What's been goin' on

It's been a little while since I blogged. I have started working part time at Target for the holiday season, so I've been pretty busy! Wes and I have had a good month and have gotten to do some cool stuff. One of the coolest things we did this past Sunday. A big group from our church went to serve and help out with a thing called "Boxes of Love". It was started by a church in Buffalo 10 years ago, and they helped 5 families with Christmas dinner and gifts. It has grown so much over the last 10 years and now many churches and organizations are involved each year. Last year Boxes of Love assisted 2,500 families!!

We helped out on the very first day of preparation for this year's Boxes of Love. Places all over Buffalo donate all kinds of items for this each year, so there were hundreds of boxes that had to be sorted through and organized, which is what we did. We sorted and separated everything into categories of food, medical supplies, personal/toiletry items, diapers, gifts, and household items. We did all this in a big warehouse space that gets donated to them every year. Here are some shots of everyone in action.

It was really fun and neat to be a part of this awesome ministry to the city of Buffalo. It's so wonderful to think of all the families that will be receiving food, gifts, and all kinds of necessities this year, and hopefully they will get a glimpse of Jesus' love for them through this. And it's always amazing to me what a blessing it is and how much joy you receive in serving others!

On a different note, I had a fabulous girls' night out last weekend. A bunch of us from church went to dinner at PF Chang's and then went to see "New Moon"! If you don't know what that is - but surely you do - it's the sequel to "Twilight". We had been waiting for this for months and it was awesome! Here we are at PF Chang's before the movie:

It was mahem and craziness at the theater because we went on opening night. Even though we had pre-purchased our tickets, we still had to wait in line for a while before we could get in. Here are Ashley and Amy in their Twilight t-shirts:

They say "Edward prefers brunettes" and "If you don't sparkle, I'm not interested" Ha!!

And finally, here I am growing, growing, growing! This is at 27 weeks (November 23, 2009). I only wish I had remembered to take this picture BEFORE I got in the shower and washed off all my makeup. Oh well.

Halloween Fun

Here we are on Halloween - Can you guess what we are??

We are The Black Eyed Peas!!

Restoration Church had a picnic on Halloween, and it was a lot of fun. It was not the best day outside - cold, very windy, and raining on and off - so we had the picnic inside the community center. Lots of people came, and it was a great time for our church family to just chat, eat, and have fun.

Here is the wife and kids of Alex, one of the pastors. Jennifer is the zoo keeper, Amelia was her lion, and Josie was her little caterpillar. So cute!

Here is our friend Shelly and her little pumpkin Carley:

We had an awesome spread of food! This was the main and side dish table:

And this table was just sweets, so it was my favorite of course! I made apple cider cupcakes with cinnamon cream cheese icing, YUM!

There was a serious game of flag football going on outside, despite the sprinkling rain and mud.

Here is Dan, our pastor, after the game:

And the whole muddy team:

Here was the inside of the community center where we ate and hung out:

And the set up outside where some guys were frying turkeys! They were so good.

And here is another belly shot! This is at 24 weeks and a couple of days (taken November 4, 2009). She's in there alright, and kicking away!

Fall Festivities

We've had another really beautiful fall up here so far. (Side note: I cannot believe Wes and I have been in Buffalo for just over a year now and that this is our second fall here!!) The leaves all of a sudden started turning and it happened really fast over the last couple of weeks.

This past week we have had a couple of fun days going to new places we've never been. The Trippie family, Wes, and I went to a little village called Niagara On The Lake. It is actually in Canada, but it's only about 40 minutes from our house. It is a very charming place with lots of little shops, restaurants, and bed and breakfasts. We only spent a few hours there, but Wes and I definitely want to go back for maybe an overnight stay sometime. Here are just a few shots of Niagara On The Lake and the beautiful scenery. (I wish the pictures did it more justice, but you'll just have to come visit and we will take you there!)

This is Fort Niagara:

Lake Ontario:

Wes and Dan walking down the street:

And just one of the many gorgeous hotels there with a horse and carriage out front:

Yesterday Wes and I had a fun day going to The Great Pumpkin Farm! Here we are being goofy:

Giant pumpkins that weigh over 1,000 pounds!

Notice me there on the left, and you can see how crazy tall this thing was:

We got to feed these cute llamas!

And these guys were really cute and sweet too.

Oh my goodness, the cutest of all:

Fun times! I will be posting soon about our fun Halloween day we had today, and what we dressed up as, so check back soon!

It's gettin' real, folks!

We have a crib in our house. Yikes! It is pretty crazy to see when you walk through the room, and it makes us realize that there will be a baby in there in about four months!

When my mom and dad were here visiting last week, they wanted to buy us our crib and mattress, which is a HUGE blessing! Thank you so, so, so much mom and dad! Your granddaughter will now have a very nice place to sleep because we would not have been able to buy this on our own.

We were able to get a beautiful crib that we both love, and it also converts to a daybed and a full size headboard which is awesome. Wes could hardly wait to put it together! Of course I wanted to document the process, so here it is:

TA DA! First dad project complete and it looks great!

I also bought Wes a little surprise the other day...

So slowly but surely, the reality is sinking in for us. Not totally yet, but we're getting there!

Maid of the Mist!

