Samantha’s Baptism

This was quite a busy week. On Tuesday, Samantha had her two month doctor’s appointment. She weighed in at a hefty 12 lb. 3 oz. and is 22 ¾ inches long (but her leg was bent during the measurement so she may be longer). This puts her around the 75th percentile for both. She is getting so heavy to hold – there is definitely a limit on how much I can handle.

Wednesday was spent waiting for inspectors to show up. I had called all the inspectors a couple weeks ago to figure out how to get the permit time extended for the bathroom work. The plumbing inspector said that what I told him on the phone was a “progress report” and he would extend it three months. The building inspector said he would come out for an “insulation inspection” to extend it six months. The electrical inspector said he could do a “partial final” inspection to extend it six months.

We installed all the electrical items (covers, lights, etc.) and ended up passing the final electrical inspection – one down! The building inspector showed up while I was in the basement doing laundry – he just left the approved sticker and said he didn’t even need to see anything. So now we have three more months before we need another inspection (hopefully it will be much sooner!).

 I went to my New Mom’s Support Group on Thursday (it is becoming my favorite day of the week because I get to see other adults!). The rest of the day was spent going to a dentist appointment, shopping and cooking. Most of the week was spent getting ready for Samantha’s Baptism. There was a lot of de-cluttering, cleaning, de-junking, and cooking.

My parents came down on Friday to help out – it was wonderful to have them here! My mom gave the house the best cleaning since before the baby was born and Dad helped out with yard work (he planted a lot of ornamental grasses to hide our backyard since all the trees are gone).

The county had an event called GreenFest on Saturday. We attended a rain barrel workshop and got two rain barrels (complete with kits to finish them). We now have three barrels that we can put in series and get up to 150 gallons of water each time it rains. It’s a much better way to water the garden and hops!

After church on Sunday morning we did a lot of last minute cleaning and food preparation. Samantha was baptized on Sunday afternoon. We hosted 15 people for lunch before the ceremony and come back for cake afterwards. I may have gone a little overboard with the food but at least nobody left hungry!

There were two other babies being baptized at the same time. Samantha was a little instigator – she started screaming and then the other two babies started crying. Fortunately I think it’s pretty common to have crying babies during baptism because Deacon Ben seemed to be unfazed.

Samantha wore the same gown that my mom and I both wore. Her bonnet was a gift and it does double duty – a bonnet for baptism and a handkerchief when she gets married (many, many years from now!). Samantha’s Godparents are her Uncle Rob and Aunt Paula.

It was great having so much family here – Samantha was definitely spoiled with all the attention and gifts! Here a couple other pictures from her 9th week.

Hopefully we’ll be able to do a lot of bathroom work this week!

Baby’s First Easter!

There were a lot of non-house events this week.

On Monday Samantha had a professional photo shoot – we have to wait a couple weeks before we see the pictures but I think she looked adorable (but I am her mother!).

Once the photo shoot was complete we drove down to have lunch with Chris. After lunch we visited work and everyone was happy to meet Samantha.

On Tuesday, Samantha and I walked up to the elementary school to vote in the Maryland Primary. Then we went to visit Cat and see their new house – it’s enormous!

Samantha and I went to our first "New Mom's Support Group" on Thursday. We met a bunch of other new babies and moms and had a great time. There were a couple babies born within a day or two of Samantha. The entire time they were good and sleeping and Samantha was sitting and looking around everywhere (for 2 ½ hours!). I need to ask them how they get their babies to nap!

Since we removed the trees a couple weeks ago there is a big empty space between us and the neighbors. We met with them to talk about what we want done in that area. Most of it will probably be grass but we do want some small things planted to hide some of the ugly utility boxes in that area.

Chris has been working a lot on finishing the drywall in the master bathroom. It takes forever to finish up all those corners!

For Easter weekend we drove to Pennsylvania. It was Samantha’s first trip and she did very well. On Saturday she met Ryker (the neighbor’s grandson who is three weeks younger). We tried to get some pictures but they were very uncooperative! Samantha kept trying to elbow Ryker in the neck…


Samantha also got to meet most of my aunts, uncles, and cousins. She was spoiled by the Easter bunny (and my family!).





Here are some of this week’s pictures (it’s hard to believe that 8 weeks have passed!):






On house work, we hope to at least finish up the drywall and prime the walls before the inspections on Wednesday. Wish us luck!

Slowing Down…

I know I'm a little late posting this week...sorry!

This week was a little less productive than last week. We were able to finish tiling the walls of the shower but weren’t able to get any more tiling done. Part of the reason we didn’t get anything else done is that it takes forever to finish drywall. Chris worked on it a few nights this week and it’s still not finished – you can only work in small batches when using 20 minute compound. Also, we primed and painted about half of the ceiling before installing the last couple rows of tile.

On Thursday, I went to dinner and a movie with friends to celebrate my 30th birthday. It was my first time being away from Samantha for any length of time. She got plenty of Daddy time though!

Over the weekend Chris worked in the yard a little bit. He sprayed all the vines and weeds around the property and started training his hop vines.

The trees in the yard are starting to look great! The redbuds and cherry trees are blooming and the Japanese maples are dark red.



