26 Weeks

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! We spent 4 days with family & are at work today recovering. No rest for the boss! The only pictures I took of the entire long weekend were of my nephew, Jake, and the clothes Miller got at my parents' house. Thrilling, I know.

Two days before Christmas we arrived at my parents' house and my sister, brother-in-law and nephew came over. I thought I should start a new tradition making Christmas cookies with Jake, but I'm not sure if this will become a recurring occurrence or not...

He ate only one bite of cookie, but licked up more icing & sprinkles than I ever imagined possible. Baby diabetes on the way...

Jake wearing & riding his gifts Christmas morning

Additions to Miller's summer wardrobe. And yes, that's a Clemson cheer uniform in the middle!!

I can't wait to slip these on her!

Now back to business...

Sorry it's so blurry! We had a hard time getting a shot this morning.

Size: A head of lettuce.

Major happenings this week: Her eyes are forming & will soon start to open. She already has eyelashes (hopefully like her Aunt Katie!)

Sleep: Good!

Miss Anything: Nothing.

Food Cravings: Nothing specific. Still trying to eat healthy after what I put my body through with the Christmas food.

Bellybutton in or out? Out

Wedding rings on or off? On

Gender: Girl!

What's been happening: I ordered some more fabric swatches for the bumper and I hope to get those in sometime next week. I've got to pick a wall color soon because my family is coming to paint the nursery sometime this week or next!

Also, our dryer finally bit the dust. It stopped working right before we left for Christmas & we thought that if we just let it chill out for a few days {and prayed over it} it might magically start working again (hey, it's happened before). No such luck, but we're fortunate it's lasted this long. We got the used set (non-matching, mind you) from a family member, so we're shocked it's lasted us 3 & 1/2 years. I'm sure it's at least 10 years old already. Time for a big girl, energy efficient dryer!

I'm strangely excited about this purchase because we can pay a big chunk of it with the money we received for Christmas. Perfect timing. Plus, we are going to need something more reliable once baby girl arrives with her projectile vomiting.

Looking forward to: Relaxing at home for a while. It's nice to be back in a routine!

25 Weeks

Sorry for this late post. I'm sure all 14 of you have been waiting anxiously. The night before last I had to rush Ryan to the ER with his first kidney stone. I've never felt so helpless in all my life. When they finally got fluids & pain meds in him, he started feeling better. We popped pain pills all night, and by the grace of God, he passed the stone yesterday afternoon.

It's kind of funny to think in about 3 months we'll be rushing back to the same hospital, but he'll be in the drivers seat!

Ryan took this picture late last night once he started feeling some better.

Size: A cauliflower! Right now she's measuring about 13.6-14.8 inches & weighs about 1.5 to 2.5 lbs.

Major happenings this week: She can now distinguish which way is up and which is down. Good thing too. At our last ultrasound she was breech. I hope she'll turn herself!

Sleep: All things considered, good!

Miss Anything: Nothing.

Food Cravings: I've started cutting back on satisfying my cravings, so I'm trying to focus on eating healthy again.

Bellybutton in or out? Out

Wedding rings on or off? On

Gender: Girl!

What's been happening: Besides the traumatic ER experience, a few things for the nursery. I did get the fabric in for the crib skirt, so now I've got to make an executive decision about wall color & bumper fabric.

We put the crib together last weekend, so we're making progress, people!

Looking forward to: Christmas, but who isn't? I absolutely LOVE spending time with family & friends and this weekend will be full of it!

 

He was so excited to put this crib together!

Ryan also put in the closet organizer & I made him pose like Vanna White for this picture. He may kill me if he ever sees this. We have a ways to go with getting everything washed & hung up, but I wanted to get her clothes off the floor. I can't wait to see it fill up!

 

Nursery Ideas

I've been working tirelessly on Miller's nursery design. I had the perfect design in mind when I was convinced I was having a boy. I was even going to use this design up until about 3 weeks ago when Ryan finally convinced me it wasn't feminine enough. Since when does the dad have to tell the mom to put some pink in the room?

Here's the design I was in love with:

 

 

Emily Hewett is one of my favorite designers. I love EVERY room she designs & when she revealed this nursery she designed for her twin boy & girl, I was sold. I still love this room so much and may have to copy every piece of it if I have a boy next, but for now, I've filed it away.

 

I did keep one main piece of this design. I ordered the curtains for Miller's room like the ones in this room from West Elm & ordered a couple of extra ones to make the crib skirt like she did.

 

So... back to the drawing board I went. I headed straight to Pinterest to get ideas for a more "girly" nursery design & stumbled upon two pictures that got my motors running. 

 

 

I'm going to try to mimic this color for the wall color. I haven't decided if I'm going to do it on every wall, or just use it on an accent wall.

 

We have a white crib and since the sheet will be white & the crib skirt will be made out of the curtain fabric, I knew I needed to bring in some color. I'm in the process of picking out the right pink fabric for the bumper. I'll pick a printed fabric that contains the same pink to be made into a pillow for the glider.

 

I did just get this beauty in the mail the other day & I can't wait to hang it up!

 

 

If that doesn't scream "GIRL!!!" I don't know what does :)

 

I'm still working on accessories for the room. Those will come once the painting is done & the fabric is in. Here's the crib, which we put together last night!

 

 

We have an old dresser that I'm going to refinish in a dark wood. I already love the contrast with the white crib. I'm going with this color glider & ottoman:

I'm having so much fun working on this room. I can't wait to see it all come together!

 

24 Weeks + A Getaway

HAPPY 12.12.12!

 

 

 

Size: A cantaloupe!

Major happenings this week: 16 weeks until my due date!

Sleep: Not my greatest subject this week.

Miss Anything: A good night's sleep & a glass of wine.

