week 22

ugh... I got paint all over my shirt when I was crossing off the 20 and 21... It's going to bug me until I'm able to cross that darn 36 off!

Well, week 22 hasn't brought much of anything new, which I suppose is a good thing! A few nights ago we were able to feel a lump that must have been a foot/elbow/knee or something, and it was just sticking out. That was really fun. Also, I can do some cool tricks with my belly button these days, and it totally grosses David out.

We are making some progress on nursery projects, and I'm hoping to get a bunch of things crossed off the list this weekend. There is SO much fun stuff to look forward to in the next month, I can hardly stand it. I got my first baby shower invitation last week and I'm so, so excited. I'm mostly excited to be in Columbus with my family and friends, but I suppose the party and the gifts will be fun too :).

cutest invitation ever! notice the monogrammed blanket... LOVE!!

This is a gross story, but I want to remember it so I'm writing it here... Sunday night I ate some ice cream and almost immediately knew it was a bad idea. I went to the bathroom expecting to just throw it up, but much to my surprise nearly all the food I had eaten that day came up too. As soon as I was finished I went straight to bed! I don't know how I was sick like that for 4 months... it totally wipes me out! Anyway, when I woke up Monday morning I realized I had gotten my first uninterrupted night's sleep in weeks, and it was so refreshing. So, as it turns out, if I throw up before I go to bed, I don't have to pee in the middle of the night!

PS- I hope I look like Melissa does at 21 weeks with her THIRD baby! Sheesh! She's amazing.

to Grandmother's house we go

Last year I went to Virginia to visit my family, but I traveled solo. We knew we wanted to make this an annual trip, but I definitely wanted David to be able to come along this time. Our plans were set to go over Labor Day weekend, but Hurricane Irene left most of my family without power for more than a week, so we rescheduled for this past weekend. It was a SHORT trip, but really all we could fit into our busy fall schedule and we figured some visit was better than nothing (and we were right).

It was pretty special because David has only ever met any of these family members (my dad's step-mom, step-brother and his family) at our wedding, so this was really his first chance to get to know them. We divided our day on Saturday between Grandma and the Coopers, and it worked out very nicely! Even though she's not a morning person, Grandma got up to hang out with us early on Saturday, and we walked around a cute outdoor market and she showed us around her Richmond neighborhood. Uncle Phil, Aunt Annie and baby Cooper picked us up for lunch where we met Claire and Travis. We loved visiting with them all together! They are a hoot.

After lunch, we chatted with Claire for a long while before heading out to do some baby shopping. I so wish we had a Once Upon a Child in Chattanooga! That place was awesome! We got to hang out with Claire, Travis and Cooper a bit more before going back to Grandma's (aka "BB" to Cooper) house for the evening. Cooper was enamored with David, and he kept saying "bye bye David!" over and over again (though he of course wouldn't say it for the camera, and he wouldn't say it to anyone else!). It was precious.

We ate pizza, watched Fox News and talked to Grandma for a while Saturday night. It was so relaxed and normal, you would think we hung out all the time (which was a BIG shocker to me and David). We're already planning for a return trip in the spring with Crawford!

Of course, I hardly took any pictures at all, but these are the ones I did manage to get... 

 me and Claire; Coop eating a snack

taking a walk in "Gertie's Garden"; David enjoyed the golf simulator at Grandma's house

And some videos (that only my family will care even a little bit about...):



18?!

Last night we celebrated Patrick's 18th birthday. 

What?!

This guy is just wonderful, and we're so thankful to be his friend. Sitting at dinner with the Bryants (we missed Mary Shelton!) + both sets of their wonderful grandparents, I couldn't help but think about our live 18.5 years from now. I pray our son is as grounded, respectful and fun-loving as our Patty. Fortunately, Crawford is coming into this world with some awesome role models.

 

what I'm...

reading: Jesus Storybook Bible (David reads it to us every night. It's sweet family time!), Babywise (ugh... talk about overwhelming!) and Breaking Dawn (yeah, I'm random). AND this awesome article. A must read for parents or parents-to-be like us. Wow!

listening to: Pandora- I rotate between my Phil Whickam station and my Mozart station. Ha! Also, Ash sent some awesome instrumental cds (Hymns of Hope, Autumn in New England, Sacred Sounds of the Mountain) that I play when my Pandora runs out for the month (which will probably happen this week for October... ooops.)

wearing: other than trying to maximize my last few days/weeks of summery maternity things (my 3 pairs of go-to work maternity pants are capris...), I'm pumped about two new pairs of shoes:

I've been looking for/wanting to buy some go-to, wear-to-workable (ish), wear-with-socks, flat (but supportive) shoes, and these were the winners. I agonize over shoe purchases, so it was quite a victory to buy two pairs that I'm really happy with. The Lands End clogs are obviously Dansko knock offs, but for $40 (instead of $120), I'm pretty pumped. Plus, Danskos have always felt super heavy to me and these are much lighter. The Toms were Hayden's idea, and I'm so glad I took her advice! I might be pushing it wearing them with black work pants all winter, but oh well.

watching: We're enjoying having new shows come on each week. Some of our favorites are the Little Couple, 19 Kids and Counting (don't judge), Modern Family and Grey's. My favorite show right now is 30 Rock. We watch it on the iPad (from Netflix) and it is awesome! Last night we went to watch an episode and noticed they added another season (or more? 30+ more episodes!) to Netflix and I was pumped!!

eating/drinking: I've added a glass of milk to my grands biscuits routine, and I'm feeling pretty good about that. I haven't had milk to drink in years!

week 21

This was a big week on the baby front. Pagie went home Friday, and to all of our surprise, Bryce went home Saturday! The whole Johnson family is home together now, just as they should be.

