2 Showers and a Trip Home

Less than a month to go!!!! So crazy! I can't believe how fast all of this is going by!
This last month we've been literally showered with blessings! People have been so generous to us! Our small apartment is quickly filling up with  baby things and I didn't even realize how much space it takes! Haha! But it's been really fun!
Last weekend was my shower with our sweet church family. I have to say that it was thousand times more then I would've ever expected! The hostesses designed adorable graphics that were all over the place. We had a yummy brunch, games and I opened plenty of gifts! They had stopped at the flower market that morning and there were beautiful flowers everywhere!! And they also had a candy bar!!! It was so cute and yummy!

they had me sit with all the adorable stuff surrounding me! See the diaper cake? One of my favorite little touches!

candy area! 

So cute!

Monday morning I was in Nor Cal by 7:30! It was really nice! I had some quality time in Sacramento with my mom eating breakfast, shopping and then traveling 2 hours back to Redding! The week in Redding was a great one!! Every family moment was very special and pleasant (which says a lot for my family!). Karen threw me an adorable baby shower while I was in town! It was so awesome to see some really old friends, and spend time with some really sweet ones! We had an awesome potato bar for dinner, games and then opening gifts! And OH BOY! I was so spoiled! 

   

It was such a fun night and I felt so blessed to have so much support from friends that are so far and yet love us and still want the best for us! I loved every minute of the fun night! It was great! And it was only possible because of sweet Karen who did so much! LOVE HER!

At the end of my stay, we had one last family night with a great steak dinner and 2 movies, plus, homemade pumpkin pie!

which I made from scratch! YUMMY!!

We loved it all! It was great and I can't wait to see them again for Christmas and Keane will be there!! We are so excited to see him! 

A HUGE thank you to Carol, Juhee, Lianne, Phuong, Yvonne, and Karen for my showers! They were so awesome and I will never forget them! Now, I'm recovering from the trip (got a little bit of a head cold) and working on washing spot stuff. Hopefully will open in the next few days!! Thanks again for the love and support from everyone!!

xox~ Jessica

Halloween Recap and a splash of PTL!

Our Halloween weekend was very fun! We haven't been able to really celebrate and go full out like that in a couple years! Our costume idea was actually stolen from a parent magazine and I fell in love! I wanted to integrate my preggo belly into my costume, but couldn't think of anything creative, but this idea stole my heart and Laine was on board as well since he was part of it! On Saturday morning, I walked over to the office building accross the street from our apartment and raided their recycle bins for a large box!

Cut out my head hole, arms, and oven opening and the covered it in butcher paper! 

Just drew on my knobs and details and vwalah! My oven for the bun! 

Then the extra butcher paper made Laine's baker hat! He borrowed the chef coat from a good friend and he was complete! I was so proud when everything was done!! I made it all the day of the party in just a few hours and it looked great!! PLUS, we won first place for the costume contest at our friends Halloween party! There were some really great costumes there!

  

Here we have a woopie cushion! Brilliant! Everytime someone hugged him, he would make a "pfft" sound! And then there was the "careless electrician". By far one of the most creative costumes I've seen! He looked great!! Then there were our hosts for the evening.

Andrea and Jess each performed some songs for us while we munched on some yummy homemade treats! It was really a fun night and great to see some good friends! The biggest hit was a delicious treat called "Kevin's Cakey balls" (Kevin is Jess's husband). It was pretty entertaining to hear the comments that went into that one. They REALLY were amazing though! No one could stop eating them!! HA!

Laine and the man behind the woopie cushion! ;)

Then we ended up visiting our buddy Matt from UPC (church) and some friends were there hanging out, playing games and chatting. It was a good night and we got a lot of use outta the costumes I put so much love and labor into! hehe

Not the best ultrasound pic. Keane loves to press his face against my tummy so the pics aren't really that great in detail to get his face. But I still love them! I seriously only see his daddy in him so far!

Today I had an ultrasound appointment to check up on things! Well, I haven't really mentioned to many people some of the hard times we've had through the pregnancy. My first and second trimester screenings were positive for possible down syndrome baby. It was really hard to hear that (as any parent would agree). We decided against amniocentesis and further testings as we would never intend to "terminate" the pregnancy and most of the reason for the positive screening was because of my blood testing and nothing to do with the baby's growth.  I didn't want to put myself or my baby through that stress! So, we decided to give it to God and He would have control of this! I knew in my heart that it was Satan trying to scare us as new parents and I wasn't going to let him have that satisfaction.

As the pregnancy went on, our 3rd trimester ultrasound (about 25 week mark) said I had developed "notching" on the left side of the womb. This is a newer thing that the medical staff is aware of so there isn't much information on the term. But it meant that we were to come in a lot more often to watch Keane and be sure he was developing correctly. Again, I felt a satanic attack! But I knew in my heart that everything was going to be okay! 

Today, at almost 34 weeks, I went in for this routine ultrasound to check on the status of baby because of my "notching" problem. The ultrasound technician called the Dr. in to give the status and she turned and looked at me and said, "WOW! It's amazing!! No more left notching! You've completely healed yourself!" and I knew I had nothing to do with it and just praised God for the power of His healing! After all was done, Keane is perfectly healthy in there at 4.5 lbs and all measurements are perfect! Praise the Lord for all He has done for us! It's so amazing to see His miracles at work! Please continue to pray with us as we look forward to a healthy and safe delivery in just 6 weeks!!

Psalm 127:3-5 "children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him. Like arrows, in the hands of a warrior are children born in one's youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be put to shame when they contend with their opponents in court."