The Most Exciting Time of Our Lives

This is probably the most exciting time in our lives, and I'm desperately trying to make sure we can slow down and enjoy it. The holidays are already a wonderful time of year, and to add our first baby makes it truly special.

Even though I've worked as a project manager for a few years now and planned out complicated settlements sometimes years in advance, I feel that nothing can really completely prepare me for this baby. This is, I suppose, because it is a new thing entirely. A first child only happens once in your lifetime, if at all. So just when we think we're 'ready', we realize there's more happening.

At the moment, this means that Aimee is trying to segue into her maternity leave soon, which has its own set of implications at work. Also we're starting to make plans for family to visit from out of state, which means trying to make sure we have a place for people to sleep. For now the nursery temporarily has a futon in it... since the baby won't be needing the entire room anytime soon and will be sleeping in a bassinett in our room anyway. But if we have overlapping visits we'll need to get an air mattress or something. No one has really solidified any dates yet which makes planning a bit more difficult. But at some point you just throw your hands up, right?

It's funny actually, because as I read what I just wrote, I probably sound like a control freak. But really that must not be the case, beacuse the one thing we are not 'planning' is the baby's due date, as we've decided not to be induced unless necessary. So amidst all this 'control' we will leave little Eva's birthday a mystery to be sprung on us when she is ready. And we'll sing 'happy birthday' to her and have a "0" year old candle. I suppose we'll have to blow it out ourselves of course :)

Quick Update

Aimee had a Dr. visit today and everything is looking good. She cut some hours back at work so thankfully she doesn't need to stress over making up that time and she can relax a little bit on Fridays.

So - her weight is good and the baby's head is down, which is of course good too. We were a little concerned because we were pretty sure the head was down, but then the other day the baby seemed to change position.

We have an Infant CPR class to take and then we are finally done with classes. They were very informative but they take lots of time (12 hours total over 6 weekdays).

Aimee has been having some very mild Braxton Hicks contractions, and she's dilated 1 cm - which means only 9 to go! Of course, that can happen within an hour, but let's hope not.

We'll keep you posted on any progress! We're still hoping for a Christmas Eve or New Year's Eve baby.

A Lot Going On

Christmas Time + Baby Almost Here = Really Busy.

If it isn't evident by my lack of postings, things are quite busy around the Honse household. One moment we feel prepared, then another moment we have dozens of things to do, before Christmas and before the Baby gets here. Getting Christmas gifts in the mail, I suppose, is higher priority right now. Thankfully, we are almost done with shopping for this year, and almost all the cards are in the mail. If anyone gets anything late, we apologize.

And classes. We are taking lots of classes. Birthing, newborn care, breastfeeding and infant CPR. I think we have two more to go then we can scratch those off the list of preparations.

We still need a pediatrician. We are pretty sure who we are going to go with but we are waiting for their open house next week. Someone should really develop a checklist for parents-to-be, as it seems like there are a million things to do!

Also - today is 36 weeks! This is good because Jupiter hospital won't let you deliver there if you are less than 36 weeks (since they are a level-1 facility without all the long-term emergency stuff for premature babies, etc.) So this is good news as we've taken the tour at Jupiter and met some of the nurses and we really like our Doctors too.

My workload at the office is one area where I don't feel prepared. Due to the nature of my duties and responsibilities, it's very difficult to walk away for any length of time, let alone two weeks at a moments notice! So I'm doing my best to summarize my work and get some other people in my department familiar with my cases. It's a big undertaking though.

As time is ticking down we are getting very excited! I talk to little Eva every day in Mommy's tummy and I hope she knows my voice when she comes out. We hope to have our little one here within a month. The first few months went slow but then it went fast for a while. We made lots of preparations - the nursery is almost done (just some finishing touches, stuff to hang on the wall), the car seat and stroller are even in the car and the diaper bag is packed. Yeah, we're kind of type-A, which is good but now at home its just a waiting game, so it's going slow again. We are trying to remember to take it easy and enjoy some of this 'free time' that we know will quickly disappear when little Eva gets here.

Thanks for your continued prayers and gifts, everything has been wonderful and so far there are no problems in sight.

Belly Update for Week 33

Aimee's belly keeps growing, and despite people telling her "you're all baby" she's pretty big in person! Our little girl is moving and kicking a lot, and she can't wait to get out of there and meet us, and we can't wait to hold her! Here is a montage of pictures so you can see how she's grown:










Week 14























Week 21





















Week 30























Week 33 - Almost ready to pop!

Thanksgiving Surprise

Our tradition in recent years has been to spend Thanksgiving with local family - namely Aimee's Uncle and Grandparents. This year when we showed up at her Uncle's house, Aimee was met with a big hug from her Dad, who came down from Atlanta to surprise her.



