April 20.

This year because of a ridiculous holiday in Washington D.C. tax deadlines were pushed back until April 19.  Brian’s company gives him the day after tax season off each year.  Thus April 20 was a little holiday for our family!  The day was beautiful so we drove up the gorge, hiked around a bit, and hid a picnic lunch with a great view.  We love the gorge! 

Here we are at Crown Point overlooking the gorge:

                                                                            

And here we are at the top of the Bridal Veil Falls hike:

                                    

And this is where we had our picnic—overlooking the Columbia River (the other side of the river is Washington):

                      

And a belly shot (at around 34.5 weeks):

Let the countdown begin!

On Sunday Brian had the idea to make a countdown chain for our little girl’s arrival.  We would really like her to be born June 1 or later, but she is due May 28, so we made it 31 days in hopes that she’ll stay in at least that long!  Here’s why:  About 10 months ago, we signed up for a baby package insurance plan that will give us money after our baby is born…If we have the baby 10 months after enrolling.  Great idea, huh?  Well, it would have been great if we got pregnant just a few days later…  So now we are hoping she won’t be born until about 4 days after her due date.

Here’s the chain hanging in the (almost done!) nursery:

 

Only 28 more days!

My taxing husband.

You know you’re married to an accountant when he walks through the door at 7 p.m.the week before April 15th and you scream your head off and almost have a heart attack because you think someone is breaking into your home.  That’s what happened tonight.  It ended up being quite the delightful surprise after I got my heart rate to go down a bit. 

March Madness!

Brian entered a March Madness pool at work.  I think he put like 5 or 10 dollars into the pool, but I don’t know because he never tells me when he spends money frivolously…so why do I feel the urge to tell him?  Anyway…he WON!  I don’t even know who won the final game, or any of the games really, but apparently he did, and I couldn’t be happier!  Yay Brian!  Yay for March Madness!  And a big yay for $170!  Woot woot! 

30!

I turned 30 yesterday!  I think I’m going to like being 30—though it seems like a long time to have been alive, a lot of people still think I’m much younger—take, for example, the sales person the other day who knocked on my door and asked if either of my parents were home!  And realage.com which ages me at 21.6!  Not bad!  Anyway, it should be a pretty great year because I’m having a baby girl this year!  We just couldn’t be more excited!

Brian made the day just about as perfect as could be.  He came home at 6:00 p.m. instead of much later like he has been.  And he came home with flowers!  They’re beautiful!  We went to dinner at Chevy’s—I love Mexican food and I love Chevy’s salsa—I could seriously drink it!  I had some of the yummiest veggie fajitas.  They even sang happy birthday to me and gave me a very stylish sombrero. 

To top it all off Brian surprised me with a chandelier for the nursery!  I have really been wanting one, but it was a hard one to justify when you aren’t super rich.  I found one that I loved, that matched the nursery perfectly, and was even a reasonable price, but never thought I would actually get it!  Thank you, Brian!  I love, love, love it! 

33 weeks!

I wish I had taken more pictures of this baby girl  bump.  The last I took I think was at 20 weeks and I wasn’t showing tons.  Right after that picture I popped out, and now I am huge!  I’m pretty sure I was this big when I delivered Clark.  And I still have 7 weeks to go… 

I’m feeling so much better!  I’m walking or doing yoga every day and trying to get my body ready for a healthy and productive labor and delivery.  I’m happy to be back to a plant-based diet.  I feel strong and have plenty of energy.  The hardest thing has been sleeping at night—my darn hips are getting super sore.  I’m so looking forward to being able to sleep on my tummy again! 

Things are coming together in the nursery!  In his spare time (which is super limited right now because of tax season) Brian has been busy building a beautiful shelf for the nursery (pictures to come soon!).  He also installed hanging rods in the nursery closet and is planning on building closet shelves soon.

I’m starting to realize that I know very little about motherhood and infants.  Like, I probably should have signed up for a breastfeeding class, but the classes are all full and now I can’t.  And I was hoping to take a hypnobirthing class, but they are like $300 so I need to read the book, but I really haven’t.  And I need to learn how to swaddle.  And I need to read How to Solve Your Child’s Sleep Problems, but haven’t.  And Happiest Baby on the Block.  And those are just the things I thought of in like 2 seconds.  What about everything else?  I’m sure hoping my mom will be able to make it right after the baby is born!  Any advise from you mothers out there?

Fairfield!

Brian is in the midst of a busy tax season, so he sent me home to see my parents for a week!  I did my first-ever solo road trip.  I borrowed my in-laws car while they were in Hawaii—so generous of them to let me use it!  I don’t think my car would have made it much further than Salem.  I listened to books on tape and had a few snacks and made it through the mountain passes without any problem.  I got there last Saturday evening and ended up staying through Sunday morning.  I had such a great time with my parents!

Of course my mom and I worked on projects while I was there—we just aren’t the sit-around and chat kind of family—we like to be doing something while we chat!  I came with a few projects in mind—burp cloths and baby tag blankets.  While I was working on burp cloths (they took me much longer than they should have) my mom worked on the little baby blankets and even made me a darling car seat cover. 

I used the tutorial from one of my favorite blogs and they turned out great!  I used cotton on the front and a very soft terry cloth on the back.  When I picked out the fabric I originally had pink terry cloth and some really pretty pink fabrics for the front, but when I talked to my mom she wondered if I should get something a little more gender neutral so I don’t have to make another set for when I have a boy.  After how long these took me I’m really glad I went with gender neutral colors!  From one yard of terry cloth I was able to make 13 burp cloths. 

 

I decided to make 4 little tag blankets, hoping that she’ll like them enough to become attached to them instead of large blankets/quilts.  We used plush pink raised dotted fabric for the front and pink satin for the back with an assortment of different sized/texture/colored ribbons around.  They are about 14 x14 inches big.  I love how they turned out!  Thanks Mom!