December 2010

wow. what a whirlwind this month has been.

a pottery class with my co-workers

a work "progressive supper"

2 work Christmas parties

1 Christmas program

family get togethers

a HUGE suprise visit from my cousin from Africa!!!

a growing baby boy

and a little girl who is soaking up Christmas...a BIG difference from last year to this year with her!

Here are some pictures of this past month.

Trying on glasses with mommy

we spend LOTS of time reading to all our babies and dollies around here.

Setting new trends this winter.

sorry folks, but this is the best one I could get Christmas morning.

a new ladybug beanbag to go with all the new books to read!

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We had to cancel two of our family Christmas's due to multiple people having the flu. Both have been rescheduled and both of them are tonight. One is 10 minutes away and the other 3 hours. I'm on call this weekend (and feeling hugely pregnant) so we'll be going to Jeremy's family Christmas. My family is having the last Christmas up on the farm tonight. That's the farm my dad grew up on. My brother, sister in-law, nephews and niece are moving down to our area in January as my brother transfered from one job to another within the same company. We are SUPER SUPER excited to have them closer but know this move will be very difficult for them. We'll miss celebrating Christmas with you all!

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It's unbelieveble how fast time is going, especially this month. 8 weeks or less and we'll be meeting our little guy. So excited for this new chapter but so nervous for all the adjustments at the same time.

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At Christmas on my mom's side I walked into my Aunt's kitchen to see my cousin Mel standing there. She was in Africa last I knew!!! I was sooooo completely estatic to see her (and her husband JJ too!). I got to spend Christmas Eve during the day drinking coco and shopping down town with her. We had an absolute blast! Oh how I've missed her so much. I'm blessed by the work her and JJ are doing in Africa and am sooo incredibly thankful to get to spend so much time with her this Christmas!

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Christmas weekend I helped another co-worker out and attended a death of a patient. My Christmas prospective was instantly changed unexpectedly. Two of the deaths that weekend were patients that had proclaimed faith and salvation in Jesus Christ, who knew they were going to heaven. The part that touched me the most is that one family member said their loved one is having the best Christmas ever...they're standing in the presence of the one who created the world, who sent a tiny baby to earth and who would later die for us, so that we may have eternal life with Him. wow. I haven't been able to get that out of my head. So true. What this person said, I already knew. But it was the timing and significance of it...on Christmas weekend that jolted me. And what an outlook and perspective this person had about the death of their loved one. Pretty powerful, to me anyways.

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Hope you all have a safe and happy new year! We're looking forward to what God has in store for us in 2011 and are thankful for all that He has brought us through in 2010.

the winner

is number 2!

Those were one of my favorites from the get go but I kept trying some on and then made my selection harder. Don't have them yet but hopefully before the holidays I'll get them.

Thanks so much for your help in deciding!

happy wednesday!

HeLp!!!

Help me!!!

I'm picking out new frames and have 6 different pairs to choose from.

The ones below are my current pair.

What do you think my style is?

1. Pink with brown in the center.

Sideview
2. These are deep purple with etching and some sparkles on the side.



3. Black withlight pink around the edges and on the back.

4. Black with a purple flower/rose on both sides of the frame


5. Brown with teal edging and on the inner side of them.

6. Brown with a flower/rose on both sides of the frame

(these are the exact same as the black ones above)

What's your opinion?

family pictures at Thanksgiving

These pictures are pretty much self explanatory for all the chaos and fun we had at Thankgiving this year. Our whole famly hadn't been together all at the same time in over 10 years!

Soooooo much fun!

oh the things you say...

You are a ham Julia Jane. We never know what's gonna come out your mouth and have learned quickly over the past 6 months that you have become "peat and repeat".

Some things I don't want to forget that you say or do frequently:

• You talk to your toes. Your usual conversation with them is: "Hi toes! How are you? Good toes? I'm glad!"
• "Thank you so much!"
• "Praise da Lord!"
• out of the blue while playing you come over to one of us and say "I wauve (love) you!"
• "I need a wuave"
• We wake up in the morning to you singing "Happy Birdday (birthday)!" in your crib at the top of your lungs.
• "I need a sticker, honey."
• "oh goodness"
• "Skunnay skool!" (Sunday school)
• "I need my big girls" (I need my pull-ups)
• "yaadybug" (ladybug)
• "Be bery careful with baby brodher"
• "Where is baby brodher?!"
• "SQUEEZE baby brodher!"

You are so loving and full of life. Even though it's challenging at times (ok a lot of times) I love how God gave you so much character. We see your heart growing and changing already when you talk about Jesus and we pray you become a woman after God's heart.

