Nursery 90% Complete!

We're excited to say that the nursery is 90% done. A few odds and ends yet to get, but overall we're very happy with the way it looks so far. Here are some pics for you (just a quick note that the blue that shows up in the pics isn't what it looks like in real life. The blue here is way too bright):



We'll hang the quilt behind the chair here:

Other big happenings here include a change to the Baptism time. Sara's brother brings up a good point that IF the Vikings are in the Playoffs and they play the 11:00 game, then a 10:30 Baptism really wouldn't work all that great. So, since there is the option to have it at the 8:30 mass we'll do that one instead. Therefore, Baptism is now on Sunday, January 10 at 8:30 am. We'll plan on having a brunch at our house afterward too.

Sara had her glucose test this morning and we're sad to report that she failed. The nurse was very surprised given that Sara's measuring right on track and she's only gained 18 pounds. Usually there would have been an excessive weight gain. Sara is headed back to the Doctor on Thursday for a three-hour test. We're crossing our fingers for good results. The nurse did say that sometimes people fail the 1-hour glucose test but pass the 3-hour. Please let that be us!!

Lastly for this update is our upcoming trip to Scottsdale. We will no longer be spending part of the time in Las Vegas. It would have just been too much....flying into Phoenix at 6:30pm, driving 5 hours to Vegas so with the time change we wouldn't get in until 2:00am (the time we are used to). Then doing the same 5 hour drive back on Saturday. After thinking more about it, and having Sara come down with a cold, we decided it would be best to just spend the whole time relaxing in Scottsdale. Maybe we'll do Vegas next summer, we'll see!

Food, food, food!

What a weekend full of yummy food! Baby H is very happy! On Friday we started the weekend at a restaurant we've been wanting to go to for some time. It's called Black Sheep Pizza in downtown Minneapolis. It's amazing coal fired pizza, we'll definitely be back there again!

On Saturday we got Baby H's room put back together after the painter was here on Friday. The room looks great! Pics to come after we hang up the art work. The other big event on Saturday was heading to the Minnesota State Fair where we 1) froze (it was 60 degrees) and 2) ate too much! We indulged in cheese curds, Gizmo sandwich, bull bites, ice cream sundae from the dairy building, fries, and mini-donuts. YUM!! We hope that all of the food processes before Sara's glucose test on Tuesday morning. :)

Speaking of yummy food, we went over to Jeff and Dawn's house for dinner tonight where they prepared a wonderful meal of pork tenderloin, real mashed potatoes (what a treat), corn on the cob, and salad. It was a delicious meal but it was made even better because we finally got to catch up! We had also brought over a new recipe that Brian recently was made aware of - cake balls. Basically you make a cake, let it cool, then mix a 1/2 can of frosting in with chunks of cake so it makes like a dough-like consistency. You then form that into balls and dip them in chocolate (think peanut butter balls but cake balls). They were great, especially with some vanilla ice cream. Again, did we mention Sara's glucose test on Tuesday? Uh oh!

28 Weeks – 3rd Trimester!!!

We’ve reached another milestone. Baby H is 28 weeks today which means we have entered the third trimester – yippee! Sara continues to feel great although she has been having a lot of back and leg pain, mainly in the mornings and evenings. She doesn’t sleep very well because she prefers to sleep on her back or tummy but the books all say to sleep on her side. She’ll wake up in the middle of the night laying on her back, then is up worrying for a while that she’s cut off circulation to the baby. So she’ll flip around and after being on her side for awhile she gets painful leg cramps and hip pain. It’s a no win situation! However, she’s not really one to complain because it’s all worth it for Baby H.

Last night we finalized Baby H’s Baptism date. It’s kind of funny considering he hasn’t been born and we don’t have a name or Godparents decided, but when we first met with the priest to start the Baptism process he had mentioned that Jesus’s Baptism was in January. That resonated with us and we thought it would be neat to have Baby H’s Baptism on that date as well. So, we locked in the date. It will be January 10 during the 10:30am mass.

It’s great that we were so decisive on his Baptism because we aren’t doing so well in another area. Yep, you guessed it – red paint. Nothing is easy!! However, six (yes six!) red paints later we finally have the one that we will paint the picture frames for Baby H’s nursery. Brian will finish painting them this weekend and the painter is coming tomorrow to paint the walls blue. We should be able to post a few pictures of the almost completed nursery this weekend!

