6 Months

Okay, so I am really bad at this blog thing. This is exactly why I haven't even tried doing a baby book. Faith is over 6 months now and we are having so much fun with her. She makes new discoveries daily, which is fun to watch. Lately she started scooting, mostly backwards, by lifting her booty up in the air. She will be on her hands and toes-oh it is so cute. Her arms are stronger than her legs right now, which is why she goes backwards. But the last two days she has gotten a knee underneath her and moved forward. We REALLY need to get our house ready for her. We keep trying, but I think it's hard to feel important until it is essential.

She still loves it outside, even in the freezing cold. She gets so excited when the wind hits her face. She also dances. She's done this for awile, but now it is specifically when she hears music. She has this singing bear-well, we had it before she was here because it has Chargers on it :)- that she loves to dance to. When she's on her belly, she rocks side to side as it sings. We had a great Thanksgiving with Ashley's mom and sister. Faith loved getting to know her auntie better.

Our band recently started recording a new hymn Cd. We are very excited about it. Dale has wanted to do this for awhile, and it is great to get a chance to record with the guys. We are looking forward to our trip to California soon-we leave Christmas day. Hopefully we'll get to see a lot of you when we're there!

Video of Faith from 3.5 months to 4.5

Faith having fun at the pumpkin patch

We had an awesome time yesterday at the pumpkin patch. The air is starting to get crisp and Winter is just around the corner. It will be interesting how we navigate the cold and Faith's love of the outdoors.

Naked Time

We had a fun time this morning letting Faith have a little naked time. She's so cute! Also, these are the first pictures of her sitting up in her stroller. She kept trying to sit up in her infant seat, so I just decided to try it. She is so proud of herself when she's in there. It's obviously too big, but she absolutely loves it. And loves to go outside.

She's sleeping a bit better, which is wonderful. She talks so much more when she gets the rest she needs. And her new favorite thing to do after eating (and my favorite too) is to suck on my chin and jawbone. I'll have to try and get a picture of that.

Fun videos of Faith

4 Months Old

Okay, so I had really planned on updating this blog a lot more, but life has been a lot different than I expected it to be. For those of you who want to know all, I explain more down below. But for those who just want to see some pictures of Faith and hear how she's doing now, I'll give a little update. Today is her 4 month birthday. She has learned so much in the last two weeks, it's crazy. She went from not even being able to recognize there was something in her hand, to now reaching for what she wants, grabbing it, and sticking it in her mouth. Two weeks ago she hated tummy time-now we can't get her off her tummy. Every time we put her on her back, she rolls over. She is very excited about this and practices all the time. She even tries to do it in her carseat and bouncy chair. She loves to stand up & often tightens her abs to try to sit or stand up. She loves to put everything in her mouth, including her feet and toes. With the help of the Ferber Method she is now falling asleep on her own and taking naps longer than 30 minutes. Dale is really loving this time with her because she's so interactive. He loves to go in and get her when she wakes up because she's all cuddly. She's a lot of fun and it's amazing to see how much she discovers each day. She watches us eat-I can tell she wants to eat like us too :). And she is dying to put my water bottle straw in her mouth. It's fun to hear her laugh and make raspberries with her mouth. Anyways, lots of fun stuff now, and hopefully I'll be better at the updates since she's finally taking naps long enough for me to eat AND do something else :).

Here's the link to click so you can see a slideshow of the most recent photos. They are really out of order, but figured it wasn't worth sending them out later to have them in order :). In the ones where she looks bigger, she's older. :)

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=kuezn8r.bq64xufr&x=0&y=-r75wni&localeid=en_US

The last four months

Some of you have heard different parts of this or have seen all my posts on Facebook, but I figured it would be good to have it all in one place, even if it's just for myself. The last four months have been really hard for me. I knew they would be hard, and even harder than I could plan on. But I still was worked. I love Faith and really enjoy being her mom, but there have been a lot of things that have been very hard and have been a bit of a let down in regards to what I thought it would be. I thought I would get to really love cuddling and rocking and nursing my little girl. I thought I would LOVE the first months with her when she was so little. I love little babies and have always looked forward to all the time I would get with my own. But honestly, I haven't loved a lot of the time. By God's grace I have had really special moments with her-moments where we did get to cuddle, moments where nursing was sweet. But a lot of the time I could tell she was uncomfortable and hurting, but I couldn't do anything about it. I have always been able to soothe other people's kids, but I couldn't soothe her.

