It has begun...

So now that we know we are having a boy, we are having so much fun planning the nursery. We have decided to convert our guest room to Ryder's room, and we have wasted no time in getting started.

the (very bright) before...

working towards a blank slate...

We are plugging away little by little, and are very excited for Ryder to be with us...

just wanted to update you on our progress.

Costumes!

We were Jim and Pam from The Office for our close friend's costume party last night. It was so fun! A friend of mine had worn the dress in high school and had hated it, and had given it to me, and then we just bought a black tie and some tulle and there you have it!

Cutting the tie...

Ripping the veil...

At the party (note: Ryder is REALLY starting to show now...)

All the girls (plus Matt and Kevin...)

I love those events where you are pretty much laughing from start to finish...

this was one of those parties...

It's a boy!

Court date!

Today is our baby girls court date in Ethiopia... it was postponed from October 7th. Please pray that all goes well and that we can get her here soon. We are dying to meet that little girl and to have her with us.

Music to our ears...

We just wanted to share with you what we heard the other day.

Now you see it, now you don't...

Well, the birch tree (that the neighborhood cats killed) is officially gone. We ripped out the rose bushes, and the tree stump, leveled the dirt and painted the wall that needed some love after we pulled out the front bush, (which was also killed by the cats.) We can't wait to start from scratch. It is our blank slate. We still don't know what we want to plant but we are excited at just dreaming about how it could look (and how we can keep the cats away from it...)

Before...

Kit standing in the newly created hole...

The stump...

Our blank slate...

We will keep you posted...

Holy Smokes!

October 17 marks 11 years that Kit and I have been together. We started dating in 1998, right after meeting our first week as freshmen at Biola. It's funny to think how much has happened over the last decade but as always, we are so happy to be in it together.

Kit, I am so thankful that you came to that first open house. Who would have thought what would transpire from that meeting. Almost five years of dating and over 6 years of marriage, our friends and family, our home that we have created together, our many travels and adventures, and a baby on the way, I look forward to many more years together. Thank you for asking me to marry you and to share our lives together. I couldn't love you more.

Here's a little one for posterity...

(What exactly was going on with my hair...?)

and this one was just too good not to pass up...

You are so lucky that I didn't have my digital camera at the time because I have so many "great" pictures of us that would bring the best laughs.

(Laughs at us, not near us or with us...)

Pumpkins!

We had so much fun at our pumpkin carving party... It was so fun to be together and to hang out over a great meal and be with all the kiddos.

Here are a few of the highlights:

The planning and decorating is always so fun for me. The anticipation of a party is just one of my favorite things.

So here is the finished product of the banner and the table decoration.

Pumpkin carving was so exciting with the kids getting a little bit older.

Everyone really got into it.

Here are all the carved pumpkins with our Ella Girl.

Eating is also a huge highlight for us and I must say that the soup and salad and white bruschetta turned out so tasty. Kit really did an amazing job...

Our pumpkin had a baby theme, complete with a pacifier

(which Hazel pulled out and put directly into her mouth...)

Here we all are!

We look forward to many years of memories with our close friends...

We love you guys!

Craziness...

Our friend Brookie gave us our first baby outfit last week. We have it folded, out on our dresser and Kit and I both think that it is just the weirdest, craziest, most exciting thing. It's for a 6 month old and it has short and long sleeve shirts and a pair of pants and it is just so soft. We are almost 14 weeks and as each week goes by, it gets more and more real for us.

I was doing laundry and I just had to compare the 6 month old baby shirt to the 29 year old man's shirt. I guess this is what our laundry loads will be composed of in a few months...

Cats and Plant Roots...

So Kit and I have this large bush that is right outside our window, in the front of our house and it has been slowly dying over the last three weeks. (I swear it's the cats in the neighborhood that use that corner as their litter box...they killed my birch tree AND my front plant. I am convinced.) Here is just one of the culprits.

Anyway, Kit and I had some time today and we decided to pull the suckers out.

