Protesting...

After falling into my huge desperation hole last week, I thought that I would have good news on Friday, but sure enough I was just left with a hole in my stomach from all the heartburn I have. Needless to say... the cookies did NOT work. But it sure was fun to see everyone else try them since I had made so many.

I thought to myself, well maybe if I don't post an edition of 'Fun Times Friday', he would come sometime over the weekend and I could have a fun post of a 'Fun Times Weekend' to share... kind of like a protest to him.

I was wrong...

So we will continue waiting and waiting and waiting... but hopefully not waiting as long as my vivid dream last night, where he never came out! Umm... that was extremely weird and I'm so glad I woke up knowing that was just a dream and more importantly, just not possible! Can you imagine having a Benjamin Button baby...



YIKES... a bit creepy if you ask me! SOOOO SOOOO glad I woke up!

I plan to have a baby that will fit in nothing bigger than a little onesie, even if he is on the bigger side, which we found out there is a good chance that he will be. I'm ok with skipping the newborn size if it means he comes happy and healthy!

We're so excited to share the news with you all... when that day does official arrive, but until then, we continue waiting patiently and staying away from those heartburn cookies!

I Fell in the Desperation Hole...

I feel like I'm in a haunted house right now...

I remember when I was young and my dad took my sister and I into this HUGE haunted house down in Tennessee. My sister and I were so confident that we could make it through this two story building, we thought that there is no way this place could be THAT bad. We paid a pretty penny to enter, made it through the first room and sure enough, here is my dad trying to find us an emergency exit in the second room we entered because we were so freaked out, there was NO WAY we were going to make it up through all those rooms.

But this haunted house is much MORE scarier than the one down in Tennessee... it's the unknown of "when" this baby is going to be ready to be born. Yes, to me that is scary! With our due date approaching TOMORROW, I feel like I'm in that haunted house, just waiting for someone to jump out from behind a wall and scare the daylights out of me. Don't get me wrong, I want to be scared, it is a haunted house, right? But I also want to know what wall they are hiding behind, ask them to count to three, so I can brace myself and not be so caught off guard. I want to know when indeed my water will break, or when the intense contractions will begin, or however it will need to happen... I want to know in advance... this anticipation of the unknown just might kill me in the process.

I know that I have heard every Old Wives Tale under the sun on EXACTLY what to do to induce labor, and I have learned early on to just take it with the grain of salt because if he's not ready, I cannot drink enough Castor Oil in the world that will get him to come... and NO, I will not be doing that... GROSS! But I can totally see how people get desperate and will try just about anything, which I am totally guilty of and brings me to today when I fell into a HUGE desperation hole.

As I was talking to my sister, and she was goo'ing and gaa'ing at her newly born bundle of joy, I fell into the desperation pit because we are SOOO ready to meet our boy! I'm talking over the moon excited and the comfort level of all this extra weight can be pretty taxing on the body. I just want to be goo'ing and gaa'ing as well. We have been walking so much my legs are on FIRE, and I do quite a bit of walking as it is, so more added to the mix is making me forest fire. (Like that one huh?! Ha!) I know walking can only do so much, but I want to be ready when that time comes. Well as my sister was goo'ing and gaa'ing, she mentioned how my mom was talking about cookies to jump start your labor. I thought to myself... whatever, those would never work. But sure enough, there I was googling them, and as I got off the phone with her five minutes later, all the ingredients were on the counter, oven was preheated, and the measuring cups were out ready to master this recipe. I fell into the desperation hole so far, I now have three dozen 'Jump Start Your Labor Cookies' to eat and if they don't work, I will probably have lost all taste buds and won't be able to goo or gaa because my tongue will be so numb I won't be able to use it. Haha!



Happy Thursday... Let's hope tomorrow we will have some Fun (Baby) Times to share!

And now there are TWO...

For most people, Monday's can be pretty blah, right?

Well I have never been one of 'those' people who think that. I love every day and I love Monday's even more because yesterday was a BIG, BIG day in our family.

Most of you all know that I have one and only one sister. She's 18 months older than I am and we are EXTREMELY close... well not distance close, since she's in Indiana and I'm in Michigan, but relationshiply (Yes, a new word for your vocabulary?!) close. We talk all the time and it's actually pretty funny at the random stuff we call each other for or about... I'll spare you the details because some are too weird! Ha!

A few years back, she was blessed with her first baby, my first and only niece, Isabella Sophia. What a miracle she was, and such a sweet and spunky little girl she has become. LOVE HER so much!!!! I was so excited to be able to have a few weeks to spend with them all after she arrived, as my schedule allowed me to stay and help out with everything and anything needed down there then. It allowed me to share this special time with them, but to be able to bond with this baby girl who would be in our lives forever.

