36 weeks and 5 days ;)

Wow, lots to show/ report today. All you who think I don' t post enough, get ready!

Warwick Castle

First: Last weekend we took an outing to Warwick Castle a couple hours west of here. The trip was based on a request from our dear friend Alicia who was celebrating her 28th birthday! We ended up having to take a couple cars to accommodate the 9 of us and the lead car got us a bit lost (due to a slight mis-calculation by their navigation device). It actually took us about 5 hours to get there, but was all quite entertaining and simply made for a more exciting day!! Warwick was a lot of fun, loads of Halloween activities going on, and is one of the more "touristy" of the castles around here. I have to say I was quite the trooper, but my legs definitely protested that they are not quite use to all this extra weight after I climbed 500+ stairs.

View of the town from the top of the castle... fall is so beautiful!

View of the castle grounds from the top of one tower.

Shaye making new friends :)

Us - at the top of one of the towers.

Most of the group (Me, Teresa, Roman, Alicia (the bday girl), Clint, Erica

Not pictured: Shaye (behind the camera), Scott (Erica's hubby), and Sophia (their 2-year-old)

Second: All our baby stuff arrived on Tuesday and Shaye gradually took to putting it all together (one project a night) and slowly but surely the nursery has formed. He had the assistance /supervision? from a friend (Clint) one night. I have to say that although the nursery is a bit more compact than I thought it would be, I'm rather impressed with how it has all come together. We also completed the assembly of all the fun "downstairs stuff" like the swing, bouncy seat, high chair... I took to the laundry and managed to get all the bedding, blankets, towels, and up to 3 month clothes ready for our little bundle.

Still keeping his cool (too bad I didn't get the camera out for the crib assembly!)

One of Clint helping ;)

Finally... a Nursery is born!

Third: We went to a party for Halloween and had a great night of food and friends. They all even went through a haunted house (I opted to wait outside) that was set up on base and had a good time. The hosts of the party even dressed up for the occasion - Lucy and a big Baby ;) We talked about painting my belly, but that is as far as our costume adventure took us this year.

Todd entertaining Jim (the big baby).

Apparently, this is the only picture we managed of Lucy (Annalisa)!

Although a bit blurry, Sophia was quite cute as Minnie!

We also intended to celebrate Guy Fawkes night here in England. It got rained out... well, they still had some celebration, but we stayed in due to the excessive rainfall last night. I thought it would be fun to mention to let you in on a bit of English history. They have a huge bonfire, fireworks, and food to celebrate/ remember a night (Nov. 5, 1605) when a group of men (one Guy Fawkes) tried to blow up Parliament and King James I with 36 barrels of gunpowder. We went last year and had a great time. They rhyme that is chanted and heard around this time is as follows:

Remember, remember the fifth of November,

Gunpowder, treason and plot,

We see no reason,

Why gunpowder treason,

Should ever be forgot!

Finally: For those that care and much to Aunt Jessica's dismay, I wanted to report that baby has dropped! I guess they were taking bets on me last week at work with this prediction :) But I know that she has dropped lower because her kicks/movement has moved down and I can no longer see my belly button! It's true, where once it was poking out the center of my belly, it has moved to the downward slope and I have lost all sight of it! I've enclosed yet another picture for you viewing pleasure. I have a baby appointment on Friday and will update then as to what they say... hopefully, there will be some sort of a prediction if she is coming early (I think she will).

I leave you now, after all this reading, with a promise to try to update more often to keep these posts short and sweet. But hopefully you have enjoyed another glimpse into our eventful days here in England!

Love to you all... until next time!