Smiles, Giggles, and Drool

Trace is officially 3 months now.  How time is flying!!  He is becoming more animated and alert with each passing day.  He is full of smiles and giggles. 

As you can see as well, he is growing and growing!!!

This past weekend Trace inherited about 90 new grammies, aunties, and girlfriends.  He came along with me to the Rumney Bible Conference Women's Retreat.  I along with 5 other women from our church were actually the worship team for the retreat which was such a blessing.  So, since Trace is still breastfeeding, he had to come along as well!  (Poor Hugh missed him dearly all weekend!).  Trace did SO well throughout the entire weekend.  He absolutely soaked up all the attention and love, and was one happy camper.  Who would blame him?  I was worried that he would go through attention withdrawal upon our return home, but he has been doing well.

We are also making more wonderful progress on the barn!  The plumber and electrician are almost finished all their pipe and wire laying.  We have also had the contractor here for the past 2 weeks putting in the water line, new culvert, city septic, and today Hugh and our dads put in the conduit for the electrical wires.  So exciting!!!

God is so good.   He sure is teaching us patience throughout this whole process, but it has truly been an amazing learning experience.  The light at the end of the tunnel (or driveway) is looking brighter!!

Until next time......

Growing, Growing, Growing!

Well, I have attempted to post some videos for the last few weeks and have been unsuccessful for some reason.  So, I will just post pictures I guess!!

Trace is now 11 weeks and growing every day!!  He is about 13 lbs and 24 inches long.  Quite a difference from him birthday!  He is starting to smile a lot more and is cooing, which is so cute.  He is such a flirt already as well!!!  He has his eye for my brother Tim's girlfriend Dana.  It's really cute. He gets all smiley and giggly and coy when she is around.  We will have to keep our eye on him when he's older, I'm sure!

Trace had a pretty tough week as he turned 2 months a few weeks ago.  He was given his 2 month vaccine shots which was so sad to witness!  Poor little guy.  The next day, Trace and I were rear-ended while waiting to turn into our driveway and the car was totaled.  We were both ok though.  Then we took our first plane-rides as a family 2 days later which Trace did not really care for.  All in all, these events made for a very upset baby for a few days!  Thank goodness we are back on a schedule for him.

We enjoyed a wonderful weekend away over Labor Day weekend as we visited Hugh's step sister, Amy in North Carolina, and attended a friends wedding.  It was our first time flying as a family, which was nerve-racking!  Trace was very upset when we first got to the airport and cried all through security and trafficking.  It was pretty stressful! (at least for me).  Thankfully, both down and back, he slept on the longer flights (we had layovers both ways).  Although it was stressful, I would do it again, so I guess it wasn't too traumatizing.

 2 months old!!

Flying to Amy's in NC

 With Daddy at the Wedding

 Auntie Amy!!

One of his happier moments on the plane

Trace also went apple picking for the first time this past weekend.  I can't believe it's already that time of year!  I love it!!!  He slept though a lot of the festivities, but he was present!

 

  Trace flirting with Dana :-)

Along with celebrating Trace's wonderful milestones, we are also making GREAT milestones and progress on the barn!!  Last week we had a large tree cut down, which meant that we could start digging up the driveway for the utilities.  The contractor will be starting this week fixing the culvert for the stream that runs under the driveway, and then laying water, sewer, and electrical pipes.  So exciting!   At the same time, our plumber has started and will be working on weekends to finish up the project, and my father has just about completed all the electrical work.  Our next large step if for Hugh to go back to the Board of Appeals to see if they will allow us to dormer the back roof in order to make it a 3 bedroom house instead of a 2 bedroom house.  Pray, pray, pray!!!  

Until next time......Blessings!

