It's a Beautiful Life

Add this to the list of things she'll kill me for later...

Little peanut

Yep, we're expecting Rife baby #3 on September 1st! This is a picture of the peanut at 8 weeks. I'm 13 weeks now. So if I were to have an ultrasound today, you'd actually see a baby rather than a kidney bean. But isn't it the cutest little kidney bean ever?

We weren't intentionally keeping it on the down low this long - if I've seen you in person, I've told you already I'm sure! But I honestly keep forgetting that I'm pregnant. No real problems (other than the usual I'm-going-to-hiberbate-for-the-winter fatigue and a few weeks of blah) and 2 active little girls have made it easy to be distracted. But realized I'd better get the word out now before people run into me at the store and think I've totally let myself go.

A few pregnancy facts:

- our peanut is now the size of a medium shrimp (??)

- I should only be consuming 300 more calories per day. Umm....

- If this baby is a 3rd girl, we are going to need serious help, and possibly marriage counseling, to name her.

And, yes, we will be finding out the sex. Of course we will! Since Matt will not discuss baby names until we know if it's a boy or girl (as he says, otherwise we're wasting half our time - way too inefficient for this engineer), we would be in real trouble after the baby is born. Weeks without a name. Which would drive you monogrammers nuts. So we're doing it for you.

And for those that argue that it ruins the surprise...come on. I completely respect that you like the suspense, but we will be just as surprised when we find out. At 20 weeks. And we won't have a collection of 30 onesies covered in yellow ducks. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

I love you all!

(PS - I had this in nice, neat paragraphs, but when posted it comes out like one big run-on essay. I apologize to my literary friends.)

Thank you to the Academy

I'm a little behind, but gotta give props where props are due. Matt's family has an annual NFL pool, and the prize is one year with the revered Rife Cup. This year - for the first time since I've known him - Matt brought home the trophy!

I'm so proud of you, my love! Here's to your next win in 15 years...

WAR EAGLE!!

Auburn Tigers are 2010 National Champions!!

A few fast facts:

• Auburn becomes the first team since Georgia Tech in 1990 to win a national title after starting the season ranked outside the top 20.

• Cam Newton is the 9th Heisman winner to play in the national championship game in the last 11 years.

• Auburn's win, coming on the heels of Alabama's title last year, marks the first time in 70-plus years that two different teams from the same state are crowned national champs in consecutive seasons.

• The SEC improves to 7-0 in BCS title games and has now won the the last five.

(ESPN Stats and Information)

Wish I was here to celebrate...

Preciousness

Snow Fun!

There's nothing quite like a white Christmas.

A new Christmas tradition?

I LOVE all things Christmas, and our December this far has been full of all the usual fun Christmas activities. We got dressed up for the Chick-fil-A Open House (note Holly's name tag - so cute!):














Decorated a gingerbread house:














And baked Christmas cake balls.














We've had some reeeeally cold nights, and have used the heck out of our old-fashioned, woodburning fireplace already. And it's not even winter yet.

All of the activity, while all good things, makes me think about how we distort the spirit of Christmas with our consumerism and excess. I fall into this trap each year, and it bothers me. Then I read books like Radical, and read verses like these, and I have to wonder...are we missing the boat? Rather than collecting things for ourselves (and teaching our kids to do the same), shouldn't we be giving our things away? I'm not there yet.

But I'm being challenged lately, and it's as though Jesus is saying directly to my heart, "I have blessed you with so much not so that you can consume more, but because you are the means through which I will love and feed the poor and oppressed." And man, does Jesus love the poor and the oppressed.

What does that mean for our family? What does that mean for me?

After talking about this with our small group, our neighbor and friend Kerri challenged me. Above and beyond their family's normal giving, she had decided to give away all of her discretionary monthly allowance for 2011 to Charity: Water. No fancy haircuts, no department store lipstick. Instead, she is bringing clean water to people who have none. That's what I'm talking about! THAT is the spirit of Christmas!

Knowing I had to put up or shut up, I decided to give up my entire clothing budget for next year (and Matt's too...if I didn't tell him, he would never even know). I'm not sure where it's going yet. But I'm excited about knowing that the new shoes I didn't buy just fed a child. Or purchased a teenage girl out of sex slavery. Or did just about anything other than fill up my already full closet.

Having decided that (last night!), my heart feels full. And ready to receive my King.

Merry Christmas to all!