I can't believe Reese is already a month old! I have no idea where that month went:). It feels like we just brought her home yesterday. But I know that is not true. In fact a lot has happened in this past month. My mom was here for the first 3 weeks. It was so nice to have her here to help out and lend a hand. As I recovered from my c-section it was great to have both Micah and my mom around to pitch in. I was so thankful that my mom had the chance to be here when Reese was first born and she had a chance to spend time with her.

In the last month Reese has changed a ton! When she was born she weighed 7 pounds...when I weighed her this morning she weighed 11!! Yes, she is a chubster:). Our little girl is definitely not going hungry. She has also grown, she is already wearing leggings in 3 month size. She is growing like a weed. She is also a fantastic sleeper...well, at night she is. At night she lets us sleep quite a bit but during the day is a different story:). Sometimes it feels like she would just rather cry all afternoon instead of taking a nap. But that is okay because it gives us a lot of snuggle time.

We are looking forward to our first Christmas with our little girl. Although she won't care whatsoever about it, it will be special to us.

Reese Avery

Well as you can see blog has a new title. As you have most likely heard by now Micah and I welcomed to the world our precious Reese Avery on Monday Nov. 22 at 4:49 pm. I went to the doctor last Monday for my 38 week appointment and the doctor told me Reese had flipped over the last two weeks and she was now breech. They tried to flip her but she proved to be too stubborn. I ended up having a c-section later that afternoon. Not at all how I had thought my Monday would go but I was sure happy the way it ended:).

Micah and I have been have so much fun being parents. So far we think Reese is a super star:). She is such a good sleeper, sometimes too good, she likes to sleep through feedings. She is such stinker. She has been eating really well and gaining weight. We went to the doctor for her first appointment last week and her doctor said she was doing very well. We go back on Monday for her 2 week appointment. I can't believe she will already be 2 weeks by then. It feels like just yesterday Micah and I were bursting at the seams with excitement because I was 4 weeks pregnant. It was so hard to keep that secret. And now after 9 long months we have her and she is amazing. It is amazing the way life changes. At times it is hard to believe we ever felt satisfied in life without her:). We are overjoyed with our little girl and amazed every day how God has blessed us!

Well, I'm off to the doctor this morning and I am excited and anxious to hear if she has some good news for me:). I have a week and 4 days to go until Dec. 2 and I can't wait! It's not that I am uncomfortable or anything like that and for that I am quite grateful...I am just so excited to meet our little girl! I had an AMAZING shower on Saturday with some pretty terrific women. Since the shower I would have to say Micah and I are all set to welcome our sweet little Reese (still no middle name) to our family. I tell her every day that it is okay for her to come but she doesn't listen. She is a stubborn one:). My mom comes tomorrow and I am very much looking forward to that. As long as Reese doesn't make an appearance we will do some shopping, some antiquing, and who knows what else. We also have a Thanksgiving meal to plan for so we will be busy until Reese gets here. So I'm off to my appointment in just a bit, I will let you know if the doctor gives me any news!

Free Shutterfly Cards!!

Okay, this post is going to be all about Shutterfly! Some of you may have used them before, others maybe not. I have used them for the past 2 years for my Christmas cards and plan on using them for the coming years. One great perk of Shutterfly is that they give you the option of addressing them yourselves or they will do it for you! So if you want 50 free Christmas cards this year and have a blog just go to http://bit.ly/sfly2010 and sign up! They will send you an email letting you know how to get some free cards. And by the way, another thing I love about Shutterfly is that when I got pregnant they gave me a 20 dollar gift card! How great is that?!?! With my 50 free cards this year I am going to make a baby announcement/Christmas cards for friends and family. They have some pretty cute options this year...I would show you what I am planning on using but that would ruin the surprise:). You can check out the holiday cards at this link: http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/holiday-cards. You can make birthday cards at this link, http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/birthday-cards-stationery. I have never done birthday cards but I'm sure they are great. I have also done wall art through Shutterfly, http://www.shutterfly.com/home-decor/canvas-wall-art. So you can do this too with your blog and get 50 free cards, just go to the link I posted and they will give you directions!

The Nursery

I posted these pictures of Reese's room on Facebook but I know that some of you that read this blog don't "do" Facebook. So here are some pictures of the room. Now all we need is her. The countdown continues, 3 weeks to go! Notice the rocking chair, that is Micah's Oma's that we acquired along the way.

