Whew!!

What a whirlwind the past few weeks have been! It always seems to be that way right before Christmas.

Jarrod has been a working-machine lately, putting in over 40 hours most weeks with the Geek Squad. He's really enjoying his work. It brings up all sorts of interesting conversations at the grocery store, waiting in line at sears.... as soon as he mentions Geek Squad, people feel the overwhelming desire to hash through all their computer woes. To an onlooker like myself, it's quite funny.

Christmas was different this year. Jarrod and I are used to being with lots of family, waking up before dawn and a slew of other traditions. We celebrated Jesus' birth with our church family Saturday night at Sunday morning, both of which were wonderful worship services. I love hearing people sing out Christmas songs. The kiddos were perhaps the most excited on Christmas eve. Hard to believe that this time next year we'll have a crawler on our hands trying to pull things off the Christmas tree and get into presents!

Jarrod was given a series of mind puzzles. They are REALLY hard! This is him while he was still laughing about it. It soon turned to huffing, teeth grinding and walking away, haha. Maybe he'll try again soon.

Simba had a wonderful Christmas as well. He snuggled in my lap while Jarrod read the Christmas story out of Matthew and Luke, then watched while we uncluttered the presents. He had a small stocking and was mildly interested in opening presents. Then.... the present with bacon-scented treats came out. That dog went nuts! He shredded the paper and bit the bag in excitement. Afterwards, every present we picked up he wanted to help open!

They struggled with the puzzles too

Jarrod's cousins joined us for Christmas dinner (quite the feat considering none of us had ever cooked Christmas dinner on our own before...). It was such a sweet, fun time. We were able to skype with some family members and be quite jealous of them wearing t-shirts and shorts while we wore at least three layers. All in all, our beginner's dinner attempt came our quite good! We had ham, sweet potatoes, deviled eggs, green bean casserole, rolls and of course plenty of desserts. We probably had a big enough spread to feed 12 people... no denying our southern roots!

Is this the front wheel? Or the back?

A few days before Christmas we received our first baby shower gifts. My mom sent up a very generous gift, thank you! Once we got the packages opened, Simba was a bit nervous. He paced around and you could just see him thinking, "what are these things? they aren't for me.... what's going on??". As Jarrod was trying to put them together, Simba would jump up between his face and said project or lay on top of his tools. I sense a bit of sibling jealousy coming... Jarrod did a great job putting things together, even if he did neglect the directions. He said it's much more fun to build things without directions anyway.

 Pack-n-play finished product. We got it together in the living room only to them realize that it does not fit through our bedroom doorway while assembled! It was good practice on how to break it down and set it back up again.
We also figured out the stroller and took it for a test-spin around the apartment. Super easy to fold and light enough for me to carry. Thanks everyone who told me the important things to look for in a stroller!

Each year, I further understand what my grandma means when she says the years keep going by faster and faster. I can't believe 2012 is just a few days away. This year has been a whirlwind. Seems like just a few weeks ago I was doing my L&D internship, Jarrod was commuting to Lake City for work and we were really in the air about what our next step was. While I still feel up in the air about where we'll be this time next year, I realize just how blessed we've been. God has been so faithful. He is stretching us, almost to the point where I fear we might break at times, but His steadfast love (hesed, Jarrod tells me in Hebrew) continues to sustain us. Praise you Lord!

26 weeks

This week marks the end of my second trimester. Weird! In case I haven't sent the news all around, we've decided to name our little girl Eliaya Carol Reed. Eliaya means My God is the Lord and we pray that she will know this truth at a very early age. She has become quite regimented in her sleep-wake cycles, being most notably active from 6-7am, then again from 8-10pm. Jarrod enjoys seeing and feeling my stomach punch out as Eliaya practices her roundhouse kicks and flips. We cannot wait to meet this little girl in just over 3 months!

Thank you all for your continued prayers! We need them. I would like to ask for your continued prayers regarding Eliaya, for her development and us as we prepare for her arrival, and on a silly note,  for our car. We had new tires put on it after the recommendation from a mechanic who is graciously trying to get us ready for winter. Now that those are taken care of, the battery and other systems in the car are acting up. Please pray that she keeps running and gets us through the winter without any other  needed trips to the shop. The Lord is stretching our faith in many ways, and we count it a blessing. Please pray that we would not give in to worry, but by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let our requests be known to God.

