December

This month has flown by! Justin and I can't believe that we are only about 3 weeks away (or less) from meeting this baby. We have been feeling it move, kick, and hiccup, so we can't wait to meet our bundle of joy. We of course, are just praying for a happy, healthy baby! 

This month we have been so busy. My mom and sister threw me a family baby shower with a Christmas Cookie Exchange theme. I don't have pictures yet, but will add them as soon as I get them. We had a wonderful lunch, decorated baby girls & baby boys sugar cut out cookies, and opened gifts. At the end we exchanged cookies! My family completely spoiled the baby! Justin and I feel so blessed by our family and the outpouring of support and love we have felt through this whole pregnancy by them.

Work has been crazy for me. In December, one of my buildings opened 3 more floors. It has been under renovation this whole semester, and on December 9th, I added about 75 new residents and 1 new staff member. The students are all upper-classmen and moving from a building that closed this month for renovation. I now have over 300 students I'm responsible for (Freshman and Upper-classmen) as well as 13 staff members. While opening a building isn't a new thing for me, opening in the middle the year was! I was 36 weeks pregnant and survived!

Justin and I finished the final touches on the nursery that is also our bedroom. Here is our Snoopy & Friends Themed Nursery!

 Crib & Changing Station

 Glider & End Table

 Dresser & Storage Unit

The cling decals really pulled everything together and made if feel like a real nursery! We love it and can't wait to bring our baby home to this warm and cozy room.

This month my besties threw me a friend & co-worker shower, right here in my building! Kelly Podach Francis, Erin Shea & Becky Kehrwald threw a fabulous party! Everyone was so generous to our little one. I had such a wonderful time and was overwhelmed by all the thoughtful gifts and caring friends/co-workers. So many of the gifts were handmade and so very special. Here are a few snap shots of the afternoon.

 They had a yummy buffet with sandwiches, fruit, veggies, & dessert.

 Me and one of the hostesses, Becky!

 My mom and me! We sure look a lot alike... I think.

 Becky and Erin with rosy cheeks because it was so warm in the building.

 Some of the many guests playing games.

 Me and Kelly! She was leading a super fun and challenging shower game. 

 I was having a hard time breathing that day (baby in the ribs and pushing on my diaphragm) so I was leaning back a lot.

 Erin explaining the 2nd shower game.

 My second mom, Diane and work buddy Tana

 Many of my staff ladies as well as the Honors' Community faculty and staff I work with. 

 Me opening gifts while Erin wrote them all down! I just got my Thank You's done today...a little late...sorry everyone.

 One of the many handmade gifts

 Kelly and Becky keeping things organized.

This year Justin and I continued our tradition of having Holiday Parties for my Staff and Student Leaders in our apartment. It was definitely more cramped then usual since we got rid of some furniture to make room for the baby and our apartment was under construction, but we still had a blast. We made breakfast for my staff and lasagna from my student leaders. I think they enjoyed it!

One of the UW-Stout Students offered to take some artistic baby bump pictures this month. Here is one of my favorite shots.

Here I am at 37 weeks.

Finally, this month they have started the apartment updates. We are getting a washer and dryer, new organization units in both our closets, and a new microwave stove hood. While we are very excited and grateful for these updates that will make our lives so much easier when the baby arrives, we are very nervous that construction will still be happening after the baby arrives and comes home. It has been very frustrating for me since I'm trying to get everything prepared (as much as possible) before the baby gets here and construction is not in the plan. I'm getting so close to having this baby, and as many of you know construction (in a very small space) is dirty, noisy, and extremely inconvenient. Here is what they have accomplished in the last few weeks:

Where the step ladder is will be our stackable washer and dryer, the new wall, and the other side will be our organizational closet unit and we get new beautiful doors!

Of course this month was Christmas! We celebrated by attending our church Christmas play, exchanging  stockings between the two of us, and spending Christmas Day with our Bergevin Family. Justin worked overnights at Stout but was a trooper and gave up some extra sleep to celebrate with family. We had a wonderful time eating yummy food, opening generous gifts, and catching up with family.

