The Ever Growing Belly!

12 weeks...

17 weeks...

20 weeks...

24 weeks!

Here's some fun profile shots of the wifey. The latest one taken tonight. Funny how the days go by. She's been a great sport about getting bigger. We've been having fun lately talking to little Cade (as we've been reading that his ears are developed enough to hear us both now). We'll keep posting some more pictures in the coming weeks as she gets farther along. Next Monday is our next appointment with the doctor, so we're excited to go again and see how much our little boy has grown. He's starting to kick a little harder and I've even begun to feel him by laying my hand on Melissa's belly. One night he kicked really hard and Melissa jumped, then asked me "Did you feel that?!". To which I replied "YES!". Guess you had to be there...
Lately, we've been taking some time to research some baby furniture and start registering at Baby's-R-Us. We've already done a couple of trips and are narrowing our selection of baby accessories, apparel, and baby transportation means. The Lord is gracious to give us such great friends who have helped us to really zero in on the quality baby stuff. So if you have any advice, we'd love to hear it!
Eric

Happy birthday Jenny!! (Part 1)

Matt and Jenny invited us to Lake Arrowhead to celebrate the last year of Jenny's 20's (I think that is a better way of saying 29, don't you ;) ). It was a great weekend with some of our closest friends, the Guties, Kalub's, and Brannon's.

It was kind of a rainy Saturday morning, but the boys still managed to get in some good skiing first thing in the morning. The girls opted for manicures and tea lattes in the village. What a way to spend a Saturday! We had a fabulous dinner with Jenny's favorites - tri-tip and corn on the cob, and then a yummy flourless chocolate cake and St. Patty's mint yogurt from Golden Spoon for dessert. Jenny had a little help blowing out her candles because Andrew and Chad’s birthdays are coming up soon too!

Thank you Matt and Jenny for bringing us all together for a fun weekend! Jenny, we praise the Lord for you and his work in your life. We pray his blessings are abundant for you in this next year of life. We love you!

What's In a Name??

Our little man ~ CADE JEFFREY MATTHEWS

Eric and I decided that we would not share our baby’s name until we were 100% sure that we both loved it. And, we love it. We kept all of our prospects a secret, not because we don’t love your opinions, but because we wanted to love it without influence (except maybe a little from each other).
We both agreed that the middle name would be a family name, but the first name was a little harder to choose. I had made a deal with my sister back in high school that whoever had the first boy would name him Cooper, which of course is our maiden name. Since my dad doesn’t have a son to carry the name on it would be our honor to do so with our son. This however was before either of us was married, and well the decision is no longer just mine! Eric was gracious and tried to love the name as much as I do, but in the end it just wasn’t working for him. I probably gave him a hard enough time, so for those of you Cooper Matthews lovers – no hounding my Husby!
Onto the name… Cade Jeffrey. Eric found Cade online and mentioned it to me. I liked the sound of it and decided to look up the meaning. I think the meaning of a name is really interesting and fun. Cade means round, barrel and a couple other not so flattering references to large, BUT I also found that there was a minor character in Gone With the Wind whose name is Cade. I searched Cade and Gone With the Wind to find that a Wiki definition said that Cade is an alternate surname for a cooper. Cooper means barrel maker. So it is perfect! An interesting connection to Cooper and we both love the name. We chose Jeffrey as a middle name, which is also my dad’s middle name.

So now on to how we told everyone... We had dinner with my parents on Monday night along with our family friends, the Adams family. We brought along a hangman puzzle that I had quickly printed up for everyone to play along. After dinner everyone gathered in the kitchen and living room and plopped down with their pen and paper. We went around and everyone kept guessing letters until we had it all filled in. Everyone had fun and it was a unique way to let out the name little by little.

God is good – I can feel Cade moving about a little every so often and Eric and I are really enjoying praying for Cade by name. His salvation is always top of the list as we pray that he will one day love the Lord as much as we do! Hope you will join us in praying for Cade as he grows in my belly!