From the beginning Faith was one of those 0-60 kids. When she cried, it didn't start as a whimper and work its way up. She was full screams from day 1. She actually rolled on her side her first day of life because she was so mad at the nurse for making her cold and taking her temperature :). Every diaper change was full screams. It made us laugh after awhile, but it was nerve-racking as new parents. It was hard to see your little girl crying so hard she couldn't breathe-let alone to see it 8-12 times a day (or however many times we changed her). Then we had some trouble with breast-feeding, as many moms do. I won't go into all the details, but it was tough. And once things started getting better with that, she started crying during her feedings. She seemed gassy all the time and would always be grunting and clenching her abs. She was basically asleep (and grunting) or awake and crying. We basically had to hold her every time she was asleep. When grandmas were there, they would take shifts helping me through the night. But then it was time for them to go home. I ended up trying to figure out ways I could sleep sitting up holding Faith because we weren't comfortable with laying down with her. My back started hurting pretty bad and I was exhausted. I felt like babies are known for only eating, sleeping and pooping, and my daughter had trouble with all three. Then, after 4 weeks, we heard about a chiropractor that works with colicky babies. He doesn't adjust them, but uses massage to strengthen a muscle between the small & large intestines. From the first day I took Faith to him, she was already making progress. She slept for the longest she ever had, and not in my arms. From then on she was able to sleep at night in her carseat, but still had trouble during the day. It was still AMAZING compared to holding her all night. The nursing seemed to get better. She would still cry sometimes, but not every time. The treatment the chiro does usually takes 2 weeks, as long as you maintain a strict diet. I was VERY strict with my diet, but something still bothered her. What normally takes two weeks, took over 5 weeks for Faith. This time was way better than before, though. I noticed major improvements. She was going 8 hours between feedings and sleeping even more than that. I was getting rest, so whatever crying she did was much easier to manage-and she did a lot less crying.

Then we went to California where she did great. When we got back, she stopped sleeping through the night and started crying at every feeding. This was so exhausting. Not only was I more tired from her waking up multiple times at night, but it was a fight every single time I nursed- 8-10 times a day, anywhere from 15-60minutes per feeding. It was both physically and emotionally exhausting. They thought maybe my milk supply was too low for her and she was gaining just the bare mininmum of what you would want for weight. So then I started a process to build my supply. I would feed her, and I was supposed to try and get her to stay on each side for 20-30 minutes (which was not easy and usually couldn't be done). They gave me this little tube I could slide in as she was nursing and use a syringe to reward her with milk so she'd keep sucking. Oh was that a nightmare. I didn't have enough hands to do it. Dale would help the times he was home, but it was so hard to get her to stay on long enough to get the tube in. Then sometimes she would figure out it was the tube that had the milk, so she would un-latch and try to just get the tube. She is just too clever :). Then after that, I was supposed to put her down (remember, she had to be held during the day) so I could pump for 15 minutes after each feeding. That was a very long week. I am so grateful for the friends who helped out by coming over and holding Faith so I could pump. One thing that was a blessing, though, was that I HAD to put Faith down to pump when I was alone. It showed me that she could handle it. She wasn't sleeping, but she would just talk to me in her bouncy chair. It was a good learning experience.

