i love him!

Grateful for rest

My heart overflows today. I am so grateful for lazy restful days with my family. Today the three of us spent time snuggling together in the bed. Now we are not a cosleeping family but occasionally we do pull our little man in the bed for some extra snuggle time. This morning was so perfect. We got a few pictures of him outside in the first "snow" of the season and then went right back and crawled up in the bed together. Hours later we managed to get up and make it to the living room for more lazy day moments together. It is nice to have lazier days where we can just enjoy each other and catch up on much needed rest together. I love pajama days, especially with my sweet family!

On a side note: I am getting super excited about the holidays. We have nearly all of our shopping completed. I am looking forward to enjoying the holidays with our son this year. While he will be too little to grasp anything related to the holidays I am looking forward to having the stressful parts over with so that I can enjoy being with family and all of the sights, smells and sounds of the holidays.

First Friday Club

A couple of months ago the women on my dad's side of the family started the "First Friday Club". Basically they just wanted to get together once a month. I am grateful for these opportunities to spend time with my family. It is nice to see everyone outside of holiday functions. This month we went out to eat and made sure that everyone had updated address books and birthday calendars. This month was also special because Jeremiah went with me. It was wonderful to introduce him to more members of my family and watch everyone love on him.
Now I'm back home and ready to snuggle up with my boys :)

Grandparents and Great Grandparents

Today I am grateful for family, especially our grandparents. It has been such a joy for us to introduce Jeremiah to his grandparents and great grandparents. I have always been close to my grandparents and there is a special joy that comes with introducing them to my son. I love watching the joy on their faces and hearing/seeing them love on him. It is awesome for me to know that he will at least have the pictures to look back on but even more exciting that he will have the chance to know them during these first years of his life.
Today my grandfather and his wife drove up from Atlanta to meet Jeremiah. We enjoyed watching them hold him and snap pictures of him. Thus far Jeremiah has had the opportunity to meet all of my grandparents who are still living. Hopefully in the coming months we will be able to introduce Jeremiah to Aaron's grandparents.
Overall we look forward to Jeremiah growing up with all levels of family around him. We love living fairly close to everyone and the opportunities he will have to grow close with his family as he grows.

Our little blessing

Jeremiah Giese was born Saturday, October 23rd at 1:50 p.m. After a smooth pregnancy we hit a bump in the road medically in the last week where the doctors wanted to go ahead and deliver. We went in Saturday morning at 4 a.m. to be induced. We were all surprised at how quickly things went and our little miracle arrived just short of 10 hours into our visit. While his birth wasn't quite what we planned from the beginning it went smoothly and I could feel God's presence all throughout. All of the concerns they had for me medically are better and everything for Jeremiah looks good as well.

We are very much in love with our son! He is perfect with all fingers, toes, etc just as they should be. He has a very relaxed personality and we are enjoying every minute with him.

Here are a few pictures. More pictures to come.

Our first baby shower and a few pre baby thoughts

A few weeks ago we had our first baby shower. What a sweet time with family and friends. Christal did an excellent job putting everything together. We were blessed with many sweet gifts and an even sweeter time of prayer for our new little family and our little one. I know it is because of friends like these praying for us that we have had such an excellent pregnancy. We both feel very blessed to have such an amazing support group around us. (I have some excellent pictures but just not the time/energy to put them up at the moment)
While we have cut back on many activities in efforts to prepare for our little one we have also managed to stay busier than I could have ever imagined. My days lately have been busy preparing for a bridal shower and a separate reception for two of my cousins. I have also started to make sure that all of the "little" things are taken care of before baby comes, or at least making a list of what still needs to be done. My nesting is definitely beginning to come in spurts~mostly as I have the free time or energy to do so.
This past weekend Aaron and I went and served on a Mountain Top Chrysalis weekend. It was a great weekend full of the Lord working in awesome ways. Even at nearly 35 weeks pregnant I was blessed to be able to serve on the weekend. God is so good!
I am coming to realize that growing this little one is taking more and more of my energy each day. I continue to rest well most nights and am trying to take it easy but definitely feel every bit of the 35+ weeks of this pregnancy at times as well. I cannot wait to see this little one and yet at the same time I find it hard to believe he will be here in just 4ish weeks.

Keepin on, truckin on

Life has been busy. There are so many things that I need to catch up on. The last month has flown by. We started off the first weekend in June with our big ultrasound appointment at the doctor's office. Right after the appointment we drove over and picked up Aaron's mom and started our drive to Northern VA for his cousin's wedding. We had a great trip seeing his family and being there for their wedding.
Week 20 (The beginning of the bump)

A few days after we got back we held a Gender Reveal party for our friends to let them know whether baby Giese would be wearing lots of pink or blue. Our party was a blast! I will put up a seperate post with pictures from that night.


The following weekend I drove down to Winston-Salem to see Abby in Cinderella. For years now I have been able to go down and see the various plays put on by the West Side Civic Theatre. The plays are outdoors and are always fun to watch. I enjoy the layed back night of entertainment. The next day I was blessed to be able to visit with Sean, Christal and Cooper for a bit before coming back up to the mountains.


