Ohhhh... dancin' in September!

Random title, I know.  It's just that every September I can't seem to get Earth, Wind, and Fire out of my head, so I thought I'd get it stuck in your head today, too!  At the start of this month, I was convinced that I was going to be a great blogger because so much has been going on!  What I didn't account for is that since so much has been going on, I don't find a whole heck of time to blog!  Not to mention that I've been working my tail off to try and wrap things up with work before maternity leave.  So alas, although my intentions were good, here is everything (well, not everything... but close enough) wrapped up into one blog post.  Here's what we've been up to this month so far:

We've been having more fun times with the family... Jake is loving all of the fun with cousin Adam!

 Enjoying the last days of summer... although it already feels like fall (and we're loving it)!

Crafting!  A few weeks ago Josh took Jake down to Georgia for a couple of nights to help his dad move up here (hooray for having more family in town!) so I drove up to Cincinnati to stay with Mindy and Adam for a couple of days, since her hubby was on a trip, too.  We stayed up way late one day working on some fun projects with my friend from my UT days, Laura.  Together they made this beautiful cushion for the bench in our entryway:

And here it is up close.  We almost didn't have enough fabric (HA!) but it came out beautifully and I love it!  It makes such a difference since the bench was just boring and plain before.  Now our shoes have a place to live!

While they worked on that, I had a project of my own.  Since Jake has his name spelled out in his room (remember this?):

Well, they actually don't hang like that in his new room, but you get the picture.  I knew that Miss Lillian needed letters of her own, so while I originally just planned on painting them white, Mindy and Laura had ideas of their own and introduced me to the (very messy) art of Mod Podge (which I had never even heard of!).  So we started with plain wooden letters, scrapbook paper, Mod Podge glue, and a paint brush...

And after a few hours of (extremely) tedious and messy work, ended up with these beauties:

And yes, that is my belly peeking into the picture!  We used 3 different combinations of the paper... here they are up close:

I love the outcome despite the meticulous work they required.  The project itself was actually pretty easy- a lot like paper mache actually- but my one word of advice is to avoid doing this to anything with any grooves or beveled edges.  These letters had both, which slowed me down a bit.  Oh, and we did spray paint them white first, just in case we didn't get paper on every part.  My sister is already looking for something new to Mod Podge.  Me?  I'm taking a break for awhile, although I'm sure I'll do it again in the future to a picture frame or something to match her room.

Speaking of arts and crafts, our son is very into Crayons lately.  Here is his latest artwork:

Jake's Pawpaw was watching him when he got away with this!  The funny part of the story is that when we got home and asked Jake, "who did this?" he said "Pawpaw!"  What a stinker!  Luckily I had a spare can of wall paint to cover it up again and we're now working on, "Jake, where do we color?"  "On paper!"  The message still has not sunk in.

Wow, like I said, September has been a full month.  Last Sunday night I took my most favorite person in the world on a date night for his birthday to see Rob Schneider at the comedy club here in town and then we had a nice dinner outside.  His comedy was great... we highly recommend seeing the show if you ever have the chance!  After the show, he was nice enough to do a meet and greet with everyone there.  Josh and I decided that he has got to be one of the nicest celebrities ever!  He talked to us for a good three or four minutes, asking when the baby is due and congratulating us on her arrival.  He even rubbed my belly and told me I looked fantastic... always a nice thing to hear at nine months pregnant! 

Other than that, we've just been enjoying our last days as a family of three.  As excited as I am to have our daughter join us, there is a part of me that is a little bit sad that Jake won't be our only one... I know it sounds silly, but he's been my little buddy since day one and it's just me and him on a lot of days.  I don't worry about having enough love for the both of them considering that every parent in the world will tell you that there is more than enough, but sharing my time will be an adjustment, especially since he's a bit of a mama's boy.  But we'll get through it... every family does.  And as long as he keeps entertaining us with bits like this, it will be all smiles in Mauneyland:

The fun just doesn't stop... my Mom arrived into town last night as well as Michael, Mindy, and Adam, who will be down again next weekend in the hopes that Lilly might decide to make an appearance before or during their visit.  Tonight we are having friends over for Josh's 29th birthday celebration while we cheer on the Vols and the Cats and tomorrow Josh will be preaching again, which is what he loves to do most.  I can't wait.  And then next week, we should probably all slow down a bit (yeah, right!), take it easy, and do a lot of this in preparation for baby #2:

So that wraps up the first half of the month and I know the second half will be even more exciting as our due date approaches.  The family is here now so she has full permission to arrive anytime now!  Stay tuned...    :)