living the freeman life

So, while Caleb hung out and Grandma and Papa’s house today, Eric and I went out and “played” in the snow. Well, he played and I took pictures. :) Here’s my wonderful mountain man of a husband shoveling a clear path to the car. We failed to do this last time, and wound up paying for it, as the snow melted, then froze, then melted, and refroze…and we practically “skated” out to the car every time we need to go somewhere!

And, this would be me (or as much of me as I could get a pic of while holding the camera away from myself) at 38 weeks! This would be Adam’s 2nd official snow!

Icicles!! So pretty!!

And here’s Eric, munching on his first icicle…seriously! The man’s never eaten an icicle before…he thought it was pretty good! (In the picture though, it looks like he’s using it as a giant toothpick!)

Josie…whose face tells it all. We brought both cats outside with us (they had been sleeping inside all morning, and it was now noon). She hooted and hollered, and Josie kept giving me these glares.

We decided to give my car a “haircut”. This is the before picture….

…and the after photo…it is supposed to be a mohawk with spikes..we called it a “Corollahawk”

We called this a “bad flat top hair cut”

Look familiar?

Well, as much as I’ve wanted to meet this baby, I implored him NOT to come this weekend as 10” of snow has been dropped on us! Just in case some funny business starts happening (a.k.a I go into labor), Eric has parked his Ford Explorer Sport Trac at the bottom of our driveway. Grandma Cathy came and got Caleb yesterday afternoon to stay with them for the weekend, just in case I went into labor. Caleb seems to be having lots of fun over there! (See her recent blog post at Mom's blog.) For those of you who may not know, I’ll be having Adam at Park Ridge Hospital (Baby Center) which has a brand spankin’ new Baby Center. There is a Jacuzzi tub, a 42” plasma TV in each room with internet hook up, a 5 star chef in the kitchen, and lots of caring personnel. Eric and I looked at their menu of the stuff that you can order from the hospital menu (check out the Cafe Menu), and found some scrumptious items listed, stuff like: Lemon Herb Crusted Cod with Florentine Ravioli, Stuffed Baby Zucchini, Baked Chicken with Corn Macque Choux & Adobo BBQ Sauce, and Wild Mushroom Risotto. I crack myself up when I get more excited about eating at the hospital than giving birth there! (not really…but you know what I mean). Anyway, we’re very excited to have such a great hospital so close to our home. I always thought I’d have our baby at Mission St. Joseph’s in Asheville, NC, but once I realized how long the drive could be, I started looking for hospitals closer to Hendersonville. God has truly answered our prayers!

