Thankful

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I love the holidays, but they feel different this year. I feel just a little warmer and fuzzier than I ever have before.

I think mostly it's the fact that we have only a few short weeks until we meet our son. Our son. Just thinking about that makes my heart race a little bit. I feel like I've waited my entire life to be a mom. I've always wanted it so badly. Knowing we are so close is so exciting. Terrifying too.

This pregnancy has put so many things into perspective for me. I've learned a whole new appreciation for my husband. He has been so supportive and so loving. He's painted my toe nails and majorly picked up my slack when it comes to getting stuff done around the house. He's put up with my absurd food aversions and hasn't complained once about my sudden inability to properly plan meals for the week. He gets a lot of texts from me a the end of the work day requesting a "fend for yourself" dinner night and never fights it. He doesn't complain about my Snoogle pillow or all of the extra space that it takes up in our bed. He doesn't complain about how I keep him up at night when I have heartburn and can't sleep, or my 3 am trips to the fridge that wake up the dogs and make them restless. He doesn't complain about all of the extra painting projects that I've instigated in the last few months {one being the torture of painting a ceiling, probably the worst painting job there is.} He's full of compliments and praise and never misses a chance to tell me that I'm the most beautiful pregnant lady he's ever seen, or to rub or kiss my belly and talk to Grayson.

I'm thankful for Nick all of the time, don't get me wrong but all of these little things have made me realize how truly blessed I really am to have him. They've made me realize that I have already done the most loving thing for my children that I could ever possibly do.

To give them Nick as their daddy.

Weekend in the Mountains

Last year Nick and I started a new tradition of escaping to the cabin for a pre-holidays weekend, just the two of us. So, in the spirit of our new tradition we packed up Friday and tried to beat traffic getting out of the bay area. This year will be our last with just the two of us but we will absolutely keep up this tradition with our little family in the years to come.

 

 

After a quick 3 hour drive we picked up Chinese take out and parked ourselves on the couch to watch Christmas movies for the next 36 hours. We may or may not have fallen asleep a movie or two in but it was just so warm and snuggly in front of the fire.



We weren't the only ones snuggly and sleepy in front of the fire. Cubby pretty much didn't move the entire weekend either.

We woke up to the pouring rain Saturday morning. I made biscuits and gravy for breakfast and we watched another Christmas movie. We thought the rain was tapering off so we eventually ventured out to walk the dogs but ended up having to make a run for it back to the house after it started raining again.

 

I pretty much didn't move from my spot on the couch the entire rest of the day and Nick cooked an amazing dinner; braised beef and mushroom risotto. Bless him. Somehow 5 hours passed while we were eating dinner. We got to reminiscing about when we first met {8 years ago!} and talking about how much life is about to change with this little boy on the way, and all of a sudden it was midnight.

Sunday we {and by we, I mean I} slept in again. Nick stacked wood. I cooked breakfast and then we packed up to get home. We stopped at the apple stand on the way and picked up a jug of apple cider and a half dozen of apple cider doughnuts... because the baby couldn't resist.

We made it home in time to catch the end of the 49er game and get ready for the week. We did some grocery list prepping so that I can go shopping before the masses take over the store after Tuesday night. I vowed to stay faaar away from the store in the days leading up to Thanksgiving after last year.

Cheers to a very short week this week! And... exactly one month until maternity leave starts!

House Tour Blog Hop

Mande over at Sweet Home Alabama has nominated me to share a quick peek into our home for a House Tour Blog Hop. I'm embarrassingly late and this was supposed to be posted over a month ago. But,  our house was undergoing a bit of a face lift and every piece of furniture from every single bedroom was piled into our living rooms and kitchen and I wasn't about to share what that looked like.  Anywhooo, you know I love me a House Tour and I'm excited to share our fall decorations! {Confession: Fall is down, and Christmas is up in full force at our house. Nope, no respect for the turkey what so ever. We've been keeping the blinds closed so our neighbors can't catch a glimpse of all the twinkle lights in the house...}

Welcome!

This time of year our house smells amazing. We've got pumpkin candles burning in every room of the house and warm spicy smells coming from each Scentsy warmer. Now that it's finally starting to cool off I'm ready to get my crock pot cookin' and those smells are even better.

This is the view when you walk in through the front door. Our cozy little living/dining room.

 

 

I love this bar cabinet that I refinished last year. It's so much fun to keep decorated for every season and I always try to have my chalkboard sign say something cute and festive.

Our kitchen had a major makeover this year. We replaced our very fancy blue counters with granite and tiled the backslash ourselves. I'm planning to reface all of the cabinets next summer and we will be replacing all of the floors {adios blue laminate!} throughout the house with wood by this time next year. We are trying to stretch each of these expensive projects over time.

Our bedroom also had a makeover this summer and I love the colors we chose. It's very different from the warm bold colors we have in the rest of the house but it feels so relaxing and comfy.


Clearly it was really important to Teddy that he be featured in this post.