After that, she started doing better with nursing, but then sleeping became more difficult. I went back to the chiropractor and he found that the muscle still needed a little strengthening. After a couple days of that her sleeping improved. At that point I was even able to put her down in her carseat for naps. I started feeling like things were getting a little better and under control. I noticed she was starting to get a lot more active, so I was worried about her sleeping in the carseat too much longer. I figured it was time to get her into the crib so we could then transition her to being unswaddled (before she could roll over). At this time nursing became difficult again. She was still having trouble moving her bowels, and I thought maybe that was why she was having trouble with nursing. One time she grunted for over 60 hours, unable to get anything out, poor thing. So the doc had me stop eating dairy (I had already stopped eating gassy stuff-onions, garlic, green veggies, chocolate, caffeine, soda). Anyways, we started having her sleep in the crib, still swaddled. We would get her in a deep sleep, but as soon as we put her down she would startle. That day, she hardly slept. That night she did a little better. The second day she startled a lot less and actually slept some during the day. But it took a lot of work to get her there. We had to bounce, rock, lean over the crib and hold in her pacifier while patting her butt. Needless to say, it was killing my back. That, combined with the many wrestling matches I had during the day to feed Faith made me strain the muscles in my back. I leaned over at church one night to grab Faith's blanket and ended up to where I could barely move. I could hardly take steps or move my upper body. So for the next few nights, my mom and Dale had to get up with Faith. I couldn't even hold her; all I could do was feed her, and even that was tough. The first night she did so well-only got up once to eat. But then we were worried about her bowels, so we called the doc for help. They told us to give her 1 tsp dark caro syrup (corn syrup, aka sugar) in 2 ounces of milk. The next two nighst, she hardly slept. We went in at one point and her head was rapidly moving side to side and her eyes were opening and closing. At first I thought she was having a seizure. My mom picked her up and she wasn't stiff, so we knew it was okay, but we wondered why the heck she did that. We called the doc the next day, and the nurse said that colicky babies move a lot in their sleep. We were upset that they just wrote it off because she had never done it before. The next night she was spastic again, so we finaly realized that the sugar was making her crazy. The third night, with no sugar, she slept great. By then my back was feeling a lot better, so I could help again.

The next day, she rolled over. CRAP was my first thought. I knew I should be excited that she rolled over, but I was concerned about her suffocating because her arms were swaddled. At least she and I got one good night sleep before another transition. So that night we tried letting one arm out. That transition never went well. It felt like we were on a ball bouncing all day long. She would startle so much and it took so much work to get her to sleep. Then she would only sleep a half hour. Two different nights in a row she exhausted all three of us (dale, me & my mom) just trying to get her to sleep. Where she used to fall asleep nursing, and then we'd just put her down, now she would wake up even after nursing. This continued throughout the night. She woke up multiple times and required bouncing/rocking to sleep every time. I think she and I only got two-three hours sleep two nights in a row. That's when I knew something had to change. Every thing we tried wasn't working. It was as though she knew we were going to put her down, so she kept being on guard for it. We decided we had to let her learn to soothe herself because she would wake up a little and require the whole process again. So Sunday night we started the Ferber method. She was going to be unswaddled, in her crib, with no pacifier. It was tough that night, but she fell asleep sooner and got more sleep than the two nights before. Then, the next day, she took a 2 1/2 hour nap for the first time, and didn't really cry when I put her down. That afternoon I put her down for another nap, and she slept over an hour and didn't really cry. Nursing that day went way better as well. This week has been so much better. Although she still cries at times, she falls asleep so much faster and stays asleep way longer. She is back to waking up only for eating, and after 7-10 hours of sleep. And our backs are so much better off not bouncing on the ball. It's amazing the turnaround this week. Although some feedings are still hard, we are having more good ones. Although some naps are still short, she has consistently taken at least one nap over 2 hours each day. I have the energy for her now during the day. And, her bowels are moving without much strain. I don't know if its the dairy, the sleep, or just that 16 weeks was her magic number, but I'm happy for her that it's not so tough anymore (at least this week). I know tomorrow might bring something else that's difficult, but I am just feeling blessed for today. She really is a sweety. And she seems so eager to get to do everything. It's fun to watch how hard she thinks and works to do something new. Man, if we all just had a hint of her determination, we'd go so far.

Dale has been so supportive through all of this. He has definitely had to deal with so much; I'm sure it's not easy to work all day and come home to a crying baby (and many times crying wife). He's made so many meals and gotten up with Faith when I just couldn't anymore. He's always reassuring me that I'm a good mom & giving me the freedom to make the decisions that I feel are best. He's such a great dad and loving husband. I wish you all could see him with her on a daily basis. And my mom has been such a great help to us. She has been there for a lot of the hard stuff, always willing to do whatever we need. She really has been a blessing.

