Thanksgiving 2008!

Thanksgiving was wonderful this year! Low key, and Low Stress! Perfect for Someone who is 8 months pregnant:)
We spent the night with Mommers and Dooders on Wednesday night, so that we could help with some pre-Thanksgiving preparations! It was nice to get to spend some extra time together and do a little relaxing!
On Thursday we woke up and had breakfast and then worked on a pre-Thanksgiving picture project! Then at 12 Noon (or thereabout) we all gathered in the kitchen and living room area for a blessing on the food and a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner! It was so nice to see everyone - even Josh and his family made it down from Northern VA! Each of us kids were in charge of bringing a dessert, so there was no shortage of the sweet stuff! Everything was wonderful ~ and the best part is that next year there will be at least 2 more little girls to share in the fun (as we have our baby next Month and Jessie and Tanner have their little girl in March). And with a family as big as ours you never know what else can happen!
Family is so important and we were so grateful to get to spend Thanksgiving together with my family this year! For those who may remember, last year Micah and I spent Thanksgiving in India...a very different experience indeed! We had a good time reminiscing about our India experience on Thanksgiving Day too. Another thing we are ever-so-grateful-for is to be citizens of the United States of America.....home!

Jessie and I and our Baby Bellies (Jessie at approx. 26 weeks & Me at 34)

Micah and I Ready for some Food and Family Time!
Family Photo Out by the Weeping Willow Tree!

A Historical Day for the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Charlottesville!!

Today was a day that many members of the Church in the Charlottesville area have been praying for and looking forward to with great anticipation for a long time. Today we held our first meeting in our new Stake Center in Charlottesville! My mom and I joined the church in 1990, and even then there was talk about a Stake Center to be built in Charlottesville!

It was wonderful and amazing to be able to pull into the new church parking lot and walk through the doors of that beautiful building this morning with my husband by my side! So much has changed in the last 18 years! I am so grateful for this beautiful new building that we have to meet in and that we will get to start meeting here on a regular basis in just 2 weeks!

After our Stake Conference was finished today, we got the opportunity to walk around the building and learn where different rooms are. My mom got called to serve as the Secretary in the Stake Relief Society Presidency today, and we were able to be there as she received a blessing and was set apart for her new calling. It was a very wonderful Sunday - very spiritually uplifting!

I have a testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and I know that we have a Heavenly Father who knows and loves each one of us, personally. I was reminded again today at Stake Conference of how much we have to be grateful for, and then I began to ponder how much I have to be grateful for. I felt the spirit so strongly. I am so grateful for my testimony and to know that God lives! I am thankful for temples and the sacred ordinances that are performed in those buildings. I am thankful to know that Families truly can be Together Forever. I am so thankful that Heavenly Father allowed me to find such a wonderful husband who loves and honors his family so much. I am overwhelmed with the love that he has for us at times, and so grateful that now is the time that we get to add to our sweet little family a beautiful baby girl who will be sent straight from Heaven! I am grateful that I get to be a mom to this special little girl and raise her and teach her the things that will help her be able to return back to her Heavenly home one day too! Life is good and I am so thankful to know that our Heavenly Father has a plan for each of us and He will be there to help us, as long as we are willing to ask. I KNOW this is true, without a doubt.

Now for a pregnancy update......things seem to be progressing well. We are still set for our c-section on Monday December 29th. Micah just reminded me that Christmas Eve is one month from tomorrow, and that also means that 5 weeks from tomorrow will be the day that Emily will finally enter our family (unless she decides to come a little early). That is a little overwhelming to me at this point, but I know that when she does come (no matter how nervous I am right now) I will rise to the call and do what needs to be done! That's what Moms do, right?

Micah and I have been able to feel her moving a lot more lately. It seems like her patterns right now are that she sleeps for a while and then when she wakes up she will kick, sort of like in a pattern, for several minutes and then she will settle back into a comfortable position and be still for a while. She is so fun already, we are excited for the day she arrives and adds her special light to our family!

