Decorating the Christmas tree

We may not have everything unpacked (meaning, we definitely don't have everything unpacked) but in the Heacock household, Christmas decorating is of the highest priority, so we took care of that first.

When we got married, Alex and I both got our ornaments from our family collections, which makes decorating the tree particularly fun as we remember and share stories of Christmases past and the significance of the ornaments and what they represented in our lives.  I had some more fun with my camera taking pictures of some favorites.

Alex surprised me with this ornament - we have at least one dated ornament from every Christmas we've been married, celebrating where we live at the time:

This was our Chicago ornament from last year:

My grandma helped me pick out this ornament when my grandparents came to visit me in college:

We bought this one in 2010 when we realized our tree was totally devoid of ornaments celebrating the true meaning of Christmas:

Alex put the star on top:

And voila - the tree is looking cheery and our house is ready for the season :)

Thanksgiving with family

Our lives have been just a little bit crazier than usual for the past few weeks - my boss won reelection, we packed up our entire lives, and we move to VA - but in the midst of the craziness, we took a break for Thanksgiving and spent time with family in Indianapolis.

Usually, I would spend a holiday like this chasing kids around but given the presence of my own growing kiddo, I took this holiday off and instead tried to capture the action with my fancy new camera.  Enjoy!

My mom with my buddy Noah:

My cousin Annie and baby Kate, who is 5 years old now and not a baby anymore!

I played a little hide-and-seek with Harry - found him and caught a picture!

Scott playing chess with the grandpas and Jacob:

Alex and Kate, who became good buddies on this trip:

The whole brood and our festive feathered hats, courtesy of Jacob and Noah:

We also got to celebrate my grandpa's 88th birthday, with a special crafted hat - Haley had the vision, and I helped with execution :)

What a blessed time to be together with family and remember how much we have to be thankful for!!

Thankful.

This weekend we found out that some friends who are also expecting are going to have a daughter, but tragically, she has a neural tube defect of some kind that means she won't survive delivery.  My friend will carry their little girl to term, deliver her, and then lose her.  I can't imagine their heartbreak.

These aren't friends anyone who reads this blog would know, but if you'd think of them in your prayers I know they would appreciate it.

Two things struck me as I thought about my friends.  First, God can work miracles, and that is what we are praying for - that God would heal this little girl in a miraculous way.  Second, we were not meant for this kind of tragedy.  We were created for a world without loss or death or even sadness, and as Christians, we know that some day, when God restores the world, we will finally and fully know the lives we were made the live and the people we were meant to be.

I titled this post "Thankful" because Alex and I did have one other thought - we have so much to be thankful for.  So much.  Having a healthy child and a healthy pregnancy is not something to take lightly or take for granted.  We have been so blessed, and when life gets overwhelming, I pray we never forget that.

Look who's 27 weeks old!

I had another doctors appointment today and once again, we got a look at the little one!  This time, I asked if she could do any 3D shots for me, thinking that the 3D might be less blob-like and more human-like at this point.  And indeed it was!

Herbie is 2 pounds, 8 ounces, which is the 62nd percentile for weight, and heartbeat was 146.  Placenta is still considered "low-lying" but the doctor assured me that in most cases, this resolves itself as my belly continues to grow, so nothing to worry about.

If you've had any trouble discerning the features of previous pictures, you won't have any trouble with these!  What do you think - my nose or Alex's nose? :)

Being "Mom"

The other day I had a realization.  Having a baby means being a mom, and being a mom means picking out clothes, making meals, and planning birthday parties for the kid(s), among other important tasks.

I know I'm not breaking any new ground here, but until recently, my horizon for this child was about six weeks.  What I mean is, I have spent a lot of time reading about, thinking about, and planning for the first six weeks.  After all, as parents we will learn a lot in six weeks - how to give a slippery-when-wet baby a bath, what the baby finds soothing, how to effectively walk the dog while pushing a stroller or being strapped to a baby carrier, what the baby looks like and sounds like and smells like.

But then I started thinking beyond six weeks.  And it got me thinking about the kind of mom I want to be.  So I started a list, in no particular order:

• Wise
• Fun
• Creative
• Easy-going
• Empowering
• Engaged
• Loving
• Kind
• Understanding

And then the list started getting long.  I got overwhelmed.  I thought, I don't know if I can be all of those things.  But then I remembered two things.  First, God gave us this child.  Not just any child.  This one.  And he did it for a reason - hopefully that means that we will be uniquely suited to be the kind of parents this child needs and deserves.

Second, when we screw up, when we are not "uniquely suited" and are more just average people who get angry and overwhelmed and careless and thoughtless, there is grace for that.  What a gift.  After all, in the same way that God is molding and shaping me and Alex into the people he designed us to be, he will do the same thing for this child.  God will mold the child - we are just the tools he chose to use.

24ish weeks

Even though I'm 26 weeks along now (third trimester, here we come - eek!), I still wanted to post some bump updates from the last few weeks.

This was when Alex came to visit for my birthday two weeks ago:

And this was at work one day - Leonidas and Herbie are getting along already!  What a good big brother :)

Nesting

I think I am starting to nest.  You know, the process parents-to-be are supposed to go through to prepare their home for the newest, tiniest member of the family.  I'll admit, I was a little intimidated by "designing" a nursery.  I didn't have a vision in my mind, or a theme to stick with.  I needed inspiration, and I've finally found it, in two ways.

First, today I went shopping with my creative, design-savvy friend Katie, and we found some awesome art for the nursery walls!  Art is great, because it will guide the colors of walls, sheets, curtains, etc.  See what you think!

We've got a slightly more sophisticated ABCs poster (still needs a frame) for one spot:

Each letter comes with an uplifting phrase:

And some cute animals to go with it!

I love these, because we've got lots of color choices for the walls (the animals have more colors than you can see in that picture), it's cute and baby-ish and sweet, and it will blend well with the rest of our stuff.

My second source of inspiration was a conversation with my mom about books I liked as a child.  I remembered some (The Hungry Caterpillar and The Velveteen Rabbit) and she reminded me of other favorites (Old Bear and Corduroy).  I got me excited to put these books on the shelves of the nursery, and I started thinking about the baby's room as more than a collection of furniture.  I'm beginning to see a special space where we can spend time together, where we can read these classic stories to our child and have some peace and quiet away from the bussle of our lives.