Monday, December 29, 2014

Emery's Woodland Nursery


So a couple of days before our sweet baby girl came we pretty much finished setting up her nursery..
Hallelujah.

This has been my project for the last few months and I am sure I am much more excited than Emery is right now about this sweet DIY room being done.


So since we have been on a pretty tight budget.. I calculated and came to the conclusion that the only way we were going to be able to have the nursery that I was really wanting was if we made it ourselves.

I would never have considered myself a seamstress and all of these projects took me an embarrassingly long time.. AND if you looked super close at any of them I'm sure you would find reasons to not be super impressed.
But I hope that looking back my daughter knows how much I love her and how badly I wanted her to have a beautiful room that was her own to welcome her into this world. 

I completely just wung [is there a more fitting word that isn't slightly made up?] the bedding.. I saw a picture of some that I liked, spent days fabric shopping, and by some miracle sewed the teething rail, bed skirt, and fitted crib sheet.
Then I sewed the birds from scrap fabric and Blake helped my make the tree branch mobile from branches from our yard..

 
And I sewed the changing pad cover..
And finally I cut and dyed and sewed together the rug from fabric from our mummy Halloween costumes.
:)

& I have to be honest and say that I really don't think I want to remake any of them every again if I can help it.. Don't get me wrong I love creating and decorating. And wow did it save us a lot of money I would be surprised if we spent $150 dollars on everything in the room [minus the furniture]
But holy smokes.. Those were some big projects!


And this corner definitely felt like it "took a village" to put together I think it was probably the most work..
One of Blake's aunts made the vinyl trees for us from ones that I found and liked on etsy and then my sweet in laws surprised me and bought them for us for my birthday. Then another one of Blake's darling aunts and his cousin stayed up half of the night during their vacation helping me put them up! I can't believe how humbled I still feel at all of the help..

Then my sweet husband, who was so nice about everything I wanted to do for the nursery, humored me and helped me go get these tree trunks from a lady who had chopped them down and then he took the bark off, cut them to the right sizes, sanded them down, AND stained them. What a man.
And he made the birdhouse night light on the wall.
& I got the fun part and got to make the tissue pom poms and decorate the tables.
:)


The beautiful chest my parents bought us for Emery's baby gift,
Lanterns I had saved from our wedding,
And spice racks from IKEA [seen on pinterest] for baby girls [hopefully growing] book collection.



I still haven't put the pictures I want in her picture frames but I figured we could wait until she was here and take some of our [growing] little family of three.
:)

And other than that I have been super excited with how everything turned out...
 and SO grateful for all of the help and support in getting things ready for Emery. 
I don't know if every time you have a baby it's as nerve racking as your first one but  I can't tell you how grateful I actually have been for the advice and gifts and love.
It's made everything leading up to now such a happy experience.


[Every Christmas baby needs a reindeer right?]
 

And THEN.. the best part of this nursery..
Our sweet beautiful Emery.

I can't even begin to tell you how in love with this perfect good natured baby we are.
I know every parent hopefully loves their baby.. but wow I can't believe how full my heart has felt and despite the lack of sleep we have just been so happy over here.

Before the nursery was finished when we would get cute outfits I would lay them in her crib and just imagine the day when she would be here and I would get to kiss her and hold her in those tiny beautiful baby outfits.
I'm still probably hyped up on hormones but just this sight brings tears to my eyes.
I feel like the luckiest girl in the world to be this little girls momma.

Thank you for all of the kind words and congratulations!
Things have been kind of busy over here with family and adjusting.. but I promise to post the birth story and everything soon before I forget all of the good stuff.
:)

Saturday, December 13, 2014

Decking the Halls

 
Well.. the nursery is done. The house is clean.. enough.. bags are packed..
So I figured I should probably catch up on my blogging while we very impatiently wait for this baby.
 
I love this time of year.
I definitely never wanted to previously have a baby this close to Christmas.. but it has actually turned out to be nice that everyone has a break and that we get to enjoy it with so many.
 

And it was exciting to be able to have another little stocking to add to our mantle..
 
We are so anxious for this little girl to get here.
We really have so much love for her already and have had so much fun picking out gifts and getting ready for a new tiny addition to our family.
 

 
Another fun thing this year is that it's our first one in a house!
For the last few months we have been using coupons and buying a strand of lights here and there as we could afford it in hopes that by this time we would have enough to hang on our roof.
And last week all of our house living December dreams came true.
:)
 
We got up early and were so excited to be pretending to be grown up and hang our lights..
Um and if you are wondering they are supposed to be white AND blue.. as we were driving up to our house..
 [we had turned them on when it was still light outside and we were leaving so that we could come home to them on]
We kept saying are those OUR lights? Is that OUR house? Because.. I don't know if you can see blue or not.. but we sure couldn't until we got closer.
But that's okay I still love them and how Christmasy they make our home feel.
 
