Naperville Tri 2012

This past weekend Ryan raced the Naperville Triatalon.  It's been a pretty light race year for us (and by us I totally mean him).  He's been so so busy working and building Fox River Millwork that there hasn't been much time to train....and racing without training isn't all that fun. 

Naperville is a super easy fun race for us since it's so close to home.  Ryan actually rode his bike to the race and Ellyn and I came along a little bit later, which was awesome for this tired momma!!  I've been exhausted lately...no matter how much sleep I get!

I guess this race has really exploded over the past few years.  Ry keeps all his bib numbers and writes his stats on them so last night he was looking back to see how he did over the years.  4 years ago when he raced there were just over 800 people in the race.  This year it topped 1,500!

Since Ry went ahead of us we didn't see him before the race.  Try sorting through all those people!  Everyone pretty much looks the same, but I was pretty sure Ry had a blue cap on and was wearing his yellow tri outfit.  Luckily I'd guessed right and was able to glimpse him as he ran into the water.  The good news is, once I can find him, I can usually follow him the rest of the race.  So, here he is coming out of the bike transition....

*Not such an exciting photo...sorry!

Now, here's the real story.  We have NEVER missed Ryan once we've found him in the race and made our way to the different view points.  We literally have always been able to catch a glimpse of him has he's passed, up until this race!  I mean...he's done Ironman races covering over 120 miles and we've found him.  But somehow during this silly, super fast race we missed him!!   Ellyn and I were hanging out at the bike in point and somehow we missed him.  We must have been chatting too much.  After seeing a ton of people that were WAY out of shape compared to Ryan we finally gave up on seeing him come through into transition and headed toward the finish to see if we could find him.

Low and behold, we found him coming out of the porta potty.  HA!  He wasn't even sweaty anymore, that's how far we missed him by.  Sorry babe!  No finish line pictures for this race!  My bad. 

We did get a few post race photos though.

And....one of the whole family (Sesame....I need you to hang out for one more week, we've got alot going on this week and then you are free to make your debut!)

And...for posterity's sake, here are Ry's race numbers:
Overall place: 105 (out of 1633)
Div place: 18 (out of 125)
Swim: 8:12
Bike: 38:00 (actually I blame Ry for missing him.  He told me it would take him an hour to do the bike so we DEFIANTLY weren't watching for him when he came through)
Run: 22:17
Total time: 1 hour 13 minutes (I love the short races!)

More photos from the shower

I promised you some more pictures from the shower last weekend so here they are.  Enjoy!!

First - my first babies deserve a little love these days! 

Lily hates to have her picture taken for some reason.  As soon as you call her name she turns her head away and hides her eyes.  I swear I can never get a good picture of her.  

S-dog on the other hand has no problem posing for a picture.

The only thing cuter than pictures of my two dogs is a picture of my new niece.  Kayden is the sweetest cutest baby ever (course ours isn't here yet to compare *smile).  I loved having the whole weekend to hang out with her and get to know her better.

I got TONS of gifts (thanks to everyone!!) but things like this homemade blanket always get special recognition from me. I know how much work goes into making things with your own hands.

Speaking of homemade things, my mom made me this AMAZING mobile for the nursery.  You all might remember that I had a origami mobile in the babies room from my baby room reveal photos but this one that mom made will go above the crib.  The origami one is hung above the diaper changing area.  Gotta have lots of pretty things to look at right??

Anyways, check this thing out.  I found one on Etsy and sent mom a link asking if she could make one for me.  Boy did she come through!  It's seriously amazing and I can only imagine how much work and time she put into it.  This little baby sure is loved before he/she even gets here.

I'll have to take another picture of the monkey and update this post for you.  I think he's my favorite (he's got a little red heart on his butt!).  I love the elephant too though....heck...I love them all!!

And, while everyone was together, we decided to grab a few family photos.  Ug, I should have photoshopped out my chubby arms, but that's alot of work, and I suppose wouldn't be true to life *smile. 

Three generations in one shot.  Can't wait til I've got one less baby in my belly and one more baby in my arms!! 

Finally, a little story that will make you all laugh.  I'm getting a little crazy over there these days.  Keep in mind, as I'm having the following conversation with Ryan I fully recognize how crazy I sound...literally while I was talking I knew it.  But I was freaking out and Ryan needed to know about it. 

Setting:  About 2 pm on day this week.  Ry's working on a tile job and I'm at work "working".
Me:  "Babe...I'm getting nervous.  We aren't ready for this baby."
Ryan:  "What do you mean, of course we are."
Me:  "No we aren't.  We don't even have a car seat yet, or wipes."
Ryan:  "It will be fine.  We can always get wipes after the baby is born."
Me:  "No we can't.  We will be stuck in the house forever!"
Ryan:  "We can always have someone stop at the store for us and get them."
Me:  "I don't even know how to make a list!!  I don't even know what I need."
Ryan:  "Babe, my grout is drying, I have to go back to work."

