Our First Shower (picture post)

Ladies, I am so late in posting this.  Baby Boy Dane had his first celebration last Saturday (Jan. 15) and it was wonderful!  It was a luncheon hosted by my Mother-in-Law's friends.  Everything was so nice, relaxing, creative, and yummy!  We received many great things for Dane's arrival and felt so thankful.

 the tables were decorated so cute with origami sailboats and candy pacifiers

 the dessert table was adorable with different candies in glass jars and also hot chocolate, coffee, and toppings.  and everything had these cute labels to go with them!

 my 2 most favorite desserts were homemade by one of the hostesses-- cheesecake and creme brule.  yum-o

 the soups and salads were so perfect for our snowy shower day!

 look at all that yummy stuff!

 yes, i may not have finished all my soup, but i sure finished BOTH desserts!  :)

 this blue hat was tied on to the gift from my MIL.  it is Z's hat from when he was a little boy- hand made by his grandmother.  now dane can get some use out of it!

 instead of cards, everyone brought their favorite children's book to help stock dane's library!  we got some wonderful ones (and many of my favorites!)

 the clothes. oh...the clothes!  this little boy is going to look so cute every day!  he got some amazing 'etsy style' outfits and onesies.  

 more books and gifts and yay- our swing!  check out that beautiful backdrop.  looks fake to see that much snow in GA!  We got 6 inches!

 as a 'guest book' everyone signed this cuteness ceramic piggy bank!

girl pic!  from L-R: my sister, my mom, me (and dane), my MIL, my SIL

Like I said, it was a really fun day and we were so blessed to have so many people to share it with!  Oh, and these are 12 of 100+ pictures so you can imagine the fun details we got on camera!  :)

Nesting!

My goodness my little man has a lot of stuff already!  But we all know what I shopper I am!  haha!  I have 2 laundry baskets full of clean clothes, blankets, etc... to find a place for in his dresser and closet. Not to mention the books I've collected for him already.  It's awesome.  I love it.  :)  Here are pictures of some of the stuff I'm putting away today.

 This was his first gift.  We got it back in October. One of Z's best friends' moms sent it to Dane.  Lots of sleep sacks, bibs, and 2 homemade blankets!

Two of the cool onesies we got when we were in NYC before Christmas.  We had such a hard time  choosing and have been on the websites of the sellers looking at more stuff from them already!  The blue one has a cool image of a building in Brooklyn and then the Alien bird is sitting on the street light post that says 5th Ave. The shark one we thought would be fun for the beach this summer.

My husband is a photographer, hence all the camera-related stuff!  

One of the shelves on the bookcase.  I have a ton of books for him already!  I'm on the hunt now for some baskets to put on the shelf under this for the smaller board books and also some 'regular' size books.  And I know it's not a clear picture, but that little cream/blue stuffed animal there is a Jelly.cat giraffe!!!!  It is the softest, most wonderful little thing!  I LOVE giraffes and had been looking at the various Jelly.cat animals (b/c they are amazing!) and had never seen this one before.  My mom found it and gave it to Dane for Christmas this year!  Let me tell you, our little Sadie girl sat in front of that shelf for like 2 hours whining for it. Poor thing.  It's hard for her to know what toys are puppy toys for her and which are things for Dane!

Magnetic Chalkboard from pbk, classic Melissa.and.Doug toy (love their stuff!) and cool letters from my mom to spell out his name!  I have had these letters for ages and was going to use them to announce his name, but never did.  :(  Anyway, I put magnet strips on the back of the letters and voila!  :)

The 'overflow' books I have yet to find a home for.

'Sprout gown and hat'.  We have a beehive store nearby where et.sy sellers sell their stuff.  LOVE. IT!  My mom got this for me there.  I am thinking it could be his 'coming home' outfit...

newborn blue knit beanie from my friend Naylene.  She is a total et.sy shopper!

Dwell.Studio from Tar.get.  Love it.  Their stuff is so graphic but clean lines and bright colors.  I found these 2 little guys on the clearance rack Saturday.  The robot one even has a hoodie!  :)

FOOTIES!  My sister gave Dane the 2 classic polo outfits and I got the striped one at baby g.a.p.  The polos will be great for the fall/winter!

