January 2010!

Well hold on everyone...this month flew by so let us fill you in!

We had Grant's 25th birthday dinner at PF Changs with a bunch of our friends! He's a quarter of a century old! haha. For dessert we shared a Great Wall of China, we barely polished it off with 14 people to help. It's huge!

The crew at PF's for Grant's 25th!

So "it's in the water" seems to be true around here. Our friends Steve & Lacey had their little girl Iyla this month. Tonya & Brent welcomed Miss Lillian and Amanda and Tyler just brought home lil' Benjamin Robert this week. Morgan is next! We had her shower a couple weeks ago to get her all ready for Miss Hollyn's arrival.

The girls at Morgan's Baby Shower

Last weekend we had our annual Chill Out Winter Retreat at New Life Ranch. This is our final year to go to this retreat with NES (Nine, Eight, Seven) since the girls are going to highschool next year. They will move up to FSM (Fellowship Student Ministries), so we'll attend different camps and such. We're going to miss hanging out with the NES staff sooo much! I've become so close to Jenni & Kat and the other leaders and Grant has enjoyed hanging out with Simon & Pope! We had a blast in the dance competition, hanging out and playing games. The worship time was amazing and Randy from Memphis came and spoke to the students. I remember 3 years ago when they were begging me to go run around camp at midnight because they were hyper 7th graders. Now they are ready to crash by 10 haha. They have grown so much spiritually. It's so incredible to grow with them! They are such a blessing!

Some of the S'dale 9th Grade girls

Mom Skelton & James hanging out at MeeMaw's

So we've been posting pictures of the crib progress. Well much as been done! It is completely built aside from the frame that will hold the mattress. A couple more coats of stain and Grahm's amazing crib built by Daddy & Gdad will be done & ready to put in the nursery!

The crib!

Literally...one of a kind :)

Well with the crib almost done and Grahm's arrival just a couple months away, it was time to get started on the nursery! The pictures below don't show the colors very well b/c the lighting was off, but it's teal/turquoise and sage/lime green, with (soon to be) brown horizontal stripes! We hope to finish painting this weekend...we'll see! Where there is white left, those small stripes will be dark brown. We bought big brown letters to go in the green stipe that will spell G-R-A-H-M above the crib. The wall with the window is solid teal & I'm thinking about doing a huge razorback painting to match the room for that wall! Future Hog fan!

Grant taping the ceiling

Painting the first color!

Time for green! It's not quite this bright haha

The next layer of teal...(this has been a lot of work!)

Here is the progress so far!

For our out-of-town family & friends...here is what arrived in NWA today! It started with ice last night (not so fun) but turned to heavy snow this morning and it's still snowing (it's 9:30pm!). It's beautiful outside! Tomorrow we might go sledding with LJ & Joe if we can find sleds. I'll be the photographer lol. I just want to get out and stomp around in it a bit!! We hope everyone will keep power and heat this year.

The back yard..covered in ice and snow

Burrr!!

So other big news... Grant is definitely getting off the night rotation!! His first day back on a normal schedule will be February 21st! We are both very excited. It's been almost a year that he's been on nights now.

Grahm update: We'll be 27 weeks this Sunday! Our next appointment(s) is on Feb. 12th. We have to go in for two that day, one in the morning for lab work and a Rhogam shot (I'm RH negative) and then another that afternoon for the typical 28 week stuff. Grahm has grown significantly in the last month and everyone is really starting to notice lol. He's moved up quite a bit with his growth, but I'm still carrying very low. Sleep is becoming more difficult and being comfortable in general...well not so much. My back hurts most of the time, luckily between Aunt Lula and Tiff at work I have a nice chair massager and heating pad to help :). The worst pain has been my upper abs where they feel like they have torn (pleasant thought isnt it) and they hurt consistently. The nurse said they may have pulled but wasn't concerned that anything is wrong other than the fact that I have to deal with the discomfort. So hopefully that will get better, but I'll have them look at it more on the 12th.

We still haven't settled on a middle name but we think we are leaning towards 'Owen'. We're hoping to decide soon! Grahm is still very active! It's so fun to feel him move around and respond to our touch. Grant still reads to him! Grahm is one luckly lil' guy to have a daddy like Grant (just like I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful Hubby)! Things are really starting to sink in as we're realizing how much our lives are about to change and that we're not going to be just an uncle or aunt, youth leader, big bro or sis anymore...we are going to be parents! It's incredible to think that we will all be meeting him so soon. It's fun to think about what he'll look like, how he'll laugh, and all the amazing years ahead of us.

