Caught Ya!

Coop has a new favorite spot to relax...in the nursery! Kurt and I have recently been "catching" Cooper sleeping on the floor by the baby's crib. And it's really stinkin' cute! He's going to be such a protective "big brother"!

happy

Did a little Christmas shopping after school today and realized I was going to be late for my workout. Decided to skip my workout and head home. Wrapped some presents {until we ran out of tape} next to our glowing Christmas tree and changed into my PJs early. Ate some delicious cookie dough, ordered some pizza, and addressed our Christmas cards that came in the mail today. Now watching Home Alone with the pups and my hubs {while Baby W is dancing in my belly}. Only thing that might make this evening better? Snow. 

Perfect.

Few, Quick Updates

I'm feeling way too lazy right now to do a whole two week belly update {plus I haven't had Kurt take any pictures for the last three weeks...oops!}, so I thought I'd share a couple things that have been going on around here lately. 

I got a call last week that our glider/ottoman had arrived at Buy Buy Baby. We were really excited to pick it up but knew it wouldn't fit in my car. Friday night we asked my brother and Quinn if we could borrow their car so we could go pick them up. We stopped by their house and ended up hanging out with them {minus Julia who went to Yuletide with my parents} and eating dinner. We eventually made it to Buy Buy Baby around 8:30. They had it ready for us, so we put it in the car and headed home. Josh helped Kurt bring it upstairs. We probably shouldn't have ordered both the ottoman and chair, but the ottoman came with this particular one so we figured we should go ahead and get it. There really just isn't a ton of room. We'll keep the ottoman off to the side for now and we'll move it more towards the middle of the room once we are really using it. The color looks great with the bedding and it is SO comfy. I can already see many late nights spent half asleep feeding and rocking Baby W...!

{This picture doesn't really do it justice since I took it on my phone. But, you get the picture! I wish you could see the cute Boppy cover that is already for the baby...my friend Anne got it for us and we l.o.v.e it. It's covered in dogs. One looks like Coop and another looks like Olive. Perfect.}

There are TONS of Christmas parties going on right now. We had three two weekends ago and were invited to two this past weekend. We ended up only going to one. Here's a picture we took from the one we went to this weekend...while we didn't dress the part {ugly xmas sweaters}, we still had a good time. I didn't get to participate in the Dizzy Elephant gift exchange....guess I'll have to wait until next year! 

I'm feeling pretty good. Only 6 weeks left {hopefully} AND I only have 15 days of school left before I begin my maternity leave!!! I have my 34 week appointment on Wednesday. We'll see if the doctor still thinks the baby is breech or not. I'm not really sure anymore. I absolutely cannot believe that Christmas Eve is a week from today. I can't wait for school to be over so we can spend time together and celebrate our 10th Christmas together! Enjoy the week. Hopefully I'll be back sometime to share more of what has been going on around here. 

More Nursery Updates!

Okay, this is probably going to be a long post, but I am SO excited to share all of the work we got done this weekend in the baby's room! I'm not going to lie, I have been putting off decorating Baby W's room and really been dreading it. I'm not great at decorating, but I always have these great visions of how I want something to look. Things never really work out how I have envisioned. Last weekend while we were hanging out, I spent quite a bit of time writing down things we needed to do/buy for the baby's room and looking up pictures online of ideas for the room. This week while I was out running errands, I spent a lot of time looking around for things to buy for the room. I have a habit of looking around for decorations but not buying them thinking something else better may come along. I didn't do that this week and I'm so glad I bought the few things I did! 

We had a couple big projects we were working on this weekend.

1. Making/painting bookshelves to hang.

2. Cleaning, organizing, and adding shelves to the closet.

3. Cleaning, folding, and organizing all the baby clothes {and baby gifts we've received}. 

Project #1 - Bookshelves

I found a couple different bookshelf ideas on pinterest that looked fairly easy to make. Kurt and I went to Lowe's on Friday night to buy the wood and paint for the bookshelves. This project was pretty cheap and I'm so glad we attempted it. We probably spent around $25 with all the materials and now we have plenty of room for the baby's books...we actually need more to add! :)

Lowe's cut the wood to the size we wanted for free so we didn't have to do anything but assemble them. Kurt borrowed the nail gun from his dad {and now wants one of his own!} and it made putting the shelves together a breeze. It took us no longer than 10 minutes to put all the shelves together before painting. 

We used three pieces of wood and nailed them into an L shape. Each shelf is 2 feet long and there is plenty of space to put a bunch of books on each one. 

This is what each shelf looked like before we sanded, primed, and painted. Pretty easy. After Kurt stapled them together and helped sand them, he went upstairs to work on the closet while I primed and painted the shelves. {I also managed to do 6 loads of laundry while we were doing all this work!} 

I didn't take any pictures of the bookshelves in the middle of painting because I was on a mission to get them finished as fast as possible...not to mention the paint that was on my hands that I didn't want on my camera! Thank God it was so warm on December 1st or I wouldn't have probably been able to do this project on my own. I think the paint fumes would have been a little much for me if we had to do it inside. Plus it was much easier to not have to clean up a mess inside!  

This picture was taken after one coat of primer and two coats of paint had been applied. Since I was out in the sun, the bookshelves look MUCH more yellow than they do inside and on the wall in the baby's room. I was a bit worried about the color when I was painting yesterday, but I really do love them in the room now that they're up. I'm guessing you're wondering what the yellow W is that is sitting on the cardboard as well. I found a project on pinterest that I did yesterday and I went ahead and quickly painted the W while I was painting the bookshelves. You'll see a picture of that project in a bit...

So here's the finished product...

What do you think? We love them! They were SO easy to make and really inexpensive. We plan to put the chair we bought next to the bookshelves so we can grab a book to read while we're sitting with the baby. Now we just need to buy some more books! 

