Some things we've been up to lately...

Well, we've been up to quite a bit actually, but here are some highlights!

- We're reading the 90 day Bible with our small group. We are actually turning it into the 180 day Bible, so we aren't committed to reading so many pages each day. I'm really excited about this! We're only into the first couple of days so far, but I'm really enjoying the structure of sitting down once a day and reading the Bible. And I've never read the entire Bible before, so this is a really good start on understanding more of the Bible!

- We recently dog-sat my brother's family puppy for a week while they went on vacation. Bo was a really fun pup to have around, however we decided that we really enjoy having TRAINED dogs live with us. Bo is such a sweet puppy and so playful, but he likes to do all things puppy...chew on shoes, pee in the house, bite others dogs (in a playful way), and is all around clumsy! He's adorable, but we were happy to have him leave with only 1 vase broken, a couple of flip flops chewed, and no stains on the carpet!

- We had another doctor's appointment last week - at 24 weeks! I can't believe I'm already 6 months pregnant! Time is just flying by. Our little guy's heartbeat was 144 the exact same as my 20 week appointment. My doctor said everything is looking good and our boy is growing! I'm noticing him growing everyday...the past few weeks he has gotten very active! Shane has felt him kick now. And it's fun to feel him moving around - definitely makes me excited and anxious for his arrival! The only issues I'm having right now is my back is quite sore. Usually it's most uncomfortable at night when I'm trying to sleep. I've also lost control of my emotions...and I'm sure my husband will second that. Luckily, even if I do have a temporary meltdown, I can laugh at it within minutes. And thank goodness Shane is a patient and humorous man...makes going through the roller coaster of hormone changes worth the ride! I wasn't sure if I would be confident enough to post belly pics on the blog, but it is really fun to see him (and me!) grow...so check out these pics!

16 weeks

18 weeks

20 weeks

25 weeks (current)

-I started sewing a baby blanket! Well actually this is supposed to be my "practice" blanket. I'm using old scraps of fabric to make this one, because I have no clue what I'm doing. I'm just learning as I go! Hopefully I'll have the finished product done soon!

- Baby A's nursery is still not decorated...but, Shane has the crib put together as well as the changing table. Shane's mom bought us both of these. We looked at a number of different choices, and she actually did enough internet shopping to find us the one we liked best! Now I need to figure out colors for the nursery so I think about crib bedding!

- We've been blessed to have some friends donate some of their little boy items to us. Our little guy already has a good start on clothes - we've got clothes in all different sizes. Hopefully they will fit him in all the correct seasons!


Oh yeah - and Bailey and Bongo are doing well too! :)

Christmas on the Lake!

This past weekend Shane and I took some of the couples in our small group to Lake Delhi again. The weekend just happened to be Christmas on the Lake. We decorated my parent's pontoon in Christmas lights and the shoreline was decked out in Christmas blowups thanks to our friend Bailey who LOVES blowup yard decorations! :) And our efforts weren't left un-rewarded...we placed 2nd in the "Best Decorated Boat" category. We had a few issues when all of us piled on the boat...we were quite weighted down and one particular boat made a HUGE wave right in front of us...we had a big wave come over the top of the front rail on the pontoon!!! And guess who was sitting in front!?!? Somehow I managed to block the wave for every other person on the boat. 9:00 at night, 50 degree temps, and soaking wet clothes = freezing Jackee! I ended up stripping down and wrapping some towels around me to stay warm...I took one for the team and spent the rest of the night in my underwear...haha. It was a night to remember!!

Eating some dinner before heading out on the boat!

Putting final touches on the decorating...our theme was "Hunting for Santa"

The whole crew (minus mom, the picture taker) getting ready to go out.

Shane and I...before the wave!

Shane and I the day after...it was a gorgeous day. We really love spending time in Delhi.

Kansas City Weekend

This last weekend I went to Kansas City for Erin's Bachelorette weekend. The 6 of us girls had a great time! The weekend entailed a lot of sun, shopping, and socializing. And the weekend did not include a whole lot of sleep!

At the pool!

Out to eat!

Getting ready for a night out on the town!

