Dusting off the ol blog a bit...

If you check this blog often for updates on our family, especially the smallest cutest member then I am sorry. I have failed at updating here. I am good about keeping up with Jeremiah's monthly calendar and baby book and even with his monthly pictures but not so good at the blogging. It has also become much harder to find time to sit down at the computer now that our little man is mobile and much more interested in the world around him.
I am thanking God daily for the joy our son brings to our lives. He is so much fun! I am so blessed to be able to stay home with him and to really have the time to play and enjoy him. His latest antics include pushing his hippo push toy all over, pulling up on EVERYTHING, eating almost all of his food with his hands, crying when its time to get out of the bath, signing more when he wants more food, and looking up when you try to take his picture. I cannot believe that his first birthday is quickly approaching. Time is certainly going by way too fast!
Over the next couple of weeks I won't promise to update much. Aaron and I celebrate our second wedding anniversary on Monday and then have a couple of trips coming up before we celebrate our little man's first birthday next month.
Here are a couple of cute shots just because I can :)

no excuses

Well I have very little to say for my lack of blogging lately. Except for the busyness of summer and a now quite mobile almost 9 month old.

Life continues to plug along for us. We are doing well. We have been doing our best recently to make the most of summer. Our days recently have been filled with family, friends, cookouts, sleepovers, pool parties, naps and a few small get-a-ways.

Our sweet baby continues to grow and amaze us. He continues to have a sweet go with the flow personality and continues to bring everyone around him such joy. He currently takes two naps each about two hours long and is now going to bed somewhere between 9 and 9:30. Until last week he was going to sleep easily. Now he immediately sits back up and tries to play or pull himself up on the crib. We watched him pull himself up tonight and cruise along the side of the crib all the way to the other side. Crazy monkey! While he has figured out how to do a quick belly crawl his favorite method of moving is for you to hold his hands so that he can walk. Sometimes he tries to let go and walk on his own (unsuccessfully for the time being). He can easily pull himself up on a number of items and we can only imagine will be walking soon. He continues to be a great eater eatting nearly everything you give him. This week he suffered with his first real fever. For about two days he was very lithargic and just wasn't himself. It was so hard to see him that way and not always know the best ways to comfort him. I am so thankful to see him fever free and back to his normal self.

Hopefully in the coming days I can post some new pictures. I am trying to figure out how to post them in a slideshow so that I can let you see a more of what we have been up to without having to spend hours working on loading them. If anyone has any suggestions then I would love to hear them :)

Where we stand for now

I use my blog mostly as a link to read other blogs. There I said it.

I often think about posting things but then feel like it would be too much work, esp if there are pictures I want to share or that no one really cares about the thoughts running through my head. I started to think about why I blog and if I wanted to continue to blog. I decided over the last few days that I would continue to blog...hopefully with a little more regularity. I want to share the things that keep our family going and to share pictures of our sweetie with family and friends that dont live close by.

Speaking of our sweet little one he continues to be such a blessing in our lives. He turned 6 months old recently and suddenly seems to be growing up so quickly. In the last week he has taken off with his motor skills. He rolls over all the time now and loves to play sitting up. Just yesterday he started to pull himself up holding your hands without any real help from you. He continues to love most solid foods. He has enjoyed peas, pears, sweet potatoes, avocado, and squash. So far the only foods he seems to not like are peaches and rice cereal.

Alright for tonight thats all I have. I am off to fold laundry and sort out little man's 6 month photos.

A bit of what's floating around in my head...

*My son just got over his first cold. It was his first bout of illness of any sort and he handled it like a champ. For the most part you wouldnt have really known he wasnt feeling good as he continued to smile and play. He had one day where he spit up some and was kinda cranky but then the next day he was right back to his ol self again. I'm thankful that he has had nearly 4 months of great health and that he continues to do so well!
*Aaron and I are going out to a movie tonight :) This is an extension of our Valentines celebration. I think its sweet how excited he is to be going out with me.
*We are in the process of trying to figure out the best usage of Aaron's days off this year. There are so many things that we need to do and another list equally as large if not larger of things that we would like to do. Please be in prayer for us as we seek to make these decisions.
*I am loving this recent weather we are having. We have been taking advantage of this weather with a few more trips out of the house and walks around the neighborhood. Hopefully in the next day or so we will be able to walk around the lake as well.
*I love hanging out with my son and watching him experience the world around him. I love being able to make him smile.
*We love watching the Biggest Loser. Such inspiring stories and it is amazing to see how far the contestants come each season.
*Husband and I are in the midst of taking a Crown Financial class at church. We have always been eager to pay off our debt. This class is a great springboard for that goal and also gives us a great heavenly perspective on our money and possessions. As a result we will be going out to eat less and really cutting back on any nonessentials.
*I still havent ordered my wedding album :(. My goal is to get that accomplished by the end of this weekend.
*I would like to plan a game/movie night this weekend. Anyone wanna come play?
*I am in the process of organizing little man's photos. Hopefully I will be better about sharing more of them soon. I love to take pictures of our little one and love sharing them too! Pictures are such a treasure. I need to do a better job of capturing him on video as well.
*I havent been able to wear my wedding or engagement rings since about July and I miss them.