If you look below the bookshelves, you'll see one of the things I bought this week while I was out and about. I wanted one place to put all the baby toys to keep them somewhat organized and accessible for when the baby is more mobile. I found this grey wicker basket at Home Goods this week for $20! I love how the grey matches the room and is big enough to fit a bunch of toys. Keep your fingers crossed that neither of our four legged children get into the basket and play with some of the toys! :) {We left the room open today while we were gone for 3 or 4 hours and everything was okay.}

Project #2 - Closet  

I didn't take a very good 'before' picture of the closet yesterday before Kurt starting working. I thought I had one, but not really. Here's a picture I took awhile ago before we even painted the room. You can kind of see what the closet looked like before... 

Anyway, the closet had only one shelf. The top of the shelf was FULL of our stuff that we had been throwing up there since we moved in. The half that you can't see in this picture has some of Kurt's clothes and shoes. We had already cleaned out some of the closet when this picture was taken, but I couldn't believe how much stuff we had stored in there when we took everything out yesterday...

Not too long ago, we spent a ton of time cleaning out this room and this is what it looked like yesterday when we took everything out of the closet {and before I was able to put all the baby gifts away...}! You literally couldn't move in the room! Where did we get all this crap?!?

So after we got the closet cleaned out, Kurt moved the one shelf that was in there up a foot or two. If you look closely in this picture, you can see the holes from where this shelf was originally hanging. 

 While we were at Lowe's, we bought another long shelf to add into the closet. We hung one of Kurt's shirts from the top shelf to make sure that he could still use some of the closet before hanging the second shelf. We also had an extra shelf in our garage that Kurt cut in half. The plan was to put two half shelves in the closet on the left side to have more room, but we ended up only hanging one. That way, we have quite a bit of space at the bottom of the closet to store baby things that we don't want out around the house. 

 Here are both sides of the closet. I wish I would have taken a picture before Kurt put the doors back on. Either way, we feel like we have a ton more space/storage and we were actually able to put a lot of our crap back on the top shelf! Kurt can still use the right side for a few of his things that can't fit in our closet and the left side has a bunch of room for baby things. We've put a lot of baby things in the closet that will probably be left out once the baby arrives, but it feels good to have them out of the way for now. Let's see how long we can keep the closet this organized...

Project #3 - Organize

I love organizing things. It makes me feel less stressed out. However, I wish I was better at keeping things organized. I was having a hard time starting this project. If you asked me to organize my clothes, I'd have an easy time doing it because I know how I like my things organized. I've never had to organize baby clothes before so it kinda stressed me out. I want to make sure I have things in places that make sense and are most accessible. I'm probably not making any sense, but it stressed me out. I made myself finally start getting things put away yesterday. Here's what I've decided on so far...

I didn't take a very close up picture, but next to the changing pad you can see another cute basket I bought from Home Goods. It's perfect. It has a little yellow in it and I think it's a perfect size for the changing table. I put some diapers, rash ointment, hand sanitizer, and a few other things we may need on a regular basis when changing Baby W. 

In the top three drawers, I tried to think of things we'd use a lot. In the left drawer, I started putting burp cloths, swaddling blankets, and Boppy pillow covers. In the middle we have lots of extra diapers and wipes. And in the right drawer, I put onesies.  

Underneath those drawers, I started putting outfits. In the left drawer, I put all the sleepers and in the right I started putting outfits. There are a few things that are hanging. We have tons of hangers and space in the closet that we can use when we need it.

What's so great is we have SO many more drawers for other things. I'm so happy we bought both dressers because I know we can use the storage for so many things. So I know things are pretty organized right now, but I'm not sure what I'm going to do once we have more outfits in a variety of sizes. How am I going to keep different size outfits organized...stress. 

While those were our main projects this weekend, I thought I'd show you a couple other things in the room. 

I'm not quite sure this is where all of these things are going to permanently live, but here are a few fun things we've gotten for the room...

From the left to the right:

-That is the W from the picture above with the bookshelves. This week, I bought a wooden W, one piece of scrapbook paper, and a picture frame {$12} from Michaels. I painted the W the same yellow as the bookshelves. When it was dry, I set it on the glass, cut the paper to fit in the frame and put it behind the W, and closed up the frame. It was a quick and cheap project! 

-The owl is something I bought from West Elm. I've been eyeing it and knew it would be a cute addition to the room. 

-Paddington Bear is SO cute. My mom bought that for the baby while they were in London this Fall. We need to keep him high up so Coop and Olive don't eat him. :)

-The frame on the right is from my aunt. That is not a picture of us...yet! It says on the top, "One Lucky Baby, One Happy Family." I can't wait to put a picture of us in it soon! 

Kurt and I are not huge stuffed animal people. However, while we were cleaning out the guest room this fall, we found three that we knew we wanted to keep for Baby W. They are currently waiting in the crib...until they need to find a new place until the baby is older. 

The dog on the left was a gift from Kurt to me one Christmas. He bought it for me because it kinda looks like Coop. The IU bear in the middle is Kurt's from when he was a baby! We absolutely love it and can't wait for our baby to have it. The bear on the right was a present that I bought Kurt when we first started dating. I'm not really sure why I thought it'd be good to buy him a stuffed animal, but Kurt kept that bear in his room all through college. 

On the front of the crib, we have this little sheep hanging. {Thanks Peck!} Not only is the sheep cute, he is a sound maker. Kurt and I sleep with our white noise app {crickets and water to be exact!} so we thought our baby would like some noise, too. 

If you look behind the lamb, you'll see the new bedding! The crib skirt is already on and the two sheets we bought are washed and folded on top of the mattress. I'm waiting to put one of the sheets on until we get a waterproof mattress cover. 

