WW: Most Unexpected Baby Gift!

I'm serious.

This.was.a.baby.gift!

I nearly had heart failure when we opened it!

Pretty sure we would all agree that this  
singing, rocking santa
takes the cake for the most insane over the top baby gift!

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Happy Due Date!

Well friends, Lily Grace and I have made it to her due date! I saw the midwife this morning and we are both doing great. We are just waiting for Lily to make her appearance. I am feeling so good physically and emotionally.

38 weeks

Over the last week and a half, I've been anxious and discouraged about when she will finally be born. A few days ago I gave all my worries and burdens to the Lord and He gave me such an amazing peace that has not gone away. Yes, as much as we would love for her to be born before the first of the year (for the tax break, of course. ha!) and before my Daddy flies out of the country for two weeks, I am so thankful that our Father in Heaven knows when she will be born, and that she will not be born any sooner or any later than His appointed time. How precious it is to rest in the knowledge of that!

39 weeks

Hope y'all have a wonderful day!

Merry Christmas!

I just wanted to hop on and wish you all a wonderful Merry Christmas! I pray that you will all have a safe and happy holiday and most of all, that we will all remember the reason we are celebrating!

Lily Grace is doing great, but she's still cooking. ha! My sweet sister wrote an update on her blog so you can read that for more details from the last few days. We are enjoying lots of family time tonight and tomorrow and whenever Lily decides to come, it'll be just fine.

Merry Christmas!

Not Me! Monday

We have no baby yet, but hopefully she'll be here in the next couple of days! Right now we are just enjoying this busy Christmas week.

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One night last week Jacob and I planned a date night at home. We got out the popcorn popper and decided to try a new recipe for Italian herb popcorn. I mixed up the herb and olive oil mixture while Jacob popped the popcorn. When the popcorn was ready, I poured the herb mixture over and Jacob was just supposed to stir it to coat the popcorn...

Well, he decided that stirring wasn't getting the job done, so he most certainly did not start vigorously shaking the popcorn popper. And as if that still was not good enough, he didn't then violently shake it!  

Nope, my husband would never do such a silly thing as that! The next thing we knew, popcorn was not all over the kitchen. NO, the popcorn popper lid would never come flying off, even with such violent shaking!

Not only would the above never happen at our house, we never would let the popcorn spill on the still-burning-hot-stove eye! We certainly did not have scorched popcorn and a blaring smoke alarm on our hands!

Nope, not us! 

(this picture was taken after most of the scorched popcorn had been cleared away)

Visit MckMama for more Not Me! Mondays.

No Baby Yet...

...but she could come anytime!!

The last few days I've been a busy bee trying to get all the last minute preparations for Christmas and bringing Lily home finished. I've been having lots of contractions, some consistent, and some not for most of this week. We are hoping and praying that Lily will make her debut in the next couple of days! We are sooo excited!!

Also, please keep my family in your prayers. My Memaw's brother passed away on Thursday. His funeral is this morning. Memaw is having a really hard time and she is now the only one in her family living.

Ya'll have a great weekend!

Just for the JOY of it - homemade gifts

I love making homemade gifts! They just seem more personal and special, but they also usually save money! Here are some of the gifts I've made this year.

Brownie mixes in a jar

I made the labels with cardstock and Christmas paper from Hobby Lobby. 

I think the burlap and rope added a neat old-timey touch.

These bags of goodies are for our neighbors and church family. I love using the clear bags, they just look festive to me!

I also made the labels using paper from Hobby Lobby (it was all 1/2 price of course!) In case you're wondering, I did not hand write all of the labels. I downloaded some free fonts to my computer from kevinandamanda.com and then just printed out the labels on cardstock. So easy!

I made these bags for all of Jacob's students and youth orchestra kids (about 60 altogether!) I found the bag toppers at Hobby Lobby (of course! ha!). It was so fast and easy to fill sandwich sized baggies with goodies and then just staple the bag topper on!

I find lots of JOY in giving, but I especially love it when I'm able to add homemade touches to the gifts!

Visit Good, True and Beautiful for more Just for the JOY of it posts!!

