All Ready for Our New Roommate

We're proud to announce Jack's nursery is all ready for him!

Clothes are all washed, toys put away, and everything is just perfect. Get a good look at his room now...it's not going to stay this clean!
Sitting in his room right now gives you a feeling that's hard to describe. Just knowing someone you already love so much is going to have his story start right here in this room is a very powerful thought.

You can see Jack's already gotten a lot more toys and books from everyone who came to Jim's shower last weekend. It was a great day, opening our doors to so many friends all celebrating this incredible time in our life. We'll get pictures up soon, we promise!

This is Jack's fish friend, Clyde.

36 Weeks

Under a considerable amount of protest, Suz has finally allowed the release of the photos of her at 36 weeks. 36 weeks, kids! One more week, and Jack will be considered full term.

Nine Months!

We're getting so close to the finish line that it almost hurts! Suz has just started the 9th month of pregnancy. In some ways, 2010 has gone by incredibly fast and in other ways incredibly slow. Every time we've driven past OSF, there's this momentary fantasy of being able to just pull in and bring him out to play now.

All in good time. Every day, we do a little be more to be prepared. Suz called and preregistered at the hospital and Jim started getting his paperwork together to make sure Jack is taken care of insurance-wise right from the start.

Hopefully, we'll have Suz's 36 Weeks photos up soon. Yesterday's photo session was rejected by the model in question.

Holy Crap!

This is really happening, isn't it?

Today we had another appointment with Dr. Lee. After the standard Strep B test and Jack again being accessed as "perfect," the doctor announced Suz is already 1cm dilated and 30% effaced. Chances are if you don't know what that means, you probably don't want to know. Do yourself a favore and don't Google it and enter TMI territory.

What does this mean? Well, nothing mostly. We're still looking at a November due date, but we're going to get the bags packed and the hospital pre-registered next week.

It's Shower Time!

Okay, so it took a few days for us to get around to posting some pictures from the shower. They're here now, so everyone relax! This past Sunday was Suz's baby shower and it was the perfect afternoon with family and friends. Perfect in the sense that there was free food and gifts for us!

Big thanks to Angelique, Barb, Jess and Stefanie for putting everything together. It meant so much to us.

The ladies of Pekin Insurance.

The family table.

Suz loves rubber duckies and so that was the theme of the shower. If you look closely, you can see that the duck is dropping a deuce (courtesy of Barb).

Michelle, Keri and Amanda.

Not a bad haul!

Angelique, Jess and Li'l Jax.

Barb is hoping we'd unwrap faster. She's already spent too much time south of I-80.

Colton's already passed out!

Kylie, Jenn, Jennie and Betsy.

Suz with Sam and Nephew Max.

Suz and Jim opening presents. This outfit is the one we plan on being Jack's homecoming outfit. Thanks, Jennie!

Us with Jim's mom.

This party is starting to become reasonably crazy.

Nephew Max giving the rasberry.

The demise of the cake duck.

Suz with Mallorie, Meredithe and Cousin Lisa.

Remember This Moment..

...for in a few weeks, this highchair will never be this clean again!

Why Does Jack Have Nicer Stuff Than We Do?

We'll post about Suz's baby shower later, but we just couldn't wait to post the progress in Jack's nursery thanks to the incredible generocity of our family and friends.

Welcome to Jack's nursery. Call-ahead seating is available.

View from the other side of the room. You can see Gina still considers this to be her room.

Crib is all ready for Jack. Scout is waiting to play!

Closet is fully-decorated and you can see the library has a few more books on the shelf. Always accepting donations!

Inside Jack's magical Poopin' Closet.

Can You Believe It's Already 34 Weeks?

Because we certainly can't! Where has all of 2010 gone? It seems like yesterday we were celebrating a positive pregnancy test while on vacation down south, and now we're frantically getting Jack's nursery ready and finishing up our Childbirth Education classes at OSF.


Had another check up appointment with Dr. Lee. So far, Jack is still developing great. In fact, the exact quote was "perfectly." We'll accept that medical analysis. He's coming from great stock, remember!


BABY FUN FACT: Want to know what it'd be like to hold Jack right now? Go down the the grocery store and pick up a 5 pound bag of flour. If anyone looks at you weird, just tell them the internet told you to do it.

Week 32

There just might be a baby in there after all!

Just about every day Suz is waking up saying, "He grew a lot last night. I can feel it." She just has to make it a few more weeks.

Jim is about ready to get busy and do a little bit more work in the nursery. Last week, Suz decided to change the theme completely. Now it's up to Jim to make it all work in time. We'll see if he can pull it together.

This is so Gina knows this room isn't hers!

Did You Know...

Labor Day Weekend is our Engagedaversary? So, as tradition goes, this will be sitting in front of us tonight.

The night before we got engaged, we had dinner at the legendary 17th Street Bar and Grill in Murphysboro, IL. It was Jim's favorite place when he was a student down at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. If you're ever in the neighborhood (or in Vegas you can go to 17th Street's sister resturant Mephis Championship BBQ), it is definitely worth the stop.

Grandma Kerr will be spending the night here to take care of Gina. We have a hunch Gina will have diabetes from all the treats she'll get over the next 24 hours.

New Pictures from Our Favorite Pen Pal

Hey, Buddy! You were so active this morning you ended up tiring yourself out before your big ultrasound. It was so cute how you were playing with your toes in your sleep. You're getting so big and strong. 3.4lbs! Keep on growing, Jack. We love you.

