Work baby shower

The wonderful ladies at my work threw me a shower this week. They did it over lunch, and brought a potluck lunch, cake and punch. It was so sweet of them.
To quote, they said, "this may be your third baby, but it's our first with you!" How sweet is that?!

No one had a camera, so one of the girls just used her phone. I didn't get any pictures of the whole group, which would have been nice. Just a few pictures of me opening the presents.

They got me lots of diapers (yay!), a diaper bag, bottles, onesies, and a stroller. This single stroller will be great for when Kylah grows out of her infant seat because I'm sure Kylah will no longer want to ride in the double stroller (which is the only other one we have).

The cute cake (minus one piece). :) We forgot to take a picture before we cut into it. It was scrumptious!

That's all the pictures I have of this shower, but I was definitely blessed!

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In other news...my camera stopped working last week. Bummer. I took it in, and they said it was going to be quite a bit to fix it. So we decided to buy a new one. I will still be able to use all of my old lenses with it, so we only had to buy the base. It will be fun to have a nice camera like I had, but with updates. The new one coming even has video! That means more fun video clips for the blog! It should be coming tomorrow, which is good, because I'm going into withdrawal without being able to take pictures! :)

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In other, other news...I am getting huge. This baby should be about baked and ready to come out!

The angels are rejoicing!

On Saturday, the 22nd, our little Joey Bear asked Jesus to come into his heart!

This was a great day, and something Joe and I have been praying for since the day he was born.

It's amazing the timing God uses sometimes.

Here's how it went down: Kylah was down for her nap, and I was out grocery shopping, so daddy and Joey were having some boy time watching basketball. I guess they somehow got to talking about going to heaven and Jesus. Joe asked Joey if he wanted to go to heaven someday, and Joey said he did. Joe told him that to do this he had to have Jesus in his heart. Joe asked him if he had ever done this. Joey said yes. (???) Joe asked him when. Joey said, 'like after I have a spanking and I pray to Jesus." Joe had a little bit of explaining to do that when we ask Jesus to come into our heart and forgive us of our sins, this is a little different than praying to Jesus after we have a spanking or before meals. It seemed like Joey understood. Joe was telling him about all the people he loved who had asked Jesus into their hearts...mommy, daddy, Connor, Gramma, Papa, Grandpa, Nana, etc. Joe asked Joey if he wanted to pray to ask Jesus to come into his heart, and Joey did! (This was big, because I have asked him this very question before, and his answer has always been, not right now mommy.) Joe got out his Bible and went through some verses with Joey so he really understood what he was doing. Then they prayed together.

Amazing!

Then they called me. I'm in the middle of Walmart about to cry as Joey tells me he asked Jesus into his heart and now he has a heavenly Father.

We bought Joey a "big boy" Bible at the church bookstore on Sunday to mark this occasion. He is pretty proud of his new Bible and loves to "read" it.

Baby shower time!

My wonderful friends, Mere, Christine and Amy put on a baby shower for me last weekend. It was so fun. I felt so special and blessed.
This was some of the girls eating the yummy food and chatting.

Starting to open gifts.

Cute little onesie.

My mom got to be there, which was extra special. She got me a Baby Bullet, so I can make baby food for this babe. I made homemade food for Kylah when she was little, but this will make my life so much easier! (Side note...I think this could be one of the only times in my life when my mom is more tan than I am! She got back from Jamaica recently. Yeah, I'm a little jealous!) :)

Audrey made sure baby Norah has some cute little purple socks. So cute!

How cute is this mobile?! This was made by one of Mere's friends, and I love it!

JBU girls: Alaina, Amy, Krista, me, Meredith, Christine. Love these girls!

A few of the girls from my small group at church came too! (Jessica, I wish we would have gotten you in a picture with us before you left, too!)

Mere and I.

Thanks for all the work you did to make this special for me Mere, Christine and Amy! It was so fun, and I really had a great time!

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I did have some pictures of "Christmas" we had with my mom while she was here. But, my camera has decided to stop working, so I can't get the pictures. I'm taking it to the camera store tomorrow, so hopefully it will be an easy fix!

