This is just to give you a taste of life around here with a very pregnant wife. Ignore gender-specifics and apply to a female. Additionally, replace “Dante” with your name of choice.
I like to think that my sweet husband makes the best cup of hot cocoa in the world. He’s always the kind-hearted servant at night, making me a cup and delivering it with a smile and a kiss. It doesn’t get any better than that!
I tell him his hot cocoa tastes the best because he makes it with love. Well somehow lately the word “love” is synonymous with real whipping cream and sprinkles. Mark will ask if I want a cup of cocoa and I’ll say, “Yes please, and put a lot of love in it!” Well tonight he’s delivered, folks. Things got a mite crazy in the kitchen. As you can see from this picture, my cup overflows. I love you, honey! You bless me.
I just couldn’t continue praying. Words didn’t matter any more. There was nothing that could be said, except, “Thanks.”
This came after our normal Bible time with Samuel. Every night before Sammy’s bedtime, all three of us get together on the couch. I read a chapter of Scripture and then we go around and repeat one thing that stood out to us as we listened to God’s Word. (There’s the extra caveat that you have to remember something unique—so if it’s already been said, you better have something else!) We go from youngest to oldest, with me as the reader last. Samuel is always very happy to point to the picture of Jesus on the wall; Renée and I then discuss the things we remember.
Afterwards, we often sing a song or two, but then we always pray. We thank the Lord for the blessings of the day and pray through our struggles. We lift up our friends and family and trust God with our issues. It’s a very relaxing and peaceful time to lay our burdens before the King and acknowledge His place in our lives.
Normally, Samuel sits still on my lap with his blanket over him while I pray. But tonight, for whatever reason, he wanted to sit next to Mom. I’m only a moment into our prayer—head slightly bowed, eyes closed—when I suddenly feel a pair of little lips upon mine. I open my eyes and see Sammy smiling at me, only an inch from my face. I thank him and we continue praying. I keep one eye open and see him lean over and give Momma a kiss. She thanks him too, and we continue praying, eyes closed. (At least, Renée and I had our eyes closed.)
Suddenly, I feel a hand on my cheek push me in—and my lips meet my wonderful wife’s. Sammy had also pushed in her face to mine! We both giggled a little bit and pulled apart, only to be immediately pushed back together by Sammy, who had a huge smile on his face. Again, we embrace then pull apart…
…only to be brought together by Sammy yet again!
This continued for several more kisses, and then we stopped praying with a hearty, “Amen”. It was so sweet to have our little boy kiss us, but it was even sweeter to see him delight in Renée and I kissing. So, we did indeed say, “Thanks,” both to our little cutie-pie, and to our own Dad.
Our first ultrasound for baby #2, at 12 weeks, went great. Our 18-week ultrasound was awful (mainly because the woman who did it was so incredibly rude I almost left the office crying). My sweet OB took pity on us and sent us elsewhere for a third ultrasound, at a completely different office this time. We prayed and asked the Lord to give us a sweet technician who’d let us see our baby’s face, and boy did He bless us with answered prayer!
Today we had our third ultrasound (at 23 weeks) for baby #2. The lady who did it was sooo nice. She gave us eighteen pictures of our little sweetheart, instead of the usual four, and four movies too! The baby weighs 1 lb. 5 oz., is about a foot long, and is measuring right on track at 23 weeks (except for its belly, which is measuring 25 weeks). We are pretty sure this is because baby #2 takes after it’s grand-dads! Haha. Everything looks really great and healthy, praise the Lord. We definitely have another wiggle worm on our hands though… the baby was moving so much we had a bit of a hard time seeing its face, and it got the hiccups the same time that Samuel did! (Sammy and Daddy got to see the baby on the big screen too)! That was pretty entertaining to hear and feel.
When we got home, we compared Samuel’s 21-week sonogram with Baby #2’s 23 week sonogram. We are completely amazed at how much they look alike! See for yourself. Here’s Samuel:
Here’s Baby #2:
Another one of Baby #2, and his/her foot:
(Just so you know, the black spots you see in the pics are not holes/dents in the baby, but shadows from the baby’s arm on its face). We are so thankful to Jesus for a great appointment and a healthy baby. We can hardly wait to hold our little angel in our arms! And Sammy’s been kissing the baby in Mommy’s belly a whole lot lately, so he’s pretty excited too!
What a wonderful day we had today, celebrating Samuel’s second birthday. We can’t believe how fast it’s come and how much he’s grown in a year! He really is our big boy now.
