Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Nolan's Baseball 5th Birthday Party


On Saturday, we had our big birthday celebration for Nolan! It was eight days after his actual birthday, which was a little test of his patience, but it was worth the wait! I chose the theme for his party last fall when we were watching the Cubs play October baseball. I knew that 5 would be the perfect age for this sports-theme, and there would be a lot of fun things we could do with it :)


I took his photo a few days earlier in his new Cubs shirt so I could print it for decor.

 

 "Bricks and Ivy" :)  (Which strangely enough are the names of his cousins' dog and our dog, so we think that's funny.)


Steve and I worked all day to get ready, and everything turned out great. I designed the "Nolan is Five" poster and the "Concessions" banner, and Staples always does a great job at printing them.



We gathered up some mitts, balls, bats, hats, and a trophy, and they made for easy decor!


Steve did most of the baking and icing of the cake. It was a chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream filling and marshmallow fondant. It turned out exactly as we had hoped :)


My mom worked her magic again on these sugar cookies, and they were adorable!! There were 5s, Ns, baseballs, caps, bats, and gloves.


 

The hot dog station. Nolan LOVES his "5" balloon! It was a huge highlight of the party for him.

 

My favorite part of party-planning is making the invite, signs, and graphics.


It took a hot minute to track down Cracker Jacks, but we found them at Dollar Tree. Nolan helped me air-pop all of the popcorn before the party. He was happy to have a "job" :)





Blowing out his candles!


This is the last birthday in our family before the baby comes. Kind of surreal!


Nolan Bruce, always the life of any party!



We had all of the kids on the porch to break the pinata. Steve was brave to hold it while so many two to six-year-olds took a swing :) It broke open and the kids scrambled to pick up Baby Ruths, Butterfingers, and Crunch bars.


One last photo from his big day! 

Thanks to all who came to help us celebrate our five-year-old! We wish we were closer to more family and friends so that everyone could join us, but hopefully these photos help you feel like you were partying with us :)




Friday, September 16, 2016

25 Weeks


You can tell this is my third baby. I took this photo at 23 weeks with every intention of writing a post to go with it. And here I am at 25 weeks tomorrow. Oops! Waiting 3+ more months sounds like a long time, but the weeks truly are flying by!

I wanted to write down a few of the thoughts and feelings I've been having: 

I am feeling bigger with this baby than I did with the first two. I've gained around 16 pounds, so I'm a little uncomfortable with the way my clothes are fitting. I have a new striped maternity dress from Target, and I might just wear it every day from here on out!

I need to wear compression tights every day because the veins in my right leg have gotten worse with each pregnancy. Wearing tights with jeans over them in 75-80 degree weather is rough. I've been trying to sleep exclusively on my left side because this is supposed to help with vein circulation.

The baby moves a lot, but he mostly waits until N & E are in bed, or when I'm laying down for the night. I am always staring at my stomach, thinking, how does he fit in there? Even with my third, it is such a miracle!

Acid reflux has started rearing its ugly head recently. This means my love of tomato sauce has to be curbed. If I can't have pizza, I'm not sure I can live?! I haven't had any strong cravings or aversions lately, but I definitely am preferring sweet over salty. If you've been reading my blog for long, you know that Steve and I love our hot fudge sundaes at night. They weren't appealing to me during the whole first trimester, but now, I wait all day for that fudge. 

Having three boys has really started to sink in (in a good way). I'm really looking forward to seeing if this baby looks like Nolan or Ephraim, and what color hair and eyes he'll have. Our ultrasound from a few weeks ago is super clear, and I find his face to be so familiar and so beautiful. I can't wait to choose the perfect name for him. 
 
Sweet baby boy, we are so excited for you! We pray continuously that you are growing healthy and strong, our littlest love.
 

Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Nolan is FIVE!


On Friday, Nolan turned FIVE! He had been looking forward to his birthday for SO long! He was even singing "Happy Birthday to me" days before September 9 :)  We did a few simple celebrations, but we are saving most of the excitement for his party this weekend.


Friday morning, we picked up some birthday donuts (of course) and sang to him :)  Later in the day, he got to open a few gifts, and he was so happy and grateful for everything.


