It sure has been a while...

Well, I think it is safe to say that I am a blogger failure. But don't blame me, blame motherhood:). I realize a lot of moms can be a mom and blog all at the same time, but it is super hard! Reese, who is a whole 8 months now, has me running all the time. And believe me, I am NOT complaining. I absolutely love it! But it is time consuming. Now that she is getting a bit older though and can play by herself for a bit perhaps I will find more time to spend on here. I guess time will tell. I only ask you to please not give up on me:). Check back ever so often and I will try to have posted some current pictures of our little life.

Not much new. Micah is busy with work, I am busy with Reese and my Master's and Reese is busy crawling. With a semi-mobile baby life has become more interesting. We have lately been introduced to baby gates. Wow, whoever invented them should get a gold star for functionality, but not some much for ease of use....I don't know if I am just slow but they are hard to install. Anyways, like I said Micah is busy with work and he is hoping to hear soon about where our next move will take us and he is hoping to get a new job soon too, so time will tell. I have been busy trying to complete my Master's, as of today it is 4 weeks and counting until I will say farewell to school for quite some time. I can't wait to be done!

So here are some pictures, I know that is why you come, just to see what we are up to:) I have posted a lot of these on FB so if there is a lot of repeats, sorry:).

more pictures

So here are a few pictures of Reese taken over the past couple of weeks. I know that I haven't been putting too many new pictures on the blog, it has just taken me a while to get them off the camera and uploaded.


I absolutely love this sleeper! Some may say it is for boys but I don't care. I get so sick of all the pink stuff. I sometimes wonder if the people that make baby clothes know that girls wear other colors besides pink. So I put Reese in this sleeper as much as possible.

Our little baby burrito all ready for bed. She loves to stick her tongue out.

Reese loves going in the bathtub! Micah and I are so happy that we don't have to fight her every time she has to go in. In fact, sometimes if she is being super fussy we give her a bath and it calms her right down. The only problem is that when it is time to get out she throws a fit:).

Can you believe that Reese is already 9 weeks this week?!?! I know, me neither:). I should be doing homework while she naps this morning but instead I thought I would take a minute to share a few Reese stats with you all. She had her 2 month check up this week. Obviously the doctor was super impressed with her. She is 50% in all categories. She weighed in at 11.6 lbs. and she is 22 1/2 in. long. We are really happy with her growth and she seems to be happy with it also. Reese is a lot of fun these days. She is making a ton of noise. It is so funny to me how one day she can wake up and be doing all this new stuff that she didn't do at all the day before. She smiles constantly, especially when she sees Micah. I am hoping to snap a few pictures of her this afternoon so hopefully I will be posting some new pics later today or tomorrow.

Okay, it was brought to my attention today that I have been neglecting this blog. Which is really nothing new for me because I am the worlds worst blogger, but I thought when I had Reese that I would step it up and keep everyone up to date with what is going on with us. I had a very warped idea of what life with a baby would be like:). I thought it would be a lot of sleeping, cuddling, and eating. While those three things do take place everyday, there is also a lot of crying! Sometimes the day is over and I wonder where it went. I start back up with my masters classes today and I am a bit nervous that I will not find the time to get my work done. Reese takes up a lot of my time. But, I would rather be wiping tears and holding my little girl than cleaning my house or doing school work anyways.

Reese was 7 weeks old yesterday. I just can't believe it. Time is flying by. She is changing by the minute, or so it feels:). She has recently discovered that her fingers fit in her mouth and she quite enjoys them. Sometimes it seems like she would rather keep her fingers in her mouth rather than eat. She is so alert when she is awake these days. She recognizes voices, especially Micah's. When Micah starts talking to her her eyes move around and look for him and she gets a huge smile on her face. She is a big smiler. The three things that bring smiles to her face are her dad, bath time and diaper changing time. Those are pretty much the best things in her life right now:).

Micah will be gone for the next couple of days so it is just us girls for a while. I am kind of looking forward to this time with Reese. I will actually only be alone for 2 days because my friend Tara is coming on Friday and she will be here for a week. I am looking forward to the visit and I am excited for her to meet Reese. It will be nice to have an extra set of hands around the house too to help out with Reese.

I was just reading a friends blog and she said something that really spoke to me. I really liked it so I thought I would share. She said something about how when our babies wake up in the middle of the night and we find ourselves feeding, holding and rocking we should take that time to speak with the Lord. Lately when I get up with Reese I am just so tired all I want to do is get it over with and go back to bed. But after reading what my friend said I think I will take those precious moments and spend some time with my Lord.

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.