an inlaw easter

 

ronnie and i hosted easter at our house this year.

we finally brought out our deck furniture

and made it an outdoor event since it was SO freaking nice.

we had many rounds of hunting for easter eggs,

a little game of bocce

and lots quality family time.

 

not to mention i have leftovers for the rest of the week.

sa-weet.

 

happy easter!

 

 

 

 

(31 weeks)

help!

we are having a middle name crisis.

i love brette.

but i don't know what i love with brette.

so i need some help.

maybe you can come up with something i haven't thought of.

or vote on your favorite from my list below.

anything is helpful at this point.

 

here are my rules.

1. it needs to be two or three syllables. i prefer three because brette and cox are so short.

2. it needs to be girly.  since brette is so gender neutral, i would like her middle name to scream "she's a girl, you idiot!" most of my favorite names could work for a boy or a girl and i'm not sure if it's fair to give her a boy's first name and unidentifiable middle name.

3. i would like it if it weren't SUPER popular. but really, at this point, its just a middle name, so who cares if everyone else and their mom have it too.

 

brette _____ cox

ready, go.

 

brette annalise cox

brette olivia cox

brette carlene cox

brette annalynn cox

brette gwendolyn cox

brette london cox

brette caroline cox

brette margaret cox

brette eloise cox

brette alaina cox

brette marie cox

brette louise cox

 

 

seriously, this is hard.

and its freaking me out.

ronnie has a favorite, that i don't love.
i have a favorite, which i don't know if he loves.
they're both on the list, i won't tell you which ones.

this is probably the one and only time
i want your opinion on my kid's name,
so take advantage.


 

 

 

 

 

a real looker

beauty comes from within,

yes?

 

so it doesn't matter that my at home outfits

are getting worse and worse?

because i'm pretty sure ronnie is worried that he may have

lost his wife somewhere along the way.

 

want this amazing look for yourself?

just grab your yoga pants, your husband's sweatshirt and an old hat.

really, its that simple.

 

i promise i have better style,

but the snow and the weather are heinous

and in turn, so are my clothes.

wah wah

but there is light at the end of the tunnel.

i bought two new maternity dresses.

they were on sale at old navy

i have showers and weddings coming up

and i needed something to wear.

hopefully the weather starts cooperating.

 

 

 

 



a work in progress

we got our chair for the nursery!

i was so excited because it was four weeks early.

nebraska furniture mart definitely gets my seal of approval.

isn't it pretty?

you can't really see the pattern,

but its a celery green gingham.

very nursery.

and did you notice the adorable pillow?

i got that off etsy.

(pretty much where i've been doing all my shopping)

its coral dandelions. i was instantly in love.

other things i've gotten off etsy?

art for my gallery wall over the dresser.

(i changed the hot air balloon from pink to coral

 - another reason i love etsy. personalization.)

(and this is supposed to be kites over london. a little shout out to my english heritage.)

i can't do much more until after my showers to see what i still need for the bedding.

and really, i'm not missing much else, except for things on the wall,

which i already have everything i want in mind.

i just have to find it.  or have ronnie make it.

i still need a light fixture.

oh, and a mirror.

if you see anything like this for cheap,

let me know.

can't wait to get it all put together.

so much fun!

the weekend

ronnie went on a guys fishing trip over the weekend

 

 

so it was the perfect time to spend with my girlfriends.

we ate a lot food.

and talked.

a lot.

it was the best.

dana and i are both pregnant with girls,

so we also got to complain and compare together.

just what i needed.

 

oh and i have leftover cake.

just what i didn't need.

but yes, i have had two pieces today.

shut up.

 

 

scary story of the weekend:

leia got into kass's bag while we weren't paying attention

and ate a whole pack of gum.

i looked it up on google and it said that it is fatal to small dogs.

i freaked.

we made her drink a tsp. of hydrogen peroxide and throw up.

5 mins later i had 4 (huge) piles of blue gum on my kitchen floor.

and i couldn't have been happier.

i don't know what i would do without this little girl.

