Your Guess is as Good as Ours

Alright folks, I obviously haven't been too good at keeping this up-to-date lately. So here is an update of sorts, an announcement, a question for you, and a picture for good measure.

Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the New Year kept us busy with lots of changes. (More on that later.) The most exciting change being we're adding to our family! Our new addition is due June 23.

We're having an in-home ultrasound done in two weeks. So the question for you all is...what do you think we're having? Let me be more exact...what do you think the gender of the baby will be? :) We think it's fun to hear everyone's guesses, so leave a comment with yours. I'll tell you ours later so you're not swayed by our votes. ;)

And here is a picture to leave you with so you can see we are alive and well. And Eva is growing up super fast and is a wonderful joy in our lives.

Random funniness

I laughed out loud reading these lady's captions to catalog pictures. Some even warranted a chuckle from Kyle (hard to do when I have been laughing for 15 minutes and he's staring at me in wonder of how I could be so weird to laugh out loud, by myself :).  Just thought it would be fun to pass along the funniness.

http://catalogliving.net/

(p.s. sorry for the lack of pictures of Eva. i admit i've been too lazy to try to get them off my phone - my camera of choice nowadays. maybe before too long, or after I finish laughing at Gary and Elaine (see above) :)

A Way to Start the Holiday Season (and celebrate a birthday)

Talking with my sister-in-law Rebecca the other night, she related a really neat story to me. (And knowing she doesn't have a blog of her own, I hope she doesn't mind me sharing the story here. I was so impressed by it that I thought I would share it with even more people. So, thanks for sharing with me Becca!) A family in their area has a Thanksgiving tradition that gives to other people in need. And if I understood correctly, the idea came from one of the children in this family when they were 4, and they are now 7.  Anyway, on to the idea...

The family buys materials to make stuffed animals (think Build-a-Bear style). Then they stuff them and take them to shelters and hospitals and other organizations to give to children. They have grown in their efforts by inviting other people to join them. The people who join them buy the materials from them for the number of toys they'd like to make. They do this every Friday after Thanksgiving. And it started out as an idea from a little child on their birthday! What a wonderful thing to do. And not only to do, but to invite others to share in the joy of serving others.

Becca and I talked about how incredible it was for this family to have this idea. And then more incredible that they carried out the idea. (So many times I have an idea or come across an idea and think I would like to do it, but then never do.) And then even more incredible that they grew their idea by involving others. It's a heartwarming story and a true inspiration!

I hope we all can have ideas to serve others and carry them out. We can be God's helping hands on Earth. :)