Friday's happenings

Today I am 30 weeks pregnant! It is hard to believe I am in the "30's" already!  I cannot even fathom how much our life will change in the next few months.  I am definitely feeling the 'nesting' [although Birc would say that has been happening for the duration of this pregnancy] and my mind is always going 90 miles an hour with things I need/want to get taken care of.

In other news, we went and had a 4-D ultrasound yesterday.  It was really reassuring to hear all the great news on Savannah.  The ultrasound tech said she was "perfect" at least 4 times, so for these soon-to-be parents that was music to our ears. :)  We thought she looked absolutely precious and I loved getting to see her move around in my belly.  Here are some pictures of the pictures, so they're kind of blurry. [and warning, these pics are just like any other 4-D pics: odd and hard to make out what's what]

Savannah's sweet face [with umbilical cord over her face]

Her sweet little grin [again with the umbilical cord]

Her sweet hands [finally letting go of the umbilical cord for 2 seconds]

and her little bitty leg [once again, notice, she's picked up the umbilical cord]

The ultrasound tech said the placenta was behind her head, so the umbilical cord was probably always in and around her face.  So at least we can hope she won't be too bothered by stuff in her face! hah!

Can't wait to see her in 10 weeks or less! C-R-A-Z-Y!

This is what pregnancy does to you

Yes. It's 10 PM.  Aaand I'm having a bowl of frozen yogurt with MAGIC SHELL on top [who doesn't LOVE magic shell??].  And Caddo likes to have a lick or two as well, so he stays extra close while I enjoy my late-night snack :)

I used to try not to eat late at night, as it seems like a bad habit to get into.  However, since Savannah has taken up residence in my belly, I have been really wanting another snack every night about 9 or 10.  I try to eat something better for me [cereal counts in that category, right?] but tonight, a bowl of ice cream was calling my name.  And Savannah heard it too.  :) YUM!

Bathroom Re-Do Part 3

Well Praise the Lord the bathroom is finished! Birc and I are so very happy to have this behind us, as we had to pretty much move to the other side of the house to be able to get it all done.  With the fumes of the wallpaper remover and the paint, as well as the complete disaster, it just wasn't possible to stay in our master suite.  Here are some photos of the bathroom all finished after they left, but before we put our things back in it.

And, of course, their clean-up job was not stellar enough for this 'attention-to-detail' girl, so I have been cleaning and mopping and windexing and everything to get it how I would like it to be.  I still have a way to go with the cleaning, but we at least got everything cleaned up where we needed to put stuff so we've 'moved' ourselves back in.  The fumes are pretty much gone and we are excited to have a much better-looking bathroom now.  [at least I'm not embarrassed to take people in there now :)] Here it is with most of our things back inside.

As you can see, we have absolutely NO storage for towels and such in this bathroom so I had to get creative and get some baskets to put on top of the half-wall/tub structures.  Eventually I think we'd like to hollow the wall areas out around the tub and float some built-in shelves in there. We'll see :)
In other news, Birc and I attended our first birthing class at the hospital where I'm planning to deliver the baby, and it was very interesting.  I honestly think I'd rather not know most of the things they share with us, but they seem to think it is important I know certain stuff before Savannah picks her birthday.  I'm also starting up a 'freezer swap' to swap frozen homeade meals with some other girls I know once a month.  I'm really excited to get started.  I still haven't picked a meal, though.  I'm thinking either turkey lasagna or chicken enchiladas.  I'll try to post pics of what I get back from the swap!

Bathroom Re-Do Part 2

So, day two there has been a minimal amount of change.  But all necessary for the end result! And oh my goodness is it a major mess right now.  The texture is ALL OVER everything including the floor, the counters, the shower, the tub, everything.  Even the light switches.  They say it all wipes right off so I am not going to worry :)  Here are some pics of day two of the 'blown on' texturing.  [which, btw, did any of you know that normal painted walls all have some type of texture on them? I had no idea, but I guess if you think about it, sheetrock is as smooth as stone, and walls aren't usually that smooth.]

In other news, here's a sneak peek of a new addition that was installed today in Savannah's room! Isn't it pretty??? I painted the medallion and LOVE it, and an electrician put her fan up.  [think generic brassy gold light fixture if you want to know what was there before.]

Thank you Birc for getting up off the couch to take this picture for me.  Caddo says thank you too [from my lap]. :)

Bathroom Re-Do Part 1

SO, we are having our bathroom redone a bit, pretty much in the area of the walls.  When Birc bought this house, the first thing I thought needed to go was the wallpaper in the master bath.  We have obviously figured out how to live with it for almost 2 years now, but I know it might never get done if we don't do it before Savannah arrives. The wallpaper is this really special hunter green faux marble look.  It has wonderful pink and cream 'marble-looking' lines all over the wonderful hunter green.  Our bathroom is also FULL of bright gold accents that scream the 90's.  But for now, we're tackling the wallpaper [or actually, Furgerson Brothers painting is].  Here's our bathroom yesterday morning:

And thankfully, here's our bathroom as of this morning, after the wallpaper removal and wall patching has taken place. 

Today, they are sanding down their patch work and then 'blowing' texture all over the walls so it will be like the rest of the walls in our house.  And they warned me that the texture goes EVERYWHERE but they will clean it up.  Apparently it gets on the sinks, the tub, the floors, everything! However, it wipes right off with water [they say].  Let's hope I'm satisfied with their cleaning job :) When this is finished, it will be a HUGE check mark off of the Before Baby to-do list. 

