Almost 31 weeks pregnant!

I can't believe how quickly time has gone by. I will be 31 weeks tomorrow and things are starting to pick up. There is so much to do, and not enough time it seems. As of this week we have the whole house to ourselves...YAY...and now the work starts. Cleaning, painting, moving furniture, organizing, buying things, etc. We have started cleaning, and hopefully will be painting within the next week. Unfortunately, the way things are, we are going to have to do the nursery last. Because of this, I am hoping that we can get everything else done rather quick. I know that we have time even after the little one is born, but it would be nice to have it all ready. Before I go on, let me recap what has gone on since my last post...
I received a call from home saying my dad was going to need fairly "emergency" surgery on his heart. We knew that he would need it eventually, but things had gotten worse very quick and they needed to operate immediately. I was about 20 weeks when I flew out to Denver to be with him. His surgery, which was about an 8 hour procedure, was a couple days before Thanksgiving. They had to do basically an overhaul on his heart. They had to repair/replace his aorta, his aortic valve, and his mitral valve. They did an ablation to correct his irregular heart beat, put in a pacemaker wire, and put in a defibrillator wire. The first few days after were the worst...the day of the surgery he was taken off the ventilator and was doing great...then that night, he tanked and they had to put him back on. It was so hard to see that. He gradually got better and was finally off the ventilator for good a few days after the surgery. He was in the Cardiac ICU for most of his stay and was put in a regular room the last two days. He came home right before I had to leave to come back to Virginia. I had prayed that he would be out of the hospital before having to leave, and my prayers were answered. He is doing great now...his rehab is going great, he is gaining weight, getting healthier, stronger, and as of two weeks ago has been released to go back to work.
On December 11th, a couple days after returning to Virginia, we had our ultrasound...IT'S A BOY!!! We are so excited! God gave us the name Elijah...so Elijah Michael is his name.

Since then, we have been pretty busy...we have been working on ideas for the baby's room, getting our registry together, getting ready for the holidays, and so on. Christmas went well, we were all at the parent's house Christmas Eve, and had a nice dinner. Corey and I spent Christmas morning home with each other, then went back over to the parent's house to spend the day with them. We also went over there for New Years, and got to recap the year and reflect. And what a year it has been. It would take a book to tell everything.
That pretty much takes us to today. I have been teaching dance every Tuesday, and unfortunately I am starting to slow down. I can't dance for very long during classes, but I still enjoy it. I now teach dance at church during Sunday school which is pretty fun too. I have also started teaching math to two home schooled teens which is going well. On top of that, Corey and I will be starting to clean the church this week. Needless to say, we are keeping busy.
This coming month we will be hopefully getting the house the way we want it, and be ready to set up the nursery by the 28th (our baby shower). It would be nice to be able to come home after and put things in his room. :) Below are pictures of my ever growing belly...23, 26, and 28 weeks)