It's hard here where it is still 70 degrees some days to really even feel like it's time for Christmas!
It's also hard to complain however, because it's so comfortable to be outside without a jacket.
I can't bring myself yet to say that I wish it was cold or snowing.
 

And also much to my excitement..
The weekend after Thanksgiving we got to set up/decorate our Tree!
 
There is something so magical about Christmas music and smells and hanging ornaments.
I have been dying for the last few months for this very moment..
But Blake takes his Thanksgiving VERY seriously.
 


Like you would think the leader of Thanksgiving [for all I know.. it might very well be Blake] pays him to make sure his holiday gets CELEBRATED and nobody even so much as THINKS too hard about Christmas before Thanksgiving.
{& trust me.. he always knows}

 
But it does make it special when we actually get to start celebrating the Christmas holiday.


 
And I can't tell you how blessed I have felt lately to have my own growing family that I love so much..
 
Even though we probably won't have very big exciting gift Christmass' for at least the next 4ish years, I am grateful for the time that we have to really learn to appreciate our Savior and what Christmas is really about.
 
In fact if you haven't watched this He is the Gift video yet you should.
 
I absolutely love it..
I think it's perfect to remind us of the true meaning of Christmas.
 
I hope everyone
[whether you are experiencing Christmas in 0 degree weather or 70 degree weather]  
gets to feel the true spirit of Christ this Christmas.
 
:)
 
 


You Know What's the Best..

 
Family.
Family is the best.
 
With the baby and the holiday season I have been wishing that we were closer to our families.
 
But to our suprise my family decided to come spend Thanksgiving week with us so they could help us get the baby stuff ready [& bring us the most kind gifts from dear friends in my home town.. I can't believe how blessed we are to have such sweet loved ones in our life],
 annnd of course to spoil us with yummy food.
 
It was really nice to get to see them since with the busyness with summer and moving and school I have felt like we haven't got to spend very much time with them this year..
 
And during this trip we were just missing my goofy little brother who is serving a mission right now in Argentina until May.
[But as a side note.. May is sounding soon! Seeing as that will be his 2 year mark of when he originally left.. we are SO proud but have been getting pretty excited to finally get to see him again]
 
 


Since it was my family's first time in San Antonio we got to do a LITTLE sight seeing..
 
And by a little I mean we hit the essentials because when you are pregnant everyone seems to think you might not make it if you walk too much..
So it was nice of them to worry about me, but we just kind of took it easy.
 
[And my mother did specifically give me instruction not to post the pictures we took.. but sometimes I have to decide what is in the best interest of the people, and you look cute mom, but to the people-if these disappear you will know what happened.]
 

 
We played around at the Alamo..


And explored the Riverwalk..
{Oh I sure love this beautiful not so little anymore sister of mine}
 



And got absolutely spoiled and fed alongside of the River..
 
[Oh boy I asked our waiter to take a picture of us.. I think he took nearly 2000 and 99.9% of them we are talking or moving or not even in the picture.. this was by FAR the most acceptable photograph.
Is knowing how to take a picture a requirement to live in this century? I'm not sure, but we definitely got a good laugh about it after he literally used up all of my memory left on my phone and couldn't take anymore]
 


Then my parents took us floating down the river!
I have been dying to ride a boat down the Riverwalk since we moved here. And I definitely was not disappointed it was beautiful, I can't wait to see the river all lit up with Christmas lights..
 

It was such a perfect night/week with these favorite people of mine.

How do you travel.. and get everyone you love in one place?

It seems impossible to have both.
But I will say it definitely makes me appreciate the time that I get to spend with the people I love SO much more.
And they are coming back for Christmas [& hopefully to see Emery if she ever decides to be born]..

So I am counting down the days, and still feeling blessed for the ones that we had.

 


Tuesday, December 9, 2014

39 Weeks

  
Well ready or not .. I think that we are going to have a baby over here.
Somedays it feels more real and I feel more ready than others but we really are getting so so excited in this little home.
 
It seems like we have been in full fledged baby prep [survive the end of school] mode.
 
Blake just finished/survived/passed his first semester of Optometry school this last week!
And I have my last class/final tomorrow [my teacher actually did move it up a week for me because of all of this baby business.. hallelujah.. the kind soul] and then we have a full month off together!
 
Nothing could possibly sound sweeter right now.