For the holiday weekend, we’re looking forward to a few days in Vegas and a few days in Scottsdale with Brian’s parents. Vegas won’t be the same with Sara pregnant (ie no clubbing at the Palms until 4am) but that’s okay, we’ll still have a fun time lounging by the pool, gambling, watching the Bellagio fountains, eating wonderful food, and enjoying one another’s company. Sara has already requested some time for dancing at Toby Keith’s I Love This Country Bar! Not sure where her love of some country music came from, but she always loves to dance!

New Rule Implemented

We have a new rule at the Hillins house and that is we will eat before 7:30 pm so that Sara's tummy has ample time to digest prior to going to bed. No more eating at 9:00 pm and going to bed an hour or so after. That was not a fun Saturday evening/Sunday morning for Sara. She was up at 2:30 am with indigestion and getting sick...hence the new rule! So far, we're doing good eating early!

On Saturday Sara's Dad came up to install Baby H's new ceiling fan. It looks great! We wanted to put a ceiling fan in to help with air movement and we had heard it helps reduce the risk of SIDS. It looks pretty nice too, so that's just an added bonus.

Sunday was a pretty fun day. We headed to our parish's annual church picnic. It was a great sunny day for it and there was quite a turnout. Randle even got to go! We brought Special K bars that were quite a hit and we enjoyed sampling everyone else's yummy treats while also eating pork sandwiches, coleslaw, and German potato salad. Brian even ran into a few of his old high school friends there. Hopefully we'll be able to see more of them now that we know we all go to the same church!

After the church picnic we headed over to Jim and Annie's because Sara's Grandma was up for the day visiting. It was nice to see the four generations together and Grandma loved just holding and looking at the little guy. He just gets cuter every day!!

Go Vikings!

We headed to the first Vikings pre-season game yesterday to witness the Favre saga first-hand. Wow what a crowd!! Would have guessed we were in the playoffs! Favre did okay for the two series he was in. Got sacked, thought he was down for the count, but he rebounded nicely. Should be a fabulous season!!

Here is Sara on the way to the game. Four weeks since the last belly shot, now she's at 27 weeks. Sara has gained 16.5 pounds thus far. One of these days, all of the ice cream Baby H is craving should catch up with her. We have only one week left before hitting the third trimester - it doesn't seem that long ago that we announced to friends and family we were expecting.

Baby H continues to be a very active baby. His kicks are getting stronger every day and are especially strong when Sara is reading to him in his glider. He also kicked hard when Sara was holding her nephew Sam. He must have been saying hello! We continue to be amazed at how Sara's entire tummy can shift because of his movement. It is really neat to see!

Last week Sara had a funk for a day. Do all pregnant Mommies get that? Yuck- that was not fun for Sara!! Everything was just bugging her. Luckily it went away as quickly as it came. The weather probably had something to do with it as it was dreary and rainy here for most of the week. All is much better now. A special thanks to Sam for cheering her up. We got to see him at home on day 5 of his life. He had lost a bit of weight since being home so looks a bit smaller here, but we're happy to report his feeding has increased and he's back to his birth weight (completely normal we're told). Isn't he a cutie?!!?

Paint

Another decision on the nursery, check! We finally decided on paint. It will be the furthest one on the left in this picture.

It looks a bit light and too aqua here, but after painting three different walls the three different colors (and an additional even lighter one), this one was the clear winner for Baby H. We have the painter scheduled for August 28! He's also going to do some touch up on the main floor and basement so lots of good things happening!

You can also see in this picture how the red picture frames will look around the art. Unpainted wood frames have been ordered and are set to arrive this week. Now we just need to finalize the red paint which shouldn't be too hard because we like the red of the poster board here. Sherwin Williams here we come! Please let it be as easy as we think it should be!!!

The last update for the nursery is that Sara's parents picked up some great Pottery Barn type wooden totes for storage in the closet and in the vertical storage area of the dresser. 6 red and 4 blue. Gotta love garage sales - 10 for $35! They are in mint condition so they're perfect. We may even use one of the blue ones for the diaper caddy, but we'll see. Decisions, decisions!

