The Family Shower

Location: Brick Street Cafe
Hostesses: our wonderful cousins!!

Lindsey and I were SOOOO.... excited to get to share a shower together. What a special time for us both with our wonderful family. In this picture I think I am around 36 weeks and she is four weeks behind me.

The huge pile of gifts waiting to be opened.

The YUMMY food! You can see that I had to take a bite of the "love muffin" before I even took the picture!

Let the unwrapping begin!

Caleb got his first flannel shirt sent from his Uncle Corey! I was so excited I think you can practically see my tonsils in this picture.

Monogrammed diaper bags.

Bibs!

The little cousins....

Me and Janelle

All worn out! It takes a lot of energy eating all that food and opening all those gifts.

Me and Linds with the hostesses, our cousins - Andrea Stratman, Tiffany Singer, Pamela Adams and Anna Smith.

WE HAD A BLAST!!!!

SHOWER TIME!!!!

My first shower was February 2 in Anderson. Chad's aunt and some dear friends threw it for us. It was a wonderful time and we got so much fun stuff for little Caleb! Check out the pictures below...

Me with the hostesses

Wonderful high school friends!

Great gifts...now we just have to figure out how to use them all!

The goods!

Three Generations!

Me with the future grandmothers!

The Assembling of the Crib

Chad rolling up his sleeves for the task at hand.

Step 1: It's out of the box

Step 2: Intently reading the instruction manual - we really did! Oh...and ignore my outfit, please. Look, it was Sunday afternoon and this pregnant girl was just going for comfort!

Step 3: The bedspring on the support rails.

Step 4: Adding the sides to complete the look.

Daisy across the hall looking in and wondering what in the world is going on!

THE FINISHED PRODUCT!!

(minus the bedding which will be put on after it's all washed)

And the name is...

(OK...so I didn't waste a lot of time getting something monogrammed!)







After almost 8 months of debating we have finally chosen a name for this precious little one that will be joining our life in March. We went through the baby name book oodles of times and threw quite a few names around many times. Chad would like one, I wouldn't; I would like one, Chad wouldn't. So after playing that game for a while, we finally came up with one we are both happy with - one that we think is appropriate for a little baby as well as a 50 year old man, something classic and timeless; cute, but not too trendy. The baby formerly known as Baby Boy Byce for most of this pregnancy is actually going to be

CALEB ROSS BYCE

We both just really liked the name Caleb, and Ross is my little brother's middle name, who I love dearly and will unfortunately not be here for the baby's birth. But, I know he is going to LOVE his uncle and once he fully understands the reason he wasn't at his birth, he'll love, respect and look up to him even more!

So, the countdown is on - only 8 more weeks until we get to meet this little gift from God, who if he's as active as he is in my belly, is going to be A LOT of fun!!

In the making...

Me showing off the red stripe.

Chad hanging the ceiling fan.

Mom and dad painting away. They've done a great job!

So the little room is starting to call come together. We still have one more coat of paint and the furniture - which we get to pick up tonight. I'm very excited about that. I'll post a finished product pic as soon as we have one!

Winter Wonderland

Is this not THE BEST thing to find outside your window on a school day?!?!?

Our first snow at the new house. This is a tree in our front yard.

These are the pines that line our side yard.

Yesterday we had our first snow of the year and it was beautiful...at least for the morning. There is nothing like waking up and finding your yard has been showered with white. It is such a beautiful and refreshing thing. And then you walk outside and everything is so quite - no cars, everything is still - only the occassional scream of a child attempting to sled or build a snowman in the 2 or less inches! And to think we are expecting more tonight and tomorrow...

FINALLY!

The Belly at 30 weeks!

Daisy greeting her new brother!

My annual Christmas pic with Corey on Skype!

Chad with his new vest

Me and Linds. We got matching hoodie towels!

If we were having a contest for biggest cousin....I would WIN!

Christmas Morning

We are ready for Christmas!

Our 2007 Christmas card

OK...so I never claimed to be GREAT at this blogging thing. I just said I would give it a try! Although it isn't that hard to update, I just seem to never take the time to do it. Maybe that would be a good New Year's resolution for me!

Things here have been going well. Life is changing quickly and so is my belly! We found out back in October (I think) that we are having a BOY! Unfortunately, he still has no name, so we just call him Baby Boy Byce. I assure you that by the time he gets here he WILL have a name. OR maybe I will just be one of those mom's who names my child after the first thing I see...hmmmm. That could be interesting! We are very excited and have been getting things all ready for his arrival.