We love you and pray you have a wonderful rest of 2011!
Until the next edition,
The Reeds

It's the holiday season!

Whew! Things have been crazy in the Reed household of late. Sorry for the lack of updates, feels like this is the first chance I've had to sit still and reflect on the past few weeks.

As I'm sure word has spread by now... we're having a GIRL! We were able to have another ultrasound done mid-November. It was so amazing to see how much baby Reed has developed in just a few weeks. We saw her beautiful hands and feet, saw her sucking her thumb (explains all those hiccups....), and she graciously gave an immodest pose to let us know pink was in our future!  We are so excited.

We devised to keep baby Reed's gender a secret for a few weeks until after Thanksgiving so we could reveal the news to our families when they would be all together. I was able to call my family right after Thanksgiving dinner. The twin boys are going to have a girl cousin! My mom will now have both grandsons and a granddaughter! I think everyone was very excited.  The Reed clan had a bit of a reunion with the Dawson's and Henleys (20+ people in one house, it was awesome fun!). Everyone knew we would be revealing the news after dinner one day, so nerves ran high as final bets were placed. We had the room divide into two groups (predicting boy or girl), then had everyone close their eyes. We placed a cupcake in each person's hands. The cupcakes were dyed the frosted with white icing and covered with sprinkles. When everyone opened their eyes, my favorite comment was, "There's a blue sprinkle! It must be a boy!". Upon removing the wrappers, a bright pink cake was met with much celebration.

We were perhaps most surprised to be quickly met with a pink card from Susan, wondering "wow.... was she really right in guessing?"  No... she confessed to having one of each!

After our ultrasound, Jarrod and I ventured to the chaotic realm of Babies R Us. Wow. I had no clue there was so much baby stuff. I mean really.... there had to have been more than 10 types of pacifiers, a dozen types of bottles, and don't even get me started on the different strollers/car seats.... It was crazy!  Praise the Lord we managed to spend two hours in there scanning items without losing our minds. Jarrod didn't even come close to a meltdown! It was a very good day.

The Rapid Expansion

This week BG (the affectionate nickname given over Thanksgiving to baby girl Reed) is the size of a papaya and weighs a little more than a pound (23 weeks). I can somewhat decipher her routine of sleeping and rampant kicking / flipping now. She's a mid-morning and early evening mover. We're hoping that soon Jarrod will be able to feel the movements too. Pregnancy is not quite what I expected, but I am learning so much about the Lord through it. I really praise Him for this child.... and that she's not currently smashing my bladder :)

Another HUGE praise from the Reed household is Jarrod finished this fall semester! H took his last two finals this past Tuesday. He seems to stand a few inches taller now, the weight of big papers and never-ending reading is temporarily lifted. He learned so much, and I am so glad that he was challenged in ways he didn't expect. I see God molding his character through these classes. For December, he will be picking up extra hours at Best Buy (the Geek Squad has been super busy with the holiday season) and reading for fun. It will be soooo nice to have him home and relaxing for a while!

Saw snowflakes on my way home from work the other day.... these Floridians are still unsure what this winter will hold. We're in the midst of battling our first winter colds, wearing more than two layers no longer seems odd to us, and Simba has become quite the picky dog. With all the frost on the ground, he will reluctantly go outside in the mornings, place one paw in the grass, keeping two on the sidewalk and dangling the other back leg in the air to go to the bathroom. It's actually quite a funny sight. As soon as he's done, he looks up at us, then retreats back up the stairs to the front door.

I hope you all are having a great start to the Christmas season! I've really enjoyed the song "Joseph's lullaby" by MercyMe lately. I wonder what it would have been like to be Joseph, to raise the Savior of the world as a baby, toddler.... what an awesome responsibility, to raise God's own Son.

Promise the next update will be before January... thanks for reading!
Love,
Jarrod & Megan