Anniversary, Vacation, Goofy Pajama's and Cider Mills

Busy is the word that best describes life right now, busy on the weekends, busy at work, and busy in the evenings, just busy. 9/17 marked Amanda and I's 4 year anniversary, what can I say its been the best 4 years of my life! We celebrated by going to the resturant of Amanda's choice.... Logan's Steak House. I got Amanda a beautiful Ruby and Diamond necklace, Rubies because its not only her favorite stone, but also because its Ellasyn's birthstone, and diamonds well because what girl doesnt like diamonds! Also got her a nice fall themed floral bouquet. Because we havent been on a "Vacation" together since our Honeymoon and because Amanda was going back to work on the 22nd I decided to setup a mini-vacation. I wanted to head north in hopes the colors would be changed (no such luck on the colors changing) and also be along the water. I chose Leland Michigan, its a neat little town with places for shopping and close to the Dunes and some nice lighthouses (learn more Here). I took a half day on Friday to allow plenty of time to drive the 5.5 hours there, good thing too because it ended up taking us almost 8.5 hours, this included several stops to change Ellasyn, a stop in West Branch (Damn Outlets) and a stop for dinner. Saturday Morning we awoke to a beautiful sunny morning. We had no plans for the day other then to walk around Historic Fish Town and check out the beach, and thats about all we did. We walked around the shops in Fish Town got lunch and the Cheese Shop, this was recommended by a friend of Amanda's and I must say Im happy we went there, they have the best sandwhiches made with pretzel bread. After lunch we walked around the shops in the downtown area, by this time Ellasyn was ready for a new diaper and some milk so we headed back to the room before heading to the beach. After the Milk Monster fed we were off to the beach. Once we staked out our piece of sand on the beach I took Ellasyn for her first dip into Lake Michigan! Ok, so maybe I just dipped her feet, but none the less it was her first time in 1 of our Great Lakes! The look on her face was priceless when her feet first touched the water. After her little dip she enjoyed some tummy time and a nap. After the beace we got ready for Dinner, we ate at a really nice resturant across from our hotel, The Cove I believe, it was pretty good, aside from the mass amount of fruit flies everywhere... After dinner we got ice cream then headed back to the beach for the sunset. It was such an enjoyable day spending time with my wife and daughter. Sunday we had to head home, when I left Leland I headed north up to Leelenau State Park to check out the Grand Traverse Light House, we took a tour of the old Light House Facility and walked out to the rocky shoreline, it was another beautiful sunny day so it was nice to just hangout on the shore and take it all in. Leaving there I followed the shoreline down around to TC where we stopped for Lunch and Fudge. Then we embarked on the trip home. It was a great mini-vacation and Im already looking forward to our next, it definately wont be another 4 years!

Here was our view from our door.

Here is the view towards Lake Michigan.

Ellasyn ready for the day!

Yummy Sandwhich!

Sunning on the Beach

Lake Michigan Dip

Lake Michigan Sunset

Family Picture

So Amanda got some pink pajama's with green frogs on them a couple years ago, they are the goofiest pajamas, and I always make fun of her when she wears them.... Well her Mom found a similar pair for Ellasyn to wear! SO both wear their goofy pajamas together....

This past Sunday we decided to head to a Cider Mill, because all of October is shaping up to be busy! We have always gone to a place called 3 Cedars Farms, they have pumpkins, a hay ride, country store, apples, Cider and Doughnuts, and Corn Maze. The people that run it are very nice and its enjoyable to go there, so based on past experiences we went back, and it was a great time. We got lots of pics, took a hay ride, ate some doughnuts, drank some cider, picked some pumpkins, and just had fun spending the time with my parents and Ellasyn. We got a cute little pumpkin outfit from Amanda's mom that we thought would be the perfect outfit for the day, half way through we had a blow out hence the outfit change.

Family Pic

Daddy's Little Pumpkin

Mom's Little Girl

Trying for a cute pumpkin pictures but she wasnt having it!

Hay Ride

New Outfit. "Daddy I think my coat is too big!"

2nd attempt at Pumpkin pic

Ellasyn is Baptized!