Nolan radiates joy, he has a limitless excitement about life, and he is the most intelligent and creative little boy I know. He is outgoing, never stops talking, and he definitely has the strong will of a firstborn. I am so happy to be his mommy! I can't believe it's been five years since I met his sweet face and twinkling brown eyes, but then again, it feels like he's been a part of me forever. Our prayer for Nolan (and E) that we sing every night, "The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you his peace." Today and always. 


Our birthday adventure last week was a trip to the bat factory. Nolan's birthday party is going to be baseball-themed, so Mormor decided Nolan needed his first baseball bat :)


We got to watch a piece of wood turn into a bat in just a matter of two or three minutes.


Holding the new, very-smooth bat.

 

Ephraim wanted to touch and count all of them :)


We went to another floor where they paint, poly, and engrave the bats. This was the paint room.
 

Mormor and Papa Don bought Nolan a T-ball bat with his name on it! This was our friend Josh engraving it. It was a really cool experience!



Last Tuesday, Nolan started preschool at home! Since he didn't turn five until September, he missed the cut-off for Kindergarten. Academically, he is so ready for K. He has known his alphabet for three years, he can count to 200, and he is just a little sponge. He is eating up the one-on-one time with me in the afternoons, and he will be reading and writing in no time!


 I'm adding this one too, since his face was too cute :)


We had a post-birthday excursion on Saturday to get ice cream. At this cow-themed joint, all four of us can get ice cream for under $5! Penn State Creamery's "Death by Chocolate" is always a good choice :)


I'm not great these days at getting the blog updated, but I'm pretty good at Instagramming daily, so if you want to keep up with us, I'm @rachel.zimm


Tuesday, September 6, 2016

My Birthday & Labor Day Weekend


This weekend was wonderful. We enjoyed Labor Day festivities with family, long-time friends, and new friends. I'm not ready to see this summer come to an end, so hopefully we can hang on to some more warm days this September. I want to enjoy them to the fullest before sweater weather is upon us :)



I have a few older photos from my phone that I want to stick in here before they get forgotten. A few weeks ago, Ephraim finally fell in love with the pool, and the boys had a great time splashing around in the water with their little friends.




Nothing cuter than little toddler TOMS!


We stocked up our freezer with more blueberries to last us the winter. The farm was giving away some beautiful sunflowers with blueberry purchases :)




We enjoyed one last pool day before it closed for the season.

 



A couple of times a year, our church does an outdoor service on our land out in the country. The boys love the playground, the sandbox, and the room to run out there!


The Hulk completed the series of six Avengers that we built at Lowe's this summer.


It's that time of year where the garden is producing more than we can keep up with! If anyone wants any cherry tomatoes, let me know.


There is something so fun about eating corn on the cob that was grown in our yard--Yum!


 Wednesday was my birthday, and we started it off with my favorite sprinkle donuts :)


We had a pizza lunch with my mom and Don, and enjoyed a delicious chocolate cake, made by Steve.



N & E are always big helpers when it comes to blowing out birthday candles ;)



Later, we used my mom's new selfie stick to try and get a pic of the four of us.


Success! We had my mom's birthday, and nine days after that was my birthday, and nine days after that is Nolan's! (Friday he turns 5!!!)



Bath time is never boring at our house. Nolan was saying, "Hola, my name is Nolan." And Ephraim kept repeating after him, "Olaf, my name is Ephraim." #frozengeneration


I snapped these photos on a walk a few nights ago with the little black doggies (Hammie 1 and Hammie 2). Our real black doggie hasn't been doing well enough to go on walks with us, but we're hoping Ivy is better soon and can join us again!



One of my best friends from college came to visit on Saturday! Linnea was on vacation on the east coast, and now she's driving out to Nebraska for her first job as a pastor! I'm so excited for her, and so glad we got to see her! Nolan kept telling me how much he wished she could stay.


Sunday afternoon, we went to our friends Noah and Carmen's baby shower. It was Seuess themed, and super adorable!



I loved this pregnant cake!


We tried "Campfire S'more" coffee yesterday, since I'm a sucker for anything s'mores. Mmm!

Last of all, my friend Shay (of the blog Mix and Match Mama) sent me a copy of her brand new cookbook "Eats" that comes out on October 1st! There are breakfasts, dinners, and desserts for every month and holiday of the year. I can't stop flipping through it to see the gorgeous photos and get more meal ideas! You can preorder it on Amazon here!

Hope you guys had a relaxing Labor Day weekend! XO.



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