First of all, I wanted to share some pictures of our sweet puppy (who just turned 6 years old). He likes laying under Wes's hoodie, and he stayed under there for several hours one day.

And here is Wes and Boston laid back enjoying a football game.

So cute! Anyway, this past weekend my mom and dad came up to Buffalo for a (too short) visit. We were all very excited to ride the Maid of the Mist at Niagara Falls for the first time! If you're not familiar with it, it's a big boat that you ride around the base of the falls, and the name is very fitting because you definitely experience the mist! It was a pretty chili day - in the low 40s - but it was a sunny and beautiful fall day.

Here we are waiting to board the boat wearing our cute Maid of the Mist ponchos.

And here are some amazing shots of the falls from the boat. There were so many birds flying around and a gorgeous rainbow from the mist. It was really awesome.

So here is the picture of Wes and me and the rainbow. The sun was really bright, and I was turning to say that I couldn't even open my eyes, and my mom took the picture anyway. Oh well.

Just gorgeous!

Mom and Dad (and the falls and the rainbow):

And here's a better one of us with the falls and rainbow. You may not be able to tell, but we had just gone through the mistiest (is that a word?) spot and got shot right in the face with water so we were pretty wet.

Oh, it was so much fun and I am so thankful we had such a beautiful day to experience this.

I didn't do a very good job of taking a lot of pictures when Mom and Dad were here, so this is the only other one I got! We had dinner at Famous Dave's bar-b-que one night and it was delish.

We had a great time, Mom and Dad! Thanks for coming!

And finally, here I am at 21.5 weeks (taken October 16, 2009). The bump is quite a bit bigger than the last pic I put up here a few weeks ago!! She's moving around a lot now and it's crazy.

September stuff

So September has been good so far! It's hard to believe the summer is already over. It is still in the 70s here in Buffalo, so we're really thankful for that!

On September 9th we had a really special service for Restoration Church. We had our first covenant (membership) service for anyone who wanted to officially join the church. It was sort of like a mini worship service where Dan just said a few things about being a member of Restoration, Wes led in a few songs of worship, and then people got to come up and sign a covenant. It was a really neat service and it was really special for all of us to become an "official" family. We will now start doing this once every few months to give people the opportunity to commit to being a part of the church. Here are a few pictures from the night:

Of course we've also been excited about the start of Auburn football!! It's unfortunately hard for us to get to watch the games since we only have basic cable and we live in New York, but we did get to watch the last one online! We set up our computer in front of the couch and yelled and cheered and got to see the Tigers win! It was a lot of fun. Boston is getting in the Auburn spirit too.

And here's one more shot of our sweet boy snuggled on the couch just cause he's so darn cute:

And finally, here is a belly pic of me at 18 weeks (taken September 22):

I'm sure if you're reading this you've already heard, but apparently it's a girl!

Myrtle Beach 2009

This year we did a Walters/Collins/Bilheimer vacation in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina on Labor Day weekend. It was Wes's mom and her husband, his brother's family (wife and two boys), his sister's family (husband and four kids), and us. We got a four bedroom condo on the beach and it was really nice. Surprisingly roomy for eight adults and six kids! The condo was really nice and had a great indoor water park area for everyone with large and small water slides, lazy rivers, hot tubs, and pools.

Here are Wes's brother, Chad's, two boys Will and Patrick enjoying their apples in the hot tub.

Wes and Chad playing in the waves:

Patrick, our 2 year old nephew, wearing his floaties as anklets:

This is Wes's sister, Jeni's, youngest - Zachary - who is almost 3. Love his mohawk!

Jeni's daughter Torii who is 6 years old. Looks like she's had enough of the beach!

Uncle Wes and Zachary playing:

Wes and his mom:

Jeni's husband, Steven, and their daughter Shane (she is almost 4):

Jeni and me:

Wes and me in one of the indoor water parks:

This is Wes, Chad, and Jeni's son Tyler (8 years old) enjoying the hot tub. I was so jealous and sad - all those hot tubs and I couldn't get in because I'm preggers! It was torturous.

Here's our niece Torii coming off one of the water slides:

All the nieces and nephews! From left to right: Will, Patrick, Torii, Shane, Tyler, and Zachary

One evening we all went and played miniature golf. Here is Wes's sister and all of her clan:

Chad, Will, and Patrick:

All the kiddos together again:

Here is a pretty shot one evening behind our condo on the beach:

Patrick put on Uncle Wes's huge flip flops. So cute!

Wes and Patrick (and Will in the Auburn hat):

It was great to see everyone and spend a few days with them on the beach. I think everyone had a good time!

On our way back to Raleigh (where Chad and Elizabeth live) from Myrtle Beach, we got to make a stop in Wilmington, North Carolina for lunch and to walk around a little bit downtown. It is a very cute and charming little place. We had lunch at a place called Elijah's and got to sit outside right on the water.

Here are some shots of beautiful Wilmington:

Chad, Elizabeth, and the boys walking on the boardwalk:

Downtown area:

Thanks again to Chad and Elizabeth for letting us ride and stay with you and for taking us to Wilmington! And thanks again to Pam for doing all the delicious cooking in Myrtle Beach! We love you all and look forward to the next time seeing you!