Monthly Archives: December 2013

21 Week Update!

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BabyT on Make A Gif

Merry Christmas Eve everyone! Today marks 21 weeks – we’re more than halfway there! Woohoo. Above is a fun gif of how my belly has been growing. The most recent picture was taken last Tuesday.

All is good in the pregnancy department! I’m gaining the exact amount of weight I’m supposed to each month, my test results are coming back perfect, and I haven’t been sick since the second trimester started.

I haven’t had any crazy cravings (that I know of) and have been drinking plenty of water. I do really enjoy Mint Chocolate Chip milkshakes but I’m not sure if I would categorize that as a pregnancy craving. Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream has always been my favorite, I just want to eat it more often now. 🙂

I’m not sure if I’m feeling any movement. Sometimes, I think I feel her moving around in there but since it’s so faint, I’m not positive. My doctor said in the next few weeks it should become more pronounced as she grows so I’m excited for that. I’m most excited for CJ to be able to feel it because I can’t wait for us to experience that together. That’s supposed to happen a few weeks after I start feeling movement.

I’m getting a bit more used to sleeping on my side, which is good. It’s still not my favorite sleeping position and I do find myself waking up on my back in the middle of the night but I just move back over to my side and fall right back asleep. Last week, I woke up with an uncomfortable pain in my back so I guess I slept weird that night but it went away the next day. It was really distracting so I probably told everyone about my back pain that asked how I was feeling that day.

Luckily, most people have stayed away from touching my belly. There are a few people that I’m okay with but, for the most part, the whole concept of touching someone’s pregnant belly is strange to me… unless the expectant mother tells you to do it because the baby is kicking. That makes sense and is totally understandable. I fear the day when random strangers come up. A few people have told me about that and that completely baffles me. Who walks up to a complete stranger and touches their belly?  Not me. 🙂

Other than that, nothing newsworthy to report.

Christmas Decorations

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Everyone who knows me well knows that Thanksgiving is my absolute favorite holiday. I love having a day to enjoy with my family and my favorite food items (especially the mashed potatoes – yum!). My mom’s cooking is outrageously delicious so it’s hard not to look forward to a whole feast of that once a year. So, because of that, I have a pet peeve when people start playing Christmas music or decorating for Christmas before Thanksgiving is over. I tend to think, “Um, hello! The best holiday of the year hasn’t happened yet and you’re already moving onto the next one??”

Even so, there are certain things about Christmas that I love. I love how cozy it feels and how friendly everyone is. I love that whenever you check out at a store, they say either “Happy Holidays!” or “Merry Christmas!”. I love going Christmas shopping, even during all the craziness of hunting for a parking spot or waiting in long lines. I looove hot chocolate and the smell of Christmas trees. I love the Elvis Presley song “Blue Christmas” because my dad used to play it on repeat right after Thanksgiving until Christmas. My sister and I used to tease him about it but we not-so-secretly loved it. I love seeing all the wrapped gifts under the Christmas tree.

I think that’s why I’m so incredibly excited for next year’s Christmas because we’ll have our baby girl with us and we’ll get to decide what Christmas traditions we want to do with her. I can’t wait until she’s old enough to wake us up at 6am to see what Santa brought her. I remember being like that when I was little and loved how magical it felt. One of my favorite traditions from when I was little was having Santa come visit us on Christmas Eve and bring everyone a new pair of pajamas. I remember loving that and, on one particular Christmas Eve, going outside and seeing something flying in the air that I thought was Santa flying away in his sleigh. Looking back, it was probably an airplane flying by but thinking that it was Santa made the experience so much better.

So, back to the title of this blog post, Christmas decorations are another thing. What I dislike the most about them – how long it takes to unpack them and set them up and…even more than that… putting them away after all the fun of Christmas is over. It’s such a chore to do it but I enjoy them for the short time that they are up. I am very very particular about what Christmas decorations I like which is why I’d rather pick out decorations with CJ and buy them ourselves. I want everything to match and to have a certain look to it. I like the types of decorations that are definitely for Christmas but that coordinate with the existing decor in the house. I love rustic decorations that blend in with what we’ve already put in the house.

Below is an example of my favorite style of Christmas decorations (from The Lily Pad Cottage). We loooove this.

The Lily Pad Cottage – Christmas Mantel

There are some decorations we found at Nordstrom a couple of months ago that I love too. Here are a couple of adorable Nordstrom decorations:

Linen Runner 

Burlap Tree

I was inspired by what we saw at Nordstrom so we found some adorable decorations at Target that mirror that same style. You’ll see them in the photos of what we’ve done on the fireplace mantel.

For this year, we only bought a few decorations as we know we’ll build up a supply over time and I really love what we’ve done. It’s so simple and understated yet definitely incorporates the Christmas feel.  I love what we have so much that I’m a little sad to pack them away once the holidays are over.

Our Christmas mantel decorations

Our Christmas mantel decorations. We have a third stocking for Baby T! We’ll add in her initial next year. I’d love to add some garland on the mantel, we just haven’t found any that meet our standards.

