Since my last post, we've crossed a lot off of our to-do list. I have to brag about my awesome husband (whose birthday is today - Happy Birthday, my love!) who has been knocking out projects right and left. I'm seriously amazed by all the work he has done lately and being brave enough to try things he doesn't have prior experience with. Not to mention, having lots of quality time with Quinn so I can get things done too and go to the pool. We appreciate you hubs! And I think we can officially declare that we are ready for baby brother any day now. I'm past the 36 week mark, we have everything collected on the midwife preparation list, and we have our home visit this week. We even excavated the archaeological site of crumbs and stickers in the car so we could rearrange the car seat setup. 

All I really have left is putting the Montessori learning activity trays together for Quinn. I'm almost done reading the ebook, it has been very helpful in figuring out what materials to purchase, most of which are from the dollar store. Now I just need to get them organized for easy use and train Quinn on the activity cycle. This is my plan for keeping her entertained while I'm nursing baby brother, but I'd love any other tips people have!

Quinn's been getting ready too. Baby brother's room is pretty much set up. She helped me choose which books from her bookshelf would be good books for a baby and put them on his shelf. She's been practicing feeding her babies and burping them, giving them toys when they cry, and laying them in the crib or swing. She spends most of her time in the nursery these days pretending to be a mommy. So precious! 

I have to record some favorite quotes. Well, one is more of a tone. To add emphasis or enthusiasm to a word, she'll drop her voice an octave and open her eyes wide. For example (bold being the voice drop), Q: "I'm having a party." Me: "What kind of party?" Q: "A chocolate party!" 

She has a a little plastic sandwich from a picnic set that she insists on sleeping with. If she can't find it after we close the door, we'll hear her shout in a panicked tone, "My sandwich!!" She hoards tons of books in her bed when she goes to sleep too, so when we go in to move them after she's asleep, we'll usually see the sandwich still clutched in her tiny fist.

The other day, she started eating dinner while I was still finishing up cooking. She shouted to Jonathan and me in her best sales voice, "Come try some, I've got pear on a fork!"

We've been working on using a nice voice when asking for things and her second attempt usually sounds like, "Mommy, please, can I have ____ please, Mommy?" 

A lot of her sentences are about "I love ____" or "I don't like ____". I guess she is forming a lot of opinions right now. She and Shinobi are starting to become closer. Probably because one of her responsibilities is to feed him dinner now. Another responsibility for her is choosing pajamas and she loves to choose, "mix and match". She's really into maps and puzzles right now. She tried caribou for the first time last week when Jonathan's parents were visiting. She requested a third helping! She received a US Map puzzle from Nana and Boppa and wants me to get out the Disneyland map a lot. And we got some 16 piece jigsaw puzzles that she likes to do on repeat. 

Aside from projects, we've had some social fun and Jonathan and I have had a couple date nights. One was to a Peter Bradley Adams concert. We saw him in SF when I was about seven months pregnant with Quinn, so we had to go again. It was at a really fun, small venue so it was easy to get a photo with him. I even wore the same outfit for the joke. 

It's been a busy couple of weeks. Two weekends ago Quinn and I went to Eugene for my sister's baby shower. My mom and I had a ton of fun planning it. It was a cozy evening by the fireplace with lots of desserts and a hot chocolate bar. Quinn got to have a sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa's during the festivities. 

While we were partying, Jonathan and his buddy Heath (who has his own construction business, Valley Design Contractors) worked their hineys off building us bookshelves. Here is what the fireplace in our room looked like when we first moved in.

Over our two years here, I painted the brick, firewood doors, and wainscoting white and the top half of the walls a deep olive green and we added some art to the mini-mantel. This is how it looked with the bookshelf demoed. 

And this is how it looks today.

Pretty amazing, huh? I'm so impressed by what those two built in 24 hours. Jonathan and I spent last week doing priming, sanding, and painting marathons whenever Quinn was asleep. We are trying our hardest to wait the full two weeks to let the paint fully cure. After all that work, we don't want to do anything to jeopardize the paint job. We are looking so forward to getting the rest of our books out of the garage after all this time and also for the extra storage in the cabinets. We'll get some different lighting down the road, but our room feels so much more complete now!

And then there's this snow that we are having. I'm a bit irritated by it because my baby shower was supposed to be tomorrow, but since a number of guests are coming from Eugene and Corvallis, and it's showing no signs of letting up, we decided to postpone it. Waaah!

