The slowest of holiday seasons.

Thanksgiving was amazing. It was matts actual birthday this year on Christmas Day. We spent the first half with the Scoggins side, and the second half with the Siak side. It was crazy, awesome, and marked the end of busy-ness for us, as we came home to wait. Wait for our girl to make her appearance. The week before Christmas we put up the upstairs fake tree. Luke was so excited. Christmas is magical when you are four!  The other kiddos loved it too. The week after thanksgiving we got the real tree for Downstairs. 

This season is different that usual. Normally by now we have done everything Christmas-y you can. But at 35+ weeks pregnant we are taking this season slowly. And I am enjoying the peace that normally evades us in the rush to properly celebrate each year. 

I am thankful for my people. The 3 (almost 4) that teach me about grace when my pregnancy hormones push me to an ugly place. This amazing husband of mine, who daily has to go out of his comfort zone to take over chores I usually handle. And for the gift of growing this last Siak, our sweet girl.

This community I live and love in.

Tonight I was loved so beautifully. My sweet baby girl was loved so well. I had figured out we weren't just going on a girls night, that this was a baby shower, and I was led to believe 5 or so of my people would be joining me for Mexican food. 18 women were waiting when I walked in. 18 women who love me and love our Evelyn. We laughed. I was given so many blessings for our girl...I am so very thankful for the community of women God has placed around me to love me and do life with me. I am so blessed. 

The nurse was not kidding when she said "wow your belly really grew this week!" It's real folks, soon a baby is coming next out of there. 

These two (and a few others) provided the leg work for this night. These two hear my prayer requests, ground me when I fly off the handle, show me grace when I'm ridiculous, and laugh with me til the limits of my bladder are tested. I just couldn't trade them for anything. 

Evelyn Baby Shower

My sister in laws are amazing.  How absolutely loved they made me feel for Evelyn's baby shower.  They always do things to a "next level," and our special evening for my baby girl was nothing short of perfection.

 It was so nice to be able to sit and chat with all the people who love this sweet girl so dearly already. I was able to explain why we are naming her Evelyn Hope Siak (more on that in a future blog post). It produced a few tears, and reminded me just how many special it is to be able to carry this blessing of a baby girl. The food was all my favorites - I CRAVE donuts all the time, and of course that was on the menu.

It was such a blessing to be able to have my grandmother, sister in law Lindsey, aunt Melanie, and my mother at this sweet afternoon. 

These ladies right here - one of the best perks of being a Siak.  Having these women to walk beside me, love me, encourage me, and know my children have a lifetime of love from each of them ahead of them.  Evelyn is blessed already by all the people who love her so much.

++ Not pictured was Aunt Bev.  It was so good to have her join us and celebrate too!

Halloween

Halloween. Normally we hit every opportunity to grab candy, but this Halloween we are slooooowing down due to mama being in the 3rd trimester. Earlier in the week we did hit the harvest festival at PG elementary. Halloween evening we went to our friends the Joneses and all the husbands took the crew of kids to hit the neighborhood while the ladies visited. It was a great relaxing evening!!  

For the record, we had an 11 year old non-participant, NICU nurse, and ninja turtle with last minute add on batman cape :)

One last summer trip

Oh how I love the Georgia mountains. In the 80s my grandparents bought a small place and I have so many memories of vacationing there as a child. When my granddads health started to decline my uncle mark and aunt Melissa took it over. I am so thankful they did!  They let us go whenever we want to, it is just the best place in the world. 

As we were leaving I said to matt, that was just the most peaceful weekend. I say that every time we visit. 

My most favorite breakfast placed quit serving breakfast!  So we headed in to Helen and ate at the Bavarian huddle house. 

If you asked the kids, this was their favorite part. The weather was supposed to be questionable all weekend, but God blessed us with perfect weather!!!

This was of course my favorite. Baby land general with Ella. She got a new cabbage patch doll!

I made Noah pose all over the building. He nailed it. :)

It's not a trip without painting rocks you've fished out of the river!!

I can remember so many times playing right there. 

We ended our trip at Vogel state park. It was so relaxing!

Hopefully we will get to go back next year and take baby girl with us. The kids already wanted to get her her first cabbage patch doll, but we made them wait til next year when she's here in person. 

It is so good for the soul to get away and refocus as a family. I'm so blessed to have each of these crazy different awesome people as mine. 

