Precious Moments

This past weekend, my sweet Sunday School friends Marian Ashwill, Diane Kendall, Catherine Couch and Andrea Mitchell threw a baby shower for me and Avery! It was SUCH a blessing as we spent the early afternoon having lunch and anticipating Avery's arrival.

Probably the most treasured memory I will have from this shower was when the group took a minute to pray over Avery. The sweet prayers lifted of blessings and hopes for our daughter's life (from a healthy delivery, to coming to know Christ at an early age, to prayers for her future mate) were SO dear to my heart and will be remembered always.

Avery got LOTS of awesome gifts that will be WELL used and well loved! I am so appreciative of our friends in this class. Collin and I talk OFTEN about how we can't imagine life without this amazing support group and the deep relationships we've formed in the Fellowship Class. You guys mean so much to us and we love each and every one of you!




















Above: Me (and Avery) with "Gram" and "Aunt Jen" and then with "Nana" and "Aunt Kendra"

Below: One of my pregnant friends, Lydia Farell - Due in February!



































Above: Me & Andrea (who just had a baby 3 months ago and looks AMAZING!)



















Below: Avery's "I love Aunt Jen" onesie! ...wonder who gave her that?!

TBG Office Shower!

My sweet co-workers got together and threw a shower for Avery! It was really special, and Avery got some more great & useful things! We're getting closer to being ready for her arrival... Now we just need to get the nursery together for her and we'll be in the home-stretch!

Thanks to all my friends at TBG! You guys are the best. (A little "plug" for the company, if you don't know what we do... www.tbg-inc.com)

Work Zone

Our kitchen project is... well... a PROJECT. This remodeling stuff is not for sissies. Gives me an all-new respect for the Extreme Home Makeover teams, that's for sure! This picture shows the recent progress. Currently everything that used to be neatly (or not-so-neatly) tucked away in the cabinets and pantry is now spread out all over the house and makes us look like MAJOR pack-rats to anyone who comes through the door. Not to mention the fact that the crib is still "homeless" since the nursery is still functioning as a 2nd guest bedroom and hasn't transitioned into baby mode yet. It's awkwardly placed in the living room for the moment, but will hopefully make it's way into her bedroom one of these days. (How many weeks do we have left now until Avery needs a nursery? Can I get that down to the minute, please? ...because we're going to need every second.) :)

Thanks for all the help, prayers & encouragement throughout this process! I never knew how stressful remodeling could be. TLC and HGTV always make it look so easy! Guess you can't trust what you see on TV!

So far, so good! Hopefully we'll have this all behind us by the time Avery arrives! If not... I hope she can sleep through any and all loud noises like her Daddy!

Baby Shower!! :)

It hasn't rained in Dallas in months, it seems... but there was a beautiful shower on Sunday afternoon!!

Five of my sweet college friends (From left to right: Lea Arnold, Kristin Gustafson, Melissa Turner, Lindsay Key and Kristen Starwalt) hosted the most elegant and precious baby shower for me this past weekend. We had such an incredible time getting together, celebrating & anticipating Avery's arrival! Among other delicious goodies they had a full ice cream sundae bar, which was a HUGE hit! We also played a game that I will never forget... They had planned ahead and given Collin a list of baby questions he had to answer (with specific instructions NOT to look any of the answers up on his phone) :) and then I had to guess multiple choice which answer was his. Some of the questions got interesting answers such as, "How will you know if she's right or left handed?" and "What will you call Avery's dirty diapers?" (His answer to the last question was that he would call Avery's dirty diapers "Mommy's little projects!" ....keep dreaming, honey!) With each correct answer I got a little "prize" to help with Avery. It was a precious idea and a LOT of fun!

At the end of the party the group presented me with a very treasured gift. The guests had prepared in advance individual letters written to Avery, and they had created a beautiful scrapbook for me with a letter on every page. Some wrote to Avery about funny things they remember about me and Collin, some wrote prayers for her and words of wisdom for her life... It is such a treasure and I can imagine reading these precious notes to Avery as bedtime story blessings for many years to come. The entire afternoon was so special and I am truly blessed with these incredible friendships.

