[the final leg of the journey...]

well, i can thankfully say i'm reaching the end of this very wonderful, but sometimes painful journey. ;)

i have embarked upon the final trimester of my pregnancy (can i get a whoooo--hooooo!!) peter and i had a funny moment the other night as we looked at our calendars for the next few months, trying to plan out some ministry events, when the thought hit us both "wait a minute, mid-may, we can't make plans then, we could be having a baby!" WOWZERS!!!

it's so fun to start dreaming about what our little one is going to look like, act like, be like. i'm convinced she's going to be a night owl like her daddy...she tends to keep me up at night already with her kicks! haha.

oh, and i know in the last post i told you i've started on the baby's room. well...its true. here's where we're at right now.


now don't laugh, i know i've got a lot of work to do! the last few days have been spent organizing (although it hardly looks it), and i'm proud to say i've made a lot of progress! all that's to say, stay tuned. i'll keep y'all posted on the transformation. tomorrow peter and i might visit a thrift store to see if we can't find a few treasures to add to the room. **oh. be sure to keep this a secret. peter won't know the final look of the room until you do! it's going to be a surprise!


well, here's a photo of me a 27 weeks. am i getting any bigger folks..or just gaining more weight!?

27 wks -- fun baby facts

This week, your baby weighs almost 2 pounds (like a head of cauliflower) and is about 14 1/2 inches long with her legs extended. She's sleeping and waking at regular intervals, opening and closing her eyes, and perhaps even sucking her fingers. With more brain tissue developing, your baby's brain is very active now. While her lungs are still immature, they would be capable of functioning — with a lot of medical help — if she were to be born now. Chalk up any tiny rhythmic movements you may be feeling to a case of baby hiccups, which may be common from now on. Each episode usually lasts only a few moments, and they don't bother her, so just relax and enjoy the tickle.

[headed toward week 26!]

well...i probably enticed you to come visit here because you THOUGHT we'd give away her name....but alas....it will be a tightly hidden secret until her birthday! hooooowever, the exciting news is that we DO have her name!! and we loooove it! can't wait to share it with you!

in other news...let the count down begin! it is officially less than 100 days until my due date. exciting huh?! this coming week is going to be week 26...last week of the 2nd trimester! boy, two down and one to go!!

yesterday, sunday, peter and i spent all afternoon at our good friends, randy & ginger's, where ginger (mommy of three adorable kiddos) gave me a gazillion maternity clothes! they are soooooooo cute and i can't wait to wear them all. we honestly brought home two HUGE bins full of clothes...hehe.

the other fun thing peter and i did recently was visit a brazilian steak house with our friends the haanen's. definitely the place to go when your preggers...it's all you can eat and delicious beef! here's a pic of us before we left. :)


things have continued to go well with how i'm feeling. I've been able to stick to the gym about 3-4 times a week and am thankful for that. i think i'd go stir crazy if i was on bed rest! haha OHHHHH.... and this past week we purchased our crib, which should arrive in 4-6 weeks!! can't wait to show y'all how the baby room is coming together!! :)

here's some fun developments about our baby this week (26)

Major excitement: Your baby opens her eyes! On the flip side, you might wish yours would stay closed so you could get some sleep.

If a full night's rest has become elusive, welcome to the (sleepless) world of pregnancy insomnia. Between heartburn and leg cramps, bathroom runs and that big beach ball beneath your nightie, it's no wonder your body's having trouble calming down and drifting off. But there are lots of tactics to try that should help keep you in bed (and asleep!) instead of pacing the floor; these include daytime exercise, a daily dose of fresh air, and limiting fluids before you hit the hay. What's up with your baby? She now weighs a full two pounds and measures nine-plus inches. And this week, her eyes, which until now were developing under fused eyelids, start to open. Of course, there's not much to see in there, but if your baby spots a bright light (or hears a loud noise) near your belly, you may notice an increase in fetal activity. (Hey, I'm in here, Mommy!)

week 25!

[baby barber--it's a girl!]

it's official folks...we are having a little baby girl come early june (maybe even may!)

i know i know...we thought boy all along, but we're thrilled to be having a baby girl. ;)

this wednesday marks week 22...which is pretty incredible. it seems like just yesterday i was reading that at-home pregnancy test thinking those two pink lines were somehow not right! haha.

so far, this pregnancy has been a joy (besides the throwing up part), and its crazy to think in just 4 short months we'll have a lil' one of our own.

the big changes this week have been the growth of my belly. yeah, i've noticed it a lot more now...bumping into counter tops. oh, and the backpain too....not liking that one too much. i'm having a real hard time sleeping at night.

here's some fun baby info:
At 11 inches (the length of a spaghetti squash) and almost 1 pound, your baby is starting to look like a miniature newborn. His lips, eyelids, and eyebrows are becoming more distinct, and he's even developing tiny tooth buds beneath his gums. His eyes have formed, but his irises (the colored part of the eye) still lack pigment. If you could see inside your womb, you'd be able to spot the fine hair (lanugo) that covers his body and the deep wrinkles on his skin, which he'll sport until he adds a padding of fat to fill them in. Inside his belly, his pancreas — essential for the production of some important hormones — is developing steadily.

here's a fun photo of me at 20 wks!

here's me and baby at 22 wks

[red hot rudolphs]

Peter here... Holiday cookies are such a tired convention (I'd say they're "sooo last year," but I'd sound like a blond Valley Girl--and that's sooo not me). And if I offended anyone out there who is in the midst of baking some holiday cookies, I meant no offense. I'm just really, really, REALLY excited about something that's going to become an annual Barber tradition.

