Pumpkin Patch

Friday night was a fabulous night with old and new sweet friends from our post-college years in Auburn- thanks for including me on your girls weekend in Atlanta, friends!

On Saturday, we went to a Pumpkin Patch Farm. Circumstances dictate that we go early in the season this fall!  It ended up being five adults (three grandparents, two parents), one happy little girl, and none of last year's drama...

When we were leaving the farm, they asked if I was smuggling out a pumpkin... which legitimizes my father-in-law's sense of humor in this picture taken previously...

They had a GREAT petting zoo, with goats, llamas, roosters, ponies, the whole nine yards- she was in heaven!

Trying to get into the pen with the calf...

On the hayride...

We all went back to Jake's parents' home for dinner, football, and Jake's birthday cake!  

Jake's birthday

Thanks for all your encouragement on the hospital thing- we are feeling more peace about it, but continue to pray for the Lord to be sovereign over it all!

Jake's birthday was earlier this week, so I am now officially married to a MUCH older and wiser man, not just a little older and wiser!  I told him I was glad he robbed the cradle when we got married so I could take care of him in his old age (this was following up him telling me a few weeks ago that I am pushing 30. 27 is NOT pushing 30!  You don't push 30.  It happens. You push 40.)

Anyways, here is Jane running through the farmers market that morning.  She's the small dot in motion.

Abby Jane gave Jake a milkshake maker, though I'm sure she had ulterior motives. Here she is decorating the present.

Pleased with her final outcome and the "purdy bow"
Presented with a kiss after dinner that night!

Jake thought we were going to have a quiet night at home, but as soon as we put Abby Jane to bed, I told him to change.  Five minutes later, Sandy came over to babysit.  Five minutes later, we were walking out the door to go out for dessert, drinks, and jazz at Dantes Down the Hatch in Buckhead!  

It was a total surprise for Jake (as was last year's birthday celebration for his 30th) and a sweet, sweet night for us!

I could not be more thankful for the man the Lord has given me as a husband.  He is my perfect complement, my best friend, and I am daily humbled by the fact that I get to be his wife.  We laugh at how surprised and unbelieving we would be if you had told us before we were married the exact path our life together would take.  There is no one else in the world that I can imagine sharing that adventure with than Jake.  I respect him so highly in every way, and I am so blessed to be Jake's wife!  Happy birthday babe!!!  

I HATE H1N1

We just had our hospital tour at Kennestone tonight, where we will deliver.  The facility is beautiful and all the personnel seemed very kind and professional, but the tour was started off by the announcement that because of H1N1, the CDC has just decreed that Atlanta hospitals MAY NOT HAVE ANY VISITORS UNDER THE AGE OF 15.

My daughter is under the age of 15.

So this means that there will be no bringing the big sister to the hospital to meet the twins.

This also means that I will go days without seeing Abby Jane, which is HIGHLY objectionable.

As a result, I have a big prayer request that was not pressing until we received this info tonight. PLEASE PRAY that I go into labor on my own and have a successful VBAC, not having to have another C-Section.  I would really love to NOT go three to five days, as would be required by a C-Section, without seeing Abby Jane.  Two days will be too long in and of itself.

To put in perspective why this is such a huge prayer request, I was two weeks late with Abby Jane and had to be induced at that point because there was no sign of labor beginning at ALL any time soon.  

So for me to go into labor WITHOUT INDUCTION (that may lead to me having a C-Section again) and do it BEFORE they say I have to schedule a C-Section (as they don't let you go past 39 weeks with twins) would indeed be an act of God that He is fully capable of if it is His will.  I turn 35 weeks on Sunday, so we have about three to four weeks to work with here.   Thank you in advance for your prayers!!!

I do rest in the knowledge that the Lord loves this little girl more than I do and will not let her or us go through more than we can handle!

Joint Baby Shower!

Weekend before last, I shared a baby shower with one of my best friends (since age 4!), Katie, who has recently moved to Seattle.  She's due 5 days after my due date with her first, a little boy! Our mothers and my aunt Boo, who is also close with Katie's family, were the hostesses.  

Here we are with the hostesses, Katie's sister Kristin, and my sister-in-law Susan, who drove down from Greenville for the afternoon.

Did you notice the cupcake towers to our left and right?  They did one tower with blue icing and one with pink icing.  My aunt Boo is a delightfully incredibly gifted chef, and she did a fabulous recipe from this most darling cupcake book. Other cute gender things they did incorporated into the menu included pink and blue M & M's, white chocolate covered strawberries with pink or blue accents... SO CUTE!

Since this is Katie's first, and since the same crowd gathered to honor Abby Jane not very long ago, we decided for Katie to actually open presents, while a basket by the door collected extremely kind and generous gift cards to assist my little family in a few of the upcoming purchases we have (like some sort of stroller to accommodate all three girls- that's another post for another time, though!!)

