And the waiting begins...

I am officially full term (37 weeks)! I am still having a great pregnancy but am starting to get VERY uncomfortable. We wouldn't mind a bit if our baby girl decided to make her appearance a little before her due date- 3 weeks sounds really far away :) We are so excited and I can tell that Adam will be a great dad! The hospital bags are packed, the baby's room is ready, and the carseat is installed! We have been busy as usual with working, getting everything ready for baby, and finishing the basement (it is pretty much done and has been for a few weeks- will post pics later)!


32 weeks


35 1/2 weeks


37 weeks


The nursery :)



In January, we had two baby showers. My friend Fallie and my sisters hosted one in the Twin Cities for me and Adam's mom hosted on for me in Lake City. It was so fun to see everyone and we received some great gifts for baby!

Stupid Mother Nature

It is 4:15am and I have been wide awake for over 2 hours now for no reason at all... many people say you don't sleep well during pregnancy because "it is mother nature's way of getting you ready for being awake with the baby all night." Well right now, I hate mother nature! I want to rest up as much as possible before baby arrives! I guess I might as well update the blog since I am up; I just apologize if it is a little disjointed or I fall asleep in the middle of the post...

In the past month, we have continued to be very busy between working, finishing the basement, and getting ready for baby. We ended up celebrating Christmas at home by ourselves because of the "wonderful" winter weather we had. I was sad not to see my family, but Adam and I enjoyed spending the day together.

The basement is moving right along and we can't wait to be done with it! At the beginning of the month, we had our carpet installed and have been working on painting. We are SO close to being done and it is looking great! We will post pics of the finished product when the everything is done. Soon we will be able to start moving stuff down to the basement which means we will finally be able to get the baby's room ready (just over a month and a half to go)!

Speaking of baby, she is growing right along and I am feeling HUGE! I am "enjoying" all of the normal pregnancy symptoms: low back pain, stretch marks, heartburn, frequent bathroom trips, sleepless nights, etc. Adam has been wonderful and supportive through it all; he will be a great dad :) We had another routine OB appointment yesterday and everything is good-- I measure right at 32 weeks. We attended our prenatal classes last weekend and feel a little more ready for the birth and to become parents. Baby is VERY active (which could be one reason I am up in the middle of the night); I have no idea how she can move that much in there when there is so little room! It is entertaining to feel and watch my belly move when she does! We finally ordered her crib and other furniture for the nursery and will be able to pick it up this weekend. I can't wait to set it up and get organized. This weekend I am also having 2 baby showers and it will be fun to see everyone and celebrate.

Anyway, I am going to attempt to go back to sleep now... wish me luck!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

It has been a busy past couple of months... where does the time go?! Here is what we have been up to!

1. Getting ready for our baby girl!
Everything continues to be going very well with Rachel's pregnancy. We are now officially into the third trimester and the countdown really begins! We can't believe we only have 3 months to go until we meet our baby girl! It seems like there is so much to do (and buy) before she comes but we can't wait! As you can see, Rachel's belly is finally beginning to grow; it's hard to imagine how big it will be 3 months from now. Our girl is a very active little one and we have enjoyed being able to feel her move so often. We continue to work on coming up with the perfect name for our girl... you will all have to wait and be surprised after she is born :)

8 weeks

20 weeks

26 weeks

2. Getting used to winter again :(

Whether we like it or not, it is officially winter here in Minnesota. Some days we wonder why we ever left California for this :) We are happy to be home though, and are happy to be able to celebrate Christmas with our families this year.

Ginger; fascinated by the snow!

The aftermath of the first blizzard of the season.

Our Christmas tree!

3. Finishing the basement.

This has been the busiest and most time consuming part of our lives for the last 2 months! Adam did all of the framing and the heating/cooling himself and I helped with the electrical. After passing all of the inspections, we started sheetrocking. We bought a drywall panel hoist (and then sold it) and it was definitely a lifesaver for doing the ceilings! Now we are working on mudding and taping and things are moving right along. We are having carpet installed at the beginning of January, so that gives us a few more weeks to finish all of the walls. Busy busy busy! We can't wait till this whole project is done!

Framing

Sheetrocking

Mudding/Taping

It's a...

GIRL!!!!

What a cute little face she has!

She has 10 little fingers...

and 10 little toes!

We are so happy with the news! She is healthy and growing right on schedule; we are still due March 8, 2010. Now I can do some shopping!

SUMMER 2009

This summer has been busy and fun! Here are 5 things we have done this summer:

1. Built the deck and settled into and decorated our house!

View of the sunset from our back door.

2. Invited each of my sisters down (one at a time) for sleepovers!

Val and Rachel going for a bike ride.

3. Celebrated the Fourth of July at our house. We invited our families over for hot dogs/brats and yard games!

4. Welcomed Brent home from the Army! We missed him for the past few years! We were finally able to get some good family pictures (minus Jenny... she was working).

5. Found out that we are expecting a baby! Baby Wiley is due March 8, 2010 and we are very excited!

PREGNANT!

No baby bump yet! (8wks)

8 week ultrasound.

12 week ultrasound... starting to look like a little person in there!

Working on the House: Summer '09

Since moving into our house May 20, we have been very busy (or should I say Adam has been very busy) with many projects around the house. Since moving in, we have landscaped the front yard, installed a water softener and garbage disposal, and started building a deck. Homeownership has been wonderful so far and it is nice to be able to do what we want with our house. We are very happy with our choice to buy!

Before landscaping... boring!

Ripping up sod...

All the plants are planted...

And voila! The finished product!

Digging holes for the deck posts.

All of the materials!

Dusty and Adam hard at work.