We will end our month with another trip to the Twin Cities to celebrate the Christmas Season by sharing a meal at the Cheesecake Factory with our good, good friends Erin, Chad, & Becky.

Usually we ring in the New Year with our good good friends Erin, Chad, & Becky by going to the Theatre, cooking a meal together, and enjoying some chocolate fondue, but this year Justin and I decided we should stick close to home incase this baby decides to arrive early. I'm sad, but I know that we will continue this tradition in the future.

We also have been going to baby Dr. Appointments this month. Everything looks good and I'm measuring right within normal. The baby is head down (at least last week it was) and I'm feeling large and getting uncomfortable. While I don't believe the baby will be coming too soon, I know it will be here before we know it. 

Well, that is our update! Wow, like I said it was a very busy month. Thanks for taking time to stop in and catch up. We will be sending out a baby announcement with our Christmas Letter after the baby arrives.

We ask for your prayers and continued support over this next month. The next time I update I believe it will be full of baby pictures! 

Have a Happy and Safe New Year. 

November

Hello! We had a pretty exciting November so here is our update!

My BFF from college, Angie Heise, came to Wisconsin to visit family and friends for the first time since she moved to Washington state in June of this year. I was so delighted to see her. My college besties and I enjoyed catching up in the Stevens Point (our alma mater)/Wisconsin Rapids area. Jessi and Liz showered me with a bunch of mommy advice and must have baby items from their personal stash! I'm so blessed to have such amazing friends. I know that when this baby arrives, I will have many people in my life to support and cheer Justin and I on. Thank You all for that!

 Here is Angie, Me, Liz, and Jessi at Dinner!

 This is the Angie dinner crowd! She was feeling very loved too.

Justin was an assembling fool this month. He put together the baby's crib and dresser. One item was easier than the other, but both turned out amazing. Justin has been nesting as much as I have! The baby's room is almost completely done. More pictures when we have everything set up.

 The crib almost assembled...

 Successfully & Safely Completed!

Assembling dresser drawers

 Justin assembling the dresser

 More dresser assembly...

 Completed!

We decided that we wanted to purchase a new vehicle before the baby arrives. So this month we sold our cars (Justin's Saturn and My Ford) and went down to one SUV. 

Here is our new Honda CR-V!

This Thanksgiving we headed down to Missouri to visit our Parker Family. We had a wonderful and uneventful trip down in our new car and enjoyed our visit/vacation. Thanksgiving was full of family, conversation, football, eating, reading Black Friday Ads, and playing with the nephews. This year, for the first (and last time) ever, we participated in Black Friday. Justin and I decided to Christmas gift ourselves a new Dyson Vacuum and Black Friday Target had the best deal! I somehow convinced my in-laws to stay up late and leap into this adventure with us. At 11:00pm we headed out to Target, at around 11:45pm we got out of the car and watched the craziness before getting in line to join in. We all got what we needed, waited in the line to check out, and walked out with our purchases around 1:15am. What a night!

Also while in Missouri my sister and mother in-law threw me a baby shower! It was a very fun event with loving family, entertaining games, and lots of thoughtful gifts.

The men stayed in the kitchen trying to avoid the estrogen.

We received overalls and Kansas City Chief apparel.

The much needed diapers and socks

A Bumbo to help build our baby's muscles

Here is Aunt Cindy and Megan 

Mom, Grandma Smith, and Aunt Hester (no pictured)

This month was again filled with cherished time with Family and Friends (both pictured and not), getting ready for baby, and working of course. 

Parker Baby Pool

Justin and I set up a Baby Pool! We encourage you to make your guess!

http://bebepool.com/go/?a=babyparker2012&view=list

October

This month has been mostly busy with more Baby prep stuff. We have also had the chance to spend some time with Family and Friends too!

First, we have put together our registries! We had fun picking baby items out at Walmart and Babies R Us. Justin loves using the registry gun. He has been really great at helping me look through our Baby Bargains book so we are picking the safest items. This next week we will finish up our last registry at Target. Second, we picked up our baby's crib this month and will be assembling it soon. Wish us luck! We assembled our changing table and glider. The room is really coming together now. I can't wait until I can start putting together the finishing touches and it will really look like a nursery and bedroom (the room is also our bedroom).