Close up of the left side - both items are from Target

Close up of the left side – both items are from Target

Close up of our adorable stocking hangers - from Crate & Barrel

Close up of our adorable stocking hangers – from Crate & Barrel. I love that they match the wooden picture frames that we already have in the family room.

I love these two little guys - both from Target

I love these two little guys – both from Target

Our majestic ceramic reindeer - from Target

Our majestic ceramic reindeer – from Target

I love our little Christmas tree that we found at the Christmas tree lot where my parents get their tree

I love our little Christmas tree that we found at the Christmas tree lot where my parents get their tree

We still need to do some work on our Christmas tree decorations – I really want all the ornaments to coordinate and for it to look like one of those beautiful trees in a department store (with sprinkles of personalized ornaments that we’ll gather over the years). We’re nowhere near that yet but we’ll get there eventually. 🙂 Our Christmas tree this year is simple yet beautiful, we love it.

Our first Christmas tree in our home!

Our first Christmas tree in our home!

Gender Reveal – We’re having a….

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GIRL!!!!!

And oh my goodness, we are so excited!! I couldn’t stop smiling the rest of the day when we found out. Actually, I don’t think I really have stopped smiling. Knowing a little bit more about our little one who will be joining us in May makes it so much more real and exciting.

The ultrasound told us only good news – she has all her fingers and toes, perfect measurements, healthy heart, etc. Although, me being a huge fan of photos, I really wanted to see her little face but she just wasn’t in the mood to reveal herself just yet. She had her arms up on both sides of her face so we couldn’t see anything other than her tiny little hands, cute little fingers, and her ears. We were in and out of the appointment in what seemed like 10 minutes, it was so quick and efficient! They gave us a CD of some of the photos that they took but, unfortunately, we didn’t get a copy of her profile. No worries, we’re just happy we have a healthy baby girl!

The overwhelming majority of people guessed that we were having a girl but we were unsure the whole time. We didn’t really have a feeling either way and the only thing I was sure about was whether or not we were having a girl or boy, we would have been ecstatic.

We told most of our family and friends the same day we found out. At first, we thought maybe we should do some big reveal but, after we found out, we were just too excited to wait. It would have been cute though to wrap little gifts for everyone and have everyone open them together on Christmas to find out the gender. We weren’t patient enough for something like that. 🙂

Now that we know we’re having a girl, we can start registering and planning the nursery. We’re going to start working on the nursery in January after the holiday season. CJ has already started working on sanding the baby furniture that will be going in the room and then we will paint it a nice shade of white. We’re most likely going to stick with the gray, yellow, and white color scheme that we originally planned but we’ll see. We might end up doing gray, white, and a soft pink. Who knows! You’ll have to wait and see.

There are sooo many cute clothes out there and now that I know we’re having a girl, I’ve been obsessing over a few:

Oshkosh 2-piece set

Oshkosh 3-piece set

Carters 3-piece Elephant dot set

Gap Dot Flutter Dress

Etsy Headband 

Etsy Headband

There are so many cute items! But I haven’t bought anything yet, I’m trying to control myself until after the holidays. 🙂

We’ve had a lot of people asking what her name will be or making comments like, “Now that you know it’s a girl, you can start picking names!” Well, we’ve already done a lot of research on baby names but have decided not to reveal her name until she’s born. We think it will be fun to keep it a surprise! I promise you, it will be beautiful. 🙂

Belated Housewarming

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We (and by we, I mean me – I take all the blame for this) majorly procrastinated when it came to planning our housewarming party. In a week, we will have been homeowners for exactly a year but we finally got around to throwing a housewarming party a week and a half ago. Why did it take so long? Well, I know some people still have housewarming parties when they’re  living out of boxes but I really wanted the house to be as close to complete as possible. I know, nothing is ever complete but I at least wanted the house to be fully furnished. I also wanted to make sure that when people saw our house for the first time, they really got a feel for what our home felt like. We’ve changed so much of our house in the past year that it doesn’t even feel like the same space, so I’m actually glad we waited so long to have everyone over.

We kept picking dates and then moving them out because I wouldn’t get around to sending out an invite when, finally, CJ’s boss insisted upon us throwing a party. That night, we sent out the invite. I guess we needed that extra push to make it official. 🙂

The party went really well – we had a lot more people come than we expected for the Sunday before Thanksgiving and had fun showing off all our hard work. For drinks, we served a white sangria (had to make sure there weren’t any spills on the carpet!), beer, citrus water, tea, and white wine. We also had a large selection of food – mini-weenies in the crock pot, croissant sandwiches, cheese and cracker platter, fresh baked cupcakes, fruit salad, and a few more items.

I wish we took more photos during the party but these will give you a good general idea of how it went.

Housewarming table

Our food!

Housewarming drinks

Sangria, citrus water, and tea

Housewarming

CJ & Friends

Housewarming

It was definitely a success and we’re so glad we finally got around to throwing the party!