Nesting...Chamblee Style

I've often heard that a pregnant woman begins to "nest" about a week or so before she goes into labor. When you have two parents-to-be who are as organized & plan-oriented as J & I are, this period of nesting extends significantly. As you've seen in recent blogs, we've had quite a few home improvement projects in the works lately. This, along with his infamous lists & spreadsheets, is how I think nesting translates for J. Whatever the cause, I am certainly grateful. Our house has never looked so great! He even came up with a new project last night that he's taking on. I promise I didn't suggest it! I'll have pics of that soon.

We have also learned that, when you're expecting babies, you get excited about things you might not have thought were that cool before. Case in point: check out our newest purchase, an extra freezer for the laundry room. My goal over the next few weeks is to stock it with casseroles, spaghetti sauce, etc. so that I'll have plenty on hand for a while.

This one isn't a purchase of ours, but I'm definitely excited about it. J's parents told us they would buy us a chair for the nursery as our baby gift, & I love what we ended up with. Both the chair & ottoman glide & are so comfy. Thanks Gary & Karen!

The nursery has lots of fun new things in it lately, & we're slowly getting everything in place. This picture was taken on Father's Day, which was right after my shower, so everything was still everywhere.

Here is a closer shot of the bedding, for those who wanted to see it. I don't have Jake's bumper yet, but you get the idea from Mallory's.

And, of course, there's always something fun to put together, like our double stroller, which was a gift from my parents. J drove it around the living room to demonstrate his craftsmanship for me when he got done. He now has a pack & play & two bouncy seats waiting on him & will soon have a joggging stroller as well. No rest for the weary!

Okay, I'm sure you're tired of reading by now, so last picture. Here's me at 29 weeks. I had an appointment with my OB today, & we're all doing great. The next sonogram will be on July 10th.

The Floors are Complete!!!

This is Justin...

After two and a half long days of work by me and my dad last weekend, the hardwood floors are now complete. It was quite the job and we did not move as quickly as we expected, but we are very pleased with the end result. For any future hardwood installers, beware of the glue. That stuff sticks to EVERYTHING. I had a bit of warning in regards to this prior to starting, but did not think too much of it...should have. Here are some picks of the floors.

Before

The Installation Process

The disaster which was our house.

Me hard at work. At this point we had the first two rows laid and thought this project was going to be really quick (Friday morning)!

My Dad hard at work.

Our cutting station. Thanks to Mark Fowler for allowing us to borrow his dad's compound mitre saw!

We are getting near the end here and are just about spent (Saturday evening).

After the hardwoods are laid, then you have to go back and scrape up all the excess glue. Once again...the dreaded glue! Sorry for the shirtlessness...it was hot.

After
Well, I don't think I will be laying hardwoods again for a while, but it was a good project and I now can walk through the front of the house and feel quite accomplished. Also, it was a fun way to spend father's day....working hard side-by-side with my dad! Thanks for all your help!

Sonogram Pics & Baby Shower

I have lots of blogging to catch up on, but I can probably only handle a couple topics per post, so we'll start with these. First of all, the latest belly pics. Here's 27 weeks:

And 28 weeks:

Finding something to wear that covers my belly is becoming more tricky each week, so it's a good thing I only have four more weeks of work! Justin took this next picture, which isn't really too flattering, but he wanted to capture the experience of visiting the perinatologist. We do this every four weeks. At my OB visit earlier that week, I measured 41 centimeters, which is bigger than full term for a singleton pregnancy.

Our babies are getting so big! They each weighed 2 lb 11 oz, which is a little ahead of their gestational age, so that's good. Mallory refused to cooperate & pose for the camera, so here's the back of her head. You can see her cute little ear!

She did show us her foot, so I guess that's something.

Here are their heads together. Mallory is lying across my belly with her head on my left side, & Jake has his head right around my belly button & is breech. His kicks are the reason for my many potty breaks!

Jake wanted to show off a little more than his sister, so here's a good profile of him, with his little hand up at the top.

And here's one of him looking at you. They finally look more like people than aliens. You can even see a little baby fat on those cheeks!

Saturday was my baby shower, given by my sweet friends at church. Here I am with my hostesses: Amy M, Hattie, Anna, JT, me, Miranda, Amy D, Sharon & Andrea. Tami & Sarah were also hostesses, but they've both become mommies in the last couple weeks, so they were busy with other things!

Anna has always been the queen of cute sugar cookies, but she now has a new trick. These beautiful cupcakes, each hand shaped & dipped, were absolutely delicious. She made the letters, too, as well as the stand they are displayed on.

Hattie made this cute diaper cake.

Me & my two great moms (aka Mimi & Nana).

My sister-in-law, Rachel, made this beautiful frame to hang on the nursery wall. Their picture will go in the middle, & she's going to add their birthdate once they get here. The verse written on it is so sweet & perfect for twins. Thanks Rach!

We received so many wonderful gifts. It was more than a little overwhelming, & we feel so blessed!

The nursery is continuing to come together. More pics soon!

