Automobile Blues

I give up! We've been looking for new cars for about 2 weeks, and nothing comes easy for us these days! We decided to sell my car on its own, and had it sold within a week & 1/2...which is AWESOME.

We needed an upgrade - mine was a '97 Honda Accord, and we are hoping for a 'crossover' vehicle with either All Wheel Drive or 4-wheel. The top vehicle we are looking at is a Nissan Murano (a few years old, not '09). We have been working with someone who was going to an auction last week and knew our price range and what we were looking for. He was hoping to go to the auction himself and find a vehicle for us, but he wasn't able to. Soooo, someone else went for him and of course they came back with a Nissan Murano with lots of extra bells & whistles. We could finance the vehicle if we wanted to - but we are sticking to our budget we set forth.

Sooo, here I am without a vehicle. To top it off, we had a bit of a scare last week when Aaron's truck broke down on us...the NIGHT before we were delivering my car to its new owners, we got "stranded" on our way to our nephew's birthday party. We thought it was the transmission, which would have put a HUGE stand still on our basement plans and everything else we've been working on... but it wasn't that, it was just a sensor. Man - are we happy about that!

Thank goodness my parents own 3 vehicles, we borrowed my mom's car last week while Aaron's was in the shop, because we were down to ZERO vehicles! But, I delivered it back to my mom yesterday so here we are with one vehicle, and hoping to find a new car within the next few weeks (or tomorrow, that'd be nice too!). We just don't want to rush into a vehicle just because we are temporarily inconvenienced with having only one vehicle - WISH US LUCK!

Goodbye to my cute little car with awesome gas mileage :)

Don't Forget the Dads!

"Any man can be a Father, it takes a special person to be a Dad" ~Author Unknown

More often than not, this blog is about how I'm doing with the pregnancy, and the updates on our baby...but there's one special person in our family that doesn't get mentioned quite as often on here ---- Aaron. :)

I know I am biased, considering he's my husband - but he's so excited to be a daddy, and it is absolutely adorable! He has been so supportive through the pregnancy - and I know he's going to be a great dad!! When we first found out we were pregnant, Aaron was the one that went online and signed him & myself up for weekly emails that tell us about the growth/development of our baby and also what to expect being pregnant.

He's always asking questions & making sure that I'm doing okay - which is nothing too new, he's always been very attentive, but it's different now - its me & his child that he's being attentive too, it's very obvious that his mindset is about his growing family!

He's been working SOOOO hard on the basement and trying to get things ready for our new arrival - literally every single night that we are home and every weekend, he's downstairs. He's definitely getting pretty tired of all the work. I wish I could help him more, but I can only do so much! I know he wants to relax, but he keeps pushing through in order to get things done to a certain point before this little one decides to arrive.

The other day I showed him all of the items I got from the shower we had in Michigan - one item that I had registered for was one I knew Aaron wanted, which was a carrier for the baby. I knew he was going to be pretty excited about getting a carrier. Last night he took it out of the package and asked me to help him put it on. I didn't pay too much attention to it because I was busy working on something, but about an hour later, I realized he was just sitting on the couch, watching T.V. w/ the carrier on. Getting his practice I guess! I thought it was too cute that he was just sitting there, so I made him let me take his picture (it took a lot of begging, but finally he gave in). Anyway - here he is "practicing" being a daddy :)

"Why do you have to take my picture? What's the big deal?"

Anyway - I just thought I'd write about Aaron tonight instead of talking about much else. He's so excited for Little Poppy to arrive!! Love ya Aaron :)

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P.S. - he now thinks we are having a girl, he was pretty sure it was a boy at first, but not anymore. He's actually pretty good at predicting these things, so we'll see!!

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When a child is born, a father is born. A mother is born, too of course, but at least for her it's a gradual process. Body and soul, she has nine months to get used to what's happening. She becomes what's happening. But for even the best-prepared father, it happens all at once. On the other side of a plate-glass window, a nurse is holding up something roughly the size of a loaf of bread for him to see for the first time. ~Frederick Buechner

Our Trip to Michigan!

Every March Aaron & I travel to Michigan to visit his family. It's one out of three times in a year that we are guaranteed to make it to the U.P. (the other times are Christmas & 4th of July). We always go skiing while we are there this time of year...obviously this year I was not able to ski, but Aaron & the fam still got to go! I hung out with our niece Holly in the chalet for most of the day, but even Holly got her turn on some skis on the bunny hill!!

