New Poll on the Blog

At my diaper shower at school last Friday, all of my teacher friends wrote down their guesses of when Eli is going to make his big arrival (I posted a list of the dates they chose at the bottom). They decided that the winner should get to babysit Eli one afternoon :) Okay! That means Mommy can sleep and try to catch up on her ZZZ's.

I decided to post a poll on the blog and see what all of you think! I wish I could give you a whole calendar of choices between now and Nov. 3rd, but I had to narrow it down-before Nov. 3rd, on his due date, after Nov. 3rd. If you would like to get specific, then go post a comment (I love comments!) on this post. We'll see who gets the closest :) Now GO VOTE!!!

School Votes:
Sheila-October 17
Mrs. Polk-October 22
Angel-November 3
ZooZoo-October 31
Sondra-October 31
Rebekah-October 18
Robin-October 28
Sandy-October 27
Kimberly-October 26
Sarah-November 1
Ruth-November 2
Sue-November 5
Kate-October 20
Jeanie-October 26
Melissa-November 10 (we'll induce before this happens!!)
JoAnn-November 4
Mel-November 3
Monica-October 28
Barbie-November 7 (again, we'll induce before this happens!!)

36 Week Belly Shots

Sorry, I'm behind posting pictures of my growing baby bump (more like a basketball now!) These were taken when I was 36 weeks and 5 days. I'll post some of me at 37 weeks later on this week.

Eli's Door Hanger

Sarah, my good friend at work, asked when we first found out we were pregnant if she could do Eli's door hanger for the hospital. She is so creative and loves doing crafty art projects so I immediately said, "YES!" Last week, she asked me again if I still wanted her to make it for us. I let her know that I had everything ready to go-paint, canvas, ribbon, etc.-all I needed was a willing volunteer to paint it. I told Sarah what I wanted and she went over and beyond what I described! I am so happy with how it turned out! She did an unbelievable job and it is going to look GREAT hanging on his door at the hospital! I love it!!! Thank you, Sarah, for all your hard work. Maybe one day you and I can stay home, paint door hangers and signs together, and take care of our babies :) Wouldn't that be lovely?

Our Brand New Kitchen

Here are the pictures from our kitchen renovation. The only thing we haven't done is put the knobs and pulls on the doors and drawers. Other than that, the kitchen is complete! I love how it turned out!

Getting the Nursery Ready

Tonight was great! Nicki and Dan came over to help us get the nursery ready for Baby Eli. All I can say is thank God for wonderful friends! Josh and I would have been SO overwhelmed if we had had to do it all on our own. It's so nice to have someone who's been through it before help you. What lifesavers they were! I told Nicki that she had a tremendous gift...the gift of organization. That girl can organize, sort, label, and group! We got almost all of his clothes, toys, blankets, books, diapers, etc. put away and I am so happy. His room looks ready! We could actually bring him home from the hospital and I would be okay! Thank you, thank you, thank you, Nicki and Dan!

Dan got in trouble all night for looking at the camera instead of just acting natural.

Josh and Dan putting the crib together. Thanks again for the crib, Torri! We love it!

Putting on the changing pad cover.

Nicki and I putting the dust ruffle on the crib.

Hanging the valances on the windows. I was showing Josh how to fluff!

Josh hanging up Eli's clothes.

Dan looking at the camera again...

Dan acting natural while folding Eli's clothes

For those of you that have waited 9 long months to see the nursery, here you go. All we have left to do is hang his pictures on his walls to make the nursery officially complete, but I wanted to show you a preview. I'm too excited about the way the nursery looks to wait for the pictures to be hung on the walls!

Church Shower in Shreveport

This past weekend, Josh and I made our last out of town trip before Baby Eli comes. We traveled to Shreveport for another shower for Baby Eli. We got in late Friday night and had just enough time to visit with my parents before we both crashed. We did get to go see my Dad out in his workshop working on my nursery chair. He is reupholstering a rocking chair for me that has been in our family since 1905. My great-grandmother rocked her kids in it and it has been passed down from family member to family member since then. My mom rocked me in it and now I'll be able to rock Eli in it! Mom, Dad, and I actually bought material for the chair 3 years ago when we were in Alexandria. Even back then I knew that my nursery colors were going to be brown and blue. I also figured that I'd have a boy first! Once we found out we were pregnant, Mom got the material out and after looking at it again we decided to go with brown instead of blue. Since the walls in Eli's nursery are blue, we decided we needed a contrasting color. Josh and I found some pretty brown material in Natchez. The last time I was in Shreveport, I gave it to my Dad so he could start on the chair. Dad was able to finish it this weekend and Josh and I got to bring it home. My nursery is really starting to come together, which is good since Eli is due in 29 days! I can't wait to sit in that chair and rock my little boy, read stories to him, pray with him, feed him, and spend time with him. It's going to be a great bonding place for us!

