Charlie

Brian and I had a list of things we wanted to finish before Charlie joined us this year.  At 33 weeks, our list looked something like this:
-clear out spare bedroom    
-pick out paint for nursery
-paint nursery 
-put crib together
-get dresser
-get bookcase
-assemble furniture
-have last 3 baby showers
-purchase remaining items on registry
-wash baby clothes
-hang curtains in the nursery
-fill frames for wall
-hang frames
-hang something above crib
-install carseat
-decorate for Christmas
-have Christmas
-anxiously await the baby!

...you get the idea. :)

Well, our little Charles had other plans. :)  We did accomplish some of these things ahead of time with a little help from our friends.  A lot of these things were done for us as we sat in the hospital with our sweet baby boy, and some of them just won't happen.  And that's all okay.  Because our little boy made it here safe and sound (just a little early) on December 3rd (36 weeks) at 8:58 p.m. weighing in at 6 pounds, 1 ounce and measuring in at 20 inches long!

So here's what really went down...
-clear out spare bedroom
11-12-11 Brian did this 100% on his own. He took apart 3 beds in one day, and carried SO much stuff to and from the attic.  He is my hero for this and many other reasons.
-pick out paint for nursery
11-13-11 We went to Lowe's and picked out Soft Duckling and Grass Stain Green.  We painted swatches on the wall and picked Grass stain Green. 
11-14-11 Brian fought the crowds at Home Depot to pick this up one Monday after work. He then realized the color we wanted was at Lowe's.  Bummer.
-paint nursery
11-15-11 I have always thought that Stephen Barnett was an amazing man.  He sat in a fume filled room late the next night before a UK game to help Brian paint the nursery.  Brian then stayed up and painted during halftime to finish it off.  As per Troyer household tradition, we ordered Mad Mushroom cheesesticks.  I was asleep by the time they arrived.  Brian had to eat a bunch of them on his own.  Lucky duck.

Brian had to leave to go to Atlanta the next day and didn't get back until Friday.  On Thursday, the girls at school threw a shower for us and gave us the swing and bouncer seat.  I have pictures from this 11-17 shower, but they are at school.  And I am not. :)  Brian returned on Friday, when the one and only SLB hosted a shower for us that night!  We had an amazing time with our friends and parents and filled up on bacon-the theme of the shower. :)  P.S. While Brian was in Atlanta, he went to Pottery Barn Kids and bought Charlie's bedding...because he is the most thoughtful man in America.

11-18-11

-get dresser

11-19-11 We spent Saturday at IKEA with our dear friends Farrah and Jim, they helped us overcome our indecisiveness and purchase a bookshelf and dresser. 

-put crib together

11-20-11 Brian did this pretty much on his own while I organized all of our amazing gifts from the fabulous people in our lives.  I helped a little, but it was pretty much all my amazing hubster.  We also went to a nursing class this day!  Apparently, we were both nesting. :)

-assemble furniture

-fill frames for wall

11-21-11 After work, Brian picked me up and we went to Babies R Us to look at gliders for the nursery.  We bought our chair and headed home.  Farrah and Jim came over and ate pizza with us. Jim and Brian assembled the dresser while Farrah and I sorted clothes and picked pages from The Very Hungry Caterpillar to go in the frames we got at IKEA.

11-22-11 Brian put the glider together all by himself.  He is seriously Bob Villa. 

-wash baby clothes

11-23-11 Brian had to go to work today, but I didn't (the day before Thanksgiving).  I folded and organized clothes and set up the dresser and the bookshelf.  It felt good to put all those presents away!  We also Scotch Guarded the glider right before we left for Bowling Green so we didn't have to breathe in the fumes. 

11-24-11 We spent Thanksgiving in Bowling Green.  All four of Brian's grandparents made the trip.  Brian's grandpa Troyer, a retired OB/GYN guessed my due date (January 1st 2:30 AM) and Charlie's birth weight (7 lbs, 15oz) just by poking around my belly.  Chris (who has guessed both of their kids birthdays) said it would be December 28th after he saw me when we Skyped.  They were both wrong...fun anyway. :)

-have last 4 baby showers

We only had one to go!  Julie Owens was hosting a couples shower for us on December 3rd.

-purchase remaining items on registry

Funny story-Brian and I laid in bed the morning of the third and made a plan for buying remaining registry items on Sunday, December 4th. :)

-hang curtains in the nursery

My mom bought the curtains for us and Brian and his mom Julie just installed the rod and hung them today.  They look amazing!

-hang frames

We're working on this tonight!  As soon as I finish blogging.

-hang something above crib

Julie and Val made the CUTEST banner for our baby shower that we didn't get to go to :)  We are hanging that above his crib!

-install carseat

Thank goodness for Julie Owens!  After Julie and Mike ran out to get our carseat on Sunday the 4th, Julie came over and installed the bases in our car and brought the carrier to the hospital so Charlie could do the "Car Seat Challenge".  It is basically where they hook preemie babies up to monitors and stick them in the carseat for an hour to make sure they breathe okay.  He passed, so we got to bring him home. :)

-decorate for Christmas

Our amazing families took care of this.  Mike and Julie went and got a Christmas tree for us, my sister and mom decorated the tree and my mom decorated the rest of our house and even put the storage bins back in the attic!  I wonder if they'll come back to take it all down...:)  Joanna texted this picture to me in the hospital. :)

-have Christmas

-anxiously await the baby!

The rest of the list will just have to happen with our sweet baby!  We couldn't be happier that he is here to help us celebrate the season. 

Welcome to our world Charles Marker Troyer!

Happy Halloween!

I made Brian and I's costumes this year-they turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself!

Well in 11 weeks or less...

We will have a baby.  Like in our house.  Insane.  We are getting ready to take our house off the market and hunker down here for a while.  We are a little disappointed, but excited to set up a space for the babe here in our first home.  It seems like every day I am more pregnant than I was before.  Brian has been gone for 5 or 6 days at a time and home for just 1 or 2 days in between.  I feel like he will be shocked each time he sees me, but he seems pretty unimpressed. :)  Yesterday he said, "It looks like you had the baby while I was gone..." Meanwhile I was thinking, "Holy Cow, I can't believe how pregnant I feel...".  Everything seems to be happening really quickly now.  We are getting ready to have some showers with our friends in the next month or so and it just seems like there is so much to do!  My glucose test is Thursday morning-so here's hoping I pass that.  I hear it is disgusting once, and three times as disgusting if you fail it and have to re-test.  So say a little prayer for that.  And that someone decides to buy our house before we take it off the market.  And that this baby has Brian's eyesight.  And anything else you feel like throwing out there for the Big Guy to consider. 

Well, here we go...

I wasn't gonna do it.  I swore I wouldn't do it.  And here I am doing it.  I wasn't going to make a baby blog.  I wasn't going to post pictures of my belly.  I wasn't going to insist that all my loved ones immediately check it out, but I guarantee as soon as I post this I will call my mom...and Andrea...and Brian if he would quit working for two seconds :).  So here we go.  I'm keeping a journal of letters for this baby and I've written to him along the way so far-but none of you are here to read it and none of you are here to see my one-chicken-finger-away-from-an-outie belly button.  So I guess you'll have to experience it through the wonderful world wide web.  In the words of one of my favorite kindergarteners from last year, "let's do this thing!"