Merry Christmas!

It's been such a wonderful Christmas this year. We actually had time to sit and enjoy family time with our parents yesterday. I couldn't have asked for a better holiday.

Today we enjoy some movies, coffee, and more presents!!

Beautiful typography

I've been searching high and low for letters for our baby girl's room. I think we've finally decided on a name... well we really narrowed it down but we can't seem to agree on the spelling. It will start with an M and I've been searching for fabric letters or wooden letters to add to her room. I came across dailydropcap a great blog by a typographer and illustrator.

The letters in this blog are so incredibly beautiful and ornate. I just fell in love with this M!

Up close and personal with our little girl. I can't get over the fact that I'm going to get bigger than this... sigh. I'm so thankful she's been doing so well and I hope she has a long stay in her momma's safe belly!

I couldn't believe it was almost 70 in December but the sunshine made for some great shots!David refused to leave Bella out of the photos but she wasn't being too cooperative. Oh I love my little stinker. This photo makes me laugh because David's holding the belly and me and Bella are blowing kisses to each other.

Ha, now that I think about it, this is our first FULL family photo. Baby in belly, Bella and me and David.

This is my absolute favorite photo. Too bad you can't see the belly too much but David was making me laugh and telling me stories about something.

Just for fun... Labor prediction

Here's what has been predicted for me...

I know you were hoping we weren't going to say this, but don't expect this baby to come early. Your baby is nice and comfy tucked away in your womb and has no interest in joining the rest of the world. We predict your baby will be born after its due date. Your baby will most likely be born in the morning. Justmommies predicts that your baby will weigh approximately 7.0 pounds and that your labor will be about 12 hours long.

We'll see how accurate it is!!

Speaking of labor we've finally decided on a doula and I'm really so comforted to have her be a part of this experience!

Elated.

I cannot believe that after a sugar packed shower of cookies, cake, and truffles followed by lunch of candies and rootbeer.... I passed my 1 hour glucose test with flying colors. Amazing. I normally eat decent but the days leading up to my test were a doozy. I'm so happy I passed!! One less blood draw!

Promise#2

Promise#2

Dear Baby,

Always be kind to animals. You'll meet Bella... she is one of the best companions I've ever had in my life. She brings me and your daddy so much joy every day. We laugh at her silly tricks. She warms our hearts and our bed...even as she snores loudly. She greets us daily with her kidney bean dance and her favorite toy. Sometimes she brings her wooby, quacker, or ropie. You will learn these names. We treat her like family because she is. There isn't much I wouldn't do to keep her safe and healthy. Always treat animals with respect and compassion.

Promises to baby...

80 days left until our due date! To celebrate I thought to start reminding myself of all the little things I can't wait to teach her..... promises to her I guess you could say. I recently stumbled on 100 Promises to Baby by Mallika Chopra and thought it was such a great way to try and recount stories of things in our lives as we wait for her arrival. Promises to her, and promises to myself.

Promise:
Dear Baby Girl,
With each passing day I can't help the building anticipation as I await your arrival. I'm so eager to meet you, see your face, hold your tiny hands. Today, I'm reminded how I must teach you patience. I promise to take a moment to savor all that life has to offer in this very moment. At this very moment your insane kicking gets me all worked up about preparing for you to enter our lives. For now I must be patient, and take one day at a time....and enjoy this moment. I promise to teach you patience so you are reminded that great things can come to those who wait. For what it's worth... waiting... especially waiting without whining will take some practice.

“Let nothing disturb thee; Let nothing dismay thee; All thing pass; God never changes. Patience attains All that it strives for. He who has God Finds he lacks nothing:God alone suffices.” - St. Teresa of Avila

"Never run after a bus or a man. There will always be another one."

Look at that face!

Here's our baby girl showing a little peek of her face. She didn't seem to want to cooperate to show much more.

Baby shower for our little girl

I was such a busy weekend getting everything ready for the shower but it turned sooo wonderful!! The spread was yum and it was great to see family and friends come together to help us welcome our little blessing.

Guests filled out "Wishes for Baby" and my niece helped collect them at the end. It's been sooo fun reading through all of them. We made a small collage of baby photos of us too.

My sister in law's made the cutest little poms that I'm planning to re purpose in her nursery and notice the beautiful flower arrangements she made.

Tasty sweets table!

My mom and sis did most of the sweets and they looked great!!

Yumm... chocolate covered pretzels my sister made.

Favorite sweet treat! This is not her recipe, but these Oreo Truffle balls were soo good.

My husband joined us to help me open the gifts. We got so many wonderful things for her.

My sister got me this... she knows me too well.

Some great friends!

And all the sisters....

Belly pics!

Hello 3rd trimester.... 27/28w

Refinishing furniture

Take a look at my husband's make shift paint booth.
Right before we added the knobs on the finished changing dresser. It came out great!
Anthropologie knobs added
Done!

How we spent much of the holiday...

Working on the nursery of course!

Washing her bedding and getting it on the crib.

While Bella wondered what the heck we've been doing in the spare bedroom.

Voila! Except a stinking bumper zipper broke and I had to take all of it off and return the bedding for a new one. The we did this all over again... with my mom's help thank goodness!

There was some family fun over the holiday too! 2 weddings and 2 turkey dinners!

Office ideas and progress

Isn't this such a great idea? Etsy

I was looking at some decals for the nursery and came across this great idea for a calendar. We've been working on finally bringing together the office. I'm trying my hardest to get the whole house organized before baby. It's so easy to get caught up in organizing the nursery but I'm trying not to get too sidetracked.

Here is the office before we moved in. Previous owners used it as a nursery.

Office "in between" - I'm not quite finished but I'm happy with the progress. Especially note the awesome CL deal... $220 for the entire office set!

And David finally has a place to hang his guitar. It's amazing how much more time he'll spend tinkering on it when it's more accessible. We found the hook/holder on Amazon for $15. Now I'm just surfing for accessories (fun!), some curtain panels, a club chair, and maybe a rug.

Since this is technically Bella's room she's really thinking she got an upgrade :)!

Belly pics!

She's growing so fast. It's been such an enjoyable holiday getting her room together. Check out that serious belly. I can't believe it's going to get bigger! Baby girl has been tumbling and kicking away. She's definitely a mover and a shaker.

Tomorrow we start childbirthing classes. It's just all happening sooo fast. Nursery progress photos to come!

26w 26w

26w

Putting together the crib...

Getting more work done on the nursery. Finally the crib came in and thanks to David, it's all put together. Bella was wondering what the heck we've been doing spending so much time in this room.

Thank goodness for a wonderful husband...

All he does is work on the "baby to do list".... and he's really outstanding at it. I'm so so thankful. I couldn't ask for a more caring father to be! Our little girl is already so spoiled. He's been busy priming the changing dresser and now I'm on the hunt to find just the right knobs.

Thinking about nursery elements

I'm still a little all over the place with nursery ideas. It's a bit frustrating...especially since I realize babies don't always spend a lot of time in their own room. This is just an idea of the smorgasbord going through my head!

I know the buttery vanilla color in the room is staying... and we've painted an accent wall a teal blue. This room gets soo much natural light so the colors look pretty light and bright. All the furniture will be white and I think some tables and accents will be mirrored. I really wanted to add a touch of capiz but it's not quite looking great all together. At least the colors are pretty much decided!

Belly pic 24w5d

Hello belly... she's really starting to pop out! You know, I have a great camera and I have no idea why I keep using my phone for photos?? I think I just never download photos from my other camera.

Baby is almost 2lbs and about 10inches.

Can't wait to share our nursery progress!