25 Weeks and Nursery Progress

I am getting a little behind again since I am almost 26 weeks, but I will go ahead and post this picture from last week. For some reason I think it looks smaller than my 24 week belly pic. Oh well, I'm sure my picture from this week will be nice and big.

Greg and I have been making progress on the nursery. Last weekend we painted it. It didn't take long at all, and was fun to do. It is kind of a yellowish color, although it looks like a different shade in all of the pictures below.

This is one of the fabrics for the crib bedding. There will also be 2 polka dot patterns - one tealish blue and one light grean, and a solid pink.

This is the room after we finished painting.

I also started working on a really fun craft project for the nursery. I was inspired by some nurseries I saw on pinterest where they had the alphabet on the wall using letters of all different colors / sizes / fonts. I am doing that on a smaller scale. I bought a 24"x24" canvas, and I am buying all different letters to decorate and put on there. Some will be wood, some fabric, some ceramic, just whatever I can find at Michaels and Hobby Lobby. It has been so fun decorating them all differently! Here is a preview of some of the letters I have done so far.

Baby Bump - 24 Weeks

At 24 weeks I am…

- Feeling good.

- Enjoying the comments I get from strangers. I haven’t had any strangers touch my belly yet though.

- Eating more these days.

- Trying to pick out a diaper bag…so hard.

- Working on the nursery. We are dropping off our craigslist dresser this week to get painted. Probably will take a few weeks to get done but I am excited!

- Freaked out by my puffed up feet. I am not on my feet much during the day. I sit in a cool office. Yet it seems every day now they are ginormous by the end of the day. Very attractive.

- Constantly thinking of all the things that need to be done…schedule hospital tour, sign up for classes, convince Greg that maternity pictures are not silly, decide on all the hard registry stuff (car seat / stroller / etc), pick a paint color for the nursery walls, pick a NAME for the baby, and that’s enough for now. Most of those things are fun/exciting though, so I am not complaining.

- Amazed by God’s design for pregnancy. Everything is so fascinating. Some things are weird, some are hideous, but most things are cool and amazing. I am so thankful for this time.

Portland / Seattle Trip

My cousin Elliot got married last week so Greg and I went to Portland for the wedding. My parents also went, my sister Ashley and her fam, and my Aunt Rhonda visited too. It was so fun to see lots of family.

The wedding was pretty and a lot of fun. We got to stay with my Aunt and Uncle and enjoyed visiting with them.

Here are Ashley, Andrew, and Chloe.

I think this is such a great picture of my parents!

We also spent a day in Seattle. Greg and I enjoyed walking around the city, going through Pikes Markets, seeing the locks in Ballard, people watching outside of a coffee shop, and doing a little shopping. It was a short trip, but a nice little get-a-way. I guess this is the closest thing to our babymoon. Our last trip without kids!

The Beginning of a Nursery

I am so excited that our crib was delivered today! It was pretty easy to put together. It is so fun to see the nursery start to come together. I can't believe that there will be a baby in that crib in a few months! We also got our glider in and put that together yesterday. Let the nursery fun begin!

Baby Bump - 22 and 23 Weeks

I don't have much time, but here is a super quick post!

Here are the latest baby bump pictures. Isn't it weird how clothes can make it look different? I think I look pretty much the same size both weeks but it can appear different shapes depending on what I wear.

At (1 day shy of) 23 weeks I am...

- Feeling baby girl kick like crazy. Sometimes I feel things that make me think WHAT THE HECK IS SHE DOING IN THERE??

- So thankful that she is measuring right on track. Praise the Lord! I am so thankful that she is growing as she should.

- Realizing how hard it is to register! Greg and I started registering last weekend. We were so indecisive. Every little thing took MAJOR consideration. Like, uh, which wipes are best? Does the cost of the crib mattress correlate to how much we love our child? Are we horrible if we go for a cheap one? Should we get gender neutral bibs in case we have a boy next? Which one of these 300 pacifiers will my baby like best? Why is my husband trying on the My Breast Friend and walking around the store?

- Ordering the crib tomorrow - YAY.

- Starting to actually think about the fact that we will have a baby in a few months. Even though it seems real that she is in my tummy, it does not seem real that she will be coming out in a few months. So weird.

- Not making any progress toward picking a name. Sorry.

Strawberry Cheesecake Cuppies

I recently tried out this new dessert recipe that I found on Pioneer Woman's Tasty Kitchen website here. I am now in love with these. They are so moist and delicious. They are great when you need to make a lot of something. As in, 5 dozen of something. They are also so easy to make yet they seem fancy.

Here is the recipe written below with my slight modifications. I made mini cupcakes instead of regular.

1 Box Strawberry Cake Mix

1 Pkg. (3.4 oz) Instant Cheesecake Pudding Mix

2 cups Sour Cream

3 eggs

1/3 cup Vegetable Oil

1/2 cup Water

Cream Cheese Icing

Beat all ingredients together (except icing of course). Fill mini cupcakes 2/3 of the way full. Use mini cupcake liners! I didn't have any and it was a pain to wash the pan in between each batch. Bake at 350 for 11 minutes. Cool completely then squirt a dot of cream cheese icing on top.

This made 5 dozen mini cupcakes for me. I froze about half of them (did not ice those). Then when I am craving one I pop it in the microwave for about 10 seconds.

Baby Bump - 20 & 21 Weeks

Well I have gotten a little behind with the posting. Greg and I were at Rush week this past week. Rush week is the youth group's summer camp / mission trip combined. It was in Pensacola, Florida. We did service projects during the day and then lots of camp fun stuff at night. It was a lot of fun, but very exhausting! I had 7th (going into 8th) grade girls. The accommodations were so nice, and there were so many fun activities. The speakers all did a great job and I felt like God really moved in so many of the kids' lives. I am so glad I went! By the end of the week however, my feet swelled up nice and large :) I sort of had a panic attack - um is this what I am going to look like for the rest of pregnancy?? Thankfully my super fat feet have returned to normal and I now have ankles again. Let's hope it was just due to being on my feet for a week straight in the Florida heat.

At 21 1/2 weeks I am...

- Loving feeling baby girl kick! She kicks all the time. Greg can feel it and you can even see it from the outside. Her little kicks are so sweet. Although sometimes they do get a little crazy and I wonder what the heck she is doing in there.

- Feeling good. No nausea - thank you Lord! I have a bit more energy too.

- Getting comments from strangers now, which is fun.

- Having so much fun getting nursery ideas. There are endless possibilities, and so many cute nursery ideas online. I am having a hard time making decisions though. We did order a glider yesterday and had a piece of carpet made into a rug for the nursery. Now I need to decide on a crib. Isn't this butterfly mobile found here so sweet? I love Etsy.

- Still stumped on a name. Don't expect one anytime soon!