Our vegetables are doing very well in our greenhouse and sunroom. Now we just need to prepare the garden so we’ll be ready to transplant them when there is no more frost.


A few months ago I saw some self-watering planters in Family Handyman magazine and the plans were in the April issue. I want to build a couple for near our back deck (which isn’t built yet) so we went to Lowe’s to buy the lumber on Sunday. Hopefully Samantha will take good naps so I can get them built soon!

On Sunday, my friend and her brothers came to visit for a little while – hopefully next time we’ll have a longer visit!

Samantha is still growing a lot (which means that she’s also eating well!). It’s much more fun to play with her now that she’s smiling and interacting with things. She gets so excited and starts kicking her legs and flailing her arms. She has also started sleeping a little longer during the night – we had a few nights of five to six hour stretches of sleep (which made Mommy very happy!). Here are some of the week’s pictures:






We hope everyone has a Happy Easter!

Tiling a Shower During Baby Naps

We were incredibly productive this week. We worked on tiling the shower every night after Samantha’s bath and during her naps over the weekend. While we’re not finished yet, we accomplished a lot for having a baby!

We worked in small sections until we either ran out of thinset or until the baby woke up. Below you can see the work we did at each point. Hopefully we’ll be able to finish tiling this week!


Samantha acted as supervisor during some of the tiling work…she is a tough boss!


While Chris was at work, I was able to do some work while Samantha napped. The side of our garage has some day lilies Chris’ parents planted before but we’ve definitely neglected it since then. So I decided to remove a lot of the weeds so that they have a chance to grow (this side of the house needs some major work later!). Samantha did a great job sleeping in her stroller but unfortunately woke up before I was done.


We were also able to plant some trees this weekend. We had some small trees from the Arbor Day Foundation and we have to plant them in a protected place for a couple years before transplanting them to their final spot. We had some mulch left from the stump grinding last week so we won’t have to worry about mowing around the tiny trees.

I had a couple appointments this week so I wasn’t able to get much done around the house during the day – it makes me feel like a slacker! I had my six week post-partum midwife appointment on Thursday. I have lost over 25 pounds and I was given the green light to do whatever I want. I’m excited to start running and exercising again – it’ll make it easier to lose these last several pounds. I found a bunch of my pre-pregnancy jeans today and am able to fit into them so hopefully it won’t be long before I’m back to my normal weight.

In baby news, Samantha has been growing like a weed – a chubby one. She is definitely smiling and cooing a lot more which is a lot of fun for us. We’ve been taking her on a lot of walks when the weather is nice (which was just about every day this week). She is holding her head up even though she still doesn’t like tummy time very much. She loves books and we read a few each day (the Sesame Street books are great!). We also got to Skype with Grandma and Grandpa Bennett for the first time – I’m sure it’ll be fun for them to see her change each week. Here are some photos from the week:










We have only 3 more weeks before our permits expire for the bathroom work – let’s hope it is finished by then!

We Really Do Like Trees…

…although you may not be able to tell it after this week. When we first bought the house we got a ton of trees removed – some were inches from the house, some were diseased, some were on the roof, and some were just ugly and shading the whole yard.


At that time we left a line of pine trees on the right side of the property and two big trees in the front and back yard (partly to shade the house since we don’t have air conditioning). We have been worried about these trees for awhile though. The two big ones in front and back are silver maples. They are known for their shallow root base (we’re worried about the foundation) and they are “self-pruning” (meaning that they drop large branches every few weeks). The pine trees on the right are just ugly and some were dead or diseased.

So we finally decided to get them all removed before the maples dropped their helicopters. We also had some of the other dead/diseased trees in the backyard removed. Our neighbors were good enough to help us with the cost of removing the pine trees even though they are on our property – thanks!

Our tree guys were here for 3 full days. After the first day we were a little concerned that we had made a mistake but the emptiness has grown on us quickly (and it gives us a blank slate for landscaping).

The tree removal process is pretty impressive. The big tree out back took them over a full day to remove and grind the stump. It was about 6 feet in diameter and only 10 feet from the house (and hanging over it). Samantha and I went to run some errands when they were taking that monster down.

Here are a few pictures from the tree removal followed by the before/after shots.








Over the weekend we started installing the tile in the master bathroom. We bought marble tile and decided to seal them first to prevent any staining.


We were able to install some of the tile in the bottom part of the shower and some of the accent tile in the shower shelf. The most difficult part of the tiling process is deciding which order to install the tiles and how we need to cut certain tiles (bullnose, back cut, etc.). Hopefully we have it all figured out now and the rest will go smoothly.


One random thing from the week was the wild turkey in our front yard – it just roamed around one morning.


Samantha had a pretty good week but she has started her “Purple” crying in the evening. She cries and there’s nothing we can do to comfort her. Unfortunately it seems like the crying session starts as soon as we’re ready to eat dinner.

She is still growing – I think her cheeks and thighs get chubbier by the day. This morning Chris described her as “an angel with male pattern baldness.” We’re hoping she grows some hair on top!

Here are some pictures from the week:







Hopefully next week we’ll have more tile to reveal!

The Big 3-0

I can't believe it but I turn 30 today. I definitely feel a little old!

Chris asked what I wanted for my birthday and I told him a finished bathroom...I guess my present will be a little late!