Sneak Peak!

Laurie Wisburn discontinued one of her original lines and I jumped at the chance to order during her last-chance a few weeks ago. Was I even pregnant then?! I don't even remember... but I ordered just in case we had a baby boy. I'd originally thought the fabric would make a great nursery but it's waaay too thin and it was really expensive for just five fat quarters, so that idea was out and I decided that a boy blanket was a MUST, so... here's a sneak at what I've put together this weekend. I think it might be my most favorite blanket yet - even moreso than some of the pink ones (gasp!) :)



Here's a few things Bino has accumulated - some were gifts, some were things I'd bought years ago (2003, yes - really! Thank goodness I picked up a couple boy things in my all-girl collection of baby things!) - the stroller will have its own post shortly, and the books have been collected for quite a while.

We went to a new mall today that had a lot of great children's shops, Gymboree, Baby Gap, Crazy8, Old Navy, etc... we actually only bought things at Gymboree because they had a TON of really cute stuff on sale with an additional 20%. I'll have to take a picture of the new items later this week. And it's GymBucks time in case anyone hasn't been in a while!

It's...

a BOY!

Sonograms have really come a loooong way! We found out on the 24th that we're having a baby boy! That meant packing up all the sweet little girl blankets I'd made and sorting through fabric to try and find some of the blues... This will be the first BOY on my side of the family in four generations, so safe to say most of us were very surprised!!! Also interesting to note, all of the old wives tales pointed to girl - high heart rate (172,160, 155), sick/sick/sick, Chinese gender chart, etc... originally, I thought boy simply because SO many people I know have had boys in the last year so statistically it had to be a boy, but then I thought girl... It's taken some time to really get into the BOY mode, but I'm slowly getting there.

I've been doing lots of shopping and have picked up some really cute things. Boy clothes have come a long way, but they still don't totally compare. I don't understand why most boy clothes have to have an animal on them. I like animals, don't get me wrong, but they are not the only thing that a boy could wear... if anyone works in textiles, please do something about this!

I have a penis growing inside me - that is the most BIZARRE thing ever! I'm well aware that I'm not the first person to have a little boy, but I just cannot grasp the concept... It was for sure a girl baby! I knew it. Mom knew it. Sister knew it. But it was ALL BOY!

We'll announce his name soon - we've had girl and boy names picked out for weeks, if you really can't wait to know, you're welcome to email me ;) Otherwise, expect a name reveal post soon!

TIBS - Week 16

Week 16

TIBS - Week 15

Week 15

(yes, pajamas - but probably the last week for these!)

Today's fruit... er, necklace!

I have a little obsession with Lisa Leonard. I have three of her necklaces and love (LOVE) them all. This is my favorite, probably because I chose the wording and it's very special to me. A reminder of sorts. :) She came out with a gorgeous stone necklace recently and I fell in love with it. I loved that she layered it with her other pieces and I had to have it. Only, with all of the changes that are coming our way, some that I'm not even able to post about yet, I just couldn't justify spending money on something like that. Enter - Michaels! There is nothing fancy about the necklace I wanted - it's pretty simple. So... instead of $44 + $8.55 shipping, I spent $16.34 and made my own! Less than half of the price... and I LOVE how it turned out. I plan to wear it to work tomorow and the best thing about it is that while it's colored, it's also pretty neutral so it will go with SO many things!

Puppies!

Ok, not tiny puppies per se, but puppies nonetheless! We had visitors last weekend... Piper and Titan (oh, and my sister!!!).

Sloppy puppies are not allowed to slurp and drip water all over my floor, this was our compromise... puppy fountain!
Belle was ALL kinds of excited that her best friend Titan was coming! I don't know WHAT is up with her ears but this was too funny not to post!

She would RUN downstairs in the mornings to see if Titan was still here! Wonder how long I can use him to get her out of bed in the mornings? She is one lazy girl!

A Hole in the what?

Recently, Thomas Nelson allowed me to review A Hole in the Gospel. Wow. It was not what I was expecting. I LOVED this book! I thought it would be just another, the Bible says this and this is why we should do it type books...

Instead, I was surprised by the part autobiography/personal growth and part expression of need. Not only that, it was AWESOME that at the end, there were actually things one could do to make a difference.

Written by Rich Stearns, President of World Vision, 100% of all profits benefit World Vision programs. This is definitely one of my favorite books!

TIBS - Week 14

Week 14

Meet Oliver

Bet you thought we were having a boy and that was his name, didn't you? I do like that name for a boy, but we won't use it... it sounds funny with our last name ;) And we really didn't find out what the baby was today...

This is Oliver...
He's not our cat, but he comes to eat the food we leave him on our porch every day. We think he lives in the 'woods' in the empty lots across the street. He doesn't let us get too close, but I think he's very cute and it's fun to try and guess when he'll stop by for a snack.

By the way, he might be a girl. Oliver could be a girl name too.

Bino's debut!

Not technically a 'debut' since we did share Bino's first picture... but Bino was just a wee tadpole then and now Bino is a teeny tiny baby!