Well, baby Adam has officially made it to “full term”. I had originally thought that 36 weeks was full term, but actually it is 37 weeks. His lungs are fully developed and if he were to come early, most likely, he wouldn’t have to go into the NICU. The doctor yesterday said that she estimates that he is right now around 7 pounds (about a pound more than the average baby at 37 weeks), and she expects him to be around 8 pounds at time of delivery. Given that Caleb was 8 lbs. 12 oz, I’m just fine delivering an 8 pounder. :) I’m having lots of Braxton Hicks contractions, but as of yesterday, was not dilated at all. Adam is still in head down position, with his fanny on the right side of my belly (if you are looking at me), and his feet on the right side of my belly. He still loves to kick and stretch a lot, but thankfully it does not hurt as he is not under my ribs. I have about 2 pairs of pants and 3 shirts that I can wear (in public, that is)…at home, you’ll usually find me sporting a midriff-baring shirt that will not fit over my huge belly. Caleb is really excited about having a baby brother…he loves to pull up my shirt and kiss and hug my bare belly (another thing I’m trying to teach him NOT to do in public). Baby Adam’s room is ready to go. I used the same motif as Caleb (Classic Winnie-the-Pooh), and still love it just as much. Here are some pictures below!The first two pictures are of Adam’s crib (obviously) with a sheet set that I got for FREE at a consignment shop. The “header/pillow” thing with Pooh on it had a tiny tear in the back, which Mom quickly repaired, but as it was with a whole set consisting of a crib sheet and crib “skirt”, the lady at the shop wound up giving everything to me for free. What a blessing! The painting of Pooh bear was done by Mom for Caleb’s room. There is also a coordinating one of Tigger, and she is painting one of Piglet for baby Adam, so now we will have a collection of three to hang on the wall! Another angle of the crib and laundry hamper. Notice that the laundry hamper only has one button on it. That is because the other wooden button has yet to be sewn back on…I posted this to keep myself accountable for fixing it! I found some great under the crib storgae bins where I’m keeping extra sets of sheets and blankets.I did not really know what to do with this dormer area to begin with, and although it looks a little crammed, at least we’ve been able to get some extra storage (and find a place for the WONDERFUL glider). Eric installed the three shelves on the wall to provide extra storage for knick knacks, pictures, and toys. We moved the hope chest to under the three shelves, which was actually a great idea because Caleb immediately climbed up there and started “reading” his books while I sat in the chair. I’m sure this will be wonderful in the future when I’m feeding Adam and Caleb still wants to be around Mommy!The changing table is below..again, the same one we used for Caleb. Both the crib and the changing table were probably the most expensive thing we “invested” in for Caleb’s nursery, which has definitely paid off as we are going to still be able to use it for Adam’s nursery too!I had a pair of foam couches that I was given by my grandmother and I thought this would be a great place to use them. This way, I don’t have to run up and down the stairs every time Adam cries in case we have a bad night. I found the sage green microsuede Roman shades at Tuesday Morning for only $13 a piece! :) Anyway, we sure are looking forward to meeting this little guy. He’s been fun to carry around for 9 months, but we are both now to the point that we can’t wait to meet him and hold him. It’s so surreal to think that (hopefully) in the next few weeks, we are going to have a total change in our routine as another baby boy gets welcomed into our home! Thank you to EVERYONE who has showered us with encouragement, gifts, and prayers! We’ll be sure to let you know when he gets here! Oh, and here are a couple of pictures of me at 37 weeks along…please pardon the hair, lack of makeup, and outfit as all three things have slipped by the wayside these past few weeks!

This was QUITE a position for me, being 8 months pregnant, to get into, but was SO worth it! :) I love how the background is grey and brown and the green just pops out! This was taken at a waterfall in Dupont State Forest.  There is a cute picture of Caleb walking along with us with his hands in his pockets below!

A couple of Fridays ago, my amazingly talented friend, Helen Joy George, took some maternity photos of me.  I had never had this done before…this kind of photo shoot was totally different from the kind that you have done in JC Penney’s where you sit on a table/chair and they pull down different backgrounds while they snapped posed pictures.  Helen Joy was very good at guiding me and telling me where to look, hand placement, etc.  I would HIGHLY recommend her to anybody! There are more pictures coming, which I’ll post when I get them, but for now, I just thought I’d post this one that she sent me! Enjoy!

Caleb’s ready to go! I bundled him up in a onesie, turtleneck, long sleeve shirt, scarf, jacket, fleece hat, socks, shoes and gloves. Have you ever tried to put gloves on a toddler? It’s like trying to put a giraffe in a highchair. We managed though and he loved them! I told him we’d go outside and make a snowman, so I grabbed a carrot from the fridge and he proudly carried it outside!

Here he is all bundled up outside! He loved scooping up the snow!

Our home covered in snow! And this was taken around 11:30am! It now has about 8” on it (Here, there was only about 3” of snow).

Our home covered in snow! And this was taken around 11:30am! It now has about 8” on it (Here, there was only about 3” of snow). If you look carefully at the bottom of our next picture, you will see an Impressionist-style snowman. I had envisioned Caleb and I (Emily) building a 5-foot snowman, complete with hat, scarf, and a carrot nose. However, I could not get down on the ground to roll any giant snowballs, so we settled for a 12” snowman blob that Caleb promptly stuck his carrot in. It looked like we had crowned Mt. Everest!

Here is Caleb posing for me under the beautiful hemlock trees!

After Caleb took a three hour nap, he got to snuggle and read with Daddy on the couch. I snapped this cute picture of them!

This picture was taken about 6pm…we have about 8” of snow! I can’t wait to go out and play in it tomorrow!

MY HUSBAND IS AN OFFICIAL MOUNTAIN MAN!! He went out to get the mail and shovel the snow away from the front door. He said that he’d never seen snow that deep before! I haven’t seen it that deep in a LONG time.