You're not physically a baby anymore, you're growing into a little girl...but you'll always be my baby (I understand what a mother means when they say that now that I am one).

Love you sweet girl!

(hair do compliments of your father)

sono results

Today has seemed like such a looooong day.

Not sure why, it just has.

We are overwhelmed beyond words for God's love, grace and protection/health of our little boy.

During the sono this morning they still found the same spot that was seen at the previous sono. We saw it this time too, last time we couldn't see anything wrong.

Today it was obvious. There was a little white spot on the screen after his little left ventricle pumps. As the doctor spent quite a bit of time looking him over, head to toe, all his little organs and looking for any other markers that would indicate any chromosomal defects (i.e. down syndrome-which doesn't run in either side of our families but with a heart marker like they saw, that can be an indication of down syndrome) he feels that what is going on in his heart will heal itself and there won't be a need to deliver in Wichita or Kansas Ciy and no need for any surgery. By birth the spot they're seeing now will mostly like be non-existant and he probably won't need a sono of his heart after birth unless the pediatrician hears something abnormal. He offered us the option of having an amniocentesis done in the office today to have a full genetic panel done. We declined since there is a 1 in 200 chance of miscarrying after an amnio is done...and the thought of a needle going into my abdomen, through my skin, muslces, uterus and then being so close to my baby and putting him at a harmful risk didn't sound too appealing to us.

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We knew delivering in Wichita might be an option but had no idea KC would be.

The doctor said that some women he's seen, he has to send over to KC because the babies need a neonatal heart surgeon immediately after birth which there isn't one here in Wichita.

After hearing that, we feel beyond blessed for such a healthy baby.

We've become more excited throughout today and will hopefully enjoy the rest of the pregnancy a lot more then we have been the past month.

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I just can't wrap my brain around how gracious our God is.

How such a heavy burden has been lifted from our chests.

That a situation that could have been so scary and harmful has seemed to be improved and how drawn to God I feel. When we got in the car after the appointment and were driving home how perfect it was that every song, the whole way home, had a theme to it that God has created all things and how deserving of my praise's He is.

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My personal goal is to continue to grow deeper with God through His word, frequent communication (prayer) and finding ways to actively praise God for big and small blessings on a daily basis. Thank you SOOO much for all of your prayers and encouraging notes with verses to help us. We are a part of an amazing body of Christ and have witnessed HIS hands and feet the past several weeks! Bless you!

A Pink Butterfly and News

Juju was a "flutter-bye" for halloween. We made four stops that evening and she came home with way more then enough candy for the rest of the year! Not joking.

I tried to get her to sit still next to the pumpkins but she is constantly on the go...sorry for the blurry pictures. She was so excited!

She told the pumpkin, "I wuve you punkin"

We ended the evening at my Aunt Carolyn and Uncle Ledean's house. Cousin Addy was there and Juju LOVES Addy (and Tresa too!). Thanks for playing with Julia Addy!

Update on Baby Boy Ekeland: Can't believe it's been a month already! Things have started to move way faster then expected. We found out more what they saw in baby boy's heart at the last sonogram. It has to do with his cordinea tendineae in his left ventricle. Cordinea tendineae are what help "operate" the vavle and keep it closed tight after blood passes through. My doctor is sending me to a high risk pregnancy doctor in Wichita who will do the sono. The Wichita office called yesterday after my appointment and scheduled me for next week. We were planning to have to wait for 4-6 weeks yet! We're both nervous for Monday to come but at the same time are a little relieved that we will get to see our babe again and will know sooner what's going on. The two biggest things we'll be finding out at this appointment is:

1. If they see anything, what are the possible long term effects after birth

2. If it's safe for us to deliver here in Newton or if we'll have to go to Wichita.

We're still praying that whatever it is has healed itself by now or will heal itself as he grows and there won't be a need for surgery. My doctor did indicate yesterday that with the other information from my sono he's obtained it's not as "scary" as what we first thought which is a huge relief for us. We're still nervous but know that he is in God's hands and worrying won't change the outcome so we try not to let ourselves (myself mainly) get worked up about it.

Thank you for those of you who have been praying for us. We feel we've been drawn closer to one another and God and both desire to lean on Him to meet all our needs. Not saying leaning is easy, but the fact that we desire Him more and are releasing our "need for control" over our concerns has brought us to a deeper level in our faith.

Ending on a happy note my sister is getting married tomorrow. I'll post pictures next week, it'll be a wild time with an expected 45 kids running around!