Nursery, Last prego pics???

So I am once again a little behind on updating our blog. I have been waiting for Ben to get the nursery done so that I could post some pictures. Well the painting is finally finished and we put the crib up last night. I know, nothing like waiting until the last minute. Besides putting up the letters of his name, a few other decorations, and putting a few things away, it is finished.

Ben is just getting started with the painting here. He came up with the idea of how to paint Logan's room. You can tell by this picture how much tape it took to do this.One color done, 3 more to go!Ben working on the green stripes. This is not quite what Ben had in mind, but I am glad that he decided to stick with it. He actually wanted to do more stripes, but he was really glad that he didn't. They ended up being more of a hassle than he was expecting. The finished product. Changing table with the bins that we found to match the color scheme.

Ben was recently in a wedding for one of the guys that we go to church with. The two flower girls (Haleigh and Makenna), who also go to our church just love hanging out with Mr. Ben, so we made sure that we got a picture of them together. They were so excited at my shower that Mr. Ben actually played with them, instead of helping me to open the gifts, even though this was the first time that he had met them.

He just has a special way with kids. I am anxious to see how well he does with Logan.

FINAL PREGNANCY PICS??? Well I am hoping that these will be the last of the pregnancy pics for a while. These were taken last Thursday and it just continues to amaze us how big my belly has gotten. Fortunately, I think I can honestly say that it is all baby.

We are hoping that this baby decides to make his appearance before the end of the weekend! So just in case he does come before the weekend is over, here is a picture of me today. 39 weeks 5 days

Blessing in Disguise...

Last Monday while I was folding clothes in the living room, I heard something fall. I went to investigate, but I couldn't find anything out of the ordinary. Well, being this far along in pregnancy and having stood up, I of course had to go to the bathroom, again. So, I went, but when I went to wash my hands I had no water. I went out to the kitchen to see if I had water out there and I didn't. So I called Ben. He asked me if there had been anybody out by the road who might have turned our water off. (That is what happened the last time, I didn't have water.) I told him that I didn't see anybody. He told me to go and check to make sure that the water was still on at the road. Well, I stepped out onto the porch and saw some water coming out of our garage. I made mention of this to Ben and he told me to go and check the garage first. So I did, fortunately it was only a small stream and it hadn't got any of the stuff in the garage wet except the floor. So Ben told me to go and turn the water off at the road and that he would be on his way home. Well, needless to say, because Mondays are his PT days, he had only work 2 hours that day. He got home, changed his clothes, and crawled under the house. He loves crawling into the crawl space, NOT! I was right, something had fallen and it was the pipe under the house. Fortunately, it was somewhat of a cheap and easy fix. BABY SHOWER at the CHURCH On Saturday, our church had a baby shower for us. There were about 25 people there. One of our guy friends came to keep Ben company, so that he wasn't the only guy there. However, Ben hadn't been planning to go, but when he heard that Scott was coming, he decided that he should go, so that Scott wasn't the only guy there. Funny, how they were both trying to look out for the other. Unfortunately, Saturday was not one of my better pregnant days. I think I tried to do a bit too much leading up to the shower. Friday, I decided to clean my hardwood floors. It started out that I was just going to sweep them, but then I decided to also mop them. I had to take a few breaks to get them all done, but I finally finished them. We didn't do much Friday evening since I had used all my energy on the floors throughout the day. Then Saturday before we headed out to the church, I wanted to make vegetable soup, so that we would have supper when we got home. So again I was standing for a long time cutting vegetables. By the time, that I got ready to go to the shower, lets just say I was feeling quite tired and my feet had swollen. I was going to wear cute little heels, but decided to settle with just some black sandals. It also seemed that Logan was lying in an odd position, so that didn't help things either. At the shower, we got a lot of clothes and other nice stuff. Here are some pictures of the us at the shower and some of the things that we got. We were so excited to get some Steeler's stuff. We got this stuff from our church friends who are also Steelers fans. Thanks Jim and Karen!!! One final note... I went to the doctor on Tuesday and she continues to say that everything looks good and that we are right on schedule. She also informed me that Logan has flipped and is now head down. This is such a blessing and answer to prayer. I go back to the doctor in two weeks, but then I will be going every week after that. I will do my best to keep everyone updated. Well LOVE and MISS you!!!

