Happy Halloween!

Before anyone asks, nope... I'm not dressing up this year. No pregnant nun costumes or orange paint on my belly to make it look like a pumpkin. LOL Yesterday at church, we got to see lots of cuties dressed in their costumes. They listened to a Halloween story... ie. All Saints Day, All Hallo's Eve, etc. and then got lots of candy. Father Ron then started hurling handfuls of candy to the parishoners, too. It was hilarious to see candy flying through the air at church! Josh and I's favorite costume was this little cow sitting in front of us. She was about 2 years old and adorable! I can't wait to dress our little guy up next year!!

Tonight, I'll be passing out candy to our trick-or-treaters. We get SO many kids... I've run out of candy the last two years. I'd estimate that we get about 350-400 kids that come to our house! It's crazy... but, lots of fun. We picked up a booklet of 10 "free Wendy's frosties" and I'm going to give the certificates out to the 10 best costumes I see. Hopefully, Josh will make it home in time to help.

Sophie got this Halloween bandana from the two gay guys who watch our dogs at the boarding place (Yes, they like to dress our dogs up, LOL). I thought I'd take her picture in it b/c she likes it so much. But, Otto got jealous and wanted his pic taken, too (He was not a fan of the bandana which makes me think that he ate his at the boarder's and that's why he didn't have one to come home in.). Hope you all have a fun Halloween!

Week 35

Onto Week 35 today! Isaac and I are doing well. He's been pretty active for being so cramped. I can tell he's growing because I feel ready to explode. It's a lot harder for me to walk and get around now and sleeping is still a major issue some nights. I go for a doctor's appointment this Wednesday and will update you all then although I'm sure things are going just fine. I've been playing classical music for the baby since I was about 20 weeks pregnant and just in the last week, he started to strongly react to this one particular c.d. with kicks and pokes. It's so cool that he can recognize his favorite music in utero! He gets SO excited when I play it for him!

How your baby's growing: Your baby's getting big. He weighs a tad over 5 pounds and is just over 18 inches long. Because it's so snug in your womb, he isn't likely to be doing somersaults anymore, but the number of times he kicks should remain about the same. Most of his basic physical development is now complete — he'll spend the next few weeks putting on weight.

How your life's changing: Your uterus — now up under your ribs — has expanded to about 15 times its original volume, and you may feel like you've run out of room! If you could peek inside your uterus, you'd see that there's much less amniotic fluid and much more baby in there now. Your ballooning uterus is crowding your internal organs too, which is why you probably have to urinate more often and have heartburn and other digestive problems. If you don't have these problems, you're one of the lucky few (me: not lucky).

Come One, Come All... Please?

This is going to be an odd post... but, you know how everyone always says, "Let us know if you need anything!"? Well, we need some help. We seriously are in need of some woman/manpower before this baby is born. I am posting tonight to ask all of you... family and friends... if you could come help us out next Saturday or Sunday. There are some big jobs that need to be done around our house that I'm not allowed to do (strenuous lifting, bending over, long hours on feet). Josh works so hard and does as much as he can. But, he's been focusing so much on getting the baby's room done! These other jobs will just not get done without some help from others. We have one month left if we're lucky before our lives will change forever.

We need help with outside work, inside work, carrying items out to the shop or upstairs, organization work, etc. My list is a mile long! The big reason we are asking for help is because we currently have our downstairs bathroom torn apart waiting to be finished. Josh really wants to get back to work on that renovation so that our downstairs can be put back together before the baby. He can't work on the bathroom if he has to do all these smaller jobs first... otherwise, Isaac will be born and we still won't have a sink or any cabinets in the bathroom. Did I mention that our upstairs bathroom sink is broken, too? Oh, please help me. LOL

Anyway, you are welcome to stay overnight for the weekend if you live out of town. We can't pay you for your labor, but we will feed you and thank you over and over again for your help! Let us know if you can help sometime next weekend... give us a call or email us. You don't have to work your butts off all weekend for us... just a couple hours one day would be wonderful!

A Very Cold Construction Day

Today, Josh is working on finishing up Isaac's changing table... he was set back a bit with our two weekends out of town. He's back on track, though and today, he'll be building the drawers, filling holes, sanding, priming, and painting the table (at least one coat). This morning, it was 29 degrees when I let the dogs outside at 8:30 a.m. We had a pretty good frost on the grass... brr! It seems that winter and baby time is quickly approaching us whether we are ready or not! Before we know it, we'll be getting snow (gulp).

