Christmas!

Chris and I were able to celebrate our first and last Christmas by ourselves without any children. It was so fun. Christmas eve we spent recording my parents song, went to our churches eve service, ate some yummy stew then watched The Grinch. Great day!

Christmas day we woke up early and opened presents, skyped with our parents, saw Sherlock Holmes, ate some Chinese food then came home and watched Wolverine. So much fun. It was just so great getting to spend all day with each other enjoying our last 2 months as a twosome.

After the Christmas eve service

This is why my belly is getting so big... too much candy!Chris's new facial hair. He fits in well in our white trash city.

My bday

Chris made my last birthday as a non-mom very special. He made me breakfast on Saturday morning, sent me on a scavenger hunt for my presents (which I love to do), and then took me out to one of my favorite restaurants, Maggiano's, for dinner. He is just so sweet, loving, caring, thoughtful and precious to me. I do not know why God thinks I deserve him.

Isn't he just so handsome!?!?

Baby M's room

We have also been working hard at putting together our son's nursery. We decided to go with a Superman theme... if you know my husband, you don't have to ask why. We really like what we've done so far. We still have a lot to do, but this is it for now...

My mom made his bumper pad... So friggin cute! We still have to get a mattress, but I think it looks pretty good!!

Chris and I spent about 5 hours one Saturday making these pictures. There are 3 more on the opposite wall. It wouldn't be a Superman room without comic action bubbles!

His little dresser and beautiful photo of Superman flying over Metropolis. The artist is Chris's favorite.

And lastly, the curtains, which my mother made. He is absolutely going to LOVE his room!!

We've been busy!

For the last 2 weekends we have been working on renovating our guest bathroom. Our good friend Bobby came over and gutted our bathroom (as you can see from the pictures below) and then helped us install our new fixtures and floor. It looks freaking awesome. The main reason I wanted to re-do our bathroom was for when our families would be staying with us after the baby is born. Before it was really gross (I forgot to take before pictures... sorry) and I didn't want people to be grossed out to walk barefoot in there. Anyways, the bottom 2 are of what it looks like now. We are very proud!

Thanksgiving!

My parents came in for Thanksgiving. It has been so much fun having them here. We had some delicious food that we all helped cook... and by all, I am including myself. Yes, I baked! Shocking, I know. I decided that I want my son to be able to tell his friends one day that they all need to come over to his house because "my mom makes the best apple pie". This, and only this reason motivated me. So my mother brought over her delicious apple pie recipe and Wednesday night we prepared as much food as we could for the following day. My mom and I baked the apple pie (my dad cut and sliced all the apples), pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and sweet potato casserole. Chris and my dad prepared the turkey. Everything was so delicious. I was so proud of Chris because his first attempt at smoking a turkey was absolutely scrumptious! Here are some pics of us in the kitchen... and one of me at 6 months!

This just in...

Corporal Punishment is allowed in Tennessee! When I heard it I could NOT believe it. Chris and I help lead the youth at our church and one of the students, who goes to a private school, is getting paddled today. I thought I misheard him, but I didn't. He preceded to tell me that paddling was allowed at private schools if your parents sign a waiver when you first enter the school saying it is OK. Of course I was curious so I asked all about how it goes down. He said that he has to go into the principal's office, get patted down (making sure he doesn't have a wallet or anything that would get in the way of the paddle. Which, yes, means the principal touches his butt), touch his toes and get paddled 3 times. Seriously? That just seems so 1800s to me. And wrong. How can a parent actually think that having their 16 year old son get paddled by their principal is going to make him behave better? Ridiculous!

On the Edge

Kristine and I feel we are on the edge of something great. We've been praying the same prayers and fearing the same fears for long enough. We have struggles and questions and joys and answers, but we feel something big on the horizon. We just pray that we stay sane and patient long enough to get there, and to appreciate it when it happens, instead of saying "it's about freaking time!"

Kristine told me to blog about something funny, so I'll lighten this up a bit.

Is it weird to pray for your unborn child to have superpowers? (If your answer is "yes," then we probably aren't very close). Nothing that would effect his appearance (i.e. gills, prehensile tail, green skin), but flight, invulnerability, or super strength. I'm not saying I do pray for this, nor am I denying it.

Follow up question: Would you take the power of flight IF you could then never walk again? You could land on your feet, sit, lay down, etc., but you couldn't run, jog, skip, or walk when you wanted to move. You could only fly, or hover from place to place. Would you?

I would in a freaking second.

Let's get this straight... there are certain things you can say and certain things you CAN'T say to pregnant women. Let's just say the list of things you can say is way shorter than the list of things you can't. Here is what you CAN say:

You look amazing!
Wow! Pregnancy REALLY agrees with you.
I hope I look as good as you when I'm pregnant.