Our Dinner...

When Shane and I decided we were going to find out the sex of our baby, we decided we didn't just want to find out at the doctor's office. We thought it would be fun for the ultrasound technician to write it down and we would open it that evening when we went out for dinner together. We had so much fun doing it like this! We went out to eat at Montage in Cedar Falls...not only do we love eating at Montage, it also was the location of our first official date! It was fun to capture the moment of finding out we are having a little boy! A date I surely won't forget! :)

It's a.............

We had our 20 week appointment today and guess what....Needless to say we are thrilled! Everything went very well and he is a healthy little guy. The ultrasound showed that he was scheduled to make his grand appearance on December 8, so they say I'm right on schedule. My official due date is still December 11, but he must be in a growth spurt right now or I'll have him a little early! :) We will see!

I'll post more pictures of our little baby boy soon. Just wanted to let everyone know that Baby A is a boy!!! :)

The reason I married him...

Shane recently made a blogpost on his blog about becoming a father - I couldn't be more proud to become a parent with him! :) A few of his thoughts...

I carry these thoughts everywhere right now. I go to work and I feel this
intense desire to provide. I go to church and I think of all of the sin I
struggle with and pray that I can be an example of a man after Jesus' heart. I
go to play volleyball with my church small group and I think about how in a year
or two I will have somebody watching my sportsmanship and imitating it.

You can read the rest of his post here.

A Fun 4th of July!

This last weekend we had a great time with some other couples from our small group. We all loaded up our camping gear and headed for Lake Delhi! We had so much fun with everyone - we spent our time riding four wheelers, around campfires, playing board games, riding jet skis, chilling on the pontoon, and eating lots of food! Here are some pictures from our weekend.















Lots of campfires and helping Wyatt throw more wood into the fire!














Travis made breakfast for us over the campfire....yummy!














Swimming in the Lake!














Time at the beach for volleyball and swimming.














Overall a great time with friends!

Fun from the last month!!

So once again I've been slacking on updating our blog! Summer is my favorite time of the year and most of my free time is spent outside enjoying the beautiful weather. Some of our favorite activities that we love to do outside are boating, running, going for walks, playing sand volleyball, riding in our jeep, taking the dogs to the dog park, etc. You'll see a lot of these pop up in my updates below! Sorry there's not pictures, I'm not very good about remembering my camera and/or downloading them!

IKEA trip
At the end of May we took a trip with our friend's Matt and Bailey to IKEA in Minneapolis. And what a trip it was! We borrowed my parent's suburban to make sure we would have ample room to fit all our purchases. Thank goodness for big vehicles! We literally filled the suburban to the top. We all bought closet organizers and many other little items. Shane and I are in the process of moving all of my clothes/shoes/etc out of our extra room upstairs, so the baby can have his/her own room. This presented a bit of a challenge, considering we don't have a lot of closet space in our room. Luckily, this trip to IKEA solved our problem and we are in the process of moving and organizing all our clothes in our bedroom. Hopefully I'll have pictures of our new closet soon. The nursery pictures will probably be awhile yet!

Lake Delhi - 1st boat ride of the year
A few weekends back Shane and I went to my parents and helped them with some yard work. I took advantage of a nice day and cleaned up the pontoon for Mom and Dad. We launched it later that afternoon and went for our first boat ride of the season. Hopefully there will be lots more of these this summer!!!

Erin & Aaron's Engagement Party
May 30 Shane and I went to an Engagement Party for our friends Erin & Aaron. Erin was my Maid of Honor in our wedding and I'm Erin's Matron of Honor for her wedding on November 7. I am so excited to be apart of her special day! She's going to be a beautiful bride and it is fun talking and planning all of these big events with her! And yes...I will be 35 weeks pregnant at the time of her wedding. We had an interesting time shopping for bridesmaid dresses, and we found a really cute one and hopefully 10 sizes bigger than my normal size will fit ok!