The latest addition to the room is above the crib and I absolutely love it. My friend Lauren lives in San Fran and obviously couldn't come to my shower today. She is so thoughtful and sent Mer some decorations for the shower today. We loved this little banner so much, we decided to hang it above the crib! It's so perfect. 

 I was kinda dreading having to buy more things to fill the wall space above the crib and now I don't have to worry. And, it will always remind me of how much fun I had at my shower today and Lauren! 

 It may not look like we got much done, but it feels like we did SO much yesterday. I'm actually starting to fall in love with this room and absolutely cannot wait to spend time with our baby in the room. We still have some things to do and do have quite a bit of things to find places for {see corner of the room in the next pictures}, but we're getting there! I'd like to also buy a fun mirror to put somewhere in the room. We have a few more projects we'd like to do, too. 

So what do you think? I think I'm ready for a baby to be in this room! :)

Week 31

Week 31

Well I must say, I was pretty productive last Sunday after I finished blogging. I got the first 5 Christmas presents wrapped and under the tree and finished a couple weeks worth of laundry. This week definitely wasn't as crazy as the month before, but we still had quite a bit going on. Only 3 more weeks of school before Winter Break. I. Can't. Wait. 

What's going on with baby: Baby W continues to grow {let's hope not too big!}. He/she is around 16 inches long and over 3 pounds. The baby can turn it's head from side to side, which I can definitely feel at the top of my belly since it's breech....I don't think there is much room up top for a head and shoulders! The baby continues to move around quite a bit, especially when Daddy puts his hand on my belly. 

What's going on with me: All the books/websites say that I could start feeling Braxton Hicks contractions now. I'm not really sure if I have or not, but there are definite times when my belly is harder than others. Some of those times I think it's the baby's head or shoulders I can feel. My back doesn't hurt as much as I expected it to. I've been sleeping pretty well. I usually wake up between 2 & 3 to go to the bathroom and sometimes have a hard time falling back to sleep. While it's hard for me to stay up later than 10ish most nights, I do sleep better the later I go to bed. I typically get a good 4-5 hour stretch of sleep before I'm tossing and turning. The 20+ pounds I've gained have started making my feet really hurt by the end of the day. I try to stay off my feet as much as possible, but that's not really realistic with my job! :) I am starting to notice my feet and hands swelling a bit by the end of the day. Nothing crazy. My rings still fit, but they are a little more difficult to take off than usual. I'm still feeling really pretty great! I do think that working out 2-3 times a week has really helped. My plan is to continue working out until I deliver. It's definitely getting a litter harder to workout and I don't really feel like I've done much when I'm finished. But, it's better than nothing! 

What happened this week:

-Monday after school I had a quick parent conference. After that, I came home. Kurt and I actually had time to make dinner together and enjoy some time just relaxing. 

-Tuesday was another day with meetings after school. After I was finished, I rushed up to Noblesville {thank God we don't live up there because the traffic is terrible!} to pick up the bedding for the baby's crib! I really probably should have gone another day, but I was too excited to wait. After driving for close to 45 minutes to get up to the store, I rushed back to get to 5 Seasons to work out with my mom. I was pretty late and only got in about 30 minutes of working out. When I got home, I helped Kurt pick up the house a bit before Lauren and Tom came over for dinner. Kurt made chili in the morning and I made some cookies when I got home. Both were delicious! Lauren and Tom hung out for a bit and then we watched the IU/North Carolina bball game. It was a pretty late night considering the game didn't start until 9:30!

-Wednesday I had pilates after school. I decided to run a few errands after working out to try and buy some more Christmas presents. I made it to a few stores before I was ready to get home and eat some dinner! I hate how early it gets dark now...it feels so much later than it really is!

-Thursday after school, I went to run some more errands. This time with ideas of things I wanted to buy for the baby's room. It was a really successful trip to a couple stores! {Pictures to come of things I bought for the room...} After shopping, I met my mom to work out. We went to dinner together and went to The Blue Door to do a little shopping. I was pretty tired by the end of the evening from being on my feet a ton all day. I was ready to get home and get in bed after a long day. 

-Friday I went to get a manicure. When I was finished, I met Kurt at Lowe's to pick up some things for our projects we wanted to do in the baby's room. After that, we went to my parent's house and all went out to dinner with them. We finally got home around 9:30. We hung out for a bit before heading to bed. We knew Saturday was going to be a busy day. 

-Saturday, Kurt had to get up early to go pick up a few tools from his parent's house and the head to IU North for his New Dad class! When he left, I got up and watched a few shows before cleaning the house. He got home around noon and we got right to work on all of our projects {bookshelves, closet shelves & reorganizing, laundry, etc}. We worked on things for over 7 hours. I was absolutely exhausted by the end of the day, but felt SO great about all the work we completed. I am absolutely loving how the baby's room is coming together and am so excited to be able to spend time in there with our little one!! Once we finally sat down, we really didn't feel like cooking anything for dinner. We picked up some Chinese food, watched the second half of the IU game, and relaxed for the rest of the night. Of course, I fell asleep on the couch pretty early while Kurt stayed up and watched some Christmas movies without me....there is NO way I could have stayed awake! :) 

-Today was another great day! Mer and Magee hosted a baby shower for me. I'm so thankful for great friends! I had so much fun seeing so many friends I don't get to see very often. When I got home, Kurt and I finished up a few things in the baby's room and I put another load of baby clothes in the washer. I plan to put that all away tonight before heading to bed. 

Our next doctor appointment is Tuesday. I'm guessing it will be quick and painless {although I have to get a shot...ugh} like last time. I know the baby is still breech so we'll probably talk about that some more. We HAVE to get a  pediatrician finalized so I'd like to talk to the dr about that. 

