Another birthday!

Steve and I are lucky to have birthdays so close together. I really like it that way, I especially like that his birthday is first because I always stress about making it perfect for him and it’s nice to just sit back and relax once it’s over:)  This year on November 9^th we celebrated my 27^th birthday! Interesting fact… Baby turned 27 weeks on my 27^th birthday. Kind of cool I thought. For my birthday I wanted to get a rocker/glider for the baby’s room so that day we left work early and went glider shopping! This activity was the perfect birthday present! It combines all of my favorite activities into one.

1.) Shopping
2.) Shopping for baby stuff
3.) Shopping with Steve
4.) Talking about baby stuff

So basically I had a blast!

We spent a total of about 5 hours going from store to store looking at different glider/ rocking chair options. It turned out to be a little more difficult making a decision than I had anticipated! I had my “ideal” chair in my head and qualifications that it must have. My list was long in my head but what we ultimately ended up with was just practical. It is, however, the most comfortable practical chair my little bum has ever sat in! I’m sure to appreciate it all of my late nights up with the babe!

 We did manage to fit dinner and registering into our evening as well and my mom and dad sent me a beautiful bouquet of flowers with an adorable teddy bear along with it for the baby. I’m so lucky to have such wonderful people in my life and I truly have no complaints! I am one happy camper:)

Steve's Birthday!

Steve turned the ripe old age of 32 last Friday (the 28th of October) and we celebrated in style. Steve woke up to a fabulous breakfast spread that morning and lots of really nice birthday wishes. Later that day he got to do his favorite thing ever... Golf! It was a gorgeous day and he said he had a great time. Later that evening we went out to dinner with a group of friends (14 of us to be exact) and then had cake and ice cream after at our house. I tried a new recipe this year and think it turned out great! It was a chocolate cake with like a whipped cream frosting served cold. Yum:) Below is a picture of Steve blowing out his invisible candles!

I was a bad wife this year:( Not only did I NOT take any pictures besides the one above but I also forgot candles. Minor detail's I guess but I especially regret not taking more pictures. All well. At least Steve had a great day and got to be surrounded by good company.

I am so grateful for Steve. Here are a few of the reasons why I love him so much and why he is such a great husband and man in general:)

He makes me relax! Let's face it... I can be an emotional wreck sometimes! Maybe it's just the pregnancy hormones, I don't know but he always knows how to get me to chill out!

He makes me laugh! He is always joking or being sarcastic and it's hard to stay mad at him for too long because he will turn a stupid fight into joke that always makes me laugh and forget about the reason we where arguing in the first place. (He calls it debating:)

Everybody loves him! I get compliments on my husband all the time! He is incredibly responsible and takes the pressure of supporting our little growing family very seriously. He is always encouraging me to save money and he doesn't just tell me to do something and then not do it himself. He is a great example to me and definitely inspires me to try and be better.

He is amazing at his calling! He is the Elders quorum president and has already been able to bless the lives of many by visiting and giving blessings to various members of the ward when they are in need. He really takes his role seriously and is an inspiration to others.

He's handsome! (Or as my beehives say "he's hot")! A little awkward??? Maybe, but still a compliment:)

He is friends with everybody.

He loves our dog as much as I do and obsesses over all his little quarks.

He is going to be an amazing father. I already know this, he is GREAT with children. Even a year later all of our old nursery kids will still come up to him and say "look mom (or dad) it's my best friend Steve!" Children adore him.

He is active in church, physical exercise  and most important my life. He helps me all the time whether it's bringing food to work so I can eat or taking out the trash at home (a job I despise) or entertaining the dog so he doesn't become too lazy or depressed.

I LOVE that he has so many interests. Golf, mountain biking, friends, movies, traveling, researching, decorating/designing, me, family and many other things.

What a blessing it is to have him in my life. I love him:)

"It's the great pumpkin Charlie Brown"

This was my costume for the ward trunk or treat. Turns out trunk or treats are a lot of fun! I had never been to one before and Steve and I really enjoyed having a little booth set up with some fun activities for the kids!

Weston also enjoyed the trunk or treat activity. Especially the part where the kid spilled his ENTIRE bag of popcorn right next to him! He was pretty willing to help clean it up:)

Who ever thought a hot dog could be so adorable?

Here I am below with out my jack-o-lantern face showing off my 25 week baby bump. I am loving that random people now ask me if I am pregnant!

Second trimester thoughts...

The second trimester has been awesome!!! I have had a ton of energy, I got my appetite back and felt hardly any sickness at all! I have been doing projects like crazy and we are also currently re-modeling the outside of our house (pictures to come some day). I love the fact that I have been getting bigger and by far the BEST part obviously is feeling our little girl move around. 

I got a late start on feeling her move. I think it started around 22 weeks when I really knew for sure that was her turning my  insides around. I am pretty sure I felt her moving earlier I just didn't know that was what I was feeling at the time. It is amazing how much she moves now, it seems like she is constantly kicking or punching me and doing somersaults in my belly. I am sure every mother knows what a relief it is to feel their baby moving inside. I have these irrational fears that she isn't going to make it sometimes and it gives me comfort to know she is still alive in there when she moves.

