Randoms for Monday

- Kyle and I spent 3 hours on Friday night, and 8 hours on Saturday taking out first "Childbirth 101" class.  It gave us both a lot of confidence as most of it we knew, but we did learn a lot about the labor process.  We practiced breathing exercises, watched videos (they were not bad at all) and learned about all the techniques that you can do to make the labor process a little better (equipment, positions, massages, medicine).  

- We also took a tour of the hospital and got a sense of where to go for labor and delivery.  All the rooms are private, the labor room is huge, and the recovery one is smaller but still pretty nice.  Since I've never been in the hospital for a surgery of my own, this helped me feel a little more relaxed knowing where we'll go and be staying for those days.

- We finally sold our couch, loveseat, chair and ottoman!  A college student came by with her dad and hauled them away yesterday.  Our living room echos now, seriously.

- Our new leather sofa from Klaussner was delivered on Saturday.  The leather has smelled up our entire downstairs, but we both really like the couch.  Since Tyson and the cats get on our couch we're just not going to stress about scratches.  It'll give it more of a worn look which we like anyways.  We still have to find our other piece of furniture to fill up the space, but we'll worry about that a little later.

- Any second we weren't doing the above, we were downstairs working on the basement.  It's not completely finished as we still have to: touch up paint, caulk, install the light fixture, hang towel racks, hang mirror, etc.  BUT it's coming together and truly looks like a bathroom now with a working toilet, shower and vanity!!  

Here is a little sneak peek.

Hope you all had a great weekend.  We are exhausted around here and are already looking forward to Friday!

Tiling and other smaller projects completed!

OKAY so things are really coming together in our bathroom project!  Last weekend we did nothing but work down there, so I wanted to show pictures!  Our friend works for a flooring company, so Friday Kyle stopped by his work and was able to get Travertine tile, grout and mortar all for free!  The tile is 18 inches wide which was a little bigger than we wanted, but we weren't complaining since we didn't pay anything for it!  

Saturday morning, Chris and Kyle tiled the bathroom floor.  I was upstairs writing thank you cards and doing other projects, so I didn't head down until they were finished.  I knew something was wrong as soon as I saw Kyle's face.  He was SO unhappy with how it had come out.

The slab of concrete that Kyle poured when we first started had a couple high spots.  So we paid Javier to lay down a skim coat to level the entire floor out.  WELL unfortunately that wasn't level either, so putting 18 inch tiles with thin grout lines on a floor that's not exactly level just exaggerates the unevenness (is that a word?). 

We decided to call it a night and check on it in the morning.... it wasn't any better.  Kyle immediately grabbed his sledge hammer and was about to demolish the whole thing, but we decided to call my dad (aka TTTTH) and see what he thought.  He suggested just picking up the tiles that were really bad, reworking the concrete underneath them, and then plopping them back down... and that's exactly what we did!  ALL DAY SUNDAY.

So here are the ones we picked up:

And shaved off the skim coat and some concrete in places to make the tiles level.  Kyle and I spent so much time putting the tile down, picking them up, shaving off a little and repeating that process over and over again, but it was great teamwork for sure.  Before we knew it, it was time to put down new tiles with the mortar and spacers.

AND THEY ARE PERFECTLY FLUSH!!!  Kyle smiled for the first time all weekend I think:

We let the mortar dry for 24 hours, and then it was time to grout!  Kyle did a great job on this!

And another pic.  We still have to clean off the haze and seal it.

Sunday night Kyle and Chris put in our bi-fold door and casing.  We debated tons of options on how to still be able to get to our hot water heater and water shut off valve and decided on the bi-fold door.  I'm so glad we did I think it looks great.

 So remember when you come and stay, this is not a linen closet! haha

Kyle traveled the rest of the week, so when he got back last night he worked on some more projects.   He installed the main door to the bathroom.

Then got all of these installed over the copper pipes: (left: shower head & handle, top right: toilet piping, bottom right: vanity piping)

It is really coming together!!  Can't believe by next week it will be DONE!!

34 weeks!

How Far Along: 34 weeks! 

(Her fat layers — which will help regulate her body temperature once she's born — are filling her out, making her rounder. Her skin is also smoother than ever. Her central nervous system is maturing and her lungs are continuing to mature as well. If you've been nervous about preterm labor, you'll be happy to know that babies born between 34 and 37 weeks who have no other health problems generally do fine. They may need a short stay in the neonatal nursery and may have a few short-term health issues, but in the long run, they usually do as well as full-term babies.)