Sunday we had Ellasyn Baptized, The Rev. at Amanda's church said it was the youngest baby she had ever Baptized. We wanted to get it done before Amanda went back to work. Ellasyn did a great job during church, she slept the whole time, only fussing for a few seconds when the water was plasced on her forehead. After church we all went back to Amanda's parent's house for a very nice brunch. Here are some pictures from the Baptism.

Happy Birthday!

Look whos getting older!

Ellasyn has been with us 1 month now, time sure has flown by! She's changing everyday, becoming more alert, staying awake and taking things in longer between naps and feedings. She is so fun to just watch, I could sit there all day and just watch her. For the most part she is sleeping through the nights now, and by "for the most part" I mean from like 3am til 9am.

This past weekend was a busy one. After work on Friday we headed up to Amanda's parents house to visit for the weekend. We took Ellasyn to see her Great Grandpa Friday night when we got to Bad Axe, he was so happy to see her before he left for Florida in the morning. Saturday was a relatively laid back day, we stayed in bed until 11am (she didnt go to sleep until 4am) then went and got Lunch with her dad, 2 different people at the resturant said "aww he's so cute".... She was wearing a pink shirt, pink hat and had a pink blanket covering her legs, are people blind? The rest of the day Ellasyn spent with Grandma and I spent getting schooled at Madden Football by Clark. Sunday we went to Church then Breakfast then drove back for a BBQ at a friends house. It was Ellasyns 1st BBQ!

Here are some pictures I took of Ellasyn over the weekend, my attempt to be good at photographer, I think I will leave her 1 month photos up to the professionals...

1 week and 4 days old

So Ellasyn has been with us for just over a week and a half already. Here is what I have learned in that short period of time:

• How to change a diaper
• How to function on little to no sleep
• How to heat up a bottle
• How to dress a baby, getting arms in sleeves is no easy task
• Doctors make you feel like a bad parent with all the questions they ask about feeding and diaper changes when your baby isnt gaining weight
• To always remember the diaper bag... Opps!
• Everyone tries to tell you how to raise your kid, or offers suggestions on what you should be doing, Annoying!
• Ellasyn likes her car seat
• Soothie pacifiers are like crack to a fussy kid.

Here are some pictures of Ellasyn not wrapped up like a burrito!

Its a Girl!!!

Introducing Ellasyn Sara Lang, she was born 7/28/09 at 4:18pm. She tipped the scales at 6lbs 12oz, and was 20inches long. Both Mom and Baby are doing excellent! She is so adorable!

Yikes!

Holy Crap only 10 days to Go!!!

Nursery is Done....Almost!

This past weekend was a busy one. Amanda had the weekend off so our main goal was to get the remaining items we needed off our registery as well as the rocker for the nursery, then finish the nursery. Shopping was the theme for saturday, Grocery store, Buy Buy Baby, Babies R Us, and Target (twice). This took up most of the day, but still allowed time to nail and caulk the baseboards in the babies room. Also attempted to replace the closet door in the babies room. Let me tell you that hanging doors is not fun! I managed to get it up but will be contracting my cousin to do the remaining 7 in the house. Sunday was dedicated to finishing the nursery. Items to do included painting the base board trim, hanging the blinds, hanging the Valances, cleaning the floors, and finally mving in the furniture! I started with painting the baseboard trim, I had already put two coats of paint on the trim but after nailing and caulking it required one more coat, let me tell you painting trim that is that close to the floor is not fun, 1st I had to tape the wall off so I didnt get paint on the wall, no in order for me to line the tape up right I had to lay on the floor, this sucked! I eventually got it taped off and started painting, this also sucked as it too required me to lay on the floor, but it looks good and its done! Next came the blinds and Valances, this was easy!

New Windows (Naked):

With Blinds:

With Blinds and Valance:

Once the blinds and valances were hung we washed the floor and started moving stuff in!

View to the left from the door:

View to the right from the door:

Crib:

Changing Table / Dresser: Rocker and Ottoman:

So whats left.... Find a small end table to put the lamp on next to the rocker, find some shelving for the room, hang up the pictures/wall art, paint closet door, OH and wait for the arrival of baby!!!

