Week Long Baby Shower

Over the past week, many of my best friends and family members showered me with gifts from a distance during a "Long Distance Baby Shower" orchestrated by my best friend Johanna. I tried to capture the love in this photo with the gifts spread across our coffee table. The week started with flowers from my best friends on Saturday, followed by fun gifts to open each day of the week from people all over the country. One of the most memorable gifts came from my sister, Whitney, in Washington, D.C. ... she sent a baby MP3 player with the note, "I thought the MP3 player was crucial - we must expose baby Trip to Beyonce at a young age!" (J would definitely agree!).

The week of surprises was such a blessing and I am so grateful for everyone's generosity!

Baby "Bump"

I put "bump" in quotations because I have far outgrown the term! This is my 36 week and 4 day picture ... almost 37 weeks, which is considered full term. Our little boy should be here any day now!

Nursery Progress

Below are some shots of the nursery in progress.

Above the crib are naval flags that represent Trip's initials (HJKIII). This idea, and the inspiration for the entire nursery, came from a book that J's friend John gave us when we found out we were having a boy called "The Dangerous Book for Boys."

(Changing table)


(Guest bed from Ikea - day bed that pulls out into a full and has storage drawers below ... those have not yet been assembled)


(closet)

Fun Projects!

I'm not sure exactly how I'm going to use these pictures in the baby's room yet, but thought I'd share some of my vision. The top group of pictures below are of me with my parents as a baby (top row) and of J with his parents as a baby (bottom row). Once I have some pictures of J and I with Trip, I will add those to the grouping.

The pictures framed below are of some photos I posted previously from our 30 week maternity photo shoot. I'm not sure where I will hang these either.

Nursery Progress

Several people have asked that I post pictures of the nursery ... assuming that it is finished with only 4 weeks of my pregnancy left. I thought I'd humor everyone by showing you how far we still have to go! Above is a picture of J last night putting together the twin daybed we got at IKEA. You can see the crib to the right with blankets piled on top of it. As many of you know, it is fairly typical for us to wait until the last minute to get things done.

Rock-A-Bye Jack

J and I thought we'd continue the theme of testing out our baby items with our dogs ... above is Jack in the bassinet we were graciously given at our baby shower last weekend in Houston. I am proud to say that I put the entire thing together myself! (In the picture above, it is not quite finished yet)

A Dog's Life

After yesterday, I feel like I can relate a little more to our dogs ...

As I was getting ready to run a few errands, I went to take the dogs to the back yard and shut the door behind me so that they could not run back in. Typically, this isn't a problem because we always lock the door at the top lock and not at the handle ... but that was not the case for J yesterday morning when he left the house. I went to let myself back in, and realized I was locked out with no purse or cell phone, but luckily wearing shoes and a bra!

I had just talked to J 30 minutes prior and I knew he would not be able to get home for at least 2 more hours because that is how far away his current project is. So, I settled in to the back yard to spend some quality time with Jack and Mia. Things that worked in my favor ... the weather was beautiful, I had a chair to sit in, a blanket to keep me warm and the dogs to keep me company.

Two and a half hours later, with still no J in sight, I realized that my car was unlocked. With no keys to drive anywhere, this didn't do me a whole lot of good. But I decided to go through some old magazines in my trunk, which helped to pass the time.

Finally, at around 5:30, J got home! After 3 and a half hours locked out of the house, I had to jump in the truck with him and race to our "Baby Care" class at the hospital looking like a homeless person.