Food Cravings: Same as always.

Bellybutton in or out? Out

Wedding rings on or off? On

Gender: Girl!

What's been happening: We just got back from a fantastic 4 day mini-vacation to the Sanctuary at Kiawah Island in South Carolina. This exclusive resort blew my mind & I may never get to go back again, so I took lots of pictures!

Ryan's State Farm team kicked booty (again) and we were rewarded with a 4 day, 3 night stay at the Sanctuary.

Looking forward to: Working on Miller's room. I think I'm finally ready to make some fabric decisions!

 

Here are some pictures from the resort & our trip...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The hotel's Christmas decorations were beautiful!

 

 

 

 

 

On Tuesday, we headed into Charleston for the day to do some shopping & sight seeing.

The hotel has a contract with Mercedes, so we got to borrow a 2013 convertible & take it into Charleston. I thought it would make me feel rich, but it just made me feel like everyone was staring at us thinking, "Those kids stole that car!" We returned her safe & sound (luckily, too, because we almost broke the roof trying to get the top off!)

 

On the last night, State Farm hosted a huge dinner for all of the guests. It was a Western themed dinner & dancing with a wonderful band. Ryan is wearing a flashing cowboy hat necklace. That should give you a clue about how the night went.

 

The above picture is blurry because I had to crop it, but just for fun, here's the real picture...

 

Holy. Cow. I know my belly isn't THAT big. I'll be practicing my angles in the mirror from now on!

 

Doing the "Wobble." Pregnancy can't slow me down.

See! My belly isn't THAT big!

I'm too quick to capture, apparently.

 

 

We had a fantastic time at the Sanctuary. Until next time...

 



 

 

 

 

23 Weeks

Size: A grapefruit!

Major happenings this week: I can see her moving around now. My stomach looks a bit like a reverse punching bag.

Also, it hit me last night that my due date is just 17 weeks away. I started freaking out a little bit, mainly because nothing is done. I've changed the direction for the nursery design and I still have to order all of the fabric & have the bumper & skirt made. Not to mention, I still have to pick out all of the accessories, get the room painted, closet organizer in, etc., etc., etc...

I'm trying to remember to take it one day at a time. It'll all get done, and if it doesn't, Miller won't mind.

Sleep: It's getting better. No nightmares or pains this week. 

Miss Anything: Nothing right now.

Food Cravings: I haven't had my Burger King chicken sandwich this week, so I'm craving that right now!

Bellybutton in or out? Out

Wedding rings on or off? On

Gender: Still a girl

What's been happening: We had a fantastic weekend at home. We watched a lot of football & got some stuff done around the house.

Looking forward to: We have a trip planned to Kiawah Island and I'm so excited for a few days of rest & relaxation! 

New York City

We had a wonderful time in the Big Apple last month (okay, now more than a month ago). Maybe it was so fantastic I'm having trouble putting it into words. Yep, we'll go with that.

We flew out of Charlotte at 6am. I highly recommend this if you're a morning person. We had plenty of room to spread out on the plane & even the airport was pretty deserted. We arrived in NYC at 8am, which gave us a full day to explore as soon as we arrived. We stayed at a precious boutique hotel in Times Square, called the Mayfair Hotel. Yes, all of the rooms do in fact have toile wallpaper, but it's not that overwhelming once you're in there. The lady at the front desk even gave us a free room upgrade because I was pregnant. I love New Yorkers.

We had perfect weather all 3 days. The fourth day got a little chilly & windy, but that's also the day Hurricane Sandy hit. We flew out at 4:30 that day & they started delaying/canceling planes at 7, so we felt really lucky we were able to get home!

Here are some shots from the trip...

Rockefeller Skating Rink

Waiting in line to pickup our tickets for the Late Show. We were selected to sit on the front row right in front of the band! We were so jacked & actually made it on TV.

Boom baby.

Here are all of the employees and as I'm typing this, I'm finally understanding why they wear Letterman jackets. Duh.

Thursday night Clemson played Wake Forest. I got in touch with the president of the NYC Clemson club & we went to the Liberty to watch the game with tons of other Clemson fans. It was so cool to feel at home in a different city!

We stalked around the Today Show quite a bit each morning and even caught a glimpse of Matt Lauer as he ran to his getaway car. That dude can scoot.

Our view from the Top of the Rock. It was pretty overcast for our entire trip, but this was one of our favorite parts of the entire weekend. You could literally see the entire city from this spot. If you're planning a trip, put this on your to-do list!

Central Park from Top of the Rock

We took the subway to Brooklyn to see the new basketball arena that Jay Z built. I'm game for anything that makes me feel closer to Beyonce.

We had the most fantastic pizza at "Not Rey's Pizza." You can have it just as good if you go to "Rey's Pizza" in the city. We had Italian 6, count it, 6 times in 4 days. I was in HEAVEN!

The 9/11 memorial

They really have done a wonderful job with this memorial. It's beautiful!

The closest firehouse to the Trade Center - first responders.

Times Square on a Friday night

Central Park was beautiful!

Buying gifts for our baby girl at the most famous toy store in the world!

All he wanted was to eat an NYC hotdog in Central Park

happy hotdog face

We finished off our trip with a Staten Island Ferry ride to visit this little lady.

This is just some of what we got to experience. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the Letterman show, so I only have great memories of seeing Adam Levine, Donald Trump & Carly Ray Jepsen. It was so cool to be close to so many famous people!

On Friday night we attended a comedy show, a first for me, but it was so much fun! I was 17 weeks pregnant when we went & it was a perfect time to walk around the city. I've been in the Summer, Fall & Winter and every time is better than the last. Who wants to plan a Spring trip with me?? ... Maybe Spring 2014 :)