Kora's Birthday Celebration

My sister-in-law, Kora, turned 30 last week. Happy birthday, Kora! We celebrated last Saturday at El Sarape on the westside. It was a fun evening. Kyle, Sophia, and I ducked out about 8:30 p.m. The rest of the party headed into the bar for karaoke - it sounds like they all had a good time! Here are some of the pictures Kyle & I took before things got too wild.

39 Weeks & Counting

Well, I had hoped Baby Boy would be here by now. I'm pretty uncomfortable and just plain tired. Kyle was also hoping for his arrival this weekend, so we just kind of hung around the house and got stuff done. We got all the floors mopped and vacuumed upstairs and downstairs (again), dusted (again), cleaned the toilets (again), the shower, the kitchen, the laundry room, I got a lot of ironing done, all the laundry is washed and put away, we got all up to date reading the baby books about labor and delivery and bringing baby home.

We talked about names a lot and re-read the 50,001 Baby Names book, but still haven't decided. Kyle is very indecisive and keeps bringing in new names, and names we threw out about 4 months ago! Needless to say, this is very frustrating to me. I have my four top names:

1. Emmit (Kyle's not too sure about it)
2. Nolan (Kyle hasn't said anything negative about it)
3. Griffin (He's not too sure on this one either, but didn't rule it out)
4. Mitchell (Kyle liked Mitch a lot, but not so sure about it anymore... Ugggghhh)

I don't think any of these are overly trendy right now, and they all sound nice and manly and not too childlike and not too made-up. Everyone I know suggests Jackson (Jaxon), which is an adorable name. But VERY popular right now. For the middle name we will do a family name. Kyle is the 5th generation for LeRoy as a middle name on the Hussey side, not to mention his Grandpa's name on his mom's side was Leroy. So it will either be LeRoy or Don to honor his dad.

For those of you that know pregnancy lingo - at my appointment last Thursday I was dilated between 1 and 2, and about 75% effaced. I was really hopeful that something would happen this weekend, but still there is no sign of labor for me. I have a few Braxton Hicks contractions throughout the day, but no more than I've had the last month or so. There is still a lot of baby movement, and he is definitely further down in my pelvis each morning. There is no way around waddling at this point.

Sophia was funny this morning. She was downstairs in bed talking to herself (it's fun to listen to her on the montior) and I yelled down and told her to come upstairs. (Sometimes she comes up on her own, but most of the time she waits for me to come down and get her, or to yell down to her to come up.) Anyway, I said to come up and she yelled back up to me "Is the baby out of your tummy today?" I felt bad saying no, he was still in there. No baby today, yet. I think she's getting just as impatient as we are.

I wouldn't be quite so worried about when he was arriving if Kimberly's wedding wasn't this weekend. We'll be spending Friday through Sunday up in Seattle for all the wedding festivities. I really wanted a one-week old, or I want to still be pregnant and for sure not go into labor. I don't want to miss her wedding, and I definitely don't want Kyle to miss it! I'm sure it will all work out fine - if not, what do you do? Just go with it. But for all that know me, this not-knowing thing is very difficult!

This is what happens when...

...you have your first baby,
AND it's a girl,
AND it's the first grandchild and niece,
AND you live 10 minutes away from the Carter's outlet,
AND you plan on having another girl.

And, believe it or not, this is after I just spent all morning weeding things out and cramming it even tighter to save on space... Ugh. This is also after I removed all the stuff that baby boy could wear too. A ton of white onesies and burp clothes and bibs and probably about 6 sleepers.

If we have a 3rd child and it's not a girl, I will be completely annoyed that I saved all of this and took up so much space for so long. But everything is just way too cute to give away. I want to use it again. :o)

More Nursery & Baby Update

So here are a few more pics of the nursery. I still plan on hanging a few cowboy hats above the rocking chair where the ceiling is really tall. It looks so empty without anything up high on the walls. But here is what Sophia and I did today and yesterday.

