Jan 20, 2014

DIY Maternity Photos



Step 1: Beg a friend to take your picture

Step 2: Show off your belly

Step 3: Make sure you catch the magical time where you definitely look pregnant  but the rest of your body hasn't swelled up (22-30 weeks or so)

Step 4: Make sure and look both ecstatic about your bundle of joy and thoughtful about the future

Jan 17, 2014

Surving the Second Trimester

Surving the Second Trimester

1. Prenatal Yoga: This is what I WISH I would have done...the first trimester I was too sick and the third trimester I was too everything. The second trimester is perfect for exercise...my only excuse is laziness.

2. Paint: If you plan to help paint the nursery (using safety precautions) this is the ideal time to do it.

3. Fitted T-shirts: This is the trimester you are at your cutest...you are past the whole looking like you ate an entire pizza stage and you should show off your belly.

4. Kashi Bars: Once my morning sickness (all day sickness) was gone I was starving! These are a healthy snack.

5. Beach Bag: Babymoon! This is the best time for it and it is so important to have some downtime together before baby makes 3.

6. Body Pillow: Don't wait until you are miserable...you can get one for $10 at Target and it is life changing! I carried mine around from the couch to the bed and still use it.

7. Bio Oil: I slathered this on and still got stretch marks but I think this helped prevent them for as long as possible.


Jan 15, 2014

Pinterst Favorites 1.0

So there is this website...you might have heard of it...it is called Pinterest. I spend WAY too much time on it and I usually consult it on all aspects of life.  Here are some of my favorites from the past week:


OBSESSED with these concrete counters.  We have plans to replace ours eventually but for under $50, I think these will be a great update until then.


This made me laugh way too hard.






I am 90% sure I would not be able to pull these off...challenge accepted.





I ask myself this on a daily basis...





This ceiling officially has me excited to start on Hudson's playroom. So far I envision grey walls, silver stars on the ceiling, a chalkboard wall, and lots of bright colors.

Jan 13, 2014

Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails






For the first 15 weeks I was pregnant I was convinced I was pregnant with a girl.

It wasn't that I didn't WANT a boy...but everyone on my Mom's side of the family had a girl first.  I had the name picked out, I had the nursery planned, and I imagined a life filled with Barbie dolls and hair bows.

One week before my gender ultrasound I had the clearest dream of my life, I was laying on the exam table and the ultrasound technician declared "It's A Boy"!  When I woke up I just KNEW my subconscious was telling me something and I am ashamed to admit I felt a little sad.  I wasn't going to have my little girl who loved Disney Princesses (at least not yet) and all of a sudden I had NO idea what I would do with a boy.

The day of our ultrasound might have been the most nerve wrecking day of my life...I spent the whole day worrying about our baby...all of a sudden I could care less about the gender...I just wanted he or she to be healthy.

When they finally called us back I remember praying please let there be a heart beat, please let there be a heart beat. The ultrasound technician asked us what we thought it would be and I said I think it is a boy but everyone else thinks it's a girl. As soon as the image popped up on the screen I immediately looked for the tiny flash that indicated my baby's heart. At the exact same moment that I spotted it (and let out the breath I had been holding) I heard  the ultrasound technician say "look's like Mama knows best" and I heard Jared laugh.

We had plans after the appointment to go to Target (because duh it's Target) and I spent the car ride there really letting everything sink in. My baby was healthy! It was not the little girl I originally planned.  What would I do with a boy? Jared parked the car and I started crying...I do that when I am overcome with happiness or sadness and in that second I was feeling both.  BUT, the second I opened the car door I was in love with my baby boy. Jared and I each picked something out (he picked out rocker socks and I picked out dinosaur hats) and then we went and ate Mexican (because that is how we celebrate everything...with queso!).

That weekend was Easter weekend so we filled Easter eggs with blue robin's eggs candy and had our family open them. Everyone was super excited and I think that once they knew it started to feel real.

I spent the rest of my pregnancy worried about being a "boy mom".  I was worried I wouldn't know what to do.  I love football and baseball and being outside but I don't know much about cars or super heroes.

The instant I met my son, NONE of that mattered.

I am crazy about a little boy named Hudson Jude and I have no idea what I would do with a girl now.  I CANNOT wait to build forts and play legos.  I LOVE buying boy clothes and tiny basketball goals.  I look FORWARD to playing in the dirt and going to baseball games.  He is quite the Mama's boy right now and love it all!

I don't know why I ever doubt what God has planned for me.  The second I got pregnant, he knew a little boy would change my life.

Jan 10, 2014

Winter Favorites

Winter Favorites



1. Karen Moning's Fever Series: This is my favorite book series of all time...kind of a grown up Hunger Games meets Twilight only not really... I read it every Winter!

2. Fresh Sugar Rose Lip Balm: I got this a few years ago as my free birthday gift from Sephora and I was skeptical of the price but it is the only thing that helps when my lips are super chapped.

3. Floral Scarf: When I start to have a sore throat I put on a scarf and I swear it helps! Target recently had their scarves 50% off and I picked up a pretty teal floral one, I wasn't able to find it but I am awfully tempted to add this one to my collection. It also helps hide the baby belly.

