The love of family

We are so blessed. Its times like last weekend that remind me of how grateful I am for my family. I also wish my sisters lived right down the street!

It was such a fun weekend hanging out.  All our spouses were here and

the guys like hanging out together too which is awesome! 

Now we have babies and its just so great to see our family growing!

 Just hanging out

 Silly girl

 Little Olivia 3 months old!

 So pretty!

 Watching cartoons together

She didn't want to take any pictures

 

Also, I am 31 weeks today and while I didn't measure around my belly yet,

I know I must have grown a couple inches this week. 

My ribs are so sore and my back now... I'm hopeful the next 2 months fly by!

 

I tried on one of my maternity shirts that I wore when i was 9 months with Laila...yeah it barely fits over my belly!  Dane is definitely sticking out a lot further versus with Laila I feel like maybe I was spread out more in the belly area.  Oh boy, can't imagine how it will be in 2 months!!

 

This was the best picture I could find to compare

 

                               31 weeks with baby boy                      32 weeks with Laila

 



30 week update

30 weeks has gotten here fast!  I'm excited that we only have 10 weeks

 left until we meet our little guy!

What a difference 10 weeks makes!

 20 weeks                                        30 weeks

 

He is about 3 pounds now and the size of a head of a large cabbage (supposedly).

I feel him hiccup all the time now, which I felt with Laila... every time I eat.

I think he is positioned in a diagonal (head down) and sort of sideways position with his feet near the right upper side. My bladder gets hit a lot and when he is moving/rotating it can be a little painful/uncomfortable. He feels pretty low so I don't feel kicks in the ribs yet, mostly on the side.

 

                                              20 weeks                                         30 weeks

Most of the time, my tummy feels so tight, I can't imagine it stretching/growing even more, but I know I've got 10 more weeks to go and he is going to double or triple his weight during this time!!

Right now I'm feeling good.  Starting to get tired again but not as much as before.  Getting alittle more uncomfortable and have hip pain as usual.  All the normal "getting big" feelings are kicking in and not being able to move around, bend over etc as well.

We've got the house back in order finally and we have been enjoying our time as a family of three.  We love going to the pool and playing in anything water related.  We are looking forward to my sisters and baby niece Olivia being in town this weekend!!

Laila has been fully potty trained for awhile now, but its really consistent now!! Hooray!  She only wears a diaper at night in case of an accident, but she usually wakes up dry.  She now tells us when she needs to go, although I still ask her. 

My pretty girl...her hair is getting longer!

 At Chuck E Cheese for Uncle Colton's birthday party

 Negotiating putting shoes back on

 She loves her Colton!

 

 This was funny... they were supposed to catch as many tickets when the thing started to blow them around... all Laila did was stand there in amazement, looking around.  I don't think she was much help catching tickets!

 

 Jumping in!

LOOOVES to swim!

Promo Codes for free stuff for Mamas or soon to be Mamas!

I got a gift bag from a very sweet lady that I work with.  She got me a few Motherhood Maternity shirts and with it came this packet full of free samples, a bottle, and other great coupons. 

Anyway... One I found in there was for several free things:

 Carseat Canopy Code: DMF113CC

 

Nursing Cover - Code:UC113VDM

 

Baby Carrier - Code: DM113JSS

 

I already have a nursing cover from when Laila was a baby, but why not have a second, and a boy color!  I also ordered the carseat canopy which I thought would come in handy during the winter.  Plus, they are free (except for shipping)!



 

My workouts lately

Staying active during pregnancy can sometimes be challenging, let alone getting good workouts in consistently.  It is important for mama and baby and has so many benefits.  But... if you just have a few bad days, or a few bad weeks (or months) don't feel discouraged!  Do what you can, rest when you can't.  Baby will be here soon enough and you can and will get back in tip top shape after your sweet little bundle arrives. 

