Shower and Visitors for Peanut:

this past weekend uncle casey and aunt sara came to visit! i'm just now realizing i didn't take any pictures with them while they were here! how awful am i?! can i blame it on the need for more sleep?? sara came to go to the shower some friends of mine gave me. mimi and poppa also came into town for the day and brought peanut his crib and mimi came to the shower, too! woohoo!! hopefully the nursery will be presentable soon and i can share a picture of the crib.


the baby shower was a blast. i think we could have sat there all day listing to stories from the "experienced" moms :) peanut came away with some awesome loot, too! i am so blessed with wonderful people around me who have made this time in my life so special.


all of my gorgeous friends!! well, at least the ones who could make it to the shower :)

i haven't posted a belly shot lately, so here are peanut and i at 32 weeks. my goodness! how much bigger do you think we can stand to get? luckily i'm surrounded by the sweetest people who love to tell me i've only gained belly weight and not an ounce anywhere else :) we'll see if that lasts these next 8 weeks!

Shower for My Preggo Buddy:

a couple weekends ago i was thrilled to host a shower for trish - my big belly buddy! it was a lot of fun to see all our friends from our old church and, of course, eat some yummy food. trish has just over two weeks to go, so little critterbug could show up any time now! trish -- i'm keeping my phone with me, so you'd better give me a call when critter says it's time to come out :)
tilly made a new friend while the ladies were over....

a couple days later, jeannie and steve sent me the most beautiful flowers to congratulate me on completing my thesis defense. thanks! they were gorgeous!! i just have a couple minor formatting changes to make and i'll turn the final paper in on monday. praise the Lord, i will finally be completely done! some other good news i received was that my abstract i submitted for an orthopaedics research conference in hawaii was accepted. unfortunately, i won't be able to go because it's in early october...but i'd be much happier to stay home with peanut any day!

Sweet Cheeks:

yesterday afternoon, this mommy- and daddy-to-be got to see our little cutie pie again...this time for the 4D ultrasound. what an amazing experience!! we got to see our peanut yawn, hiccup and the features of his face. we were just in awe of the amazing life growing to prepare for the outside world. i think chris was even more amazed at the experience than i was! he's really enjoying the experience of seeing his son (and my belly) grow right in front of him. he can't help by smile and tell me how cute i am everytime he sees me (which i never tire of hearing) :)

here's a great regular 3D ultrasound picture of peanut:

this picture really shows the huge difference between the 3D and 4D techniques:

here's a great picture of our little guy's chubby little cheeks...i can't wait to pinch them! the technician said the nose looks a little bigger than it actually is because it's the closest object to the imaging device (a bit like taking a picture of you from your feet when you're laying down and your feet look ginormas):

our sweet cheeks just wouldn't keeps his hands away from his face, but i think i see a few family traits in this picture!!

the blurring you see in some of these shots is his ambilical cord getting in the way. we tried to get him to move around, but he looked pretty content just right where he was:

i'm so anxious to meet our sweet baby boy (and pinch his little cheeks)!!

Carie, M.S.

well...almost :) thanks so much to all of you lifting me up in prayers throughout this whole masters thesis! today i defended my thesis research and passed with flying colors. now there are just a few corrections to my paper to be made and a few papers to be signed and i will officially be done with school forever (or, at least for the forseable future).

i'm just so thankful everything went okay and i didn't go into labor in front of everyone! really, i was not nearly as nervous as i would be typically, and i know it's thanks to everyone's prayers and having God's hand on the situation. so many people were incredibly helpful at the two universities and here at work, and in praying for me and offering their encouragement, but i really couldn't have done this without my schmoopy behind me :)

i can't believe this is done!