Baby P and Cousin Sam's Church Shower

We had our last and final shower this last Sunday at my parents church. I have known many of these women since I was a little girl. One was my kindergarten church school teacher. Another was the nurse who handed my mother me as a baby for the first time. She said, "Here's your peanut." Others have been supporters through church sports and other activities. These women are so wonderful to my family.

I know, I know we had a TON of showers! Russ and I are so appreciative of everything we received and cannot thank you enough for all your generosity.

There were a couple of SUPER cute cakes, one with a monkey and one with a hippo. Plus they were super yummy! i think I got my fill of sweets that day because after that I headed down to Westport to Kyla and baby Austin's shower. Here's a pic with 3 aunts and 3 grandparents.... Aunt Sharon, Emma & Janice, Grandma and Grandpa Passman & Grandma Sue.

We got SO many wonderful presents! A few homemade blankets and burb cloths, toys, books, clothes, bottles, diapers, bath toys, picture frames, etc. Baby P is so spoiled already! Thank you!

Today marks 3 weeks until our due date. That means we are 37 weeks and officially full term. Yahoo!

Ending our 36th week

We are now officially to our weekly Dr appts until Baby P arrives. My Dr said she doesn't like to let her patients go past 41 weeks. She is predicting we will have this little guy somewhere between Oct 10-18th. Whoa, that is not very far away! Although I think babies have a way of determining their own birthday. Everyone keeps asking, are you ready? Mostly but not all the way. We still need a few things. We are having our final shower this Sunday so we were waiting until that's over to finish up the last minute shopping. Our stroller will hopefully either by here by the end of this week or beginning of next. I'm anxious to get it!

Our valance is done and now hanging up over his window. Here is a picture. I think it turned out pretty darn cute!

Presents keep trickling in which is always exciting. A friend of mine from Korea (I met both of them while doing the WSC in Seoul) and Russ grew up with Robbie in Cali. (how small of a world is that!) sent us a couple of cute outfits. Baby P officially has his first Halloween costume! So, cute.... a little lion. We also love the outfits because they are organic. Thanks Robbie and YukYung!

I think I am nesting/getting ready because I cleaned the upstairs like a mad lady today. Now I don't have the energy to do anything! We'll keep you posted on our progress!

Semi- Nursery Reveal and Update

I'll include a couple of pics of Baby P's nursery but not all of them since the name is a secret. Sorry! We can't wait to show you the name project we worked on. We also got some cool little metal letters for his initials a long time ago in St. Louis but we will not show you those at this time either. We are waiting on our valance for the window being hand sewn by our bedding lady and quilt by Russ's mom. We are so excited to add those items to the room! He has an armoir and dresser in his room but I can't show those pictures at this time. Aunt Carolyn was laughing and saying what baby has an electronic center in their nursery! Well, Baby P does since that room houses all the surround sound for the house. We got the armoir to hide all the wires and cords and just had to add a little flat screen TV for the mama. :) PS: The pictures aren't the best because they came from my I-Phone. Russ showed me how to upload them last night and decided to use them for the post. The lighting is a little funny and grainy. Oh well.

Last week we put together his swing, bouncer, and monitors. We had fun testing out the monitors by one person standing in the nursery and pretending to cry. :) A super nice co-worker of mine, Whitney let us borrow her bassinet. I washed all the bedding and pieces and we moved it into our room last night. Hard to believe that in give or take a month we will have this little guy! We have finished all of our baby preparation classes and pre-registered with the hospital. Next week we have a final meeting with our doula (birthing coach), final ultrasound before I start going to the Dr weekly and we go for our car seat fitting.

We have so many fun and exciting showers coming up to celebrate the upcoming births and weddings of other dear friends. Oh and not to mention birthday parties and baby blessings. Busy, busy times! We just hope we get to attend all of them and aren't in the hospital ourselves! I just want him to finish baking another couple of weeks minimally before making his grand arrival. Thanks for checking up on us!

2nd Wedding Anniversary

Tuesday, 8/25 was our 2nd wedding anniversary. We really didn't get to celebrate on the actual date because we had our last childbirth preparation class. Not sure that either of us thought we would be doing that on our anniversary! We just ate a home cooked meal before heading down to St Lukes. At the end of class we got to tour the Labor and Delivery unit. Wow, small rooms is all I can say! I keep reminding myself we are not going to be there long and we keep hearing that the care is good there. Good thing since the room is about the size of a closet! We came home and did our sentimental traditions such as reading each other our vows and watching our engagement and wedding videos. Can't tell you how much I love this man and can't wait for him to be the father of this little guy!

Friday we went to dinner at Fogo De Chao on the plaza. So, much yummy food! I think we both rolled out of there. Just to make the evening more romantic we went to Target to return some baby things and finally purchase our car seat. I know, we really know how to celebrate! We headed back down to the plaza and saw the movie, 500 days of Summer. Good movie.

