Baby Wallace: 40+ weeks

Sweet baby still has not chosen to reveal their sweet face to this world!

I have a whole mosaic of emotions currently and I imagine that is where I will stay until little one appears!  It has been a truly phenomenal process, this pregnancy being rich with spiritual lessons and blessings!

We are in a waiting period, praying for the Lord to wash us continually with his peace and love as we strive to trust in him only!  Taking comfort in His love for our little one – and realizing that I am not in control!

Picture below…my trusty walking shoes!  Have walked the neighborhood 3x today and the arboretum with the dess family!  Getting this child out is a community effort!  Trying to savor all of these memories – pregnancy is precious, no matter how anxious I am to hold this little babe!

At the lake on Sunday…big ol’ baby & big ol’ me!

L.O.V.E

To you, dear friends, may you feel true love today and experience joy in its blessing!

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Peace

Faithfulness springs up from the ground, and righteousness looks down from the sky. Yes, the LORD will give what is good.

Psalm 85:11-12

And then came the snow…

Apparently snow coming multiple times a year to dallas is going to be a yearly tradition.  We’ll take it!  Few days of winter heaven – and then it’s gone.  Yes, please.  What a far cry from the never ending gray that is my homeland o’ Michigan.

Basically Dallas shut down for 4 days (irony here is that it was Superbowl Week here in the Big D– those poor, crazy fans!).  All schools closed – roads largely deserted.  But, let me tell you what was pure bliss – SMU was closed for those 4 days as well.   AHHHHHH!!  A whole week of uninterrupted Donald time.  What a gift.  It was treasured.  It was seen as a gracious and extravagant blessing from God.  When does that happen?!  Right before this sweet little bundle comes, we were able to soak up the goodness that these past 2 1/2 years have afforded our little family of three.  I just smile when I think about how that happened.

Getting ready to gear up!

 

What awaited us outside our door – what a fun, fun day!

It is truly impossible to forget those whose days are not marked with laughter, relief, and joy when winter conditions and days off are announced.  For those single, working mommas who have to find someplace for their babies to go; for the kind woman in Target who had to walk to work because her car wasn’t working; for the 3 school-aged boys we saw at the intersection who maybe had no one at home waiting for them to come inside and love on them with hot chocolate and hugs.  We are undeserving of the goodness that we’ve been showered with.

(please excuse the leftover cookie bits remaining on little beauty’s face!)

Want some contrast?!  Check out our day just 6 days earlier.  I kind of love that about Texas.

Baby Wallace: 39+ weeks

OK, I’m ready to have this little bundle in my arms, please!

(abi touching her belly too!  I actually asked donald before he took this picture – can you see my belly from where you are?  He just smiled.)

Add a little bit more girth to me, this was taken about a week ago.  Oh my. 

So, I am tired.  Plain and simple.  My legs ache, my back aches – I ache!  I sound a bit like a broken record here, don’t I?  And then I got the bug that was being passed around – so on top of not being able to sleep due to heartburn and a small bladder – add a fever and sore throat to the mix too.

OK – I’m done.  What a blessing to be able to grow this little baby.  How amazing to watch my body change as it prepares to give birth.  I feel enormously blessed by a husband who is good to me beyond words.  I am thankful.  But maybe one more good night of sleep?? Oops, I said I was done.

On to the really good stuff about this little bun!

Baby W at 39 weeks:

Is the size of a mini watermelon, but if you look at me, I’m pretty sure I’m packing away the watermelon of the traditional variety!  Baby should be over 20 inches and weighing over 7 lbs – which I laugh at.  I know this little beauty will be a good pound heavier (or so I think, that’s silly for me to use crazy words like know when referring to pregnancy!).  Baby is just adding more fat to their sweet little self!

I have my last (hopefully!) appointment tomorrow – only “excitement” was calling up to see what my course of action needed to be with having a fever.  Thankfully, fever never reached 102.  We are just waiting!  Waking up every day wondering if this could be it!  Going to bed every night hoping that labor won’t start until at least 5 am – hehe.  We’ve had a huge (for dallas) ice and snow storm this whole past week – pretty much leaving us and everyone else at home for 4 days straight!  It has been such a gift from God – since SMU was closed all week (besides Monday) we just enjoyed amazing family time.  We’re so so thankful!  Treasuring times while it is just the three of us and anxiously awaiting our 4th member!

Sweet Abi is getting so giddy – still is such a sweet little girl towards baby.  She now is really thinking baby could be a girl (maybe wishing for that too! – we don’t know!) and is understanding (thanks to some great books and LOTS of conversation!) that we’ll be at the hospital for a day or so and that she’ll be staying either with Nanny & Grandpa or Mimi & Grandpa Zo for just a little bit!  Lots of exciting changes!  She’s in her NEW big girl bed with the baby’s crib across the room from her – and she is quite excited about talking to the baby as they go to sleep (wouldn’t that be a precious reality right from the beginning?!?!).  We’re trying to harness some of those expectations!

And to leave you with one great loves of mine this pregnancy!  Couldn’t let it escape the updates the whole time!

Flashback 2011: The Cotton Bowl

Well, the “flashback” series was created thinking it’d give me a not-so-silly way to update this blog on events that happened in the previous year (oh goodness).  BUT, it gives me a way to justify events that happened earlier in the month too!

Given that our dear Aggies were playing in the Cotton Bowl this year (don’t get me started on how Jerry Jones stole the Cotton Bowl from THE Cotton Bowl in Fair Park, ugh) – and the Aggie Band was practicing at Lake Highlands High School!  Wahoo!!!  You know we had to be there!  It was the closest that I’d ever been to the Aggie Band – and we had so much fun!  Abi really dug the tubas – because “they’re so big.”

And then on to that watching of some good ol’ Aggie Football!  Unfortunately LSU bested us that evening – oh boo.

Yummy, fondue.