Cold Weather and Pumpkins

I know a lot of people in North Carolina like cold weather.  I am not one of those people.  I would be really happy if it stayed around 70 or higher with an occasional snow every now and then.  We used our fireplace for the first time (since it has been cold) and it was really nice but I still prefer warm weather.  Aspen does too.  If it gets too cold in the house, she will not move.  One night, two or three winters ago, we woke up in the middle of the night b/c it was super cold.  Eric got up to turn the heat up and I tried to interact with Aspen, and she wouldn't move.  We thought something was wrong with her...nope, she was just cold.  Now she has a sweater and a coat, so she is ready for the cold weather.  You can (sorta) see her coat here.  All the dogs received matching coats for Christmas last year.

As I have mentioned in previous blogs (I think :)), Eric and I really want to have lots of kids.  God chose to bless us right away with another little sugars (as in one baby)...so Savannah is a big sister.  We are almost 10 weeks now.  We were going to wait until 12 weeks to tell but for one thing it was super hard to wait. Also, even if we miscarry, this baby is still a person and we want people to know about it.  I had my first appointment on Friday at Atrium OB-GYN.  (I love that place.)  We went there when I was pregnant with Savannah.  It was nice to be around familiar people.  The nurse that took me back to the ultrasound room remembered me from before and gave me a big hug.  The baby looks good so far.  I was able to see it's little arms move around a little bit.  Here are a few pictures of the new baby:

This is a picture of the baby at 9 weeks.  The big part is the head (it is part Cunningham) and you can see the arms and legs a little bit.

This is at 6 weeks.  It kinda looks like a cocoon.  We did get to see the heartbeat!

The hardest part of the appointment was the family history part.  I had to go over the fact that Savannah was not with us anymore and all that happened with her...but the Lord blessed me so much.  The nurse that was going over this with me is a Christian.  She was encouraging me about how we might not always understand God's plan and so on.  I was so thankful for having her.  It made a tough situation easier.

One more thing I want to share.  Last Halloween I started a tradition.  (I got the idea from my friend who does this with her kids.)  Whatever my kid/kids dress up as for Halloween, I paint a pumpkin with that Character on it.  Last year Savannah was a ladybug, so my friend painted her this pumpkin:

This year, before we lost Savannah, we had already decided she was going to be a ballerina.  So I painted her a pumpkin (as I will every year) with a ballerina on it.  Also, I went ahead and painted a pumpkin for the new baby too.  Here are the pics:

That's all for now.  Thanks for all your prayers and love.  We really appreciate them all.

Ash