Music & Jesus

This weekend Ryan and I got to go visit some of our favorite friends! They are grad students at Baylor and Katie is the resident chaplain for a dorm on campus. They live in a cute little apartment in the dorm and we got to experience the dorm life for the weekend! Ryan wanted to know if Katie planned on teaching music and Jesus when she graduated, thus the title of this post.

We have this awesome tradition that for each Baylor v. OSU basketball/football games we get together. Even though they cheer for the opposing team we still love them!

It is great to spend time with them and I love our fun tradition!

It was Baylor's homecoming so Saturday morning we got to see the longest and oldest collegiate homecoming parade! And they are right it was long, we had to leave early so we could make it to the game on time!

But the boys enjoyedquite a few donuts before the parade and that kept them happy!

We saw some great floats, entertaining people and of course the bear!

I couldn't catch a picture of "Sic Em" because the trainers were standing in the way, but I had to get a picture of this black bear for my students since it is our mascot!

Anyway, a huge thanks to our sweet friends for taking such good care of us this weekend! Thank you for the delicious food, the comfortable place to stay, the laughs, and the memories! We can't wait to see you all in January when Hudson gets here! He is going to love you all just as much as we do! Thank you for being such great friends and hosts!

Why I Love My Mom...

Because she sends me funny pictures of things like this while I'm at work....

Do you see what she is taking a picture of?

I was a little thrown off at first and had to take a second look. The big suburban was what jumped out at me at but then I looked up and saw this:

Hudson's name on a street sign in Tulsa. It definitely made me smile!

Not everyone would take a picture of their grandson's name on a street sign and send it to them via iPhone e-mail! Love you Mom!

Goodbye Second Trimester, Hello Third!

28 weeks!

I have made it through the second trimester and now onto the last one! How exciting!

Here is what is going on with Hudson right now:

• Hudson weighs about as much as a Chinese cabbage 2 1/4 pounds. He is still around 14 inches long.
• The coolest thing that is happening this week is he can now open his eyes! He is mostly just blinking, but over the next few weeks he will begin to deliberately open and close them.
• He is moving more than ever. It is now more obvious to other people when he moves because you can see my entire belly moving.
• His room is coming along and we are now onto the finishing touches of painting! Can't wait to get this finished and start with the decorating! He is going to have the cutest (Ryan likes to say coolest-he thinks cute is not manly enough) nursery ever thanks to all of Stacia and Ryan's hard work!
• My glucose test results came back normal and everything is going great! We are just getting more prepared and excited every week! Only 12 weeks to go!

America's Greatest Homecoming-Branded for Life

Friday night kicked off the great Oklahoma State Homecoming celebration! It started with Walkaround to see the house decs and then Homecoming Hoops to see the basketball teams scrimmage! They started off the boys scrimmage with a dance with the pom girls. It was pretty entertaining!

Here we are enjoying all of the festivities!

Saturday we watched the OU/TX game before heading out to the parade! Garth Brooks, Barry Sanders and Robin Ventura were the parade marshalls since they were being inducted into the Hall of Fame. I got a picture of Ryan as he marched by! He was laughing at us because we were screaming for him!

We had a good time at the game and we won which always makes things much better! It was a late game with an 8:15 start so the temperature was cooling down quite quickly, but we cuddled up with layers and blankets and tried to stay warm. Luckily being pregnant made things nice because I wasn't as cold as everyone else! We had a fun night, later I will do a more detailed update but here are a few pictures of some of us at the game.

Ryan and I after the win!

Kinzie and Abby!

Updates!

Here are a few baby updates:

• Tuesday I had my glucose test and it wasn't too bad. The drink really didn't taste bad or take me long to drink. I think the worst part about it was the feeling that the whole thing was just sitting right in my chest.
• Then I got my blood drawn for the test and had an appointment with my doctor. Things are going great! We got to hear Hudson's super fast heartbeat. I am so thankful to have a doctor who really cares. Whenever he listens to your baby's heartbeat he gets the biggest smile on his face and says, "that's just the coolest thing ever." I love that about him, he genuinely cares and it shows.
• We measured my belly and I'm at 26cm. He told me my pregnancy was boring and that's good news!
• I had to go in today and get my RhoGAm shot. For anyone who doesn't know what that is you can read about it here or just google it and you will find out lots of info! I also was unofficially told that my test results are good, but won't get the official news until Monday.

Anyway that is my big baby update for now!

Tomorrow starts America's Greatest Homecoming Celebration! I couldn't be more excited to participate in all the fun events like Walkaround, Homecoming & Hoops and of course the actual game! We play Missouri! It's a late starting game (8:15pm) so it's going to be cold and we will be up way past my bedtime but it should be fun!

This is our picture from homecoming last year!