See, I know I sound crazy.  And, I know that we don't need wipes the moment we walk in the door.  And, I know that I won't be stuck in the house forever, but at the moment, I was in a panic and couldn't stop myself.  I feel bad for Ryan.  Just a few more weeks of crazy, and then the REAL craziness will happen.  I can't believe that in less than 4 weeks from now we will have a BABY!  Hanging out with Kayden really helped me to realize that I could do this and it would all be alright.

So, here's a quick shot of what I've been up to today.  Prepping for baby:

You know what those are??  If you guess cloth diapers you are right!  You'll be hard pressed to convince me that normal Pampers are cuter than these brightly colored butt covers.  We've got 12 of them (that I bought them new off Craigslist awhile back).  I still need at least 6 more but these 12 will get us started so I can see if I like it.  For anyone that cares, I decided to go with Bumgenius 4.0 AIO's.  That means all in ones, so its all you need in one piece.  Well, sort of, there are actually two pieces, the colorful covers you see here, and then the absorbent part that you slide into a pocket inside the cover.  I'll be sure to update you guys on how it's going once the baby gets here and we start using them but I'm excited to try them out. 

These diapers (plus the few extra I still need) should be all we need to get us through diapering years.  Yep, I wrote that right, 18ish diapers should be all we need!  The potential cost savings was 98% of my reason for deciding to try cloth.  The other 2% was fueled by the "cuteness" of cloth (I mean, how can you resist these bright colors??).  I won't beat myself up over my choice if this turns into an experiment that goes wrong and I hate washing them.  For the $200-$300 I'll invest on this project, I think it's totally worth it.

A party worthy of Pinterest!

This past weekend my sister and my mom hosted a baby shower in honor of our new little one.  The party they planned was amazing.  I can't believe the amount of work, time and LOVE they put into making me feel special.  I've got a ton of pictures to share with you all, but this post is dedicated to the little details that made this party special.

Here are a few shots of the table settings.  I'm SO mad I didn't get a picture of the plates.  They seriously took paper plates, hole punched the outside rim and used ribbon to thread a design into them...it was crazy!! 

Here's a closeup of those little fortune cookie things.  Remember them from when you were a kid?  You  numbers on the outside and somehow they predicted who you would marry, or how many kids you'd have, or what your husband would do for a living.  Well, for the shower, mom used them as the menus.  So, on the inside, when you opened the tab that said drinks, the drinks she'd made for the shower were listed there....same with lunch, appetizers etc.  SO CUTE (and painstakingly horrible to format and print, if I had to guess!).

Check out this sweets table...

Homemade cake pops....they were cherry flavored and SO yummy!!

This easy back oven was seriously amazing!  Mom made it from a copy paper box.  When I got home the night before and saw it sitting on the table I was sure she'd bought a kit to make it....but nope, made from scratch!  Crazy right??

This was the sign-in table, along with the shower gifts and the fabric basket. 

For those of you that have no idea why we'd have a basket of fabric I'll explain really quick.  I can't take credit for the idea.  I totally stole it from here, but I plan to copy what they've been doing.  So, each week I will take a picture of the baby with a white onsie on laying on a different piece of fabric.  Then, I will use photoshop to add on "1 week", "2 weeks" etc onto the onsie. I'll take a picture each week of the baby for an entire year, each time on a different piece of fabric.  Then, at the end of the year mom and I are going to turn the fabric swatches into a quilt for the baby.  It's sort of a project inside of a project. 

I'm super excited that we thought to include all of my friends into the fun though.  We asked that people bring a piece of fabric to contribute to the project.  Partly because I've got 52 weeks of fabric to buy, but mostly because this way each of the pieces really means something.  So, the Packers fabric for example, came from my dad, and the fish fabric in front there came from Andy. 

I'm so excited to start this project and I'll be blogging my way through it so you all can see how it's going.  I'll be back in the next few days with more baby shower photos for you!!

Getting the most of our last few "free" weekends

In around a month from now we will have a teeny tiny baby to show off to you all....but for now, we are enjoying the last few free weekends before the baby arrives.  Of course, our fur babies are still in tow!  This weekend is my second baby shower thrown by my mom and sister in Freeport.  I'm excited to share all the details with you in a few days but for now I figured I should finally blog about LAST weekend!  Sorry!  At least I've got some pictures for you all.

We spent last weekend at Koontz lake.  This summer has been crazy busy and we've really only been out to the lake one other time this year so it was nice to squeeze one more weekend at the lake in.

See how excited Ryan was to be at the lake!

We didn't do anything overly exciting....just hung out in the sun, ate too much food, and laughed alot.  We had a great time.

There's a belly shot for those of you that have been waiting for one.  I've been trying to stay BEHIND the camera these days as I feel like my belly isn't the only part of me to be growing.  Is it just me or does my face look chubby?  Ug!  5 more weeks!!

Rocky even got in on the fun this weekend:

Ha!  Our dogs would have NEVER sat still enough to go for a ride.  I was certain this would end in disaster but Rocky did a great job.  They went most of the way around the small section of the lake like this.