Well fast forward three years... somewhere around the first of the year.

My sister had found out a few weeks before New Year's that they were expecting another baby, which we were extremely excited for! Soon after they found out they were expecting, Todd and I found out we were also expecting. Wow! What are the odds?! I always told her that it would be so fun to be pregnant together at the same time, little did we know that our due dates would be TWO days apart from each other, which at the time was pretty cool! We were thrilled... SOOO SOOOO excited (after the initial shock of being pregnant wore off! Ha!)!

But as time went on, we realized that what an unfortunate thing to be experiencing together. Don't get me wrong... it has been so fun to experience this journey together, especially the last couple weeks here calling to chat daily to share what new fun things have arose. But now as the journey comes to an end for us both, we now have to miss out on the FUN part... the BABY BEING BORN! Not something we wanted to miss out on for each other... not at all!!!! What a bummer of a time to miss out on.

But I am thankful for technology today and with the recent heat killing my phone, causing me to get an iPhone, I have to thank facetime, skype, camera phones, and texting for allowing me to meet the newest member of our family even if it is through all the newest technology...

MISS EMELIA SHAY

Born on Monday August 15, 2011 at 12:20PM
Weighing in at 6lbs. 9oz 19inches long

Isn't she a beauty?



And is this not the most precious photo ever?! I LOVE it!!! (I'm so bummed I'm missed this moment!)



I can't wait to get her in front of my camera for some photo action and I cannot wait for Jackson to get here so we can plan our first trip to Indiana for the cousins to meet!

Fun Times Friday :: Nursery

It's FRIDAY!!!

Wooo... I'm so excited!

I look forward to Friday's so much now, not that I didn't before because Friday's are always nice, and Saturday's are awesome because we usually have weddings, but NEXT Friday is our due date, so we are ready whenever he is.

I know that I am about to birth a watermelon, but some people do not know how to respond to the big belly that I'm wearing right now. I have noticed that the bigger I get, the less people ask when I'm due because they must know I'm due any day. The questions of 'when' I'm due have turned into obvious stares at my belly and not-so-nice comments on how big I am... talk about feeling like a freak show. Today was pretty bad... I decided to go to Home Depot looking for something and of course I couldn't find it, so I had to ask a worker. She didn't know where to find it so she called another worker and they told her to tell me to meet me in aisle 10, she then went ahead to describe me as, "The REALLY Pregnant Girl that is about to Pop!" I could not believe her... she should be ashamed, even if it is true! Keep those comments to yourself... especially, to someone who not only looks huge, feels huge, and is pumped full of hormones that are not fun right now. Ha!

But on a good note...

I'm happy to say that our nursery if FINALLY complete! Sooooo fun... we put a lot of hard work into making it special for him and even though he won't be able to appreciate it or even enjoy it for awhile, I'm at peace knowing it's done and I don't have anything left to do, well besides the obvious... get him out! Ha!!!

We started off not really wanting a "theme", but that quickly changed when we both realized that we love animals and the bedding we picked out happened to have animals on it. Ha!

Walking into his room, you would see this...



Who wouldn't love changing him on a dresser like this?



I got a few prints on etsy that I fell in love with... ADORABLE!



And rocking him in a nice comfy chair will be so fun... let's hope he doesn't cry too much...



I got a little carried away on the amount of felt animals I did... Yes, I hand stitched them all... carpal tunnel and all. But one more turned into lots more and all the frames were fun to paint in all different colors. I think he'll like them when he's older and can name them... or it will be fun to teach him all the names at least!



He'll be sleeping there in the near future... Yay!



His name is no surprise with us... Jackson Milo... Jackson is actually Todd's grandparents last name and since there is only one "Jackson" left, we will carry on the name... Plus it's a cute name! Milo after... well there's no significance, we just really liked it...



And more animals to look at... I actually saw this on etsy and thought I could make it instead... next time I will just buy it as it took forever to make, along with everything else in his room. Haha!



Enjoy and Happy Friday! Cross your fingers that he's here before next Friday...

Down to the Wire...

Who would have thought that preparing for a baby would be a job in itself?

I feel like each day that passes is one day closer to meeting him, and after today's doctors appointment, Todd and I are both extremely excited for that day to be here. We are down to a week and a half until our actual due date, so he could come any time now. But today was special because we got to see a brief glimpse of him on the ultrasound machine as our midwife was confirming his position, since last week he was still "sunny side up". Good thing he's not now and all those hands & knees work along with the good ol' chiropractor I've been seeing has been paying off.

