Skipping ahead to week 38!

I visited Dr. yesterday, and she has *officially* moved my due date up to April 9th, so that means that even if I need to be induced, we will have a baby in our family by April 14th! Yay! I am so very excited! Everything is still going well, although I caught up on 4 pounds of weight gain this week--yikes! I think it was the Easter food...too many chocolate eggs! We had a nice Easter. Crystal an

d Michael and the kids came over to color eggs and have a little egg hunt on Saturday, and we went to church and I fixed an Easter dinner on Sunday with ham, hashbrown casserole, corn casserole, green beans, and Rhodes rolls. We also took our yearly picture with the big rabbit at the park-it's amazing that Katie is getting as tall as the rabbits! :o) I will have to add some pictures.

Our chubby cheeked boy...

We had our sonogram this morning, to check Asher's growth percentile. He is at 66%, and around 6.5 pounds! The sonogram calculated a due date of April 9th. He is precious---she was able to take some pictures of his face, and he looks like he has the chubbiest little cheeks...so incredibly adorable if I do say so myself! Each time I look at the pictures, I just can't believe he is OURS, and COMING SO SOON! :o) Kris is finished with his room, so now we just need to put the crib together and move him in! Yay! Things are moving along. Our sweet boy will be here before we know it!

36 weeks!

I missed my "beginning of the week" entry to talk about what week we are on...so I am trying to catch up! I went to the doctor yesterday and everything still seems to be going well. She checked to see if there is any dialation happening, and there is not...he still has a few weeks to stay though...so that's ok. She did order another sonogram to check his growth, however, because I am measuring a little small, and I've only gained a total of 8 pounds. I am not too worried about that, because he is a very strong little guy, and I am a big girl with lots of room for him without my belly poking out too far. It will be great to get another little peek at him before the big arrival. :o) I love him so much...I can't wait to see him.

My work has been VERY stressful lately, and there are some days when I do nothing but worry about going back to work after the maternity leave. I know that I shouldn't worry about that already, but my heart literally hurts when I think about leaving him. I HAVE too keep hope and faith that God will put something in place to allow me to stay at home with him. My sister has given me some ideas about possibly watching other kids in our home, and I visited with my old pal, Vickie about that too. Both of them are SAHM's by keeping other children along with theirs during the day. Kris is a little shakey about that...he's just not completly convinced that it would work for us. I don't know...I just know that I have to explore every single option. I know that God has plans for us...he's already us shown so much of what grace and amazing miracles he is capable of...and I know there are more in store...I just know it! :o)

Boiling binkys and missing my big girl...

Katie went to Kids Talent Day at Carthage Naz today, and goodness...she's been gone for 1 hour and I miss her so much...I'm sure it's some kind of crazy hormonal "mommy" stuff, but I can barely stand to be home without her. I have prayed like a million prayers for safe travel for them today...and I really just want to jump in the car and run after that little church bus...yikes...sniff.

I have decided to keep myself busy, so I am boiling binkys and a couple bottles (just in case he's not a nurser baby) and cleaning Katie's room, top to bottom. Kris went to breakfast and shed hunting with Bart this morning, so I have plenty of time to take advantage of getting tons of stuff done. I need to vacuum. I want to steam clean Katie's carpet, and the living room if I have the energy, and replace the shower curtain liner in Katie's bathroom. I also want to get all the laundry folded and put away...there's a giant pile mounting on the sofa (does anyone else have that problem-please say it's not just me!) I also need to go on a walk today if it stops raining.

We bought Asher's crib mattress and stroller at Wal-Mart last night, and the changing table pad came via UPS yesterday, so I think now we have*officially* bought everything to be ready for a baby to come live here...after Kris gets the room finished of course...just a minor detail! I am hoping to find a good deal on a bouncy jump a roo/walker thing and a high chair at garage sales this summer...those are for later on down the road. I'm looking forward to all of those wonderful baby stages so very much...just seeing those beautiful baby blue eyes on our boy will be the best thing ever...I can't wait.

