Merry Christmas...

...from our home to yours! (And, yes, I do realize I am a day late, but better late than never, in my opinion.)

*photo is courtesy of Lindsey March Photography (The link is to her blog. I don't think she has a photography specific website.)*

I hope and pray everyone was able to enjoy their holiday yesterday! May this time of year be a reminder of what great love Jesus has for us and may we not forget His birth was all so that He might die so we might have eternity with Him!

32 Weeks [A Bumpdate]

How Far Along: I am 32 weeks and 5 days. 52 days until I'm 40 weeks.

Total Weight Gain/Loss: How about 23 pounds officially. I'm totally good with that number!

Food Aversions (and "no nos"): Nothing has changed here. Still only bananas.

Gimme' some of that!: Still love me some potatoes! :)

How I Feel: This changes daily. BUT health-wise, there aren't any complaints. I have the normal back pain, the normal swelling in my feet/calves, but aside from that everything looks great.

Maternity Clothes: How about most of my tops don't want to completely cover my swelling abdomen? I'm starting to get really annoyed.

Movement: I am housing an alien. You know...it looks like I could be part of a sci-fi movie on a daily basis. Especially when she has hiccups and is moving simultaneously.

Sleep: Hit and miss, with no rhyme or reason.

What I Miss: Having to think about how to get up so as not to strain my middle and/or my back.

What I'm Looking Forward To: Aubrey joining our family!

Favorite Moment of the Week: This has nothing to do with the pregnancy. Zoë has started to sing songs to herself and with me. I have randomly caught her walking around the house singing "Jesus Loves Me". Ahhh! Sweet sound to my ears!

31 Weeks [A Bumpdate]

Nah...I'm not tired at all. I just look like I didn't sleep the night before this pic. That's all...

How Far Along: I am 31 weeks and 5 days. 58 days until I'm 40 weeks.

Total Weight Gain/Loss: I'll find out "officially" tomorrow, but according to my scale I'm at a 24 pound weight gain. Not going to complain about that. I only have 8 weeks left. I'll be exactly at the same weight gain I had with Zoë if I only gain a pound a week here on out and I go the full 40 weeks.

Food Aversions (and "no nos"): Still only bananas as far as aversions go. However, anything with a lot of red sauce makes my heart burn awful. Thus I generally try to stay away from any food I know will cause indigestion.

Gimme' some of that!: I couldn't get my mind off of ice cream last night. So much so I made Ben run to the closest place with anything close to ice cream to get me some at 9 pm last night :) Aside from that no cravings in the past week.

How I Feel: Exhausted, though it isn't just the pregnancy making me worn. 

Maternity Clothes: Does this one even need to be answered? I mean...I'm thinking by the above picture it's obvious. Maybe I just need to remove this questions. Ha!

Movement: Yep. Alien like. If she presses into my anterior abdomen hard enough you can tell if it's her bum or foot :)

Sleep: This is hit and miss. No rhyme or reason to it. 

What I Miss: Right now my biggest aggrevation is my sinuses. Nothing to do with pregnancy Mostly because of the weather going from 32 degrees to 70 degrees as the highs off and on, but also because my capillaries are bursting and causing wonderful blockages in my sinus passages. Woo!

What I'm Looking Forward To: Aubrey baby joining our family. The more we prepare and I write out my birth plan and we discuss details, the more I'm realizing this is happening and God has, as far as we know, blessed us with another little life to join our family. My arms won't ache to hold her until eternity, my hope is in just a few short weeks, they will hold her!

Favorite Moment of the Week: You guys, I'm doing well to make it through the week keeping everyone in my family alive. That's my favorite "moment": successfully keeping our home in tact. 

Always Needed Reminder

This is, by far, more for me than it may be for you. But life has been crazy these past few weeks. There are many opportunities to slip into depression. And when I woke this morning, God graciously gave me a reminder, funny enough a verse my husband and I were discussing yesterday morning before he left for work. If you're stuck in a down place, a hard place, anything which seems too much to bear, I hope this will flood your heart and mind with peace as it is mine. Of course, I'm constantly whispering it to myself as stress and emotions try to overwhelm me.

2 Corinthians 12:9 NASB

And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

A quick thought I've had on this verse: many times we think of this verse as only talking about those areas we think of ourselves as weak. But honestly, any time we are more than joyful, any time we are struggling with some aspect of our broken world, whether we caused the struggle, were a mere character in the middle of someone elses', or dealing with the "normal" of our broken world (pain, sickness, death, etc.) is a weakness showing our desperate need for an almighty, all-loving, all-knowing Savior.

29/30 Weeks [A Bumpdate]

Today I give you two pictures. Kind of can't believe how fast this is going and I can't believe how many weeks I've missed. Though I will say I had no control over the past few weeks not getting posted. However, I will say you aren't getting a 28 week pic because we didn't take one. Bums me out a little, but that would have been the day after we moved and I was meeting up with my bestie whose flight happened to be landing in Houston after she's been in Germany for a while.

This is 29 weeks. The shape of my bump changes constantly as Aubrey decides to change where feet/butt/back are consistently. Also, photo is courtesy of my older sister, Lindsey :) I wish every pic looked this good. Ha!

And 30 weeks. I feel like I'm starting to stick straight out; as in, I might eventually look like I stuck a a huge, wooden plank up my shirt.

How Far Along: I am 30 weeks and 5 days. 65 days until I'm 40 weeks.

Total Weight Gain/Loss: At my 30 week appointment, my total weight gain was 21 pounds. My home scale is currently going back and forth between telling me I've gained another pound or two. So my guess is at my 32 week check up I'll have gained maybe a total of 24 pounds.

Gimme' some of that!: Cornbread. Homemade, not Jiffy, cornbread. (Is there really any other way to make it right?) And of course, ice cream :) The flavor changes, but ice cream frequently sounds good.

How I Feel: Exhausted. And like a beached whale, which isn't good considering I still have a little more or less than 10 weeks to go. Oh and a duck. I waddle. Like no one's business.

Movement: It's starting to look like I have an alien residing inside of me. Seriously.

Sleep: Hit and miss. I make use of the time I wake up at 2 in the morning and can't go back to sleep though, so at least the sleep deprivation wasn't wasted on staring at a ceiling.

What I Miss: Not having to constantly worry about whether or not my legs are going to swell. Not being so sensitive to sodium.

What I'm Looking Forward To: Adding Aubrey to our family.

I Promise We're Still Alive

Hey Everyone!

Just a quick update as to why it's been so silent in these parts: we moved to our new apartment (YAY!) but our internet provider has made bookoo number of mistakes leaving us with no internet connection at home. We are still in the process of getting that fixed and I'm sure you'll be hearing a bit more from me once it is fixed. For the time being, my blog will remain silent. (I'm at a friends house right now trying to get all my bills paid and make sure I have all my ducks in a row so I'm not late on any important stuff.) Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and hopefully very soon we will be back with internet.

Toodles!

(Pardon any typos/errors...I'm exhausted as we've been sick, traveling, and unpacking. My brain is on a survival mode. :])