the Mitchells in November

Goodness, another month has flown by! Here's what we were up to this past month...

Jonathan has been winding down his first semester at Hardin-Simmons and has a lot of funny stories as a result! He still loves the work environment and the people he works with. Now he is getting ready for finals.

Katy has now entered the third trimester or "uncomfortable" stage in pregnancy. Parker is already measuring over 14 inches and is almost 3 pounds! She has updated Parker's baby book and enjoys taking Luke to play group at the play ground.

Luke is learning more and more how to be Mommy and Daddy's helper. He likes words like "mine", "Uke (Luke) do it!" and "all by myself" a lot these days. We have already entered into the "terrible twos" even though he has 3 more months until it's official.

Playing hide and go seek in Mommy and Daddy's closet.

We enjoyed all of our Thanksgivings over the past week and a half. And it was fun to see Luke interact with all the cousins this year. He is quite the picky eater so he missed out on all the yummy food!

We have also put up our Christmas tree and lights outside. Luke even has his own Christmas tree in his room this year. He loves everything Christmas! And wants the lights on the tree and house to be on all the time. We even enjoyed our first fire of the year last night!

October Festivities!

We had a very busy, fun-filled October! This year Luke was old enough to participate in so many more things.

We started out the month by visiting our friends the Matthews and the Lonergans in Plano/Dallas. We hadn't seen the Matthews trio in a while and I was in baby heaven! And Jess brought sweet Fynley over and it was so fun to see her little personality developing!

My pantless son listening to Ashlyn reading

Ainsley and Asher

Luke and Ashlyn playing with sweet Fynley

My precious friends Jess and Kandace

Then we had the Reveal Party to announce we're having a BOY! I posted more pictures on my Party Blog here.

Everyone biting into their BLUE cupcakes!

Then we took Luke to the little Pumpkin Patch here in Abilene and bought him and Parker their own pumpkins.

Trying to find the right pumpkin

Showing off his and Parker's pumpkins

And Luke got to help carve the pumpkins this year too! Of course we had to choose a Mickey Mouse for one of them (Daddy worked very hard on it)! And Mommy did the silly face. Luke didn't know what to think of all the gooey stuff but he had fun exploring!

Helping with the cleaning out

Daddy with his Mickey Mouse pumpkin

Helping Mommy with her silly face pumpkin

The finished products! We were pretty proud since it was our first pumpkin carving :)

We were excited about trick or treaters on Halloween too since we were in a house instead of an apartment. Jonathan saw my 3 big bags of candy I bought and thought I was crazy... needless to say we'll be getting 4-5 bags next year! We decided that since we didn't have a fall festival to take Luke to we would dress him up with what he already had. So he got to be a Honduran soccer player (thanks to Aunt May's mission trip earlier this summer). He loved carrying around his soccer ball and saying "soccer player!"

Our little soccer player

Trick or Treating at our neighbors

Showing his skills

Checking out the candy bowl

Luke handing out candy... he would only hand it to the little kids :)

At the end of October, Jonathan had his 10 year high school reunion. We went to the football game Friday night and Luke loved every second! He loved sitting by the band and watching them play and dance. He kept saying "march, march!" After the game we put Luke down at Jonathan's parents house and headed out to a restaurant to visit with some of Jonathan's old friends. It was a lot of fun to hear old stories about how he was in high school and meeting some of his old friends.

It seems like every month we watch Luke develop and grow by leaps and bounds! He seems to be excited about being a big brother and says "Parky Andon belly, right there!" all the time. He is amazingly good at all sports so we're anxious to see which he will choose down the road. He sings songs while playing his toy guitar and does a little dance with it sometimes. :) We are looking forward to more family time in the coming months as the holidays quickly approach!

The Big Secret

So we went to have THE sonogram last Tuesday and I can honestly say that I have not let it slip once!! That's a huge deal for me! :) It helps I have a whole party planned around this particular secret.

The baby looked great! And it was so fun to see baby kick and punch on the screen and feel it. The doctor said that my placenta was about 1.9 cm away from the cervix and they usually like it to be 2.0 cm. He was pretty sure that it will move but just to make sure we'll have another sonogram on November 15th. That means we get to see baby again! :)

I'm gearing up for the reveal party this Saturday and trying to space things out so I'm not overly stressed come Saturday morning. I can't wait to see it all put out and together! I'll be sure to post pictures along with the BIG NEWS!!

Here's one of the pictures we got from last week!

Sorry it's so blurry, it's from my phone!

Family Update!

The Mitchell 3, soon to be 4, have been very busy lately! Here's an update on everyone...

Jonathan - is loving his job! It is such a blessing for this new position to "fit" so well. He is enjoying the classes he is teaching and loves how tight-nit the math department is. Jonathan has also been working very hard in our yard. We recently landscaped the front yard with some shrubs and pavers and added a few shrubs in the back.

Katy - is adjusting to a small town very quickly! I absolutely love the feel of Abilene and have become pretty familiar with how to get around. I am also LOVING having a house (surprise, surprise!). I have really connected with a childhood friend of Jonathan's who lives in Abilene. It's been nice to find friends so quickly.

Luke - is constantly growing and developing. He is a little ball of energy and loves to pull out all his toys just to put them back. We have started going to a play group of about 4-6 kids and Luke is learning how to share and take turns. :)

Baby #2 - is growing right on track. I started feeling the baby move a few weeks ago and I always anxiously await to feel the next kick! I had my first appointment in Abilene this week and really liked the doctor. It was a big relief to find a doctor so soon! We should have "the sonogram" when I'm around 20 weeks.

