Loooong Overdue!

September was a big month! We had a lot of fun things going on. Molly was 6 months old on September 13, so we had a little party with Rich's family complete with moon cakes... mmmm.

We also had Molly's baby dedication at church. We left the camera at home, but fortunately our friend Eddie, a photographer, had his camera with him. We haven't seen the pictures yet, but I'm sure they're great.

We also took MOlly to the beach for the first time. It was an absolutely beautiful day and we had such a relaxing time walking around Long Branch, NJ. We're nominating this place for a future Fields family reunion since it's a sweet little beach town, but also has a ferry to New York City!

Molly has gotten her second bottom tooth and has started slowly crawling. Just about every day we're surprised by some new sound she's making or something new she laughs at. I feel truly blessed to be able to stay home with her and get to see all of these things, and I know Rich likes working from home for the same reasons.

New tooth!

Molly has a tooth! I think there might be another one on the way based on the drool covered shirts and chewing on anything she can get her hands on.

Molly had some Cheerios today (soaked with water) and is a big fan! This is Molly's third food after rice cereal and bananas. I was going to wait until she was 6th months old (this Saturday), but I think if you get a tooth, you should be able to get some food.

The first time Molly had rice cereal, she was so enthusiatic, she kept grabbing my hands so I would put the spoon in her mouth more quickly.

She is growing and changing so much every day. I can't believe she will already be six months old on Saturday. It seems like just yesterday I was taking her 3 month pictures.

Rich's extended family is coming over Saturday to celebrate her half birthday and her baby dedication is at church on Sunday. It's a big weekend! More pictures to come soon.

Off the charts and "marrying off" our friends...

Countdown to Kentucky visit: 7 days! We are really looking forward to a long visit with the Hancocks in just a week. Mom has been temporarily out of commission so it'll be good to help her out while we're there. And Erin has started a new dance studio so I'm excited to see her new place of business. And I (Elizabeth Ann) have still not seen Sam's hog barns, and I'm hoping there will be little piggies when we get there.

Well, our big news here is that at Molly's 4 month appointment she was off the charts for height! What in the world?! Literally off the charts. She's 26 3/4 inches at 4 months. She has all sorts of new things going on like rolling over both ways, getting her toes into her mouth, standing up and bouncing, and a lot more giggling. Her favorite things to do are playing with Daddy's hair and playing peek-a-boo with Mommy. She's one awesome little girl!

In other July news, we were in Minnesota for our friends Joe and Amanda's wedding over the weekend of the 4th. The wedding was wonderful! Amanda looked beautiful, Joe danced (a little), Rich danced (a lot, Michael Jackson moves included), Molly was an angel, the photographer was hilarious, and the Electric Slide was passed down to yet another generation (Amanda's cute little sister). Here's some pics from our first trip to the Land of a Thousand Lakes.

We also had a little "Meet Molly" party so we could catch up with friends we haven't seen much or at all since Molly was born. It was so fun entertaining in our home again! I don't think we realized how much we missed it. Now if the college students would just come back to town so we can resume game nights :o)

Cleaning for the Lord

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. Colossians 3:23-24

While Rich and I were praying last night, he asked that the Lord would help us to do all things as if for Him. My first thought went to cleaning my house! If you know me at all, you know that I tend to be a bit begrudging when it comes to cleaning. The bathroom turns into a torture chamber and the pile of papers on my kitchen table turns into Mount Everest. I do like for things to be clean and am always refreshed at the end result. But when it comes to the process of cleaning, I can usually be found procrastinating by any means possible.

Now, I do clean for Rich. I just love it when he walks in the kitchen after I've shined it all up and compliments my efforts. I'm a sucker for a compliment. There's absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to please my husband, but I need to look deeper. Is it pleasing to the Lord when my house is clean and organized? Yes! He has placed me as the keeper of my home, so of course it pleases Him when I do this job well. If I can keep that in mind as I go about my work, it gives me a new sense of inspiration. Inspired while doing housework? Well, yeah, I guess that's the best way to describe it. It's a blessing not to trudge through those chores, but to be able to do it with a joyful and willing heart. So that's my prayer, that I would be joyful in the work that I do for the Lord!

3 months old!

I can't believe Molly is already 3 months old. She is a great baby and such a joy to Rich and me. In the last month, she's developed so much! She is such a talker and sometimes will not even let you get a word in. Molly likes to sit in my lap to be read to, and she's trying so hard to roll over, but is not quite there yet. She loves bath time and has discovered splashing and kicking is so much fun. She's sleeping through the night now, from about 11 to 7:30 with a brief waking at 6:00 am when she's realized she's lost her paci. The sleeping through the night part is absolutely wonderful since Rich and I are finally feeling like normal.

Rich is still working hard to build up the business. He has a few projects going right now and is always looking for more customers. Here's a link to a some information about diamond buying he's working on: Diamonds99

Please continue to pray for our family and our business. Thanks!

One month later!

At Molly's 1 month appointment (at 5 wks of age) she weighed 9 lbs 2.5 oz and was 22 inches long. She's growing very well. She is beginning to have more of a schedule, which I don't think would have ever happened without us helping her a little! A little more scheduling means more predictability for us with sleeping. Sometimes we get 3 whole hours of sleep at once!

Here's the latest pictures!

Sorry for the delay on getting pictures up! We've all been adjusting to the new addition to our family. She is so precious! These are pictures from last week, and I should have some new ones sooner rather than later.

My mom has been here since a week and a half before Molly decided to make her appearance and just left yesterday, a day shy of Molly being 2 weeks old. We all miss having her here! It was such a blessing to have her help, her company, and her craftiness (I have new chair cushions). I think I got spoiled by the extra help.

