4 years!

When Brad and I started dating June 28, 1999, I thought it would be a summer fling. He would be returning to OSU in the fall, and I on to finish my senior year of high school. Little did I know then that just 3 short months later I would be head over heels for him. It only took him 5 1/2 years to propose (he patiently waited - I not so patiently - while I tranfered colleges & switched majors a few times) and we married under his parents beautiful oak tree just shy of our 7 year dating anniversary. I feel lucky we've already gotten to spend 11 years together. Can't wait to see what the next 11 bring!

mom's 65th & father's day weekend

Friday night cookout with friends...sister-in-law, nieces & nephews home for the summer from China (my brother Scott soon to join!)...Saturday 65th birthday dinner for mom...Sunday brunch at Brad's parent's complete with homemade peach french toast & homemade coffee cake then on to my parents for an afternoon cookout...makes me wish June will last forever!

glimpse of our weekend 6.11-6.13

nigeria vs. argentina...el rodeo for lunch...crocker park art festival...united states vs. england with friends...made in the 216 art exhibit...drinks & delicious apps at reddstone...serbia vs. ghana...errands & chores...germany vs. australia....blt's & watermelon...I <3 the world cup

24 weeks

23 weeks 4 days

Nothing too new to report here! We had an appointment with our midwife this morning and all is well. Brad was joking that everything about baby Hutch is "perfectly average" which is exactly what we want it to be right now! The heartrate was 142 and I'm measuring exactly on track for right around 24 weeks. I've really been enjoying feeling the baby more and more and Brad is patiently waiting to be able to feel something too!

We finally have a pretty uneventful weekend planned so I'm looking forward to being able to get some work done in the nursery. I have some new ideas that I want to try out in there, so hopefully they work out! I will of course post pictures once we've made some progress in there.

We only have a few weeks left of our Bradley birthing classes and I'll definitely be a little sad to have them go away. We've learned a great deal and I feel they've helped us grow closer as well as created a weekly time for us to focus on the baby and what's about to happen in just a few short months!

glimpse of our weekend

   

friday night grocery shopping yielding the surprise of our favorite ice cream now available at our grocery store...saturday spent watching our sweet nephew samuel...then on to supper club where we feasted on an array of vegetarian mexican dishes and were entertained by the the host's two dogs before they passed out on the couch together...sunday i woke up to a breakfast of cottage cheese & fresh peaches and egg & avocado sandwiches...sunday afternoon spent finishing our garden...love weekends like this...

woody's tree

great friends of ours gave us the idea (and a giftcard to a garden center) to plant something in honor of woody. since we currently rent, we decided to see if the park where we have our community garden would allow us to plant a tree there. our hope is to stay in lakewood when we buy a home since we so love this community, so this seemed like the best option. brad contacted the parks department and they were more than willing to let us plant woody's tree there. we chose a red maple (october glory to be exact) from their list of approved trees because according to brad, it would provide our children lots of helicopters to play with in the spring and would be so beautiful in the fall so we might always remember our faithful friend.

nursery update

We had a very productive weekend spent, among other things, finishing registering & painting the nursery. At the last second, I opted for a robin's egg blue-ish green, almost turquoise color rather than the lime green I had intended (to give you a better idea of what color it is, if you know my sister Jenna, it's her signature color). We're very happy with the way it turned out and we can't wait to finish putting the room together! Here's a peak at the nursery with the artwork my niece Madelyn made us for Christmas, I will post more once we get the furniture up!

I'm still feeling great and trying to take advantage of this time to prepare as much as possible for baby hutch. Brad can't quite understand what the rush is, but he's being a great sport and indulging me and all my ridiculous requests. I've really been feeling the baby more and more lately and look forward to the taps and waves of him/her swimming around in there. I've also realized that it's a really good thing we didn't find out what we're having, because if I knew I would be in big trouble buying clothes in preparation! While shopping for my cousin's baby shower (she's having a girl) I managed to find a few articles of baby girl clothing for myself (they were super on sale and absolutely adorable!). I justified it to Brad because 4 people have independantly told me they think I'm having a girl...so, based on how I'm carrying, do you have a guess?

21 weeks