Zac rolls over at 13 days old?!?

No, this wasn't a fluke! His umbilical cord stump fell off yesterday (on Day 12), so today was our first day to have some tummy time! I thought perhaps he just did it once as a fluke...but no, he did it over and over, and both to the right and to the left! Do kids do this this early?! AMAZING!

After some chaotic 'nesting', everything is ready! T minus 5 days!

I can't believe it is July already. YIKES! 5 days until the due date...and we are so excited. Tony asks almost every night "I wonder what he'll look like?" We got a little bit of a glimpse at the ultrasound at week 36 (seems like that was FOREVER ago!). Looks like he is going to have a head of hair and chubby cheeks!!It has certainly been anything but a boring final few weeks leading up to now....it all began the day before the hail storm when our AC wasn't cooling....and we had to put 2 lbs of freon in the unit. The service guy recommended we consider replacing the AC and the furnace. The AC is 14 years old, and the furnace is almost 20. Looks like that is on our 'to do list'...but probably not until a little later...especially after we received the quote from the salesman!! The house is staying cool for now.

Then the hailstorm onset...that left us with needing new garage doors and siding, and possibly a couple of slopes of our roof....thanks to our awesome friend Aaron, he and his brother were able to get out within two weeks of the incident and get us all taken care of. I was worried people would be banging around on the house with a new infant around....which would be even more sleep deprivation for this mom-to-be who needs her 8 hours a night. [Yes, I know, this will be changing dramtically anytime now!!]

While getting the repairs done on the house, we realized just how rotten several of the trim boards on our house were...so we hired our friend Chris to come out and paint all the trim and replace any rotten boards. There must have been at least 20 rotten pieces....it was so worth hiring out!

Then the day after the siding was replaced, I was trying to put some of the finishing touches on the organization of the nursery......and as I was getting ready to put shelving in the closet, I smelled a mildew like smell as my foot touched a 'cold' piece of carpet. That 'cold' was actually damp...no wait, make that WET. The carpet was soaked in the closet. GUH! I then discovered that the water heater was leaking (and likely had been for a while) and had soaked the carpet/carpet pad. Needless to say, we ripped up the carpet and had to buy a new water heater. Thanks to Tony's FABULOUS cousin, we got some fancy new carpet in the nursery. It totally makes me want to refloor the entire house...but that project will have to wait, along with the heater/AC.

After the house decided to stop breaking on us (was there anything left to go wrong?), we finally got the finishing touches put on the room. Tony finished the crib...which is AMAZING!!!!! Doesn't it look awesome with the new carpet and the fabulous rocker? The room is so comfortable. I love sitting in there and just relaxing now. :) Of course, that quiet time is about to be eliminated.....but I'm sure I'll still love sitting in this room!

So, Tony has officially declared me the most expensive 'nester' that the pregnant world has ever seen! I've definitely had my share of 'preparing'....unfortunately, it hasn't been in a super productive cleaning way..the house is still dusty, the floors are dirty...and my office is.......HOPELESS!

As I was getting ready to take my 39 week photo, Sanders decided to strike a pose for Tony. Looking at this picture, I realize how much Sanders really doesn't look like a dog! What is this creature? It looks like a character from a Cartoon! HA!
And, here I am.....getting huger by the day (at least I feel like it!). This is at 39 weeks and 1 day...but who's counting?

BUSY as we approach the final 3 weeks!!

I can't believe we only have 3 weeks and 4 days before Felix the Fetus is expected to make his arrival in the world! We have been so busy trying to get ready...and we wouldn't be nearly as close to being prepared if it wasn't for our families.

Tony's dad, mom, my dad and himself have been working on the crib over the past few weekends. Tony's friend Aaron helped with some of the spindles and sanding them down. With their help, at the end of last week Tony had the entire crib put together. All he has to do now is to cut off about a foot off of each post and do some 'artsy' stuff to make it look like he wants. My mom has been great, as she has been feeding everyone who has been out to work on the crib.
Yes, you can see that Sanders has been around for the building of the crib too!

