Barnyard Bathroom

Here are some pictures of Anthony's project from yesterday, a newly painted and decorated bathroom for Baby Favry. Nannie had discovered that Khols had an entire farm friends bathroom line which matches our nursery decor perfectly...and it was 50% off this past weekend.

Anthony painted the walls a nice blue, the same blue as the bottom half of the nursery walls. We were able to purchase all the barnyard accessories shown below, toothbrush holder which has barn doors that open and show little baby sheep, horsey soap dispenser, piggy soap dish, and rooster cup holder. We even scored a piggy trash can!!








Even the barn doors on the towels open. Its a really cute set.



The bathroom looks great and I know the baby will love it. Even Callum can enjoy it when he visits Auntie camp next.

Lastly I leave you with a picture of CM relaxing in her new glider.....

Final week of 2nd trimester

This week marks the final week of my 2nd trimester, next week I enter the 3rd trimester and will have only 3 short months to go!! New things are now happening including the fact that a little monkey is making it harder and harder for me to take deep breaths; something I anticipate only to become worse in the coming months.
He also gets the hiccups now which is really neat, my whole stomach just pulses and Anthony too gets to feel his little hiccups. When we went to lunch with DH on Friday my stomach barely fit in the booth, it was a small booth though, NOTHING to do with my growing abdomen. Next week I have my final monthly visit, after that I start to see the doctor every two weeks, I also have my diabetes testing and Anthony and I have our grand tour of the hospital!

Santa was good to Anthony and I again this year. Some of the gifts we received were a new pink purse, pajamas, pink slippers, makeup and Mama Mia for me. A cast iron pot, slippers, hess truck, ove glove for Anthony; and a digital picture frame for the family. We also got several gift cards which I can't wait to use for some new clothing items come spring!! Even Baby Favry got gifts including a crocodile outfit from Danielle, a rocking horse from Grammie and a monkey from Nannie which is currently waiting in the crib for our little Monkey's arrival.

We've been very busy traveling and are enjoying a day at home. Chelsea got a new years hair cut and is now napping while Daddy watches football.

Stay tuned for pictures tomorrow as Anthony tackles another project, a new bathroom for Chantel!!!

Christmas Brunch

Yesterday depsite the winter weather, over 50 people showed up to Nannie and Boppie's Xmas brunch. It was a day filled with yummy food, family and friends.



As you can see above, Anthony and David were in charge of the pancake station, I think Anthony won. Anthony made his original yummy pancakes and Dave presented a variety of chocolate chip or Henry's special fresh blueberry pancakes. In addition to pancakes we had Aunty Carol's scrambled eggs, DH's Ham, pork raost, homefries, sauasage, bacon, strata, quiche, danish, bannana breads and much more!! Everything was delicious!!! For dessert we had make your own sundaes with every red and green topping you could imagine.

Santa or Mrs. Doubtfire came and everyone present received a present. Even Baby Favry got in on the action and received a rainforest toy for his new crib. I think his daddy enjoyed it more last night as he sat in the nursery listening to the waterfalls and animal sounds.

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Due to the weather it took us about 2 hours to get home, but we made it home safe and sound.

Yesterday was also a special day as it would have been Nana Courtney's 90th birthday!! Mum had her special xmas memory bear on display and we even sang happy birthday to nana as she was there with us in spirit. Some people got emotional, but I blame it on hormones........

Here is Nana on her 88th birthday...

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It was a great brunch and everyone enjoyed themselves. Nannie are you busy planning next years's yet?

Winter Thoughts

Hello, Kristin here...As I type this we are having a steady snow fall, the first for us for the year.

Anthony and I ran to Target today to pick up a bookcase for the baby's room. We found it online and it matched perfectly so we went to get it as they only had one left. As there was a Stop and Shop next door we decided to run into to pick up our quiche fixings for Sunday's gala...yes we were crazy. It made us think of some of our own winter meanderings.