Chandler thinks this 4D picture looks like Nola since the nose/mouth looks like a muzzle. Hm, not sure about that, but if so, it's sure to be the cutest baby ever born because my big girl is beyond preciously adorable. I would squeeze a few more adjectives in there, but I fear I may lose you... ;)
Bino is measuring large. So large, in fact, that today's visit was for the nuchal translucency scan, and it couldn't be done as baby was too big. It's no indication of birth weight though, that was naturally my next question! We had an awesome sonographer who spent about half an hour 'playing' and showing us baby's brain, heart, bones, etc... pointing out different things. It was neat to see the stomach and all of the tiny finger bones. Baby was moving around a lot, but didn't let us get a good peak between the legs so we're still not sure if we have Bino or Bina. Despite not being able to have the fold measured, Sally, our sonographer, did say that she felt like all was well based on what she'd seen in the past. We weren't overly concerned since we are very low risk, but definitely better safe than sorry.

Aside from learning Bino is healthy, the best part about today was that since no 'test' was performed, we didn't have to pay a thing! They ripped up our forms and gave our consent back so we are pretty sure we got a free session with six or seven pictures!

My favorite thing this week...

(Second favorite thing actually, the first favorite is hearing 'bino's heartbeat today! It's bounced from 172 then 160 and today it bounced from 145-156 and was SO loud.)

Ok so my [second] favorite thing this week is my new laptop skin! I didn't even know that was a thing!!! I'd originally seen the link for Kelly Rae Roberts' new skins but while there I saw my most FAVORITEST (I just made this a word) thing EVER! Curly Girl! Go to my blog and take note of the little orange-squared image at the top right - it's my most favorite, "I am fairly certain that given a cape and a nice tiara, I could save the world." And Santa Barbara had it in a laptop skin!!

Naturally, it now graces my computer. The best part is, when it's time to upgrade my 'puter, I can just peel it off and re-apply to any new one (ahem MacBook) that I may end up with.

We'll call this my welcome-to-the-second-trimester treat! :)

Cream Puffs

A friend (who obviously knows my weakness) sent me a rockin' easy recipe for homemade cream puffs and may I just say - YUM! They are SO good - and I was able to use my Kitchen Aid for the first time, which - um, I may be having a slight love affair with - it is amazing! (Thanks Rob!)

I've had a few people ask for the recipe - instead of typing it, here's the link! I leave you with this ... Mmmm! (Mine were a little darker than the ones in the link above but they were SO good!)

The time of your life...

Have you seen this yet? It's been viral for a few days at least, but I finally watched it this morning. SO neat! I would love to have the patience to do something like it!

TIBS - Week 13

Week 13

Baby gear research is driving me crazy - too many options and rarely do you find something that has it all. Some things are done: Ergo w/ infant insert, Medela pump, Britax car seat, a few other smallish things, etc... but the biggest drive-me-crazy factor is the stroller. I don't even have it narrowed down. Messy, messy lists... the biggest question is, since we are not going to use an infant seat, is how important is it to us that we have a reversible stroller (i.e. baby can face you or the world). If that is not important then we're looking at City Mini and Joovy Kooper. If it is important we're looking at Peg Perego's Pliko Switch and Britax's B-Ready. I also like Bumbleride's Indie as it seems like a nice combination of semi-light weight combined with compactability (all things considered), and would be an all-in-one that wouldn't require a BOB down the road.

Anyone know of a good reversible stroller? We found a really cool Maxi Cosi, the Foray, and we loved it, but the seat doesn't fold and the basket underneath hit the wheels.

BAM!

I lost my waist this week. I knew it was coming but BAM, just like that? Seriously? Oh well. I guess Bino is just getting bigger and needs more room. We spent the weekend in NC and I got to have lunch with some of my favorite girls at one of my favorite places - what could be better than that?!

White pants. White pants come awfully close to that. In the summer, I live in white pants. If you know me, think back... white pants. At least three times a week. I do, I wear them a lot. I have four pair that I rotate but really two that I wear most. Since the 7 week bulge that would later be a super sized uterus, I've been out of white pants. In fact, I only got to wear them one time since Bino was in the making.

At 8 weeks I was out of most all of my pants (minus two pair that were a little big anyway) and I really had no interest in the belly bands. Today, I broke down and while I haven't worn it yet - I cannot wait to wear white pants tomorrow. This just opens a WHOLE NEW WORLD of wardrobe possibilities. I'm just a little excited about my white pants!!!

... and just in case there's anyone newly preggo out there reading this, buy this book. It has been, hands down, my most favorite thing pregnancy related (minus zofran, that might always be #1 - thank you Jesus for giving people knowledge to create that stuff!). It's especially fun for during the first few months when there are sooo many changes and you watch your baby grow from a blastocyst to a dinosaur and finally into a somewhat cute looking tiny human. I am so, so glad I splurged on this book. Thankfully, I can use the parents' discount card at B&N, otherwise it had a hefty $40 price tag. It is SO worth it though - daily pictures and info about what's going on with baby and really good, up-to-date information about diagnostics and screenings too.

Another favorite, can't-sleep-without is this enormous pillow I found at the mall. It's amazing. Having never had a belly (or boobs!) before, this giant fluff is perfect for all the right places. It goes on my list of favorites for sure.

In other news, have I mentioned how busy August is going to be?! There is SO much going on...