I put a poll on the blog for everyone to vote if they think we are having a girl or a boy, so VOTE! This will be fun. :)

Grayson Highlands National Park

All packed and ready to go!

Trying out the new hammock!

Climbing on the rocks.

Ponies on Mount Rogers

After 3 days of no showers...

Hope you enjoyed our weekend in a nutshell!

6 months married and pregnant

Who would have thought? We are pregnant, and very excited! I am about 9 weeks now, so the baby is the size of a grape. All of the organs have formed but are still developing. I think we find out the 18th week what we are having, but not sure considering we haven't made it to the doctor yet. Hopefully we'll get there in the next couple weeks.

The apartment is still working out great for us. There were a few cold nights (we don't have heat), but we just bundled up and were fine. As much work as it was, I'm thankful the upstairs had to be reinsulated, because it's a lot warmer than it would have been if Shane hadn't switched the insulation to something thicker, and put in the vent chutes. We were going to go out this week to buy a heater for the winter, but we got home a few nights ago and found a brand new heater in the garage. Jeanie had ordered a heater for us that is supposed to heat up to 1,000 sq ft, so we can put it on downstairs and it'll heat upstairs and downstairs. It was a very sweet, generous surprise.

This past weekend, Shane took us up to Grayson Highlands National Park in VA. We had a great time. The weather couldn't have been better. I got a lot of fun pictures, so I'll post those in the next couple days. There were wild ponies, the leaves were yellow, orange, and red. It was a beautiful weekend. My nephew, Grayson, called me on my birthday and I told him Shane and I were going camping. He asked if he could come because he's never been camping. I told him he could next time. Maybe Shane can take him out to Jordan Lake this summer. I had no idea we would be going to a campground with his name in it. He would have thought that was so cool.

Looking forward to hopefully seeing all of our family in the next couple months for the holidays!

Ready for fall...

Boy has it been a hot summer down here in Apex, NC. I guess there has been no motivation to update the blog since the house has been finished, but frankly, there are a lot more exciting things to tell everyone about than our accomplishments. We ran into some family friends tonight while we were out walking in the neighborhood and they shared a lot of wisdom. We live in the love and forgiveness of Christ. We just need to focus on how to love Him more each day we wake up. Our friend kept pointing to us and saying, "This is success. This is what success feels like. This is what success looks like. You will never know success more than you do right now. You are living for Christ." His whole point was that we shouldn't be living for anything but Christ. We go to heaven alone. We don't bring anything with us.

Shane and I have been learning a lot through our prayer life, times alone with the Lord, and experiences with people at work, circumstances at work, etc. Tonight's conversation was such a blessing...and we wanted to share it with y'all.

It's FINISHED!

The apartment is finished....well, close enough. Woo! We've been married a little over 4 months and 2 of those we lived with Jeanie. Pretty crazy. I have to say that it's great having our own space, with a fully furnished kitchen. What a blessing!

I know y'all have been impatiently waiting to see all of Shane's handy work, so here it is!

The kitchen. I'm standing at the door between the garage and the apartment. You can see Shane's door, our STOVE, pantry, table, and nicely painted floor.

Jeanie repainted the cabinets and they turned out great. There are a few brass knobs that we are going to take off and replace with glass knobs that match the other ones. Sorry for the mess.

Jeanie picked out a new countertop and sink, so Shane cut the countertop to fit PERFECTLY between the walls. He also cut a hole to put the sink into that was perfectly aligned with the cabinets above where the microwave sits. Very impressive.

Our new fridge and cabinet. We still need to paint it white to match everything else. I went grocery shopping for the first time in a while last week and I have completely forgotten how to shop. I came home and Shane asked what was for dinner...I couldn't put a meal together with what I bought. So, we went out to eat. Pretty sad. I took Shane shopping with me last night and he was very helpful. We cooked a yummy dinner tonight.

Our stove. It's so nice. Notice the cookie sheet with no cookies on it. We can't cook dinner and not cook dessert.

And now for the upstairs.

Shane watching TV on our new couch!

The bedroom without a wall separating it from the couch. It's nice, we can watch TV from the couch or the bed.

SHANE!

Shane's really happy we are living in the apartment. So am I.

Thanks for keeping up with all of the house updates. We are really happy with how it turned out and I'm pretty sure Jeanie is too. Shane worked so hard and we are thankful for the help from Matt Wall, Dad K, Dad P, David, Jeanie, and Tim.

Shane's birthday was last Monday. Mom and Dad P had us over to dinner and David and Sarah joined us. Mom made london broil, sweet potato wedges, zuccini and onions, salad, and lest us not forget the made from scratch Red Velvet cake with cream cheese icing. Mmm, mmm, good.

We opened gifts from everyone there. It was very special.

One of Shane's new pairs of shoes.

On his actual birthday he got some mail from family, opened gifts from me and from Mom and Dad K, received lots of calls, and Tim Gregory came into town and surprised him. I told Shane I had a surprise for him at 4:30, so he thought we were going somewhere. Tim pulled in right around then and surprised Shane. The 3 of us went out to Cracker Barrel for dinner and then drove out to Durham to say hey to Tim's mom. It was a fun evening. He felt very loved from everyone, so thank you for all of the calls, cards, and gifts.

That's it for now. We are loving our place and would love everyone to come by sometime and see it. Hopefully we will get rid of whatever is biting us before you come. We'll have to get a bug bomb or something.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY SWEET BOY!

Happy birthday to YOU, happy birthday to YOU, happy birthday to SHAAAAAAAANNNEEEE, happy birthday to YOU!
Love you Shane!

Pictures!

You know how people take pictures of their baby to document all the changes and growth and then email them to family and friends? I feel like that with this house...except it's not our baby OR our house. Hmm. Moving on...

Protecting ourselves from fiberglass. I think some snuck into my nose considering I've had quite a few nosebleeds. Gross.

Shane mudding. I think this was hour 88.

Picking at the bubbles in the wall upstairs for Shane to re-mud. He used an old piece of drywall so it was kind of messed up.

Mudding.

So dad was building a fort while Shane was working...just kidding. The camera lens got covered with drywall dust so you can't really see dad. He was helping put up the remaining pieces of drywall. Pretend Dad K is in the picture too because he did a lot of work the weekend before but I didn't get any pictures. :(

We decided to get the air compressor out to blow the dust out of the lens. After we cleaned the lens, we blew air on ourselves. I think we are going crazy.

David came over one night and had dinner with us, and before he left Shane had him help take the cabinets back off the wall.

Upstairs is FINISHED!

The beginning of priming downstairs.

Jeanie painting. I caught her off guard.

The interior door with molding.

Shane dropped the ceiling because of some 2x4's that were in the way. It was a pain, but it looks awesome!

One of the new light fixtures.

The cabinets and the light fixture above.

Ceiling fan in the kitchen.

All we have now is:

- a few more places leading upstairs that need to be painted

- painting the floor, bathroom, and stairs

- fixing the railing

- installing a smoke detector

- installing appliances

- moving in!

We are so close!

I'm assuming I'll be able to put pictures up in a week of everything completed with all of our stuff in place, etc. Very fun! Hope you've enjoyed this.