It's Good to be Loved!

Having Bruce join our family in early December created the perfect opportunity for him to meet his extended family over the holidays.  As you will see from these pictures, he is one well-loved little boy!  We have loved getting to spend so much time with family over the past few weeks!  And we can't wait for Grandma Betsy, Papa Don, Andy, Libby, Kalo and Maggie to get here later today!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours! 

We hope your holiday season is filled with peace and joy!

The first week

Perfect little man

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Bright eyes!

Sacked out

So precious

Hangin' with Daddy

Our family

Bruce turned one week old yesterday evening, and though we are all a little tired :), it has been a good week.  Bruce has met lots of family and friends throughout the week - hope to get the chance to post some of those pictures later!  Grandma Betsy has been staying with us since Bruce was born and it has been a God-send having her help around the house.  Andy, Libby, Kalo and Maggie all came to stay for the weekend, and with Aunt Libby's help, Bruce learned "eat" the first night they were here ... thanks Aunt Libby!!!  Up until that point, we had been struggling to get him to eat, even with a bottle.  He has some catching up to do weight wise, but he seems to be making up for lost time with all of the middle-of-the-night feedings he likes so well.  :)

Gage goes back to work tomorrow for finals week before he has two weeks of Christmas vacation - yea!  It will be so nice to have him home for two whole weeks!  Grandma Betsy is staying with for one more week, so I won't have to be on my own just yet.  :) 

Bruce Olen Werner

Meet our son, Bruce Olen Werner.  Born at 7:10 on December 5th, weighing in at 5 pounds, 4.4 ounces, 18 inches long.  As you can see, he is perfect.  More pictures to come soon! 

The Waiting Game

No news yet!  At my appointment yesterday, my doctor said that this week she would leave it up to Gage and I whether or not I should be induced.  After much praying and soul-searching, we have decided to wait ... to not rush our little boy, and see if he will come on his own.  It's wonderful how much peace I have with this decision.  Gage convinced me to spend my time this week resting and just taking care of our little boy.  I am so thankful to have a wise husband.  I feel more relaxed and calm today than I have in weeks. 

So, I am home ... fire stoked, dog at my feet, good book to read, and baby in my belly.  I am to make an appointment with my doctor again on Monday, at which time I will be scheduled for an induction.  Maybe we won't have to wait that long ... 

Pregnancy Trials

Since it has been weeks since my last post, I thought I owed to to everyone to explain why I have been so absent from the computer lately.  In the past month, my hands have become so swollen that I have developed carpal tunnel symdrome making it extremely difficult to type or do much of anything with my hands (I had trouble opening a box of cereal this morning.  And you should see what this post would look like without the backspace key! .... completely illegilble.)  In any case, I thought I would give it a go this morning - ignoring the numbness/throbbing in my hands - to catch everyone up on what has been happening lately.

Really, what we've mostly been doing is ... waiting. Waiting for our little boy to arrive.  Tomorrow is my due date, and I have a doctor's appointment at noon today to see if they will induce (my doctor started talking about that last week).  I will try to post an update later today with "the plan" (can there ever really be a "plan" when it comes to labor?)

Other than waiting, we have been occupying our time with Christmas decorating, visits to and from family, and getting last minute projects done around the house.

 

Gage and I went in search of a Christmas tree on Sunday and found a beautiful one at a Christmas tree farm outside of Rose Hill.  Gage wanted a big tree.  So we got a big tree.  :)  It was great to have time this past week/weekend to get projects done around the house.  I think I have definitly hit the "nesting" stage of pregnancy.  I have organized the pantry, closets, laundry room ... you name it, I've done it! 

The weekend before, we were SO blessed to have Mom, Libby and the kids come stay for the weekend.  Libby cooked feasts for us and froze a bunch of casseroles for later.  Mom cleaned for me, and they both helped me put away my fall decorations and decorate for Christmas.  Plus, I got to see my Kalo and Maggie - heaven!  It was a fabulous weekend, but of course I wasn't the one working.  :)  Mom and Libby, I hope you guys weren't too worn out after being here!

New Camera!

Gage and I were able to purchase a new camera as our Christmas/birthday gifts from my family ... it is awesome!  It is the Nikon D5000 and it takes fabulous pictures and videos.  We haven't even begun to learn how to use it yet, but we have had fun taking pictures, none-the-less!  It's a good thing we will have a new subject to photograph soon ... otherwise we would end up with the "world's most photographed pets" (and gardens!)