The end. That's ALL you can say. I will say that this is completely unacceptable: You're ONLY six months along? You're big for six months.

Just thought I would share that advice with you. Chris knows what he can say, and is so great at making me feel beautiful, even though my face keeps getting fatter, day by day.

Some photos

My sweet nephew Jacob... look at those teeth!

My beautiful niece Abby, holding a blanket my neighbor knitted for our son.

My friend Kaitlyn and me at just over 4 months. Yes, I realize my face is gaining weight.

Me at 4.5 months...

My amazing sister and precious mother... aunt Mindy and Bebe

I loathe Kay Jewelers commercials. First of all, they have the worst actors. Second, could they be more cheesy? For example: the last one I saw (2 minutes ago) a couple is at their cabin, looking out the window at the "horrible" storm. Lightning strikes and the woman (who apparently has never seen nor heard thunder before) spins around to her husband and hides her face in his shoulder. And he says, "I'm right here... and I always will be" and then hands her a small jewelry box with a diamond necklace in it. Come on! Really? They couldn't come up with anything better than that? And now, the song at the end has a man singing an octave lower with the familiar lady's voice, which my husband has said makes it sound like a Beauty and the Beast song. Ridiculous!

DALLAS!!

Chris and I drove up to Dallas last week to go to a wedding and visit with friends and family. It was a successful trip! Other than the drive, we had a blast and got to see almost everyone we wanted to! Jason and Jouleen's wedding was beautiful. We are so thrilled that you are husband and wife. My sister, sister-in-law, and best friend threw me a baby shower where I got to see tons of friends and family and our little guy (did I mention we're having a BOY!!) got some great stuff for his new life! We are making a Superman themed nursery (which we already painted his room and are going to hang the awesome curtains today... then we'll post pictures) that Chris, his dad and I are super pumped about! Our last night in town we had a fun Sushi Loco get together and scarfed down some delicious food and had fun spending our last night in Dallas as non-parents with our friends. Yes, that's right... the next time we come to Dallas we will be bringing our son with us. I can't believe I am 5 months pregnant! Time has flown by so fast. Chris and I can't help but talk about how much we can't wait for his arrival and how we hope to raise him to love Jesus and us.
The San Antonio Reyes' came in town for the showers. It was so much fun. I have the best friggin family ever. We tried to spend a lot of time with them. Jacob and Abby are getting so BIG!! They are 2 of the most beautiful, adorable children EVER! Abby is so sweet and loves her little brother and talks all the time. Jacob is a little wiggle worm and I see him as a drummer in the near future. Before Matthew had to go back to SA for work, my sister's friend took some pictures of our family (minus Scott... he currently resides in Colrado and won't be home for who knows how long). So here they are... like I said, Abby is so beautiful and Jacob is so stinking adorable!!

Two months is too long...

2 months is a long time to go without posting, so I apologize. Things have been busy around the Munselle household. In September Chris left for a month to be on the Keith Urban tour as the AV tech. I'm sure if any of you read my news feeds on Facebook, you would know how miserable I was without him. 30 days is a long time for someone to be gone... especially if your wife is pregnant. My emotions did not fare well without him here. After the first week we started Skyping and the first few times I cried like a baby. Seriously, it was ridiculous. I honestly could not help it. After that it got better, no more crying! I had a few friends spend the night with me to help with the loneliness, but the last week I could not take it any more and took my home group leaders up on their offer and stayed with them. It was so incredibly nice of them to offer up their home to me and feed me and take care of me, which they did really well. AND it made the last 7 days go by so much faster. Before I knew it he was home.
He had a good time on the road and made a few good friends, met some really nice people, and made great connections. Oh, and did I mention he stood next to Nicole Kidman at several of the shows?! I was a little jealous. He affirmed that she is just as beautiful (and tall) in person as she is on screen. We also decided that he would NEVER leave for that long again. I cannot imagine going through that again. I don't understand how people do that for years and years. It was really hard. I missed everything about him. And I got a glimpse at what my life would be like without him and I hated it. He is my everything, the one I love with all my being. I am so lucky to have him as my husband and the father of my soon to be child!

For Erin

Here is a picture of my belly at 3 months (13 weeks).

And here is the pack 'n' play that Matthew and Naomi got us... we assembled it and were so proud!

FAMILY!!!!

My mom and sister visited last weekend. We had a freaking blast! Chris and I showed them around our small town, eating dinner at a yummy, locally owned, grill house. We went into town and had lunch at Fido's (a must when visiting Nashville) and had coffee at Crema... also a must. Of course we went shopping and my mother bought me some very cute maternity clothes. Very nice of her! My sister talked to my belly every chance she could. Didn't matter if we were in public or at home, she wanted Sesame to hear her voice. For those of you that don't know, we are calling the baby sesame until it's born because it was the size of a sesame seed when we found out we were pregnant. I know, we're adorable.

