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.

September

So Justin and I finally have interesting news with Photos!

This past month we have been working our tails off to make room for the baby in our very small apartment! We have packed up at least half of our stuff and placed it in storage, had the University remove  A LOT of extra furniture, painted, and received a new storage bed! We are both glad it is done but it was a lot of work.

Here I am talking (to my mom, who is taking the picture) and painting.

Rochon (who is amazing and came to help us) and I painting! Justin and I choose a pale yellow and green to spruce up the white bedroom walls.

Here is Justin painting away! He and Rochon did most of the work!

This is an after photo...if you were ever at our place this is where our bed use to be and where the baby's crib will be once it comes in. We ordered the crib and it should be here soon!

Here is a photo of our new storage bed. You can see the green and yellow walls. This is the window in our bedroom which use to have a filing cabinet, desk, chair and dresser!

We love the bed! You can see the storage drawers on the bottom here. It has drawers on three sides. It is a little higher off the floor than a normal frame, but it is awesome. The bed came in 10 boxes, was assembled by 2 men who work at the University as carpenters, and it took them 3 working days to complete it! 

We were asked by my department if we wanted to put the bed together...I said that would not be a good idea! I was right...it was a bit complicated for the "professionals"!

Here another photo of our bedroom. You can see the green and yellow here too. This use to be the spot where our tall wardrobe and tv were. This will be the new location of the baby's dresser and hutch unit! No more TV in our bedroom! We are both getting a lot more reading done.

Here is a photo of our living room from our kitchen. You can see how much furniture we removed and how we re-arranged for a more open and "baby walking friendly" layout! Justin is watching Football! This use to be the place where our two chairs were.

Here is a photo looking from the door. We moved the needed office stuff here. We just bought a new printer (happy anniversary to us!) that is wireless and great for printing pictures!

Here is another shot of the living room. We love the new layout! 

I didn't include a shot of the living room closet but know that it is 90% empty! Which if you remember how packed it was should come as a surprise.

Work has been very supportive of us and are making a lot of things we need happen! We are going to be getting a washer and dryer which will be located in the front closet. We are also getting closet organizer systems in the front closet as well as the bedroom closet to assist with utilizing all the space we do have! They have also thrown in a new microwave that will also be our stove hood which means a little more counter space in our kitchen!

We are very lucky to have supportive friends, family, and employers!

So, like I said, Justin and I have been VERY BUSY getting ready for the baby! We are excited to share our progress with you.