I had the opportunity to see my two Best Friends from High School, Erin and Becky. Erin had her baby last month (little boy named Andrew) and so she pulled herself away for a few hours to have some girl time. Becky has a new apartment so we met and chatted there! I also saw my Mom and Dad. They are doing fantastic and shared the pictures from their latest trip with me. I also started the car shopping process with my Dad. Justin and I have decided it is time to upgrade to a small SUV so we will be selling our two compact cares and buying an SUV. We are excited about getting a new car, so stay tuned  before January I will be posting pictures of our new vehicle!

Justin is currently down in Missouri at Fish Camp! Every year his Dad, Uncle, and now him do a 5 day fishing trip. Justin spends a little over a week down there so he can also see family and friends since we don't get down as much as we would like.

Well besides work that is our October in a nutshell! Here are some photo's of our new glider! I'm pretty proud of myself because I did most of the assembly!

Here I am showing off the picture directions I followed! I'm all smiles because I put the whole thing together!

Here is Justin enjoying the fruit of my labor! He thinks the glider is very comfortable...which is good because I'm told we will be spending many hours in it once our child arrives.

It is a dark wood with a tan cushion.

4th Wedding Anniversary

Justin and I celebrated our 4th Wedding Anniversary on October 5th. When I think back on our wedding day I remember being happy all day, all things went smoothly, my flowers were stunning, and everyone had a great time eating and dancing the night away!

I also remember that it was 80+ degrees and still pretty green everywhere. I remember the little gnats that bugged us during pictures and finally I remember our nephew Kenny who was fascinated with the ants during photos and who fell asleep during our ceremony and slept through his ring bearer duties.

Justin and I are so happy! We are excited to be starting a family and more in love with one another now than on our wedding day.

On the night of our wedding we stayed at a bed and breakfast. Each anniversary since we have chosen a weekend location and stayed at a bed and breakfast! This year we chose Dubuque, Iowa. We seem to always chose a place near water...so we enjoyed the town of Dubuque as well as the Mississippi River. This year's anniversary weekend had the most beautiful weather! It was 80+ degrees, breath taking fall colors, and nothing but sunny skies all weekend! We got luck as we usually end up with rain somewhere in the mix.

Justin and I took a ride on the Fenelon Place Elevator Company our first night. Here is Justin calling to have us elevated up the VERY steep hill. It was exciting and a bit scary....I made a lot of little squealing noises on our way up.

This is the open door of our tiny elevator.

Here we are climbing to the top! I'm smiling but I was scared.

We went at night!

Here is our view from the top! We don't have a camera that takes good night phot's or the users of the camera don't know how to take good night photos using the camera.

Here is a picture of the elevator during the day time. 

It was very steep...I think this picture shows it better!

We explored downtown Dubuque as well as took a walk along the Mississippi River. Here is Justin just taking in the sites!

Here is the infamous bird picture! Justin loves watching birds and so everywhere we go we have bird pictures. 

Me enjoying the awesome scenery of the river and fall colors.

All of a sudden there was a bunch of waves coming into shore from the river. I will admit the birds were fun to watch as the waves came in!

A bridge over the Muddy Mississippi

This photo doesn't do the view justice but it was awesome, trust us.

Doing more bird watching!

This was a sculpture on our river walk...not sure what it is but it was created by an artist from Kansas City. I think it was called Stride, but it looked to us like a bug.

Here is it as a different angle.

This was a the Mississippi River Walk! 

Added a baby shot! 26 Weeks and counting.

The colors were breath taking.

We had a wonderful and relaxing Anniversary Weekend. It was nice to get out of town, reward our- selves after all the hard work we did on the apartment and to just spend some quality time with each other. We are blessed that we have the financial ability to take these weekend get-a-ways. I hope we will be able to continue this tradition even after the baby is born.