America's Next Top Model

Here are a few pictures I snapped of Jared being silly this past weekend.

I think that Eddie Bauer should consider him as their new model for their baby carriers.

Nursery Pictures

To give credit where credit is due....

...my dad made the changing table 25 years ago for me before I was born and then repainted it to match the other white furniture and as you know from an earlier post Jared made the bookshelf. The bassinet came from my grandma who used it first for my mom and her 3 younger siblings. Then it got passed down to be used by all the grandkids. Now it will be used on a third generation of babies, starting with L.B.J!

...oh, and I stole the idea for a mobile from Melissa and Todd's blog. Although, the idea was stolen we had to be even more frugal. So if you look closely you can see that we used twigs and old bright yellow surveying string that Jared spray-painted brown.

Staining a deck is easy

The deck has been on the house for a year now, so it was time to get it stained. I borrowed a power washer and washed it Thursday night. I also was telling the painter doing my Ag Leader project how great it would be to have a sprayer to help me along in the process of staining. He fell for it and Friday night I loaded up his sprayer in my truck.

Saturday morning came and I started putting the plastic up all over the house. Once we figured out the sprayer, we went at it: me leaning over spraying and Allison back-brushing it. Much to my surprise, it only took a little less than 4 hours to do the whole thing (prep, staining, and cleanup.) I actually thought it would take the better part of the weekend to complete.

The deck looks great and I would highly recommend making friends with a painter if you ever plan on staining yours.

More bedroom furniture

Since the bed got finished up, I have begun the next logical step in completing a bedroom set. Nightstands aren't that interesting, but they do serve a great purpose. I am tired of reaching all the way to the floor to get my cup of water in the middle of the night.

I haven't finished the drawers yet, but the rest of it is coming along.

Baby Shower #2

Allison's friends threw her a spectacular baby shower last Saturday. She enjoyed seeing everyone, eating brunch, and laughing a lot. Oh, and LBJ is now completely decked out with cool stuff.

Here are some pictures from the day.

Getting close.....

I'm not looking forward to turning 35.

I couldn't be happier for LBJ to do it though. Keep looking checking back for the latest news. It could be any day now.

Guess who's engaged???

First I almost fell over. Then I had to check her hand a couple more times to make sure it was real. That's right, our good friend Spring will soon be a married woman. We couldn't be more happy for her either.

What a great way to kick off 2009 with a wedding of a great friend.

Congratulations!!!

Worlds Collide

Two of the biggest things going on in my life right now are the baby coming soon and my big building I am currently working on. Generally speaking, these two things have little to do with each other. Leave it to a dream to bring them together.

To set the stage a little, Allison and I have started taken some quite interesting classes at the hospital to prepare us for the upcoming baby. Being surrounded by lots of pregnant women while watching some fairly descriptive videos apparently has taken a little toll on my imagination.

This was my dream I had last night. My jobsite was invaded by a large amount of pregnant women. All were far enough along that birth was imminent. However, instead of going to the hospital, they all show up and surrounded the building, demanding answers on what is going to be happening to them.

Humorously enough in itself, they singled out the most logical choice of workers on which to direct their questions: the blocklayers. Of course the blocklayers had few answers that satisfied the women, so the large posse grew even more restless and were boldly proclaiming they would be giving birth right there if someone didn’t help them.

At this point, I woke up and thought about how ridiculous the whole thing was. Then I fell asleep and had pretty much the same dream all over again.

Crazy dream? Yes. The moral was clear though. If you are pregnant and need answers immediately, don’t waste your time talking with blocklayers, try your luck and go straight to the electricians.

Our new bed

For about a year now, Allison has been wanting me to make a bed frame. It was supposed to be for Christmas last year, then her birthday, etc, etc. I never got around to making it until a few weeks back I decided it was time. She had been real patient and I finally wanted to start working on it.

She gave me a 2” picture of one from a magazine from which to base the design on. With little to go on, I pretty much just starting cutting boards with no clear idea on how it would all shake out. Eventually it started looking like something and I devised a clever way to make it disassemble quickly too.

Overall it only took part of a couple Saturdays, part of Labor Day and some evenings to bang out. She loves it and even I think it turned out halfway decent.

The funniest part of the whole project was when Allison and I were staining, her ponytail fell into the gallon of stain. Me, being the clever person that I am, simply grabbed the scissors and took care of the problem, but not before I got a picture. I think her hair looks fabulous now. One more way to save money – free haircuts!

Whatchu talkin 'bout Willis Wednesday

This is just so I can set the record straight. I really don’t look that much like Brett Farve. I have a receding hairline. He doesn’t.

Baby Shower #1

Here are a few pictures from the baby shower that my aunts hosted for me this past saturday.

Thanks to everyone who came and shared the day with L.B.J. and me. It was a ton of fun!

Expert Feeder

Last night Jared and I had a discussion about bottle feeding LBJ. I will spare you some of the details but I will tell you that the conversation centered around how it might be hard to get a baby who is used to nursing to take a bottle.

Well to my surprise Jared informed me that he is an expert at feeding babies a bottle. That is baby animals.....sheep and cows. He continued to inform me that he has some tricks up his sleeve to encourage the baby to take the bottle. Such as put a little bit of the milk on the nipple of the bottle or move the baby's mouth to get them used to the movement necessary to get the milk to come out. (Sorry Jared if these tricks were to remain secret.)

Needless to say, Jared can add this knowledge of how to get babies (baby animals anyways) to take a bottle to the vast variety of skills he has aquired from growing up on a dairy farm. I really do have full confidence that he will try his hardest to continue to uphold his "Expert Feeder" title with LBJ.

Recently Retired?

Here is a picture of my dad on his first day of work at his new job with Menard's.

As you can tell it is really dark outside in the windows in the background. That is because he will be working the early morning shift and if you know my dad he is an early riser so this shift is great for him. He also got placed in the hardware department. So long story short he will be working at his ideal part time job. Congrats Dad on your new job! You definitely earned it after 30 some years of teaching those crazy 5th graders:)

Oh and mom don't worry we know that your ideal job after retirement will start once you have a grandchild to spoil. And hopefully Erin and Jason will get with the program and double your job responsibilities.

Best financial advice ever

My buddy Mark posted this on his blog. Leave it Saturday Night Live to create a humorous skit on such a simple idea (that is so lost on many people).

Click here to see it.