Any Day Now

My it's been awhile since our last post!  Since then..so much has happened!  Most excitingly, we're waiting for our little Averi's arrival any day now!  Brett and I can't wait to meet her.  I've had the best pregnancy, have been very fortunate to continue my workout schedule up until this last Tuesday!  Since then, I've been spinning 2-3 times a week and keeping active with bike rides and walks.  Now, doctors orders are walks only:( oh well...good time for some rest before our lives change right?

June, took us back to Iowa for my wonderful friend Jordan's wedding to the love of her life Mr. Rhys Beynon.  What a beautiful day it was!  Simply breath taking.  She couldn't have married into a better family, and we're so happy that we could make it back and share in their special day with them.  We miss them dearly and hope that they can come visit us sooner than later!

For the 4th, my friend Jess came out to visit...we started her visit with a Boston Duck Boat Tour, followed by shopping, a trip to Newport, and a little r&r by the pool!  It was so nice to have her out here, and we can't wait till she comes back Aug 19th to meet her little niece Averi ;) Aunt Jessica has already spoiled Averi a TON and we have only Jessica to thank for nearly half of Averi's wardrobe!

I was surprised, yes I WAS SURPRISED with not 1, not 2, but 3 baby showers!!!!  OMG they were fabulous and totally unnecessary!  The first one was from my spinning buddies from the gym!  They really got me good as I was expecting to be meeting 2 of them for a last minute meeting before our big weekend of fundraisers for my friend and spinning teacher Cori who is raising $$ for the Pan Mass Challenge which she is riding in this August. Well little did I know that the "meeting" was welcomed by my entire spinning class that I had just gotten done riding with only 15min earlier...wow are they good!  We had an awesome evening of gifts, food, cake, balloons, and just a lot of fun!  Thank you guys so much!

The next surprise came at my office, when we were all eating lunch that one of the girls in the office had prepared, and all the sudden in came a "throne" decorated in pink streamers with gifts and cake and flowers!  Those stinkers got me!  It was so nice of everyone to pitch in and throw such a wonderful surprise!

Lastly, but not least my neighbor Michelle was throwing a "surprise" bday party for her husband Dan,  whose bday was on July 4th, only we celebrated a week later.  So of course we would go to that..we love celebrating w/ our neighbors, and him and Brett are really great friends as they also work together!  So we ventured over to their house at the party time of 2:30 to find not only my neighbor gals but also my office girls, and my 2 workout buddies Cori and Eileen!!  OMG it was fantastic!  Food, Food, Food, cake, games, gifts, it was all wonderful!  So nice to live in such a great neighborhood! 

All 3 showers were greatly appreciated as it's hard for family to be here for us with them all tucked away back in Iowa and we're out here..so we greatly appreciate everyones love, kindness, and generosity that they've shown us not only since we've moved out here but also since becoming pregnant.  You guys are the best!

Brett has been keeping busy with work, and keeping up our lawn and just recently re-landscaped the front of our house, taking out the old cement block things that were in front of our shrubs and replacing them with nice granite slabs and re-mulching both sides of our front steps around the shrubs.  Man is he good!!

So that's been our life..and now we're anxiously awaiting Averi's arrival seriously at any time...they sure are right about the last few weeks/days being the worst! 

Thanks for everyones words of encouragement and love..and we can't wait to update you all when our little miracle has arrived!!

Love,
Amanda & Brett

Update

So it's been awhile since I last posted and in that time A LOT has changed for us.  On Nov. 21st we found out we were going to be parents!  What WONDERFUL NEWS & what a GREAT Birthday present for Brett (his is on Nov. 22nd)

We were so excited to find out that God had blessed us with a little one that we will meet around July 31st. 

Fast forward 5 months and here we are anticipating the birth of our little girl!  We just finished assembling the baby crib, dresser, and changing table today...whew what a job!  Glad that's over..now it's on to the fun stuff of decorating.  I wish we could decide on a name so that I could get the little block letters and put her name on the wall..but I guess we'll know sooner or later.  We have her name narrowed to a few names, which we're going to keep a secret until she's born. 
I was very lucky to have had such a WONDERFUL pregnancy thus far; i haven't once been sick or had any problems and I'm just starting to show.  I've been told that I'm lucky, and I think it has a lot to do with my continual exercise that i've been able to maintain.  I've gotten the clearance to continue my normal exercise routine until I can no longer do it which shouldn't be until right around mid July or so I've been told.  I'm careful to listen to my body and not always give it 100% when working out and I've invested in a heart rate monitor which has been awesome to keep in check with my heart rate.

Other than that exciting news not much is happening.  Brett's cousin Brad, friend Kellie, brother Shane, Shane's gf Paige, and Brett's friend Shane came out to visit us a couple of weeks ago which was a lot of fun!  We always have fun when visitors come..ALL ARE WELCOME ANYTIME! 
Brett goes back to Iowa to help calf on March 24th thru April 3rd, my dad will be coming back with him and staying with us for a few days..we're excited for him to finally see our house!

I'm looking forward to my friend Courtney coming for the weekend while Brett is gone, and then my next big adventure will be back to Iowa in June for Jordan's wedding!  I CAN'T WAIT to be reunited w/ my girlies..:)

We hope everyone is doing well and I'll try to keep this updated more regularly:)