Friday, January 23, 2009

It's a...

Boy!

We had our comprehensive ultrasound today, which measured the baby, determined (his!) gender, looked at the heart, stomach, placenta and umbilical cord, diaphragm, brain, and other things. We learned that we are expecting a healthy baby boy! We are very thankful that he looks healthy and rather stunned that he is a he! Don and I keep saying, "What do we do with a boy?"

Here's another picture of his face and hand. He's a thumb sucker! (Just like Bethie.) We'll see if that continues once he's born, but he was sure going to town during the ultrasound. We could see his mouth opening and closing as he tried to get his thumb in there. It was very cute. We learned that he weighs exactly one pound now and is measuring about a week larger than his gestational age (the girls both did also).

If you're on Facebook, I've posted all the ultrasound pictures there, if you want to see more. (Just go to the Photos tab on my profile page - they should be easy to find.)

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

The Great Tragedy (subtitle: Kiss my wrist, please)

Miss Elizabeth has a had a tragedy:


I don't even know how she got this gaping wound, but for the past several days, at least ten times a day she says, "Kiss my wrist, please." She says it so sweetly and we just kiss her wrist and move on with life...at least until the next time. :-)

(By the way, when I was uploading this picture, she saw it on the computer and declared, "That's my tummy!)

Even though Elizabeth won't be 2 until April 4, we definitely have a two-year-old in the house! I like to say that we have entered Do-it-myself-land. Our sweet-tempered girl now has a temper of her own. She throws tantrums when she's upset. Sometimes she simply collapses into a pile of mush and just sobs. It's funny to see how she's different from Hannah though. Hannah would (and still does) throw tantrums because she's mad and she's trying to get her own way. Often, Bethie's are because her feelings are hurt and she's so sad she just doesn't know how to deal with it. It's so sweet though because she'll ask for a hug through her snot and tears and as long as she has a hug, her teddy, and her thumb, she's happy. Here's a picture of her and teddy. Of the picture, we say, "It's just so Bethie."

In other news, we had our vicarage interview yesterday. We met with Dr. Nielsen, the vicarage supervisor here at the sem. We had about 5 pages of paperwork to fill out about our (mostly Don's) history and background, strengths, desires, preferences etc. in a vicarage congregation. The normal track is for Don to finish this school year and we would move somewhere in the country this August for a year-long internship. But it's looking more likely that Don will be asked to defer his vicarage and we would go in August 2010 instead. We'll keep praying about all the things involved with that and we'll know for sure if he's going to be asked somewhere around mid-March to mid-April. Keep us in prayer for wisdom and discernment to know God's plans for us.

We're trying (kind of) to get used to this cold weather. We haven't had any snow or ice really to speak of yet this winter, but it's dang cold! Tonight the low is supposed to be 3 (no, I didn't forget a digit), with windchills around -12. They're warning people not to go outside unless they have to. Unfortunately, tomorrow is my day to help take care of kids in my MOPS group, so the girls and I will be leaving the house at 8:00 or so tomorrow morning (when it's a balmy 4 degrees!). Argh.

Finally, we have our comprehensive ultrasound scheduled for Friday, January 23. We should be able to find out whether we're having a boy or a girl. (!)

That's it for now. More later!

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

The Number of the Day is...

32! Today we celebrate the blessing of Don's 32nd birthday. (It's also Epiphany - the day we celebrate the Magi coming to worship Jesus.) Don's really busy this week - he has three papers still to turn in, so we didn't do a whole lot to celebrate. Hannah and I baked him a cake this afternoon and after we returned from the Seminary's family night dinner he opened his gifts and we did candles and cake. He's pretty tired after finishing one paper today and starting another.

Speaking of being busy, we have been. The last few months have been busy, and add to that me being pregnant and tired and I haven't kept up on the blog much. Just today I finally downloaded 122 photos from my camera that had been sitting there since early November. Then I uploaded them to Picasa.com so whoever wants to look through 100+ pictures may do so. To see our public gallery, go to http://picasaweb.google.com/rayfamilyblog.

My mom and grandparents came to visit in early October. My grandparents hadn't been to St. Louis before, so we had a great time visiting the Anheuser-Busch brewery tour, going up inside the Gateway Arch and visiting the Museum of Westward Expansion underneath, touring the Kemp Auto Museum, frozen custard at Ted Drewe's, root beer floats at Fitz's, attending our church here, and spending time together as a family. What a blessing and the girls loved having Noni, Nana, and Papa here. Here are some photos:












This one was taken at the top of the arch.




















We've been busy with other trips and activities too, but I'm starting to get pretty tired myself. I'll just wrap up with a request to keep Elizabeth in your prayers. She's had a cough for a month and the doctor put her on antibiotics. Pertussis (whooping cough) is going around here in St. Louis and even though the pediatrician doesn't think Bethie has it, they tested her anyway. She coughs off and on throughout the night which affects pretty much everyone's sleep except Don's (and even his sometimes). We'll find out on Friday if she has pertussis, but please pray that her cough goes away and that we can all sleep through the night again. Thanks, and as always, please let us know what we can be praying for for you. God's blessings, Happy Epiphany, and Happy New Year!