In which we have a ladies night out and do some Christmas crafts, get snow, celebrate Thanksgiving, and Orcxance pulls off another great dinner for Barry Mountain.

Ladies craft night at church

First real snow

We hosted a Thanksgiving dinner on Tuesday. It was a ton of work but everyone loved the food!

Christmas trees in Banner Elk on my drive to work

Thanksgiving day craft from Grandma B

Family Thanksgiving day lunch

Baby boy coming soon!

We’re excited about getting to meet baby brother! Counting down to his birth and counting down to Christmas! How amazing to experience pregnancy and birth at Christmas time. It has probably been my most uncomfortable/painful pregnancy so far, but I have taken some moments to think about how Mary might have felt during her journey to Bethlehem, and how that was certainly a painful time.

This season is also one of my favorite times of the year, and welcoming a new member of our family makes it even more special. If you think of us, pray for peace and joy during the beautiful Christmas season and the season of growing our family once again.

My wonderful family put on a baby shower for me to celebrate baby boy. You can access our registry here: www.myregistry.com/giftlist/first-boy

Photos

I am so thankful for these blessings! a few pics commemorating our last few weeks as a "girl family." They are so ready to meet their brother!

Baby shower

Grace, Faith and Margaret put on a lovely baby shower for me and lots of friends and family came!

After explaining what a baby shower actually is, Molly said: “I was thinking about…A baby shower?! I get to wash the baby? I don’t know if I can do that!”

Registry: https://www.myregistry.com/giftlist/first-boy

Beautiful fall days…

Even though things haven't been easy lately, I am thankful for the Lord's provision and a beautiful October post-hurricane.

Thankful that my children are happy and healthy and for the wonderful community of women I have here.

October babies

Happy Birthday to our four October babies. It's going by too fast.

We love you!!!

Happy 1st birthday to Salem!

Ironically, Salem’s middle name is Helene. “She’s named after the hurricane,” my coworker said to her friend. Actually it might be the other way around. She got her name before the great storm of 2024 obviously. It has been quite the first year of life. And she did survive the hurricane.

After an extremely traumatic post-birth experience, and several days of being unnamed, we chose the name meaning “peace” for her. She was born during a particularly unpeaceful time for our family.

But as we wrapped up her first year, God has brought more stability and peace to our family over this last year.

Despite moving across the world, changing homes, jobs, neighbors and lifestyle, we are living in God’s peace, and Salem is a reminder of that.

She is a sweet girl with a silly laugh and a great smile. She loves crawling all over the place, standing up and walking on her knees, for some reason or other.