Happy Birthday Olivia!

When we first met Olivia

Celebrating a year later...
And then today! When she turned TWO!!!

She loves to put her feet up in the sky and "fly!" She is an extrovert- LOVES being around people. She is excited for mommy and daddy to go to the hospital to meet baby Isaac, Hope is going to come play with her, and Nana and Papa are going to come! We will see what she thinks after Nana and Papa have to go home to Massachusetts and Baby Isaac still lives in our home and not in my tummy:)

We are continually amazed with this little girl God has blessed us with. The stories she tells and how much joy she brings us and others- what a blessing!

Happy Birthday Olivia!

39 Weeks!

Olivia trying to "see" Baby Isaac- often I have to tell her he is keeping warm so we arent exposing my belly all hours of the day in all sorts of places :)
Kisses for Baby Isaac!

We cant wait to meet this boy!!! I am due on Friday the 24th!

THON!!!

Two years ago a few of you may remember a photo of me with a large PROTRUDING belly and Nate with a LONG goatee at THON. We had gone to visit the dancers from Navs of PSU's THON- a 40 plus hour dance marathon to raise money for children with cancer. Two days later we welcomed Olivia!

This year we again went to THON- it was SO great to visit the students and see many alums who had come back for the weekend. Olivia LOVED all the dancing, music, lights, and "all the people." She was sad to leave "Penn State" when it was time to go. Unfortunately we didn't get a picture of my belly while we were there, but I will try to post one shortly.


Here are some pics of the event:
http://gigapan.org/gigapans/99117

And here is the website to learn more:

http://www.thon.org/

Its really one of the most amazing things done here at PSU!

Oaks Bible Study Women

These beautiful women are junior bible study leaders here at PSU- we call it OAKS and we meet Monday afternoons to study the bible and help prepare them to lead thier freshmen bible studies.

This is from back in December when we had a hang out week- a belated Turkey dinner. I believe this was before Olivia knocked her tray and entire plate of food on the floor because I had forgotten to latch the tray fully on the highchair!

During this meeting two of the women recited from memory 12 verses from Romans that correlated with our Bible Studies each week- so awesome to see these women hiding God's word in their hearts!

But let me back up and try to explain why this is such a huge Praise to God for me personally... As a wife and mom I don't get to do everything ministry related I once did when I was single. This was becoming painfully obvious to me last spring, as our team met to talk and pray and plan for the year ahead. For the last two years I had helped lead a freshmen/sophomore bible study which involved heading to campus after Olivia was in bed Monday nights. At that point I realized that was not really for me anymore- I was tired when I put Olivia to bed! So I started praying and thinking about what I really love to do- meeting with women one on one and helping prepare women to meet with others. This led me to Oaks- many of the women I had had in the freshmen/sophomore bible study joined Oaks this year to reach out to freshmen- I wanted to help them do that! Great!

One catch- all the Oaks groups (there are 6 I think...) meet at the same time- 4:30 on Monday afternoons. In other words, Nate would be working and I couldn't bring Olivia- I needed a babysitter. So I started asking God about who I could ask and how I would pay for it. Most of our babysitters are either co-workers or students- who would also be at Oaks, and who often watch Olivia for free. Who else could I ask to watch Olivia for free? I remember distinctly praying about this at church one Sunday- and God said "What about Paige?"

Paige is a friend of mine from Camp Sandy Cove who happens to be a grad student here at PSU right now. She had babysat for us a few times and I thought perfect- this is definitely a possibility. Now what about money? How could I pay her? Is she even free on Monday afternoons? She might have class... How do I get over myself to ask someone for their free help on a regular basis? After over a month of putting off asking her, I finally went for it! Offering only dinner for payment...she replied almost immediately and said SURE !!! I was in awe! I felt God's provision for me so clearly and I was/am so thankful!!!!

One of the highlights of this school year has been going to campus on Monday afternoons, with my husband, to lead students in Bible study. Paige is an awesome babysitter and we all have dinner when we get home. Olivia loves the play time and I love getting to do what I love! Helping train up the next generation of women to reach others for Christ :)

4 days, 4 weeks...

She mentioned this phrase a number of times for about a week, so Nate and I were wondering what she was referring to! It was too long till my due date (thankfully I don't have to go that long!) but we thought maybe she knew something else we didn't... Then at dinner one night, she was talking about Noah and the animals and 4 days, 4 weeks. And I asked, "Do you mean 'It rained for forty days and forty nights'" YES! she said with a smile:)

"I say Goodbye Pacifiers...

and celebrated with chocolate."

That is what Olivia would tell you happened in her life a few Saturdays ago- we are SO proud of her!



When night time came, the smile wasn't quite there... but its been over a week and she has slept through the night without---just not every night:) And most of the time, she doesn't ask for it anymore either. We are VERY proud of her (even if sleep has been a little bit harder to come by...)

Baby Boy Nursery

This is what we have so far :) I have been in awe of how small the clothes are for a newborn, Olivia is SO big now, its hard to remember her being so small! As for baby boy, we will be putting him in our room. We already had one wall painted blue and we switched around our bed so its a bit crowded, but gives him a bit of a corner for his own space. Since we will be moving about 3 months after he is born, this seems like the best solution for us. We got the dresser/changing table off of Craigslist for a steal, with a surprise monetary gift we received at Thanksgiving. And its actually filled with diapers and clothes! Its amazing to see God continue to provide for us as a family in every way:) I am working on a cross-stitch that includes his name that I would love to hang as well, but it still has a long way to come... Getting closer!