Just One Reason We Love the Fall

Spencer doesn't have class this week because of board reviews. Apparently he thought yesterday was a huge waste of time, so he ditched today. We had some errands to run, and also decided to visit Patterson's Farm for some fall fun and yummy treats.

We didn't get to pick apples when we went last year, so we were excited when we heard that the orchards across the street were open for picking. It only took us about 10 minutes to pick 6 lbs., and at less than $1.00/lb, we'll definitely be going back when these ones are gone!

Beautiful fall scenery + apples + kettlecorn + donuts = fun ride home.

Now I just need an awesome apple pie recipe!

Project #1: Complete

My ModPodge frames are finished and hung on the wall! Now we just need some pictures of our little girl to make it extra cute.

On a funny note, Spencer got a turn wearing the 35 pound "sympathy belly" at our Lamaze class on Monday. Unfortunately, the only picture I took was with my phone. The teacher always throws something on the floor and then makes the dads-to-be bend over and pick it up. I also made Spencer lay on his side and then roll to his other side, and the look on his face when he did that portrayed exactly how I feel every night :)

The Countdown

Here I am at 34 weeks. I can't believe I only have 6 weeks left! We are so excited for this little girl to come!

Sadly, I made another maternity clothes purchase. I was tired of looking WT in my other maternity jeans, which NEVER stayed up. I had them safety pinned in multiple places, but that blasted panel would still slide right down and be visible after taking about 5 steps. So note to self: invest in "secret fit belly" jeans (pictured above) from Motherhood Maternity when you need maternity pants. They're like a dream.

P.S. After I purchased said jeans, I needed to run to the grocery store. And since I didn't want to be pulling up my pants 50 times during that shopping trip, I totally changed into my new pair in my car in the mall parking lot!! Maybe I am a little WT after all.

Power Outage

A wind storm recently blew through our area, and like many of you, blew out our power right along with it. Our outage started on Sunday night at about 6:30pm, then thankfully ended this morning at 9:30am. I knew everything in our freezer would be ruined, so I opened it up today to pitch stuff in preparation for garbage day tomorrow. This is what I found when I opened the door:
Ha! I knew our meat would be bad, but I didn't even think about our nearly full bag of frozen rolls thawing, then rising to gigantic proportions!! Luckily, we didn't have much in there anyway, so we didn't have to throw away too much stuff.

A Preview

I've been keeping myself busy getting ready for this baby girl, and here's a little preview of the decor in various stages of completion.

As you can see, we more or less decided on a name. However, I have letters to do "Grace" too in case we change our minds.

Our changing table/dresser combo, which I started putting clothes into yesterday. After getting a huge bag of hand-me-down girl clothes from my sister, I sorted (usable vs. unuseable), washed, and folded 6 loads of laundry (ours + baby's)! I watched 3 entire movies while I did it all to make it less painful.

I'm still deciding where I want to hang these coat hangers I finished.

This frame arrangement is a work in progress, but I have big plans to make it super cute. Unfortunately, I'm having issues deciding what I really want to do. For example, keep them plain...

or Mod Podge some of them? Or maybe Mod Podge all of them? We'll see.

The best part of these crafts was totally the price. I knew I wanted to do the ModPodge letters of her name, but each letter is usually $2.99 at Jo-Ann Fabrics. I went to Michael's one day to compare prices, and found that they were pretty much the same. But then I hit the jackpot in a 90% off section, where I found pressed wood letters on sale for $0.16 each! So here's the breakdown:

• 6 pressed wood letters: $0.96
• 3 unfinished star coat hangers: $1.50
• 9 unfinished wood frames: $9.00
• Paper: about $3.00
• Paint: about $3.00
• Mod Podge: $5.00

Grand total = $22.46. It will probably be more like $30 when all is said and done, but I'm feeling pretty proud of myself for that.

Oh, and I don't want to forget... my friend Hatsuho taught me how to spice up burp cloths, so I made a few at her house one afternoon. Now our little one can puke on us in style.

30 Weeks

Here I am, gettin' all huge. I promise there really is a separation between my chest and my belly... shirts just aren't very good at showing it. The fact that I have 10 weeks left is kind of crazy to me (i.e. I'm not excited to get 10 weeks bigger, but very happy to have a few more months to prepare), so I'm just trying to focus on taking it week by week. Time always seems to go faster that way.

In reality, my biggest complaint isn't that bending over is difficult, or that I wake up about 5 times every night because I'm uncomfortable. It's that I'm supremely jealous my husband gets to play volleyball this year and I don't.

The dresser/changing table we ordered for the nursery arrived on Friday, so I put it together last night while Spencer "studied"* for a test he has on Monday. I have a few crafty ideas up my sleeve for decor in there as well, so I'll be sure to post ample pictures when it's done.

*Note: "Studied" in this sentence actually refers to playing computer games while procrastinating work that needed to be done, and is not to be confused with actual studying. We are both pretty good at doing this.

Clarke's Visit

Spencer's brother Clarke came to visit us this past weekend while his wife and kids were in Utah. We had a great time playing lots of games with him and showing him around Cleveland. We drove downtown and took a tour of the USS Cod, a Navy submarine from WWII that's docked in Lake Erie.

Getting ready to go below deck. Clarke thought it was really funny that Spencer wore his Navy shirt that day.

The sleeping quarters were insanely small. I can't imagine living on one of these for very long.

One of the huge guns on deck. Spencer side moved us left and right, and mine moved the gun up and down.

On Saturday, we went to Kirtland to see the church sites. It was a really good experience, and especially neat to do it so soon after Palmyra so we could put all of the history together.

Here we are just after our tour of the Kirtland Temple.

We had a great time with you Clarke- thanks for coming to see us!