Tuesday, November 23, 2010

shutterfly is so fly!


So, www.Shutterfly.com is offering a great deal for bloggers (http://bit.ly/sfly2010) to receive 50 free Christmas cards!  I have about 25 favorites that I want to choose from...but I think I've narrowed it down to one...or two...  But not only does Shutterfly offer unique and contemporary Christmas cards, they also offer an array of products that you can customize for gifts or to decorate your home!  With our little lady making her grand appearance sometime in February, I already know that I’ll be ordering some canvas prints

or some mounted wall art 
to start her shrine!  J 

When Brad and I got married 3 years ago, we bought the digital files from our photographer and made photo books for our family as Christmas gifts.  I'm sure I'll be doing the same thing for baby photo books.  


I know the big website this year is supposed to be minted.com to order your Christmas cards from, but with all the special deals that Shutterfly is offering, I’ll definitely be ordering my Christmas cards from them.  Right now, they’re even offering free shipping on orders that total $25.  I even got a promo in the mail that is giving me $10 off an order of $50 or more.  With all these specials, how can you pass up Shutterfly??  Now, I need to get back to figuring out which card I'm going to order!  

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

a stuffed turkey

So, here I sit, fat and plump like a stuffed turkey...how fitting considering we're a couple of weeks away from Thanksgiving!  I never imagined that my skin could stretch so much and that I could look so round.  The scary part is, I'm probably going to still get significantly rounder!  We had our friend, Joe Gray, from Grayscale Photographic, take some maternity pictures for us this past weekend.  I have to admit, I wasn't thrilled about getting fat pictures taken.  I did it because I felt like it was something that we were SUPPOSED to do.  But after looking at some of the pictures, I was really happy that we had them done.  I've always been weight conscious and always critiquing my own appearance, so for the first time during my pregnancy, I felt pretty confident after looking at the pictures.  Not to mention, Joe did an amazing job and managed to make a fat lady happy about her pictures!  Do I plan on ordering a poster size picture of myself?  Hells no.  But will I look at the pictures and cherish these last 3 months being pregnant?  Most definitely.

www.grayscalephotographic.com  

www.grayscalephotographic.com  

www.grayscalephotographic.com   

www.grayscalephotographic.com 

Monday, November 8, 2010

last week of my second trimester! woot woot!

As I enter the last week in my second trimester, I'm trying to take in all that Brad and I have been through these past 27 weeks.  We've had our highs and we've had our lows, but one thing is for sure, we've learned a lot about each other and about growing a baby and giving birth to a baby.

The hubs and I went to an all day (7 hour!!!) birthing class this past Saturday.  Not exactly the way I wanted to spend my Saturday, but we felt it was something that would benefit us in the long run.  Did we learn a lot?  Yes.  Did we want to run out of there a million times? YES!  There are just certain words that you just don't need to hear over and over again (mucous plug, amniotic sac, leaking of urine, effacement of cervix, discharge, pain, vomiting, kegels, etc...you get the point.  And if you don't know what those words mean, I suggest that you DON'T look them up!).  There are also certain visuals that don't ever need to be seen by the naked eye.  The instructor/nurse showed us all a poster of the organs of a non pregnant woman and the organs of a pregnant woman.  What I learned from that poster were that my intestines have disappeared and my bladder is flatter than a pancake and I may or may not pee my pants every time I sneeze...for the rest of my life.  What else I learned was that people should definitely need some sort of license to have a baby!  There was one couple that I'm sure never would've passed the test to have a kid.  I'm quite sure the baby daddy never even stepped foot in a regular school so I was quite surprised that he came to a birthing class.  I already felt embarrassed for the little nugget growing in the mom's belly...  But all in all, we learned a lot of good tips, that I'm sure I'll forget once I'm in serious agony and pain.  I'll probably forget all the breathing techniques and just resort to choking the closest person to me.  Surely that will relieve some of my pain and suffering.

On a happier note, we finished putting all the baby furniture together.  The nursery isn't complete, but it sure does look like a nursery.  A very sweet and happy nursery.  Even though we're having a girl, I just couldn't imagine having an all pink room.  Not that there is anything wrong with pink walls, but that's just not for me.  If the little lady wants pink walls as she gets older, then fine.  But not now.  No pink walls in my house.  I found her Moroccan themed Caden Lane bedding on Gilt.com the day after we found out the baby was a girl.  It was fate!  I absolutely fell in love with it!  It's all kinds of different colors--pink, turquoise, brown, salmon, cream--so I decided to paint her walls turquoise.  I must admit, I'm seriously in love with it!  I ordered some custom curtains that will really finish off the room and I'll still need to order a glider chair.  There is still a lot of decorating that needs to be done, but if the little lady decided that she needed a room sooner than her due date, well, it's ready for her to move in!  Putting all the furniture together was a lot of fun and really got us even more excited about her arrival!  3 months feels so far away!  But I know it'll be here before we know it!  I'm so ready to meet our little lady!

The outside of her bumper.  

The inside of the bumper and the sheet on the mattress.  So many different patterns and colors and I love it!

I think it looks great against the turquoise walls!  

A close up of the Moroccan themed blanket.  

I love love love Caden Lane! 

The end result of the crib!  Yay!  

Yay!  We passed!  Time to have a baby!  Well, in 3 months...  

Monday, November 1, 2010

hello belly! buh-bye feet...


So, as you can see from the pictures, I'm getting significantly rounder and bigger.  I'm at 26 weeks and nearing the end of my second trimester.  Violet's room is still currently under construction and I'm not much help getting it ready...other than ordering things for her room and picking out decor and furniture...and laying down on her new carpet while munching on a mini Snickers while watching my husband put trim up or put furniture together...

I've really had the easiest pregnancy and can't complain (even though I still do) but am already beginning to get in the uncomfortable stage.  I toss and turn all night long and get up to pee at least 3 times in the middle of the night.  My back is starting to ache and breathing is getting to be a little bit harder...  Does this sound like complaining to you?  Because it's nothing if you ask my husband.  But along with the discomfort, I'm loving the little hip hop dancer growing in my belly!  Some days I think she may be from Jersey because there's definitely some fist pumping action going on in my belly!  Brad even got to feel her kick (or fist pump) for the first time last week.  Such an amazing feeling!  Amazing and yet, still a little weird...  All I know is, I'm so glad November is here (with the cooler weather) because that means February is right around the corner!