattle. Ryan really enjoyed Mt. Rainier, but being in my third trimester and clumsy even when I'm not pregnant, I decided not to venture onto the snowy trails and instead enjoyed the view with some hot cocoa and a book. The ocean shore was beautiful. It was supposed to rain but we took the risk and it was a beautiful day! Ryan's conference went well. He had very long days so it did not always feel very vacation-like during those days, but we had a good time regardless. It will be a learning experience the first time we take our little boy :)

In MI we were able to see most of our family and friends, ate a lot of yummy food and were spoiled with gifts for Joshua and myself at a baby shower.

Joshua is good. He is growing and moving. It is on my list to get some updated pictures of all of us and his nursery posted.

This week should be a relatively slow week to catch up on laundry, cleaning, etc. I'm hoping to work on organizing Joshua's stuff and doing some massive laundry of ours and his! I'm also definitely in the Christmas mood because my entire family is coming for Christmas next weekend. So I am hoping to get the tree up this week and get decorating. We also have our last baby shower this Saturday with our friends here. So fun!

It's always good to get away for awhile but then it is also so great to come home again.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! and enjoy all the fun christmas stuff coming up! More hot cocoa, scarves and mittens, christmas trees, twinkling lights, christmas music, and christmas baking!

And then after all the festivities... our best gift will be on his way!!!

love,
missy

Thursday, November 8, 2007

We had another doctor's appt. this week. Joshua is doing well, he was quite active in there and I'm measuring well. We are so thankful for his little self. I decided to stop weighing myself and just be ok with what our little boy needs so that was a bit nerve wracking, but all our doctor said was that my weight gain was good.

Our friends had their little boy Matthias a few days ago and it was the first time when I really thought about holding Joshua in my arms instead of just carrying him in my body. Another friend of ours had a friend only a few weeks further along than us and she had to have an emergency c-section a few days ago. (thankfully mommy and baby are doing well, but he was only 3lbs) So we are praying that Joshua would stay put for awhile! Anytime after the holidays would be great :)

We leave for Seattle tomorrow, so today is packing, last bit of laundry and cleaning.

Not much news since last time. Same stuff. Being pregnant, loving our little boy, Ryan working hard. I did try a few new recipes which both of them turned out quite yummy. So for my cooking and baking friends....

Baked potato wedges
http://www.recipezaar.com/49200
*I added way more cheese and made a dip of sour cream, chives and bacon bits - yum!

Brown sugar bundt cake - very moist with a sugary crispy outside
http://www.recipezaar.com/42976
- I added a caramel glaze made of brown sugar, powdered sugar, and whipping cream (not necessary but yummy)

Hope you all are doing well!

love,
missy

Monday, November 5, 2007

28 weeks 3 days!

We are now officially in the third trimester! Joshua will be coming shortly after the holiday season. He's been pretty funny lately and amazing to me how much his little movements change in just a short week. He's definitely not a flutter of any kind anymore and is now making his presence clearly known as he's poking around in there. It's been fun because Ryan is now able to feel him a lot easier - all he has to do is lay his hand on my tummy when Joshua is awake.

I have been doing well. My headaches have been very manageable this past week. No really bad days which is wonderful!

Ryan's grant for this summer was approved! So that is a great answer to prayer as it not only provides extra funds to do his research but it also guides him in his research.

He is now working on his presentation for the conference, a publication and working towards writing a grant from NSF (National Science Foundation) which is a big deal. He's a busy guy, working hard but doing great, and for the most part enjoying his work.

We leave for Seattle Friday until the following Friday for Ryan's conference and a last get-away as just the two of us. The conference starts on Monday and goes until Thursday. We arrive Friday and have plans to go to Mt. Rainier, and Mt. St. Helens or possibly the coast depending on how we are feeling and how much we want to drive. We are staying one night in a lodge type place by Mt. Rainier as our special night. Sun - Fri we are staying in a hotel in downtown Seattle. Ryan will be going to the conference during the day and I am hoping to get a majority of our christmas shopping done, work on Joshua's baby book, and relax. In the evenings we are planning to check out more of Seattle - that's my job this week is to find fun places to visit in the evening with Ryan. We are also planning on seeing Michael, Ryan's brother, who is stationed near Seattle. It will be a wonderful trip and we are so thankful for this perk of Ryan being a professor :)

I need to download some pictures soon. We have some great ones of the baby showers, and now need to take some pictures of our basement - some before and after ones - the intervarsity students came Friday and painted it! It is an amazing improvement as you will see. It now feels like part of our home and not just a storage room. So great!

I hope you are all doing well and enjoying the beautiful fall weather. We are enjoying hot cocoa, football, wrapping up in blankets, and not raking the leaves - yet :)

love,
missy