This is the courtyard off of our room. Nick's mom decorated it for us for a housewarming gift when we first moved in. {I told you, she's a walking Pinterest board}It is such a perfect little space. Sometimes in the summer we turn on the fountain and eat dinner out here. Like our own private little restaurant patio.

 

To the left is our master bathroom which is also on the list for a makeover sometime next year. New floors, new paint, counters, remove all the crazy mirrors, and new fixtures. I can't wait until it's all done.

We spend 90% of our time in the family room. It flows into the kitchen so anytime we have people over for dinner or anything else,  everyone ends up in these two rooms.

The first bedroom off of the family room we have turned into a gym and will double as my home office after maternity leave is over. Nothing exciting to see there.

Our guest bedroom, {also known as my personal clean laundry dump} is one of our favorite rooms. I think Nick wishes we lived in this room instead of the master. The colors are so cheerful and bright. I had some prints made from our anniversary trip and hot air balloon ride last year and hung them on the wall in here. I love how this room turned out. The guest bathroom is nothing exiting to look at. We'll just leave it out. Okay? Okay.

Down the hall is G's little room. All we have to do now is the fun part... decorate! It's the smallest in the house and I was a little anxious about how everything was going to fit in here.  But it came together beautifully! Stay tuned for a nursery post once it's all done.

Our backyard is home to Nick's garden and monster tomato plants. We love our fire pit and use it all the time. We got it for a housewarming present from a family friend and love it so much. Eventually we will be pulling out all of the concrete and replacing it with more lawn and better landscape.

We've already winterized the patio furniture. All the fun pillows and pads are stored in the garage for the winter.

Make sure you go back to Mande's post to see her seriously beautiful home too!

Showering the Bebe





We had such a special weekend! Nick's mama and sister hosted my shower and it was so absolutely perfect. I'm going to dump the photos and let them speak for themselves.

 

 

 

 

 

I think it goes without saying that we have one blessed little boy on the way. He was so spoiled this weekend. I can't believe we only have 8 or so weeks to go until we meet him!

Bump Date | 30 Weeks

 

How Far Along? 30 Weeks. Holy moly.. Thirty.

Size of Baby: 3 pounds and 17 inches long. They say he is pretty much as long as he's going to get at this point and just needs to start fattening up!

Weight Gain: About 3 pounds above my pre-pregnancy weight. I officially weigh the most I've ever weighed in my entire life.

Stretch Marks: Nope! Thanking goodness for that wonderful blessing so far.

Maternity Clothes: I haven't bought anything in the last few weeks. But I am needing to start stocking up on some nursing bras and tanks.

Nursery: SO cute. So, so cute. Everything is coming together and I am so in love. I wish I could just live in there. We still need a crib mattress and then the bedding will be all done and then it's pretty much just stuff left to hang on the walls, and getting the glider finished up. We're so close!

Purchases: We spent one weekend shopping all around. I picked up a changing pad from Burlington and some cute wall art from Hobby Lobby. I finally found the perfect lamp for the side table and some frames for his sweet newborn photos to go in. I just have some last prints that I think I want from Etsy and some floating shelves to pick up.

Movement: Yep and it's been a little painful. His noggin is right up in the center of my rib cage and it's pretty uncomfortable. He is stretching and bending a ton and still kicking down low. I'm definitely ready for him to flip over.

Symptoms: Still having the heartburn/reflux. It's so bad. I'm hiccupping all. the. time. and all of a sudden I'm getting nose bleeds a few times a week. So glamorous.

Sleep: All over the place. Some nights I'll sleep solid through the night, other nights I'm up for hours.

Cravings: I'm going through an entire gallon of milk every 4 days. I can't get enough of it. The cravings started with chocolate milk and now it's just plain milk. Just give me all the milk. All of it. I also have started drinking large amounts of coconut milk since I cannot drink water at all. It helps with the heartburn a lot and is definitely the most delicious way I have found to hydrate.

Food Aversions & Morning Sickness: I have not thrown up in weeks! This is pretty exciting. Sometimes I feel like I might any minute if I keep eating something that suddenly doesn't sit right though. Chicken is still grossing me out. I can eat it if I absolutely have to but I'd really rather not. This pregnancy has pretty much turned me into a vegetarian. Nick was commenting the other day about how I have become incredibly picky with my food. I can't help it.

What I'm Missing: My baby! Is that possible? To miss him? I'm so happy that he's healthy and cooking away the way he's supposed to but I just want to snuggle and hold him and look at his sweet face.

Best Moment of This Week: All the baby presents have started arriving! This is so fun. I love opening sweet little gifts for G and getting everything organized in his room. Also, I forgot to mention this a few weeks ago, but we asked our friends to be G's God Parents. They were so excited and happily accepted and I get a little teary every time I think about it. We are so blessed to have such amazing people in our lives. Also, our diapers and beer shower was this last weekend.  It was so much fun to have our entire group, girls and guys, there to celebrate with us and it makes me laugh to think about all of our single guy friends having to pick out diapers.

Looking Forward to: Another shower this weekend! My MIL and SIL are throwing me the cutest little shower and I'm so excited to see everyone and have another excuse to celebrate this little boy.