Special Delivery!

We got three huge boxes delivered this morning...can you guess what's in these two?

Yes, it's our cribs! Just waiting for Brian to come and put them together. I'm nervous to open them and find out exactly how many parts the cribs are in...I have heard that some cribs are pretty difficult to assemble but I think Brian is up to the task.

And the third box? It contained this little beauty:

 

 

It's the dresser/changing table for the nursery. We know we are going to need more storage than just a changing table, but the nursery is on the small side and definitely not roomy enough for two cribs and a full-sized dresser, so this was a nice compromise. And it's made by the company that makes the cribs, so the finish is exactly the same.  The picture is a little bright; it's actually a really dark finish called "Mochaccino." 

Picking out the nursery furniture was no easy task, so I am really pleased that we finally found some we could agree on, AND it arrived several weeks earlier than promised. Bailey approves as well...she had a nice time "helping" us take the dresser out of the box, then proceeded to run around like a crazy dog tearing up the styrofoam packing materials. I'm sure she will also enjoy "helping" Brian put the cribs together!

Adventures in Home Improvement

As you know, we have been busy (okay, Brian has been busy) working on getting a few projects done around the house before the babies arrive. One thing Brian wanted to do is get a whole-house water filter installed so that the water that comes out of every faucet, shower head, etc. is filtered. You can buy the filters at Lowe's or Home Depot, but it turns out that installing the filter was a bigger job than he originally though it would be. So...we ended up having a plumber at the house for a couple of days digging around the front yard looking for whatever pipes he needed (can you tell I'm not really sure how this filter thing works exactly?) and installing the filter in the garage.

When he was finished, I turned on the kitchen faucet to make sure the water was running fine...no problem. However, things went downhill when I went to  flush the toilet for the first time. The toilet started making really loud noises and began filling up with a black liquid. I didn't know what to do other than call Brian (and take a picture, of course). Before you get too grossed out, know that it was NOT sewage--I wouldn't make you look at a picture of that!

Brian is notorious for being hard to get in touch with while he's at work...he's almost always in a meeting or on the phone or something. So I sent him a two word text message that I figured would get his attention: "Plumbing emergency." It worked like a charm! Long story short, he called the plumber who assured us that it was just charcoal that had to run through the pipes for a bit, and all is now well with our filter.

Over the weekend, Brian painted the nursery. The nursery is going to be in what used to be our workout room (and by workout room I mean room that housed our elliptical machine). I used to go in there almost every day to use the elliptical, but the workout room has been sadly neglected these past couple of months (and by neglected I mean no one sets foot in the room, ever). So we went in last week to start talking about paint colors, etc., and we noticed something strange on the wall:

 

 

Now does that or does that not look like bird poop? That was my first thought anyways. I formulated a theory that a rogue bird had somehow gotten in the house, flown around, pooped on the wall, and then left undetected! Then, I started thinking about the bird returning one day and pooping on our babies...ewww! Upon further inspection (done by Brian on a ladder), it's not poop at all, but a gash that went all the way through the drywall. A little less gross than bird poop, but no less strange. We have no idea when or how it happened, especially since it is up so high on the wall that neither of us can even reach it. I guess we'll never know how it got there, but it's now all patched up and painted over, and the room remains free of any rogue birds and their poop!

Bailey and Her Babies

Some people say that dogs can "sense" when you're pregnant. I'm not sure whether that's the case, but Bailey can definitely sense that there's something going on with me. She's been able to sense it since long before you could actually see any changes, and long before there was any chance of her feeling or seeing any movement from the babies. She's been clingy, and more protective than normal, and the other night she did something really sweet: I was not feeling well after being on my feet for way too long that day, and she seemed to realize it. She crawled up next to me really carefully, and laid her head on my chest and just kept an eye on me for the rest of the evening.

Bailey has a nightly routine of hopping up on the couch to sit beside me every evening after dinner when Brian and I are hanging out watching our TV shows. She puts her head in my lap, I pet her, and she eats up the attention. But since I've been pregnant, she her routine has gone from resting her head in my lap to draping her entire body in my lap. This is no easy feat since she weighs 70-something pounds, but it's like she can't seem to get close enough.