Well that's our January in a nut shell! Everyone stay warm & we'll keep you posted.

Love,

G&B (+1)

Finally 40! ...(degrees that is!)

BBburrr it's been a cold couple of weeks! I never thought I would refer to 40-50 degrees as "nice" weather but it's sure better than zero!

We had a fun New Years Eve with friends. We went out to eat and then spent the evening at Trent and Naomi's.

Grant & I New Year's Eve at Trent & Naomi's

Well Happy (early) Birthday to Grant! Tomorrow, January 15th, Grant will be 25! Happy birthday dear Hubby...happy birthday to you!
We've had alot of birthdays this month, we've also had Aunt Lula's, Dad's, Mom Skelton's & Trynity's is coming up on the 18th. Happy Birthday to all!
We spent last Sunday at the Farm and celebrated Grant, Mom Skelton & Trynity's birthdays.

Tryston making funny poses

Trynity blowing out her birthday candles! The big 3!

Grant's cake was really funny too. It had "25" written on it and they ran out of candles so Anjean & Brenda had the great idea to use matches instead. It was hilarious!

Jim & Grant working in the shop (it was sooo cold!)

Grant working hard

Crib progress:

Ta-da! Here is the front and sides with the first coat of stain!
The detail is incredible.

This much is completed. It just needs a couple more coats of stain!

They've started on the headboard and Grant hopes to have it completely done in the next month. So exciting!

We also ordered the bedding! Grant and I met Renee at fabric gallery and they had all the fabrics we picked out so she has everything she needs to start Grahm's bedding and curtains! We were able then to use the fabric swatches to go get paint and I even found the perfect rug (it was a steal! Naomi wouldn't let me leave without it haha). We have the walls taped up and ready to paint, the plan is to get started this Saturday! We'll post pictures of that as well! Nate & Alicia let us borrow their bassinet and it's just perfect. Things are really starting to come together!

As I mentioned before we got a new camera so we've had fun playing with all the functions. Here are some fun pictures we've taken.

Cardinals at the farm

This is the same picture but you can see the bird in flight!

Mr. Jackson after his trip to the groomer

This past Monday we had our 24 week appointment. This was the glucose screening, so I got to drink the delicious (...kiding) orange drink, wait an hour, and have blood work done. This is a standard test at this point in the pregnancy. I'm thinking the results will be fine, but if not I'll have to go in for a 3 hour gestational diabetes test (woo hoo). Grahm is very active. A couple weeks ago I mentioned that Grant felt him for the first time, well now that's a daily event! Grahm kicks a lot throughout the day and occasionally at night, he's especially responsive to juice and fruit. If I can feel him in a certain place and we put our hands there, he'll push against them sometimes! He did the same thing to the Dr. when she was pushing the doplar on my belly to hear the heartbeat haha. We saw Dr. Hinton this time. She said everything looks great: Grahm's heartbeat was 150 & my weight gain is right on track. When she saw my scar she thought I might have had a kidney transplant, she was shocked to hear that it was from an emergency appendectomy. My scar is often tender now as my belly is growing, but it's not too bad and of course there isn't anything that can be done. I'm happy to report there has been zero sickness still! My only minor compaints are typical; back pain, hard to sleep, uncomfortable, etc...but I've really had an amazing and easy pregnancy so far! Grant takes good care of me though, I've got it good! We have good reason to hope that he'll be getting off the night rotation next month too!!! That was wonderful news for both of us! We should know more details soon.
Well here is the latest picture (I was making a weird face so that's why I'm headless ha). This is from today, we're almost 25 weeks now!

We had a late Christmas get together this past week and Grahm got an outfit from my dad and Tiffany. It says "Team Grandpa". He's very excited about having a grandson!
Pretty much everything is decided and in progress except one little thing....a middle name!! We have it narrowed down to a few. See the poll below and tell us which one you like best!

Well Jackson got himself stuck under the bed again, so I'm going to dig him out and then it's time for bed!

Goodnight & God Bless!

Love

G&B(+1)

Go Cowboys!