4. Suede Boots: I scored these boots at Target on Black Friday for $25 and I am loving them! They are really more of a cognac color and kind of look like the real deal...plus the inside is super soft.

5. Magic Blanket: I got this blanket on sale last year and accidentally got a twin size instead of the throw size...it is massive but I LOVE it and have referred to it as "magic blanket" ever since.

6. Philosophy Homemade Honey Buns Shower Gel and Bubble Bath: Something about the cold always makes me want to smell like baked goods.

Jan 8, 2014

Living a life of INTENTION

(New Year's Eve 2012...aka the last New Year's Eve not spent in my pajamas)

Happy belated 2014! I have been following along with Lara Casey's 2014 Goal Setting Series and I have simplified my New Year's resolution into one word...intention.  In particular, I want to be more intentional with my time and my attitude.

Time management has always been a challenge for me but having a baby has made it that much harder. It is so difficult to find the balance between chores (babies produce a LOT of dirty laundry) and making sure I am soaking up as much quality time as possible with my little mister. 

I want to make sure that I am using my time in a way that makes the most sense for our family.  For instance, instead of washing bottles the second we get home (when Hudson is normally awake) I could spend that time playing with him and wash bottles during nap time.  It is so easy to get into a routine that doesn't necessarily make sense and I want to really review how I am spending my time and make some changes.

I also want to be more intentional with my attitude.  I want more JOY in my everyday life...I want to dance while washing dishes and sing while folding laundry. 

I highly recommend participating in the goal setting series! There are several steps that help you to evaluate the previous year and envision the future.  I have around 20 smaller goals that I hope to implement but I felt like living a life of intention kind of encompasses them all.  

I want to soak up every moment of life right now and sometimes that is sweeping the kitchen floor and changing 7 diapers a day...being intentional with my time and attitude ensures that I get the "must do's" done so I can fully enjoy the fun stuff!




Jan 6, 2014

Surving the First Trimester

Surving the First Trimester



1. The Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy: For someone that is obsessed with researching everything and who bought around 20 used pregnancy books BEFORE becoming pregnant, I really didn't read very many of them.  This one, however, was really good.
2. Belly Band: I started using this at 8 weeks and I still sometimes use it four months post partum...especially on Thanksgiving!
3. Sprite: There is something so comforting about it when you are sick. ALSO, caffeine free.
4. Ginger oil: I had some of this left over from our Alaskan cruise and I would carry it everywhere I went and sniff it when I felt sick...not weird at all.
5. Raw Almonds: I am pretty certain that this is the one food that didn't make me feel nauseated.
6. Sea Bands: Apparently they have a Mama version now, I bought the original and I don't know if it really helps or causes a placebo effect but these worked for me.  Plus, you are only one headband away from an 80's jazzercise video!

Jan 5, 2014

The Test

Last Christmas was a hard one.

My Grandma had just had her second surgery in one month and because of that we had decided to postpone our family Christmas by a week. Jared and I were officially "trying" and I woke up that morning so full of hope. I was POSITIVE that I was pregnant and I had patiently waited all week to take the test. I spent three minutes planning how I would tell Jared, how I would tell my parents, and most of all how to tell Grandma. I practically skipped over to the test...negative. What? That can't be right...checked again...negative.

Jared and I had quite a few obstacles (healthwise) that had caused us to delay trying to conceive up until this point and I was just so positive that all of that happened JUST so that we would be able to share our news for Christmas. I had built it up in my head like a dramatic movie...which I tend to do a lot...so when the reality did not live up to my expectations I was more than a little disappointed. I wallowed...and pouted...and did not feel the Christmas cheer I should have felt.

A few days later we got the news that Grandma would need ANOTHER surgery...a big one...a life changing one. I spent the next few days in shock and worry and honestly forgot about anything except for that. The day of her surgery I started to wonder...what if? No...the test was negative...but maybe? I went to the hospital right after work and stayed with Grandma for several hours. Finally around 9pm I got home and immediately grabbed one of the many tests I had stocked up on and shut myself in the bathroom...it was a very different feeling from the week before, no hopeful daydreams...in fact I am pretty sure I spent the time playing on my phone. After 5 minutes, I turned around to where I had placed the test and there clear as day was my positive. I was in shock. Then joy. Then disbelief. It was quite a mix of emotions.

 I KNEW I would not be able to wait to tell Jared so I quickly tried to think of SOMETHING exciting to do. I went and grabbed my camera and started taking random pictures around the house (why he didn't think this was odd at 9 PM I have no idea) and eventually of him. He was not happy about that at all and I so I asked him if he was still mad now and handed him the test.




So when my Grandma was probably at her lowest, when my whole family was feeling down, I was able to share the wonderful news that she was going to have her first Great Grandbaby. It was one of the happiest moments of my life and I feel like it gave her the motivation she needed to get through the extremely hard weeks and months that followed.

A few months later I was cleaning out my bathroom cabinets and I found the original pregnancy test I had taken on Christmas weekend...it was positive...I simply did not wait long enough.

I truly believe it was "A God Thing" that I did not wait long enough for the first test and that I got pregnant when I did. It gave our entire family hope when we probably needed it the most.