Friday, October 31, 2014

35 WEEKS



How Far Along: 35 weeks
Weight Gained: 22 lbs 
Nausea: More heartburn, but nothing a couple of Tums can’t take care of.
How Am I Feeling: Tired, tired and more tired.
Maternity Clothes: I feel like I got bigger quicker than I did with Kensi and definitely feel that I’m in the dresses, sweats and oversized t-shirt stage. I really don’t like this part where everything makes you super emotional, especially clothes. I cry because things are too tight and I cry when you finally find something that fits.
Sleep: Sleep is a little better. My back has been sore, but Mike has been a trooper and giving me a massage every single night. Best Husband Award definitely goes to him!
Cravings: Fruit and salad.
Food Adversions: Pork and brussle sprouts
Movement: The movements are slowing down, but they also feel stronger. Little Babe is going back and forth between stretching and curling in a rock solid ball.
Belly Button In or Out: Out! It popped immediately around 8 weeks. 
Gender: Unknown. 
Names: We consolidated our list of names and brought it down to five of each. 
What I'm Looking Forward To: I'm excited to sleep on my stomach again, this whole side sleep business is becoming very uncomfortable. 
What's Different With This Pregnancy: I feel similar to when I carried Kensi, things have just happened a lot quicker. Getting Kensi prepared for the new baby and trying to potty train her has been an interesting adventure!
What I'm Missing: Still missing my clothes especially now that its getting really cool outside. I feel at the point of not having literally anything to really wear that’s cute and flattering. 
How Are We Preparing: I started packing the hospital bag! We’re also looking for a dresser for the baby’s room. His or her nursery won’t be done until after the new year since we have family coming to visit for Christmas and we’ll be using the babe’s room as a guest room until they leave.

Friday, October 24, 2014

A BATTY HALLOWEEN

This year Kensi is all about bats. We don't really know where the fascination came from, all we know she is obsessed with them so we have bat window clings, bay garland and we'll be hanging bats under our front porch for Halloween. We kept our decor simple with black and white and a few pops of orange. 

I really love making different garlands for our home and Halloween is no exception. Using stiff black felt and a template from Martha Stewart {you could also use a cookie cutter} I traced what felt like a million bats. Once I had enough bats for both my projects {scroll down to see project #2} I stitched them together using a straight stitch on my sewing machine. I love pom pom trim for literally everything and picked some up from Hobby Lobby for a mere $1.29 per yard. I love the combo of pom pom and bats together.

Like I said before I try to keep things simple. For above the mantle I created a simple felt banner that hangs from a wooden dowel. You can find the tutorial on A Beautiful Mess. There are many different words or quotes you could use for this project.

Lastly, I had enough stiff felt from my bat garland and decided to make a matching game for Kensi. We’ve been working on numbers and counting and I thought this would be a fun and creative game for her to do. I used a total of 10 bats. I numbered five of the bats 1-5 and on the other five I did corresponding dots. This helps Kensi begin to recognize numbers, counts and match. Of course she does need help especially after the number three, but she’s learning and she finds it fun.

Happy Friday!

Thursday, October 23, 2014

DONUTS

Last night was one of the roughest nights of sleep Mike, Kensi and I have had in a very long time. Maybe it's all in preparation for the new babe, or maybe not. What we do know it was all about donuts. 
After stopping by the grocery store last night for a few sale items and Kensi picking out some donut holes for the week/weekend we went home and of course Kensi had a meltdown in the entry way of our house because we said she couldn't have a donut. Once she was calm we sat down and discussed that she could have a donut in the morning along with some juice when the sun came back up and she was pleased with this arrangement. 
So now let's fast forward about four hours later as Mike and I are going to bed. We stayed up later than usual to watch the Royals play in their second World Series Game. As soon as we get upstairs Kensi is walking out of her room; we settle her back into bed and ask if something was wrong....her response at midnight gave us a combo of hilarity and fear. As wide awake as she was she said 'It's morning mama! Eat two donuts now!' You can imagine how we laughed and thought this was so adorable and then the fear settled in. She thinks it's morning after just 4 hours of sleep....this is going to be a long night. Who knew a two year old could get so excited about eating donut holes for breakfast that it would actually keep them from sleeping. 
What we thought was a mission accomplished as Mike put her back to bed ended up being a mama, a dada and a Kensi sharing a queen size bed with pillows all over to support my pregnant belly. Not only did it take her FOREVER to fall back to sleep, but mama and dada slept like junk, Mike was late for work, but we had a plumber stopping by first thing in the morning. Once Kensi woke up in the morning her first response was 'Mama! The sun is up! Two donuts now?!'
I could only laugh :) 

