Nursery

Most of you have seen the big nursery reveal on FB but since you are good friends and followers I will show you some more details (including some in process shots to show all of Eric's hard work!)
First - you repaint the khaki into a perfect baby aqua blue (doesn't he look like he is enjoying this painting part?  Miss Kevin came and helped too the weekend I went to Ohio for a shower)

Great color - but eck!  Look at that carpet!!  (really its pretty stained and you can't tell - but worse yet check out the pic below of the unmatching carpet we had between the bedrooms and the hallways)

Mis-Matched Carpet

So Eric ripped up all the carpet... (Mason tried to be helpful too)

Then cleaned up from the disinegrating pad (again - yuck!)

And then started adding our new laminate floors.

In the meantime Matt came over to help rip up the REST of the carpet (in the hallway and down the stairs).  This stuff was REALLY nasty - and probably original to the house in 1984 (eck!) 

Whew!  Look at those fresh wooden steps!  They might have looked nice all refinished (since they are hardwood and all) but Mason is scared of wooden steps and we want him to be able to run up them and hang out with the kiddos upstairs so we got some great new carpet for the hallway and stairs too.

Finished floors!  Carpet in the hall (and up the stairs) and laminate in the bedroom (with our super cool white shag rug!)

The BIG reveal!!  Ta-Da! Our woodland creatures nursery habitat for our little man!

The bedding I made.

A shot of the bedding from the outside.

 Our mommy and baby sweet little reading nook.  (note mom is trying to read baby-wise before baby gets here - not getting too well so far!)

The 'guest room' side of the nursery.  We have the drawers all full of baby clothes and cloth diapers, blankets and other baby things.  The closet is full too (but thats not as 'cute' to look at.)

So there you go - a tour through all of Eric's hard work that made a beautiful canvas for us to create this space for our little man (I guess I did some work too - all that sewing!).  I sure hope he gets here soon to start enjoying it (well - but mostly so we can start enjoying him).

39 Weeks

Something a little different...

Since I offered up last week that there wasn't going to be a 39 week picture in the same normal location (but then cancelled the induction scheduled for today) I thought I'd try to stay a little true to that and offer up a different picture and location.  Our friend Melissa has her house decorated sooo beautifully for Christmas and had us over for dinner last night.  So I took advantage of the scenerey (and another set of hands to snap the photo) and got this great Christmas pic of Eric and I.  If we were sending Christmas cards this might be the photo - but I'm thinking we wait for Little 'e' to arrive since he IS the star of the show this year and send out New Years/Birth Announcements.

38 Weeks

Well... this will be the very last 'week' picture at home.  Next week (Monday the 12th - at my 39 week mark) we will be at the hospital being induced (if little 'e' decides not to come on his own before then).  I will probably still take a picture for posterity of how big I ended up - but it won't be quite the same.  (oh and before anyone gets worried about it - I'm not being induced for any 'bad' reason.  Just that he is average size, good and healthy and I am headed towards real labor already -or favorable as my SIL informed me- but getting very swollen (can you say carpal tunnel - ouch!) and uncomfortable so my Dr. suggested induction next week).  Its very crazy trying to wrap up all the loose ends at home and at work and feel 'ready' when you actually have a 'target date'.  Before it seemed like something that was going to come unexpectedly so if we weren't ready that would be expected - but now I feel like I have to have everything 'ready'.  (yes, thats the control freak in me - and I realize after Monday I will never ever have 'control' again - thanks!)
So here you go... 38 weeks.

37 Weeks

This week I am full term!!  That means our little man can come at any time.  I am not necessarily hoping he shows up too early, but it would be nice if he makes it before Christmas and before so many of his family members travel long distances to meet him.  My appt this week isn't until the middle of the week (the Dr. is apparently too busy right after the Holiday) but I'm looking forward to finding out if we are making any 'progress' towards his appearance.
We are making progress in many other ways anyway.  The long weekend (with no travel plans) allowed us tons of great time to finish things up around the house (and rest and hunt).  We actually finished all the baby bedding (yeah!!), hung some things in the nursery, cleaned all the baseboards (can you say 'nesting'), bought the rest of the essentials we needed to be ready from the registry and still had time to visit with family for Thanksgiving, for Eric to hunt at least once a day, and we made it to church and Sunday School as well.  It was a GREAT and wonderfully relaxing weekend.  Just what the doctor ordered!
It is getting cold here in SC (guess we have to be okay with that since December does start this week) but sweaters aren't my favorite maternity look (either that or late 3rd trimester isn't my favorite maternity look - lol).  Either way - here is our 37 week picture.

36 Weeks

I think I've reached the point in my pregnancy where I'm doing everything one handed.  Our little man moves so much and so often (and has had the hiccups alot this week) that I find I almost always have one hand on  my belly feeling the miracualous movements and wondering what it is that he is thinking about in there or what body part that is moving past my hand this time.  I can't wait to see him when he gets here.

36 weeks
See? same top - different angle - totally not as cute - lol

 In addition to the normal picture we worked on Project Warm with the church again this year (no putting on new roofs for me this year) - but I took pictures and Eric went and worked on putting in a new kitchen at a different site.  I dressed in layers (VERY unflattering and sorta hard to do with a limited maternity wardrobe) but I had a 'big' buckeye with me this time and thought I'd share...

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!!  We'll be back next week - FULL TERM!  :)

35 Weeks

I took my normal 'self-portriat' / terrible angle/ out of focus picture for you again this week....



