Monday, June 30, 2014

Weekend in Review

This weekend was another fun filled one. I tend to do a lot of the same things on the weekends at least in the summer(hike/run, splash pad, zoo, pool, family time). I got in a hike Saturday morning with my little sister and let me tell you, it is getting harder. Everly and I made a smoothie for her again and then we met her grandma and cousins at the splash pad. On Sunday evening we went to church and then out to dinner with my sister and nephews. They are too funny those two! On Sunday morning we got up very early to go to the zoo. As members we get in an hour early which means we can enter at 6 AM in the summer. That is pretty hard to do,  but we did get in before 7. We left the zoo around 9:30 and Everly fell asleep in the car shortly after. She stayed asleep until lunchtime! That AZ sun will wipe you out! We had a nice afternoon running errands and baking cookies and then ended the weekend with a dinner at home with just the 3 of us. This week will be a short one with me having an appointment tomorrow and then the 4th of July holiday on Friday! We plan to go see fireworks on Thursday night and then attend a pool party with friends on Friday night. Yay for 3 day weekends!
 
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Have I mentioned how much I love that Everly gets to grow up with her cousins?!?
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Cookie Monster!

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Projects around the house

There are a lot of things we are still doing around the house as we get more settled in. This weekend we got a few little things done. One of them was reorganizing the play room a little. It is a huge room. We moved the art stuff all to one wall of the room and her kitchen on the other. A girlfriend of mine threw her son a circus themed 1st birthday and had this Big Top Canopy Tent set up over her son's high chair for pictures while he ate his cake. It was super cute and Everly was obsessed with it at the party so the next week she brought it into work for me. At the time we didn't really have a space for it but it makes the most adorable little reading corner in the play room along with the green rug from Everly's nursery.

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A lot of the items in Everly's nursery don't look right in her new big-girl room but some of the art still looked good so we were able to hang some of that this weekend too. I am glad we are still able to use some of it.
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We also added a chalkboard wall in the play room as well. Like I said, the space is big, so why not. Justin put up some baseboards as a frame and threw up some chalkboard paint. We will probably end up painting the frame but I think it looks great!
 
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Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Aspen's Nursery Update

We made a little progress on Aspen's nursery this weekend. A couple of weeks ago we were able to get an old dresser that was at my sister's house that was probably used by all of us at some point in our childhood. I don't have a great before picture but it was brown and just blah. In Everly's nursery we had a stainless steel workbench that we used as a changing table but that just wouldn't look right in Aspen's room so we decided to paint this dresser and use that as a changing table instead. We wanted this to be a big pop of color in the room so we decided to paint it coral. Justin sanded down the dresser and then primed it. He then sanded it after every layer of paint and gloss. He also spray painted the hardware a shiny gold. This past weekend he finished it and put it up in the room and I love it. It is girly without be overly baby-ish. We also did not have a dresser in Everly's nursery so it will be nice to have the extra storage. A couple of weeks ago I had also bought some gold dot decals from Walls Need Love. They were very affordable and shipped fast. They were also very easy to apply and kind of fun too. Everly thought it looked awesome when she woke up from her nap and saw it. Now Justin gets to work on sanding/painting my old childhood bunk bed so that we can transition Everly's toddler bed back into a crib for Aspen. He is going to be a furniture painting pro by the end of this!

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The dresser mid-sanding
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The completed dresser next to a pouf I got on clearance at target. The colors for the room are coral, navy and gold and the wall opposite this dresser is painted a dark navy.
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The decals
 

