A busy weekend (and a sneak peak!)

Finally, a weekend at home to catch up on general stuff. It has been busy so far and it's not over yet. We've been gone for the past two weekends so cleaning, laundry and yard work consumed a lot of our day. We took a field trip to Lowe's to pick up a few things and also continue our washer and dryer search. We're (ok, probably more me than Tim since I do all the laundry) in the market for a new one and I'm trying to figure out what I want. I know we'll be doing lots more laundry soon!! Oh and we did our homework on the car seat. Tim made sure it works in my truck so we're good to go.

Nothing too exciting going on. Thought those who haven't seen it would like to see a sneak peak picture of Eli. On May 29th, we had a 3d/4d ultrasound done at our doctor's office. It's so amazing what they can do now. We got to watch him for about a half hour and it still amazes me that a little boy is growing inside of me.

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend.

He's a cutie already!!

Car Seats - who knew?

Last night we had our car seat class at Rex Hospital. Who knew there was so much to know about the different types of car seats and how to put them in your vehicle? Infant seats, convertible seats, combination seats, boosters - wow. We were in class for an hour and 45 minutes and I wasn't bored! We have our infant seat so our goal for this week is to test fit it in my truck to make sure we know how to do it and that it fits before we throw the box out. I couldn't even remember in class what type of seat belt was in the middle of my back seat and I had no clue if I have the LATCH system or a tether anchor. They won't let us bring Eli home without a properly installed car seat so we'll know all of that for sure here soon!

Our first baby shower

This weekend my family held our first baby shower. It was so great to see some of my extended family that I haven't seen in forever. When you grow up and move out of town like I did, you miss out on a lot of the family gatherings. I'm usually only down for the major Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations and it's crazy at that time, so seeing my extended family was a treat and I'm very thankful that they stopped in. The shower started around 2pm and I declare I must have opened gifts for a solid hour and a half - the generosity was overwhelming. We owe everyone a HUGE thank you (I'll be working on thank you notes for a while!!). We received so many wonderful and thoughtful things that I can't even start to list them all. Elijah is going to be well taken care of, that's for sure. =)

Here are a few pictures from the day.

These are the shower girls who made it all possible. From left to right - Aunt Brenda, Grandma Starnes (it wouldn't be a shower without her punch), Me of course, Mom, and Aunt Valerie. Thank you all very much for everything you did. I had so much fun. 3 generations - Grandma, Me and Mom. This will the first Great-Grandchild and first Grandchild. Oh will he ever be spoiled!

Dad and Mom - Proud Grandparents-to-be!

Last but not least, Daddy-to-be stopped by to help load it all up! You know we pregnant girls aren't supposed to exert ourselves. =)

Congrats to our friend Cary....

Non-baby post right now....
Wanted to congratulate our friend Cary in Colorado on a fantastic Ironman yesterday. She did Ironman Coeur d'Alene (Idaho) in 11:29:30 - 6th place in her age group!! Right now I'm waiting to see if that will give her a qualifying spot for the big dance in Hawaii. Most of you know Cary and she is one of the most amazing endurance athletes I've ever seen. She is so committed and is always smiling. Not only is she a great athlete, she's a dear friend.

Congrats Cary - we're proud of you!!

30 week appointment...

This morning was my 30 week doctor's appointment (I'm actually 30 weeks and 3 days - not that it makes a difference!). This was quite an uneventful visit compared to the one two weeks ago where I did the 3 hour glucose tolerance test and then had to get a Rhogam shot. They took 7 vials of blood out of my arm at four different times and then I got the Rhogam shot in my hip. I felt like such a pin cushion!! The good news is that the glucose came back normal and I do NOT have gestational diabetes. Fortunately this time was the normal stuff - blood pressure, weight (they should let you do that naked - no one realizes how much cotton weighs) and checking on Eli. Today I measured 32 cm - so that would, in theory, put me a little ahead of schedule. I told the doctor that sometimes I can't tell what position he's in. Well, she started smushing around and couldn't tell herself! So - fun for me - to satisfy her curiousity, she did a quick ultrasound. No pictures were taken but we were able to see that he's head down, bottom on my right side and feet / hands together on the left. He was moving like crazy. When I left, all I could do was smile. Another sneak peak at our little boy and knowledge that he's doing great.

This afternoon we're off to my Mom's house for the weekend (aka "the farm"). My family is throwing a baby shower for us tomorrow. It will be nice to see some of my relatives that I haven't seen in a while and let them all see the Buddha Belly. =) There will most definitely be pictures and a full report when we get back.

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

And we have a glider!!!

Ok, so I'm probably too excited but Eli's room has pretty much been ready for almost two months except for a glider. I have been sleuthing over Craigslist for about 6-8 weeks to find something I really liked. Yeah, I could go buy something at the store but I wasn't quite sure what I wanted and how much I wanted to spend. Well, last night I found one on Craiglist that I really liked. Today I went to look at it and ended up bringing it home.

Took a few pictures of Eli's room so everyone can see the cute Under The Sea theme.

The new glider and his armoire.

Crib with sea creature mobile (notice the cute bubble border!).

Dresser and Eli's new ride (Bob stroller).

The starfish are keeping his seat warm.

Back to Little Switzerland

This weekend we went away on our "Baby Moon". Our 2 year anniversary is tomorrow so we went back to Little Switzerland, where we were married, to celebrate. We arrived Friday afternoon and ended up just bumming around - I think I took a 1-1/2 hour nap!! Isn't that what vacations are about?!

Saturday the weather wasn't very cooperative for Tim to ride his bike on the Blue Ridge Parkway (something we LOVE) so we, once again, bummed around together. It was quite nice. We took a little trip to Mount Mitchell early afternoon. We have done numerous hikes there and were engaged at the top of the (old) tower in October 2004. For those who don't know, they tore down the old tower this past fall to build a new accessible tower. We were very sad to hear about it - we heard too late to make one last trip to the top last Fall. We did walk around the top parking lot a bit this weekend and looked at the new design -unfortunately, the top top was blocked off for construction. We stopped at the entrance off of the Parkway for a few photo ops - Eli's first trip to the highest point East of the Mississippi.

Today, we hiked to Crabtree Falls. This was our 4th hike to the Falls. Tim very much enjoyed the hike this time because with Belle being 11 years old and me 7-1/2 months pregnant, it was a much more relaxed and leisurely pace than our past hikes. We got some great pictures of us (and Belle) at the waterfall and along the way. The uphills caused me to breathe a little heavier than normal but it was great to be out in nature and talk to Eli along the way. We anticipate next year's anniversary hike to the Falls to include Eli in a backpack carrier.

Oh the fun and adventures that await us all......