 
Mmm.. so life at 39 weeks pregnant..
[This picture was actually a couple of weeks ago so only 37]
 
This last few weeks has been really fun in the fact that it's been the first time in my whole prenancy that people that I don't know have really been able to tell that I am pregnant and have talked and joked with me about it. & Since that is what I have been wanting this whole time.. I have really loved that.
[It only took 9 months to get to that point.. but I guess just take what you can get right]
 
It's also really fun because her kicks are getting bigger and you can just sit and watch my belly move all over the place while she moves.
And this girl moves quite a bit.. I'm a little nervous that we might be in trouble.
 
 
BUT I think I am ready for the end of this pregnancy thing. I have been absolutely EXHAUSTED this last little bit and it is quite the struggle to sleep.
Also I have the longest list of little things I have wanted to get done before she is here and it has been a struggle.. there is no bending over with this belly of mine.
I don't know what I would do without Blake.
 
I have been wishing that her nursery was totally done..
[It basically is we are just waiting for a couple of cosmetic last things to come in.. I just am being a whiner perfectionist before I reveal it to the world.. but I'm really excited to show everyone!]
However we really do have everything we need.. more than what we need..
 
& I think it's time
 


 I had the sweetest baby shower a few weeks ago that I am kicking myself for not getting more pictures of..
But oh my gosh I can't believe how blessed we have been to make the friends that we have already down here.
 
I definitely know that we are where we need to be and my Heavenly Father has sure blessed our little family, we have been just overwhelmed with all of the kindness and friendship people have shown us.
 
 


And this picture is actually from yesterday..
 
Does my shadow look as tired as I have been feeling?
 
Blake and I are so ready to meet our sweet Emery girl that we are ready to try every old wives tale in the book.
We tried to walk her out yesterday.. and actually my contractions were getting pretty consistent.
And then we read that there is a chemical in pineapples that helps induce labor so you can bet we bought one
 [my first fresh pineapple I think.. ever]
& ate 3/4ths of it yesterday.. thank goodness they are yummm.y
 
And something must have worked because last night I was having contractions like crazy. We had friends over and everyone was getting pretty excited timing them and thinking it was getting close.
 
However they just didn't seem quite close enough and at like 11 o'clock I decided I did not have the energy to go into labor and needed to sleep..
& For a couple of hours they kind of woke me becuase they were hurting but then I didn't notice them anymore.
 
But we have a doctors appointment today and hopefully we will have made progress!
We could definitely use all of the prayers we can get..
 
:)
 
& Hopefully next week instead of a 40 pregnancy post I will have a little newborn to announce.
 
Thanks for all of the love and support everyone, it wouldn't have been as sweet of an experience alone.



Growing Old Together

 
During my little break from blogging..
 
This sweet man turned another year older.
 
 
 
I am convinced that people don't come any better than this boy right here.
[& I know that I gush about him and share this fact a lot.. but seriously he deserves it]
 
This last week, I am still feeling so grateful/loved/dumbfounded, he drove me all the way down town (at least 30 minutes away) the night before HIS big final just to sit outside my classroom until I was done because I really wanted to go to class but it's getting hard/uncomfortable to drive.
[And because I had been having contractions that day and he didn't want me to have to be alone.]
 
And even though he constantly is so good to me I still am just floored that anyone can be so loving and kind..
 
Blake really is the most selfless, loving person I have ever met. And not just to me..
He is constantly reminding me how blessed we are and how we need to be more giving and serving of others.
I am humbled constantly at how hard he works to live what he knows to be right and to make sure others needs are met and that they are happy and feel appreciated.
 
I wish that we had more than one official day to just celebrate you babe.
 
You are forever my very best friend and greatest dream come true.
 
Thank you for reminding me to be better and to love my Savior more each day.
My very largest blessing in life is getting to experience life and grow old with you...
thank you for picking me and letting me spend your special days with you.
 I can't wait for all of the rest to come!
 
I hope that you had as much fun as I did celebrating.
Heres to the next year! I hope your years just keep getting better and better.

I love you forever.
 
 


Tuesday, November 18, 2014

24.. Does that sound kind of like Mid-Twenties to you?!


I'm so glad that we don't have to go through this life alone..

Although I have been 24 for a couple of solid weeks now.. I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for all the sweet wishes. For the cards and calls and skyping and texts and messages.. 
that is why I look forward to birthdays.
It really still means a lot to me, I am one lucky girl.
& I sure love and am grateful for all of you sweet loved ones that make me feel that way.



 And I have to say that being 24 is actually looking pretty good.. 

I mean really what age/day/year could be bad when it starts out at 6 am looking like this..
:)








 Then after being completely spoiled and loved on all day.. 

