Oh yeah, I have only 40 MORE DAYS OF BEING PREGNANT! well according to my due date anyway.

Heartfelt Thank Yous

I had the loveliest weekend. Thank you to all of you who were a part of it. A feeling of calm has descended over me now that I know I am as prepared as I can be for the crazy ride I'm about to get on called motherhood. I had a blast this weekend.

Hurray for Moms!
My moms were incredible. They did everything I could dream of and more. We now are babyfied and ready. Well all except that looming hospital bag that still needs to be packed. Oh man, now that I've thought of it, I feel like I need to pack it RIGHT NOW!


For now the Pack n Play is being used as storage on top

and below


All my craft stuff was packed up to make way for Baby Central- Changing Station


Baby Central- Clothing Station (by the way we ended up with four drawers of clothes)

We did countless hours of shopping, cleaning, organizing, me bossing them around, cooking, boxing up, discussing lists, funny birth stories, belly pats, hearing "put your feet up," and love and hugs. I loved every minute of it.


They made sure that I am ready for Mr. Mister and that I have just about everything I need for his arrival, besides more sleep in my sleepbank.

Showering Babies (in more ways than one)
My baby shower was on Saturday and it was more than I could have ever asked for. My Darby friend did such a wonderful job to make it so very personal to me and Adam and our future child. The theming was excellent.


One Fish, Two Fish, Goldfish


The Stinky Cheese Man Cheese

We had a book theme and the invitations, food, and decorations all fit so well. Knowing that I'm not a huge fan of party games, the only game we played was name Baby Kipp. Each guest entered a first and middle name into a drawing and then I got to randomly draw names from the container. Our official new nickname for Mr. Mister is Pistachio Bear Kipp. We've been calling him Pissy Kippy for short around here.

Loving themes as I do, I enjoyed my themed presents as well. Tina had a Midwestern themed present, Darby had a literary bath theme going on, and Joanna and Gilbe had the best poop themed present I've ever seen. Thanks girls!


Joanna and Gilbe. What would I do without inappropriate friends?


A handmade sweater by Auntie Laura

Lastly, in the past week we've had pregnancy announcements of every kind! From the exciting to surprising to MIRACULOUS! I am so excited for all of these three babies to be born in October and November. God is so good to those who are patient in His timing.


I love this picture of me and Miss Kate

The Moms are here this weekend for my baby shower and we've had a busy day! I wanted to take time while I could to blog about it because my brain is getting more and more cloudy and I'll forget the details by Monday or Tuesday.

Today we went to IKEA and looked around. I don't know why I can never get out of there without some sort of damage. And then we went to a wonderful mexican restaurant for lunch.

After that Adam went to puruse Barnes and Noble while the Moms and I went shopping for more maternity clothes. With only a month and a half left, I'm surprised at how many clothes NO LONGER FIT. Really could I get any bigger? Apparently I can, and will. We found some really nice spring clothes for me ot finish this time out in and some stuff for after the baby is here before I can get back in my regular clothes (oh please oh please oh please let that be a reasonable amount of time).

We ran by Sam Moon and DIDN'T BUY ANYTHING. And then headed home.

We pulled out all of the baby things that I've accumulated over the past couple of months from all my generous friends. How could I already have three loads of baby clothes? And this before I've even had the shower. We've got it separated into piles waiting for some Dreft this afternoon.



We also cleared off some space in the craft room- packing up a bunch of my craft stuff to allow the baby some space.

The Moms did everything while I sat there and directed/let them do whatever they wanted. :)
It was lovely.

Blog Time

I guess it's been a while since I've taken down the sidebar where I featured a few blogs that I frequented.
I'm a huge blog fan (duh! I constantly write here) and currently have 95 subscriptions in my Google Reader and they are all frequented by me. Luckily with Google Reader I don't have to remember all these sites, but as they are updated I get a notice and can read them at my leisure (which is about 25 times a day). I keep blogs about anything from my niece, to crockpot cooking, to stuff white people like, and they all interest me for very different reasons.
Here are a few of my favorites, just in case you would like to check them out.

The blog I frequent the most is my sister in law Laura's blog. I constantly even go directly to it to be sure my Reader isn't just slow and not updating correctly. I heart updates from her about what she's up to and my beautiful niece, Ella.

The CRAFT Magazine Blog shows links to other crafty people on the web who are doing amazing things. I love drawing inspiration from them all.

SouleMama makes me wish I could take better pictures and take more time to look at life.

And for one more, this is one I found today while looking for a pattern to make a Boppy cover. Economical Baby may have just become one of my new favorites.

