Mark and Jenny Young

Some of our friends from Northern Virginia were married last Saturday. Jenny actually went to JMU. But, we never knew her there. Andrew met Mark through working at Immanuel Bible Church's youth group.

They had a beautiful outdoor wedding. The weather was perfect in the 70's and sunny.

Our friend Chris Cartwright came to the wedding also. We were sad that his wife Megan couldn't be there too. :(

This will be our last post for a while because we are leaving for Italy tonight at 10:20! We are going with Andrew's parents. We will be getting back on July 10th. So, we will have a lot of blogging to do when we get back. And we will find out if we are having a boy or girl on the 11th. I will try to take some pictures of my growing belly to post as well (sorry Cristen :)). We hope everyone has a great 4th of July!

Wilma Rynbrandt 1911-2007

Andrew's grandmother passed away this past Saturday. She was 96 years old. We flew up to Grand Rapids, Michigan on Sunday night for the viewing on Monday and the funeral on Tuesday. Needless to say it was a very hard and emotional time for us, especially Andrew. Her funeral was very nice and I learned a lot more about Andrew's grandmother. For example, she went ski-dooing for the first time in her 80's! She often had the nickname, Wild Willie, for her adventurous spirit. :) Her funeral was obviously sad because she will no longer be here with us. But, it was also a really neat time to hear person after person tell about what a woman of God she was. She truly had a servant's heart. So, even during this time of sorrow, it is also a time of rejoicing as she is with her saviour now. I am sad that I only knew her for about 5 years. But, I am so thankful for the Godly heritage that she passed on to her children, grandchildren (Andrew) and that will soon be passed on to her 12th great-grandchild.

Beatrice Isabel Santa Rita

Today we went to the Christening of Beatrice. She is Daniel (Andrew's brother) and Katherine's new little niece.


Here is her baptism.


The pastor is taking her down the aisle to show her to the congregation.


Here are her parents Mike and Jo Santa Rita. Mike is Katherine's brother.

Oh So Bright!

We recently put up a new chandelier in our dining room. We wanted to put new lights in our stairwell and foyer as well. But, the store was out of stock. Fortunately, our stairwell pendant light came in this weekend and we were able to put it up. Here is our old light.


It was pretty difficult to get to since it was over the stairs. Andrew's dad brought up some ladders and helped Andrew set up a board to stand on.


Andrew is quite the electrician now. And he is very brave for standing on the very precarious board over the stairwell.



Here is our new light.

Last Day of School!

We finally made it to the last day of school today. In some ways this year has flown past. But, in others, I have really been counting down the days. I am really going to miss these guys. They are so funny and sweet.

I read them a book today called, "Our Teacher's Having A Baby". After I read the book I asked them why they think I read it to them. They said because Mrs. Toms (another 1st grade teacher) is having a baby. I said there was another reason. They were so surprised that I was pregnant. I had felt sure that they knew. But, they didn't. So, we spent the next 10 minutes coming up with names for our baby like Allison, Bob, Dr. Mario, and September. And most of them think it is going to be a girl.

We had a pretty fun day. We also got to make ice cream sundaes because we earned 20 high-fives. I got lots of great gifts as well. They were all better than the bottle of deodorant that I got last year. (But, I guess that's not that hard to beat :)) My secret pal also made a great gift for me. She had all my students write why they liked me. It was really sweet and funny. One of them wrote that she liked me because I was "butfall". I will give her the benefit of the doubt and guess that she was trying to say beautiful. Another student wrote that he never wanted a "subatoot" (substitute), only me.

So, all in all, it was a great first year at our new school. But, it is always nice to have a 2 month break from work. The picture at the top is from our Haloween party. I don't have any recent pictures on my computer at home. You need to check out the "chicken" on the left side. His mom made his costume out of feather boas. It was pretty cute.

We're Having a Baby!

We wanted to introduce you to someone... our baby! I am currently 14 weeks along and we are due December 3rd. Here are some sonogram pictures to show how much growing our baby has been doing.

6 Weeks: Our baby was only about 3 mm long. That's about the size of a grain of rice. But,we could see the heart beating around 156 bpm. The baby was pretty much just a heart. It seemed like the whole thing was beating. (For those of you who can't tell, the baby is the little dot at the top of the black circle.)


7 Weeks: Our baby grew to a whoppin' 1 cm. About the size of a pea. We could start to see the arms and legs. And he/she had another great heartbeat around 160 bpm.


10 Weeks: This was the best sonogram yet. Our baby was about 1 - 1/2 inches long. The baby was moving his/her legs and arms all around like it was dancing. I think he/she kind of looks like a Veggie Tale character because you can't see the arms or legs connected to the hands or feet.

14 Weeks: We made it to the 2nd trimester! I can definitely breath a little easier now. We had a doctor's appointment today. Everything seems to be going smoothly. We heard the heartbeat around 160 bpm. But, we didn't get a sonogram today. According to my book, the baby should be about 4 inches long. He/She has been doing some major growing during the past 4 weeks. No wonder I have been so exhausted. Andrew has been so sweet and such a blessing. He takes care of the dishes and the pile of shoes at the door. And he doesn't complain when I sleep all the time.

Since I have reached the 2nd trimester, I have actually been feeling much better. I don't feel like I have mono anymore. Yay! So, hopefully I can start getting some stuff done around the house.

Our baby is due to arrive on Decmeber 3rd. So, we will have a little Thanksgiving or Christmas baby. Our next appointment is in July. We should be able to find out if it is a girl or a boy then. So, we will definitely post some more pictures then. Please keep our developing baby and us in your prayers during this exciting time.

Out with the Old, In with the New

We decided it was time to update our light fixtures a little bit. So, on Saturday, Andrew and I went shopping for new lights for our dining room, foyer and stairwell. We went to Home Depot, Lowe's and we finally ended at a fun store up here called The Great Indoors. They had 3 lights that we liked. But, they only had the chandelier in stock. So, we bought it and we are waiting on the other two to get ordered.

Here is our old chandelier.


And here is our new one.


Andrew and I put it up with very little arguing. :) He is turning into a great handyman. He might regret being so handy when I start finding other projects around the house.