Why does everyone run to the store to get bread and milk? Why milk and bread? There were literally people there in their slippers grocery shopping all frazzled and acting like the world was ending. One lady had her cart full of oranges and stew meat yelling at her daughter they needed to stock up for the storm. Another lady parked her motorized cart in the middle of the exit, good spot. And we noticed several IDIOTS attempting to use the self scanner for the first time. As we heard " please remove your bananas" 78 times, Anthony started to have a nervous breakdown of his own.

Why do people run out to "top off" their gas tanks. If we are having that bad of a storm, you aren't driving anywhere!!!!!

Anthony mentioned, why do people think its a smart idea to pour hot water on ice to melt it?

Anywho...the furniture arrived for the nursery and it looks fabulous!!! Anthony put the bookcase together today and then we hung letters on the wall Nannie had bought us spelling the little guy's name! The room looks so cute. Chelsea has been spending all her time in there watching her daddy very closely. Today as I put a few books, a pig, and some onsies in the drawers, she sniffed every object closely and approved. She is such a good girl!! We even spent some time in the glider today watching the snow as daddy hung the letters.

Now we are snowbound, we have no milk or bread and both our cars are on empty...we also have no batteries, a half a roll of toilet paper, and no detergent so we are wearing dirty underware. Someone come and save us.

Baby Favry's Room

For the past two days, I have been working on the nursery. This certainly proved to be the biggest home improvement project I have ever done. The first step of the project was moving all the furniture out of the room, which Jared helped me do over Thanksgiving weekend. The next step was to take everything off the walls, fill all the holes and sand them down before I painted. I then taped all the molding, which is always a pain.




Yesterday I spent 2 hours at Home Depot. I had to pick up the paint, primer, new blinds, a new fan, trim for the chair rail and an nail gun. When I got home, my first project was installing a new ceiling fan with lights. I have never hung a fan before. Overall, pretty simple except for the fact that you have to balance the 30 pound fan in one hand while you try to use a screw driver in the other to secure it to the ceiling. Once the fan was up, I started to prime the walls, starting first with cutting in the trim. After almost 4 hours and 4 coats of primer I had the walls primed. As you can see from the picture above, the walls were bright orange and it seemed that no matter how much primer I put on, the orange kept bleeding through. Make note of my advertisement for Hub Glass (compliments of DH).




This morning I got up early and started painting the upper portion of the wall. Before I could paint, I had to draw a line across each of the walls to mark where the chair rail was going so I could paint down to the line with the top color and up to the line with the darker color. Once I got done with the top color, I began with the lower wall color. Once done, I had to let the walls dry for an hour. While the walls were drying, I set up my new compound miter saw which DH had given to me. I also set up my new nail gun, which took me a while because I first had to read how to use the air gun and how to work the compressor. Mind I tell you that I have never used a compound miter saw nor an air gun, so needless to say I was a bit nervous using both tools.

Once the walls were dry, I began measuring and cutting the chair rail and hanging it using the air gun. The air gun was awesome! It sunk finishing nails right below wood surface in a blink of an eye. I had thought the chair rail would be difficult due to having to make beveled cuts in the wood to fit in the corners, however, it went really well. Each of my corner ends lined up with no gaps! It also helped that I had my little helper holding the level for me.



Once the rail was up, I filled in the nail holes and sanded down so that I could paint the trim. Painting the chair rail was a pain and time consuming. After the chair rail was painted, I taped the top of it and touched up the top wall color. Final step in the project was to hang the new wood blinds. We got new blinds so that we could darken to room when the baby took a nap. The blinds that were in there were transparent and with the sun hitting that room all day, it was not conducive for nap time. The wood blinds were a pain to hang but they look awesome.

So FINALLY......Baby Favry's room is done:




It feels so good to have to room done. It was a huge task but what an incredible feeling of accomplishment having it all done. It is crazy thinking that a baby will soon be occupying the room...I cannot wait!!

