What's in a Name?

After much prayer and discussion, we have decided to name our son Matthew Don. The first name means Gift from God and the middle name is Billy's middle name.

We did several projects this weekend to get ready for our sweet boy. Friday, My SIL Teresa came over and helped me take measurements for sewing the nursery bedding. Saturday, Billy installed shelves in what is currently used for a craft room for me and will be shared as a play room with Matthew. Today, we assembled the crib. This is the crib we bought 4 years ago. It means so much for us to be able to use this for our son.

We are so thankful to God for loaning us a child to raise for Him. I'm at 22 weeks and showing more everyday. This next week we'll get an updated tummy pic taken. We still have 18 more weeks to go, but knowing we passed the half way point makes me very excited. We're looking forward to seeing what he looks like and his personality.

Honor & Respect

While I didn't get any pictures of Billy from Father's Day I do want to recognize my favorite Daddy to Be before more time goes by. I gave him the choice of what he would like to do for the day. This is his first year to be recognized as well and he did such a great job for me on Mother's Day as well. I teared up as he stood to be prayed over during service and was handed a Father's Day gift.

He chose a quiet day. After church the two of us went out to lunch, he opened his gifts and then we took a nap for most of the afternoon. I slept longer than he did so he was able to play his computer games, then we had a nice dinner at home. Nothing flashy, but that is who my husband is. Quiet, strong and loves to be at home with his family. I'm so looking forward to watching him love our son. His ethics, integrity, honesty, commitment to our family and unconditional love is one of the many many reasons that drew me to marry him. I know our son will have a Godly respectable man to look up to.

So, in this culture of being so hard on fathers and a secular world of women that know love but don't understand the respect that is at the core of most men, I chose to respect my husband. I pray to teach our son to look for a woman who holds him in high regard. I pray he find someone who will trust him to lead her, unconditionally. Someone who will encourage him, support him, believe in who he is, not who she wants him to be. Someone who will who sees his individual quirks/ flaws as something to give to God and not ridicule to her girlfriends or mother. I know I am our son's first example of what is acceptable in a woman. I pray to be the kind of wife to my husband that I would want for a daughter-in-law.

I love you honey and I'm looking forward to the adventure of parenting together with my best friend :-)

What a Deal!

I enjoy the satisfaction of knowing I saved money as much as the next girl, so I couldn't resist this deal. A friend posted a deal from Nordstrom about a discontinued make up line. I don't buy much make up because I think it's so overpriced so I saw the chance to feel a bit better about gaining weight and staying home. An incentive to look nice for Billy too :-)

Today I received the following:
How much was all of this you ask? $20 and some change :-) That included S & H.

It's still going on, go here: http://www.eyeslipsface.com/shop.asp When you check out there is a space for a coupon code. Use "CAROLINA" and save $7.50 if your order is over $15.00

Thanks Kimberlee!!!!

A Gift

Our sweet boy has already started being blessed with the sweetest and most thoughtful items from family and friends. Since the grandparents are becoming more plugged in to this site with the baby coming I have to give kuddos to my dad and bonus mom for this:

Nursery

I posted a few times today so scroll down for more :-)

Now that we know it's a boy, I had some fun this morning after our regular monthly check up for the baby which went great. I had planned the nursery to be just baby blue with no particular theme until last Sunday (before we knew) Donna & Gerry gave us this beautiful quilt:



So I went to the fabric store this morning and bought these. It's a fabric called Jungle Babies that I thought went well with the Noah's Ark theme. I'll cover the giraffe pattern with the solid binding on this panel.


I have been waiting for 3 years to be able to buy this minky chenille for the bumpers. The pattern fabric is for the box pleated crib skirt I plan on making.

I'll work small sections of the this patterned fabric in with the rest. The little animal faces in boxes I plan on framing as wall art.


We do plan on telling the name as soon as we agree on one. Believe me, I want to get some things personalized and I know I'll want to post it here as soon as I do :-) Next to do: paint the nursery, stain the glider, and kiddy table to match the cherry wood crib. Oh,... put together crib. I need to make a list... more later!

Perfect People

I have quite a bit to share so here is the first post. I've heard this song in the car on my way home the last two times from the grocery store and had to post here because it speaks to my perfectionist heart so well.

Never let him see you when your breaking
Never let him see you when you fall
Thats How We Live and Thats How We Try

Tell The world you've got it all together
You never let him see whats underneath
We cover it up
with the crooked smile
but it only lasts for a little while

There's no such thing as perfect people
There's no such thing as a perfect life
so come as you are, broken and scarred
lift up your heart and be amazed, and be changed
by a perfect God
yeaaa

Suddenly its like a weight is lifted
when you hear the words that you are loved
He knows where you are and were you've been
and you never have to go there again

There's no such thing as perfect people
There's no such thing as a perfect life
so come as you are, broken and scarred
lift up your heart and be amazed and be changed
by a perfect God

Who lived, and died, to give you life
to heal our imperfections
so look up, and see love, and let grace be enough

There's no such thing as perfect people
YEAAA
There's no such thing as a perfect life
So come as you are, broken and scarred
lift up your heart and be amazed and be changed
by a perfect God
by a perfect God
by a perfect God
yyeaaa
by a perfect God
be changed by a perfect God
be changed

Speaking of not being perfect, best Apology 101 here: I generalized the entry to apply to any relationship.

