nursery extravaganza

i'm finally ready to post the progress pics from the nursery week! i just want to say that i LOVE crsoby's room, and i think it will be so cute once all of his bedding and stuff is in there. i am so happy with how it turned out. :)

Step #1: measure and plan...

step #2: paint the top half of the room this crazy bright red color :)
(papa galen painted crosby's name on the wall!)

step #3: put up wainscoting on bottom half of the room...

wainscoting finished! this step took the longest.
step #4: time to start on the chair rail...
step #5: tedious cutting in around the edges of the trim and wainscoting...

step #6: painting the wainscoting tan

final touches....daddy wanted everything to look perfect!
step #who knows: put the furniture together and try to figure out how to make it all fit!

this project was so much fun. both of our families came to help, and we all had a good time. our dads brought all of their tools and got busy! my mom and i got to go shopping for paint and supplies. kyle came and helped josh go pick up all this heavy furniture in sugarland. everyone grabbed paint brushes and jumped right in. they wouldn't let me in the room very often with all the paint fumes and stuff, but i got to help a little bit and i watched lots of good movies! :) i also made sure everyone was well fed. hahaha. good times. my dad and brother even came into town this past thursday to finish cutting trim and galen came over yesterday to help josh put the furniture together...these guys must really love us! :)

now we just need to figure out how to make that HUGE chair fit in there without looking strange. suggestions?

thanks to everyone who helped...we appreciate it and i know crosby will too!

so, thank you:
papa vance
granny
papa galen
nana
uncle travis
aunt rebecca
kyle
and niki

you guys are the best! we love you so much!

please pray...

hey everyone! please be praying for my pappaw. he has been dealing with leukemia and lymphoma for years now. his chemo pills that he is currently taking has gotten the leukemia under control. praise God! the lymphoma, which had been centralized in his arms for years, has been kind of dormant recently, which doctors think is strange. well, they found it again...this time in his eyes. he has been to the doctor a ton the last couple of weeks, and he was told today that chemo is ineffective in the eyes. he is seeing a specialist this week to see what other treatment options are available. please pray for comfort for him and peace during this stressful time. poor guy has really dealt with a lot lately. he is an amazing man of God with strong faith, but discouragement still tends to creep in when sickness is involved. please pray that God will continuously remind him that He loves him and is in control. thanks so much!

more books...

Just finished two more books for school...

"Speak" by Laurie Halse Anderson:
A book about rape...very sad, but very good.


"Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging" by Louise Rennison:
Hilarious! This is a diary of a young teen girl in England, and she could not be more funny. I listened to this on CD in my car, and I caught myself laughing out loud at red lights several times! Hahaha.... I will warn that there are some inappropriate entries, but they are all funny and honestly portray the thought process of teens. Loved it!


Next on the list..."Looking for Alaska" by John Green. Hope it's good! :)

my valentine

i just want everyone to know that i have the most incredible husband EVER! i seriously love him so much and i am so thankful for him. he is so patient with me and my crazy emotions. :) seriously, he puts up with a lot from me, especially lately. he has grown into such an amazing man of God, and i love that i can have confidence in the fact that he is constantly seeking God's will for us and our family. i think he is going to be the best daddy ever, and i can't wait to see him in action. i hope crosby looks just like him too...so handsome.

joshua, i love you more than i could ever say! thank you for being wonderful. i look forward to many more years together. also, thank you for my FLIP CAM! :)

my 1st shower

this past sunday, we had a fun little shower with our 8th grade girls. kimberly, one of my best friends, teaches this sunday school class with me, and she is 6 weeks further along than i am in her pregnancy. (meaning she is almost there!!!) one of the moms and my friend cindy got together and planned a little party for the girls to celebrate our babies with us. it was a blast. we played a couple of CUTE games and had donuts and juice. fun times! i am so glad that we were able to celebrate with these girls...they are a huge blessing to me. :) check out some pics...

they decorated the room so cute

this game was fun for the girls...they got clues and had to guess which candy bar answered the question: for example, twins = m&m's or 10 lb. baby = whoppers. cute idea!

cool action shot! cindy dumped these baby socks in the middle of 4 girls and they had to compete to match the most pair...they got a little crazy! :) there was only one casualty, and fortunately it was a baby boy sock! :)
we waited too long to take a picture, so a lot of the girls had to leave before this, but at least we got some of them! :) i love these girls.
me and kimberly...she is so beautiful!
kimberly and abigail with their baby girl gifts...
me and crosby with our baby boy gifts...
it was so fun to open presents together...we had all matching gifts. the girls were so sweet to do this for us!

thank you sandy and cindy for this shower! it was tons of fun and truly a blessing. love y'all!

kyle

kyle moved out today. :( i know that this should be exciting, because that means that nursery extravaganza begins...but i'm sad. we will miss kyle. and i'm a little worried we will never really see him. i hope not. anyways, he was a great roomie, and he lived in this house almost as long as josh and i have, so it will be weird without him.

kyle...thanks for being a great friend. we'll miss you being around here every day, and you better not become a stranger! love ya!

so...does anyone else think it's very strange that EVERYTHING IS CLOSED around here for the possibility of snow?! i just don't get it.

