Nursery and Baby Shower

I have had so much fun getting the nursery ready for our little girl. It's soft and feminine with butterflies and flowers in lavender and a light brown. I saw the ceiling moulding in another home and loved the effect, so we recreated it in Makenna's room. It's been ready for a couple of weeks, the only thing lacking is the little girl who will reside here! (And there's NO progress on that one, though my due date is in 4 days! Any bets as to when she'll arrive??)

My sweet friends Janae, Pam, & Kristi threw me a baby shower a couple of weeks ago (and I hope I'm not leaving out anyone else!) Though it was a busy Saturday morning, so many people came to shower me with their love and support and I had a wonderful time! 

Backyard Playset Project

We bought a used playset for Jake earlier this winter (I love Craigslist!) that has been sitting on the sideyard until it was warm enough to put it in a more permanent place. Even though we've had plenty of snow and rain this last week, the sun has also shown its face over the last month and temps have been warm enough to work outside again. My hardworking husband dug out the sod and dirt from the back corner of our yard, leveled the ground, and built a box out of railroad ties to put the playset in. All the while, his little "helper" was a constant presence (and Jake's favorite way of helping right now is to either be right in front of where Brian is trying to work, or climbing on his back as he kneels in the dirt to work!)

And here is the finished project, wood chips, sandbox, and all! Thanks Daddy!

Build A Bear Birthday Party

Jacob was invited to Build-a-Bear Workshop for his friends' Katie and Joshua's birthday party back in March. Of course he chose a green bear (thank goodness for St. Patty's Day special editions!). It's his favorite color, much to his Daddy's chagrin. His favorite part of the whole experience was "washing" the bear after it had been stuffed. I don't know how long he stood there, pushing the foot pedal that blew air onto the bear and fluffing him with a brush.

All the little munchkins with their newly adopted creations.

Birthday treats!



 Does this child love treats! (and there were plenty of them, to be sure) And I think he loves the concept of Birthdays just as much. He hasn't stopped talking about when he's going to have his birthday for months. Too bad he has no concept of just how long it is until July!!

Bedtime Routine

Each night at the end of our bedtime routine with Jake, he gets to decide how he wants to get into bed. This means that he can crawl on the floor and be a bear, or fly through the air like an airplane/helicopter, etc. Lately, the game of choice has been to ride on Daddy's back and be a cowboy. Daddy, of course, is the horsie. And for some reason, Mommy always gets designated as the cow; *sigh* a title quite fitting for someone who is 32 weeks pregnant.

February Happenings

It's hard to believe that the month of February will be done and gone in another few days. Though the days sometimes feel very long, the weeks surely fly by.

February always begins with Brian's birthday. He turned 46 this year, and since he requested an ice cream cake, I didn't dare put that many candles on it for fear it would become liquid. :) Jacob, of course, had to get in on all the birthday action, from "helping" Daddy open presents to blowing out the candles.

Jacob likes to draw on the whiteboard we have on the refrigerator. Sometimes the artwork is a joint effort, as with our family picture. He asked me to draw Daddy, then Mommy, and I added Jake and "baby sister" to complete the family. Obviously she's physically present in the picture (and I've lost all the baby weight), but hey, I can dream, right?

Since we spend just about every Saturday working on something in the house, we decided to take a break a couple of weekends ago and head to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. Jake and I have been there a few times, but this was Brian's first trip. It was a beautifully sunny, albeit chilly, Saturday, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

 Wouldn't it be fun to really be this close to the elephants?!

  

 Brian feeding the giraffes--none of us have ever experienced feeding giraffes at any other zoo. Pretty cool. And here's a random tidbit of pregnancy information about giraffes (since I'm expecting and take note of such information)...Giraffes are pregnant for 14 months--poor mama!--and when baby is born he is 6 feet tall! I suppose it's all relative, since giraffes are extremely tall animals, but that's so big!

 Mama tiger and her cute little cub :)

 Jacob got to ride a horse all by himself and loved it! (It was really a pony, but Jake insists that it's a horsey. I guess if it looks like a horse and acts like a horse...)

Auntie Fra Fra came for a visit one afternoon, and the pair had a blast playing around in Jake's new bed. He still asks me when she's coming back to our house to play with him.

Another First for Jacob (and Mom & Dad)

The crib has officially been removed from Jacob's room. It's "broken" right now in the baby's room, so no one can sleep in it. He's been sleeping well at night in his big boy bed for about three weeks, but would still choose to nap every day in the crib. The intent was to take the crib apart at the end of the month, and Jake would be done with it. Well, this last weekend he discovered that it was lots of fun to climb in and out of the crib. Not such a bad thing when you're just playing around, as the landing is soft. (The floors in our home are carpeted.) Last night we put him to bed, like normal, and went about our evening chores. All was quiet upstairs until about 9:30 when we heard Jacob cry out. Brian ran upstairs to check on him and quickly discovered that Jake's face was covered in blood. Somehow he had lacerated his eyelid (though we really didn't know the extent of the damage with his face bloodied the way it was.) Needless to say, we ended up going to the Emergency Room. He didn't end up needing stitches (thank goodness), rather the doctor used Steri Strips to tape the laceration closed. Jacob was a trooper through the whole ordeal, and was his normal, energetic monkey self for most of the day today. He'll have a nice shiner, and may have a slight scar, but he really was blessed to not have cut his eye (the picture doesn't really do it justice--it's a much cooler looking owie than the camara captured).

So how did it happen? It's still a mystery, as two year olds aren't the best at conveying important information. My best guess is that he woke up and decided he wanted to sleep in his crib instead of his bed. Tired and somewhat disoriented, he probably fumbled getting out of bed and ended up cutting his eye lid on the head board as he fell onto the floor. Of course, we'll never know for certain; but we made sure that he doesn't try and follow through with that grand idea again. And we hope that Jake's next trip to the ER doesn't happen any time soon.

Oh Mama!!

You asked for it. So here I am, in all my 28 weeks of pregnant glory! May the next 84 days go by quickly. I'm ready for the end to be here already.