It was especially neat being pregnant during Christmas this year. First because I am getting to share this pregnancy with one of the most precious and special people in my life, my cousin, Lindsey. Anyone who knows me well enough knows that this girl is a staple in my life. We have been as close as sisters our entire life and now we are pregnant together. She is four weeks behind me and it has been awesome to have someone so close to share all the pregnancy craziness with! Second, being pregnant at Christmas was neat because it made me reflect even more on the birth of Christ and especially Mary's role in everything - like riding on that donkey so far being SO pregnant! Now that I just can't imagine! Seriously, it did make me think about all that so much and just all the things she must have been thinking and pondering, as the Bible says. I can't imagine how she must have been feeling. I am nervous enough about being a good parent, but to think what it must have been like to know that you were rearing the Christ child. Thankfully, I know we serve a faithful God who will never give us more than we can handle.

I hope everyone is well and that 2008 will be your fullest and most wonderful year yet. I pray you will learn more and grow closer to those you love and to the Father who loves you more than anything! That's my plan...

P.S. The pics at the beginning are from Christmas, with the first one being my most recent belly pic taken just yesterday. We are at 30 weeks now...only 10 more to go!!!!

16 week baby bump

Out with the old...in with the newer!

Chad with his first listing....OURS!!!!

The new house...at least for us.

Well, it's official...WE ARE MOVING! We found a house about a month ago, have had ours on the market about a week and a half, and we got a contract on it yesterday! We are very excited to start life in a new place, which happens to be a little closer to Greenville and that thrills me! Our house was Chad's first listing as a realtor and also will be his first sell. We will probably be closing and moving sometime in the middle of October. We are up for any offers to help us move!! :):)

We're excited about the upcoming year and can't wait to see all that God has in store for us. It was a HUGE answer to prayer that we sold our house so fast. He has blessed us beyond what we could imagine and we can't wait (I think!) to see where His will is going to take us next.

Thump, Thump

Today we had our second Dr. appt and got the hear the baby's heartbeat! Now talk about something cool. He put the little machine right on my belly and picked it right up. It was amazing and was beating at 150 beats/minute. He said based on the old wives tale, that it was a girl's heartbeat, but we will have to wait and see. I think we get to find out in 2 more appointments. Everything else looked great. He said my stomach was measuring the right size and that everything looked fine. We go back again toward the end of September.

And here "IT" is...

"For you created my my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well."Psalm 139: 13 - 14

Well...thanks to the internet, you can now post your baby's picture online before he/she is even born! Seriously, this is the first picture of our little one. We are calling it "tot" right now because the shape resembled a tater tot in a weird sort of way! As of yesterday we are 11 weeks along and are so excited. I have been feeling great - just really, really, really tired. It's crazy, but thankfully I haven't had any sickness.

After we announced it to the family, my wonderful cousin sent me an excerpt from Rick Warren's book The Purpose Driven Life. I had previously read the book and loved it, but the excerpt she sent has become particularly precious to me. I will include parts of it below:

You are not an accident. Your birth was no mistake or mishap, and your life is no fluke of nature. Your parents may not have planned you, but God did. He was not surprised by your birth at all. In fact, he expected it. Long before you were conceived by your parents, you were conceived in the mind of God. He thought of you first. It is not fate, nor chance, nor luck, nor coincidence that you are breathing at this very moment. You are alive because God wanted to creat you! God had a plan in creating you. It doesn't matter whether your parents are good, bad or indifferent. God knew exactly the right genetic makeup to create the custom "you" he had in mind. Every plant and every animal was planned by God, and every person was designed with a purpose in mind. God's motive for creating you was his love. Ephisians 1:4a says "Long before he laid down earth's foundations, he had us in mind, had setttled on us as the focus of his love" (The Message)."

I think the coolest thing has been thinking about the fact that this little person growing inside of me already has a purpose in the eyes of God - "...your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be..." (Psalm 139:16). I am so excited to watch he/she live out the life God has planned. Our prayer is that we will be the living examples that God calls us to be - not only to our child, but to everyone around us.

We will keep you posted on this journey!!!