Samuel (Sam) Steven Roslansky

Our adorable little nephew made his entrance into the world Sunday morning around 10am, beating the scheduled induction. He weighed 8 lbs 3 oz and was 20.25 inches in length. Annie was a champ through the labor and Jim is one proud papa. Sam is such a cutie. He loves having his hands in his mouth and will pop one eye open at a time...We think he was peeking to see if there was a camera around. He wasn't so fond of the flash when both eyes were open. These pictures were taken one hour after he was born. He's so precious! We love him so much and can't wait to see everyone again tonight!

Other big events for the weekend included a fun-filled Friday night that included ColdStone ice cream for an appetizer, shopping at Babies R Us and Target, picking up a pizza, and assembling the glider/ottoman. When did our Friday nights become so boring? But, we did enjoy putting together Baby H's furniture. The nursery is now pretty complete except the paint, picture frames, lamp, and diaper caddy. Yes, we're overachievers but you can't always predict when he'll make his appearance (we're hoping for approximately 90 days from now though)!

On Saturday, we headed out on Brian's brother and sister-in-law's boat for a relaxing day on the lake. Even though the weather people were far from accurate with their forecast, we had a great time. All was going well until we were heading back to their slip and the steering went out. Brian knows a lot about boats from his time working at a marina during summer months in high school and college, but he didn't have luck diagnosing the problem. Therefore, we had a slow go back across the lake. Brian did a great job steering and utilizing the current even through narrow channels. About 90 minutes later we arrived at our location and were lucky to find the neighboring boat not there, so we docked it without difficulty. We feel terrible that something on their boat broke while we were using it. We're crossing our fingers that it is a quick fix!!

More Decisions - Check!

More decisions made on the home front. So exciting for someone (mainly Sara) who likes to cross things off of a list. In the past few days we purchased the glider/ottoman for the nursery and finalized a little vacation!

We'll be heading to Scottsdale for the Labor Day weekend. We'll leave MN Thursday afternoon and return Monday evening. Baby likes floating in the Hillins' pool! We may take a day trip up to Sedona. We hear it's beautiful there and it's only a two hour car ride. Or who knows, maybe an overnight to Vegas is in order. That we can all decide later. We also need to decide if Randle, the frequent flier puppy, gets to come along. Sara says no, but Brian thinks we should because it will most likely be his last opportunity to go. Traveling with a baby and a dog is just too much! This will officially be the last time we spend time with the Hillins at their casa sans baby. Wow, that's kind of weird to say!

The glider/ottoman decision has been made. We decided on a sleigh type glider/ottoman simply because it was smaller and fit in the space better than the "lazy boy" type chairs. We found this one which we ordered. It will be here next week and will look great in Baby H's nursery!

And since we were in a baby store, of course we had to buy a little something for Baby H. Not sure if we've shared this, but we plan to take our little guy to FL on a family vacation in January/February. All of the summer stuff is on sale so we bought him a cute $4 beach outfit. That's the other problem. Baby stuff is so cheap! Really? $4 for an outfit. Grownups could never find an outfit for $4. However, we agreed that we'd only buy him the one beach outfit because we can borrow summer clothes from our nephew's closet as needed! :)

Still No Nephew!

For those of you wondering, our nephew continues to delay his entrance into the world. We're at -5 on the countdown. Sheez! Annie has an appointment later today so we'll see how he's progressing but it looks like it could go into the weekend. We're just so excited to meet the little guy!

Art and Shopping

Baby H's nursery really is coming together. A recent find was four 8x10 art pictures that compliment his crib bedding. We're thinking that we'll frame them in red frames. Aren't they cute?


Speaking of shopping for Baby H, we've had a hard time resisting purchasing all of the cute items for him. His closet is full of adorable clothes mostly size 0-3 months. Well, we haven't purchased all of it. Friends and family have been super generous in gifting him clothes too. However, we are now holding off on purchasing any more 0-3 month size clothing for him just in case we receive more. Sara did find a cute Vikings warm-up suit and she was smart enough to purchase size 6-9 months. It's so hard though - there are so many cute things for Baby H but we will hold off on purchasing any more small clothes....for now! :)

What a Fun Weekend!