What's Up With Us????

To begin the tale of what is going on with us I start with the fact that in just 5 short weeks our little girl is due to meet the world! She can come at any time (and we are hoping she comes sooner than later)!! Can you believe it? Time is just flying by! It feels like just yesterday I was sitting down to tell you all that Micah and I were expecting, and now she is practically knocking on our door.

These weeks bring so many feelings. The first is pure excitement! We are so excited to meet our little Reese. I can't even begin to put words to how we feel. Every night we look in her room and talk about how amazing she will be. We just can't wait to meet her.

Another feeling we have is complete and utter FEAR! What are we doing??? Sometimes I just stop and think about the hugeness of the the life change we are about to embark on and I wonder what we are doing. We don't have a clue about being parents! Fortunately, we have many friends and family that have been amazing, Godly examples of what parents should be. We have been gleaning for years.

In addition to excitement and fear we feel anxious. Not necessarily in a bad way. We just don't know what to expect. Life is about to change forever, and we just don't know what it is going to be like. One thing we do know is that it will be amazing. We know we will make mistakes along the way but God will be by our side guiding us in bringing up this miracle that is about to join our little family.

My mom will be visiting us come the end of November and she will be with us for 3 weeks! We are so excited to see her. This will be her very first visit to the UK and I think it will be full of excitement. It will be nice to have a set of hands around this place that actually knows what they are doing when it comes to babies:). We are happy she is able to come and share this time with us. And then about a month after my mom comes my friend Tara will be here for another week to spend some time with us and Reese. We are very much looking forward to both visits.

So that has pretty much consumed us for the last little bit. Life is good. We are good. We are ready to embark on the next phase of our lives.

We're Having a GIRL!!

That's right everybody, come December we will be welcoming a precious little girl into our home. We are so excited and just cannot wait. We went in for the big appointment on Wednesday and we were there for just about an hour. At first the technician just took a bunch of pictures and didn't really talk to us. After a while she had what she needed so she relaxed a bit and joked around with us. At the end we play a little guessing game with her as what the gender was. It was pretty obvious we are going to be having a girl. It was a lot of fun to watch her tumbling and turning inside of me. I didn't get to see too much of it but Micah watched the whole thing and just loved it! I'm sorry it took me a few days to let you all know. I had a huge assignment for class this week and I have been super busy with that.

21 weeks!

Well I am 21 weeks as of today. I can't believe it! I am over half way done! I don't really feel half way, not even close actually. Slowly buy surely I am growing, but I am still not feeling "pregnant". I still forget that I am pregnant and then someone reminds me and it takes me a minute to process:). But we really are enjoying this time. Every day Micah comes home and asks me if I have felt the baby kick...so far the answer is no but one of these days I am going to surprise him with a yes! I am really looking forward to feeling him or her moving around. Micah has also taken to feeling my stomach and being very quiet in hopes of feeling something move. It is actually kind of funny. A week from today we find out if we are having a boy or a girl! It feels like we have been waiting forever for this and we still have another week to go! My appointment is at 1:00 in the afternoon and Micah already has blocked out a few hours in the afternoon so we are all set. I just hope he or she isn't shy and decides not to move around. But then again, I really can't imagine any child of mine being shy or not wanting to move around EVER:)! So as soon as we get home I will try to sit down and write a quick blog to let you all know if it is a boy or a girl. Other than that things are good. Like I said I am slowing growing, it amazes me how week to week clothes are fitting me differently. I have been SUPER tired, taking naps pretty much every day. That is starting to slow down a bit. I still get tired in the afternoons but I can power through a bit easier now. I think that pretty much brings us up to speed with the pregnancy. Check back next week for the big reveal!

