Baby Showers in Dallas

This past weekend John and I were in Dallas. We flew home last Thursday and came back on Monday. My sisters and my mom threw Austin and I a shower on Saturday at Jan Barnes's house. She has such a beautiful house and it is great for parties. There were so many people who came and I was so happy to see everyone.
On Sunday John's Mom and sister threw Austin and I a shower. Deana made me a Mum that I wore to the shower and we will put in Austin's room. The shower was so much fun!
After both showers Mom, Kerri, Robby (Kerri's boy friend) and I went through all the gifts and put them in empty suitcases and boxes to mail back to Chicago. We ended up mailing two big suitcases and two big boxes.
On Monday my Aunt Linda (who works for FedEx), Mom and I went to FedEx to mail all 4 things. We mailed all 120 lbs of baby stuff via FedEx Ground. Last night when I came home all 4 boxes were delivered right in front of my door step (on the 4th floor)!! I was so excited. John and I unpacked everything and put it in piles on the floor so we can get an accurate count of what we have and what we still need. I have one more shower this weekend in Chicago and then we will start buying things our self.
Here are some pictures from the weekend:

Me and the Mum
Austin's cake at the Tarver shower
Brandy, Me, Aunt Linda, Kerri
My cousin Melissa made this for Austin's room
Aunt Carol, Mom, Brandy, Kerri, TooToo, Me, and Aunt Jeanne
Austin's cake at the Dahir's shower
Brandy and I
Brandy, Kerri and I
I'm getting big!

Back to Texas

John and I have been struggling with wanting to move back to TX since we moved away almost 5 years ago. We love it in Chicago but we are not winter people and I'm getting concerned with the 4 flights of stairs to our condo with a baby. Its already getting harder and harder as I get bigger and further along in my pregnancy. John really wants to stay with his company so we decided to just wait for a job to open with Hospira.
Last Tuesday John came home from work and told me that a sales job had posted with Hospira and the territory would be Dallas, Fort Worth, and NW Texas. The funny thing is when we heard about it both of us thought we would be happier. It was weird we were almost scared to even apply for it because of all the roots we have in Chicago and the fact that the baby is coming at the end of the summer.
John finally decided that he would talk to his boss before we did anything. John has only been at his job since last August and we didn't want to go behind his back and apply for something. John has a lot of respect for his boss and just wanted to see what his boss thought. His boss basically said that we have to do what is right for our family. John and I felt that we had to at least give it a try. I told him one of the reason we might be wavering is because it is summer in Chicago now. Had this job opportunity opened in the middle of winter I think we would have jumped at the chance.
So on Saturday John submitted his resume. Yesterday he got a generic email from HR at Hospira saying thanks for you interest but no thanks. We were shocked! I thought he would at least get an interview. Well John went and talked to his boss, who found out that there is a Hospira policy where they won't accept your application if you have been at your current job less than a year. John is going to try to meet with the HR person today, but I'm not sure how it will go. We have been praying that God show us when is the right time for us to move back. Its never easy to move you family all the way across the country but it sure seems like this isn't the opportunity for him. John is still going to try to pursue this opportunity, but I'm not expecting much. We have always said we would move back and I just can't imagine staying here forever, but in the grand scheme of things 5 years isn't that long. We will just have to be patient and see what God has in store for us.

You're Pregnant

So John and I were sitting on the couch talking last night. One of his favorite sayings is to say to me "You're Pretty". You think this is nice but he usually says it after I have said or done something stupid! Haha. Anyway I stood up to go into the other room. John had a really weird look on his face and then said "You're Pregnant". It was like it just hit him! Haha it was so funny because I thought he as going to say "You're Pretty" so it threw me. He is such a goob!

Quilt

My friend Catherine came over yesterday so I could show her how to make a Rag quilt for her baby like I made for Austin. We had a good time. She cut out all the material before she came over and in about 6 hours, we stopped twice to eat, she had the quilt completely done! It was her first time to make a quilt, she had only crocheted blankets up to this point. Catherine and her husband, Steve, are choosing not to know the sex of their baby. She chose very neutral colors, red, green, yellow, and brown. The quilt turned out great and she doesn't have much sewing experience. I'm so glad I was able to help her.
Her husband came over too and we ate pizza from Millwood, right down the street from our house. It was pretty good. I haven't had pizza in weeks and it hit the spot!

Texas Knitted Blanket

OMG!! Look what I found! Its a knitted blanket with a TX in the middle. I HAVE to make this for Austin!

http://www.knittingknonsense.com/texascloth.html

Cloth Diapers

My mom came to Chicago on Thursday for a weekend conference. We were able to hang out on Thursday afternoon and a lot of yesterday. She will come back to our house Sunday night. While she was here she mentioned that she wanted to buy me some cloth diapers for part of my baby shower gift. I thought, how hard can that be? Then she said she has done some research and there are 25 different brands. I thought she was exaggerating... she WASN'T!! OMG there are so many different kinds and different styles out there. I've been researching them so I can tell her which ones I want on Sunday when she comes back. I found a woman who is a mom and has reviewed 20 or so different kinds of cloth diapers on you tube. I watched every review and think I am able to narrow it down. The hard part is they have some with snaps and some with Velcro. I thought Velcro would be easier to put on a baby until I read the reviews. The Velcro will wear out and then you can't use the diaper anymore. They have diapers that are all in one and will grown with the baby, diapers that have disposable liners, diapers that are a diaper and then have a separate cover... its really crazy. I'm so surprised by how many choices there are. I think I have decided to use the Gro Via snap and Bummis diaper system for during the day and the TinyTush Elite Pocket Diaper with snaps for at night.
Does anyone have any suggestions???

25 Weeks

Baby's now the size of an eggplant!
That oh-so-handy sense of equilibrium is kicking in, and baby's learning to distinguish right side up from upside down.


I'm officially in month 6 of my pregnancy. Austin has started to kick a lot and just last week John could feel it too! Its pretty neat. John is always putting his ear up to my belly to see if he can hear Austin moving around in there. I think its starting to seem more real to John. Its hard because from the beginning I felt different, but until the husband can feel the baby kick and see the belly get bigger there isn't really any true evidence that his life will change.
I think John gets more excited every day that we are having a boy. We have had birthday parties for our friend's kids the last two weekends. The first was for a 2 year old boy and last weekend was for a 1 year old boy. John plays with the kids and they seem to like him! Its the under 1 year olds that we have to worry about, they tend to scream if John holds them and I'm not much better. The only thing we can figure out is he is so tall when he holds them they get scared.
We still haven't had to change any diapers, but we will have lots of practice soon! We are getting very excited and have started getting the room ready for Austin's things. Our series of baby showers will be starting soon, so I think we got the room ready just in time!