Happy Friday Eve   

Saturday, October 18, 2014

33 WEEKS


How Far Along: 33 weeks
Weight Gained: 20 lbs 
Nausea: I started to get heartburn a few nights this week. 
How Am I Feeling: The tiredness has officially kicked back in.  
Maternity Clothes: Very few of my regular pieces fit the way they should. 
Sleep: Sleep is becoming off and on. It been a little more difficult this week because Kensi keeps coming in our room saying there are bats. 
Cravings: Fruit and salad, especially apples.
Food Adversions: Pork and brussle sprouts
Movement: The movements are slowing down, but they also feel stronger. 
Belly Button In or Out: Out! It popped immediately around 8 weeks. 
Gender: Unknown. 
Names: This week I'm really stuck on girl names, I'm second guessing what we have picked out so far. It doesn't help that Kensi just wants to name the baby Girl regardless of its gender. One day we made some progress, but she was only willing to call the baby Bear. 
What I'm Looking Forward To: I'm excited to sleep on my stomach again, this whole side sleep business is becoming very uncomfortable. 
What's Different With This Pregnancy: I've fallen into this weird of place between motivated and unmotivated. We still have quite a bit to do before the babe comes, but part of me keeps saying forget it. We have what we need and enjoy the time with Kensi. 
What I'm Missing: My clothes. I'm at the point where I don't want to buy any maternity clothes, but everything is getting tight and uncomfortable. 
How Are We Preparing: I made myself pull out Kensi's infant clothes that would be suitable for boy or girl and started washing them. I also began packing the hospital bag, I have a feeling this little babe will be coming sooner rather than later. 

Saturday, October 11, 2014

BUSY WEEKEND, LAZY SUNDAY

Whew, I am so thankful for lazy, lounging days. This past weekend was fun, but busy busy. 
We spent Friday at home as Mike worked on the car and Kensi and I cleaned house. It's shocking how quickly our house gets messy with a two year running around. I absolutely love it, but the cleaning can be exhausting. Although it makes my heart nearly burst and brings a smile to face every time I find Baby Fox taking a nap in the mixing bowl in the kitchen cabinet! 
Our friends came over Friday night and we indulged in a fondue night. Which reminds me, I have been terrible lately by not taking photos, what's wrong with me?!!!!? Anyways....Mike and I have never done one {a fondue} ourselves, only in a restaurant. Needless to say there was way too much food, but absolutely delicious. Who wouldn't want to dip food into cheese and chocolate, separately of course. 

Saturday we were up before the sun to make the drive to Charlotte. We spent the day shopping and picked up some Christmas gifts for Kensi {post about that will come soon enough!} not to mention by the time we got to the check out they had all their Christmas out and I got super excited! There I spent another 20 minutes just going through every little piece of red and gold heaven. 

But there's always some sort of adventure whenever we go anywhere.  For this day trip I made sure to pack an extra pair of clothes for Kensi like always, but of course neither Mike or I really thought to bring it with us when we went to the mall.  And what do you know, she completely leaked through everything. When we decided to venture back to the car for the extra clothes and saw there was a torrential downpour we both looked at each other said 'buy her new pants?' Yes our two year old was wearing a shirt, diaper and shoes for a good half hour as we stopped in about three stores just looking for a good deal on a pair of pants for her. So if you were at Southpark Mall in Saturday afternoon and saw the crazy couple with the pant-less toddler frantically looking for leggings, but getting distracted by infant clothes at like say....BabyGap, yeah that was us! 

So after walking around for endless hours in definitely not the right shoes and my feet sweeping not to the point of visually noticing a difference, but enough to feel my toes touching in places they don't normally touch, today was 'lay on the couch, put your feet up and sleep for as long as you possibly can'. And it was amazing :) 

All my plans of today being a productive day to get the last of our Halloween  decorations done and up went straight out the door, but it's definitely okay. Being a lazy little family on the couch was completely worth it. 