Here are three things you can do when you’ve messed things up. These are all ways to take personal responsibility in your life:

1. Take it on the chin. There was nothing I could say back. Sometimes the best decision is to simply take whatever they say right on the chin. Just allow them to feel whatever feelings get provoked when you have made a mistake. No matter how they respond, just let the response go and accept the consequences to your actions.

2. Do not blame. The last thing you ever want to do when you’ve blown it is to blame. If you blame your spouse, others, the weather, hormones, the tides, or any other person, place, or thing you are setting your spouse up to be defensive and to feel invalidated. Suck it up and accept responsibility for your actions. We need to grow up. My friends, this is a huge way to show our maturity in life. When we stop blaming our past, we start growing and moving forward in life. The longer we blame, the longer we stay stuck.

3. Do not explain. This is a difficult one to do. Some times we hurt our spouse unwittingly. I’ve said before that I don’t always mean to hurt their feelings, I’m just naturally gifted at it. If I have hurt someone accident, the last thing I want to do is try to explain to them why I did not mean to hurt them. This naturally feels like the right thing to do. We think to ourselves, “If only I could explain to her what I really meant, then she wouldn’t feel hurt anymore.” This is faulty thinking and it will only get you in to trouble. Don’t explain your actions if they are not ready to hear you. First validate and ask what you need to do to repair the damage. Then, just maybe, you will get a chance to eliminate any negative or false beliefs your spouse had against you. But do not attempt this until your spouse has reported feeling understood and validated.

Welcome Mr Turnbow :-)

This morning we are very relieved and thankful to announce our SON is developing on schedule and is very healthy. I'm excited to be preparing his room, our home and our lives for this very blessed addition that God have given us. A name is still TBD.

Fun week

I updated 6/15/09 to include pics:

Grad night at The Cheesecake Factory. This was our appetizer, yuuumm!


Ashley learned to sew last week :-) She did an amazing job, I'm so proud of her. She had creative suggestions I hadn't thought of!

Front of her new t-shirt quilt:

Back fabric, great batik material.

Her grad gift she asked for was a build-a-bear, so here is Kyle, her bear. She brought her book along with her... We are soooooo alike, hehe.

Her class ring

Shopping


This week has been so much fun with my niece Ashley staying with us after her graduation. I was going to post pics, but am not sure why my computer isn't recognizing my camera. We went to Watter's Creek graduation night, shopped and had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory to celebrate. She picked for her graduation gift to make a bear from Build-a-Bear. First time I had been there, it was pretty cute. Ashley also brought along enough t-shirts to make a t-shirt quilt. She picked out this great fabric for the back. She hadn't touched a sewing machine before now and I'm very proud of how well she's picked it up. It's been a great experience watching her gain confidence. This week we have shopped, sewn, cooked, watched a couple chick flicks and had some great talks. We probably could have done with out having to huddle in the Harry Potter closet last night because of the tornadoes in the area, but memories are memories. It's so special to spend this time before she starts college together.

Tomorrow we have the 19 week obgyn appointment. The information we ask prayers for is to learn whether the baby has any known health complications. The exciting information we get to find out is the gender :-) Then I can start in earnest sewing, painting and shopping :-) It would be great to hear what gender you think the baby might be and why if you have one. I posted the same question on facebook and got some replies that made me laugh, so we'll see what happens here.

Ashley's Graduation

My sweet, kind, loving, smart, artistic niece graduated from High School this morning. We love you Ashley so much and are so proud of you!!

Here's a few of the many many pics taken today :-)


My sister with her 3 oldest kids.

Proud Mommy



Billy and I with our beloved niece. I can't remember why we are laughing like that. It's always sooo much fun with family :-)

There's a person in there :-)

Today it finally feels like there is a little person in there courtesy of the first real kick. :-) So in light of that I'll also get posted the belly pics so far. We have been taking them the first week of each month. It's reassuring to see the pictures myself, because I feel much bigger I guess than I look. Ha, why else would it be socially acceptable to show pictures of your stomach???

March 5 when we found out

April 7


May 6
June 4

Pizza!!

I posted my May pics below, but this deserves it's own post. Boston's Restaurant is now offering several gluten free varieties of pizza on their menu :-)

They offer it in their individual size pizza . The size great for me as this is all that made it in to the take home box. It was hot, gooey warm cheese and great thin crust :-) They had about 13 different mixes of gf toppings to chose from. I chose the venetian, aka meat lover's.

The pizza can share a little space with this Chicken Alfredo recipe I found since they are both Italian foods. I grew up with a mom who did the kind of spaghetti sauce that had to simmer for two days so these are my comfort foods. My local grocery store now carries the penne pasta and I found the sauce recipe with my magic bullet recipe book that I received for Christmas. My dear sweet husband said it was comparable to his favorite Penne Rustica at Macaroni Grill. Love you sweetheart !!

May Photos

After Ladies Retreat Dinner at Mi Cocina


Sydney's school play. She's so talented :-)


Brother Kyle with roses for his sister who got the lead :-)

Sweet Rachel came to spend some time at our house

Spent some time with these sweet girls days before mommy gave birth to the twins

Fav pic from Mother's Day:

Memorial Day... let the cook outs begin! baby Emily at our first cook out with the Alexander's. She was sooo calming to hold. Makes me have a peaceful sigh just thinking about it.


Block/Street Party:


Our own yummy grilling :-)

Great find via our friend's the ways. I made the bread and all Lloyd's barbecue is gluten free.

Fried potatoes...hhmmmmm