Of course if you are reading this, it doesn't mean that I don't love your blog. It probably means you don't blog enough..... ahem some of my dear friends out there. I miss you guys.

I never...

I never do this kind of thing, but I thought I would try it and see what happens. I entered a picture into The Nest Baby Bump Contest. So go vote for me. I could win lots of prizes and I thought I would just try it for fun. :)
Click on the icon below or there is also one in the sidebar.

This post has had to wait a few days because I've had too much to say and didn't know where to begin. But I need to post now before this weekend when I'll have even more to say and then I'll be doomed forever to not be able to put it into words.

Weekend with Dad and Grandma
This weekend Adam's Dad and Grandma came down to visit for Easter. We had a wonderful time with them and did a lot of fun things.

On Friday we ate lunch at Texas de Brazil and then spent the afternoon at the Dallas Arboretum for Dallas Blooms. This was perfect because I love looking at all the pretty flowers and Grandma is an avid (and wonderful) gardener. It was super crowded since it was Good Friday, but we enjoyed walking around and enjoying the flowers and the sunshine.



On Saturday we rode the West End Trolley and enjoyed looking at the city from a different view (I did a lot of "Oh! I didn't know that was there!" because I am always driving while we go through town). Again the weather was wonderful and we had dinner at Rockfish Grill at Mockingbird Station.

On Easter we went to Stonebriar Community Church to hear Chuck Swindoll in person. I always love going up to hear him. I also made Easter dinner (with the help of friends who brought delicious food) for our small group so that Grandma and Dad could meet some of our wonderful friends.
We had a great time and hope that they did as well.

Job Searching
We are still in the searching process of a job. Those of you close into the loop know our situation, but for those of you a little further out, we are trying to search for God's will and where he would have us in the near future. We are planning on moving around July 4th to a new location- we just don't know where that is yet. Pastor searching is a lot different than secular job hunting- A LOT more goes into the logistics and many, many people have to be on the same page and have the same vision. Let's just say that when we are through with this, we had better be there for quite a while.

Crafting
I have been working away at my little crochet in an effort to bust up some of this quite large yarn stash. I've finished another little baby afghan and are working on some small gifts for friends. You should see the result of those soon but here is the Beth's Little Star Afghan I completed on Easter. I was trying to use up the blue yarn that was given to me (you can also see it used in the VVS blanket), and I had barely enough blue to finish.

I also made Bridal Shower invitations for my friend Joanna's Bridal Shower. She's getting married in Wisconsin the week after our baby is due, so the least I could do is throw her a shower.

Baby
He's getting really big and has been particularly active in the past few days. I think he's trying (unsuccessfully) to find a comfortable position. He's apparently the size of a Honeydew Melon. Yum! I missed the 50 day mark until my due date and am now down to 46 days left.

Gifts
When Grandma and Dad came down, they came bearing gifts. Mostly for the little child, but I did receive some delicious Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs and Adam did get a trip to Half Priced Books and a wonderful graduation present made by his Aunt Kim (I haven't been able to photograph it well enough yet). Mom sent some outfits (all scarlet and grey!) and some treasures that were saved from Adam's childhood- Cowboy boots (fitting for our little Texan) and the quilt that Adam's Mamaw had made for him when he was a baby (maybe even before he was born?). These are pictures of some of the embroidery from the quilt.



Grandma came bearing gifts from her and the aunts and they were perfectly wonderful (and so soft and cute and sweet). I especially loved this poorly photographed but beautiful little bonnet made from a vintage hankerchief.

Pretty Flowers
I enjoyed taking pictures of at the Arboretum and showing off my lack of flower knowledge (Is that a Daffodil? Nope it's a Narcissus.)Here are some more pretty pictures we took.

Sick
I've been fighting a cold, and I can't really afford to get sick at this critical point in the spring, life, process of searching for jobs, traveling, visitors, etc. I slept 15 hours last night and hope that it was able to combat most of it. Pray for me, I just don't want another sinus infection.

Coming up in the near future

Dad and Grandma left yesterday morning, leaving just enough turn around time to get the house clean and laundry done for the Moms to come in Thursday for my baby shower! They will be here until Monday which leaves enough time for laundry to yet again get finished before we leave before we travel again with a little side overnight stay at Ryan and Laura's in Tampa. Then the baby can come. He has to stay put until then though. :)

32 weeks

I have a doctor's appointment today, so we'll see how the baby is growing. I think he's doing well. At least his butt is getting huge. I know because he likes to lodge it up against my right ribcage and lung everytime I try to do trivial things like sleep, and breathe. Then he just rolls around and around like he can't get comfortable. Me too kid! I wish I could get comfortable too.

