Some Living Room Updates

For the party we rearranged a few things in our living room, which I guess kind of inspired me to do a few things in there.

First, we got a new rug. Here's what we had before:

We've had that thing for over 4 years. It's done us well, but it was time for something bigger. We might still get it cleaned up really good and use it in the front room when we get furniture in there one day.

So we stumbled across a rug in Homegoods that was big and beautiful and shag and gray. It almost looks identical to the original rug, however much bigger, hopefully less shedding (it's a different fiber) and free of Jack's puppy pee-pee/chewing phase. (even though we would clean the rug, it still feels tainted!)

Here's the new Mrs. Shag:

We love how much bigger it makes the room feel simply by covering more area (hard to tell by the above pics, but it really does) It now goes under both of the couches, not leaving a gap anymore like the previous rug. And it's so plush. I'm thinking it'll be perfect for laying a blanket on it and having tummy time with our baby boy. :)

Well then that inspired me to make a much less expensive purchase. A pillow for the back of our newly placed chair. This one was from Ikea for $12.99. The pillow case is a thick velvet material and the whole pillow feels like it would cost like $25-$35 at Target. Nope, just $12.99.

Thank you for your service, Ikea. Especially for those of us who really don't enjoy spending money.

I've come to figure that investing some money in the room that we spend most of our time in is well worth it. Goodness, I might be inspired to actually put something on the walls now and update the mantle a little. Who knows.

I hope you all are having a great week!

Gender Reveal Party

Baby Dunkin is a...

...BOY!!!

We are elated to know our baby's gender. Still gonna take some getting used to to not having to refer to the baby as he/she or it, but we're excited. Oh, our growin boy. :) :) :)

Well, I wanted to share our gender reveal party. I know some people have their thoughts on them as being overboard, but really it was just like a normal party of getting together with family and friends, and just finding out some fun news together. I really didn't feel stressed or anything, I made myself just enjoy the evening.

So for those of you who don't know what these parties are...when you have your anatomy sono, instead of finding out the sex of the baby there, you have the technician write it down and place the gender in an envelope. You can then either give the envelope to a bakery to bake a cake with the filling as suggested in the envelope (blue or pink) or I've heard of people who have balloons made and placed in a box for the surprise.

We did the cake route, and it worked out really well. (Shout out to Publix!) We're definitely planning on thanking them personally.

So here we go...here's some pictures of our party. I'll try not to caption too much. :)

So I started out by planning on making all the directions. I didn't want to spend any money, just used what I had.

I had seen that for some of these parties, mustaches were used for the boy, however, with Rob and his everpresent beard, we thought this fit a little more. (for any basketball fans out there, this beard template I found online is James Harden's famous beard :) 

We even personalized our cups...lol

Food was delicious, my sweet mother-in-law made her amazing lasagna and my dad's famous family meatballs...

We then took group shots of each with their choice. The beards crack me up.

Those thinking the baby was a boy...or just hoping... :)

And those thinking little one was a girl...(ladies man in the center!)

Some cookies my sweet step-mom made...

The cake...I ended up just wanting a simple white cake from Publix, and I made the little diddy to go on top of it...

Then it was time to cut the cake...

Here's our initial reaction...we were pretty excited :)

Overall, it was a wonderful time with family and close friends. It's one of those moments you gotta just stop and count your blessings, as we all have so many. We're looking forward to the day we get to meet our precious son. :)

Love to you all! :)

Seeing Our Little One For The First Time

I just wanted to take the time to document our awesome (in every sense of the word) experience we had at our anatomy sono on Thursday.

Right as Rob was about to go explore some books on a bookshelf in the waiting room, my name was called. A sweet lady named Kathy walked us back to a much bigger sono room than the one we had been in when I was 5 weeks. At that appointment the baby was no bigger than a grain of rice, so I count this sono as our first time seeing the little one. :)

As Kathy is walking us, my adamant self comes out and I start explaining to her our predicament of how we're going to have a gender reveal party and that we don't want to see the gender. She was very familiar with it, which was a relief, and said she'd put the results in an envelope for us to give to the bakery. We didn't even mention that we were giving it to a bakery, but she just knew. Lol.

Once we were in the room and all was set up, Rob's sitting on the little bench close to where I am and the big flat screen comes to view as she places the equipment on my belly, and there's our little one. So beautiful and sweet looking. Little legs and arms moving around. It's amazing what you can see.

She then moved through all the different body parts taking pictures, the baby's little brain and heart and organs. When it came to measuring the legs and thigh of the baby she had us close our eyes as the baby's legs were wrapped up right in the  area. :) Then she showed us a picture she had taken of both of the little feet (so sweet!) Lastly she was looking at my cervix, and then she laughed and pointed out that our little one's booty cheeks were in the top left corner bouncing on my bladder. The shot she had looked like as if someone was xeroxing their booty. It was too cute and too funny. I can only imagine when the baby is bigger what that will do to me, lol, but I can't complain.

