Merry Christmas!

Being a little overwhelmed at Christmas this year with getting a nursery together, we opted to not do Christmas cards to take one thing off my plate. Here is what our Christmas card would have been this year if we had the time to do it, so imagine you're opening this in the mail...

Merry Christmas!
Love,
Mary, Joseph, and Dakota the Donkey
(By the way, Elizabeth needs to get the credit for this idea because I stole it from her last year.)

Now on a more serious note. Being pregnant at Christmas and reading and hearing repeatedly the Christmas story this year has been much more meaningful than past Christmases. The sole purpose of Jesus being born on Christmas was to later die for us to save us from our sins. It is hard to fathom that God would sacrifice his only Son for us! I can't even imagine having to give up my son, and he's not even born yet.
This Christmas I have so enjoyed "I Celebrate the Day" by Relient K. I highly recommend listening to it if you haven't, but here's the best of the lyrics for you...

And the first time
That You opened Your eyes did You realize that You would be my Savior?
And the first breath that left Your lips
Did You know that it would change this world forever?

To look back and think that
This baby would one day save me
In the hope that what You did
That you were born so I might live.

And I, I celebrate the day
That You were born to die
So I could one day pray for You to save my life.


I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas celebrating the birth of our Savior!

Gavin vs. the Ultrasound

It is now inevitable. Gavin does not want to be seen until he is born! He tries to hide his face with his hand every time we have an ultrasound (which is thankfully quite often with my doctor!). We've only been able to get a side profile each time.

Check out the frown on his face. He really does not like to get his picture taken!

We can visibly see these bad boys kicking me all day long. I feel like I have to cover up my stomach to keep strangers from watching my belly move! It looks like ocean waves. I think he's going to be an active little boy! :)

Not so exciting news for me: Gavin is measuring 2 weeks ahead! I asked the doctor if that means that I am going to have him 2 weeks early, and she said, "No, he'll just be a big baby!"
It looks as though he's taking after his 6'2" Dad already!

Gavin's Room

If you only knew how thankful I am that Gavin's room is done! Whew. I know he's not due until February, but he could always come early and with us traveling for the holidays, I didn't know when it was going to get done! So both of our families came up here for the UT/Kentucky game (go Vols!) and we had a painting party beforehand.

Our friends RJ and Joslynn from Chicago stopped by in the midst of painting!
We miss you guys!

Ryan's family painted the blue background for the sky. Robert (Ryan's dad) is the fastest painter I've ever seen!


Ryan's sister Amanda graduated from UT in Interior Design. Man, is she helpful to have around! She has told us for years that she would design our nursery for us. She found our beautiful bedding for us which is a forest theme that fits Ryan and me so perfectly. Here's a picture from online so you can see what it will look like put together.

So she decided to do a mini forest in Gavin's room! Here she is sketching the trees on the wall. No joke--she had them sketched out with pencil in about 10 minutes. It was unbelievable.

The weather was yucky, so the guys ended up going to the game and the girls stayed home to finish painting. I think the Lord worked all that out so that it could get finished! Here's the progression of the trees on the wall from start to finish...
Here I am painting my little boy's nursery!
Don't worry, the room was well ventilated and we used a low VOC paint.

The proud artist!
Gavin's crib (when we get it) will go in the middle of the 2 trees. I want to sleep in this room!

For a finishing touch, Amanda had the best idea for Ryan and I to paint our names on one of the trees like we carved our names in it. I can't decide if I should keep it or not. What do you think?

7 Months

No matter what it may look like in the picture, I can assure you I am only 28 weeks!

Fun things happening right now:

• I am starting to feel appendages moving across my belly now. I can't describe how crazy/amazing it feels! I don't know how he's facing because I haven't had an ultrasound in a while, so I'm not sure if it's an arm or leg. All I know is that I've got an active little man!
  
• I can now see my belly moving. Only Ryan could see it move before because the little guy was on the underside of my belly. He's sitting higher than last month, so when he moves I can see it now! It seems that church is his favorite time to move and distract me. I guess I'm not still for that long any other time--the life of a kindergarten teacher!
  
• Gavin's room is painted (praise the Lord)! I'll post pictures this week.
  

Not so fun things happening right now:

• People asking me if I'm due this month. Ok, people, do you see how short I am? Where is this baby supposed to go!? :)
  
• Freaking out! :) If I knew that Gavin was coming on February 20 at 2:00, life would be wonderful. I am such a planner that knowing he could come a month early is stressing me out just a bit! 9 months seemed like so long and it's quickly approaching the end. It's a little overwhelming to think that I'm going to be a Mom in just a couple of months! It is a perfect opportunity for me to trust in the Lord, because He is in control and not me!

Gavin's First Shower!

