Dad's 54th birhtday and Carving pumpkins

This years for dad's birthday my mom bought pumpkins for us to carve. I can't remember the last time we carved pumpkins as a family. This year everyone had a "partner" so we had a little competition between the couples. I love my family so much! I am so thankful to the Lord for a FUN family that can laugh together. I think my dad was blessed on his birthday just having us all home and hanging out. Here are some fun pictures.


Get to work! Paul and Rachel oh so serous!

Mom is not sure dad's idea is a "winner"

Tyson the brains and the brawn behind our operation.

Jesse and Kelly love their idea :-)

Everyone had to vote for the best pumpkin...you could not vote for your own.....

Dad tallied the score and the winner was.....Paul and Rachel!! (Don't worry Kelly I voted for you and Jesse)

One of my favorite places!

For the last 3 years my mom and I have traveled to St. Louis for the Joyce Meyers women's conference. Every year it is amazing to see the Lord use Joyce to minister to so many women. I think they said there were between 17 and 20 thousand women there this year. As an extra bonus we brought Jesse's girlfriend Kelly with us. She had never been to St. Louis before so we were excited to show her around. My mom and dad both grew up there and we usually visit family while we are in town. This was the first time we had been back since my grandfather passed away. My aunt took us to the grave site and it was weird...hard to be there and not see him. It was good to see my family though.

Me and Kelly in front of my FAVORITE... White Castle!!!! Reason #23,445 why I love St. Louis.

My cousins Ryan and Kevin came down town to meet us for Kelly's birthday. We had dinner at Morgan's and then we took her to the casino for the first time. We had a great time. Kelly decided very quickly that the gambling life was not for her. She was starting to panic after losing one dollar on the slot machine. ha ha Once she got to 3 dollars in losses she called it quits! It was too stressful for her. ha ha

We took Kelly up in the arch and that was really fun. I hadn't done that since I was like 6 years old. I'm not going to lie being in that tight little pod on the way up made me a little claustrophobic. Plus mom kept telling us stories of when she got stuck in there when she was a kid!!! Makes me sick thinking about it.

This is the view from the top. Busch Stadium!

After the conference we had a day to hang out and mom took us around town. We drove by her old house and the house my dad grew up in.

We met my uncle Terry for an afternoon at the zoo. The St. Louis zoo has always been a favorite for me. The hippos I think were my favorite on this trip.

32 weeks Prego :-)

Lynchburg Fun

A few weekends ago my friend Debbie and I drove to Lynchburg to visit our friend Christen. She just got married in June and it was time for a visit. It was SO GREAT to get away for the weekend. Things have been so nuts at work and everything with the house has been so busy it was nice to take a little break from it all. It never fails the three of us have a FABULOUS time when we are together. Here are a few fun pictures of the weekend. Thanks Christen for bringing back the beat in my life...I needed it! :-)



We went shopping and I found this little suite with the purple tie and shirt...too cute!






My belly is bigger than hers!!!

Blog Hypocrite....

I'm sorry it's been so long since I've updated. I laugh at myself because I love reading everyones updates...when I get to one that hasn't been updated in a while I'm always like "post and update already we are missing your life!" ha ha then I look at my blog and it's been over a month since my last update. oops ha ha

So without further delay here's the update...I could bore you will all the details of my job/stressful life but I will spare you. It looks like I'm going to be at my job for longer than I thought. Tyson and I are still praying for the Lords direction but it looks like my exodus from this place will not be in November as I dreamed. I'm always cautious to post specifics about "job stuff" here on my blog so I will say this. Several key staff members have left and I've had to take on a ton of extra work. It's strange in the midst of this confusion I really do feel at peace. How blessed I feel that this is all out of my control. Some days I wish I could MAKE things happen the way I WANT! But knowing that God has a plan and a perfect time for everything in my life gives me strength to continue on.