We ate lots of good food of course and played some board games and had a great time. Her Dad stayed until Sunday so they got a lot of time to hang out and catch up.

Happy Thanksgiving!

A Long Overdue Update

My apologies for the lack of postings lately. We've been busy of course, but some postings were being held back for specific reasons. I'm happy to say that now we can get caught up - so browse around back to 10/13/07 as I am back dating the postings according to their actual dates to keep things chronological. Here are the dates and events:

• October 13 - 4-D Ultrasound
• November 10 - 2nd 4-D Ultrasound
• November 16 - Baby Showers Update

So many great things and blessings to write about!

Showers of Blessings!

I am truly in awe at how much we are loved. Any time I consider what the future may hold and where we might be living, I get sad because of how much we would miss the people we know here in South Florida. Our co-workers, bosses and friends from church are the most amazing, giving people I have ever met.

Aimee's boss threw her a surprise baby shower on Nov 6 and it was amazing. There were probably 30 people or more, and we had dinner at a nice Italian place called Brio. It was such a great time. It probably took Aimee 45 minutes just to open all the gifts for our little girl! She has no idea that a leopord-print outfit and a snazzy bath robe await her when she is born! I wish we had pictures of this event, but seeing as it was a surprise, I didn't have the camera with me. Here is a sample of Eva's wardrobe:

If that wasn't enough, our friends from church also threw Aimee and Eva another shower on Nov 16! Here are some pictures of that wonderful event:





We are just so incredibly blessed that we are speechless. God is so good and takes care of his children so far beyond what is needed sometimes.

We want to thank everyone who took part in the showers, and those who couldn't be there to celebrate. Thank you all so much, it really touched our hearts.

2nd 4-D Ultrasound

As I mentioned before, since Little Eva wasn't completely cooperative during the first utlrasound we were able to come back and get another at no charge. This time her cheek's were a bit chubbier, and we got to see her get a little fussy in the womb. We also saw her suck her thumb and try to put her foot in her mouth! During both ultrasounds we got to see her open her eyes too.

Look at that pouty face! We are getting so excited for our baby to arrive. We are still hoping for a Christmas baby, but she'll come in God's time.

Happy Halloween!

Our office is always up for some fun, and Halloween is no exception. In fact, everyone gets into it, we bring in food, have decorations, a costume contest, and truth be told, we hardly get any work done. This year we *leveraged* the pregnancy to our advantage, and Aimee had a great idea for a pair of costumes which were a real riot. Take a look for yourself!



I trust no explanation is needed. Everyone loved the costumes, and even though the competition was fierce, we scored big and won in the 'most original' category with a $100 gift card to Outback Steakhouse. Great idea Aimee! I wonder however if it was these costumes that won it for us, or the fact that little Eva had a costume of her own - we painted Aimee's belly like a jack-o-lantern!

How could people not vote for that!?

And if you haven't noticed yet, our little girl has a name - Eva Mae. And the nicest part is that everyone seems to love the name. We've known the name since before Aimee was even pregnant - we actually both feel like we'll have four kids - two boys and two girls - and they are already named. We'll see how it plays out, God willing!

Live From New York!

Aimee and I are rarely apart. We live together and work together and share a car. It doesn't get much more together than that. But we both love it. People always assume we get sick of each other but we don't. They tell us things like "well, that's only because you are newly married." They said that when it was 6 months. Now its been almost 2 years and 6 months. What will they say when we've been married 30 years? Maybe they will finally realize that it is Jesus Christ in our lives that makes all the difference.

That said, I'm in Katonah, NY for a business trip for two days for one of my cases. Aimee misses me and I miss her. Don't we just make you sick? I hope not. I'm staying at a nice Inn just outside NY in Ridgefield CT. My task? To stare at old data on microfiche in a library for a few hours.

But at least I saw the fall leaves changing color, which is nice. One thing I love about the northeast is that you can smell fall in the air. But, I want to be back home. I miss you Aimee! I love you millions!

Our Little Baby's Face!

Aimee and I decided to get a 3D/4D ultrasound when we found a place in Lake Worth that wasn't too expensive. The original plan was to make it a Christmas present for our families - as the package came with not only pictures but a DVD of the whole ultrasound session. So - we kept it hush hush, for a few weeks until we felt like our parents might be upset if they didn't get the DVD until Christmas, since the baby will be born right around that time. In other words, once the baby is acually here, the DVD will be more of a novelty since our parents will come down and see the baby in person. So - we decided to let our parents know and make them a copy of the DVD and get them a copy as soon as possible. It's on its way!