Thanks for reading, and thanks to all of you who have been praying for us over the last four months. Hopefully I will be able to share with you more now that things here have calmed down a bit. Love you all!
Ashley

Video of Faith's birth.

Before the hospital, in the hospital and after the hospital!

First Week

Whew! This has been quite a week. We are so blessed to get to spend time with our new baby girl. Her little facial expressions are so cute! This week has been a whirlwind of experiences, mostly good and some bad. I have been pretty exhausted, healing from the delivery and working on getting sleep. I won't go over all the details of what has occured, but I have definitely felt like I've been on a roller coaster, one day feeling like we were getting the hang of things, and the next having something new and difficult to experience. Dale and my mom have been such an amazing support, running laundry around the clock and taking shifts at night so I could just focus on feeding and healing/resting. We have all been amazed how it has taken the full effort of three adults to care for one little one.

We did have a scary experience with Faith when her diapers all the sudden started being an abnormal color on her 4th day of life. We had to go to the doctor (our first time getting a diaper bag ready and going somewhere), where we were told she had blood in her stools. It wasn't fresh, so most likely it was no problem, but of course that is still not very comforting for brand new parents (one of which who is dealing with some pretty major hormones). The doctor suggested I could pump for a week and have Faith go on formula for that week to see if it went away, but that option seemed really hard and overwhelming to me. At the advice of some friends who searched all over the internet, our doula, and a midwife, we decided to keep on with the nursing. They found that it was probably just some of the first few days' poop coming back (like she hadn't gotten rid of it all). That was a very hard night for me. I wanted to make the best decision for Faith, and it was so hard to know what was best. I'm sure this is the first of many scenarios like this in life...trying to figure out what is the best parenting decision to make. By the next morning, the poops turned back to their regular color, and we were so relieved. I never imagined I'd be so excited to see yellow poop.

Anyways, even through all the hard stuff, it has been a pretty amazing experience. It has been so fun to see Dale as a dad...he did not want to let her go at all those first two days. He just adores his little girl. We really appreciate all the prayers and congratulations we have received. We can't wait for you all to meet her and see how stinkin' cute she is. What a beautiful girl. We will update more soon, but obviously are a little tight on time right now. We love you all.
~Ashley

Welcome to the world, Faith Gianna Huntington

On Sunday May 24th at 4:18 am Faith Gianna Huntington was born. She promptly showed us how awesome she was by scoring a 10/10 on her Apgar test and then rolling on her side when she was only hours old. (She can also hold her neck up pretty well too) She is the most beautiful creation in the world and I weep at the gift of God's creation whenever I look her in the eyes. In her eyes I find a devotion and love that I never have known. Ashley will update more soon.
-Dale

39 Weeks

We have less than a week now until Faith's due date on the 26th. We are very excited (okay, Dale's a little impatient) for her arrival. I am still feeling pretty good, just a bit of pain in the lower back because she has dropped down some. But overall I still feel really good. My mom has arrived now in Wichita, so she is excited she will be here for right when the baby comes. The house is pretty much situated, so now all we need is baby :). We appreciate any prayers for a safe and healthy delivery with no complications. So far both baby and I are really healthy, so that is comforting. We hope you all are doing well and hopefully our next update will have a baby picture! God bless!

Funny Craig's list postings...

Ok,
The craigslist postings out here are hilarious! Here is one.

If you want him come get him. He is a very beautiful mule. Dark Brown, he looks more like a horse than a mule. He is about 15 hands tall.. Please only call if you are coming to get him. Thank you. 620-388-6358
This mule is about 5 or 6 years old. He is not broke. I traded a nice horse for him, and I was told that he was green broke. You must know how to handle animals to take this Mule. He will run and jump fences. I cannot handle him and I have no time for him.


