Life as she knows it

Last night, McKay and I were talking about how tomorrow is the "end of the world".  :)  I told him that we had better make today a REALLY special day.  But then as I got thinking about it I realized that for Adalyn it really was the last day of her "normal" life up to this point.  My reasoning behind this is because today was the last day that Adalyn and I would spend together doing our normal routine while dad was at work.  McKay is now off work for the Christmas holiday and then the baby will come and life will never be the same again (in a good way). 

Even though this is a big transition (becoming a big sister) that Adalyn will not remember in the years to come; I will always remember our one on one time together that we have had for the past year and a half.  Adalyn was an excellent teacher for me on how to be a mom, and she has been very patient with my many mistakes that I made along the way.  I remember it felt SO overwhelming our first few weeks together I thought I would never get used to life with a baby 24/7.  But it is amazing how we transitioned and figured things out, and now life as a parent of 1 feels very natural.  (I keep reminding myself of this whenever I get anxiety about having 2 kids... it will get easier and become natural also). 

My favorite things about staying home with Adalyn have been...
-Going in her room after she wakes up.  Always love how happy she is to see me. (and she has crazy hair, like the pictures below)
-Nap time (not going to lie)
-Having a shopping buddy to take to the store

So in honor of our last "normal" day together we snuggled lots, watched movies, and went to the mall for a pretzel.  Adalyn's favorite part of the day was running through Barnes and Noble (on her own) and playing with all of their fun toys and books they have.

We love you Adalyn and can't wait for you to be a big sister! (6 days or less!)

Have a great day! 

Making room for a Boy

So I have a small sneak preview for you of baby boy's room.  It is small because not much is finished in there, but not much is going to be finished in there before he comes so I decided to just show you what we have got so far. 
WAY back when we learned that we were going to be having a boy I immediately decided on a theme for his room.  Colors and all.  Big mistake.  Always find bedding first/make sure your color scheme is out there BEFORE you decide on the colors.  I did the SAME thing with Adalyn's room (you think I would have learned) and it has been a challenge once again to find all of the right bedding/furniture/decorations to match my "dream" room. 

But I think in the end it is going to be worth it, because I am LOVING how it is all turning out (even if some of it is just in my head still because of lack of funds).  I am also excited that we now have a "boys" room and a "girls" room (that third baby should be a breeze to bring home; all you have to do is throw another bed in the appropriate room). 

So without further comments from the peanut gallery I give you baby boy's vintage basketball room...(or at least some of it)

View #1:

 

This is the view from the door.  The colors we choose for the room are basketball orange (almost like a rust orange), navy blue (go aggies!), and white.  Not a lot of blue is showing up yet, but don't worry it will when we add the bedding (thank you Julie for making it), and curtains (my future first sewing attempt).  Also there are obviously wood accents.  The crib is white like Adalyn's crib in case they ever end up in the same room with future children, we wanted them to at least match. 

The basketballs in the corner are the boy version of the cute tissue paper balls.  We got all of them from different garage sales this summer for a dollar or less a piece.   

This weekend we made the basketball court out of an old wood pallet and a white sharpie paint marker.  Normally in our DIY projects I come up with the idea (or find it online) and McKay makes it.  Well this time we did things backwards and McKay came up with the basketball court idea and I painted it.  Kind of fun to switch things up every now and then!  The basketball court is even the actual measurements of an NBA court scaled down to size, thanks to my engineer husband.  :)  Here is a close up (McKay is VERY proud of this, and I definitely have to agree that it was a cool idea)

View #2:

The other corner isn't quite as exciting yet.  The letter on the wall is a *possible* name choice though we still haven't narrowed it down completely (still want to see him first). The chair is Adalyn's old one and I love it SO much I wish I had one in every bedroom in my house I LOVE sitting in it that much.  The dresser/changing table was McKay's special project and I wish that I had taken a picture of it before he refinished it.  But it was a beautiful piece of work/junk that needed A LOT of love and care.  McKay convinced me to buy it, but then he did all of the work of refinishing it.  I like that it adds to the vintage feel of the room.

Well that is about it for now.  It isn't much yet, but it is clean, his closet is organized, the drawers are stuffed with all of those cute little 0-3 month clothes that he will out grow in weeks and the carseat is ready to be put in the car.  We can't wait to meet this little man!  (two weeks!) Have a great day!

37 Weeks

So I feel like I should write this post to have it documented for the future, but honestly I don't know what to write...  Everything is just so normal.

I will be 38 weeks on Monday. 
Everything is looking great, seriously nothing unusual.
Had to have a mental switch this week, when I had felt like I was SO done, yet the end was SO far.  I hopefully will have a better attitude this next week.  This last month is always really hard for me.     
He moves and kicks
He is head down, but I am not dilated yet
I felt like he "dropped" this week, so I decided to stop going to Zumba because it would be too hard to really move and jump around with him right on my hips.  So we are begrudgingly doing some at home workouts to keep exercising, but they are definitely not as fun.
Blood pressure is super low
No swelling
Feeling SO thankful that it is a "boring" pregnancy because hopefully that means everything is going well.
Here is the traditional belly shot...

The only exciting thing (at least to me) is that I started having a few contractions this week.  I know for many this is just a normal thing of pregnancy, but I seriously have NONE the whole time, so when I start feeling them I get excited.