Pregnancy Update: 37 weeks

Thank you all so much for your thoughts and prayers for our family the last few days. They mean so much! I'm hoping to write a longer post with memories and pictures of these last days that we don't want to forget, but today I have tons to do, so I'm just going to post my belly picture from last week.

Lily Grace is in position and can come any day! 

We are so excited!! 

Oh, and we had an ultrasound and she has huge feet! ha.

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Update and Obituary

This is Myra checking in for Kelly.  She's insanely busy supporting and being strong for her husband and his family.  They are grieving, but Nanny Hoover left behind such a legacy of grace. 

She was truly a woman of God who was married to a military man/veteran.  She never nagged him about going to church with she and their children, but she prayed for him every day.  He finally went with her one Sunday and his life was changed.  He became a wonderful pastor who God used to impact many lives in this area.

He told me tonight that his heart is broken, but he has "the peace that passes all understanding."  He's just precious.

Here is the obituary link.

The funeral is on Tuesday at 1 PM.  I know that Kelly and Jacob and all of the extended family would appreciate your prayers.

First Night with Jesus

Jacob's dear sweet Nanny went to be with Jesus this afternoon. How wonderful, yet so incredibly hard. We are very thankful that she was surrounded by family while she peacefully met her Savior. Thank you all for your prayers. They mean so much right now!

Psalm 116:15

 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.

Just for the JOY of it - baby gifts

It's such a beautiful cold day today! The sun is shining and the air is biting and I'm just thankful to be alive to enjoy this glorious day!

Nanny is still hanging on, but weakening more and more. Jacob and I were able to spend time with her and the rest of the family yesterday. It was a precious time, although very hard! Thank you for your prayers.

Today I wanted to share some of my favorite homemade baby gifts that we've received for Lily Grace. So this post isn't too long, I'll show you more next week!

My dear Aunt Jan (my Mom's sister) crocheted this beautiful baby blanket and hat. I love the extra ribbon detail...makes it so unique! My Granny crocheted alot, so it's special to have this blanket made by my aunt.

My friend Charissa made these adorable crocheted-edge socks. Aren't they adorable and oh so girly?! It's hard to find cute dressy socks and I'm just tickled that Charissa made them for Lily. Be sure to check out Mimi's Babies Etsy shop. Mimi and Charissa have so many creative items for sale. Also my sister is hosting a giveaway for some dish cloths from Mimi's Babies! You should go check it out!

These bibs were given to me at my baby shower. The lady who gave them to me said that she bought them online, but couldn't remember the website. I have searched several times to try to find the seller, but with no success. It's going to be hard to bring myself to use these bibs...they are just so pretty! The back of them is a towel and then the front (as you can see) is decorated so beautifully!

I bought this hat from my friend April, at April Accents. I love crocheted hats, especially this time of year. April has a sale going on right now that you should definitely check out especially if you need some last minute Christmas gifts for little ones in your life!

And last (but not least) for today, a dear lady in my church made these booties and bib for Lily Grace. I honestly can't imagine the time and patience it took to make these beautiful items. The detail is amazing!

I think Lily will look adorable wearing them!

Head over to Good, True and Beautiful to see more Just for the JOY of it posts!

I hope ya'll have a wonderful day!

The JOY of the Lord is your strength!

Nehemiah 8:10

Pregnancy Update: 36 weeks

Lily weighs a little more than 6lbs! She is now full-term and welcome to come whenever she chooses!

I am actually in my 37th week! We take the picture at the end of each week, so this picture was from last week. It's complicated, I know! ha.

Yesterday was just a blah kind of day. I don't know if it was the yucky rainy weather, or what, but I'm feeling much better today! I'm planning to finish our Christmas shopping and get all the presents wrapped today. I will feel much more prepared once that's done!

I asked prayer for Jacob's Nanny recently, and I just wanted to give a little update on her. The last few weeks she has been gradually declining; some days better, some days worse. She's been at home the entire time with her three precious daughters taking care of her around the clock. I just found out that Nanny has been unresponsive since yesterday morning. Please pray that God would give His special grace and peace to each family member during this time.

