I can't believe it's already been 10 weeks. That means I'm 1/4 of the way through this pregnancy and in just 3 short weeks I'll be done with the first trimester. Not that I'm wishing it would go quickly, but I'm definitely excited to be reaching that milestone! Overall I'm still feeling pretty good, but I do get a little queasy first thing in the morning and then again right around dinner time until I go to bed. And tired. Right now my evenings consist of taking a nap the moment I get home from work, waking up to eat a little something and talk to Stephen, and then falling back asleep for the night. Stephen has definitely been a trooper and hasn't made a big deal out of having to fend for himself at dinner time (thank you honey!). I couldn't have asked for a more wonderful, sweet, and helpful husband. Last night after I woke up from my nap, he asked if he could get me anything to eat before I even made it out of the bed and then brought it to me in bed. Talk about service! :-)

According to all the baby websites, this week our baby is about one and half inches long, and about the size of a kumquat (not that I have any idea what a kumquat looks like...). Last week it was the size of a green olive or large grape, so I'm just picturing a little bigger than that. I was looking ahead and in 2 weeks, it will be the size of a large plum! Wow, that's a lot of growth in just a few weeks from grape to plum! No wonder I'm so hungry during the day. I think I'm starting to show just a little bit, though I doubt anyone but me can tell. I have a feeling I'm about to enter that awkward stage where people can't tell if you've just gained some weight or if you are actually pregnant. :-) LOL. Should be fun!

Well I think that's all the baby news at the moment. I have my next doctor's checkup in 2 weeks. I think we're going to take another picture tonight, which I'll post on here and you guys can decide for yourselves if I'm starting to show. It's been 2 weeks since the last one, so there's been a little bit of change.

Oh, and I have to mention the cute Easter basket we got from Grandma-to-be Janet and Grandpa-to-be Jeff. One side of it was filled with pink candies and the other side was filled with blue candies and at the back it had a bunch of baby magazines. So cute! It's been fun to flip through the magazines in the evenings. Thanks Janet and Jeff! And thanks to my mom for the Baby Einstein Lullaby CD! It will be a fantastic nap-time CD for the baby and I've already enjoyed listening to it. The music is so soothing, and all the lullabies are set to the music of Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, and other famous composers - so great! Our little one is definitely going to be spoiled by some loving grandparents (and great-grandparents)!

Sleepy Rainy Day

Whew! All of yesterday's excitement with our first doctor's appointment wore me out! I literally got home yesterday and got straight into bed for a quick nap before Wednesday night church. Then this morning I woke up to go to work and ended up back in bed an hour later fast asleep. Thankfully I woke up at 11am, just in time to still put in a half day of work. I'm trying to be careful about using up my sick days and vacation since this is probably just the beginning of all that's to come. Today my tummy was a little more queasy than normal, but I still don't think I have anything to complain about. I went through some of the material we got at the doctor's office yesterday. They gave us a whole goodie bag full of information about pregnancy and the hospital and baby classes and all kinds of stuff. We are definitely entering a whole new world and way of life, and I'm excited. But for now it's off to bed!

We're having a Baby!

It's official! The news has been out for a little while, but today we had our first doctor's appointment and actually got to see the evidence...a little baby is growing inside my belly! I'm 8 weeks along and we're due on Nov 12th. Stephen is really excited and I definitely am too!  We're so thankful for this precious gift from God.

I get asked daily how I feel, and I must say that it really hasn't been too bad so far. I had about a week and a half of feeling nauseous all day long...I was thinking that someone needed to rename Morning Sickness" to "Morning, Noon, & Night Sickness," but the last week and a half I have felt much better. I'd say hunger and just a slight uneasiness in my stomach have been the main feelings lately. Hopefully it will stay that way rather than get any worse!

The new grandparents-to-be were the first to find out, and we tried to make the big reveal special for each of them. I'll have to tell the stories later. Needless to say, everyone is pretty ecstatic. This will be the first grandbaby on both sides of the family, so everyone is suddenly feeling a lot older (especially my grandfather who is about the be a great-granddaddy). :-) I'm so thankful for our wonderful families and all their support. There will be no lack of loving arms and babysitters for this little one!

Be praying for our newly forming family. Stephen and I realize the awesome responsibility of parenting and discipling children, and we're taking it in with much joy and prayer. We want to honor the Lord in the way we raise our children, and for our children to learn from their parents to love Jesus Christ and share His Gospel with the world. It's a big task and an exciting one! Enjoy the pictures!

This is me at 8 weeks...not much to see yet!

Book Review: Growing Godly Women

Growing Godly Women: A Christian Woman's Guide to Mentoring Teenage Girls

by Donna Greene

Tonight I finished reading Growing Godly Women. I was in LifeWay a few months ago just browsing around the books and stumbled across this one. I didn't know anything about it, but thought it looked interesting, so I picked it up. I have a heart for women's ministry, as God has obviously made me a female and has given us the specific charge to teach and train younger women.

"Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored." 

Titus 2:3-5

"Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it."

Proverbs 22:6

"Do not let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith, and in purity."

1 Timothy 4:12

I love the practice of mentoring and disciple-making. I love pouring my life into young girls and women and watching them learn and grow in godliness. And I love being poured into by other godly women as well! So when I saw this book, it peaked my interest.

Growing Godly Women is a fairly quick and easy read. After reading the book, I can't say it's one of my favorites, but it's still a decent read. Donna writes about her experiences starting and leading a very successful girls Bible study and mentoring ministry. There are many jewels of wisdom in this book, but I felt like Donna just barely touched on the subjects rather than really diving into them. You get a few pages worth of meat and then a lot of stories to show the application. A lot of the stories and applications were a little dated, but they still got the point across. Overall, I would keep this as a shelf read, but wouldn't really recommend it for anyone wanting to learn Biblical principals and methods for mentoring and discipling young girls.

As an end note, throughout the reading of this book, I was really interested in the girl's ministry Donna started. It made me think and dream about the possibilities of small group discipleship and a holistic approach to it, where girls are biblically taught how to grow mentally, physically, spiritually, and socially.

"And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men." 

Luke 2:52

Snow Day!

Today it snowed in Alabama! And on top of that, it's Stephen and I's year and a half anniversary! Woohoo :-) We found out church was cancelled as we were getting in the car to leave, and so we had breakfast with family, played in the snow some, and then spent another lazy Sunday afternoon at home. That seems to be a pattern lately and I must say I don't mind it at all. Here's a few pics I took today of our house and around the yard. Enjoy!

Surprise Party!

I love these girls! They threw me a surprise party for my 25th birthday (the party was a few weeks ago on my birthday). It was awesome and they totally caught me by surprise. I'm so thankful to have them in my life! And I'm also thankful for my amazing husband. He was in on the whole thing and danced around all my last minute change of plans on my birthday to make sure we still arrived at the right place at the right time. I was oblivious the whole time. Thanks you guys!!!

Don't Be Jealous...

We went to the circus!!! Yep, you read that right. Stephen and I went to Ringling Brother's "Zing Zang Zoom" Circus a few weekends ago. I came across a really good deal on tickets and we didn't have anything going on that day, so we decided to live it up and go see the greatest show on earth. 

It was actually a lot of fun. Stephen even said afterwards that he would do it again any day. They really put on a fun show and some of the things they did were pretty impressive. Between the acrobatics and the animals, they definitely kept you engaged. I think my favorite part was all the animals and the amazing tricks they could do. Oh, and the cotton candy...can't forget that! Here's some pics from our visit to the circus! 

They shot 2 girls out of those cannons!