Only 15 more days that I have to get up early before I'm off work for two weeks. I'm SO excited.  

Good Day!

I picked up the baby bedding today after school. It's so cute! I can't wait to see it all in the crib. After working out, I came home to a house smelling of yummy chili. I made some of these awesome cookies {I think I've already had 5!!!}. Lauren and Tom came over for a bit to have dinner. Now watching the IU game. Go Hoosiers! It's been a good day! :)

Catching Up! {Weeks 27-30}

Since I'm so far behind {thanks to a crazy, crazy life}, I'm going to do a quick overview of things that happened from week 27 to week 30. I could literally write a chapter in a book telling all the things that have been going on...I don't want to bore you! Since being in the third trimester {I can't believe it!!!}, the weekly updates I get about the baby are pretty much the same - growing/adding body fat and the brain is getting more and more advanced. I'm still feeling great. I'm just impatient and can't wait to meet our baby! 

Weeks 27 & 28

{I needed to include a picture with my pups!} 

How big is baby: 

The baby is around 2 pounds and 14 and a half inches long, about the size of a head of cauliflower. 

What happened these two weeks: 

{two whole weeks of ZERO workouts...ugh!}

Considering this was a month ago, I don't remember every little thing that happened. However, I do know that this was a week full of long days and late nights. I was trying to work on reports as much as possible. 

Monday - Coop had surgery. Kurt picked him up when he was finished {everything went okay} so I could stay late at school to write reports. 

Tuesday - We had our second childbirth class from 6-9 at IU North. 

Wednesday - Halloween! I didn't have pilates after school, so I stayed until 6ish to write reports. I rushed home so Kurt and I could pass out candy. We didn't buy much this year and we ended up running out by 7:30. We ended up ordering a pizza and hanging out the rest of the night. 

Thursday - We had our first CPR/First Aid class at IU North from 6:30-8:30. I came home quickly from school so we could eat a quick dinner before heading up to the hospital. 

Saturday - A bunch of us headed down to Bloomington to tailgate. It was absolutely freezing! We didn't stay out in the field for too long because the weather was so miserable. We left the field and headed to Yogi's to get a bite to eat before going over to Nick's. We stayed there for awhile and watched the end of the IU and ND games. It was great being back in town, but not as much fun...especially when I had to sit and watch a fun game of sink the biz. :) We went over to Upstairs for a bit before heading home that night. 

Sunday - Kurt and I went to the Colts game with my parents. It was a good win! After the game, we decided to go grab a bite to eat. We ended up going to La Margarita in Fountain Square. It was delicious. We'll definitely need to go there some more...especially when the weather is nicer. 

Monday - I stayed really late after school writing reports. I ended up getting a lot done and worked some more after coming home. 

Tuesday - I had my 28 week doctor appointment and glucose test. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be! My test results were normal. My doctor said everything looked good at the appointment and that the baby was measuring right where he/she should be. 

Wednesday - I changed pilates to Friday so I could stay after school to write more reports. Another late night at school. 

Thursday - I stayed after school until 5ish to try and finish reports. Of course I didn't finish, but I was close! I met Kurt at my parent's house so we could head up to the hospital for our second CPR/First Aid class. Julia and Lauren were at my parent's house because Quinn was in labor. We all decided to grab a bite to eat at McAlister's before Kurt and I headed up to our class. At the end of class, I had a bunch of texts because Quinn had the baby. My dad took Julia up to see the baby that night. We were going to stop by, but they weren't in the mood for more visitors that night and it was getting late. When we got home, I went back to work on report writing. I ended up staying up until after midnight finishing up reports. I was exhausted! 

Friday - I headed to pilates directly from school. After that, I met Kurt at the hospital to meet Ally. We hung out there for a bit before heading home to watch the IU basketball game with some friends. Once the game was over, I went straight to bed because I was so tired! 

{Meeting Ally for the first time!}

Saturday - I had to get up kinda early because I had a writing workshop conference downtown. It took up most of the day. After the conference, I went to pick up my mom. We went to run a few errands together and then went to get our nails done. We picked up some food on the way home. I dropped her off at home and then I came home to bring dinner to Kurt. We stayed home and watched football. I'm sure I fell asleep early on the couch. 

Sunday - My aunt and cousin had a baby shower for me! It was so much fun. I'm planning to post about it sometime this week. After the shower, I came home to show Kurt some of the gifts. My dad and brother brought my mom's car down later to drop off the rest of the gifts. Kurt left for hockey and I went to dinner with Christopher and my mom. Christopher and I were going to go to Kurt's game, but it was too late once we were finished eating. After dinner, I headed home and got in bed early. 

Weeks 29 & 30

How big is baby: The baby is growing quickly and is around three pounds by the end of week 30!! He/she is somewhere around 15 inches long. Seems like the baby might start feeling pretty squished soon! 

