getting excited!

Let's face it. Ron and I can't wait for the kid now! I am just over 34 weeks (I know you're all begging for belly pictures, we will get some this weekend :) I hadn't known what I would do as a theme of sorts for the baby's room. His walls are staying white, and he automatically got dibs on the blue/silverish curtains we bought for this room last year. So I planned on doing some art work to put on the walls, and was still thinking about what to do when I walked into Ten Thousand Villages in Kansas City this winter. I saw this lion, and the little elephant puzzle pieces... And so we are going with "safari" :) with a hint of rainforest, becuase I love monkeys!

This was the first outfit I bought our little guy. The monkey has a cute fuzzy face, and now I just can't wait to have my baby out here to put in it! Having these things around the house reminds me of how imminent labor and delivery are. I'm really excited! We still have a lot to do to get ready, which is good because I know if I start counting down the next 6 or so weeks that it will go by so slowly!

snow day!

Our friends from college, Jeff and Nicole, live in Austin and we try to get together every so often. This time they were unexpectedly in Dallas for the weekend and stopped to spend Sunday afternoon with us... It was so nice out, we had a great walk! Then a couple days later we got the biggest snow that a lot of our friends here have ever seen :) And it was fun to have the snow falling...

Just wanted to show you our little heaters that we bought and cleaned up :) They were so ugly before, but I really like how they look now. Never underestimate the power or spray paint!

Our front yard at the height of the snow storm on Tuesday. It hasn't snowed like this here for years and years and years, so I'm told. The next day while the sun was melting everything, you could drive down the residential streets and see the yards lines with little melting snowmen! Everyone got out to play in it, it was such a novelty! Even though the roads were perfect the next day, a lot of stuff was canceled/delayed. I wish I had a picture of those yards with all the snowmen! Our yard is completely back to normal now, like in the top picture, and it continues to be a beautiful spring.

fun with fondant!

So, I decided I wanted to try making a really cool and smooth looking fondant decorated cake! I have a friend, Jen, who makes the most gorgeous cakes and I got a bit inspired. It was a lot of fun to try fondant, and exciting really to roll out the frosting :) I think this is pretty good for a first attempt. I went ahead and sold it at the church silent auction bake sale (people actually bid on it, which was thrilling!)... I cheated on the cake because it is from a box mix, but very delicious and moist. I didn't want to make something dry. Jen's cakes not only look great but they taste AMAZING. So she has agreed to give me some "cake lessons" (if you will). Nate, do you remember that guy in those videos that always said that? "If you will..." Anyway, we're both looking forward to it, so Ron and I will be going over to their place a week from Sunday. I will bake and glean knowledge, Ron will watch a movie with her husband, Tom. It took me a long time to make this cake. Ron said the cake had seen me more that week than him! (not sure if that's true, but he did have to work Saturday again. I get him home this weekend!) And those little beads are really covering a multitude of sins. I don't know how to make nice corners yet!

Thank you Mom

for giving us oranges in our stockings on Christmas morning. Now whenever I start to peel an orange, that first spray of orange scent gives me warm fuzzy memories of cozy snowy Christmas mornings and then your raisin Christmas bread we ate for brunch. Oranges have had this effect on me for awhile, so here I am saying it :) Thanks!

monday happenings

while I was sleeping last night, Ron said the kid was doing a jig or something and kicking his back. Ron was nudging back, and they had a good playtime, which I woke up for after a few minutes. Sometimes Ron will try to scare or growl at the baby, so I wonder what he'll think when he comes out (what the baby will think ;). Oh, I know they'll have wonderful moments together :)

Indeed, the kid is really kicking a lot now, and I still love it! We're getting bigger, and I know now that for the next two months I will have to endure gushings of how I look like I'm going to have the kid any day now!! I mean, I don't mind that I'm big and pregnant. It's just that since I am all belly and carrying him in a really large looking way :) i am then forced to hear extra long how "it must be any day now!" No... it's not really any day now... then I'm reminded that I would love to meet my kid, and I still have to wait two months, which I tell them as their jaws drop to the floor. I will go ahead soon and post belly pictures, we haven't taken any in a little while :) So I'm enjoying being pregnant still, which means a lot. I am just a little impatient to meet our little kid, and I don't like taking 5 minutes to roll over in bed. Other than that, I feel great, I just think it's amazing what a conversation piece people think I am. I think every pregnant woman must experience this. Strangers are drawn to you, everyone thinks they should tell you their advice or their birth story or about their own kid. why is this?

In other news, the plumbers came today and (four hours later) had our water heater leak fixed. Our bathroom floor has been leaking up some water for... well, since we moved here. Hopefully it's really fixed now, and I just don't know what I'll do with a dry bathroom floor!!

We're going out tonight to say goodbye to one of Ron's work friends (and mine, too) that will be leaving for a different job soon. I will miss him, as he is one of the only Kiewit people I really connected to. Ron knows a lot of people at his work, of course, but David and Nate are two guys that we actually did things with. Now it'll just be... Nate. I'm so used to saying David and Nate! On movie night, David was also the one to stick up for the classics. Ah, he will be missed :) and now I will be outvoted :)

thursday

a little bummed this morning because I just found out Ron has to work again on Saturday. They rained out at the site today and have to make it up then. That doesn't mean that Ron gets to come home today. No, the craft get to go on home because they're hourly. I will not whine a lot about that whole business because we are blessed that Ron has a good job that he enjoys. Just let me whine a little bit... It's really only the second Saturday he's had to work in a row in a long time. I am home now during the days so I look forward to when he'll be home, too. Then... boom. The company snatches him up and there goes a lazy morning sleeping in, reading together at Barnes and Noble, browsing the freezer market and picking varnish together for our baby dresser. No coming home and fixing lunch together and watching an episode or two of the Office before we get some chores done. It's so nice to hear someone else puttering with chores while I am. It's hard for me sometimes to just be alone. Especially when he's supposed to be home!

Yesterday I ran some errands and picked up my first baby outfit. Not the first one we own, but the first one I actually bought. I had been waiting, holding off. If you start too soon, it's like getting all the Christmas shopping done in October when it's really more fun to shop those first couple weekends in December. Also, the closer we get to delivery, the more I'll know what I still need. I have now scheduled all of my doctor visits out down to the last week (I hope) that I'll be pregnant. Makes it more eminent. immanent. I don't know, they're giving me a couple different spellings here.

The little outfit I got is a little onesie with a monkey on it. A really cute monkey.