Baby Update-Week 35

We hope everyone had a great time celebrating the birth of Christ. We had a great time with both sides of the family, as you will see in the pictures below. We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas morning in Buies Creek with the Matthews bunch and then spent the afternoon and evening at our house in Raleigh with Jeff's mom and brother and, of course, Precious and Max.
Baby Costa is now entering her ninth month! She is being a little stubborn in that the doctors don't think she has turned to a head down position. We have an ultrasound scheduled for next week to be check her position, so we'll see if she's made the move by then. Most first time babies have turned by now. We'll keep you updated on our little southern belle. Great progress has been made on the nursery. Some of the bedding has not come in yet, it should get here this week-pictures to come soon!

The Matthews Bunch wishing you Happy Holidays

The cousins' first Christmas together!

Don't let Precious fool you-she had plenty of dog treats under the tree. She had just finished her huge rawhide Santa brought her.

No, these are not dangerous weapons, they are poles used for soccer training.


A fun time was had by all!

Happy Christmas Eve!!!

Merry Christmas from the Costa Family

We went to church and had Christmas Eve brunch with Jeff's mom and brother this morning and now we head down to Buies Creek for the evening. We hope you all have a wonderful time celebrating Jesus' birthday with your families!

Cookie Baking

Every year, the Matthews Family holds a Christmas cookie baking contest. I'm not sure how or when this tradition was started, but it has become a tradition to find new, unique recipes that have not been tried before and create the most tasty, decorative cookies possible. It has evolved into a tough competition with a unique set of rules-they seem to get stricter every year. This year a new twist was added-an actual trophy for the winner, which will be rotated every year. So the winning family gets to hold the honor for one year and then pass it on to the next winner. Jeff was unable to make this year's competition, so I teamed up with my sister Heather and we brought home the win!!!



The trophy is now proudly displayed on top of our refrigerator in our kitchen. We'll see if we can repeat next year!

Christmas is Coming!

WE'RE ALMOST READY FOR CHRISTMAS!!!

We are looking forward to the Christmas Holiday, although school break doesn't start until Friday. We had fun decorating the house a few weeks ago and have finally finished our shopping.








This is our newest ornament. We like to collect ornaments that reflect fun places we've been or important moments in our lives. Obviously, this one represents the wonder of expecting our first child. As we are joyfully expecting our baby, it is interesting to reflect on the birth of Christ and the anticipation all of Heaven must have had surrounding this event, as well as to think about how Mary and Joseph must have felt and the reality of that journey to Bethlehem. We are so grateful for the miracle of this life that God has given us and even more thankful for the gift of Christ to the world!

National Boards!

Congratulations!
You are a National Board Certified Teacher!
Your performance met the standard for National Board Certification set by the board of directors of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards® (NBPTS).
The NBPTS Board of Directors and staff extend its best wishes for your continued success.

Jeff received some great news today-he is a National Board Certified Teacher! Teachers with more than three years of experience can become a candidate for national board certification and go through a portfolio/video/testing process. After turning in the portfolio in March, he finally received the scores today. Only about 40% of those who apply succeed in gaining certification, so it is a great professional accomplishment and in North Carolina it also means a pay raise! This is such a blessing, especially since I will be taking a leave of absence from work next semester. We are so thankful and I am very proud of Jeff for taking on the challenge. We went out to eat to celebrate, he may not look like it in the picture, but he really is happy. Great job sweetheart!

Thanksgiving and Baby Showers

I'm sorry we haven't updated in a long while! Its been a busy time of travel, baby showers, getting ready for the holidays and good old family time. We headed to the mountains with Jeff's family for Thanksgiving. We stayed in a charming log cabin overlooking Lake Lure. The weather was perfect and the food was even better-with Jeff's Aunt Gina doing all the fabulous cooking. Jeff's brother, David, came in from Indianapolis and it was great to visit with him too. Here are some pictures of our Thanksgiving adventure-baby Costa enjoyed all the food and walking too! Here we are on a walk.
A heated game of scrable!



The last couple of weekends have also been filled with baby showers. One given to us by the ladies at Grace Community Church and another by my mom and sisters. We received lots of great stuff, now it just needs to be organized!

Mom picked out an awesome cake!







Lots of generous and fun gifts!



The Hurtarte/Matthews ladies-notice what is on the TV in the background.

Our friend, Amanda, brought her son Tanner over to my mom's house, he's just so darn cute I had to put his picture on our blog. He will be almost exactly a year older than baby Costa when she is born, so he is the same age that baby Costa will be next time this year-its hard to believe she'll be that big!

Carolina On My Mind

Jeff and I went to the UNC-CH and Georgia Tech game on Saturday with my parents. It was Carolina's homecoming and I love to visit my alma mater. Visiting Carolina always brings back great memories of times with great friends. Of course, Jeff and I had to go by the Old Well, where he proposed, and the site of our wedding reception, the Carolina Inn. The campus was beautiful with the fall colors and it was fun to watch all the little Carolina fans running around. It was baby Costa's first Carolina game-she had a great time! Unfortunately we lost, per usual this year, 7-0, but we still had fun.








Don't worry all my fellow tarheels-basketball season in on the way!

My parents also spent the weekend with us in Raleigh, so Dad could paint the nursery for us. We had fun visiting and Dad did a great job, so now we can get everything else together for our little girl-I'll post pictures as we go. It's hard to tell from the picture, the color is a light pink. Thanks Grandpa!

Let's Go Swimming!

We have been trying to find a place for Precious and Max to swim, so last week we took them to a canoe launch site on the Neuse River less than a mile from our house. Jeff and I had a lot of fun, but I think our puppies enjoyed it more. Max almost pulled Jeff into the river with him before Jeff could get his leash off. It may be the last time it's warm enough to enjoy a good swim until next spring.













Precious almost takes Dad for a swim!









Where's Max????












What a retriever!!

October Birthdays

October is a busy month for the Matthews Family with three birthdays-Maria's, Dad Matthews, and Grannie.



Jennifer had some great news to share at Grannie's celebration. She and Dan are expecting their first baby in June-June 12th is the due date! Our children will be about 5 months apart. I guess this was the first official "play date" for them!

Last, but not least, here is the latest belly picture for those of you who keep asking for belly shots-you know who you are! Sorry I look a little scary-I get as comfortable as possible, as quickly as possible after I get home from work.

The Traveling Costas

One of our favorite things to do is travel-whether it is to the beach for the weekend or overseas. So I thought I would share a few pictures of our adventures over the last few years. Since we've been married, we have had the opportunity to travel to Jamaica, Guatemala, Italy, and Hawaii. As well as all over the east coast visiting family, friends, and soccer tournaments (thanks to Jeff's TFC commitments). It is so much fun to explore new places and we are thankful to have had the opportunities to travel before our first little one arrives.

Here we are in Italy-Jeff at the Roman Coliseum

The Jeff and I, then David and I at the Spanish Steps-we had to go-I'm Spanish after all!


New York, New York for Thanksgiving-it was cold, but fun.



Hawaii!






It is hard to say which place we've liked best, each trip has its unique memories, but for two history teachers, being in Italy is like being in history heaven and Hawaii has got to be one of the most beautiful places that God has created. Hope you enjoyed the tour.