**Some Assembly Required

Well friends, Ava has now taken over our house with more baby gear than you would believe! We have been officially "baby-fied."  And we have looked into buying stock in batteries.  We're going to need lots of them!!

Last night Travis and I had a massive "installation" party :) We opened boxes and put together her pack n' play, infant seat, stroller, and swing.  We still have her high chair to do, but we ran out of steam and it will be months before she actually uses it, so it got moved to the low priority list!  We have been very blessed to receive what we needed from our showers and from the sale of our guest bed.  It brings me great peace to have these things in place and put together.  I was losing sleep over Travis having to go to Babies R Us while I was in labor and having to put together her infant seat and stroller in the hospital parking lot.  For any of you who know the two of us, that would have been stressful on a number of levels!!  Anyway, I slept well last night knowing it was ready to go in our living room :)  Would you like to see everything??

Here are the massive boxes that have been sitting in our living room for a couple of days :) We had our work cut out for us.

Here's Travy putting the pack n' play together on Sunday night.  It was pretty easy, but we ran into a few issues...

I'm apparently concentrating  very hard here.  Didn't know Trav was taking a picture, I would have smiled :) 

We seem to have some extra poles that we cannot figure out.  We have scoured the instructional booklet and have no idea what they are for!  Everything seems to be very secure and locked in place, so we're just letting it go.  I really think they have something to do with the travel bag that was included.  ***Note to all the grandparents, nothing to worry about, I could sleep in this thing.  It's very sturdy and it won't collapse!

As soon as we set it up, I went to work getting it ready for her to sleep in.  I'm imagining she'll spend her first few weeks in here while she's so little.  

It's set up right next to my side of the bed.  I love waking up in the morning and seeing it :) Don't worry, that bear won't be in there while she sleeps and neither will the fluffy blanket.  They just make me feel better until she's here!  

Here is her little infant seat, which Ryley could not stay away from!  He kept sniffing it and wanting to lick it...gross.  We didn't let him.  He has no idea what will soon be in that seat!! 

Here I am putting the stroller together.  I love our stroller.  Yep, I said it.  I LOVE it.  After years of using other people's strollers, I'm kind of excited to have my own :)  Makes me want to "pimp her ride!"  Something about that sentence doesn't sound right. 

If there is one thing I can do in my sleep, it's fold and unfold a stroller!  Nannying for 5 years has done that for me.  I swear I've used every brand of single, double, jogging, and sit n' stand strollers on the market.  I can figure those things out without the instructions :) 

One of us wasn't so sure of my knowledge however....

But, here it is, the finished product!  Now imagine my cute diaper bag, an adorable baby, and some pink dangling toys on there :) And maybe a latte in my hand too.  You will be able to find me at a variety of malls in the metro, looking like that (minus the preggo stomach I hope!)

And here is Travis, posing quite naturally.  I asked him if this was really the shot he wanted on the blog?  He said probably not, but surprise!  I put it on here anyway :) 

Here's the more respectable shot (minus the pjs perhaps).  I'll just let you in on a little secret, the first picture really captures his personality perfectly.  Ava is going to be the little girl with the daddy who makes all her friends laugh!

Poor Ryley had no idea what was going on in our living room.  There were boxes, parts, tools and big items everywhere!  He kept getting very nervous :) 

Finally he just surrendered and watched us.  

Last up on the to-do-list was the "little lamb swing."  It was ten times harder to put together than the stroller.  But, Travis did a great job :) 

I think it's so cute!  I kind of want to climb in it myself, but let's face it, the only thing I could put in there without breaking it, would be my arm.  Hope you enjoy it Ava!!  Your Daddy and I are praying for hours of cooing and sleeping while you're in it :) We may have to sedate Ryley however, he seemed terrified when it started moving and playing music.  We've got some more work to do before a noisy, crying baby gets here....