God & Sinners Reconciled!

Oh blogging. How I go through seasons where you are such a joy to do, and others where I can't seem to muster a single interesting thought to write. Trust me, it's not for a lack of interesting stuff going on, I seem to always have plenty of that. Maybe I can blame it on being pregnant, or as my birth instructor would say,"placenta brain."

Let's start with a Christmas update. There are plenty of other things to write about, but they will have to wait for another post.

 We got our tree about a week before Christmas. He was a tiny little guy, but just right for us. Jake always has a fun time decorating the tree with all his childhood ornaments and we both love to sit with the lights off and enjoy the colorful lights.

 I had a fun time decorating our gifts this year with all the left over bits and pieces of yarn that I never know what to do with.

 Our homemade stockings my mom whipped up last year for us.

 This was our second year of making homemade donuts on Christmas eve. This picture makes them look absolutely disgusting, but trust me, they were delicious. Pumpkin donuts with maple glaze. Yum!

 We went on a Christmas eve hike and it was so lovely. Right at the very end it started snowing and it was gorgeous. It snowed the rest of the day and we had a white Christmas. Jake's little Minnesotan heart was overjoyed!

 We opened our presents to each other on Christmas eve. We both bought each other tank tops from the same store, 50% off woo hoo! Jake did such a good job of getting me just the right presents. He bought me a pair of sweat pants that I've probably worn every day since because they're just sooo comfortable. He also got me Darling magazine. It's similar to kinfolk in it's style, photography, and layout, but it's all about the "art of being a woman." Most, if not all, of the writers are Christians so it comes from a really Biblical perspective. I love part of their mission statement; "Beauty apart from vanity, influence apart from manipulation, style apart from materialism, sweetness apart from passivity, womanhood without degradation." I'm loving it.

We've had more snow here and it's wonderful. I feel like a grandma though because I hate driving in it. My hands hurt from gripping the steering wheel so hard. I've got plenty to do indoors to keep me busy because in 3 days we will be moving into that house you can see across the parking lot in this picture. But that is another story for another time.

Delight!

Jake and I and some friends had a wonderful time on Saturday doing a few of my favorite things. We ventured to Philly for a Josh Garrels' concert and on the way made some pit stops at Ikea and Trader Joes. This is country livin' folks. Every time you take the journey to the "big city" you pack in as many stops as humanly possible. But seriously, who can beat nan bread, rosemary asiago cheese, and dark chocolate cashew clusters from Trader Joes, cute and inexpensive baby things along with a free meal at Ikea, and then the melodious tunes of Josh Garrels. Really, I was one very happy pregnant lady. I took zero pictures, but luckily, our friend Rod has a tendency to document everything and made a little video. Enjoy!

Giving Thanks

Jake and I started our Thanksgiving by hanging out in the prayer room till about 3 a.m, giving thanks to God for all that He's done. Instantly I thought of Ephesians 2 and the awesome reminder it is to me about where I've come from. I was dead and He made me alive! I was, by nature, a child of wrath, but God showed me mercy! I was a slave to sin and obsessed with gratifying my fleshly desires, but He raised me up and sat me in heavenly places with Christ! Woohoo!! So much to be thankful for.

After sleeping for a bit, we headed to my parents house for our thanksgiving feast. And feast we did! This year I made the sweet potatoes and was terrified that it wouldn't taste as good as my mom's. How in the world do you live up to your mom's cooking?! 

It's still such an amazing blessing to me that I get to be around my family right now. After 6 years of being a little nomadic, it feels nice to have some roots put down and to be apart of my family. Watching my nephews and niece learn and grow is so incredible.

I got to take some Christmas card photos for my lovely sister and her fam. Those nephews of mine have grown so fast!
Since we were already out and about taking photos, Jake got inspired to do a photo shoot of me and the little guy. You should have seen him, crawling around on the ground, climbing up hills, all to get just the right angle.

I'm 31 weeks and 5 days in these photos. Tomorrow I'll be 33 weeks! Time is flying by!

Our Thanksgiving festivities didn't end there. The next day, Jake's sister Val and her husband Taka came for a visit. They stayed with us for the weekend while we puppy-sat at my mentor's house. We had a lot of fun exploring Lancaster, visiting Green Dragon, and wrangling puppies.

It was a delightful Thanksgiving indeed! I don't have any pictures of this, but we did get to go to a Thanksgiving meal put on by some friends of ours from Gateway. There ended up being over 50 people all packed into a tiny bachelor pad. It was great! We are so grateful for the community we have here. We are truly blessed.

Surprise Visit

Did you ever pray for something while completely believing it wouldn't really happen? Yeah, I'm guilty, but wow is it a lovely surprise! After my dear dear friend Noelle gave birth to her beautiful baby girl Hazel, I prayed that God would make a way for me to go visit. A week or so later, I find out that a generous and super kind person wanted to fly me down to see them in South Carolina. I was shocked, which showed my lack of faith, and extremely grateful. It was such a sweet little break to be around my friend during this precious new season of life. 

 Having a little one fall asleep on my shoulder definitely woke up all the little "mommy desires" inside that hadn't been already. I can't believe how quickly I'm going to have a sweet bundle to cuddle.

