Pictures

snow

We had about 1/4” of snow last week so the hubs took Ellie out to experience it. I’m not too sure she loved it, judging by the look on her face. The snow was pretty for about 10 minutes, and it was *just enough* to close schools the next day.

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The picture above was taken using an app on my phone called RedStamp. It’s free and really good to use to add notes to pictures that you want to remember. I cracked up when I went in her room to wake her, and found about 17 books that she had been reading instead of napping!

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Sometimes we go walk around the mall when we don’t have anything to do for the day. Yesterday was one of those days. We were passing by Forever21 and she put her booty on the glass and started wiggling it all around saying, “I wiggle like the Genie!!!” (Aladdin) We were cracking up!

25 Weeks Pregnant with #2

25 weeks

I’m 25 weeks pregnant! It is starting to feel REAL now.

People keep asking me how I’m feeling, and truthfully, I feel great! Despite getting out of breath a lot, I don’t feel pregnant at all! Everything is SO different this time around. At this point in Ellie’s pregnancy, I was barely recognizable. I was SO swollen and my face was puff-normous. I really am enjoying this pregnancy, instead of being miserable.

One thing I feel guilty about, is that I barely pay attention to Foster’s kicks and movements. I guess I’m just so busy and distracted with #1 that I don’t notice it. I’m sure its pretty normal for second pregnancies, but I still feel a bit bad for the little guy : )

Ellie Kate’s Big Girl Room

First I need to say that I never in a million years thought I would have a pink room in my house. I’m so not a pink girl. You may remember that Ellie’s nursery/toddler room was brown and red with green accents. But once we found out we will be having baby #2, we decided to move Ellie to the room next to hers, and I decided that every little girl needs a pink room at least once in her life.

Here’s our big girl in her new room!

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Her daybed is from the Ashley Furniture Cottage Retreat collection, but we bought it on craigslist for about $250.

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And here’s the view from the door:

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Did you notice that I photoshopped in the left curtain? We really only have the panel on the right of her window. It’s a pottery barn kids panel ($45) that I bought on ebay for $15. Now I just need to find another one that matches! My trick is to shop pbkids.com, find what I want, and then search for it on ebay. I have saved a ton of money that way!

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Here’s the view from the opposite corner. Her bedding is actually a queen-sized quilt from the pottery barn kids penelope collection. I picked it up on ebay for $50 and just doubled it over to fit her twin bed. Her sheets are just some cream flannel ones from walmart. I decided to remove her closet doors, and hung up some sheer white panels from Target instead. Eventually I would like to have a couple more pbkids panels for this area, but those will come in time.

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This is the view from her bed. The chair was from her nursery and I keep all of her stuffed animals behind it. She really likes to “hide” back there and play.

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I thought I got a better picture of her dresser, but I guess not. It took me months searching craigslist every day to find this piece. I needed something to match the cream tone of her bed, but didn’t want to buy new. We payed $100 for this and I just love the glass knobs. I made this little flower arrangement yesterday, using 2 bunches of flowers and a flower pot from the dollar store.

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This is the view from her dresser. You can see her dollhouse in the corner and her dress-up clothes hanging on the right. When I picked out these Christmas gifts for her, I had dreams that she would play quietly in her room for hours. So far, that’s a big fat FAIL.

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See how cute those little hooks are? I bought these a year ago, from the $1 section of Michaels Craft Store. They have been sitting in the top of her closet until now!

This is what Ellie and Daddy were doing while I was taking pictures…

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That is, until *someone* got fed up and decided she was done.

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The Day to Day

One of my goals this year is to document more of our daily life, so I started today. The quality of the pictures is lacking (taken on an iphone) but whatever works, right?

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Started out at 7:30am with my morning cup of coffee. Foster likes to practice his kicking skills on my cup, so I rest it on my belly. Josh was up at 7am, shaving and getting ready to fly out for the day. He brings me my coffee in bed every morning. I’m a lucky girl!

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Around 9am I took Ellie to our local play place for her early reading class. So here I am at a stop sign. It was raining all morning so Ellie and I both sported frizzy ponytails all day. You like my silly face?

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There’s the big girl, ready to go see her friends!

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I didn’t have time to take pictures during her class. I was too busy telling her to sit on her bottom, listen, stop roaring like a lion, and quit touching another little girl’s Dora boots. After class, we decided to stay and play until lunchtime.

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“Playing” consists of her running all over the place and exploring, while Mommy sits and talks with her friends. I love bringing her here :)

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We came home for lunch and I let her watch one of her shows before naptime. We took this picture and sent it to daddy. And yes, those are ALL my chins. We attempted naptime at 1pm but she talked and (loudly) sung to herself until a little after 2pm. I had to wake her up at 5:15 and it was already dark outside!

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After dinner it was bathtime. I usually do my face cleansing routine and fold laundry while she plays in the water. Tonight I decided to organize my makeup drawer. Here’s what I was dealing with:

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And here is the after. MUCH better. And would you believe this isnt even half of my makeup? I keep the rest of it in a basket in my closet.

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After her bath, we headed up to the bonus room and played princess/tea pot/baby dolls for about 40 minutes, then it was time for bed! Now I’m just chilling out, web surfing, and waiting for Josh to arrive at midnight tonight.

Woo Hoo!

Some of you may remember that when I was pregnant with Ellie, I had gestational diabetes. Once you have it, you are something like 60% more likely to have it with subsequent pregnancies. So I just knew I was going to be dealing with this nuisance again.

I had my glucose test last Thursday (24ish weeks) and I was dreading it. But I got the call from my nurse yesterday, and I PASSED!!!

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I’ve been incredibly lazy about blogging lately. Not sure why, mostly a combination of feeling fat, ugly, and not wanting to be in pictures. I am sliding down that Stay at Home Mom Who Let Herself Go slope very quickly… I have to remind myself to shower, put on makeup, and to actually *try* to look somewhat put together. And don’t even get me started on the body hair situation. I just cant keep up with the growth! If only the hair on my head would grow as fast as the hair on my legs. Sigh…

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Ellie’s big girl room is almost completely finished so hopefully I will get some pictures taken soon. Tonight is her first night sleeping without the safety rail on her daybed. Hopefully we don’t hear any loud thumps tonight!

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My sweet MIL gave me a gift card to a local maternity boutique and I went hog wild in there today! I stocked up on nursing supplies, lanolin, nipple shields, pump bags, and a super-nice nursing tank. Despite this list, we havent bought ANYTHING for Foster yet! Hopefully when the next big paycheck rolls in ; )

 

Happy New Year!

We are partying it up in our highest heels today.

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Keepin it classy, y’all.

Goodbye 2011

Looking back, the theme of this year has been Growth.

Ellie Kate grew from a baby to an official toddler when she (finally!) learned to walk last January.

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She learned to swim with just her floaties on this past summer.

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Ellie grew from a one-year-old to a sassy two-year-old, and Daddy turned 31 on their birthday.

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This is also when we found out that our family of three was going to grow into a family of four!

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We found out we are having a bouncing baby boy, and my belly grew from flabby to fabulous!

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And last but not least, Josh and I have grown together and as parents. Josh has grown in his career to a much more comfortable place for our family, and I have grown into a real live mother. This year I have gone from a confused new mommy to an old pro. I am so in love with our little girl and I finally feel good about being a stay-at-home mom.

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Here’s to a great new year!