Whew!

We just got home from a great family vacation. We were away for 10 days and traveled to Cali and AZ to visit family and do some site seeing. I am now just getting back into the swing of things and on my 'to do' list for this week is upload all the photos I took and get them posted.

Yesterday I had a baby checkup. Everything is going good so far, besides measuring big. Doc said we will watch my growth the next two times and if I'm still 'large and in charge' we will do an ultrasound to see what’s going on. Secretly I was really hoping I would have a small baby because pushing out a ten pounder with no drugs seems to me like a 4th degree tear waiting to happen. However, if this baby of ours is big there will be more to love, and I am OK with that!! Bring on the pounds child; I just want you to be a happy and healthy baby! I will heal and like I've been told by many.... birth is the worst pain of your life but the quickest you will ever forget. Fine by me! Also I kinda knew from the start I was going to have a big baby.... both Steve and I were over 8 lbs so I figured that is the starting point for our child? Oh and this baby is very active still. I feel her/him move all the time and it took the doc a few times to get a heart rate (140 bpm) because of all the movement. February is coming quickly!!

25 week quick self-photo

Baby B's nursery will be worked on this weekend. We will clear everything out of the room... start painting... and then get ready to figure out the decor. YAY!! Can't wait to paint the dino's (with or without pearls) and table we found that someone was going to trash. A good scrub down and a fresh coat of paint will make someones trash into a treasure of a side table next to a glider. Yes please!!

xox m.

PS: Is anyone else ready for Thanksgiving?! I wish is was next week! Never been this excited about Turkey Day before. Maybe it's the food coma I'm looking forward to..... oh and of course all the good company of family and friends! I love the holidays and being with family!! Then it's Christmas!! Oh boy! I already pulled my decorations out to the front of the closet so I can start right after I get out of that food coma. :)

22 Down

18 more weeks to go! The bun is cookin...

xox m.

Half Way!

*As I write this post I am currently 22 weeks. I am behind on blogging.... I'll get there ;)

We had our anatomy ultrasound at 20 weeks (proximity 2 weeks ago). During this ultrasound they determine the babies size, weight and to measure growth. In addition, they take measurements of different parts of baby like brain, spine, limbs etc. It was truly a gift to see our babe looking like a little human. The little one was being stubborn so we wouldn’t be able to determine the gender, however we didn’t want to know anyways. So we were A-OKAY with the stubbornness! The best part of the appointment- to see Baby kick and actually feeling it at the same time. SO surreal! Not going to lie… a tear did escape my eye, and Steve’s face was glowing the whole time. Also I should mention that everything with the Baby is on track and looking normal as can be!

My bump at 20 weeks.

On to Gender!!

Yes, it is fun to wait! We are so excited about NOT knowing the sex of this Baby. We do get a ton of guesses from everyone… and 90% are saying BOY. However, I found a few gender determine games, notes, articles and I thought it would be fun to share.

Highs and Lows: Carrying high - GIRL. Carrying low – BOY.
(I an now carrying high – but I do have a very short torso…. So who knows!)

Be Still My Heart: 140+ beats per minute indicates a girl, and below 140 a boy.
(Last appointment I was at 146 per minute).

Sweet and Sour: Craving sweets – GIRL. Craving anything salty or sour - Boy.
(I have not craved one thing yet…)

Chinese Birthing Chart: There is an ancient method that uses your age at conception and the month you did the deed to determine gender. My result: BOY! Try it here!

Even and Odd: Legend has it that the Mayans determined a baby's sex by looking at the mother's age at conception and the year of conception. If both are even or odd, it's a girl. If one's even and one's odd, it's a boy.

Queasy Does It: Sick as a dog during the first trimester -- or still? Signs indicate you're having a girl. Little or no morning sickness points to a boy.

My Totals:
Girl: 2
Boy: 3
Neutral: 1

God will let us know his decision come February.

Want to be in on the fun of guessing? Take the poll on the top right side of my page!

Nursery News: For months I’ve been looking for items that would fit perfectly in our nursery. There is absolutely nothing out there that I can just purchase in a bundle. I am not going all baby yellow or all baby green for a neutral color scheme here guys. I'm trying to bring in some type of design elements so DYI it is! However, today I struck gold! I found a king size quit in the PERFECT colors and it was marked down 75% off!! My mother in law is going to help me re-purpose it into the baby’s bedding and other items around the nursery! So I guess we shall start cleaning out the room this weekend and get to work. AH so exciting! I’ll post some photos and more details once we get going.

xox m.

EB Gets Engaged

I mentioned before about my best friends engagement in September and how I was going to do a separate post about it because of all the fun and photos. The engagement took place on 9-10-11 and I know it's been almost over a month ... however I wanted to give the bride to be all of the photos FIRST before I posted them here and on Facebook. I tried to get as many photos of the day as I could. However, riding around on a bike and being prego with no stability was quite difficult, but I think I got enough photos to tell the story (or I hope so).

Mission Elizabeth and Joshua Tie the Knot!!
 (Disclaimer: I did not come up with that title - the groom to be used that as a subject title to mass email he sent out days before the big I DO!)

