From House to HOME!

So as I have mentioned before, Bryan and I got our keys to our new condo on June 1st. East week we progress on making it more and more like a home. Bryan spends many of his days off putting stuff together, putting stuff away, decorating and moving stuff in. He has worked so hard on trying to make our house a home...even though no one is living in it just yet. Here are some before and after photos to introduce you to our home. As you can tell, we still have quite a bit of work to do, but we are so thankful that the condition of our condo was better at move in than when we saw it for the first time. The owners put down new carpet, painted all the walls and cabinets and left the whole place super clean! What a blessing to not have to move into a "fixer upper" for our first home.

So after Bry and I put all this time and effort into our new place, we actually were able to entertain some guests for the first time. Our great friends (and my bridesmaids) Katie Johnson and Jennifer Draper and Katie's boyfriend Kyle came over to hang out at our new place!!! It was such a big deal getting snacks and drinks for this MAJOR EVENT! I told Bryan that we needed more food because Iwould be so embarrassed if we ran out of food (that's the Italian in me coming out). Even though we don't even have couches, we had a great time. I felt like we had finally arrived! All of a sudden, household chores were so much more fun...doing the dishes next to my future husband after our guests had left was a blast! Accidentally spilling water all over our kitchen floor and using all our kitchen towels to mop it up was so much fun! Doing a load of laundry the next day because well we used all of our towels was so rewarding because I knew Bryan would appreciate it! Life has gotten so much sweeter!Here is our dining room area (before our table)...check out that storage against the back wall!!! Love it!

Here is our bathroom

Here is one of the beautiful tables Bry refinished

This is our fabulous kitchen!

This is our hall way to our bedroom (to the right) and bathroom (straight ahead)


This is our bedroom...1 closet

2nd closet in our bedroom! 1 thing that is great about our place is the storage is FABULOUS! And a window to our patio.

Here is our dining area, looking into our kitchen. Thank you Bry for assembling this table for us!

Here is half of our patio


Here is the other half of our patio (before we fixed it up of course!)


Here is our living room (photo taken from the dining room area) Yep...that right there friends is my very own "christmas tree window!" I am very very excited about our bay window!

HE'S FINALLY HERE

Wow, what a long nine months this has been. Ali has had such a healthy pregnancy, the baby and Ali have both been extremely healthy and seem to have enjoyed the process (from different perspectives, obviously).

I have been eagerly waiting and anxiously anticipating a phone call each night when I go to bed...waiting to hear the words "We're on our way to the hospital, Ali is going into labor!" However, things came a little unplanned when we got the phone call that they were going to induce Ali into labor the next day, Wednesday June 2nd. We were overjoyed at the thought of us having a nephew in just 24 hours.....we jumped up and down!

Wednesday morning, June 2nd - we all started to head over to the hospital around 9:00am. Ali was admitted and they induced her at 9:30am. We were ALL allowed in her hospital room which was INCREDIBLE! We got to coach her through her contractions, pray over her, laugh with her, be silent with her and wait for the arrival of Caedmon with her. It was so special to witness the love that she and Kurt experienced through this time of change...boy oh boy do we serve an awesome God!

The doctor came in and Ali was finally dilated to 4 centimeters...2 hours later...still at 4 centimeters. We could tell this was going to be a LONG day. Then the doctor came in again to double check the last dilation measurement....to find that she was in fact at 7 cm!!! Praise the Lord!!! We got so excited because we realized that often times the last few cm progress rather quickly. We buckled up for the ride...they did another reading around 8pm to find that she was at 9, then 9 1/2....it was really happening. So we made our way out of the room to await the arrival of our precious man, Caedmon. She started pushing at 11pm. Those of us not allowed in the delivery room camped out, piled up at her delivery room door so we could hear everything...we wanted so badly to hear Caedmon's first cry. So we waited outside, with the door slightly a jarred (with a box of nature valley granola bars of course)...we thought we were being so sneaky. Then the incredible wish of Ali for Melissa and I to join Kurt, my mom and Catherine in the delivery room was vocalized! Melissa and I got to go inside and see everything!!! What a miracle!

Caedmon Ryan Blake arrived just a bit later at 12:03am Thursday June 3rd. What an emotional and spiritual experience this was! To think that God designed women to care for babies for 9 months in the womb and when they are ready, He gives us the strength to deliver them to this world! Ali did so incredible. The look on Ali and Kurt's faces when Caedmon was placed in their arms for the first time was priceless. The tears of joy that streamed down Ali's cheeks was such an immense expression of innocent love...it was the most incredible thing I have ever been able to witness....what a blessing!

Caedmon was born 8 lbs 8oz 21 inches (smaller than the doctors predicted) and so healthy. Alison is doing remarkably well and they should be arriving to their home with the new man in just a few short hours!!! Praise the Lord!!!