Your Life Will Never Be The Same

These words, or some variation of these words, echo in my mind. Could this be because I hear them every single day? Your life will never be the same again. Your life is about to change forever. Children are the best and worst thing that will ever happen to you. And the charming advice goes on. While I realize that we are about to have an atomic bomb dropped directly on our perfect lives, I can't help but to hope and pray that some things never change.

I never want to have to forget how much we laugh. Every single day. There has never been a time that we have gone out to eat when Paul hasn't made me laugh hysterically. Usually it is just from him making a funny face or speaking in a funny voice over and over again. Oh the things he does to make me laugh. Like we will be sitting next to an old lady at a stop light who is creeping up on the red light and Paul will randomly peel out of the intersection like it's a race. That makes me almost pee myself. Or he will stand Griffin up on his hind legs and perform a song and dance just for me. It's not witty or sarcastic humor; it's just plain goofy humor. We are on the same wavelength. Have you ever heard the song "The Luckiest" by Ben Folds? It's a really serious love song about one of his many wives, but we tend get a kick out of the song by imagining Griffin at the piano singing the lyrics about us. And for one reason or another, Paul finds me to be particularly amusing at times. Chloe, maybe someday I'll perform my dance to Taylor Swift's "Love Story." Daddy finds this to be quite comical. I think that all of the goofy, insane things we do to make each other laugh are what ultimately keep us grounded, and I look forward to hearing even more laughter in our home as the years pass.


Most of all I pray that my love for Paul only goes stronger. I am confident that he is going to be a wonderful daddy. I can see him outside raking leaves into big piles for Chloe and giving her piggy back rides. She'll have him wrapped around her finger in no time. I love Paul more for loving Griffin the way I do, and his love for Chloe already melts my heart!

Giving Thanks

For all of the mental haziness pregnancy has presented in my daily life, it has created boundless clarity of God's mighty blessings on our family. God has given me the opportunity to help create a human life, and I feel closer to Him than ever. How many times in life are we given the opportunity to do something so awesome? Besides Chloe, this family has so much to be thankful for this holiday season. After spending his first few weeks of life in the hospital, our newest nephew Henry (Hank) Arthur McIvor returned home a happy, healthy baby just in time for Thanksgiving. As you can see, he is the perfect blend of Sophia and Emma.

We cannot wait to meet this little guy!

God has also blessed us with the most amazing family and group of friends. This past weekend we had two baby showers where we received nearly every single item on our registry and more. My mom's shower was first at 11:00 am at The Junction of Hope Restaurant. We had salad bar, sandwiches, and cake. We also passed out adorable, delicious pink and white elephant cookies. My mom made an amazing diaper cake (which Oli thought would probably taste a little poopy). I had so much fun opening the presents. If we weren't sure of her name before our showers she is definitely Chloe now, because Drew and Shantel bought Chloe a cute little green and white, polka-dot chair embroidered with her name. Mom made us an endless supply of burp cloths and bibs in addition to a couple of receiving blankets and warm blankets with silkies on the edge at Paul's request. She even bought the digital monitor that Paul so desperately wanted. My aunts all went in on our travel system. Here are a few photos from the shower.




Kendra, Bobby Kay, and Bob's sisters threw a fancy shower at Kendra's house at 3:00. It was a french country theme and everything from the invitations to the food was absolutely perfect. We had cheese soup, brisket, rosemary potatoes, green beans, and a host of fancy hors d'oeuvres and desserts. At this shower we received quite a few thoughtful gifts including the changing table I mentioned in a previous post, a handmade quilt, and homemade cards from Oli, Ave, and Tay. Additionally, we received a package full of odds and ends Tay found around the house (including a Leapster cartridge) and hand wrapped herself (It turns out that we had to give it all back, but hey, it's the thought!). Here are a few photos from the shower.

First Baby Shower

On November 14, Kelly and Julie threw a perfect, pink and green, elephant themed baby shower for me and Chloe. It was the most beautiful shower ever and we felt so spoiled! The menu included homemade salads, soup, and fresh fruit. For dessert we had an elephant cake and cake suckers. Here are a few pictures.

The dessert table. I held the cake up just like you taught me, mom.

This is the clothesline full of goodies from our registry (plus some!)

Kelly had these blocks made just for Chloe!

A few more decorations including a pink elephant Kelly found on her vacation and a picture frame with Chloe's ultrasound picture.


We ate, opened gifts, and talked about the upcoming labor and delivery. Thankfully, only Kylee had a war story to tell, although I have to say that 3.5 hours of pushing a 10+ pound baby after her epidural wore off is quite the frightening war story. We received a lot of nice presents including our Pack and Play, Diaper Genie, bottles, receiving blankets, thermometer, and more. Sara's dog Lola bought Chloe a pair of Nike's, a tutu dress, Mary Jane socks, and a onesie that reads "Cute, petite female seeks intelligent male with full piggybank. Must enjoy finger painting and stuffed animals." I was also really excited to receive our baby wipe warmer. I know what you are thinking. I realize that a wipe warmer is probably a bit over the top in terms of a spoiled baby, but you have to realize that our home was built in 1926 and the wipes would be served up just shy of freezing if we didn't use a wipe warmer!

Paul and I had a lot of fun this weekend sorting through and organizing all of our great presents. I think next weekend will be pretty overwhelming with two showers in a row, but we are really excited to see all of our friends and family!

27 Week Update

Back by popular demand (okay back by Kellie's demand) I have a new baby bump picture. I have decided that now that my belly is getting big I can no longer afford to take the photo before bed in my sweats. While I don't have any stretch marks yet (please pray that continues to be the case), I do feel that the belly is much cuter while clothed! I have to say that over the past week my belly really "popped" again. I came back from Indianapolis and was shocked to see that I could finally fit into most of the maternity shirts I bought. So here is my 27 week shot.



Chloe is doing well and is getting enough exercise flipping and flopping around. Some days I can feel her kicks deeper in my tummy and then other days you can see her bouncing around very clearly through my shirt. I'm not sure that I am in tune enough to figure out her schedule, though I do know always notice her right when I wake up, right after I eat, and right before bed. She kicks randomly throughout the day, but I usually don't notice anymore.

Paul worked on the nursery while I was gone and it is really looking beautiful. I think I'll wait until after I get the rug and changing table in there to post a picture. I love it so much and I love to just go sit in there. I catch Paul brushing his teeth in there and peeking in every now and then, too.

I took the gestational diabetes test on Monday morning. The drink was pretty disgusting like everyone said it would be. The worst part about the test was sitting in the waiting room for an hour. The people were coming out of the woodwork. I have never seen such a collection of people. The guy who sat next to me smelled like he hadn't showered for weeks, and you could see the swine flu just running around high fiving people. Ick. I'm glad it's over! I am supposed to receive a phone call sometime this week or next week if there are bad results. Otherwise, we go over the test results on my next appointment.

Kelly and Julie's "friends" shower is this Saturday and I am super excited! I have a feeling that Kel has been working Jules to the bone. I know it will be the most beautiful shower I have ever seen. Is it Saturday, yet?