Newest Adventure

As most of you know, on Monday I start my Student Teaching Internship. Now, I have been told by others that this will be the busiest time of my life and although I usually just listened and said "okay", I did not fully realize it until now. On Thursday I attended a meeting on campus with the Internship coordinator and many of the University Supervisors for the School of Education at Regent. I also received my Internship "handbook" and got a briefing on what is expected of me over the next 16 weeks. I believe it was at this point that I realized the fullness of what "busy" really means.

Aside from a full-time internship, I am also taking a required course and maintaining the other responsibilities that have seemed to fill my days up until this point. I know what many of you are thinking.... "This is the last we will hear from Karen until Christmas!" and although that might be true on this blog (hopefully not though); you will be happy to hear that I am required to keep, update, and maintain a blog during my Student Teaching Experience.

Of course I wanted to invite all of you to check that blog out, so in case you don't "see" much of me on here; hopefully you can keep up with things over there! The site is Endless Echoes and I hope you will come check it out!

As for life with the Millers, I do assure you that I have much to blog about. In fact, I currently have 51 posts waiting in my drafts folder. Oh, how I would love to get to them all some day!!! My dear friend Kristen often posts "Way Back Wednesday" posts; I might have to steal her idea each week and create (many) "Way Back" posts to catch up on things like pictures of Sierra's first birthday, her first steps on video, pictures of our beach trip in May, etc. I will dream big people!!! Until then, check out my new blog and please keep praying for us! This is promising to be a very adventurous season for all of us!

New Job

As most of you know, I will begin my Student Teaching Internship in 2 weeks time. I am very excited, but also nervous about writing all kinds of lesson plans, doing a great job, and most of all leaving my sweet kiddo with a babysitter all day, every day. My life as I have known it over the past 2 years and especially the past 16 months will definitely be taking a different turn for the next 16 weeks. However, that is not the "new job" I spoke of when I titled this post.

Coming this February, I will be taking on a New Job that will change our lives forever. What will my new job title be you ask???

I will go from "Mama to ONE" to

"Mama to TWO"!!!!!!!!

Yep! That's right, on or around February 24th, we will become a family of 4!!!! Words can not express how excited we are about this wonderful blessing and we continue to thank the Lord for giving us this blessing of new life. He certainly provides and we are so thankful!

This morning we had an appointment with our midwife and were able to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time. Oh, what a wonderful sound it is!!! We are currently into our 13th week of pregnancy and the baby is doing very well. The heart rate sounded strong and healthy and was beating around the mid to high 150's. Even Sierra enjoyed hearing the noise on the Doppler, although she is still too young to understand that Mama has a baby in her womb; but we are sure that she is going to be the best big sister!!!

Unfortunately this pregnancy has not provided any relief when it comes to nausea and vomiting. However, I have commented that it is not as bad as it was during my first pregnancy. I am not sure if it really is not as bad, or if it is just because I have Sierra to keep me busy and keep my mind off of it. Either way, I have experienced nausea just about every day and have been vomiting about 1 time per day; but my appointment today revealed only 2 pounds lost since my last appointment 4 weeks ago. The past two days have not been so bad and I am hoping I am on the upswing of things. Time will tell.

We thank you all for your continued prayers for me, our family, and this little darling baby as s/he continues to grow. We will be sure to keep you updated as time goes on.

16 Months Old (Almost)

Sierra is almost 16 months old! Wow! Where does the time go? I know I haven't posted in a while, so I thought I would share some fun pictures I have taken over the last couple of weeks. Sierra is getting so big and growing up so fast. At 15 months she had a "language explosion" and is talking sooo much! I really should make a list of all the things she can say, just for memories sake, but basically she can say just about anything you ask her too; at least she attempts to say the word.

Some of her favorite words are:

Please

Thank you

More

Mama

Daddy

Kitty

Mimi (what she calls my mom)

Papa (what she calls my dad)

No

Milk

Cheese (both that we eat and what we say when we see the camera) :)

Baby

Tissue

Bible

Amen

Book

Water (to which she calls it "wa-wa")

Eat

Hi

Help

Uh-Oh!

Bye-Bye

Night-Night

Bath

And I am sure there are many more that she knows, like fish and keys, which she says when she sees them and knows what they are. It is amazing to me how much she talks now and I really contribute a lot of this development to her signing. Some people have said that they believe sign language is a "language inhibitor" - Well, certainly in our case, this has not been so. Sierra probably knows and does over 15 signs and at 15 months was starting to speak every single one of those signs. It really is amazing to me how they learn and develop. What a blessing she is to us!!! I can't believe 16 months have come and gone. Thank you Lord for her precious sweetness. Our lives would not be the same with out our sweet Sierra!

Our Big Girl!

Always making silly faces. Sierra is so expressive.

Another silly face.

She loves to play on her piano.

She plays beautiful music. :)

Sometimes (when we are home and not traveling) Sierra likes to spend the days just like this, relaxing in just her PJ's and diaper!

Sierra somehow has "borrowed" this ball from her cousin Pierce all summer and she loves it. It is small enough for her to hold in one hand. :)

Our happy girl.

This is her favorite place in our living room. Not exactly sure why, but she loves to sit on our wood stacker (which is not in use during the summer) and play with her toys. She is just too cute!

Sitting and playing.

Coloring is one of her new favorite pastimes. She loves to color in her activity books with her crayons. She knows just where her crayons are stored and asks for "help" when she wants them. Mommy likes to color too, so it is fun to do together. :)

Sierra doesn't want to grow up too fast either. In fact, she still thinks she is big enough to fit in the bin where the blocks go.