He's Here

Stian was born on Tuesday evening (11/27) at 7:20pm. Weighing in at 8 lbs 1.4 oz, he was 20 3/4" long and his head was 15" in diameter.



More details and photos to come.

Lefse!

When Kris and I were married over six years ago Laura and John got us an incredible wedding gift - all the equipment you need to make lefse. We've never had a chance to actually use it. But we had decided we were finally going to do it this weekend. Unfortunately my OB put me on bedrest for the weekend, so I couldn't help. But Kris decided to go ahead and do it without me. So I came downstairs just long enough to take a few pictures, and of course eat some when he was done! It turned out really well - especially considering he had never made it before. So now we have lefse in the freezer just waiting for Christmas! (notice Kris's super cool t-shirt he got for free when working for the city of Bloomington. :))

Belly pic

Here's my ever-growing belly at 38 weeks and 2 days.

Christmas Tree

We had a nice quiet Thanksgiving dinner with just the two of us. We made and ate way more food than we needed to - but isn't that what you are supposed to do on Thanksgiving?

We also put up the Christmas tree. It's a little early, but I really wanted to make sure we got it up this year. I love having a Christmas tree up, I think they're so pretty. So here are a couple of pictures.

Getting Ready!

We're getting closer and closer to at least being physically ready for Jolly's arrival.

After much discussion about what to do about a changing table - we really didn't want to spend the money on one, but didn't already have a piece of furniture that would work, so Kris was maybe going to make one - I finally had a brainstorm and realized we could set up a changing station in the laundry room, which is just right off the nursery! But this room was just so blaringly white with while walls, white tile, white washer and drier, white sink, white countertop, white cupboards, that it kind of hurt the eyes to be in there. So we decided to paint one wall and generally make it a little more pleasant in there. The laundry room is also just off of one of the upstairs bathrooms, which has a Caribbean theme. We had some left over paint from doing the bathroom, and had a bunch of things we had bought in the Caribbean and not ended up using when we did the bathroom. So we were able to dig through that stuff and come up with some things to make it a little cozier in there. I think it turned out pretty well - hopefully it will also work well for changing diapers.





We've also spent a fair amount of time finishing up in the nursery and getting that ready to go. Here are some pictures of that.

Notice the crib that Laura and John gave us and the gorgeous quilt that my mom's friend Donna made:


Here's an antique rocking chair that belonged to my Great Grandfather Perusina (my dad's mom's dad) - and the microwave stand that Kris made many years ago when we lived in the apartment in St. Paul.


Lots of gifts from folks on the shelves that we made a few years ago (when our 4 year old neighbor "helped" us paint and ended up covering himself in primer the evening before his first day of school - yes, our neighbors were thrilled)


Look at all the tiny clothes!


Here's a card I got from Katy that I framed. It's for the year of the Golden Pig - which is Jolly's Chinese astrological sign. Apparently it is very lucky to be born in the year of the Golden Pig.



And finally, here is Kris having way too much fun trying to get the bouncey seat on loan from Jennifer to work.

37 week ultrasound

We had an ultrasound this week to check on Jolly's growth. He's looking good and healthy. They estimated his weight at 7lbs 3oz already, but everything I've read has said those estimates can be wildly inaccurate at this stage. But in any case, he's measuring a little ahead, which is a good thing.

It appears Jolly is a little Loftus - he has short legs, a big head, a long back and a little bladder (the ultrasound tech said it was problaby just little because he had just peed - but Kris still felt the need to make a crack about that).

We only got a couple of pictues from this ultrasound. I generally don't like front view face pictures on ultrasounds because I think they are a little creepy - but this one isn't too bad. So here's Jolly:

Artsy Fartsy

Here are some artsy fartsy pictures to entertain you while we all wait for Jolly to make his grand appearance!









This one makes me want to sneeze:

Done? Darn Close!

Kris is just about done with the patio, and he may be done for this season. All he has left to do is rent the saw and cut some pavers so he can finish the stairs and the few holes in the walkway. He'll have to decide if he's up for it next weekend or if he just wants to wait until spring. But it's looking fabulous!

Obviously next summer we'll have to work on getting grass to grow around it, and doing some plantings of flowers and such. But it's so nice to be this far!



And here's an action shot from last weekend: