Time flies....

Well...I feel like I am always starting off my posts by apologizing...I just have such a hard time being consistent with posting! I'm probably the only one who even reads this but I guess this is just as much for me as for anyone else...

So....let's play a little catch up since I haven't posted in 9, almost 10 months!

My Dad went home the first week of March and we were so thankful for his visit as we were able to get a bunch more house projects finished. Austin and Laura moved in with us at the end of Feburary as they started the process of buying their first home. And my sister, Sarah, had her baby in March!! Little miss Eleanor Avery was born on March 9th at 1:31am and was 7lbs 14oz and 21inches. She is the cutest thing ever! I was able to fly out and visit for two weeks which was so nice. It was great to get to see all of my family and spend time with my new little niece. There was also something else that happened...hmm...oh ya...we found out that WE were EXPECTING our first little one the day that I flew out to Oregon!!! After returning from Oregon and verifying the pregnancy we learned that our baby would be due 11-25-12. And boy were we excited! It was so much fun to tell all of our family and friends the good news :-).  After that life sort of went back into a routine for us. We were able to find out baby gender in July...GIRL!!! So then we got to have some more fun telling friends and family that news. Austin and Laura ended up moving out at the begining of September and after some hiccups and frustrations with timing and God working out the right house for them they are scheduled to close on their first home here in the next few weeks! We are so excited for them and can't wait to help them get settled! So really the rest of the year has been normal life for us. Both still working (although I go on maternity leave in 3 more weeks!) and getting the house ready for baby as well as trying to finish projects that we know we won't have time for later! We were able to go on one last vacation before baby arrives (a babymoon if you will). We went to Orlando this past month and had a fun time getting away for a few days. We went to Animal Kingdom at Disney World one day and it was my first time at Disney World and Russ had never been to Animal Kingdom so we both had a really great time.

I'll be 36 weeks along this weekend so we are spending these last 4 or so weeks finishing up the nursery, cleaning and organizing the house, gearing up for the holiday season and putting baby stuff everywhere (or so it seems haha) and preparing the guest room for my mom who will be here in 3 weeks! Still quite a few things on our to do list but we are looking forward to our last few weeks of "freedom" and getting ready to welcome baby and start our new little family. Can't wait to meet her!

Hopefully posts won't be so far apart...I'm hoping to change things up a little and post other things as well (like baby updates, recipes, crafts...) so that this blog is less like a diary. With a new baby that might be a bit of challenge but we shall see how this all works out. Right now I need to sign off and go get ready for Halloweenival downtown! Woohoo!

Sunday

Man. We are currently taking a leadership class at church and can I just say that so far it is kicking my butt. The first few classes have been about learning what our heart issues are and how to ask better questions, basically its to build a solid foundation in our hearts to make us better leaders later on. It has definitely sparked a lot of conversation between Russ and me and it has also been challenging me in other areas. Not fun all the time but definitely needed.

In other news...Russ survived his first week in his new position. He says it has been really nice and so far so much less stress. I'm definitely seeing that at home already. He has a few more days of training this week and then he will start his own hours (right now he is "shadowing" another worker to learn the ropes and she is on a different schedule than he will be). We are super excited to have him start getting home at 5:30 instead of 7-7:30 :)

My sister Sarah is counting down the days until she meets her little one. Only a few more weeks left! She just had her baby shower yesterday (sad to have missed it!) and she had a lot of fun! We skyped after her party and she showed me all of her goodies. I am so excited to get there and meet her babe! I know I have been talking about Sarah in each blog but I am just super excited! Russ and I have been making and finalizing plans for when I go out to Oregon to visit. I'm hoping it all works out well because I am really looking forward to the visit. The one sad part is that Russ isn't going to be able to come this time :( But we are planning to go back this year for a family reunion...that's still TBD so we shall see about that.

Wednesday

Sometimes it is just so hard to wait for God's timing on things. I mean, looking back over my life I can see how he had his hand on everything and I have been so blessed. With this said though it seems like it is so easy to forget all of that when you are in the midst of waiting. Why is that? When something comes up in my life I pray about it but then if an answer seems like it is taking longer than what I want I start to get impatient. And something else I can be really bad about is obsessing over what ever it is at that moment that I am thinking about. It is really hard for me to "let go and let God". Maybe it's a control issue, or fear of the unknown. All I know is, if something can throw me into such a bad cycle then maybe I'm not relying on God the way that I should be. Ugh...

Onto other news, Russ started his new job on Monday and he loves it so far. His stress level has gone way down. This week and next he is shadowing a coworker until he gets the hang of things and then he will start his new schedule. So many new things on the horizon for us. It almost feels like the new year has just begun for us.

New Year!

We got to do so many fun little trips while my parents were here! This is them taking their "christmas card photo" by the pool to make people jealous haha!

Sunset on the Gulf coast <3 <3

Gatorland! It was so much fun!

St. Augustine was a great day trip

This is us at the fort in St. Augustine

I am just not a very good blogger! However, with the new year and renewed addiction to pinterest and etsy I have been inspired to try to blog more often. Not really because I think what I have to say is that important or that people are going to flock from all over to read it just because, mainly I would like to do something consistently. I use to write all the time and I find that now I'm lucky to write even a few words here or there. We'll see what happens!

Well, the holidays came and went and they ended up being really nice and relaxed this year. It was so great to have my parents here for the holidays. I needed my mom! With her help we were able to get so much accomplished! We went through basically all of my things from storage and were able to organize, give away, and find places to put all of the things that I haven't had for so long. We are excited to continue to get the house "put together". There are still quite a few projects here and there but we have come such a long way since purchasing the house that it is finally starting to take shape as our home :-)

Mom went back west after Christmas and Dad is still here working on some last few projects with us that needed to get done in order for us to become licensed foster parents. My sister is having her baby shower next weekend and I'm sad not to be there but also really excited that she is getting so close to having my first niece or nephew (she doesn't know the gender)! If everything works out then I will be going to visit in March once she has that baby <3

The new year has brought some exciting changes to our household. After much prayer and anticipation, Russ finally got transferred to a new position at work. All in God's timing! We are super excited! He will have better hours and a little bit of a shorter commute and he will be in a new building that has a really nice gym and nature walk. God really is so good. We are looking forward to seeing what other changes 2012 will bring. Let's do it!