Saturday, March 29, 2008

Peanut's Room

We've been working hard on the house this week. I wanted to post some pictures of her room so far. I also finished the last two of the paintings that I'm copying. I realized that the hippo needs some help on his back legs....I'm sure I'll get to it :-) I painted the monkey light switch during a small group evening.
I'll post some pictures of the living room tomorrow, once we get the old bookcases out of it!

Peanut's room

The other side of Peanut's room

The Lion (whose head seems to be
falling off :-)

The hippo

Monkey light switch

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Work and Play

We've had a full past few days! We've done a lot preparing for peanut. Sandy has been building tons of stuff - the crib and a bookshelf. I helped enough to get some pictures taken :-) We're heading up to Portland tomorrow to pick up a couch and another bookcase. Yeah, it's hard core nesting time. The Carsons are letting us use their van. Thanks Carsons!
We took a break on Tuesday and took the boxes from the stroller over to the Greens. Macey was a little shy at first, but then spent most of her time trying to climb on top. Ethan crawled right in after we threw his pacifier in there. He thought it was the funniest thing to peek at all the adults through the windows. Good times were had by all.
Then, Jon came over late this afternoon to help us get rid of our old, dirty, holey couches. They're too gross and broken to give to Goodwill and our apartment managers said we could just throw them in the dumpster. Jon and Sandy hauled them out in the truck and then threw them overboard. We are now ready for our new couch and excited to host group at our house next week. Fun fun!

Sandy building a chair

Sandy with a finished bookshelf.

I helped a ton and held up the rail
(It's the lightest thing ever...ssshhh)

Ethan's hand was stuck in this water bottle
with his hand wedged in there with a toy.
He didn't seem to mind and may have
spent his whole nap like that. Talk
about mellow.

Ethan in a box.

Ethan very happy to be in a box.

Macey trying to climb out of a window.

Macey trying to climb into Ethan's window.

Jon and Sandy dumping a couch
(If the video works)






Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Happy Easter

Happy late Easter! Sandy and I chose this weekend to go on a vacation. It had been a very long time since we had been able to go on a vacation. We decided to take advantage of our coinciding spring breaks to get away (before the baby comes :-) We drove up to Lincoln City on Saturday morning. We arrived several hours before we could check in to our hotel. We hit up the Outlets...so fun. They don't have any maternity stores, but I had fun shopping for Sandy and the baby. Also, the Eddie Bauer outlet does not have public bathrooms, but if you look really pregnant, they'll let you use the staff bathroom (thank goodness). We then went and checked in to our hotel. It's right on the beach and our room had a partial view - which means that we are on the side of the building. We could see the ocean from our room, but we could also we all of the people who walked past. It's a great little place and has recently been remodeled. All in all it was the perfect getaway. We did laugh when we walked in because there were rose petals all over the place :-)
After checking in, we then went to look for the tidepools. This summer I (Nicole) had a family reunion in Lincoln City. Uncle Paul took us all to some great tide pools. So, we went hunting for them and found them hurray! Note to self - tide pools are way more fun in the summer. I pretty much stayed off the rocks because I didn't want to fall. Sandy, who loves to hunt for things, scurried all over them. I amused myself by looking for shells to use in a mosaic project back home. I also took pictures of whatever was around (including my belly - pictures below). After the tide pools, we went back to the hotel.
Easter dawned a very wet, windy day. We spent most of the day inside being lazy. We've discovered that having a whole day devoted to laziness is wonderful because by the end of the day we're really ready to do anything else. We are very productive following lazy days.
On Monday we drove up to Portland to Ikea for a scouting mission. We'll hopefully be going back on Friday. I'll be posting some more pictures this week of (mostly Sandy) building fun stuff for the baby's room.

Our little hotel room...with roses!

Sandy and I on the beach!

Sandy on the beach. I LOVE this photo.
(It's his CD cover shot :-)

Sandy in silhouette

Me and the belly

Ooohhh, pretty water

I had planned on taking a picture of my feet.
Here's what I saw!

There they are. I had to lean over a bit to find them :-)

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Highlights

I just got some more pictures off of my camer and decided to post them - a few fun things from the past weeks. I also just glanced at the countdown; 98 days until Peanut's arrival. When Sandy first posted that countdown, it seemed like it would take forever for her to get here. Now, it's all starting to feel fast. It's the same as waiting for anything, I'm sure.
This week was the first time when we were able to see her kick. It's a very very strange thing to watch your stomach move. I'm glad for it because Sandy has finally been able to feel her move. I've tried to get some video of her kicking, but she seems to be very shy! Hopefully, I'll get some soon :-)
The first of these pictures is of my Wednesday small group fun night. We went to Potter's Quarter and ColdStone. We had a lot of fun and everyone's projects turned out very well. Try as I might, I couldn't get a picture where everyone had their eyes open. Ah well!

Painting our treasures!

Coldstone is soooo delicious! Although eating it outside
in February was a bit chilly.

This is me at six months. The belly keeps growing!

I spent a good part of last Saturday working on my patio garden. I still need
to wait for several of my plants as it is still a bit too early for them (even
though I'm ready for them now :-) It was so nice to clean up the patio and
get some plants going. I love gardening - even in pots!

This is my Snapdragon that overwintered quite well and my new
Strawberry pot....ooooooh!

What a fun strawberry planter! I love it.

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Due date.....or due month?

I went to the doctor today as a follow up to my last ultrasound. She explained that peanut is growing very well, but that she is still measuring about 6 days smaller. That would mean that her due date is June 28th. Dr. Riley said that we won't move the date yet, so it's still June 21st, but that she could come two weeks either side of that. I know that that is the norm for due dates, but it sure makes planning harder :-) I like to know when things are going to happen. Anyway, everything is going well and for that we are very thankful!

Sunday, March 2, 2008

Wedding Fun

Sandy and I got to take a break from the regular weekend errand running to attend Tyler and Brittany's wedding (friends from church). Their wedding was beautiful and quickly jumped to the top of my short list of favorite weddings. They might win the prize for unique and meaningful. It's so encouraging to be a part of two people joining their lives together. I love it. I stole this picture from Katrina's blog http://katrinahenry.blogspot.com -thanks Katrina. Sandy had been asked to sing in the wedding and sang beautifully. It was fun for me to have people hear him (most for the first time).

Crowned Tyler and Brittany

On a significantly less important note, while preparing (i.e. shopping) for this fantastic event, I learned a few facts about maternity clothes. First, I should have known that though it's difficult to find regular clothes for short people, it's almost impossible to find them for short and pregnant people. Apparently, there is not much of a market for petite, maternity clothes. Let's just say I laughed out loud several times in the dressing room at the silly fit of the dresses. The second thing I learned was that despite all of our training by Oprah and TLC's What Not to Wear, maternity clothes are often either shiny or have a huge busy print, or both. Giant print and shiny fabric does not a small pregnant profile make. Complaining aside, I was able to find an outfit (which I quite like). After hemming the pants 1/2 hour before the wedding, it worked rather well.

Sandy and I in our fancy duds

Amy caught us holding hands

Macey just really loves to eat her shoes!
She was quite content to sit and watch the
party with her cute little shoe in her mouth.

Nicole and Amy (the preggos)