Christmas Card Photo Shoot Take 1

Hi guys!

I know it's been a while since I posted...and that I am behind on my bump date posts. I have been thinking about it though and do actually have a couple bump pictures to post in this post...you just have to be patient!

Last weekend we took advantage of the lovely fall colors and tried to get some decent pictures worthy of this years Christmas card. Let me just say, it was not such an easy task. First of all, I know I am pregnant, but I feel HUGE in pictures. Second, it was cold and windy so my eyes would not stop watering...which doesn't make for lovely pictures. Y'all, let me just tell you...we took A LOT. I am so thankful that I have a great husband who is always a good sport about this stuff and just smiles for the camera. Love him!

Here are a few:

Kind of like this one but don't know if it's too close up for Christmas cards...thoughts?

Not fond of this one at all, but you can definitely see baby D making an appearance here! 

This one is my favorite...

The leaves are so pretty around our house. I love fall!

And of course, the most photogenic member of our little family-Louie! :) Of course he will be making an appearance on our Christmas cards!

So after our little photo shoot on Saturday we were off running errands and picking up paint. We decided this was the weekend to paint the dreaded kitchen...and now it's done! YAY! The kitchen was a tan/pinkish color when we moved in and we had planned to change it, but it wasn't high on the priority list. Well, insert a pregnancy and a wife with a to-do list before baby arrives and now we have a painted kitchen! I am glad to no longer see the "chicken skin" colored walls as we lovingly referred to them! Can't wait to go home tonight and hang things back on the wall and see everything put together!

Unfortunately, it's a difficult room to photograph so there might not be any before and after pictures...BUT, this is the color:

It's Sherwin Williams, in cargo pant.

Sunday was spent painting, relaxing and working on a little project for the nursery that I will be revealing once complete.

Hope everyone else had a great weekend too!

Bump Date: 13 Weeks and an Update

How Far Along? 13 Weeks 1 Day...though the photo says 2 days, sorry I messed that up! I am pregnant here...cut me some slack! :)

 

Size of Baby?  One of my books this week said a shrimp, while the the ticker on the bottom of my blog says it's the size of a peach. I like peaches better so let's go with that! 

 

Maternity Clothes? Yes! Yes! Yes! Some pre-pregnancy tops are doable but pants are totally not!

 

Gender? We don’t know for sure and won’t for a few more weeks but I am still thinking boy...I know I could be wrong though and really it doesn't matter to us! We just pray for a healthy baby!

 

Movement? I actually thought that I felt something a couple days ago but I can't be certain. I am so looking forward to feeling movement and taking that as a sign that everything is a-okay in there for the little peanut!

Sleep? Not really a problem, but it does seem that I can't get enough. I am still so exhausted at the end of each day. I have heard that's to be expected though...

 

Food Cravings? I think I am finally over my pizza cravings. Last night I couldn't eat dinner because nothing sounded good at all...except soft ice cream from DQ so that's what I had for dinner! Was it a craving?? Maybe! 

 

What I miss?  Can't really think of anything this week, just so happy to be here! 

 

Symptoms?  Exhaustion, gas (!!!) and hunger!

Best Moment Last Week? Going back and forth on a girl name and ending with what we started! Seems that we have a name picked out for both genders right now! Still working on the middle name for a girl, but we have time! Oh, and having a good friend call him/her by name last weekend. That made me SO happy! 

 

Looking Forward to? Feeling movements, hearing the heartbeat again at my appointment tomorrow and finding out the gender!!! :)

 

And of course, some bump photos:

 

It's getting bigger and rounder, can you tell!?

 

In other news this week, we are having some cool fall weather that I am totally loving! We actually had our first freeze on Sunday night. That means it won't be long and we can plant our fall bulbs! I have been anxiously checking the porch for packages each day hoping they will arrive soon. I guess it doesn't really matter though since we aren't totally prepared. We still need to remove our annuals and prep the soil...lots and lots of work to be done!

 

We have officially decorated for fall at our house. Stephen brought boxes up from the basement a few weeks ago and I brought all the fall colors out inside the house, but I held off decorating outside in fear that it was too early...it was still warm outside. Well, last weekend we decked the outside too! I just love this season...the cooler weather, the pumpkins, the mums...it is all so fun and pretty! Here is a shot of the front of our house:

 

This weekend we have exciting plans that take us up to Chicago. We are headed to the windy city for our anniversary weekend to celebrate! The fun will start on Friday night when we see a play in a town near ours. We will head to Chicago Saturday morning and check into the Palmer House Hilton (my favorite hotel) and spend the afternoon doing fun touristy things before enjoying dinner at a Brazilian Steakhouse. Yum! We are excited! :)

 

And you know that no post would be complete without some Louie lovin'! He was a hoot last night when we were outside taking the bump photos. I think he liked getting some fresh, cool air...but what do I know? He was running round, sniffing everything that wasn't moving and keep watch from the sidewalk:

 

How cute is his Halloween sweater? It's been cool here so he has been bundled up! Oh and I just LOVE the last picture of him! Such a cute puppy!

 

That wraps this up folks! Have a great Tuesday!

 

 

Baby Bucket List Part 2

I wanted to take some time and revisit our baby bucket list...mostly for my benefit and memory. We have been very busy around the house almost every weekend and we are slowly making progress. I think we will finish this list WAY before baby arrives, which is fine with me. I want to slow down and enjoy the little time we have left as a family of two plus our puppy, Louie. Let's take a look at our progress, shall we?

Baby Bucket List

·         Have one garage door working with an opener by Thanksgiving

·         Build in closet in master bedroom

·         Move jewelry armoire into bathroom

·         Move dresser from nursery into master bedroom

·         Paint living room & repair ceiling

·         Paint Library

·         Paint kitchen

·         Have windows professionally cleaned

·         Have carpets professionally cleaned

·         Get bassinet from Florida

·         Paint mud-room door

Wants/Needs

·         Baby crib

·         Changing table/dresser

·         Glider rocker for nursery

·         Glider rocker for living room (check)

·         Travel system, stroller and car seat

·         A baby!! J

See? We have several things crossed off already! A big thanks to the help of Stephen's parents. Dave worked so hard on building my closet and now that it is near complete I love it!

What do you think we should work on next? I am leaning towards moving the furniture since that will be easy...then I think we should paint something. Will it be the library or the kitchen? Time will tell!

And since my post is complete without a picture (in my mind), here is our sweet boy after getting groomed last week:

He was just snuggling with my on the couch and I was soaking up every minute of it. We sure do love him!

Have a great day!

Vacation [Part Three]

Our last night in Florida was delicious. Literally! We cleaned up from a day at the pool, picked Gram up and headed to Carraba's for dinner. Can I just say that I love Carraba's? Well, I do!

After filling our bellies we headed to the mall to stop at a few stores. While Dad was shopping at Dick's Stephen and I headed to Cami Cakes so pick up my much anticipated cupcake. Oh how I love these! They were beautiful and delicious! Sad to say that I did not get to take a photo before they were devoured because the box they were in fell over and they got all messed up. BUT, it wasn't a total loss because they still tasted the same!

Once home we thought we would pack up and get to bed since we had to leave at 4am for the airport. That did not happen. We ate cupcakes and packed everything up but for some reason we decided to stay up and watch Tangled with Mom & Hunter...though Mom went to bed half way through and Hunter fell asleep on the floor in the living room, so really only Stephen and I stayed up to watch it, ha. It was cute and I had been wanting to see it so I'd say it was worth it!

Here are some pictures from that evening:

We were up early to head to the airport-I had not seen that time on a clock in a long time! Thankfully, things went really smooth at the airport and we even had time to grab something to eat-Starbucks oatmeal was just the thing! We arrived in Nashville early and ate again, ha-we were on vacation, and on vacation you eat! :) The next stop on the journey home was Chicago where Stephen's parents were waiting for us.

I was so ready and excited to get home and see Louie! After stopping for lunch we headed straight home. Louie was excited to see us, but at first he wasn't too sure. He sniffed me for a good minute before accepting that it was me, jumping on my lap and licking my face off. I loved it!

We spent the afternoon unpacking, doing laundry and cleaning the house before going to Stephen's sisters house for a 4th of July dinner. We took Louie with us of course because we had been away from him for so long! It was a nice, relaxing evening with family!

Louie was super cuddly and laid on my lap for over an hour, just snuggling.

I LOVED it!

I am happy to report that Louie was fantastic while we were away. He ate his food, drank his water, and pottied outside on the leash without any major problems. The girl that watched him really eased my nerves by texting and sending me pictures a couple of times. We were so happy that he was okay and being himself, and that really made our vacation that much more enjoyable.  Thank you to the Baxter family for watching and loving our Louie for us!

We're back & Weekend Wrap-Up!

We are officially back from vacation and back to reality people. Sad, I know! We had a WONDERFUL time in Florida with family and some friends-it actually felt like a vacation this time! Amazing the difference flying to your destination versus driving will make! I have several vacation related posts and LOTS of pictures coming soon, but first I thought I would update you and share some pictures {mostly Instagram} of what we have been doing since arriving back in Indiana! Sit back and relax...