A little lasso

A tiny cowboy hat - I may end up moving it...
Some tin signs that finally all arrived

And in baby news - all is well. I went to the doctor today and everything looks good. Baby Boy is still head down (yeah! Sophia was breech...). But no dilation at all yet. I would like to get a few more things done this weekend, and then I am totally ready for this baby to arrive. I feel very heavy and uncomfortable all day and all night. I haven't gotten any size estimate from the doctor at all, but he just feels bigger than Sophia did. We'll see! And hopefully soon. :o) Maybe when Kyle gets home I'll have him take a picture of me and I'll post it. My tummy is way out there!

A Few More Little Additions

I put a few more accessories in the nursery this morning -

a little cross and the cutest wall plaque from Kimberly.
Here's a closeup.

I found this little side table unfinished at Target.com and

stained it to go with the rocking chair, and then I was

soooo excited to find this little lamp that looks like

an old fashioned lantern on Cabelas website.

And one more pic just for fun! Who doesn't love snow boots?!

Getting Ready for Baby Boy

The last week of February I was very busy shopping online for all the things we still needed for the new baby. So for the last week we've had packages arriving pretty much daily. Sophia is a great helper and she seems fine with all the things arriving for the baby.

I got the pink stuff all cleared out of the nursery. It was really sad for me to take it all down, but it was exciting to visualize all the new things I want to put up for the cowboy room.

Goodbye adorable wall flowers

Transitioning from ballerina to cowboy

So far, I haven't received many of the wall decorations yet, just most of the baby gear we ordered. I spent this past weekend and all day Monday sewing. Not that I really enjoy sewing, but it is very gratifying when it's done. I made the valance, crib bumper, pillow cases, and bed skirt. It all turned out cuter than I expected - so that was exciting. I also made a valance for Sophia's big girl room, and still need to make her duvet cover.

I found this blanket at Target and it seemed perfect for the room.

It matched the paint on the wall perfectly (which also matches

the other crib sheets), and it had little horseshoes on it. :o)

Here's a closeup of the fabrics I used.

A month later...

I guess it's been a while since I've done a post - sorry! Let's see... What happened in February?

Oh - I turned 30.

Sophs & Daddy made my birthday cake.

Uncle Joe turned 18!

(And had all 4 of his wisdom teeth pulled the day before!)

Lauren came to ballet with us.
They were so silly & cute.

Sophia & I made Daddy a Valentine's Pie.

And my wonderful sisters-in-law threw a baby shower for me.

It was a fun month, but we were pretty busy. Early in the month we took Sophia to see the Pinocchio Ballet up in Seattle at PNB and then later in the month took her to see the Thomas the Train show at Key Arena. She had a great time at both shows.

I'll post again soon with more updates.

Dress-Up

Now that Sophia loves to dress-up,

I keep finding little outfits that I had tucked away.

Florida Vacation

Needless to say, we had a great vacation in the sun. We got very lucky with the weather - it was really cold in Florida the week before we arrived, beautiful in the mid- to upper-70s while we were there, and then it was a little chilly and rainy the day we flew out. We had a lot of fun. We went to Magic Kingdom (which is just like Disneyland) for one day, and then all the other days we hung out at the resort and swam and played. They had a huge pool area, a nice sandy beach area, playground toys, paddle boats, mini golf, basketball courts, and a poolside bar & restaurant. We took a million pictures and they are all uploaded to Kodak. Click the link under my Albums section to see them all.

Barbazon Here We Come - HA!

Sophia somehow knows how to strike a pose these days. It is absolutely hilarious. Here are a few examples...

Ballet Class

Warming up before Baby Ballet with Mommy's class

Sophia and her friend Allison jumping over the "puddles"

Sophia following the teacher, Ms. M.C.

(but still keeping her eye on the mirror)

Still watching the mirror...

Flying like a butterfly

Twirling, twirling, twirling