The stockings are hung by the chimney with care...

We started (and finished!) our Christmas decorating yesterday. We decided that as much as we'd like to have a tree up for our first Christmas in the new house, we didn't want to be those people that still had a tree up at Easter or beyond! We kept it simple instead and got out only a few decorations that will be easy to put away after baby's arrival. Of course, we put our stockings up... just in case Santa has a few small items to drop off here!

We also put up a holy family centerpiece. As you can see, it has a calming effect on even the wildest of of cats making Azrael want to be good during the holiday season.

And what holiday would be complete without some manly cars? So far, the cats have left these undisturbed... a Christmas miracle indeed!

Today we will do a little holiday baking as I have a feeling Baby Bubb loves Christmas cookies!

Too much turkey?

I've had several requests for photos of what I look like now, so I thought it was time to post one. No, the bulge is not from a very large Thanksgiving dinner... it is Baby Bubb at just over 34 weeks! And although it has become harder to put on socks and cut my toenails, I still feel really good and am able to get around quite comfortably for the most part. However, I think Aaron will agree that I can no longer sneak behind him in the kitchen - there is always inadvertent contact!

We've made progress on our to do list over the past week, but most of it doesn't really show well in pictures. We picked up a few more cloth diapers and now have enough to cover our little guy or gal when the time comes. We also have what we believe to be all the supplies we'll need on hand at that time. We also packed a bag for the hospital... not that we're planning on using it, but the Boy Scout motto is "Be Prepared" after all. We also started reading our car seat instructions. The hope is that we'll finish reading and installing that sometime over the next several days. I think we're still on pace to wrap everything up by the end of this month. Only a few days left now!!

The High Life

We now have seating for 9 in our dining room! And although the high chair won't get a lot of use right away, this was on Aaron's list to complete before Baby Bubb arrives. It's probably better that we complete tasks involving complex instructions and allen wrenches before we are sleep deprived and unable to comprehend the basic English in which the instructions are written. And I have to admit... for a high chair, this one is pretty stylish, so I don't mind having it out already!

Why don't all towels come with hoods?

As part of our preparations for baby, we've done plenty of laundry. For some reason, it seems that ALL baby clothes are cute, just because they are so much smaller than regular clothes. It's kind of like the small cans of soda or the mini cookies - being tiny just makes things adorable.

Today's photo shows the place where our guest towels used to hang, now replaced with hooded towels to wrap up Baby Bubb. Not to worry, guests. The regular sized towels are nearby in the vanity. We also hung up one super cute ducky robe, also intended for baby, but I suppose if it fits any of our guests, they are welcome to it as well!

Some Assembly Required

This weekend we continued to check items off our to-do list. We are halfway through our childbirth classes and we got brave and started assembling some of the items that we received at our baby shower. Although I've heard tales of how complex it can be to assemble basic child care items, we managed to complete two different products. The baby bouncer, shown above with my handsome assistant, and the travel play yard shown below (neither assistant was available for that shot as the box that it came in was far more interesting by this time).

The play yard was more complex to assemble, but it wasn't too bad and it seems like it will be very handy when the baby first arrives (it has a bassinet) in addition to when we're traveling. That's two more items of the list... but there are still more items on the list than off of it. We'll continue to work on those things with the hope of being done by the end of November. Good thing we have a few weeks left!

Getting Closer

After a fantastic baby shower last weekend, we had plenty of chores to keep us busy this weekend. We didn't manage to get any of the baby toys or pack and play assembled, but we did manage to get two loads of baby laundry done so we could start to put items away in the nursery. Believe it or not, there is still another load of laundry to do, but I ran out of steam yesterday. Who would have thought all those tiny things could take up so much space in the washer and dryer?!?!?

In addition to the nursery work, we also picked all of the carrots out of our garden. It turns out there were plenty more than we anticipated. I guess Aaron is going to have to learn to love carrots! We also got our storm window onto the front door and did a few other related winterizing chores. It wasn't warm out yesterday, but we figured it was only going to get colder as the days move into November, so we got as much done as we could. And this morning as we both took a little longer getting out of bed, it was quite noticeable to both of us just how much we managed to do over the weekend!