long break

i think i'm going through that tired phase of

the third trimester.

i love me some naps.

and obviously, i haven't been spending my spare time blogging.

sorry about that.

it doesn't help that i've spent the last two weekends traveling.

first i went to st louis to visit with my sorority sisters,

spend some quality time with marge and her family

and celebrate another little baby and mamma at a shower.

it was really a lot of fun and it gave ronnie some

time to get work done around the house and have some

"guy" time. you know, pizza and beer.

 

 

 

then the next weekend we headed out to illinois

for the long holiday weekend.

we wanted to get in one last visit with ronnie's family

before i'm too far along to travel.

THAT trip was not good.

its seven hours.

i physically felt like i might die.

since we left at night,

brette slept so we tried to keep our stops to

a minimum. 

as in one.

as in, one in seven hours.

not cool.

i learned my lesson and we stopped several times

on the way home and it was much better.

brette caught a little cold while we were there

and her sleep schedule was all thrown off so we had

a few long nights.

nothing we can't get past,

it just made me extra tired.

in fact,

i think i need to go bed...

i promise to not wait so long before we meet again.

 

 

update: 30 weeks

i'm thirty weeks.

weight? at my doctor's appointment i have gained 14 lbs, which my doctor said is actually a few pounds less than expected.  sweet.  she said on average most women have gained 17-18 lbs by now.  that made me feel better since my scale is broken and i had no clue if i'd super chunked out or not. with an average of 1 lb per week from here on out, i should hopefully only gain about 25lbs by the time this baby comes.  that's 5lbs less than what i gained with brette AND i was 10 lbs when i got pregnant this time, so, fingers crossed, this leaves me with 15 lbs less to lose.  wahoo!  

cravings?  sweets. i want dessert followed up with dessert, covered in chocolate. its a wonder i haven't gained 80 lbs. and thank god, i passed the gestational diabetes test so i'm not stuck eating salads and celery.  

side effects? still no back pain.  wahoo!  i can't get over it.  but i do feel like this baby is much more active. or maybe i don't remember this amount of movement.  this girl is constantly flipping and punching - especially at night. as soon as i go to bed, she's up and she's doing summersaults.  its not fun. and i'm a little tired of sleeping on my side, i miss laying on my back.

baby? the baby is about 16 inches - - about the size of a cabbage. and "they" say that she should be going on a major growth spurt and running out of room, so i should feel less movement. i can't wait for that. she's also practicing her breathing which leads to hiccups, but so far i've only noticed hiccups twice.

preparations? crib is here, bassinet is here, mattress is here, and all the prints are ordered for her walls. my mom has taken on painting our changing table for me and i ordered some gold decals for it. i'll post nursery pictures soon. i started on my registry because my fab friends are throwing me a sprinkle in late june. i think everything is in order.  i still need to add to my stockpile of diapers and i need to find a weekend in june or july to make a bunch of freezer meals. exciting times!

the best thing? i'm getting to the point where i don't really have a "best" part. i'm over being pregnant and i still have a long way to go. it is exciting to put together her nursery. i do like that part, but truly, i am excited for july to get here.

the worst thing?  just the fact that i have TEN whole weeks left.  but hopefully, with the change of weather and lots of fun stuff on the calendar it goes fast.

 

 

 

 

 

parent's day

i'm sure everyone spent the weekend

either celebrating with their mammas or

at least thinking about how great they are.

i mean, they raised amazing kids, am i right?!

 

my mom and my dad have done A LOT for us this year.

"a lot" doesn't even really cover it.

i mean, we lived with them for four freaking months.

and i'm not kidding when i say that i didn't do

a single load of laundry the whole time.

nothing to be proud of, but still, it was nice.

not to mention all the dinners i got out of cooking.

i think i made three dinners in four months.  

be impressed.

they saved us so much money by letting us live there

instead of renting a place.

it was almost a shock to our system

when we finally moved into our house and remembered what

it was like to pay for everything.

oh yeah, this sucks.

not just the laundry and the cooking and the money,

but also brette spent this amazing four months with my parents.

its probably not every grandparents dream,

but mine really really loved having her.

and she really really loved being with them.