Favry Christmas Party

Last night Kristin and I had our Christmas party. I believe we had about 10 people here, so it was a small gathering but good nonetheless. The party was at 6pm, however, our friend Adam (my bestman) got down to our house around 3pm. We decided that to grab something to eat before our friends started coming. We went to the Vodoo Grill, which I think is one of my favorite places to eat. Great food that's inexpensive all in a unique setting. For dinner, I had pulled pork serviced over french fries. Their pulled pork it out of this world! Kristin got Creole, which is very spicy. To offset the burn of the spice, she got a piece of warm corn bread. I do not think the baby enjoyed the spice food because Kristin said he was moving all around while she was eating.

After dinner, we went for a field trip to Home Depot, how every party should start. I wanted to go to Home Depot to pick up radiant heaters to hang from the garage ceiling so that it would heat the garage while we were out there last night but also when I am out there working. The heaters were very inexpensive and pretty easy to hang. For the few moments they were on, they threw off great heat. I stress they being on only a few minutes because they ended up blowing our circuit breaker several times. Unfortunately, we were only able to keep one on. The other source of heat came from the grill which was in the garage. It worked quite well too! Below is a picture of Adam and I hanging the heaters.



As always, we had a lot of food. We decided to keep it simple and do only appetizers vs. a meal. We had the typical chips, dips, cheese and crackers. We also made a bread bowl, mozzarella sticks (not as good as Ortiz' on Thanksgiving), pizza bites and poppers. Of course we cannot forget my homemade beer, which was awesome! Light hoppy beer with a hint of pine. Was very smooth and tasty. For fun, some of us decided to play a competitive game of beer pong in the garage (pictures below). I took the title of beer pong champ having won 3 Team matches and 1 single match.






People left around 11pm. After they left, Kristin, Adam and I watched some TV before heading to bed. Adam left early this morning. Another Sunday Kristin wont be home. Last weekend she was at a Christmas party in New Hampshire. Today she has to go to a bay shower in northwestern CT. I have to give her a lot of credit because through out her pregnancy, she has never cancelled plans she has made and still runs around as crazy as she did prior to being pregnant. I think she needs to slow down though because I can tell she gets tired more easily now. The both of us cannot believe that she has been pregnant for 1/2 a year! Time has flown by since we found out we were having a baby and now we cannot wait until we got hold the little guy in our hands and yes, even hear him cry. With the start of my vacation Tuesday I will start working on the nursery. I cannot wait until it's all done. Below is an updated picture of Kristin. Her belly is nice and round now as the baby moves up.

Good Afternoon. Kristin here with an update.

Not much terribly new. I am unable to post a picture of me in my new pajamas at this time, please stay tuned for further updates.

I had my check up today and everything is still normal and great. Chantel's heart was strong and I checked out perfectly too. I had another growth spurt Sunday night I think. My doctor agreed, I'm measuring much bigger then the last visit, she said the 5th month you usually see a big spurt then at 7 months again. I'm starting to feel it, I notice my belly more now when I'm bending over to put my shoes on or pick up something ( like a paperclip of course as I shouldn't be lifting, bending or stretching). Anthony and I are all signed up for our childbirth prep classes and begin in January. I can't believe how fast time is going!!!

Here are some pictures from my Thanksmas lunch Sunday. I went to Casey's house with Kim for a girls only Thanksgiving/Xmas lunch. We had turkey with all the fixings, it was very good and as you can see below we all needed a nap after.


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So that's about it. Gotta run to drop of some mail and pick up my vitamins, Chelsea is excited and waiting by the door.

Tata for now.

Lazy...

Yeah I know, we have not done a blog in a while. We have thought about it but yet still did not write one. To be honest, after Thanksgiving last week, I just never got around to it.

Sunday I went to the Pat's game. Overall, it sucked! Between it being cold, windy and rainy, the Pat's played awful. They looked like a high school team vs. a professional one. We got to to the stadium at 12 to tailgate and the entire time we froze our asses off not to mention how soaked we were. By the time we got into the stadium (3:30), the rain picked up as did the wind. To be honest, the best part of the game was leaving! Don't get me wrong, I was excited to have the chance to go but, well....