Hard to believe that with each passing day we're getting closer to seeing, holding and kissing our baby girl! We may not know anything about her yet, but one thing is for sure: She is LOVED. Many many thanks to everyone for so graciously displaying your love for our little family.

(More pictures to come!...)

Nesting! :)

It's been a productive weekend at our house! Saturday was a day of "nesting" as Collin and Howie set up the crib for Avery. We still haven't taken down the full-sized bed in Avery's room yet, nor have we painted... but we needed to go ahead and set up the crib so that measurements could be taken for the bedding that's being made. SOooo... the crib is temporarily in the kitchen! :) HA! But since the kitchen is not currently functional (under construction) it's a good holding place for the crib until we make room for it in Avery's nursery. **This crib is EXTRA special to me because it was previously owned by my sweet cousins, Jennifer & David Mabry, and used for their 3 kiddos... Michael, Gretchen & Margaret. We LOVE the crib, Jen & David!!**

Next weekend we have Collin's family coming to visit! It is always a rare treat when ALL the 6 siblings and spouses are together in the same place and it hasn't happened since November '05 when Collin's sister, Kendra, got married! We are really looking forward to it. Some of them will be staying with us and will be our last visitors in the house with TWO guest bedrooms. Once the weekend's over we'll start the process of changing guest bedroom #2 into the nursery. I will be sad to see my favorite guest bedroom go, but it will be such fun to set it up for Avery to come home to.

Thank you for keeping us in your prayers! Things seem to be rolling along normally which is always a blessing! Now that I'm in my third trimester I will be seeing the doctor every 2 weeks until I hit 36 weeks and start going EVERY week. We're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and we couldn't be more excited!!... We'll keep you posted!

Baby BOOM!

Well, it seems like a landslide of pregnancies! We have so many friends announcing that they're expecting, along with other friends who are about to POP!... what an exciting time!

So far, here's the list of Avery's friends-to-be... yet to be born!

Baby Armstrong (Due NEXT week!)
Julie & Chad Armstrong
Mom and Dad are our Church Friends

Baby Arnold (Due January '07)
Lea & Donny Arnold
Mom was Steph's sorority sister, College roommate & Bridesmaid

Baby Farell (Due February '07)
Lydia & Glen Farell
Dad is Collin's long-time friend and was his Best Man in our wedding

Reid Finley Ferguson (Due September '06)
Jaime & Kyle Ferguson
Dad is Steph's long-time family friend from Austin

Baby Flanagan (Due December '06)
Kelly & Al Flanagan
Mom was Steph's sorority sister

Baby Garthoff (Due January '07)
Allison & Shane Garthoff
Dad was one of Steph's work friends

Baby Holtzman (Due September '06)
Jenifer & Zach Holtzman
Dad is Steph's long-time family friend from Austin and worked with us at Pine Cove

Baby Hook (Due October '06)
Holly & Ben Hook
Mom & Dad are Collin's family friends

Baby Killingsworth (Due March '06)
Kendra & Mark Killingsworth
Mom & Dad are our friends from Church (and long-time friends of Collin's)

Baby Levy (Due August '06)
Amanda & Brett Levy
Dad was Steph's Youth intern at Hyde Park Baptist in Austin

Baby Padgham (Due February '07)
Paige & Bryan Padgham
Dad is Steph's friend from work

Emma Kate Wells (Due August '06)
Katie & Adam Wells
Mom was Steph's sorority sister

*Elizabeth Hope "Ella" Mitchell (Already born, but she totally counts! Born May 10th, 2006)
Andrea & Joe Mitchell
Mom and Dad are our good friends

....And I'm sure there are MORE babies that we don't even know about yet!!.... Lots of little lives to pray over and look forward to! What a blessing to be surrounded by such a great support system! Time to buy stock in diapers!! :)

11 More Weeks!

I am amazed at how quickly this pregnancy has flown by!! I feel like it was only yesterday that I was 11 weeks pregnant, and now I just have 11 weeks remaining! Surreal to say the least. The good thing is that I'm going to have PLENTY to keep me busy during the next few weeks which should cause the time to pass really quickly. (Absolutely no time for sitting around twiddling my thumbs, although all I really want to do is sit and feel those precious feet, knees and elbows moving around and daydream about holding our baby girl!)