Size of baby: 18 inches long and weighs around 5 pounds (a cantaloupe)

Total Weight Gain/Loss: I gained 1.5 pounds this week, so I'm up 24 pounds.  It's probably due to the fact that Kyle and I had a momentary loss of self control and ate a whole box of donuts, sugar cookies and ice cream over the weekend. :)  We've gone grocery shopping now so I should be better this coming week!

Gender: A Sweet Baby GIRL!!  Emery Katherine!

Movement: All the time.  Still not kicking or punching, but rather constantly adjusting her position.  Kyle's gotten to feel some huge movements lately which I love!  I am SO curious whether she's head down or not, my prediction is still no!

What I miss: Being active and doing things outside... it's just too cold!

Sleep: Still sleeping great, only waking up once in the night to go to the bathroom.  My mouth gets so dry though since breathing through my nose hasn't been an option for a couple months.  Won't miss that symptom!

Symptoms: Left rib pain, and lower back pain.  A reclined position is what's most comfortable to me now, sitting upright doesn't always feel great.

Notes: My lab results came back on Monday about my blood pressure and they said everything looked great so there is nothing to worry about, thank heavens! I think it was due to stress last week. I can't believe I'm almost 8 months pregnant!  My belly button is STILL an innie, and no stretch marks yet! No braxton hicks contractions yet either that I know of.

I love that every stranger I pass whether man or woman smiles at me, asks when I'm due, and then tells me that I'm looking great... I could get used to all these compliments!  People are just SO NICE to pregnant ladies, I love it!

"To-do" items checked off our list: 

- Finished & sent out around 40 thank you notes from the Raleigh shower, yeah!

- Our curtains were ordered and already completed for the nursery by Allison, can't wait to get them next weekend!

- Scheduled a deep cleaning of our house (groupon!) for next week.  SO READY to see this sheet rock dust go away!

- Finished Emery's name banner that I posted about here.

- Kyle finished tiling the bathroom floor and installed the bi-fold door in our basement!  I cleaned & organized the whole garage for Kyle while he was working down there, so now I can pull in my car again!

- Found DEALS on craigslist of gear we still needed (swing, extra carseat base, glider) and bought them. Will post on these soon!  We also sold a lot of stuff on craigslist and returned things to Home Depot & Lowes.

- Sent in our registration for the Goddard School for Emery to start in June.

Cravings: Donuts & birthday cake ice cream, as mentioned earlier :)

Best Moments this week: Getting the tiling done in the basement!  It was a long process that had some set backs but in the end Kyle and I are happy with it!

What we are looking forward to:  Our hospital classes start this weekend, and I am so ready!  We also hope to completely finish the bathroom project by Sunday... wish us luck!

Big Boy Bed

So remember when I posted here about how we needed to kick Tyson off the bed at night since we only have a queen, and I now sleep with 5 pillows?  I shamelessly admitted that we were letting our dog sleep on an air mattress at the foot of our bed, but we didn't care because we were sleeping so well.  Well, the air mattress started to become a pain so we had to come up with a new plan!

My work was having a "fire sale" and I was able to snag the best deal out there, an extra large dog bed for only $5!!  This isn't just any dog bed either, it has a semi-water proof cover, which is awesome since Elle hates Tyson and will pee on his bed.  (Oh if you are wondering why our wedding and baby company would have dog beds let me explain.  We tried venturing into the animal business, didn't really work so they were selling some inventory cheap!).  I think it retails for around $150!  It's velvet on the underside, and so we flip it over at bedtime (spoiled yes we know).  Tyson loves it and sleeps there all night long!

Sometimes he sleeps with his head off the side like this, not sure why:

Sorry for the blurry pics but I had to share that Tyson now has his own BIG BOY BED.  We praise him every morning too for staying in it all night, haha ridiculous I know.

Name Banner for Emery!

I love natural/rustic fabrics and wanted to include them in Emery's room somehow.  Starting maybe 2 years ago a huge trend in the weddings were banners that hung during the reception that said "love" or "mr. and mrs.", etc.  I've always loved the way they looked and have had it on my list to try for a while.  Finally the other day I sat down and did it!

I bought burlap from JoAnne's fabrics, cut them into triangles and painted each letter of Emery's name on them with brown paint.

I had some linen laying around, so I cut those into triangles as well to back the burlap with.

I loved the stitching that the linen had on the top, so instead of cutting it off I decided to fold it over the top of the jute and pin it that way.  Inside that pocket are 2 strands of twine to hang the banner by.  I stitched it loose enough where I can slide the triangles to whatever space I want, which is nice.

