God's Sweet Provision

I've posted a lot of new things; I got really behind!

So, life has taken quite a crazy turn in the last few weeks with the school semester being added to work, pregnancy, and other life commitments. I have felt as though things are spinning out of control at times! However, I was reminded of God's love and gracious provision to always provide our daily bread when I bought a lovely bouquet of flowers early one week. At the time, I just thought it would be nice to have some fresh flowers at home, and in the following days, I often commented to Damein how 'happy' the flowers looked. They took up lots of space and were really bright and made me smile every time I walked in the room.
As the week progressed, I ended up with lots of stress. On one of the worst and most difficult and overwhelming days I have had in a while, I walked passed the flowers and thought of how loving God was to have me buy flowers that made me smile every time I saw them, knowing how crazy my week would be. Sometimes it is the simple things that speak most loudly of God's love.

Our 4th Anniversary!

One of the most awesome things to celebrate is our anniversary, even more special during our pregnancy...especially since this time last year we had begun to toss around the idea of expanding our family soon! Then, here we are with a little one the very next anniversary we celebrate! We are both so thankful for the grace God has provided us in bringing us together, growing our love for one another and for him, and giving us a heart to minister together for His purposes. It is exciting to think of what he has in store for our family's future. I love you babe!

...of course we ate a wonderful breakfast at City Coffeehouse!!!!! Yummy crepes! Livy loves them:)

Week 30

Here I am....10 weeks out from my due date. My little sweet pea is growing...and looks especially pronounced after eating:) This is after a super yummy meal at Pi. We went 2 weekends in a row because Livy loved it so much!

For some reason this milestone always seemed like the biggest to me. 10 weeks just sounds so much shorter than 11 or 12! I think I just know things are really going to fly by at this point, but we are still seeking to make the most of each part of this process God has blessed us with...and we don't take it for granted. This has been one of the most unique and precious journeys we have ever experienced, and we praise God for it, we truly do.

DIAPERS!!

So, I'm pretty pumped about Livy's diapers. A common item you may think, but not in the world of cloth diapers!! I was showered with cloth diapers at my shower in STL and am so excited to use them on little Livy. Look how fun (and easy) they are!!

Oh, and I do plan to use disposable the first few weeks...so I had to include pics of these tiny newborn diapers!! Is her tush really going to be that small??!!! Too cute!

STL Baby Shower

To round off the baby shower marathon, we had an awesome shower, hosted by our church, here in STL. One thing I must say I have loved about showers is the opportunity to spend time with and see friends that I often don't have a chance to connect with in the midst of life's busyness. It means so much for people to take time out of their schedule to be a blessing to you and that is exactly how I have felt with these showers. Livy doesn't even know how blessed she is with people who already love her and invest in her!
My mom was in town for the shower which was fun and I got some super neat gifts. I also got a particularly unique gift at this shower, from everyone who attended. After I had opened all the gifts, they presented me with one last gift on a sheet of paper in an envelope. It was the signature of everyone who had attended, stating that my final gift was the gift of time, freeing me from writing thank you notes, as they knew I was already very thankful. WOW. That was a huge blessing and I suppose my thank you feels inadequate, but nonetheless, you all don't know what a help and blessing that is. I appreciate all of you, your thoughtfulness and love during this exciting time and consider it a great privilege to call you friends. The Lord has truly blessed me with loving friends!

Mom's (Mema) Visit

It was so fun last weekend to have my mom in town to visit:) She got to experience life in the Schitter household for a few days during this time quickly leading up to Livy's birth! :) We made a fun trip Teavana in the mall where we had a chance to introduce her to all types of yummy, fresh leaf teas.
We definitely had to take her to City Coffeehouse, our favorite, to introduce her to the awesome buckwheat crepes, and we couldn't leave out our customary trip to Stir Crazy, which we all love--Daddy we were definitely thinking of you since you couldn't partake in that goodness! :) As you can see in the picture of my mom's to-go box...she had a slight casualty when exiting through the spinning door of the restaurant...I will leave it at that, but let's just say we all got a good laugh out of that. She's great at keeping people laughing though!
We also FINALLY had a chance to eat at Pi, a famous pizza place in STL that makes their crust out of cornmeal and use all fresh and local ingredients. They had a gluten free crust I could have and let me just say we talked for days about how good the pizza was!! Can't believe we have lived here 4 years and missed out on that!!

Week 28

Sooo...this really isn't the greatest representation...I didn't really think of the fact that black has a tendency to diminish size, so my growth doesn't look very impressive here...but I am growing and gaining weight, which is a huge plus! Nonetheless, here is my 28 week mark!

IN Baby Shower

We were so blessed with a wonderful baby shower in Indiana full of more family and friends! We are overwhelmed with everyone's thoughtfulness in desiring to take part in such a special time with us, as well as help provide the things we will need as new parents when Livy arrives!!
Sharlene had such a neat cake made for us with pictures from the blog, and everyone that came made it a special trip. We love you guys!

Below you can see pics of the cake, some gifts, Damein & I with Aunt Patty and Natalie, and other members of our lovely family:)

Anticipating Livy

Damein and I constantly talk about how excited we are to meet Livy for the first time! Things are becoming very real now that I am 10 weeks out from the due date and little miss Livy is growing profusely...you can barely touch my stomach and not feel some part of her these days, which her Daddy loves! I bet I hear him say, "she's getting so big!" at least a few times a day, which is so cute. I think Livy knows when it is her daddy talking and touching her too because she tends to respond in particular ways to his squeezing and prodding of my stomach!
We framed our favorite ultrasound picture of her and put it in her room. I realized that we have both been taking turns staring at it while brushing our teeth at night, and I recently had to clean a few toothpaste stains off the front of it:) So, yeah, we're pretty excited to meet her!

Trip to Indy

Last weekend, Damein and I made a trip to Indy to visit some of our dearest friends. It was such an encouraging, fun, and relaxing weekend! Our friends, Corey and Janet, have started a new site out of Christ Community Church in Indy, and it was so neat to see what God is doing in and through that ministry! We also had a chance to connect with some other people that we are just getting to know and some other friends we don't see often!
We expected Janet to have little Luke while we were there, but she not only didn't have him last weekend, he still hasn't made his debut! Luke, we are excited to meet you and pray for your safe entrance into the world!
Here are a few pics of our weekend...I love Drew and Ty's cheese in the fam pic!

"Expectant Mother Parking"

My long awaited opportunity to park in the expectant mother spot at the grocery store has now come:) I was so excited to park there today...not really sure why, but even before I was pregnant, it was something I always wanted to do!
Not that it really made much difference at 8am in the morning when no one is at the grocery store...but fun nonetheless!