We had a great weekend on so many fronts. One of the big things was how many decisions we finalized on the Baby front. We had been so indecisive on just about everything but now we're feeling that we're heading in the right direction. On Friday night Sara's parents and brother and sister-in-law came over. We had a nice dinner on the grill and finalized which room would be the nursery. We had envisioned the nursery in one room (bedroom #1 upstairs) but our furniture was too big for that room so we moved to thinking the nursery would be bedroom #2 upstairs. Well, we couldn't figure out an arrangement that worked just right so we were thinking we'd have to move bedroom #3 furniture into bedroom #2 and then use bedroom #3 for the nursery....which would have not been cool considering we already painted samples on bedroom #2 walls. Well, thank goodness for some creativity on everyone's part because we ended up loving the new arrangement in bedroom #2 (whew on the paint)! We absolutely love the new set-up - it's perfect for Baby H.

Other decisions made this weekend include finalizing the baby monitor and purchasing a ceiling fan that Brian and Sara's Dad will install soon. We also purchased and assembled a bookcase for the nursery.

Special thanks to Jim for assembling it today (nothing like bribing him with homemade macaroni and cheese to get it done)!!! Now we can tell Baby H that Uncle Jim assembled the bookcase special for him! We're super close on choosing a glider/ottoman and paint for the room. It feels so good to be so close to done with all of the big stuff with 102 days to spare!

We had a lot of fun on Saturday night with our friends Barb and Don. Our abs get a workout everytime we get together from laughing so much and the time always goes by way too quickly. Our evening at a new restaurant was cut short due to severe weather in the Twin Cities. Thankfully Sara's brother Jim called to tell us about it and shortly after getting the check the tornado sirens started going off. So, we both booked it home to head for safety. We'll have to get back together again soon! You have to see how they served Miller Highlife 40s....complete with champagne glasses and served on ice. It is the champagne of beers you know!

Baby H continues to be a very active baby. It seems like when he's hungry he lets Sara know by kicking a lot. We say that because he's especially active before breakfast, lunch, and dinner. His kicks are so powerful you can see Sara's whole stomach area shift. Brian got to see it first hand in church this morning.

No "Homer" yet for Jim and Annie. He's -1 past his due date now. If he doesn't come on his own they'll induce next Sunday. Come on Homer, we want to meet you!!

Doctor Appointment

Sara had her 24-25 week appointment yesterday and learned that Baby H is measuring right on schedule. Sara's weight is right on track for where the doctor wanted her to be, so all is good on that front. Although our doctor is notorious for being late, we don't mind because he gives everyone a lot of attention and we love hearing Baby H's little heart beat at every appointment. We'd wait hours to hear that if needed!!

Otherwise, not much new on this end. We purged a lot of clothes and donated them. Sara had a bit of a hard time parting with all of her "skinny clothes" but knows she shouldn't be as skinny as she was in grad school again. The donation guy was hilarious when he asked Sara if these were all her clothes. The bad part was when she had to answer yes (and knowing she still has a huge closet full of clothes and some in storage containers at home). Sara's new mantra on life is that she needs less material things like clothes. We'll see how long she sticks to that!

We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our nephew. Jim and Annie's due date is August 8, but he is not showing any signs of wanting to come out. The doctor has even told them to be prepared to go past their due date. Poor Annie and it's supposed to be in the 90s this weekend. Come on "Homer" come out and play!! Once we know his name, then we can start talking about names for Baby H. Not that we'll share them but it will be good to start forming a list of potential names for our little one!

Daycare

The past few weeks we've been busy looking at daycare centers for Baby H. We discovered there is a wide range of centers out there and just like everything else for Baby H, we're quite picky. Fortunately we found two centers very close to our house that we absolutely love. The bad part is we're on the waiting list for both of them. So, we pray nightly that he gets into one of them for March. They are both Lutheran centers which we're okay with even though we are Catholic. We fell in love with how they combined biblical aspects with school prep curriculum. We couldn't go wrong with either center, so we just have to cross our fingers and pray that we get into one of them! Currently, we don't have a backup plan so we're really hoping he gets in!

Here's the last picture of the stroller for those of you who wanted to see what it looked like with the infant carrier on it. Not the best picture but you get the idea!

Brian had a guys weekend with a bunch of his high school friends this past weekend in Wisconsin. You can tell by this photo that they have a good time when they get together! What do you think others on the golf course thought of their "costumes"?

Sara had a low key weekend. On Friday she hung out with her brother Jim and sister-in-law Annie as well as Annie's brother, his wife and their two little cuties. She also did some shopping, got a pedicure, and attended their friends' daughter's 1st birthday. We can't believe Annika was born a year ago. Time really does fly.