Speaking of baby, we sure are ready to meet him!  Less than two weeks and counting!  Time seems to me innncchhiiiing along.  Looking forward to this weekend and having mom, Libby and the kids here!  Maybe when Peanut hears his cousins, he will decide to make an early arrival (wishful thinking, right?)   

Look!  I'm behaving!  Laying down, feet are up (just don't zoom in on my feet, K? ... someday they will be back to normal ... I hope ...)  Honestly, behaving isn't quite so hard any more.  I once again don't have energy to do much of anything.  Last night I was in bed by *gulp* 7:30.  Totally asleep by 8:00.  I know, I know "enjoy the sleep while you can".  (If I had a nickel for everytime someone said that ...)

This is Ralph's favorite spot ... laying right. on. my. belly.  He is so weird. 

These are the last pregnant pictures I will post of myself.  Not liking pictures so much right now, but Gage really liked these two, so I told him I would post them.  Uck.

And here is a slideshow of Gage and my "practice shots" with our new camera.  Lots of fun!  Can't believe we still have so many flowers and plants to shoot this late in November.

Life is Sweet

To quote my cousin's husband, "Life is so much richer with KU basketball."  Bring on the season!

Enjoy it while you can ...

Ralph loves to curl up on laps.  He especially loves to lay on my ever-expanding belly.  He has no idea what is about to come.  Enjoy the empty laps while you can, Ralph ...

How will these creatures react to the tiny person who is about to rock their peaceful world?  Only a month or so until we find out!

I did find time to work on our wedding scrapbooks this weekend.  What a great feeling!  I finished the second of four scrapbooks ... the book containing pictures of my bridal showers and all of our wedding cards and memorabilia.  It was really fun to look back through all of that stuff!  A few years ago, I completed our honeymoon scrapbook.  Now the two I have left are our pre-wedding parties (bachelor and bachelorette parties) and the actual WEDDING!  The wedding book is my next project.  I'm excited!

My craft room ... ready to start on the wedding scrapbook!

The scrapbook I completed this weekend.  Success!

It's weird ... it has been sooo hard to get back into scrapbooking after not working on projects for a few years.  Possibly because I was so overwhelmed by all of the un-scrapped pictures?  But now that I am in the swing and have plans for plenty of projects, I am loving it! 

Still hope to get to our construction albums before the baby comes.  Hmmm, that may be a little ambitious ...

Easy Weekend

While it would have been very easy to dwell on the things we were missing out on this weekend (Uncle Tom's 60th birthday party, Maggie's 1st birthday party, Tailgating at the KU/OU Game), I chose instead to enjoy some of the good things in life during a relaxing weekend at home:

Sunday afternoon at the "hacienda": Emily enjoying a good book in the company of her cat and dog; fall colors along Timber Creek; walking back from the creek (must be a really good book!)

Every kid should have a 100 pound dog to frolic with, don't you think (thank goodness Koda was a runt!)

I spent some time over the weekend finishing my canning for the year.  I had been CRAVING apple butter, but since Gage used all of Roger's apples making wine (I'm sure I won't be complaining about that in a few months!), I had to settle for store bought apples.  The butter still turned out delicious!  We also have a plethora of peppers right now  ... shown here is what was STILL LEFT after I made another double batch of hot pepper jelly!  Gage is trying to convince me to make a few more batches, but I don't think my feet/ankles can take it.  I told him I would supervise if he wanted to make some.  :)

On another note, after spending nearly ALL AFTERNOON on Saturday making the apple butter, I had just finished cleaning up and was admiring my 16 half pint jars of delicious, golden, apple butter when Gage walked in and said "is that all it made?"  Sadness.  He has grand plans to increase production next year.  :)

Looks like these weekends at home are going to be the norm for awhile.  After attending a conference for 3 days last week in Overland Park, I was plagued with not only extremely swollen feet (and hands, face, etc.), but shooting back pain and extreme fatigue.  Yuck.  But maybe taking it easy for the next five weeks won't be such a bad thing.  On the agenda for next weekend: scrapbooking!  I still have hopes to finish our wedding scrapbook before the baby comes (nothing like procrastination, right?), and a few photo album/scrapbooks of our house construction.  I can't wait!

Autumn in the Air

What is about haybales and cats?  As soon as I introduced a few straw bales around our porch as fall decoration, Dusty claimed this one as his own, and seems to have taken up permanent residence on it.  In fact, he loooves this haybale so much you would think it was laced with catnip.  He spent the first few days pouncing on it, clawing it, rolling on it, stretching on it.  Now he has contented himself with merely sleeping on it. 

