Date Night

Lily Grace has made it to the 30 week mark and she and I weigh in at 144 lbs. Yeah! Bob and I cannot believe how far we have come and that our precious daughter will be here soon. Lily kicks and moves frequently right now, but she is fast running out of space. I have started to notice that she gets little appendages stuck in my pelvis or up under my ribs. Usually this happens in the middle of the night when I am trying to sleep. Ha Ha Sleep, that is a funny one. I am now at the point where I am up every two hours like clockwork. I start out sleeping on my left side then two hours later go to the bathroom and sleep on my right side then two hours later go to the bathroom then sleep on my left side...All the while Bob sleeps blissfully like a rock. I can't be too jealous though because I get the benefit of having nap time during the day! So it all works out. I am now going to the doctor every two weeks. I love hearing her heartbeat and having the doctor say all is A-Okay! We have also found our pediatrician...I think. It is a really cute office and we got to meet with one of the doctors the other day. It is wonderful because the pediatrician and the OB are within 5 miles of our apartment. It is nice living in a city area!

I am loving this stay at home mom thing right now. I feel like I have so much time to be able to get things done. I have started meal planning and couponing! We will see how long it lasts, but I am working towards only going to the grocery store once a week and keeping it under $70. It has been a challenge for me and a way to keep grocery shopping fun.


Another nice benefit is that I get to blog more often and keep all of you updated on the Longmire life. Bob is gone so often now that I don't have very many pictures of him. He is working so hard and loving his job. He finds it very challenging and rewarding too. His Project Management Certification course is also taking up a lot of his time. He has had to revert back to flash cards in order to keep all of the information for the test straight. He keeps telling me how much he wished that he had a "magic head" (aka good memory) like me. Overall though he is doing well and enjoying himself. He is so awesome to take me out on a weekly date night. This past week he took me to play miniature golf. What fun! I blame my poor score on the belly, even though it was probably more about my bad golfing skills. Bob thought it was so funny watching me retrieve my ball from the hole too.



As I get bigger I can't just lean over, it has to be like a wide stance squatting maneuver just to keep my balance. He did a lot of giggling! Anyways we both came out with a hole in one and had a great date night!

A Visit to Iowa

Bob and I are so blessed to have such awesome family in our lives. It seems like we have parts of our family all over the nation. From California to Arizona to Colorado to Iowa/Wisconsin, Minnesota to Illinois and of course North Carolina. It is amazing how much of the nation we get to see just to visit everyone!


Bob's grandparents, Joyce and Vern Kuenster live in a wonderful farmhouse just inside of Farmersburg, Iowa which is right on the border of Wisconsin and Iowa. It is so much fun to go and visit them because it is like stepping back a few years to a time when life was simpler. From the one bathroom farmhouse with super steep stairs to the wonderful peaceful environment of the farm life, I enjoy every minute with them. They also have a trailer on the Mississippi River. Grandpa has spent his life fishing and it is so much fun to enjoy part of that life with him. Last Summer we spent a week on the river with him fishing and boating. Well on August 20th, all of the family met along the river to celebrate Joyce and Vern's 60th wedding anniversary. It was a quick weekend, but I was blessed to be able to go. Bob and I were both supposed to go, but two days before we left it dawned on us that we had nowhere to leave Rocky. We were so fortunate to have Anna and Caleb in Arizona because we always had a last minute dogsitter. Unfortunately, they were over 2200 miles away so we were up a creek without a paddle.


Bob ended up having to cancel his trip and stay home. What a bummer!

To get to Farmersburg, you have to fly into a larger airport and drive to the little town. So on Thursday the 19th I flew into Madison, WI and met up with Darcie and Brent. We then drove 3 hours to Farmersburg. On Saturday before the Anniversary party, Grandma Joyce decided to throw me a baby shower on the river.



It was such a blessing to have so many women that I didn't know come to the party. My mom and dad even came down to celebrate. We had delicious cinnamon rolls and coffee from the SIMPLY coffeehouse in town. SOOOO Good! Jill lead us in a whole bunch of games including "Guess the belly size," the "Baby Name Game," "Smell the diaper" (with candy bars...mmmmm)




and count the "Skittles" in the bottle. We even had a cute little frog join the party.


What a wonderful time and another day of celebrating this little girl growing in my tummy. Everyone is so excited to meet her!





Later that afternoon, we all got together for the anniversary party. Sarah and Shawn came with their two precious little girls. Isabella, who is almost 3 and adorable! And Lilyana who is only a couple of months old. I tell you what, Grandma Jill better get used to having girls around!!

Welcome to North Carolina!

First of all, check out the size of that zucchini! I was up at my parent's house before going to North Carolina and my mom got this veggie from a friends home garden. I have never seen one so big. Look at it against the belly! WOW!

