Style & Sports

Mike and I pretty much make all of our bigger purchase decisions together. I tend to be the one with stronger opinions when it comes to style, and I do like to research the heck out of stuff to make sure we're getting a good value, but it's important that we both feel good about our decisions. And while sometimes I do just want what I want, and I'll go to great lengths to convince him why something I picked out is really the best option, if he hates it, we don't get it, and vice-versa.

It really does go both ways... if you think I've sucked him into my world of modern design and shopping... you have to know that 3 years ago, I didn't even know what March Madness was and I'd never seen a college football game in my life! Now I find myself staying up late to finish the games and see how my bracket is doing, and I hate scheduling Princess House parties on Saturdays in the fall because I miss out on the Michigan games! So we both rub off on each other, and I think it's great.

So this weekend when we saw the exact stroller we'd decided on, just in a different color than I'd picked out, and found out we could get $50 off, the decision was surprisingly easy. Mike said he actually preferred this color over the blue/green we'd seen online... and it was ME asking him if it would bother him that it was Ohio State colors (Michigan's rival)! Yes, I even think in terms of sports now when picking out baby gear! He said no, and he thought we should just get it! So we walked away with a stroller that we both LOVE, we got a significant discount AND it's already put together! I think we do pretty well together! :)

Corn, Chicken & a Soccer Ball

So what do these three things have in common?
They are this week's measurements (24 weeks)!

• Baby W. is about the size of an ear of corn (12 inches long).
• He weighs about the same as a regular pack of chicken breasts (1.3 lbs)
• And my uterus is the size of a soccer ball!
  

HaHa! I don't know if I look quite big enough to have a soccer ball inside of me, but that certainly explains why I'm always short of breath, need to pee every 20 minutes and sleeping at night is more like a bunch of 30 minute naps in between flipping over trying to get comfortable! In fact, maybe Baby W. got the memo that he's inside a soccer ball and that would explain all his kicking! :)

The really exciting news is that 24 weeks is kind of a milestone week for babies. At this point, he would be able to survive outside of the womb, not without lots of intervention, but it's possible. Of course we are praying that he will just stay put, right where he is, all the way to full-term and will just continue to grow healthy and strong! But I must say, hitting the 24 week mark does let me take a little sigh of relief.

Lots & Lots of babies!

In the last month, five of my friends' babies have been born (two in the last week!) and I know of eight more who should arrive by the time Baby W. does, and then three MORE later this year! One thing's for sure, Baby W. should have plenty of friends to play with... 4 boys, 10 girls and 3 surprises! That's 17 new babies this year! Wow! I guess we're just at "that point" in life or something, huh? What blessings! I think what is most amazing to me is that I know these little ones are being brought into families who will teach them about the Lord and that each one of them will have such potential to have an amazing impact on our world! It'll be exciting to watch!

My friends Kären & Jared had their sweet little girl, Eliza Hope Fulton on Saturday, March 21st. Coleman is the happy big brother.












And here is adorable little Joshua David Childress, born Wednesday, March 18th to Marie & John, with his proud big sister Anna. Can't wait to meet you!

23 weeks 2 days

1 & 2. Shelby likes to lay on my belly...hopefully she'll still be this sweet with Baby W. when he arrives!

3. A sassy shot :)

4. We didn't know that Shelby was posing for this family picture too, but apparently she didn't want to be left out!

All Mine Again!

I used to have to go home everyday at lunchtime to let our dog, Shelby out... but she seems to be doing just fine without a mid-day potty break, so I finally get my lunch-hour back to myself! I often still go home to catch a little nap and eat, but having the freedom to be able to run errands or go to lunch with a friend or whatever else I come up with is defintely nice! So I don't know where I'm headed today... but I'm thinking not home! In a few short months my freedom will be gone again, so I think I'll enjoy it while I can!

Registry Frustrations

Apparently between February and April, most all of the baby product manufacturers start introducing their new products for the current year. Well, in some ways, this is fun... it's always good to see what's the latest and greatest! But "in with the new" means "out with the old" (ie: 2008 models). So it means that having a registry without all kinds of discontinued products this time of year is near-impossible! I'm finding that several things I registered for just weeks ago are no longer available! But of course they haven't gotten the new stuff in yet... so I guess I'll have to just keep checking back and not get my heart too set on anything specific! Arghhhhh!

Bumbleride Stroller

We have researched our hearts out for a great stroller. We'd like to have something that will not only be nice for this baby, but hopefully for future kiddos as well. A few priorities have been: quality, manuverablity, comfort, lightweight, style, longevity. After reading countless great reviews, we've settled on the Bumbleride Flyer and have registered for it in the color "Seagrass" and we are really excited about it! Today I found a contest to win one in "Spice" so I'm entering... and if you want to enter too to try to win it for me, that would be GREAT! :) Here's the LINK TO ENTER THE CONTEST. You just have to leave your first name, email address and a quick comment saying why you want to win. :)

The Best Kind of Shopping!

Have you ever gone up to a register to pay full-price for something only to be pleasantly surprised that it is on sale and costs less than you expected? Well, yesterday, my friend/co-worker, Senneca, and I went to BabiesRUs on our lunchbreak so she could help me add a few things to my registry. The brown lamp I wanted to add was the last one in the store and was being discontinued, so I decided to just go ahead and buy it... for $44.99. It rang up $11.75...and then we noticed the sales people whispering and we heard them say "are we discontinuing all the Amy Coe stuff? so it's 75% off?" Well, that's all Senneca and I needed to hear... we rushed back to the Amy Coe (modern designer for BRU) section and filled a cart to the brim with tons of stuff we had been eyeing but never wanted to pay full price for... most things were now ringing up between $2-5, even though they were marked full-price! Everything I got was part of two collections that go perfectly with the bedding I already have. We had so much fun!! And we could tell that the sales people were shocked that we discovered this unmarked sale before they could get back there and grab it all for themselves! It was a bargain shopper's dream day! So here's what I ended up with:

1 Large Brown Area Rug
1 Wall Art Canvas
1 Baby Hamper
3 Decorative Storage Boxes
6 Receiving Blankets
1 Chenille Blanket
1 Waste Basket
2 Lamps with Shades
3 Crib Sheets
1 Changing Pad Cover

Total Price: $98.15
Total Savings: $294.45!!

