Kountdown to Kara: Part 1

Today, we went in for our 36 week ob/gyn visit to see how Ashley and Kara are progressing. After the basics were taken care of, the doctor checked to see what state Ashley was in. To our surprise, we found out that Ashley is 50% effaced and 1cm dilated. Whoa! This was cause for pause. Now the countdown can really begin. All the lessons about pre-labor during our birthing class are becoming reality. So, if you weren't praying for us before, please consider doing so now.

We know there is still much pregnancy left, but getting started on this phase feels like a big step.

We were happy to pass this info on to our mothers - who were both quite excited. As far as preparations go, we're about to pick out paint for Kara's room, do the painting, and do some serious organizing. We still need to pack our "go" bag.

In other news - we received a beautifully refinished table from Ashley's father, Jim. Here's a quick pick:

This was a table that Ashley's parents had for many years (20+) and gave to Ashley after college. It had some dings, stains and an iron burn ... so it needed a face lift. Not so any more. Much labor went into this and we are very thankful.

We're Ready!!!!

Woohoo! The Fithians are ready for Christmas...early! No wrapping gifts in the car on the way to events, no last second shopping, no frantically running to the store to buy more wrapping paper! We did it!

Actually, Lee thought we were done a few nights ago, but he didn't take into account that his presents still weren't wrapped. I have been waiting for his last gift to come in the mail for a couple of weeks, and it finally arrived this morning.

I had been refusing to wrap his presents until I had all of them (sometimes it saves space and paper if you can fit more than one item in a box). But keeping them hidden from Lee was more of a challenge than I anticipated. I thought I could just hide them among the clutter in the disorganizational mess of our house. This was faulty thinking. Just because I can pretend like overwhelming messes don't exist, doesn't mean he can. Even though I kept moving the gifts, he still managed to stumble upon them.

I felt like I was constantly having to supervise his movements in the house. "Hey, you're not allowed in there!" "Don't touch that bag!" "Get out of that corner!"

I understand that there are easier ways to do this, and maybe I will do better next year. Right now I'm just glad that his gifts are wrapped, and that I don't have to chase him around the house anymore.

Showered in Katy

Last weekend, Kara got to be the center of attention at her baby shower hosted by Lee's sis, grandma, and some of his mom's closest friends. They made us feel so honored and special.

We played a few games which I would recommend for any shower:

• Guess the number of jellybeans in the jar
• Guess what's in the sack (pass around several sacks with a baby item in each, and the participants must guess what the item is without looking) - I got 9/10 right! This made me feel like I might be a competent mother.
• Make up a princess name for the baby (the participants had to make up nicknames using only letters from Lee & my full names). Some names of honorable mention were; FiFi LiLi NeNe YeYe RaRa HaHa, Tiny Fashionista, Tea Leaf, and Fonesha (pronounced phone-isha). I came up with Shy Bean.

We had a great time talking, laughing, and eating the best cookies and petit fours ever! I was especially excited to see my best friend from college (shout out to Lauren) come in from Austin to celebrate with us.

Right now I don't have any pictures, but I will likely post some later.

Thanks again to all of the lovely women who helped with the shower and made me and our little girl (FiFi LiLi NeNe, etc) feel so special.

Getting in the Christmas Spirit

This past weekend was perfect for getting us ready to celebrate the Christmas season.

On Friday, we received about 2 inches of snow in north Houston. It didn't stick, but we were able to watch the flurries fall for most of the day. I kept trying to take the dogs out in the snow, but they weren't impressed. Apparently, they don't recognize snow as cool or special, just cold wetness on their paws. Since the snow was melting as soon as it hit anything, I wasn't able to take many good pictures. So, I decided to make Kermit lay down on the wet ground until enough snow accumulated on his fur to take a picture.



On Saturday, Lee and I hung our Christmas lights. Since I am 8 months pregnant, it was his turn to get on the roof, which was slick from the freeze the night before. He was obviously uncomfortable being up there, and this was totally against all of the safety rules that are drilled into him at ExxonMobil. But he did a great job, and now our house illuminates with the warm, fuzzy glow of Christmas.


Unfortunately, we are still waiting for our advent story to come in. We like reading Arnold Ytreeide's advent books. He has 3 books, and I guess they fall under the historical fiction genre. This year's story is Bartholomew's Passage. The story is segmented into chapters, so there is a reading for each night of advent that eventually leads you to the birth of Christ Jesus.
This is probably our most stable Christmas tradition. Lee and I enjoy taking half an hour each night to snuggle up, read a chapter, and pray. Hopefully the book will come in soon because we already have quite a bit of catch-up to do. If you would like to check out these books, here is a link to the publishing company http://www.jothamsjourney.com/
You can also order them through LifeWay bookstores.

Baby Sitting?

We received a very gracious gift from my grandmother, Grammi.

She recently moved into a new retirement community and had too much furniture for her space. There were two chairs that belonged to my great grandmother, Mema (Grammi's mother-in-law). Since the cloth was somewhat worn, Grammi had them re-upholstered. Here is a shot of one of them for your viewing pleasure:

The footstool was re-upholstered by my mom, in about an hours time. Quite expedient and crafty!

We'll be using one for Kara's room, giving us a place to "baby sit". Eventually, it will join the other chair in our bedroom, giving mommy and daddy a very nice place to relax.