Slowly but surely...

... we're fixing this place up!! During my baby shower, Chris managed to surprise me by taking the nasty shower door off our bathtub and hung up our new curved shower curtain! A few days later, he replaced the shower fixtures AND our kitchen faucet!! He never ceases to amaze me!! Not only did I marry the most amazing, wonderful man in the world... he's one heck of a handy man!! I am SO blessed!!

He even scraped out the old mildew and put in all new caulking!!

Well deserved rest after a long day's work!! HOWEVER, he did not earn brownie points for putting Gracie under the covers on my side... and MY pillow. Punk. Gracie knew she was in the wrong... but luckily for her, I knew she wasn't the mastermind behind this one!

Birthday boy!

Chris turned 28 today! His birthday fell on a Monday, and Labor Day, so it was nice that it fell on a day off for us to play! We slept in until 10:30 am or so, got ready and jumped in the car, headed to Pt. Townsend... with a quick stop at Frugal's for a birthday burger! We didn't have any actual plans for the day, so when we got to Pt. Townsend, we walked around a bit in the rain and then continued on. We drove through Port Hadlock, Port Ludlow, stopped and walked around the bunkers at Ft. Worden and eventually ended up in Silverdale where we picked up a car seat!! YEAH!! I feel better now, because if baby decides to come early, we can atleast take him home from the hospital now!! :-) He doesn't have a place to sleep in his room yet, but that will come soon enough! Anyway, after some shopping, we had a yummy dinner at the Silver City Brewery and then headed back to Port Angeles. We got back early enough for me to still make his birthday cake and we semi-watched the movie Star Trek, while both playing on our computers! It was a great day... it doesn't take much to make us happy, as long as we're together, we're good!! :-) I think we're both relishing in any one-on-one time that we have, because once Baby C comes, life is going to change big time... for the good, of course... but it's definitely going to change!!

Gracie made the trip with us, too! She needs her quality time, too, before Baby C arrives!!

Our new car seat!!

And I couldn't resist buying this warm, fuzzy sleeper for Baby C! It will be perfect for bringing him home from the hospital!!! I know I'll be getting stuff at my shower and such, but I wanted his "coming home" outfit to be something mommy picked out!! :-)

Ugh.

Tonight, Chris and I enjoyed dinner with the Hughes out at the lake! Normally, we would have had dinner on the deck of our cabin, but considering we were greeted with a swarm of bees, and a hive under the deck the size of Chris's fist, we were forced to move dinner down to the dock! It was quite enjoyable... until we had to ride home with a dog that had apparently rolled around in dead fish while we were eating. Lovely. And just when you thought it couldn't get worse... we stopped by Jack & Barbara's to say hi and visit with Jon & his friends... and Gracie managed to get in the kitty litter. Not sure what all she ate, and I don't really want to know... but between her kitty litter breath and her dead fish cologne... she was immediately dropped into the tub when we got home. Because that's what you want to do at 10:30 at night. Thanks for the memory Gracie... no need to repeat!!!

Week 33

33 weeks, 6 days - 8/22/10
(Almost missed our week 33 pic again! But got it in with one day to spare!)

Chris and Gracie felt like they needed some love, too!

Weekend with the Blackburns

Ana, Paul and the girls all came up for the weekend for Ana's 20th high school reunion. Ana and Paul had festivities during the evenings, which gave Chris and I good bonding time with Jayden and Alexis. Saturday, we spent some time over at Jack & Barbara's house, replacing the water heater that decided to bust while they were gone... but luckily Paul and Chris are handy and were able to get it fixed up in time for them to come home!! And after working at the house, we headed straight to the lake!!! We had gorgeous, 80 degree weather all weekend, so it was perfect lake weather!! Sunday, Chris had to leave for middle school camp after church, so he wasn't able to join us at the lake again (bummer), but Jon and his 2 friends made it back from hiking in time to bbq with us for dinner, so that was cool! Ana's friend Susie and her family also joined us on Sunday.

My Surprise Birthday Adventure

For my birthday, I came out of the bathroom to find a hand-picked bouquet from our own yard, a card and a pack of peanut M'n'M's... this man truly loves me!! After church, we enjoyed a yummy lunch with Jack & Barbara, as well as June, another friend from church. After lunch, Chris and I got home and he told me to get comfy, but still look nice... and that's all I got for clues! We changed, grabbed Gracie, jumped in the car and headed west. Our first stop was the Hoh Rain Forest... which I had never been to! It was a beautiful, scenic drive... perfect for a Sunday afternoon! We got out at a few places and walked around... but in the midst of a perfect day, our car window decided to drop, never to return to the closed position. It wasn't bad, since it was a nice day... but it did make for a cold drive home once the sun went down and we were on the highway! Birthday gift 2010... new window motor, yippee!! BUT... we didn't let it ruin our day!! After the rain forest, he took me to Kalaloch beach... the clouds were heavy, but it was still a gorgeous beach!!! We took a nice walk along the beach... it was a perfect date!!! We headed home and once we rolled into town, we stopped by our friends, the Coles, house to see their new baby!! She was a week old... and so tiny!! I can't believe that we will have one of those for our very own... very soon!!! :-)

He may be goofy... but I wouldn't change a thing. He's the love of my life!!!