My Waterloo Days 5K
The same weekend of the Engagement Party, Shane and I ran in the My Waterloo Days 5K. I was 12 weeks pregnant at the time and I was happy with myself for running the whole thing and finishing under a 10 minute mile pace...basically that was all I was going for. It is interesting how you become aware of so many of your activities when you become pregnant. Running has always been something I enjoyed, however after I found out I was pregnant I was so much more cautious. Didn't want to push myself too hard or for too long. Well, my mind was put at ease after talking with my doctor and finding out that I can continue as long as I'm comfortable. So I've still been running, but not nearly as much. I do a lot more walking now!

Laker's
The past few weeks have been consumed with the Laker's Games!!! For what seems like quite a few weeks we were watching at least 2-3 games a week. Basically any night there was a game on our entire night was taken. (Luckily, all our friends are aware of this obsession and are ok with our anti-social tendencies or join in the game-watching fun!). Last week the Laker's won it all, beating the Magic in 5 games. Needless to say there were some happy faces around our house. :)

Pregnancy Update
This update is probably not necessary, since there is a lot of "pregnancy talk" discussed among the other updates, but I thought I better say something strictly dedicated to the subject. Right now things are going great! I'm done with the first trimester, so most all of the morning sickness is gone! Woohoo! I've also regained my energy back. This is a great feeling - I love being able to get stuff done without feeling exhausted! It is so hard to believe that I'm in my 4th month of pregnancy! I have another doctors appointment next week. I'm excited to see how things are going...as far as I can tell the baby's getting bigger and I'm getting more noticeably pregnant everyday! In July if Baby A cooperates we are going to find out if we are having a boy or girl. I will be thrilled with either gender; however my prediction has been boy since the beginning, so I'll be shocked if we are having a little girl! I guess only time will tell! Changes that I’ve been experiencing this month are a noticeably bigger appetite. Not necessarily eating bigger portions, but just more often. Seems like I'm hungry all the time! I still haven't gained too much weight, maybe 3 or 4 pounds, but my belly seems to be growing. I've also have the incredibly small bladder like all pregnant women experience. This is probably by far the most annoying part of pregnancy, but I'm not going to complain because I'm sure there will be many more discomforts in the months to come. :)

Father's Day
Last, but not least - I wanted to wish my husband Happy Father's Day this weekend! This year is his very first one! Even though our little one isn't here quite yet, I already know how great of a dad Shane is going to be. I can't wait to be parents together!

Lots of Updates!

It's been awhile since I've posted! Here are a few updates on what's been going on in the Austerman household!

I've been into a baking kick lately! Few weekends back I made homemade cinnamon rolls (Shane's favorite Saturday morning breakfast) and tonight I was feeling like baking again, so chocolate chip cookies it was! Yummy!




For the past two years Shane and I have helped lead an outreach project for Love Cedar Valley. I say both Shane and I, but I must admit, Shane definitely takes on the lion's share of the work! We help at the Waterloo Boy's and Girl's Club and this year we took down some playground equipment, painted a cafeteria and put up some benches and counter tops.





I've been doing a little more sewing! I made these new curtains for our living room! The fabric was really, really affordable so the finished product was WAY cheap! Yea! Also in this picture is the new crown molding that Shane put up!! I've been wanting to put it up since I painted last year and we finally got around to it!




And the most exciting news of all....we're having a baby!!! We found out a few weeks ago and I haven't got around to posting it on here, but most people already know! We are so excited! We definitely have and are learning a lot about God's will and God's timing through this pregnancy. This definitely wasn't something that happened right away for us, but we are enjoying it all the more because we've had to wait. And now that it has happened I'm learning a lot about patience getting through the first trimester. The past few weeks have been a struggle with the flu, morning sickness, and exhaustion...but it's alright, because it supposedly means the pregnancy is going well! We will just continue to look forward to the second trimester! :) Thanks to soooo many of our friends and family who have kept us in their prayers! We are so blessed and grateful.

Proud Wife

This last weekend Shane and I attended church in Grundy Center. It was great not only to visit Orchard’s Grundy Center campus, but Shane is participating in the current series “Stories from the Seats”. He did such an awesome job and I am constantly amazed by his story and his courage to share it! He will be at the Cedar Falls campus this Sunday at all three services in the Community Center!