Tony is planning on finishing up the crib on Saturday along with his brother Rob. They will get the 'artsy' piece done and are also hoping to get the finish on the crib, so that we can move it into the nursery the weekend of the 20th!

I've been busy getting things ready for the nursery. Let me say one thing: "I HATE LAUNDRY!" I must have done 20 loads last weekend of just baby stuff. And I haven't even begun to put it away. That is this weekend's task.

And on top of all this baby preparedness work we've been doing, we had a HUGE hail storm on June 2nd. I'm talking BASEBALL sized hail. It was insane. Needless to say, our house is beat up. I'm trying to get everything fixed in the next couple of weeks...garage doors this weekend, siding and trim next weekend. Oh, and hopefully Tony can get the screens taken care of.

That's all from us for now! I have my ultrasound tomorrow to find out how big Felix is....I'll try to get some pictures up here after that!

Mmmm...Bones....

It all started about 3 month ago, when I gave Sanders a big meaty bone from the cow we had butchered w/Tony's family. Sanders was in COMPLETE euphoria! He loved that bone. So much that he took it outside and dug a hole and buried it. It was so funny to watch him look around to make sure no one was watching him. If he thought someone was...he'd walk away nonchalantly and act like he was up to nothing but hanging out. Me, being the sneaky human I am, watched him bury this first behind our neighbor's shed. Then I watched him move it to our flower bed...where it sat until about a week and a half ago.

Sanders decided it was time to get this deliciuos morsel out of hiding. So he did. And on an evening where we sat out with our awesome neighbors and ate pizza on their patio...he hung out in the yard and munched on his treasured bone. Actually, he munched on it so much, that there was nothing left of this bone the size of my 2 fists put together. Needless to say.....at about 3 in the morning, Tony got up and heard the dog puking. He puked for an hour and a half. Then Sanders kept puking in the morning. Poor little guy! With it being memorial day weekend, I decided after he puked again at 8:30AM and the fact he looked horrible...that I should take him to the vet to make sure there wasn't any kind of a blockage.

The vet agreed with me, that raw beef bones are fine for dogs......however, ones that have been sitting outside in the elements 'de-calcifying' end up letting the dog bite off more than he can chew...We took some x-Rays..and the little guy was fine...it was painful for a couple days as he pooped out completely dry poop with big chunks in it..but it serves him right!! :P

The vet did say that Sanders has very nice hip structure! HAHA! Also, it was funny to all of us to see how skinny Sanders really is! Enjoy these rare photos of Sanders!

The Crib is well on its way!

Wow! I just got a call from Tony. He's been out at my mom and dad's house all day working on the crib for the baby! He told me to check my email....and it looks like it has been a pretty successful Memorial Day for him! Isn't this amazing?!?! Looks like our baby will have somewhere to sleep by the time he gets here!! GREAT JOB TONY!!

Time for a haircut!

Last weekend, we got home from our baby shower in Fort Wayne....and I decided that it was time to do a little 'trimming' of the dog's hair. His puppy coat had grown out far enough, that if I cut it off, he'd be left with cords about 3-4" long. (The puppy coat was kind of rusty colored, and the cords were really flat and fat looking....they didn't look like ropes.)

So, I began my adventure by trimming just a few....then that led to a few more....and a few more....and then Tony caught me in the act. You can see the 3 piles or so laying on the ground around us. Sanders did pretty awesome to sit there and just let me clip all over.

After all was said and done, the dog looked a little less like a mop, and a little more like a dog. He looks so skinny now...it is really weird!!
On another note, Tony was brushing the cat a couple of weeks ago, and Sanders REALLY REALLY wanted to be up close and personal with Gizmo. So, he snuck in between Tony's legs, and popped his head right up in Gizmo's face. The cat just kind of scoffed at him with this look that said 'What are you looking at, you smelly beast?"

Sanders visits a nursing home!

Sanders made his first visit to a nursing home in late March. He visited our friend Lois Harlan who is staying in Greenfield. It was the perfect setting to take him to. He was pretty excited with all the new smells and the people. He did all his tricks for Lois, and even let her give him a treat! Lois is in her 90s, and STILL remembers when everyone's birthdays are! It is absolutely amazing!

Here is a picture from our visit