Only 3 and a half weeks left!

Or maybe two weeks if he comes early, a month and a half if he's late! You never really know...

Emily has a had a few Braxton Hicks contractions here and there. They were pretty frequent today. The indigestion and sleepless nights are back but she's actually feeling pretty darn good. for 36 weeks. Her belly-button is completely popped out and the little guy has been kickin' around quite a bit - most likely because he's getting less and less comfortable as he runs out of room! He's been getting the hiccups at least once or twice a day (he actually has them right now as I'm typing this,) a good indication that he is sucking his thumb in utero. They feel quite strange now that he's dropped so far down into mom's pelvis. We have doctor's appointments every Monday from now on. At our last one Dr. Saul said that "Juniors" brain is functioning properly and everything is progressing as it should. Hooray!

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Emily at 36 weeks

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I have no good pictures of Jeremy this week. I was gone all weekend and we don't see each other much during the week. I'll try to get some good pictures tomorrow and add them to this page. Its way past my usual bed-time so, for now, I'm headed to bed! 'Night, y'all!

At the cabin...

Emily and a few friends headed up for the Nichols' family cabin this weekend with "the kids" for some relaxing time in the sun. The weather was perfect and the water felt great! Jonas and Moses ("the kids") had a great time, as well.

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A view of the cabin from the lake.

Moses chilling out on the floor

Liz telling a story to Becky and Sara

Liz and her baby, Moses

Jonas braving the waters for a swim
There were plenty of shallow spots the Moses and Jonas could play in. Moses had a cute little life jacket to help him along, since he's a bit of a tub. Jonas played and swam like a champ! Mom was so proud!


Jonas spent most of the time in the water "fishing" for things to eat. He got plenty of veggies this weekend - I think he ate about a pound of seaweed.


It was a fun time. The sunsets were beautiful! My legs got a bit sunburned after tubing down the (very) lazy river, but all-in-all it was a very relaxing, enjoyable weekend. Thanks for a fun time, girls!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEREMY and Happy Birthday Summer!

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Jeremy turned the big 29 yesterday and today marked the first official day of Summer (Happy Anniversary Annie and Derek!) For Jeremy's birthday this year we got HAIL. Yes, hail. It was supposed to only be nickle-sized, but as you can see from below it was a little bigger than that. Jeremy was still at work when it happened, so Emily got up at 2:15 am and threw blankets over the truck. It was still semi-hailing in the photos, so some of the pieces falling close to the camera look way bigger than they actually were.

"Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you..." Some hail I stuck in the freezer sitting next to Jeremy's ice cream birthday cake.

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"RICO in the SINK-O"

Rico taking a cat nap in the sink upstairs. He naps pretty much anywhere he can.
Whoops, woke him up.


And, once again, catching him napping inside the dryer. And we wonder why there's always cat hair on all of our clothes...

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And a BIG congratulations to our friends Alex and Erica on their announcement of a new baby set to arrive this December! We are so excited for you two (or shall we say "three!")

Its been a pretty good week so far. A bit hot for our liking, especially since we have to wait to re-do the old wiring in the bedroom before we can put our window air conditioner in. We have all of the stuff to re-do the wiring, but unfortunately the only way to access the wires is to head up into the attic...and its a bit too toasty to do that this week. Its probably around 115 degrees up there, no joke.

As far as the pregnancy goes I'm (Emily) doing good. I've been popping Rolaids like they are Skittles lately, but other than that I feel fine, despite the heat. I'll be honest - its hard to get up and move much when its this hot but we have been spending a lot of time outside trying to catch a breeze and that helps. All the poor animals do all day is lounge on the kitchen floor. Jonas didn't even move for four hours yesterday! Poor guy.

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And...the nursery is almost done! We have a few finishing touches left to do - like hang up pictures, put up the trim around the ceiling, touch-up the paint job and hook the heating back up - but we have come a long way! We still need a crib, too. Hopefully we will be getting one this weekend.

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And here's the bathroom! We have a few finishing touches to do here as well - like the heating, trim, and hooking up the bathroom ceiling fan which also involves going up into the 115 degree attic. (And re-paint, because Emily doesn't like the color - but that can be done AFTER "Junior" gets here!) The shower was a pain to install to say the least, but Jeremy and Justin did a great job.

Justin did a fabulous job on the floor!



View into the hallway.
So, the hallway and trim around all of the new doors is pretty much the only big project we have left. Thanks to Minnesota's summer humidity none of the doors will shut, so we have to re-do them before we put up the trim. But, hey, the toilet works! Emily is SOOOOOO happy about that!

That's it for now - have a great week!

Well, Jonas got into a bit of trouble today the three hours he was home alone. He found a roll of toilet paper somewhere in the house and decided it would make a nice chew toy. Below is just part of the mess...the trail led all the way from upstairs. Does he look sad? Regretful? Not really.

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Thanks to everyone who voted on our Baby Nelson name poll. The top winner was Blake...but unfortunately Blake doesn't come out well with initials or name meaning. We're still not sure what his name will be. We had such a hard time naming Jonas that I worry we won't be able to decide even after he arrives! He doesn't seem to respond to anything when I ask him what he wants his name to be, so I guess we will just have to keep trying.

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Just an FYI on the names and meanings:

Blake: "very dark or very bright," - hmmm... B.J. Nelson, Emily hates the nickname B.J.

Carter: "transporter of materials"

Cole: "coal, dark one" - Kind of a creepy meaning.

Connor: "lover of hounds" - Awww, we all love Jonas.

Drew: "man, warrior"

Dominic: "Lord"

Dylan: connected with the word "sea"

Elijah: "my God is the Lord" - Still Jeremy's favorite.

Eliot: "my God is the Lord"

Evan: "God is gracious"

Gabe: "God is my might"

Garrett: "strength of the spear"

Isak: "he who laughs" - This name is out of the running, by the way.

Jacob: "supplanter"

Joey: "he will enlarge" Enlarge what?

Mason: "bricklayer, stoneworker" Mason Nelson sounds weird.

Micah: "who is similar?" to God, they mean.

Noah: "rest, comfort" Emily's favorite but also out of the running.

Owen: "well born, yew born"

Pierce: "stone"

Reese: "enthusiasm"

Riley: "rye clearing"

Shane: "God is gracious"

Tanner: "a tanner of hides"

Travis: "toll collector"

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So...by process of elimination our top FIVE have been narrowed down to (drum roll please) . . .

1. Carter

2. Connor

3. Elijah

4. Evan

5. Joey

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We'll try and keep everyone updated on the name situation as it progresses. Thanks to everyone that voted. We loved all of the comments. Who knows, the kid's name might end up being Bob or something. We still have six more weeks to decide!