UNDER CONSTRUCTION AT LAST!!!

As you have all told me many times, it is time to update my blog. It has been virtually impossible in the past 12 weeks to get enough computer time to do this, but as things settle down and I return to work I will slowly work to update the page. Pictures will be coming soon!!! I promise, but you can go to Yah-Yah King's page and see plenty of our handsome man. Please be patient as I try to catch up from January. I will post more about the end of our pregnancy and the beginning of Caleb's life.

Love you all,
Amber and Jeremy

After the Chaos

I know I haven't posted in a while, but since Baby King isn't here yet, there aren't as many pictures and events for us to get excited about as there will be next year. However, all of the chaos of the Christmas holidays has provided many photo ops! Before we get to the photos, I will share a quick update. All is well with Baby King and we did get to have another ultrasound a few weeks ago. But since our computer has now died a slow, agonizing death, I am unable to scan that picture in for everyone to see. If the computer can be fixed, I will try to get that posted soon. The baby actually looks like a child in it and not a dot on a black screen now, and we got to see he/she moving the arms. Also the baby had the hiccups which was so cute! The heartrate was in the 150's which means a girl according to the old wives tale, but the Chinese Baby predictor says boy. I guess we will just have to see what God has decided in June. For those of you who do not know, Jeremy and I have decided not to find out if we are having a boy or a girl. We want everyone including doctors, nurses, and family to be surprised along with us.

The nausea I was having is gone (well, Jeremy can tell you certain smells still make me very queasy), but I am having some headaches now. Some of them are just annoying, and others are like migraines. But I am so lucky and blessed that this is the worst thing I have to deal with because I know it could be so much worse! The last ultrasound confirmed the due date as June 13, so all is on schedule. I have added my "Pregnancy Ticker" to the top of the page so everyone can see how big our baby is getting. According to one of the baby sites, he/she is the size of a Rubber Ducky! Isn't that cool? As a side note, my family found out that another of my cousins is expecting a baby next year. That means by next Christmas Eve when we gather at my mom's house there will be 3 new babies to entertain us.

Anyway, below I have posted a select number of the Christmas pictures from Jeremy's family and our time in Kentucky. Since "Baby Brain" has struck and I can't remember from one minute to the next what I am supposed to be doing, I forgot my camera for all Christmas events. So Jeremy's family has sent me many of theirs, and my mom is going to be sending our family's Christmas pics soon. Hope everyone enjoys as much as we do!!

The First Pic where I look pregnant!!! YEAH!! I am not just fat!!

All the sisters and me in Kentucky

Our wild and zany niece Olivia!!

Olivia with her brand new Dora bicycle & Dora helmet

My newest niece Felicity!!

Felicity in her Christmas dress

Felicity with Traci (her mom)

How cute does Jeremy look with his neice?

Olivia and me eating our Birthday Cake for Jesus (all Birthday cakes with Liv are actually cupcakes!!)

One of the many Froggie gifts our baby got for Christmas!! They are all so cute!

I wanted to post a quick update on how things are going with the pregnancy. It has been kind of hard finding out I was pregnant so early because it seems like time is crawling by and June will never get here. For now I will settle for making it past 12 weeks when hopefully I will have a little more energy and can begin getting our home ready for our baby. For the first several weeks, I didn't have too many of the "pregnancy symptoms" everyone else seemed to have except for unbelievable tiredness. However, as I have moved into Week 8, I have had more nausea and headaches. I have never needed this much sleep in my life! Working night shift has always made for some days feeling more tired, but I am having trouble staying awake all night and having the energy to actually go to work. It gets a little better every week after the first night or two. After a few days of horrible heartburn (it was MUCH worse than the nausea), I have been allowed to take Zantac once a day and am feeling much better. I still have to be careful what I eat, and I still keep the Tums and Maalox nearby. Thank you for all the great comments that we have gotten. I will try to update on a fairly regular basis and let everyone know how things are going. Tomorrow is my 8 weeks appointment, but it will be a boring one without an Ultrasound. I will definitely post pictures when I have the next ultrasound and I will try to post some recent pictures of the family also.

I love this part of the song "Masterpiece" and thought I would share it as my first post:

"Before you had a name, or opened up your eyes
Or anyone could recognize your face
You were being formed so delicate in size,
secluded in God's safe and hidden place.
Little tiny hands, and little tiny feet,
little eyes that shimmer like a pearl,
He breathed in you a song, and to make it all complete
He brought the masterpiece into the world."

--Brent Alan Henderson, Craig Patty, Michael Patty, and Gloria Gaither
"Masterpiece"

What an amazing thought that before we were ever recognized, God knew us and created us in HIS image!!

Preparation

Many of you are aware that Jeremy and I are ready to add to our family. We are hoping and praying for God to allow us to be parents to a child soon. I want to share with you some of the items we have purchased to get ready for that time. Our families are aware that Jeremy had a toy frog ("Froggie") that he carried everywhere while he was growing up--even though it began as Traci's frog, Jeremy definitely bonded more with him!! As a child, I also had my own toy Thumper that I carried everywhere (especially to doctor's visits where the doctor had to examine Thumper too!). So I would like you to meet our future child's "friends":

Froglet and Baby Thumper

As most of you are aware, Jeremy and I are also a household divided when it comes to school loyalty. This will be the first year since we have been married that neither of us work on the day of the Iron Bowl, so if both of us survive that day, we will still have to decide just what our future child will wear since we have already begun purchasing "Team Gear":

We all know the child chooses Mom's team right?

More Pictures--Coming Soon

Jeremy and I would like to show you one more set of pictures in our first day of posting. These should be self-explanatory, but we will be happy to answer any questions you have!!!

Introducing Baby King!!!

You have to look carefully, but inside the dotted circle is our baby....he/she is 6wks and 5days old in this picture and there is a tiny open slot inside the dotted circle that shows his/her heartbeat which was strong at 120 beats/min.