Monday, June 23, 2014

Saturday at Home

This past Saturday Justin had to work so I was trying to think of things to do with Everly. I didn't want to spend money but I didn't want her sitting at home doing nothing so I planned a fun filled morning at home. First, I got up early and ran a 5k while Ev was still sleeping. I wanted to run more but I was sore and didn't get up early enough to do more than that so a 5k it was. I just saw something about a lady who ran a half marathon at 38 weeks pregnant with her 10th kid (in under 2 hours). That's pretty crazy (and awesome) but considering I didn't do much exercise with my last pregnancy I am going to continue to be proud of the fact that I am still doing something at 29 weeks pregnant. After breakfast I set up Everly's easel outside for some painting time. She was very excited to paint so obviously we need to do it more often. While she was painting I drew some shapes in chalk on the back patio. Once done I asked her to step on/find certain shapes and colors. It didn't last terribly long, but it also was easy to do and if it got her to practice shapes for a few minutes than it was worth it. She just wanted to paint more so I let her. It started to get hot so we went for a morning swim. This summer she has been a little more scared of the water but we are making progress. She constantly thinks I am going to let her go despite the fact that she has a puddle jumper on. She did do a lot of jumping in to me though so that was good. She also said she wanted to go under but I think she regretted that right after it happened. Haha. After the pool we went back inside and made smoothies. I have tried making Everly smoothies for breakfast before and she didn't like it but this time she did. I am guessing it has to do with the fact that she helped me make it. We shared the smoothie, or juicy as Everly calls it and then headed upstairs to shower off the sunscreen. After shower-time we relaxed and watched a little Tinkerbell. Everly had said that it smelled like hot dogs when we were out back so we decided to get hot dogs at Freddy's for lunch. If the kid wants a hot dog, I am not going to turn down a trip to Freddy's. She almost fell asleep on the 3 minute drive to lunch but she woke up when we got there and was very excited. We had to do "cheers" with our drinks and our fries and she ate her entire hot dog. It was a really fun morning and I just love spending time with her. I know that it is going to be hard on maternity leave with a baby and a toddler, but I also think there is going to be a lot of fun in there too.
 
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Weird hound dogs in the background.
 
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We take a lot of selfies to send to Papa while he is at work.
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Thursday, June 19, 2014

Happy Birthday Cameron!

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This past Monday was my nephew's 3rd Birthday and we celebrated with family last Sunday night. I posted a little after he was born, here. There is a cute little video on there from when he was in the NICU. He was pretty swollen from the C-section and I don't really think it looks like him, but in the video you can see some of his mannerisms and I just love it. He was tiny but squishy. I have learned a lot from being Cameron's Aunt and to say that we are blessed to have him in our lives is an understatement. He is only 4 months older than Everly and so they have done a lot together since they were babies. I can't believe he is going to be starting pre-school in the end of the summer. I imagine him with a little backpack on and I just can't wait to see it. One of Cameron's favorite things to do is go to splashpads. He can be having a rough morning or be tired, or even freezing if the water is cold, but at the splashpad he is always happy. He just loves it and we love seeing him happy so we had pizza (he also loves pizza) and cookie cake at a splashpad Sunday night. We got lucky and it was kind of overcast that afternoon so it wasn't even super hot. My pregnant self very much appreciated that. Happy Birthday Cam!
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Opening presents (splash pad toys!)

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Giving Grandma kisses while everyone sang him Happy Birthday. The sweetest!
 

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Father's Day 2014

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I think we have been reflecting a little bit more on parenting recently since we are getting closer and closer to adding another baby to the mix. Last week I heard this story on NPR with a dad blogger from this blog. It was really interesting and he had some very interesting points about fatherhood. One of the things he said was that although dad's should be celebrated for doing their best, women have a big impact on fatherhood and that they shouldn't be putting fathers on a pedestal for doing mundane parenting tasks. I thought that was interesting because although I don't think that I say this all of the time to Justin, I know I often brag about how awesome my husband is to others, especially in the fatherhood department. I do want to celebrate him. He is a great father and husband. I actually sent him this article on buzzfeed yesterday about stupid things that husband's do and told him he actually only does like one of the things on there! Sometimes I don't really know how I got so lucky (I know a lot of not great fathers/husbands out there). Did I know he was going to be a great husband and a great father when we got married? Not that I can specifically recall, but I like to think that I just have good instincts and standards and that's how it worked out. Everly absolutely adores Justin. Just this morning she wanted him to help her get up on the potty and not me. If she wakes up and he is downstairs, she immediately asks, "where is papa?" Where some moms might get sad about that I really don't. I am glad that she loves him so much. It will be interesting when she has to share him with a new sister but I can't wait to see it. We are some lucky ladies to have such a great papa in our lives. We didn't do anything too crazy for father's day. I got him his knives sharpened and we went to breakfast with his sister's family. I also got to see my own father as we celebrated my nephew's 3rd birthday later that evening which was nice as well. It is really cute that even though Everly doesn't see her Grandpa nearly as much as her Grandma, she still gets really excited when he is coming over. Happy Father's Day to Justin and my Dad and all of the wonderful Dad's out there. We love you!