His little foot and toes.

Jack's leg and foot.

He's still a boy!

Moving In!

Now that a dresser has finally arrived for Baby Jack, it is time to put away some clothes. Thanks to the generosity of Nephew Max (with a possible assist from Aunt Sam & Uncle Mike), Jack's wardobe his huge. Seriously! We haven't even had a shower yet and he already has more clothes than Jim.

Nephew Max did donate his Freddy Kruger onesie from last Halloween. Even though Jack won't make his debut until a week later, we'll probably have to borrow Wolford's Freddy glove and get a few pictures anyway!

Jack is very blessed to already have so many friends and family there waiting for him and eager to make sure he knows he's loved.

The Wait is Over!

Sweeping panoramic view of Jack's nursery so-far that would make John Ford weep.

Back in July, we headed down to Springfield to spend the day registering for Jack. Plan was to stop in at Target and Babies R Us, then spend the evening with Suz's sister and brother-in-law since we were in town. Bryan remembered the name of a little children's furniture store near where we were going and we figured it was worth checking out. Why not? Jim wasn't about to let Suz head back to Chicago to spend a million bucks on furniture north of I-80!



Once we got to the store, Suz immediately fell in love with this crib. I guess it's similar to house buying. You can see dozens of perfectly nice houses, but only one is going to have that instant feeling of home. Maybe Jack, in his own way, picked it out. If that is the case, Jim is relieved to find out Jack has relatively modest tastes. Would love to meet the person setting down $4,000+ for some of those higher-end cribs!



So, we purchase the crib and order the matching dresser. We leave Springfield very excited under the impression everything would be in-town by August 4th and delivered shortly afterwards. We also left Springfield debating whether or not anything really happened in the movie Inception. I don't think anyone really liked it.

August 4th came and went and no phone call. After about a week, we started calling. We started getting scatterbrained answers about not knowing where it is yet and then that the store would mysteriously close down for two weeks for unexplained reasons. We later would find out they closed so the owner could park cars at the State Fair...for unexplained reasons.

This is about the time Jim borrowed a Sam's Club membership for antacids. He was starting to worry the place had closed down and she just hadn't worked up the courage to tell us our money is long gone with no furniture coming.



Finally, the other day we were called and our furniture was indeed in. There looked like there might finally be a light at the end of the tunnel! Since Jim works from home and the store mentioned the delivery guy would prefer mornings, delivery was set up from 7:30am this morning.

8:30 rolls by. 9:30 rolls by. And on and on. Nothing. The store doesn't open until sometime after 11am and every attempt to call the owner's cell phone have gone straight to voicemail. Fear of the store gone out of business were at an all time high. Shortly after 11, Jim finally gets a hold of the owner who explains she forgot to remind the delivery guy before she had to go to a medical appointment in St. Louis and he'd be on his way within an hour.

Suz was so convinced nothing was coming, she went ahead and told her sister that there wouldn't be any pictures to see today.

Long story short (too late), everything was here and finally set up by 3 o'clcok. Jack's furniture looks great! Now, obviously, we're still missing a lot and Suz will probably make Jim rearrange the furniture forty or fifty more times, but it's getting there. It's such a great feeling that we're that much closer to providing him a home when he makes his grand appearance in ten weeks.

See Jack's New Furniture?

Because we sure don't! Hopefully this isn't a sign of things to come, because Jack's first furniture delivery is a few hours late.

Jim may or may not have left a few crabby voicemails.

30 Weeks on the 30th

We're just ten weeks away from Baby Jack's big debut. He's been really active lately, especially after a sizable bowl of Peanut Butter Ripple ice cream his mom snuck in last night. No "bump pictures" to share with you tonight, but we are making a little bit of progress on the nursery!

Baby Fun Fact: At 30 weeks, his brain is no longer smooth. It's beginning to form all the wrinkles you expect to see in a human brain that allow for continued development. Keep on growing, Professor Jack!


First up, Aunt Sam came over yesterday and helped Suz put together Jack's first bookcase. You can see it's a simple cubbie design, complete with some colorful baskets for extra toys -- and it's all at the perfect height for him for several years. Suz is thinking about adding a few colorful "A, B Cs" to the baskets. Jim was just excited that there was finally something he didn't have to build on his own!

You can see Grandma Kerr has already snuck in a few books. Always the teacher! You can't really see it from this angle, but one of the books comes with little animal finger puppets. We didn't have cool stuff like that!



Next we have Parachute Monkey. Isn't he the best? Well, he was a pain-and-a-half to put up on Jack's closet! The set was vinyl and boasted how "quick and easy" it was on the packaging. When will Jim learn? He worked in advertising! It's their job to lie. Took just about an hour to get the whole set put up. Jim is convinced he'll have nightmares of trying to line up all the seperate pieces of the parachute for years to come.

You can't see him yet, but Monkey has a Whale Friend to match him that will be on Jack's toybox. If you didn't know, his theme is an island/sea theme.

Gina notices something is missing, but she hasn't figured out what yet.

Finally, what nursery would be complete without baby's name up on the wall? Unfortunately, "A" and "K" seem to be very popular letters. We'll have to make a return trip to Michael's to finish this project.

Tomorrow will be a big day. After seemingly endless delays, Jack's crib and dresser will be arriving in the morning. Check back then!