Kit's travels...

Kit is leaving today for  Children's Pastor Conference in Florida.  He will be there until Saturday and will have some very long days of speaking ahead of him.  We are so proud of him and we know it will be a great trip!

Plans for the week:
~Time with my favorite kid!
~Working on the kiddos rooms.
(I can't wait to show you updates tomorrow)
~My NRP skills lab on thursday morning.
~Spending thursday with my mom
(who will be taking the train out to spend the day with Ryder and I...I think there also might be some craft projects that I will get her in on...)
~My CPR recertification on friday.
(After that, maternity leave officially begins!)
~Making thank you cards with Eden's 4D picture
~Scrapbooking New Years and our anniversary trip
~Missing Kit...

Kit, we will be praying for you.  We will miss you terribly and we can't wait to see you Saturday! 
 

Ps did we mention that we love you and that we will miss you!?!

It will be a full week and we are so thankful for having friends and family close so that we never feel alone when Kit is traveling!

Updates!

I hope that you all had a wonderful weekend.    Ours was filled with Kit preparing for his trip that he leaves for tomorrow and for me, it was trying to tackle the darn 9 part neonatal resuscitation exam, while wanting to carve out family time with our favorite little person.  Lots of juggling has been happening over at our house, that's for sure!
Kit preparing while Ryder, who does NOT want to be away from his dad, "reads" the monster at the end of this book on the iPad.  He wants to be just like his dad... I can't blame him, his dad is pretty amazing!

(Yep, that is a big boy bed...
I can't wait to tell you how that is going!)
I am happy to report that I was able to compete the NRP exam yesterday, and I feel as ready as I can for the validation skills lab on Thursday.  I just wanted to thank you for your words of encouragement and prayers on friday.  That was huge and I really felt them... 

Thank you friends!
We will be seeing our OB today so I think that I will have a date for starting maternity leave, and can I tell you, I am ready!

On a completely different note:

I wanted to show you two projects from the last few weeks that I haven't done before, but I am so excited how they came out!

project one: 

A pillow for Ryder's room that has on opening in the back AND had piping.  I had a little problem with the piping but I was able to fix it pretty easily.  (However, if you asked my mom, she would tell you I thought it was the end of the world when I didn't get it perfect the first time... Hormones! Sorry mom...)

My supplies:

(the fabric is from his wall art and the backing is from his fish pillow...)

And here is the finished product:

(I didn't take any "process" pictures because I was too busy trying to keep that darn piping in place with pins.)

project two:

Then I wanted to have a magnet board in Rdyer's room for pictures and his future art or little notes so this is what we came up with:

I took an old frame that we had, painted it black, then went to Lowes and got a metal sheet for the insert: 

(as an FYI, not all metal is magnetic, you may have known that, but I did not...)

Cut it to size with tin cutters:

Bought these orange magnets at Ikea: 

(Completely safe for little people):

And here you have it:

I am so excited how his room is coming together!  
More updates to come this week...

a prayer request

I just wanted to share a little prayer request with you.  I have been having a really hard time at work with the long days and the running around, and I have noticed that I have more contractions as the shifts go on.  I would love your prayers for health for Eden and I as we tackle the next week so that I can head to maternity leave with no loose ends and all things completed that need to be.  Right now I am taking tests and renewing certificates that will expire next month when Miss Eden is due to arrive.  I have to work when Ryder naps and at night, both times are when I am the most tired and want to rest.  People do it every day and I know I am not the first person to be preparing for a second baby, but to be honest, it's just been a little harder than I thought, and I don't want Ryder and Kit to get the brunt of this transition.  I would love your prayers for strength and energy!

ps, did I mention that Kit will be gone from Tuesday through Saturday next week speaking at a conference in Florida?

Thank you for all your love and support!  I can't tell you how much I appreciate it!

Have a wonderful weekend!

a little anniversary get away...

This week, Kit arranged for our family to watch Ryder while we had a little get away to celebrate our anniversary.  Here is my iPhone photos of our little adventure.

We headed to Morongo in the dessert. 

 Miss Eden and I are growing like CRAZY!

 The restaurants had long lines so we got some Panda Express and had a bed picnic:

 We brought the iPad so that we could play games:

(Gina got TWO Yahtzees)

 Heading to the pool so that we could float in their lazy river, after ordering room service for breakfast:

(Horizontal stripes are AWESOME on my size belly...)