The moment he became a father.

 
 
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Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Maternity Pictures

A few weeks ago I had my good friend Jamie take my maternity pictures. She also took Everly's newborn pictures which you can see here and she took pictures of me before my wedding along with helping plan it. She is pretty awesome! I know it is totally unnecessary to take maternity pictures but it is a good chance to get family pictures and I did them when I was pregnant with Everly so I kind of have to be fair and do them again. Also, I am aware that I did these much earlier in this pregnancy. I got bigger earlier and I felt more comfortable taking these pictures before I started swelling up and becoming extremely uncomfortable. It was hot, but it is only going to get even more hot so that was another motivating factor in getting them done early. We took the pictures at Lake Pleasant. I absolutely love them. There are too many good ones so I am just sharing the photo book I made with Shutterfly. I will also probably eventually order a canvas from Fabness.com. They are fast and local so I can pick it up instead of paying shipping. Oh and they are VERY affordable also.

Monday, June 16, 2014

Aspen's Nursery Inspiration

I am sure it is no surprise to parents of 2 or more children out there that we are not as on top of our nursery planning and decoration with baby #2 as we were with baby#1. It also probably doesn't help that we just moved too, but we actually are making some progress and do have ideas of what we want it to end up like. When deciding what to do with Aspen's nursery we knew we wanted more of a color scheme and less of a theme. We decided to go with coral, navy and gold. I liked that it was feminine but not too girly. Before we moved in to the new house we painted upstairs and that included one navy wall in the nursery. We will be using Everly's crib against that wall. We also took over an old dresser that was mine and my siblings when we were babies. Justin has sanded and painted it coral and just needs to finish it and put on the hardware which he spray painted gold. We will use this as her changing table. I plan to order some custom bedding for the crib and changing pad cover and hopefully we can just find/make some art and other decorations as we get closer to finished. Justin had also made Everly's mobile so the plan is that he will also make one for Aspen. I got lucky with such a creative/crafty/handy husband! I can't wait to see it all come together!

Nursery Inspiration

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Weekend in Review

When Sunday night came along, I actually thought to myself, that felt like a good long weekend. I never feel that. I am lucky to not dread my job. I don't hate going to work on Monday mornings, but I do love spending time with my daughter and husband and usually feel like there is never enough of that. We didn't even do anything spectacular last weekend, but it was just productive and relaxing at the same time. On Saturday morning I went on an early morning hike with my sister and friend. I am slow, but I get it done. It sucks that things that were once not as hard, are more difficult for me now, but I enjoy mixing up my workouts with hiking so I plan to keep doing it. I hike with a Nathan Minimalist backpack that I bought for long training runs and I love it. I can hold way more water than I need and also have my phone and keys. I don't think they make it anymore because I bought it on zulily but this is similar. It is only June and people have been dropping like flies already hiking in AZ. I know sometimes stuff can happen, but I generally don't hike alone and I go early and I try to be prepared. Late Saturday morning my mom brought my nephews over for a swim before lunch. Cameron got to try out his new puddle jumper and he did awesome and seemed to enjoy the freedom. Later that evening we went to church and Everly was wearing a diaper, but told us she had to pee as we were leaving and actually peed on the toilet at church instead of in her diaper. It is really funny how pee can make you so happy when you become a parent. Everly made a lot of progress potty training this past weekend so I am feeling a lot more confident I will only have 1 in diapers come September!!! After church we ate dinner at Desert Ridge and let the babies play in the splashpad. They love it. The next morning we went grocery shopping and hung up a ton of art around the house. We also got a good cleaning done downstairs and it felt really nice to have that done. Apparently that exhausted Everly because at lunch she barely finished her PB&J before passing out in her high chair. We ended the weekend with a nice family dinner at home. Love weekends like that!

