First month in our new home!

Here are some pictures of the first floor after we moved in 

(currently our living room, kitchen, and bedroom).

After moving in, we had less than a week before we left for our vacation. But before that, baby shower at my mom's on June 28th! It was so good to spend time with family and friends and celebrate this new life.

We left the next afternoon for Tahquamenon Falls to camp for the night. We were right on the river, and it was beautiful!

The next day, we hiked the 4 miles from the lower falls to the upper falls, and enjoyed dinner at the Tahquamenon Falls Brewery and Pub. Andrew enjoyed trying a few new brews. We camped the next three nights in Christmas at Bay Furnace campground. It was a great site- we could see the bay (not the best picture, but it's just beyond those trees!).

We hiked around Pictured Rocks and saw lots of waterfalls, went swimming a few times in the lake, made delicious camping food over the fire, got ice cream and stopped at a couple microbreweries for Andrew. We really enjoyed being out of the city and having time to relax together away from the busyness of home.

We went on a sunset boat tour of Pictured Rocks one night- amazing how different the view is from the shoreline compared to the middle of the lake... it's all about perspective :)

On July 3rd we drove down to Petoskey, after stopping at Mackinaw City for another ice cream and beer samples for Andrew! We were able to spend a few days with my family and just relax and enjoy the cabin. Swimming in the lake was perfect- a much-needed break from the heat and I could pretend like I wasn't 8 months pregnant for a few hours :)

The day after we got back, we had a baby shower thrown by a couple of good friends from our church. It was a lot of fun and a huge blessing to know I am surrounded by women who also desire to raise their children in the city for the sake of the Gospel. We were so thankful to receive all our baby furniture from them, plus many more gifts for our little one!

We were home for a few days to work on the house, and then headed to Otsego Friday night for a baby shower with Andrew's family!

We got up the next day and headed to Grand Haven for Jordan and Justin's wedding!

Andrew enjoyed a Pronto Pup and a car show before we headed to the beach with Ben and Katie.

We headed home, re-energized after all that vacation-ing and baby shower-ing and got back to work! We had a few mission teams come to help again, which was a huge blessing! Thanks to Evan Easom and Huron Hills, and Marcella Mester and Ward Presbyterian, for bringing your kids to help us! Here's the crew from Ward:

And finally, on July 29th, one month before our baby's due date, we were ready to paint the 2nd floor! My dad had so generously spent time building us closets in the bedrooms, and all the mudding and sanding was completed. Let the painting begin! We had lots of help from friends and family and were able to get a lot done in just a few hours.

 That Wendy's frosty-colored wall is what we have now decided to call "The Family Room" after much deliberation. It was a third bedroom, but the previous owners took the wall down to open up the second floor. There are those great big windows and lots of light. Our plan is for this room to function as a TV room/office/playroom. It also has a great closet, which we plan on using for bathroom storage/linens.

This is the baby's room on the left- the green turned out greener than expected, but we figured out that it may just be the awful effects of the fluorescent light, which is an easy fix when we have the time. And the hunter green will be the accent wall in our bedroom. Still debating about the white, but for now, its staying... The carpet for the upstairs is scheduled to be installed on August 10th. We need to finish painting, staining the wood trim, and bricking the chimney in our bedroom before then. I am literally counting down the minutes until we can move upstairs and get settled before our baby arrives! Pray that this baby doesn't come early. I have lots to do and very little time!

P.S. I did my first load of baby laundry! It is so easy to fold those tiny little clothes! 

(probably not fun the 20th time, but for the first time, I had fun!)