Baby Shower 1/24/10 and Snow 1/30/10

Christian, Rachel, & Monica-College Friends

My best friend of 20 years, Sarah (who flew down from NY)


Mom and Me

MC Girls and fabulous hostesses!

Jessie, Victoria, Me, Margaret, and Elizabeth

Welcome baby!

We had our second baby shower last weekend. Margaret hosted it last weekend at her house and it was lovely. The food was great (thanks to some careful planning and the supper club girls!) and my mom made a very yummy cake. We got plenty of bath time necessities which will come in handy when she gets here. Hopefully by then we'll have a functioning second bathroom. Joy came to the baby shower and brought along her camera, that's why we don't have any pictures of her! That's where all these beautiful pictures came from (www.joylynphotography.com). She's fab in case you didn't know. All in all, it was a really great shower. Thanks Margaret for all your hard work!!

SNOW!

Daniel has been working on the house lately (as usual). He's working on the second bathroom quite feverishly. We ordered our tile for that bathroom and for the foyer last weekend. It was supposed to come in this weekend but I bet all the snow/ice held everything up. We won't have the "tile guy" to come over and help out till the weekend of Feb 20. A co-worker of Daniel's is going to come over and help since he's done many tile projects before. We just have to make sure we have all the supplies. Luckily we won't have to worry about using that bathroom for a while. After the tile is in, we'll have to order the granite for the vanity--then we might just have a working bathroom. It's the little things in life right? We'll post pictures of the progression sometime this week!

School Pictures - Fashion Faux Pas

Rachel in 5th (with pink headband) and 6th (with white hair tie) grade at Wesley Chapel Elementary and Sun Valley Middle School

Daniel in 5th (with black undershirt), 6th (with white undershirt), and 7th (no undershirt) grade at Robbinsville Elementary and Middle School

Does every kid wear the same shirt for multiple years of school pictures?  Does this happen on purpose?

Rachel and Daniel both committed this fashion faux pas, but was it on purpose?


Also of note, Daniel wore an Atlanta Braves shirt in 8th grade (below), making it 4 years in a row with Atlanta Braves shirts for school picture day.

Progress!

Pile of wood scraps

Daniel "ripping" the boards for the dining room

The dining room is almost completed!

Living room looking into dining room

Just thought I would share some pictures of the progress that's been made in just the past few days. The living room is finished with laying the hardwood floors. The only thing left is to cut and paint the quarter round, then nail that down. The hardwoods in the dining room should be finished up today. I'm not helping much but I am cleaning! I've been on a cleaning spree since last weekend. The house is finally started coming together a little more, now I feel like I should be cleaning it from top to bottom (and I know I won't get around to it after Sophia's born).

28 Weeks Pregnant!

Well, I am 28 weeks pregnant today. Feeling really good still--just tired from the chaotic work week. Went to the doctor yesterday and they said everything looks good. I talked them into not letting me come back for 4 more weeks (I should be going every 2 at this point) with the promise that if ANYTHING happened, I'd call. Well, with much hesitation he said yes and I went on my merry way, happy that I didn't have to go back there for 4 more weeks. Sweet victory! They said she was "very active." You don't have to tell me. She lives inside my belly which is constantly lopsided or moving around.

Daniel got home last night and has been working on the hardwoods ever since. I took a video of some eggs he found under the shed. 23 eggs in fact! Apparently some of the "girls" have taken a liking to laying under the shed instead of in their nesting boxes. We'll fix that by keeping them cooped up all day tomorrow, which will force them to lay in their boxes.

More Living Room Renovation

Daniel has been hard at work! Yesterday he laid hardwood floors from 10am till 8:30pm with only a lunch and dinner break. It takes a lot of time to lay hardwoods in a room you live in because you have to move furniture from one side of the room to the other. I'm not the best help either right now but I sure did clean--a lot! The first part of the video was around 11am and the second part is from 8:30pm. We hope to get these two rooms completed (the dining room and living room) before February. In February, it's bathroom time since Daniel's friend and co-worker will help with the tile in the bathroom. After that's in, it's smooth sailing and time to lay the hardwoods in the rest of the house. We'll keep you posted.

On a side note, I bought some more cloth diapers. I got happy heiny's this time. They were also rated really high on the diaper blogs I've been reading. They have a velco closure so they are similar to a disposable diaper. They were rated #1 among grandparents and husbands due to ease and familiarity. We'll still use disposable sometimes, but hopefully I can build up a good enough stash so those disposables will be few and far between. I'll post pictures or a video of them when they come in. If you'd like a sneak peak, go to www.happyheinys.com. P.S. My favorite so far is the cow print diaper (of course I had to get one of those!)

Renovation Time!

We bought a pocket camera. The following video is not the best quality in the world but considering this video camera is the size of a cell phone and will be in Sophia's diaper bag, I can't complain too much. It's amazing how far things have come. I remember my mother's HUGE video camera. That thing must have weighed 20 lbs. The video below is a little long and I'm not the greatest videographer, but at least you'll get to see some of the house!

The front living room, 2nd bathroom, and our bedroom.

Baby Shower 12/31/09

Aunt Carol made 5 really cute onesies for Sophia, very pretty and creative.

Daniel still has a Winnie the Pooh shirt that Carol made him in 1983.

Daniel's shirt from 1983:

Baby Shower 12/31/09

One of the many bibs she will drool on

The cutest little maryjane socks of all time

Pictures Julie made us (you'll just have to see them in person)

The super cute cake that says "Coming Soon Sophia Rose"

We headed to Robbinsville for their annual New Years Eve party. Since we were headed that way and probably won't be back till summer, they threw us a baby shower. We got lots of goodies and have lots of people to thank for all the fun. I finally feel like I'm going to have a baby...and soon! Her due date is only 3 months away. Hopefully it will creep by and we'll be able to get everything done (wishful thinking) :-)

On a side note, I purchased some cloth diapers today (just 3). I've been reading up on them quite a bit and have read multiple blogs of people that use them. I have settled on two different kinds of cloth diapers that seem easy enough for us to use. I calculated that we'll save about $1200 in just her first year of life if we use cloth diapers and they seem soooo easy now. If you want to see the type I just bought, go to http://www.smartipants.com/. They are a one-size-fits-all snap system so she can wear them from 8-35lbs. Now the rubber pants are built into the diaper and there are cloth inserts that snap in and out. Now that's awesome! I'll take pictures and post them when them come in. I'm very excited! (who knew cloth diapers could be exciting?)

Happy New Year!