Well we are officially in North Carolina. It has been a busy couple of weeks as we have slowly gotten unpacked, de cluttered and situated in our new Cary apartment. The complex is beautiful and new which has been really nice. It is hard to get used to apartment living again. It is so noisy and we have a bright street light right outside of our window. The first night I went to bed at 11pm and was up at around 3:30am. I am sure that it was the excitement of the move and the anxiety of unpacking, but the light shining through the windows really messed with my head. Every time I woke up I kept thinking that it was morning because it was so bright. The next morning I headed to Target and bought curtains that block out the light. They worked wonderfully! Thankfully, Jill was here and she helped me unpack all of the boxes. Rocky and Bryce just hung out and looked cute while Maddie hid under the bed.



After about 4 days, we had managed to take care of most of the boxes. The apartment is so much smaller than our house though, especially because we have added baby stuff to the mix. We worked for several weeks to de clutter the house and still had too much stuff. We have officially managed to find a place for everything, but it has been a squeeze. After about 4 days I finally sat down with Maddie to relax. The next day I sat down again to take a look at some recipes for dinner and fell fast asleep. I held onto the book for the whole nap and woke up with a horrible wrist cramp.



Here are some photos of our apartment. The baby's room is the only room that is still in a state of chaos. While we are waiting for our crib, dresser and glider we have decided to just leave everything until we can set it all up officially.

This is the living room area. It is really nice with crown molding along the ceiling and two tone paint throughout.


Here is our dining room. This was the first room that I set up. Having just one room in the apartment that was all set up made me feel a whole lot more organized.


This will be Lily's bathroom. I wanted a nice neutral and calm environment for her so we decided on a natural theme.


I set up our bathroom like a spa setting with blues, sea greens and white. I am trying to make most of the rooms very chill so that we don't overstimulate our kiddo.


Here is our bedroom. I changed all of our bright colors and went for blues and browns. I had a great time with my first craft project too. For those of you who don't know, our lamp shades used to be bright red. So, I painted them and added some creativity. I think they turned out so cute. What do you think?




The kitchen is tight, but has 42" cabinets and black appliances which is very nice.


Lily is growing like crazy. I feel so big and have started to feel her move all of the time. Her movements are sometimes so big it is like she is doing gymnastics in there. Bob just loves to feel her move around. Whenever I lay down she gets really active. Guess it is preparing me for all of the sleeplessness. Anyways, once I lay down she starts kicking and Bob just loves to feel her move. He talks to her and she moves. It is so great!


With Rocky having to be confined to an apartment without a backyard we have had to commit to taking him for a walk everyday. We have this awesome Lake right around our apartment that has a paved 3 mile loop. Rocky loves it especially because he also gets to meet plenty of other dogs and the peeing bushes are endless. One thing that I was not prepared for is the presence of bugs and bugs. Spiders, ticks, roaches, and all manner of crawling things live in this humid environment. Icky! I just get tough, strap on my too little watering belt and we head on our walk.


Overall, North Carolina is beautiful and we are loving it. Bob is working long hours so I don't see him that often, but hopefully that will change once the baby arrives. We are missing our buddies, but are excited to be on our new adventure.

Moving Day

Before we had our movers come to pack us up we enjoyed some last minute R and R up in the mountains with Matt, Tara, Cathy, Loel, Mason and Katie. What a wonderful time and it was so cool. It ended up raining everyday so we all just snuggled indoors and enjoyed each other's company. The whole weekend we knew that the foreboding good-bye was coming. At the end of the weekend we said a tearful goodbye and little 18 month old Katie hugged me and snuggled in my shoulder. That is when the tears came like crazy. All week had been a giant effort to contain the tears. I kept on telling everyone it's not goodbye just see you later, but little Katie broke the flood gates. I ended up crying all the way through Pinetop and Show Low. Moving is so exciting, but the goodbyes are hard.


Well the movers showed up on Tuesday the 26th and we started the great trek. Jill came down to help us pack and she was an absolute God-send. Monday before the movers came we spent all day packing up the rest of the house, running to Goodwill and enjoying the last day in Arizona. Rocky, Maddie and Bryce were nervous the whole day.



They knew something was coming. On Tuesday as the movers started, we stuck the kitties in the laundry room. We knew they were a huge flight risk. Rocky didn't want to get left, so the moment the big truck opened Rocky was in.



Once we told him to move he did not leave Bob's side throughout the whole day.

The morning was busy, and busy.

Bob took all of the bed's apart.


And I sat.


Jill cleaned the bathrooms.


And I sat with Starbucks.


Jill vacuumed and painted


Bob worked.


And I sat some more.


Then the movers took all the furniture.

And I sat on the floor.


I tell you what, get pregnant and you can dodge the whole lifting boxes thing! God's timing is awesome!


We packed the last remaining items and cleaned ourselves out of the house. It was a sad moment and a happy moment. The kitties got put in their car condo, Rocky got loaded and we left 11103 E Sombra Avenue for good. On to the next chapter in the Longmire Love Story.

See you in North Carolina.