Well, enjoy the pictures and maybe I'll update more if I can get the hang of feeding and typing at the same time!

Time to Come Home!

We have arrived at home and are so excited to have Molly with us! She did great during the car ride home. We were welcomed by Mom who had some beautiful pink hydrangeas planted and a balloon out front to announce Molly's arrival. The animals were very interested in this new person in their home,, but Molly is pretty oblivious to all of that. Right now her hobbies are eating and getting snuggled. More to come later!

Molly Lin has arrived!

Mary Grace "Molly" Lin has arrived! March 13th, 2008 at 7 pm. She is 7 lbs 6 ounces and 21 inches long. Mommy and baby are doing great, a little tired, but in great shape.

The plan is to be home from the hospital on Saturday.

Thank you all for your prayers. Here are some pictures from yesterday and this morning. I'm sure there are much more to come. =)

Woooohoooo!

Leaving for the hospital in approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes! Getting the inducement process going tonight, so we'll probably have an arrival some time on the 13th. YAY! We'll update when we get home. Love you all! ~The Lins

A slideshow while we wait...

We have a visit to the Dr. tomorrow for a non-stress test
which will check on how the baby is doing. We have a
possible inducement on Thursday, but that all depends
on how things go tomorrow. Here's a little slide show
with pictures of Molly's room. The picture of the window
did not turn out well, but all of her stuffed animals are on
a shelf over the window. Enjoy!

The last post before Molly arrives... I hope?

Not too much news yet. The ultrasound showed that Baby Molly's head is, in fact, down. At the last Dr.'s appointment, he said he would probably see me next week, meaning he doesn't think anything will happen between now and next Tuesday. Next Tuesday happens to be my due date. So at least I'll be doing something on that day, even if it's just an appointment and a trip to Target on the way home. Honestly, Molly has run out of room and I'm ready to evict her from the "mommy condo."

My mom will be coming to stay with us to help out after we come home from the hospital, which will be such a blessing. She'll be staying with my cousin Heather who lives a couple of hours away in Pennsylvania over the weekend and awaiting our phone call that we're headed to deliver. The next visitor will be my Dad, who happens to have business in New Jersey the 10th and 11th of March. If Molly does not come on her own, Dr. Shapiro said we would induce on the 12th, but Dad flies out that day! Pray she comes before then or that Doc will let me be induced a couple of days early.

Rich has been really busy with the business lately, working a lot of hours. I guess that's how it goes when you're starting out and learning the ropes. I'm so glad he's working from home or I don't think I'd see much of him! He is finally ready for the baby to come, and is hoping she'll make her appearance over the weekend! Wouldn't that be nice. I'm pretty sure babies don't come on our schedules, though. I just hope she arrives healthy and -let's be honest- not too big!

Waiting and Nesting

We're still waiting! My appointment this week was pretty uneventful. I have to have another (4th) ultrasound to make sure the baby is head down. The doctor said he was only 80% sure. Apparently the fact that I see her kicking at the top of my belly is not enough to convince him. So let's just hope she is head down so I don't have to get an external version which involves going to the hospital, I believe. That's when the doctor will try to turn the baby and I get hooked up to monitors to make sure the baby is okay. It does not sound fun.

Between naps -even at night it feels like I am just taking a series of naps- I've been trying to get things done that I normally do like cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc. along with all the things that I think I need to do NOW because I won't have the chance for a while. Unless Molly comes in the next day or so, I'm hoping to have our wedding album completely scrapbooked. Next on the list is reorganizing our bedroom closet and getting rid of things I'll never wear again. Then I have a bench to paint along with a coat on the trim in our bedroom and Molly's. I believe this is called nesting. What I do not believe is that this nesting urge is accompanied by a surge in energy. This is a lie. Where would this surge of energy come from? There's another human being using up that surge, as far as I can tell.

So, if you get any kind of nesting urges, come on over and I'll put you to work!

To get things started...

Since we each had our own individual blogs and were often posting similar announcements, info, etc, we think it's a good idea to have a combination blog. So, we'll be using this blog as our "family blog" from this point on, and I suspect I (Elizabeth Ann) will be the primary author on here.

So to start things out, I am officially 36 weeks preggo today, and that means I'm in the home stretch. Just a month to go, give or take a few days, depending on when this little one wants to arrive.

The day Molly (Mary Grace) is due is 3.04.08, but I think it's only 5% of babies that actually come on their due date, so it is nothing more than a guesstimate. We have just about everything ready, her room is decorated, the teeny tiniest of clothes are washed with Dreft, a hospital bag is packed for her, one has been started for me, and -other than a few minor things- we think we have all we need to get this parenting thing started. I like having the "stuff" prepared so at least we won't be thinking about that while learning through all of the things you really can't be very prepared for, like the lack of sleep, long crying spells, etc. We're ready for her to be here, excited about her arrival, and -let's be honest-, a little afraid! We'd be crazy not to be concerned about such a big change in life. :)

Speaking of changes, most of you probably already know that Rich and I are no longer on staff with Campus Crusade for Christ. We think God was calling us in a different direction, so Rich has started his own internet consulting business, Forward Internet Solutions. He has been busy with all that it takes to start up a business such as networking, mailings, phone calls, learning the ins and outs of the paperwork and presentations, and lots of prayer! I've tried to help when and where I can (I'm the cook and office manager ;), but Rich has definitely been the one putting in the hours. Please pray for promising leads, referrals, and for new customers to sign with us.

We'll keep you posted!