33 weeks

and my stomach feels like it is ready to explode. i think we are going through a growth spurt and my skin is a bit behind.

current cravings: cooked spinach, hot dogs, tarter sauce (some things never change), sushi, and back rubs. our poor child and the things he/she will enjoy :)

p.s. i really was proud of america last night and the fact allison was not in the bottom three of american idol. she may just be my new favorite.

way to go bud!!

tim and i had an appointment with the midwife this morning and i am happy to report baby bud's head is down, where it needs to be!!! tim, of course, was not worried. but we both are still very much relieved that the baby is now in the ready position.

everything else also looks good, and we have our appointments scheduled for the next 7 weeks. june 21st will be here before we know it.

this weekend we have our birthing/new parent class. it will make for a full weekend, so i am taking friday off to rest up. i don't know exactly what to expect but i am looking forward to it.

we continue to have wonderful weather in vancouver - spring has very much arrived. and i am very glad!

loss

this morning my counseling supervisor, Daryle Woodward, died. he had just turned 65. his death was very much expected as his health had been in decline for the past 4 years and most dramatically the last 4 months.

i had the priviledge of seeing him for the last time on friday. i had "just so happened" to email him before our trip to touch base. his dear wife patti wrote back explaining what had been going on and invited me to visit. my time with him on friday was short, as his thoughts were a bit confused and his energy level was low. but he did recognize me and i was able to thank him for all he gave me, all he taught me, the ways he cared for me.

he was my supervisor while i attended Denver Seminary and then after i graduated. i certainly will never forget him. i feel sad today.

as i was driving to work and praying for Daryle and Patti and other dear friends i was reminded that we are most certianly 'dust.'


Psalm 103 says:
13 As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; 14 for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.

15 As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field;
16 the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more.

17 But from everlasting to everlasting the LORD's love is with those who fear him.

We are dust and yet the Lord's love, which is never ending - breaking all boundaries of time - is lavished upon us. Being pregnant I am often reminded of the gift of life. And today that is coupled with the reality of death. Today I am reminded that we have been given the greatest gift of love and have a choice to respond. For the Lord has given us the great priviledge of loving Him and loving others, despite the fact that we are dust. For by His grace we can still make a difference.

Daryle made a difference. He loved Jesus and he loved others well. And there are many who will miss him. But Praise the Lord that Daryle is with Jesus today - dancing, smiling, telling jokes and listening.

"i get on the blog!!" exclaims tim as he sees this post

some pictures of the "three" of us. :)

some pictures from colorado

we returned saturday after a great trip to colorado. here we are with my grandpa rid, great uncle jim and grandma peg. it just so happened my grandparents were visiting denver the same time we were.
















we were able to visit our dear friends the stivers. they welcomed a cute baby boy into their family a few weeks ago.


and of course a picture of ellis :)

i could say so much about our time in colorado. but i will keep it brief because i am tired after my first day back at work. tim and i LOVED the time we were able to spend with family. our time in colorado springs was relaxing and refreshing in so many ways. we feel incredibly blessed by ken, vickie and janae and our dear relationships with them. we also loved the moments we were in denver. the time went quickly but spending friday night hanging out with gabe, brooke and ellis was precious, as well as a morning with the stivers and a chance to catch up with pastor phil (from new hope).

many, many thanks to my mom and dad for watching faith for the week. i think she was disappointed when we showed up saturday night. she even slept in their room that evening. :) but today back with us in vancouver she seems to be doing ok. there is certainly no doubt that faith loves time in bellingham with my parents.

again i could go on and on. but i do feel tired. and i am trying my best to rest.

32 weeks

a week away

tim and i are currently in colorado springs. we arrived yesterday afternoon after a nice morning with friends in seattle. i found i felt much more calm with tim around, which is somewhat ironic given the fact that tim and i have much different traveling styles. one of us likes to get to the airport in plenty of time, while the other would be perfectly content to rush to the gate just as boarding is being completed. i will let you guess who is who.

anyways. we arrived to snow on the ground. gabe and ken met us at the airport. we picked up chipotle (!) and went to gabe and brooke's house. tim was able to meet ellis. she is doing great - growing like a champ. last night we drove down to colorado springs and will spend the next few days here with ken, vickie and janae.

and in true colorado fashion it is a beautiful sunny day and should be in the upper 60s by tomorrow. we are taking it easy and enjoying being together.

that's all for now. hope you are having a wonderful sunday.

31 weeks

here are pictures tim took today. it was just before i left for work so i am still waking up... or so it looks... :)

















and even though you can't see my face real well in this one, it was the only full body shot.

amazing!

my mom sent me this clip and i would encourage you to check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY&feature=related

it is from britians got talent. you won't be disappointed.

technical difficulties

for some reason i couldn't type after the pics in my last post and it is too early in the morning to mess with it.

so the other super cute baby in the pictures is niko stivers - keri and charlie's 2 week old little man. gabe, brooke, ellis and i went to visit him for a bit saturday night. wonderful to see them.

the picture of the beautiful table is from the shower. check brooke's blog out for other pictures. she took a lot of good pictures and i only took 2 pictures of the tables :) i was incredibly blessed by the shower in so many ways. from the thought sonya took in preparing the shower, to the amazing food, to the amazing women who came, to the precious gifts (everything is so cute!!), to the time to just hang out. i will never forget the time and the dear friends who came.

