Happy Halloween and Happy Induction Day!

I'm heading over the the Mathers to see the triplets and Coby decked out in their Halloween finary, eat some yummy food, drop off Nico to stay with them, and wait for Pete to pick me up for our drive to the hospital. I'll be starting my induction with Cervadil overnight, with a followup of Pitocin in the morning, and from there is could go anywhere! My doula will be heading over Thursday morning to lend her support, so tonite it will be just me and Pete some crappy hospital t.v, good magazines I picked up yesterday, and maybe a game of Scrabble or two. The next time you see an update here, it should be with pictures of the big event and the newest addition to our family. Wish us luck, we're probably going to need it! And we can't wait to share the exciting news with all of you.

Photo Shoot

My friend Natalie is a photography major and is taking a studio lighting class this semester. She offered up her time to take some belly shots for us that she could also use for a class project, and I have to say they turned out amazing! (She got an A+ too!) I was exactly 37 weeks, the belly was at its peak, and now I'll forever have images of little Baby Shaw on the inside - from the outside. She did such an awesome job, and I'm so happy to have these pictures for forever.

This is my absolute favorite:

Pumpkin Carving 2007

We decided to finally carve our pumpkins this weekend after 4 long days of rain, and crazy days of heat before that. It's supposed to be nice and cool this week so we think they will survive on the porch - now we just have to hope the hooligans don't kick them in!

We picked out three pumpkins this year, one for each of us, and I wanted to try my hand at one in the likeness of Nico. It ended up needing some straight pins to hold it together, but for my first try it turned out pretty well. I think I'll do it again next year just on a bigger pumpkin.

The beginning...

Pete got all of the goop out of of the big ones.

Drawing out the template for my happy pumpkin.

Finally finished...

The finished product, our family of pumpkins!

37 weeks and 6 days Today

Yesterday Pete and I celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary. It already seems like forever, time has been flying, and now we're adding to our family. It's pretty cool all the things that this past year have brought us. We didn't end up doing anything very exciting to mark the day - had a doctors appointment where we found out my cervix is making a wee bit of progress but otherwise things are still the same. Then we went home to have a nice meal together and watched a silly movie we rented. Nice and laid back, since I'm not as up for going out as I was before I got ginormous!

I got my Moshi in the mail today! It's an awesome handmade baby carrier that is adjustable so that both Pete and I will be able to use it to carry Baby Shaw. This picture doesn't quite do it justice - the orange is gorgeous and the day of the dead skulls are even more colorful in person. The straps are so padded and comfortable - I can't wait to use it when we head out into the world with the baby.

We're hoping to get our pumpkins carved this afternoon to have them ready in time for the trick or treaters this weekend. We've been putting it off so we don't risk the hooligans taking off with them! I think we're going to go over the the Mathers to see all the boys in their costumes and hand out candy - no one really comes to our apartment building - and I must get pictures of them in their Astronaut costumes, they are going to be so cute!

It's a full moon this Friday, and history has proven that this is a big time to have babies. I'm going to do a fair bit of walking and hopefully eat some spicy food. Maybe we can get the pull of the moon to work with us and get this baby here a little early!

Pumpkin Picking

So in order to enjoy these last few weeks of pregnancy, and not get too irritated with how uncomfortable I am at this late stage we're celebrating the fall in full effect. The weather has finally cooled of enough here to open our windows and enjoy the fall breeze, I've bought apples by the bagful to make into yummy goodness, and this weekend we hit up the pumpkin patch to pick pumpkins the old fashioned way.

We ended up with 3 perfect pumpkins, which we plan on carving a bit closer to Halloween. After traipsing around on the farm we headed on to the Farmers Market where we picked up some cider, and then went for a nice long drive enjoying the beautiful day.

Only 25 days until Due Date day! Nothing much left to do except pack the hospital bag and get the car seat installed. We've got another big ultrasound scheduled for first thing tomorrow morning, hopefully the good news that Baby Shaw isn't getting too big.

Baby Shaw Shower - Sept 29, 2007

A HUGE thanks to Joni, Debra, Stefanie, and Liz for throwing a beautiful shower for us! And a shout out to Johnny B for some great photos of the event.

It was held at 1PM on Saturday, a beautiful fall day, at Shulas Restaurant at the Waterside Mariott. There was delicious food, football for the guys, yummy Boston Creme cake, present opening, and lots of good company!














Debra, Liz, Rachel, Stef and Jackson, and Joni














Pete, Rachel, and Johnny B.














Pete and Baby Jackson














Lunch!














Liz, Stef, and Rachel




















SO cute!














Pete and Johnny B tackle the crib.

































It's ready!

































Kenny and Liz help us figure out the play yard.




















The belly at 34 weeks.

This is our new Blog

As you can see, I'm attempting to set up a site where all of our friends and family can come to read updates and see new pictures of what is going on in our lives since there is so much physical distance between us. This will be especially helpful when the little guy arrives, and will hopefully make it easier for everyone. I will still continue to send out emails when I update on the biggies directing you here so no one misses out. Otherwise, just check in regularly, and I'll try to add things as often as I can.

We're hoping to have a new camera by the end of the month to document the arrival of our newest addition. This will mean better pictures and hopefully short videos to share with everyone.

Johnny B. is mailing us pictures of the shower from last weekend, so look for new pictures soon!