The last couple of weeks since then really have been a blur. I have gotten back onto the task of crossing items off of my really long and detailed to do list. Many of these items have been on there for nearly a year and some of them I really want to have accomplished before our little one arrives. Starting last week I also started keeping my cousin's little boy a few days a week. I have enjoyed being able to help them out while also forcing myself to stay home and get a few things done around here as well. Not to mention he is such a happy baby! In addition to those things Aaron and I have also made some decisions, based on many prayers, about our church home. We knew my time in the nursery was coming to an end but we have also decided that our time of going to Access church are also coming to an end. We love many different aspects of the church but are feeling led to come back to a more local church in order to raise our family in the way God would have us to.


As far as our little one goes, we are continuing to be blessed by the Lord with an easy pregnancy. My only complaint is some occasional mid back pain. I thank the Lord daily for this child and this pregnancy. I can honestly say I am enjoying being pregnant. I love feeling our little one, who's kicks are growing stronger every day. I am thankful that they seem new and exciting to me each time. I never want to forget just how special this time is. While the heat has been above average here lately I have been managing ok. I have only had one day where I felt miserable with the conditions. Next week marks 24 weeks in this pregnancy! I will post a new belly pic then.


Thanks for continuing to check in on us even in our long absences.

furniture, flutters and funny dreams

Things around here have been very busy lately. We continue to try and finish up projects around the house that we have been wanting to do especially the ones that have to do with baby. At the end of last week the crib and dresser came in and Aaron's mom brought them over here with her truck. During the weekend my parents came over and helped us move around the furniture in our guest/baby room and assemble the crib. It is a beautiful crib and dresser set! We are still getting used to seeing them in the room as we walk by. Once we have things more prepared I will post pictures.
I am getting more and more used to feeling our little one flutter in my belly. Most of the time I start to feel little flutters in the first quiet moments of the evening. Over the last few days and nights I have noticed that I am feeling our little one more often and for longer moments each time.
I am evidently very excited about finding out the gender of our little one. Last night I had 3 seperate and very different dreams about finding out. In each dream there were different friends and we found out or told people in different ways. When I got to the end of the last dream I found myself wanting to go back to sleep and to the dream so that I could find out...haha. Many of our Chrysalis friends and family were in my dreams as well as some complete strangers that I couldnt figure out why they were there or would want to know. I'm glad that I only have to wait 2 more days before we find out (or at least have the chance to).

With growing joy and excitement....

we bring you our exciting news..............we're pregnant!!

I had suspicions and decided to take a test even though it was probably a bit early. Within a minute or so the test very clearly read pregnant. Even though I knew it was a very real possibility I was surprised. I looked at it over and over saying to myself...really? I even went so far as to go back and look at the test several times throughout the morning. As the day went on I realized just how excited I was and how much I love our little one already!


Aaron came home from the office for lunch and I had waiting on his computer an "I love Daddy" bib. When he saw it, he looked at it and quickly realized its meaning. He had a few moments of surprise and realization and ended with great joy.



We are both still processing this news and are excited about the changes that are coming!

We have now told most of our families so I thought I would take a moment and post our news on here :)

A different but still blessed Christmas

This Christmas certainly was a different one. With my family still adjusting to holidays without my Grandmother and on a much tighter budget and Aaron's family spread out for the holiday season this year things were certainly different. Another wrench in "normal" plans was the snow storm that hit just days before Christmas.

Despite all of the unusual circumstances this year our first Christmas together was wonderful. We celebrated Christmas eve with my dad's family, a miracle in itself considering my Poppa Bone's recent surgery. Christmas day was celebrated here at our house with my immediate family. We really relaxed and enjoyed each other. The day after Christmas my family did leave the house to go to Asheville to eat out and see a movie. After the movie we all stayed up until it was time for my dad to take my brother to the airport. Sunday held yet another Christmas celebration with Sean, Christal and Cooper. We certainly are blessed with amazing family and friends!!
One special highlight of our Christmas week was Zach coming up from Texas. He came on Tuesday and left very early Sunday morning. Every day while he was here we played games and stayed up WAY later than normal. It was great to soak in every moment and to spend time relaxing instead of running around.

My heart is heavy tonight

My heart is very heavy tonight. Nearly all day off and on I have thought about my grandmother. How she is in a MUCH better place, how I miss her, how I managed to get through my first year without her, etc.
On top of that I have been thinking about my grandfather. He was admitted to the hospital yesterday with chest pains and now tomorrow he is facing open heart surgery. My family is thankful that it was caught now (the docs said if it had not been he probably would have been dead within the year) and that there is the capability of fixing things. My grandfather is scared and even with the best outcome tomorrow will be facing a long road to recovery.

Please sweet friends be in prayer for my family tonight. We are thankful to have Jesus to turn to and trust that we are in his hands, but this is tough. I dont want to walk this road. Not this soon.

Prayers needed

Friends,
My family needs your prayers right now. I dont want to go into details just yet but please be in prayer for us as it seems that life could really be changing. Just to ease minds--this is not health related.
Love yall!

Happy Father's Day!!

Happy Father's Day to my Daddy!

I love you!