{24 Weeks}

{Month 6}

How Far Along: 24 weeks!

Favorite Maternity Clothes: GAP maternity jeans I bought this week – what was I THINKING trying to stretch the use of the bellaband?! They are a-mazing.

Best moment this month: Putting together the nursery! Kenny and his mom painted it a light earthy peach-ish/brown over Christmas vacation ...and I enjoyed purchasing some artwork on etsy.com, helping kenny put together our white Jenny Lind crib, and sitting in the rocking chair day-dreaming. :) We also spent week 24/25 of the pregnancy with Kenny's family in Oregon...hence, the beach photo above. No, Cincinnati did not acquire a lovely beach-scape ;-)

Movement: Micah moves a lot! And the kicks and punches are getting stronger (ooff!). I love feeling him, it’s so reassuring.

Food Cravings/Aversions: Zero aversions. Major appetite! At my 24 week appointment, I put on some weight, so I’ve gained 12 lbs so far…I don’t know what that means, but they said it was “good weight gain”…I plan to just keep eating ;-) I’m doing my best to pick healthy choices for this sweet boy!

What I miss: Spicy tuna sushi rolls!

Sleep: Sleeping great, so thankful. It’s just a matter of time before my precious sleep is interrupted by a MORE precious baby boy!

What I am looking forward to: Starting our Bradley Method birth classes on Feb 6th, and finishing up our registry. Every detail of preparation is such a sweet reminder of the precious gift of this child!

Belly Changes: Behold, the bump!

Symptoms: Back aches, especially in the morning and nighttime…realizing my body gets sore doing things I always used do and that’s a little frustrating because it’s hard to admit you’re needy! Some Braxton hicks, but not many (usually when I overdo it – oops).

Prayer for this month: Lord, you know the cry of my heart: that Micah would come to know you personally at an early age. I pray, Father, that his heart would be bent toward you, even now- and that he would have a deep love for Your Word and desire to follow after you all the days of his life. Give Kenny and I the power, through your spirit, to shepherd his little heart.

Third Annual {Brunch of Joy}

Well, I'm catching up on some blogging now that the holidays are over. It was such a wonderful season for us, and so special being pregnant over Christmas! Since we moved into our home in 2009, we've hosted a Christmas Eve Brunch each year that we like to call the Brunch of JOY! As we continue to prepare our hearts to celebrate Christ's birth, we love to gather around the table with family and start the day off laughing, sharing...and of course eating! Here are some snapshots from our brunch...

The Master Chef preparing his mascarpone stuffed french toast with Strawberry compote!

Not the best picture of us...but you get it: we were there ;-)

Jeanette stayed with us Christmas week - we had so much fun!

The girls always get their gift on Christmas Eve morning after brunch!

It was a JOY filled morning, indeed :-)

It's a BOY! {Gender Reveal Family Party}

Wednesday, December 21st, Kenny and I found out firstborn child will be a BOY! Our 20-week ultrasound was two days earlier, but we had the tech keep it a secret by putting "boy" or "girl" in a sealed envelope and not telling us at the appointment. We took the envelope (immediately) to our favorite local bakery (Bluebird Bakery, where our wedding cake was made) and had the owner bake us a very special cake for the party. Until Wednesday night, only the ultrasound tech and Jenny at Bluebird bakery knew whether baby Sinclair was a boy or girl! :) We invited over a small group of family (and a little extended family) to join us in revealing BOY or GIRL! It was so fun and memorable. Mom and Abigail put so much work into making the event special for us...

Abigail made this sweet box with little cards for each family member to write a little word of encouragement or just babble with excitement! (My mother-in-love wrote WOW!!!! on hers...I think she was excited...)

She also had a space for everyone to guess BOY or GIRL before we cut the cake...they would tally their guess on a chalkboard, and then wear either a bow or tie pinned to their shirt :-) Abigail made all these - thank you, sister!

Sweet banner :)

Tally board... there were a lot of wrong guesses....me included!

The cake of mystery ::insert dramatic music here::

Reaction photo {shock meets joy meets hysteria}

It's a boy...TOUCHDOWN ;-)

Grandma Nettie was right...it's a little boy!

Mom's beautiful spread of yummies:

We are so in love with this little boy of ours! I REALLY thought baby was a girl (not necessarily because I had a preference, I just thought it was!) but once I found out he was a boy, I thought, "Of COURSE it is!!" It was just so perfect and right. :)

::BLUE booties::

Thus begins a slew of photos involving Kenny, myself, the banner, and our sweet family :-)

Sports pose...to symbolize a boy, of course.

Kenny took this photos just before we left for the party (20 weeks along).

Micah, we are SO GLAD you are our SON - exactly what God planned for our family! My heart is full as I think about God's goodness in bringing you into our lives in HIS perfect timing. Oh, how I love you, my sweet son, and look forward to the day I will hold you in my arms. For now, your daddy and I continue to pray for YOU, Micah Daniel, by name, as we lift up your precious life to our heavenly Father...who loves you even more than we do. But I'll tell you more about that when you're here...