What happened these two weeks:
Tuesday - I went and got my hair cut. I got like 3 or 4 inches cut off, but it's kinda hard to tell! I'm glad I didn't get it cut any shorter. I'm not quite ready to have short hair again. I rushed to 5 Seasons after my hair cut to get my first workout in in over two weeks. I was late, but 30 minutes was better than nothing! 
Wednesday - I had pilates after school. After I got home and ate dinner, I headed up to watch some tv in bed. I ended up falling asleep by 8:30 that night...I must have really been exhausted!
Thursday - After school, Kurt and I headed to Bloomington for the basketball game. Before the game, we went to Macri's for dinner. It was delicious! We wanted to do a little shopping before the game, but didn't have enough time. We had fun at the game even though they weren't playing that great of a team. We knew this would probably be the only game we'd get to go to this year. 
Friday was conference day at school. We had meetings starting at 7:30. I left the house at 6:50 to grab Starbucks before getting to school. I didn't leave school until after 5 and met my mom at her house. We went to Panera for dinner and then went to Holiday Mart. I bought a couple things, but was pretty disappointed because my favorite ornament lady wasn't there. We were there until 10. We went back to get my car and I went directly home. I went to bed pretty much right after I got home. 
Saturday morning, Kurt and I woke up early. He headed up to Carmel to pick up a used crib from one of my families at school {they gave us one they didn't need anymore!}. His brothers helped him move the crib to his parents house to have for when the baby stays there. I went downtown for a much needed facial. It wasn't the best one I've ever had, but it was better than nothing. My face is looking a little better after it. When we both got home, we got some work done around the house. We cleaned our cars and the garage. We made dinner for Andy, Quinn, and the girls. After we cleaned, we took the food to their house and hung out with them for a bit. 
Sunday - Kurt woke up really wanting a good breakfast. We decided to try Zest. It was really good, but took a lot longer than we thought it would! We went to the grocery store after we ate. When we got home, I took a little nap before the Colts game started. 

This past week was a short week at school with the holiday. I'm so thankful for the 5 days I had off school but still feeling behind on things I need to get done!
Monday - We had a meeting before and after school. After my afternoon meeting, I headed to Dawn's to get my eyebrows waxed. I went home quickly because IU had an early game. 
Tuesday - We had another meeting after school. I was so ready to leave after the meeting and get break started! I went up to 5 Seasons to work out with my mom before heading home. 
Wednesday - I was supposed to work out with my mom at 9, but didn't get up in time. Kurt had an early meeting. When he got home, he helped me get started on cleaning the house...something that hadn't been done in over a month...gross! He had to go to the office, but I stayed home and finished cleaning. I met him up at St. Vincent Carmel for my 30 week doctor appointment. It was a quick appointment. The baby is still breech...my doctor was able to feel the head! If the baby is still breech at my 36 week appointment, they'll do an ultrasound and then schedule a c-section. We'll see what happens! After my appointment, I went to Anne's house for pilates. Then I met Kurt at the mall to get our new pj pants for when we decorated the house for Christmas. We grabbed dinner at Puccini's and then headed home to chill for the evening. 
Thursday - Thanksgiving! We woke up early to do the Turkey Trot with my parents. I'm glad we got a little workout in before we ate the rest of the day! We came home to shower and put the corn casserole together. Then we headed up to Kurt's parent's house with the dogs. We spent a couple hours there and then went to my parent's house. We stayed there until around 8 and then went back up to Kurt's parent's to pick up the dogs. When we got home, we watched a little football before heading to bed. 
Friday - My mom and I went shopping. We got a few presents and took advantage of some good deals. Now I just need to wrap the presents I've bought so far! After we shopped, I met Kurt at Sullivans to pick out our Christmas tree. He hadn't really eaten much all day and wanted to grab a bite to eat before going home. We decided to meet my parents for dinner. We probably should have grabbed something quick on our way home, but it was nice having dinner with my parents. We thought we were getting a really early start on our decorating, but ended up getting started really late after dinner! We didn't get everything finished until about 1. Kurt started a movie and I fell asleep on the couch. 
Saturday - We finished decorating for Christmas by putting lights outside. It was absolutely freezing! Of course, one of our strands was out so we ran to Target to grab another strand of lights and some dog food. When we got home, we finished with decorations. We were going to do some work in the baby's room, but didn't even know where to start. I started making a list of all the things we need to do in the baby's room and things we'd like to buy for the room. We have a long way to go... Kurt, Josh, Mer, OG and I went to Susanah and Ryan's house for a party they were having. It was great seeing them! We stopped by Little Caesar's on the way home and finished watching the ND football game. 

This morning, we were going to get up early and head to church before going to Lowe's and the grocery store. We didn't get up early and didn't have time for Lowe's! We got home in time for the Colts game. I got started on some laundry while I've been writing this blog post. Kurt is at his hockey game now. I'd like to be productive tonight and get some presents wrapped, the laundry finished, and maybe start working in the baby's room. We'll see how much I actually get finished! For the first time in a really, really long time I can say this upcoming week is going to be pretty uneventful! Thank goodness! 

Weeks 25 & 26

{Yep, this is the last time I can wear this Colts shirt for awhile...!}

How big is baby: Our baby has grown from a pound and a half to a pound and two-thirds during these two weeks....or so they say. My prediction is that Baby W is going to be a big baby if he/she is anything like his/her daddy! Let's hope not too big! The baby is around 14 inches long and growing. Clearly his/her arms and legs are growing in length as well as developing muscles because I am constantly feeling the baby doing gymnastics. The other night I was looking at my belly and saw it move out in one area a couple inches from a punch or a kick! :)

What's going on with baby:  The baby is mainly continuing to add more and more baby fat to his/her body. Again, not sure that's going to be a problem for our baby. Will the baby have chubby cheeks like his/her mommy? Probably. Parts of his/her body continue to become more developed and he/she is working on learning how to breath by inhaling and exhaling the amnionic fluid. 

Symptoms: Nothing new. Broken out face. Heels hurt most afternoons. Up a couple times at night to pee. Lower back pain. Other than that, I've been SO lucky to have an easy pregnancy. With that being said, I'm ready. So ready to have reports/conference day over, celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years with Kurt and our families, and have this baby in our arms. Other than finding out if we're going to have a boy or a girl, I'm most excited to see what the baby looks like. I'm really impatient....really. 

What happend the last two weeks:

For the first time in awhile, two weeks ago was fairly low-key considering how busy things have been around here. 