We are finally making good progress on the kitchen project! Who knows if it will be completed by the time I go into the hospital or not, but we're moving on it! Cabinets are scheduled to be completed by mid-August and then the trick will be getting everything else to fall into place after that. Hopefully it will be a smooth and seamless project... HA!! Yeah, right. Let's keep our fingers crossed that we have it done by Halloween.

Avery's room is starting to feel a little more like a nursery and less like our 2nd guest bedroom with each weekend we work on it! Still haven't set up the crib yet, but the closets and dresser drawers are organized and decked-out with baby gear and diapers! It's going to be a precious room, since "Grandmommy Ellison" will be custom-making the crib bedding! (Thank the Lord for talented Grandparents who are willing to tackle such projects!) I think it's going to be so special to lay Avery down into a bed that was sewn especially for her with love.

OH! And our office moved locations over the holiday! TBG Partners is now in Mockingbird Station instead of the West End. It was quite a chore to pack up the office and move, but it's really refreshing to be in a pristine new space and to explore new surroundings!

**Next Wednesday I go back in to the doctor and they will run the Glucose test to check for gestational diabetes. Please keep us in your prayers for that.**

Our prayers this week for Avery:
- That she will come to know Christ at an early age (II Tim. 3:15)
- That she will choose early to submit herself to God and resist evil (Psalm 97:10)
- That she will continue to grow strong and that God will strengthen the umbilical cord as her source of nourishment until she is born
- That we get good results from the Glucose test next week
- That God will continue to hold her in His hands... until we get to hold her too!

Much love--
Steph

Proud to be Poages! :)

It was a weekend of learning all about our family's history at the Poage family reunion, 2006!

Collin and I got to go West a little to the "Rocking R-K Ranch" which is the home of Collin's great Uncle and Aunt, Roy and Kay Poage. There were about 50 relatives who came to hang out, eat, play and share stories. It was such a fun and relaxing weekend.

We learned that our family comes from "strong stock" as stories were told about Collin's Granddaddy getting hit by a taxi once that proceeded to run over his head! Hugh Poage was left with literal tire tracks on his forehead, but no serious damage! Unbelieveable... only the Poages. We laughed as the group joked about how quickly the Poages fall asleep. (This may only be funny if you KNOW one of these guys because it is SO TRUE.) Poages-- including my husband-- will literally fall asleep mid-sentence, and will begin snoring just seconds after sitting or laying down. THAT'S something I hope Avery gets from her Daddy!! :)

It was such a great time and we can't wait to go back next year with Avery! She will love seeing all the animals and hearing the noises they make! (Especially Cisco, the donkey, who "hee-haws" at anyone who walks by!) Such a great family tradition...

THE PICTURES: Just a few pictures from the weekend... Most are self-explanitory, but two of them need more info. One shows us with our hosts, Roy & Kay Poage. The one of me standing infront of the water wheel was taken on our way back to Dallas where we stopped off in Brownwood for an old Ellison favorite-- Underwoods Barbeque! My family used to eat there every year on our way to Lubbock for Christmas, but it had been at least a decade since the last time I ate there. Underwoods is celebrating 60 years this year.

She's been named!

It's official! There is no longer a need to call her "Baby Girl" "Sweet P" "Princess" "Peanut" "Peanette".... She has a name!

