Thankful for blue things and worship

The past few weeks have not been super busy so I am not sure why I haven't updated the blog in a few weeks.  Here we are now and there is a lot to update everyone on! I think I'll work backwards to update everyone starting with our trip to NY/PA this past weekend for thanksgiving.  Andrew had to work the day before Thanksgiving so kind of last minute we decided to leave wednesday night after he got out of work (11pm) and drive through the night.  We made it to NY/PA in record time and I think were going to travel this way every time from now on!  We woke up Thanksgiving morning to SNOW, which was very exciting for us since we haven't seen snow in virginia yet and haven't seen snow in general in about 2 years since being in Hawaii.  

We had an amazing time being home with family and celebrating Thanksgiving.  We truly have a lot to be thankful for this year! We spent thanksgiving morning relaxing with the Reed Family, ate dinner with the Francis Family later in the day, and then back to the Reed's for dessert! We were able to see all of our extended family and catch up with everyone. 

On Friday morning (black friday) I didn't take advantage of any of the sales at stores but instead took advantage of being able o get together with some close friends for breakfast.  I think it is starting to become a tradition to have breakfast together over thanksgiving break.  We were also able to go out to eat with our friends Collin and River on Friday night!  It was so good to catch up with each of them and of course eat some yummy food too! 

The rest of Thanksgiving weekend was spent doing exactly what you see below! RELAXING! It was so needed and we were very grateful to be able to go to NY/PA and just chill.  On Sunday we were able to worship with both of our families at church and then spend the afternoon playing games, decorating the Christmas tree, and eating more food with the Reed side of the family. We then headed back to Virginia later Sunday and again, thankfully, hit no traffic!

Baby update! 20 weeks today! We are half way through the pregnancy (40 weeks)! The past month of pregnancy has been awesome! I have been feeling great and love being pregnant.  Last week we headed to the dr office for a very important ultrasound.  The Dr would be taking the baby's measurements, checking its heart, and of course telling us what the baby's gender is! The technician was mean and saved the best part for last haha and as soon as she rolled over our little baby's bum bum she said "I don't think I even need to tell you what that is!"  ITS A BOY!!!! The tears immediately started rolling and she has to stop to get me tissues.  We are so excited to be having a little boy and couldn't wait to get to Ny/Pa for thanksgiving to tell all of our family! 

The belly picture below was taken at 19 weeks 5 days, this little boy is growing lots!

Before we headed to NY/PA we had to think of a clever way to tell all of our family.  We decided to make cupcakes and fill the center with blue icing so that when they bit in they would discover what the baby's gender was.  

Everyone in our families are so excited that we will be having a baby boy! It will be the first grandson/nephew on the Reed side which will be a lot of fun! 

Our little boy is making his presence known more and more by moving lots inside of me.  Andrew can't feel it yet on the outside but he is definitely in there.  We are thinking of little boy names all the time now but will be keeping the name (and ideas) under wraps until this little one is born in April.  At the ultrasound our little boy weighed 9 oz give or take and is still measuring due April 20th.  We are starting to prepare for his arrival already and are very thankful for friends and family who are handing over all their boy clothes to make his wardrobe! 

I love his little foot!

I believe it was in my last post that I mentioned how Andrew and I have been searching for a home church.  I shared our frustration and asked for prayers.  Thank you so much if you did pray because we believe we have found a church to call home.  A friend suggested checking out the Acts 29 network of churches so we did! Acts 29 network is a church planting network that plants churches all over the country and soon the world! Acts 29 was started off of Mars Hill Church in Seattle WA which we have listened to their sermons many times! We searched for churches in our area through the Acts 29 network and found one in Arlington.  We checked it out and were truly blessed.  Andrew and I both got in the car and looked at  each other and said "yea?"  "yea."  There was no doubt about it! The church is a fairly new church plant (7 months) and is renting a space in an arts center until they get their own facility.  We were so blessed to see so many young couples and families in the church.  The preaching and worship was exactly what we needed to be fed by God's word.  The church has community groups (bible studies) through out the week so we are excited to head back to church this week and get signed up for a community group!  We are so excited to get involved in the growing of the church and to get involved with the fellowship there.  Thank you so much for your prayers in this whole process and we will definitely keep you all updated on our involvement and what we learn there!  

God has truly blessed our little family this past year and we have so much to be thankful for.  Someone mentioned the other day that we shouldn't just be thankful for 'stuff' but be thankful for all God has done for us and for what He is going to do for us.