Often my life feels like one giant to do list, a list of things I need to do and things I'd like to do. I love where God has me most of the time and yet there are so many areas where I feel I could still improve/work. I'm hoping that as a result of cutting back on spending money there will be more time at home to enjoy our sweet little family and to work on these to do items.

It's pretty...

My new computer arrived today and its so pretty. It is very shiny and exciting. Hopefully over the next couple of days I will start learning the new operating season and where everything is. I dont plan on putting a lot of time into it until Zach and Rachel leave on Thursday.
I also need to get Zach's friend to transfer things over from my old computer to the new one.
Hopefully soon I will be able to post a bit about Christmas, a few snow pics and then of course some updated Jeremiah photos.

I dont mean to leave ya hangin

My computer is on the fritz. And as a result I have been unable to come and update you sweet readers (you are out there right?) as to what we have been up to. Or more importantly to post more pictures of our sweet little one. Because I'm sure that's what most of you are here for anyways. After consulting several computer savvy friends we decided that it was in our best interest to replace my computer, therefore in the next week or so my new computer should arrive and I can once again resume my own personal electronic life. Good thing we recently got smart phones, and that I can occasionally hop on hubby's computer or I would really be going nuts!

Quick check in

So I'm laughin at myself tonight for not blogging anything for nearly a month now. I have a 36 week belly pic that I meant to post but obviously never got around to it. Things have been a bit crazy around here as we have rushed to get our last minute baby stuff together as well as complete other projects before he gets here. Not to mention all of the other commitments we had/have on us before our new arrival. While life has been very busy for us during this last month it has been a good busy (for the most part) and really is beginning to calm down. After this coming Saturday we dont have anything major planned until our little one gets here. Now I realize that is only a bit more than a week, if he comes on time, but for us not having anything planned for that long is a dream. I am looking forward to having a newborn not only to love and cherish but to keep us at home and not runnin around for just a bit. I'm sure that soon enough we will be back to a crazy enough pace.
A few realizations:
*We are so very very blessed. I am overwhelmed with God's provision.
*The end of pregnancy is tiring. Really tiring.
*I feel like a ping-pong ball most days. Ready to be not pregnant and then the next second almost mourning the end of this wonderful pregnancy. Yes, even at 38+ weeks I am still enjoying pregnancy.
*The human body is quite amazing!

On the baby news front. As of this afternoon when I went to the doctor I have dilated to an almost 2 and have a "very soft" cervix. Most of the time I still feel great all things considering. I am having more contractions and they are getting more frequent and stronger. My mind is still baffled by the fact that our little one will be here any time.

I am not even going to pretend to tell you that we will be updating every day with photos and info once he's here. I will simply do my best to share with our loved ones what I can. Love you all and can't wait to show you the newest member of our family.

July

I find it sad that I am having to sit and do a catchup post on nearly a whole month. My biggest blogging hurdle has been moving the computer to the desk in the other room so I only make it in their to check facebook or read a couple of blogs I follow. My time away from the computer has been great for spending time with my husband and friends but sad for my blogging.
July was a busier month than I thought it would be. It seemed like everytime I thought things would slow down or ease up I found myself busier than ever. At the beginning of the month we had a group of friends over for the fourth. We had a great time cooking out, fellowshiping, playing corn hole, and watching fireworks. The rest of my weeks were busy keeping my cousin's little one three days a week and then meeting with other friends on my "off days". I was also able to squeeze in some Turner kiddo time since they were in NC for nearly two weeks. I have really enjoyed being able to see so many of my friends this summer. Aaron and I have also spent some time cleaning up around the house and getting projects completed. It feels good to finally see things getting accomplished.
Just this last weekend I went down to the beach with my mom, her best friend and her best friend's daughter. It was a great girls weekend and we managed to do a lot in just a few short days. We enjoyed a day in downtown Charleston complete with carriage ride, shopping, lunch, and lots of walking. We also spent time down on the beach and at the pool. On our down time we attempted to watch a few movies although someone if not everyone ended up falling asleep in just about all of them. Overall we had a great time and enjoyed our mini getaway!
For the last few days in this month I am at the Turners house hanging with the kiddos while Matthew and Amy work. We dont have a lot planned but have just been enjoying our time together. While the kids play I have been getting to a lot of work I need to do on the computer including blogging and baby registries.
Hopefully life will settle into a more settled pattern (haha) and I can get back into blogging more. The next couple of months will be our last ones without a child so we will be trying to make the most of them while at the same time not wear ourselves out.