Monday both Kristin and I were off. Our day was packed with running errands. Most noteworthy was the fact that we finished registering! Babies'R'Us was empty which made registering that more enjoyable. All we had left was to register for cups, beginner spoons and forks and graduate bottles. We also made some changes to some of the items we previously registered. Kristin and I also ordered all the room `decor, which should be arriving in 2-3 weeks. Perfect timing because my goal is to have the nursery painted by the end of this month. Additionally, the furniture should be coming in either next week or the week after. Now, we unfortunately will not be able to take a picture of the nursery or show any of you if you should come to our house because the babies name will be on the wall. SO, I guess you'll just have to wait until April!

This has been a nice short week for me. As I mentioned earlier, both Kristin and I were off Monday and today I am working until 11am (1/2 day). Next week I am traveling to Colorado Monday-Wednesday, work Thursday and off Friday. The following week I only have two days in the office then I am off from through first week of January....exciting!!! Too bad my lovely wife could not get time off.

Tomorrow Kristin, my mom and I are heading to the cemetery to put Christmas plants at my father's and grandparent's grave. Kristin also wants to make a pit stop at the consignment store. Not living up in the Rocky Hill area or even remotely close, she does not get a chance to get there often to claim her money and/or drop off clothes. Last time we dropped off a lot of stuff after having cleaned out the babies closet. Sunday should be a quiet day. Kristin is heading to a Thanksmas brunch with her friends. I on the other hand will be spending a wonderful morning at the grocery store and watching the Pat's game in the afternoon. Unfortunately, I will not be enjoying any homebrew because we drank it all on Thanksgiving...the entire keg! The good news is that next weekend, my Hop-Nog will be ready in time for our Christmas party. Jared helped me last Friday brew my next batch. This week it has been in the first stage of the fermenting process. Today I will be transferring it to the second stage then into the keg next Friday to carbonate in time for the par-te. Speaking of Jared, I want to pubic-ly spank...err...thank him for helping me move all the furniture out of the nursery last weekend.

Before I end, below is an updated picture of Kristin at just about week 23 (1 day short). Chelsea also decided to show us her side profile. The baby has been moving all around, which is exciting for Kristin to be able to feel him moving. He has already developed a pattern of sleep and awake time. Every day around 2pm he seems to like dancing around as Kristin likes to call it. Kristin for the first time Tuesday was able to put her hand on her stomach and feel him kick. Up to this point she has been feeling him move around inside but not able to feel it when putting her hand on her stomach. My little buddy though seems to enjoy teasing his father because he stops moving every time I put my hand on her stomach. He's a teaser, just like someone else I know!

The Calm Before the Hurricane

Ah, the day before Thanksgiving. A day of rest, peace, relaxation and thought. Obviously I have been enjoying my beer a wee bit to much this morning! Tomorrow will be anything but relaxing with having 20 people over for dinner. That's where the beer comes in...HA!

Yesterday I spent the day we organizing all of our cabinets and food pantry. End result was that we freed up one whole cabinet (soon to be filled with baby bottles), and made things work more efficiently. Afterwards I went to the supermarket to pick up Mr. & Mrs. Lou Lou and some other odds and ends. When I got home, I finished working on my beer, cleaned up the dinning room and helped Kristin clean out the guest room and set up the pack and play for Callum.

Kristin and I realized we have not kept up with our weekly pictures of her growing stomach. Below is an updated one, which is for week 21 1/2! For the past week, we have been putting prenatal speakers on her belly an playing music for CHANTE. He seems to enjoy because he moves all around depending on the song. Last night we used the heart monitor to see if we could find the babies heart beat, which to date we have not been able to. At last, we heard out little ones heart! It was awesome! We listened to it for a few minutes before leaving the little guy alone. For me, it is so comforting being able to hear his heart because I cannot yet feel him kicking when putting my hand on Kristin's belly though she feels him moving around all the time now.