Carter's Comfort Center Playard and Changer - Safari Friends - Carters - Babies "R" Us

This is another link to the pack and play if the one I posted doesn't work:)

Carter's Comfort Center Playard and Changer - Safari Friends - Carters - Babies "R" Us

18 weeks

Okay, I will be 18 weeks already tomorrow. I just can't believe it. Every day it is feeling more and more real. I had an appointment last week where we heard the heart beat. This was kind of exciting because it was Micah's first time hearing it. It is nice to hear that he or she is healthy and strong in there:). The heart was beating at about 160 beats...which I have been told indicates our baby Vander Veen will be a girl. I have felt all along that we will be welcoming a little baby girl into the world this winter but Micah has been positive it will be a boy. We will officially find out on July 28th whether we will will be saying hello to a girl or a boy. Don't you worry, as soon as we know we will be posting it for you all to read. Even though we don't yet know if we are having a boy or girl we have started to get things ready for the baby's room. Yesterday we bought a pack and play and we are super excited about it. In fact, Micah has already assembled it and put it in the baby's room. Here is a link to the pack and play we bought if you want to take a look. www.amazon.com/Carters-Comfort-Center-Playard-Changer/dp/B003PE1WIW. If you can't click on it just cut and paste it into your address bar. Every day I feel like I am showing more and more, once I really feel "pregnant" instead of just fat I will post some pregnancy pics for you all. That is all that we have for new baby news. But don't worry, I will keep you posted!

15 weeks and counting

Well as most everyone knows by now Micah and I are expecting our first child this December! I am just over 15 weeks now and I am feeling great. We are so excited to begin this next phase of our life. I thought I would post a few of our ultrasound pictures. These were taken about 5 weeks ago so he or she has grown quite a bit since then but you get the picture.

We still aren't sure if we are going to find out the sex. I think it would be super convenient but I think it would also be a wonderful and exciting surprise to wait. So time will tell. We still have quite a few weeks till we go to the apt. that tells the sex so we have time. I go to my next appointment in two weeks and I am really looking forward to it. It will be exciting to hear the heat beat again and just know that he or she is healthy and strong. We have a really good hospital on base where I will see a doctor and where we will have the baby. A common question has been if the baby will be a British citizen or not. It is my understanding that since it will be born on base it will be an American citizen. I will try to give a baby update after my appointments for now on. I am not a super good blogger so we will see if I make good on that:).

How about an update :)

Over the weekend Micah and I had the opportunity to attend a conference in Eastbourne which is on the southeast coast of the UK. Last fall I went to a conference in Seattle and had the opportunity to hear a man named Alistair Begg speak. The way he communicated and brought God's word to us in such a true and simple way really intrigued me. I wanted to hear more of what he had to say. Since that conference I have read some of his book and Micah and I both listen to his radio program, Truth For Life. Now, keep in mind, I know he is just a man and a tool the Lord is using in my life. I am not elevating him to a certain level or anything, I just think the Lord has really blessed him with an amazing speaking ability. Anyways, back in November I found out that Alistair would be speaking in the UK this May so I immediately bought tickets. It was a long wait but the weekend finally came. I was so excited to share this experience with Micah. Micah and I both came away totally and completely blessed after a weekend filled with fellowship worship and just getting into the Bible. I just wanted to share with you all one thing that Micah and I took away from this conference. The biggest concept that hit us was the fact that as Christians we should be in a hurry to share Christ with all those around us. The Devil likes to make us think that there is always tomorrow and another opportunity will come for us to share the gospel. Sometimes we feel uncomfortable because of the crowd we're in so we say we will say what needs to be said some other time. But that is just a lie that we tell ourselves. Time is of the essence and we should take every opportunity we have to share the gospel with those around us. So we need to ask ourselves if we are "Christians" beyond Sunday morning at church and maybe Wednesday nights? In all we do and say we need to be telling people the awesome truth of Jesus and the salvation that He freely offers. So that is what has been on my heart for the past few days and I wanted to share it with you.

Prague

Micah, Lincoln, and I just returned from Prague tonight. We had such a great trip. Here are a few pictures of our time there. It was such an amazing city with spectacular views. The thing that surprised me the most about Prague was how big it was. It stretched for miles and miles every which way. We stayed in the "Old Town" section of the city which it where all the shopping and statues were. A very nice surprise we discovered once we got there is that they had their Easter Markets up. There were booths everywhere selling baked good, sausages, carved objects and other trinkets. It was so nice to just walk around the city and drink it the sights. That is all I have to say about Prague for now. Lincoln claims he wants to be a "guest blogger" tomorrow, so you all may be in for a real treat.

Long OverDue Blog Update....

