10 weeks

The hat is fake (added in photoshop) and I promise I'm not always this dressed up! We were going to a Christmas party last Saturday night so I had Joe take my 10 week picture then (10 weeks 1 day). Otherwise I'm almost always in sweat pants! Ha!

How I'm feeling:
My morning sickness is now the worst at night. I am starting to have my good moments though. Let's hope it's almost over!!

About the baby:
The little one is the size of a lime now! I think I should celebrate with a big strawberry limeade from Sonic! Ha!

Doctor Appointments:
Our next appointment is on Monday and we'll get to see our little lime on an ultrasound!

Food:
Current favorite foods: SALAD! potatoes, soups, milk... I'm really into things that are extremely hot or extremely cold. Current food aversions: avocados and eggs have made me want to gag since about week 5. I honestly don't know if I'll ever eat an egg after this pregnancy.

My body:
Still bloated (or is it just flab? Ha!). I think it'll be funny to look back in a few months and laugh about how big I thought I was!

The nursery:
We are going to start clearing out the nursery (current office) as soon as my finals are over for grad school. We're going to re-locate the office to the family room downstairs.

Baby gear:
We've started looking at cribs and furniture online. Friends have recommended we get a convertible crib but do you have any other tips or suggestions?? I've never felt like such a rookie in my life ;-)

Christmas Home Tour

Christmas is so much fun to decorate the house for! I love to get the fireplace going, put on some Christmas music and spread the decorations all around the living room before I decide where they should go. This year I slacked a little, though, and didn't put out as much as usual (thank you, graduate school and pregnancy!). But nevertheless, we have trees and stockings and it's definitely going to be a very merry Christmas this year!

We have three trees and I love decorating them all differently!

The front door has a bell on it - in case Santa tries to use the door instead of the fireplace!

We have two mantles to decorate. The one in the living room has the t.v. over it so I just put a garland down. I love these stockings but I just realized we're going to get to add a stocking to our mantle next  year! So excited!

One of the cheapest things I love to do at Christmas is fill mason jars with peppermint candy and sit them around the house.

Hope you have a wonderful Christmas!!!

a PINK Christmas tree

For years I have wanted to put up an all pink Christmas tree and this year I finally did it. Who knows - maybe pink was Jesus' favorite color!? I love it so much - it looks like it belongs in a candy store! I got some ice cream cone ornaments from Pier 1 (they spoke to me! ;-) and some strands of pearls to make it extra yum.

Have you ever done a girlie Christmas tree??

Fancy Tree

We finally got our Christmas trees up and decorated! We have three trees: a "fancy" tree that we put in the Living Room, a "girlie" tree we have in the Dining Room and we have a "special" tree in our bedroom.

My favorite tree to decorate is always the fancy tree because every year I try to think of a different color or theme to use. I buy ornaments during the after-season sales and sort them by color into tubs. This year I thought it would be cute to do lime green and turquoise.

I like to add all kinds of random objects to the fancy tree (Joe thinks it's weird) like feathers and birds. I even did zebra ribbon this year!

Tomorrow I'll show you my "girlie" tree. I've always wanted to do a tree in all pink but I've never been brave enough to do my full tree so I did a small one in the Dining Room. I love it! If we have a daughter I can't wait to put a girlie Christmas tree in her bedroom!

9 weeks

Friday I "turned" 9 weeks pregnant! That seems like such a short period of time because (as weird as it sounds) I can barely remember a time when I wasn't pregnant! Ha! Does anyone else feel like these first few months are an eternity?!!

How I'm feeling:
Still feeling pretty sick but I'm on some anti-nausea pills that really help! I've had a couple of good days here and there and it helps knowing there's light at the end of the tunnel (or should I say end of the first trimester)!

About the baby:
The baby is the size of a prune now!!

Doctor Appointments:
Our next appointment is December 20th - we will definitely get a sonogram then and I think that's about the best Christmas gift ever!!

Food:
Current favorite foods: ceasar salads, potatoes, soups
Current food aversions: avacados and eggs have made me want to gag since about week 5

My body:
Still SO bloated. I think it'll be funny to look back in a few months and laugh about how big I thought I was!

The nursery:
We're pretty sure we will not be finding out the gender of the baby so I've been thinking about neutral nurseries.

Baby gear:
My friend Jill gave me a calendar, photo album and picture frame for the sonogram picture for my birthday and then my friend Rachael sent me a pregnancy organizer book to keep track of milestones.

Lately

1. We went to Kansas City for Thanksgiving and while I'm SO THANKFUL for the blessing of being pregnant, I get so sick in cars lately so I really hated the car ride. I loved seeing all of our family!!

2. I took ya'lls advice and broke down and got a belly band!! And it is truly a gift from God!! Where has this been my whole life! I could have been using it after big meals! Ha!