29 weeks

With both pregnancies I've stayed pretty active.  I will say though that I have gone a month or two without an actual "work out".  With this second pregnancy I've had a 2 year old to keep up with in addition to working full time and lots of other projects around the house to keep me busy and active, which is good.  I rarely lounge around all day.  So it is hard sometimes to have extra energy at the end of the day to get in an actual workout.  The last several weeks I've had a lot more energy, so I am trying to take advantage of the good days and actually get a workout in.

The types of workouts I'm doing lately:

I bought these in a set through Amazon when I first got pregnant.  I knew my running days were limited and with being pregnant basically through the whole summer, I also knew most days would be too hot to workout outside. 

Her workouts are not super-intense for the really in-shape person, but they have great cardio sets and strength training.  They are mostly low impact and I've found they are easy to modify as I've gotten a bigger tummy.  Bottom line, I get my heart rate up and get a good sweat!

I also have a set of the Zumba DVDs which are great low impact as well.  I mix those in every once in awhile.  My friend Yohana did Zumba all the way through her second pregnancy and she felt like it kept her in good shape.

My best advice, just listen to your body, try not to be a couch potato the entire 9 months (you'll have your days like I said), even if it means just going for a walk or doing things around the house to get your body moving. 

Independence Day 2013

The morning of July 4th we went to The Woodlands 4th of July Parade.  It's the first time we've been.  Aside from being hot (in the sun, we couldn't find a shaded spot which was at least 20 degrees cooler) it was a fun time.  Laila enjoyed it, but even she too wanted to go home towards the end from being hot LOL. 

 Laila and Zoe are ready!

 Waving to the "bicycles" (motorcycles)

 Trying to get some shade with daddy

 July 4th night we did fireworks in our coldesac with all the neighbors.  I had initially put Laila to bed since she was pretty tired but then all the noise started and she wasn't sleeping.  Plus I felt kinda bad if she missed all the cool fireworks, so she stayed up with us. 

Daddy helped her do some sparklers, which she loved!

We could see The Woodlands fireworks show from our house!

 Watching fireworks with our happy girl (gotta have that "night night" though lol)

 Mesmerized!

 

 On another note, we re-arranged our house... again. We do this at least once a year it seems.  Usually its just been the living room.  But with all the new kids' rooms done now, I guess we thought, why not keep going.  We have a formal living room and a formal dining room, which in my opinion are a waste of space.  At least in our house they seem to be.  I have always said I wanted a craft area/room.  D.J.'s office was pretty enclosed and he didn't really like working in it.  So we moved it to the formal living room where he can see out of the front of the house (neighborhood watch) and it feels much more open.  I forgot to take a picture..

And we sold our formal dining room table and moved the couches and stuff from the formal living into there.  Looks like a nice little seating area.

D.J.'s old office is now my craft area and a place to put all the kids toys which were beginning to pile up in our living room.  Laila likes her new playroom too!

My craft hutch... just need a craft table

Toy area. Pinterest inspired wall art area.

I used my Cricut to cut self adhesive vinyl letters to make the "Masterpieces".

Summer fun!

 

We love when "Mantadanta" aka Aunt Samantha and "Jibby" aka Uncle Benjamin come to visit!

We got to play puzzles, go swimming at the pool, and had a barbecue!

 

 Our friends/neighbors came over to barbecue with us too and Laila and Zoe got to splash in the pool.  They loved it!

Laila and Zoe are only about 6 months apart, they are great friends :)

On Father's Day we got to see Grandpa, Julie, and Uncle Colton for lunch.  He is so sweet to her!

 Laila was proud of her Father's Day gift

He loved it!

Projects update!

Sorry for the long post, but we've been busy lately getting the house done and finishing up projects.  I think we are done! LOL

Kitchen Update:
Complete! And I am pleasantly surprised with how it came out.  When you paint cabinets, you never know! (not that I've ever painted them before, but well, I've heard horror stories).

 

Before

After

The process itself was pretty easy.  I used a liquid de-glosser to wipe down all the cabinets with, which removed the glossy finish.  Great thing about it is no sanding! Next we primed with a tinted color primer.  Finally painted with Behr Espresso paint, two coats. 

