A New Year and New Beginnings

I have finally figured out that blogging is not one of my strengths.  As you can tell I don't post as often as I would like to or probably should.  I hope that you will all forgive me for this. :-) Over the past month we have had the excitement of holidays, family visiting, relaxing, and preparing more for our baby boy's arrival.

 There aren't to many things to update everyone on but I'll start with the biggest thing in our life right now...the baby!!! :-)  Baby Boy is moving around a lot and Andrew and others finally were able to feel him kick on the outside.  It is so much fun to share with Andrew the joy of being able to feel our little boy kicking around.  He is growing a lot and it shows in my belly.  We can't wait to start putting his room together and preparing for him more and more.  After Thanksgiving we were able to go to different stores and register for him and it was a lot of fun (for me at least) to pick out stuff for our little boy.

This picture is 21 weeks 

This picture is 23 weeks and 2 days

We were blessed to be able to be in NY for Christmas and spend time with family but before we went home my parents and niece Lily took a mini trip down to spend some time down here with us! They arrived the Saturday before Christmas and were able to come to church with us on Sunday.  We braved the cold weather that afternoon and walked around D.C and saw some of the monuments.  On Monday I had a check up Dr. appt. and was able to bring my mom along so she could hear her grandson's heartbeat.  I am so glad that my mom and I are so close and that I can share with her the joys of her growing grandson.  While my parents were in town I took them to a small indoor water park and Lily loved playing in the water and swimming there. We also were able to enjoy a light show put on by a local park in the area.  My parents were heading back to NY on tuesday and I had decided to ride with them and then Andrew drove up when he got off work on Wednesday.  Since I went up a day early I was able to watch my little brother play basketball as a Senior, where has the time gone.  

Lily loved going down the small slide! 

Did I mention our landlord bought a horse? His name is Gunner! 

Festival of Lights

Christmas came and went way to fast but I am so glad that we were close enough to Ny to be able to spend time with our families.  I especially can't wait until next year when we have a little one to Celebrate Christmas with.  I can just imagine bringing him out of his room and him having big eyes at all the Christmas lights.  He will still be young but being able to enjoy Christmas as a family of three next year, in a place we can call home is so exciting to me.  While home for Christmas we hosted and Ugly Sweater Christmas Party, attended two family Christmas Eve Parties, and had two Christmas' on Christmas Day.  We weren't going to leave NY until Sunday afternoon but the forecast of bad weather made us decide to leave Christmas night.  The weather wasn't bad on Sunday but we were glad we left because both Andrew and I ended up with a stomach bug that would not have been fun to deal with in a car ride.  We are so blessed and so thankful for all the gifts that we received over Christmas.  Andrew and I discussed a lot the weeks before Christmas how the true meaning of Christmas should be our central focus not just at Christmas but all year long.  We have been so encouraged by the messages preached at church on how the Christmas Story still can be related to us today in so many different ways.  I'm hoping (no promises) to put up a post about everything we have been learning in church lately.  

Francis Family Christmas

Reed Family Christmas

As we look forward to the New Year there are so many things I am looking forward to.  I am so excited to meet our little boy in April and see what things God has prepared for our little family.  God has been so good to us this past year.  The other night at bible study I was reminded that even though we may think nothing exciting is happening in our lives at the moment God is still working.  Having 'normal' lives every day is a gift from God and we should be thankful for that.  Most of the time we thank God when things are going great and exciting things are happening but what about the days that we wake up and are able to breathe and make it through a day.  As I look forward to the new year there are some resolutions I hope to achieve.  

-I want to be a more loving and gracious wife and soon to be mother

-I want to be a better steward of the money God has given us

-I want to spend more time in God's word and learning more about everything He has done for me

-I want to have a child :-)

-I want to keep up to date on my blog more, not just updating everyone on life but sharing thoughts, lessons learned, and be able to encourage others. 

I almost forgot to put in a little bit of bragging! I think I have full bragging rights to this one! I have the most amazing husband ever! :-D Andrew has been working at his job for 5 months now and a week ago he found out that he had been nominated for NOC Engineer of the year! He had to go into work and answer a bunch of questions in front of a board of managers and to his surprise he won! He has worked so hard to learn his job in such a short period of time and deserves every bit of this award! :-) Can you tell I'm proud?!