We have a bit of catching up to do...

Going back a bit to the beginning of June. We had our first party to celebrate our little one. As part of the agreement when we decided to find out whether we were having a boy or a girl I agreed that we would have a party to celebrate our big news with our friends. Because we were going to a wedding right after we found out we went ahead and told family but our friends had to wait a few days longer. We asked them to wear blue if they thought we were having a boy and pink if they thought it would be a girl. While up to that point we had more people saying girl we ended up with nearly an equal amount of each that evening.

Here are the pics for team blue and team pink.

We had a great evening of fellowship with friends and enjoyed being able to tell many of our friends at the same time what we were having!

The cupcakes held the answer inside.

It's a boy! A little boy will be joining our family towards the end of October or early November.

We are excited to meet our little one :)

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.

I'm still here!

We are still around and doing great! I am sorry for the long absence between posts. Here are a few tidbits of what has been keeping us busy:

Baby Giese (also known as Wiggle Worm)

I spent most of the first trimester sleeping. That included through a good part of the Olympic figure skating. I was blessed enough not to really have any morning sickness. I did have a few food items that made me feel icky, but with avoiding those items I have felt great. Aaron and I walk as often as we can and have started the process of trying to select names.

I've been to the doctor twice now (I go again next week) and have received two great reports. Thus far this pregnancy has been wonderfully uneventful. I will continue to pray for a happy and healthy pregnancy. We will continue to pray that the Lord continues to form this little one and brings about a healthy pregnancy and delivery.

We have not taken many belly pictures largely because there has not been much to photograph in that department. Around week 12 I began to have a slight bit that I could no longer suck in. Here at 15 weeks I am just barely past that point. Still nothing major to report. Here is a little picture of week 12.

In other events, our social schedule has finally slowed down. We ran a very busy schedule from the beginning of February to the end of April. Lots of fun events but it was very tiring not to have any down time. We were blessed to be able to celebrate Cooper's 2nd birthday with him, participate in another Chrysalis weekend, continue to serve with our church, celebrate Adam's birthday, visit Disney (i promise to upload pics soon) and a number of other events.

I am excited to say that we are making some progress on some personal goals we have around the house as well. It is nice to see some things come to place that we have had to put off for quite some time. Both of us are looking forward to this spring and summer season and all that it will bring!

A few quick thoughts

I dont have long to update at this point but I did want to put down a few thoughts so that I could come back and visit them/update when I get a chance.
*Prayers~ My heart is still heavy with them but God has given me the peace of knowing He is in control.
*Crafts~ I have some photos to post of some shirts I made and cant wait to share them! They turned out really cute :)
I am also getting back into scrapbooking and hope to make some great progress over the next couple of weeks.
*Superbowl commercial spectacular~ We enjoyed a great evening with friends. We had a lot of great food and conversations! I will post some of the pictures from the evening when I can.

a bit of this and that

I have not blogged in forever. Life has just been busy. Despite not having a full time job I am staying pretty busy. I am amazed at all of the various activities that now fill my days. Since I am tired (and also needing to work some more on cleaning and organizing) I am going to give a quick recap.
Since our wedding/honeymoon I have been in Abby's wedding, worked out with mom and Fran, started further purging and simplifying our stuff, bought new furniture, started going to a new church, became the nursery/preschool director for the new church, practiced my soccer mom skills driving various kiddos around, watched lots of dancing with the stars, etc etc etc. The list just seems to go on and on.
Most of the time I find myself very busy but blessed. Recently Aaron and I both have spent time talking about how blessed we are. God has not even come close to forgetting about us. We do not have every single thing we want but our needs have definately been met. I continue to be amazed at how God works in the details. He is ever so faithful to provide.

I hope that as things become more settled I can get back into a regular schedule of blogging and recording our lives. I will also post a recap of our honeymoon (I still have to dig thru and edit the pictures). I also want to post some thoughts on this first year without Grandmother, next week will mark one year since she went to be with Jesus.

planning and seeking

While my last post was only a few weeks ago it feels like it has been forever. I have been quite busy with all things bridal. We have had two showers, engagement pictures, and multiple appointments around various aspects of wedding. There have been days where I have felt very overwhelmed and other days where things seem to be falling right into place. More than anything I am trying my best to enjoy this process. I want to look back on this time as a busy but good time, not another stressful point (Lord knows this last year has held enough of those).
On another note I am still waiting for the Lord to show me what it is I am to spend my time doing during these next phase of my life. I have had a few leads come up but nothing seems to be fitting just right or has worked out so far. I am praying that over the next few days I will receive some clarity from the Lord on which door it is He wants me to walk through. I know what my desires are but I also know that I do not want to miss what the Lord has for me.
Only 24 more days until the wedding!!!

updates and a few thoughts and goals...