-Monday I came home after school and was able to mostly relax. Tuesday I went to work out with my mom. A much needed workout! Wednesday I had my normal pilates after school. 

-Thursday I had an early morning meeting and then I rushed home after school because Kurt was at the lake all day helping to get things ready for winter. I needed to get home to let the dogs out. It was like a Friday for me because we didn't have school on Friday or Monday for Fall Break. As I was sitting on the couch relaxing, the dogs were hanging out outside. Olive somehow caught a squirrel. She was so proud and came to the door to show me her prize. Of course I freaked out and got so mad at her. At first I wouldn't let the dogs in but no one was around to come over and pick up the squirrel. I let them in and then had to give her a bath. Kurt finally got home a couple hours later and picked up the squirrel. Perfect way to begin fall break, huh? :)

-Friday was spent running errands all day. Kurt and I met my mom for lunch and then I went to the mall with my mom while Kurt went to his office to get a little work done. After the mall, I went back to the office with my mom to wait for Kurt. She didn't know that my brother was bringing a cake to the office to celebrate their 40th anniversary. I stayed there to help celebrate. When Kurt picked me up, we had a lot to get accomplished. We went to Party City to get the decorations for my parents' party, we went to the mall to look around, then we headed to dinner, and had to stop by the grocery store on the way home to pick up the cake and a few other things. We ended up not getting home until after 9 and I was exhausted. 

-Saturday we slept in a little and then headed straight to Little Flower to get the room ready for the surprise party. We were there wayyy longer than I had expected. We rushed home after decorating to get ready for the party and let the dogs out. We had about an hour to get ready and get back to Little Flower for 5:00 mass. We also had to do a couple more things before heading into church. 

The party was perfect. My parents were SO surprised and happy to see so many people there. I'm so glad we were able to throw this party for my parents to help them celebrate their anniversary. 40 years is quite an accomplishment! I was pretty disappointed because the photographer we had lined up cancelled an hour before the party started. I spent most of the night running around trying to socialize with people but take pictures. Of course, most of them turned out terrible because of the bad lighting and me trying to figure out how to best set my camera to get the best shots. 

-Sunday we had another early morning because my parents were being honored at mass again at IHM. We met everyone at church at 11:15 and then headed to brunch to celebrate one more time. After brunch, Kurt and I ran to Three Dog Bakery to pick up some treats for Cooper's birthday and then came home to watch football and relax. I went to Kurt's hockey game later that evening with plans on going to dinner with him after the game. The game was running really late which didn't leave us with many options for dinner after the game, considering it was 10:00 once he got out of the locker room. We headed to Stacked Pickle for a late dinner. When we got home, we went straight to bed. 

-Monday was an early morning because I had a dentist appointment at 9:00. I had to leave at 8:15 to get there on time. After my appointment, I went to Super Target. I. Love. Target. I was there for a long time and literally looked around the whole store. It was really nice to not feel rushed. After picking up some fun things and groceries, I headed home and took a short nap. I ran up to Buy Buy Baby to pick up a baby shower gift for Kate and then rushed to my eyebrow wax appointment. When I got home, Kurt and I cleaned up the house and I started some laundry. Kurt left for his hockey game and I got in bed early knowing we had another busy week.

-Tuesday after school I came home quickly, changed, and freshened up before Kurt and I went up to IU North for our first childbirth class. We stopped at McDonald's on the way to grab a quick 'snack' before our 3 1/2 hour class. It went pretty quickly because we had fun with Kate and Mike being there with us. Kurt and I went to dinner after our class because we didn't have enough time to eat before. We ended up going to Granite City. I wished I could partake in the awesome pitcher deal they were having that night... 

-Wednesday I had pilates after school. I was absolutely exhausted when I got home and not feeling great. I feel asleep on the couch for a little bit while Kurt was playing a game. I spent the night in pain because I tweaked my arm somehow and it killed me! The only thing that helped was lying in bed with my arm stretched out. I slept horribly that night. 

-Thursday my arm still hurt when I bent it or grasped anything. It was good to be at school because it kept my mind off my arm. I think that being on the go all day helped it loosen up and feel better. Kurt met me at school at 3:45 because we had a meeting with our HR person to talk about my maternity leave and our benefits. It made me even more excited for January to be here. :) I've decided that unless Baby W comes early, my last day at school will be Tuesday, January 22. That will give me a couple days before my due date to be at home and relax/clean before the baby decides to come. We had a couple errands to run, so we dropped my car off at my parent's house. After Target, Qudoba {OMG we need to stop eating out!}, Jos. A. Banks, and Nordstrom, we went back to my parents to get my car. They were home so we ended up staying and chatting for awhile. By the time we got home, it was kinda late and I went straight to bed. 

-Friday after school was Kate's baby shower. It was so fun to see all of the things she got for their baby boy! I'm so excited to start adding toys, clothes, etc to our baby's closet! When I got home, I freshened up so Kurt, Josh, Mer, and I could go to dinner in Fountain Square. After dinner, we went to Radio, Radio with Yoder to see Mason Jennings. It was a fun, chill night listening to some good live music. 

-Saturday Kurt and I headed to Chicago to see Bradd, Courtney, and Ben. It has been SOO long since we've seen them. I'm so glad we were able to visit, even though it was a really short trip. 

-We didn't get home from Chicago until after 7 last night...WAYYY later than planned. Kurt immediately left for hockey. I got ready for bed and tried to work on reports for a little while. I didn't get much accomplished before I went to bed. 

This week is going to be another busy one...shocking! Add reports on top of everything going on and I'm about to loose my mind. I have pictures I'd like to upload to the blog from the surprise party and some other things that have been going on but that'll have to wait. I need to write reports. Like last week. Why do I have to procrastinate? 