We had a fantastic time, and it was such a delight to share the celebration of new life with one of my best friends!  

And here would be the difference between one baby and two with practically the same due date...

A FANTASTIC UPDATE ON BLYTHE AND JOY is that in an ultrasound on Friday, Joy measured 5 lbs 1 oz and Blythe measured 5 lbs 3 oz!!!  Praise the Lord!  We were so incredibly thrilled.  I turned 34 weeks yesterday, so we feel so great about their weight at this stage of the pregnancy!  

And yes, yes that does mean there are over 10 lbs of baby girl in my belly, bless their hearts. And bless Jake's heart for all the extra responsibilities he's restricting me from and taking on himself around the home as a result of those 10 lbs!

19 months

I wanted to record our little family before it expands exponentially... and before my belly got so big that it made other people uncomfortable to see!  So my mom took these for us in her backyard on Sept. 8, when Abby Jane actually turned 19 months...

She thinks it's so funny to feel the babies kick, and she announces it when she does.

Kissing the babies...

And now we're back to being 19 months and on the go! I love this candid shot- Jake and I are obviously springing into action, she's obviously a few steps ahead... 

19 months is SO fun.  This kid is practically having conversations with us, and she can be REASONED with a lot of the time. She especially responds to frank conversations with Jake.  He'll sit her down and explain things to her (i.e. why she shouldn't cry after Mama puts her down to go to sleep, why she should take a bath willingly every time, why we share, etc.)  It's great, because then I can refer back to conversations she had with her daddy and ride on their coattails (i.e. "Remember how Daddy said that when I put you down to go night-night, you don't cry and you just say, 'Night night, Mama, I love you!' " AND IT WORKS!)

ONE OF MY FAVORITE things that has happened this month is spontaneous "Thank you!"'s and "Bless you!"  Today at the store, some man coughed, and Jane said, "Bless you, man!"

-she moved to a big girl bed very successfully when we moved into the rental, pics to come

-loves her new rocking horse, more pics of that coming as well

-still LOVES the park, especially the new one we went to yesterday that's really close to home

-fav foods are pasta, hummus, dipping things in hummus or ranch dressing (veggies, pita, whatever), any fruit, her daily smoothie... oh and any treat, which is always spoken as TREEEEAAT! when she says it! (i.e. these great Trader Joe's alphabet cookies)

-started a music and art class at a FABULOUS local place called Miss Lala's Treehouse, and Abby Jane is loves, loves, loves it, talking about it all the time!

-has quite the sense of humor and does things on purpose to make us (and herself) laugh all the time 

With very few exceptions, I think we've made it around the corner of any struggles with her transition in the move.  Most nights we walk out of her room after putting her down and just shake our heads at how much we could just eat her with a spoon.

Miss St. game

Quick housing update: we have made tons of offers, and it has become clear that the Lord does not desire for us to buy a home before Blythe and Joy join the family!  So last weekend, we moved into a cute little rental home just 5 minutes from KSU.  Thankfully the lease agreement is such that we can continue to househunt and break the lease with a minimal penalty at any point, so we feel great about the decision to go ahead and settle into this little home for now!

Here is Abby Jane helping me get some things settled in...

NOW, onto a fabulous day in the Loveliest Village on the Plains.  Sadly it was minus Abby Jane as the game started right at her bedtime.  We're going to make it up to her with a basketball game this winter.

Because it was just a day trip, we missed getting to see SO many of you, but it was delightful to be with those of you we did get to see!

A cute little ADPi let us girls into the beautiful new chapter room in the fabulous new dorms (with two of us incredibly pregnant, I don't think we looked very threatening), so this picture is evidently where the exec sits in the new room... oh good memories...

This was after one of those fabulous touchdowns- being in Jordan-Hare is like a taste of heaven.

At Toomer's Corner after the game...

We were so thankful to get this day together in our favorite town with some of our favorite people!

The most wonderful time of the year

It's football season! Happy opening Saturday! Jake just left a little while ago to head down to Heaven, I mean Auburn, for the game tonight, thanks to a ticket from our dear friend Alex Carothers. Abby Jane commemorated her second kickoff Saturday by delighting us with a spontaneous "Waaar Eagle! Hey!" during breakfast, saying "Touchdown Auburn!", and, sadly, acquiring a black eye from running into a statue after we had Saturday bagels at Panera. This was after she fell in the driveway before getting into the car and got another bloody knee on the same poor knee that she seems to open up every day...  

Taking a break from College Gameday

Doing "Waaar Eagle" on Grammy's back porch

Trying to show you the black eye- it's her right eye, but hard to see in this picture