Location: Pratt
it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

38 Weeks

As of today we are at 38 weeks. For almost the last 24 hours I've been having contractions, but they don't hurt and aren't progressing anywhere. It is an odd feeling. I always thought I would just be normal, and then I would go into labor. But at least it doesn't hurt (yet) :). I'm just trying to relax and not get too worked up about it. We are definitely eager to see our little one. Also, my mom comes on Monday, so we are excited to see her. This is our first visitor from California! Hope you are all doing well :)

36 Weeks!!

We've definitely had an eventful couple of weeks. First, we are very excited that in one week we'll be full term. Faith seems to be doing very well and is still moving all over the place. I was having some contractions last Thursday (very minor, but very consistent) that continued through Friday, so they had me take a little trip to the hospital. I was a little embarrassed because I didn't think what I was feeling warranted a hospital visit, but my doctor's office told me to go in. So we got a practice round of checking into the hospital. I wasn't progressing or anything. At least we had fun getting to hear Faith's heartbeat for awhile. We did find that I am 1cm dilated and 60% effaced, for those who care to know.

We also had some crazy thunderstorms this past weekend. There was a string (or line) of storms that came up from Oklahoma that had had some tornados touch down. During our band practice before ekklesia (our church service) Dale and I had trouble focusing because there was so much lightening showing through the stained glass. Then, our sound guy came running down telling us we had to go in the basement because there was a tornado warning. People ran in from outside, dripping wet from the rain. I have never seen it rain so hard-it was like a blanket of water.

We got the all-clear pretty fast, and went back up to finish practicing. I was a little concerned about being around/attached to all this equipment with so much lightening, but everyone else seemed to think it was okay. Finally, during our church service, towards the end of the sermon, we all had to go back down into the basement (the whole church). That was very fun for us. We sang a song down there, the pastor closed out his sermon, and then we all had to hurry home because there was a good chance that the next storm could bring another tornado. That night we just kept getting storm after storm. Dale and I spent the night in the basement and could hear the rain, hail, thunder, and wind from down there, very clearly.

One other fun thing, we have finally discovered a gluten-free bread mix that tastes so good we like eating it plain! This is a huge success for us :).

On a sad note, we recently lost Dale's step-grandpa, Dick. He was a kind man and his death came very quickly. Dale's grandma is in care for a recent broken hip so we would appreciate your prayers for that whole situation.

funny things in Wichita

Ok,
So I am sick of the fact that there are no left hand turn lanes in Wichita. If you are on a two lane road, watch out! It can stop quickly and then everyone tries to get around quickly. So dangerous.

Also they have no main street signs in a lot of places so you have no idea if it is the right street!

Finally,
I have had a problem, when you turn left with a green arrow, you have to turn to the inside lane. If you don't you will hit someone because people don't have to stop at a right hand turn on red. I have called people idiots for doing this and then learned I was the idiot!

-Dale

Spring Snow March 2009

This video is from a few weeks ago when we got a crazy time of ice and snow. It was really beautiful the way the ice was on the trees...so sparkly :). We hope you have fun watching us enjoy the snow!

34 Weeks!

House Video

Hi Friends and Family. We finally put together a video of our house. It is quick, but gives you an idea. We also finished Faith's room for the most part, and you get to see that. Different pieces were filmed at different times, so you see snow in some and green grass in others. :) Enjoy.

