44 more sleeps

yowzah, what a weekend! little c, jared and i were showered with love and generosity. i am completely overwhelmed with the goodness of our friends and family.

it all began with a pizza night with the out-of-towners and high school girls. aunt jessie made the longest trip from d.c. via richmond. amy came from austin, sunipa from cali, geetha from phoenix, lyd from dallas, eve from gtown, ashley from olton, stacey from sundown, and cathy & em from the south side of the LBK.

there were cupcakes...
sweet, sweet babies...
a toddler dance party during which we may or may not have introduced a new generation to Salt-n-Pepa. Is it bad for a 2 year old to Push It?
Then, Eve astounded us all with the Ring. According to Eve, this is a time-tested method for predicting the sex and number of your children. You dangle your wedding band from a chain and hold it over your palm.

If the sex will be a boy, the ring will move back and forth. For a girl, the ring moves in a circle. When you're done, the ring will not move any more. Apparently, Jared and I will have 2 boys and then 3 girls. Jared said instead of boy, boy, girl, girl, girl. We'll have boy, boy, snip, snip, snip. Hee hee. Freakishly, the ring was right about Ashley. Boy, girl, stop.
Stacey and Jessica took a turn as well. Stacey will have the first girl.
Jessie will have 3 kids. Wow, will Classy be happy.
We'll see how things work out. I wonder if there is a ring that can predict this total and complete cuteness?
Saturday was so much fun! It was amazing to have so many of the women I adore in the same place at the same time.

And these 15 women made it all happen. (Amy was picking up her mom, so she missed the photo op. Shoot!)
The food was fabulous and culminated in this darling and delicious cake.
Mama and the sweet sisters...
The moms who survived the high school years


of these girls.
And isn't it fun for them to imagine how the new generation will find ways to torture us?

I loved, loved, loved this weekend! Did I mention that I loved it?

52 more sleeps

i smell trouble.

today classy, j and i trekked to the "old lady is having a baby" doctor for our final-barring any gestational emergency-ultrasound. you know, the one where you are able to see your sweet baby's face in 3D. you know, the one everyone carries around with them for the last few weeks of the pregnancy for folks to oooh and ahhh and gush over because that little 3D face is just soooooooo sweet. we, and when i say we, i mean classy and i, were just so excited. jared was still in a semi-comotose state.

this is what we got to gush over...

the first shot is the bottom of a sweet little foot. the second shot is of two arms wrapped ever so tightly around a sweet little baby's head, completely obscuring that 3D face. try as she might, and by try, i mean repeatedly poking and jiggling my belly with the scanner, the radiology tech could not get this baby to move his or her hands and arms.

apparently, this baby already thinks it is the boss of the world. i wonder where he or she gets that?

the wee one weighed in at 4 lbs 11 ounces and had a heart rate of 160. that's our highest heart rate to date. almost 5 pounds of pure trouble!

55 more sleeps

Want to know a secret? There is a seven word phrase that makes my husband's blood run cold. It goes something along the lines of, "We need to install a light fixture." I know this secret because I uttered these dreaded words just last night. And only 2.5 hours, 1 pesky ground wire, 4 sore shoulders, 753 naughty words, 2 screwdrivers, 1 wire stripper, and 32 dangling crystals later we were done! Does anyone else share our penchant for going about things the completely wrong way the first 3-4 installation attempts? Such a fun quality to possess!

I'll post pics at some point. The light fixture is gaudy and blingy and probably a bit too big for our bedroom, but I L-O-V-E it. And I adore my Jared, who has earned some sort of reward in heaven for all of the projects he's done over the last few weeks.

57 more sleeps

today was DIY day in the nursery. j installed the rain gutter bookshelves i spotted on this website http://raisingolives.com/2009/07/raingutter-book-shelves-tutorial/ a few weeks ago.

introducing the little one to books that will become a part of who they are is one of the things i am looking forward to most about being a parent. i can't wait to fill these shelves with books our family will love.


j did such a good job. he made it look easy. they are perfect!

the dad looks good with a level and hammer. i'm so glad he's my valentine.

62 more sleeps

Anticipation. It's one of the major themes of this blog. Today our family experienced an event that many people have been anticipating for many, many years. Grandma Joe's Son; Dad and Lisa's Brother; Jen, Deana and Cris's Father; Lily, Ella, Noah and Wyatt's Granddaddy; and our Uncle Chief came home. God is good.

And this little Wyatt is yummy.


In baby-related news...with 72 more sleeps to go, J and I assembled little c's dresser. This is Jared's face after we realized that my misread of the assembly instructions (although I still assert that it was a misprint in the assembly instructions) would force us to redo a good portion of the assembly.

Jared loves a good do-over. He should be accustomed to them by now. What a good husband and daddy-to-be.
Tonight we, and when I say we, I mean I, tried a little trick my friend Mary G told me about last weekend. I shone a flashlight onto the surface of my belly. I guess this was not a pleasant sensation for little c because I was rewarded with a rather painful series of jabs under the top of my ribcage. Sorry little one! It was fun to interact with you, but your dad has banned me from ever doing that again. I'll have to wait until you're in the free world to antagonize you further.