Sunday, April 22, 2012

Fill in the blank.....

QBS filled out this tag last week, so I decided I'd fill it out too!

1.  Today is a great day because......Our bedroom and bathroom are spotless, 6 loads of laundry got done, and my hospital bag is packed.  Very productive Sunday!

2.  Tomorrow I will be.............going to work.  Hopefully the second to last Monday I'll be there for 12 weeks! 

3.  My favorite time of the day is.........the end of the work day.  I get to pick up SYT from daycare, love on him, make dinner with B, and get Spence ready for bed.  It's a busy time of the day but the best time to spend with my two favorite people!

4.  Sometimes you just have to..........sit down!!!  Lately my body is just aching and tired from carrying around this babe, and it's getting hard to stay on my feet all day long.  I do it because it's necessary most days, but after Spence is down, there is nothing better than some down time on the couch.

5.  A song I just can't get enough of lately is...........Rumor Has It.  Adele is amazing and pretty much rocks my world. 

6.  My favorite accessory is.................my "Due in May" necklace.  2nd favorite is a tie between my large monogrammed silver necklace and my pearl stud earrings.

7.  My favorite thing about this week was...........feeling the baby move a little lower.  Hopefully this means he'll come meet his mommy, daddy, and big brother sooner than later!!

Have a great Monday!!

Friday, April 20, 2012

Ooooohhhhh......good deals today!!

Plum District (another shopping site) has both KEP Designs ($50 for $100) AND Erin Condren ($25 for $50) as deals today.  I know preppy bloggers love them both, so head over and check out the deals.





All fabulous stuff, right?  Don't forget about all the birthdays and Mother's Day that May brings!!Here is an invite if you need it!!  Have a great Friday! 

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Weekend checklist

This weekend and the next two are all about checking things off my mental to-do list so that we can have as much done as possible before the baby arrives.  So this weekend we were able to......

1.  Get 75% of the nursery done.  We're not changing much in there, but I needed to get all the baby clothes washed, put into drawers, hung in the closet, and organized.  I got almost all that done.  I still need to make sure the swaddle blankets are ready, the diapers and wipes are organized, the upper shelves of the closets are clean, and the painting that says Spencer is taken down and one for the new baby is put into place.  I'm happy with the progress we have made so far, and I don't think it'll take much more work in there.

2.  Put fertilizer and compost into the front garden bed and the vegetable garden bed.  It rained a lot today, so I'm glad we were able to get that done prior to the rain.  I also was able to get a ton of old leaves raked up in the backyard that fell after our last fall raking.  It was a lot of work going up and down our hill with the wheelbarrow and Spencer "helping" push, but it looks a lot better and it was worth it.

3.  Go on a date!!!  Sat night B and I went to see The Hunger Games finally and then went to dinner afterwards.  We both liked the movie (I've read it, he hasn't) and enjoyed our last dinner out for awhile too!! 

4.  Make cupcakes for one of my co-worker's birthday.  They're lemon blueberry with a lemon curd marscapone frosting.  Yes, they are as delicious as they sound.  I really hope she likes them!!

5.  Typical weekend stuff- church, dinner menu, grocery store, laundry, cleaning the kitchen multiple times, etc. 

6.  Got my car detailed.  I had a groupon for it, and my car looks amazing now.  Soooo much cleaner and the dirty, yucky smell that has acquired over the past 9 years is gone.  I'm really happy with how it turned out. 

Now I am sitting on the couch with B, watching the Amazing Race, and finally off my feet.  It is wonderful to be sitting down at the end of a task oriented weekend.  I have more to get done during the weeknights and more next weekend, but, for now, I'm just going to be happy with all that I got done over the last two days. 

What was the most productive part of your weekend??? 

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Spencer's big boy room

It's FINALLY done!! All the little details have come together, and we are finished with Spencer's nautical big boy room. He's been sleeping in their for over a month now with no difficulty, but it's taken us awhile to pull together the last little details.


This is the main wall.  We painted it navy as we wanted the sail to really stand out against the wall.  The sail is a full sized sail (that we actually had to cut down because it was too big!).  The beds are antiques that we found at a great antique store up in Petoskey.  We didn't want to pay the price they were asking, so we walked away.  Two weeks later they went on sale, my mom offered an even lower price, and they took the offer.  We were beyond thrilled and know they'll stay in our family forever!!

The nightstand was one we had around the house that was hideously ugly.  We sanded it down and painted it the same color as the white walls.  It's a touch smaller than I would ideally want, but it was free, it holds tons of books, and the lamp and the sleep sheep fit on it perfectly.