There is sooo much snow up there compared to here in Southern Minnesota! It's crazy :) I'm glad though, because everyone seemed to really enjoy skiing - as usual. Can't wait 'til I can get back on the slopes next year...and in a few years we'll get to teach Little Poppy how to ski! Soooo many fun times to look forward to with our baby :)

Aaron & I on the "slopes"

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Tina & Anthony :) He did such an awesome job skiing!

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The family - missing our nephew Brandon though! Holly, Anthony, Lowell, Alesha, Tina, Joel, Me, Jeffrey, Aaron, Ed & Tammy

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While we were in Michigan I also had my first baby shower! Aaron's sisters Tammy & Tina planned/hosted the shower. They did such a great job planning everything. Thanks TAmmy & Tina - I LOVE YOU GUYS!

Thanks also to Aaron's Auntie Di for having the shower at her house and making some of the food, to Jean/Paul (Aaron's mom/step-dad) for making the mastacolli's, Aaron's Auntie Sue & Auntie Vikki who also brought food. I'm sorry if there were others that brought food that I'm not thanking - please know that I'm thanking you even if you didnt' get mentioned :)

They did such an awesome job planning the shower - Tina & Tammy had the theme go along with the theme of Lil Poppy's nursery. Teals & browns...& stars :) LOVE IT! Aaron was laughing at me because when he drove me to his aunt's house & I saw the pink/blue balloons outside, I got a little teary-eyed! I'm such a sap!

The cake @ the shower :)

Aaron's mom & me @ the shower

Holly was my little helper w/ the presents!

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"Daddy Rocks" onesie

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Aaron's cousin's wife Amy found this awesome poem that she framed for me. I'll end by sharing that:

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These Last Few Hours

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It is important to me that I spend part of the next few hours here alone with you in the darkness. You and I will never be this close again. By morning you will be a tiny person all your own, no longer the kicking, demanding bulge in my body that I have grown to love so well. I pray God will safely guide you on your journey tonight.

Again you signal your impatience to be free. Time to wake your daddy.

----Dee Dee Mc Coll

Third Trimester

Say what??!!! We officially enter the 3rd trimester tomorrow - CRAZY! I feel like these last 6 months have flown by. Aaron might not agree with me on that - but I think since he's been busy with the basement...the months are starting to go a lot quicker for him too :)

Lately as I think about entering the 3rd trimester, I've been a bit sentimental about it. Not sure if that is just my hormones kicking in or not - you never know with me because I'm sentimental about things all the time - pregnancy or not! The realization of how much of a miracle each and every child is becomes more present with me each day...it absolutely amazes me! To think that there is a little baby growing inside of me - AMAZING! I can already tell that nothing can top parenthood :)

I had my glucose screening today to check for gestational diabetes and another regular check up. Ugh, that stuff you have to drink is NASTY! I had to choke it down! We'll know if everything is okay tomorrow as far as the screening goes...but the rest of the appointment went great. We actually got to see Little Poppy today! No pictures though, just a quick glance. I don't feel LP move very often...I'm sure some of you know the "10 times within 2 hours" test you are supposed to do...anyway, since I don't feel LP that often, she wanted to check things out. Little P looks nice in cozy in there! No concerns...the baby moved at least 5 or so times while we were watching, but I didn't feel any of them! I think (as well as my doctor) that it is because my placenta is on the front, so it cushions those movements more than normal!

Dont forget to check out Aaron's work on the basement & Little Poppy's room theme...I posted on those last Thursday and just wanted to make people knew to check those out!

Drew Vincent Kelley!

Vote for Drew!

Our nephew Drew is in the Rochester Post Bulletin's cutest baby contest - the winner gets a $500 savings bond...gotta start planning for college!!! Drew is also Aaron and my Godson, we love this kid sooo much!

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For those of you who are near or far but do not know of anyone else in the contest, would you vote for Drew? PLEASE!! He's pretty dang cute - he'll be 1 years old on March 29th!

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All you have to do is go to www.postbulletin.com/baby & he is #394. You just enter in your email address and his number :) Voting ends Wednesday, March 4.

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THANKS FOR YOUR HELP!!!