Katie Is Here!!!

Please welcome Kathryn Harding Conyers!

Born December 25th at 2:07am

7 lbs 9 oz - 22 inches long

We're going to call her Katie

Nathanael Likes her.. so far

Nathanael Takes a good Picture!

So Sweet!

We Love you Guys... Merry Christmas!

Mommy and baby are fine and are recovering at home.

More pictures and info to follow soon.

Christmas and Baby are coming!!

Getting ready for baby

Whoa... that belly is huge! 38 weeks 2 days

Nathanael made this at Ms. Cindy's this week!

He loves eating his house!

Snowy Days

One of our friends took this picture of us last week, just after the first snowfall!

Looks like we will have a white Christmas this year! Brian and Nathanael are enjoying the hill in the front yard and Allison is enjoying the 4-wheel drive pickup as she visits her patients!

Our house on the left at the top of the hill

Just before we went back inside and put on the snowsuit!

Brian trying out the snowblower for the first time!

Excited about his trip on the Polar Express

Hot chocolate, just like the real thing!

The train we took to the North Pole!

Only a few more days until the expected arrival of our new little one! We had another shower today, a surprise one from the ladies from work! They also shared gifts with Nathanael, too! We have finished Christmas shopping, Christmas cards and will hopefully mail the packages off this week to VA! We're ready for baby and Christmas... whichever comes first!

Our 6 year old pre-lit tree... most of the lights are now out!

Nathanael helping to decorate the tree

This is "his" tree

Don't know how we got him to smile!

A few of the other Vermont pastors and wives at the GMBA Christmas Party

I love this little picture!

We love Keen snow boots

Cooking up our Christmas goodies!

Enjoying the hill!

Thankfulness

We are thankful for:

1) The opportunity to be in Vermont and a part of what God is doing here. Brian did a short devotional at church tonight reminding us to be thankful for the gospel and the grace of God, without which, our lives would be hopeless. During his speaking time one of the youth (Wed night at church is youth group night which always draws quite a variety of teens) began to act up quite a bit. It escalated to the point of the pastor asking him to leave the service. He shouted a few expletives that we are thankful that none of the little kids repeated. The cops had to be called to force him to leave the property and while they were there the drug dog was going crazy. Brian thankfully maintained his composure on the stage. Just gotta love Barre... it's a tough place to live for a lot of kids. Please pray for this young boy... he is coming and hearing the gospel each time he's there... Also, we are seriously considering Waterbury as our plant town. Please continue to pray for this town and the people there.

2) The home in which we live which has made it possible for Allison to be off for 3 months after the baby is born and for Brian to devote his time to working at the church.

3) The timing of this pregnancy. Allison is glad she does not have to spend the worst 3 months of the winter driving from house to house to see patients! We are also thankful for the gifts we have been given for the new baby.

Nathanael even got a Tigger toy at the shower!

Our Little Virtuouso

4) Our son! He cracks us up every day!

Brian: "Nathanael, what's baby sister's name?" [we really hope it's a girl]

Nathanael: "Hofie"

Brian: "Hofie?"

Nathanael: "Yes"

We couldn't figure out how he came up with Hofie, we haven't even mentioned Sophie. Well, the other night after our singing and reading the Bible before bed, Brian was praying. He prayed that God would keep Mommy and Baby Sister healthy. Just as he said that Nathanael shouted out "HOFIE" We laughed and laughed and think God was laughing, too! Nathanael is also memorizing a few verses. The first one he's gotten right is Ephesians 6:1. We make him say it quite often... every time he disobeys! We're hoping to capture a video and post it here soon! Happy Thanksgiving!

our Saturday adventure

Yesterday we went to another prospective town... (is there a bad town anywhere to start a church and tell people about Christ?) Richmond, VT. Nathanael thought we were going to see CC, Grams and Papa J. At least he associated Richmond with them. Richmond is a town of 4000 people near Burlington with only 2 churches in the town, a Congregational Church and a Catholic Church. Please continue to pray for us.