Speaking of winter, I stocked up on stuff at pbk for Dane's first Christmas!  

So anyway, that's what's going on today, on my snow day!  I need to be working on my maternity leave lesson plans, but I keep putting them off even though it is stressing me out beyond belief.  For now, I'm just going to enjoy putting up Dane's clothes and washing his bedding so I can get that put on (we don't have the bumper yet- still being sewed).  It's coming together!

Happy New Year!

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What a difference a year makes... last December we were supposed to be getting ready for our first round of ivf in January.  But instead I was having to go back on anxiety meds and suffering from horrible reactions to zo.loft.  

Now... here we are.  I'm doing pretty well with my anxiety (minus this one little shingles attack!  haha) and I'm watching my belly grow and feeling my baby boy moving and kicking.  Across the hall from our bedroom is a nursery.  A nursery for our baby.  Every time I walk by the door I slow down and take it in.  Sometimes I even tear up.

Despite ups and downs, we were blessed in 2010. 2011 is going to be even more amazing and I can't WAIT!!!!

Baby Dane in 3D! :)

We had a 3D sonogram done yesterday.  It was so cool!  Here are some of our favorite pictures of little Dane.  He was wiggling around good, his heartbeat sounded strong, and he still loves to keep his hands up by his face!  It was also neat to know that all the 'kicks' I thought I was feeling are probably 'punches'!  haha!

Merry Christmas + December Happenings

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! 

Ours was great- just busy, busy!  Isn't that part of it!!?  My last day of school was Friday and thank goodness for that!  Our December had been so busy with work and other stuff that I hadn't really finished my shopping yet!  So this week was crazy, to say the least.  And to top it all off, I developed a case of Shingles.  From stress.  Oh yes.  Itchy, red, painful blisters on my back.  Just too much going on for my anxiety and weakened immune system to handle!  I'm feeling better now and will be glad when it's all gone.  

Just to kind of recap, (since I haven't posted since Thanksgiving-geez!) here's what's been going on in my world:

• We celebrated my 32nd birthday!  It was Dec. 3, which was a Friday.  The kids were sweet and so were my coworkers.  We had dinner that night with my parents and the baby loved my choice of southern fried chicken and black truffle mac-n-cheese followed by peanut butter chocolate cake!  He kicked like a soccer player when we got home!
• We watched Auburn win the SEC game!  I'm so proud to be an AU Tiger!  War Eagle! :)
• We had brunch with Z's family for my birthday.  I had fantastic cinnamon apple french toast.  mmmmm....
• I had a 'leave early day' for Christmas shopping.  So did my friend/coworker Stacy.  So we hit up the mall!  And we shut the mall down.  After 2 trips to the car we left when they kicked us out!  haha!  (yet somehow I didn't get everything I needed!)
• Had a fun group of friends over and we walked to a Thai place for yet another bday dinner!  (yes, we apparently love to celebrate with food!).  We had a hard time getting schedules together so, yeah, I celebrated my bday 3 times!  I'm not complaining!
• We drove up to the N. GA mountains for my nephew's baptism.  He did so good and it was such a nice ceremony.  It even snowed during the reception!  perfect!
• Had the 1 hour glucose test. It tasted like non-carbonated Sunkist.  Not too bad.  Felt kinda woozy after.  But I PASSED!  woohoo!
• Went to NYC for the weekend!  Seriously.  The last day of school (17th) I had my class Polar Express Party and that night we were on a flight to NYC.  It was cold but fun (despite the fact that this is about the time I noticed the shingles- I thought it was ringworm or something b/c that's been going around the K-1 classes!).  Anyway, NYC is always so beautiful at Christmastime. It didn't snow, but the lights were still awesome.  We had pictures taken on the highline in Chelsea Saturday afternoon and we saw the Nutcracker at Lincoln Center Saturday night.  Sunday we shopped and flew home that night.  Whew!  Whirlwind weekend for sure!
• We made progress on the nursery!  The room got painted (a light blue/gray) and we got the nursery furniture!!!  I also bought a rug and a bookcase for in there (and some other fun accessories!).  I'll do a separate post on the nursery once I take some pics.  
• Started the 3rd trimester!  We were 28 weeks on Thursday, 23rd.  Baby kicks a lot and sometimes I can even see it and it's amazing.  Z talks to him a lot and baby really responds to him. It cracks me up every time.  I guess he's used to my voice but once he hears his daddy's, he starts moving around!  SO CUTE!  
• Christmas Eve was a busy one.  It all started when I got an email from PB outlet of their annual home sale up to 75% off!  My mom and I left early and hightailed it up there looking for a glider for the nursery.  They didn't have one, but they had lots of other goodies (she got 2 rugs, and I got a bunch of little decorative stuff for the nursery!).  We got back and got ready for family festivities: candlelight service at church, followed by dinner at the Varsity (an Atlanta landmark), and desserts at my in-laws.  It was a really fun night.
• Around midnight Christmas Eve night, I decided I wanted to put the bouncer together.  Z ended up doing it, but I thought it was really fun that we were 'building' something for the baby on Christmas Eve just like I always pictured us doing year after year when we prepare gifts from Santa!  :)
• And yesterday, Christmas Day, it snowed.  Real white, fluffy snowflakes in Ga.  And it was a beautiful sight!  