Hanging out on my lap.

My view of all three of my babies!

My mom thinks that maybe she can hear the babies' heartbeats...but I'm not so sure. I think she may be making an attempt to remain the only child by smothering them while they're still inside me!

Anyways, here are a few random pregnancy facts for you:

Number of weeks pregnant I actually am: 24

Number of weeks pregnant I measured at the doctor's office yesterday: 32 (Yes, I'm enormous!)

Number of times I have made Brian take me to lunch at the Rose Garden

  Tea Room the past 7 days: 2

Number of people younger than us at the Rose Garden Tea Room in our two visits combined: 0

What can I say, I've had quite the craving for their Rose Garden Sampler. And surprisingly, Brian doesn't hate it there...he actually said their tuna salad sandwich is the best one he's ever had. I think we will be lunching with the retired ladies many more times in the next few months!

"Before We Have Kids..."

I think lots of people have a list of goals they want to accomplish/places they want to visit/things they want to do/etc. before they add a baby to their lives. Sort of like a much less-morbid version of a "bucket list," I suppose. My list was short...really short. In fact, it consisted of one (admittedly superficial) thing and one thing only: visit Greece. I actually tore a picture of Santorini out of a magazine and kept it up on my refrigerator for awhile so I could keep my eyes on the prize! Happily, we visited Greece this summer, so the lone item on my pre-baby "bucket list" gets a big fat check mark.

But, we also have a little list going of things we want to do to the house before the babies arrive. Our house was built in 1994, which doesn't exactly make it a historical landmark or anything, but it has needed quite a bit of updating. We've been doing the updates slowly since we moved in almost three years ago, and last week we were able to put a check mark next to the "re-tile guest bathrooms" item on our list. I'm really happy with how it all turned out.

Before: The white tile and forest green accents were all the rage in 1994!

Before: It's hard to tell, but this is nasty laminate flooring.

After: New tile!

After: New shower tile and an accent border Brian picked out all by himself! We did both the downstairs bath and upstairs bath in the same materials.

It's kind of funny when you think about the fact that we remodeled what will be the babies' bathroom...as if the babies would turn up their little noses if they were given a bath in a tub tiled in colors from 1994! But I have reasoned with myself that we are going to be spending a lot more time at home than we have in the past, so it might as well look good, right? Next up on our list...painting the nursery, followed by new carpet!

Happy Holidays!

Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year...all rolled into one blog post! I have had some computer issues, but I promise to try to be a better blogger now. Perhaps I should have made it my New Year's resolution!

 

 Thanksgiving Day. I remember thinking my baby bump looked huge...looking back, you can barely even see it at all!

Snow day! Bailey LOVES snow and gets so excited to go run around outside. I swear this dog is unable to feel cold.

Christmas morning, and Bailey's last Christmas being an "only child." We kept talking about how different our Christmas is going to be next year!

Brian and I love to go shopping for Bailey's stocking every year. This year we didn't do such a great job...we got her a nutcracker dog toy that she was afraid of at first. We had to really encourage her to investigate her stocking.

 

 Once she found the treats, she decided her stocking wasn't so bad. She even loves the nutcracker toy now!

 

 New Year's Eve! As you can see, I grew quite a bit over the holidays. After all, I was eating for three! Brian kept asking if I wouldn't just rather stay home on New Year's rather than go out, but I wanted to spend the evening with our friends. I am pleased to say I reached my goal of staying out until midnight to welcome the year 2010...but just barely! I believe we went home at about 12:05 a.m.

 

 Me and Casey on NYE.

Silly boys. And yes, that is my little bro dancing around with a champagne bottle.

Ah, the joys of being sober on New Year's. You get to be unofficially in charge of documenting the evening's events as your friends get to be unofficially in charge of dancing around like a bunch of drunkards!

Anyways, I hope everyone had a great holiday season. Like I said, I am going to be a better blogger this year...I promise!