36 Weeks...

Don't expect any more pictures, but, just for grandma, here's one of me this evening...

Meet our New Niece!

My brother and sister-in-law welcomed a new addition late last night. Meet Megan Kara:


She not only looks like a big baby, but she is a big baby, weighing in at 9 pounds, 9 ounces! If you know Sarah (she's very petite), you'll know that this was a lot for her to be carrying around for the last few weeks.

Mother and baby are doing great. I'm sure the other West children can't wait to meet her (I know I can't!).

The Nursery

Here's a photo of the nursery; it's mostly complete. We got the crib in there last weekend, and it looks much more like a nursery since we did. Tim put in the ceiling fan (we figured it's a necessity in Texas). Many thanks to Tim's mom who helped signficantly with the painting task. (And to Tim's brother Arthur who brought us drinks...) The black wall to the left is actually both magnetic and a chalkboard; we put down magnetic primer first and covered it with chalkboard paint. You'll be seeing Julien 2.0's creations on them once she grows into chalk drawing...


Here's the other half of the room; it's not as exciting since the dresser we've ordered hasn't come in yet. But you can see how spoiled the baby already is! (By the way, the TV isn't for Julien 2.0, it's for Mom; a friend suggested it was necessary for all of the hours that will be spent in the nursery in baby-calming-attempts.) You can see that Hannah is already working on selecting the best baby watching location. The dogs have no idea what's coming...

Only in Texas...

And one last baby shower weekend post...

On Sunday, the whole out of town crew went up to Georgetown. While the "old folks" bummed around the "55 and better" neighborhood, Tim, Jeannette, and I decided on something different. So we caught Sunday breakfast at a little diner in Georgetown. In the parking lot were two marvels parked right next two each other: an old British style mini, and a jeep with a huge gun mounted on top:


What was funnier was that when we came out of breakfast, there was a crowd of Texans gathered around the mini marvelling at it; the jeep didn't seem to garner any second looks...

And another one bites the dust...

My cousin JoAnn had always been planning to come to town for my baby shower. It seems a few weeks before she came down, her husband (Ron) decided he wanted the weekend getaway also. So the two of them hopped a plane with Grandma and came for the weekend. Mom and Dad (who were also in town) clearly wanted to show off their house to everyone around. So Ron and JoAnn took a trip out to Georgetown with my parents. And, clearly, Ron was not going to hang around a baby shower all day on Saturday, so he went back up there with my dad the next day. And to make a short story shorter... by the end of Sunday they had signed papers to buy a house in the same neighborhood. They'll be joining us here in Central Texas soon. Here's a candid photo of the new converts:

Baby Shower

Baby Julien is still cooking up well... And at the end of spring break, my friend Laura threw a baby shower. It was more than a great time... lots of family and friends came in for the event.

Here's grandma and Mom:


And Jeannette:


My sister and cousin JoAnn were also in from out of town. One more picture from the festivities: Jeannette helping transport balloons to the party:


For more details and photos, see Laura's blog (click the link at the right).

Spring Break

Sure, it's been weeks, but I spent most of spring break this year working from home. Not only do the dogs enjoy the company, but they seem to love hanging out in the office. Here's a photo:

The windowsill is the perfect height for the girls to rest their heads while they watch the street: