Nesting

Yup, it's that time in the pregnancy when the nesting instinct kicks in.  Although in my case it may be nesting or just a need to have my life as ordered and up to date as possible before this new baby throws us all into chaos again.  Either way, we've made a lot of progress in the last week!  Hubby T has been working diligently for months to prepare our "junk" room for the new baby.  This included packing up all his Legos, sports pennants, CD's, and miscellaneous stuff so that we could remove the desk that was built into the room, paint, and make it baby-friendly!

Two months ago...look at all those sharp edges, yikes!

 So after a little hard work from these guys...

 and a lot of hard work from a very loving Gramma P, we now have a lovely green nursery!

This wall will eventually display the four beautiful paintings that my grandmother made for her second great-grandson.  She used the Colorado scenery around her home as inspiration and sent us paintings of a chipmunk, horse, fox, and deer, hence our woodland nursery theme.  The fabric you see hanging on the crib is the valance I'm pretty sure we'll be keeping in the room.  I'll post more pictures when this comes together more, but we're off to a good start.  The green makes me feel very peaceful, hopefully it will be a room that we all enjoy spending time in in the months to come:)

In the meantime, across the hall has seen its share of change too.  Since the crib vacated Little B's room, it has been replaced with Hubby T's childhood bedroom furniture (thanks for the hand-me-downs Mom-Mom and Papou!!)  It's been about a week since we took the crib out of his room completely and he's had no problems with the big boy bed so far, fingers crossed that continues.

Pretty sure I'm keeping this quilt, so hard to choose!

Desk is multi-tasking as changing table until we conquer potty training

Moving on to the outside of our house, we spent yesterday morning sprucing up our front yard for spring.  Little B, of course, was a big help.

Those flowers boxes are about the extent of my gardening this summer.  While I enjoy having nice flowers in my yard, I don't have a green thumb and watering them is bothersome enough in the best of times.  I'd rather spend my energy on this little man and whoever is coming along to learn from his goofy habits, I think they will keep me busy enough!!

The Usefulness of Husbands

I know that some of you readers out there use this blog to keep up with the happenings of our family.  Sorry we've been a bit absent lately.  All I can offer is the pregnancy excuse, which is really my excuse for just about everything these days...like why there are Fruit Loops in my pantry or why the chocolate fudge ice cream pie in my freezer will be gone in an embarrassingly short amount of time.  (It's a good thing I'm "supposed" to start gaining weight soon!)  While we had a great time on our spring break trip to California, we came back and hit the ground running and haven't really stopped since.  You can imagine how well my third-trimester body has reacted to that, which means we're really only doing what we need to to get by each week.  So while I'm in a writing mood, I thought it would be appropriate to use this space to offer some kudos to the member of our family who is really keeping us going these days...

Nope, not that little glider rider, although he certainly keeps us moving!  In addition to holding four, possibly five, jobs right now (I can't remember), Hubby T is doing everything he can to help me out and help me feel better about whatever random things I happen to fixate on day by day and can't/won't/don't do by myself.  This includes prepping the new baby's room for painting, picking a paint color, brainstorming baby names, attacking the clover that is attacking our yard, spraying for wasps around the front porch, installing a new storm door on the front door*, ordering and installing an antennae so that we can drop our cable*, doing the dishes almost every night, switching loads of laundry, and handling Little B's ever more frequent two year old tantrum melt downs.  (Oh yes, have I mentioned these yet?  The "terrible twos" have arrived in force my friends, but that's a story for another time.)  And he's also adjusting to giving me only side hugs, which are totally lame but very necessary (I have so much pressure pushing out of my belly these days that it's uncomfortable whenever anyone tries to hug me from the front and pushes pressure back.  Do I sound crazy?  Too bad, that's just the way it is right now...) 

So what's an extremely grateful yet emotionally unstable pregnant wife to do for such a man?  For right now just about all I can offer is an occasional really good meal, time to exercise and watch his new favorite show (Jericho), a sympathetic ear to listen to him bemoan the mess that is his favorite hockey team, and hopes/promises that in just a couple short months I'll be getting back to normal.  And reminders of our Pocono vacation this summer.  Until then my super duper Hubby T, hang in there.  And if you need motivation, just look to this little monkey...there will be two of them soon!!

* Papou helped on these projects and deserves recognition because they are big projects.  Actually, all of our parents have been helping us in different ways lately, thanks again for everything!!

My super family

Super families find excuses to get together, like 80th birthdays!

Bubs love!!

Super families rent really amazingly awesome beach houses to stay in together.

Hubby T catching up on work email after flying all day...not a bad way to work!

Super families watch your kid so that you can sit back and relax sometimes too.

Gramma, Little B and my cousin playing on the beach, view from our family room

Super families know the really good places to go out to eat.

For you poor unfortunate souls who don't recognize that milkshake cup, it's from the incomparable In-N-Out Burger

 Super families know how to make really good food at home too.

Oh you know, just enjoying a homemade donut while I play on the beach, with my tummy probably still stuffed with carnitas from the night before...

The members of the super family who are hosting you in their hometown think of everything you forgot, like sunscreen and beach toys for the littlest one to play with.

Little B found unending delight in shoveling the sand and dumping it on the "grass"

Super great families make music together, even when you're too tired/jet lagged/pregnant to stay up and enjoy it.

When am I big enough to play that?!

Super great families are built on love.  Happy birthday, once again, to my amazing grandparents.  We are all so blessed to be part of your truly super family.