Sunday, November 8, 2009

We are ready for Drake!

Hey everyone, it's Josh. As you can see from the last few posts, things have been pretty crazy for the Wood clan over the last few weeks as we have tried to get moved in-time to welcome the lil' dude. Ashley has been an absolute superhero through this whole thing, and we're now ready for life to get really crazy once Drake arrives.

One of the biggest things we are excited to have completed is the nursery. After we got all of our stuff moved into the new place, we went to work getting Drake's room ready. The first task was to set up the crib and changing table that were graciously provided by Grandma and Grandpa Rohwer. It was a little daunting at first (the boxes were about the size of a Ford F-150), but fortunately we had a lot of help to get it done (both sets of grandparents were on-hand to help). Despite my initial fears that there were too many chiefs and not enough indians, the tribe proved me wrong and everyone worked together as we powered through it. As you can see from the pictures, it turned out awesome!

Ash has spent the last 8-9 months accumulating a bunch of cute things for the nursery, and it was awesome to finally see it all come together. I'm so glad I have a wife that is amazing at putting her own personal touch on a house to make it a home. In fact, if Ashley were to ever serve time in prison (heaven forbid), I have no doubt in my mind she would have the cutest/coziest cell in the entire D-Block). Let's all pray that doesn't happen, because Drake and I would be in serious T-R-O-U-B-L-E, but I believe it to be true nonetheless.

We love how the room turned out, and we can't wait to hear baby cries coming from it! Thanks again to all of you who helped out on the big move, and especially thank you Ashley for being the greatest thing to ever happen to me. I am so blessed to have you as my wife, and I couldn't hand-pick a better person to be a Mom to Drake. I love you.






The Quiet Book


I got pregnant just in time. Check out this darling quiet book I made with my friends (the sewing circle). Hayley was doing this project with two other girls in her ward. They were not far into it when I was able to join the group and make a quiet book of my very own. This is something I would never have done, if Hayley didn't push me to do it with them. I am so glad I did it for a couple of reasons..... I was introduced to Jaime and Mari-Catherine, who are now very good friends of mine, and I now have this dang cute book for my kids to play with. This was the first of my sewing projects and there are lots more to come. Sitting down at a sewing machine is fun, relaxing and it allows me to create and then get that great feeling of accomplishment. This book took a pretty long time to make, and I spent lots of time unpicking and re-sewing, but it was all worth it. This isn't going to be used for a while, but I am so happy it is done! We did an ABC quiet book and every page is so cute, but I am going to just show a few of my favorite pages.

A is for Apple

C is for Car

D is for Dog

F is for Flower

H is for Hair

J is for Jack-In-The-Box

L is for Lion

N is for Nest

P is for Puzzle

S is for Shoe

V is for Volcano

W is for Watch

X is for X-Ray


Wednesday, November 4, 2009

A whole different perspective on service.

