Elijah

Hey all! Thanks so much for your prayers & support during this time as we've waited patiently for Eli to come into the world. He arrived Friday, October 26th at 6 a.m. 8lbs 3oz & 21 inches long. God is good! Here are a couple of pics of him and a link to a photo album. http://picasaweb.google.com/jjcourter

God is good! We praise him everyday for this little miracle.

Contractions are FUN!!

Oh yeah...it's begun. I mean, my body is starting to recognize that this baby is cooked and ready to come out! Yippee!! It's kinda hard taking a picture of your own big belly, but I managed :)


My contractions started at 4pm yesterday and so happily stayed with me till about midnight. Then they slowed down drastically to about 1 every hour till about 5 am! FUN! I had to sleep upright on the couch because they hurt worse when lying down. That was good though, then Justin wasn't woken up by my 'hee, hee, whooo' breathing sounds. :) Now they are only happening about once an hour. I'm going to In Spa to get a pedicure!! Can't sit around and just wait for this little man to get going again...it'll drive me coo coo.

My first weekend as an at home wife & mom, we met up with Jen, Timm, June & Willem and got some yummy Greek food and ate down at the Des Moines marina. The sunset was soo beautiful.

The Nursery!

Hey friends & family!
I'm really close to finishing the nursery, but I thought I'd post a few pics to share with you on where I am at :)
I was soo grateful for Katie & Jenny's help on Saturday afternoon. They helped me finish up some sewing projects!!! They are super stars, let me tell you! Katie hung up the valance above the window in the nursery and today I hung up the letters around the room and th 3 pictures. I have a few more frames I want to put on the wall with pictures of family members and then hang up a mobile above the crib.




Here's a pic of the quilt I made...Katie did the quilting & binding for me :) thanks Katie!!!!


Now, I didn't just sit around and watch Jenny & Katie finish my projects :) I finished one too! Here's my diaper bag that I finally completed today! Yahooo!!! I LOVE it and was so amazed that it turned out...really.

Jenny helped finish up the binding on my sisters quilt! Nice work Jenny!!


We have 2 more weeks to go! I pray it's not any later as my back is beginning to get tired and it's SO hard for me to stop and rest when I've got things that I could do :) It's a good discipline I guess. We're just very excited to meet the little man.