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Post-hike sillies
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Big Boy Cam turns three next Monday!
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Being sweet in Church
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Splashpad cuties
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Always shops with accessories
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The wall of keys returns
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....zzz

Thursday, June 5, 2014

Pregnancy Update: 27 Weeks


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Today marks 3 months from my due date and tomorrow I will be 27 weeks pregnant. Next week I will be entering my 3rd trimester and seeing the doctor every other week! This week I had my glucose test and I also got my rhogam shot because my blood type is Rh negative. Everly came with me and I really love being able to take her with me to appointments. She is just so cute and makes the waits less boring. I normally don't take her to the sitter so I really love the little bit of extra time that we get on appointment days. I will probably jinx it but for a 2 1/2 year old she is really well behaved there while I am talking with the doctor. She loves playing her preschool matching games on the ipad. This week she wanted to get a band-aid just like me...haha.

So far everything has been smooth with the pregnancy. I mean I am gaining a lot of weight again, but I don't eat terribly and I exercise 5-6 days a week so I guess my body just likes to gain weight during pregnancy. For a while I was bummed about it, but ultimately I just want to have a healthy baby. My skin has not yet been as bad as it was last pregnancy and I am not swollen (yet) so that is good. I am still able to run, even if it is freakishly slow (I ran a 5k exactly a year ago at an 8:34 pace and now I run easily over an 11 minute mile). That is frustrating as well but I am trying to just be grateful that I am still able to run pain free. Don't get me wrong, it is uncomfortable at times, but not painful. Here are a few other updates:

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How far along? 27 weeks

How big is baby? Haven't had an ultrasound in a while. My What to Expect App says the baby is just over 2 lbs and the size of an eggplant.

Total weight gain/loss:  A lot. I don't know exactly.

Maternity clothes? Yes, but a lot of non-maternity too in larger sizes that I had from before. Lots of dresses.

Sleep: Mostly good but this week I have been having crazy dreams.

Best moment this week: taking Everly to the library near our new house. She said, "this is so much fun!"

Movement: Lots. She doesn't like it when I sit slightly hunched over at my desk so I lean back in my chair a lot, haha.

Food cravings:  Lately it has been lemonade. Probably because I can't have beer and want something for by the pool that isn't just water. I do get in all my necessary water though!

Food Aversions: None really. I pretty much eat everything obviously.

Gender: Girl

Labor Signs:  Not that I know of.

Pregnancy Symptoms:  Occasional heartburn which I never got with Everly and don't normally get when not pregnant so it is pretty annoying. Itchy skin. My feet have started to grow again. Not even necessarily swelling yet, but literally growing.

Belly Button in or out? I don't think mine will ever go out.


What I miss:  beer, fitting comfortably into clothes, being able to exercise at the same level/intensity as before I was pregnant, playing soccer and beer...again.

What I am looking forward to: seeing Everly meet Aspen. I need to record how she pronounces "Aspen." It is so nasal-y for some reason and hilarious.

Upcoming appointments/events:  I start bi-weekly appointments the middle of this month.

Milestones: got my maternity pictures taken last weekend!



Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Weekend in Review

My weekend was fairly busy and I didn't take a ton of pictures but I do have a few so I figured that would be the best way to recap the weekend. Also, I don't have any pictures of it, but I did take my maternity pictures Saturday night and can't wait to get them back. I already have a free shutterfly code to make a book!


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Started Saturday morning off with a 5 AM hike. I am gaining weight like its my job despite the fact that I am exercising 5-6 days a week which is frustrating but if it means that I get a healthy baby then its all worth it, right???
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We hit up the mall for some air conditioned play time on Saturday morning with Evie's "boys" (cousins). She fell asleep in the middle of the busy food court.
 
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Growth spurt? Fell asleep on the way to a baby shower Sunday.
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Had so much fun at my niece's baby shower. It is pretty cool that baby Aspen will have a little boy to play with only 2 months older than her!
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We saw this cute ice cream shop across the street from the baby shower so we had to go in.
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Ended Sunday with pool time and fajitas for dinner.


Weekend in Review

Summer is basically here and we are already in full on pool season. On Friday I had the day off so I spent some time with Aspen and took he...