More Prego Pics!

So I know that it has been about a month since I updated our blog, but nothing really exciting has been going on. Let me try to update you as to what has been going on in our neck of the country. A couple of weekends ago (March 20-22), Ben and I got to watch Rob and Amy's girls so that they could go to a marriage conference with their church. The girls arrived Friday morning and stayed with us until Sunday evening. They were very good for the most part, however, we did have to discipline them a little bit. We even had to initiate the "Time out stump." We were outside playing and Madison wasn't playing nice so I told her to go sit down. Well she started throwing flowers and Ben told her to stop and she didn't listen, so he made her go sit on stump over by the wood pile. This is where we came up with the time out stump. The girls enjoyed discovering different bugs that were in our back yard. We found a grasshopper, a cricket, and a lady bug. All three of them liked holding them in their hands and letting the bugs crawl over their hands. The twins have grown sooo much since about two years ago when we were in Ohio and Emma would have nothing to do with holding bugs in her hands. They also enjoyed helping to plant potatoes in the garden. Ben would give them the potato and tell them to put it right in front of his boot and they wanted to get it just perfect. Also while they were here, I helped them make biscuit pizzas. They liked to stretch the dough and put the sauce and toppings on. They are such little helpers sometimes. Both Friday and Saturday nights, we had the girls in bed before 9 pm. We were quite impressed with ourselves on that accomplishment. We took the girls to church with us on Sunday and a lot of people were impressed with the fact that we were earlier than we usually are and we had three extra to get ready. We put the girls in their class and was in the sanctuary before the music started. (We usually walk into the sanctuary about the same time the music is starting.) We loved having them at the house, but I was also ready for them to go home. I have come to understand why God usually tries to break you in slow with having kids. Ben recently went through a two week training to be apart of the Base Honor Guard. It was a volun"told" type of thing. He kind of volunteered, but he was also told that he was their choice to represent his group. He is now able to participate in the special ceremonies such as funerals, base services, and some other special events. This is one more thing that he can put on his profile that will help him to look good for upcoming positions and also his promotions.

I am just over 31 1/2 weeks along. It is hard to believe that it is only 8 1/2 weeks until my due date. When we were at church last night, people were asking how i was feeling and I have to admit this is the first time in my whole pregnancy that I have felt really BIG. It seems like Logan has grown sooo much in this last week. I go to the doctor every two weeks now and at my last two appointments they told me that he was breech. We are not too concerned about this at this point in time. But as the time gets closer, we will definitely start praying harder that he will flip on his own. Well I think that about updates everyone as far as what has happened in our lives. Look forward to hearing from you soon.

Just a quick update!

So many of you have wondered what has been going on in our lives. Well to be honest, not too much. In the last month, my baby belly has definitely grown, which you will see. (Just a side note, these pics aren't the best, because Ben wouldn't tell me when he was actually going to snap the picture. And yes, my belly button has already started sticking out, which Ben thinks is the coolest thing.) Our baby, which we have been calling Logan, has definitely gotten bigger and more active. He also recognizes when Ben is talking and becomes more active during that time. In fact the one day, Ben was talking to my belly, and Logan was being very still. But when Ben stopped talking, Logan started kicking, almost as if on cue. Our house has started to be invaded by baby things. (A lady from our church has given us some things that her kids no longer play with.) Last week, I went on a cleaning/baking spree. Not sure what that was all about, considering it is a little too early to be considered nesting. The weather is showing signs of spring. We already have two dandelions in our backyard and there are numerous places that daffodils have already bloomed. Oh and today it is in the 80s. This is really strange considering normally we wouldn't be observing these signs of nature for at least another month back in PA.

