A Month Into the New Year . . .

finds us just 50 days away from the arrival of our little one (hopefully he waits that long) and immersed in a big renovation!!! As you can see in the pictures attached - my belly is getting bigger and so is our new house! (Barley and Poppy keep growing too!!)

33 weeks of pregnancy starts Monday. Things are going really well although I have found myself in the discomfort stages of pregnancy. I find that if I have a good night of sleep, which happens just a few nights a week, then I feel pretty good. If I don't sleep well, then I feel terrible. In October I coughed so much/hard from being sick that I strained the intercostal muscles in my right ribs. That injury never got a chance to heal itself before my stomach started expanding, so I have been dealing with searing pain in my right ribs for 2 months now. I am seeing a massage therapist and a chiropractor as often as I can; these treatments seem to be working, but when the pain persists, I can't sleep at all.

We also had a minor scare in the first week of January. We found ourselves in the hospital on a Saturday having contractions that were 4 minutes apart!! We stayed as calm as we could, but I remember thinking - if we have this baby today, we don't have a name, we don't know how to breathe, we didn't bring clothes, we don't have a car seat, we don't have a nursery . . . !!! Needless to say the baby did not come; I had a slight infection that upset the system enough to start contractions. Fortunately, no other signs of labor surfaced, we got the contractions to stop, and junior has stayed put in my belly!! As soon as we got home and I felt better, I signed us up for Childbirth Prep classes! We have gone to 3 sessions so far and feel much more prepared!!

Since December 31st much has changed in our new house. Joe spends about 6 days a week working at the house. He has gotten a good portion of the yard cleaned up, ripped off the roof, took down the upstairs walls, etc and prepared the house for the second story addition and dormers. He has been working with our contractor in the last 2 weeks and they have managed to frame the east wall of the second story, put a new roof on the house, and frame out the 2 dormers for the front of the second story. They have also finished designing the window sequences for the second story so that they can frame out the north and south end of the house. Once that is done they will rip off what is left of the current siding and reside the whole house!! Things are going really well; we're very happy with the way the house is coming along. Our addition upstairs will give us a new bathroom, a walk-in closet in the master bedroom, and what we're calling a sun room (full of windows and french doors). The 2 bedrooms will also gain square footage with the addition of the 6 foot wide dormers being added to each room.

As for the animals, all are well adjusted to the addition of Poppy and play daily. You can see in the video that our 90 pound mountain dog is ready for a baby, as he proves he can play gently with our 4 pound kitten!! Hope everyone is doing well - and enjoyed the Super Bowl game today!!

Love you, Dre and Joe

A Pic at 32 weeks

Pre-Rehab

2 weeks into the job!!

Barley and his girlfriend, Sedona

Tough Boys



Play Time!


The Girls - it looks intense but this play is all in the name of fun!!


The Gentle Giant and his Kitten!