The view of Camel's Hump from Richmond, VT

We also had an interesting trip to Burlington. I just have to share our experience at Ponderosa. Neither of us are big on buffet restaurants, but we had a gift card we wanted to use. While we were in line, we had a gentleman cut in front of us to order... funny. Our meal cost about $18, which will be important later... Brian headed off to the restroom. On the way back, he had to tell the manager about a problem in there (not created by Brian, of course). Shortly we saw the mop go by... we were almost finished with our food when it reappeared (It was a rather large mess!) The manager even came by to tell us that the problem was taken care of! While going to fix his first plate of food, Brian watched someone bring out chicken for the buffet. She was eating, too. We prayed over that plate again... Our waitress took some of our dirty plates away and also took Brian's cup to refill it with water at the same time. Same cup came back. We prayed over that cup, too! I went up to get a dessert and ended up beside a lady who was complaining about how wide the tongs were. I guess she thought the best idea was to use her coat to help close them a bit more. Although I didn't use the same tongs to choose my dessert, we prayed over that plate, too! Even Nathanael prayed for our health after that trip! We were so disappointed in our meal, that we gave the $5.37 balance on our gift card to someone in line while we were leaving.

We did some Christmas shopping (my first time inside a mall in quite some time), got a $5 balloon beetle from a Shriner clown (it was worth it), had a Pumpkin Spice latte from Starbucks, went into the most interesting outdoor shop where Nathanael talked to everyone working in the store (a girl named Holly and a guy he mistook for Daniel), then went to McDonald's for dinner (oh how we miss Wendy's and Chick 'fil A). Thankfully our McDonald's experience was not quite as hazardous as our lunch, but it did cost $17.50 (when did McDonald's get so expensive?) and there was a hair in my quarter pounder with cheese (thankfully I saw it before I ate it). We had a great time hanging out as a family and made many many memories!

Balloon Beetle

Nathanael taking our picture after our shopping trip

Here are a few pictures from the last week to share too!

Nathanael ready to ski

A gift from CC

Our little monkey

The circus came to our church's Harvest Festival

Allison and Linda with poor nameless child... any ideas?

Our family photo from the Harvest Festival

This picture was taken 2/4/08... a gift from CC

This picture was taken today :)

All the leaves are brown...

Although we haven't had any more snow since our last post, the temperature is consistently colder and we know that winter is fast approaching. We have been getting out earlier to defrost the cars before work and are wearing our winter coats. When the sun comes out though, it's beautiful! We do hear though that the days will be really short soon. Brian and Nathanael have had much fun weatherproofing the house and cleaning up the leaves and plants for the winter!

Sealing up the window

All the leaves are brown...

Playing after raking

We have a few praises to report...

Nathanael has stayed healthy and lice free over the last few weeks. Last week we learned that a little girl at our babysitters had head lice (I checked Nathanael's hair everyday for a week and even used the lice shampoo in his hair... and didn't get it in his eyes! We also washed and dried "dawgie" that the little girl loves to play with at the sitters) and this week learned that a little boy there has H1N1. So far, Nathanael has been healthy despite the fact that our pediatrician won't have vaccines for H1N1 until Nov 9.

We are continuing to pray that God will be most glorified in the building in St. Johnsbury. Brian talked with a missionary (Frank, for all you who were here this summer) in St. Johnsbury who told him that the church that received the building offered him space to use for ministry as they are wondering if they will be able to use the whole building. We are not sure how this will turn out, so keep praying with us! We are going to visit Frank again tomorrow.

We've also been busy going to conferences and had many opportunities to fellowship with other believers in the last two weeks. I (Allison) went to the first ever Iron Sharpens Iron for Women conference in Connecticut. I enjoyed worship led by Anthony Williams, large sessions led by Elisabeth George and Shaunti Feldhahn and two smaller sessions about busy lives of women and The Ministry of Motherhood. I'm looking forward to having time to read after the baby comes.... (ha ha)

The next week Brian went to a conference on Finding Christ in the Old Testament and heard from D.A. Carson. He also got to meet more local pastors and other Christians at the NETS Institute for Church Planting. He was even invited to sit in on some classes.

On Thursday, I had a day off from work (in exchange for working the weekend). We drove to Waterbury that day. We are still considering this town for a church plant. We had lunch in downtown (and even saw some women praying, but they were from a town about 30 minutes away). We looked at a few homes there as well. Please continue to pray for us as we are really hoping to know where we will be going soon.