What an exciting two weeks!!!!

On January 26, we got to experience our first Oklahoma ice storm. Ben knew that it was supposed to get bad out, so he told me that he would pick up the groceries I needed before he came home from his morning PT. In exchange for him doing this, I told him that I would make him breakfast when he got home. Well, after breakfast Ben went to work and I continued to do things around the house. I lost power for a few minutes in the morning, but then it came back on. Ben called at 1:45 and said that they had closed the base down and he was waiting for his car to thaw out and then he would be on his way home. Well I decided that I should probably get a shower before he came home. (I don't usually shower until the afternoon because of working around the house in the morning.) Shortly after I got in the shower, the lights dimmed and I was begging for just a few more minutes so that I could finish. Well needless to say I finished my shower in the dark. I thought that we weren't going to have power for a while, so I gathered up some candles and placed them in the bathroom. I also gathered up a flash light, so if we needed it we knew where it was. I was without power for 45 minutes. The power came back on right before Ben got home from work. You are probably wondering why it took Ben so long to get home when we only live 12 minutes from the gate that he uses. Well after he sat in the car for a few minutes and saw that traffic wasn't moving (the base released everybody at the same time), he went back up to his desk for a little while. We decided that we would brave the storm over at Rob and Amy's house. If we lost power again, they would at least still have hot water. Rob was pretty sure that they wouldn't have work in the morning. So we packed up some clothes and blankets and of course Settlers of Catan (Rob's favorite game at this point in time) and headed over there. We played Settlers until 2:30 am. According to the news, the guys still had to go to work in the morning, but it was still sleeting outside. We were getting ready to go to bed and the baby started to move around, well I told Ben to put his hand on my belly. He did and he finally got to feel him move. I was really excited for him to experience that. He is getting much stronger and so he is now able to feel it a lot more often. Well the power didn't go out and the guys did not have to go to work the next day. In fact the guys didn't go to work until Wednesday and even then they had a delayed start. In the night, it had snowed which usually doesn't happen in Oklahoma. We went out and played in the snow for a little while. The snow made it less slippery, so you could actually get around without sliding. Last week, Ben came home early on Tuesday with a fever. He went straight to bed and even ask that I put an extra blanket on the bed. I wasn't feeling all that good, but I thought it was because I had gone to the dentist earlier in the day. Once Ben came home, I began to suspect it was more than the dentist appointment. I made some chicken noodle soup, but it didn't seem to help us. Neither one of us got a lot of sleep that night. It was such a strange experience having Ben sick, usually he is the healthy one and has to take care of me. Another strange thing is having your stomach cramp and your baby kicking at the same time. One is such an unwanted feeling and one is so exciting to feel. Good news we are both feeling much better now and have gone back to our usual routines. The last part of our excitement happened on Saturday. It was a really nice outside, so we decided to do some things outside. We had purchased some bulbs a while back so we were going to plant them and hope that they will grow. There were some stumps and rocks in our front yard. We thought the former owners had used them just as decorations, but we found out they were actually using them to cover a cement slab and some posts. We started to move the rocks and when he flipped the one over, it was covered in ants. He got all excited and ran into the garage and got his torch. I thought he was just torching the ants to play around, but I found out otherwise later on. I told him to be very careful and NOT to catch the grass on fire. However the wind picked up at just the wrong time and sure enough, he caught the grass on fire. We had a shovel out there, so Ben tried to put the flames out with that. He told me to get the other shovel out of the garage, so I did. He tried to get the hose to work, but no water wanted to come out. I was definitely scared at this point, because the wind kept blowing and the fire kept spreading. Fortunately, the wind was not blowing in the direction of the house, but it was blowing the direction of the neighbors. The fire spread out to the road and we were able to finally able to get it put out. Here are some pictures of our new "improved" yard.