35 weeks

The stripes get mixed reviews.  A month ago I got "You still haven't had that baby?!?" when I wore them, and this time I got alot of, "You are due when?!?   You are tiny -  all belly!"  I like the more recent comments better.  But even more than that, I like the maternity pictures we took this past weekend with Erica Billingsley (and Jessica Roe) from Tomme Hilton Gallery (same as our wedding photos).  Let's show you what a GOOD angle looks like...



Not only do I look all belly - and skinny otherwise (well I think so - no 'fathead' here) but I also look TALL!  That's a feat to accomplish - and I might be taking pictures from this angle more often - lol. 

She also took this one of the two of us that I truly adore...

And LOTS of other GREAT pictures from our session.  She has them all posted on their blog here:

http://www.tommehiltongallery.com/blog/2011/11/moore-bump-chronicles-maternity/

Please go and check them out and let Erica know how great and talented she is!  My 36+ weeks photos are all going to pale in comparison!  :)  Thank you girls - we love you!!!

34 Weeks

34 weeks

Week 33 ended with a GREAT weekend full of baby showers.  One for us on Saturday and we threw for our friend Natalie (due in February with a buddy for our buddy!) on Sunday.  I have pics from both of those to entertain you this week and promise promise pics of the nursery upcoming.  It has new floors, paint, and furniture but the bedding isn't quite done and there is nothing on the walls so I'm waiting to show the finished product.  It WILL be worth the wait and I'll try to show some snippets to wet your whistle.

33 Weeks

My mom came this past weekend to help me nest - and get the nursery set up.  So I took my 33 week picutre with my mom!  :)  We got to go to the Dr. as well so she could hear the heartbeat and get the update from the Doctor.  He said I was doing 'great' b/c I passed my sugar test, haven't gained too much weight, don't have too much swelling (wow! what is too much?!?), and our Little 'e' is head down now.  So much good news - just a few more weeks and we will get to meet our little man!!
Anyway - this week's picture is pretty terrible of me - even with Eric's 'above the chin' angle the fat head is in full effect.  I guess thats what 33 weeks gets you!

Note: a post on all of Eric's handiwork and the nursery update is coming up.  I have a 'teeny' bit of sewing left to do so the bedding is done as well and then I'll take pictures and update (although the walls are still very bare - any ideas for that?)

Augusta Baby Shower

My great friends in Augusta threw me a very unique shower last weekend.  The theme was 'Welcome Pumpkin" and completely awesome!  (mabye they chose it b/c it was Fall, maybe b/c they noticed I call all their kids pumpkins... not sure - but it was great!)  Complete with pumpkin 'banners'...

Painted pumpkins welcoming 'lil pumpkin and Baby M...

and a table full of fall festivus and pumpkin food (pumpkin bread (my fave!), pumpkin cupcakes, pumpkin truffles... YUM!)

In addition to the pumpkin theme, it was a diaper shower (which was the very unique part) and set up to help Eric and I get started on the big investment that is cloth diapering.  Although cloth diaper stands to save us a bunch of money (and lots of trees and landfill space) it also has a fairly large initial investment.  Meghan is now consulting for a cloth diapering company (somewhat local since there are none in the area) and gave us a presentation on how all the different new kinds work and different options.

Oh ... did you happen to see that little monkey peeping out the corner of the picture?!?  That little monkey was the coolest thing ever - riding on his DIAPER MOTORCYCLE!!  AMAZING!  I have made a diaper cake for I think every Augusta baby shower we have thrown - and since we were doing a cloth diaper shower I wasn't expecting this at all - and its WAAAY cooler than my diapers cakes.  Jenny rocks!  (wanna see him in all his glory?)

Complete with a bottle headlight, bib fenders, receiving blanket frame, and mitten handlebars... this thing is sooo cool!

It was a great time with good friends...



Andrea w Lily, Meghan, Melissa, Natalie, me, Jenny, Kelli w Will, and Hollee




Andrea and Melissa




Hollee, Kelli and Jenny




Natalie



...and a very successful start to a cloth diaper stash for our 'little e'.  :)

32 Weeks

Trying to get caught up this week - this is my 32 week picture.  My back is starting to get pretty sore (but that may have to do with the sitting at work and helping with projects at home - and trying to walk a litle bit since its been so nice this week and I'm trying to stay a 'teeny' bit 'in-shape' (ha ha ha!) so I'm ready for this whole 'giving birth thing!')



I love black shirts!

 Tonight is our first childbirthing class at the hospital.  We go once a week for four weeks and hopefully will learn everything we need to know (ha ha!)  But I guess its just in time b/c the last one will be half way through my 36th week.  Time is flying by!  He'll be here before we know it!

Anniversary Apple Picking

This is again playing catch-up, but three weekends ago we travelled to Knoxville to visit my cousin and his family (and see their awesome new house) and they loaded us up with AMAZING hand me down baby stuff.  Eric's truck is literally full to the brim with things such as swings, bouncy seats, highchairs, toys, linens etc etc.  The list goes on and on.  I looked at the registry last night and *somehow* we still need alot of stuff.  Its AMAZING what all a itty bitty thing could require!

Anyway, after filling our truck up with baby goodies we headed to the mountains with Ned, Angie and the kids and shared our annual anniversary apple picking trip with them again this year.  Eric and Hadley made the ultimate apple picking team again this year and vowed to leave no apple 'out of their reach' and that was pretty close to true.

Tripp really got the hang of picking apples this year and was ADORABLE - including riding in his wagon eating his apple.

There was plenty of adult craziness going on...

Anniversary pictures...

and general fun pictures...

 as well as PERFECT family photos...

 We left with a 'normal' amount of apples (ha ha ha!) and great memories once again...