The baby is doing great! I'm now at 27 weeks! He's moving all the time. Every time my dad touches my belly this little guy kicks...talk about "thrilled grandpa" he's bragging to the family that Sawyer already knows who his grandpa is. ha ha I've been feeling ok not sleeping great but they say that's prep for after the baby is born. I'm getting fatter all the time which is not fun I'm not going to lie. If you are wondering why there are no pictures of me on this post it's because I'm still recovering from random comments on how fat I've gotten. It's harder to handle then I thought it would be even coming from people who in my opinion have NO social skills. Now I know you are all wondering if I'm just overreacting well I do admit I can be a bit dramatic but how would you feel if someone said to you...and I quote "Oh my gosh I didn't recognize you....your face has gotten so fat." or "wow I'm shocked your only 6 months your face is so swollen." I'm aware that pregnancy means physically expanding and I don't even mind the belly comments..."wow are you having twins"...that doesn't bother me at all. But really people leave my poor face alone...and by the way I'm only going to get fatter! ha ha So all this to say...this post will not have any pictures of me...maybe by my next post I'll have recovered. :-)

House Update: Things with the house are going GREAT! The wood floors are in everything has been painted. The carpet goes in today and our new kitchen cabinets have been delivered and will be installed Saturday. I can't wait to see it all come together. I have posted a few pics of the progress.

The Kitchen....

Poor Tyson grinding up the tile...the hardest project in this house. Dust EVERYWHERE! I only stood there 1 second to take this picture and I had to leave. You could not even see him there was so much dust!

Good bye ugly blue counter tops!! YAY

Tyson Dad and Matt put the floor in the kitchen and throughout the front of the house. It looks AMAZING! Oh and the electrician finished all of our lighting. I didn't get pictures of the lights but we put recess lighting in the front of the house and you can see the one over the fire place. I'll post pictures of the finished kitchen as soon as everything is in. And then pics of the back out the house. Have a blessed weekend!

Sawyer Caleb Bush

Well I'm 22 almost 23 weeks!!! Half way there yay! Some days I feel like time is flying and other days I think "can it please be DECEMBER already!" :-) I am really feeling him moving around a lot and he seems to always be moving! Every Dr. visit they laugh when trying to get the heart beat he's always squirming away...now that he's bigger he doesn't have as much space to get away. I LOVE the ultrasounds. I had my "finding out what it is" appointment at 21 weeks. They didn't know I already knew since I went to our friend Jean. She confirmed again that we have a healthy little boy on the way. And let me tell you he is not shy. I LOVE seeing him moving around it's great to feel him but seeing it on the screen makes it SO REAL. He was waving at us and opening his mouth and flipping all over the place. Tyson was REALLY happy we had Jean telling us what the baby was... according to him Jean was WAY cooler than this lady and she showed us lots more cool stuff. ha ha Thanks again Jean!

We decided on a name. Tyson and I went through the 100,000 baby names book. We knew we liked Sawyer but the middle name took us a little while. we decided on Sawyer Caleb

Sawyer means:Woodworker or cutter of wood

Caleb Means: Faithful (Hebrew) Bold, courageous (Arabic)

After we read that Caleb just stood out to me...plus he was a pretty awesome guy in the Bible. It felt like the name. :-) So there you have it 99% sure. If he comes out and doesn't look like a Sawyer Caleb I'm not sure what I'll do. :-)

Here is a picture of me and my growing belly. I really feel that I get bigger by the day. I'm feeling pretty good. I'm tired all the time but I think that is mostly from my job. Thank you so much for your encouragements and prayers. There is a lot going on at my job that is really stressful...I can't really go into it on a public blog but I do ask for your continued prayers.

Things are still progressing with our house. Tyson has been working a lot and we are moving forward. Today he's finishing the paint in the living room and halls. I need to take some updated pictures.

Well that's all for now. Hope everyone is enjoying their summer. :-)

Construction Pictures

Here are a few pictures of the house. I didn't get any of the outside...that will be next time. :-) For now here is the main living area when you first walk in and the kitchen.... aka "the construction zone".
This is the foyer we knocked out the ceiling and the wall on the right side.
This view is from the living room...we knocked out the corner on the left.

There was a brick wall here...they knocked it out before I could get a picture.

Demolition!

Video of Paul busting throught the wall. Sorry it's sideways...my first video :-)