Blessing

We blessed Zach two weeks ago (March 28th). We were fortunate to have lots of visitors and had a big family BBQ the night prior to the blessing and then had everyone over for lunch directly after the meeting on Sunday. We had 27 people in the house both days including kids and babies. It was definitely on the crazy side, but it was fun to have both families able to participate. Thanks to everyone who made the effort to be here. It meant a lot to us that you could be here for Zach's special day.

The family pics will be posted whenever Sam gets them to us, but until then, here's a picture of Zachary looking terribly handsome in his blessing outfit :-)

Picture Day

(Just as a side note, it's been a little while since I posted, so here goes my attempt to catch up. I may or may not get to it all today, but we'll see how it goes..)

Uncle Sam and Aunt Michelle came for a visit when Zach was 1 1/2 weeks old to do some newborn portraits. They came out awesome, so I thought I'd post a few..

Three Weeks

It's hard to believe that three weeks has passed this quickly, but Zach is 3 weeks old today!!

Here are a few pics from the past few weeks..

He's Here!!!

He was 13 days late and took 30 hours of labor to get here, but he's finally here!!

Introducing..



Zachary James Reed
Born Wednesday, February 24, 2010
3:25am
8 lbs 1 oz
20.5 inches

We came home from the hospital on Friday morning and are now just trying to adjust to life with the new little guy. He's an avid eater and I'm sure will be growing like a weed, so I'll definitely post more pics as they become available. In the meantime, here are a few more 'birthday' pics. :-)

Week 41: The Final Chapter

One last pic to leave you all with.

I'm officially one week past due and, as of some time tomorrow, will be going into the hospital to be induced.

Here's to the adventure that lies ahead!

Off we go! :-)

Five Weeks

This weekend marks five weeks that I've been off work on 'Pregnancy Disability'. In some ways it feels like the time has flown, but I've been terribly grateful for the time it's given me to finish getting ready for our new little arrival as well as rest up for the big event to come.

For any of you wondering just what I've been up to for the past five weeks.. Lest you think I've been sitting around wondering what to do with myself, here's a quick synopsis of my activities:

I've been sewing, sewing sewing..

I made curtains for the nursery:



Matching bumper pads for the crib:



Made two Quilt Tops and tied/bound one of the quilts (the other is off at Aunt Sharon's house to get quilted):


(I know.. This one looks all wrinkled, but that's because I folded it up and put it in with the rest of the quilts before I took a pic.. I promise it's not that crazy in real life..)



I made three flannel recieving blankets (that were not nearly thrilling enough to take pics of) and a cute bag that originally was destined to be my diaper bag (until my niece gave me an awesome one for my baby shower), but now I'm thinking of using it as my Sunday tote..



In addition to all the sewing, I picked up and sorted out all the 'stuff' in the nursery; organized all the shower gifts and did some shopping to fill in the gaps. We re-hung the nursery shelves and got everything put back together:






Then I looked at the bare blue walls and decided to try my hand at some wall art. I saw some paper mosiac-type representations of nursery rhymes online and decided to see if I could do the same. Here are the results:










Add to all of the above: writing nearly 100 thank you cards (Thank you again to all of you who have been so generous over the past few months.. we truly have been blessed with wonderful and generous friends!!), doing our taxes, walking Molly every day, obtaining a libarary card and starting to read again (I can't tell you the last time I actually finished a book before last month), cleaning the entire house, keeping up on the laundry, and getting some rest in between, I have definitely not been at a loss of things to do.. which is just the way I like it. :-)

Fruit Orchard

As black as my thumb is (I can't make any sort of plant life grow properly), I've always wanted to have a backyard full of fruit trees. It's just a pleasant thought.. to know that you can just go out to your 'orchard' and pick some tasty fruit to eat.. yummy.

So.. since we now have plenty of land and (supposedly) I'll have more time to tend such an endeavor, we decided to plunge in and plant some fruit trees this spring.

We went all the way to Atascadero three weeks ago to pick up our bare-root trees and then spent all day Saturday planting them. We planted 15 trees in our little orchard and then helped Steven and Shanna plant 23 trees around their house. It was a LOT of planting for one day. But, thankfully, we had the help of a tractor to dig the holes, so it wasn't nearly as painful as it might have been.

Here are the impressive (ha ha!) pics of our little fledgling orchard. We still need to run the water and spread the mulch (pictured here in large mounds directly behind the trees). I know it doesn't look like much, but I have faith that one day in the not-too-distant future, it will bear fruit.. and lots of it. :-)