Simply Sara

After 6 weeks, we finally moved into our new home last night! This house has been all-consuming, but it is finally beautiful and live-able. As a person who is notoriously bad with change, the long process of renovating has helped me adjust to the idea of living in a new place. I am so thankful for the process we've been through; while it has been super stressful at times, and rather expensive, it has allowed me to fall in love our new home and watch it become our's. Last night, around midnight, we realized that we had forgotten one very important item on our move - the dog! Poor Annie! She was still at our "old" house probably wondering what in the world was going on! Matt went back to take care of her, while I enjoyed some alone time in our home. I turned on a lamp in baby girl's room, played some PraiseBaby music, and cried my eyes out! Tears of relief, exhaustion, joy, and anticipation. I've been writing letters to our baby throughout the past 9 months, and...

It's been a great month of fun for us and Lucas! We celebrated the 4th out on Broadway Lake with Matt's family. Lucas loved his first boatride - especially when the fireworks started over the lake! Our neighbor across from the new house invited us over for swimming! I am personally tickled over Matt's tan lines! Poor guy has been putting in a lot of time in the yard this summer. Splish splash - Lucas loves taking "big boy" showers instead of baths!

We are having so much trouble naming our baby girl! I never thought it would be this hard. When we found out we were expecting Lucas, we immediately decided that whatever name we chose would be a secret until his birth. We kept our list to ourselves and went to the hospital armed with our top three names: Lucas, Isaac, and Wyatt. Just a few minutes after he was born, I looked at Matt and said "I know what his name is". "I do too", he replied. Then we both said "Lucas!". I wonder what would have happened if we had said different names! This time around, we decided to forgo the secrecy and freely use her name so that Lucas would become familiar with her. Well, it was a great plan that has yet to come into action. We are three weeks away from our EDD and our child is still without a name! We have spent hours searching the web, tearing through baby books and tossing names back and forth. I don't know if it is the feeling that no "common" name is...

To say that our lives have been busy this summer would be a total understatement. We bought our new house just one month ago. Since then Matt has been busy coordinating contractors (electrician, plumber, floor guy), painting, painting, and even more painting, demoing walls, rebuilding walls, taming an over grown yard, keeping up with his day job, and taking care of me while I'm busy growing our little girl and corralling our energetic and completely adorable Gu-cas! (That's what he calls himself!) Our friends and family have stepped in in a mighty way and helped us peel wallpaper, clean years of filth, paint very dry walls, and tame those overgrown bushes. It's been ministry in a very real way. In fact, I'm pretty sure this is what the Lord was talking about when He said the body should minister to the body. Oh yeah, and we've been getting our current house ready to put on the market. I'm 36 weeks pregnant today and headed to the doctor's office in a couple ...

My top pregnancy craving this summer has been fresh fruit. It started with almost daily trips to the local produce stand to buy strawberries. Once that craving was satisfied (I was eating a quart a day), I moved on to crunchy red grapes, juicy cantaloupe, fresh watermelon and now succulent blueberries. (I have no idea why I'm using these adjectives other than it's late and my body is beyond exhausted.) Check out this recipe from the Pioneer Woman for Yogurt Cream and Berries . Divine. I almost think I could muster up the energy for a trip to the grocery store just to buy the ingredients. Well, almost.