The feeling of finding an awesome deal that no one else knew about yet: Priceless.

Preparing for Baby W.

We were excited that our crib had arrived so quickly! So what if it was raining - again! Our friend Matt graciously came over with his pick-up truck and we went to pick the crib up from the store so Mike could put it together last night.
We were so happy with how it turned out... and it was relatively simple to assemble - basically just 6 parts plus the legs...it took less than an hour!
Here's a picture of the finished product plus all the bedding (that is apparently unsafe for infants and will have to be removed for a while - yeah, that makes sense!)
And one of Shelby testing it out! She's about 11 lbs. - hopefully several pounds more than BabyW. will be when he arrives, and she fit just fine! :)

Tonight...

We are picking up our crib and putting it together! And I'll be taking pictures to post of my CRAZY-GOOD bargain finds that I got on my lunch break today! :)

Comments

I know some of you have still been having trouble leaving comments. And I discovered this weekend that there were a few extra steps I didn't realize, so here's my second attempt at a tutorial! :)

1. Click on the "# Comments" link below each post.
2. Type your comment in the open white box.
3. Under that box, it will say: Comment as: Select profile...
4. Click on the arrow/drop down menu and select "Name/URL" from the list.
5. Type in your name (leave the URL part blank) and click OK.
6. Click on Post Comment.

I have removed the word -verification that was just there to avoid spam comments, but if it becomes a problem, I'll put it back. You can also choose Anonymous instead of Name/URL, but then you'll just want to type your name in the comment box so I'll know it was you!

Hope this helps!!

Packin' it on!

I do still get bits of nausea and very occasionally get sick, but for the most part, my appetite seems to be unquenchable lately! And when I stepped on the scale this morning, it confirmed that I've been eating enough for two (or three, or four!) At this point, it's still good news for me to finally be gaining... but I have a feeling that with 17 weeks to go, I may not be so happy if I keep going at this rate to the end! :)

Speaking of food, I thought I'd share one of our absolute favorite recipes that we enjoyed again last night. This marinade for salmon is better than anything we've ever eaten at a restaurant... in fact last night we wondered why we would ever go spend $18+tip/per person to eat out, when the two of us ate a delicious semi-gourmet meal for $8 total!

6 tbs. olive oil
2 cloves minced garlic
1 tsp. basil
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cracked pepper
1 tbs. lemon juice
1 tbs. parsley

Mix together and pour over fresh salmon (or other fish). Marinate in fridge for at least 30 minutes. Cook on grill (or grill pan, as we use). We served it with sticky-rice and broccoli with hollandaise sauce. Yum!

It's Official...

Our house is now officially for sale. You can click here to see the ad on Craigslist, and feel free to pass it along to anyone who may be interested! We've already had several solicitations from realtors... but we're only looking for potential buyers. We'll keep it FSBO for now.

In other fun news... we finally picked out a crib and ordered it tonight, so here's a picture of Baby W.'s new bed - hopefully he'll like it as much as we do!

Piece by Piece

The newest addition to our nursery. :) We got the blue & brown bedding I posted about here a while back and we love it. And then we found this fun canvas art that looks great with it, so some things are coming together. Our next mission is to decide on and order a crib and furniture for the room!

What's happening now...

Fetal development in pregnancy week 21: (fetus in fifth month) Your beautiful little miracle-gro baby will be putting on a full ounce and a half this week (and weighing up to 16.5 ounces), but that’s just the beginning! Within the next five weeks, they’ll really be packin’ it on! For now, we’re pleased to report the addition of rapid eye movement (REM) a key component to any healthy baby’s sleep schedule. While in the dermatology department: their thin soft skin is very red, rather translucent, and a bit wrinkled. Not to worry, it’s not a premature aging disease. It's just their clever little body setting them up with extra space that will smooth out once your little one starts packing on the baby-fat. That won’t be for a few more weeks, though. So for the time being, your munchkin is still a little lean mean growing machine! The beginnings of what is commonly called “brown fat” is just starting to fill in to help your baby retain some body heat, which is crucial as they’re not yet capable of regulating their own body temperature.

He knows what he likes...

I don't eat pizza very often, but apparently this little boy loves it. He's doing all kinds of dancing around now that I just finished some! And a couple weeks ago when he was super-active, it was right after I'd had pizza. How funny. I do feel him a little bit every day, but not like this! :)

I do love a good deal!

Mike and I had fun this Saturday rummaging through cute baby boy clothes at some local baby consignment shops! We found so many cute things... many of which were under a dollar! And we found lots of cute things from Gymboree, BabyGap and more that were hardly used! The best quality items were found at Kid to Kid on Laskin Rd in Virginia Beach, but we also got some great deals at Baby Attic in Great Bridge.

Apparently we're not the only bargain shoppers: I found out that evening that my parents had been doing their own saavy shopping the same day and that while my mom shopped for my cousin's little girl, due in May, my dad was busy filling up the cart with lots of little boy clothes! :)

We may not know his name, or where he'll live yet, but Baby W. will surely be well-dressed!