Happy Birthday, Cooper!!

He's the best doggie ever! I can't believe that in January we'll have had Coop for 7 years. We'll hopefully get to celebrate many more birthdays with you!!

Nursery Updates...Finally!

We finally got around to picking paint and painting the baby's room as well as the guest bathroom upstairs {we've had that paint for months...}! I didn't like the paint colors in either of these rooms from the time we moved in, but we didn't feel like changing them because we rarely used either of these rooms. The guest bathroom has never been showered in and we've used the cabinet under the sink for extra storage. As you can see, the guest room was used for all of our junk that didn't fit anywhere else in our house. Kurt uses the closet for overflow because we can't quite fit everything in our closet {yes, we still need to clean out the closet}. We are still trying to find a spot for everything that was in the guest bathroom and bedroom...our house is too small! :) We're planning to add more shelving to the closet after we clean it out and before we get a bunch of baby stuff. That's a project for another weekend...!

Before we painted, the guest room was green. It wasn't horrible and actually looked okay with our furniture and duvet cover. I just didn't love it. Even though we aren't finding out the sex of Baby W, I've said from the beginning that I do not want to do everything in the traditional gender neutral green and yellow. The color could have worked for a boy or girl, but that green reminded me too much of that gender neutral green!

Here's what the room looked like before we painted after we moved out the furniture....this really was pretty clean compared to what it looked like before!!! 

I'm really indecisive when it comes to paint colors. I feel like I have a vision for how I want something to look and can never find the perfect paint color. It also seems like such a big decision that can't be changed if you don't like it, probably since it takes so long to paint a room. We definitely had been putting off buying paint for the baby's room until the last minute...right before the furniture needed to be picked up. The paint color we actually ended up using is called Beach Glass. I saw it on one of the blogs I read and thought it was a good mix of gray, green, and blue. All of the bedding in the room is going to be gray, but we couldn't paint the walls gray because that's what color our bedroom is. I think the color is really pretty. I would definitely use it again when we need to paint. However, it is a little more blue than I thought it was going to be. Oh well, the baby won't mind! :)

{It was difficult to get a picture of what the true color looks like. The color also looks different during different times of the day.}

Here's a before and after of the paint color. Again, it's hard to tell a huge difference, but we really can! I'm so much happier with the room color now. 

{That is one of the dressers that we bought. The changing pad cover is a bit darker gray than the bedding will be. We definitely need to find some things to hang on the wall!}

Here's what the other side of the room looks like. We finally found a furniture set-up we like. The room does look a lot smaller with furniture in it and we're a little worried about how the glider/ottoman is going to fit! I love the crib because of the curve in the front. I'm so short it's always difficult for me to reach in and grab babies from cribs, especially when the mattress is lowered down. The way this crib curves seems like it will be much easier for me to lean down to reach in. 

I'm really excited to get the bedding, glider, ottoman, and some decorations in the room. I know that won't be complete for awhile, but I'm feeling much better having a large part of the room complete. Next on the list is to work on the closet! We need to look around and find some accessories to put in the room, too. 

I thought you might like to see the before and after paint in the guest bathroom while we're talking about paint. The paint in their was definitely not going to stay. We both disliked the purple. We picked out the paint color and bought the paint months ago. We just never got around to painting. Kurt painted both of these rooms in one weekend...thanks, babe! The blue color is one I knew I already loved because it's the color in our half-bath downstairs. See what you think...

Weeks 23 & 24

I've been terrible about blogging lately and there has been so much going on around here! Baby W has been rockin' and rollin' in my belly and other people are able to feel the movements quite often now! Last night the baby wasn't moving around at all. Kurt put his hand on my belly and the baby immediately started moving around and kicking his hand! It was really funny and cute until everyone else fell asleep and I was awake with a wide awake baby kicking around in my belly! :)

{You probably don't notice any difference in the background color, but this picture was actually taken in the baby's room after Kurt painted it {instead of in our room}! We love the new paint color!}

How big is baby: Our baby has grown from a large mango to the length to a large ear of corn. He or she is weighing in just over a pound. The baby is growing pretty quickly these days!

What's going on with baby: The baby's ears continue to develop and sounds are becoming even more noticeable for him/her. Blood vessels in his/her lungs are developing so that he/she will be able to breathe after being born. The brain is quickly developing as well. 

Symptoms: I'm still feeling great and really lucky because I do feel so great. Nothing is swollen {and I hope it stays that way!} but my heels do tend to hurt after the long days on my feet...probably because I don't wear the best shoes. Beauty is pain, right? I'd say the biggest problem is sleep. The issue -- I'm so tired early in the evening and end up falling asleep early {think 9:30ish}. Then by 3 or 4 in the morning, I'm wide awake because I went to bed so early. Napping helps keep me up later, but I can't really nap during the week because I get home from school too late. 

What happened the past two weeks:

-Two weeks ago was another busy week around here. I suppose that's a pretty normal thing. Monday night Kurt and I went to the baptism class at IHM. Surprisingly, I was the only one there that is pregnant. Everyone else already had their babies. I'm glad that we took their advice and got the class done before the baby arrives. It was pretty quick and painless but it feels good to have one more thing checked off the list. Kurt had a hockey game that night, so I came home after the class and got in bed early. I have so many shows recorded that I need to catch up on but haven't had much time. I'm hoping to have a lot of shows still recorded for when the baby arrives so I can have some semi-decent things to watch while I'm awake in the middle of the night!

-Tuesday was another photography class. On Wednesday, I had pilates and then headed to Binkley's to meet Lauren for dinner. It was great seeing her and catching up. We really don't live that far away from each other but don't get to hang out as much as we'd like!! 

