Merry Christmas and a Happy New BABY!!!

Well, as many of you may already know, Jesse and I are expecting... a baby that is! Recently, I have successfully kept three plants alive for multiple months, I have had dogs (on my own) for almost 3 years and we decided that we would give the human thing a try... We feel so blessed that the Lord has entrusted us with one of his children. We found out in Carmel, one of the most special places to us in early April. By our calculations, we were approximately 10 weeks when we told our families. This was difficult for me because at work we have X-Ray and other hazardous things that I have to steer clear from, and therefore, I needed to tell my boss and a few other people at work. This wouldn't have been a problem if I didn't have the pleasure of working with my dad. Therefore it was tell no one or tell everyone. (It is such a difficult balance of when to tell who... where... how...) Anyhow, we decided to tell people, then went to our FIRST ULTRASOUND!!! Yeah!!! We were so blessed to see our special little one's heart beating a million miles a minute right out of his or her little chest. When the technician did the measurements, sure enough 6 1/2 weeks!!!! Yes, they added an entire month to my pregnancy (as I saw it). That put us at a due date of December 22nd... Merry Baby!!!

While we were not trying for a Christmas baby, we felt like the Lord was calling us into a new season of life and didn't want to try to plan everything out to the moment, month and date that we felt like we wanted. We just wanted to rest in His timing and have a healthy baby with 10 little fingers and 10 little toes. All that to say, we are so very excited and hope for a smooth pregnancy.

So far, I have felt pretty good, I have really good days (like today) and some not so good days where I want to crawl into a hole... Saltines, crystal light and my pillow are my best friend!

For those of you who are wondering whether we are going to find out what it is, well, we are following in the footsteps of Blake and Cherie... we are going to wait! My achiever is totally curious, however, it is the one true surprise in this world!

This is how we told my sister... with a cute apron that says Auntie Lolo... for those of you who don't know she is in culinary school in Orange County.
As for the rest of our family, we used a little baby dressed in Jesse's baby clothes with a wrist band that says Baby Penner November 2010 (at the time we thought it would be November). It was really special because we got to tell both sets of Great Grandparents in person!