34 Weeks!

I figured it's been a while since our last post, so this one's a conglomeration of updates on life since the last post...

First, I'm officially 34 weeks and 1 day today. I had an appointment yesterday and everything seems to continue to be fine. Honestly, I don't have many complaints. I think he's starting to run out of room in there, though, so he finds my ribs a lot more frequently... Here's a picture of the belly as of now:

Second, we finished our guest room (which Shane now lovingly refers to as the mother-in-law suite). It's a little small, but we hope it will make our guests feel welcome:

Shane and Tom started our winter lawn last week. Don't know what a winter lawn is? Neither did I until I moved here. You see, the grass that somehow survives the summer months can't stand the "cold" of Arizona winter...so you mow down your summer lawn to the dirt and spread winter grass seed over the yard. A few days later, it begins to sprout. Ours is still a little patchy in spots, but it's fun to see how fast the grass grows.

The temperature stayed in the 60s all day today! This is a welcome break from the 90+ degree weather we've been having this month. We slept with our window open a crack last night and the room got down to 73 degrees without the AC kicking on! I celebrated today by wearing a short-sleeved dress...and smiling to myself at all the people in sweatshirts and coats. It's nice to not be hot all the time for a change!

I only have 3.5 more weeks until I go on my leave. It's crazy to think that's all I have left. Luckily I've ended up on fairly smooth running projects so I think I should be able to tie up all my loose ends and go on a real, uninterrupted leave!

Hmm...that's everything I can think of for updates as of now. It seems like all our time and energy currently goes toward preparing for this baby in some way, so sorry if the blog has gotten a littly baby-centric. That's all for now!

The Nursery...

I'm in blogging catch-up mode today (see below for the fruits of my last 1.5 hours of labor!). Here is the much-promised nursery post. My poor mother has been waiting for these pictures for over a week!

Shane recently undertook quite a project, which involved rearranging over half of our house. You see, we wanted to move the office into our room, the guest room into the former office, and then use the former guest room as the baby's room. Sounds fairly simple, except the process has been very gradual so portions of our house have been very disorganized for quite some time. But things are finally coming together, thanks to a pretty hard deadline we have to make...

I did my best to document the before and after, but the room is quite small and the hallway is pretty tight so my picture-taking range is limited.

Here is my attempt at a panoramic view of the room before (and our awesome handymen):





The transformation included hanging a chair rail around the room, casing the window, replacing the carpet, installing a closet system, and painting the walls. And, here's the final result (well, almost final)...





Looking at the pictures, I realized that I didn't quite get the same all-around coverage... Shane has the camera today with the Scouts so I can't re-take them, but the areas not shown are currently bare (thus my "almost final" comment above).

All of our furniture was purchased on craigslist for awesome prices thanks to Shane's diligence, and I love how they all ended up going together nicely.

Here's a few extra details of the crib and bedding...




...and some of the dresser. We bought it from a girl who was about 30 and has had it in her bedroom since she was born. Apparently her parents bought it from an antique shop in anticipation of her birth...so we're not sure how old it is. I love the lion pulls and the wood beading around the mirror...and that it's the perfect size for the room!



The room is baby-ready, but we'd like to install a light/ceiling fan (currently all light comes from a plug that is wired to the light switch), get a little bookcase for the empty wall, and hang a few things on the upper walls to make it feel complete.

We're so excited to welcome this room's new occupant!

Vacation Recap

This time a month ago, I'm pretty sure we were lounging on the beach in Oceanside, CA... And now, a month later I'm finally getting around to posting about it! {Disclaimer: This post is LONG! It's mostly pictures, but consider yourself warned...}

To celebrate my mom's birthday, we decided to gather as a family in Oceanside for a week. We took advantage of the Labor Day weekend to get the most out of our vacation days and ended up having over a week of relaxation and fun, which included...

...catching up with cousins...

...celebrating Mom's birthday (a couple weeks early)...

...morning tennis matches (check out our professional form! Jessie played too but wasn't around for the photographed match) and playground playing...

...a trip to Sea World...




...playing (and lounging) at the pool...




...a deep-sea fishing trip for the boys...



...the Oceanside Sunset Market (yummy food, good music, and a tiny guitar for V)...



...lots of playing and relaxing on the beach...

V loved the sand...

...even all over her face...



...and I think baby R has a future of sand loving too!

...a family sand castle competition. People voted as they passed, I'm pretty sure it ended in a tie...




...and no trip to the beach is complete without burying someone in the sand (you can thank Shane for my awesome apparel)...

...Jared learned the ropes of kite flying from Uncle Bryan...

...plenty of playing in the ocean...

...lots of playing with the kids...



...and TONS of family picture attempts (look closely, one may appear in your mailbox as this year's Richards Family Christmas card)...

Overall, it was a wonderful time to relax and catch up with family...and I'm pretty sure we're already working on a plan for another trip in 2 years!

Sorry for the long post, there was just SO much to document. If you made it this far, congrats!