On Saturday, Ryan's mom's wonderful friends threw us our first baby shower in Chattanooga. These ladies are so on top of it that they told us they wanted to throw a shower for us the week they found out we were pregnant. We are so blessed to have such great friends and family that can help us get our little family started! There is no way possible Ryan and I could afford all of this on our own. I would like to shake the hand of whoever came up with the idea of a shower!!

They surprised us with our baby pictures. Ryan's picture makes me laugh every time!! Look how gorgeous the cake is with Gavin's initials, too!

I hope Gavin does not get my fat baby gene! Yeah, that's me on the right. My family used to call me the Michelin Tire Baby because of all of my rolls!

Some of my high school friends got to come, too! Thanks so much, girls! Here's Melissa (one of my bridesmaids) and Tweed (she got married and that can no longer be her nickname, but I can't help it!)

And Emily, another one of my bridesmaids.

Melissa (another bridesmaid) and her precious little girl Natalie.

The wonderful hostesses: Sandy, Julie, and Rene. Thanks so much, ladies! I'm so sad we didn't get a picture together!
This is the only picture I have of the gift table. Wish we had posed. Our moms surprised us with our stroller/carrier/carseat! We can now take him home from the hospital! :)

Ryan and I are so overwhelmed by the amount of people that came and blessed us with so many wonderful gifts at this shower. We don't even live in Chattanooga any more and were overwhelmed by everyone's generosity!
After the shower, we went crib shopping. We just had to try out some of the gliders before we left!
We got back late and all I wanted to do was go through all the boxes and bags and see all of Gavin's new goodies. The organizer that I am (which is intensified right now with the nesting that I'm doing these days) had to separate all the gifts into like categories (bathroom, clothes, kitchen, etc.). Nowhere to put them now, so this will be his room for a little while until we paint and get some furniture!

6 Months

Actually, the title should say 6 months + 1 week! I somehow lost a week of my life. I don't know where it went! I thought I was 6 months this Friday, but I was 6 months on Halloween! Wow, time is just flying by!

I went to a shower today for my friend Shannon. Shannon, Sarah, and I are all a month apart, so we had to take a picture together! This just cracks me up! Notice that I'm 2 months behind Shannon and my belly is not much smaller! Eek!

Due Dates

Shannon: December 20; Sarah: January 27; Me: February 20

Fun things happening right now:

• Ryan is able to feel Gavin kicking a lot more. He likes to push back at him and fight with him. He's so silly.
  
• Ryan laid on the bed the other night next to my belly and watched Gavin kicking. He could see my belly moving! He's so low that I couldn't see. I sure can feel him though!
  
• In church this morning, I had my journal propped up on my belly and it was moving each time Gavin kicked. Very distracting, little man!

Not so fun things happening right now:

• HEARTBURN!!! If the Old Wive's Tale is true, Gavin is going to have an incredibly full head of hair! I'm having to prop myself up on a 2nd pillow at night or I wake up miserable. Never experienced it before being pregnant. Whew. Tums are my new best friend! BUT I still can't complain because the Lord has blessed me with the easiest pregnancy and I am grateful every day!
  

Fun Fridays in the Fall

The past couple of Fridays we have gotten to hang out with our good friends Peter & Bethany and Lon & Sharon. Ryan and I are so thankful for all of the wonderful friendships we have in our church! Here are some of our adventures:

2 Fridays ago we went to the Oakes Farm cornmaze out in Corryton (one of my favorite things to do in the Fall!). There were rumors one of the mazes was haunted, then the sign said "If you are pregnant you cannot go in this maze," so thank goodness (for Gavin's sake) we had to pick the non-haunted one! You would not see a smile on my face if we had been chased by chainsaws through the maze. We heard people screaming going through the haunted one. Wow, my heart is beating fast just thinking about it. :)

On the caterpillar made of hay
Peter and Bethany

No trip in the Fall is complete without my favorite--hot chocolate!
After finding all the clues--without a flashlight! We had to use our phones to see the map when we needed help. And...we did a little bit of illegal cutting through the corn to finish.We didn't get home until almost midnight!

This past Friday, the guys planned such a fun and thoughtful evening for us. Peter gave us girls his GPS and had programmed 3 destinations for us to follow. Bethany was our tour guide.

The first destination was Carl Cowen park where Peter had hidden a CD of poems that he recorded himself reading. It took us a while to find it, but we finally did!

The second destination was Gettysview Country Club.

Peter left his credit card for us to get appetizers and wine (water for me of course)! We got to sit out on the patio and watch the sunset. It was gorgeous!

The final destination was our house where the guys surprised us with a cheese fondu candlelit dinner. There were red roses at each of the girl's seats!
The best part: this was for no special occasion--just the guys showing how much they love and care for us!
Thanks, guys, for planning such a wonderful evening for us!