Avery Elizabeth Poage

Avery means "Nobility" and Elizabeth means "Consecrated to God." (Elizabeth also happens to be my middle name, and a family name on both sides!) We are so excited to know the name of our baby girl and to be able to pray for her by name now. She's already got both of us wrapped around her little finger and we can't wait for the weeks to melt away until she arrives!

We're getting close the 3rd trimester, so the clock is really ticking now! If we can just get the kitchen remodel finished and Avery's room in order before September 25th we'll be doing great! Only 15 more weeks!...

More "Baby-Moon" Pictures...

Last trip before baby!

Well... I've officially had my last plane trip before Baby Girl arrives. Actually, I had a few plane trips in the past week! Here's a brief run-down of the trip we will forever refer to as the "baby-moon." (Get it?... Like Honeymoon?)

Collin & I got to fly to St. Louis, Missouri, and drove from there into Flora, Illinois, for the wedding of our good friends, Mr. & Mrs. Cameron Cushman! :) While we were in St. Louis we stopped off and took a couple of pictures at the Arch.

After a very short night back home in Dallas we hopped onto another "bird" headed for the white sandy beaches of Destin, Florida, for a week of relaxing in the sun! It was surreal to think of how drastically different our lives will be the next time we see the ocean. We'll have our little girl with us and she'll be experiencing sticky sand and salty waves for the first time in her life! What an amazing thought...

We had a blast! Believe it or not.... I'm getting BIGGER! Baby Girl is moving around a TON and she loves to show off her kicking skills for almost anyone who will lay a hand on me. She's getting stronger everyday! Her favorite "pick-me-ups" are orange juice and anything sweet! (I.E. brownies, ice cream, etc.) She kicks for quite a while after having these treats!

Love to all! More to come......
Steph

More pictures...

It's a GIRL!!!

Collin and I are SO thrilled and excited to announce that we are having a GIRL! :) We feel so blessed and cannot wait until September!

She was moving around like CRAZY and kicking those legs! She will probably be a VERY energetic baby girl, but it was so much fun to see her dancing around in there. We're not quite sure if she's a thumb-sucker or not... some of the pictures look like she is, but she may also just have her fist on her chin as if she's in deep thought. We were amazed to see her cute little face, hands and feet and just in awe of how much she's grown! It's completely unbelievable to us how we can be so in love with a little girl we've never even met.

I'm half-way through! Thank you for all the prayers so far & please continue praying for a healthy baby and a normal pregnancy. We are so excited to see what God does in the life of our precious daughter.

Still a Mystery

Each May gives me and Collin the opportunity to take a look back at the road we’ve traveled so far. It was May 16th, 1999, that we first met at a camp in Tyler, TX called Pine Cove. And although it’s the most overused cliché in the world… I honestly knew something was different about him.

It’s hard to believe that seven years have come and gone since that date and now here we are tapping our toes in anticipation of finding out if we’re expecting a baby boy or a baby girl! But in all the ups and downs over the years, one thing has always been constant in our walk together—God has been there with us. He knew that hot day in the middle of the pine trees that “Nice to meet you, Stephanie” would turn into, “Will you be my girlfriend?” and then later, “Will you be my wife?”…. And most recently, “Are you sure?... We’re having a baby?” God was always there. He knew all along the answers to each of those questions… After all, it was Him who prompted the questions from within Collin.

He knows the answer to the big question on our minds now too. (Pink or Blue?) Even though we are still left curious for another 24 hours or so, He knows this tiny being inside and He knows the exact plans for this baby. Collin and I couldn’t be more thrilled to find out the gender tomorrow, but we wait with even more excitement and eagerness to see what God has planned for the life of this little person. These things that are still a mystery to us have already passed through the heart and hands of the Lord and are set in motion. We’ve just got to be patient and wait and see! (And hopefully we’ll be able to see what we need to see tomorrow… if you know what I mean!)

Thank you all for your support and for your prayers! We can’t wait to post the “BIG” announcement as soon as we know!

Hoping for a very “un-modest” and clear view tomorrow—
Steph & Collin