4 of my favorite people are visiting next weekend. The other Reyes clan... Matthew, Naomi, Abby and Jacob. I cannot wait until they get here. I haven't seen Jacob since he was 4 days old. Crazy!! He's so freaking adorable. He looks just like Matthew (and my dad and granddad) when he was a baby. Abby gets more beautiful every time I see a picture of her. We are going to have a blast with them. We will take them to the lake and play in the water and hopefully get a little tan... mainly because I want to see Jacob's rolls and Abby's cute tiny toosh.

There are only 2 things I don't like about living in another state... family and friends are so far away. I can't spontaneously go visit them in San Antonio and trips have to be planned way in advance. So I've decided that everyone needs to move here. That's right... EVERYONE! You will all love it!

Chris and I are visiting Dallas for 2 weeks in October, the only time we'll be there before the baby is born, so make sure you see us! We'll be at Sushi Loco almost every night :)
Gay and Ted (Chris's parents) are visiting us over Labor Day. We are thrilled about that too! It's so much fun showing people where we live and what we do now. I just love family time.

Here are 2 pictures... one from when Mom and Mindy were here and one of my sweet niece and nephew. There will be plenty more when they come visit. I know I won't be able to put the camera down.

God is GOOD!!

Things have been going so great here lately. 3 weeks ago I started my new job. It is fantastic. It's a very laid back atmosphere. I get to wear jeans to work, I am allowed to be on the internet when I have down time, and I can read while on the job! Doesn't get much better than that, does it? Yes, yes it does... I had to miss 2 days of work my first week because I was feeling so miserable. I was nervous to tell my boss I was pregnant because I really didn't know how he was going to react. After all, it was only my first week! When I told him on Friday he was so excited for me! It was such a huge relief and blessing. I only work with 4 people (all men) and they are all family men, so they couldn't be happier for me and Chris. It just worked out so perfectly! God's timing is the best timing, wouldn't you agree?

Last week we went to the doctor and saw the heartbeat. It was incredible. I cried. Knowing that a tiny little human is growing inside of me is just too much for words. Yes, he/she makes me sick, but I don't mind it. I think it's his/her way of letting me know it's there. You know? That might sound silly, but it's how I choose to look at it. He/she is just communicating with mommy. We really can't believe we're going to be parents!!! What an amazing gift! I fall asleep thinking of that little heartbeat and can't help but smile and feel an overwhelming sense of pride and joy. God is good... ALL the time!

A quote from my niece...

There's a baby in my belly!! This was taken at 7 weeks. We are so friggin thrilled!! Just thought we would share with you :) Please pray for our baby's health. We covet them.

Does God test our faith? If so, how?

I have great new friends here in Nashville. Our homegroup leaders, Bobby and Dena Williams, had us over for dinner on Wednesday and helped me with my resume. We completely redid it... new layout, better work descriptions, and a much better synopsis of my abilities. I have already had 3 hits because of it. I am thrilled! The Williams spent over 4 hours with us perfecting it. How wonderful!

Chris and I were asked to be facilitators in a class lead by the church called "prep for marriage". We started last week. It's great. It will only get better. We are leading the week 6 discussion. And when we get back from Honduras we will be leading our homegroup through the book Sacred Marriage. Yippee!

God is faithful to us... we want to be faithful to him.

We have a meeting tomorrow with our new church about our experiences in connecting people, especially people in marriages. Chris and I really want to do a Bible study with people whose marriages are suffering. I lead a women's Bible study last year over the book Love and Respect. We're hoping to do our study on the book Sacred Marriage. How cool would it be if we could help hurting marriages! We're pumped about our meeting tomorrow!

Who's the cutest kid ever?

My husband!!! He's the adorable kid on the left (as if it wasn't obvious). I hope our kids look like him because he is just so squeezable!

Prayer Requests

Kristine and I were talking yesterday about easy it is to give lip service to trusting in the Lord and in faith in general. We are both still looking for jobs here in Nashville and our confidence is starting to mirror the trend of our bank account. We know that God brought us here and has great things planned, but some days we want to scream "What the hell does that mean?!"

Please pray for jobs.
Pray for true faith.
Pray for confidence. I'm tired of singing that song from The Sound of Music and not REALLY meaning it after sunshine, rain, and seasonal variance.

We love and miss you all.

Chris

This is my favorite picture

Isn't he just so adorable??

Porter Lynn Pace

My best friend just had her first baby... a precious little baby girl. I cannot tell you how sad I am that I am not there, obsessing over how cute she is. Laura and I have been friends for 24 years, and BEST friends for 8 years. I have never missed an important event since then... this is the first. It makes me sad. This is the one thing I don't like about being so far away from family and friends.