The Youth Group and Middle School and Mamas not ready for you to grow up

 Tonight I had the opportunity to go to Youth at Grace.  We love our church.  I could write thousands of blogs about how awesome it is to be a part of the Grace family.  Tonight I saw a glimpse of the future for my boy.

The past couple of weeks, as I have become tired, and bigger, and bigger, and tired, I have started to look forward to the routine of the school year.  I love summer, don't get me wrong, but I love the routine of knowing exactly what we will do each day during the school year.  The promise of fall, cold weather, soup (i miss soup), and slowing down in general.

I was asked to bring the big camera to grace tonight to update some media for the youth ministry. It was also Noah's first night, it's move up Sunday.

What I didn't expect is to have so much of my experience as a youth in youth group to flood back.  The impact that my youth pastors had on me, the friendships I had and still have from that special time in my life...  Thoughts of how these will be the tough years for Noah as he becomes a man, and these people will walk it with him.  First girlfriends. Youth retreats.  Craziness.

After watching them play, feasting on breakfast for dinner, and act crazy, we hunkered down for a good word from Adrian.  He challenged them to get in to the word.  To memorize Romans 8.  On the way home from church Noah and I promised to memorize it together.

At the end Adrian had each group from each school stand up and people around them laid hands on them and prayed for the start of a new school year.  Blame it on the hormones, but tears came to my eyes as I saw these kids praying for one another to be a light in their school.

You can pray for my boy as he embarks on a new school year.  Middle school.  He's getting so big.  And time just won't slow down.

I am thankful for Adrian and the group of adults that will pour into him in these crucial years.  We are so very blessed.

Let's go to the beach

In July we got to go visit papa and Sandra for a vacation/work trip. It was such a wonderful week, our hosts were so gracious, I hardly had to lift a finger!!!  We spent lots of time at the beach and pool, and got to see some old friends who happened to be in the area vacationing at the same time from Pittsburgh. 

Over the weekend I got to shoot Derek and Nikki's gorgeous beach wedding. It was amazing!

The Siak Six

In May we found out we are expecting another Siak.  It's been a crazy ride getting through the first trimester, and now that we are settling in to the second, we thought we would share the news with our blog!  Because of some extra testing we had done early, we were able to find out whether or not we were having a girl or boy.  We contacted my friend Sarah Jacobs with Soulshine Photography and asked her to come document telling the kids.  (soulshinephotography.net).  Noah just knew he was going to get another brother.  Ella longed for a sister.  I want and still want, healthy.  Our idea was to count down and release the color balloons we weren't having, and hang on to the color we were having.  Luke's face and not even knowing what was going on (yes we told him) cracks me up.  Noah's look of disappointment, while very short lived (he is so happy to have a sister!) is so funny to have documented, and I will never ever forget the look of joy on Ellas face when she realized I was still holding on to the pink balloons.

So far everything is going great and mama and baby are healthy.  We would love your prayers for continued health for this pregnancy, and in late December we will introduce you to the last member of this Siak gang, our sweet baby girl.

An old post that didn't ever publish :)

In May matt and I got to fly down to Miami for a long weekend with my best friend Liz. It was sooooo good to have some reconnect time!  We had such a relaxing vacation. We saw alligators, went and saw Pitch Perfect 2 (matt saw mad max), acted like tourist downtown and saw south beach (it's kinda scary when you are from a small country town in NC). 

I am so thankful my mom and dad volunteered to watch our babes so we could get away. Now, to plan our next kid-free vacation! 😃

Florida Everglades, a park that goes on and on and on. It was HOT and the alligators roam free!

That's my liz!

Bob Is Here is a fruit stand that started when Bob was a boy. He had a sign that simply said "Bob is here" and people

Would buy from him on the corner. Now it's A tourist trap where they make local smoothies from fruit. That's Bob back there. We had to let him photobomb us. 

July 4th with family

July 4th weekend we all (but bekah and will - gosh I missed them!!) traveled to charlotte to spend the weekend together. It was good ole' scoggins fun. We ate well, laughed hard, played hard, rested hard, and enjoyed each other. It was so good to see Daniel and lindsey especially. The distance between us makes it hard for us to get together often. 

I am blessed to have these amazing people as my family. I wouldn't trade them for the world.