My swelling goes down for the most part at night but comes back by the evening, especially when I try to walk- like at the grocery store. That was surely a disaster. Well be mentioning this to the doctor today. And yes, I've been drinking my water and not been eating things with high sodium.

But I did get extreme joy yesterday when somone asked how far along I was and I got to say 8months. Horray! We're almost there.

I'm Swelling, I'm Swelling!

The downfalls of flying at 32 weeks pregnant.

Before you wig out, it's normal, I've drank more water today than I ever have in my life, and I've spent all day with my feet up on an office chair. But ewww that looks gross doesn't it?

Crazy Weekend

For the privacy of everyone involved- this post is a little sketchy. For family and friends I'll be sending out an email with more information.
This weekend we traveled and encountered this.

Yup snow. While it was 90 in Dallas, we were freezing our buns off.

Crafty Disaster
I've always wanted to knit. I've never been able to because for some reason I cannot get both my hands to work together with my brain. That's why I crochet, one hand is fine, both hands is beyond me.
A coworker has recently become enthralled with loom knitting. I thought to myself, surely with as crafty as I am I can do this winding the yarn around pegs thing, it will be the perfect answer to all my knitting inadequacies. So out I went to invest in a knitting loom, spent a couple of hours online researching different techniques and then I was on my way. Or so I thought. A couple of hours later and frogging different pieces I ended up with this paltry section and a headache from frustration.

Yup, that's all I got. So I'm back to crochet and I don't think I'll leave it any time soon. Unless I can actually get someone to sit me down and teach me step by step how to do it.

Congratulations!
My sister in law, Kara, graduated from The OSU this weekend! I totally wish we could have been there for the event but we couldn't. Trust us, our hearts were there singing Carmen Ohio.

Timeline

I was uploading some pictures to my Picassa account today and I noticed something cool.




The progression and growth of our child already. Of course we have much more pictures, but these are the clearest so that you can actually tell what it is (and some of you won't even be able to do that with these). But it just makes me so amazed at God's work in me, that this really happens.

(Not so) Patiently Waiting

A picture of me today. Waiting, that's what I feel like I'm doing a lot of now. Just waiting.

Babies Sandwiched with Friends

This past weekend was a blast for me. It was full and satisfying and I'm utterly exhausted two days later still, with the anticipation of a very different (but hopefully fun) weekend on the horizon for this weekend.

Baby
Saturday we had our all day childbirth class. It was very informative and I discovered that I probably read too much. I can't remember learning anything new, but for the first time I saw a cesarean. I will always only have one of those as a last resort. No thank you that does not look very nice.
It also made me re-evaluate my feelings on medicated vs. natural childbirth. I'm still out on some of that but it's worth looking into a little bit further. Adam apparently learned quite a bit because he spent the rest of the weekend quoting snippets to me as I was "doing things I'm not supposed to" and had already blocked out the video of the actual birth from his memory.

Friend
Also on Saturday I received an email from a long time friend who was stranded in Texas because of the "Big Ohio Blizzard of '08." She was able to get a flight to Dallas from Lubbock and asked to stay the day and night with us until she could get a flight back to Columbus. I love visitors! Of course, I wanted Esther to come. We hadn't seen each other in at least 5 years and had been great friends in high school. We were orchestra geeks together and she was one of the first "real" Christians I ever knew. Of course we slipped apart during college but thanks to the wonders of myspace had passed a few emails and such back and forth over the last two years. It was such a joy to catch up, see how God had worked in our lives, and reminisce.

Baby
Adam had mentioned a couple of time not really knowing how to handle a new newborn. He's perfectly fine with toddlers and even infants who can at least hold their heads up, it's just the tiny ones he's afraid of. So, I decided to surprise him with his own Infant Care Class of my own making. It was fun for me to pull out skills I hadn't used really in years and then teach them to Adam. That way he also knows how to do things the way I like them done. :)
Adam changing a "bear"-y dirty diaper.
"Look! I dressed the baby!"
Learning to swaddle the baby seemed to be the hardest- but he got the hang of it.

Baby Kipp Update

Can you see his cute little face? I hope you can. He's got chubby cheeks and a big forhead like his daddy.

He was also protecting his boy parts the whole visit making the doctor and us laugh. He is already in the head down position to make his entrance into the world in a few short weeks and I'm kinda hoping he stays there. But that also means his feet are in my ribs and pressing on my stomach sometimes. But all in all that's so much better than the pain in my hip and leg I was feeling. At least I can sleep at night with my friend, Tums.