-Thursday I had a meeting with a parent after school {that was an hour and a half long} and then I rushed to 5 Seasons to work out with my mom. 

-Friday the weather was gross. It was rainy and cold all day long. Kurt and I decided to go out to grab some dinner. After we ate, we headed to Buy Buy Baby to finish up our registry and check the dimensions of the furniture we were planning to pick up on Saturday. After leaving Buy Buy Baby, we stopped at Orange Leaf for some much needed yogurt. On the way home, we stopped at a Red Box to pick up a movie. As we were walking into Marsh {where the Red Box was}, we saw a bunch of college kids walking out after buying beer and snacks, clearly on the way to a party. As we were picking out a movie, I asked Kurt how we got so old so quickly. It really doesn't feel like that long ago that we were in college all dressed up buying beer at 10 on a Friday ready to go party. Now we're renting a movie on a Friday night and getting ready for a baby to join our family. Why does life move so quickly!?!?!? 

-Saturday was filled with getting things complete in the baby's room. After we slept in a bit, we headed up north to pick up Stephen's car. After we got the car, we both drove to Buy Buy Baby. Before picking up the furniture, we wanted to order a glider/ottoman for the baby's room and buy the mattress for the crib. We were a little worried about all the furniture fitting in the Avalanche and my Jeep, but we managed to fit it all in one trip...phew! Josh and Mer came down when we got home to help us get all the furniture up in the room. We had to leave quickly after getting the furniture upstairs to make sure we had Stephen's car back to him in time for him to get off work. When we got home, we put the crib together. It looks great! We moved the furniture around the room 3 or 4 different times before we decided on the set up. The room looks a lot smaller with all the furniture in it and I'm a little worried about the glider and ottoman fitting....oh well! 

-Sunday we went to church and then picked up breakfast at Einstein's. We came back home and changed into some comfy clothes and then headed down to Josh and Mer's to watch the Colts game. We came home before the game was over because we needed to get some laundry done and Kurt needed to start packing for his trip to Utah. He left for his hockey game and I watched some TV before getting in bed at a fairly decent time. 

-Monday morning was a bit hectic. We both had to wake up early. Kurt was leaving for a couple days to go to Utah early that morning and we needed to both get ready, as well as get the dogs fed and let them out. Our dogs do not do well early in the morning and it's like pulling teeth trying to get them to do things before 9 or 10 am! Kurt is normally in and out of the house during the day to let them out and feed them so it's normally not an issue for me to be gone for long periods of time. I ran home to let the dogs out at the end of the day so Jan and I could meet after school and then I had pilates at 5:30. I didn't end up getting home until close to 7. I ate dinner and was in bed pretty early that night. 

-Tuesday was another early morning because I needed to get the dogs up early and fed. I left as late as I could in the morning and left school right after the kids were all gone. I still felt bad leaving the dogs for so long. I ate dinner before heading off to my final photography class. When I got home, I was ready for bed. 

-Wednesday was the last morning I had to get up early for the dogs. They were not happy to be getting up early for the third day in a row and Olive wouldn't even eat breakfast! I left school right away again to get home ASAP. Andy, Julia, and Lauren came over to drop off a hat I asked Andy to buy for Kurt's birthday. When they walked in, Lauren said, "Hi Kiki". That was the first time I've heard her say my name! :) After they left, I got the dogs in my car and we drove to the airport to pick up Kurt. Later that evening, we decided to head downtown to grab a quick dinner. 

-Thursday I worked out with my mom after school. Then we went to my parents house because Quinn and my mom were hosting a cooking party. We put together a bunch of meals that are made to go in the freezer. We're planning on saving these meals for when the baby arrives in January. I ended up being at my parents until close to 10 before heading home and getting in bed. 

-Friday Kurt picked me up from school right at pick-up and we headed up to IU North for my 24 week appointment. We had a follow up ultrasound since they couldn't get all the pictures of the heart they needed last time. The ultrasound was much quicker this time and they were able to get the pictures they needed right away. Then we headed over to the doctor's office for my appointment. The worst part was having to get the flu shot...ugh. My arm was sore, but knock on wood I haven't felt sick at all from the shot. I was worried it was going to make me get sick since I never get it! After our appointment at the beginning of November, I'll start going to the doctor every other week because I'll be in the third trimester...crazy! When we left the hospital, we ran over to Kurt's doctor's office to pick up a prescription and then headed to Target to get it filled. Of course, when we got to Target the pharmacist told us they had not filled out the RX properly so we couldn't fill it. After buying a few things {because let's get real...you can never leave Target without buying a bunch of stuff!}, we headed over to my parent's house to celebrate Kurt and Andy's birthdays. We ate WAY too much food and hung out for a bit before heading home. I was so exhausted from the week and ended up falling asleep so early. Of course I was up at 4:30 in the morning wide awake and ended up coming downstairs to watch TV and sleep a little more on the couch. 

-Saturday we woke up early to run errands before heading home to clean the house. I took a little nap before getting in the shower and getting ready for people to come over. Kurt wanted to have a party for his birthday. We ended up having quite a few people over and partying late that night. It was good to see everyone and it was a perfect evening to watch some football, grill, and sit by the fire! It was a great celebration for Kurt! 

-Yesterday we went to a late breakfast to celebrate his birthday a little more. We headed home to watch the Colts game and I ended up taking a three hour nap...it was clearly much needed! We had such a lazy Sunday and ended up not getting much done. Kurt left for his hockey game. After his game, I met him and Josh and Mer at La Hacienda for a late dinner. We came home after stuffing our faces, got ready for bed, and watched a little football before going to sleep pretty early. Thank goodness this week isn't going to be nearly as crazy as the last two were...and it's a 4 day week because we don't have school Friday! :)