Transition

This week for our update I figured I’d do things a little differently. Although we hit a new milestone with the pregnancy—we are 32 weeks (okay, by the time I actually finished we were almost 34 weeks), less than two months to go—last night it hit me how minor that was compared to every thing else. I’m not saying we’re not excited…we definitely are! But this time of life has surrounded us with so much transition, so much newness (if that’s a word), that I felt like I’d rather write that down to have it on record. I’m not really the journaling type, but I couldn’t get it out of my head and felt like it would be nice to look back on one day. So here goes…
When we moved up to Orange County, we definitely experienced a lot of transition. New marriage, new full-time worship-leading position for Dale, first full-time teaching position for Ashley, new church, new city, new distance from our friends and family, new friends, first apartment, first time of paying all our own bills…a lot of new things for us. Apparently we like to do all of the transitions at once, because moving to Wichita has had even more all at once.
For me, Ashley, here are the things that come to mind-
-new state
-new city
-new time zone
-new role being home more often
-new church
-new weather
-new drivers license and car license plate (which was actually weirder/harder than we thought)
-new baby coming, which involves new concerns (like is she moving enough, why did that sneeze hurt so bad, will the house be ready, will we be ready), new joys (we’re so excited for her and love feeling her move all around), new emotions, new body and the physical changes that come with it.
-new even greater distance away from friends and family
-new time of grieving over the loss of my dad and what this new time of life is like where I can’t call him for advice or to share news with him.
-first time experiencing a loss so great, and being so far from my mom and sister through it. Although I can see God's protection in this as well. If I lived in California, I would want to be with my mom 24/7, helping her to work through all the stuff she is going through. I might have neglected my marriage and this time of preparation for our baby coming. It’s still very hard to be so far, to feel like I can help with so little. But it does protect me from trying to help with too much.
-new grocery stores and restaurants, which might seem silly, but has been difficult with the food restrictions we have.
-new insurance, once again, seems minor, but has been one of my biggest frustrations here.
-new friends-I can already see God at work in who He has surrounded me by and what that will mean for my future relationships. Obviously they aren’t deep yet, but I can see a lot of potential. And, through the new things we’ve been going through (including loss of dad and new baby coming), some friendships are forming faster than usual. When someone can tell I’ve been crying, it forces me to be vulnerable quickly and we form bonds more quickly. I’m grateful for God giving me an open heart (which I know can be too open for some :) ), because it helps people open up to me more quickly too.

For Dale, I can think of other new things as well.
-new job where he has to learn small things like how to use this copy machine and what’s the process for turning in receipts, and big things like what am I responsible for, who do I go to when I need help with something. When I really think of all he has that is new, I get a fresh appreciation for all he is doing right now.
-new service to plan, which often brings new people to share a vision with, new battles to fight, new budgets to work with, new complications to overcome, new people to reach.
-new band
It has definitely been a bit overwhelming, but God is showing us a lot through it. We know that things will slow down a little before our new adventure of parenting begins-as long as she does not come early :). Thanks for reading…if you actually made it through the whole thing. We appreciate all the love , prayers and support you’ve given us. We’ll hopefully have more on the house and baby up soon :). Above are the most recent pregnancy picture (33 weeks) and some photos from the preview worship concert for the new service. We love you.

30 Weeks!!!

At the Wichita Zoo holding a baby goat. There were two of them and we got to hold them both!30 Weeks today!
We have spent the last couple weeks getting our house together and starting to get the nursery ready to go. So far we've built the crib and changing table, assembled the pack-n-play, and gone through all the hand-me downs, getting them cleaned up and ready to go for Faith. It seems pretty silly to already have the swing, pack-n-play, and lots of clothes ready to go, but at least we'll have stuff ready if she decides to come early.

I am still feeling really good. I'm getting a bit more achey, but working on stretching and alternating activities. You should see me on the wii fit...it's pretty hilarious. Faith is moving so much now, often hitting tender areas like hips and ribs. I don't know how she reaches them, but she does. She likes to keep me up at night-I guess she's practicing for when she's out of the womb.

We are excited for the upcoming service starting and all the activities leading up to it. We are having fun getting to know our new band members and are looking forward to this new journey together. Please pray that we will continue to know what steps God has for us and will be obedient to follow. So much is going on, we'll do our best to keep you in the loop. Again, please let us know how things are going for you as well. We love you!

We love you Dennis

Dearest Friends and Family,
As most of you know by now, on February 18 my daddy, Dennis Carrillo, passed away. The last few weeks have been quite crazy as we are working through this next phase of life. First of all, thank you for all your prayers, cards, phone calls, and visits. My whole family has felt so uplifted in prayer throughout this time. Even though we are still experiencing the great loss of my father, we have felt such amazing peace in knowing that my dad is with Jesus and will have a new body. In different ways I have experienced God's care and provision for us. It is hard to explain without having a conversation with you, but I have just seen how He cares for each detail, each need we have. It's been so comforting to see that He knows us so intimately. Thank you for each prayer that you have uttered on our behalf. If you want to see some pictures of my dad or learn more about him, go to this blog that was created for him www.denniscarrillo.blogspot.com. He left quite a legacy.

