Happy and 30

So.... no baby yet!  I know, it feels like it's taking forever for us too!  We realize that the due date is just an estimate and she doesn't know when it is, so she will come when she's ready.  However, once that date hit (August 12), we have been more than ready for her to come!  Since I turned 30 on August 14, we thought she might choose that day.  I just didn't want her born on Friday the 13th (even though Scotty turned out fine :) and I'm actually pretty happy that she will get her own birthday and not have to share with me. 

I didn't really have any plans for my birthday since I didn't know what baby girl was going to be doing.  However, I have a wonderfully thoughtful husband who is Excellent at birthdays and other significant events.  I can always count on him doing something seriously sweet.  I'm the one who has to keep up!

We had a nice day together... James made french toast, we went swimming, took Ethie to a big brother class at the hospital (too cute--he changed a diaper!), and when we got home, James decided to make dinner.  Oh my gosh, I don't know how he does it!  He went to the store and came home and created the most delicious dinner ever!  Ashley and Brandon came over to help us enjoy it and we ENJOYED it!  It was amazing.

Homemade chicken parmigiana (with fresh basil sauce), spaghetti, and steamed broccoli...

 And then he created a cookie cake for dessert since I'm not a huge fan of regular cake...

Nice hubby!  Then he told me he couldn't wrap my present, but I closed my eyes and he brought out a...

cute pink bike!!!  He and Ethie both have bikes and I have a bike trailer (thanks, Dad!) but no bike.  So apparently he had been looking for a while and done lots of research and found me this perfect pink cruiser.  I think maybe it's the baby girl inside me, but I'm all about pink these days.  I love it!  Can't wait til I can ride!

The next day we went to Mom's for a birthday dinner (also delicious) and gifts.  Thanks for all the love!

So, no baby birthday present, but I felt loved and blessed.  And I still have something to look forward to!

Our little boy's in kindergarten!

So I know I'm going crazy with the blogs lately, but I'm trying to catch up before we have baby pics to post!  And since I haven't been great about printing pictures and journaling for a while, I figure this is a good way to do it.

Anyway, Ethie-man is in kindergarten!  He went to full time pre-k last year, so he was pretty used to the routine, and I think he was ready to go back.  He loves interacting with other kids and having things to keep him busy.  And he loves learning!  He's really into letters and counting and I don't think it will be long before he's ready to read!  His teacher, Ms. Diamond, seems patient and fun and he really likes her so far.  Here's to a good year!!!

First day of school... 

Before we left the house... Ethan: "Mom, I think this would be a good picture."  What a cute little poser!

The waiting game...

So yesterday baby girl was officially "due."  However, after watching "The Business of Being Born", an amazing video about natural birth, James and I have decided that this date is completely arbitrary and we need to support little girl in coming when she's ready!  So although we are completely ready to meet the little one, I am seriously enjoying this last little while with her inside me.  It's so quiet around here!  I am, however, getting pretty huge...

How can my belly get bigger than that???  I feel good though and I just LOVE feeling her move inside me!  I know I will miss that. Yesterday, the midwife was surprised and I was way more surprised to find that I am dilated to 4 cm.  She said labor could happen any time now, and I have been having some mighty contractions!  But in the mean time, we've been keeping ourselves busy!

Swimming...

Bowling...  It's free for kids on Wednesdays--awesome!

Also free observatory at the Fernbank Museum on the weekends!  There's even a little museum that's open...

Free Target Tuesday at the children's museum in Atlanta... See a theme here? :)

Free spirit activities at Georgia Tech.  I had to convince James that he wanted to have school spirit... he said he used it all up as an undergrad :)

Family yoga time... we like cheap entertainment!

And definitely not free, but COMPLETELY worth the money, Arcade Fire and Spoon in concert!!!  Two of James' favorite bands, together!  A few months ago, we found out they were coming to Atlanta and I told James that I was not going to a concert the day before our due date and if he was a good dad, he shouldn't either.  However, as the time approached and I knew baby wasn't coming, I realized the error of my ways and got tickets for us and Scotty.  Oh my goodness, I think that was the best concert I have ever seen.  We were all seriously blown away and I just didn't want it to end.  Such good music!!!  Thank you, baby, for waiting until after the concert to join us!

Spoon...

Arcade Fire...

And us, sweaty and happy!

Nesting

I have definitely been doing some seriously nesting lately. Especially since we just moved in a couple months ago and there was lots to do. Fortunately, I have had lots of time and I love decorating and making our little apartment feel like home. Ethie's room was fun to finish before he got back from Ohio and I think he's happy with it. I tried to fill it with things he loves...

The rest of the apartment is pretty much like the other one, but there is a little more room.  It's homey!

Of course, baby girl's room was probably the most fun to do.  I used lots of pink and brown from our wedding (paper lanterns) and had fun getting out Ethie's old baby things and making them look girly.  Can't wait to put her in it!

Squirrels nest

The rest of the camping trip was equally as fun and amazing!  We went up to Helen, GA and stayed in Unicoi State Park.  Someone had found this spot with these fun platforms, so each family had one or two and it was perfect!  We brought an air mattress, of course, which made it even more perfect :)

We spent 3 days cooking over the fire (James did most of the cooking--delicious!), swimming in the lake, visiting the cute town of Helen, and hanging out with friends.  After the initial frustration of hauling all our stuff up there and despite the pretty intense heat, it really was a perfect, relaxing, enjoyable trip.  The best part was hanging out with Ethie and James, of course!

We took a hike up to Anna Ruby Falls, which was quite gorgeous...

Being over 8 months pregnant, everyone kept asking if I was going to have my baby.  But actually, I felt great and I think it was good for me to be active and distracted! 

Ethie made a friend the minute we got there and they were buddies the whole time.  It was so cute and I was so glad he was getting along so well with someone!  Here's Ethie and Erick, Adam and Eve's little boy...

And the rest of the kids. Ethan was in heaven!

Saturday morning we went tubing, which was something we'd been looking forward to.  It was so hot the whole time and I couldn't wait to just relax down the river.  However, tubes are NOT comfortable when you're 8 months pregnant!  I was so squashed and the river was SO crowded and trying to keep everyone together was almost impossible unless you tied yourselves together.  So that's what we ended up doing and it was fine, although we don't know that we will do it again!

We also went to a model train museum in Helen with a replica of a German town and I think that was one of James' favorite spots...  Pretty amazing!

Overall, so much fun to spend time as a family and with good friends in beautiful nature!!!

Spiderman

To help our little guy celebrate his big 5, we went camping!  Actually, we had already planned to go camping with a group of friends months ago, but since we got there on his birthday, we decided to celebrate there!  It was perfect!  Since he is basically obsessed with anything superhero, he picked a spiderman theme and we went with it.  James spent DAYS creating the most "freaking awesome" spiderman pinata (Ethan's words)...

 It really was quite amazing and I wish we could have kept it! But after finding the perfect tree (we were surrounded by trees, but they were all so tall!), we let Ethie and the other cute kids go at it.  Here's Ethie man in his spiderman mask and glove...

Pinatas are so much fun when you're a kid!  I had made chocolate spiderman cupcakes at Ethie's request, but they all were pretty much melted by the time we got to eat them.  Notice how sweaty these kids are.  It was SO hot!

I love this face!  Hope you got your wish, Ethie-man!!!

That morning, James and I decorated the apartment and when Ethie woke up, we gave him his big present... a big boy bike!  He had pretty much outgrown his other one since he is so tall.  He's so grown up! 

Happy birthday, Ethie-man!!!