Yeseterday we got to take a fun visit to the pumpkin patch! It was a fun but muddy adventure! We got to get awesome pumpkins like these....

but we also ended up with muddy shoes like these....

The students loved picking out their pumpkins and some of them were not too thrilled about the idea of letting a truck transport their pumpkins to the school and not taking them on the bus. They were holding onto those pumpkins for dear life, but with a little convincing that the pumpkins would arrive at school approximately the same time we would we finally worked it out! Today we will be decorating these lovely pumpkins and also cutting one open so they can see what is inside. Maybe we can do something with the seeds...guess I better start looking for a recipe! Doesn't the pumpkin patch just make you love Fall?! I brought back a few of my own pumpkins for my classroom and front porch! Why not when they are only $1?!

Here is to wishing you a lovely pumpkin hunting season!

Party Pics

Here are a few pictures from Abby's 18th birthday celebration!

The appetizer and dessert table!

We had cheese & crackers and veggies & ranch dip to snack on,

then strawberry cheesecake and smores for dessert!

The serving table! On the menu: Chicken Parmesan, Shrimp Alfredo, salad, green beans and bread! It was delicious!

Eating area!

Opening presents....Obviously this was a good card!

And this was probably the most liked gift by all! I think every person tried it on and enjoyed the free book light that came with it!

It was a big hit! I'm pretty sure she was still wearing it this morning when I woke up!

And of course I can't be around these girls without having a belly comparing contest!

(Obviously they don't have real babies in their bellies)

I'm pretty sure I'm finally to the point of beating them and there is no return!

Sorry girls, but at least you can enjoy trying!

And what did I get her you ask? A lovely pair of this brand of shoes...

She will be coming to Stillwater this week to pick them out! But most likely she will be picking the pair in this picture! She's had her eye on them for a while! And maybe she just loves me enough that I will get to borrow them too!

Birthday!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY BABY SISTER!

Abby is the big 1-8 today! Yikes that makes me feel old! ha

I love her she is totally awesome so I wanted to giver her a special shoutout on her big day!

We're having a dinner party with her friends tonight to celebrate! So I'm off to decorate and cook! I can't wait to give her the gift she is getting this year! She will be so excited!

Stay tuned to find out what it is....

And in honor of her birthday I thought I would share some pictures of her and I together! Love this girl! Best little sister ever!

Have an awesome day! Hope it's the best year yet!

So Thoughtful!

What could be more useful than hangers to organize Hudson's precious clothes?

Well today we recieved a boxful of these in the mail! I am so thankful to Amanda and Shane for being so thoughtful! That was the sweetest gesture and I am grateful for their thoughtfulness. As we are in the process of organizing all of Hudson's things I keep thinking that I need to pick a few of these up to get us started, but now I don't have to because of these friends! So once again a huge thank you to Amanda and Shane! Now I have another project to get started on in his room! No more baskets of clothes! They will be hung and organized.

And yes Amanda you can stalk our registry anytime you wish :)

I am truely grateful for everyone's well wishes, thoughts, gifts, and support as we start our new journey with Hudson. Ryan and I wouldn't be who we are today without the love and support of all those around us! I'm so forever thankful!

26 Weeks!

Our baby boy is getting so big! He is now as long as the English cucumber I'm holding (about 14 inches) and weighs about 1 2/3 pounds! He is kicking his mom like crazy too!

Nothing too extremely exciting or different has been happening. We are still working on getting his room finished and I'm starting to prepare more for my maternity substitute at school. I want to make sure I start early so I have plenty of time to get everything organized!

We are getting more excited and ready each day!

Only 14 weeks to go (maybe)!

Monday my sister played volleyball here in Stillwater! Before this game Owasso was ranked #7 and Stillwater was ranked #8 so we thought it would be a pretty good game and it was! Every point was a hard battle and we fought hard. There were 3 very close matches but in the end we ended up only winning one and Stillwater won three. I am wishing them the best of luck as they play in the regional tournament tomorrow! This will determine state!

I highlighted my sister is yellow so you can see her awesome moves! She played great all night!

Thank you Teresa for taking pictures! I'm so glad she gets all of these good shots!

GO RAMS!

But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.

1 Timothy 6:6-8

Sneek Peek!

I apologize for the lack of posts this week, but it's been busy around here!

This is what you will find going on at my house!

I'm only giving a small sneek peek because I want to wait until it's all finished to show you the whole room!

Here is Ryan putting the first stroke of paint on the wall!

This is my best friend-the best best friend ever! She is the one making this all happen!

Together we drew the circles, but really she did all the work. Now she and Ryan are working on the painting! Since this is not VOC free paint I am not allowed to help :( I really wish I could but it is in Hudson's best interest that I don't. So my amazing best friends and husband are doing this for me! I can't wait until it's all done so I can show you! It already looks great! I'm so excited to see the finished product!