Crazy Baby Busy!

In case you were wondering, things have been pretty exciting down here lately. Since seeing everybody at Christmas, Leah and I have been busy not only with day-to-day activities, but also baby preparations! I have been busy building a crib for our little one, and Leah has been busy quilting and researching what types of things we want for our baby. Adding that to our schedule of volleyball, Bible studies, choir, and the likes leaves little down time around here, but that's just fine at this point. We enjoy the new activities and greet each new week with excitement about what's coming up.

I have been going over to Grandpa VW's shop 2-3 times per week lately and working on the crib. I am making it out of walnut (my first walnut project), and it seems to be going very well. I got all the lumber from a coworker who has his own little sawmill, so it was all rough cut lumber. I like working with that type of wood because then I can work it to whatever I need. It's also really nice because it's about 1/4 the cost of buying it from the lumberyard! With rough cut lumber I have to do a lot of planing which makes a lot of sawdust. In order to not make a mess of Grandpa's shop and also to make my life easier I made myself a sawdust cyclone. I got the barrel for free from Vermeer and bought a pack of shop-vac hoses and got to work. It took a couple days to get it finished (glue drying...) and it works like a charm!

The setup - planer / cyclone / vacuum

The barrel got full after a few hours of planing!

It worked...the vacuum stayed clean!

 The first couple weeks of crib building I spent just cutting parts. I normally like to glue things up as soon as I can so that I can see more progress, but this time I decided that I should do most of my sanding before I glue it all together so that I don't have to fight all the corners and such. Well, I don't really like sanding so I ended up doing a lot of cutting before I convinced myself that it was time to start sanding so that I could start gluing! Regardless of the amount of sanding I've done, I have been having a lot of fun. It makes it even more fun knowing that our little girl will be sleeping in it this summer!

A stack of boards ready for sanding and gluing! These will make the slatted sides.

This stack will make a solid face for the ends.

After sanding I finally got to glue something up! I only used 8 clamps...

After a little more sanding it turned out pretty good!

As for Leah, she has been busy sewing, reading, and growing! She had started a quilt when we were still in Sioux Center and she finally got it finished. Her goal was to get it finished before the ultrasound and she made it. It looks very nice...you can't even tell it was her first "practice" quilt!

Down the home stretch!

All finished!

We have been pretty faithful about taking baby bump pictures every week. I just organized all the pictures so that we can click through them really fast. It's crazy to see how much she has changed since October, and sometimes even from week to week!

Looking pretty good at 22 weeks!

We went to Des Moines for the ultrasound this past Thursday. Wow...what an experience! It was so cool to see that little baby moving around. We had heard the heartbeat a couple months ago already, but we got to see it beating this time...that was pretty cool too! It was a clear reminder of how fearfully and wonderfully God has made us all!

I think that's all I have for now. I'm looking forward to a little bit of warmer weather this coming week...I don't think the snow is quite as pretty as Leah does. I hope you all have a blessed Lord's Day tomorrow!

Daniel