Josh's first post - the metamorphosis

Faux hawk plus beard plus braces

Faux hawk minus 1/2 beard plus braces

Faux hawk minus beard plus braces

Faux hawk minus beard minus braces

new haircut minus beard minus braces

and finally, an actually good picture taken by my new friend Daley Hake

the end.
-jb

Wow!

25 wks...It doesn't seem like I've been pregnant that long...but then again it does. The baby and I are doing great. We had another ultrasound this past week and were told baby is in the 41st percentile and is growing perfectly. :)

Last weekend Josh and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary. We went to Ludington for the weekend and had such a great time together. Although it was a little too chilly to sit on the beach we still drove to the state park to walk on the dunes, ate our weight in ice cream, went shopping, saw a movie, etc. Here's a couple pictures from our get-a-way.

me and baby at 24wks

Josh, Baby and I conquering the chilly beach


pretty sunset!

Earlier in the month I also celebrated my birthday - Josh had flowers sent to work and took me to Boatworks in Holland for dinner and we had some aaaaamazing food. Then we walked to the lighthouse, which I've never actually been to, and watched the sunset.

Over the past couple weeks we finished painting the nursery, putting the crib together, and registering for the baby items we need...it was sort of a surreal experience for both of us. I just want to give a disclaimer that Babys r us is a crazy store...especially for 2 people that "babys r not us yet"...it was an interesting experience to go around and figure out what we "needed." The only thing that saved us from throwing our registry gun at the foreign registry lady at the end was the fact that I had walked around with two wonderful moms a couple days before who kind of explained everything to me that I would need and which brands they liked best...we thank you, and probably so does the registry lady!!!! :)

Here are the links to our registries:

http://www.babiesrus.com/ControllerServlet?registryNumber=75259153&target=search

http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/baby/1NKAUEZGH5SHI

https://www.target.com/registry/baby/014399700052705

~mb

20 Weeks

A lot has happened in 4 weeks for us! We went to Florida with the Bishop family at the end of May and had a great vacation with them...our last before our little baby comes! It was so relaxing - nothing but laying out by the pool and beach in the beautiful weather. Then we went home a couple weekends in a row to see my sister, Kirsten, graduate from highschool and have a great party. After that came our 20 wk ultrasound! We were really excited/nervous to find out the gender and to know if our little peanut was healthy...HE is! It's a boy, and we are so happy. We haven't been able to stop talking about what our little boy is going to be like for the past couple days. And now it's names, names, names. We decided to wait to start talking about names until we found out the gender. It's a hard job but someone has got to do it. How do you pick out the perfect name? Welp, you'll have to wait 4 more months to find out as we're keeping whatever we decide a secret. Actually, we're not going to "name" him until he's born so we can make sure he fits whatever we pick out. What if we pick Newt, and he is not a Newt? My point exactly. Josh and I went out last night to baby's r us, our first trip, and each picked out a little boys outfit. I picked a cute little organic blue and yellow polka dot outfit minus anything with cars, baseballs, trucks, tractors, etc. (blech) and Josh picked a little onsie set that has a pirate theme to it...one says "argh" with a little pirate hat on it, one says "i'm a pirate" etc....if you know Josh, you'd know that he was unbelievably excited to buy it... So, there's our 4 week recap! Enjoy the pictures!

me and josh in Fl on a dolphin cruise

me and baby @ 17 weeks

Kirsten's Graduation Ceremony

me and baby @ 20 weeks

baby's tootsie (that's for you, mom!)

baby bishop sucking his thumb

~mb

16 weeks

For anyone who's wondering what I now look like, here is me and baby at 16 weeks.



This weekend Josh finished remodeling our bedroom - woohoo! Now we can start cleaning out all our stuff from the "nursery" since we have more storage space in our room now. We also decided to try our hand at some garage saleing. Heritage Hill had a community wide yard sale, so Josh strapped a milk crate to his bike (yes, he looked ridiculous...shhh) and we rode down there to check things out. So glad we did, because we found some great deals! We spent $40 total and bought a baby bathtub, a baby bouncer seat, a BabyBjorn active baby carrier (the best deal by far), 14 little yellow and green outfits, 8 onsies, and a little hat. I think I'm going to be sick once we start shopping for full price baby gear and clothes.

Highlight of this week is that I started to feel the baby move! No kicks or anything yet, but I'm definitely feeling it move around. It's weird and I'm still getting used to it, but I kindof like it so far. I like knowing its there :) Hopefully I'll post again in a few weeks with a new picture - maybe by then we'll know the gender!

~mb

And we're back...

from Paris, France! We spent 10 wonderful days eating, sight-seeing, eating, drinking, shopping, and eating. It is true what they say, the food is fantastic. We had everything from crepes and chocolate croissants to organic pasta with seaweed. All of which were amazing. We took a tour of the city the first day to get our bearings, and then proceeded to really see the city the rest of the time we were there. Seeing the eiffel tower and notre dame in person was something we'll never forget. They definitely seemed larger than life. There was so much great art, it was almost overwhelming. We are sort of art enthusiasts, so we really loved going to all the famous museums. I think we had the best time just wandering around and coming across little markets and cafes, street performers and cathedrals. I found out that even having 5 years of studying French under my belt didn't seem to help me much in understanding or speaking to people. Sorry Madame S. Josh did quite well, he impressed me! Here are a couple pictures we took (2 of the over 600...we're trying to put some on flickr...stay tuned).

eiffel tower at night

notre dame at night

Going to France isn't the only big news we have...as most of you know, we're expecting our first little baby! We are so excited to finally have everyone know our wonderful news. I am 3 months along, and finally starting to feel a little better as I get out of my first trimester. Baby Bishop is due on October 31. Hopefully I will be better at updating our blog during my pregnancy. Here is a little picture that we took this weekend of what the belly looks like so far...It finally just popped out a little this past week. :)

~mb

So as I was saying...

in my post from last week, Josh and I went to a costume party. We dressed up as our friend Johnny and his daughter Freja. Here are some pics...

Josh grew out some killer sideburns, a soul patch, got his hair cut into a fauxhawk with shaved sides, and had Johnny's tattoo artist draw his tattoos on Josh's arms. All I had to do was dress up like his 4 yr. old daughter complete with skull mary janes. :) Josh actually got mistaken for Johnny a couple times at the party. Here is a picture of Josh and the real Johnny dressed like Mr T. "I pity the fool."
Life has been busy as usual which has made it hard for me to find the time to post on this blog. I just really couldn't leave the last post hanging though... I did promise these pictures after all. Hope they were worth the wait! haha.
mb

boo-wling

Last Wed. instead of trick-treating, I went bowling with the girls I mentor from Mars Hill Senior High. I have been with them since they were seventh graders...my how they have grown up! We went bowling in our costumes and ended quite early as most of them had parties to get to. For the second game I made everyone bowl with their opposite hand. It was hilarious. I also said that I would bow down to anyone who got a strike...and whatdaya know...Wendy got one. Surprise, surprise. ahem...I bowed down.
Here's Wendy and I ...Obviously Wendy was a nerd...and I (not so obviously?) was a little girl named Freja. This costume will make sense in a post that I will do next week...Josh and I are going to a costume party this weekend...Josh is sort of going as my other half...or rather...I, his. I will explain better with pictures next week.

On another holiday related note...I CAN'T believe that downtown GR already has a lit up santa claus on one of the ellis parking garages. really?!

mb