New Baby on the Way!

Well, we've got the announcement out, but I still figured I'd blog about it.  We're having another baby!  We're excited , of course, and ready to start some serious work on the room.  We have to wait until November 25th though.  That's when we should find out whether it's a boy or a girl.  Everyone has asked if we prefer one or the other, but we really don't.  Kim thinks it's going to be a boy, but I don't have any inkling one way or the other.  Last time, I knew we were having a girl.  I just had a feeling from the start.  I don't have that feeling this time, although I did dream we were having twins.  But, when we went for our first ultrasound, it only showed one.  Unless the other is super good at hiding, it's just one.  And we'll find out soon what it is.

Weekend Highlights

Lately, Elise's eyes have been focusing much better.  On her little play mat, there is a mirror.  I caught her checking out her reflection at one point which was pretty interesting.  She stared at it for probably a minute straight and never moved.

Here she is flailing around and hitting toys.

She was kicking really hard and hitting her heals against the floor so I had to put a blanket under her feet after this pic.

I had to go over to do bulletins on Saturday afternoon and Kim took this pic and sent it to me.  

Here I was trying to go through my choir stuff for tonight.  This is Sammie's version of "helping."  She likes to help like this when I'm working on a lesson or sermon as well.  She lays her snout either on my mouse pad or wrist.  The poor little baby gets so tired but I have no idea how laying her face on my computer is comfortable.

Cool Baby, Martin House, and Bird House

Some pics from our big day outside..

We put her sunglasses on to protect her eyes and we thought for a minute that maybe she didn't like them.  So, we pulled them off and she started squinting some kind of terrible so we threw them back on and she never fussed.

Cool baby with her mom 

We got the Martin house up!  Yesterday, I put the bottom of the three tier pole in the ground and put in concrete and leveled it.  Then, today I went out and put up the house.  It looks pretty awesome out in the yard.

Here is "Mama Bird" feeding her babies.  Kim named her Mama Bird.  I put this bird house up at the beginning of Spring, and within a week we had a bird with a nest already made.  Mama Bird's babies hatched recently and we've been watching her take food to them.  Every time she shows up with a bite, you can here the babies chirping like crazy.  I was able to snap the next two pictures today while she was feeding them a worm.

Being Content

Here are some pictures of Elise that either me or Kim have gotten with our cell phones recently. 

I love this one.  She had just finished a bottle I think and was laying with her mommy

She looks so happy in this picture.  I love it when she smiles.  It sounds kind of sappy, but this kind of thing really does brighten our days and makes us feel all warm and fuzzy inside

This look was kind of funny.  She's just chillin with her ole dad

This is how she sleeps when she's sleeping good.  She throws her arms back and drifts off into baby dreams.  I don't think a baby could get any cuter 

Book Shelf Finished!

Here are a few pictures of the finished product.  I thought Kim did a good job of making everything look good on it.  She painted it as well.  My painting skills are not quite up to par.  

Winter Projects

Here is a small stool I made for the work bench. It was definitely tougher to build than I thought because of the compound angle cuts. But, it looked pretty cool when it was done.

On black Friday, we were able to get this table saw for $69! That's a steal. It's normally $150. It took almost an entire month to come in though. But, once it did, I built a little stand to make it mobile. There's just not a lot of space for the big, stationary stand that came with it. And the wheels do lock in case you wonder how i keep it from moving while cutting.

Here is the box that I built for Ellie's room. We wanted it to look like a block letter so I put the border around it and then Kim did all the decorations including the "E" on the front. We just used the leftover paint from her room and dresser. Everything matches perfect!

In this picture you can see the little knob on the top front better. We made it somewhat functional by putting hinges on the back and the knob up front so we can use it for storage. The only downside to it was that it caused a slight gap on the top left where it closes. But, it's not too terrible. If I had put nails in it, it wouldn't open or close though so we chose the function.

Kim did a good job decorating the box!

Name

Kim just did this today and I thought it was pretty awesome! She's going to use it for the baby shower. I think maybe we'll put in on her dresser or something when that's all done.

Should Be a Girl! An Energetic One!

You might ask, "Should be a girl? What does that mean?"

Well, let me explain. We were scheduled a little too early for the ultrasound and the tech said that she thinks it's a girl, but can't be entirely sure. So far, that's the best we have until next month. But, it sounds promising to be a girl, which we're excited about!

The most amazing thing was seeing her..even through the ultrasound. The last time we saw her, she was just a tiny peanut with a heartbeat. Now she's formed so much. Yesterday, when we first saw her, she kept bouncing up and down. I asked what was going on and Kim said that the baby would do it when she was breathing in. The tech said that wasn't the case though, but that the baby was just moving around. As we kept going she moved and flipped every which way.

Baby

This picture is a bit late as far as updating the blog, but here it is! We're on the verge of being parents. It's pretty crazy to think about considering how often I don't feel like I'm that grown up. But, we feel as prepared as we can be. Obviously, we'll figure out just how much we don't know once we have the baby, but we're still crazy excited! We should find out soon whether it's a boy or girl. Can't wait!