Madison Hope has arrived!

We would like to joyfully announce the safe delivery of our sweet baby girl,
Madison Hope Baylor

She was born on December 22, 2008
She weighed 7 pounds 11 ounces
She was 21.5 inches long

We are so thankful to the Lord for His love and grace!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and yours!

Happy 28th Birthday Tim!

It's Tim's Birthday and I just wanted to say again how much I love and admire him. He has worked so hard for our family this semester. He has worked 15+ hours a week for our church, 20+ hours a week for Starbucks, and then took 15 graduate credits at Trinity. He has been amazing! It came down to the wire here at the end - he had big exam last Monday and a huge paper due today - on top of that he ended up working 80 hours at Starbucks in 10 days to keep insurance for himself and Maddy. But he pushed through and finished it all. This was basically his last semester of classes. Next semester he will go to one class at TEDS, while he writes his Thesis. The end is in sight!

All that to say, I am so proud of my husband. He is a hardworking man who I know will be a great father to our little Maddy (provided she ever comes ;) - I know this because he is already a fantastic husband! Happy Birthday babe!

Tim was really craving ribs, so on the recommendation of someone from our church we tried this place:

We had a really great time just relaxing and catching up after such a busy semester

As you can see, Tim really enjoyed his ribs :)

We got a seat right by the cozy, warm fireplace

On our way home, we stopped by the Cheesecake Factory to grab dessert to eat while we watched "The Office"

Tim chose their HUGE chocolate cake - his favorite. It was seriously good! Both of us together could not even finish it off. The rest is in the fridge right now, and knowing my cravings lately, it may be gone come morning ;)

All and all we had a really nice time together. Even though it has been a little frustrating waiting for Maddy, I am thankful that Tim was able to finish up his semester and that we have gotten a little bit of time to spend together. God is truly so good!

We go in for the ultrasound tomorrow at 11:45am to see the size of Maddy and where the amniotic fluid is at. Then at 12:15pm we will see the doctor to check if I am dilated anymore and discuss our options. So if you could, pray for wisdom :)

Still Waiting...but now with an end in sight

Well, I went to the doctor's office today and he said that I was 1 cm dilated and that things seem to be progressing. I was excited to hear that! He said that if by Friday she has not come, we will do an ultrasound to check her size and the level of amniotic fluid. At that point we will discuss the possibility of being induced. Soo, we shall see!

Here are some of the things that I have been doing around the house while waiting (let's just say I have been NESTING!)

Bags are packed (except for last minute things we'll have to throw in)

I labeled everything in my pantry --haha I kind of went nuts - but it was so much fun!

All of Maddy's laundry is is washed and folded.

I baked coconut macaroons to freeze for the holidays when family comes.

Brownie cookies...

Chocolate chip, pecan Coffee cake for Tim (he said it would help him through the end of his semester :)

Stuffed shells to freeze for a meal after the baby

Presents are all wrapped and mailed (to family in PA)

The tree is up and decorated!

The stockings are hung by the chimney with care... in hopes that sweet Maddy soon will appear!

Nursery Pictures

Yesterday I put the final touches on Maddy's room. I had some MAJOR nesting energy yesterday. I was busy around the house all day long! It feels good to have it all organized and clean.

This is an adorable sign that Scott and Lindsay Logan found and bought for us. Tim and I love it!

This is the Olivia Set from Target - color is a little hard to see, but it is
pink, off-white, and brown.

This is my favorite - this little corner. I am sure I will spending a lot of time there! Lindsay found this glider for me on Craigslist. I bought it from a very nice, well-to-do couple in our area for $50! It was a horrible color, so my twin sister Rachael made some slip covers for me! Didn't she do a great job?

Here is a picture with the flash - so you can see the colors a bit better.

I finally got her closet organized. It is actually a combination of our things and her things - nothing like living in a tiny apartment. I had to do some serious rearranging!

Well, now I am ready. As you can see by my ticker - I am past my "due date". I went to the doctor on Monday and he did not see any changes yet. He actually surprised me, because he said that my due date was actually the 14th! I was like, "What? The early ultrasound had said it would be December 9th" I swear that early on - he agreed that December 9th was the due date and hasn't mentioned any other date since then. --oh well. So anyways, I guess I am trying to put things in perspective and be willing to wait if I need to. It's just hard if you have had one day in your head for sometime and then it suddenly changes. I have another appointment on Monday the 15th - so we will see what is going on then.

It is Finished!

I finished my last day with my students yesterday and then met with parents today for progress reports and to introduce my maternity substitute. I can hardly believe that I am finished until March 16th! In Early November I was in tears, thinking that I would never make it. This has definitely been one of my most difficult classes and just an all around difficult teaching experience. But God is so good. He carried me through. I am feeling very confident in my substitute that she will do a great job and have them where I need them to be when I return.

Funny, I texted my mom and said, "I am finished!" and she said, good now go put your feet up and get some rest! I replied, "I don't know if I remember how, but I will try". I don't think it has hit me yet that I don't have to lesson plan this weekend, respond to parent e-mails, or grade papers! What WILL I do with myself? There are a few things that I would like to accomplish still before Maddy arrives: wash and fold one more load of baby clothes, put up the curtains in her room, straighten the nursery and get a few pics, organize my Christmas card addresses, pick up around the house, and decorate the Christmas tree. I actually purchased our tree at Home Depot LAST Saturday for $15 - and it is a gorgeous tree! But it is still sitting in our living room (in a stand with water) undecorated. Tim and I have been so crazy busy. Hahah! So I guess now I have time to do some decorating this weekend :)

Here is a free photo I got taken at Babies R Us - I was about 39 weeks here - crazy how close I am getting!

I would ask that if you could pray for Tim. He has a major paper, an exam, and reading to be done by the 17th of December and he just found out from Starbucks that he has to have a total of 240 hours of work put in (for this quarter) at Starbucks by December 15th in order to keep insurance for himself (and baby Maddy). We originially thought the deadline was December 30th, so he was going to reach that no problem. Long story short - he has to work an outrageous number of hours this next week just to keep insurance. On top of that, he still has church things to deal with for our college group and quite a bit of school work left to do. He he so amazing! He has not even complained about it to me. He is just willing to do whatever it takes to care for our family. What an amazing husband I have!

He even found time to put together Maddy's crib and Changing table.There were like a gizillion pieces - he is so patient! I would have totally flipped out!

This is a picture of Tim with our sweet niece, Sadie Baylor. I know is going to be a great Dad!