gender reveal party

Thursday night, we had a small group over to share the big news from our ultrasound!

I had fun making this little invite :)

  
I baked cupcakes on Wednesday night. Then, on Thursday afternoon, after we found out the gender, Steve carved out the centers of the cupcakes while I piped colored frosting into them, and then covered them in white frosting. :)

Pink raspberry lemonade and blue Voltage Mountain Dew :)

 
Stuffing his mouth with a cupcake :)


And… the grandparents, etc were excited to see that it was BLUE!! :) Our second sweet baby boy.

My mother-in-law had a pink gift bag if it was a girl, and a blue bag if it was a boy. Such cute onesies!

We celebrated some more with blue hot chocolate.

In love with this little guy already! Isn’t he cute? ;)

baby bump: 22 weeks

 

how far along? 22 weeks!  due January 28th.

how are you measuring? at my ultrasound on Thursday, the tech said that everything is measuring just right :) I’ve gotten a few comments that I look small for 22 weeks.

size of baby: size of a papaya, about 10.5 inches (head to toe) and 1 pound!

heartbeat: 142 bpm on Thursday

total weight gain/loss: + 11 lbs

maternity clothes:  wearing maternity pants now.

stretch marks: not yet.

belly button: it’s the same.

sleep: had a busy week, so hoping to make up for some sleep this weekend!

movement: I am feeling movement quite a bit! I think the baby is most active at 9 pm or so.

food cravings:  I’ve been eating a lot of cereal—partially due to that I don’t have many meals planned ahead of time, and also because I get tired of standing in front of the pantry wondering what sounds good, and if it will be filling enough. We’ve also been drinking a lot of hot chocolate at night—mmm!

food aversions: not really any

gender predictions? We found out on Thursday that it’s a BOY!! I can’t really believe that I am going to be a mom of two boys. I am really thrilled that Nolan will have a buddy to play with!

symptoms I have: Still trying to elevate my legs more so that they’re not sore. Tired and hungry, but that goes without saying :)

comparisons to last pregnancy:  Things are going really well—so not many differences.

doctor’s appointment: Another one is lined up for next week. I’m so glad that the ultrasound went so well—and all the baby’s brain, heart, kidneys, etc. looked perfect :)

what I’m looking forward to: This question is tripping me up right now. The end of January sounds really far away, even though the weeks are going fast. I also don’t want to rush the months, because I’m enjoying my time with Nolan so much. I suppose I’m looking forward to this season of preparation—preparing my heart for loving a new little guy, teaching myself more patience, and praying for a more easy-going nature. And of course, preparing the baby’s room, clothes, and things :)

It’s a…

A little glimpse of our gender reveal last night. :)

the little things, part two

In August, I wrote a post about six little things in our new home that I had fallen in love with.

I have been meaning to post a few more things for a while now—so here are the next six:

 
1. The house came with a sandbox! I had wanted one for Nolan so badly, but since we lived in an apartment, there was no way to make that happen. It only cost us $5 at Lowe’s to fill this turtle up :)

2. I love this coat rack in the entryway of the house! Again at the apartment, we only had a couple hooks on the back of the door.  Now, we have this rack, a bench that opens up to put shoes in, AND a coat closet. We are so spoiled with space!


3. This enormous mirror! It’s on the landing of the second floor, in between the bedrooms and the bathroom. It’s perfect for trying on clothes or checking out a side-view of the baby bump. :) It also makes the second floor landing look huge.


4. A window in my closet. When we were deciding which room would be ours (there is no obvious Master bedroom), I chose this room partly because I loved that the closet had bright light! I did not seem to notice that it is the only bedroom that doesn’t have a heating duct—oops, no wonder why it was used as an office before. The closet doesn’t have any shelves—so I’m hoping that is something Steve can build and install this winter.

5. A very small thing to be thankful for—a hose—for washing cars, watering plants, spraying off dirty children, filling up pools, etc. We missed having one of these in our four years of apartment living.

6. A new-to-me stove! The one on the left came with the house. I was a little disappointed because none of the burners worked, and the oven burned the few things that I tried to bake. My lovely mother-in-law decided that we could use a new stove, so she and I went down to a used appliance store. I really love the one that we got—it works so nicely!

life lately

Time is really flying.
I’m in a little bit of disbelief to see yellowing leaves and 50 degrees.
Nolan is two seconds away from forming sentences. He longs to be so independent. Another mom asked me this week when he turns 3. AH—he just turned 2 two weeks ago! Yes, he must be tall. :)
And this week we get to find out if Nolan is going to have a baby brother or a baby sister!

 
Yogurt monster.

Nolan absolutely loved the 1-foot-deep pool at the park!

Just resting on the tracks.


He knows all his letters! I didn’t expect him to so early. He has so much fun playing with this new LeapFrog schoolbus that tells him letters and their sounds.


Love!


These raspberries are growing in our driveway! I had never picked berries before in my life, let alone in my own yard…amazing to me.


Delicious, too!


He took his new Duplo plane to nap with him. Usually the toys end up outside the crib, and then he falls asleep, but this one stayed with him :)


Checking out the horses at the fair.




Found a Trader Joe’s! They were generous with giving us fun stickers.


I couldn’t miss a chance to go to Olive Garden, so Nolan and I went on our first mommy-son date :)


All of the wait staff had to pass by us to get to the kitchen, and Nolan said “bye” to them every single time they passed. He had the whole restaurant in awe of his cuteness.


Hanging out in the kiddie pool.




Steve saved his birthday gift card for two months so he could buy Star Trek when it came out :) (Didn’t get to see it in theaters.)


He knows what’s good.


We went back to MedExpress to make sure that Nolan’s infection had cleared up on his leg. He’s been off antibiotics now since Friday, and his skin is looking good!

 
We saw this on our walk the other night…. what kind of bird is this? It was quite surreal to see so close to our house.

This was from Nolan’s birthday. Grandma and I took him to see elk. Unfortunately, we didn’t check the weather ahead of time, and it started pouring when we got there. 

We didn’t get close enough to any elk outside—but we did get acquainted with this huge, stuffed one!





 


It was a really nice facility. Hoping to go back later this fall when it’s not raining!

Our friends Carmen and Noah got married on Saturday!


We managed to keep Nolan entertained through the service. Here he is putting Mommy’s chapstick on Mini Ivy.


I loved all the details of this wedding. These are the seating cards—which all form into a photo of Carmen and Noah. When they were removed, it was the same photo underneath, but in color.


Parents’ and grandparents’ wedding photos.


The most enormous cookie table. It was three times as wide as this shot.


Loved these candy mustaches!

 

 
Our table’s centerpiece.


The head table. Can’t see them very clearly, but the Mason jars have stems like goblets!

 




Nolan’s favorite part of the wedding—pointing out all the letters on the signs :)


View from the patio of the reception hall.


Blurry but beautiful.


Wedding cupcakes—loved the salted caramel.
 

They had a fun photo booth, too! The other two shots we got had the mustache & lips in Nolan’s mouth because he thought they were candy (like the  mustaches above) :)