The nursery is almost done, we have picked out pictures to order, and soon my mom is going to come over to help us put up the border in her room (we looked at the directions today, and it seemed more complicated then we had thought, so we had the great idea to call on Mommers' expertise since she has done this before!). Stay tuned, pictures will be forthcoming!!

For now you can enjoy these pictures of our new Church Building and us posing in the front of it (On the South Side....impressed Dooders?). You know us, we LOVE pictures, and we can't pass up a Kodak moment on a day as special and momentous as this!

The New Stake Center for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Charlottesville, VA!

Here we are posing in front of the New Building, making a memory that we can share with our little Emily in the years to come!
Mommers and Dooders had to get a picture too! They know when to follow in their children's footsteps!

Our Last Trip to Northern VA before Emily's Arrival!

This weekend we made our last trip up to Northern Virginia before Emily's arrival! We wanted to make it to the temple one more time, and also allow Nathan and Sarah the opportunity to do the same while we spent time with their kids. We had a great day. The weather was a little questionable at times, but we all survived it. And Micah even got to head outside with Joseph for a little while to help him run off some of his extra energy while I was having nap time with the girls!

We were also excited that our friends, the Murchisons, were able to stop by and visit with us on Saturday! It is always fun to catch up with them and we are looking forward to introducing them to Emily too, on our next trip!

Nathan and Sarah were nice enough to let us spend most of the day at their house on Saturday, we even got to sneak in a little nap ~ which was super nice since we didn't make it to bed until about 1:30am the night before!! We got back late from the temple and then we were hungry so we had to have some food and then still get ready for bed!! When our alarm went off at 8AM neither one of us could move ~ but I know that was a night that was meant to get us ready for parenthood:)

Saturday evening Sarah made a yummy dinner and everyone gathered together there (except Rachel who is living in California right now) to celebrate birthdays for Jacob, Hannah and Abigail! It was a fun evening.....lots of yummy food, good conversations and some fun pictures!

Uncle Micah is THE BEST at giving Piggy Back Rides!

Abigail Had a BLAST in her Princess Dress on Saturday ~ The only way I could get her to take it off for her nap was to tell her she could wear her pajamas!!

Hannah got to dress up in her princess dress too! She was getting ready to go to her friend's Princess Party, so she was pretty excited!


Me with two of my cute nieces!!


A photo with Jacob, Hannah and Abigail ~ the 3 birthday Celebrants!

Our 1st Baby Shower For Emily!

This past Saturday, November 8th, we were given our first baby shower for our sweet little Emily! My mom organized it with the help of my sisters and sisters-in-law, and future sister-in-law. It was such an unreal experience! It is finally our turn - we were at a baby shower that was for US! This was definitely my 2nd reality check of that week, that we are in fact having a baby NEXT MONTH!!!



Everything went really well. My mom opened things up by welcoming everyone to the shower and invited our friend Lisa to give the blessing on the food. Then Jessie, Tiffany and Danielle (along with assistance from Ivana) took over with the games. Which were GREAT!



Jessie did the "Guess the Candy Bar in the Diaper" game, she put a twist on it that I hadn't seen before, she tried to melt the candy bars in the microwave so that they looked a little more like "the real thing" and it worked, all except for one diaper that apparently started to burn and blew out the back! It was a little disgusting, but fun nonetheless!



Danielle was up next with her game (with the assistance of the lovely Ivana). Hers was a pricing game! She bought some baby items at Wal-Mart and everyone had to guess the price of each item, and whoever came closest to the grand total at the end won a prize! Micah and I were definitely surprised at some of the prices on those baby items! Who knew that a teething ring was only 0.97 and that certain creams were over $5!!! The best part of this game was that Mark and Danielle's gift to us was the bag full of baby items!! We were very excited:)



Tiffany followed up with the last game of the day! Her idea was to break everyone into groups of 3. She gave each group a roll of toilet paper and their job was to pick one person that would be the model and the other 2 were to "diaper" them. This game got really creative too! This was definitely one of those games that I was extremely happy that Micah and I were the "guests of honor" and not one of our friends in attendance. Once they were finished "diapering" they got to model their diapers in front of Micah and I (and the rest of the guests at the shower) and we got to pick the diapers that we thought were the "best" and "most practical". The winners were Jessie D. and Ruth!! These 2 had great team members with good fashion sense as well as practicality. Micah and I both agreed that if we had to diaper our baby with one of their methods that there definitely wouldn't be any leakage for little Emily at least for a little while (it would buy us some time to get to the grocery store!!).