A few stitches later... (content may be graphic)

Overall, I consider myself a pretty careful person. I don't do too many things that have the potential of getting me injured. Maybe the cautiousness comes from the upbringing. I remember I wanted to sign up to play softball when I was younger and mom was worried I might get my fingers smashed by the ball and not be able to play the violin anymore!! Oh well, probably for the best because I'm not so sure I would have been that good. Just ask Corey; we played ball chase a few times - he threw the baseball and I chased it! So, I thought because of my ultra carefulness that I was going to be a "lifer" and never have any stitches from some silly accident; however, that all changed one week ago today...

Chad and I and two of his friends decided to take a leisurely boat ride on Lake Hartwell. It was a scorching hot day and we were gonna just ride around. We weren't even gonna get crazy and tube or anything - just riding around with our hair blowing in the wind. Unfortunately, another plan was meant for us that afternoon because about 5 minutes into the boat ride (before we even had any speed) a boat passed us by and made a pretty large wake. Now, had we known the events in our close future, we probably would not have given them the friendly wave we did, but we were happy and carefree at that moment. Right after the friendly "throw up" (as my dad calls it) we hit their wake and because we were going slow the front of the boat where I happened to be sitting went up. I was sitting in a bass seat and I knew I was gonna come down REALLY hard so I put my arms down to brace myself. As we came back down, my wrist slammed into the metal hinge on the seat and it slit right open. Because I was bleeding pretty bad, we turned the boat around, left Chad's friends on it with hopes that they could figure out how to load it, and went the ER - WITH a police escort, I might add! We got to run all the stoplights and everything! We got the ER and were definitely the most legit people there with blood all over both of us. I still haven't figured out why the others were there - esp the guy in the waiting area who told me about EVERY trip he'd ever taken to the ER. Anyway, a few hours and 11 stitches (5 inside, 6 outside) later, I came out with a nicely bandaged right hand and I've been a little out of commission ever since!

Remember when...

Ahhhh...the lazy days of summer. Sleeping late, getting up with nothing really to do, watching TV and falling back asleep. I remember when I was young and couldn't drive and summer days at home seemed like an eternity! What I would give to have those long day back again.

Or is it really? I caught myself starting out the summer very fast paced - getting up relatively early (for summer), getting dressed and heading out to do all my errands first thing - like places weren't going to be open later in the day. After our vacation, I had to re-evaluate. My mornings are definitely what I miss most about the school year....and if we are planning to have a family soon (God-willing), this may be my last summer of mornings to myself. SO, I have done a 360 these days. I sleep later, roam around in my pj's until I feel like showering, take my time with my quiet time, sit on my porch and read with my coffee. It is wonderful and I would highly suggest it to anyone who is rushing your summer away. Really take to heart that they don't call them the lazy days of summer for nothing!

An "Uptown Girl" Valentine's Day!

Oh yes! If it is a little hard to make out who is in concert above, let me help you out a little....it is none other that the amazingly talented BILLY JOEL!! This Valentine's Day Chad picked me up from school in his make-shift chariot (our highlander, of course) and wisked me away to Columbia for a great dinner and surprise tickets to see Billy Joel concert! It's a concert I have ALWAYS wanted to see and all those years of waiting were worth it! It was an awesome concert and an awesome Valentine's Day! My husband is so wonderful to me! :)

I HEART Snow Days!

Living in the south, there is nothing like waking up in the morning and looking out your window to find a blanket of white on the ground! Of course, no matter what your profession, it usually means that you can crawl back into bed because with even the slightest dusting of snow, entire towns seem to come to a hault. But, although it may be an inconvience for some, I LOVE it! I love the fact that it's a "surprise" day off and I love that you are forced to slow down. I love hanging around the house and not really having to go or do anything. That is exactly how today was and it was wonderful. Chad and I slept late and then when we finally did wake up, I made some yummy muffins. We enjoyed those by the fire and sat around in our pj's (or at least I did) and watched a little TV. We also got to see Daisy experience her first time in the snow. She wasn't too fond of it. She ran out, looked around some, did her business and then quickly returned to the warm house. I can't really blame her. It only made it to 32 today! We also got to spend some time with our neighbors. They had a clever way of keeping warm (see me modeling it in the picture!). Then we came back home, I made a pound cake and we just goofed off the rest of the day. It has been an awesome day! A much needed halt in the business of life! I am thankful for so many things and today one of them is SNOW!!! :)