Bump update!

How far along? 38 weeks tomorrow!

Symptoms: Swollen feet and ankles have arrived! But really not too bad at all. Keeping my feet up as often as I can. Other than that, I'm feeling really great...harder to get around and am starting to look forward to having my mobility back. The simplest things are hard now like rolling a cuff on my pants, I can barely reach! Are nerves a symptom? Lol, those can be present from time to time. But I know it'll be okay.

Sleep: Still sleeping great! I'm so tired from everything going on, so I pretty much sleep like a rock now. Lovely.

Best moments this week: Hearing Finn's heartbeat and knowing it's still sounding perfect and getting his room together...and lone time with my man, it's hard to believe that it's not just going to be us anymore! But I know we'll love it, and we have tons of babysitters for date nights. :)

Movement: Lots of elbows now and feet...he's probably completely out of room so I don't blame him for trying to push out on my side for some extra leg room.

Cravings: Nope

Gender: Boy!

Labor Signs: Still having braxton hicks and tinges (and I mean the tiniest tinges) of pain along with it. I've also been told that I'm about 50% effaced and a whopping 1 centimeter dilated! :) I'll take it! Oh and he's head down. Good boy, Finn.

Belly Button in or out? Still in...looks like she's staying in too.

What I miss: Sleeping on my stomach

What I am looking forward to: Getting labor/delivery over with and meeting our little man, AND celebrating Rob's birthday tomorrow AND celebrating Christmas with our families. :)

Weekly Wisdom: Keep those feet up and get that hospital bag packed! (Almost done with the hospital bag)

Milestones: The house is coming back together after the new carpet install. And I'm so very happy that Finn is now full term and just putting on weight. Can't believe this boy will be out in this world sooner than later. How can you really fathom having a child for the first time and becoming a parent? I don't think I can, so I'm just gonna let it all hit me as it comes. :)

A Homemade Mobile

I always knew that I wanted to make Finn's mobile. I'm not crazy about the ones that match everything in the room...I'm actually not crazy about anything that's matchy-matchy, just a personal preference.

Anyway, so the plan evolved into Rob using his origami skills to make cranes for Finn's mobile. It was pretty easy, it was just the assembly that I've been putting off.

Here's the supplies we used...we just bought a floral ring from our local craft store (it's about 12" diameter) and bought various colors of craft paper (12"x12") found in the scrap booking section of the craft store, and some wax-coated string/cord (thinking it would hold the knots better with the waxed coating).

If you're already familiar with origami, the trick is getting the right paper...so we couldn't get paper that was crazy thick or anything because it needed to be able to hold the folds...however, I didn't want something super thin either. Thankfully individual pieces of paper are not that expensive, so you can experiment.

So Rob did his thang and folded the cranes with love. Then I finally got around to stringing them. First, I poked a hole through the crane and then used a small bobby pin as a "needle" and strung the string through.

Repeated this process for all the cranes, then strung up the floral ring first before putting the cranes on it. Once I hung the floral ring, I started eyeballing how I wanted my cranes to fall. I then just simply tied them on the ring as securely as possible along with putting some extra adhesive on the top of the ring (not visible when looking at the mobile).

And here's the finished product...

And a far away shot with a little sneaky peeky of his room coming along... :) :)

Simple, and just what I was looking for.

And you know, these things don't necessarily need to be restricted to nurseries/kid's bedrooms...there's so many options of the different objects you can hang from these...origami is just an inexpensive investment. I think the total we paid for this was around $12 for the paper, string and floral ring. Overall, very happy with it.

Love to you all!

Some Quick DIY Art

I like the word "quick".

Especially when there's so much going on and I'm trying not to over-commit myself to a billion unnecessary things...lol, yeah, trying.

So I went easy on myself and came up with some quick DIY art for the little baby collage in Finn's room.

First I had the idea to include a picture of Rob and I on his wall. This was a simple art piece. Just used some craft paper, felt, letter stencils and a photo of Rob and I (our old engagement photo taken by Leah).

I just filled in the lettered stencils with a black permanent marker, fine-tipped. And just cut the felt heart free-hand.

Then I moved on and created this little piece. Super easy...just used some leftover burlap, paint and some thin-cut tape.

His room feels like it's almost done...even though the boy won't probably be in there for a little bit, it feels nice to at least have the basics done and organized in there.

Can't believe we're going to be meeting our boy in possibly 2 1/2 weeks. My mind truly cannot fathom or understand that...now the question of when he'll make his appearance.

I have no preference baby boy, you come whenever you want.  :)

Love to you all! (more posts coming soon!)

Instagrammy

Rob and I have officially joined the modern world last Sunday and upgraded to smartphones.

It was a decision based on the fact that I've been using the same messaging phone for 6 years (they don't make em like they used to!) and we've been paying such a high amount for just unlimited text, and now we pay almost exactly the same for unlimited text and data.

