34 Weeks

Okay, it has been WAY too long since I've gotten around to taking some more belly pictures. I grown a bit since the last ones that we posted. So, here it is, 34 weeks pregnant.

Notice the little point where my belly button was. It is no longer a cute little "innie" belly button, it now regularly morphs from a pig snout (just the top sticking out) to an out right volcano. When I laugh, the pig snout oinks up and down. Thankfully when I laugh, the volcano doesn't actually errupt (but it does look like a cartoon volcano erupting). Of course this makes Ryan laugh hysterically everytime making me feel oh so much more self-conscious about my no longer cute little belly button.

Oh where has my "little" dog gone?

The other morning, I noticed that Lucy seemed to be missing. I knew that she was somewhere in the house, but I wasn't seeing her in any of her usual places. I looked on the floor in the nursery where she often likes to sleep and I didn't see her there. After looking around for a few minutes and not finding her, I looked in the nursery again and discovered her location.

This is actually a picture from the second time I found her under the crib that day. The first time I found her there, she was wedged under it even further and in a tighter little ball, but when I tried to take the picture the first time, here's what I got.

You have to be quick with the trigger for this little camera ham, otherwise she won't stay posed for a picture.

Crib Assembly

A few weeks ago, our nursery furniture arrived. Ryan actually put it together right away, but I'm just way behind on posting. We had a bit of a quality issue with the changing table, which we didn't notice until Ryan had it halfway assembled. It was quite an issue getting that resolved, but all the furniture is now in. The nursery is definately still a work in progress, so I don't have pictures of everything for you, but here are a few of Ryan assembling the furniture.

I took a look at the directions, just like every man does, to see how everything fit together.

I have my screwdriver in hand and everything is going smoothly.

Uh-Oh! Things have taken a turn for the worse as poor instructions and many bolts that look the same have gotten the best of me.



Erin walks in and asks if I am done yet. I do not reply.

But, she is a great wife and quickly returns with a peace offering. I gladly accept.

First Baby Shower

I was blessed with my first baby shower this past Saturday and the wonderful women who threw the shower went crazy with the details. I posted just a few pictures that I took and will post many more when I get the other pictures from Karen. I just wanted to give you a small sample of the detail that went into this shower. If you don't guess by the pictures, the theme was Nursery Rhymes.

Shannon made this amazing Humpty Dumpty and just to give you an idea of how big he is, you can see me standing next to him below.

The party favors.

If you can't read it, the tile says "And the dish ran away with the spoon..."


We were blessed beyond measure and thank you to everyone who was there. I was overwhelmed by so much love and generousity.

Visiting Ashley

We're a little behind on the blog, so I thought I give you a couple of quick updates. I (Erin) flew with my parents to visit Ashley in Viginia. It was amazingly beautiful there and it was so much fun to meet her co-workers. Ashley really has a gift for working with people with disabilities and I can't wait to see what else God has planned for her. Here are a couple of pictures from Innisfree.

Ashley at the free range chicken pen.

Ashley's house

Ashley's house from across the field.

Do Not Cross!

So Erin and I went to our first Bradley Method Birth class the other week. I learned that there is a lot of stuff to learn. We saw a video of a birth and also got a book that had some birthin' pictures in it. After our class I stopped at the store and picked up some of that giant sidewalk chalk. My plan is when we get to the delivery room I am going to draw a line across the room in line with Erin's belly button. This will be the official "Ryan Do Not Cross Line". This will remind me to stay behind that point so that I do not have to see in real life any of the stuff I saw in that video and book. It was grosse!

Birth Classes

We started our birthclass last Thursday. We decided (well, I guess I decided) to do the Bradley Method. The Bradley Method classes are taught by independant teachers (not through a hospital or doctor's office), last for 12 weeks and are intentionally kept small in size (2 to 5 couples only) and focus on a natural, drug and intervention free birth (as long as there are no complications). What we weren't expecting was to be the only couple in the class. Actually, we won't be the only couple in the class forever, there are a couple of other couples who are coming later into the 12 weeks because they are doing a refresher, having had children by the Bradley Method before. Anyway, it was a little interesting having a private birthclass teacher, but Ryan was a trooper. We did watch a short birth video at the end of the class and yikes, June/July suddenly seem a whole lot closer as does the reality that this baby has to come OUT. I guess I'll just have to distract myself by getting to work on the growing list of "things to get done BEFORE the baby comes".