Thanksgiving 2014

Our Thanksgiving is already over, but I know many are just starting their day =)  We had a great day, and I think baby really likes Thanksgiving food.

 The gang's all here !  {idea found on pinterest : source}

 Had so many laughs.  Nancy, Pierre, Cricri as Pocahontas, and Rob as John Smith.

Me, Tonio as Squanto, Lotta and Sebastien who couldn't be with us this year.

 Zee table.

The food - yum.  Nancy, Cricri and I all cooked.  Tonio helped me tons with shopping, cutting, cleaning, etc.  I'm so blessed by him.

So good to be with family.  We even got to talk to my mom on face time.  It was so fun to see you Mama !  {My dad was surfing for the annual Hutchinson Turkey Surf... I love him.}

And why not.  I didn't have my camera man, so this is my sorry attempt of a selfie-timer with poor lighting.  You get the gist... I have a belly with a baby =).  Still officially on "bed rest" - one week left.

And as I type, these guys are in the living room polishing off the Thanksgiving leftovers =).  This is the group of guys that come over every Thursday evening for hang out and prayer.  We love opening our home to others.  {Rodhlann, Nathanael, Jean-Rémi, Mark, Matias and my handsome husband}

Dear Jesus, I've been thinking about this verse all day long :
"Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving;
Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms."
--Psalm 95:2

Thank You for the gift of salvation, for Your death on the cross for me, for my wonderful husband, for our precious baby being formed in my womb by YOU, for our families, for our friends, for our home and for joy that comes only from You.  I love you !

Love Linz

more baby stuff

So, they call it "nesting" when a pregnant lady gets everything ready for the little bundle of joy to arrive... I guess you could say that I've been nesting :

After washing all the clothes, I tried to organize them.

Long sleeve onesies for 6-12 months.

Gowns.  I have a trusted source that says these are the best for a tired, delusional, sleep-deprived mommy who has better things to do than try to match up tiny snap buttons in the middle of the night.  You can read the exact quote at the bottom of THIS POST.

The stroller duo.  We have been so blessed by other families with young kids... we even have a choice.  The stroller in the back won, lighter and easier for me to fold up.  Plus, it has 3 seat attachments, woohoo !!!  Free is for me !!!

 Sterilized all the baby bottles and breast pump.  Do you like our drying grass?  I do =).

There is one of the stroller attachments, the landau, which is probably what little P will sleep in next to our bed the first months.

 More baby piles... stroller, bouncy seat, the bed... all waiting for more permanent homes.

We have made some space for baby P's clothes, diapers, blankets, towels, toys, etc...  The nutcracker, you ask?  Just a little preview of some of our Thanksgiving decorations for tomorrow.  My sister-in-law and brother gave this to us last year for Christmas.  He's too cool NOT to be a part of Thanksgiving, just gave him a pilgrim hat instead of his red beret.

I hope you all have been reflecting on what you are thankful for.  Today, as I continue my bed rest, I'm thankful for my husband who went grocery shopping for me this morning and for my friend Elodie who came by to visit me.

Love Linz

Baby Names : GIRLS

{Click HERE to see BOYS}

Tonio and I thought it would be fun to ask our friends on facebook for name ideas for our little tike.  I had no idea we would have such a flood of responses.  It was both enlightening and hilarious.

Here they are in alphabetical order {and yes, some are jokes} a number next to a name indicates how many times that name was repeated :

GIRLS {updated 8 December, 2014}

Abija

Acsa

Adaya

Allegra

Alicia

Alpha

Amelia (2)

Amy

Anna

Annaleise

Anastasia

Antonia

Avalon

Batista

Belle

Bennytt

Bithja

Charlotte-Marie

Charlie

Chloe (3) – (Coco)

Clara (2)

Claudia

Celeste

Daniella

Daphne

Dillon

Ella

Ellis

Elisabeth

Elise

Elizabeth (2)

Emaline

Emeline

Emily

Emmalyn

Epha

Eva

Eylsa

Finley

Genevieve

Gwendolyn

Helena

Hodija

Hope

Iris

Jacqueline

Jade (2)
Janae

Jane

Jasmin
Jemima

Jenevieve

Jolene

Josephine

Joy

June

Justice

Jessica

Katarina

Kate (2)

