A change of perspective

So weird...

One day, not so long ago, he was on the inside

And now he's on the outside

Hope you like your new perspective Baby W

It's about time...

I know, I know. I have been quite remiss in posting.
I have an excuse, and he is keeping me quite busy.
Somehow, finishing my planned posts about the two wonderful October baby showers I had, or the post about the finally-finished nursery, have taken a back seat, and now all I want to do is post pictures of my son.
However, that would not be fair to you, my faithful followers.
Please know that those posts will be coming, so please continue to wait patiently (do you really have a choice?).
And in the meantime, enjoy these few sneak-peak photos from the photoshoot I did with my new little son last week.

The Last "Hurrah"

Last weekend, like many couples who are about to experience a forever-life-change like having a baby, the hubby and I went on a "babymoon" (note: though I thought this word was well-incorporated into society, appaprently not, because dictionary.com did not have the word, hence urban dictionary.) (sidenote: I am referring to definition # 1, certainly not #2 :)  Unlike many couples, our destination was the exciting and exotic town of Elkhorn, WI. Never heard of it? Calm down, your geography isn't that bad, when viewed on a map, it's probably about as big as the period at the end of this sentence. Anywho, we decided to find a good deal on a decent hotel and find fun things in the area. So, Saturday afternoon we checked out Royal Oak Orchard and were very impressed with the place over all. Over 12,000 apple trees folks - I don't know a lot about farming, but that seems like a lot of trees to me!



Of course, what would an apple orchard be without profuse amounts of mums, a huge pumpkin patch, endless amounts and a millions varieties of apples and a tractor-pulled wagon to take you to the trees

a live blue-grass band performance

A petting zoo

And a heart-warming supply of the most amazing apple cider donuts?

(Try to ignore my hugely pregnant nose and face in this pic, ugh!)

 It bears saying that we enjoyed, oh, about six of said donuts, slowly sipping a cup of hot cider while sitting in front of a roaring fire in the big apple barn feeling the crisp breeze on our backs beautifully contrasting with the warm flames on our faces. It was an amazing little life moment, a memory you just want to capture and remember so that you can pull it out later to savor and enjoy, perhaps during the dead of winter, or in the dog days of summer. Yes, a memory I wanted to capture so badly I couldn't even bother to snap a photo of it. Sorry - I was too busy enjoying my cider and donuts.

So after the apple orchard, we had a lovely and relaxing afternoon fooling around in our hotel room (taking silly pictures, get your mind out of the gutter. Besides, have you ever BEEN 37 weeks pregnant??) 

went out to dinner, did some major hot-tubbing and some more relaxing.

Next day, we had a loveley time exploring Lake Geneva on a wonderfully crips, blue-sky autumn day. Had fun drooling over houses and snapping photos as we walked around the lake path.

All in all, it was a wonderful little weekend get-away. While we are both very excited to meet this baby, we both are experiencing a bit of the "ambivalence of pregnancy" that my old nursing school textbooks described - excited beyond belief, but also afraid of the change, and a bit sentimental about it never againg being 'just the two of us'. Ah well, it's too late now, so we need to just hang on to our hats! Speaking of not feeling ready for change, as I sit here typing this at 3:30am trying to determine whether or not I am in labor, my darling cat Sam is perched on my stomache (which is finally similar to a shelf), hanging onto my neck for dear life, trying to get as close to my face as he can. He must sense that change is coming...hope he's hanging onto his hat as well!

Babies Babies

I recently had a much-needed and long-time-in-the-planning get-together with some friends/former coworkers. We met at, yes, you guessed it, one of my favorite Chicago gems, and had a lovely lunch. Six of the eight of us had babies, so it was definitely a bit of a baby-fest. Luckily, our group fit right in at this yuppie hot spot.
Check out these adorable new mommas and their adorable little babes

Note: Not all babies are pictured with their moms...who can't resist cuddling with an adorable newborn?

Anyways - all that baby action made me very excited and very nervous all at the same time :) I'm heading for a big life change, that's for sure.



Change is in the air

 Thanks to my mother-in-law, who's always wearing her bargain goggles, we recently obtained a gorgeous dining room set for a very wonderful price. We brought it to good ole' dad's woodshop and spent a few evenings re-sanding, staining and finishing. The other night, it finally found it's way into its new home, our dining room. Seeing such a lovely piece of furniture in our house (undoubtedly the nicest that we own), I was inspired to find the fall decorations (which consisted of actually begging my husband to crawl up into our dusty attic and dig out the bin and lug it down) and after an evening of unwrapping old friends , ironing, arranging, lighting candles, and rearranging, voila, autumn had fallen upon our household.

Just slipped this in because I changed the runner and loved how it looked - yet another change. Change is good.


And a few shots by the light of day next morning

Welcome Fall, once again.

Of course, other change is in the air too, though not well-evidenced by these photos:
Baby and me at 32 weeks

Baby and me at 35 weeks (my wonderful, yet brutally honest sister says she can't tell a difference between now and 2 months ago :)

Well, work on the nursery has finally picked up speed, and we are starting to have more and more baby gear finding its way into our home...it's hard to believe, but change really is in the air, and in 4.5 weeks, our lives will change forever. We can never go back. And I'm desperately hoping and believing we won't want to.

One baby gift to rule them all...

In honor of football season...
If this is not a most excellent and worthy baby gift, I don't know what is:

Thanks to our great neighbors Brian and DeAnn and Brianne for this great gift!
Go Packers!!!
A note to future baby J:
When it comes to football, your mommy and Opa are ALWAYS right, your daddy and Uncle John and Auntie Trina are ALWAYS wrong!!

A lovely baby shower...

My lovely sisters and dear friends threw me a beautiful baby shower disguised as an afternoon tea party last week. Everything was perfect, from the gorgeous flower arrangements,

to the delicate vintage tea cups and saucers lining the table,

and the perfect little favors, hand-made with special California-imported treats!

to the hand-frosted iced sugar cubes, (which may well have been the most expensive item there.)

There were delicious scones, tea sandwiches, petit fours muffins and pastries, which tasted even better than they looked! (hard to believe, I know!)

Most excitingly, I was so blessed by all my dear friends who came, some who came all the way out from MI or MN just to celebrate with me!

 Everyone in attendance commented that the place looked like it belonged in a magazine article detailing how to throw the perfect tea party, which is always a high compliment. I got many wonderful gifts, and simply didn't have time to take pictures of all of them, but had so much fun combing over them again that night as I showed them to Kyle, and then again the next day as I tried to picture my own little cute (hopefully), bald (probably), chubby (definitely) baby utilizing them in the not-so-distant future.

If any of you know me well (or read by blog regularly), you know I love me a good tea party and this was the mother of them all. A HUGE thank you to my frriends and sisters who arranged this lovely afternoon and all of my friends for giving up their Saturday afternoon to join us.

 I, Kyle, and the growing baby inside of me are incredibly grateful for this shower of love, celebration and affection.