New Pictures!

So we have had many requests lately for a tummy update. Here are a few pictures to update on the past few weeks in our life.

And of course, my favorite, some baby facts.

She is now 15 inches from head to toe, she is learning how to blink, she is over two pounds, and growing fingernails, and she is starting to form features that resemble her parents. Hopefully her daddy's eyes and smile with huge smile lines. We sure are having fun bonding with her, especially as she is moving around all of the time. My favorite is when she pokes me when she hears her daddy's voice. I start my 7th month this week and third and final trimester so she will be growing rapidly and gaining about 1/2 a lb a week and forming important parts of her brain! I am struggling already to bend over and pick things up so I can already tell that speed of life is going to slow way down.

Labor Day weekend with Stacy's parents and oldest sister, Signe and her family (Jonah and 3 kids Caleb, Levi, and Kacy). What a special weekend!!!

Josh's last softball game with the Abiding Way League (our church).

Baby Mama's (Us girls are all 11 weeks apart with Shannon due in Oct, me in Dec, and Liz in March).

Baby Dada's (We are not sure who is due first Josh, Drew, or Josh:) we were having a game night at our new apt!)

Going, going, gone...

Josh and I love to watch the sunset and there is always something a bit sad about the sun melting into the horizon. That is a little bit the way that we feel about summer coming to an end and the new school year already upon us. But as we look towards the future there are some exciting things ahead that we look forward to in anticipation. (more blogs to come!)

So to catch you up, what we have been up to is school. Josh already completed his first week of seminars for this semester and simultaneously started two new jobs. Needless to say he has started out sprinting and hopes that things will calm down a bit.

His seminars are really good and the program has expanded from 6 to 17 students in just one year!

Here is a picture of his new office for being the PhD Administrative Assistant, where he can also study, an added blessing (no more library cave).


A picture of the million $ view from his Audio Visual office.

I just finished a week of inservice with the other teachers at GGA and have been working on making our classrooms ready for the new year. I am really excited to be working with Aubrey, the lead 4 year-old teacher who is from Oklahoma (and Josh works with her husband), and a sweet part-time Korean named Rebekah, who is also pregnant with a girl about a month behind me. We will have a larger class than last year with 18 active kids each day and 28 total. I get to teach the Bible story this year and am very excited about it as the kids are already learning verses from God's Word!

Please pray for both Josh and me as we cannot do this semester in our own strength and know that God's grace is more than sufficient as long as we are dependent on Him. We want to grow closer to Him, to each other and to baby Mathews in this season of life.

Speaking of baby Mathews she is 1 1/2 lbs. and 8in from head to bottom and moving around like a little ballerina.

Stacy's classroom

So Thankful!!!!

I am thankful for God's lovingkindness in the gifts of . . . my wonderful husband! And our baby!

About Time

Well, I guess that it is about time for an update. It always amazes me how time can stand still at moments and then race by at other times. This would be one of those fast track months. We are more than half way through and I can't believe all that is on the calendar for the rest of the month. The best part is that it is as Martha would say in her low voice, "they are all good things".

It is almost Seminar week for Josh and so the week before (right now) is the crazy times. He also just started a new new job on top of the other new job that he is learning. They are good learning opportunties and will pay the bills come January. One of the jobs is in the audio/visual department and the other is Assistant to the PHD program. Needlesss to say Josh is not sleeping a lot but stepping right up to all that is on his plate.

We are wrapping up the summer program at the preschool and cleaning like crazy for the new school year. We will have teacher inservice the last week of August and start all over again the day after Labor Day.

The baby is doing great and loves to move (hopefully she has some rythm unlike her mother). She is healthy and continuing to grow. She is a little bigger than a banana and can hear our voices. Josh and I are just loving this faze of life and can't wait to meet this little person, our daughter!

Here are some pics from a quick weekend trip up to Portland for Josh's dads Retirement Party.

This is the trophy the guys from Dad's work made for him.

And my first "baby shower" with my good friend Bri.

barefoot and pregnant

We had an ultrasound on Sunday and found out that (we think at least) we're having a girl. So instead of visions about little league games, big wheels, action figures, and matchbox cars, we're getting excited about things like princesses, ladybugs, dolls, and anything pink. But little girls like to play with Legos too don't they?

Just this morning Stacy came out and said, "Josh, will you come in here please." She has been telling me for a few weeks now that she thought she felt the baby but wasn't sure. This morning she was pretty sure and I felt for a while and finally, just faintly but definitely, there was a little kick or punch, and then another one. So amazing! We could not be more excited to be having a girl, and we feel blessed by the Lord so far beyond what we could ever imagine.

Otherwise, we're just keeping busy with summer stuff. Stacy is working with the 4 year-olds now, where she'll be till December when she is done. That has been good and she has really done a wonderful job. She works from 10-6 and has been very faithful about exercising and being in the Word every day. And she's still keeping the house clean and me very, very well fed.

I've been working and reading, getting ready for seminars coming up in less than a month now. It looks like it will be another fun semester. I'll be in a Psalms seminar and one on the Gospels, and I'll be working on learning Latin as well as some other odds and ends kind of research and writing.

Here are a few photos, mostly of my beautiful wife and the baby growing inside her.

This is the great little town of Sonoma, where we went for the day a few weeks ago. If you're ever there, go to the Sunflower cafe (in the photo on the left I think) for a coffee, breakfast, lunch, or whatever. Just be sure to sit out back in the garden seating area. Everything about it is just right.
...growing
...growing. This was a couple weeks ago in our little kitchen, where Stacy is displaying her culinary genius as she does every day.
...and growing. These ones were taken this evening. Isn't she adorable?

Ball Game

A couple weeks ago we went to a ballgame at At&t park between the Giants and the Cubs. It was a great game that the Cubs won. and we stayed for the firework show afterward. Here's a few pictures.

Good friends

There is something so amazingly special about those people that God has brought into your life for a specific time and purpose. Someone that you have seen in many life circumstances both stressful and fun. Who has been on a few road trips (definitely bonding) and labored in prayer together. Bri is one of those types of friends that is a gift from God and Josh and I were blessed by her presence last week! Fun times! Thank you Bri for coming all of the way from Oregon!

We had a great time in spite of the smoke from the fires--yuck.

We mostly hung around town and just talked, which is my personal fave but we also packed in a few fun outings. I think that all of us would agree that one of our favorite activities was watching a thought provoking yet sweet movie together. One of the movies that you want to tell all of your friends to see because it is rare to see something not big box office but just plain old good. So here it goes, Under the same Moon, a Spanish movie with some subtitles but also English.

Happy 4th of July everybody!