Hello, hello! I thought it was time to give you all an update on me and Micah. We will start with my wonderful husband....Micah has been crazy busy. He is about to take over as chief of his office so these past few weeks have been filled with him learning his new job and try to create a seamless transition between him and his boss. It's a good thing they are such good friends and work so well together, that makes the transition go smoothly. Micah is going to be a great boss and he is going to do great things in StanEval (but I'm not bias or anything:)). Update two with Micah is that Lincoln is here!! He has been so looking forward to seeing his brother for a couple of months now and the time is finally here. They spent Saturday and Sunday together, and believe me, it was full of joking around and laughter. Now Lincoln is off to Dublin for a few days but he will be back on Wednesday. He had to go by himself because Micah had to go on a little trip and couldn't go with him. When Lincoln gets back the three of us are headed to Prague. Micah has wanted to go to Prague for a while now so he is super excited about next week. It will also be nice for him to have a short break before he becomes the big boss-man in the office.

Things are going well on my end too. I have been keeping busy with substitute teaching and I have been loving it! I worked the same class again for a couple of weeks and now that their teacher is back I have decided to take a bit of time off. With Lincoln here it is nice to have an open schedule to hang out with him and do some sightseeing. My Masters class has become much more demanding of me. I am currently taking a statistics class that is seriously kicking my butt!! But I know it is only one class and once I conquer it it will all be worth it. Another thing that has been going on with me and that I have been a bit homesick. As most of you know, Joe and Tina are expecting their first baby is less than a month!! I can't believe my little brother is going to be a dad! I have been a little sad because I know that I can't be there to meet my new little nephew or niece, but I am super thankful for the telephone and Internet and that I am able to gets frequent updates from Tina.

Our spring and summer are filling up with house guests which is always great. As I said earlier, Lincoln is here and he will be here for two whole weeks. My aunt, uncle and cousins from Walla Walla will be here for two days at the end of the month, we're very excited to see them. Micah's other brother, Adrian, will be here for two weeks in June. Bailey Beld, a friend of the family, is also going to stop by for a few days this summer. So our summer is filling up which is exciting!

I will be sure to post pics in the next week or so from Lincoln's visit and our trip to Prague. With summer here we will probably be updating the blog more with all the visitors and little trips we will be taking, so check back in in a few weeks!

So Micah had the day off today in honor of President's Day. We thought we had a great opportunity to go and see some sights. At first we thought London would be perfect. But Micah has to fly tomorrow so we figured we should do London another day when we don't have to watch our time. Our second thought was to explore Cambridge. While I go shopping and sightseeing frequently in Cambridge, Micah only goes for church or if we are going for dinner. So we thought it was a good opportunity to show Micah the sights. The number one thing I wanted to show him was the Fitzwilliam Museum. This is a private collection museum which has artifacts, paintings and sculptures. So we had a relaxing morning and then ventured to the train station. Once in Cambridge we made our way there....only to find it is closed on Mondays!!! We were disappointed to say the least. So we continued on to a great burger place. That may sound silly but a good hamburger is a rare find in these parts. They usually end up tasting like bad meatloaf :). After lunch the temperature had dropped drastically so instead of exploring the city we made our way back to the train station. All in all a bit dissapointing but it was good because we spent some nice time together and had a spectacular lunch!!

Our Week in Germany

Micah and I went to Garmisch, Germany last week. We had such a great time. We flew into Munich and then took a train to Garmisch. He we are on the train. We were kind of excited and just wanted to start documenting our trip:).


We stayed at a resort called Edelweiss. This is an American resort just for military members. We had a beautiful room with an amazing view. We could see people skiing down the slopes from our balcony. This in one of the mountains we could see from our room. We wanted to go to the top of it but most days it was too foggy and snowy. We hope to go back this summer and maybe go to the top then.


We also went to a castle and church while we were there. The castle we went to was called Neuschwanstein it was King Ludwiggs castle. It was so ornate and extravagant. This is also the castle that Walt Disney patterned Disney land after. He was so taken by it and found it to be a whimsical looking place. So here are some pictures of us there. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take any pictures once inside so we don't have any from inside to show you. These two pictures were taken on the way up. We walked about 1 1/2 miles up to the castle.

This is Micah at the base of the hill before we walked up the hill.

Before we got to the castle we stopped at this church. It was really cool to see this church because all the cathedrals we visit here in England are built in the Gothic style of architecture. This church was the first church we have visited from the Renaissance. It was so amazing to see all the colors and sculptures inside. It was very colorful.

