her quarters

i am so happy with the end results. i think even the husband, who was once doubtful of the grey, is happy with the nursery. hopefully little baby girl will love it too!

my mom recovered the rocker for me, which when i used it with sweet cheeks was pink and green. it is such a comfy chair so i am so glad she was able to recover it in the pink damask fabric.



i absolutely love the book ledges. they brought a lot of color to the room. plus, i love that all of the books once belonged to big sister sweet cheeks. and how cute is the little sophie & lili doll on the shelf. isn't she adorable.



i ordered the sweet dreams banner from my baby sam.

the elephant bin by 3 sprouts will be great for her toys but for now it is blanket storage.

the garden blossom elephant in the crib is from dwell. the crib sheet is also by dwell, mini dots in grey. i decided to not use a crib bumper this go around. crib skirt was a freebie from work.

the doll house book shelf was sweet cheeks. it didn't fit in her room after the room make-over so luckily it works just great in the nursery.



the changing table is an ikea hemnes dresser. the pink zinnia knobs are from anthropologie.

the cute pink and gray fabric cat was made by a girl i work with. the little white chair is ikea kritter. hanging on the closet is a pink "little sister" tee.

so there you have it. the nursery for my second daughter!

i am getting so excited to put the room to use.

wordless wednesday

break on through to the other side

the nursery is finished! yippee. i will post pics of it later this week.

i did want to show you the amazingly special touch that the husband added to both girl's rooms. it is a tunnel! since the room's closets shared a wall, he just went in, cut a hole in the wall, and created a unique tunnel for them to go through. the trim needs to be painted and carpet installed along the inside but it is still functional in the meantime. sweet cheeks and the dogs already make good use of it.

sweet cheeks coming back into her room from her sisters room

and the view from little sister's room looking into sweet cheek's room. half of sweet cheek's closet was transformed into a mini reading space. we just put a bucket of books, bean bag chair, and some pillows in it to create a little reading room.

april showers

hello blog.

nice to see you.

sorry pregnancy has come between us... again

so how lucky am i that with my second daughter (still so weird to say that!) i have had THREE baby showers! we are more than spoiled.

the first one was thrown by my two sweet girlfriends. they did such a great job and we all had a wonderful time. (sadly i didn't take pictures. must see if they have any!) not only did we get so many wonderful gifts, they also sent home two dinners to freeze for once the baby arrives. i love that idea!

the next one was a surprise shower thrown for me at work. it was sweet because so many people participated bringing baked goods and such. one girl went so far as to have her grandmother in colorado make a beautiful pink and white baby blanket for this baby girl. so thoughtful.

our third shower was thrown for us by my amazing mother and sister. and even though i did remember to take some family photos, i was mad at myself for not taking pictures of all the cute decorations and delicious food (especially the cheese dips and cake. they were so so good!).

we really are so blessed with our family and friends.

my side of the family...

(and notice the cute BABY banner that my sister made hanging over our heads)

the husband and me with sweet cheeks, her cousin, her aunt, her nana and her great grandma (aka- GG)
and us.... sweet cheeks ran and hid from us for this picture. by then, she had enough of the picture taking.

wordless wednesday

my girl wants to party all the time

what a fun 6th birthday sweet cheeks had.

for her party, we took her and 4 of her friends (2 of which were her cousins, cailyn and ellis) to the american girl cafe. of course all the girls brought their girls along with them. what fun was had!

here we are with 4 of the 5 girls loaded in our car on our way to the cafe. look at all those smiles! they were so excited.

the girls (sans 1 cousin) in front of the cafe right when we arrived

we had some time in between shopping the store and our dinner reservation, so we walked around sephora a bit. the girls enjoyed it since they got to put lip gloss and perfume on. lip gloss makes everything fun when you are 6! they were pretty cute walking around the store in a single-file line looking at everything.

in order- ellis (cousin), hayden, cailyn (cousin), birthday girl sweet cheeks, and catherine

the girls giving their girls "tea," which was really water.

the birthday girl and julie
making a wish
please note sweet cheek's adorable birthday shirt that her sweet grandma made for her. i think this is the third year now that grandma has made her a birthday shirt. they make for great keepsakes too. i plan to have her do the same for the baby. it's a great tradition now.

a bunch of silly girls
it was such a fun time and i know sweet cheeks really enjoyed spending it with her cousins and friends.

35 weeks down, 5 to go!

how far along: 35 weeks

weight gained: 19 lbs

maternity clothes: i am so tired of my maternity clothes! i am ready to wear my regular clothes again. guess i have several weeks before that will happen. and ughhh... how i hate those first 2 weeks after delivery when you aren't pregnant but still look it! that is torture and everything fits horribly and uncomfortably. that stage is the worst.

stretch marks: it must be a miracle! i still don't have any. please stay that way! thank you mustela.

belly button in: it is totally an outie now. feels funny, pokes out through my shirts, and makes sweet cheeks laugh when she sees it.

baby movement: i am kicked in the ribs and side nonstop. it is crazy just how painful it can actually be. i know she is small in there but apparently she likes to stretch out as much as she can. it is funny feeling small, round things poking out and wondering just what part of her body it is! pretty sure she still does flips in there. i am hoping though since i feel the kicking in the ribs that it means she is at least head down.

cravings: not really. i just eat small meals more frequently. i get full quickly.

next appt: monday, april 4th. i will have the group b strep test at that time.

update from last appt: i met with my favorite doctor and explained to him my nervousness over both a vbac and repeat c-section. the truth is i am scared to death of both! i feel like it is a no-win situation but she has to get out of me somehow. thankfully he listened to me, explained my options thoroughly, and told me in the end it was our decision. i just wish he would have decided for me. he did make me feel a lot better about the vbac, saying i am definitely a good candidate for it. that eased my fears a bit. so that is still the plan. we will push on for the vbac with hopes of a much better recovery with this girl than we had with sweet cheeks. of course, i realize everything can change in a minute and i will do whatever is safest for her. fingers crossed and prayers please that we have a successful vbac!

symptoms: i am actually feeling pretty good for the most part. the reflux hasn't been near as bad. that may be because i am doing smaller meals now. the only complaint really is the huge, ugly, swollen feet and ankles that i endure daily. seriously, they are UGLY and shoes only accentuate it. it is weird that it is mainly my left foot, a lot more so than the right. maybe i walk funny and never realized how much i lean on the left foot. hopefully someone would have told me by now that i walk funny if that was the case! i am doing much better drinking water hoping that will help the swelling but it really doesn't seem to make a difference. i am surprised that it is actually kind of painful by the end of the day and hurts to walk on them. i figure if this is my worst complaint, i am still doing pretty good.

nursery: it is looking so good now! i love it already. we have some shelves hung, crib mattress in the crib, rocker with cushions, lighting, and clothing washed. the only things remaining are hanging of frames, purchase of a decorative pillow for the rocker, and a changing pad for the dresser. once the husband and i get those things done, i will be ready to share pictures with you. hopefully we'll finish that up this weekend.

gear: i did get a little bouncy seat from work for her. it will be nice so now i have two... one for upstairs and one for downstairs. makes that a bit easier i think.

me at 35 weeks