[Blake just went to one class and then played hooky-even after my trying to convince him to stay- to spend the rest of the day with me eating more than any normal human should and taking me to my favorite places]

We got to do one of the things that [if you can believe it without laughing at me] I was very most excited to live in a house for...

Giving candy out to Trick or Treaters!

This was the first year we have gotten any [& thank goodness we got some.. after buying candy and being excited for this I have to say that I might have cried a little if no one came] and I think I was more excited than the little kids.

After living in an apartment for the past 5 ish years of my life I love having our own little home and getting to play grown up a little bit. 

 


 




















I will definitely say that Halloween/Birthdays/Life has changed a lot through the years.. and it's hard not to reflect on it on birthdays as you start a new age and chapter of your life.
But I genuinely feel so blessed with life, with all of the wonderful people in my life, with all of the experiences that Blake and are having right now, and for all things that we are and that have lead me to be where I am right now and I can't wait to see what the next year brings.

[Check back with me though next year when I hit 25.. I may not be so enthusiastic to start that new older sounding mile stone. :) ]

Thank you again my sweet selfless husband, dear family, wonderful in-laws, and grandmas, and my great friends near and far..

I hope you know how much I genuinely love you!

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Reflecting on Life.. and Halloween of course..

 It's kind of hard for me to believe that a YEAR ago tomorrow we were just flying into San Antonio for the very first time for Blake's first Optometry Interview..


We loved the warmth and how green it was.. 
[I'm not so sure about all of this right now as I keep waiting for San Antonio to get with the Fall/leaves changing program]
We loved the people and how kind they were, the lights and all there was to do, and I think we just loved how new it all seemed. 

The only thing I was really hesitant about was the crazy amounts of people and traffic.. and the night before Blake's interview as we zipped in and out of the interstates and cars I said a prayer and basically just asked 
"Could we really possibly live HERE?"
I can't describe the overwhelming peace and warmth all through my body all of the sudden.
It was an absolute answer of yes if I had ever heard one..

& Ever since then I have known for some reason right now this is right for us & where we need to be..



And I'm in disbelief still at how much we have been blessed and all that's happened since my prayer, my last birthday {which was also a year ago tomorrow & the reason I got to sneak on that plane with my husband for his optometry interview..} and our first time in San Antonio.

School for one. For how hard we have to work to get in and how much we have to pay to be here.. and how much I know it is a blessing and we have wanted this..
Some days I wish it would just go away and we could just have real jobs that make real money and spend real time together at the end of the day instead of having homework and studying.
It was a big midterm week for me.. and every week lately seems to be a big test week for Blake.. so it's been a little stressful over here in our household.

Secondly.. it was a year ago this month that we found out at 12 weeks pregnant our first baby had stopped developing and our pregnancy was going to end in a miscarriage.
That was something that's still hard but that brought us so much closer together and has helped us appreciate everything we are getting to experience with our baby girl now. I wake up every morning feeling so humbled when I feel her kicking and wiggling around.

And SO many other countless blessings that we have experienced through this last big year of change, that I won't continue to list all out today, but I know have come from following our answers to prayers..


 But anyway on to life today..despite the busyness.. I have always felt so strongly that we need to make time for life NOW instead of putting things off and saying when we are graduated, or when we have kids, or when we have money.. because life will matter then.. but it matters now too and every phase of our life has something fun and different to offer.

So this last week we have tried to make a little bit of time to celebrate the fun  season of Fall and Halloween..
& Even though pumpkin patches in San Antonio so far for me just aren't quite up to par with pumpkin patches in Idaho.. and their Fall Festivals are right in the middle of the city..
It still has been a lot of fun to get out and I sure have been loving my Blake time.



  

 {This is completely a side note.. triggered by the fact that I look bigger but not super pregnant in this picture... lately I have to be honest and say that I have felt unflattered by flowy clothes that I normally love or most pictures of me.. & probably I understand because my body is paler, bigger, take your pick different than what I am used to.. 

But Blake and I last night were in shock at how much I have grown in the last couple of days..
-I actually have been looking/feeling pregnant not just chubby, it's crazy to everyone
so I was looking up on baby center to see how big Emery is and it was talking about how at this stage MOST pregnant women are reporting feeling sexy..... um what?! Who are these women?
If you do not fall under this category of most women at 33 weeks pregnant.. you are not alone.. not only do I not feel this way I almost passed out of shock that any {especially most} women feel this way.
I'm refusing to believe it. }

 Alright, now that my random side note/outburst is through.. this post ended up being a lot more wordy and reflective than I had originally intended it to be..
So if you can believe it I will stop with the commentary and let you just browse through the rest of our Halloween festivity..
 
