Fun in Cloudcroft, New Mexico!!

We are having SUCH a blast here, 9,000 feet above stress-level in Cloudcroft!

Our good friends, Glen & Lydia Farell, invited us to come and spend a week with them and their precious baby boy, Drew! Glen's parents are so generous to let us vacation in their beautiful home that overlooks steep terrain with HUGE evergreens and sits perfectly on one of the greens of the Cloudcroft golf course. It's Heaven.

We'll be posting more pictures soon, but I wanted to put these videos on the blog for the Grandparents! :) These videos and pictures were taken yesterday when we went to the town Harvestfest to watch pumpkin races and then drove to Ruidoso for some more Fall-fest-fun! (Special THANKS to Glen for putting these together!)

BIG NEWS for the Poages!!

Collin and I found out just a few days after his 29th Birthday (in August) that WE'RE EXPECTING!... again! :)

I'm 14 weeks into the pregnancy, and the new baby (a.k.a. "Pistachio Poage") is due April 28th, 2008. We weren't exactly trying for another kiddo, but we are excited to be adding to our family. Children are a blessing and we are thrilled! I've been to the doctor a couple of times and we've seen the baby through sonogram. Everything looks great, and at Thursday's appointment the baby's heart was beating at 165 bpm. (If you buy into the "old wives tales," that would indicate another GIRL!!) ...Collin's already polishing shotguns and saving for weddings... :) Another girl would be tons of fun, but a boy would be a blast too. We'll wait and see! We will definitely be finding out gender before the birth, but we have to wait until December for that.

It's amazing how quickly my body is showing the pregnancy this time around! I have to laugh that I'm just barely in the 2nd trimester and I already look like I'm 5 months pregnant! They say that Mom's "pop" earlier with subsequent pregnancies, but this is almost hilarious. (See "belly gallery" below)

Avery and "Pistachio" will be 19 months apart, and they will be back-to-back grades in school when they start which should be really interesting! Add us to your prayer lists! :) We'll keep you posted...

Hugs,
Poages

August "belly" just after we found out...


Sisters with "dueling bellies!" Jen (& Drew) with Me (& "Pistachio") - September belly


October belly - week 14 and already "round." ...Oh, boy...

Party Pics!

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY, AVERY!!!

Who can believe it's been a YEAR since we welcomed Avery into the world?! It truly is amazing how time flies.

September 29th, 2006

September 29th, 2007

Avery had a wonderful 1st Birthday and got to celebrate with a party on her ACTUAL Birthday! She invited some of her pals over to play and we were amazed at how precious all the babies were! Everyone was on their best behavior!

You could tell it's football season, as we had 3 "partiers" show up in their favorite team's jersey! We had a Longhorn, a K-State Wildcat, and (of course) an Aggie! Avery wore a new dress at the party, but later when Collin gave her his Birthday gift she was definitely "Marooned-out." (You'll see in the pictures.)

Our favorite moment of the day was when the time came to sing and let her eat cake. It's always amusing how expectations can differ from reality. I expected my precious dare-devil to dive into the cake with both hands and end up sticky from head to toe! I also expected the little party hat to come off her head nearly instantaneously from the moment I put it on. Neither were true. Truthfully, she sat there in her party hat and delicately selected each bite with forefinger and thumb, chewed, swallowed, and then carefully chose another bite. (I promise I haven't taught table manners yet, so I cannot take any credit!) It was hilarious to watch because it was so different than what I thought it would be! She LOVED the cake, though! ...Of course she did... We Poages love our sweets! :)

We're so thankful for the first year with our sweet Avery and we look forward to many, many more!