 I almost forgot that visiting the Peters meant seeing my darling little rat friend, Cranford, again. I loved how he would peak out from under my big belly when I held him in my lap.

 Wool socks, fire blazing, Cranford nibbling sunflower seeds in the background, Hazel snoozing in her bouncer, and Noelle and I watching a TV series about British midwives in the 1950s while sipping tea. It was a lovely time.

 We explored the funky city of Asheville while Hazel snoozed in her moby wrap.

 We took some walks and enjoyed the lingering fall foliage.

It was a delightful visit and I feel oh so blessed and thankful. Now I feel even more ready to welcome my son into the world. I can't wait!

I love my job

Ever since flower season ended, my mentor has 'hired me' to keep up with all her different websites she has for her businesses. It's a fun and challenging job for me since I wouldn't really consider myself tech-savvy. Today I was given a very fun task. Her golden retriever just had some puppies and she wanted to post some adds for them online. So, I wrangled each one of them up, tried to keep track of who was who with their color-coded collars, and took little portraits. It was so much fun, but a very challenging subject to photograph. They wiggle around so much!

A Fond Farewell to October

Is it too late for one more October celebration post? Nah, I don't think so.

Here's just a few more pictures to re-cap some of the fall festivities.

Jake and I had to stop and take pictures of these vibrant trees. That firey orangy red color is amazing!

These are pictures from a hike we took at the Middle Creek wildlife preserve. Growing up I made many memories here with my Dad, so it was neat to bring Jake there and share in the beauty!

Every year my mom and my sisters get together and make homemade applesauce. Now that I'm finally living in the same state as them, I got to go in on it! Colton worked really hard to turn the crank.

Jake and I took a weekend trip to my family's cabin with my parents. Jake had a lot of fun learning how to use the blow gun and we hiked around the beautiful woods in our orange gear. We relaxed, warmed ourselves by the wood stove, and ate tasty food. The perfect cabin trip!

And, we finally had a craft time at our apartment again. It was much needed. Everyone did something different; painting, drawing, crocheting, baking and flower arranging! It was so much fun. And, the great thing about having Jadah around on craft day is that you get to eat whatever she makes! That's definitely a highlight for me. Earlier that day, Jake and I did a delivery to a wedding for my mentor's flower business. When we left we had a bunch of extra flowers and my lovely mentor told me to have fun with them and do whatever I wanted. Arranging flowers is so relaxing and enjoyable to me. I made 5 arrangements and gave 4 of them away. Flowers have a special way of brightening up life, and I love sharing that with others.

Wow, October was such a lovely month. It flew by like always, but I feel like we made the most of it. November is pretty amazing as well, and many of our pumpkins are still holding up nicely and keeping our apartment fall-like. With the big change of becoming a mommy right around the corner, I feel a heightened awareness of soaking in every moment of this season. I think I'll look back on this pregnancy with fondness and I'm really thankful for that.

28 weeks - Home Stretch

I haven't given an update on being pregnant in a LONG time. I'm currently 28 weeks and one day and feeling pretty awesome. Other than some minor aches and pains, I really can't complain about how I've been feeling. This little guy moves sooo much and is extra active whenever we're in the House of Prayer. I think he likes the music. We're hoping he grows up to be a lovesick worshipper of Jesus since he is spending so much womb time immersed in worship, and will get plenty of exposure to it once he's born as well.

This guy right here has seriously amazed me during this season. He is such a good husband, partner, friend, and coach! We're taking the Bradley Method for our birthing classes, which focuses a lot on the husband playing a major role in the pregnancy and birth, and he's taken it so seriously. He's been such an encouragement as I try to eat right, stay active, and get enough rest. He's always watching out for me and serving me. I really am amazed at the humility and Jesus-like characteristics I see coming out of my husband daily. Wow, I can't brag on him enough.

We've really enjoyed our Bradly Method classes. It's a pretty intense class, with 12 weeks of 2 hour sessions, weekly homework, and a protein rich diet to follow. Our instructor is the sister of a friend of ours and she's amazing. She has 3 kids and gave birth to 2 of them at the same birth center that I'm going to, she runs marathons in between each kid (yep, that's 26 miles folks) and she's a pilot by profession. How cool?! Jake and I are really excited about the teamwork and unity that come from giving birth using this method.

Some friends of mine also threw me a pretty amazing baby shower recently.

 Some of the tastiest food!! Seriously, if you haven't experimented with pumpkin hummus, you should definitely try it out. It was amazing!

 The mastermind :)

 "New Mum's Chair" So cute!

 Jake came to help open presents. After that we did a craft time where everyone designed some cute onesies for our little guy. I had to capture a picture of Jake sewing with the ladies.

 Nothing more inspiring than a craft table :)

 All the unique onesies.

 One of our favorites made by our neighbor who is also from Minnesota!

The party planning team. These ladies blessed me sooo much! They decorated with gourds and bow ties, embroidery hoops and mums, billy balls (my favorite flower) and bittersweet berries. It was an October-lover's dream party. They had a prayer time for me, wrote encouraging words in a book, and overall just blessed my socks off. I am in awe of how God has provided such an amazing group of friends for Jake and I.