Then I quickly hand stitched the two fabrics together.  Since it's earthy looking anyway, it was great not having to be a perfectionist on this project!

 

And here is the final outcome.

I still need to iron the linen on the back so it lays flat, and I'm debating stitching around all the sides to hold the fabrics together more.  Either way I'm really happy with it, and hope to find a spot in Emery's room to hang it!  If it doesn't look right over the changing table then I know we'll at least be able to use it in her newborn photos!

Surprise Baby Shower at work!

Today, after our company meeting I walked into the conference room and was surprised by a shower thrown by the ladies at my work!  There are two Aspen girls pregnant right now, so they threw Holly and I a joint shower focusing on "Bath times and bottoms".  This is the invitation they sent out to everyone but Holly and I. 

Holly is due in mid February, so they wanted to have the shower sooner than later!  Unfortunately, Holly came down with a 24 hour stomach flu last night, so she had to miss her own shower :(  I think I enjoyed it for the both of us though, and it was so sweet of everyone to do this for us.  Their decorations were so cute!

Everyone had brought in food to help celebrate the occasion with as well!  The cake read "Y'all about to POP" hahaha cracked me up the entire day.

Lacey was so sweet to take pictures the entire time to document.  It was fun getting to catch up with the ladies in other departments and let them know the name Kyle and I had chosen and how I'm feeling as we get closer to delivery!

 

And I can't tell you how excited I am to have DIAPERS!  Everyone bought the kind of diapers that we are going to use too, which was so thoughtful.  Such a fun day, I am truly blessed to work with some wonderful ladies!

33 week baby survey!

Woah we are 7 weeks away from my due date, and if I follow in my mom's footsteps with me, Emery is coming a week early!

How Far Along: 33 weeks! 

(She's rapidly losing that wrinkled, alien look and her skeleton is hardening. The bones in her skull aren't fused together, which allows them to move and slightly overlap, thus making it easier for her to fit through the birth canal. (The pressure on the head during birth is so intense that many babies are born with a conehead-like appearance.) These bones don't entirely fuse until early adulthood, so they can grow as her brain and other tissue expands during infancy and childhood.)

Size of baby: She weighs a little over 4 pounds and has passed the 17-inch mark. (Size of a pineapple-- finally a fruit we know!)

Total Weight Gain/Loss: I gained 1.5 pounds this week, so I'm up 22.5 pounds.

Gender: A Sweet Baby GIRL!!  Emery Katherine!

Movement: She rolls around all day everyday and get hiccups at least once a day.  The craziest feeling is when she's in my side.  I can literally see a huge bulge and feel her body there! I never expected for her to be in my side!

What I miss:  Having energy and being as active as I once was!

Sleep: Sleeping good for the most part.  The other night my stomach just felt so heavy I couldn't get comfortable even on my sides, but luckily that was just one night.  Kyle wakes up every time I do because I grunt so much accidentally trying to move around!

Symptoms: I was a little emotional last weekend as it was our last time in NC before Emery comes.  It's a little intimidating to not have family real close by, but I know they'll be only a phone call away.  Starting to realize how soon I could go into labor and wanting to read every single book on the planet to prepare myself.  Left rib feels like needles are sticking in it all the time, and my lower back hurts if I spend a lot of time on my feet.  I can tell my lungs are getting squished as I get out of breath easily!  Also, the gained weight is coming to my face, but I'm completely okay with this as it held off for a while!

Notes: Went to do the doctor this week, Emery's heartbeat was in the 150's and I'm measuring 33 weeks, right on track.  My blood pressure was a little elevated so I did get blood work done and am anxious to hear how that comes back in the next day or so.

"To-do" items checked off our list: 
- Set up Emery's crib with the mattress, bedding and mobile!  Here are some pictures!

 

-Washed and/or put away all her new gifts in their correct spots!  Don't ask me why but I was so excited to get the changing pad so I could organize the changing table haha.  I still have to take off that sticker from the manufacturer.

- Returned duplicates from the shower to Target.
- Started filling out Emery's baby book.
- The shower is installed.  Sheet rock, molding, and painting are done in the bathroom project.
- Had mandatory "relax time" with Kyle to watch some of our tv shows! (We are trying to do this every couple days so we both aren't walking zombies by the end of the week!)

Cravings: Slushies, salty chips, and ice cream.

Best Moments this week: The Raleigh shower was so much fun seeing old friends.  I've really enjoyed putting away all of the gifts for Emery & organizing the nursery!

What we are looking forward to:  Getting the tiling done in the bathroom this weekend, which will mean we are almost finished with this project-- YEAH!!