however, we did leave work early today and aren't going tomorrow...so i'm ok with that. :)

back to reading...Nation by Terry Pratchett. Check it out:

truly truly blessed

this week was a great one...although throughout the week i had my doubts, the Lord truly shone through any stress that was there and showed us how truly blessed we are.

i was supposed to have my 28 week ultrasound on tuesday, but the office called and told me that the ultrasound tech was sick. this normally wouldn't be a huge deal, although i was anxious to hear the results on crosby, but i was really upset because my mom had driven into town and stayed the night with us to go with us to the ultrasound. so she didn't get to, which i hated. but my mom and i went to ihop and then she went with me to visit a lady who i am considering to watch crosby when i go back to work. this was blessing #1: this girl was great! i am really excited about having found someone to watch our baby...for those of you that are parents, you know this is a huge decision. she as wonderful and i think a great fit for our family. and i was super excited that my mom was able to go with me to meet her.

then came blessing #2: our appointment was rescheduled for wednesday morning, and josh's mom was still able to go with us, and we found out that CROSBY'S CYST IS GONE! we were so so so exited to hear this news. after 8 weeks of prayer and waiting, it is such a relief to know that his little brain is healthy and he's growing big and strong. in fact, he already weighed 2 lb. 10 oz., which i think sounds really big, considering i stilled have 11 weeks or more to go! he was being really shy and was sleeping for the ultrasound, but he was still so cute. he had his little hand up by his face and seemed really annoyed that we chose his nap time to bother him with picture taking. hahaha. love him!

then came thursday...bad day. i had to be downtown at UH to take the TExEs test. i had to get a passing grade on this test in order to start my alternative certification to get certified to teach. i have been studying really hard for this test, and i took two practice tests, so i went in feeling pretty confident. until about question #3 of 140. the test was completely different from the practice ones i took and i felt like each question could be narrowed down to two good answers, but then i was stuck...on almost every question. so then i spent the rest of the day convincing myself that i had wasted $120 and lots of time and effort. i doubt myself often on grades, but i have never been so sure that i failed something. i was supposed to have to wait until monday for the results, but friday night i checked my email and it said my results were ready...i literally felt sick before i looked them up. then came blessing #3: i passed the test with a 246! (you have to have a 240 to pass). therefore, josh figured out that i passed by 2 or 3 questions. but i don't care...i passed! woo hoo!

all this to say that God is so good to me, and He continually shows me that all i need to do is to relax is wait for Him to show me His plan. He always has a plan...not that it always makes since to me, but He has a plan none the less. and His plan is always better than anything i could ever come up with. so i just wanted to share with my very few blog readers how truly blessed we are and how grateful i am for His blessings!

thanks for reading! :)

now for pics of crosby at 28 weeks....

his little face. the oval thing is his little fist up next to his face. i'm not gonna lie, these face shots kinda creep me out. sorry!

this is how most of our pics looked...crosby holding his little arm up by his face as if saying, "really?! now is not a good time for me. go away!"

3d pic of his chubby little foot :)

i love love love this baby!

28 week belly pic...

getting bigger!

we have our ultrasound tomorrow. it was supposed to be this morning, but the ultrasound technician was sick so we had to reschedule. hopefully she will be better tomorrow. i felt so bad because my mom came in town for the ultrasound, and she can't come back tomorrow. boo! (sorry mom!) i wish she could go with us.

anyways, pray hard, because tomorrow should be the day we find out if crosby's cyst has gotten smaller. hopefully it is gone completely!

can't wait to see my little crosby tomorrow!

viva las vegas!

josh and i went to vegas for new years with his parents, and of course, i never posted the pics. it was a blast! the weather was freezing, but other than that it was great. we saw KA, the cirque de soleil show, and the lion king. we also went on the vegas version on the price is right, which was great! it wasn't televised or anything, but it was a lot of fun. none of us got to play though. :( we also walked around A LOT and looked at all the hotels. we took a tour bus to the hoover dam one day and had an excellent tour guide. we also ate lots of food! good food too! here are some pics to highlight the trip....enjoy!

josh and i in front of the MGM lion in the lobby...the first day we got there to check in this area was insanely packed because some of the UFC fighters were there doing a press conference. it was cool!

galen and kaye with $1,000,000 at binions...this is on freemont street in old downtown

awesome view of the strip from the top of the eiffel tower

the christmas displays in the hotels were amazing! this was in the bellagio...

cool pic of our hotel

caesar's palace was my favorite :)

the weather looks amazing...but it was cold! it snowed the last day we were there!

this was the guy handing out programs at the entrance to KA. that play was amazing. the theatre was crazy fancy, with speakers in the headrest of each seat. the set was awesome and the stage moved all over the place...rotated, flipped, disappeared, stood upright...insane!

josh and i spent new years at the coyote ugly. not quite our style, but it was still fun!

at midnight we walked out onto the strip. they had all the roads blocked off from traffic and thousands of people were just crowded everywhere! it reminded me of the pics of NYC on new years. at midnight they had a count down and lots and lots of fireworks. it was the best new years we've ever had!

the price is right! they used the old set pieces from the TV version. it was neat!

the bridge at the hoover dam...finally finished! it's cool, because if you look back at my blog of my vegas trip with the youth choir, there is probably a pic of this bridge before it is complete. it's a really neat bridge, and of course, josh loved this part of the trip. :) what an engineer!
that's it! hope you liked the pics!