This post is long and might be very boring to some. This blog acts as a journal for our family and this is something we want to remember. I just feel so grateful and blessed and want to share my feelings. So two weeks ago I blogged that I was 37 weeks and moving. Well that was a bit of a lie! We ended up not moving that week and in fact moved this past weekend. Wow was it stressful. I was expecting my water to break at any minute, but it didn't and I am in fact still pregnant. We have known for a while that we were going to be moving soon, but didn't know the exact date. I boxed everything up with help from my mom and Hayley, so when the moving time came we would be good to go. We found out on Thursday, and by Thursday night I had cleaned the apartment and had a load of boxes brought in. The next day Hayley came over and we unloaded the kitchen! That night Josh and John brought another load over and my mom, Hayley and I stayed there unpacking and ordered some pizza. At this point I was pretty overwhelmed, but able to stay calm. Well Saturday hit and I sort of had a mental breakdown. Ok, so I didn't sort of have one, I did have one! I think it was a mixture of stress, hormones, moving out of our house and ward, and being so grateful for all of the people that were helping us. It is really easy to serve other people, but receiving it is hard. I would rather do things on my own than feel that I am inconveniencing others. But, with us moving and me being a week away from having a baby, I didn't have a choice! I saw the other side of service and the way that a person feels when they receive it. I am so grateful for the good friends and family that were there to help. Here is what I am talking about......Wayne Dodd let us borrow his big trailer. The Elder's Quorum, my dad, John, Ted, Josh and Wayne loaded everything into the trailer and then unloaded it at our new place. All of that was done in 2 hours, it was awesome. Then my dad, John and Ted went back out to the house and got all of our clothes and food (something I thought I was going to have to do). When all of that was unloaded into our tiny apartment, the feelings of frustration just kept a comin. My body hurt, and the thought of unpacking this stuff was more than I could handle. So..... I went to my parents house to shower and take a break. While I was there Hayley, my mom, and my mother in-law unpacked all of our boxes, cleaned stuff and put clothes and food away. My father in-law and Josh put shelves up in our garage and in our laundry room for more storage. When I walked in a few hours later, it was a whole different place! If I hadn't already shed some tears I would have burst into tears right then and there. I couldn't believe all that had been done. Everything was organized and in its place, there were clean sheets on the bed and the shelves were done. Then when I thought enough had been done for me, my Aunt Holly called and invited everyone that had been moving all day to come to her house for dinner. It was so nice to have a good meal and for those that had been working all day to sit down and relax for a bit. Then we went back to our place and my dad, my father in-law and Josh put together the crib and changing table. After everyone had left, my sweet mom stayed until midnight helping me clean. I went to bed that night in a place that felt like home, and it is because of all those hard working people that were there to help. I want to thank all of you that helped with the move and have helped in other ways in the last few days. We appreciate it so much. It was a bad time for us to move, but something that had to be done and we couldn't have done it with out all of your help. One day we will return the favor I promise. Thanks for putting up with a hormonal pregnant girl that wasn't a lot of help. Josh, I love you and am so grateful for your support and the hard work that you put into this move. I am so happy we made this decision, so I can stay at home with Drake. I know we will be blessed and I get to be what I have always wanted to be when I grow up...... a mom!!

Monday, October 26, 2009

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Growing up, carving pumpkins was always something I looked forward to. The excitement started in about mid September and did not leave until we had finished this project, which always occurred the Sunday before Halloween. The hardest part about carving pumpkins was trying to decide what I was going to carve. With my dad's help, I always came out with a pretty cool pumpkin. This tradition still remains alive and last night our family carved pumpkins! Even at my age, I still get that same exciting feeling I have experienced since the age of 2. After convincing my dad to clean out my pumpkin (Which happens every year) and about an hour trying to decide what to do on my pumpkin, I finally made my decision.

Dad


Mom


Josh


James


Lauren


and......


Ashley

The Rohwer Family Pumpkins


Thursday, October 22, 2009

Learn how to work car seat....CHECK!

It just hit me the other day that this baby's arrival is just around the corner and we are not ready!! So I put together a to-do list and started checking things off. One of the first items on the list was to take the car seat out of it's box, learn how to use it, put the base in the car, and practice taking it in and out of our car. After about 2 hours of both Josh and I trying to figure it all out, we got the hang of it and feel that we could teach a class on car seats and car seat safety. There is just one slight problem. The seat has to be in the middle of the back seat. Well... my car is really small and by the time you get the seat in the base (which is a process in itself) I can't see out of the back window! What am I supposed to do about that? The only thing I have come up with, is get a new car... ha ha yeah right!

This is the car seat cover I made. I absolutely love this fabric!

Josh putting the base in. After reading the whole car seat manual and our car manual, he is a pro at putting this base in and getting the car seat in and out.

My mother and father in law got us this car seat. You can't see much of it cause it is covered by my cover and the bundle me, but it is so nice! Not only is it one of the best car seats, but it is really cute too. Now we just need a baby to put in inside!

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

A Not So Sad Goodbye



These couches left our humble abode on Saturday.... and I couldn't be happier! As much as I love the thought of every one of Josh's roommates farting on the couch, some making out on the couch, and Jay eating a whole big can of Chili on the couch.... well let's just say it was an easy goodbye! I can't help but feel a little bad for the couches right now. I vacuumed, fluffed and sprayed febreeze on these beauties for 2 years!

37 weeks and moving!


I am 37 weeks! I never thought this day would come. I went to the Dr. today and I have not progressed at all! So... I am thinking I am going over due. Oh well, that means for a big healthy baby. Also I just can't have him come yet. We are moving this weekend and I would love nothing more than to be settled before he decides to come. We found a really cute town home in Logan and are excited to make it our home! Wish me luck that my water doesn't break in the middle of moving.