And finally....

Pregnancy update!!


So I'm hoping my child doesn't someday look down on me for not really documenting its journey in the womb. Dale and I decided that we're not a very exciting couple in regards to pregnancy. We check the "what's happening with your baby" stuff about once a month, and we aren't finding out the gender, much to the disapointment of some of my siblings, and we just aren't very fun about it. Don't get me wrong, we're so, so, so excited and you can tell we're very happy, we just don't have all that much to share..I blame both of us working full time and me feeling like junk 24 hours a day till about week 18 when it finally started to wear off. I'm feeling pretty good now which I am very grateful for!! Dale is now teaching early morning seminary which is really hard on his body and time, but I'm so proud of him for all of his effort! The real blessing in disguise is we both end up going to bed between 8:30 and 9:00 every night, and I stay in bed till about 7 every morning, and seriously I think it is keeping my energy up and probably really helping me to have a pleasant pregnancy now. So thanks, love, for serving the Lord and helping me get lots and lots of sleep :)


Anyway, we have a lot going on and we're starting to get some things ready for the baby! We have a rock-star sister-in-law that is able to find us AMAZING deals on baby stuff. Her mom got us a car seat, a bassonet, a swing and several other baby things from a neighbor who is no longer having kids, which we are so grateful for! And Irene (rock-star) also found a used glider rocking chair for us and we've got that set up in our living room. It needs a little bit of work, but it's awesome! She and her family have also been really nice in getting me a few maternity clothes which are super cute.


We were at week 23 last Sunday.
So far I don't really look pregnant from behind...

And only a little just straight on...

But turn me to the side...

And BOOM! There's a baby in there! These pictures were taken at about 10:30 on Sunday night which was WAY past my bed time...so it helped me look a little more pregnant then normal and contributed to my slightly rumpled look.


The baby moves A LOT and has since about week 18 or 19. Dale and I think it's a boy...but we really have no logic behind that other than one day we both thought it might be a boy...so don't go and get us anything blue:) My little brother is convinced it's a girl and he also thinks he's the baby whisperer, so we'll see who is right in May... he does have a pretty good track record with the other grand babies so far. We have a few name ideas for both genders but have no idea which one we'll use until the kid gets here!!


Also...I'm on pinterest now...and I'm obsessed!! So if any of you are on there let me know so we can follow each other!! I'm under Deanna Lunt Baker :)

Christmas at the Lunt house

So 7 of the 8 Ned & Mary Lunt children migrated back to Charleston, Illinois to celebrate Christmas...so that means we had both of my parents, 7 of their children, 4 spouses, 8 grand children and one fetus, which didn't really take any space, but sometimes it made me feel sick so I feel like I should acknowledge the thing growing in me :)  So that took the total to TWENTY-ONE people...we know how to party!

So we'll hit some high-lights from our epic tales.

First, the following pictures crack me up. As tradition, every year we re-enact the nativity, and this year we decided to mostly have the children do the parts unless they weren't able to walk, which in that case they were held by a parent. The only issue is there were 8 children under the age of 8...and our family friend that comes and spends Christmas Eve with us most years read the story very meticulously (and, consequently, very slowly)...therefore the children were REALLY struggling to stay alert, or, it turns out, on their feet....Watch it unfold....

It was hilarious. Some of the grandchildren were struggling with teething and one was having some bad asthma issues which was sad and added to the over all A.D.D., but made the experience pretty funny.

We then follow up the Nativity reenactment with the Lunt family talent show, which really depressed me to find out that I didn't somehow get pictures or video of. I will give you the high lights. The grandbabies sang a primary song that was awesome, then Laura and Jay surprised us with a  re-enactment of a family favorite, the song from a Muppet Christmas Carol, "The Love is Gone", which is easily one of the cheesiest songs of all time and Laura even busted out a bonnet. It was AMAZING. Watch the movie and you'll know what we're talking about. Laura mastered the weird singing accent and everything. It is a british accent but sometimes gets stuck in weird parts of the actress's mouth and nose. So great. I then followed it up with a surprise Neil Diamond sing along for all of the siblings. We were raised on Neil in all of our cross-country road trips. I really enjoyed myself.


We got a group picture with my camera the next day...and of course I had it set on record so you get to see the video...and then the actual picture.

Dale had to go back to work on the 26th which was sad for us, and I stayed at my family's house until the 30th. During that week we went to the local skating rink and rocked out. I hung out with baby Thomas and little Joseph, who really wanted to come but was super sick, so he slept on a bench next to me almost the whole time. Here are some picture highlights from that with a few explanations underneath.

Thomas with April and then with Kevin.

The dang tall and skinny couple that is blurring past the camera are the other Baker couple in our family, Laura and Jay. They were easily a foot taller than the average person there. Seth is coming up behind. Lighting was bad and I ended up taking multiple blurry photos...

Tamir is in the striped sweater and is giving skating his best shot. Not bad for a first timer! I didn't get any pictures of it, but he and Sarah's second, Alli, did NOT have good luck with skating...it was pretty funny.

Putting out the vibe...

Sick Joseph...if you'll notice he kind of sleeps with his eyes open...a little creepy:)

Hannah skated in style...without having to actually stand!

"Red light, Green light"...Kevin is the guy on the floor. Jay is next to him and Joe is in the front with the white polo. I think he and Jay were the winners and got some laffy-taffy for their victory.

Thomas with Grandpa and then with Dad and Uncle Kevin.

It was really fun! Everyone there missed having Chad and his family with us, but we were glad to be able to visit with them throughout the week over skype, and that Lucy was able to be home over Christmas. Hopefully we'll get to visit them in person soon!

Life update...

So I was looking through our camera this weekend and realized that I have missed documenting most of the last 7 months...oops!

So some of the next posts might be really boring to some people...I guess, sorry?? At least it will be mostly pictures :)

We'll start with what might be one of the most epic parts of our lives in the last 7 months and something we were wanting to knock off our bucket list....


The one.....


The only......

Home Alone House!!! It's in Winnetka, Illinois and we took some friends from our church with us. It was awesome. Seriously we were so jazzed. The address is in fact 671 Lincoln, just like he says in the movie! There is a family still living in the house, and I'm sure they are sick of strangers hanging out in their driveway, but I think they should count their blessings because I was about 4 steps from knocking on the door so I could at least go in their back yard and see the stairwell to the basement. We really love those movies.

The wires the tree branch fell on.

The electric box that blew and thus caused the alarm clock to not work...

Us very creepily standing in the driveway while the owners were watching TV inside.

I didn't officially check, but I'm almost positive this is the SAME creepy Santa wreathe from the movie...how cool is that?!

The Murphy's house....

The church where Kevin hides in the Nativity. The inside scene where he becomes friends with the old guy Buzz told him killed his family and mummified the bodies in the salt he puts on the sidewalks (it's all coming back now, isn't it??) were actually filmed at a different church several miles away, which we didn't make it to.

This is obviously not the same nativity that was used in the movie...but we figured it was still a nativity and still in the same church yard, so might as well!

We then drove around for a little bit and checked out some of the GORGEOUS homes lining that part of Lake Michigan. We passed a little beach area so we got out to check out the closest thing we have to an ocean.

It was pretty dang cold, but really beautiful!


We ended the evening getting some hot chocolate, but I didn't think that was epic enough to take a picture of.

More to come!!