and the super cute picture of janae is from friday night when we went to look for prom dresses for j's senior prom. she looked fantastic in every dress. this particular dress she bought for senior breakfast/graduation. i loved spending some quality sister time with her!!

overall the trip to colorado was busy, but perfect. i got to spend a relaxing time with the knipps, fun times of catching up with friends, and i met the cutest almost 6 pound baby the world has ever seen - miss ellis.

i came home tired, hence why it has taken a few days to post anything. tim and i head back on saturday. i am glad he will be with me this time. i missed him this last trip. we will spend the majority of the time with tk's family. we both are very much looking forward to it.

ok. i have to go get ready for work.

with a heart full of gratitude. kristi

pictures from colorado

sweet ellis jane

30 weeks, a sleepover and a trip 'home'

tomorrow marks the beginning of the 30th week of pregnancy. for some reason moving into the 30's feels like a big deal. the baby has been very active today, which is fun. even if the baby's head isn't down it is great to feel the baby move around.

after work today i will drive down to bellingham and spend the night with my parents. defense decided to spend the night at home as well so we will have a little sister-slumber party. good times :) and my sweet mom is so wonderful - she washed my sheets, bought me snacks for the plane and will drive me down to seattle tomorrow. i feel very loved.

tomorrow bud and i make the trip to denver. i am so so excited. denver still in many ways feels like home, and i am incredibly thankful for the chance to go and see so many that i love.

ellis jane - your auntie is so excited to meet you. i hope i can sleep tonight :)

knipp baby

tim and i had an appointment with our midwife this afternoon. the appointment went really well. i do not have gestational diabetes - that's nice. and the baby's heartbeat sounded good and my blood pressure was great.

however...

our baby is most certainly a knipp. the baby is currently in the breech position. and, as my mom pointed out, it makes perfect sense that a knipp baby would wait until the last possible moment to get ready to go. i think a latimer baby would have been head down for weeks now. but no. we have an active, knipp baby on our hands. :) who i am sure at the last possible moment, long past my comfort level, will get ready to enter the world.

the midwife said flying should help, as babies often turn in the air. and baby and i will be on four flights between now and our next appointment. the midwife wasn't too concerned as 25% of babies are breech at this point in the pregnancy, but if the baby is not head down by our next appointment we will go in for an ultrasound.

i would greatly appreciate your prayers that the baby has enough latimer in him/her to turn between now and our next appointment. and that i would claim my knipp name and relax about it. :)

wii

tim and i are "watching" the mosers' wii while they are gone. it was a bit of a difficult decision when they asked if we wanted to watch it for them for the two months they will be gone. and when i mentioned to tim we may need to put "boundaries" around the wii - he said, "why? i don't think faith will run into it or anything." so we will see. mixing my love for wii with tim's love for anything media related, we may be in a bit of trouble.

sunday when tim brought in the small tv from the garage you could see faith's eyes get very big. tim and i have not had a tv for the 5.5 years we have been married. and much like her father, faith loves tv. as tim was getting the wii set-up faith just sat and stared at the blank screen. tim and i enjoyed playing super mario brothers 3 for a while. faith enjoyed watching. we caught her later in the afternoon staring at the tv. i think she thinks that if she looks at it long enough it will turn on.

after we finished playing tim made a very interesting and thoughtful comment - "video games can never bring a genuine sense of satisfaction and yet they can cause genuine frustration." true enough.

will this stop us from playing. probably not. it is fun. but i do think we will have to be intentional to not play too much. also i must admit i had the mario 3 music in my head as i went to bed. maybe it is an early red flag...

we must be growing...

because i just slept a long time. last night as tim was doing the dishes i thought i would take a "rest" on the couch. tim woke me up from my rest at 11:00 and gently helped me to the bed. I then promptly went to sleep and woke about about 30 min ago. 8-8. 12 hours. trying to sleep as much as we can - you bet. trying to spend quality time together - hopefully, but this is a little more difficult when one of us falls asleep at eight.

in other news. our dear neighbors leave tomorrow morning for a two month american tour. the mosers will be all over the place - speaking at churches, seeing family, connecting with friends and taking a vacation (just drew and bekah - no kids!). last week they were gone for a few days on a retreat and it definitely felt different around here. we will miss them. but we are incredibly thankful they are coming back. yesterday i was talking to benjamin about june - how when he comes back i will be SO big and then the baby will come. ben has the greatest ideas for baby names. drina, trina, ramba are a few i can remember. he takes naming very seriously. so whenever i need someone to talk to about names he is a wonderful dialogue partner!

that's all i can think of for now. i am going to denver on thursday. slightly - no wait - extremely excited for the trip.

happy saturday.

april fools

today always reminds me of my grandpa bud. growing up on april first before school or shortly after arriving home the phone would ring - it would be grandpa bud exclaiming, "it is snowing in santa barbra!" some years i would remember it was april 1st and have a great come back. others i would forget and for a moment believe snow could actually fall in southern california in the spring.

today i just had to smile as i looked outside and saw snow falling in vancouver. my grandpa bud died when i was in elementary school but i imagine he asked the Father for a favor - "send snow to vancouver. it will make kristi smile."

the baby that grows inside of me we call bud in his honor. tim and i are praying our baby would have the courage, love for those others avoid or ignore, and random humor of grandpa bud.

so happy april fools from vancouver - where it really is (or was earlier) snowing.