So that's a little update on the Mitchells. Check back for details of the Reveal Party for baby #2!

Blog Reading

I stumbled across this blog about a year ago and her story just grabbed me. I have sobbed my guts out reading about their little Audrey and praised and laughed with her through more recent stories.

Angie, the blogger, is such an inspiration and encouragement to me. The way she is able to see what the Lord is teaching her in all of her family's happenings amazes me and I wish I was better at that for my family.

Today I read her entry from earlier this summer about when one of her daughters, Abby, broke her arm. The picture she paints for a parent's role in their child's spiritual walk is just beautiful. It convicted and pushed me to constantly be ready to "be the holders while our children commune with the great One." Check out her blog Bring On The Rain for the whole story and bring your kleenex!

We’re Here!

We have finally made it to Abilene. It was a stressful time of Jonathan wrapping up summer courses in Dallas, packing and moving all with me being pregnant (and moving very slowly!) and having a very curious, fast-moving toddler! :)

We are so blessed to have amazing family who would drop anything to help us out! My poor sister-in-law saw far more of that disgusting apartment than I ever knew existed. :) It made a world of difference to have people there to watch and entertain Luke while I directed and unpacked.

We have only managed to hang one thing on our walls so far, but we’ll get there! We are all loving having so much room to ourselves. Jonathan has done an amazing job of laying pavers in the back to extend our back porch. We love having a yard and a garage!

Jonathan begins teaching at HSU today and is very excited to get started. He’s really enjoying how he fits with the university and the faculty and staff have been so kind to all of us. When Luke was sick last week, the dean of the math department prayed for us during their meeting! We love the community and family feel already. We definitely like that it takes less than 10 minutes to get across town! :)

Here's a picture of our helper. I promise to post more after we decorate a bit more.

the Mitchells ... out west :)

The Mob is Growing!

We recently found out that Mitchell baby #2 is on the way!!!! We are super excited and can't wait to love on this new little miracle! The estimated due date is 10 days after Luke's birthday! So we're guessing I'm around 8 weeks.

We found out at the beginning of June and will be going to the doctor on July 12th. I can't wait to see the baby on the sonogram! I don't think Luke really understands yet but he can show you where our baby is! He can also say "big brother". We are thrilled with all the new changes coming our way and will continue to keep you posted on baby, house, move to Abilene!

The Mitchell 4 :)

Graduation Party

We had Jonathan's graduation party yesterday and it was great! I was a bit flustered at first because the ceremony went 2 hours long and was supposed to go an hour and a half at the most! It stressed me out a bit to be one of the last people to get to my own party!

So now that I got that out, on to the party stuff....

Here are the tables. I wanted the "chalk board" look for the tables so I covered the tops with black paper and put chalk on each table for people to leave messages.

The centerpieces were soup cans filled with sand. Pencils were hot glued to the can, then I scrunched some notebook paper down in there and put the sign in on a skewer. I covered the rubberbands holding the pencils in place with black tulle. Then put blue and red paper shreds around it.

Here are the favor bags that were filled with Smarties and Air Heads.

The tag read:

"For all of you AIRHEADS

Who don't have a clue,

Who've perused the thesis

And are quite baffled too,

Find enclosed with our love

Some SMARTIES to chew.

You may even get a Diploma or two!"

I didn't get a picture of all the food before people dug in (mainly because I was running around like a crazy person) but I had to get pictures of the food name signs.

We had Centroid Caesar Wraps & Chain Rule Chargrilled Wraps

Chebychev Chicken Salad Sandwiches

Notation Nuggets, Fractional Fruit, Chaotic Attractor Chips, Diff Eq Drinks

The finished product - graduation cap cookies!

My mom made the stand for me. It was a block of styrofoam then balsa wood around the sides. I tied tulle around it to help it stay together. The black beads were a fun new find! Look here for more info.

I was so pleased with how everything came together! I am so appreciative to my family for all the help setting up!!!! And all the people who stepped up and helped do last minute things after we got there (you know who you are!) My husband was so sweet through all the planning too. :) He was very grateful for all the hard work I'd put in to my party... I mean HIS party!

Congrats to Dr. Jonathan Mitchell!!!!

We're so proud of you!!!!

Now on to my next big project.... moving to Abilene!

T - 2 Days

One of the things I'll be making for the graduation party is graduation cap cookies. I was originally going to do this from Bakerella....

Then I saw this in one of my cookie cookbooks and decided to switch because Jonathan's favorite dessert is cookies...

But I was told by my cookie-loving husband that this one was TOO much cookie! Can you believe it? So I decided to morph the two ideas together.

This is a picture of the pieces ready to be assembled...

When I was playing around with option #2 I didn't like the icing look (mainly because I'm a perfectionist and couldn't get the icing smooth enough!). So on my final product, I dyed the cookie dough red so I didn't have to ice anything! And baking the "bottoms" of the caps in cupcake papers it made the ridged look like the Reeses! I was very pleased! So I made all 50 of these a week or so ago and froze them so I would just have to assemble. Now that they are thawing on my counter I'm a little nervous... I'm just hoping they don't sag or break and then we will have to make 50 more tomorrow night before the party! ugh!!!

Oh and I got a few pics of my little helper....

Just precious if I do say so myself! :) He didn't really help I just wanted to post some pictures!

I'll post the finished product soon!!