Speaking of excitement this weekend has been a blast having McKay home as my personal slave helper and we have gotten a few things done in the baby's room.  We love how the things have turned out and I will have to share them on here soon.  Unfortunately we won't have everything done that I want to do in his room before he is born, but it is starting to look more like a little boy's room instead of a sterile hospital.

Well there are so many fun things going on in the next few weeks (3rd anniversary, Christmas parties, wrapping gifts, and waiting for baby to arrive), but I am still hoping that they pass quickly.  I am SO SO ready to be done being pregnant and move on with this next stage of life.         

What are We Eating this Week

Since I wrote my post about the changes in food that we are eating many of you have asked me to post some of the recipes that we use now.  So I thought instead of just posting random recipes (which I may still do in the future) I would post this week's menu that we are using.  I found all of my recipes through random searches on Pinterest and then just combined them for this week. 

Here is what we are eating for dinner...

1. White Chicken Enchiladas and Frozen Green Beans (Just like our old Enchilada recipe but with out the Cream of Chicken and we also use sprouted grain tortillas) 

2. Vegetable, Rice, and Bean Stuffed Butternut Squash w/ homemade bread

3. Black Bean and Pumpkin Vegetable Burgers w/ Fruit (we had grapes)

4. Spaghetti w/ Side Salad (I didn't use a recipe for this one.  Just bought organic whole wheat pasta and organic sauce and heated them up.  SO easy.)

5. Sausage with Whole Wheat Buttermilk Cheese Biscuits and Fruit

6. Rosemary Chicken and Potatoes w/ Frozen corn (We have had this one several times and really enjoy it)

7. Slow Cooker Meatloaf (made with Ground Turkey) and Baked Sweet Potatoes w/ Side Salad

Normally I only plan about 5 or 6 meals, but because of the way that we work the budget around pay day this "week" was a little bit longer so I added a couple extra meals.

Also I don't usually plan out ALL of our lunches and Breakfasts but I do like to plan one or two things to help me out through the week when I am at a loss on what to eat.  (I am really terrible at just winging it, as you can tell by my VERY detailed dinner menus.  I HAVE to be that detailed or I just end up wasting food or just going out to eat because I think there is NOTHING to eat.)
So...

Here is what we are eating for Breakfast...

1. Berry and spinach smoothies (no recipe here, just throw berries, plain yogurt, milk, and spinach into a blender)

2. The regular (oatmeal or eggs)

3. Homemade granola (still trying to find "the" recipe that will work best for us but this is the one that I am trying this week)


For lunch we are eating...

-Hard Boiled egg Sandwiches with Avocado (I was just going to wing it and guess on the recipe, but there is this one if you want exact measurements)

-Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwiches


For random snacking I will be making...

Whole Wheat Carrot Cake Muffins

Well that is about it.  And I know that I have said this before, but I LOVE meal planning.  Seriously is the highlight of my week to find new healthy recipes to try out.  I love going to the store (maybe won't love it with two kids) and finding the healthiest thing that I can (I know we don't get out much)  By the way, Idaho does not have very many "health" food stores so I have just been doing the best that I can with just going to a regular grocery store.  I did branch out this week and go to the only health food store that is close to me and bought the pasta, sauce, and tortillas but everything else came from a normal grocery store.  And I even stayed in my budget. :)
 

Have a great day!

  

15 almost 16 months old

Hello everyone!  Yesterday Adalyn *kindly* set a VERY random alarm on my I pod (which she thinks is her cell phone) that woke me up BRIGHT and early this morning so I guess that means you guys get a new blog post from me, ALL about HER.

But I really am quite overdue with a update about her so I thought that we should try and get one in before the new little guy shows up and steals all of her thunder on here. 

Today Addie is 15 months old, but will be 16 months on the 10th of December. 
A few things about her at this age...
-Loves to read books.  I think she is pretty tired of all of her toys so she has resorted to reading ALL day.  Mommy trys to be patient and read each story 40 + times a day, but it gets a little exhausting. 
-Can say yes and no.  Which is actually really helpful when she is trying to tell you what she wants. 
-She is a great mother to her baby dolls
-She is a really good Eater and sleeper these days
-Wears size 24 month shirts and 18 month pants and a size 5 shoe
-Likes to dress up, wear mommy's shoes and jewelry, and will now wear headbands again because she likes it when we say "pretty Addie"
-Likes to carry her blanket around the house, but it gets heavy and then she just wants mommy to carry it for her. (lucky me)
-Loves watching mom and dad cook food and do dishes from her high chair.  She will sit there FOREVER (to the point that she will almost fall asleep) when she is eating and just watch us.
-Screams A TON (praying for the day that she can talk) to let you know what she wants. 
-Gives really good hugs
-Can do stairs like a pro now

We love our little Addie girl, she is the highlight of my day.  She has been a very sweet comfort for me on the rough days and helps keep me going.  Here are a few pictures of her, She was ALL smiles on the days that I took these....

Feeding her baby, and then decided to let her little brother have some milk too. :)

Adalyn Smile!

Loving all her old baby toys that we are now pulling back out again.  Maybe we will just wrap them all up again and give them to her for Christmas.

Her fake laugh...

We love her. Oh so much!  Have a great day!





 
P.S. Sorry to confuse many of you, BUT that tree in my last post was not actually my Christmas tree and I can't take credit for the beautiful gifts underneath it.  But I loved it and wanted to throw in a Christmas picture with that post.  SO sorry to confuse you, our Christmas tree pictures are coming soon!