Thursday night we went to the CareNet Pregnancy Center banquet while Nathanael stayed home with one of the teenagers from church. We're not sure who had the better time! The banquet was very nice, as well as sobering. The speaker presented many facts on abortion and he was followed by our pastor, Terry Dorsett, challenging us to give to the center. We were also able to gather info to share with the girl who stayed with Nathanael who has a 15 yr old friend who will be having a baby in January.

At the banquet with Shirley and Jane

Nathanael had a great time at home!

On Saturday Brian attended the GMBA Annual Meeting. He was encouraged by meeting more new pastors from Vermont and new missionaries that will be moving here in the spring from NC. We are praising God for the things he is doing here in Vermont!

See how excited Daddy is! (Nathanael took this shot)

Sunday we attended a service to welcome a new pastor to Montpelier. We are so encouraged that God is bringing more people here to Vermont to serve him. If any of you seminarians are interested in serving here, check out this website. You can visit the state and stay with us if you'd like! :)

Leaves are falling

Nathanael enjoying the pumpkin that CC gave him

The scenery here has been beautiful in the last two weeks! We have enjoyed watching the reds, oranges and yellows appear! We didn't quite expect our first frost so soon, but now the leaves are falling. Snow is in the forecast and we are well aware that winter is on the way! We have already pre-paid more to heat our house this winter than what we paid for all our electric bills in NC last winter, but we are very grateful to the Lord, Ms. Hoover who saw fit to give to the Lord, and the GMBA as we are living rent free in this home. We've started researching snow tires and things to do to winterize our home. Some of my patients have been sharing pictures of their homes in the snow last winter trying to encourage, I think, and not scare me! Of course I wouldn't be so concerned except that I am a HOME health nurse which means I have to DRIVE all day to patient's homes. (Prayer request #1) In the meantime, though, we are enjoying the beautiful views!

Daddy's hike from Saturday

The view from the top of Camel's Hump

(obviously before the morning fog cleared)

Nathanael blending in

The most beautiful tree

which happens to be outside our living room window

I must say however that our family is going to miss the State Fair this year... For all you Carolinians, please go to the fair and eat something fried, some barbecue and hush puppies from the mill and think of us, get a ticket to see Third Day (as the tickets are the cheapest you'll ever find for Third Day, you'll get to worship the whole time and recall that your friends were once there in Dorton Arena worshipping with Third Day the last time they were at the fair), watch a pig race for Nathanael and squeal louder than the pig and visit the petting zoo, but make sure to wash your hands after your visit! :)

In other news, we heard from the Christian Science church this week about their building. They did not select the Green Mountain Baptist Association to be the recipient of the building, but we did come in a close second... The group that did receive the building is serving in St. Johnsbury already and they felt that group was more appropriate for their building. Certainly we were not really thrilled about the outcome in our own eyes, but we prayed that God would be most glorified as a result of this decision. In our Thurs night women's Bible study, we have been studying though 1 Samuel and the life of David. Providentially, a few weeks before this decision we looked at David and his desire to build a temple for God. Although that was a good idea, it was not God's idea. God had something even better planned for David. God was going to build David a house, a lineage from which the Savior of the world would come. God was most glorified according to His plan, not David's. In the same way, we believe that God will be most glorified in the decision not to get the building. This brings us to prayer request #2. Do we ignore St. Johnsbury now and just focus on Waterbury, or do we continue to consider both towns for church plants in the future? We will be spending more time in Waterbury in the near future, exploring the town further. Please join us in praying for these two towns: Waterbury and St. Johnsbury.

Nathanael's model pose

The pregnancy is going well. I passed my glucose tolerance test on Tuesday, all my blood counts were normal, the baby's heart rate was regular and I did gain 5 lbs since my last visit (yes, I am happy about putting on the pounds). We have been very blessed already by friends who have shared with us. I posted earlier about a mission team who brought gifts on their trip. I also went through clothes that a friend from NC, Melody and more that my sister's friend, Ashley, GAVE us for our little girl (we are counting on that "We think it's a girl" from the u/s tech). I thought I would post the picture of the wardrobe our unborn daughter already has so that you can get a little perspective of how really blessed we are! The other photos are pictures of 28 weeks from both pregnancies. We are grateful so much for these friends!!

A small selection of clothes

Nathanael at 28 weeks

Baby sister at 28 weeks

When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

Colossians 2:13-14