After all of the games had finished up and the prizes had been awarded (the prizes were yummy loaves of banana chocolate chip bread and chocolate chip cookies that my mom had made!) it was time for Micah and I to open our gifts! One thing is for sure, little Emily is going to be a very stylish little girl! We got some of the most darling little outfits and some of the cutest little shoes!! Micah and I developed a system while opening the gifts, I would open the gift while he read the accompanying card (this helped me out tremendously or I would have been crying throughout! I just felt so overwhelmed and so loved by so many people it was hard to hold those tears back!!).



As people started to leave, Micah and I got up and mingled some more and got a little more food. Then we got to take some more pictures! After everyone left we stayed to help my parents clean up and then we were off to use our first gift card at Target (Thanks Creasys...we got a very cute CD player for Emily's room!). My parents met us at our house to help us unload all of our gifts and we got to give them the show ~ as my mom was too busy making sure everything ran smoothly to see all of the fun stuff we got, and Dooders was out helping with a service project!!



We are so grateful for all of our wonderful friends and family that are helping to make Emily's arrival as smooth of a transition as possible for us! We are looking forward to becoming parents and know that it will bring many challenges, but also know that the rewards will far outweigh those challenges. Our Heavenly Father loves each of us and is looking out for us. We know that He answers our prayers and He will answer your prayers too! If it is one thing that we have learned up to this point in our lives is that it is all about aligning our timetable with the Lord's timetable.



Here are some of the pictures from Saturday's Baby Shower. These are just a small sampling of the 100+ that we had to choose from. Hope you enjoy!!

The Adorable Cake - That My mom got from Sam's that Morning!

Me and My Mom, the party planner and a very Excited Grandma to Be!


Me and Ms. Spencer (my first grade teacher) - my mom invited her as a surprise and it definitely was! She said that after all of her years of teaching this was the 1st baby shower that she had been invited to for one of her students!!



Here we are opening the gifts ~ as we begin working out "our system"

The greatest thing about being "first time parents" is that we get to figure out how to use all of these fun gadgets that we registered for!! Although I am sure Micah will learn how to use the gift he is holding sooner rather than later!!

More Presents, More Cards!

Emily will now have many many homemade quilts and blankets to keep her warm on those cold wintry days!! Lots of different colors too, hopefully to help make "tummy time" a more pleasurable experience for all!!

4 Generation Shot (My Mema, My Mom, Me and of course little Emily who is still growing inside!!)

Can't pass up a Kodak Moment you know, From Left to Right (Mom, Me, Aunt Tede, Mema, and Aunt Debra)

Here I am with 2 of my beautiful sisters-in-law

(Sarah on the left and Ruth on the Right)

Here we are smiling with Mummis, Emily's other grandma!!

Two Happy and Excited Grandmas to Be!!

Here we are with Mummis, Sarah, and Ruth who all came down from N. VA for the baby shower! We were so excited to be able to share this special time with them!

Had to pose with Dooders ~ since he did come all the way over to the church after a hard morning of wood cutting to be part of the clean up crew!!

Time Marches on.....31 Weeks!

Time Marches On, that is for sure! Tuesday marked my 31 week mark of pregnancy! It is hard to believe how fast time is going, even harder to believe that in less than 8 weeks we are going to have our little Emily in our arms, and she won't just be growing in my tummy anymore!

We went to Martha Jefferson Hospital for our tour last night. It was good, very informative, but a bit overwhelming too! They showed us the maternity floor and the birthing and recovery rooms, and then when we told the guide that we were having a c-section she made a special trip back to show us where we would be going! That was really scary to me! All of a sudden my hands got sweaty and my heart started racing really fast! I think a bit of reality started to sink in. I could imagine us walking through those "authorized personnel only" doors (I tried not to think about the c-section and what is going to take place for that) and coming out with our little daughter in our hands. And for me that was overwhelming and a bit scary too! When I was talking to Micah about it, he said (of course) everything will be fine and that he was really excited! And I am super excited too, I just get more nervous, I guess because I am the mom-to-be....I don't know.

