ZOO AND MORE:

A few updates before I get to Jett's first Henry Doorly Zoo experience.

Our baby girl's room is painted and it feels so good to have that done.  The furniture will be delivered soon and then we'll just have some decorating to do.  Here is a photo from last week when I was 25 weeks (yes, I pretty much only take these photos when I have a work event because these are the only times I actually get ready).

We have been having so much fun with Jett lately.  We love seeing his personality develop more all the time.  Lately we have been starting to joke that we are going to have an OCD kid on our hands.  When he's eating he really doesn't like to make a mess.  If he drips anything on his tray he says "Uh oh" or "Oh man" until one of us cleans it up.  He also wants his hands washed immediately whenever he's done eating.  We definitely don't mind him being clean but don't want him to think he can't get dirty.  I'm sure he'll grow out of the phase eventually.

We are also surprised at some of the foods he's willing to eat.  For example, he had two and a half bowls of this spinach salad the other night and kept asking for more.

Our daycare provider was telling me that whenever we send certain foods to daycare she thinks to herself "I'll believe this when I see it" but sure enough, he eats every bite.  We certainly have the things we struggle with raising an almost 2 year old but we've said from the beginning how lucky we are that he's a great eater.

He's also doing great at putting words together and picking up on new words and phrases that he hears.  Such a fun age!

And now to the zoo trip.  Jett had never been to the Omaha Zoo before and Jake hadn't been since 1999.  So they were both pretty pumped.  We got some free zoo passes from the Simaneks and had a great time.  

 The highlight was riding on the train of course!  Although he was honestly a little nervous once we got on.

It was a great day and since Jett was so tired I actually got him to sleep next to me on the couch when we got home.  Something we never get to do anymore.  I love how little he looks when he sleeps.

Yesterday we got together with some college friends to grill and hang out.  Always a good time with these guys!

 I don't think babies get any more chill than little Cooper Moore:).

Finally, a little shoutout to Jake and his office for winning "Lincoln's Choice for Chiropractic Care!" So proud of all of their hard work.

WEEKEND AWAY:

I'll start with a picture from St. Patrick's Day (it's blurry like all of the selfie's taken on my phone are) but you get the idea:

Thursday night through Sunday Jake and I were in Omaha for the Nebraska Chiropractic Convention.   Jett stayed with my mom and dad for 3 nights (the maximum amount of time we have both been away from him at the same time).  We were excited for a break but of course we missed him.  Luckily we knew he was in great hands and would have a good time!

On Thursday when we got to our hotel we joked about how Omaha was our Oyster.  Seriously, it doesn't take much to impress us these days.

We ended up going to Hiro for sushi and enjoyed having a date night.  No, Jake doesn't always wear his Excel Chiropractic polo on our dates but this night was a little rushed!

Friday we had the convention all day and in the evening we went to an alumni reception.  I am just over 24 weeks in the photo below.

Friday evening we went out for dinner at the Boiler Room with Jake's business partner (Aron) and his wife (Amy).  We had been looking forward to a night out with them for a while and we got to celebrate the practice being open for almost a year (April 15th will be an official year).   It really has been a great year and we are all so excited to be doing this together.

While staying at the hotel I got to eat like the pregnant person that I am every morning (could get used to that)!  I also got to meet my Omaha sisters for lunch one of the days which was fun.  

Saturday night we went out to eat to a Persian restaurant with Aron and our friends Sarah and Dave followed by watching (sort of) a few basketball games back at our hotel bar.  It was another great night out.  It was so nice to be able to be slightly spontaneous all weekend and not have to worry about getting a babysitter every time we wanted to do something.

Meanwhile Jett was having a great time too.  He got to see Molly the dog, get honked at by big trucks on the highway, and play with a lot of new (to him) toys!

I'd say the weekend was a success for everyone and it was pretty fun being reunited yesterday!  

SPRING AND BABY NAMING:

I'm pretty sure we've decided on a first name for the baby.  I'm kind of funny in the way that I will literally try our name out on every stranger who shows any interest in knowing the name.  The requirement is that as long as we don't have any mutual friends or family, I'll tell you the name.  So this includes hair stylists, manicurists, OBGYN nurses, and sales clerks.  We want our name to be a surprise to friends and family but I'm the type of person who also needs a little feedback to feel confident about my name choice.  A few weeks ago I was shopping and when I was checking out, I was asked if we had a name picked out.  Without hesitating, I just said the name.  The girl responded that she was going to text her boyfriend immediately to tell him that if they ever had a baby girl together, that would be their name.  That was really all the affirmation I needed.  I sent Jake a text after that and said, "____ is for sure our name, ok!"  Now onto the middle name!

The video below shows our love/hate relationship with spring.  Of course we are SO happy about the warmer weather and it is a blast taking Jett outside and seeing so many things through his eyes for the first time.  But, as the video demonstrates, when we are not outside, we are being asked to go outside:).  We better get used to that I guess!
http://youtu.be/9Jcd8_Fk2bo


Over the weekend we went to Jett's second cousin Katie's B-day party.  There was a photo booth so we had some fun dressing up!

We also had a productive weekend.  My office is officially moved to the basement so we are hoping to paint the nursery this coming weekend!  That and spend plenty of time outside of course:).

NURSERY PLANNING AND MORE:

Happy Friday!  This week I started taking some action with the nursery. 

1. I picked out this crib and ordered it (it is more white than it looks in this picture).   I mentioned it to Jake later. 

*Jake loves to be involved but he's a really busy guy and I'm an antsy girl.  Plus I had a pretty good idea of what we both wanted (style and price range) so I went for it.  Nebraska Furniture Mart said they could deliver it this week.  I told them I'd like to delay it for a month which I figured would give us a great deadline to get my office moved to the basement and get the room painted.  For a second we considered using Jett's crib for the baby and getting him switched to a toddler bed.  It was a very quick second.  I decided I want him to sleep in his crib for as long as possible (if he's not trying to escape).   This is kind of how I feel about potty training too.  I want to wait until he's ready instead of stressing to get him trained before his sister gets here.  I think you just have to do whatever works for your family (or whatever doesn't stress you out)!

2.  I purchased a chandelier.  Not the cool one from my earlier post but a really pretty white one.

3.  We decided on a wall color (same as Jett's):

4. I bought a new dresser for Jett so we can move his changing table/dresser to his sister's room.

5. I picked out the bedding that I'm going to order (Pattern B for the bumper pad and D for the fitted sheet).  We'll do a basic white bed skirt.

6. Finally, I scheduled for time warner cable to come on Monday to get everything installed for my home office in the basement.  This means that sometime this weekend I'd like to clean/organize our basement and start getting some things moved down there.

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In other news our little boy is looking a lot bigger lately.  He is cracking us all the time with all the new things his sweet little voice has been saying (Amen, Oh Man, Hey Buddy, etc).  He loves big trucks, choo choos (still), dancing, music, and going outside (please get nice soon).

Apparently his dad used to like to pose like this.  Can't say I'm surprised:).



GRANDMA MARXSEN

I want to wish a very special person a Happy Birthday!  My Grandma Marxsen is 80 today.  I could only dream of having the social life that she does right now.  She is so young at heart and has so many admirable qualities.   She has been a great role model to me in the way that she always speaks her mind and goes after what she wants.  She is so entertaining and I could listen to her tell stories for hours.  I am lucky to have her in my life!  Happy Birthday Grandma!

Oh, and get this....she's never colored her hair.  I'll take some of those genes please:).