I met my goal on Friday for being out of my classroom and turning in my key. The whole day Friday was so surreal. I packed my last load in my car and fought back the tears as I closed that chapter on my life. I dont know if God is closing the chapter on teaching for me for a season or for good. I am doing my best to place my trust in Him who loves me and has a plan for me.

This weekend didnt really feel any different from any other except for it was the first one in nearly a month when we were not moving stuff from one location to another. It was so nice to relax and enjoy life at a much slower pace. Aaron and I managed to get several things done so the weekend was not a total loss.

Today I have kicked back and relaxed much of the day. While I have the time to simply sit and do nothing I am feeling the urge to try and get a few things knocked off of the to do list. Maybe I can get a few things done.

A few summer goals (I am hoping by posting them that I will be more accountable to them):
*get back in shape
*finalize wedding plans
*find work for the fall (hopefully kiddos to watch)
*clean and organize this house

While I have spent some time reading blogs lately I have neglected to update my own. Life at work continues to have its ups and downs. I took several days off last week to stay with my friend's girls while they were in the hospital having their fourth child.

Here is a picture of the newest addition.

I went back to work on Friday but was not very productive as I had hoped to be. It was nice to get caught up with everyone though. I also enjoyed the fact that it was an early dismissal.

Then Saturday came and I was hit with the worst sickness I have had in years. I woke up that morning with aches and pains all over. Not long after the fever came. Things only got worse as I proceeded to get sick from having too much mucus in my stomach. For the past two days I have done nothing but sleep and move from the bed to the couch. I had to take today off since I was running a fever and couldnt be around my kids. Not to mention my throat still hurt and I couldnt talk much at all. As of right now I have had very little fever and am feelin pretty decent. Things must have been pretty bad because even the cat stayed away from me until today. While I am looking forward to getting back to work so I can finish my assessments I am not looking forward to having to work a full day on my weakened system. That and I havent done a lick of planning since I have felt like poop.

Where have I been?

So I realized a few days ago that this blog would be a whole lot more fun if I actually wrote on it..updated it. I am hoping to include pictures. I know I have said that before but I would really like to get back to it. I need to work on taking the card out of the camera, putting them on the computer and then actually doing something with them. Goals for another day...

Life has been busy....if you really want details call. Too much to type :)

I am SOOO ready for Spring Break. I have major spring fever, mostly related to travel. I need to get out of Waynesville. Anyone want to go somewhere?

Just a little bit of evidence of God's love this week:
**Positive comments from my lead teacher about my efforts at work
*I won a door prize at my workshop tonight b/c I was the only one in the room who has a birthday this month. And on top of that it's purple!!
*Getting to meet, hold, and feed baby Braydon

Only 2 more days til my birthday!!
(15 more days til Aaron's birthday and 177 days until we get married)

t is for tired

Tired is the one word that has described me over these last few days. For a number of reasons my body is worn out right now. I wanted to post a quick note to let everyone know that I am still around...and longing for the days to get caught up digitally, but for now I must head to bed. Hopefully I can find some time in the next couple of days to get caught up on some of my to dos and want to dos. Love to all!

sneaky!

While I am at school I have only a few options of the sites I normally visit that will make it through the insane firewall here. So why am I able to get on today? Who knows! But hey, I am and for that I'm excited. :) I have only a few quick moments before my kids come back from P.E. all sweaty and stinky. Just enough time for a mini (and really random) update on what I've been up to. Life has been very busy. Things at work are going better right now. I am finally finishing up with conferences (thank you snow) and moving onto more exciting things with my free time. This past weekend we celebrated my little friend Deseray's birthday. Ah to be 7 again. Since it was in the low/mid 60's we were able to celebrate outside at the lake. Aaron and I only have one semi free evening this week, which is fun but also very tiring. Tonight is our new life group--Fireproof your marriage. This study is based on the movie Fireproof and hopefully will give us a lot of wonderful advice to starting off our marriage on the right foot with Christ as the head.
Well...thats all the time I have for now. Sorry for the scatterbrained randomness of this post!

a few quick thoughts

I dont have long tonight, b/c I am soooo very tired. We had a great superbowl party yesterday, more to come on that later. I really wanted to hop on here and put down some quick thoughts so that I could return to them in the next couple of days and expand upon them.
More to come on the following:
*Winston trip
*Superbowl party
*Wedding planning updates
*25 Random things
Who knows what else friends. I'm a bit too tired to know what else I logged on to write tonight. Off to bed.