found!

my camera cord

has been hiding for weeks!

and i finally found it today

in the guest bathroom cabinet....

???

who knows

anyway, so i can finally

post some pictures

of recent weeks.

firstly, the most

mind-blowingly

amazing concert

i've ever been to:

U2.

us at the show, it was outside.

(sidenote: ipod guy behind me spilled his beer alllll over me, then pretended he never realized it. lovely.)

the set was just, insanely phenominal!

so huge!

it takes 8 days to set it up,

and 100 semi-trucks to

bring it all in.

we had my family over

for halloween.

we live in a great neighborhood

with tons of kids so

we thought it'd be fun to

give out candy

and take my nephew around.

my parents made fabulous

caramel apples

the doggies dressed up.

(don't judge, it was hilarious)

we carved pumpkins

before. isn't that a huge pumpkin?!

here are all our pumpkins out on the porch.

this one is mine.

we took kohen trick or treating,

he was a safari guy in a jeep.

SO cute! he was a huge hit.

Cassie is a genius and made

his costume in one morning!

kohen skyped with auntie annie

so she could see his costume.

it was a grand time!

i can't wait for next

halloween when sawyer

will be here!

i'm sure he'll be so

cute in his tiny costume!

only 15 weeks to go! agh!!

these are the days of endless dreaming

i'm helping plan

one of the rooms

at our church's fall festival.

it's pretty crazy involved...

they really go all out

for this thing.

it makes me excited

to have my own kid(s?)

to take to a carnival

someday.

speaking of kids,

we made our first

baby purchase this weekend.

we bought a crib!

i had no idea how

complicated cribs could be!

i thought i knew which one i wanted

till we got to the store

and the lady started telling me

how "this one is a 9-in-1 crib!

it turns into 18 different kinds of beds

and eventually becomes a queen size bed!"

and plus they all come in

4 or 5 different shades of wood.

and it was quite overwhelming.

it's realllly hard for me to make

purchasing decisions anyway

without adding in 43 more options...

i mean, it's a baby bed!

i won't bore you with details,

but after an hour and a half

we made it out of the store

with the mother of all cribs.

and by that i mean,

brown and sturdy,

and has a matching

changing table.

plus after some successful

craigslist-ing on my part,

we ended up saving almost $200!

we are totally excited to

convert my office into a nursery

over the christmas break.

i finally chose fabrics to make

the bedding, it is going to be

so cute! i'll show you some

pictures as that goes along.

i also drew up the mural

i'm going to paint on the

wall behind the crib.

i'm pretty excited.

sawyer is going to love his room!

i think cassie,

my sister in law,

is going to go with me

sometime soon to do our

baby registries!

she is due 3 weeks after me

with their 2nd baby, also a boy!

3 boys in 2 years,

whew! my mom is going to be

so tired ;)

we met with and hired

our doula also this week.

she is awesome!

and i'm totally excited

that she's going to help

us make our baby's

grand entrance amazing.

i'm just really excited!

(i'm sure you couldn't tell)

well i think cate is up

from her nap.

so i'll be going.

happy last week of

october!

(can you believe it?!)

what a week

things have been

a little

crazy.

i got a job,

just for the rest

of this year.

being a nanny.

it's been in the

works for a while

and it's all turned

out nicely!

my sister

came to visit,

(taken from my phone)

which was

wonderful.

lots of

family time.

(everyone hanging out at my brother and sis-in-law's house)

lots of rain.

lots of those

tiny snails that

somehow

keep getting in my

back door.

(yuck)

our U2 concert

turned into a

trip to the emergency room.

it was terrifying,

and harrowing,

and the #1 scariest

event of my life.

however,

everything and everyone

(baby and i)

is OK.

i have for you

at last a

"baby bump"

picture that has

been requested

so you can all see

how huge we're getting:

22 weeks along!

i'll leave you

with this quote

from ann kiemel.

(if you haven't read her books,

you should.

right now)

"I love the word impossible

because my God believes in adventure,

and extraordinary mountains,

and He dares to believe in a world

crawling with terrible situations.

He promises to be bigger

than any impossibility

because He is love...

and love always finds a way through,

in time.

love isn't scared.

it builds bridges instead of walls.

it never gives up.

it always hangs on.

it waits with stubborn hope,

strong hope,

sometimes even years".

the name game

my husband is  named

after his grandfather,

as is his father. 

so when we discovered

we are going to have

a son, the question

of course, was

do we name him

Robert Stephen  the 4th

or not?

the only thing about

keeping it going

is what we would call him.

because Rob goes by Rob,

and his dad goes by Steve,

so that's pretty much all the options...

Then we remembered that

his gradfather's middle name wasn't 

stephen, it was just 

the middle initial S.

So really, we could come up with

a new name that starts with S 

and call him that!

that would still count

 as Robert S. the 4th.

so that's what we did.

so ladies and gentlemen,

our son's name is:

Robert Sawyer.

we'll cal him sawyer,

and i guess so will you!

on a different

but just as exciting note,

we both felt him move

yesterday for the

first time!

it was so crazy, i had

just been telling my mom 

yesterday morning we

hadn't felt him move at all

and i didn't know if that

was normal or not

at 21 weeks...

and then last night we were 

sitting on the couch, 

watching tv and

all of a sudden,

he just started kicking around!

i grabbed rob's hand and 

put it on my stomach and 

he said oh my gosh!!

it was very exciting,

and also very weird.

i still can't believe it,

but i also cannot wait!

i went to a consignment shop

called kid 2 kid,

you can get tons of 

great hardly used stuff

for next to nothing!

i was just going to look,

but then of course,

i just can't get over how 

tiny they are!

well, i promise

that not every post

will be about the baby,

but lately, 

other than throwing up,

it's what's going on!

so there you have it :)

oh boy oh boy!

it's a boy!

there he is!

in all his

boy-ish glory

somehow i

was just really sure

it would be a girl,

and i think rob was too.

so we were shocked 

when the sono-tech

said it was a boy!

i couldn't quite

grasp it at first...

but now, of course,

we are so excited!

we had each decided

on the first thing

we wanted to buy

the baby after we found

out what it was.

so right after we found out,

we bought him his first shoes

(my idea, and they are SO cute!)

and his first comic book

(rob's idea. spiderman ;) )

so now we

are getting used to

the idea of 

having a son.

wow,

a son...

3 more days!!

we find out the

he-she business

about our baby

on friday

and i am

so so so

excited!

i can't 

even stand it!

a lot of people

have tried 

to convince me to

let it be a 

surprise.

they had

some really good points,

and i was almost

convinced.

but i just

have to know!!

i want to start

calling baby 

by it's name,

instead of baby or it!

and, if you know me

at all,

you know how

i will have the

nursery decor 

planned out and 

since i'm going to be making

the bedding myself,

i'll need some time!

plus i've never 

been good at waiting,

i'm pretty impatient.

i admit it.

i have to know!

so in just a few 

short days,

we'll know,

and then you'll know!

everyone has a very 

definite feeling on 

which it will be:

my dad is completely sure 

it's a girl,

rob is completely sure

it's a boy..

someone is 

completely wrong.. ;)

so now's the time

to place your "bets".

BOY?

GIRL?

what do you think?!?

Mom!

Happy Birthday, Mom!!

You are the best, 

smartest, most beautiful 

woman I know!

I love you!