Nursery Idea Board

So here's the breakdown:

Furniture: purchased and will be delivered before Christmas!  Woohoo!  

Bedding: brown / cream gingham.  Love that I can do pretty much anything with it.  Will probably get some fun printed crib sheets to use with it so it's not so 'gingham-y'. 

Rug: It's the p.b.k rugby rug.  Love it.  Don't have it yet.

Book Rack: LOVE that it is open-faced!  And it mounts on the wall so it saves floor space.  We got an awesome little bench at an antique store (will have to take a pic of it) to go under it. 

Toy Box: another p.b.k find.  I realize it's a bit early to have a toy box in the room and we may not buy it now, but I included it b/c its so cute and different looking!

Initial Wall Decals: I guess they speak for themselves!  Can't decide which to use (if any) but liked the idea for somewhere in the room

Dog Art: cuteness, right!  Gonna keep looking around but I like them so far.  We have a black lab so I do kinda wish I could find one that looks more like her. However, with my husband being a photographer, there will be plenty of photographs of her around!  :)

Storage Bins: again with my p.b.k. obsession!  I actually got the big green/tan and the little blue/tan one at the outlet last week!  Score!

Vintage signs: these are smaller scale and can be purchased individually or as a group.  I can't decide!

Rocket Poster:  Love it and will have to get it soon.  This is actually the only thing on this page that Z picked out on his own so it's a must-have.  And I do love the top 'conquer the moon'.  adorable.

What we still need to think about or decide on:

Paint color (I can't choose one!)

Chair (I really want an upholstered rocker/glider/swivel club chair but they're so expensive!)

Curtains (I'm thinking navy/brown/cream pinstripe but I don't know!)

Bookcase (or something like that to display stuff on and but storage bins on maybe???)

So there you have it!  My work in progress idea board!  Hope you like it! :)

24 weeks

weight: +14.  I gained 5 in the last month!  whoa!  I sure hope it's not too much!

sleep: haven't been able to sleep in on the weekends at.all.  so weird!  I wake up at 5 to pee and then I'm wide awake again at 7-8.  I have been getting up and starting laundry and catching up on TiVo!

exercise: no... I should take this off!

cravings: back to desserts!  haha!   Current craving: cherry pie!  I'm gonna have to make one tomorrow!

maternity clothes: yep.  Still wearing a lot of my regular tops but maternity bottoms all the way!

mood: pretty up these days.  I think the vaca time helps!  

gender: BOY!  We have a first name but are still working on his middle name.  Will share soon!

baby: ear of corn!  His lungs and tastebuds are developing this week.  Better watch what I eat!

movement: Yes and I love it!  It's still really low (all below my belly button) but there have been a few times these past couple of days when the strength of his kicks really surprise me!  Z felt some good ones last night!

nursery:  We purchased the crib and changing dresser.  I'm super excited about it.  I'll post my idea board for the nursery tomorrow. I forgot to do it already!  :)

other:  I got to see my SIL and our nephew the other night for an early Thanksgiving with them b/c they were with the in-laws today.  He is 3 months now and I can't believe how much he has changed already!  He is a doll baby.  Makes the cutest expressions and holds his head up so well!  I fed him his bottle and rocked and burped him... so fun!