A Very Belated Thanksgiving!

Lol, well, I see that I had meant to post a Thanksgiving recap...so here it is...only a month and some change overdue. :-/

Thanksgiving is always a favorite of mine. I do love Christmas too, but I think my dad and I both find the fact that Thanksgiving is nice cause you're not having to think about gifts or anything, all it is, is purely hanging out with family and loved ones and eating and hanging out some more and eating a lil more.

We always start our day with the parade.

Here's Jr watching the parade...

One day, I'd love to make it to the parade, but there is something really nice about sitting around in your pj's on the couch. Speaking of...I borrowed Rob's pajama pants that morning. Rob's clothes can certainly be a favorite of mine during these last months of pregnancy...

We then got together, both Rob's side and my side at my mom's for dinner...

We used the finest china we could find. :) Easy clean up is the way to go! No shame!

Rob and I then headed out to have Leah take some pics of us...I guess I was around 34 weeks pregnant or so.

Leah and Rob can be bad influences on each other, lol...which can cause Rob to do naughty things to mess up a picture. Oh I can get so mad! Lol...here's me scolding him for messing up yet another picture. I won't include the photos of what he was doing...you can probably just imagine...his hand was near the region. :)

Then here he is looking all innocent snuggled in a blanket his mom gave to us for Finn. Lol, how could I be mad at that sweet face? lol :)

Well, Thanksgiving is always followed by another tradition...no black Friday shopping here, but Christmas tree shopping. I think next year we should do it at night time...I think back in the day we used to do that.

Anyway, we always end up at Lowe's and buy our trees there, however, mom and Leah found theirs at a high school tree lot. No cutting down live trees in Tampa...but it's still a fun time. It felt more like Christmas time that weekend than many weeks in December.

Then it was time to get the decorations out. We decided to wait until Finn's real first Christmas before buying his stocking, so we just decorated as normal. And by saying "we" decorated, lol, I mean mostly me. Rob helps of course, but it's me that loves the decorating. We don't have a ton either...so it doesn't take long.

How sad it is that these decorations are all going back in tubs. I want to find something I can keep on our mantle year round with pretty twinkle lights. They're just so dang cozy.

I was also quite pleased with the decorations on our tree this year. I might find myself wanting to decorate it exactly the same next year...I'm just loving the green with the white with the pine cones. Simple, but just right. And it was all stuff we already had, which is always nice for this cheap girl. :)

Well that pretty much wraps up Thanksgiving weekend.

Lots to look ahead to.

(come on contractions!!)

Sprucing Up the Lanai

When we bought our house a jacuzzi was included in the back lanai. Rob and I soon discovered that we're not jacuzzi people. We cleaned it up real good, and I mean real good, cause it was nasty, and then tried it out. Only to realize that it just wasn't our thing. I got itchy from the jets and overly hot real quick. I was practically hanging off the side after a few minutes. We did try it in the cold weather, but it still wasn't cutting it. So we knew one day we would love to get rid of this thing.

After the lengthy process of selling the Jeep, we were in no mood to sell this jacuzzi. One of the main reasons being that we would have to pretty much take apart a portion of our lanai to fit this thing out the door. And finding people to purchase or take a jacuzzi and transport it, is hard to find.

So maybe to some people's disappointment, Rob and his dad had the idea to chop the thing up.

Yep, with a saw. And shimmied it out the door.

It was a great feeling to be rid of that thing. They ended up cutting it into 4ths and took it to the dump.

We were looking forward to getting a table out there so I had been searching craigslist for some time. Rob likes to play a lot of games, so a round table was most ideal. The night before Rob's birthday party, we finally found a table and chairs listed for $50! With the help of our friend, we drove out there and picked it up that night. The cushions that came with it were dingy, but the table itself was really nice and the chairs were wide and sturdy. So the next morning we purchased new cushions from Home Depot. Which completely made the set look like new to us.

We still have plans to make it a lot nicer out there. Like a squeegee brush to keep that dang floor clean! It gets so dirty in there so fast...big thanks to our Jackson five (one of Jack's million of nicknames) We're also thinking a good outdoor rug under the table and chairs to ground it a little more. I'm sure we'll have lots of stuff for Finn out there too, since we find ourselves hanging out there a lot more lately. Slowly but surely this house is feeling more like our own.

Ah, and the view from the couch in our living room is much nicer. So happy to not see that jacuzzi anymore. Jack really appreciates the better view too.

Hoping you all are doing well. Can you believe 2013 is only a few days away?? Since this baby boy is still comfy, it looks like we'll be ringing in the new year from a couch, no partyin for us. But who am I kidding, we typically always ring it in on a couch, lol.

Praying and wishing you all a blessed new year!

Merry Christmas!

I love Christmas, from the meaning and the giving and the family time and the eating...it's all so wonderful. Yesterday was an awesome day...unfortunately realized afterward I didn't get pics at Rob's parents house, but here's some pics from earlier in the day. Hoping you all enjoyed your day with loved ones as well.

Our last Christmas morning waking up with just the two of us...

A blurry one, but it must be known that Rob is like a little kid on Christmas morning...our first year of marriage he woke me up when it was still dark outside and we opened presents, lol, that was the first AND last year that that ever happened. :)

Us kids at mom's Christmas morning...about to eat breakfast then open up some gifts. Weird to think how many years we've shared Christmas at this house...almost 25 years. Craziness!

Yeah, mom and Leah's tree is always absolutely beautiful and huge. Lots of hiding spots for the Christmas pickle...more on that in a few.

Perhaps a new tradition? My sister-in-law made us some slamming french toast and eggs and Leah made the bacon...quite a yummy breakfast.

Would ya look at that belly?? It always shocks me more in pictures than in real life. I wish I could wear these sweatpants all the time...

Our poor little sick man...had a fever on Christmas :( But he still was happy to open his gifts of course...

Sweet Bell's and her daddy...

Oh! And here's a shot of our yearly tradition that started when we were older...finding the Christmas pickle. Let it be known that this pickle is about an inch long, yes AN INCH! Hidden in this very thick tree (usually deep) and we cannot touch the tree or anything, just use our eyeballs. Much to her joy, Jen found it this year, and honestly I don't think there could of been a better winner. She really wanted it this year, and she certainly found it. Tears of joy were present, lol, there's nothing like finding the pickle!

My love love and I...

And finally, before we jetted off to see our other family, my mom got us together for a family photo. Now, I won't share all the stinkin outtakes my brother caused us to have because of his inappropriateness, lol, but here's the one that he finally decided to just smile...poor Jr isn't smiling much probably because of how he felt.

Hoping you all had a wonderful Christmas.

Love to you all!

Rob's Birthday

We celebrated Rob's birthday last weekend. There's something about his birthday that I love...probably that he's such an amazing man and I love to celebrate him with friends and family. Goodness, I can't thank God enough for bringing us together.

Here's some pics from the party. Finn decided to stay put and let his daddy have his own day. :)

Since Halloween, Rob's been on a blow pop kick...so I put together this little "bouquet" for the table's centerpiece...

One of his gifts...a fire pit! Hoping for more and more cold nights to use it...

Greg dramatically giving Rob his cake...

Love him.

Happy Birthday, baby! And many more...

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!)