But there is definitely a positive side to it. Jonathan worked from home today and we got to get out and play in the snow. Even Shinobi was enjoying it. We busted out one of our bodyboards for a sled and headed to the closest hill. Here's our little daredevil sledding on her belly.

I even got my giant pregnant self on the sled. All of this was of course followed up by grilled cheese sandwiches, tomato soup, and tea. Not to mention a good long nap by the little lady.

It's been a calm couple of weeks. I'm trying to slow down my daily pace a little bit and get my priorities right. Partly because of this inspiring read, partly because Quinn's favorite phrase lately is, "Mommy play ___", and partly because I'm just more tired from being pregnant. Quinn is all about pretending and imagination right now. I'm at least 50 different people/characters a day. I love it. 

I've finally finished all the projects I wanted to do for Quinn's room, so now my attention is focused on baby brother's room - sorting hand-me-down boy clothes, sewing swaddling blankets, sewing a new changing pad cover. I've also been reading about teaching Montessori at home, going to midwife appointments, prepping for my sister's baby shower, editing Quinn's quarterly video (which I'm sending to people directly now instead of posting, let me know if you want it), making trips to the park, bookkeeping, and hosting visitors. Jonathan is working with his buddy to build bookshelves and cabinets on either side of our fireplace this weekend! I'm so excited! It's going to add some nice storage and a more balanced look to our room.

A photo from one of many trips to the park and some balancing tricks on Auntie Boo.

We had a very sweet Christmas week. On Monday, we met sweet baby girl Reagan. I forgot how tiny newborns are!! Christmas Eve morning we did our own family celebration at our house. Quinn got a new water bottle and a bunch of pouches in her stocking (a luxury item around here). She was pretty pumped. Then Jonathan surprised me with a brand new sewing machine! We had agreed to having our gifts to eachother be the museum date and a stocking stuffer, but he likes to keep me on my toes. I'm so excited to put it to use on my project list. Quinn received a bike (want), baby doll (need), scarf (wear), and Winnie the Pooh book (read). She named the baby doll "baby boy", we were expecting Memo or Bebo since that's what she names a lot of things these days. She has been very sweet with him. We gave her the bike at Jonathan's parents' house since they went in on it with us. Such a big kid!

We spent the rest of Christmas Eve with my family and some of Christmas morning, then headed over to Jonathan's parents for the rest of the day. Quinn saw all four of her Gowins-side great grandparents, what a lucky girl! (And thanks, Auntie Amber, for the dress. Quinn thought she was a princess all day.)

Thursday was a bit relaxed and Friday we headed home through Corvallis. We stopped at the Thielmans' house and the Albers' house for some visiting. Saturday we had brunch with a longtime friend and then our friends from California, the Bells, came over for the rest of the day. Quinn thought their girls were so cool.

Sunday we were visited by the lovely Ihde family and then caught up with the Cases at the Khajavi-Poresky home over some tasty dinner. It was so great to see all these amazing people. 

On Monday, we went to the Portland Children's museum as a family. Quinn had such a fun time. Her definite favorites were the garden area, the water play area, and the grocery store. And she gave Dora a million hugs. 

We really enjoyed adding a Jesse Tree to our Christmas traditions this year. Each night starting December 1st we would read a story from the Bible and color an ornament with a symbol from the story to hang on the tree. It was amazing to see how much sunk in with Quinn. 

 Today has been a nice, boring Tuesday that included a trip to the grocery store and cuddling my runny-nosed girly. I think we all wore ourselves out pretty well. We hope everyone had a Christmas full of love and joy, and Happy New Year to all!

It's been a fun and festive week and a half. There have been a lot of secret elf projects going on around here. Jonathan even worked on a man gift project. Wednesday we had a full day date thanks to my fabulous mom. Jonathan and I decided our gift to each other this year would be going to the Samurai exhibit at the Portland Art Museum. We never got around to going when it was in SF, so we didn't want to miss it this time. We also had a nice lunch out and some wandering downtown. Jonathan went to a basketball game with his buddy this past weekend and I had a lunch date with a buddy as well. I also had the pleasure of taking this little sugar plum to the church Christmas pageant.

Yes, that's a travel mug in her hand. An essential accessory these days. We had a lot of fun getting dressed up and watching the show. I haven't seen her that mesmerized since she saw the Disneyland parade. Afterward, she kept getting excited pointing out all the kids dressed as angels.

There has also been lots of ballet in baby brother's room. She knows about passe and arabesque.

Who knew that Ikea toy could double as a ballet barre? 

And my favorite Christmas vocabulary word is "Four Wopsen". Also known as the three men who followed the star to Bethlehem.