It truly was one of the best experiences ever, and definitely made everything feel a little more real. Love this little one so much. :)

one of my favorite shots with baby's booty in the air, so sweet :)

The Kicker

**I'm calling it! I felt my first "kick" yesterday around noon! Felt like a big pulse, but definitely more than a pulse and not just my stomach or anything. Oh sweet little one.**

Lots of stuff on my brain, mainly thoughts for other people going through hard times right now. The verse "Come to me all who are weary..." came to my mind. I was curious to see what The Message translation would be, and it really is quite simple and beautiful...

"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Come away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me - watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly." Matthew 11:28-30

Ah, lightness and freedom does sound good. I hope the lightness this verse gives me can be passed on to those going through hard or frustrating times. We don't have to have everything figured out. Just a bit of faith in a comforting God, and things start feeling lighter.

Such a welcomed reminder for hard days.

Bump Update

A pregnancy update for ya...I'm-a-growin :)

How far along? 19 weeks in less than 2 hours! Woo-hoo!

Total weight gain/loss: Don't know, will know when we have our appointment next week

Maternity clothes? Yep, I got my precious skirts in the mail, I'm wearing one today actually, love the fact that they're not really maternity so I can wear them afterward too. These skirts and cotton dresses are going to be my friends during this pregnancy.

Stretch marks? Nope, um...and let me say, that this cocoa butter lotion makes me smell like a yummy dessert. My goodness, that stuff smells amazing!

Symptoms: Nothing to complain about, had a little leg crampage for a couple of days, but that went away. Then had a bit of light-headed/dizziness, but feeling really good. Again, can't complain at all.

Sleep: Still sleeping great. I just rotate my sides that I sleep on. Still just getting up once a night to relieve my little bladder.

Best moments this week: Hm...overall it's been a good/normal week

Movement: Starting to kind of think I might possibly feel something, but I'm not calling it yet. I'm sure it's coming soon.

Cravings: Well, my natural cravings right now are for those buffalo chicken fingers that I mentioned in the previous post...I need to get over to TooJay's stat! Still haven't had any "out-there" cravings for me.

Gender: Unknown...one week from todayyy!

Labor Signs: None

Belly Button in or out?  In, but it's kind of looking different lately, I won't go into detail about the exact changes of my belly button, but I definitely notice a change, lol :)

What I miss: Subs, can I eat those yet? Oh, and I've been on this kick of wanting to try new things, well it's not the best time to try new things when you're pregnant. Rob and I got passes to Busch Gardens and Adventure Island...didn't really think about the fact that I can barely do anything at Adventure Island but float in the river...it's still nice though. :)

What I am looking forward to: So looking forward to next Thursday to seeing our baby on the sono for the first time...and then also next Friday finding out the gender at a little party with the family and friends.

Weekly Wisdom: Oh, I'm sure there's a bunch, just can't think of any off the top of my head.

Milestones: The baby can hear us now! We're also starting to go through our closets...the time for getting organized has finally come.

Belated Birthday Post

Well, I turned 27 last month. How the heck did that happen? I was 18, like 2 days ago? As many may know, I have a thing about numbers. For instance, our wedding date was aimed to be 11/11/06. However, the place was booked so we had to do 11/12/2006. Which still in my mind works because 11 and 12 are consecutive, and then 2x6 (from the year) equals 12 (the day). Lol. Yeah, numbers.

All that to say that I found out that my mom was 27 when she had my brother, Greg. So now, being 27, even though it's an odd boring number, is now a sweet number knowing that my mom was the same age when she had her first-born. :)

So it was my last non-mommy birthday (if you don't include Jack, which if you're my sister, you would never include Jack! Lol, love you sees!) It was celebrated eating at TooJay's eating my favorite buffalo chicken fingers and then some bowling. Time spent with my precious family and friends, can't beat that.

Great, now I'm thinking about those buffalo chicken fingers...

Sunday, Fun-Day

Can I just say how thankful I am that the one guaranteed clear channel Rob and I get is the channel that the Olympics are on? I'm not used to this watching TV stuff, but I-am-loving-the-Olympics. Something about the world and countries coming together, as well as good sportsmanship that brings a smile to my face. It's the peacemaker inside of me. :)

On to other randomness. I just want to say, I love this growing baby so much. Still haven't seen an image and am very excited/anxious to (less than two weeks!), but my heart is just beating deeper and deeper with love for our little one. It's been and still is a process of adjusting my mind around this. I'm amazed by the thought that God already knows our little one so closely and intimately. It reminds me how thankful I am for my loving parents...they truly are the perfect parents for me.

Love you two. We're some lucky kids. :)

Happy Sunday night and new week to you all!