 

 

 

 

 

 

happy st. patty's

st. patty's day weekend is one of my favorites in lee's summit.

they have a parade downtown followed by a pub crawl.

we can't resist a good pub crawl,

so we've made it our mission to go every year.

even when i'm pregnant:

 

 

and we always have a lot of fun.

a look at years past:

 

 

 

pregnant women

i l.o.v.e. these girls.

and i've laughed about this video for years,

and now that I'M the one pregnant

i can finally share it without hurting anyone's feelings

because i'm just making fun of myself.

 

clichés i said i would never do:

 

1. speak in terms of weeks.

i mean, come on, are you 4 month along or 5?

i don't know what 29 weeks means.

fail. i am counting this shit down to the day.

 

2. speak in terms of months after the first year of having a child.

is your kid 1 or 2 years old?

i don't need 22 months, just say "2 years old."

tba, who knows what i will do. but hopefully i can sidestep this.

i'll try hard.

 

3. admit to wanting a boy.

we all witnessed how i walked that line.

 

4. have the baby consume my every conversation/life.

fail.

obviously.

when is the last time i wrote on this blog about something other than

pregnancy/baby/nursery?

 

 

so, yeah, we (pregnant ladies of america) must turn into really annoying people.

i apologize.

and thanks for continuing to read anyway.

one day, i'm sure i'll go back to my old self

and have some sort of craft project, recipe or ronald story to share.

i will not promise, however, that it won't be for the nursery or baby.

 

life as we know it is over.

 

 

 

 



nursery sneak peek

today is the

12th

yay!

exactly three months to predicted due date.

i started my third trimester and my new healthier eating habits.

(no more cookies, fried food, ice cream or chocolate)

this is gonna suck and i MIGHT have had a piece of chocolate today.

shit.

 

i thought this called for a little sneak peek

of the nursery.

it's not ready for a full-on tour because

things aren't hung on the wall

and our chair is still 4 weeks away from delivery.

but here's a little preview:

 

 

 

see the huge b on the dresser?

ronnie made that out of metal.

looks like his welding classes are paying off.

he's not done with it,

but i thought it was cute he thought to do that.

future dad of the year, that one.

 

 

 

bumps on the road

i left ronnie with our babies at home this weekend

and traveled to st. louis by myself.

one of my gal pal sorority sisters is getting married in may

and her bridesmaids threw her a fabulous shower on saturday night.

i got to hang out with all of my old springfield friends

and catch up on their lives.

i also got to ask a lot of pregnancy/child raising questions

since almost all of them have ventured into motherhood.

this trip gave me a good excuse to go visit marge

in all her pregnant glory.

we painted our nails, watched bad tv and shared one bed.

it was almost like college.

except we added her 18 month old and two pregnant bellies to our duo.

she is two weeks away from her due date with baby boy number two

 and i couldn't be more jealous.

i won't get to see her or her new little one (name still unrevealed)

until my shower at the end of april

so as much as i tried to make her have her baby while i was there,

we're still waiting and she's going to keep him to herself a bit longer.

the road trip there was not good,

lots of back pain.

but the ride home was much better.

and marge's husband is a physical therapist

so i took advantage of his expertise and had him show me

specific exercises he has his pregnant clients do for back pain.

i will be added them to my list of remedies.

cross your fingers.

ps- your comments on my west coast adventure are so helpful.

thank you so much! oregon trail, here we come!

oregon trail

ronnie and i were supposed to be traveling to 

ireland, scotland and england this summer.

but with a new little one on the way,

that trip got cancelled.
wah wah

but we decided that we should at least take some sort of vacation

before our baby comes. just closer to home.

and even if its not europe,

i'm still excited. 

we decided to head to the northwest.

since neither one of us have ever been.

we fly into seattle for a couple of days,

then head south to multnomah falls in oregon

and end on the coast in newport. 

i got the ok from my dr yesterday to travel,

so we are headed out of here in april 

and i can't wait.

here's the thing:

since neither one of us has ever been to this part of the country,

it's hard to plan out our days because i don't know what

is a must see and what i can skip.

has anyone ever been to washington or oregon? any suggestions?

