Jane Margaret

Baby Jane arrived on Monday afternoon. She came in at 8 lb 1 oz and is 20 inches long. She is such a joy--I could just stare at her and be in awe of God's handiwork all day long. My recovery is going well overall. I tried to rush back into "normal" life a little too quickly and have been learning to take it easy so I can heal! Will is a wonderful big brother. He's a bit confused about everything, but overall is handling this change very well. He even gave Jane a kiss when we got home and is trying to be gentle :-)

Here are a few pictures of our expanding family. Thanks to everyone for their calls, emails and most of all for your prayers!

Birthday to come...

Well, as of now baby Jane isn't here yet. So, tomorrow is going to be the big day. It's so weird to have a planned date, but in a way it is kind of nice. We've been able to make preparations as much as we can. My parents have moved in with us to help with Will and to help me out once we bring Will home which is awesome, and we are so excited for what tomorrow will bring. Your prayers for a safe delivery, speedy recovery, and smooth transition are much appreciated.

In other news, John returned today from a fun trip to the US Open and had a blast watching an exciting day of golf yesterday at Torrey Pines. He ended up coming home on an earlier flight so we could spend more time together as a family today--our last day as a family of three! Here are some pictures of the weekend.

Will and Great Grandpa Mel

Playing in the pool

Brr!!

Gretch and Grandpa Mel

with Aunt Betsy & Uncle Bob

Bring on the pink!

It's now official: We're having a GIRL! We had an ultrasound today which was really neat at this stage since baby is so close to coming out. She looked right towards the screen and was sucking her thumb. She had chubby little cheeks too :-)
Also, here are a few pictures from this weekend:
Grandma Dorothy visiting from San Jose

Anniversary party for Grandpa Mel & Grandma Margaret

June showers

I usually don't mind rainy weather, but when you've got a busy toddler, it's tough to find things to do inside! Plus, I'm kind of being anal about germs right now because I don't want Will to get sick right before the baby arrives, so we're trying to avoid areas with a high density of snot-nosed kids when possible. For those of you who know Will, you know that everything goes into his mouth, so staying on top of sanitaion is virtually impossible. I just try to do my best :-)
Today we made play-doh and set up a fort inside which was great fun. The weather dried out a bit so we could go for a nice walk this evening in our new stroller (Thanks, Dirk and Nedra!!)
Not so sure about the play-doh...

Playing in our fort

I still can't believe that we will be a family of four so soon. I'm trying to prep Will in little ways for the change by, for example, making the bed time routine shorter since I won't be as available when baby comes. I used to rock him to sleep most nights mostly because I'm a sucker and love doing it. Because I know that this can't go on forever, I've started just giving him a bottle, singing him a song and putting him down awake, and he seems to be fine with this. I'm also trying to be better about giving him a consistent schedule, which has helped. We still have the binky and the bottle and I'm not even going to mess with these two things until baby has been around for a while. I sure love this little guy, he's going to be a wonderful brother.
Preggo picture taken a few days ago

Grandparents, ducks and torn-off finger nails

We had a full, family/friend packed weekend.
Friday night, we had a nice family dinner with my family and grandparents (forgot my camera, so mom--will you send me pics?).
Saturday we spent the day with the Painters at a Bellevue park feeding ducks (despite the rain). That evening we went to Renton's Family Fun Center which has batting cages, go carts, bumper boats, etc. About 15 minutes into our fun, Phil managed to get his finger nail torn off by a ball traveling 50 mph (good thing he didn't go for the 70 mph cage!) After liability waivers were signed, we managed to get him home in one piece and hopefully he's not in too much pain still.
Sunday, we spent the day with my grandparents again which was great fun and then had dinner with the Simon/Farley family.

Here are a few pics from our adventures:
Duck pond fun




Before Phil tore off his finger nail

With Great-Grandpa Mel

The Countdown begins...

We had a pretty low-key week which was nice. Christy took me out for a belated b-day and it was so great catching up with her after all her recent travels. Will missed John after spending so much time with him this past weekend. When he had to go back to work on Tuesday, Will roamed around the house saying "Dada? Dada?" throughout the day. It was so sweet and a little sad!
Dirk had his knee surgery and John went to visit him in the hospital yesterday, where he was in good spirits.
My grandparents just arrived from MN so we look forward to seeing lots of them this weekend.
All is well with baby in utero as far as we know. Baby is extremely active which is so fun for me-I love every movement, it's so awesome! I'm almost 37 weeks along which is very hard to believe. This pregnancy has absolutely flown by--partly because we're so busy with Will and partly because it's been pretty easy overall (thanks, baby). Since we're not sure on the gender, the nursery prep is pretty much on hold which is a little weird, but I did buy newborn diapers yesterday at Target--I forgot how small those things are.

At Heritage Park


Dancing to "Elmo's World"

Hansville

We just got back from a getaway to Hansville,WA where my parents have a little vacation house. Hansville is a peaceful town ~10 miles from Kingston, WA. It's always been nice to go there, but it's REALLY nice now that Will can enjoy the beach and we can all relax. We didn't expect to get such good weather, so the sunshine was much appreciated. Phil & Leah Painter joined us for one night, and then my Mom (who was home alone since my dad is on a fly fishing trip) came over on Saturday. Will of course had a blast with everyone. Hope to go again this summer after baby is born.

Here are a few pictures from our time:
Phil & Johnny canoeing off the dock

Olive enjoying herself

Fun at the beach




Lots of diaper time

On the ferry--love the facial expressions