Here is the view looking out our bedroom window.

Here is the before and during pictures.

We pulled out 3 of these suckers! (Yes, I was out there helping and would you believe that we actually broke a shovel in the process!)

The finished area!

It's so nice to do projects like this together. We are still thinking about what we want to plant. Our next step it to refinish the wall and repaint it. We will keep you posted...

It's fall!

We are having a pumpkin carving party with our friends from college that will be this sunday at our house. Because of my work schedule, I am already starting to get things organized so that I can be ready and relaxed the day of. So here are my components so far.

We are having one of our favorite soups and green salad. It is one of my favorite dishes and I can't wait because the weather is getting perfect for soup. Pictures will come day of.

We will be eating inside and I am using our bamboo placemats and I made these napkin rings with old silk flowers that I had. You can really do them with anything and they are really easy to make and the make a table look really pretty without too much work.

Then I have my banner for the fireplace. I can't wait to hang it!

Then I made little party favors of chocolates and the colors work perfectly for fall, plus, it's chocolate, which is such a fun treat.

I can't wait to get everyone together.

I love these!

My sister just gave me one of these necklaces and it is amazing! It looks just like beads, but it's made out of paper!

So here's the scoop...

"Each necklace is 100% unique and is hand-crafted (out of recycled paper) by women in Uganda. Through Light Gives Heat's Suubi(hope) project, the women are able to make a consistent income where there once was none. Profit is then directed back to Uganda and helps run literacy classes, English classes, computer classes, etc... "

So if you have a chance, check out their website. It's an incredible organization.

www.lightgivesheat.com

An intervention might be needed...

So I came home from work the other day and Kit was outside looking at his Joe Rogan fish tank in the garage. When I came inside, he proceeded to tell me about how they are swimming as a "school" and how they are digging and how fascinating it is to watch. Then as I was putting my stuff away from work, he made his way to our indoor tank and was lying on the floor looking at our new fish (which are beautiful and very friendly). When I came in, he looked at me and said, "I just love these fish! The tank looks amazing!" He stayed there for the next 20 minutes. Then I found his laptop and this was the website that was up.

(Cichlids are the African type of fish that we have.)

Then he told me that one of the fish sellers that he had traded fish with had invited him to a cichlid seminar in Costa Mesa (because HIS wife thinks that collecting fish is a nerdy hobby, that fish collectors are weird and she wouldn't go with him...)

So needless to say, if you ask Kit if he has any hobbies or specific interests and he DOESN'T say

that fish is on his list, he would not be giving you accurate information.

(Backpacking and traveling are on there but fish definitely makes it to the top 5...)

Celebrating our baby girl...

We had our baby girls party and it was such a special event. The combination of 20 amazing women and really good food and then you add gifts that included some of the CUTEST little girl clothes ever... it all made for a very special event.

My friends Dana, Brookie and my mom helped with the food and it was some of the tastiest food that I have ever had at a party. (We used barefoot contessa recipes...YUM!) My mom and dad came to help me with set up and I was so thankful. Kit did an amazing job with layout and setting things up so that we had a nice flow...

Thank you all so much for helping me! I couldn't have done it with out you!

My worker bees... who also spent the night and helped me with clean up. Now that's love!

Kit's set up out side... The table that is set up with against the bricks had a spot for notes for the baby girl that people wrote, with quotes on adoption and having a child, mounted on the wall. We are planning to compile a book for her once we get her here.

All those amazing women.

It was not a coincidence that we had the party this specific weekend. We got news that our court date was bumped back from October 7th to October 22nd and that they are extending travel time lines from 4 weeks to 8 weeks. We found that all out on the 1st and needless to say out family was very discouraged. We really thought that we would have her here by thanksgiving and at the very latest, Christmas. This party really enabled us to celebrate the anticipation that we WILL eventually get her and confirmed all of the people that are just waiting with open arms to love this little peanut.

Please pray with us that we can get her here...