Saturday, Josh and I woke up and I was starving! It's so funny because now that I'm pregnant I always wake up so hungry! Breakfast has definitely become MY most important meal of the day. While we were driving the night before, I got this great idea of going to eat at IHOP or Cracker Barrel early before my shower, which is what we ended up doing! We got dressed and decided to head into town to go eat at Cracker Barrel. I had a few errands I needed to run in town before the shower, so the two of us and my brother, Caleb, loaded up the car and headed into town. Breakfast was yummy! Once our bellies were full, we headed to Target, Best Buy, and Lowes. Pretty soon, it was time for me to go to my shower. Josh and Caleb dropped me off and went back home.

My shower was so much fun. My mom's friends from church hosted it for me and I had a wonderful time! We got to use the same house for my baby shower that we used for my wedding reception almost 7 years ago. Mom and all my hostesses did a wonderful job decorating and organizing the shower. I got to see so many people that I hadn't seen since I left Shreveport almost 10 years ago. WOW! I can't believe I've been gone that long! You don't realize how fast the time flies until you come back and find out that everyone has grown up and changed just like you. I have a few pictures from the shower, but I'm waiting on some from Nicki and my mom. They took a lot more pictures than I did, so I'll post those when I get them. I received so many wonderful gifts for Baby Eli. People have been so generous to us and we are both so very thankful. Josh jokes that we are going to have to buy another storage building just to house all the gifts! Seriously though, the outpouring of love that has been shown to us throughout this entire pregnancy has been mind blowing. We feel so blessed to have so many wonderful family members and friends!

Eli's gifts before they were unwrapped

The LSU diaper cake Caleb and Chelsea did for us. Geaux Tigers!

Shower Food

My cake that Mrs. Donni made. She also made the one from a couple of weeks ago.
She's one very talented lady! Thanks, Mrs. Donni!

Instead of cards, everyone gave me books instead. They wrote an inscription inside the books so Eli will know who gave it to him one day. Nicki told me about this idea and I mentioned it to Mom. Mom took the idea and ran with it! Now Eli already has a full board book library!

Mrs. Lisa was one of the ladies that organized this shower for me. Thank you!

Diapers, diapers, and more diapers!

One of the cute outfits I received for Eli.

This is Mrs. Carolyn "MamaC", her daughter Sunnie, and her granddaugther, Skye. A few of you know that I twirled baton growing up in Shreveport from 2nd grade until I graduated high school. Sunnie was my first baton teacher and when she left for college, Mrs. Carolyn took over. It was so good to see them again! She got the nickname "MamaC" from all the twirlers because she was like a surrogate mother to us during school, football games, and during camps.

The rest of the weekend went great. Saturday night after the shower Mom, Dad, Josh and I went downtown to the Red River Revel to listen to Edgar Winter. I had no idea who he was, but my Dad and Josh did. The concert was fun. Mom has some pictures of us there and I'll post those as soon as I get them from her. His band was amazing! They were very very talented musicians and Eli thought the entire concert was great. He seemed to move the most when Edgar Winter got out his keyboard/synthesizer and played that. Eli rolled all around during those solos! We may have a little rocker on our hands!

Before we left this afternoon, Dad put the finishing touches on the chair and then he and Josh loaded it in the car. It was weird saying goodbye to my parents this afternoon. I told them that the next time they see us will be when I'm in the hospital having Eli. How cool is that? These last couple of weeks have just flown by! My little boy is going to arrive very very soon!

35 Weeks

Life is finally being restored to its normal order. Last night Josh and I left the Palm Leaf B & B and returned to our long lost home. It was great! Vacations are nice, but when it's all said and done, nothing feels quite the same as your very own home. I came home yesterday afternoon and everything was a wreck inside my house. There were baby gifts scattered throughout all the rooms; pots, pans, dishes, and all other sorts of gadgets were still in the living room; dust was EVERYWHERE, and nothing was clean. Thankfully, my wonderful husband and mother-in-law decided to forego church--sorry, Dan-- and instead stay home and clean. What a relief! I would have been stressed out to the max, if I had been left on my own. It's not easy doing simple things like bending over, sitting, reaching, etc., anymore since I have this little boy inside me. I came home and I couldn't believe all that they had accomplished. My house looked and smelled so clean! I almost cried when I saw it! You're probably wanting to see pictures now that everything is completed, but I'm not quite ready to post just yet. I'll try to have the kitchen pictures up by next week and his nursery pictures are coming soon. My friend, Nicki, and I have already set aside a day next week to go through all his clothes and organize, organize, organize. She's an expert in that department! Once his nursery is complete-meaning I can walk right in and start using it-I'll post pictures. Sorry to keep you waiting a little longer, but you can do it!

On another note, today was the first of my weekly appointments with the doctor. Everything looks great. His heartbeat was still in the 140's and my measurements were right on target. Dr. Daigle said that I'm 1 cm dialated. I guess that's good considering I have 4 1/2 weeks left to go. WOW! When you say it like that, it doesn't seem long at all! I can't wait for my little blessing from heaven to arrive! This weekend, Josh and I are traveling to Shreveport for my church shower up there. I'm looking forward to seeing some people that I haven't seen in a long time. I know it's going to be a lot of fun. I'll post those pictures when I get back...probably before the kitchen ones! We have already received so many wonderful and incredible gifts. I am amazed at the generosity and kindness everyone has shown us. Thank you so much! We are blessed in more ways than we can count.

35 weeks pregnant