Sugarplum Boutique

My friend Kendra has been making bows and other accessories to raise money for orphans. The money goes towards their own adoptions, fundraising for other families who are adopting and to help orphanages overseas. Here is the link to Sugarplum Boutique. Right now she is having a giveaway and I don't know about you but I would love to win some of her free merchandise! Take a look!

Are YOU open to Adoption? I am!

Adoption - Are You Open? (full) from Catalyst on Vimeo.

So Thankful

I don't really know if anyone reads this anymore since I've been so horrible about keeping it up to date but I'll keep posting anyways. Things have been a bit crazy around here lately. Both Tyler and I have been sick this past week (and Lincoln still hasn't gotten sick ever! yay!). I'm pretty sure it's because of the amazing power of breastmilk! I hate how our life just falls apart here at home when either of us is sick. Mainly when I'm sick and can't keep up with housework. So this weekend was a "catch up" weekend and we caught up on things around the house. Our basement is starting to look more like a basement that's livable than just a dump. The flooring is done and we've been able to move our furniture back down there. The laundry room still needs flooring and the bathroom needs to be completely redone. The next step is to paint and put up the baseboards.

I must be crazy because while I was sick I just HAD to get the house decorated for Christmas! I thought I felt well enough to do it and then found out that I didn't. So the process of getting the tree up and everything took about 3-4 days. Oh well, it's done now and I LOVE it!

As Thanksgiving is in a few days, we have SOOO much to be thankful for this year. To start off we were blessed back in January to find out that we were going to be parents! That has been the best thing to ever happen to us. I'm thankful for the 5 months of normal pregnancy that I had. I'm thankful that I was able to finish my semester of student teaching before my water broke and that I was able to graduate with my Bachelor's even if I didn't get to attend. I can say this now, that I'm so thankful for my water breaking and for the 8 weeks of bedrest in the hospital. I never thought those words would come out of my mouth but God does amazing things when he brings you to the end of yourself and you find that, that's where He is just beginning and all the amazing things that he has in store for you. I'm thankful for all the things that I learned and experienced. I'm thankful for Lincoln and that he is doing well and not affected by the lack of water or being early. He brings so much joy to my life and I couldn't imagine life without him. I'm thankful for what this pregnancy did for our marriage. We had a good marriage before all this but now we both feel like it has strengthened our marriage so much and now it's a GREAT marriage. I feel like it was God's way of preparing both my individually and us as a couple for what he has in store for us this next year.

Tyler has been unhappy with his job for quite awhile and has been looking at something different to do for basically the last 3 years. So he is currently in the process of applying for another job that is the complete opposite of what he is doing now. It's a very long process and might mean a lot of changes for our family coming up. We are just trusting God and His will for Tyler's life and our family. So far He has opened all the doors to this career path and so, so far we feel like this is what God is calling Tyler to do. If you think about it you can be praying for us as we have to make some big decisions in the next 3-6 months. It's exciting and scary at the same time.

Well that's about all I have for right now. Hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Some 3 month pictures

I'm a little late getting these on here, because Lincoln is now 4 months old but here are a couple of his 3 month pictures and then some random ones thrown in there.

The first one is of Tyler reading to Lincoln. Lincoln LOVES reading books. I'm so excited!

Next he is getting better at pushing himself up while on his tummy......such a strong man.

The next three are from his JCPenny pictures that we got taken last week.

Baby Pushups :)

Sometimes I'm kinda weird and decide to do funny things. This is how I decided works to plays with Lincoln while building a little arm muscle :)

RSV Shot

Lincoln was approved by our insurance to get the RSV shot. This is such a big deal because the shot is VERY, VERY expensive and when a baby gets them they have to have it once a month from November to March. So insurance companies and sticklers on who gets it and who doesn't. So they have a checklist of criteria that you have to meet and you have to fall under at least two categories. Babies who get priority are those who are in day cares, or have smoking parents. (Our nurse in the NICU told us that if they denied him the shot to tell them that we both just picked up smoking habits and have them reevaluate him :) hehe. The two criteria that Lincoln met was that his birth weight was under 4lbs (he was 3 lbs 6 oz.) and he was born under 32 weeks gestation. He was born at 31 weeks 5 days, so if he would've been born two days later he wouldn't have been approved for the shot. We've known for awhile that he's been approved but the clinic hadn't gotten the shot in. But I got called this morning by the Doctor that they have it now and he can get it next week! Yay! I'm so relieved that he can get it and that's one less thing we have to worry about.

For those of you who don't know, RSV is a respiratory illness that is just a bad cold in an adult for for a baby it can be very bad and for a preemie even fatal. Since most preemies have underdeveloped lungs, that makes them more at risk. RSV stands for Respiratory Syncytial Virus.

We are just so thankful that he can get it!