This morning I got up really early and cleaned the two turkeys and prepped them to be brined. After they were cleaned, I put them each in their own brining bag, where they will sit until tomorrow late morning soaking up all the great spices they are soaking in. I also fried up the sausage for the stuffing and made my first homemade cheesecake, which is still baking. Later I will make the stuffed mushrooms (for DH)and get a few other items prepped so I do not have to worry about it tomorrow. My goal is to actually enjoy the Holiday tomorrow vs. spending my whole day in the kitchen.

The Kranchelsony's are very excited for the Jacalamanda's to arrive this evening. They have not been to our house since July 4th, so we are looking forward in spending the weekend with them. Safe travel guys!!!!

Monday Activites

With spending my day Friday in the ER and much of the weekend home sick, today I had planned to just hang around the house. After all, I couldn't leave because I have not car. As you all know, I had a car accident last week and the VW is not drivable. Kristin had to go not the office today, therefore leaving me with no car.

This morning I did not do much. I watched the Today show, read some emails and played with the dog because she missed her mommie. This afternoon I spent working on my beer. To brew beer, it takes 2-4 weeks depending on what type of beer you brew (sometimes even months) Once the beer is brewed you can either bottle it or keg it. When you bottle it, you have to mix sugar into the beer so that while in the bottles, the yeast east the duagr and naturally carbonates the beer. This process takes a minimum of 2 weeks. Not only does it lengthen the process but it is also tedious to sit and clean sanitize, bottle cap 50+ bottles. The kegging process is much easier and faster because you force carbonate the beer with CO2. I have never kegged my beer but needed to this batch because I wanted it to be ready for Thanksgiving.

Yesterday I spend the afternoon reading up on how to keg the beer, regulate the CO2 tanks, force carbonate etc. So, this afternoon I spent an hour cleaning and sanitizing the keg and all its components. I then transferred (racked) the beer into the keg, sealed and moved to the garage. I had to put in the garage because when you force carbonate, them temp needs to remain under 60 so the beer absorbs the gas. I hooked up the regulator and gages, hooked up the gas line to the keg, the output line and turned the gas on, closing my eyes fearing an explosion. Once I opened the valve, I quickly regulated the amount of gas going in so that it was at 12 pounds. For the next several hours, I will go out and roll the keg so to increase the surface area for the CO2 to be absorbed by the beer. End result, beer ready to drink tomorrow and it will pour fresh from my own keg! I have a picture below is the keg (Cornelius) and what the CO2 tanks and regular look like. One gauge shows how much gas left in tank and other shows pounds of gas going in.



Well, I am off to watch the 24 premiere I DVR'd yesterday. The towing company should be here shortly to pick up the VW.

Happy Elf Family

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Anthony's Vacation begins....kind of

Hello, Kristin here. Sorry we haven't had a blog in week or so...

Today Anthony began his vacation, he is off today and all next week and doesn't return until December 2nd. Then he works for like two days and is off the month of December, except for 2 days of travel. His vacation didn't start off quite so grand. He woke me up early this morning to tell me he wasn't feeling well at all. He was literally shaking under 2 quilts and was all achy and hot. He went to the walk in/Emergency room at 8am and is still there. Currently he is hooked up to Iv's and they are doing blood and seeing what the heck is going on. I hope its just the flu or something....I'd ride down to be with him but.......

Anthony got into an accident on Tuesday night with a deer! He was coming home from work on 395 and ended up hitting a deer and the guard rail. Thank god he is OK, but the Jetta will be going to the car hospital for a while. Also, selfishly I'm glad I was not in the car as the seat belt got very tight on Anthony's chest so it would not have been good on my belly!! He was a bit sore Tuesday night and Weds but luckily he was OK overall. Weds morning on the way to work I got to see the poor deer victim, gross.

So I can't go drive to see Anthony at the doctors as I am car less!!!

On a brighter note I'm 21 weeks along and feeling great overall. Just this week I've started to feel a lot of movement. Baby Favry ( ha, you thought I'd say the name) is swimming all around in there. Last night Anthony put our special headphones and CD player on my belly and the two of them listened to some classical tunes. Oh, and Anthony told me the baby talks, the other night he said to Anthony, " Daddy, I want a Wiii", silly kid. Anthony will have to take an updated belly shot for your viewing pleasure.