A Poll

It's getting closer to my due date! Officially, I am still due December 5th. However, at the last ultrasound, Isaac's measurements put my due date at November 30th. The doctors believe our baby will be a big boy and that he will come earlier rather than later. Who truly knows, though? Only Isaac! As background, my mom went early with all of her children... and generally, most babies are not born on their actual due date. I will be going for a doctor's appointment next Wednesday and then weekly until I deliver. They'll be monitoring my progress and we should be able to get a better guess soon.

While we are anxiously waiting, I've created a web poll for all of you to guess when you think the baby will be born. Go HERE and in the purple box on the left hand side where it asks for the game name, type in WelcomeIsaac (no space in between). It's really easy! You put in your name, who you are (aunt, cousin, friend, etc.)... and then pick a gender (Please be a boy!), weight, length, birth date and time for the baby. There won't be any huge cash prize or anything if you're the winner. But, it's still fun to guess and you can claim that you were right and everyone else was wrong if you win! LOL Good luck... your guess is as good as mine!

The Girls

Last weekend, we got to spend lots of time with our three adorable nieces: Rachel (2), Isabella (15 months), and Aveline (6 months). I thought I'd share a few pictures of the girls!

Rachel
Isabella
Aveline
Rachel and Izzy had tons of fun playing together... running and squealing through the house. Aveline is just the cutest, happiest baby... always with a smile.













An attempt to get all three together in one picture... LOLIt's hard to believe that the next time all the kiddos will be together, our little guy will be part of the pack! We also have to add our 4th niece to the mix, Cheyanna. She'll be a week old this Saturday (She was born the day of my baby shower)!

At Last... The Bedding

We also received the big kahuna of baby gifts on Saturday... Isaac's crib bedding! Josh's mom made the baby a quilt, a set of bumper pads, and a crib ruffle for the baby. The artsy nerd in me sent her fabric scraps and paint chip samples so that she could match the quilt to the nursery. I've been waiting SO patiently to see the masterpieces. She did an AMAZING job and we love the bedding set! We're happy she threw in some pink *just in case* and also because it truly makes the nursery unisex for further kiddos. We plan to hang the quilt above the crib. Josh will be making a quilt hanger this weekend and I'll paint it in colors to match the room. Thank you so much, Mom! Lots of pictures to share below!!Can you tell I like it? LOLAs a second bedding set, we have this adorable sun, moon, and star comforter set in white, yellow, blue, and pink. We also have lots of celestial-themed crib sheets.

A Very Special Gift

At our baby shower on Saturday, we received a homemade quilt from Josh's Grandma Fraizer. She makes a quilt for each and every grandchild of her's and they have a pretty big family... amazing! We absolutely love Isaac's quilt and it will be proudly displayed in his nursery. The pattern she used is called "Bear Paw" because when Josh was little, she used to call him her "Big Teddy Bear." Thanks so much, Grandma Fraizer! Isaac will love the family heirloom from his great-grandma.

Our Second Baby Shower

I have TONS of pictures to share from our baby shower held at Josh's sister Heather's home in Findlay last weekend. Huge hugs and big thank-you's to Josh's mom, sisters Heather & Sarah, stepmom Brenda, stepsis Kelly, and sister-in-law Kristi for hosting the event. The decorations, games, and food were all wonderful!

This shower was much bigger than the first with more people in a tighter space... there were about 30 guests there along with misc. husbands and children. I'm amazed that we fit that many people in Heather's home! I'd post pics of every single guest, but that would take forever. So, I'll just post a few of my favorite snapshots (sorry if you're left out!). THANK YOU all for coming and for the wonderful baby gifts! We are almost 100% ready for our little guy now thanks to your generosity! We received Isaac's convertible carseat, 2 Diaper Champs, our crib bedding, a homemade quilt, a set of 20 Baby Einstein DVDS, some cute toys, tons of adorable clothing, and lots of other great gifts (way too many to list!). Thank you all SO MUCH for making the day so special!!

The Crib Is UP!

Last week, Josh assembled Isaac's crib (with minimal help from Sophie and I). I'll post bedding pics later this week with the adorable quilted bedding Josh's mom made for us. The dogs insisted on being in the nursery while the crib was being assembled. Soph tried napping and then decided instead to act as Josh's assistant/supervisor.