We found the hardware we liked at home depot, but being the savvy shopper he is, D.J. found the same ones online for about half the price! 

Laila's room is pretty much all done.  There are a few little things I still want to do, like find a mirror for over her dresser and hang a few things on that same wall, like the dragon flies I repainted.  But overall, my vision came to life and I love her pink pretty room.  Plus I love that she has much more space since the room is bigger.  She really likes it.  Her favorite color is pink so she was pretty excited to see it all done. 

Before

During: The stencil I used was from Cutting Edge Stencils.  This particular design is called Rabat (large).  Its about a 3X3 ft stencil which makes it easy when doing a whole wall.  They provide instructions on how to do it and even have a YouTube video, which I watched at least a dozen times.

She loves it and has slept in her new room just fine, no rolling out or anything!  It is a trundle bed, so when she has sleep overs we'll be ready! Ah, can't wait!

 

We started looking for a bedding set a couple months ago, mostly on Craig's List and woodlandsonline.com.  I found this set on woodlandsonline for a great price.

 

We talked about this being her new room for weeks in advance and now when we say "go put this in your room" or something like that, she knows which one we are talking about.  It took her a day or two to get it all sorted out, but so far so good!

 Still not sure if I want to put something on this wall...

 

 Still looking for a mirror to hang over the dresser

 I made most of these tissue balls for my sisters baby shower, saved them knowing I would be re-doing Laila's room soon and it makes a great filler for the corner.  Laila kept saying "OOH I like it"

I love this little nook.  I originally wanted D.J. to build some shelves there, but when we found her bedding set, we realized this hutch fit, with only centimeters to spare!  Couldn't have been a more perfect fit.  I told him, well you got lucky, now you don't have to build shelves ha ha!  It provides great storage for her puzzles, games, books etc. and she has much more floor space to play.

 

Baby boy's room is about done too! I love love this room!  3 more months until we get to meet him and hug him and kiss him! 

Tree wall decals from Skip Hop  

The striped wall is new (this was Laila's old room), just taped it off using a laser level and painted stripes, took about an hour, pretty easy. I like the look of it and the accent it provides to the rest of the room.

 

All the furniture is the same as what we used when Laila was a baby/toddler.  The crib is convertible.

His name is going to be Dane Jeffrey!  Jeffrey is my dad's name.  This will be his first boy!  I have 2 sisters, and myself and Suzanne have both had girls.  My step-sister has three girls, so needless to say he was pretty surprised, so was I!  He even got some tears in his eyes when I told him his middle name would be Jeffrey.  I wouldn't want it any other way, I love and respect my dad so so so much!

 

A little story behind Dane... when we were searching the Internet for names we came across a lot of "D" names we liked.  D.J. mentioned how cool it would be for them to have the same initials.  So it worked out perfect!

I bought these letters at Hobby Lobby (I want to say they were about $1.50).  I originally bought letters for the name Dylan, but we changed our minds after about a week so I went back and exchanged the "Y" and the "L".  I primed and painted them.  I bought some canvas, painted those red and hot glued the letters on.  I also bought the little wooden balls, painted them red and they cover the nails.  I did the same in Laila's room. 

 The owls are from Skip Hop.  The little D.J. sign is a drawing that hung in D.J.'s room as a baby.  I thought it was a neat thing to have in there, with some of D.J.'s model cars.

 

I actually want to get one of those pre-made shelves to hang and will probably put that little sign and other keepsakes up there.

 The pennant flag idea I got from Pinterest.  I have endless amounts of scrapbook paper, so I just found a bunch of colors to match the room, cut triangles, and stung together.

 I love this glider and spend countless hours in it when Laila was a baby. 

 The little shelf I was talking about would probably go to the right of the bed.  I had one there when this was Laila's room and it came in handy to hang a diaper holder, towels, etc...

 Dane's sign all done.  We can write in his stats after he is born.

Big sister Laila painted this for Dane when we went to the pottery painting place to make a Father's Day gift for D.J.  It says Love Laila on the back.  I thought it would be a cute keepsake.