We are looking forward to next week, Can't believe its Turkey Day already. Anthony needs to rest up this weekend and get better or you'll all be eating turkey subs at Subway instead!!!!

It's a Boy (Confirmed)

So, a couple of weeks ago we found out we were having a boy, but were told that it was an 80% chance. Today Kristin and I went for our 3D/4D ultrasound a confirmed that our little monkey is in fact a boy....picture below, which in on taken from underneath him.



Our now named child (keeping a secret) was not very cooperative today. He was moving all over. Every time we tried to get a look at his face, he either covered it with his hands or he would turn all the way around. Kristin would then turn sideways on the table, which resulted in the monkey going the opposite way. The technician at one point made Kristin eat chocolate hoping the sugar would get him to move so we could see him more clearer. He kept on putting the umbilical cord in front of his face. Today's experience was nothing less than amazing. To see our child like is was there in our hands was incredible. We watched him smile, suck his thumb, put his finger in his ear, wave, turn and twist etc. He still has not packed on the fat yet, so we saw more bone structure than actual features. We did see his hands and feat very clearly though. Here are some pictures with short blurb explaining what you're looking at.

Right hand by ear with left hand over face. His head was turned to the side:


Picture of his face with his foot off on the right side of the picture:


"The Thinker" pose. Side profile of his face with his thumb up:


Waving at us. His right hand waving with his left hand rubbing his eye:


Looking down on his face. His skull bones have not fused together so you can see some spaces on the top of his head:


We got a CD with 25 picture on it and a DVD which had 25 minutes of our little monkey moving around. We are so excited and cannot believe we are half way there!

Fun Times

As you can see from the picture, Kristin and I had some laughs last night. To celebrate I being offered a new job, Kristin and I went to Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville last night at Mohegan. Every time we have gone to Orlando, we have always gone to the one down there. They just recently opened on at Mohegan a couple of months ago. The restaurant is two floors and made to feel like you're sitting on a boat in the water. The floors look like water, there are palm trees everywhere, a full size prop plane hanging from the ceiling etc. The second floor, which is where we sat, is a huge patio deck that overlooks the Thames River. In the Spring/Summer months, the class walls all slide open so you can eat outside. For the cooler nights, they have heaters that hang from the ceilings to keep you warm. They also have a stage on the main floor for their weekly concerts. Lastly, they have this massive object that hangs down from the ceiling, which is made to look like a hurricane. At certain times, the hurricane starts spinning with flashes of lightening. A huge tequila bottle then drops from the center of the hurricane and pours tequila into a huge blender, which turns on and makes margaritas, thus bringing you to margaritalville. Sorry....pretty hard to explain!

For food, we got their famous volcano nachos which were sickly huge (piled about 12-14inches high) and incredibly good! By the time we finished the nachos, we were both grossly stuffed. By the time our dinner came out, I did not even eat one bite of my food (fajitas) and Kristin only ate half of a half of her Cheeseburger in Paradise. Somehow though we both had room for the hurricane sundae which too was massive.

The picture above was taken after the man on stilts came upstairs and made a balloon hat for Kristin. I tried to get her to walk through the casino with it but she did not buy into the idea.

Beerful Weekend

It has certainly been a beer filled weekend! Last night, Kristin and I went to Beer Fest in Providence. Obviously, Kristin did not drink. She did eat cheese, pizza and sandwiches though! If you remember, we had gone to the April one and had a great time. The November one though is much bigger, with more beer companies and beer paraphernalia. They have two sessions, an afternoon on and an evening. As we did in April, we went to the afternoon session, which started at 6:30pm. The place was absolutely packed. If you do not like crowds, this would not have been the event for you to go to.