But anyway, we just wanted to share my 31 week shots too! We took them last night, and it took FOREVER! I think it is going to get harder as I get bigger too! Hopefully I will still have the guts and the patience to take my 35 and 39 week photos! We shall see!!

31 Weeks and Counting (sorry it's a little blurry, this one was my favorite of the 13 we took!)

Here's one more shot, almost the same, but it was Micah's favorite so we decided to share this one too! Little Emily must be growing, because I know Mommy sure is!

SIDE NOTE: Just a little side note, for all of you coupon fans.....My mom just told me that Harris Teeter is starting up with TRIPLE COUPONS Thursday and that will run through Sunday (they will triple all coupons up to .99 and the limit is 20 coupons per person, per trip!) Have fun if you decide to venture out!

Love Bird Tag!

What is your husbands name?
Micah

How long have you been married?

Almost 35 Months!!

How long did you date?
We Dated for 2 and a half months and then we were engaged for 3 and a half months!! When you've found the right person, you just know:)

How old is he?
33

Who is taller?
He is taller than me by 5 1/2 inches!! Lucky me:)

Who can sing best?

DEFINITELY Micah

Who is smarter?

I think it is a tie, we are both are smart in different areas:) :)

Who does laundry?

Most of the time, that would be Me:)

Who pays the bills?
Micah

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed?

If you looking at the bed standing at the foot, Micah sleeps on the right side of the bed!! I have to be close to the door:)

Who mows the lawn?

We Both Do, we take turns until it is finished:)

Who cooks dinner?

Most of the time I cook dinner, but Micah ALWAYS does breakfast:)

Who is the first to admit when they are wrong?

I am not really sure, I know we both admit it pretty quickly, but we try to hold onto our "rightness" for as long as we can:)

Who kissed who first?

Micah kissed me 1st, May 29th 2005, the day before he asked me to "be his girl"!!

Who wears the pants?

I would say Micah does. He is a great husband and I am so fortunate that our Heavenly Father allowed us to meet when he did. At the point when I was still single I felt like it was taking forever for me to find someone, but once I found Micah all the waiting was WORTH IT! Hands Down! He is my best friend in the entire world and I am so grateful for everything that he teaches me! It is so fun to be able to come home to your best friend every night and know that you can be yourself, whatever that might entail. We can laugh together, cry together, scream together, and just BE together!!

I am really looking forward to our next journey together......parenthood! We are so excited and could not be happier to have little Emily joining our family in less than 2 months!!!

Jessie and Tanner are Having a .....

......GIRL! And we could not be more happy for them!

They had their ultrasound on Thursday, but decided to keep the gender of the baby a secret (even from themselves) until Saturday morning when they got all of their families together (that could make it) for breakfast! Then after everyone ate they had a cake brought out! And the coolest part was, that for them to find out if they were having a boy or a girl they had to cut the cake. And if the icing inside was blue they were having a boy and if it was pink they were having a girl!!

So, everyone was sitting in silence as Jessie and Tanner took the knife (much like a couple does at a wedding reception) and made the first cut. When they pulled the knife out to make another cut, there was PINK icing smeared on it!! Everyone clapped! Most people were surprised, including Micah and I and even Jessie and Tanner. They had taken a poll moments before the cake cutting and most of the people there thought they were having a boy too! But nope, instead they get to welcome a beautiful little precious baby girl into their family at the beginning of March!

We are so excited to meet our newest little niece in just about 4 months!! Now our little Emily will have a little cousin to play with so close to her age, she will probably feel like they are twins! It is going to be so fun! Congratulations again Jessie and Tanner, we sure love you both!

Jessie taking a moment out to sit on her daddy's lap while they were waiting for breakfast to be served!

The Newest Parents to Be Getting ready to make the first Cut!

Will it be a BOY or a GIRL? I love their expressions in this picture!

PINK.....It's a GIRL! Yay for little Girls!