Plus, this pregnant mama was so happy to have the Hubster make dinner. We decided to try the Crack Pull Apart Bread from Pinterest with a salad {gotta have my greens!} and brushetta. Oh my word, it is indeed deviously divine and we highly recommend you try this ASAP! If you love cheese and bread you will not be disappointed. 

32 WEEKS


How Far Along: 32 weeks
Weight Gained: 20 lbs 
Nausea: None 
How Am I Feeling: The tiredness has officially kicked back in.  
Maternity Clothes: Very few of my regular pieces fit the way they should. 
Sleep: I've been sleeping well and a lot, but rotating is getting more difficult. Mike has tried to sneak away some of my pillows lately. Only a few more weeks and  he can have a couple back. 
Cravings: Fruit, sweets, peanut butter. I woke up from a nap on Sunday and was craving tuna. 
Food Adversions: Pork and brussle sprouts
Movement: The movements are slowing down, but they also feel stronger. 
Belly Button In or Out: Out! It popped immediately around 8 weeks. 
Gender: Unknown. 
Names: We have a 2-3 names for each gender that we keep coming back to!
What I'm Looking Forward To: We are considered a high risk pregnancy due to a missing artery in the umbilical cord so we have frequent visits to a specialist with ultrasounds. I love being able to see this baby's sweet little face and soon I'll be able to see the baby each week. No major worries about being high risk, the baby is growing great!
What's Different With This Pregnancy: Well I think I did one of dumbest things I could have in the past week and a half. While cooking on the stove I hit my growing belly on a boiling pot and gave myself a nice 3-inch burn line across my belly button. Definitely not my best moment. 
What I'm Missing: We recently went to a retirement dinner for one of Mike's co-workers, eating a steak that's medium done is not nearly as good for this Nebraska girl. I'm missing my rare meats and raw seafood. 
How Are We Preparing: I don't think I've started nesting for the baby yet, but I am desperately trying to get Kensi's room completely changed over before the babe arrives. I'm still stripping the paint off her spindle bed frame we found. It's taken me forever because it's exhausting trying to take 4 coats of paint off spindles. I'm ready to have someone finish it for me! 

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

BOO!

Last week we made our Boo Kits to deliver to a few neighbors on our street. We've never lived in a house in neighborhood so this whole month will be very exciting for us. 
When I worked at Hallmark they would sell Boo Kits, but no one seems to do that anymore because everyone just makes their own {which is easier}. Using the handy dandy Pinterest site, I found an adorable free printable. I made enough copies and put all the pieces into a brown paper bag, added a few Halloween treats and added a few simple decorations with washi tape and ribbon. I can't wait to see how this spreads from door to door down our street! 


Monday, October 6, 2014

CARAMEL APPLE SMORES

This weekend was great for our little family as we kicked off our first weekend in October. Although we did some of our usual mundane errands it was exciting and warm to see the grocery shelves filled with pumpkin and Halloween everything along with pumpkins spilling out at every store and farm stand.
Saturday was our home day as we worked on different things around the house. Mike has been collecting pallets and left over lumber from the houses being built in our neighborhood. He spent the day constructing a work bench for the garage. Not bad for using scrap wood, especially when the thing cost literally nothing to build. We ended our night late {yes anything past 10 is late for us} making homemade egg rolls and settling into the couch to watch our Huskers play Michigan State. It was definitely a tough game, but I love the fact that our team never gives up and fights until the very end. 
We woke up to a very chilly Sunday morning and it was the first day we could actually get away with wearing scarves and boots! I think everyone around here is more than ready for fall. Which brings me to the whole point of today's post. We took advantage of the cool, chilly temperatures and did a fire pit last night. Of course when there's a fire pit there has to be either beer, cider, hot cocoa or smores. There's no objection to having more than one either and it's actually encouraged to create your own combo :) 
Last night was a definite smores night. It may be a little ridiculous how much I really love s'mores. I love the classic combo, but they are so much fun to play with and mix different toppings. For our Christmas in July we made s'mores with peppermint dark chocolate and it was divine. We've also mixed in peanut butter cups, another delish mix up.
For a little fall twist we added an apple slice and caramel....can we just say AH-MAZING??!?? I kid you not, they were absolutely divine and a perfect bite of fall in your mouth! 
The possibilities are never-ending and so much fun! I'm dying to try a swap out for the graham, I'm thinking a pumpkin cookie or even a ginger cookie for Christmas! What are some of your favorite smore mix-ups??? 
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