Pineapple

I bought a fresh pineapple the other day cause it has sounded so good and refreshing to me. I let it ripen for two days on my table and then put it in the fridge to be nice and cold. Today I decided to cut it up and eat it. So I put it on the counter and Bella wanted to "help" me cut it. She brought her chair over and stood next to the counter and said "Bumbob's house" (spondgebob's house). I laughed so hard! She said it again and said "Play bumbob's house?". I told her we were going to cut it up and eat it. Once I got it all cut up, I gave her a bite and she said "mmmm bumbob's house good!" She kept saying it when she would eat a new piece! I thought it was so cute and funny! She actually recognized that the real pineapple on the counter was just like Spongebob's!

Finally a Name!

Well we finally have a name for "the kid" or brother. Justin and I have been going back and forth for months on which name. Justin always originally wanted Seth. While I was pregnant with Bella I read a book about Caleb from the bible and decided that I liked that name if we had a boy next. Stephen was always the middle name (Justin's dad's name is Steven, and Justin's mom spelled Justin's middle name Stephen.) so we had the name almost done. Anyway, once we actually got pregnant and found out for sure we were having a boy, Justin changed his mind! I had kinda settled on our kids name being either Seth or Caleb since those were the only names. I was stuck! To me it would be like not naming Isabella, Isabella! Her name had been decided when we were 1st married. So after many jokes about Chuck Norris :( and some other wacky names, we decided a week ago to put Caleb and Christian(the other name Justin liked) to a vote. So Justin asked the young adults at The Gathering to vote. It was a landslide! Caleb won! Yea! So our little boy's name will be Caleb Stephen Carpenter. Mary can finally be happy! :). I have about 3 1/2 weeks to go and am getting very anxious! Our friend Laura had her baby last week. He is so cute! I forgot how snuggly and easy to hold newborns are! Bella kept trying to hug him (Corban) and gave him a kiss. She thought he was "pretty". Everything is pretty these days. This picture was actually taken about 2 weeks ago. I think it makes my belly look small, and judging by most people's comments at church "Whoaaa!" I would say I was pretty acurate in saying that! Oh well! I look forward to normalcy and I am sure my husband does too! :) I am sure he would tell some stories later, when he feels it's "safe" again! :)

Thanksgiving and Christmas!

We have been so busy with the holidays that I didn't have a chance to blog about our trip to Seattle for Thanksgiving or Christmas here. Thanksgiving was fun! It was nice to get away for a little while. We drove, since it was way cheaper, especially since gas prices have gone down so much. It only took us about 12 1/2 hours! We were shocked! A 7 month pregnant women and a 2 year old and we still made it in record time! Amazing! We had lots of relaxing and fun! I did attempt to go out the day after Thanksgiving to do some Christmas shopping with Justin's mom and both sister in laws. It was crazy busy!

Christmas was fun as well! Not quite as relaxing since we had two services on Tuesday night and three on Wednesday night. I was very tired and so was Justin. But it was nice to have two days to recover before we came back to church again! Bella still doesn't quite get the "opening" of presents. She knows they are hers, but doesn't really understand there is something inside! Once it's opened she could care less about any other present and just wants to play with the one she got! Maybe by her 3 year birthday she will have it down!

Justin's birthday is this Friday! Can you believe it 30 years old! It's crazy! I don't think of him as a 30 year old. I remember thinking how "old" that was when we got married, and wondered what and where we would be. I still have 2 more years until I turn 30, but I don't even feel like I am old enough to have 2 kids and a 30 year old husband! It's weird how your perception changes every year you get older!

I am now almost 34 weeks pregnant! I have about 6 weeks to go! Oh my goodness, I am so ready! If I knew my baby would be healthy and not have to spend any time in the NICU I would do anything to get him out!!!!! My latest is numb hips when I sleep! So sleeping doesn't happen much these days! So the angry, impatient, mean, "pyshco" prego mommy is here! I am trying my hardest to control it though! I don't think Justin would agree! :) Our friend who was pregnant with twins had her babies about 3 weeks ago. She had them early as well, just like her daughter. They are in the NICU, but are doing great! Twin boys! Fun now but I can't even imagine when they turn into "boys"! Although mom's with boys totally know what I am talking about! At least she doesn't have twin Carpenter boys! :) Laura one of my other friends that is pregnant, ( including the one who just had twins there is 6 of us) My nursery is going to be so busy, is due in 2 weeks (boy as well).

We have a couple guest speakers at our church this month. The two I am most excited about is the one we just had this last weekend and this next weekend. Kay Warren is speaking this weekend (Rick Warren's wife). Last weekend we had a Rev. who spoke about What God says about Homosexuality. He was formerly practicing. It was very interesting and he had a lot of good things to say, that weren't your typical "churchy" answers. Then he came and did a talk and question and answer time at the Gathering, it was open to anyone, but mostly the Young Adults were there. I wasn't able to go but Justin said it went really well, and some people asked for prayer and healing in this area! Yea!

Last but not least, Bella is potty training! Not going super smooth right now, but she is getting it. With the holidays I was a little delayed in starting, but I am hopeful that she will be almost if completly potty trained by the time the baby comes! We will see! I tried this 3 day potty training but after I looked into it I realized that it's 3 days of hard core potty training but the prep work is pretty much for at least 3-4 months! So I am using a portion of her method and some of mine, and some of others. We will see! I will try and sort through all the pictures and post some later!