Some of my favorite memories from childhood are of playing with the legions (and yes, I do mean LEGIONS) of cats in the hayroom at the barn.  Cats and haybales.  Haybales and cats.  Not sure why, but they just go together like peas and carrots.

So glad I could do my part to "complete" Dusty.   :)   Dreading the day (for Dusty) when the strawbales head to the garden as winter mulch ... 

 

On  another yet related note, I sure hope our child doesn't have to visit the doctor HALF as much as our pets have been at the vet this year.  On Friday, Ralph went to the vet for what I think was our family's FIFTH pet-related incident of the year (not including what happened with Ellie ... we're not gonna talk about that ...).  Let's count them, shall well?  1. Dusty has an impacted foot.  Stays at the vet for 3 days.   2.  Ellie enters the family ... needs treatment for ringworm.  3.  Koda gets an impacted foot.  Has to be put out for Doc to treat him.  4.  Dusty breaks his hip ... sedation and overnight stays at the vet (luckily, this one healed without surgery ... we were gonna have to take out a loan for the vet bills!),  5. Ralph throws up everything he eats for 3 days straight.  Needs rehydrated and his stomach coated.  Ive never seen such a string of bad luck with pets ...  this is getting a little ridiculous. 

Funny, it seems that every time Gage and I start talking again about adding some livestock to our small farm, something goes wrong with one of our pets and reminds me again just how stinkin' expensive animals can be.  Maybe this is God's way of telling us to hold off on the livestock ...  at least for now.

Overwhelmed (in a good way!)

It's hard for me to sum up all of the emotions from this past weekend - my first baby shower weekend.  The best word I could come up with was simply overwhelmed by the love, kindness and grace of all of our family and friends.  Libby and Alison planned a beautiful shower and I was blessed that so many wonderful friends and family were able to come -  from in town, across the state and even out of state!  Whenever I get to spend a weekend with my family, I am always just blown away by how incredibly blessed I am to have such an amazing family.  We talked and laughed and ate and shared stories ... and always, always enjoy each other's company!     

I was thinking this morning about God's grace.  The dictionary defines God's grace as: the free and unmerited favor or beneficence of God.  It got me thinking about how the way we get a taste of that grace here on earth is through family.  So much love and kindness (that is so undeserved!) can only come from family! 

Below is the result of some of that amazing grace.  Peanut's Aunt Joy had all of the women in Gage and my family create a square for an ABC quilt, and then she and Diana put the quilt together.  As you can see, the result is stunning ... each square made with love and thoughtfulness.  This is such a precious gift - one we and our little boy will always treasure! 

Libby and Alison did so many thoughtful things for the shower.  One of my favorite is this little scrapbook/journal.  Each person at the shower picked a letter and then wrote a little something to me or to Peanut using that letter.  Every single entry is truly touching.  I want to go read them again right now!  Thanks girls, for such an amazing shower! 

And of course, no family weekend is complete without the kiddos!  Who are these funny people?  :) 

Maggie is such a ball of fire.  She routinely cracks herself up.  :)

It is always SO hard to let them go home.  Once again, our house seems so quiet, too quiet ...

Love this face!

And this face!

Can't wait for the next family weekend!

Baby Pictures

At my doctor's appointment last week, I got to have a bonus sonogram, just to make sure everything was alright (it was!  No worries!).  It was amazing to see how much our boy has changed!  The technician was able to get some great straight-on shots of his face ... except that after a few seconds with the light in his face, he would raise both hands up to cover his eyes!  Too CUTE!!!

 If you can't tell what you are looking at, the three pictures here are primarily of his face.  The top of his head is pointing to the upper right.

Below is an even better shot of the little baby face ...

... and here is my favorite!  You can see him peeking his eye open!  We were also able to watch him moving his little mouth.  It was much fun ... I could have watched him all day! We also got to see him trying to grab his foot with his hand, and for awhile it looked like he was sucking his thumb (don't think he was, though he would have come by it honestly!)  The tech said he was right at 3 pounds, which is just right for 30 weeks.

*sigh*  Nine weeks left to go.  I'm just ready for him to be here NOW!

Wants to Meet Grandma Betsy!

I think Peanut is excited that his Grandma Betsy is going home today - he has been kicking, kicking, kicking all afternoon!  I keep seeing my belly move, which is a very strange experience.  :)

Of course, the kicking might also be due to the large quantity of Neives mexican food I had for lunch today.  :)  But I still know he is excited for his Grandma to be out of the hospital.