Katinka
Kezia
Lara

Lilianna

Little Bijou

Livia (2)

Lola

Lucy (2)

Madeline

Mallory

Marguerite

Maryweather

Merle

Naara

Nancy

Natalie

Noëmi

Nutella

Olive (4)

Olivia (2)

Pantaloons
Patty-Sue

Pauline

Penelope (3) – (Penny)

Periwinkle

Philippa

Phoebe

Samantha

Sophia (2)

Tamar

See the BOYS names HERE.

Love Linz

Baby Names : BOYS

{Click HERE to see GIRLS}

Tonio and I thought it would be fun to ask our friends on facebook for name ideas for our little tike.  I had no idea we would have such a flood of responses.  It was both enlightening and hilarious.

Here they are in alphabetical order {and yes, some are jokes} a number next to a name indicates how many times that name was repeated :

BOYS {updated 8 December, 2014}

Abinadab

Alexander (3)

Amminadab

Antonio

Augustine (2)

Asher

Boaz

Bob
Brit/Bret
Bubba

Calvin

Chad

Charlie

Choucroute

Christian (2)

Clover

Daniel
Doumé

Edmond

Ellerson

Emmet

Emerson
Esteve

Ezra

Félix

Ferdinand

Gabin

Gaspar

Gideon

Grey

Guillaume

Halets

Henry

Hetsron
Hiligfligdigmickamanjarman

Hudson

Iron

Jack

Jacques

Jax
Jaxon

Jayden

Jéther

Jo la Mouk

Joaquin

Jonathan

Jonathanael

Jordan

Jude

Kevin

Lennon

Lloyd

Liam

Little Bijou

Little Tonio

Marko

Marius

Mathéo

Mattieu

Merlin

Miles

Nachschon

Nathan

Noah

Oakley

Ollie

Oliver (6)

Oscar
O'Neill

Pablo

Pedro Paulo

Peter
Petru

Philip

Phoenix
Reef

Samuel (2)

Sawyer

Sergio

Shayne

Sir William

Titouan

Thomas

Tyler

Tyrone

Van
Wesley

William (4)

See the GIRLS names HERE.

Love Linz

Luke 13:1-17

Tonio taught yesterday at church on Luke 13:1-17.  Sadly, I was not there, but I did get to pray for him.  Today I listened to the message online.  For those of you who speak French, you can listen too.  CLICK HERE.

My take away : we tend to classify sins as some being worse than others, but they all separate us from God.  He sees them all the same.  I should not have little sins that I justify in thinking that they aren't really that bad.

Challenge : pick someone that you want to bless this week with a phone call, a note, praying for them, etc...

I'm thankful for my husband and his God-given gift to teach.

Love Linz

Getting ready for baby

We last chatted a week ago.  I hope you have all had a great week.  Today, I have a few preparation and ultrasound pictures to share with you.

Washing all the baby clothes to be ready for baby P.  This is our "dryer."  And since it was raining like crazy, I combated humidity with a fan blowing them all day. =)  I won !

Assembling the baby bouncer and folding blankets and clean clothes {also removing batteries from annoying animal noise makers... haha... little P won't even know what he or she is missing.}

 What does a _______ say?

But my question is... what does the fox say?  HAHA !  If you don't get it, click this LINK to watch.  Be warned : you may feel a bit less intelligent in the end, but you will be up-to-speed on the pop culture fox song.

Here's baby P's right foot, I think.  7cm.

 And his or her ear.  2.9cm.

And the spine.  The doctor said that li'l munchkin is roughly 41cm long.

Here's an overview of the last ultrasound and our appointment with the midwife :

Baby
Baby is healthy and growing well.
85-90th percentile.
Roughly 2.2 kg (4.85 pounds).
Une grosse tête = "a big head."
Moves and kicks ALL the time {loves the bladder dance}.
Head down and probably won't move (this is a good thing).
Head a bit further down than the midwife would like.