Snow fun

We had our first snow of the season here a few days ago. It wasn't much, but the kids didn't seem to mind.
As soon as Joey saw the snow, he wanted to go play in it. He remembered that he had a snow suit that Nana had gotten for him, and he was ready to go play.
So, I bundled Joey and Kylah up in their cute snowsuits and sent them out back.

They had strict instructions to stay on the deck where I could see them. Hey...I wasn't about to go out in the freezing weather with my pregnant body! I don't even have a coat that fits! :) You can see my view from inside, with my coffee and comfy chair! The kids had a blast, but didn't last a super long time because it was so cold out.

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Here's a peak into Norah's nursery. I'm loving how it's coming together!

Gramma's here this weekend, so we're all hanging out today. We did Christmas with Gramma last night, so I'll have to post those pictures soon. The kids were so excited, and it was fun to spread Christmas out a little bit!

Baby. Soon.

Yikes...I clicked onto my blog this morning and realized that we have moved on to the last baby in the pregnancy ticker at the top! That's about how I feel...large and in charge with a big baby in me! :) Actually, Dr. Hannah (my OB) seems to think I'm only going to have a 7 pounder...we'll see!

I do feel like we are almost ready for this baby to join our family. The nursery is almost done. (I'll post some pictures tonight or tomorrow!) I think the biggest thing that makes me realize it's almost here is that I have a potential stop date for work as well as a restart after my maternity leave. Which means after this week, I only have 3 weeks of work left before I take off for maternity leave! Yikes! :) We will most likely end up inducing again (mainly so my mom can be here!) :) Unless this little one decides to come out on her own before that! I am excited, though, because I am going to get to take off a few days before the baby is born, and then 8 weeks after. Joey and Kylah will still go to preschool, so I'll have some good bonding time with the new little one.

Well, enough rambling for this morning. I'll post some nursery pictures soon!

Conversations on a Sunday...

This is the conversation I had with the kids this morning on the way to church. It was one of those I don't want to forget, so I'm documenting it on my blog. I wrote it down while I was waiting for church to start so I wouldn't forget anything. It's a little long, but it's sweet to a mommy...

What I said will be in blue.
Joey's words will be in green.
Kylah adds a few words in red.

Me and the kids were just leaving Walmart because we were going to the late service, and I wanted to find some lamps for our room.
We were pulling out of the parking lot from Walmart to head to church.

When I grow up, am I going to be a payer? (a cashier at Walmart).
Well, you have to figure out what God wants you to do.
Like, play basketball or be a worker?
Yes, whatever He tells you to be, that's what you need to do, and then do it the best you can.
But I can't hear Him.
You're right. We can't hear Him out loud, but that's why we have Him in our hearts.
(Leaning down towards his heart) But I still can't hear Him.
God doesn't talk out loud to us. It's like a feeling we get that we know what He wants us to do because we can always talk to Him, and then we will get the feeling of what He wants us to do.
Like when I hit Kylah. God was telling me I shouldn't.
Exactly. That's how we know what is right and wrong.
Jesus is the King! (She tends to say a lot of things as an exclamation.) Can we listen to I Belong to the King? (A Patch the Pirate kids song.)
Sure.
Song comes on...
Mommy, when the song is over, can we turn it off and talk more about Jesus?
Of course!
Song ends...
So, what else about Jesus...
We can pray to Jesus.
Yes, we can talk to God or Jesus all the time.
Well, He will make us better when we are sick if we pray.
Yes, Jesus will help us feel better when we ask.
The doctor makes us better!
Actually, Kylah, God helps the doctors so they can make people better.
Like the really old, sick people. We should pray for them.
Yes, we should.
But you know what? If those people have Jesus in their heart when they die, they'll go to heaven and be all better and be able to run and jump and sing.
What if we get sick in Heaven?
We won't. That's one of the great things about heaven. No one gets sick.
But what if we do?
We won't; people don't get sick in heaven. We sing and praise Jesus.
But what if we do?
Hmmm...Then God will make us better.
Completely satisfied now. Will there be toys in heaven?
There'll be so many fun things to do, like sing with Jesus and play and love each other.
Ok.
Mommy, I'm all done talking about Jesus right now.
Ok.
Now we are pulling into church and we see the big crosses outside.
Crosses! Jesus died on the cross!
Yep, they were trees, but they cut them up into crosses. Let's go see daddy!
We parked so the conversation was over.

