Recent Developments

We've been busy the past two weekends. There has been a lot of football watching (Marc), and a lot of shopping (me). It's hard to keep enough clothes around for this growing belly. We've also been working on the basement fix-up, nursery, registry. It seems like we're always working on a project or thinking about a project.

Other than that, I spend hours researching purchases we're making. A new vehicle is being researched (baby doesn't want to ride in the Jetta with the bumper held up by fishing line?), cloth diapers vs. disposables, and a big camera purchase that I finally decided on and executed.

After tons of research and interviewing every photographer enthusiast I know, I decided on the Canon 60D. It's pretty awesome, though I don't really know how to operate it yet. Some examples of its work below. Poor images are a result of my very limited skill and knowledge.
Marc is known for wearing his DARE tshirt from 6th grade. He scoured the internet and finally found a DARE onesie and just had to have it so he and the baby can match.

I found a dresser on Craigslist and painted it to be a changing table. I wanted it to be long so I can put other things on it too since there won't be room for any other shelves.

Finally, bump at 27 weeks. I'm not sure why I didn't think to write the weeks on my little chalkboard a long time ago. Oh yeah, and I dyed my hair dark (totally safe) for the fall, and got some full bangs. Theser are my equestrian pants. The shiny part on the inside of my knees is leather. Every guy who sees them thinks they're weird but I love them. They're on sale at JCrew if you need a pair :). They probably look much better on non pregnant/bloated legs.

Back Yard Chickens

Did you know that we have back yard chickens? Well, we do. They're legal in Englewood, along with pit bulls and really ugly front yards landscaped entirely with rocks.

We really enjoy the chickens and people find them very interesting. At the beginning of April we bought 7 chicks thinking a few of them would die. 2 of them were mysteriously murdered (heads bitten off, but bodies still in the coop). Now we have 5 chickens.

Of course we don't have a rooster because we don't want our neighbors to hate us. Most of the people I work with didn't realize that chickens will lay eggs without a rooster present. They will.

After a few months the chickens started laying eggs. At first they were very small. They're getting bigger now. We get between 0-4 everyday.

Here are the sweet baby chicks in April.

After living inside for their first few weeks of life, they moved outside into the coop that Marc built. The coop is in our garden, still bare in this picture taken at the beginning of May.

Now they look like this. I love the black ones. They're very fancy.

The coop has been painted and it's a cute addition to our yard. We let the chickens free range in the yard most afternoons.

Nursery-Phase I

We're in the process of turning our office into a nursery. We've never used the office much- mostly we just walk through it because it's one way to get between the living room and kitchen. I'm really excited to have it as a more functional, used room now.

Office Before-we didn't even paint the walls when we moved in.

Other side before
First came paint

My "organized" craft closet. I'm kind of embarrassed to show this, oops.
After relocating all of this mess, Dad and Marc widened the doorway.
I stalked closet systems online and came up with this design. Marc built the whole thing. The white wire baskets at the bottom pull out like drawers. I'm going to put wicker baskets in a few of the cubbies to house little socks and excessively large hair bows and flowers. Baby has more clothes now that she has a pretty new closet. :)
Next we took on quite a painting project creating a geometric design on one wall. We measured, laser leveled, and marked the pattern first then taped the whole thing. That process took around 12 hours of us both working on it. It's not easy to get a whole-wall design straight.
The painting was easy. We used high gloss for contrast.

Voila! We could not be happier!

I painted this small wall with magnetic paint and then chalkboard paint. Now we have a magnetic chalkboard wall.

And this is what the wall says.

More projects are currently underway...updates to come!

Back Up and Running-It's About Time

I'm getting the blog back up and running for as long as I enjoy it, with posts coming as often as I feel like it. No promises. However, there is quite a lot going on Chez Gompert these days that I need to share with family and friends and I think this is the best place. I'll probably set this as private at some point, sorry if that's a pain.

I'd rather provide pregnancy updates here because I don't think Facebook is an appropriate place to share pictures of my baby belly, although I do really enjoy it when others post pictures of theirs. I certainly do not judge for that, it's just not for me.

FAQs:
-Due December 25
-Girl
-Not telling the name (we're between 2)-25 weeks along
-Feeling great!
-Not craving anything
-Excited!
-Missing the occasional glass of wine (a lot)

Home projects in progress:
-Nursery
-Basement (extent TBD)

Here are some highly demanded bump pics. You'll see baby has been busy traveling all over the world!

Paris-Baby at the top of the Eiffel Tour

Early May

Around 6 Weeks-If you think it's a bump, you're wrong. It's just the French food.

I also broke my foot on this trip resulting in 6 weeks wearing "the boot." My foot still hurts too bad to take long walks or to run.

Vail with my parents
4th of July
15 Weeks
I just love Vail in the summer!

Ft. Myers Beach, FL
August 8
Baby grew a lot this week! Maybe it was all the cookie dough I ate.

Backyard, celebrating the laying of the first egg!
August 28
In the nursery with the crib
August 30
Just a few days after the picture with the chicken
There you have it. I have a hard time finding maternity clothes I like so I only have a few shirts and 4 pairs of pants. Luckily sister in law Lindsey just let me borrow all of hers.

Nursery update and pictures coming later this week!