New Carpet & Nursery Furniture

Last week we finally got our new carpet installed in the living room, hallway & bedrooms. Just that one little change makes the house feel so much nicer. I HATED our old carpet, & it looked terrible, so I'm very pleased with the change. J was in charge of taking pictures of this process since I was at work, but they aren't that exciting. I guess there's not really much to see in that kind of project, though.

Moving on to better things, the main reason I was super anxious to get the carpet in was that we had to get that done before we could assemble the nursery furniture. It has been crammed in our garage & an extra closet for a few weeks now, but now it's in place! J did all of the heavy lifting, of course, but I'm a very good supervisor.

Two cribs translates into a whole lot of parts!

My highly technical contribution: removing styrofoam from the drawers & handing J the parts he needed.

J put Mallory's crib together in about an hour without any re-dos being necessary, so I thought that was pretty impressive.

Always the competitor, though, he actually timed himself on putting Jake's together to see how fast he could do it. He managed in 35 minutes! Most people don't get to improve their time since they only have one crib.

My highlight of this week was meeting this little guy. Riley is Jake's future best friend & Mallory's future husband. There's nothing wrong with arranged marriages, right?

Congrats Russell & Sarah!

We have another sonogram tomorrow, so I can't wait to see our little ones again & find out how much they've grown. Bye for now!

I've Been Tagged!

My sister-in-law Rachel tagged me, so here we go.

Rules are as follows: Link to the person who tagged you. Post the rules on your blog. Write six random things about yourself. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment at their blog. Let your tagger know when your entry is up.

1. I am a major sleep walker/talker. J can tell lots of stories about times he thought he'd married a crazy person after I started spouting all kinds of gibberish in my sleep. One of the best might be the time I thought there were snakes in the bed. I hopped out of bed in the middle of the night & started jabbing at the covers, muttering "snake, snake." Justin woke up, gently assured me that there were no snakes in the bed & then convinced me to lay back down. I remembered none of this the next morning. What's funny is that I often dreamed about snakes being in my bed when I was little & would wake up screaming for my mom to come rescue me. Obviously, I'm not a fan of the critters.

2. I eat my cereal dry - from a bowl with a spoon - but still drink a big glass of milk alongside it. I've always had an issue with soggy bread, so I much prefer my method. When we were first married, J could hardly walk past the kitchen table each morning without giggling.

3. I have never broken a bone, but have torn a major organ. A fall from a horse when I was in high school left me with a lacerated liver, & I had to be care flighted to Medical City, but it healed on its own, so no surgery was required.

4. One of my biggest pet peeves is when people say "nucular" instead of "nuclear." I realize that it is now actually acceptable to say it either way, but that's just because enough people did it wrong for long enough that they made up their own rule. I'm not a fan of the new rule. (I feel so justified! The spell check caught nucular as being wrong!)

5. I do not have obsessive/compulsive disorder, but I definitely have obsessive/compulsive tendencies. One thing I can't handle is when light switches are flipped the wrong way, like when the light is on but the switch is down. I will walk across the room to use the other switch just to get them back the way they're supposed to be. There are countless other examples, but I won't embarrass myself any further.

6. When I headed to college, I had my sights set on becoming an OB/GYN. I guess all those years of faithfully watching ER inspired me. One day during my freshman year of college, it hit me that this dream was no longer what I wanted at all. I truly believe that this was God's way of directing me toward what He wanted for me, which was to marry Justin & one day become a full-time mommy. (Besides, I never could have handled that many years of school.) I have never regretted my choice for an instant & am blissfully happy with the way my life is now.

I tag Hattie, Miranda, Jill, Amy D, Amy Mac & JT.

Catching Up

I have several things to catch up on since I haven't blogged in a week and a half, so this post may be a sort of random assortment. First of all, we had a great Memorial Day cookout at Mark & Hattie's with some of our small group members. Here's Hattie, Paige & Jenn...

and me & Tam.

After eating burgers & hot dogs, everyone took a turn on the Wii to play Guitar Hero. For the most part, the boys were definitely better than the girls.

Zack definitely wins the prize for getting into the song more than anyone else!

I think Mark could probably play this in his sleep, so I made sure not to go up against him. Hattie is brave!

Moving on from the Memorial Day festivities, here are the latest belly pics. This is 25 weeks...

and 26 weeks.

Today marks 27 weeks, so we have just under 10 weeks to go. My c-section is scheduled for Friday, August 15th, which will be 36 weeks & 5 days. It is very exciting to have a date on the calendar, but it also makes me realize how much we still have to do in those 10 weeks. My next sonogram is on Friday, so we'll have more pictures of them then, & we'll get to see how much they've grown over the past month. If my belly is any indication, they've grown a lot!

Moving on to the next topic, J & I celebrated our anniversary a week late since we were at Camp the Saturday after our actual anniversary. Since I'm not really able to travel anymore, we spent the weekend at the Westin in Frisco for an in-town "getaway." It was very relaxing, & I got to hang out in the pool, which is greatness for a swollen pregnant girl. For the first time in months, I didn't feel heavy! We also went to a movie while we were up there & had a great dinner at Kirby's, our favorite spot for steaks. Here we are before heading out to dinner.

Thanks for my fun weekend, J!

I'll leave you for now, but there are new nursery pics coming soon. :)