The shorten version of the plan for the engagement went a little like this:

-Liz’s closest friends and family drive/fly to Michigan in the morning to get prepared for the scavenger hunt that will end with hopefully Liz saying YES to Josh’s proposal.

-Liz did NOT know who was involved in the plan until each stop on the hunt. I believe there were 7 or 8 stops total.

-At each location there was a new set of family or friends waiting for Liz to arrive. She was then given a new clue and everyone joined her on a bike ride to the next stop! (These clues lead from a bike shop, to her aunts house, a coffee shop and more!) Also Molly, Cassie and myself were clue number three. We were the first group of people that were not supposed to be in MI, so this is when Liz said she was now VERY curious as to what was going on. That part was so fun for the 4 of us girls to share. Then when Liz saw her niece (who lives in Maryland) come around the corner at the coffee shop to give her the next clue... Liz was SO happy a few tears let go. So awesome to see the joy!

-The last  clue led Liz up 300 steps to Josh down on one knee and he rest is history. OH WAIT! She said YES!!! Now the rest is history….  

Enjoy the photos!

I had such a great time being a part of her big day! There are a ton more photos that I want to share, but it was so hard to pick just a few. The whole day was so much fun and really a great memory for her to hold on to for the rest of their lives!! So happy I was there to celebrate with the soon to be Mr. and Mrs. Roberts!!! Let the wedding planning begin! :)

xox m.

Short and Sweet

Time is going by so quickly around here!

I can't believe next week I way be half way with my pregnancy! Every day I feel our baby move and it is amazing... still waiting on when Steve will be able to feel the little one move around. The past two weeks I wasn't really in the mood for photos... as you can tell below.

It also seems like I shrunk from week 18 to week 19. I guess from here on out baby b will be growing more and more, so I don't think I need to worry about the bump shrinking. ;)

This past weekend was probably the craziest week I have ever had. Bumper Krop was finishing up it's biggest job yet (the final job is not completely finished but the big reveal/meeting was launched). So I was pulling late night/early mornings to get the final touches in place (on top of a few other clients we were working with). Also HUGE news.... my best friend got engaged!!!!!  So excited! I took a ton of photos, so I'll make a separate post about her day next.  

So now I'm finally getting caught up on my sleep and getting things organized again. Whew! The house is still moving along quite nice. Getting more ideas on what to do for our living area and nursery... and Steve got all of our bedroom doors hung. Progress is happening, and it must because we only have 4 more months! :)

xox m.

Baby B Update

No journal this time... changing up the baby book style. And don't mind the photos either... I wasn't up to par because I had nasty allergies. (Hopefully I’ll be able to show the progress on that….) But we did go to another baby doc appointment.

Short Story:  Doctors office forgot about our appointment, and pretty much didn’t have us in the system. (That kind of made me feel like just a number to them). They squeezed us in (oh how nice of them) so we got our checkup and baby B’s heart rate was at a good 147 and I gained 2 lbs. We both are right on track.  They drew a ton of vials of blood and we made our anatomy ultrasound appointment for the end of September! I’m hoping they remember that one in the system, because that is a pretty big appointment. If we were finding out the sex, this would be when it would be revealed.

Take A-Way: I already had decided that I want a completely natural birth – no pain meds, no iv hook ups…. Nada! Then after this (not so big of deal) happened, I really thought about having a midwife and not doing the hospital “I’m just a number” route.  I watched Ricki Lake’s The Business of Being Born and I REALLY wanted to do an all-natural birth. (Side Note: If I had to have surgery for my babys sake I would TOTALLY do it in a heart-beat). So basically now I have a ton of questions to ask at my next baby doc appointment and I have a bunch of books I want to read now.  Anyone do a natural birth or have a good midwife experience they would like to share with me? :)

Other Updates:  I’m pretty sure I felt the baby!! Steve and I were sitting in our living room thinking about what to do for dinner and I felt this ‘pop’. Steve told me it was just gas… haha, but then said my face was glowing and he was jealous. Then the next day I was driving and I felt the same POP-POP! That’s all the pops I’ve felt, but I swear it was the babe and not gas! LOL

Other News: I’m throwing my good friend a baby shower come Oct! I am SO excited about this. 1.) Because it’s for Jen and her little bump! 2.) It’s my very first party I get to ‘host’ at my house with decorations and all. 3.) It’s all about BABY!! So fun!  I would tell more about it…. But I know Jen will probably read this at some point and I don’t want to ruin the details. So I’ll post all the pictures after the party. It’s going to be so fun!

House Updates:  Steve installed new doors upstairs, and my dad finished all the cabinets in the kitchen!! WAHOO! Next up, my butcher block counter tops that dad is going to make. We picked out a nice walnut and stained it for a test piece and it was magical. Ha-ha. I’m now looking out for wallpaper to finish up the last wall in the kitchen and then lighting picks for over the table… hmmm….

Hope everyone had a great labor day weekend! This week has flown by and I can’t believe the weekend is almost here!

xox m.

Photoshop Users Enjoy

If you are a heavy Photoshop user like myself, then you will enjoy this film.

Have a happy Labor Day Weekend!! :)


I Have PSD from Hyperakt on Vimeo.