Welcome Trigg Uriah

Last week, on October 9th in the wee hours of the morning (2:30am) Heather's water broke at home. We got ready for a big day, called our friend and doula Laura and then headed to the hospital around 10 that morning!
We had a great staff of nurses and doctors helping us through the day. Laura was fantastic and we are both so grateful that she was with us through the day. We got to our room about 12:15 and Heather was started on pitocin to help contractions get closer (they also got a lot stronger). By 6:24pm Trigg Uriah was born! Heather was amazing, she did the whole thing without pain meds or anesthesia!

The next day, Trigg got his first bath...and he seemed to enjoy it!

All bundled up in his octopus outfit!

I am one proud papa!

...and Heather is a very thankful mom!

God's timing is perfect. Trigg was 3 weeks early, but he weighed in at 6lbs and he is healthy!

We feel so blessed to be surrounded by great family and friends! Life truly is better together and we love the community around us.

4 generations!

The grandparents

Our friend Laura, thanks so much for all you did for us...and Happy Birthday!

My sister Christa stopped by to see the little man.

The OC VandeLune's and the Pella VandeLune's drove over when they found out that we were headed to the hospital, they were excited to meet the new addition to the family.

Trigg, Rob and Toby

Derek stopped by to see how we were doing.

Jen and Sarah also stopped by to see Trigg

Kim stopped by, her little guy Brant and Trigg are sure to be great friends, only 2 weeks apart in age!

Margaret and Dean

Sarah and Lainey stopped by to visit

After 2 days, we were all set and ready to head home to get some good food and sleep in comfortable beds!

We are so thankful to all our family and friends for their prayers and support through this last week. Mom and Trigg are both doing great! Throughout this last week, we have both seen God's provision and grace and this new little man came into the world! Despite only sleeping in 2 to 3 hour shifts, this week has flown by...they grow up so fast!

Nursery - before and after

So we got our nursery finished just in time for baby to get here. We have had most of it done but we were waiting for the rug as the finishing touch. In case you don't want to see all the before and after pictures, here are two pictures of the finished product.
It has a "CityScape" theme with buildings and splashes of orange and blue.
This is what the nursery looked like before we started. It was painted yellow and was our guest bedroom.

We already had the chair rail up, so we left it, the closet got a make over with some storage and organization cubes.

We did an "exposed wall board" finish on one wall. I bought 1/4 inch hardwood and ripped it down to 4 inch boards.

...and then I started covering the wall, staggering the seams as I moved up the wall.

I worked all the way up the wall with the boards, then primed with white...

Worked all the way to the top...I primed everything and then gave it a coat of white.

Here is the wall once all the boards were installed.

We found a great deal on a crib at a garage sale! This is the bedding we got...City Scape.

We found these curtains at Ikea. We also got the floating shelves at Ikea too.

We also hung a longer shelf below the chair rail for books

We also got the dresser from Ikea and we are using that as the changing table. We hung a magnet board with some fun orange magnets!

We also picked up these orange containers that store shoes, blankets, socks, all sorts of good stuff, and they match well with the stripped rug!

...and the finished product.

...and we got it done just in time!

Pumpkins

We picked up some nice pumpkins last weekend at the Pumpkin Ranch in Winterset and were trying to figure out how to best display them. Heather did some searching on the world wide web and found some glittered pumpkins that looked fun...so we decided to give our pumpkins a little sparkle.
We brushed the pumpkins with Mod Podge first and then dumped on the glitter. We used a pink on the orange pumpkins and an orange glitter on the white pumpkin. After the Mod Podge dried, I gave it a coat of clear poly to try and seal the sparkle!
...and the finished product!

Pumpkins with sparkle!

How are you displaying your pumpkins this year?

GARRETT'S POPCORN!

If you want to bring a smile to Heather's face and happen to be going through Chicago, stop into one of the Garrett's Popcorn shops and pick her up a bag of their Chicago Mix...pick one up for yourself too because it is AMAZING!
Heather's mom flew through the Chicago airport yesterday on her way back to Des Moines, so Heather asked her before she left...and texted her that morning to pick up some Garrett's popcorn. The airport does have a Garrett's Popcorn kiosk!

The Chicago mix is a blend of their caramel corn and their cheesy corn

Everyone at our house loves this popcorn!...but Riley rarely gets a taste of Garrett's popcorn!

...and if you are running the Chicago Marathon this weekend, good luck and get some popcorn while you are in town!

Fall Food

With fall sneaking up on us, we officially made the switch at our house, our fall decorations came out, we switched our bedding to our fall bedding and our recipes have more fall flavors. One of our favorite fall recipes is Glazed Stuffed Pork Chops from KraftFoods.com (click on the link for the full recipe)
Stuff the pork chop with stuffing made with apple juice (we have used apple cider) and apples and a raspberry mustard glaze! They are dynamite!

For dessert, peanut butter rice crispy treat with pumpkin frosting!

Welcome to fall! (get the rakes ready, the leaves have started to fall too)

Book Review: EntreLeadership

I just finished reading EntreLeadership by Dave Ramsey and I would say that the subtitle is very fitting for this book: 20 Years of Practical Business Wisdom from the Trenches.
Ramsey unpacks how he runs his business and gives very practical advice to leaders, owners and workers that can be applied to any business. He covers wide range of business topics such as being a team player, pursuing your dreams, setting goals, making decision, selling by serving, and delegation. He talks about his faith and shares the lessons that he has learned through bankruptcy.
I ended up taking about 12 pages of notes because he covers so much material. He also has a lot of extra material on their website! This is solid business knowledge that can be applied to any business. I would highly recommend this book if you own your own business or every want to start your own business. I would also recommend this book if you are a leader in your company or have direct reports. I wouldn't sit down and read this book just for fun, but it is a very useful tool for the business world!

Pumpkin Ranch

This past weekend, Heather and I headed to the Pumpkin Ranch in Winterset to get some pumpkins. We met my family there and had a blast. Dave and Jen have done an awesome job with the Pumpkin Ranch, so much to do and a ton of fun for the kiddos!
Morgan was a little nervous at first, but she loved the zip line!
There was also a trampoline, surrounded by hay, to jump on! Heather, baby and Morgan all loved it!

...fun for everyone!

Christa, Rhonda, Morgan and Keri on the hay rack ride out to the pumpkin patch!

Tom and Piper looking for the perfect pumpkin.

Heather and I enjoying the ride.

We got out to the pumpkin patch and the search began...Heather found it, our pumpkin!

My dad and I with our pumpkins.

Welcome to fall!

We had a great time hanging out at the Pumpkin Ranch, there was a ton to do...and we didn't even have try the corn maze! It was a lot of fun to watch Morgan explore and find pumpkins!