right now, ronnie's only mandatory stop is filson,
(an outdoor clothing store he's obsessed with)

so it's pretty much up to me to come up with fun things to do. 

while we're in seattle i want to see the 

space needle, ride a ferry to bainbridge island and go to pike's place market.

in oregon we're hiking to falls and heading to the beach.

anything else?

let me know if you have suggestions.

thanks!

update: 27 weeks

i'm twenty-seven weeks.

weight? i went for my dr. appointment today and i've gained 15 lbs. which i'm actually really happy with. that puts me on track to gain somewhere between 25-30 lbs. by the time this baby arrives. and that was my goal. i just didn't want to be the girl that gains 80 lbs. and literally rolls into the delivery room.
 



cravings?  sweets and soda.  real healthy.  and while i'm still abstaining from soda for caffeine reasons, the sweets have taken over.  for instance: when i thought i might be snowed in for several days i made a special trip to the grocery store.  not for milk, break or can goods.  no no. for cookies and ice cream.  ronnie couldn't believe what all i came home with. but i made a promise that after next week (which will put me in my 3rd trimester) i will no longer eat sweets either.  it's what i'm referring to as my 3rd trimester diet.  really it's just me focusing on eating fruits and veggies and not sugar. it's going to be hard, but worth it.

side effects? in my 22 week update i talked about my back pain.  five weeks later and i still hate life. but now the pain is not only in my back but my feet, legs and mostly my abdomen. there is no getting comfortable. no great sleep. and no relief.  oh, and brette likes to move around a lot.
a lot.
 so while that's fun to know she's getting bigger, i really don't love the kicks to the stomach.

baby? according to my baby books, brette is now over 2 lbs. the other night i was making dinner and we had packages of hamburger in the freezer and i got out two so ronnie and i could get a better idea of what she weighs. it didn't feel heavy, but considering that's inside me, it definitely looked bulky. which is exactly how i feel. the books also said her hearing is much better and her taste buds are developing so she can taste the difference in what i eat.  but since i hate spicy food, she's really just getting a lot of blandness... and desserts.

preparations? we have started on the nursery!  it's been so much fun.  my love for interior decorating makes me really excited to get to redo the office. (a room i considered done.)  we took the tree decals off the wall, shampooed the carpet, bought a crib, mattress, glider, and rug. brought up the dresser/changing table and hung curtains. i've started ordering some art work for the walls and we're still looking for a light fixture. i picked out everything but the chair.  ronnie really wanted a say in that, so i let him choose.  it worked out, because we both loved the same chair. score. but the fabric wasn't as easy. my preference was more of a bold pattern and he liked a smaller pattern.  i'm trying to pick my battles and let him win some, plus we had been discussing it for an hour and for a non-shopper like me, it was too much.  i threw in the towel and ordered it in fabric he liked. but i did make him get it in my color choice.  hopefully, we put it in the room and i love it so much i completely forget about how much better my fabric would have looked. but i doubt it.                          
 

the best thing? my belly popped so you can officially tell i'm pregnant and not fat. my baby bump is a lot like my boobs.  when i was in high school i can remember trying on my friends' B cup bra and wishing it would fit.  it felt like a week later i was shopping for a D cup.  same with my stomach. I sprouted over night. one week my pants still kind of fit.  now, even ronnie's t-shirts that i sleep in are getting tight.

the worst thing?  how much i hate life most of the day.  (just keeping it real) and i'm in awe of the people that choose to have more than one kid on purpose.  i can't imagine wanting to do this all over again.  i just really want her to be here and for this part to be over.  counting down 13 more weeks.
 

 

so there it is.

me at 27 weeks.

 

 

(17 weeks)

(22 weeks)

(27 weeks)

 

a look back:

week nine

week eighteen

week twenty-two

 

 

 

 

the size of a basketball

do you remember being a little girl

 and stuffing a basketball up your shirt to pretend to be pregnant?

this week, the books say that my uterus is literally the size of a basketball now.

sweet jesus.  this is no longer pretend.

 

and just to prove it,

ronnie and i made our way out of the house

to try something other than renting a movie

and went bowling with some friends.

basketball or bowling ball?
you be the judge.