Baby Makes Three!

It's been a long 9 months since my last post! James and I are happy to announce on our blog that we are just about ready to have a baby girl join our family. We are beyond excited for her arrival! We have been very busy the last few months preparing for her, and now that we only have 4 weeks left, we have almost run out of things to do!

From the moment we found out we were going to have a baby, I have been obsessed with her! She's pretty much all I think about. The first time I felt her move was amazing and the first time James felt her kick was EVEN MORE amazing. Pregnancy has been very easy on me, I've been lucky! I had no morning sickness, just lots of fatigue in the beginning. Everything else has been smooth sailing. As good as it's been though, I am more than ready for her to come out. It's tough having a big belly and it will be so wonderful to see her little face.

I just can't believe that in only 4 weeks we will be a family of THREE! (Actually, a family of FOUR...can't forget Bear! )

Daddy Bear and Baby Bear

Daddy Bear and Baby Bear are best friends. Let's face it, even though Mommy Bear is the one who takes care of her and spoils her all day long, Baby Bear is CRAZY about her Daddy. She totally loses it with excitement every day when he walks in the door. She follows him everywhere. AND she loves to sleep on him while he plays MLB "The Show" or corrects papers :).
This just melts my heart...

Bear

Bear is our new little puppy and she is the apple of our eyes! Every day we look at her and think how lucky we were to end up with the cutest, funniest, sweetest, craziest little dog. When we flew to California in June, we had no intention of returning to Minnesota with a dog. However, while we were there, I had the bright idea that we should go look around at some animal shelters. James and I were both ready to adopt a dog, but had been trouble finding a dog in Minnesota. Why not go look around in L.A. where there are many homeless dogs?

We found Bear at the Los Angeles County Animal Shelter in Downey. It was heartbreaking to see how many dogs were there...at least 400 I would say. James was the one who pointed out Bear and said "Wow, Babe, that one is really cute." The shelter listed Bear as "stray" chihuahua mix (we think she's perhaps a chiweenie?...or a chibeagle? Or possibly a mix of a few different breeds). We had to make sure she was light enough to take on the plane, so we asked them to weigh her and she was 8.5 pounds...perfect! After a brief getting to know you visit, we decided to adopt her. It was the best decision EVER!

Although she came down with a bad case of kennel cough that required multiple costly vet visits, she has been absolutely the greatest dog. We are convinced that adopting a shelter dog is the best way to go. Not only are these dogs the greatest, but we're not supporting pet over population. YES! :)

Wow, It's Been a While!

I cannot believe how long it has been since my last blog post. Time has been flying by and life has been great for us. Our summer was action packed...We were lucky enough to get to travel to California for a few weeks and to Montana for a week. We spent lots of time with family and good friends and we celebrated at James' mom's wedding in July.
The best thing of all about the whole summer is we moved into a house and adopted the sweetest puppy in the world. YAY for new adventures!

All the Lovely Ponds Smokers

I have to warn you, this is an angry blog post.

There is one thing that James and I both hate, and that is cigarette smoke. Recently, when the weather got nice, we were delighted to open our windows to the fresh air. However, it didn't take long for us to notice that almost every surrounding apartment has atleast one smoker. And when they decide to enjoy a cigarette on their balcony, we also "enjoy" it inside our apartment as we breathe in their second hand smoke. Trust me, it makes for a wonderful headache.
This is one con of apartment living that we never even thought about until we experienced it. YUCK! It's a riot to see what a scene Hubby makes when he has to get up and close the balcony door constantly :) He always pops his head out the door to see who is smoking, then proceeds to slam the screen door and the balcony door and make a ruckus!

There should be a law against this....or atleast a separate smoking and a non-smoking building. After all, it's our air too!!!

Mr. Herberg is FULL-TIME

James and I got amazing news this morning. He is going to be teaching social studies FULL-TIME next school year! He will be teaching half middle school and half high school classes. After being told he was not going to be offered a job next year at Rocori at all, we were pretty bummed. He applied for tons of other jobs. Then we were told he would be half-time, then 3/4 time....and now finally FULL. Mr. Herberg is glad this roller coaster ride is over. And I must say that I'm am pretty glad too....it's nice to know we'll have some financial security and quality health insurance. Good job Hubby!!!!!

Our Favorite Nephew Cohen :)

Over the past weekend, James and I got to spend a lot of time with our sweet little nephew Cohen. It had been five months since we last saw him, and wow has he grown a lot! Not only that, but he is an extremely bubbly, happy, easy-going little boy and such a delight to be around. We can't believe that he will be one year old in a couple weeks, time flies!
We got to spend Mother's Day this past weekend with Nicole and Cohen and I was lucky enough to get to do a mini, impromptu photo shoot! Here are a few of the sweetest pictures of the handsome little guy:

Doesn't he just have the prettiest blue eyes and the sweetest little lips? We just absolutely adore this little guy.

YAY Erin!

This past Saturday, James' sister Erin graduated from the College of St. Benedict with a degree in English and teaching license. We are so very proud of her. And another wonderful thing was that Nicole and Cohen came to Minnesota to participate in the festivities! It was really nice to have them visiting and to celebrate Erin's huge accomplishment. We had a lovely dinner on Saturday night at the 400 Club, which overlooks a pretty lake.

Erin is so smart and talented and has such a big heart. Her future students will be very lucky to have her as a teacher! We know she has so many bright and beautiful experiences ahead of her and we can't wait to see where she goes in life!