And here is how I'm looking:

A couple steps forward, a couple steps back.

Okay so the last time I posted about the bathroom project, Kyle had accomplished all the insulation, furring strips, electrical work and exhaust fan (you can see that post here).  Over the next couple days, he installed the shower floor, shower walls and all the sheet rock in the bathroom and the outside foyer wall.  Things were moving so fast, I had a hard time keeping up with pictures!

Here is a pic showing the shower base, walls and sheet rock installation:

Sheet rock in the vanity side of the bathroom:

Sheet rock done on the ceiling!

Sheet rock done on the outside wall:

Okay so then we hired Javier (our town home handy man, sweet as can be) to tape, mud and sand all the sheet rock seams.  It took him a couple days, but looked great!!  He then offered to Kyle that he would paint the ceiling, walls, prime & paint & put up the crown molding, and paint the outside wall and put up the judges paneling again, all for $100.  It was truly too good of a deal to pass up so we said YES! 

We got home last weekend and the walls looked perfect all painted, and he had cut the crown molding just hadn't put it up yet.  On Monday, while he was installing the crown a piece fell (sharp end first), hit the shower base in the worst place possible and cracked it.  We called the company who we bought this from and they offered to send us a brand new base for free, thank heavens!  The bad part about this is that the base HAS to go in first, then the shower walls, then the sheet rock.  So Javier had to basically rip everything off and start from scratch again. Frustrating for sure as we just want to have all the sanding done so we can start cleaning all of the dust that is filling our entire house!

Okay so here are pics where we are now.  Javier has ripped off the sheet rock around the shower, walls and base, then reinstalled the base and walls.  Those 2x4's are just holding it in place while the liquid nail glue dried overnight.

 He'll do the sheet rock, taping, mudding and sanding today around the shower.

 This picture shows that he has painted the outside wall back khaki and has finished putting up the judges paneling!

We are planning on tiling the floor later this week, and once that is done we can install the shower door, vanity, light fixture and toilet.  Looks like we'll make our February 1st goal to have it all done!

Raleigh Baby Shower!

Last Saturday, Mom, Tara and Sara hosted such a fun baby shower for Emery and I!  They came up with such a fun theme (cherry blossoms since they are in bloom right around the time Emery will be born!) and every detail was just perfect!

Here I am with the hostesses: Sara (best friend), Tara (sister) and Linda (mom)

The entry table was so cute with a centerpiece made from Sara, advice cards and chocolate favors!  Oh I just love all these detail shots, thank you again for being our photographer too on top of everything else Sara!

All the food that Mom, Tara and Grandma made was delicious!  Kerry & Rachel brought beautiful flowers and Sara made the food card holders out of tree trunks.  A family friend, Sophie, made these cupcakes, they were so good and matched just perfectly!

After everyone got their food, they were tasked with answering trivia questions about my pregnancy.  Because I post lots of details on our blog, most people got most of the questions right!  One question however about the circumference of my belly even stumped me!  At 32 weeks I was 44 inches around, woah!  My friend Brittany won the game, and it was so great to catch up with her in person as we are only due 1 day apart from each other!

There were so many gifts, it was a little overwhelming!  We got tons of necessity items, I was so relieved!  My family gave us our entire bedding set, I can't wait to finally get the crib all situated!

I was amazed at how many old friends we had there.  The majority of people there we have known for at least 10 years, with the longest friendships lasting well over 20! I was so grateful that everyone could make it!

And lastly we tried to get a group photo at the end!  Some friends had left, but we had to document!

Thank you Tara, Sara and Mom for putting in all the time and effort to throw such a beautiful shower.  It was absolutely perfect!

Vegetable Beef Stew Recipe

Nothing is better when it's cold outside then a warm, hearty stew!  Having almost all these ingredients on hand, I thought I'd give this recipe a try.  It was so easy to make so I thought I'd share!

Old-Time Beef & Vegetable Stew by Betty Crocker

Ingredients:

1 lb beef boneless sirloin steak, cut into 1/2 inch cubes

1 lb frozen stew vegetables, thawed and drained.  (I had to cut mine in half as they were all huge!)

1 can (15 oz) chunky garlic and herb or plain omato sauce

1 can (14 1/2 oz) beef broth

2 cans (5 1/2 oz each) spicy eight-vegetable juice

Directions:

Spray 10-inch nonstick skillet with cooking spray; heat over medium-high heat.  Cook beef in skillet about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until brown.

Stir in remaining ingredients.  Heat to boiling; reduce heat.  Cover and simmer 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.