Kristin's friend/former roommate Stephanie and her husband Mike met us at our house before heading up. At the fest, we met up with Lauren and Paul, Stephanie and David and one of Lauren and Paul's neighbors. The thought of how many beers I tried over the period of 4 hours makes me want to get sick, but it was certainly fun at the time. I have to thank Kristin for going because I cannot imagine how boring it must have been for her, not to mention how long she had to stand on her feet (5-10:30pm). She was definitely a trouper!

Speaking of Kristin, she seems to be getting bigger every day. Very exciting indeed because now I can actually see it!



After beer fest, we all headed over to Union Station in Providence for some food. We were all tired, especially knowing we had an hour drive. After a later night dinner, we headed home, sat in front of the fire for a while and then headed to bed at 1:30am.

This morning I got up early and cooked breakfast for Kristin, Stephanie and Michael. I made french toast, eggs, sausage, bacon and also picked up bagels. After they left, I began my next batch of beer. I have been excited for this next batch, which is a Holiday Ale, flavored with chocolate malts, cinnamon, ginger, orange peel, vanilla and some other holiday seasonings. As I write, the wort (unfermented beer) is sitting in an ice bath to rapidly cool it to 70 degrees. Once it hits 70 degrees, I will then transfer it to the fermentation pale, add 3 more gallons of water, the yeast and then tuck away for the next 7 days while it ferments. Keeping my fingers crossed that all goes well, we will have some holiday spiced beer, which will leave your stomach with a warm feeling (more alcohol).

Beer ingredients:


Kristin just left to grocery shop. While she shops and I wait for my beer to cool, I am watching to Pat play the Bills, currently winning 7-0. Hopefully they can keep it up the rest of the game and secure a win against first place Bills.

Upcoming this week we have our next monthly check up with our midwife and our 3D/4D ultrasound on Friday, which we both cannot wait for. 3D ultrasounds are fairly new and insurance does not cover them. They are typically not used for medical purposes unless they are trying to determine if the umbilical cord is tied. Rather, they are used so you can see what the baby looks like, watch it move etc. I always thought 3D ultrasounds are the ones that allow you to see the babies organs, bones etc, however, found out that this is done with a regular ultrasound. We will definitely be posting picture Friday.

Week 19ish

Two days shy of 19...



Seeing Kristin every day, I do not notice how quickly she is growing with the exception of last weekend. Kristin went to bed Friday night and woke up Saturday having grown. At first, I did not know if Kristin spent the night up eating peanut butter cups, coleslaw and pickles (some of her favorite food right now), but soon realized that the baby is moving on up! We go next Tuesday for our next monthly follow up appointment. Only one more left and then we start going every two weeks. I think we will also start birthing classes sometime in January, which should be a lot of fun. Between driving 1 1/2 hours into work every day, we will also have to drive 45 minutes to birthing classes and Dr. appts. I think we should just rent a motor home!

Since we announced were having a baby, we have been slowly accumulating clothes. The first of the clothes were sleepers from the grandparents. After finding out last week what we were having, the babies wardrobe has expanded, having gotten more clothes from Nannie and Grammie and also from ANT Amanda, Uncle Jared and cousin Callum. We also got a cute outfit from Kim and Bryan. Below is a picture of the babies closet and one of Kristin holding up a few of our favorite outfits! I am thinking this kids going to need a walk in closet by the time its born.




Well, it has been a long week and I am happy its Friday. Tomorrow Kristin and I are heading up to Providence to beer fest. Obviously, Kristin will be the designated driver. She'll be sampling cheeses while us non-preggos drink some fabulous wheat beverages. Speaking of wheat beverages, I am going to be starting my next beer this weekend. What will soon be on tap at the Favry house is a Holiday Ale, which will be seasoned with cinnamon, ginger, all spice orange peel and some other spices. My goal is to have this ready in time for Thanksgiving. Because of the short time frame, I am going to have to keg this beer vs. bottle because there will not be enough time to allow the beer to carbonate if I bottle. To be honest, kegging is a lot easier and more convenient, especially now, because I can keep the keg in the garage because its cool at night. I am also hoping that over Thanksgiving weekend I can start another batch, which I am thinking will be a coffee porter.