All in all my second trimester has been amazing and now I look forward to the third phase. I have started just in the last 2 weeks having an extremely hard time sleeping. I have developed some uncomfortable acid reflux pains when I lay down as well as shortness of breath that makes me feel like I am not getting enough oxygen at times and it has become increasingly harder to turn over from side to side in the night. I ordered a giant pregnancy pillow online  that I am pretty excited to get on Monday! I guess this is what I have to look forward to over the next few months. I am excited though... All this discomfort just means we are getting closer to having our little girl and that is the most exciting thing in the world:)

Dresser!

BEFORE...

AFTER...



I really like the way it turned out! It looks even better in person (it's a little more distressed when you see it up close). This turned out to be super easy and the perfect accent piece for the nursery! I just sanded everything down, thoroughly wiped it down with a wet rag to get rid of all the dust then I spray painted it a dark brown color. After I let that dry for a few hours I came back rubbed a candle along all of the edges getting candle wax over all the parts I wanted to have the paint coming off then I painted it the final color that we matched to the fabric I used for the nursery. After that paint dried I simply used my nail to scrape off wherever I put wax (it came off SO easy), then I put the handles back on and it was complete! Yay! Now I need another project to start on. I am very much in my nesting trimester if you can't tell:) I have to keep myself busy or all I can think about is having this baby get here already!

So many things to do!!!

I don't even know where to begin on this post... I have started SO many projects lately and I have finished a couple but have barely made a dent in all the things I want to get done before this baby comes! Let me start out with the 1 project I have completed...

These are pieces of fabric that I can change out at any time if I get sick of them. I also could have used scrapbook paper but I just happened to have a ton of fabric left over from multiple sewing projects and classes. This has nothing to do with the nursery or baby stuff I just had a lot of fun putting it together!

These next few of pictures are my blank canvas! Right now it is the office but it will be converted into an adorable baby sanctuary when I'm done with it!

Notice we already have our crib... Now we just need to put it together! Yay baby stuff!

My Nursery Inspiration

I just LOVE this crib bedding set and I would have bought already if it wasn't $500.00 dollars!!! In an effort to save money I have decided to make my own crib bedding. I found the cutest fabric ever at a a little fabric store in Utah (pictured directly below) I originally wanted to find these exact colors but found it difficult to find a main pattern that I liked that was the same so I altered it a little and changed the light green in the picture to a light purple which I think is turning out really cute! Steve helped me pick out the fabric as well so I have to give him some credit too.

We converted our ping pong table into a fabric cutting work-station...

I spent many hours pre-cutting out all the fabric pieces for the blanket, bumper and crib skirt. Here it is all laid out nice and pretty:)

The first part I started was the blanket because it seemed to be the easiest.

Steve really likes the quilted look so since I just got done taking a quilting class I put my new found knowledge to the test. It is kind of hard to see in this picture but I did a stitched fence pattern throughout the entire top part of the blanket to give it that quilted look.

Completed blanket! 1 down, a lot more to go but I love the way the blanket turned out. Steve likes to call it HIS creation. He picked out the super soft fabric that goes on the opposite side and asked me to make it look like a quilt so if it wasn't for his input it would not have turned out as neat:)

Here is a preview of the bumper I have been working on for the past week and a half... This part has by far been the hardest sewing project I have done... EVER! I have had to hand sew a lot of it because of how thick the batting is. I have now broken 5 sewing machine needles working on this bumper, luckily they are not very expensive and easy to replace. I love the way it it is turning out so far and hopefully I can finish it over this coming conference weekend and post a completed picture of it.

This is the dresser I bought of of craigslist that I am in the process of refinishing for the nursery. (The drawers have not been put back in correctly yet so it looks a little funny in the picture) I have been debating on either painting it white to match the crib and bench seat in the room or painting it a kind of antiqued looking turquoise color to match the turquoise accents I have in the fabric. I posted a picture below of an example of this. Any suggestions?

Lastly I found this tutorial on how to make these hanging wall bookshelves below and so I am going to pick out some cute coordinating fabric and make a couple of these...

These are just a few of the projects I am working on right now. I can't wait until it all starts coming together and I can post some more pictures as the office actually starts to turn into the nursery!

20 weeks!

We're half-way! YAY!

Our Utah trip

 Last month Steve and I packed up the dog and headed to Utah for an extended Labor day weekend trip. It is always nice to escape the heat and go enjoy some nice weather. I always love heading to Utah. There is nothing better than spending time with family and taking a break from life. We originally wanted to go over the 24th of July but since I wasn't feeling well at that time we pushed it back to Labor day and I am so happy we did. The weather was perfect! Steve got to mountain bike and golf tell his heart was content (or until he crashed which happened on the 2nd to last day) and I got to go shopping for little girl stuff:) Oh how I love buying little girl clothes, pretty sure I am addicted.

The first couple of days where spent at Scott and Rachel's house and it was so much fun there! We played with the dog, talked about baby stuff (since we are both expecting around the same time) and went to a picnic in the most beautiful spot ever up in the mountains with the Murray side of the family. Sadly the only pictures I got this trip are pretty much from that picnic. I wish I would have gotten some more of all the adults and some of my family and friends but I just didn't think about it at the time. Here is a bunch of some of the kiddo's for your viewing pleasure:)

The rest of the week after staying with Scott and Rachel we stayed with my parents and had a BBQ, played games, went shopping for baby stuff and found the most AMAZING fabric for me to use on the crib bedding. (A post to come later about the million projects that I have started and hopefully can finish by the time this baby comes!)

We had the best vacation ever! I miss it there already and can't wait to go back again for Christmas!