This is the wall that is in the front of the house.  I made the seersucker curtains out of the table runners we made for our wedding.  We had 28 of them sitting in our basement collecting dust, so I took 8 of them, made larger panels, made a pocket for the rod, and love the way they look in the room.  They aren't blackout shades, obviously, but Spencer has never slept with blackout shades, so I didn't think it would be a big deal.  Normally I would have hung them to opposite sides (as is typical with curtains), but the built-in bookshelf didn't allow for that, so we had to go to the left on both.  I am totally okay with it!

The sailboat oil painting hanging between the windows.

We hung the painting with a cleat and line.  B's idea, and it was the perfect thing to do.  It just ties in the nautical-ness throughout the room.

We used the same line (it's red, blue and white) for the curtains and used the same cleats for the tie backs.

The wall across from the beds.  We hired someone to build the built-in.  There was a weird cut out space in the wall that was begging for something, and we decided that a built-in was the way to go.  Both of us think it was sooooo worth the money.  There is so much storage which we aren't in need of now, but I'm sure we will be in the future as toys start to overwhelm us, and as the boys share a room in the future (they don't have to share as we have plenty of bedrooms, but I love the idea of them sharing for a few years).

SYT's dresser.  We repurposed an old dresser- stripped it and painted it the same blue as the accent wall.  I painted the knobs to look like nautical flags, and I ordered really reasonable wood letters from Etsy to hang the monogram over top of the dresser.

The bed linens are from Company Kids.  Solid yellow fitted sheets for the box springs and the mattresses and solid yellow duvet covers with yellow gingham flat sheets and pillowcases.  I love the color and the softness of the linens, but gosh do they wrinkle so badly.  Even when I pull them out of the dryer when they're just barely dry.  I suppose Spencer isn't going to care though!

A shot from another corner.  The artwork on the wall is 5x7 canvases that I picked up at Joann's and painted with blue, red, and yellow craft paint.  If you "read" it in nautical terms, it spells out Spencer's name.
S-P-E
N-C-E
star-R-star.
The stars were added for balance as his name doesn't divide evenly.  I love, love, love it!!  The wood you see in the corner is his closet.  You can also see his toddler bed rails on the bed.  Not necessarily the most flattering decor but definitely a necessity as he is all over the bed when he sleeps!!

B and I are so proud of this room.  We really put a lot of thought into making it toddler enough for now, but we also know that it will transition well over the next 10 years.  We're also happy that it's DONE!!!  Yea!!

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

My favorite purchase over the last 8 months (ie- perfect pregnancy gift!)


I bought this necklace when I was 11 weeks pregnant.  I found it at a small store in Petoskey and just couldn't resist.  I am so glad I bought it as I wear it at least 5 days a week and have throughout my entire pregnancy.  As SYT says, it's my "baby neckneck".  I  get compliments on it all the time.  It's funny because I haven't worn pearls in ages and the only other necklace I'll wear right now is my gold locket when my outfit demands gold accessories. 

I found the same necklace (or at least very similar) on Etsy right here.  At this price, it's a perfect present for a new mom to be!  Mine has tarnished just a bit over the past 8 months (I got mine for around $20, so that's not too surprising), but I actually like the way it looks with the little bit of tarnishing on it.  It makes it look antiquey and goes well with the typescript.

I love my necklace and hope that you, or a friend of yours, will too!!

Monday, April 9, 2012

Easter 2012

Easter morning with Spencer's first Easter basket.  He received monkey jammies, an Elmo cup and snack container, sidewalk chalk, Elmo eggs filled with change for his piggy bank (he LOVES putting change in his piggy bank), and two new Elmo bibs.  Yes, our world revolves around Elmo!!

 
My big boy right before church

Before the Easter egg hunt during the "eggercizes"

Spencer's first egg.  He could not have cared less until he found out there was candy inside.  Then he was all about it!

 
Look, I can even find the ones under the tree.

Notice the sweater in honor of Master's Sunday.  Golf cart intarsia knit with madras plaid pants.  This is, without a doubt, B's favorite outfit I have ever put on SYT. 


After the egg hunt

36 weeks with my almost 2 year old.  Yikes!!  The belly is large and in charge ;)

Not the most flattering picture, but a family picture none the less!

I love, love, love this picture of my two favorite men.  Can't wait to meet the newest addition to the "boys" in just a short time.

I hope you all had a blessed Easter and enjoyed the weekend.  We had a great dinner all three nights, we enjoyed a lot of time just playing with Spence, AND we got a lot of stuff done around the house.  It was so nice on Saturday that we even got our lawn mowed and the flowerbeds weeded for the first time this season!!  We loved watching the Masters, and we loved our ice cream that we ate for lunch dessert even more :)  Have a great week (and the Easter treats you may have received!!).

