Visiting the Fam

After Carol got done with her shower we packed the car and headed to Osky. My brother Jason and his family were visiting and it had been to long sense we had seen them. My sister Angie and her family were around as well. Unfortunately it was still to wet to harvest corn but we still had a good time visiting with each other.

Nephew James

Niece Lillian

Newest Member, Claire

Jason taking the kids for a ride

The combine, ready to go

Neighborhood Shower

This past weekend kept us busy with baby showers and seeing my family in Osky. Saturday started out with Carol having a baby shower with our neighbors hosted by Jill and Galadriel.

She received a lot of really nice gifts, which will all come in handy once our daughter arrives. Our neighborhood is something of a rarity, with having such a large group of friends around us. We are truly blessed to have some many people care about us within one block.

I think they had the camera on nightshot for these

Mean while, as Carol was having her baby shower I was putting the finishing touches on the changing table. It has a few flaws but I think it turned out pretty well, for being my first furniture project sense high school shop.

I may actually have to rake this year

It's getting almost time to rake. Another week or so and my two trees will have dropped all of their leaves. I will need to buy a compost bag, rake the leaves, bag the leaves, and set the bag out on the curb to be picked up. The city discourages burning? The trees have grown quite a bit this year, so maybe I should get a leaf blower for a job this large.

Carol's 1st Baby Shower

Carol had her 1st baby shower this past weekend in Pella with her friends. Alisa and Lisa hosted the party at Alisa's house. While Carol was having a fun time opening gifts I spent the day helping Dad work on the Shop. We discovered that installing a 20x16 overhead door is a little more complicated that a garage door. Here are a few pics from Carol's shower. Enjoy.

Cake Thingy

Carol with Alisa & Lisa

Friends

Gifts

Ummm, I don't know. You'll have to ask Carol

Baby B's latest pics

Carol had her monthly ultrasound this afternoon and everything is progressing right on. They estimated that our daughter weighs about 4 lbs now and is within the 60% percentile. The fluid is good and everything besides the one kidney looks great. Dr. Mahone was very pleased with what she saw but said that the bigger our daughter gets the easier it is to see her bad kidney. She is not at very concerned about it and said that she is going to be just great. We will still need to be careful managing any UT infections to reduce scaring, which will help her when she is older.

We also start our parenting classes at Methodist this coming Monday, woohoo.

The following changing table is brought to you by...

Well the changing table is taking form and I am ready to start sanding and finishing. Besides a few wrong cuts and nailed pieces (apparently the 1/4 sheet of plywood for the back of the table, goes on the inside of the frame, oops) the building went well and was fun. Here are a few pictures of the final rough assembly.

Below is a picture of the major tools used in this project. It's no Norm Abrams shop, but they did the job well.

The following tools were used for this project:

- Irwin clamps and levels, Jet 10" table saw, Craftsman 10" compound miter saw, Porter Cable compressor and brad nailer, Bosch router, Bosch router table, Kreg pocket hole jig, Makita 18v drill, Bosch 10.8v driver, B&D jig saw, Hitachi circular saw, & keeping it all clean ..the Shopvac.

I Didn't Think We Live in the Country?

The oddest thing went by the house this evening. I mean I know that we don't live to far from the country but we still live in the suburbs. Plus unless you live on our street there really isn't any reason to drive on it because it just circles back to the same street. So as I am sitting in our office this evening I hear something loud slowly going by the house. I look out and its a John Deere 8430 with a Kinze grain cart, that seems kind if odd. Then a pickup pulling a 30ft platform, followed by a 9750 combine. I don't know where they are going but its just not something you see everyday in the burbs, I thought it was awesome.

Here are a few new pictures of my progress on the changing table. Its been going pretty well but now I have a lot of routing to do making the drawers and finishing the top.