Friday night did not go as planned. It ended up being totally okay though...still it was a little irritating. We planned to get dinner and then do some grocery shopping-you know, our normal date night routine. Well, first we went to Pizza Junction and it was PACKED with a long wait. Then we tried Subway because neither of us wanted greasy, unhealthy food (we were going for salads at Pizza Junction). Well wouldn't you know that Subway also had a line just about out the door AND they were not taking credit/debit cards. I'll just go on the record and say that we rarely carry cash. We are 98% debit people. So we left with only about a hour before the grocery store closed...obviously we ended up at McDonald's. Not our favorite at all, but it was food and we were hungry.

Louie has been SUPER happy since we are home. He was pretty lazy on Saturday with me! We did this pretty much all day...

I did make some cupcakes over the weekend, so I was not totally unproductive. These key lime cupcakes are delicious! So thankful my cousin Beth shared the recipe with me!

See? Lazy Saturday! :)

I ordered this D from GroopDealz (which is awesome!), but it was silver and we did not like it. Thankfully we had some red spray paint and fixed it right up. It's new home is in the living room on the shelves Dad made us for Christmas.

How cute is this? We watched several movies over the weekend too. Stephen wants to see The Avengers, but wanted to watch all the other Marvel movies first so we borrowed them from his brother and are almost through them all. Captain America is next and last!

This was actually Monday night, not over the weekend-so maybe this should be titled weekend wrap up and a Monday? Anyways, Louie was galloping around the backyard and looking oh so cute! On a side note, we love our chairs and enjoying spending evenings out back when it isn't 120*!

A beautiful double knock out opened over the weekend. These flowers bring me so much joy!

Our front flower bed has grown A LOT. We water these regularly...so our grass may be dead, but at least our flowers are thriving! Also, Miracle Grow flower food is like a miracle. I swear I can see the change overnight!

Yep, that would be our dead grass.

And Louie, just because. I am just realizing that maybe I take too many pictures of our dog? I swear I just can't help it!

We spent Monday evening installing a window unit AC in our bedroom. Hallelujah! Seriously, can you hear the angels singing?! Louie was a great observer from this little bed in the corner.

And that friends, is what a good nights sleep looks like! It has been so hot in our bedroom that we have actually been sleeping in the living room on an air mattress since before our vacation. I am not even kidding when I say how hot it was...apparently our air just doesn't flow upstairs well? Anyways, everywhere within a 200 mile radius was out of small AC's over the weekend but we got lucky and got one fresh off the delivery truck at Lowe's on Monday. Thankful doesn't even begin to describe how I felt about that!

I can say now that we slept wonderful last night with the AC, Louie included. In fact, I slept through my alarm and Stephen basically had to lift Louie up off his bed to wake him up this morning.

I almost forgot to include an update on the FL floods in this post. Thank you all for your prayers and well wishes for my FL family over the past couple of weeks. Thankfully no one was forced out of their home and the damage was kept to a minimum. Some people in the county lost everything if you can imagine that. We were able to drive around some of the worst hit areas last week while on vacation and it really is hard to believe unless you can see it in person. Imagine water up to the roof line of your house...that was the case for many families. Please continue to pray for the people who were affected and suffered loss as I am sure that dealing with the insurance companies will not be easy!

Thanks guys and see you tomorrow!

Instagram and Photo Dump!

Thought I would take some time to share some pictures with your guys from my iPhone-mostly Instagram. Anyways, let's begin!

The above picture is summer salsa, I made it over the weekend and it was DELICIOUS. There is a very small amount left-we put a hurtin' on it y'all!

Last night the weather in Manchester was beautiful so we took the bikes out for a spin. It was a great night to ride! I really love evening bike rides with the hubs, especially when it is cool enough to breath outside. But wait, that cool weather won't last long...the high is 100* on Thursday. Ugh!

Our first stop on our bike ride was the birthplace of Thomas R. Marshall, the 28th Vice President of the United States. I wanted to stop because this location was part of this years garden walk (which we didn't do) and I wanted to see the pretty flowers. The pink hydrangeas did not disappoint. So beautiful!

We also rode around Manchester College a bit too...and took at break to read some historical signs near the chapel. Neither of us knew that Manchester College started out as a Bible School before becoming a Liberal Arts College-interesting!

This is the bell tower at the Peabody Retirement Community. They always have beautiful landscaping here and I love it. From the outside the facilities are beautiful and full of front porches with wicker chairs. I don't know that I would ever want to live in an assisted living type place, but if I had to pick Peabody might be the one. I promise it's so pretty!

Double Knock Out Roses @ The Peabody...see what I mean? Beautiful landscaping!

The above pictures were my craft project from last night. I can't say this idea was my own, but I am so pleased with how it looks already. I plan on distressing the edges a bit before hanging in our living room. Everyone needs some initial wall art, right?

Now I will leave you with some super cute Louie pictures and a sweet video. I took this video this morning while I was getting ready for work, he was cracking me up with him tongue. Oh how we love this puppy!

Have a great Tuesday!