Okay, enough backstory. We got to see our little baby's face today! Actual facial features! She has her Daddy's nose and lips - a striking resemblance to my own baby pictures. We'll let the pictures speak for themselves. Enjoy!

Little Eva didn't cooperate too much during the whole ordeal although we did get the great pictures above. Most of the time she had her little arm covering her face. She must think she's famous and we were the womb-paparazzi! The ultrasound place told us we can come back for free in a few weeks to hopefully get some better shots and a better session overall. We were still very happy with what we saw though!

A Rough Day

You know it's not going to be a great day when your laptop gets run over first thing in the morning.

Some people live in an equestrian community. We aren't that wealthy, so we live in a 'duck' community. Lots of ducks, everywhere. And the little ducklings are so cute, we just have to stop and feed them sometimes. Well, this morning I took a second to feed them some bread, but in my haste and unbeknownst to Aimee, I set our lunch bag and my laptop bag next to the rear wheel of the car. I didn't know Aimee was going to start the car and back up though. Some of our lunch was ruined, and the laptop, although it looked okay and actually still works okay, has a completely shattered screen. It's my work computer, but thankfully I hook it up to a dock at work so I have a seperate monitor at my desk. Work was pretty good about it.

The day was going okay until the afternoon. The tasks were just piling on faster than I could complete them. And to top if off, an emergency came in at 5:24PM, 6 minutes before I typically leave for the day. The nature of our work many times involves court deadlines, so if something needs to be done, you just need to bite the bullet and do it. So I did. And I was at work until 8:30 PM.

And did I mention Aimee and I were hosting a Crown Financial class at our house at 7:30 PM that night? Thankfully Aimee was able to get a ride home just in time, while people stood outside wondering why we weren't there. The worst part for me was that I knew all the ducks crapped all over the sidewalk, and I initially planned to clean that before anyone came over. And of course we had no time to straighten up the house.

But as always, God's providence and provision came through. That afternoon Aimee and I decided to hop over to Panera Bread for lunch instead of eating our packed lunch (the newly repacked lunch, not the one with the exploded yogurt.) That turned out to be a good move because we ended up eating our lunch for dinner while I was still working - otherwise we wouldn't have had any dinner!

And I like to leave it to God to put the icing on the cake. I don't know if there is cake in heaven, but if there is its probably the best cake ever. When I got home that night, the Crown class was already in progress, so I cleaned the kitchen and dining area a bit and prepped some snacks since Aimee didn't have time to before the class. As people were leaving that night, I noticed a large box we had received via UPS. Neither of us were expecting a box, but the unabomber isn't around any more so I wasn't concerned. Plus it was from my aunt. Upon opening it we were overjoyed to find a basket of gifts in preparation for the baby. There was an ear thermometer, a piggy bank, lots of cute outfits for the baby, and some bathing supplies. In short, it was perfect, and it was stuff we needed.

I'm not sure if my aunt and uncle who sent it are reading this blog, but thank you very much. It was a great end to a not-so-great day.

Weight Update!

Today was the day Aimee has been dreading -- when we each stepped on the scale and I weighed less than her! She's gained about 16.5 lbs now and just finally surpassed me. She's being a good sport about it though. Ideally she'll gain about 10 more lbs or so. We had a Doctor visit this past Monday and so far everything looks good. Thank you all for your prayers and support.

Baby's First Hiccups!

by Aimee

I was sitting in my boss’s office today, and right when "Rescue Me" by Aretha Franklin came on, the baby followed the first few beats. I’m thinking, “Oh My! She has rhythm!” But it soon steered off beat, yet still consistent bump-like movement. It was too slow to be her heartbeat or my heartbeat, then I realized she must have the hiccups. Isn’t that cool!?

The baby is moving around so much, and is responsive to voices, and especially Daddy's touch!

A Colorado Vacation

We just got back from a very relaxing, slow-paced vacation in the Rocky Mountains, and it was great! We flew out to see Aimee's mother and her husband. We didn't do much, and that was fine by us. I think the vacation came just in time too - about a week earlier I was pretty stressed from work. I guess we did do a few things actually, we had lunch in Aspen and saw the John Denver memorial, ate some great ribs, and we went to Glenwood Springs Adventure Park (on top of a mountain) as well as their famous hot-springs pools. Colorado is beautiful, and the mountains are so much bigger than I expected! I can see why people would want to climb them. All in all, a great trip. Here are some pictures!
The Maroon Bells
Where We Stayed
Climbing a Fake Mountain on Top of a Real Mountain
The John Denver Memorial
Some Neighbor Horses we fed
Beth, Aimee and I above Glenwood Springs