Cocohatchee Nature Cruise

We went on a nature cruise today near our house. We mostly toured a small inlet of the Gulf, but did go out on the Gulf for a few minutes. We saw lots of neat birds, including Great Blue Herons, Lesser Herons, Snowy Egrets, Pelicans & an Osprey. We also saw quite a few dolphins and some Rays (I think the captain said they were a different type of Ray than Sting Rays, but I don't remember).

Hudson was also fascinated by the kayaks & jet skis we saw. He comments on the jet skis in the video (although you can't see them in the video).

Pregnancy update: I've been having contractions on and off since Thursday night. They mostly come for a couple hours in the evening, but are almost gone during the day. This could happen for the next 9 days until I'm induced. I guess only time will tell...

Induction Scheduled

I went to the OB today and it's not looking like this baby is coming anytime soon. So, I'm scheduled to be induced on Monday, June 7th if she hasn't made her arrival before then. I'm not crazy about being induced, but would love to have her while family is visiting. My sisters will be here June 3-8, so the 7th seemed like a good choice. It seemed a little strange to me to pick her birthday. I'm hoping she comes on her own next weekend. Trent's family is coming the next week to meet this little one and get to celebrate Trent's ordination with us.

Good Old Dose of End of Pregnancy Humility :)

Yesterday I attempted a huge Super Walmart trip. I filled a cart until it was overflowing with items sticking out all sides, including a long curtain rod that made it hard to avoid hitting things. Anyways, we (Hudson & I) were at the end of the trip, near lunchtime and both sick of being in Walmart. He'd done pretty well, but was now complaining for me to carry him. (Side note: Have I told you how he asks for me to carry him? "Mommy, up you"...which he was repeating over and over yesterday).

So, I was carrying a hungry toddler and trying to navigate a heavy cart when I reached for my last item, pizza crusts. While reaching up high, my big ol' belly knocked off some spaghetti sauce jars sending them to the ground and shattering. So, glass and spaghetti sauce is everywhere. This started a chain reaction of about 30 jars barreling towards the edge of the shelves. I had to plaster myself against the shelves (while still holding Hudson) to keep them all from falling. I'm sure it was a sight.

I must have yelled because a few people came to help. Thankfully I was able to laugh about the whole incident while still in the middle of it.

Showered with Love

Our church had a beautiful baby shower for me today! I felt totally unworthy of all the love & gifts they lavished on me. We haven't even been here 2 months yet, but I certainly appreciated this fun event. It definitely made me even more excited for our daughter's arrival.

This gives you a little idea of the number of women who came (over 60!). Martha spoke great words of wisdom & encouragement to me and all moms there. She reminded us of the need of praying for our kids in all areas of their lives. I will always remember, and hopefully continue to grow, as a mother of prayer.

Then Joyce, the head pastor's wife, prayed for our little girl, our family & all the families in our church. It was also encouraging and powerful.

I spoke for just a couple minutes on how grateful we are to be a part of this little sector of the body of Christ here and also how this event reminded me that the love of Christ is rich and free. Just like how I was completely humbled by how these women's love and support of us was unconditional, so is the love of Christ. We do nothing to earn or merit the unconditional love of God, rather in his mercy, he gives it freely to us! What an awesome truth of the gospel on which to reflect!

Elizabeth made this sweet cake

Always food where women are involved...it was all so yummy :)

Does this shot give you an idea of the number of gifts? They had me open every one of them while people stayed, but encouraged a hurried pace since there were so many. :)

The other pregnant ladies in our church right now. The 2 middle ones, Jen & Jill, are also due soon (both with their sixth!). Samantha is due in September with her first.

Trent took a couple 38 week pregnancy shots this morning (with Hudson in his mix & match hand-me-down jammies :))

Big Boy Bed

I put Hudson in his new bed a couple days ago and he's done great! He was very excited to sleep on his new fish sheets. We started at naptime and he didn't get out of bed and actually slept. The pictures below are from when I had to wake him up.

We're excited that this has gone smoothly thus far. He did get out of bed the first morning at 6am totally pumped that he'd slept all night in his big boy bed. Trent was already up, so he just put him back in bed and Hudson went right back to sleep.

Our plan is to eventually have our little girl sharing a room with Hudson. I figure she'll stay in in our room for awhile, then we'll transition her to the crib above. Hudson is a pretty light sleeper, so I imagine that's not going to be an easy transition. I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

A Few Updates

It's interesting how we have so much going on right now, but I don't know what to blog about. I haven't been taking pictures very much since we've been here. But, I thought I should write an update anyways. So, here are some random tidbits...

My pregnancy is going well. I did have some contractions last week while we were moving (I couldn't resist lifting heavy boxes, moving dressers while Trent was at work, etc...). This week I feel great though- sleeping well, no contractions now. Hudson was born 3 days after his due date and I don't think I'm having this baby anytime soon.

We're really enjoying our house. We've unpacked all the boxes except 3 and I have a feeling those 3 are going to sit in the garage for awhile before they get unpacked. Actually, one was never opened in Texas, so we can probably throw the whole box out and not know what "treasures" we're missing. It's labeled "random basement," sounds like junk to me.

We had our pool fence (baby gate for the pool) installed this week. The poles are secured on either end of our lanai (screened porch) and the poles are dropped into holes they drilled into the floor of the lanai. The mesh is incredibly strong. This fence does not budge. There are a couple spots in it that have latches at the top for an adult to open to be able to get into the pool area. It's incredibly difficult to open, which I guess is a good thing. The pediatrician did ask if we had a pool and say this was the only thing she recommended safety-wise.

We're thinking about landscaping for just outside the pool cage and along that back fence. Plants, bushes & flowers are all so tropical here, very different than WV or St. Louis.

Hudson finally had his 2 year check-up this week. It was quite difficult to find a pediatrician down here- this area could definitely use more of them! Anyways, I am very pleased with the one we got. Hudson continues to be healthy (praise the Lord!) and tiny. He's 5th percentile for height and 3rd percentile for weight. The doctor did recommend we switch him to a bed before the baby's born instead of after. He sleeps so well in his crib, so it's hard to make the switch, but I think we'll try a twin bed this week. We went to get him new sheets for it today and are borrowing a railing from someone. We've been talking it up the last few days...I'll let you know how it goes.

Hudson has really started singing a fair amount in the last couple weeks. All of a sudden we'll hear him singing a song we haven't sung for over a month. It just makes us realize how much these little ones pay attention to the world around them. He is a sponge, continually soaking up all we say and do.

A final tidbit is that Hudson LOVES his "Bible CD" that our friends, the Seilbacks, gave him over a year ago. It has Bible verses sung by Steve Green and some kids. We listen to that CD ALL THE TIME in the car. I've tried to sneak and turn on the radio for a bit, but Hudson always asks nicely to listen to the CD again. I can't resist when I have a sweet child asking from the back seat "Listen to Bible CD please, Mom" (disclaimer: Hudson has his fair share of not sweet moments, he just always seems to ask for his Bible CD nicely). Needless to say we continue to listen to this CD again and again. I think there's a 2nd volume, so I'm going to look into investing in it soon.

Hope all is well with each of you!

We're wondering...

...how long it will take for us to feel like we're not on vacation. On both Saturday & Sunday this weekend, we swam in our pool then decided to walk to the beach to play in the sand and ocean. This was all after naptime and before dinner!

getting the pool resurfaced

Hudson is a huge fan of the water 

but not a fan of wearing swimmies (the floaties on his arms) in the water.

Work Day

We've had a very busy and hectic week! After closing on our house, we worked on getting it ready to move in. About 50 people from our church came one afternoon/evening to help!

Here's a before shot of part of our kitchen

Michael and Eric took all the cabinet doors off. We then primed and painted the cabinet frames and will put new cabinet doors on this week.

Here's part of our kitchen prior to the work day

Jon cut a huge tree down that was mostly dead and dropping leaves onto the top of our pool cage. We were amazed that he could do this! Bud (on the ground) is passionate about landscaping and planted some flowers, put soil down and made recommendations of how we could improve our yard.

Conrad was one of many people who helped paint

Not a great shot, but many women made food and showered us with baked goods. It was fun to share a meal with so many in our home.

Connor painted this shelf that I might put in the kids' room.

I stopped taking pictures during the work day because there was so much to do. All 3 bedrooms, the living room & the dining room got painted in addition to many other odd jobs. We are so incredibly thankful for the labor of love that was shown to us this week!

Also, my little sister visited for a few days during the last week and helped me pick paint colors and get things ready for the work day. We were even able to squeeze in a quick visit to Orlando to see our older sister, brother-in-law & 3 super fun nephews. :)

Now that we have internet, more house pics coming soon...