Now we are working through life after being gone for almost two weeks (unplanned). We have so much joy for our daughter to come and know that she will bring so much delight to our family. We have promised to have updates in regards to our house (a video) and want you to know that it still will be coming, but has to be postponed until we get more caught up on life. In regards to a baby update, Faith and I are doing well. She seems to be growing into a healthy little girl. We are feeling a lot more kicks and rolling around, which always makes me smile. I'm really loving this experience.

For those of you who are continuing to pray for us, here are some needs we have right now: First, please pray for my mom as she works on figuring out this new phase of her life. Pray for God to comfort her after the loss of her best friend. Pray for Him to help her figure out what steps she should take each day and what plan He has for her now. I'm excited to see how He will use her amazing gifts and wonderful warm spirit to bless others. Second, please pray for my sister as she continues to grieve, work through health challenges, and go back to work and school. It is definitely hard to go back to life as usual. Third, please pray for Dale and I as we have quite a busy season in front of us. In addition to getting caught up on life, Dale is helping to develop a new church service that begins on April 12. There are so many details to plan and work out between now and then, I know he and the rest of the leaders need God's guidance and discernment. Also, of course we have our baby coming May 26th, so there is a lot to get ready before her arrival. Even though we are dealing with the loss of my dad, we also have a lot we are excited about. Please pray for wisdom and guidance through it all. Thank you all for your support and encouragement. We love you and hope to get to see you or talk to you soon.
Ashley

Racism in the midwest

Today I was at Mcdonalds returning a video at a kiosk inside. A couple black men in nice suits left soon after I arrived.

Next a man approached me. "I don't know how they do it."

"Do what?" I asked

"I don't know how those coloreds have such fancy suits and drive nice cars when they obviously don't have jobs." The old white guy in a cowboy hat said.

My mouth dropped. I was blown away. Did not just a Black man become President?
I said "Well black men earn a living just as well as white men."

"You don't say." He said "I guess thats a good way to look at it, I guess." The old man said kind of sarcastically.

"It's the right way to look at it!" I said. I was fuming and before he could say anything else, I left. I was upset. How does this still happen? What year is this? I have never had something like this happen to me. I am sure this is not usual for Wichita but it was hard for me.

-Dale

Dale felt her KICK!

Yesterday when we were at coffee (when Dale was doing homework and I was catching up on baby book reading) Dale finally felt the baby kick. It could have been because he accidently ordered mine with caffeine--don't worry it's okay if I have some. But he got to feel her move and could see my tummy moving around. He was so excited.

I'm enjoying her movement too. She gets active at night (not a good sign for after she's born) because I'm no longer rocking her to sleep walking around. So sometimes I lay in bed not wanting to fall asleep so I can feel her longer. I've had friends say that I will miss that a lot once she's born, so I'm doing my best to enjoy every moment of it. And I'm really glad I'm not teaching because I would have really been distracting my students mentioning every time she moves. It would have been hard to get anything accomplished :). Especially the way 7th/8th grade girls are fascinated by pregnant ladies and pregnancy in general. We hope you all are doing well. God bless!
Dale and Ashley

finding coffee here

Well, there is always starbucks...but who really looooves starbucks. (besides Janel) It always tastes burnt and it's not fully fair trade. Anyways, we found a place called Cafe Moderne and it's pretty cool but expensive and not really much else.

Next I found a place called Java Villa. The coffee is really good and fair trade but you can see the water heater, the walls have old faded pictures and they have Fox news on a big screen tv instead of music. Oh dear!

I think I might need to check out something else. I just hope I can talk some sense into the Java Villa place and he can paint it, put on some good music and maybe put up some artwork. Who knows it could be a cool place after all.

23 Weeks

Hello Everyone!



Things are going well with the Huntingtons this week. Faith is definitely moving around and seems to like hearing her name and the name of Jesus (she moved more hearing both the other night...it was so cute!). Poor Dale still can't feel her, but is doing a great job talking to her every night. Again, the house is getting more settled, but still not there yet. We found out today that we have a pet (or a lot of pets) since I saw a mouse run across the floor. Ahhh, the joys of owning our own home. We are now starting the process of finding mouse traps that won't hurt the mouse (or mice). If you have any tips, please send them our way. We had some snow again today, which made our yard look pretty. Thank goodness I kept my old swim parka because it is the only thing that zips over my bump.