3. Are you a real tree or artificial tree person?? I am a HUGE real tree person! When I lived at home with my parents I begged them to always get a real tree because I love how they smell and I think artificial trees are just too "perfect! Ha! I always put up a couple artificial trees around our house and then we buy a big real tree for the living room. I'm afraid to say that Joe and I had a "talk" this year and decided to break down and invest in a big artificial tree. We figured next year we have a crawling baby and it's probably safer to not have pine needles around the living room. We ordered this one from Walmart.com.

Happy Tuesday!!!

Turkey Day Survey

Annie posted this cute Turkey Day Survey! Play along, won't you??

Here's my answers:

1. I always make the sweet potato pie for hubby's side, this year I'm making a dessert (to be decided!) for my side :)
2. Both of our families live in the Kansas City area so we drive there.
3. There's always football on tv ;-) and we used to play Bingo at my grandma's house
4. Corn Casserole and everyone knows I will *throw down* if it's not there! Ha!
5. about 20 at hubby's, 15 at my side
6. I already have TWO trees up at my house - never too soon!
7. We sometimes Black Friday shop but it depends if we have something specific we need. We always look at the ads though.
8. Jeans and a cute sweater but this year maybe leggings and a dress since most of my pants are too small now ;-)
9. Oh gosh NO! Do people do that?!
10. No and the idea of that kinda freaks me out. I'm fine letting the moms and grandmas do it for a little while longer!! :)

Hope y'all have a wonderful Turkey Day!!

7 weeks

Today I'm 7.5 weeks pregnant but I forgot to start my weekly pregnancy updates last week so here we go!! :)

How I'm feeling:
I'm feeling pretty nauseous 24/7 (who ever named it morning sickness??). I'm so tired that I usually try to take a nap if I can in the afternoons. I pretty much feel like I'm barely stumbling through life right now! But I'm also so excited about meeting our baby!! It's almost impossible to wrap my brain around!

About the baby:
We are pretty sure he/she is happy and healthy although we will feel better once we've seen him/her beautiful face on an ultrasound :) Did anyone else find the wait for an ultrasound to be really hard??

Doctor Appointments:
We had our first OB appointment today! We didn't get to do an ultrasound but we love our doctor and get to go back in 4 weeks!

Food:
I'm not really having any cravings yet (unless saltines count!). I pretty much stick to bland things like crackers, potatoes and rice. And maybe Sonic mozzarella sticks. ha!

My body:
I feel like I'm so bloated (please tell me that's normal). I'm sizing out of many of my pants and the pants I can wear I usually unbutton as soon as I get home for maximum comfort! Ha!

The nursery:
We know which room we'll convert to a nursery but that's about as far as we've gotten!

Baby gear:
My mom bought us our first set of onesies! I've managed not to buy anything yet!!

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!!!!

I have a very big announcement to make and I thought no better way to share than to put it inside our vacation video. I hope you enjoy it and it explains why I've been absent so much lately (I'm going to get back to blogging more - I promise!!)

Hawaii

We made it to Oahu yesterday! It's gorgeous here and I wish I could have brought you all with us!! We are taking lots of pictures and video to show you when we get back! Aloha!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Kabobs

One of my most favorite things to do on a crisp Fall evening is make kabobs on the grill. For one thing, it relieves me from kitchen duty. Because I don't do the grill. Not after I singed my eyelashes off a few years ago (thank goodness they grew back). Ha!

I usually chop up pineapple, onions, beef and chicken and quickly thread them onto the kabob sticks and then while Joe mans the grill, I sit and watch the sunset and we talk about our day.

That sunset? I could swim in it.

Boomer always waits patiently at the back door. He knows there's a chance for a rogue piece of food to fall off the plate!

Do you do kabobs?? What do you put on yours? :)

50th Wedding Anniversary

This weekend we celebrated my grandparent's 50th wedding anniversary. They met at a Halloween party (my grandma said they had they played the old fashioned games like Bobbing-For-Apples! Ha!) and then got married a few years later on the day before Halloween. It must be nice to have your wedding anniversary around the candy-a-thon otherwise known as Halloween!!

My grandparents' first date was to a college basketball game. Which is so hard for me to imagine because I've never seen my grandparents watch any kind of sports besides Kansas City Chiefs football games on the t.v.

And my grandpa gave my grandma her engagement ring in a field, I think he was doing chores at the time. My grandma wouldn't accept it and told him he needed to wait to give it to her at dinner while they were visiting his parents. Haha!

After we had cupcakes and the cards were opened, the grandkids and great-grandkids played outside (had to burn off that sugar somehow!)

 There were lots of butterflies around the flower garden and the little girls thought it was fun to try to catch them.

And then we went to check out the horses.

And eating good being such a big priority in our family, we fed them a bit too.

