Ummmm....

So remember that post about double digits?  Uhhhhh yeah, half of those 99 days have already passed.  What?  We now only have 50 days left until we hold our baby boy in our arms, kiss his sweet cheeks and stare in into the precious eyes of an infant in awe of God's faithfulness and goodness.  I have no idea where the time is going, but it is going fast and I like it!  Can't waaaait!!!!

Couples Baby Shower

Our wonderful friends gave us an INCREDIBLE baby shower in November! 

We have been so blessed by our church in Midland and have made the greatest friends there!  We love having couples to walk through life with and to encourage, love, support and care for each other.  These couples are so great and mean the world to us!  They are just like family and our baby boy is so lucky to have so many great aunts and uncles :) 

Casey and me with his amaaaazing parents!

My dad and me :)

The most generous, wonderful hostesses!!!  We cannot thank you enough!  It was sooo great!!

Our first pieces of baby Z's bedding - the bumper and a pillow!!  The hostesses were so thoughtful and gave us his bumper and we are so thankful!  My mom gave us the precious monogrammed pillow! :)

Baby Z's all set!  Thank you so much for your generosity!!

Thank you all for such a wonderful shower!!!  We were blown away by your generosity and the presence and support of all of you.  We truly are blessed beyond measure. :)

Running the Race

My bestie Wynne and I began walking around Midland college a little over a year ago.  We would meet at 5:15am and walk three miles around the college every Tuesday and Thursday morning.  Although we both struggled at first to get up and get there, it always proved to be a rewarding time of catching up and spending time together. 

Soon after the beginning of 2009 we began talking about possibly training for a half marathon.  Neither of us had ever done one, much less come even close to running 13.1 miles at one time in our lives!  Around April we made the decision we were going to do it.  We found a race in San Antonio in November and decided to sign up for it and begin training.  We continued to meet at the college Tuesday and Thursday mornings, but began running according to our training schedule.  We added Sundays to our "catch up time" to run our long runs. 

Mid-May after signing up for the November race I found out I was pregnant.  Casey and I had been running regularly as a New Years resolution and were up to about 6 miles, and Wynne and I were about two weeks into our half-marathon training.  Casey and I decided to wait to make the big announcement of our pregnancy until we visited the doctor and knew everything was ok.  Wynne and I continued to run together three times a week and had such a great time together!  At times it was hard, but always so rewarding to accomplish a goal of making it just a little further with each passing week.

We announced our big news to friends at the end of July.  It was then that I had to break the news to sweet Wynne that I would be 7 1/2 months pregnant come November 15 and would most likely not be able to run with her in the race.  We were both bummed but continued to train as normal.  I wanted to run with her as long as I could and knew I would miss our time together!

 Telling the big news...

Reactions....

The "No Kids Club" couldn't believe it!!

I found another half-marathon in early September in Virginia Beach, VA.  Casey and I discussed taking a baby moon for a while and thought this would be the perfect place to start.  Since Wynne was so sweet to continue training with her slow preggo friend, I was able to accomplish my goal of running a half marathon!  Casey ran with me to "make sure I was ok" running the race 5 months pregnant.  What a sweet hubby! :)

All that to say, November came and so did the San Antonio half marathon.  Several other friends decided to run this race as well, and Casey and I planned to go support them all along.  Since I already registered to run in May, Casey graciously ran the race and finished in record time for me! :)

Dinner with the parents the night before the race

Casey running

Wynne and Whitney running running the half!!  They did awesome!

Laura running the FULL MARATHON in the light blue top and black shorts :)  So amazing!!!

He finished!!

Everyone did SO incredible in the marathon/half marathon and we had a great weekend with good friends!  Hopefully next year I'll be able to run it WITH WYNNE while trying to get the baby weight off. :)

Introducing Baby Boy Zachry

Casey and I had our 27 week appointment on Monday and a 4D Sonogram of our sweet baby boy this morning! We got a great report from the doctor and everything is looking perfect! Baby boy is measuring right on track and has a great heartbeat around 154 beats per minute.

I took the glucose test on Monday to test for gestational diabetes.  I've heard awful things about this test, specifically the sugary orange drink you have to drink in 5 minutes! Well, they gave me the option of drinking orange or fruit punch. I had no idea there was anything other than orange, and since I'd heard terrible things about it I opted for the fruit punch! It really wasn't bad at all, it tasted like Hawaiian Punch which I like. :) They're going to continue watching and testing my blood sugar from here on out, but aren't too concerned about it.

I've felt really good my whole pregnancy and have no complaints! I love feeling his little jabs and kicks and turns inside my belly all day. What a sweet and surreal time this has been for me! Thank you all so much for your continued prayers! The Lord is definitely hearing our prayers and He's more than deserving of all the glory for my wonderful pregnancy and the great growth and health of our precious boy. Casey and I are so thankful for each one of you and your wonderful support.

These are a couple of pictures we got of our sweet angel this morning! He was not quite ready to show us a full front-on face view, but we got a couple cute profile pictures. He was snuggled up next to the placenta, which is what you'll see around his face in most the pictures. He was pretty comfy right where he was! Do you have any thoughts on who he might look like?

I hope you're all having a great week! Hard to believe it's almost November!! We can't wait to formally introduce you to our sweet blessing in 3 short months!

We love you all!!

DOUBLE. DIGITS.

99 days. That's it. 99 days to prepare for our lives to be forever changed. 99 days to paint, put together furniture, hang curtains and pictures, prepare the coziest little crib, wash and put away the tiniest clothes, feel the sweetest kicks and flips inside my belly, bathe in precious moments with my wonderful hubby, dream of all the unknowns of what's to come, SLEEP and just be STILL before the Lord.

I can't even believe we're just three months away from meeting our precious little boy. What a joy this experience has been for me. The Lord has revealed himself to me and taught me so much in the past 6 months. Mostly of my desperate need for Him. Who am I to raise one of his children? Oh Lord, please equip me. Give me words to speak life into this precious child. Father, guide me in showing baby boy who you are. Grow in him a desire to know you, thirst and hunger for you. Cultivate in him a heart like yours and prepare his spirit to know you, Lord.

We are so thankful for the opportunity to shepherd one of the Lord's most precious children. We pray and believe God will raise him up do to great and mighty things for His kingdom!

We love you sweet baby boy and can't wait to meet you in 99 short days!!

Here We Go!

I must admit, my blogging reputation is surely pretty awful. I've created a blog, made one post, got frustrated with myself for never updating, deleted a blog, stalked many blogs, created a blog, left it vacant for months and had a desire to blog but not been sure where to start. Which leads me here.

We have so much going on in our lives and I just want to shout from the rooftops how great our God is! But for now... I have stacks of work waiting to be completed on my desk. I will update soon, hopefully. :)

Love you sweet friends!