Funny Faces

One of the most wonderful things that we have been observing in the past few weeks is Trace's new facial expressions!  He is starting to smile, goo, and stick his tongue out.  You can tell that he is trying SO hard to talk! It's really cute.  It's nice to see him smile after a week of sad, sad faces!!!!  Trace developed acid reflux and refused to eat, until we put him on liquid Zantax.  What a God-sent!  He is a much happier baby now, for the most part :-)

Here is one video update of his many faces!  The best video won't upload :-(

As for the barn, we are still making slow progress, but meeting with lots of city officials to get all the proper approvals.  Talk about a lesson in patience!!!  We hopefully will be breaking ground in the next week or so to put in the utilities. Here's praying!!!

But as always, even through screaming, unhappy baby, small current living spaces, and frustrating city bureaucracy, God is forever faithful and has blessed us beyond what we deserve.  When I stand back and look at all that we have and have done, I find that I have more than enough, and the discontent in my heart seems petty.  God's timing is not our own.  That sure is a lesson that we have learned in the past year!  I just pray that we can continue to keep a heart of gratitude and worship as we continue on this journey.  Not by our strength, but HIS alone!

6 weeks and growing!

Well, 6 weeks have passed and we are learning new things about Trace every day!  He has wonderful facial expressions that make us laugh, he constantly gets the hiccups, and he has a raging temper when he doesn't want to go to sleep!  We are loving every minute of it though.  He is now 10.3 lbs and 22 inches long.
Hugh reluctantly returned back to work the last week of July but is enjoying being back with his co-workers and working on plans.  His department is also moving across campus at Mass General, so that has kept him busy!!!  Trace and I send him pictures and videos daily so he doesn't miss anything :-).

The barn is at a little bit of a lull at the moment as we are waiting on some approvals from the city.  We are hoping to have the utilities brought down the driveway in the next few weeks which will be great. Then it's just a matter of finishing the electrical, plumbing, and insulating, (hopefully) dormering the back roof, and sheet-rocking!  I'm excited. 

We will leave you with a little video that makes us laugh and we thought you would all like. Enjoy!

One Month!

Well, I can't believe it's been a month already that our little man has been home!  Amazing how time flies.  Trace is doing very well and is growing every day.  He is already about 9 lbs!  We are starting to see glimpses of smiles too, which is so fun!

Trace also got to finally meet Uncle Nathan, who returned home from Germany this week.  Yahoo!  Nathan tried speaking to him in German, but Trace started crying, so it's English from now on :-).






As I said before, this will also be a blog to update you on our building project.  Below you will find some pictures of the basement being moisture sealed, the door on the main floor being moved, and some of the wall framing that is up.  The electrical is almost done as well!  Things are moving along!

 So exciting!!!  Pray that as we go before the zoning board again that they will approve the roof lift so we can fit a 3rd bedroom!

"We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.  Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character, and character, hope."  Romans 5:2-4

Welcome to our Blog!!

Hello friends and family!!

Since I am not blogging for my classroom this year, I thought it would be fun to start a blog for our new little family and the many adventures we are experiencing!  We hope you enjoy our updates!

So what has been happening with the Prichards?  Well, we just celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary.  Already!  Time sure has flown.  In keeping to our "5 year plan" for starting a family, we had our first little one, Trace Owen Prichard, 10 days after our anniversary :-).  He was 6 lbs 10 oz and 18 inches long.  Such a peanut!  He has been an absolute joy and we are loving watching him grow and change.

 

We are also starting our building project!  As many of you know, we have a barn in our back yard that is an unfinished "shell" of a house.  We finally received permission from the zoning board (after 9 months of paperwork and meetings) to actually make the building into a second house on the property!  Yahoo!!!  So the building has begun!  Hugh took a month of paternity leave to take care of Trace and I, and also to work on the barn.  We were also so blessed to have both our dads take time off to work with him.  So far we have almost completed all the electrical on the first 2 floors, and have framed in the entrance from the garage, the rooms on the second floor, and moved an existing door to make more room in the kitchen.  After much dreaming, it is wonderful to see physical progress.  The next step is to work on getting utilities to the building and to go before the zoning board yet again for approval to dormer the back roof.  

Well, that's all for now!  There will be many pictures of both the babe and house to come, so stay tuned!  We love you all!