Congratulations Laura and Calen. I am so proud of you and know you will make wonderful parents.

We're done painting!!

We don't have to paint any more rooms!!!! This is our guest room. We painted it a bright yellow because I decided that when we do have a baby I do NOT want to paint again. So, yes, it's bright, but it will go with pink or blue.

My husband

is the most caring, gentle, thoughtful, loving, tender, pure-hearted human being I have ever met. I fall more in love with him every day. He makes me feel like I am the only one on earth at times and he truly appreciates me. I have been in love with him for nearly 8 years. Of course, the last 3 years have been a completely different kind of love than the first five.... he loves me back! When I think about the times we were apart in college and how I pined for him, I feel so blessed that God, in His great wisdom, allowed Chris to forgive me and love me too. He is the best thing in this world and I am so thankful for him.

I just thought you all should know what a great man he is and how proud I am to be his wife.

I want one of these. This is Jacob (I introduced him to you in February) my nephew. I can't believe he is 2 1/2 months old. I miss him. And the rest of the Reyes family. It's weird not playing with him all the time like I did with Abby, my sweet princess. I just thought I would let you all know that. If you see him, give him a big old hug and kiss for me. Preferably 30 or 40 of them.

Oh how I miss thee...

Sushi Loco. I want me some sushi so freaking bad. Not just any sushi, Sushi Loco sushi. I imagine salmon avocado, tuna avocado, loco taco, and some delicious edamame in the pit of my stomach. I am happy, full. Oh, what a wish.

Chris and I attempted to watch The Kite Runner tonight... 50 minutes later I made him turn it off because I was crying uncontrollably and could not handle it anymore. I don't think I will be able to finish it. It was way too sad and the thought that stuff like that really happens is too devastating to me to watch. So in order to make the swelling in my eyes go down we watched Aqua Teen Hunger Force... the weirdest cartoon I have ever seen. But really funny, in it's own twisted way. Sort of like Drawn Together, another adult swim cartoon. Recommendable.

I had an interview today that went really well. It was with another staffing agency and the lady absolutely loved me. She said she is going to try everything to get me a job asap. Nice. I really just want a job that I don't take home with me and don't have to work weekends. That's really all I care about. I can do anything for one year, right?

I have been off chocolate for 2 months. I have lost nearly 10 pounds by not eating chocolate at every chance I get. Crazy how easy it is. Thought I would post that because I'm proud of myself.

One week without internet

It's been one week since we have had internet access... but I assume you already guessed that due to the very creative title. It's been really weird without it. I have had so much free time on my hands and not being able to surf the net has truly sucked. It also hasn't helped the job search too much. So, Chris and I decided to drive to campus and use the school's free wi-fi. Awesomeness. I love free things. Which leads to my next segue... come visit us! OK, so it's not completely free... the car ride or plane ride will cost you money, but your stay will be free. AND you get to see us! I haven't made too many friends yet so I will have lots of time to dedicate to you during your stay.

Chris and I tried a church last Sunday and then went to a small group on Tuesday. Not so sure if it's the church for us. But it was close and didn't have the words Church of Christ in it, so we figured we try it out. This Sunday we're going to Crosspoint. It's in Nashville, so it's not too close, but closer than the Village was for sure. We've heard really good things about this church and are really looking forward to it. They say it it "Villagesque" which is good in our books.

Please continue to pray for my job search. It gets discouraging at times. And for Chris and a publishing deal. We'll hopefully hear something this week from the Nashville Songwriters Association. And lastly, pray for us to find a good church that believes what we do and preaches the Truth.

More pictures soon!

I am...

completely and totally hooked on Brickbraker. It's sad. Since I have a lot of free time on my hands I find myself not wanting to watch t.v., but play Brickbraker. What is even sadder is that I only have gotten to level 21 out of 34... and I have spent a ridiculous amount of time convincing myself that this next time I will get to the next level. Sad. Sad. Sad.

I would call my friends, but they all have jobs and I reach their voicemail more often than not. So, I need your ideas (now that we're done with our house projects) on what I can do to occupy my time. I have fallen in love with all the CSI shows so I can't add anymore television to my already large list. Hmmmmm.... what's an unemployed girl to do?

A few more for our adoring fans...

We have finished nearly every room in our house. We're still working on the kitchen and guest bedroom, but other than that, we're all done! Praise God because it has been a beating.

I don't have any before pictures because there really was nothing in the rooms except horrible paint color and dreadful curtains. The blue room is Chris' studio and the brown room is our bedroom. We love both rooms so much! I am so glad Chris has a place he can be creative and become successful in.





We love you all very much! I will be posting a lot more now that I am not consumed with making our house pretty. God bless.