Here's Baby Fernandez at 23 weeks, 4 days! He/She had a heartrate of 148 bpm, and according to measurements weighs 1 pound, 7 ounces. That puts baby in the 52nd percentile (bigger than 52% of American babies, smaller than 48% of American babies). As Aaron says, "Sounds like the definition of normal." We are so thankful that everything checked out well...on track for the June 21st birthday. We had a great appointment!

Sorry for such a quiet blog this week...we haven't had much going on to post about. The baby belly is growing, though, so here's an updated picture:

The men had a church meeting last night, so the girls took the opportunity to have a girls night out. We ate together and Erin and I shared a huge dessert! I'm certainly doing all I can to help the belly grow faster :)
The baby's movements are also getting stronger. Aaron has been able to feel it twice!

What a dedicated employee! She made the poster on her own...very cool what you can do with Michael's Scrapbooking stuff.

"Hi, Angel! I enjoyed meeting you last week. You're so pretty!"

Saturday skiing, from left to right: Aaron, Jonathan, Stephen, Michael. You can see how the snow disappears where the edge of the slope is...so sad.

In the afternoons before dinner, we just relaxed together to let the guys recuperate. Looks like Jonathan is really relaxed.

Both nights we went to The Village to wait in long lines and eat dinner. It was fun, especially for me and Joy to be able to dress in something besides lounging clothes and get out of the condo.

This picture was taken in the lobby of one of the hotels after dinner.
See you next year, Snowshoe! Thanks Joy, for letting me steal some pictures from your blog :)

To this:To this on Monday afternoon:

(wow...look at that floor under our floor. We think it's the original floor from the 50s)

If you couldn't guess, we are remodeling our kitchen. Can't say how long it will take, but we will post pictures along the way. We are excited about having clean floors, more cabinet space, and new appliances. In the meantime, if you live in Salem and have seen this, feel free to invite us over for dinner! If any wives out there can give me some advice about how to continue fulfilling my wifely role of feeding my husband, let me know!

If you're looking for a good book, we've found two that we can recommend!I'm reading this biography on Amy Carmichael, written by Elizabeth Elliot. I'm at the part now where she is arriving in India to start her missionary work...it's good. I prefer biographies most of the time.

Aaron borrowed this book from the church's library. It's called Foundations of Grace, written by Steven Lawson. He reads some nights before bed...sometimes out loud to me. It's strong reading.

Aaron has been treating himself to several new toys in the last couple of months. Maybe he's taking advantage of the time before baby arrives, because then our finances will have to be directed elsewhere! But it's so interesting to see how opposite his choices are from what mine would be... A heavy-duty pressure washer. Wow. He got this on clearance at the mall in Asheville. Don't ask me why he put it together in the kitchen... :)
And a gas grill. He used a Sears store credit that his parents gave him for Christmas. I'm sure I'll enjoy this gift, too.

This weekend we traveled for another getaway! This time we headed to Lake Lure, NC in the very western part of the state. It's a small lake located in the Hickory Nut Gorge. We met Charles and Brittany there to spend the weekend with them. We left on Thursday night and came back early this morning just in time for church. We had our own little cabin. It was perfect...very sweet and comfortable.

And Charles and Brittany had their own cabin. They cooked breakfast for us on Friday morning in there.
The front of ours. There was a hot tub on the back porch...maybe we'll go again when I'm not pregnant so I can get in it! We weren't right beside the lake...it was just a short drive to it. But we didn't spend a lot of time there anyway since it's not bathing suit season!
On Friday we toured Chimney Rock State Park, which is right beside Lake Lure. The main attraction is the view from the mountaintop, as you can probably guess why. There is an elevator that runs 258 feet right up through the rock to get you there...we enjoyed reading the history of the Morse brothers who made it happen in the 1940s. (I think the pose for this picture made Charles a little nervous!) On Saturday we drove to Asheville, which was about 30 miles. We rode to the Biltmore property but didn't buy the tickets to go in...maybe one day in the spring! We browsed around a hardware store...and played arcade games at the movie theater while we waited for our matinee to start. We saw The Bucket List, which was pretty good but had some unnecessary language in it. The popcorn was the best part.We also stopped by The Marble Slab to get the pregnant lady some ice cream. It was a highlight of the trip :) We shopped at the Asheville Mall, and finished our excursion with dinner out. It was an awesome, relaxing trip and we thank Charles and Brittany for inviting us!