SAMMY's a MISSIONARY!

Okay, not quite yet-- still about a month to go. But isn't he a cute one?? I like to scroll back and forth between this and the last post- before and after the cut. Can you tell it's the same person?

Oh, and not to forget...

CALIFORNIA, here he comes! Sam is going on a mission. He just got his call last Friday, and he's going to California, San Jose! He leaves December 5th. We're so excited for him! He's going to be a fantastic missionary. Everyone loves him. I wish I had a picture of him with his new missionary haircut. This was taken of him this past summer. He looks so different now! I'll work on getting an updated picture.

ITS A BOY!

I'm 19 1/2 weeks and today we had our ultrasound! It didn't take long to figure out that it's a boy! Ross started grinning from ear to ear the moment she said that it's a baby boy. I'm really excited too. I still can't believe it. Looking at that screen made it so real. He actually looks like a baby! I only have the one picture of the ultrasound- Ross took the rest to work. And here is a picture of me as well. Ross is always home late and we forget about taking a picture, so I decided to take matters into my own hands. My belly is starting to look nice and round now. Before it just looked like the result of poor eating habits and no exercise.

I may be a little crafty

So I finished these over the past month. I'm pretty proud of myself for just getting them done! They were all really easy projects, and Ross helped me with some of them.

The curtains we bought at IKEA, while we were in Utah. Sigh.. how I wish we had one close to us! The closest IKEA to us I think is in Chicago- that's twelve hours away! Anyway, these were super cheap, sheer like I wanted, and there was no sewing involved! Lucky me! They're in our kitchen.



This bulletin board is also in our kitchen, and I just added some fabric to an existing boring bulletin board. I think I will paint the edges. I'm not sure though.

And then here is an earring holder that I made! I have seen this idea a lot on various websites, and just decided to make my own rendition. It's a bit sloppy and crooked, but I really like it anyway.



Now I need to get going on the nursery! I'm looking for inexpensive cute ways to decorate it. So if anyone has any ideas... let me know!

Sigh..

Okay, I just want to put this picture up, because I think he is so DANG attractive. Even though he looks kind of mad.

BIG NEWS

So I think that the very few people that might read this blog probably already know this. However, I wanted to make a GRAND announcement!! We're pregnant! I'm due March 1st. We're really excited. I'm also nervous. But mostly excited.



So, what do you think? Should we induce on February 29th?

The highlight of the summer

Hoo boy.. It's been so long. I've been out of town and out of motivation this past month. But lots of exciting things have happened recently. The first to mention was my birthday celebration. My birthday was July 21st. It was probably the best birthday I've ever had.

So, I knew that Ross was taking me somewhere. I had no idea where or what we might do. So we took off heading East in our civic. As we approached Kansas City, Ross told me to pull out the camera; "Lauren-- you're gonna miss the city scape, take some pictures!" I assumed that that was our final destination. You know what happens when you assume. So we kept on driving. At about an hour west of Columbia, MO, I weaseled our destination out of Ross: we were going to St. Louis! Woo hoo! I was so excited. Best part of the trip there was that Ross had to pee soo bad that he almost went in a bottle. I've never seen it done- don't ever want to! Luckily a rest stop came up.

I won't give a play-by-play of the rest of the weekend; suffice it to say I was NOT disappointed. We stayed in a 4 star hotel, a block away from the Arch. I guess Ross got a great deal there. Oh, and if you're ever in the area, know that EVERYTHING in St. Louis is free! We hit the Science Museum, Art Museum, and Zoo all at no cost whatsoever! We did go to a Sea Lion show at the Zoo that was a couple dollars, but it was worth it.

We also went to a glass blowing factory where they were having demonstrations- that was fascinating. There was a party going on there though, and I felt a little bit nervous about the combination of alcohol and hot skewers.

But the BEST part was Saturday night. We went to an amazing Italian restaurant and then went down to the arch and saw Pete Yorn live!! I love Pete Yorn. He's one of the few of my favorite musicians I had not seen live, and he put on such an awesome show. And after the show there was a HUGE firework display! All for my birthday! I guess they do that every weekend during the summer in St. Louis, and it happened to be that Pete Yorn played on MY birthday. How lucky. Ross outdid himself. I don't know how he's gonna live up to this next year- but I think I'll remember this birthday forever.

This is the view from our hotel room

Chilling at the sea lion show- Ross has food in his mouth.

Outside of the St. Louis zoo

Pete freakin' Yorn!

Ross as lawn sculpture

Hanging out in the water fountain downtown

The St. Louis arch- did you hear on the news that some people got trapped in the arch? That was the night we were there! But we didn't go up in it.