The Nursery

When we bought our house in 2006 there was a room that the previous owners were using as a nursery, it had golden yellow walls, blue ceiling and clouds, they painted clouds all over the ceiling. At the time Kids of my own were not in my thoughts as I cursed the previous owners for doing the clouds as I knew for sure Amanda would want them painted over. Well luckily for me I procrastinated long enough on repainting that room that the blue cloudy ceiling is a perfect match for the paint scheme Amanda and I picked out for the nursery. Because we are being surprised on whether its a boy or girl we choose a gender neutral paint scheme as well as a gender neutral bedding set. Now we've had the bedding set since early February when we found it at Buy Buy Baby, usually one would register for the bedding set to receive it as a shower gift, well to risk the set being discontinued between Feb. and the 1st shower in June we had to buy everything in the set just in case... Here is the bedding we picked, its called "Snug as a Bug"

After the bedding we decided on a paint scheme, we picked out two colors from the bedding to use them for wall colors. We chose to do a light yellow for the top half and a light green for the bottom half separated by a wall paper boarder that is part of the bedding set. Here are the 2 colors we chose as well as a section of the wall paper taped into place to see how it would look. Now initially for the Nursery all that was required was painting the walls, adding the wall paper boarder, and moving in the furniture, simple... Well that plan changed to also include repainting the base molding in the room, OK simple enough. To prep the room for painting I removed the outlet covers, taped around the door and window moldings and tried to take the base molding off to make it easier to repaint. Now when I say tried, I mean destroyed, apparently base molding from the 40's don't like to come off, instead they like to splinter into a bunch of pieces, crap. Now I need to buy new and figure out the compound miter cuts required to fit the new pieces back in the room. No longer simple, but not too hard. With Amanda's help I picked out new base moldings, by help I mean she picked what she wanted. I learned early on not to argue with a pregnant wife! I took two days off work and got busy painting the room and cutting the base molding to fit, the molding also had to be painted as it came from the store with just a coat of primer on them. So with 2 coats of paint and the proper cuts the molding was ready to be installed. Here's where the work load got much bigger.... Now with the new molding and its bright new paint job the rest of the molding in the room doesn't look right, it looks dirty and old, so now we are going to replace the door moldings and window moldings with new, and while we haev the molding off around the windows we decided to replace the windows as well. So now the room is still as pictured above and my list of things to do in the room is as follows: *Take off old door and window molding *Touch up paint where the molding removal will sure mess up. *Buy new molding *Paint new molding *Cut new molding to fit *While old molding is off replace old windows with new windows (My cousin is doing this) *Strip down air vent covers and re-paint white so they too are bright white and new looking (even though they will most likely be covered by furniture might as well have everything looking new) *Nail in place the base molding *Nail in place the door molding *Replace the old wood colored doors with new White wood doors (this is my want and not Amanda's) *Add new door hardware *Nail in place the window molding *Install wall paper boarder *Move in the babies furniture And somehow get that all done before the baby arrives! In the end it will have all been worth it! I will post pictures once its finally finished, hopefully before the baby starts College!

Im Going to be a Dad!?!?!?

My name is Brian, and I am going to be a Dad soon. I thought it would be fun to blog about my new journey through Fatherhood. I can't guarantee I will update this often as this is new to me, but I am giving it a shot.

Currently my wife (Amanda) is 33 weeks along. It seems like just yesterday Amanda and I were on our way to the gun range for an afternoon of shooting handguns, half way there Amanda looks at me and says "I have something to tell you, but I don't want you to be mad at me." After I had to pinkie swear that I wouldn't be mad at the thing she had to tell me about, she says "I think I'm pregnant!" How could I be mad at that? I was so happy I wanted to call everyone I knew, but we decided to hold off until the doctor confirmed it.

SO now with only 6weeks to go until the due date, I am wondering where all the time has gone. There is still so much to do! The babies room is only 1/2 way done (that's another blog in itself), numerous gifts from the showers need to be assembled, I need to build up a bank of sleep ( I hear I wont get much), and several other projects around the house that have been started need to be finished. Why didn't I do all this while unemployed?

Yesterday we got to see our baby in 3D! It was so cool, even if Baby Lang didn't want to cooperate for the camera. I end my 1st blog with some pictures from the 3D Ultrasound.