My 28th Birthday

My birthday this year was very low-key. I am very thankful to be pregnant and healthy, but birthdays just aren't as exciting when you can't do everything you want. Instead of planning something big we just decided to save my birthday for the weekend and have breakfast and do some pottery painting. On my actual birthday I did take advantage of free coffee from dutch bros and I brought in delicious Lamar's donuts to work. A couple of my co-workers also took me out to lunch which was super nice. We went to Zoe's kitchen and I know it's simple, but I love their greek salad plate with hummus and it definitely hit the spot on my birthday. Some of my family also stopped by that night and brought me presents. I had also recently won a giveaway online and my prizes came on my birthday so that was fun as well! On Saturday we went to one of my favorite breakfast restaurants called "The Place." We actually live super close to it now, which is kind of dangerous. I don't even get anything crazy there, but they just do breakfast good. I love their bacon and Justin loves their breakfast burritos. Everly had Mickey cakes and apparently not enough eggs because she wanted more!

When I was pregnant with Everly, Justin and I went on a date night and painted some pottery for her nursery which you can see here. When deciding what to do for my birthday I thought it would be a great idea to paint items for Aspen's nursery so we headed to As You Wish. Everly has been kind of obsessed with painting lately so it was exciting for her as well.  Everly painted a tile, Justin painted an elephant, and I painted a little jewelry box. It ended up being a pretty great birthday. Also, thanks to some of my family member's gifts I was able to get new running shoes finally!

 I won a Solly Baby Wrap for Aspen and Freshly Picked Moccs for Everly!

A Fun Tuesday Night

This past Tuesday night, Justin was going to be working late (thankfully that almost never happens) and so it was just going to be me and Everly. We planned to go to story time at the library at 6:30 but at the last minute we decided to hit up IHOP after I picked her up from the sitter before heading to the library. They were having 56 cent short stacks of pancakes that day and Justin wasn't able to take her before work that morning and it just sounded like too much fun to pass up. When we were walking up to the restaurant she said, "This is going to be so awesome!" She cracks me up. She loved the pancakes and especially the strawberry flavored syrup. I know I keep saying it but she really is at such a fun age. I love hanging out with her. Afterwards we headed to story time and picked out some books at the library. When we got home I told Justin that I found a really cool book about sisters. I showed it to him and he told me he pinned that exact book on Pinterest 2 months ago! I had no idea, but great minds think alike (and yes, my husband uses Pinterest and I think that is awesome)!

In other news, today is my 28th birthday! We are not doing anything today but we are going go to celebrate Saturday so I will share about that next week!

Love me a check for $1.21

Getting excited at story time!

 

This is the book we read! Super cute!

Pregnancy Update: 32 Weeks

This Friday I will be 32 weeks pregnant. Sometimes it feels like it is going fast and other times it feels like I still have a long ways to go. I really have absolutely no idea if I will go into labor early or late. I probably would have gone late with Everly but I was induced at 39 weeks and 2 days. I hope that I don't need to be induced this time but ultimately I just hope for a healthy baby! Here is a little update with a picture Everly took of me while we were shopping last weekend!

Less than 2 months left now!

How far along? 32

How big is baby? The size of a head of lettuce last week. Not sure this week yet but they say she is about as long as she will be when born and that does not surprise me. I can feel her pretty low and high at the same time.

Total weight gain/loss:  A lot. We will just leave it at that, however, I have still been exercising 5-6 days a week so it's not like I am not trying at all!

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

Sleep: Mostly good. Still some crazy dreams and my cat has been a jerk. Before my alarm even goes off he climbs all over my head annoying me to feed him.

Best moment this week: My 28th birthday is tomorrow!

Movement: Lots. A lot lower than I remember with Everly, too!

Food cravings:  Carbs. I could make a list, but let's be honest, all of them.

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 especially after she got to meet her cousin's new baby last week!

Upcoming appointments/events:  Every other week through July and then every week starting in August. I also had an eye appointment yesterday and have two more teeth cleanings before I deliver (My dental insurance provides a 3rd free teeth cleaning in the 3rd trimester of pregnancy so you bet I am going to take advantage).

Milestones: Just being in the 30-39 week range makes it sound so close! Also, at 31 weeks pregnant with Everly I was too swollen to wear my wedding rings and I have not hit that point yet with Aspen, so yay!

July 4th Weekend 2014

Shirt made by Everly and her Aunty Kim.



We had a wonderful July 4th weekend. It started Thursday night when we tried to see fireworks in Anthem. The wind/weather got too crazy and they didn't end up having fireworks but it's really hard to be upset because we love the monsoon weather (minus the humidity). On Friday we were invited to a pool party at house that my friend was house sitting at. They had a pool with a zipline, a splashpad, and a great backyard for entertaining. We had a water balloon toss contest which my sister Kim and her husband won and there were bubbles and sparklers, too. We all brought our own food to grill and Justin made his delicious potato salad. Everly had a lot of fun, especially with the homeowner's little dog, Magic. We are not really little dog people but it was sure cute to see her play with him. It was a really fun night for everyone and we saw lots of fireworks on our drive home that night. Holidays really are better with kids!

 

Immediately he plopped down in this spot. He loves sports!

She got her Uncle to put these on for her and it was hilarious. Also, she got a little crazy with the chips and dip!





Playing in the splashpad with my sister's boyfriend, who they all love!

Justin on the zip line trying to land in a tube.

A New Baby!

Don't worry, its not my baby yet! Still got a couple months left before she arrives. This week my niece (Everly's cousin) delivered her first son. His name is Remington but we are just calling him Remi, so I hope that's okay. It is hard enough to get Everly to say baby Remi, much less Remington. We like the name Remi too because it is my nephew Teddy's middle name (Remy) which was named after my grandfather. Remi was born at 7 pounds 10 ounces and 21 inches long. He just seems like the perfect little angel baby. I know he cried right after birth but I don't think I have heard him cry since! As soon as Everly first saw him in the nursery she said, "I love him." She definitely likes the attention from all the aunts and uncles to be on her, but she was very sweet with baby Remi and she kept saying, "he's so little" and "he's so cute." Everly has recently become more close with her cousin Teddy (it's really love/hate) as he can play and interact with her more now so it will be fun to see how her and Remi grow up also. If I am not going to have a baby boy of my own, at least I am lucky to be surrounded by so many cute little baby boys!

Yea, sorry about this shot. From minute one of this pregnancy my boobs have been out of control...but look at how sweet Remi is!

Babies hugging babies is pretty much the cutest!

Giving him a kiss on the head. She was so gentle with him!

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!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have I mentioned how much I love that Everly gets to grow up with her cousins?!?

 

Cookie Monster!

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.

 

 

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.

 

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!
 

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!

The dresser mid-sanding

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.

The decals

 

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.

 

 

]

Weird hound dogs in the background.

 

 

 

We take a lot of selfies to send to Papa while he is at work.

Happy Birthday Cameron!

 

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!

Opening presents (splash pad toys!)

 

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