The doctor also said I should be healthy to travel for the next few weeks (of course that is still up for discussion as each of the times draw near).

We had a pretty fun weekend- it was super busy and filled with surprises- but it deserves a blog post of its own when I remember to bring the camera to work (tomorrow).

Crafting: working on two crochet projects and didn't finish a single thing this weekend. Oops.

My favorite things...

Here are a few of my favorite things from today....

A light dusting of snow that melts when the sun hits it.

These...




Celebrating Darby's birthday - 2 1/2 months late, but still enjoying it :)

Good Italian food

Getting to see sonogram images of my unborn and healthy child

And my absolute favorite thing today-
Attempting to purchase a new suit for Adam, we were in Men's Warehouse. We had found a suit that we both liked and Adam was trying on the pants. Because of Adam's broad shoulders, to find a jacket big enough the pants are normally too large. He came out of the dressing room and while the man helping us was looking for something, Adam tried to adjust the jacket. When he let go of the pants, they fell straight to the ground, in the middle of the store, in front of a lot of people, including me, his wife, who started laughing hysterically.

Randomness

I have a LONG list of to do things today. And a busy weekend. Here are some random thoughts going through my head today....

We are out of town, have family in town, or have something MAJOR going on for the next 6 weekends. That puts my pregnancy at 37 weeks. Oh goodness, when am I supposed to get ready for this baby (you know in the calm, sipping tea, yoga, day dreaming sort of way). But then I remember that's just not my style anyway. Bring on the fun!

Adam's turning in his thesis next week (as soon as his slacker editor gets her behind moving to finish revising all 100 pages of it -- oh wait that's me, I'd better get on that).

I am so thrilled that we will get to spend a day with Ryan, Laura, and Ella in April. I just can't wait to get my hands on that little girl (if she's not too busy being all big and crawling around and things).

Looking forward to Easter and all that it entails (Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs + Jesus = Best Holiday Ever). AND Grandma Kipp will be here with Dad. I really can't wait to see her.

I'm so behind in reading my Bible. Why can't I ever stay on track with that? (I PROMISE Courtney I'll get Genesis finished this week.)

Time passes so quickly, when did all my brothers grow up?

Crocheting is so much more fun than anything else I like to do. I can just shut my brain off for a while and be productive at the same time.

Doctor's Appointment tomorrow. :) We get to see Mr. Mister (He's really not so much Littlefoot anymore by the way- more like Gigantic-foot, Gigantic-arm, and Gigantic-bottom).

The Newsy

A long overdue issue of The Newsy came out today. Because of it's content it will not be posted on the web. If you would like an issue please comment or email me and I will get it to you.

If you don't know what The Newsy is, it is the Kipp family newsletter that Adam and I used to frequently put out before I constantly started blogging. We decided that some of the content would be better formatted in a smaller reading.

As I said above- let me know if you would like a copy and leave your email - I'll zip it right to you.

Snow!

So I was just lauding the praises of spring springing and last night as we were coming home from dinner, it starts to snow.

Snow Bunnies

Pretty Snow!

This picture followed the comment, "Take a picture of me eating it!"

I'm glad I had my camera handy because this morning when I woke up, it all seemed like a dream.

We are reaching 60 degrees today.

This weekend

This weekend was full of interesting things.

I was super productive in finishing off some crafty projects (the ones in the post from Saturday and some others).

My little niece Ella started crawling (thanks Laura for posting the video, I'm so glad I got to see it).

I can no longer reach my toenails to paint them, and boy did they need painted. So my caring husband Adam volunteered as long as he could pick out the color. He chose a seafoam green because apparently it does not look like fungus and matches all of my outfits. Really? Seafoam green? Beggars can't be choosers.

I never thought I would post my feet on the internet by the way. Gross!

I probably worked my last shift at Pottery Barn Kids this weekend. Considering I'm on my hiney for 10 hours a day at my other job, 5 hours on my feet is a killer while I'm there. But I made it through and felt better about myself knowing I could still do it. I may work possibly once more in April if I can, so I can keep my discount until then. :)

We had a lovely dinner on Friday night with the Kooglers. As time nears for the boys to graduate it was nice to hang out just the four (six!) of us (they were our first "friends" here in Dallas and we've spent many a Friday and Saturday night at one another's apartments). It felt really good to sit around and just hang out with them and care for one another in a way that only old friends can.

On the flip side we also hung out after small group with newer friends Toby and Joanna who are engaged to be married right around our baby's birthday. It's so fun to also watch the beginning of new relationships (friendships and marriages), they are so excited for the future and it's fun to watch them adjust to each other as they near that time.