Whiter Than Snow

On Saturday morning we woke up to a beautiful dusting of snow! Snow in Alabama is quite a rarity, so we all get excited when we have some...even if it's just an inch! I enjoyed experimenting with our new camera to get some pictures. All while I was taking pictures, I was thinking of this song.

Whiter than snow,

Yes, whiter than snow;

Now wash me, 

And I shall be whiter than snow.

The puppies seemed to like the snow too, but Roo just wanted to come inside and get warm. Ha!

Have a beautiful day!

Not Me! Monday

Just a few incidents (or rather accidents) that have not happened to me lately:

I did not buy 2 packages of almond bark, completely thinking that they were white candy coating, only to get home and realize that they were both chocolate flavored and colored almond bark! Nope, not me! I always pay attention to what I pick up at the grocery store. ha!

When feeding these darling little puppies each morning, they are not so feisty that we have to bring one inside to eat and feed the other one outside so they don't fight over the food. No, we have very well behaved puppies!
Oh, and the other day, the inside-eating puppy did not get so excited about eating that he was jumping around (instead of eating) and his tail most certainly did not slap against his bowl and send little round balls of puppy food all over my entire kitchen, into the living room, and under the washer and dryer. No, no, no, that would never happen at our house!

As I was planning what to have for dinner one afternoon last week, I realized that we were out of shredded cheddar cheese to sprinkle on our chili. So I stuck a block of cheddar in the freezer to harden a little so it would be easier to grate (that really works, btw!).
Well, the time rolls around for me to get supper on the table, but oh no! where in the world did the cheese go??!!! I definitely did not search the refrigerator 3 times and the garbage can twice for the block of cheese before I found it sitting nicely in the freezer right where I'd put it several hours earlier. Absolutely not! I would never ever be so forgetful! And I would also never post such an embarrassing happening on facebook or my blog. Nope, not me!

Head over to MckMama's for more Not Me! Monday laughs!

Hope ya'll have a great day!!

My Wonderful Mom!

I just want to point out one reason why my Mom is so amazing! Of course there are many reasons, but she was just such a blessing to me yesterday and I want to share about it.

You see all these piles of clothes?! There were actually more piles but I couldn't get them in the picture. These are clothes that friends and family members have let us use for Lily! It's amazing, yet overwhelming at the same time. I finally got all of them washed, dried, and neatly piled so they wouldn't get too wrinkled. It was about 10-11 full washer loads of clothes, in case you were wondering!

Well, yesterday my dear Mom offered to come over and help me fold and sort by size all these clothes!

Believe it or not, it only took us about 1 hour to get it all done! Many hands make light work, I suppose. Such an overwhelmingly huge job (or so it seemed to me) was so easy with my Mom there helping.

Now the nursery looks like this...all the sizes in piles. I just have to fill the dresser drawers and totes now! It's such a relief to have this job nearly done. Thank you so much Mom for your help!! I love you.

By the way, Lily has plenty of clothes...from size preemie to size 4T!! Such a blessing!

Freezer Cooking

I participated again this month in Money Saving Mom and FishMama's freezer cooking/baking days yesterday and today. Here's what I got done:

• Chicken Alfredo (2 meals)
• Unstuffed Peppers (2 meals)
• Chicken Enchiladas (1 meal)
• Pumpkin Cranberry Walnut muffins (1 dozen)
• Pre-seasoned, ready to grill chicken (2 meals)
• Cinnamon Rolls for Christmas breakfast at my parents. Now I don't have to worry about them if the baby comes before Christmas!
• Chocolate dipped pretzels in the cute little bag at the front of the picture. I have to make 60 of these bags in the next few days for Jacob's students and three youth orchestras. It's pretty time consuming, but I got about 15 bags done so far. 

I'm happy with all I got done...even though it's not that much. It's a good feeling to have more meals stocked in our after-baby-stash!

Oh, you should totally go over and check out how much my sister accomplished. I'm convinced she has superpowers! haha!

Pregnancy Update: 35 weeks

Lily weighs about 5ish pounds.

The Uppercase Living saying above the crib is my favorite part of the nursery!

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