4th Wedding Anniversary

Dear God...

thank You for this man !!!

Love Linz

Soirée Pumpkin

Let's get this party started !

dining room ready for food, tea and pumpkin painting - i just realized how colorful it is - wow

living room ready for coloring, toys and banner-making

i couldn't resist

annika, judith, regina

linda and daniela

sandrine, annika, judith

coralie and elodie

émeraude

marley and émeraude enjoying our toy box

luana and marley painting; regina poking annika's eye out - ha !

these girls found the coolest pumpkins

fatima helping the littles

linda and émeraude, the dynamic duo

sandrine and marianne

me with the beauties, erica and luana

drying station

progress

marianne and sandra creating masterpieces

luana making a pumpkin man

regina in deep concentration

i'm impressed - well-done marianne !

erica and daniela cutting leafs to make banners

elodie's "i {heart} fall" banner

the pie before it was devoured - a hit, the girls loved it

more drying; luana is quite the little helper

almost done

the final team-linda-émeraude pumpkin

and a couple pictures of ME... so vain... i know... ha !  the mini pumpkin was a gift from a few of the girls thanking me for the invitation and for the party... it says, "merci," and is now proudly displayed in our dining room

fun night introducing pumpkin decorating and pumpkin pie to some of my french (and german) girl friends... thankful for our home to share with others

Love Linz
ps - thanks to marianne for some of these photos

pumpkin party prep

i love fall... says everyone everywhere...

well, i do too, and i'm going to have a little party with some gals to celebrate (american style) - i only wish i had candy corn... grrrrr... maybe next year !

a little "i {heart} fall" banner in our living room

 designing the invitations

 coloring and addressing envelopes

 before the paint

 entry way - the little banner say autumn in French

welcome - toilets; not welcome to the toilets... it's just the first thing you see when you walk in our house, the bathroom, so i thought it a practical place for a welcome banner ;)

 a beautiful autumn bouquet from my man because he loves me

painted pumpkin/squash on the buffet {tutorial here} - Tonio says the one on the left reminds him of toadstool from Mario brothers

fun fall yarn chandelier idea {tutorial here} - super easy

Can't wait for the house to smell of cinnamon and pumpkin pie and to sound like the fun chatter of a bunch of French girls enjoying some American traditions.

Love Linz

29 weeks

Recent photos for your enjoyment !

 

the little pumpkin is for a pumpkin pie i'm making

 

the sunflower is a 2 euro store find for some fall decorating

and both together makes for a cute fall belly picture

thank you to my photographer [ he's quite a catch, i must say =) ]

Ultrasounds looking good.  

Baby is within the average range of height, weight, etc...

The doctor said she thinks our little one's head favors daddy.

Also, we could see quite a bit of hair on the ultrasound.

From the 3D photo, I think the baby has daddy's nose too.

We'll see in January how this little pumpkin looks !

Mama is doing ok.

Tired (but that's normal).

Hips and back are a bit peeved at the added 11 kilos (24 pounds).

I do my exercises and stretches as often as I can.

Tonio bought me a cool belt to take pressure off the hips.

Thanks for keeping updated with our lives.  We rejoice in this little life that God has entrusted to us.  I love him or her already.  Oh, and it just melts my heart when Tonio talks to him or her in French every night before bed...the dialogue often goes like this (translated) :

"It's time to go to sleep."

"Be good; let your mommy rest tonight."

"Listen to me; I'm the boss."

"Go ahead and kick me - show me what you've got."

"You can do better than that."

Haha... And I'm always laughing in between, because often, the baby responds to Tonio's voice and does give some pretty good kicks =)

Love Linz

Sunday morning

2 pictures from yesterday morning at Calvary Chapel Nice

Leading worship with my man.  I love when he plays the cajon with me and sings harmony.  We are singing "Better is One Day" in French.

Tonio's 5th time teaching on a Sunday morning.  He finished up Luke 11.  My take-away was to make sure I'm clean from the inside-out, so I can shine {practically in others' lives, not just with words or posting scriptures on facebook} for Jesus.  You can listen HERE in French.

We are blessed.  Tired.  Thankful.
Love Linz
ps - merci Anna pour les photos !

27 weeks

Hi blog followers !  I know people do read this because you tell me =)  I mostly keep it up for my parents, of course, so they can see what's going on with us WAY over here in France.  But, I do like that others enjoy it too.

This post is dedicated to my 92 year-old Grandma Betty.  She has courageously opened a facebook account and started using a computer at 92. {She is reading this blog, too}.  Ya, she pretty much rocks.  Anyways, the reason this is dedicated to her : she made me promise to "post" some pictures of my pregnant belly, so she could watch the progress.  First of all, she used the word post - she's so hip, and second, how do you say no to that?!!!

Here you go Grandma !  I love you !

 Isn't she beautiful? (taken in August 2014 when my belly was just barely showing)

A special thank you to my camera man, my wonderful husband.

So, if Tonio is taking the pictures, whose hand is that?*  Haha.

I've gained about 10 kilograms (22 pounds), which doesn't show terribly, but I sure do know where it all is... ha !  Let's just say sitting down on a hard surface is a bit more cushioned =).

The last ultrasound went well (just 2 days ago). 
Le petit bébé Petrignani weighs about 1.3 kg (almost 3 pounds). 
We saw baby "breathing" the amniotic fluid - crazy !
We saw the brain's more complex structure.
We heard the heartbeat again - fascinating !
We saw the complexities of the 4 heart cavities with the blood flow.
We also saw a 3D image of the cute little face.  I think he or she looks like Tonio ;).
And we still haven't seen the gender (as requested), but the doc said, "All is progressing normally with the sex of the baby."

What do you think we are going to have?  A daughter or a son?  We can't wait for the surprise in January !!!

Thank you Jesus for this adventure of life.  It is an honor to carry this little bundle inside me, even though I wish I didn't have to pee so much - ha !

Love Linz
*the mysterious hand is one of baby's future uncles