Saturday we ran around town finishing up more "baby" errands. We got some curtains for the nursery and ordered our Bob running stroller. A lady stopped us at the running store and told us we just had to get the Bob stroller. We were sold!

Sunday we celebrated my Dad's birthday out in Indep. Russ got in some good video gaming while I made some burp clothes with my mom. I think they turned out pretty good for me not being a sewer. We had some extra fabric leftover from the bedding and I didn't want it to go to waste. So, there you have it. Just getting ready for our little man. We only have 6 weeks left!

It's raining baby showers!

This last weekend we had 2 more baby showers. Saturday was my girlfriend's shower and Sunday was a joint shower with my sister with my mom's nursing school friends.

Saturday's shower was at my dear friend Kelly Morgester's house. Of course the decorations were so cute and the spread of food AMAZING! Kelly got these delicious little cakes that had champagne in them from a place called 3 women and a bakery. They were so good, I had to have a couple of them. :) Kelly and her mom Lynn just breathe creativity. Kelly made a really cute sign and some puffy blue decorations were hanging from her ceiling over the food table. Over the mantle was a clothes line of a bunch of onsies her and her mom made. I think my favorite was the tie onsie! There was a great turn out of friends.... mostly Gracelanders. It was great seeing everyone and celebrating the upcoming arrival of Baby P! We played a couple of games...... filling in the blanks on nursery rhymes and a funny relay race. The stations included diapering a baby blind folded, matching up the socks, guessing the baby foods, and who could drink from the baby bottle the fastest. Kelly always made me the winner of the games and gave me a couple of cute little gifts. The first was some sticker tags that can go in Baby P's books that say, "This belongs to________." She took the animals from our bedding and put a different one on each sticker. She also made us Babysitter sheets that would give the babysitter our cell phones, emergency contacts, feeding schedule, etc. I'm telling you guys, this girl is talented! We got a picture of me, Rebecca, and Kelly. Kelly was the lovely hostess and is expecting Little Mo on Thanksgiving Day. They are also keeping their name a secret. We didn't get Beth in the pic who is expecting her 2nd daughter just a little over a week after my sis and I. I told you, there are tons of pregnant friends!

Sunday's shower was at Cheryl's house, our mom's best friend. All of these women have been friends since they went to nursing school over 40 years ago. They always have such a great time when they are together. This shower was a joint one for Baby P and cousin Sam. We got so many great things including some BEAUTIFUL quilts that my mother-in-law is making both of us. She used the same fabric from our bumper pad. She bought one of the sheets from Sam's bedding set in order to match his room. They are still in progress but I have included a sneak peak pic. My dad couldn't stand missing out on the fun so joined the shower. I think he was jealous that Rebecca and I had "Expectant Mother" crowns so he made himself a "Grandpa" crown. Here is a picture of my sister and I at the end of our 32 week, soon to enter our 33rd week.

It was a great weekend filled with so many generous gifts, delicious foods, and more importantly great time spent with such wonderful friends and family.

32weeks and Busy, Busy

Things are finally slowing down on the house renovations and both rental houses are on the market. Both have had several showings but no offers so far. It's hard to be patient but in reality they have only been on the market for 2 weeks. I'm enclosing some pics of the Waldo house. If anyone is interested in a Waldo or Indep house for sale, send them our way! My dad was nice enough to come over and mow the lawn at the Waldo house today. I decided I should be productive too so I de-weeded and swept the sidewalk areas out front. Thanks Dad P for your help!

We've also been busy with weddings and wedding and baby showers. This pic of me is at the end of our 31st week of pregnancy. This was the day a good family friend got married and then we headed off to Max and Liliana's wedding shower. Had to get a pic since I was dressed up! I've also attended cousin Sam's baby shower and Shelley's shower for Oliver and Lucy. It's been fun sharing in all of these exciting times with friends and family.

We have completed 2 weeks of our child birthing class. Russ and I sure do giggle a lot! I thought Russ looked a little queasy when they showed the video of the live birth. Hopefully he will be fine on Baby P's big day! Russ got to practice giving me back massages at the last class. Can't say I hated that too much!

Mr. Baby P's room is really coming together. We have all of our furniture, walls painted and our bedding is almost done. We got to see a sneak peak of it last weekend and it is so cute! Once we have that, I will post some pictures. We have a couple of projects in the making for some wall decorations. Guess I won't be able to unveil the one project since we are keeping his name a secret! :) Sorry!

Is it too early to nest? I think I've been doing it. One day I told Russ we needed to organize the baby's room. We spent an hour in there and all I did was look at things and scoot them around. Absolutely nothing accomplished! Russ probably thinks I'm crazy but I made a to-do-list the other day and even categorized them by priority. I am beginning to feel like this little dude is going to be here before we know it!