(now how do i convince them to take

unnamed baby #2 for 4 months?

i mean, its only fair.)

AND if i can add one more thing to this list that ronnie and i are so grateful for,

its the hours and hours they spent working at our house.

moving us, hauling furniture, peeling wallpaper, peeling more wallpaper,

peeling even more wallpaper. 

they spent a lot of days off up here helping us out,

eating fast food on the floor, and watching brette while

getting stuff done.

it was amazing.

 

so yes, i spent a day with my mom on saturday

and gave her a rose bush and a facial,

but really, don't they deserve so much more?

 

happy mother's day and a future shout-out to father's day as well.

i'm lucky to have the ones i got.

 

 

 

 

 

 

naming a kid

growing up i can remember at sleepovers saying:

if i have a girl i'm going to name her this and

if i have a boy i'm going to name him that.

luckily ronnie dug the name brette and i got to acutally

use my favorite girl name.

if we were having a boy we already had his name ready to go.

but never, never did i come up with TWO girl names.

i guess as kids you always assume you'll have one of each.

so now what?!

i have to come up with another name that i love just as much

and its. so. freaking. hard.

we've gone back in forth with a lot of ideas.

originally my fave was everly reid

and ronnie's fave was riley elyse.

i nixed riley because i think its way too popular.

ronnie nixed everly because he said it reminded

him of the everly brothers and sounds like beverly.

whatever.

so then we came up with sawyer.

we both really liked it and i thought,

winner, winner, chicken dinner!

but one night ronnie said her name out loud with

our last name and i died.

sawyer cox.

saw your cocks.

ahhhhh!!!!!

that got the ax.

 

i still really like the names

leighton

reid

presley

lennon

adler

blair

 

ronnie's fave is reid. 

originally my idea for a middle name, but

i think it might get promoted to a first name.

but reid what?

 those pesky middle names are always hard for us.

 

 

so basically we have NOTHING figured out.

and its killing me.

house decorations

ronnie and cale put up a few walls over the weekend

of the wood planking and i think it looks fabulous.

we ended up buying sheets of underlayment and cutting

them piece by piece, but the boys put together a jig

and were able to cut them four sheets at a time.

i am taking total credit for this because i said

all along the cheapest thing to do would be

to buy sheets and cut them ourselves rather

than try to find paneling we liked.

turns out i was right.

ronnie spend $100 and still has enough wood leftover

to get a whole wall done in the family room.

i wish we had done this in our bedroom too.

its WAY cheaper.

 

we have the dining room done and

the living room done because we only did

one wall in each room.

the family room is all we have left,

but it will take longer because we are doing e v e r y  wall.

i'm hoping ronnie decides to just get it over with

and do it soon, but who knows.

 

 

keep in mind that these boards will eventually get painted the same color

as our walls.  we just did this to add some design and to cut down

on the amount of wallpaper we'd have to deal with.

should look something like this...

 

 

 

which gets me in the mood to start

buying things to hang on the walls.

i've lived here long enough without decorations.

it's killing me.

i have a few things picked out.

some stuff ordered.

and a couple things i need to still buy.

 

this will hang over our sectional in the family room:

i'm currently collecting recipe cards from the family

in our grandma's handwriting.

the older and more loved, the better.

i'd like to frame and hang them on the backside

of the kitchen cabinet that faces the family room.

here is an example i found on pinterest:

 

 

 

on the side of that cabinet i'd also like to hang

a framed table runner.

something old school like this:

 

 

once its framed, then we can use it as

message board.

its a fun way to make grocery lists

and add a bit of texture to the idea.

(imagine this with lace instead of green)

 

my last idea is for the long wall in the living room.

i've always wanted to add a big shelving unit because

i miss the ones in my old house that flanked the fireplace.

so far the ones i've found aren't big enough for such a long wall,

but then i thought maybe we could build one.

these popped up on pinterest and ronnie said it wouldn't be hard.

consider it added to his list.

plus i love that it will add a bit of an industrial feel,

which i'm currently obsessed with.

 

 

i think that's it for now.

i just need ronnie to get finished so

i can start actually hanging all these things.