On the home front, we've been busy little bees trying to get some stuff ready for baby G. We spend lots of weekends out of town, so the fact that we were actually home this past weekend made for some serious productivity.

David has been anxious to go register for a while now, but I've been holding off for some reason. We planned a date night on Friday to Target, and it really was so fun (lame?). David bought me my favorite cold weather drink (carmel apple spice from Starbucks) and we meandered through all the aisles. After registering with Sarah and Jodi, not to mention being friends with tons of mamas with babies, I felt like we knew what we wanted/needed pretty well. We decided to register at Target and Amazon.com. I know Babies R Us is great, but honestly, ours is kinda bobo... plus, it's on the opposite side of town and I'd rather not have to go over there. Dumb, maybe, but oh well. I don't even like registering at Target (their website sucks right now)... Amazon is awesome though. They have virtually everything plus the universal registry feature! We're still adding/editing all the time, so please send me your suggestions!

David felt Crawford kick for the first time on Sunday, October 2! He's felt him a few more times since then, and it is so fun to share that experience with him! I told my sister that I hope C's arms work because so far, he's only used his legs to make his presence known (which he does regularly).

We started painting over the weekend, and finished up today! Hayden and I spent hours in there, and David joined me last night to finish up. Within 20 minutes, he had dropped the roller, and it ricocheted off my leg, onto the bed and then the floor. So, he spent the rest of the evening googling how to get paint out of carpet and such while I finished up... Oh well. Now, the room is totally and completely green and ready for the next steps of decorating and organizing. We love it! I'll post pictures soon.

Speaking of organizing... I tend to be a "nesting" type all of the time, but that instinct has kicked into high gear. I will randomly walk through a room and pull everything out of a closet or cabinet to reorganize and declutter. Our house doesn't have much room for storage, so I'm constantly wanting to maximize all of our spaces. I'm bound and determined to not have one thing in our house that we don't use regularly. Next projects: craft supplies (heaven help us) and the attic (we just have to fight the squirrels who live in there).

Sleeping has become a bit of a game for me. Some nights I do and some nights I just don't. Saturday night I almost fell asleep at the dinner table, but I was up and at 'em at 5am on Sunday morning. I'm waking up to pee between 3:30-4:30am, and I almost never fall back asleep. I'm hanging in there though!

As excited as we are to meet our little guy (and, man are we!!), I'm getting giddy over thinking about all the other people who are going to love him and love on him when he arrives. My parents are going to be the best grandparents. Ashley will totally spoil him (and probably let him drink before he's 21), and Greg is going to LOVE having a little one around (he'd much prefer a kid to the dogs that have taken over our family). Oh, and all of the Bryants! I can't wait to see Patty and John hold him, and we're already training Hayden to be our primary babysitter (even though she says she won't do diapers... hm...).

So much to be excited about! Praise the Lord for his blessings.

Tuesday thoughts

I've mentioned before that "overwhelmed" could be the word to describe my pregnancy thus far, but over the weekend I had a mini revelation about what that ought to mean for our lives right now... (Be prepared. This is rambly and random.)

At church, we are working our way through the Bible in 20 "big picture" lessons that correspond to weekday readings the congregation is following along with. (Side note: It's pretty cool that as David and I are reading through the Jesus Storybook Bible before Crawford comes, we are staying right on schedule with the Sunday messages.) Sunday's sermon was about Moses and the Israelites' Exodus from Egypt. Of course, that story ends with the dividing of the Red Sea.

We had dinner with a precious family last week, and Kelley made a side comment that has resonated in my heart for a week now. She was talking about the season of life when she and Shelby were pregnant together, and how it was something Jesus did for them just to be sweet. It brought tears to my eyes because a) I've heard Shelby talk about the same thing and b) I am totally in the midst of that season of sweetness too.

I've shared this before, but even if the only thing God ever gave us was salvation ( = eternity in heaven with Him!), that would be enough. Shoot, that would be WAY WAY more than enough. Yet, in addition to eternal security, He continues to give us blessings upon blessings every day. Sometimes the blessings he gives us are radical and earth shattering (parting the Red Sea, growing a human inside another human, healing cancer and leukemia) and other times, they are subtle whispers (like being surrounded by friends in the same season of life).

After a few pretty hefty parenting conversations (cloth diapering, vaccines, etc.) the other day, I was tempted to feel overwhelmed (notice a theme??) and stressed about the important decisions we need to make. When we got home and had time to talk about it, David and I realized that we shouldn't be bogged down by conversations like that, but reminded of how blessed we are. We spent the entire day Sunday with dear, sweet friends that we are beyond thankful for.

So... is this time of life full of important decisions and lots to learn about? Absolutely. But, it should only be overwhelming in that God shows His goodness to us through every facet of our little lives. We want to do everything perfectly as we welcome this little guy into our family and the world, but the color of the nursery or which birth classes we attend are not going to matter in the grand scheme of his life or certainly of eternity.

*Edit to add: We sang this song at church Sunday, and it totally encapsulated my feelings... What can we do but worship our God who is SO good to us?

So what can I say

What can I do

But offer this heart O God

Completely to You

So I'll stand

With arms high and heart abandoned

In awe of the One who gave it all

let the nursery work begin

At the last minute (after a much-needed Saturday afternoon nap) Hayden was roped into helping me paint the nursery. We got about 75% of it completed, and I love it! It's a big change of plans from the original nursery idea, but I like where it's headed. Oh, and big thanks to HayHay who, as it turns out, is a MUCH better painter than me.

PS- I could hardly get out of bed on Sunday because I. was. so. sore. What's that all about?!