Half way there!!!!

Well I survived a week without Ben, although I hope that we don't have to be doing that too often. I really enjoyed being able to go and hang out with some new people while he was gone. So we have officially hit the halfway mark of my pregnancy. Our little boy has become much more active over the last couple of days. For some reason, he seemed to be active all day yesterday, even during the Steeler's game. Unfortunately Ben has not been able to enjoy these movements, he just looks at me kind of weird when I get a startled look on my face. It is just amazing to me to feel these movements. We spent part of the day registering at Babies R' Us. It was a little overwhelming how much stuff you need for something sooo small. Ben thoroughly enjoyed going through the store with a gun and scanning some random items. I am sure you will see what I mean when you look at our registry. Well, some of you were a little disappointed by the pictures that I posted last week, because you had already seen them. I hope that you enjoy these updated pictures. Here are official 20 week pictures. (These were taken today after we got back from shopping.) :)

Christmas and Baby Update

Well Christmas was very different for Ben and I this year. We didn't get to enjoy the normal family gatherings because we decided that we would be spending Christmas in Oklahoma this year. Fortunately, my Mom and Dad, sisters Tesha and Tessa, my brother-in-law Eugene, and nephew Austyn got to come and spend a week with us. Tesha's boyfriend Jacob arrived a few days after they did. They spent 26 hours in an RV to come see us. We enjoyed having everyone here. We really enjoyed Austyn, he is just such a little cutie. I made him a little hat and pair of mittens, but somehow we misplaced his mittens. I am sure we will find them, otherwise I will just have to make another pair. We had really nice weather while they were out here. In fact we got to go and sit on the back porch for a little while. Tesha decided to take Austyn to see our neighbor's horse, but Tessa wasn't too keen on the idea. She doesn't like horses. Anyway, since we stayed in our PJs most of the time, Tesha ended making a fashion statement when she put Ben's boots on. I am sure she will be so excited that I put this picture on here. It is always hard to say goodbye, especially when you don't know when you will see them again. I think the thing that Ben was most excited about was his BB gun that I got him for Christmas. Originally, I got it as a joke, but as Christmas got closer and closer, it seemed like he really wanted one. He has a squirrel that he is trying to get because it keeps eating all of the birdseed that we put out. Plus there are certain birds that he doesn't want to keep around. He gets this look on his face and you just know that he is on a mission. Eugene even got in on the action of trying to get the squirrel or birds. He was successful at getting a sparrow. So he got the first kill with the gun. Well I said this update was also about the baby. On Friday, we went for our sonogram and found out that I am having a BOY!!! The nurse asked us if we wanted to know and we said yes so she moved the wand down. The next thing we know she is telling us how proud he is. It was really neat to see him on that screen. At one point in time, he even waved to us. He seems like he is already ornery, because the nurse was trying to get a picture of his umbilical cord and just about the time she would get it in focus, he would hit it away. He also likes to hang out with his hand on his head like the picture shows. This next picture is of his face with his mouth open. The nurse said it looked like he was yelling at her, but I told her that he was probably yelling at us. The nurse said that he is about 11 ounces, but she didn't say how long. She also said that the one bone in his arm was 2.8 cm long. It is just hard to imagine something being that small. I go back to the doctor on Wednesday. It will be interesting to see how much I gained especially going through the holidays. Ben left for Jacksonville, FL today. He found out Friday that he had to go. I was none too excited to hear this news. He will be there until Friday. I meant to have him take some pictures of me before he left, so I could show you how big I am getting, but I forgot. I guess you could say typical pregnant woman. These pictures are from a few weeks ago that I took while Ben was at work, so I am a little bigger at this point in time. 15 weeks- Taken on December 10. Well I think that is about it as far as our updates. When Ben gets back from Florida, we will be going and registering at Babies R' Us. I will send you an official email when we actually get this done. We sure do miss everyone and look forward to when we can see you all again. Love You!!!