I think that's all for now. I took some pictures of Katie this morning, but Kris took my camera, so I will post some later!

Giving each day to God...

This morning I was just having a rough morning. Katie and I stayed up too late last night, I woke up at 3:30 worrying about work, and I just didn't sleep well at all. I grumped at Katie a little bit, and got around late myself. I decided that I just needed to take a minute, hold Katie, and pray. I prayed that God would just take this day and make it his. I prayed for him to just come into our lives and help us through the day. I realized later that I shouldn't just do that when I'm having a bad day, but everyday...everyday should be his...

I had been doing really well with reading the Bible every morning, but I've gotten away from it the past few weeks, and I can really tell the difference...I just KNOW that I NEED Christ and His word in my life EVERY DAY...EVERY SINGLE DAY.

Hey-we've made it to 35 weeks!

We are 35 weeks along this week, and I am so relieved that it's almost over! 4 or 5 weeks to go...I am really hoping that this little guy will come a week early! I just cannot wait for him to be here...none of us can...we just want to hold and hug and kiss him! I've been feeling ok, with some contractions here and there...but nothing too exciting. I've not really had a lot of swelling yet, but I do feel sudden urges to take a nap and MANY urges to go to the ladies room!

We had our church baby shower this weekend, and it was really nice. Baby Asher is a very blessed little guy to have so many people who love him already! We received several duplicates of things we had received at last weekend's shower, so we are thinking we will do some exchanging and get his crib mattress and a couple other things we still need. The girls at our main office got me a Target gift card, so I ordered his changing table pad and a "diapee and wipee" pack from Target.com...fun stuff! :o)

Kris and Jay worked on the nursery again this weekend, and got all of the trim put up. We need to put another coat of paint on the doors, and put on the hardware, and it will be all finished and ready to move in! :o) I can't wait! I will be so glad to have his bed all set up, and his changing table organized, etc. I have been nesting like crazy, and it has been hard to be patient with his room getting done!

Katie has spring break next week, and Kris is taking the week off too...so they will hopefully get some good quality time in-just the two of them- before baby brother gets here. We're planning to make a road trip to Tulsa to the Build-A-Bear workshop on the 19th, to celebrate Katie's birthday a month early, in case Asher decides to show up on or near her actual birthday. She has requested to go to IHOP for breakfast, and we're trying to make arrangements for a friend to go with her, too...so it should be a fun day! I see Dr. on Tuesday, so hopefully she will check me and make sure things aren't "happening down there" so we can make a safe trip on Wednesday. Yay! It's hard to believe our baby is turning 8 years old...where did the time go?

34 weeks!

We're 34 weeks along this week! We only have 5 or 6 weeks to go! Our baby shower was so nice, and we have a really wonderful little supply of baby goodies now! Our church shower is this coming Sunday, and we're really looking forward to that as well--it will be so nice to have Asher's little room stocked up for his arrival! Jay and Kris worked on the nursery this weekend, it now has doors, and some trim! I think Kris is going to try and finish up the trim work and paint the doors and install door handles this weekend, then I need to steam clean the carpet, and we'll be ready to move in his crib and changing table! Yay! :o)

I wanted to share a little thing that Katie said this morning. We were driving to school and I was telling her that it was almost garage sale season. She said she wanted to wait until it was warmer to have a garage sale, because our last one was TOO COLD! She was remembering our garage sale last spring during our move and it was soooo cold that day! She remembered that she had planned to wear capri's and flip flops that day, but had thankfully found some socks to wear in the stuff we were selling, and she said (with a huge grin), "God blessed me with socks that day!" It was too cute. Just this morning-BEFORE our drive to school-I was figuring bills and remembered a sermon by Joyce Meyer about her family "believing God for their socks" and having faith that God would supply her family's needs. I am believing that God is going to supply our needs--we may not have everything we want, but He will always take care of our needs.