So that is our trip to Germany in a nutshell. In addition to sightseeing we did a little snowboarding. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures to show you of that. But believe me when I say you aren't missing anything. I spent most of the time on the ground and on my knees. Micah as always had an awesome time and really got a lot better. This was the first time we have snowboarded two days in row and it was nice to have second day to practice the stuff we learned on the first day.

We had a such a great time in Germany and can't wait to go back. Micah's brother Adrian in coming to visit us this summer and we hope to take him back with us and do some white water rafting. There is just so much to do and see there we can't wait to go back! So the offer stands to anyone who wants to come visit we are always looking for a reason to go again:).

Wow, finally a day off! I have been working nonstop since Christmas break ended. Don't get me wrong, I love the work. But I am a substitute because I don't want to be a full time teacher. Anyways, today and tomorrow I have off and I plan on making the most of them. Micah had to fly early this morning and on his way out the door he informed me that he is out of socks and on his last pair of boxers, :(. I am behind like never before! So today is full of errands, grocery shopping, LAUNDRY, cleaning and my most favorite subject....homework. I have a new found respect for working moms. I don't know how they do it. I don't have any kids, all I have to worry about is myself and Micah. But I feel like I drop many balls during the week when I am working every day. So to all you working moms out there, I salute you. So this post is short because of the LONG list of things for me to do today, but Micah and I are off to Germany next week for a snowboarding trip so there will be posts and pictures to come!

Our Weekend Away

So here are some pictures of Me and Micah in Cornwall this weekend. We stayed in a fantastic hotel in Newquay and on Sunday we ventured out to Penzance and Land's End. Penzance was such a pretty seaside town. Since we were there in the off season there wasn't much open but we really enjoyed exploring the tide pools and walking through the village.

Micah thought this door was so hilarious!! So many of the doors were shorter than him, we obviously couldn't live there:).

After Penzance we ventured to Land's End. I thought this town would have a little more than it did. It ended up being just a little Touristy. The ocean was beautiful though and we got some good pics.These last two pictures are from Newquay. This was my favorite place we visited. It had some amazing waves which is perfect since it is a surfing town. All year long people surf there. We even watched some surfers out in the ocean. I didn't get any pictures of the surfers though. So here are my favorite two pics we took there.

Much Needed Getaway:)

I love long weekends!! Micah and I both have Monday off so we decided this week that we needed to get away from everything for a few days. We are headed to Cornwall, about 5 1/2 hours away for a couple of days. Cornwall is on the coast with cliffs all around. The town we are going to is known for its surfing because of it amazing beach and waves. We plan on doing nothing but going to castles, aquariums and the spa:) We rarely get away together just the two of us so we are both looking so very forward to it. Micah found us an AMAZING hotel on priceline for the weekend so we are going to be pampered. It sits on top of a cliff and looks out over the ocean. I am bringing the camera, I will not forget it, so come Tuesday I hope to share some pics with you all from our weekend.

First Post of 2010!!

Well, the reason there have been no blogs lately is because I have been swamped. You would not believe how busy my life has gotten. I went from absolutely nothing going on in my life to having absolutely EVERYTHING! I started substitute teaching back in November and I pretty much haven't stopped. In addition to substituting I also have my master's program I have been working on. That has turned out to be even more demanding than I thought it would. And then throw in everything else of just the day to day and life just gets too busy. But to be honest with you all, I wouldn't have it any other way. I love working and feeling like I am offering something to the world. It has been so rewarding getting back into the classroom. I have started my third class for my masters program and it is going pretty well. It is pretty demanding but I feel like I am learning new things every week so that is nice.

Micah is still busy at work. Truthfully the month of December he didn't go to work that much at all. It seemed like he went a couple of weeks without ever working a full work week. Since he had so much time off we were able to go to Edinburgh in Scotland for the New Year. I would like to show you pictures but we didn't really take any that were blog worthy. We are big New Year's celebrators but it was amazing being there for the weekend. It snowed the entire time we were there. It was very weird because Edinburgh NEVER gets snow and we got dumped on. It seemed like a winter wonderland. It was funny, because I never really wanted to go to Scotland but now that we have visited I can't wait to go back:) So if anyone wants to come visit I will be up for a trip to Scotland, hint hint.