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Way to go, Bubba!!

The winner of the 2012 Masters is Bubba Watson.  Congrats, sir, you played your heart out and totally deserved the win.  It was a great, great, great match among the world's best players in golf, and YOU made it your day.


Just going to say it, though, I think it was the pink driver that did it for you :) 

Awesome golf weekend.  B and I were sooooo happy to be watching it!

Thursday, April 5, 2012

What's on "par" for the weekend...............

BIG weekend around the T household!  It's Easter and our favorite sporting event of the year all combined into one glorious weekend.  We've already set the DVR to tape today and tomorrow's rounds of golf and plan on not missing a second on Saturday or Sunday. 

B has to sing tonight at church and has rehearsal afterwards- it's a big week for the choir!!  Tomorrow he has to sing at noon for the Good Friday service.  Spence and I will not be attending either, unfortunately.  I can barely keep my eyes open this week and slept horribly last night, so we are headed home after work today for a quick and easy dinner, bathtime, bedtime, a few small things around the house for me to look after and an early bedtime for me as well.  Tomorrow night we will be watching the golf we've DVR'd, eating butter chicken (a pinterest recipe in the crockpot- sooooo good), and finishing up the painting we are doing to some bookshelves for the playroom.

Saturday is supposed to be beautiful here (mid 60s and sunny), so in the morning I hope that we can get some yardwork done.  B needs to mow the front yard, and I really need to weed the gardens out front.  I'm hoping to buy more perrenials next weekend, and I need to get the weeds out in order to have somewhere to plant them!  We also need to take pictures of Spence's big boy room so that I can post them here and work in the playroom a bit.  It is coming along, and I'm really excited about it.  We'll watch golf (and hopefully I will sneak in a nap) Saturday afternoon.  We're having pork tenderloin on the grill for dinner that night- yum!!

Sunday we will head to church- B early for rehearsal and SYT and I a little later.  His little Easter/Master's Sunday outfit is TDF, so you know I'll be pimping him out here on Sunday or Monday.  There's an egg hunt after church for the little ones, so we'll stay for that and then bring him home for his nap.  We were hoping to be able to swing brunch too, but we'd be pressing our luck with the timing and the nap, and it's just not worth it.  We'll do brunch another year!  I've already picked up Ben and Jerry's and jelly beans for our afternoon Master's/Lenten/it's finally Easter (and why would a pregnant woman give up ice cream and candy) treat, and both of us are chomping at the bit for the ice cream :) 

B is excited to watch Hunter Mahan this weekend as he's the top ranked American going into the Masters, and he won last weekend so is coming in feeling good today.  He is still a huge Tiger fan (though he obviously doesn't agree with his personal decisions that got him into the last few crazy years), so he'll be rooting for him as well.  I always root for the same people: Phil, Luke Donald, and Ian Poulter.  I will often pick my person of the day based on the color of their pants.  It's my favorite part of golf (hence the reason I love Ian) :)  It'll be fun to watch Rory and see how he does.  I love, love, love that golfers can be so good but have such bad days because you never know what's going to happen.  Sometimes it makes for not exciting wins (it's really boring to see two guys that aren't "popular" who are on the top of the leader board, especially if they're both in khacki, black, or navy pants!), but it just proves that anything can happen. 

What's on par for your weekend plans?  Will you be watching golf?  Shopping?  Visiting with family or friends for the holiday?  Enjoying a long awaited visit with your darling mom?  I hope that whatever you have planned is absolutely fabulous and that the weather is equally wonderful.  I also hope that all of you have picked up your favorite Easter candy as a treat to yourself!!

Thursday, March 29, 2012

35 Weeks!!

 
Only FIVE weeks left until our little one is set to arrive.  I am definitely excited to not be pregnant anymore!  While I do want him to stay in until his due date so that he is fully developed, it'll be nice to have my body back.

I remember being pregnant with Spencer and definitely getting to the point where it's just hard to do anything, and I'm there now.  It's hard to manuever around people at work or in crowded spaces, it's hard to put on tennis shoes, it's hard to sleep, it's hard to breathe, it's hard to get comfortable, and this time around, add to all that, it's really hard to pick up a 30 lb toddler.  I've had a few people ask me if I should really be picking Spencer up anymore.  As if I have a choice??  He's still little and still definitely needs to be held by his mommy.  I can't just ignore that!  At the end of a long day, it can be hard to walk up the steps with him, but you do what you have to do, right?  Plus, it's so normal to hold him and love on him and his world is so NOT going to be normal in a month! 