Finally, I would love to hear from all of you how things are going. So, if you have time, please give us an update about you (you can do it in the comments, through email, or facebook). We hope you are all doing well!

Kansasisms

They call beanie's "stocking caps" ha.

-Dale

Also Jason pointed out a song to us by the White Stripes that basically makes fun of Wichita.

22 Weeks

Here are some shots from week 22, or as Dale likes to say, 5 1/2 months. We are enjoying watching my belly grow and get more firm. I can feel her more often and have felt a few more kicks. Dale can't wait to get to feel them too. We moved into our new house, so I am getting a lot more sleep (which means Dale is getting a lot more sleep). We can't wait to show it to you, but we've been busy cleaning the house, moving, cleaning the apartment, going on church retreats, and getting our stuff settled in the new place. But we will do a video or picture tour soon. We've been enjoying some warmer days here in Wichita which has been really nice. I'm going to go on some walks outside while I can. We know the snow will come back soon. Please let us know how things are going for you as well. And check back in soon for some house pictures. Love, Ashley.

Here are some pictures from our official ultrasound. It was so cool. She is really starting to grow and you can tell all sorts of features now. The 3-D was amazing. I also felt her kick this morning, which was really fun. What a bizarre feeling. Hope you enjoy the pics!

Here's her foot.

Profile of her face, body, and leg.

Here's a 3-D image of her playing peek-a-boo

Sorry for the delay!!!

We really enjoyed our time in California, getting to see wonderful friends and family.  I have had a hard time taking the time to blog because of being out of town, and then having so many details to work on since we've been back.  Our new house closes on Monday, Jan. 12, so we have been doing all the things that are involved with that.  We are slowly starting to pack again (3 times in 4 months!) and are looking forward to finally being settled in our own home.  As soon as we are able to we will put up more pictures (for those of you not on facebook) of the inside of the house.  It's a little worrisome that we have little help with moving but we are sure that will come.

The baby is growing really well too.  This is a picture of me today at 20 weeks (halfway there!)  We found out we are having a girl, which is fun to know.  It definitely makes her seem more real.  I have been feeling really good, just a little achy sometimes.  I'm starting to feel her move around a little, nothing distinct yet.  And Dale got to feel her some when some part of her body was sticking out down low.  She likes to sit on my bladder :).  We have started to register for baby items which can apparently be overwhelming.  Who would have thought there could be so much information on bottles and strollers?  The internet is a blessing and a curse at the same time.  But we are slowly learning what is important and where to find the reliable info.  And friends have been a great help in giving us advice about what matters.

 

Lastly, we wanted to share a few funny things about Kansas.  One, they do not believe in toilet seat covers as a rule.  You can find them in some locations, but mostly you're stuck making one out of pieces of toilet paper (which really stinks when you have a baby sitting on your bladder).  Also, there are quite a few Lebanese restaurants here (which isn't the funny part).   The bizzare thing is, Mid-westerners pronounce gyros "Ji-rows."  I was telling some new friends in Wichita how to correctly pronounce them (more like "yee-ros"), and they asked, "Is that how you pronounce it in California?"  I laughed so hard and then told them, "That's how you pronounce them in Greece."  These poor Lebanese families just have to put up with everyone pronouncing it incorrectly every time.  It is even pronounced that way on a fast-food commercial.  Okay, so that may not be funny to you, but it was to us.   The next funny thing has to do with us.  Dale went out to his car one morning and had frost on it.  Trying to leave for work, he wondered how he could get it off quickly.  He thought, "Maybe the defroster works for frost just like it works for fog."  He still had not made the connection.  Then later when he was telling the story to someone else, he finally realized, "Oh...defroster...that's what it means!"  So now we, who were born and raised in so cal, finally know what a defroster was actually designed for.

Okay, so hopefully I will be better at updating this more often and won't always make it so long.  But please keep in mind that we will be moving, so there might be some delay again between posts.  I know I will be better at this when we have a little one to show you and talk about.  Then you will get to hear about every first...from first sleeping through the night to first poops! (just kidding).  Hope your holidays were great and restful.  We love you!