Apparently, it's Gracie's turn to stick out her tongue. She really does admire her daddy!!

Again with the tongue... what is she doing?

Home Sweet Home!

Going through pregnancy away from my momma is difficult. I'm an emotional wreck as it is, and I want so badly to share this experience with her! SO... what did my fabulous husband do, he took me home! Usually we plan our KS trips out months in advance, but this time... it was about 6 days. We had been playing with the idea for awhile, but originally had August in mind. But when we found out that we had the dates for summer camp mixed up and it was actually the last week of July... and I already had the last week of June off for it, we decided to use that week in June for a KS trip. There was no way to get a week in July also, so I put in my resignation at work for the 20th, so I'd be free for camp, too!! God worked it all out quite beautifully!! :-) Plus August would have been a little iffy, not knowing how big I'd be or how I'd be feeling for a cross-country trip. SO... the end of June it was!! We left from Seattle, so we traveled through Montana this time, which was a nice change of scenery! And we took Gracie with us this time, so that helped us make sure we made plenty of stops for her and for me! My feet were a little swollen by the time we pulled into Hays, but they went back to normal by the next morning! I was so excited to see my folks and have my mom, especially, see my belly!! And yeah, Baby C cooperated right away and mom was able to feel him kick and move that first night!!

Mom and Dad both had to work the week that we were in town, so that gave Chris and I a chance to sleep in, relax in the morning, eat breakfast together on the back porch, spend time with Grandma and Grandpa, and take Jordan to the pool for some fun in the sun... all before the rest of the family got home from work!

Coolest baby gift EVER! The girls in mom & Krisson's office made this for me!

On Thursday, Matt, Steph and the boys made the trip to Hays for the day to visit! It was fun to see have the day to hang out! We all went to the pool to cool down from the heat, although, it still didn't feel all that hot to me. It was pretty mild for KS, being in the lower to mid 90's... but Chris AND Gracie thought it was too hot!!! Tiffany also came to town that evening, just in time for a BBQ with the fam, including Gma and Gpa!! Matt and Steph had to leave after the homeade ice cream, but Tiff was able to stay through Saturday morning!! :-)

Gracie was on clean-up duty! Ha!

I think Gpa misses having a dog around, he really enjoyed playing with Gracie!!

Saturday night we set up camp in Chris and Krisson's driveway and blew off some fireworks! This was the first year that the city allowed the BIG fireworks... usually it's too dry. But after the sound of all the sirens all night, I have the feeling they'll be outlawed again next year!! And with good reason... we lit the neighbors roof on fire! We had one land up there, but it blew out, so we assumed it was just the shell. However, about 10 minutes later, we noticed some small flames on their roof! It had re-ignited! Chaos broke out for a bit while folks were screaming for water and ladders and such... and it was pitch black, so it was pretty difficult to see things. But we eventually got the roof soaked and at that point, called it a night!!

Battle of the Bellies!

The camera flash makes it appear that there was light... but don't be fooled, it was pitch black!!

We started our long journey back to the NW, bright and early Sunday morning. And Chris granted my wish to go back through Vail, CO so we could get a new picture at our "proposal" spot... this time with the WHOLE family... Chris, me, Baby Cummings and Gracie!! It was a great spot for Gracie to play... and someday, Baby will love playing on the playground equipment as well!!

So tired that she had to lay down to drink her water! Ha!

Somewhere in Utah.. ghetto rest stop, but beautiful view point!

We ended up stopping outside of Salt Lake for dinner at Chili's and passed through SLC at dusk, so we were able to see some fireworks! My husband is a rockstar and made it all the way to Burley, ID where we stayed for the night and then headed off again early in the morning. We had to be in Seattle before 5pm to get the rental car back, and I had my doubts... but like I've said a million times, my husband is amazing!! We made it back to Seattle on time, even stopped at the mall for a bit, and made it back to Port Angeles in decent time to get a good night's rest before going to work in the morning. Going back to work was not fun... but there's light at the end of the tunnel... final date: July 20th!!!!!