Lesinger Baby Shower

I'm up very early today thanks to a kicking baby, whining dog, and growling stomach. So I'm starting the "to do" list!I had a wonderful baby shower in Columbia, Illinois yesterday! So many good friends and family members were able to come and it was nice to (try to) catch up with everyone. Thank you to everyone for all the wonderful gifts!
Chris came back home with me yesterday and helped me go through everything and I had fun showing Ryan all the great stuff we received for the baby. We threw a bunch of things in the (hypo-allergenic) laundry, so the bed is finally fixed and things in the baby's room are looking great.
I am excited to spend some more time in there today, organizing the gifts and finding room for everything. Babies do really appear to take up a lot of space (and not just in my ever-expanding belly!)

Surprise Baby Shower!

On February 10, my coworkers surprised me with a huge baby shower! They were so generous with lots of nice gifts (including some big ones like the stroller system, jumper, bouncer and 204 diapers) which were fun to take home and put in the baby's room. After the presents, we enjoyed a catered lunch and cake from McArthur's. Yum!

There are no pictures of me with the presents because they only took action shots so I'm always either not looking or in the middle of saying something. So you get pictures of cute desserts instead!

I am about 32.5 weeks along and visited the doctor today for another check-up. I am measuring at 36 cm, instead of the normal 32/33 cm for this time. So I stayed for an ultrasound...everything's good, giant baby is healthy, fluid levels are normal. Wait, did you say giant? Yes, I did. Our baby book said "your baby now weighs almost 4 pounds" -- but our ultrasound technician has estimated him at 5 pounds, 13 ounces! This doesn't mean he's coming early because he still has the lungs of a 32 week old...so it means he will continue to grow and grow and grow...stay tuned for updates in the weeks to come!

Beggin' Strips Barkus Pet Parade

Last Sunday marked Annie's 5th year of attending the Mardi Gras dog parade. We missed the last couple years, so it was fun to get back down to Soulard for the event. We met my boot camp friend Mary (our first non exercise outing, now that I can't make it to class anymore), her husband Jeff and their dogs, Diesel and Lola.
Diesel weighs 200 pounds and was possibly the largest dog there. (Notice how small Annie looks, that's rare for her!) He got a lot of attention and had his photo taken by lots of random people.
Here are just some of the innocent dogs who were made to look like idiots. I think they had fun anyway!

Florida Trip

In the fall, a coworker of mine mentioned that she was going to spend a week at her time share in Orlando in January. She thought it would be a good pre-baby getaway and invited me to join her. She said I could bring a friend and since my sister Chris' birthday fell during that time, it seemed like a great plan. We spent 3 nights in Florida.

On the afternoon of Friday, January 29 we met in the Orlando airport to start our mini-vacation. After checking in to the condo, we spent some time at one of the area's many outlet malls. That night we had dinner at Margaritaville in Universal's City Walk.On Saturday we visited Blue Springs State Park, the winter home to 350 manatees. After a two-hour boat ride and viewing the manatees, we made our way to another outlet mall. We also went to Downtown Disney for some Ghiradelli ice cream sundaes.

We saved Epcot for Sunday, since there was no rain in the forecast that day. Unfortunately it was a cold and windy 50 degree day. We didn't stay at the park as long as we would have liked because it was just too cold! We spent the rest of the day relaxing at the condo and had a birthday dinner that evening. Happy Birthday to my wonderful sister!!

Bathroom Remodel

I never liked our guest bathroom, particularly the glass shower doors. I don't know how you could ever bathe a kid in that tub since half of it is always blocked off by doors, so we decided to take advantage of the fact that we have more time & money now than we'll have in another 10 weeks or so.

We hired Chris, the brother of our friend, Craig, to do the remodel and he did a great job. It's 99% done; the soap dish and corner shelf just need a little more time to get stuck to the tile (and then he has to come back to caulk).

It is intended to be a "kid" bathroom but it still needs a few more fun accessories. But then, since it's only been about 2 hours since Chris left, I guess there will be plenty of time for that!

Hello Third Trimester

Today is the start of my 27th week of pregnancy which makes this the beginning of the third trimester. (If you want to get technical, I was really two-thirds of the way through a few days ago, but who's counting...)
As organized as I can be and as much fun as I have with things like scrapbooking, you'd think I'd be keeping close tabs on the belly. Not so much. But I thought today we should take a picture, so here it is. Don't expect to see this side of me often.
We met baby Eli and baby Lucy today. They are very cute and very little. They are both just around 5 pounds, so maybe if you add them together you might get what our baby will look like in three months.

Congratulations to Melody and Dennis and their families!

Happy New Year!

2010 is here and in 99 days (give or take) Baby Brueckmann will be here too. What an exciting year it will be!
We rang in the new year by enjoying a crab boil with friends. You know you're getting older when you share your New Year's Eve with a 5 year old, a 3 year old, a 2 year old, and a 1 year old. Oh yeah, and you're pregnant and trying to stay awake at 10:45 pm. It was a fun night nonetheless!



I've included some pictures from our crab feast. We ate 8 pounds of king crab legs, about 3 pounds of shrimp, plus potatoes, corn, and bread. It was yummy!

And last but not a least, a huge congratulations to my good friends Melody & Dennis whose twin babies were born yesterday. Apparently they didn't want to wait until 2010 to join the world, which of course, as everyone points out, is a great tax benefit. I'm looking forward to meeting Elijah (Eli) and Lucy soon and watching them play with our baby someday too. CONGRATULATIONS!!