The Nursery

Salon Erkel

I have reached the point in my pregnancy where I can barely see my toes, much less bend over to maintain a good pedicure. Kyle offered to help and gained a new-found appreciation for one of the many facets of female beauty maintenance.

Flip This House!

This is a follow-up to an earlier post about our own year-long episode of "Flip This House." We bought this house with another couple and have been working weekends over the past year, in between our jobs, school, family commitments, making babies (what?) and life in general. The realtor held an open house on Sunday and now we cross our fingers for an offer! Good thing the economy is booming and real estate is flying off the market. Home for the holidays, anyone?




Too bad you don't have "smell-o-net" so you could get the full effect of 50 years of cigarette smoke and dog urine that was soaked into the green shag carpet!



Beautiful hard oak floors were hiding underneath the carpet!

Third Trimester!

Here I am, 27 weeks' worth of belly!

Second Trimester

This weekend marked the official end of pants with zippers and buttons. Bring on the maternity jeans with elasto-bands!

It's a Girl!

Kyle and I got our first glimpse of our baby girl last Friday. She is healthy, very active, and, if I do say so myself, quite photogenic. Because I am of "advanced maternal age," we will have another ultrasound on October 17th, so be sure to save some of your "ooohs" and "aaaaahs" for the next round of photos!

Beat State!

Just a couple Hawkeye fans watching the big game today. Iowa beat Iowa State 17-5 today in the state's biggest annual spectator event. Iowans of all species love their football!

Sweat Equity

Some couples join bowling leagues or take swing dancing lessons to spend quality time together. Us? We bought a run-down piece of real-estate poo with another couple and have spent the last year demolishing, scraping, painting, cleaning, gutting, refinishing, sweating, cursing, and rebuilding a home. We are finally in the home stretch and put it on the market to sell today! I will post more before and after photos soon, but wanted you all to get a taste of the transformation. Oh, and to see where you might be visiting us if it doesn't sell and we end up living here (nervous laugh).

Touchdown!

Well baby, I'd rather you heard it from me: You will be a gestational miracle--born just six months after mommy and daddy were married. It's like Grandpa Marvin always says, "The second baby takes nine months; the first one can come anytime!"

These are just a few proof shots from our wedding. They are actually "reject" shots from our photographer (people squinting, not so great lighting, etc), but I wanted to share the day as soon as possible. The actual photographs should be great!

Is That a Baby in Your Belly, or Did You Eat an Extra Sandwich?

Here I am at 14 weeks. Baby is the size of a lemon and I'm barely showing, but still had to take the ceremonial "second trimester" kick-off photo. I did bust the button on these shorts last night, but I think it may have been too much wedding cake!