My biggest "problem" right now is that my hemaglobin (read: iron level) is low at 9.2 (normal during childbearing years is above 12 but often only above 10.5 or 11 during a pregnancy).  I was at 9.5 at 28 weeks so I was started on Slow Iron (a well absorbed iron supplement) along with my prenatal vitamin, and even after taking that for a month, my levels still went down.  I eat spinach a few times a week (in my Green Monster smoothies) and love red meat, so my diet isn't lacking for iron either.  Since I went down instead of up, I was placed on two iron supplements per day and told to take them on an empty stomach with some kind of vitamin C.  Well, let me tell you that a pregnant woman gets incredibly nauseous with only a vitamin in her stomach!!  I threw up the other morning because of it.  Yuck.  So now I'm taking them an hour before lunch and dinner which still makes me nauseous but at least I'm not throwing up!  If I continue to go lower, I may need a blood transfusion, but I don't think that will happen, thank goodness!!


My blood pressure is great, my weight is almost exactly where it was with Spencer at this time, I'm not swollen at all, and I'm having standard Braxtons Hicks contractions just like I'm supposed to.  I carried Spencer really, really high- he lived in my ribs.  This babe is a lot lower- I can definitely feel him sweeping by my bladder at times- WEIRD!!  He is sitting very round and very upfront, just like a basketball.  There isn't any part of him that is wide or across. 

I am tossing and turning a lot at night and am requiring a lot of early bedtimes.  I definitely can't stay up past 9:30 anymore, and sometimes that's even 9:00.  The yucky part about that is that I don't have daytime to get anything accomplished and then I'm so exhausted at night, I'm not getting anything done either.  Grrrrr......  I also am waking up now around 5 and am ready to go for the day rather than sleeping until my alam goes off at 5:35.  I don't remember having a hard time staying awake with my first pregnancy, but I definitely remember being uncomfortable throughout the night and needing to change positions more often.  It's just the way it is towards the end.

Still not one single food craving this pregnancy.  So funny!  B and I gave up candy and ice cream for Lent, so I am looking forward to a BIG frickin bowl of ice cream next Sunday after church while watching The Masters, but I'm not even really craving that.  I just miss it!  There are nights when I definitely don't eat much and don't think that what we have made for dinner tastes good, but I don't have other things that I'm wanting instead.

I'm definitely getting nervous about going into labor.  Not because of the labor (hopefully I can VBAC) or the possibility of a csection, but more because if anything happens quickly and it's in the middle of the night, I'm not exactly sure what we would do with Spencer.  During a weekday, he'll be at daycare anyway, so that is no big deal.  On a weekend, we have a few people that we could call to help in the 3 hours it takes my mom to arrive.  But at 2 in the morning?  That's a little tougher.  I'm sure we'll figure it out when the time comes, or hopefully it will all happen when daycare is open!!  That would be the biggest blessing of all.  I just am going to have to pray that it all works out and that we have an answer when it does happen.

Still no name yet.  This may be a baby where we walk into the hospital with 3 or 4 options and decide right before we leave.  Who knows.  I do have a few things I'm dying to monogram, so I really to just decide already, but it has not been easy this time around at all.  What's annoying is that both of us STILL love both of the girl names that we talked about at week 10!  It would have been much easier if he were a she!  At least in the naming department. 

All in all, I'm very lucky when it comes to being pregnant.  I'm getting really excited to hold this little guy and start to develop a relationship with him and make him part of our family. 




Baby blankets

When I was pregnant, I won a giveaway on Project Nursery for a Little Giraffe blanket.  I was able to pick any color and since we didn't know what we were having, I got it in white.

I have loved this blanket for the last two years.  It has held up through thousands of washings (that's what happens when you get white!!), is soooo soft and cuddly, and I love that the satin side stays cool even in the summer heat.  If you are looking for a baby gift for a shower, I would always recommend this blanket.  It's just fabulous.

However, with the new baby, I have decided to go in another direction.  I don't have any rationale for it except that I would prefer that Spencer's blankie and the baby's blankie look and feel different so that Spencer doesn't get confused between the two.  I've looked at a few options and I've decided to go with this blanket from PBK.  Our nephew received this as a gift and it's soooo soft, it's a great size (bigger than my Little Giraffe one), and I love that it still has the satin trim.
I'm going to do it in blue (I don't want another white blanket to get confused with Spencer's and am not really sold on the green) with a white monogram. I may call to see if I could get the name done in navy instead but am unsure if that is even an option.  I'm excited that he'll have his own fabulous blanket- I hope he likes it as much as Spencer likes his.

Does anyone else have a favorite baby blanket they want to share?  I'd love to know if I'm missing out on something that I need to consider instead in the next few weeks!!