Mommy
Doing ok.  Have a little cold.  I've gained 14kg (31 pounds).
I am currently on bed rest for 3 weeks to keep the little tike in the oven.
Apparently, after 3 weeks, if baby P is born, he or she won't be considered premature.
Also, doc's orders - no more singing or leading worship until after baby comes.

Daddy
He has been such a support to me and big help around the house.
He still talks to baby each night...
I think last night, he told him or her to be patient and not come out too early.
Prays often with me thanking God for our family.  {Makes me teary almost every time.}
He's also leading worship AND teaching on Sundays.


So, after all that, there's a possibility we could have an early December baby... or even a mid-January baby...  Tonio and I have prayed for God's perfect timing for this little one to enter the world and for my body to be ready for the delivery.  We are excited to be parents, what an honor and privilege and blessing.  And so I leave you with this...

Love Linz

32 weeks

A baby update for your Sunday reading...

Today, I enter my 32nd week... when I wasn't pregnant, all this talk of weeks and months didn't mean much to me.  Now I understand.  So. much. changes. in such a short amount of time.  Oh, and let me take a moment to share that my sister-in-law and brother are expecting their own bundle of joy come May 2015...  YAY for cousins !  Félicitations Sarah and Tanner !

I also never understood why pregnant ladies were always rubbing their bellies like a genie lamp.  Well, again, now I get it... the baby is always moving, so you want to feel him or her - the tummy is stretching, so it's itchy - and the mom instinct kicks in, so you just want to let baby know you are there.  It's incredible !

Apparently, baby is all developed... from here on out, he or she is just gaining fat {so is mommy-ha!}.  I know it doesn't show much, but I've gained 12 kilos (26 pounds) so far !  It's bizarre since I've never been able to gain weight EVER.  I know, I know... skinny girl problems.  I'm thankful for a fast metabolism, but I'm sure things will change after the birth.

 And from this angle, you can see baby is waving at you - ha !

This week, we have the last ultrasound.  I'll be sure to write the details in another post.  We also meet with our midwife for our November check-up.  I'm really hoping she will be supportive of me wanting to go natural.  France is pretty pro natural, pro breast-feeding, all that jazz, so I don't think I should have a problem.  The funny thing is they don't really talk about "pain," which I find so different than the states.  Birth is apparently the best.thing.ever here... I'll let you know.  Ha.  Insert reality check, but keeping breathing deeply =).

Ok, enough babble...

Tonio and I are so excited to welcome our little one into the world.  We are praying for the head to be down in this next ultrasound, a healthy and strong, joyful and funny baby.

Love Linz
ps - I wish you could have heard the thunder that just cracked... yowsers !!!  Dear California, I wish I could send you some of this rain.

4th anniversary get-away

we think wedding anniversaries are a big deal, so we celebrate them !

you may remember last year's SURPRISE for our 3rd anniversary - this year we spent 4 days in a little French mountain village called Saorge... enjoy.

walk around the village

tour of the inside

view from the terrace // sunny & rainy

keeping warm - i LOVE building fires - T in his element with tools in hand

a few more pictures around town

{side note: you see that peak on the right?  tonio hiked it on monday - he called me from the top - i love my mountain man}


a quick hop over to italy to visit Vernante where there are several Pinocchio paintings in the town honoring the man who first developed the character with the round head and pointy nose - he was from here... Disney came along a bit later with their version... we were a bit disappointed with the town, but it was cool to see the paintings anyways

{smuggling a basketball... the other day at the market a merchant said, "hey, give me back the watermelon you stole!" ha !  gotta love the freedom people think they have when you're pregnant}

{this one is my favorite... geppetto surfing pinocchio}


and time to head back down the mountain with this hunk, the daddy of our little one ;)

glad to have had a few days of rest
we came home to our living room terrace flooded, and it's still raining...
mopping up, mopping up, dumping buckets and mopping up...
hey, it's adventures like this that you can't pay for, right?

there's no one else i would rather share this life with than that handsome man next to me - thank you Jesus for 4 years together (and for the growing adventure in my belly) !

Love Linz