 


 



I hope everyone has the BEST Halloween ever tomorrow.. and eats all of the candy they ever dreamed of.

Tomorrow is going to be our first Halloween in a real live house with hopefully real live trick-or-treaters
 [& I am WAY too excited about this] 
So if you happen to find yourself in Texas and want to give me the best birthday present ever.. come stop by!

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

::32 Weeks::


Only 8 weeks left of this being pregnant business, 
 probably life as I know it, 
annnd not being able to hold our little girl in my arms..

[& Only 6 1/2 if there is some cooperation and she comes when I am hoping she will..:) ]
Can you believe it?!
I know I sure can't..  it's sounding so soon all of the sudden.

But boy.. as far as comfort level of my body.. 
[& not considering what we do and don't have for her]

I am feeling ready to trade my fat belly for a baby..


I definitely have been feeling bigger.. and/or that our baby girl is bigger. 
Granted I haven't exactly had anyone exclaiming to me "Wow you're about to Pop"

[In fact just over a week ago at church I had a couple of people that came up to me explaining that I was just starting to show...lovely. so this previous pudginess has looked normal?]

But it's okay, a couple of weeks ago we had an extra 30 week ultra sound by Dr.'s orders to make sure that everything was still normal and the baby wasn't measuring small..
& Much to my relief she looked awesome! It was so crazy to me how big she was actually. She was completely folded in half, like her feet were right next to her head, and there was not any extra room in there really.. poor thing.

She was in the 47th percentile (which if you're like me and haven't had kids and don't understand the percentile thing.. 50th is apparently average and anything above or below is just that.. big or small)
So baby girl is right where she should be.. I guess my body is just holding her in tighter.. since according to the obscure measurement of centimeters I am measuring a few weeks small. 

And MUCH more exciting than the numbers of the ultra sound (even though it was much harder to see more than one part of her at a time, unlike in the 20 week one since she was a lot bigger) was that you could see that she had hair.. and chubby cheeks. She is becoming quite the little human.
And at that time.. not that I am quite sure how they can tell.. they informed us that she weighed just about 3 little lbs.

On to more recent events.. 
This week has definitely been the BEST & the most UNCOMFORTABLE week of pregnancy to date.

She is moving soo much.. it is so fun. Blake and I have been just loving it.. and she is more interactive than ever before.
If you push on her she will push/kick back.. and she is stretching like crazy. & The coolest part is that when she stretches or moves you can see it in my belly and if you push or rub right there you can feel her foot or leg or head.
It's starting to make everything seem a lot more real.. I don't know if every baby moves this much but I am grateful to feel her.. and for her. 
{despite my lack of ability to breath and very sore ribs}

Last night at dinner she was stretching really big so Blake was feeling her feet/leg and looked at me and said, "Our baby is soo cute." 
Haha.. We sure love you already our little one.  


Last Saturday we had our mere SEVEN hour birthing class.. 
This picture makes me laugh so much.. Blake was such a good sport with everything..
Even when they made us do things like practice putting the baby through the pelvis in different ways so that we could see what worked better..
{And trust me.. this wasn't even very weird compared to when we got to practice birthing positions.. that was a part-ay.}

Blake and I were easily the youngest couple in there and easily the most involved/laughing. Both of us were cracking up through out the day.. I was so grateful to have him there.. and am so grateful to have him going through this experience with me.
Because even though I am glad we went to this long class since it was really informative and good for us to have an idea of what's going on..
Some of this stuff was seriously funny you guys.. & I really hope I still feel that way during labor.


Um this is what they pull your baby out with if everything isn't going how it's supposed to..
No. No. No.
I am not even going to horrify you with all of the possible side effects.

Please pray for a healthy.. normal.. boring.. labor for me you guys.
Oh please.


Another funny thing of pregnancy?
Stereotypes.

Because no one would have thought  but.. they are real my friends. 
& If you are not getting a baby out of the deal I wouldn't wish them on anyone... those Charley Horses are a killer.


But overall the excitement definitely makes being so cramped and unable to breathe.. not that bad.
Hopefully we can pull her nursery together and make/get what she needs in the next few weeks despite the busyness of school and then I will definitely share all of the fun projects I've been working on.

What a blessing this experience is/has been.. I know I joke a lot about discomfort and things my body has been going through.. but I just wanted to share that I feel so so lucky to be getting my sweet daughter this way and to have a loving husband that will take care of her and cherish her like she deserves.

Life is kind of a crazy, wonderful, mind blowing thing.

Here is to the last few weeks!