 Hanging out by the pool:

 I am so used to having Ryder with us so when he isn't with us, I keep thinking I am forgetting something...

It was so fun to get away with Kit.  

He is my favorite travel buddy.

Rosies, mom and dad~

Ryder had the best time.  (He told us so...)  Thank you so much for making the trip possible and for taking such amazing care of our little man.  We had the best time, not only because we had some great time together, but also because we knew that he was with you all, being so well loved!

Celebrating 9 years...

Today Kit and I celebrated 9 years of marriage and I was reminded of how thankful I am to have him as my team mate and partner in life.  I love sharing life with this man!

a note to my Kit Rae~

Thank you for the beautiful life that you have created for us.  Not a day goes by that I don't realize what an incredibly lucky girl I am to have you.  You are an amazing father and you are the person that I love laughing with the most.  Thank you for loving me so well and for always putting "us" first.  You show me every day a glimpse at what God's grace is and you create spaces that I experience true joy and fullness.  Life without you would be so hard because life with you is so good.

You are my best friend, supporter, encourager, protector, and lover and just the same as the day I married you, you are the one that my soul loves and I still choose you and only you to spend the rest of my life with...

I could not love you more!

It feels like a new house!

Yesterday we got new carpet.  I know I have been talking about this for the last few weeks, but to have it finally in and have our furniture all moved in makes it feel like a new house.  (And that is saying something for a house built in the early fifties!)

So I showed you the BEFORE pictures here .

Well, as a quick recap, Ryder and I went our to my parents house on sunday night so that we wouldn't be in the way.  The few got here at 845a, had the carpet completely ripped out by 9am and I got a call from kit at 1115am that the new carpet was in and the guys had even helped him move some of the heavy pieces of furniture back in place.  I then got another phone call at 2pm from Kit that said all the furniture is back in place, the rooms are all vacuumed and the house is all clean and ready for us to come home.

(Seriously, Kit was such a STAR!)  In the mean time, Kit took down our house Christmas lights, organized the garage and fridge, and did a ton of laundry!  He is AMAZING!

Here are the reasons Ryder and I couldn't be in the house:

So after all that, here are some pictures of our AFTER:

The furniture is in but is in major transition since we are in the process of switching the kiddos rooms, so we will have better "after" pictures when they are done.

Today we are off for an anniversary overnight and Ryder is staying with his grandparents and cousins.  It is going to be such a special trip.  In advance:  mom, dad and rosies, thank you so much for watching Ryder and making this last minute trip a possibility!  We could not love you more and are so thankful for you.  The problem we are facing is when Ryder won't want to leave...

Happy New Year!

We can't believe that it is 2012!  Where did 2011 go?!?

New Years Eve was nice.  After a long work day for me, we watched the Time Square celebration.  (That also has the added benefit of ending at 9pm, but you don't feel like you are missing out on any of the festivities, and you don't feel like a train wreck the next day... it's a win-win. Or maybe we are just getting old...)  Ryder was up until 830p, and had no idea that anything was any different in his evening schedule.

I had this great plan to take a picture of the three of us, with Ryder wearing the happy new year hat, but RYDER thought it looked so much better on Kit's head.

We have a tradition each year: we use our wedding glasses to toast on New Years Eve.

The beverage may change, but the glasses are ALWAYS the same.

Then on New Years Day we had our family over for some good food and some hang out time.

(It was also a "come-over-and-help-us-move-our-big-furniture-so-that-we-can-get-new-carpet" party, but New Years Day actually got top billing.)

Kit made his amazing smoked ribs:

Ryder loved them:

We just hung out and enjoyed being together:
The kiddos played together and we had all of our lawn games out and there were no injuries and the weather was really comfortable and the food was so tasty!

The day ended with moving all of our bedroom furniture into the living room so that we could get our new carpet.  Ryder and I went to my parents house to stay out of the way.

We hope that you had a wonderful New Years weekend! 

There are a few exciting things happening this week at our house:

1. new carpet

2. the celebration of our 9 year wedding anniversary.
(Kit surprised me with an overnight and my family is watching Ryder... I am giddy!)

3.big kid furniture being assembled and working on our kiddos rooms.

We can't wait to share our little adventures with you!