Things I want to make

Actually this should probably be called, things I want my mom to either make or help me make! I see so many things I love online [especially Etsy] that I want to have for Savannah to use, and I just know the two of us could produce them. :)

This is a onsie that has the bottom cut off and made into a dress, then a cute button/fabric circle added off-center.  So cute!

This is one of those precious pillowcase dresses that has endless options for fabric and with a long-sleeved onsie underneath, she could even wear in the cooler months!

Aren't these precious?? I had one or two when I was little and my mom and I just came across them a few weeks back while looking through my old keepsake clothes. 

[sorry I can't figure out how to make the pictures closer together]

Burp cloths with cute fabrics.  However impractical they may be, they make me smile for now anyway!

Appliqued Onsies.  So cute and you'll never see anyone else in the same one you create!

This I know my mom can make 'cause she did it for Anna and me :)

A throw quilt for Savannah's room, that has the remnants of her bedding fabric and such. 

That's probably a long enough list to keep me [and mama] really busy. hah!

What is your favorite handmade item for a baby?

Pillow making

I spent a little time last night and some of my afternoon today making some pillows for our master bed.  We have some great bedding, but it needed that extra something to be as great as the curtains in our room.  My mom came down one weekend and we spent the ENTIRE weekend producing THREE handmade, partially hand-sewn, fully lined, floor-to-ceiling curtains for the master bedroom in our house. 

The fabric is really what I fell in love with, and so I made sure to buy a little extra so I could make some coordinating pillows for the bed the next weekend.  [that was like 8 months ago.]  However, the BB [Before Baby] to-do-list is getting no shorter, but the time before Savannah makes her debut IS getting shorter. Therefore, I took this semi-free weekend to get this marked off the list.  I started with my sis Anna's help in cutting one pillow form in half.  I knew I wanted two long but narrow pillows but could not find a form to suit my needs.  So we made one.  It was difficult, to say the least, to get the pillow form close enough to the sewing machine needle without having to remove some of the stuffing. But we managed and when that was finished I cut the fabric to the right sizes for both pillows.

Today, I attached all of the fringe trim to one side, which again, was more difficult than anticipated becuase my sewing machine is not really made to have thick sewing projects to go under the needle.  But I got that finished, then sewed the back of the pillow onto the fringe/front pillow.  Turned it right-side out, and voila! Well not quite, but after Birc helped me put the pillow forms into the tiny hole I left in the top, I hand-stitched the opening closed. Then I did it all again for the second pillow! Here's the finished product!

Not amazing, but I'm satisfied completely.  My mom would probably die to see all of her sewing lessons and tutorials for me come to this, but I am just not as detail oriented as she is [or my sister, for that matter].  Hah!

Bed before pillows

New pillows! Love the addition :)

Now, if I can get my mama to help me sew Savannah's nursery curtains and such, I'll be finished sewing for a while! It is terrible for my preggo back pain!

Surprise! It's a baby!

So, I guess it's time I get caught up into 2011 again and stay here.  Birc and I have had a very eventful year and it will end with an extremely eventful addition to our little family.  We are so excited about Savannah Cate joining us and we talk about it all. the. time.  We've had some crazy moments since we found out we were expecting and it has been a blessing to have such a wonderful and fun husband to laugh through all of them with me.  Here's how it all went down:
In March, I noticed my monthly friend had not arrived so I mentioned this casually to Birc.  We weren't really concerned, however, so we waited another week or so [April 5th to be exact] before Birc decided to go to Walgreens to purchase one of these:

After the result you can see above, I sent him right back to get another couple ("and try a different brand!" I said!).  So we got these:

That's when my 3-week panic attack started. :) Birc was so excited and calm from the beginning, and thank goodness he was, because I needed him to be like that so I could be too.  At the end of the 6th week of the pregnancy, we went to the doctor and got the good news confirmed, and decided to tell Anna and Aaron that night.  [which I'll blog about later]  We told our parents and Birc's sister's family a couple days later on Easter Sunday.  [which I'll also blog about later] 

Here I am at week 7

Here I am at week 9

We waited until our next doctor's appointment to tell everyone else, which was week 12.  Birc and I decided to tell folks on facebook with this pic [but I included just one of the hilarous outtakes from the attempts to get a good one]

The next bunch are just a sampling of my 'belly' pictures.  [which is such a weird name for a photo anyway, but I'll just go with it I guess]

[17 weeks above]

 [18 weeks above, in case you can't read backwards]

this above is the morning of our big ultrasound, right after we returned home from the doc with the "It's a baby girl" news! Birc and I both coincidentally wore purple so we were not in a pink or blue outfit! hah! :)

This above is my most recent photo, taken last Friday.  By myself.  Note that the "27 weeks" is written BACKWARDS as I did not have my husband photographer around and wanted to be able to read the sign. 

It is crazy to see all of these pictures together and see how much my belly has grown. And I can't imagine how it can get bigger but I'm sure I'll look back on 27 weeks as feeling tiny, when I get to about 37 weeks.  Hah! It is coming down to the wire and Savannah will be here before we know it.  Pregnancy goes so fast!

Here are some of my goals for upcoming posts: 

story of telling our families and my sis

gender reveal party

nursery progress

     our "before baby" to do list

[don't worry the GHASTLY bathroom walls getting repainted is on this list!]

home and sewing projects

 freezer meals

starting a freezer swap [so excited about this!]

and I'm sure more are in my head but if I don't write them down I'll forget!