Happy due date to me...

Well, today is the big day! But not so big after all. We went to church, ran some errands, and so on...no baby yet! He's moving around a lot and clearly quite happy where he is for the time being. Perhaps tomorrow being Labor Day will get him going!

Yesterday we decided to do something fun...a friend gave us a gift of money to go out and have a date together before baby comes. It was a beautiful day, so we went canoeing on the Ipswich River. We saw turtles, geese, an egret, and some other funny bird that we don't know the name of! The turtles are our favorites but they are too quick to get pictures of.

This would be a beautiful place to go in a few weeks when all the leaves are changing but we will be a little busy by then!

I had my last day at work on Thursday and am now on maternity leave, so hopefully the little guy doesn't wait too much longer to make his big debut. Although at this point, every day he waits is one more day to get some sleep, so I'm trying to look on the bright side!

No baby yet...

But we did just celebrate our 5th anniversary on August 16th!

We had a lot planned but I ended up with a nasty head cold, so we slept in till noon instead of going out for the day. But that was pretty nice too! We ended up going into the city in the afternoon for a free oldies concert at the hatch shell with our friends Tammy and David. Tammy had lots of yummy treats, of course, and it was a beautiful day by the river. On Sunday, it was really hot! We spent some time at the waterfront festival in Stage Fort Park and added a few shells and some coral to our collection, from our favorite vendor that we always visit each year at the festival. Oh, and stopped on the way home for ice cream, of course!

This weekend has been beautiful too...we spent time outside with friends, walking around town, rock climbing (Jonathan, not me!) and having a few last BBQ's before baby comes. Still no signs of impending labor...looks like he'll come when he's good and ready and not a minute sooner! This is my last week at work and then I'll be focusing all my energies on convincing this little guy to join the rest of us out here.

Here are some more of our beautiful flowers - my morning glories are finally blooming and we get fresh zinnias every week from the farm where we get our veggie share.

Mommy brain and maternity pics!

So that last post probably should have said that we had another BABY shower, not another bridal shower. I'm not sure it's good that the mommy brain has already kicked in - although perhaps that means he's on his way very soon!

My friends Elizabeth and Kari from church threw a lovely shower at Kari's house...it was a great time to catch up with a lot of ladies that I don't often get a chance to sit down and talk to. And the food was wonderful (and mostly gluten-free, hooray!). I am so blessed to have helpful friends and moms all around me in this time. We got some beautiful and special gifts too!

A few weeks ago our friend Lisa, who is a photography student and due with a baby boy just a few weeks after us, came to Old Garden Beach in Rockport to take some maternity pictures of us. She is so talented! We had a lot of fun and we love having these beatiful reminders of this time in our life.

We also have the baby's room pretty much as done as it's going to get for now. He's going to be sleeping in our room for a while, but we have lots of his things ready to go in the other room - special blankies people have knit for us, the rocking chair that Daddy fixed up from a yard sale, all the posters and things Grampy and Nana helped put up at their last visit, stuffed animals from when Jonathan and I were little and from family and friends, the little toys Auntie Jarah made...wow! The room looks so much nicer since Auntie Rose and Catherine came and cleaned up the icky mold that had developed in this crazy wet summer weather.

Hopefully our next post will be the big announcement!

38 weeks and counting...

Well, the big day is almost here!
We will be 38 weeks along this weekend...and we can hardly believe it. The little guy feels pretty big to me, although the midwife assures me he's on the smaller side (fine by me!). We had our carseat installed this week, and our co-sleeper is all set up. Each little thing we do seems to make it all much more real. Jonathan is home from his last big trip now before baby comes...he has a few little trips but is staying within an hour or two of home now. On his last trip, Jonathan was able to take a day off and spend a few hours at Niagara Falls with his Dad and his big little sister Jarah - what fun!

Our yard has been very busy with nature this summer...we had a second nest-full of baby robins hatch and fly away. A chipmunk comes to visit right in front of our door. And our flower bed is bright and colorful - it looks even nicer now that it did in this last picture we took a few weeks

ago!

For some reason, we haven't done a lot of belly pictures in the past few weeks...but I had another visit from Nana and Grampy and a lovely bridal shower last weekend and will post the pics from that soon!