And the phones were on sale. Pretty sweet sale too.

Yep, we are now proud owners of the iPhone. Very happy with it, and I always knew that this app on there called Instagram would be my new friend.

Instagram is basically a picture editing tool that allows you to put filters on your photos to make em look a little more interesting. I love this because with Finn coming, I won't have my lovely Nikon with me at all times, but I'll certainly have my phone. So now I have this nice camera and filter feature to capture all the cuteness he'll be oozing. :)

So I'll be sure to be sharing these photos with you on this blog.

Here's a few shots from the past few days...

Rob putting the crib together :)

Oh what a good feeling it is to get this room together. I completely understand when other mom's say they just want to sit in the finished room all the time. It's getting close...definitely will take pictures of the final product. :)

Me at 36 1/2 weeks...37 weeks tomorrow!

And to be clear, I wasn't driving while taking this pic...I was at a complete stop at a stop light. :)

Yesterday at work, I was surprised with a sweet baby shower!

Yeah, I turned beat red...oh how I hate that I blush more than ever lately...but it was so incredibly sweet.

Here's Finn as of yesterday. Yeah, he's a-growin, that's for sure. But how thankful am I to say that I'm still feeling great??! So very thankful.

Kind of fuzzy...but there's our boy. Making his debut soon.

Well there's so much going on besides baby stuff. This season is obviously busier than most with Christmas and then personally with Rob's birthday, but I'm thinking of my family and our sweet Nannie right now. Also thinking of my my step-mom and her family who just lost their mom.

This is a season that reminds you to cherish your loved ones and squeeze them tight.

Love to you all!

(For those looking for more DIY posts, would you believe me when I say that I'll have some posted soon?? I promise!)

New Carpet!!!

Last Thursday was a long day. After much patience (or sometimes lack of) our installers showed up at 8pm, wrapping up the install by 11pm.

I'm just so relieved to say that yay, the carpet has finally arrived.

Here's how I felt about getting new carpet in a nutshell...

Here's Jack patiently waiting for the carpet people to arrive...

When we first moved in, we did get it professionally cleaned which helped a ton, however, still there were stains that were too settled in. There's also nothing like knowing that you're the only ones who have lived in the carpet in your home. Here's some before and after shots.

Baby boy's room before:

And after (so looking forward to putting this room all together, pictures to come!):

Guest room/office before:

And after:

Master bedroom before:

And after:

We went with a berber carpet in a color called Dove. It's a blend of light grays, extremely similar to our rug in our living room. I'm loving it. It's a little rougher than I had expected, but super nice and durable. It's definitely going to hold up for a long time along with hiding any dirt or stains. Not that we won't clean it, but you know what I mean.

Well, to cap it off, Finn and I celebrated by doing a few carpet angels...

Thankful, thankful. Now to fill the rooms and start pulling everything together for Finn's room. I'm over 36 weeks now!!! Yep, I am definitely feeling very pregnant lately, lol. :) Bump update to come...still feeling great!

~Sigh~...Wonderful Reminders

Said Goodbye To An Old Friend

Something quite wonderful happened on Friday...

Yep, the Jeep got sold.

So thankful, I truly believe God's hand was in this because I had hoped and hoped that the Jeep would be sold by November so we could move forward with all that's looming around the sale of the Jeep...not to sound like a broken record, but the need for new carpet has been the huge part causing us not to have anything in Finn's room put together yet (since all the rooms and closets need to be emptied for carpet install).

And yeah, it was the last day of November, but it certainly made me smile. (let the nesting begin!)

It sold, and we couldn't be more happy to say goodbye to it, mostly for monetary reasons. Lots of good memories in that Jeep, many more on Rob's account obviously since it was his...but still, she was a good girl for some time before things started breaking.

Here she is getting all "decorated" for our departure from our wedding...

Riding off in her with the top down in 50 degree weather...immediately after leaving our reception, we pulled over to put the top on...it was freezing!

Love this shot...Rob taking advantage of some rain and washing her...

Ah, and here she is in her element...all pictures are by Rob's sweet mom...

Pretty sure Rob had some kind of affection to getting stuck... :)

Mmm-hmm...

I could see far later down the years Rob getting another one with working AC and a larger engine and doesn't feel like it's going to fall apart. Someday, I hope. :)

But for now we're thankful...what a weight that has been lifted to say goodbye to it.

I know it's been forever since I've posted anything DIY...but now that things are going to start moving with Finn's room, there will be more DIY posts coming soon, I'm sure.

Happy Sunday everyone, I hope it's filled with rest and breakfast and rest and lunch and rest and dinner!

Farewell, "Meep-Meep"! You gave us some wonderful (and yes, sometimes painful!) memories. :)