I am PREGNANT!

We are happy to tell the world...we are expecting Baby Carter in March! We are so excited!

So far, I am feeling better each week. The first few weeks I was really, really tired and starving all the time. Now, I am still pretty hungry all the time, but not quite as tired. I have definitely had some morning sickness. That is starting to lessen which makes me happy!

Ryan has been fabulous through all of it so far. He helps me with all my daily tasks that I get too tired to do. I have appreciated that more than I can type here.

Keep checking back to see Baby Carter grow!

This was taken at 8 weeks. I am 12 weeks now.

Not much showing yet at 8 weeks.

It's Official...

We are Kansans.

I never thought of myself as a gal with a lot of Texas pride, but I must say I was a bit sad as they handed me my Kansas license plate today (singular, you only need one in the back here). The line was much shorter than I ever experienced in Dallas or Houston, so that was a nice bonus. We went to the DMV last week and got our temporary Kansas driver's licenses. The temporary, paper license has your picture on it - how cool is that?! We like Kansas just fine, but Texas is the only state I have ever known and I guess I was a little more attached than I thought. I took this commemorative picture to always remember my Texas roots. Go Astros! (That is for Ryan - we will always cheer for our Houston teams no matter where we live.)

Goodbye Texas plates.

I must admit, that is a pretty cool temporary driver's license.

But look what they did to my Texas license.

It's Been a While

I know I haven't blogged in a few weeks, so let me catch you up on life in Kansas. Our director asked us to go to Morning Star Ranch for two weeks. The ranch is a part of World Impact that is an hour north of Wichita. They host summer camps for World Impact kids in our region - Dallas, St. Louis and Wichita. For the first week we were cooks. We cooked a hot breakfast, lunch and supper for 85 people (including second helpings). There were two other ladies from South Texas cooking with us. We had a good time, but it was so exhausting. We were in the kitchen from 7am - 7pm with an hour break in the afternoon. Who knew! During the second week I was back in the kitchen with one other lady and Ryan was the camp speaker for junior high camp. Dirty dishes didn't allow me to go to all the sessions, but I must say that he did a fantastic job from what I saw. Around the campfire at the end of camp, the kids mentioned some things that Ryan said that meant something to them! I was a proud wife to hear such kind things from junior high students. We are back home now and trying to recover from being away from home for two weeks.

This picture is pretty dark, but this is Ryan teaching at evening chapel.
He had to preach twice a day!

My mom and sister Candice came to visit for the weekend as soon as we got back from the ranch. We told them they could help with some projects around the house, but I had no idea just how much they would do. They painted and painted and helped move furniture. It was terrific. I don't know that they got much of a mini-vacation, but they sure did help us. I am so grateful for all their hard work. Below are the pictures of all the work, but the pictures don't really do the work justice. This old house was needing a lot of love and it already looks so much better.

Bathroom Before - That blue was terrible and the walls were very dirty.

Bathroom After - The walls are now "Toast" colored and the vanity is chocolate brown. Guest room before. It was actually just holding all the stuff that didn't have a place yet.

Guest room after. We were given a queen bed and now this is a complete room. They painted the walls and even scrubbed the paint off the hardwoods from the previous owners.

Other guest room before - I wish you could see the walls. We pulled out about 100 nails that covered the walls. We think a teenager hung posters with nails. The walls were horrible.

Other guest room after. Now, the walls are nice and clean.

This room still needs some TLC, but it is so much better.