Hope you had a great weekend!!

Personality Quiz

My best friend sent me this quiz and I thought it was cute - if you want to participate leave your own blog address in the comments so we can read your answers too! :)

What color are your socks right now? 

chocolate brown

What are you listening to? 

Boomer lick his lips in his sleep :)

What was the last thing you ate?

Chicken fettuccine alfredo

Can you drive a stick shift? 

I'm really good at killing it and ruining clutches! Ha!

Last person you spoke to on the phone? 

 Shawna, my BFF, for our daily chat :)

Do you like the person who sent this to you? 

She's practically my sister!

How old are you today? 

26 but only for a couple more weeks!!

What is your favorite sport to watch on tv? 

Oklahoma football

What is your favorite drink?

Sweet iced tea

Have you every dyed your hair? 

Yes and it turned orange! It ain't meant to be anything but black!! Ha!

Favorite food? 

I have lots of them right now, but lately Snyders Cheese Pretzel bits, mashed potatoes, heck, just anything that's a carb!!

What is the last movie you watched? 

Joe and I wated Home Alone last night - one of my all time favorite movies.

Favorite day of the year? 

July 3rd - our wedding anniversary and the day before my favorite holiday!

How do you vent anger? 

Talking it over and getting people to agree with me always helps.

What was your favorite toy as a child? 

My sister and I loved our My Little Ponys and I remember my life changed the day I got a Lite Bright for my birthday. Then we accidentally dumped the pegs down the heater vent and they melted! Haha!

What is your favorite season? 

I have love for them all

Cherries or blueberries? 

Blueberries because they're good for your skin

Living situation?

Living in our house for about 1.5 years now and still trying to get it how we like it

When was the last time you cried? 

Yesterday

What is on the floor closest to you right now?

shoes

What did you do last night? 

I had class

What are you most afraid of? 

Losing the people I love

Plain, cheese or spicy hamburgers? 

Spicy and cheesy!! A party in the mouth!

Favorite dog breed?

Of course I love Brittany Spaniels, I grew up with a Lab and I think they are awesome dogs and I have always thought huskies were so pretty!

Favorite day of the week? 

Fridays!

How many states have you lived in?

Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, guess that makes 4

Diamonds or pearls? 

Yes, please ;-)

What is your favorite flower? 

I love tulips, peonies and hydrangeas but also carnations!

Randomly on Tuesday

Here's what's been going on lately:

1. I started physical therapy for my hip problems. It's not fun but it's way better than surgery!

2. We finally got the roof replaced on our house after it being totaled during a freak hailstorm a few weeks ago.Which means I wake up to BANG BANG BANG every morning!

3. I found some really cute earrings on sale at Target. They are so vintage-y and I lo-lo-love 'em!

4. We've been booking more things for our Hawaii trip, like a luau and a day hop to the Big Island to see Volcanoes National Park.

5. Did I mention I got some cute earrings at Target?

Happy Tuesday!!

Some Things

Here are the random things going through my mind today...

1. I bought some moccasins! I have loved, loved them for a long time and I know everyone will think they are stupid but I can't wait to wear them everywhere. They are so comfortable! And, I needed them for my Halloween costume this year. How about that for a hint!

2. Tonight Joe and I had a little date night. Or date hour, which is about all we have time for these days. One of my favorite things to do is go to Borders and look at books and get a cup of coffee. We looked at Hawaii books and then Joe read some boring medical books and I read some boring camera books! Ha!

3. One of my favorite things is displaying cards (currently, ones from Joe's birthday) on our china hutch. I smile every single time I walk into the dining room.

4. Yesterday and friend and I met up in our cute little downtown area and took some pictures and played with our cameras. She is a professional photographer and of course I can barely operate my camera but we had some good laughs!

Happy Monday!!!

Office Tour

I thought it would be fun to show a tour of our office today! This is the room we'd like to eventually use as a nursery (rather than sacrificing a guest room), so we tried to make it look nice on a budget since it'll probably be changed sometime soon! Since starting graduate school, I spend a lot of time in here. Most of the time it's in my pajamas. Ha!

That's an older picture, and I've been adding to my suitcase stack!!

We painted the walls last winter with Behr Sandwashed Driftwood. I love it. It's the first time I've painted a room green in my life!

I love having bookshelves and there is such a hodge-podge of books on ours; old college textbooks to fiction books on my "to-read" list! I have a strong belief in sorting books by color, rather than by author. :)

All the stuff on the walls are things I did on the cheap! The chalkboard was from a garage sale and originally a cork board that I just painted over with chalk paint. I found some vintage Bingo prints to frame next to the window.

The lamp is one of my favorite things about our office. My mom gave it to me last year for my birthday. It just seems so "office-y" to me!! :)

Happy Friday!!!