Weekend Festivites

Excited with our news about having a boy, Kristin and I could not wait to go see Callum and let him know of the good news. As such, we headed up Maine Friday morning because Kristin and I had taken the day off. On our journey up, we stopped and saw Papa Goldsmith and had breakfast with him and Bab's at Percy's. Out of all meals, going out for breakfast has to be my favorite. I always tend to order more than I need but manage to eat it all. I of course had a hash omelet, which is what I always get no matter where I go. I also got biscuits and gravy which were awesome!

After breakfast, Kristin and I headed up to Maine. The drive amazing enough was good. We hit no traffic and made it in 3 hours, which was great. We spent the whole time thinking about boys names. We still have not settled on anything but not worried as we have time left. I seem to try the proposed names by yelling the name as I have a feeling I/we will be doing a lot of that with our little rascal one day if he takes after his father.

We got to Jamanda's around 3:30pm, however, our little nephew was not there. Callum did not arrive until 5, at which point he was dressed up for Halloween. He was a very handsome pumpkin this year as you can see below. Callum's extensive photo shoot exhausted him, which was expressively evident as he was fussy and crying. It also did not helped that he was beyond the point in which he typically goes to bed.






While the rest of the Goldsmith's/Willard's/Favry's were inside, Jared and I were outside handing out candy. We first started in the garage, then moved to the front door step then to the end of the driveway as Jared wanted to ensure we had the best spot to examine the Hannah Montana costumes! Jared and I were a gay couple this year, holding hands as we handed out candy. We also had some wheat beverages to sip on as we handed out candy, making all the father's envious of our set-up. I have to say, after 4 years of not getting any trick or treaters at our house, I was amazed at the hundreds of kids that came to theirs. I have never seen streets so packed before in my life. Cars packed of kids were parking along the streets dropping of the kid to trick or treat. It was awesome! We'll have to bring our son up to Maine as I am sure he will have fun trick or treating with his big cousin!

After we ran out of candy, we headed inside and had some dinner, which Jared made. He made a good sauce with pasta. The sauce was awesome and very filling. After dinner, which we had with the Jamanda's and Jon and Mel, we went next door to Cindy and Dana's house, who live behind Jared and Amanda. We only hung out there for a short while before heading home and going to bed.

Saturday morning we got up around 8am and Kristin and I spent some time with Callum. Jared made us a great breakfast. We had sausage, eggs, biscuits and apples slices that he cooked. After breakfast, Jared and I went for a canoe trip with his friend Dave. The trip was about 2 1/2 hours long, which was great. With the exception of the wind (which was in our favor), the weather was perfect. I took some pictures, which are below. I had a great time and hope to do that more when I go up to Maine. I only wish I had my kayak. After the canoe trip, Jared and I went to OPB (Oak Pond Brewery) and filled up 3 groulers of beer. I got 2 dark lagers (Story Teller) and Jared got an Ocktoberfest. We ended up only having half of a growler though. Later that afternoon/evening, the 5 of us went to Cancum for dinner. Callum was a good boy the whole time. After dinner, we headed home, gave Callum his bath and sat in front of the wood stove before watching Kristin's and Jared's baby video and Murder She Wrote!

Pictures of our canoe trip:








Sunday we left around 9:30 after spending some time with Callum in the morning. We made it to Taunton in 3 hours which was great timing. We ended up stopping at 15 Dickinson Drive, had some cookies and headed out to grab something to eat as Kristin and I had not eaten all day. We even got some cute clothes from Grammie and Papa B for our little one. We have so much clothes between what we have gotten from Grammie Favry, Nannie and Jared and Amanda. We ended up eating at Smoky Bones. After Smoky Bones, we went to Kohls because Kristin had to return some clothes she had bought. Then, it was off to CT.

All in all, good weekend! We had fun up in Maine and cannot wait to see Callum (and Jamanda) for Thanksgiving! The Holiday's are going to be so fun having two kids running around!!!

Pictures of Callum: