Catching Up

By: Shelsy

Well, Amber's 8 months old now. Unbelievable. She is growing right up and her little personality is starting to come out. She's also more aware of what's going on around her, which means she's wanting to play more, she wants more attention, and she especially wants mommy. It's been increasingly difficult to find time to get online--which is why I completely missed her 7 month update. :-) She gained almost a pound this month. She's up to 19 pounds, 12 ounces. Here's a picture of her at 7 months for a comparison.

Thanksgiving, etc.

By: Ryan

The lack of an update recently is mostly my fault. Believe it or not, we actually have been busy over the last couple of weeks. :-)

First of all, we went back up North for Thanksgiving. Shelsy and I made the 16 hour drive that turned into 18+ hours what with all the crazy traffic between Richmond and D.C. Not cool. We spent a day at my parents' house before driving with them to Pittsburgh to spend Thanksgiving with family out there.

Lots of driving, but also lots of fun. The food was great, we got to see my cousin and her fiance's new house, and we got to spend time with everyone out in the freezing cold of western PA. :-)

Black Friday shopping (a staple for me) was fairly disappointing this year, but we still went out and got a few things.

After that, we drove back east and stayed with my family for a few more days. One of those days was the shower/party that they all threw for us. That was a lot of fun and we got to hang out with people we haven't seen in a while. Shelsy's mom and Mindy were also able to make it for the party, and they brought little Carter with them, which is always fun. Between playing Mario Party with Tom and Aaron, to getting lots of cool presents from our friends, to playing Balderdash...it was definitely a fun evening. :-)

And now we're back home in warmer weather. It was actually 85 today, which was pretty nice. We've been keeping busy in preparation for the Christmas Bash, an event the church down here does once every three or four years. It's basically a big Christmas event where they sing about and almost make fun of various aspects of the church, etc. Shelsy and I have been involved in the planning of the event for months and it's going to be a lot of fun. It's on Friday night and I'll be sure to post again sharing how it went. :-)

Oh, and tomorrow, we're off to SeaWorld to watch a taping of Wheel of Fortune. You can read about that over on my blog.

So anyway, that's what's been going on down here. Somewhat exciting, I think. Stay tuned for updates!

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20 Weeks And Counting!

By: Shelsy

I'm officially halfway through the pregnancy. Yay! Although, that's completely technical since the second half is probably going to feel way longer than the first half. First of all, I'll be way bigger than I even already am, which will come with all kinds of joys of its own, I'm sure. Plus, I didn't even find out I was pregnant until the first 4 weeks were already past. Still, only 20-ish weeks to go, which we're really excited about. We can't wait to meet her! 

I've been feeling great. I have heartburn sometimes, which is a somewhat new experience for me. I also get tired a lot more easily, but that's easily remedied. :-) I can feel the baby moving now, which is very interesting. Ryan thinks it's really cool, but he's a little frustrated that he can't feel it, too. I think he feels a little left out of things, understandably. But hopefully he'll be able to feel her too before long! 

In other news, the weather's been great down here. It was 87 on Thursday so we took advantage of it and went to the water park, Sea World, and City Walk. It was a really fun day. Sea World is already decorated and playing Christmas music. They have some kind of Polar Express thing that we wanted to check out, but it didn't start until Friday, so we'll have to go back. 

Also, we watched the space shuttle launch last night. It was the last night launch scheduled for the shuttle, apparently ever, so I'm really glad I got to see one. It was really cool! The whole thing is pretty amazing to me. Ryan took a video of it from our terrace, but you can't really make anything out, unfortunately. 

I hope everything's going well back up north. We think about you guys all the time. I hope you're enjoying the cooler weather too. It probably feels a lot more Christmas-y up there, but we're enjoying the new experience of November in Florida. It's certainly different. We are hoping to come up for the holidays but, as always, it all hinges on the job situation. Right now it's looking like we'll be up for Thanksgiving, but we'll have to see about Christmas. :-) Miss you all!

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