Finally...the news!

It's A Girl!!

There you have it.

Julie's doctor is going to do another ultrasound in January to doublecheck, but at our last ultrasound, it was definitely not a boy. We are extremely excited to be welcoming a baby girl into our family, and are adjusting to the thoughts of pink, bows, and frills. Julie is getting more excited by the day, and already feels more feminine just knowing she's got a little girl on the way.

In more exciting news, Aaron officially has a student teaching position for next semester. He will be teaching 3 periods of English, and 1 of Spanish and Loyola Sacred Heart Christian School. He is teaching with 2 mentor teachers, all classes are the 10th grade. We are so excited that this has come through, and feel relieved to know that the next stage of his schooling is in full swing.

As most of you know, we came to California to celebrate Christmas. It was Julie's incentive for finishing her class before Christmas. (She did take her final exam. Results still to come.) Unfortunately, we happened to hit the Las Vegas snow storm on our way to California. We stayed the night in Primm, Nevada (the Nevada/California border), then spent the next morning waiting to try and get on the freeway, then giving up and going back to Las Vegas and spending a few hours with Julie's brother Justin and his family. We did finally make it to Pomona after 3 long days of travel. Needless to say, we were so glad to be here. It must be said that Joseph was an absolute trooper the entire time and didn't once get mad at how long it was taking to get to Grandma's house. We are now in California (which is why pictures will have to wait until we get back home).

That is most of our big news. We will be in Pomona for about a week and a half. We are enjoying the sunshine! Hopefully, Julie will be able to see some of her friends during the trip. (Email me if you want to hang out!) Our schedule isn't very busy, and that's the way we wanted it. So there's lots of time for sitting around and chatting and that sort of thing. Anywho - We'll probably save the next post for when we get back. So until then, have a great Christmas, and a wonderful New Year!!

P.S. No names yet. We'll let you know.

Thanksgiving and giving thanks

Here's a belly picture, taken by Aaron. Julie is 17 1/2 weeks here. She's almost 20 weeks now, so it's a little bit old. The belly is continuing to get bigger and since Thanksgiving time, Julie has been able to feel soft kicks and not so soft kicks, more and more often. She's very grateful for them, because they help her feel like everything is okay in there.

For Thanksgiving the small Denney family went up to Kalispell to spend the holiday with the bigger Denney family. All of Aaron's brothers were there, along with Grandmas, nieces and nephews. It was a great visit. Joseph is getting more and more familiar with Aaron's family and misses them more and more whenever we leave.

And in exciting Denney family news, Aaron's brother Tim and his wife Anna are expecting their second baby! Anna is due in June (We're pretty sure). Abram will be about 18 months old when the new arrival comes. We're so happy for them!

In the name of being thankful, Julie came up with a cute game to play with Joseph to help focus on Thanksgiving, and being thankful. We all sat on the floor and rolled a ball between us. Whoever gets the ball says something they're thankful for, then passes it to the next person who says one thing they're thankful for. Joseph just loves this game! We don't think he really understands what it means, but he gets really creative and asks to play it often. In the hope of having a Thanksgiving decoration, Julie adjusted the game. We played it again, and wrote down all of the things we were thankful for. Then we made paper chains and had a great big chain of "Thankful Things" to hang on our wall. It was really fun and we'll definitely play again next year.

Joseph is also learning bits and pieces about Christmas and getting more and more excited for that. We tell him we'll be sharing Christmas with his other Grandma, and other cousins. He understands it a little bit. He is definitely excited. Saturday evening we all decorated the apartment with our Christmas decorations. We only have a small collection, but we like them. We got a small 3 foot artificial tree to hang our ornaments on, with lights and garlands. It looks beautiful! Joseph enjoys the lights too.

We are looking forward to our Christmas holiday in California. Julie is finishing up her class, as promised, to earn this vacation. She finished her last two essays, and now has one day of reading, and then studying for the final exam! Her final is scheduled for December 8th (her mom's birthday). Please remember her on this day and keep your fingers crossed! Passing this test is the last step to being able to apply for graduation. Well, we will try and post again before we leave for California. Our current departure date is December 16th. Oh, and Julie is having her ultrasound on December 15th! So we'll have some exciting news in just two weeks!

p.s. leave your guess in the girl vs. boy war! We'll find out who wins in 2 weeks!