These times amaze me. I just love seeing their little hearts be so open to hearing about Jesus and trying to process in their own ways what it is all about. I just pray when these times come that I am able to answer their questions in the right way.
It makes me realize how much I need to keep praying for my kiddos, especially that God would open their hearts so we can have more conversations like the one above!

Girls

I always knew I was destined to have at least one girl. When I used to babysit, if it was a girl, I would always do her hair. I loved it!

I have waited and waited for Kylah's hair to be long enough to do fun things with. I am finally getting to where I can (and where she'll let me for a short time!)

Here's her hair today. The little double french braid. Not long enough to make it all the way down the back, so we added a pony tail. She only cried out in pain twice while I was doing it, so I'd call that a success! :)

And the side view.

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Kylah holding baby Timmy yesterday while they were here playing. She is loving having babies around. I'm hoping she'll still be loving it when we have a baby in our house 24/7!

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Joey has been enjoying some coffee with us on Saturday mornings. By "coffee" I mean 5:1 vanilla creamer to coffee, and he only gets a little bit in his mug. He loves it though and feels so grown up!

Hmmm...good.

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We went to the Penner's on Tuesday to watch the Sugar Bowl. Yes, we have become Razorback fans...not die-hard yet, but we do cheer for them.

All of the cute little girls playing in Addison's room. She seriously has the best girls' room ever!

Have I told you yet that these two (Audrey and Joey) are planning on getting married someday. If you ask Joey about it, Joey will tell you that he wants to marry Audrey someday and then he can be Connor's brother. Hmmm...not too sure about his motives there...

We found Kylah relaxing in the hallway during the game. She said, "I'm the mommy." As if I just sit and relax in my comfy chair all day when I'm home!!

Well, this was a pretty random post, but at least it had pictures! :)

New Year's and pregnancy update

I've been a little lacking for blog material since we got back from Christmas. We've been pretty much staying at home doing nothing (and spending the New Year with the Adair's, but I failed to take any pictures of that.)

We did actually have an interesting New Year's Eve at our house. Connor and Joey were wrestling---as they often do---but then Connor apparently turned quickly and hit his head on a dresser. Upon inspection of the wound, it was apparent that he was going to need stitches. Who wants to go to the ER on New Year's Eve?!! So, we loaded up the brave little man and brought him to my office so I could stitch him up. 20 minutes later, we were on our way back home. Connor seriously did awesome. No crying, even when I numbed up the area! It's a good story to tell, and Connor was pretty excited to have his first stitches! :) Joey thought it was pretty cool too, when we got back, and kept reminding everyone that they could not wrestle with Connor because of his stitches. :)

After that, the night continued on. Kids went to bed around 9. They all four get to sleep in the same room now that Joey and Kylah share a room. They love it!

Mere and I beat Joe and Dave in a few rounds of Catch Phrase (well, the boys may say they dominated us, but we know the truth...) :) Then, we somehow managed to stay up until midnight. It was actually a really nice low-key night.

Connor and Audrey actually spent the night, and Joe got up the next morning with all four of them and cooked them a fantastic breakfast while I slept til 9. It was all his idea, and the kids did great.

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In other news, I'm 34.5 weeks pregnant now. Hard to believe that this little girl is going to make her appearance in about a month! Her nursery is almost ready for her. Her clothes are washed and put away. Joey and Kylah like to use the crib right now for dolls. I keep reminding them that when Norah gets here they won't be allowed to chuck dolls over the side of the crib to "go to sleep." Hopefully they understand... I've been quite a bit more sore with this pregnancy than the other two. Could have a little bit to do with the 30+ pound 2 year old I keep lifting and all the other stuff I do with the kids. Well, it's almost over, and I will be glad to be able to walk again without shuffling like a 95 year-old, and be able to turn over in bed without 5 groans to accompany it!

Joe just tolerates me... :)