We entered his room this morning singing the birthday song, when what did we find, but the most precious boy in perfect attire — his birthday suit! Yes, he had stripped off his PJs and his diaper during the night. (He was really ready to party down)! Since he loves balloons so much, we decided to have a balloon themed party today. Balloons floating in the kitchen, balloon plates and napkins, etc. He was squealing with delight and kept signing “more” every time he heard the birthday song.
Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Scott came over to celebrate with us. Mommy made chocolate zucchini cupcakes and Samuel had two star-shaped candles he tried to blow out. He is so precious (blowing more like he’s trying to warm his hands than get a good hard puff out for candles). He had such fun we did it twice!
Samuel had a blast playing with his new toys. We were quite impressed that in the last year he’s learned how to tear open the wrapping paper and get very excited at the party. He probably favors his lil “ready, set, go” cars and his sit and spin the most. How we wish they made those toys a lil bigger for the adults!
Samuel, you are Mommy and Daddy’s joy and delight. We are so blessed to call you our own. We love your silly faces, fun personality and tender heart. You already exhibit the joy of the Lord that we prayed for so earnestly. God is so good to us! We’re excited to see what this year will bring for you. We love you, our sweet and most precious son. Happy Birthday!
This has been such a wonderful weekend around our home. I realize that I just love being with my family! They bring me such joy, just being in their physical presence. Everything from Renée baking cookies to Sammy’s little squeals of joy at me pushing him around in the laundry basket, I conclude that I am indeed blessed by the Lord.
Which leads me to two other blessings that I have experienced with my family. One is Bible time. Every night before Sammy goes to bed, we read a chapter out of the Bible and go around, youngest to oldest, and ask for one thing that each person remembers. Sammy is getting pretty good at remembering that we read about “Jesus” by pointing to the painting on our wall. Then, I get to hear also what Renée learned from the Scripture. We’ve read through almost the entire book of Psalms (only one week’s worth left) and it’s great to just remember a single thing from Scripture that God has impressed upon our hearts through the reading. For me tonight, it was the fact that we run to God so He can “hide” us from our enemies and our sin. What a neat concept! We then pray and thank the Lord for the day and ask Him to help us obey Him better. We all need as much help as we can get.
The second blessing is so fun: being together, the three (four) of us on the couch after we pray, and just loving on one another. Tonight Samuel kept putting his hand on my head and making me “bow” my head like I would when we pray. When I put my head down, I’d pull him toward me and start munching on his tummy, and he’d laugh like crazy! He also grabs my ears and makes me look like a monkey, and laughs. And there’s nothing quite so sweet as seeing him lean over and kiss the baby in Renée’s tummy.
As Renée was carrying him off to his crib tonight, he looked at me, waved, then smiled, and blew me a kiss. I tell you again, nothing is so sweet as the blessing the Lord has given me through my family.
Things around the Horlbeck house have been good as of late. We’ve been trying to take advantage of the nice weather and go on as many bike rides throughout the week as we can. This past weekend we went up and around the Rio Grande trail to the tune of about 25 miles. Samuel has been having a ball in his bike seat, waving to everyone and loving it when I ring my bike bell. We have to go pretty slow because this pregnant Mama quickly gets out of breath (and my belly is beginning to hit my thighs with each pedal), but we’re building endurance! Mark is still doing research on which bike he’d like to buy so he can ride to work. We’d love to have a recumbent tandem some day, that’d be sooo fun!
As far as baby #2 is concerned, things are going well so far (thank you to my faithful praying friends)! I’m feeling better these days and even managed to eat a little bit of chicken. I haven’t gained as much weight as I did with Samuel, and I’m waiting for my belly to grow a tad more so that my maternity pants fit! I feel like I’ve been in this weird middle stage for so long and wearing the same 3 outfits for weeks. My 3-D ultrasound appointment is in 2 weeks and we can hardly wait to see the little angel’s face. My mom has a strong feeling it’s a girl, but only time will tell! In the mean time, we can’t decide on a boy’s name to save our life.
We had a lovely Labor Day. A leisurely bike ride with Scott in the morning, a lil work around the house and in the yard, and the Horlbecks over for dinner that night. Sure makes it hard to go back to work! We are thankful for our parents who worked so hard to provide for us growing up, for the opportunities we have in this great country, for our great jobs, for the work the Lord has given us and that we can enjoy the fruits of our labor. God is good!
