Liam,

Last Sunday marked the beginning of the third trimester. The countdown in on! I just can’t wait to meet you! After several months of liking the same name I am glad to officially say that your name will be Liam James O’Toole. We chose Liam because it is just an awesome name! It also is Irish for William (your grandpa’s name). James is a household name (insert Forrest Gump voice). James is your great-grandfather’s name. You will know him by Papa.  You are going to learn so much from him like I have. So get ready to listen up when he speaks!

Your crib bedding and crib have finally arrived! Your new room looks amazing. I have a lady coming over to make you some cool wood cut outs. Other than that your room is ready.

You finally decided to claim your space a little and give me a bigger bump. Which is cool to  have, but I do not care for your butt in my diaphragm. I noticed that I finally looked pregnant when I watched the videos from Easter. This picture was taken today.

I also have had a few uninvited rubs of my belly! You have been pretty easy on me during this pregnancy up until the last few weeks. My feet have also started to really swell. Sometimes it takes hours for them to just go down a little bit. This swelling is kinda painful and hard to manage since I’m on my feet a lot at work. I went to the doctor last Friday to make sure everything was okay. I passed by blood glucose test, and everything else looks good. During the sonogram I was able to see you take practice breaths. It was so neat to see your little lungs move as you get ready for life outside of my belly. We’re almost there little Liam!

Your dad and I started childbirth classes a few weeks ago. Luckily they have not been completely lame. Daddy even learned something really cool about heartburn from the teacher. Now he doesn’t have to take his stomach medicine everyday. This Thursday we get to tour the hospital and see the place where you will enter this world. It is almost more excitement than I can stand!

The upcoming months are going to be full of fun events. Baby showers….oh, the baby showers. We are going to have three events to honor you! I cannot wait to see all of the fun and thoughtful things people will bring you. Get ready to give them lots of kisses and snuggles after you are born. I’m also looking forward to the end of the school year. It will be so nice to stay in pajama pants all day and have the energy to work on things for you!

Counting the days!

Love,

Mama

Hey, it’s Ryan and this is my first guest post on Brooke’s blog! She asked me to write about our fancy new video camera so listen up.

We recently decided to purchase a new video camera and after a lot of careful consideration and research, we got the new Kodak PlaySport. I wanted something small that would capture excellent quality HD video without sacrificing too much functionality. For the price, it really doesn’t get any better. They’ve managed to cram a ton of great features into a very small package.

I originally looked at the “Flip” cameras because they seem to be really popular lately but I didn’t like that none of them had expandable memory. I didn’t want to be stuck with 4GB or 8GB before I had to offload the video to a computer. Expandable memory means I can put a 16GB or 32GB card in and when it fills up, I can just swap it for an empty one and keep going. Most of the models also don’t have a removable battery. This is a deal-breaker for me. Batteries wear out and battery size only allows 2-3 hours of record time. I like having the freedom to replace the battery or charge 2 or 3 batteries and quickly swap them out when needed instead of waiting for the battery to recharge. There are a lot of other portable HD cameras out there with a variety of features but the PlaySport (small comparison chart below) was the only one that had everything I was looking for.

A lot of these cameras are about the same size (roughly the size of a cell phone. Pictured below with a standard business card and a pen on standard ruled notebook for perspective. Better yet, it’s solid as a rock. This thing is tough! I attempted to squeeze and twist and bend this thing and it doesn’t give at all. It actually listed “crush proof” in it’s features and I believe it. I have no doubt this thing could survive a pretty good drop (kid-proof).

While we’re talking about kid-proof, it’s worth noting that this camera is water-proof up to 10m. That was the key selling point for me second to the video quality. The idea of taking this camera with my kid(s) to the pool or water park and still being able to capture every moment is pretty awesome if you ask me. I can see myself recording a journey down a water slide or two. At the very least, it’s nice to know that if/when my future 3-yr-old decides the camera wants to swim in the toilet or bath tub, it won’t be completely destroyed.

Finally, the quality is simply amazing. It seems to do well in varying lighting conditions too. I’ve used it indoor and outdoor with artificial and natural light but I haven’t done and night shooting with it yet. Compared to previous camera’s I’ve owned in the past, nothing compares to the crispness and detail this camera captures. It’s certainly not professional grade, not that I’d expect that out of a portable camera like this, but it’s better than expected and more than enough for typical family videos. The camera comes with USB, HDMI, and Composite video cables, which I thought was nice. We used the camera over the Easter holiday and after the party was over I connected the camera to my TV with the HDMI cable and we were all shocked at how good the video looked.

Here’s a sample for you. Be sure to turn on HD!

Just Dance! from Ryan on Vimeo.

If you are in the market for an awesome video camera, buy this thing. I promise you won’t be disappointed.

Well. One Pretty Thing has struck again. I saw a tutorial to make the cutest Peep banner for Easter a few weeks ago. I knew that this would be one project that I would tackle immediately.

The original idea comes from a guest blogger over at V and Co. This project was so easy and cheap! I was able to get the felt for 1.25 and I splurged on the large rick rack since I had a 40% coupon. The total cost was less than $5. Not bad for a project that I absolutely LOVE! I think it looks pretty cute on the mantel. What do you think?

Now if I can only find the time to get these done before Sunday, I will be a happy camper (I guess happy crafter would fit better)!

Update: I was able to get the Peeps done, but guess what? People don’t like Peeps! Oh well. Lesson learned.