And so, I present to you the first annual installment of (drum roll, please) the SARAH-BARBER-EXTRA-YUMMY-SUPER-DELICIOUS-INCREDIBLY-PHENOMENAL CHRISTMAS REINDEER CUPCAKES--(by the way, that is the official name, if you're wondering). OK, so let me explain what you're seeing (and unfortunately what you can't taste!): the faces are Oreo cookies with a "V" shape-cut, the antlers are pretzels, the eyes are white-chocolate chips, and the red noses are Red Hots. Oh yeah, and there's chopped up Oreo cookie mixed in with the cupcake batter, too.

All I have to say is that when I first bit into one, I went weak in the knees, uttered a whole lot of unintelligible noises, and felt like fireworks were going off in my mouth. Simply amazing. And if you want the recipe, don't bother. It's a closely guarded family secret that Sarah will take to her grave (not really, it's in a commercially available recipe book, but "family secret" sounded better).

Here's another shot of the whole "herd"--
Who needs cookies when you have a whole plate of these? I mean, seriously? Matter of fact, I think I need one right now...

[two reasons to be thankful this season!]

The second reason to be abundantly thankful this thanksgiving is because Peter and I (Sarah) are expecting the first and newest addition to our barber family! YES, THAT'S RIGHT FOLKS....we are having a baby!!!!!

We've been dying to share the news, and now that all our family knows, we're thrilled to get to spread the news to you! We actually just had our 12 week appt. today, and got to listen to the heart beat for the very first time--a moment I don't think either one of us will ever forget! Praise God lil' barber is healthy and has a rapid heart beat of 160.

The photo below is how we shared the news with Peter's folks and mine. The story goes like this. We found an online site where we could make and send personalized onesies--the perfect surprise gift! So Peter and I went ahead and made the three you see below and then sent them off to our parents with a note that said "Coming soon to a city near you" and then the due date, which is June 10th. We made sure to double package it, with the inside package requesting that they each call us before they open it--we wanted to be sure to hear their excitment.

All went as planned until our parents in Brazil didn't receive the package within the time we had expected. Sooooo....it was plan B with them and we'll have to share that story another time.

So there you are friends....we're so thankful for this new gift of life we have coming our way next June.

[two reasons to be thankful this season!]

God blessed us in two ways recently, and they're kind of related. I'll save the bigger one for last, so you'll have to read to the end of the post... The first was the purchase of a new car. We had been saving and looking for a new car for some time now, but we hadn't found what we had been looking for. Then, one of our friends recommended an auto broker who attends our church, and ta-da, a few weeks later we had a new car! The process was amazing and virtually painless. We highly recommend auto brokers now. We purchased a 2004 Toyota Matrix—with fancy tinted windows! We posted a few pictures below. And the next time you're in Denver, we'll take ya for a ride!

[fly fishing]

A few weeks ago I (Peter) had the awesome privilege to go fly fishing! A new buddy of mine, Randy Hellinger, offered to introduce me to the sport that is so popular here in Colorado. So one morning at about 4:30 in the morning (waaaay to early for me), Randy swung by, picked me up, and we were off on our grand adventure.

In about an hour and a half, after a pit-stop at Starbucks and some great conversation, we arrived at our destination: Eleven-Mile Canyon. Randy had enough gear to loan some to me, so the first thing we did was suit up: waders (mine were thermal!), boots, and fly-fisher vests. Now we were set! Or so I thought...

Before going on, I need to clarify something. I wouldn't necessarily call myself an avid fisherman, but I think I've done my fair share of fishing--even some peacock bass and piranha! So I was expecting a nice lazy day of throwing a line into the water, maybe getting a few bites, then calling it a day. What I didn't realize is that there's nothing lazy about fly fishing.

In fly fishing, you're constantly tying on flies (that's what they call the lures). If you snag your line on something, and the line breaks, you've got to tie a new fly; if the fish aren't biting the fly your currently using, you've got to tie a new fly; if you get your line all tangled up trying to cast (which I managed to do repeatedly!), you've got to...well, you get the idea.

And I haven't even mentioned the casting! Fly fish casting is not like other fishing. There's no weight on your line to help you cast, so with fly fishing you have to kind of whip your rod back and forth and, as you do so, gradually let out the right amount of line you need to cast to the spot where you want it to go. Sounds complicated, doesn't it? It's not really--it's just really active. And then, if you do manage to cast the fly exactly where you wanted to (which didn't happen all that often for me--especially in the beginning), you have to pick it back up and do the process all over again because the fly has moved down river. Think of it like this: it's about 60 seconds of casting for about 10 seconds "fishing." This video that Randy took of me might help explain things a bit better.



So you're constantly tying lures, constantly casting, and then you're constantly on the move! The fish (they're trout) are lazy--they like to hide out behind boulders and stuff where the water is nice and calm and they don't have to swim very much. So they just sit there waiting for bugs to come floating by in the faster moving water, and when they see something they like, they dart out and grab a snack (or lunch, or dinner, or breakfast--I don't know what kind of internal clock fish go by). Anyway, so as you're fishing, if you don't get any bites after a half-dozen casts or so, it's time to move on to another spot. Needless to say, fly fishing is a very active sport!

I have to say though, I had a very good teacher. Randy showed me how to do everything, from tying the fly to casting correctly. He coached me through my rough spots (believe me, there were many), and kept encouraging me when I was getting close to giving up. Thanks to his good teaching, finally at the end of the day, I was able to actually catch a fish!

Here's me "hauling in" my catch!

This is once I had snagged him (or her--do you know how to tell?!)

And here's what I have to show for eight hours of fishing!! I actually took it home and it's now mounted on my wall. Just kidding--it's illegal to do that! Don't tell PETA!

So there you have it, my grand fly fishing experience!