But as the time rolls towards meeting this boy, I've been trying to catch up on finishing his nursery, which I will be posting photos this week since I'm for the MOST part finished... what a time consuming project that was, plus trying to catch up on that thing most people call sleep, which is pretty much non-existent and a rare thing I've been experiencing lately. But I hear that's normal and probably a good thing since there will be lots of sleepless nights ahead. But I'm also trying to visualize how our buddy Maddox is going to do and adjust to life with a baby. I think he's going to do awesome because what lab doesn't do awesome with babies, but friends of ours recently got a cute, little, tiny puppy that is probably WAY smaller than the size of our little guy right now (Ha!) and I'm realizing that he is going to be such an awesome big brother!

He's got the instincts of a protector... and I'm so excited for not only our little guy to arrive, but to introduce the two of them! What a sweet moment that will be!



Ummm... can we say ADORABLE!!!

Fun Times (Late) Friday!!!

I realize yesterday was Friday, but due to the party foul on DTE's part, FUN TIMES were not lived until later in the day.

Yeah you guessed it, we had NO power! Talk about a lack of fun considering how HOT it was... I didn't want to open the doors and windows and make it even warmer inside, along with not wanting to open the refrigerator or freezer... so needless to say I snacked on granola bars and crackers all day for fuel. Ha!

So instead of sitting inside all day, I decided it was a good day to weed the front walkway. Well I'm not so sure that was a good idea because as I was weeding, minding my own business, our neighbor decided to come over to make some small talk. I love our neighbors and usually have NO problem with them whatsoever, but let me just give you a visual. Our walkway consists of a number of small tiny bricks to form a really nice pathway up to our door. I was working extremely hard on my hands and knees, big belly and all, sweating profusely, developing those lovely weeding blisters from trying to get my fingers in the small cracks where the weeds love to live, while holes developed in the tips of my gloves getting dirt under my nails, along with my hands cramping every few minutes... did I mention how warm it was and I was SWEATING PROFUSELY? That was probably not the best time to come over to give me a Weeding 101 class.

Yes, you read that right... I was given lessons on weeding, including showing me what a bottle of weed killer looks like, the name of a seed to spread to kill the weeds in the yard, along with how to use a spreader, oh and a bonus offer of using his spreader while I walk the dog back and forth our yard. I'm not quite sure what he was talking about, but all I know is that if I knew I was going to get a class on weeds, I would have brought my pen and pencil. Haha! Needless to say, yesterday was not my friend, nor was he at that moment. I'm thinking he could have picked a different time if he really wanted to show me the ropes.

I don't think our yard looks that bad, and if anything the weather is partially to blame since it has been so hot, most of the yard is hard to keep alive even after watering almost every morning. It does not look that bad... it's nicely mowed and well maintained, and I was weeding in the process of getting rid of all of those nasty burgers that was creeping out of those small bricks.

He was lucky I was too tired and had no extra energy to put into telling him what I thought about his teaching skills. He would have failed in my book. Good thing I had my phone with me and accepted a phone call to close off that conversation with him... and an even better thing... the power came back on later in the evening for Todd and I to be able to share one of the last Friday's together just the two of us watching a movie! He makes all Friday's FUN TIMES!!!

And because posts are so much better with something photo related... I got this video from a friend and thought how creative and so incredible to watch... Check it out!!!



Happy (Late) Friday!

Miss Ella Love :: 1 year

Do you ever feel like you meet someone and they are a part of your life forever?

Well... that is exactly how I feel like when it comes to Miss Ella Love and her family.

One of my dearest friend's who was pregnant and had her baby last summer decided to venture on in their life and we went from seeing them ALL the time to rarely seeing them now. I was extremely happy for them because they were venturing into some great opportunities in their lives, but I have to say there was a lot of bummed feelings as well because who does like going from seeing great friends ALL the time to RARELY seeing them? NOT ME!!! But I know we will always pick up where we last left off...

Especially when it comes to their little bundle of joy... Ella Love! What a year will do to a beauty! Ella just turned ONE and oh how she has changed. She's so smiley and funny... not to mention so stylish, just like her mama! I was so excited to be able to get some fun shots, even despite the 96 degree heat outside. Poor thing was not a fan, but she did great and I love any opportunity to see one of my favorite family!

Happy Birthday Ella!!!


Check out a few of my favorites...

Look at that cute face...



Mmmm... yummy!



Haha...



Oh my gosh, is she adorable or what???



LOVE that smile!!!



Want a taste?



So cute...



My FAVORITE... who doesn't love a little beautiful smile?!