What do you think?  I think this looks like a Christmas photo to me guys!!

That's how we spent our weekend (albeit a little late).  How did you spend yours??

You've asked....you've waited....it's finally time for the Baby Room reveal!

Man, if I'd have known that you guys would be so excited to see what we did with the Baby's room I would have had a baby sooner.  I swear, it's the most requested post of all time.  Not sure what that says about my posts (smile) but I'll take it as a compliment.  (You guys enjoy those knitting posts too right??).

It's hard to say when the room is finally "done" but we've come leaps and bounds from where it started so here goes nothing.  We still need a few things, so use your imagination when things don't look completely done.  I'll probably do another update after all the showers and we've finally got everything in it's place, but for now, I wanted to share what we've got done so far.

Imagine a diaper changing pad inside that orange thing on the left, and a ton more books and toys on the book shelf.  Oh, and blinds on the window.  We accidentally bought ones that were too short.  Shoot!

That's the cute Chevron Baby blanket I knit for the baby.  One of the many baby projects I've completed so far.  Maybe I'll do a post with all those things later.

See...more photoshop action!  I've got a ways to go...but here's my first stab at a collage :O) So, here's the details on the artwork around the room:

• Family Rules art:  From TJ Maxx about 4 months ago
• Silly Baby Sayings:  Made by me inspired by art on Pinterest.  Since they are pretty small in the picture here are the sayings
• Red:  Crying is for Babies - other babies
• Blue: Nothing says you care - like a clean diaper
• Green: You're getting very sleepy
• Colorful Fabric Pendants: made by me
• Origami mobile:  hung above the dresser/diaper changing area (found here)  I thought about trying to make it myself, but decided it was WAY worth it to just buy!
• Fabric Owl - found this one online too for SUPER cheap.  Like less than 20 bucks!  I can't find the link though...sorry!

I love love love this crib.  Ry went back and forth about wanting to build the crib.  Of course I picked the hardest one.  On Sunday after thinking it over for awhile we decided it was probably better to just go ahead and fork over the dolla's and just buy the dang thing.  He's be so so busy these days, I'd rather have him hanging out with me, than in the garage building a crib.  So, 2 hours later, we had a brand new crib.  SO much faster than the 40+ hours it would have taken him to build one from scratch!

But...we did refinish this dresser ourselves.  I can't seem to find the "before" pictures I took of the dresser so I guess I'll have to do another post on that later.  SHOOT!  Well, imagine it a light color wood, with ugly hardware and put in the basement of the lake house for who knows how long.  We sanded it down, primed and painted it, added some colorful knobs, bought a new piece of glass for the top, and added a few hooks to the outside (for hanging the diaper laundry bags).  It turned out great!  The whole project probably cost us less than $100 so we sure saved some money here!

Oh, and that mirror above the dresser, that's one Ry made long long ago.  It used to be hung in our bedroom but we moved it in here and it fits perfectly!!

All in all, I love what we've got going on in here. I can't wait to add all the finishing touches.  I'll update it later as we get closer.  Shoot, in 8 to 10 weeks I'll have a little baby to model in here as well (probably in that rocking chair)!

Hope you guys like it! 

Baby Bump!

A few weeks back when we were at the Cabin we staged a little baby bump photo shoot.  I've been trying to teach myself how to use Photoshop so here goes nothing.  I hope you enjoy!!

Ry's hands look like like midget hands...I can't Photoshop that :O)

Couldn't resist getting one of the family!  We NEVER get pictures of us with both the dogs.  They are my first babies.  Fur babies that is!

Here comes the bride...

This past weekend we made our way to Indianapolis for our second of three weddings this year.  I sadly don't have ANY pictures of the bride and groom, but I do have a few of my main squeeze.  Let me explain a bit.  One of Ry's best friends from college, Brownie was back in the Midwest for a wedding.  Frank, the groom, knew that Ry would LOVE the chance to catch up with an old friend, so he invited us to be a part of his special day.  We are so grateful!  We haven't seen Brownie and his wife, Sarah, since their wedding nearly 3 and a half years ago!!  They live in San Diego, so the 3.5 hour drive to Indy was totally worth it.

Here's an updated baby belly shot for those of you that have been patiently waiting.  I love how this dress fits on me....you'll definitely see this one again in two weeks.  I'm 31 and a half weeks now, so that means in 8 to 10 weeks we should be welcoming a little one into the world.  It's getting close now!!

There's not much new to report on the baby front.  Things are going along pretty uneventfully.  I'm hungry for fruit, lemonade, ice cream and anything cold and sweet ALL of the time.  I've been trying to make sure I'm eating more fruit than ice cream though :O)  We are also in the middle of a heat wave these days.  I can't tell you the last time we saw temps below the 90's and most days the heat index is over 100.  I'm glad the air works both at home and at work!! 

I love this guy!  I had to include this one...it makes me laugh!!