Christmas Decorations

Linking up for the second Christmas post with From Mrs. to Mama!  I actually did a post last year with pictures of all my Christmas decorations.  Pretty much nothing has changed except for the addition of a stocking for Bean and a new snowman decoration.  In order to save some time (because I have oh so much to spare to sit at a computer to blog lately!), I’m reposting my post from last year that shows all our decorations.  It takes me quite a while to decorate usually, so this year is definitely interesting with my lack of time.  But I love decorating for Christmas and will continue to put up this many decorations, if not more, as the years go on.  It will be nice when Bean can help with some of it too!   :)  Now, in reading this post, my grandmother had passed away on Dec. 6th, so some of the post is emotional and sentimental about her.  I still miss her dearly, and wish she was here to see Bean’s first Christmas.  But enjoy the pictures of the decorations!:

 

I wanted to share my decorations with you, even though these pictures are from last year.  The decorations are all in the same spots this year, but my house currently looks like a tornado hit it with shopping bags full of gifts, and one ornament tub that still needs to be packed away, so you get to view last year’s pictures of this year’s decorations!

My grandmother made my stocking, probably about 5+ years ago, and I will cherish it always.  As I said, she never had much money to give big, expensive gifts, but I always cherished everything she ever gave me because it came with a lot of thought, and straight from her heart.  Last year’s gift from her was a set of dessert dishes because she noticed I didn’t have any at Thanksgiving, and even though they aren’t fine china or fancy, I love them and they are some of my favorite dishes.  She also gave me an ornament that she personalized for our first year in our new home.  I have to admit that I forgot about the ornament until I pulled it out this year, and it brought tears to my eyes.  It has an up front and center position on the tree this year.

The newest edition to the decorations this year.  Bought this angel at a recent craft show.

 

 

***My preview looks totally screwy, so just in case, here’s a link to the old post:  My Christmas House***

Seriously?! Thursday

I haven’t participated in this since before Bean was born, and I can’t do it from the iPhone, so I got him to sleep in his rocker and now I can finally participate this week!

1 – I have a 4 month old!  I can’t believe it!  Now that he’s over being colicky, he’s more fun everyday, and I can’t wait until we get into even more fun times!

2 – The builder of my house has yet again angered me.  My driveway is sinking where it meets the sidewalk.  It took my MIL tripping on the separation and falling face first in the street for them to decide it was time to fix it.  2 years we’ve been waiting for this.  And now?  They came and cut the driveway to remove that section, and left it like that!  First we were arguing with them about re-doing the entire driveway because my car is also creating divots, but they say no to that, and now I have this cut in my driveway and no one has come to do anything with it since.  It snowed, so they couldn’t then, but the temps are warmer now, the snow is melted, so where are they?!

3 – Speaking of snow, it snowed here!  2 days before Halloween, and a good couple of inches too!  Crazy weather.  I never thought we’d have a white Halloween!

4 – Old people need to learn how to drive again.  I was leaving Babies R Us yesterday, did not have a stop sign but the old dude did, and he started to pull out on me and almost hit the side of my car…then he had the nerve to glare and yell at me!  Seriously?!

5 – There are way too many pictures of Bean.  Well, not really.  How can you not take a picture of his cute face everyday?  But seriously, need to find a better solution for storing these digital images and sharing them with family.  We’re running out of room with our current way.

6 – We’re already in November!  Thanksgiving is coming up, my house is a wreck, Christmas is sooner than I’m ready for…I’m at a total loss as to how to handle Christmas gifts for Bean this year now too.  He’ll be 6 months old then (half a year already?!), so he’ll start to be able to play with more toys, but how many do you get?  What’s too much and what’s not enough?  Usually Hubby and I just spend a certain amount on each other, so number of gifts depends on what we buy that fits into that spending amount.  Is that how we handle Bean’s gifts too?

I guess that’s all I have for now.  I am going to try to start doing Favorite Kitty Pic Friday again, but it probably will just be once in a while when I get the chance to sit at the computer and deal with photos.  I hope to get one scheduled for tomorrow though!  I have a few other posts I want to do too, including a photo heavy post of Bean’s first Halloween pictures, but I have to get them off the camera and into the computer yet.

Have a great evening!

Favorite Kitty Pic Friday/Saturday!

<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="http://stephscreativelife.blogspot.com/"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHe-niZhfEaKY6MAUwqTd_3c5MQp501sz1jPEA_seJhPXG5ie1W1Z5sDhRHez3qg8fxQ1pmHfTRhFpjhGosOx733H7zggKjzU-ITHwvDXF6GRfizjAP5E2LfAOUqKJ60KARciSZzt74vM/?imgmax=800" /></a></td></tr></table>

Oops!  I totally forgot to put this up yesterday!  I didn’t have it scheduled this week either, so, sorry for my tardiness.  I was kind of busy yesterday.  We had an OB appointment in the morning which was originally supposed to happen on Thursday, we went for breakfast afterwards, then I came home and tried to accomplish a few other things on the computer, and finally went out and about for some shopping, bill paying, and sending the car seat base back to CSN stores, thanks to their complete mess up (that you can read about here).  I finally remembered to do this post after midnight, but I was heading to bed, and figured I’d just do it today instead.

Here’s my choice for this week, taken earlier in the week:

Jasper looks so sweet and innocent when he sleeps…don’t be fooled!   ;)   He really isn’t terrible or anything, but he’s certainly not as sweet and innocent as he looks here in this photo!  He can really work on my nerves sometimes, especially lately when my patience seems to wear thin quickly.  But he looked so cute all sleepy on the couch the other night, and actually stayed that way for the picture.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy Memorial Day weekend!  We’ll be accomplishing things around the house, hopefully getting dining room furniture from my aunt and uncle, but that’s still up in the air at this point, and apparently going out to eat with my grandmother/family on Monday.  Who goes out to eat over having a cook out on our nice (except for some stray weeds that still need taking care of) patio??  We do apparently…

Have a great weekend!!!

6 Weeks To Go!

I am now 34 weeks along in my pregnancy (well, 34 weeks and 4 days to be exact), and I feel huge.  I went to the doctor a week ago, and I don’t go again until this coming Thursday.  Apparently I have started to measure a week ahead, according to their tape measure.  I’ve been very nervous this whole time about having a big baby, and now I find out I’m measuring a week ahead and the doctor said he might just be growing a little too well.  I have no real baby measurements at this time though, because they can only figure that out through an ultrasound, and my OB would like to wait a couple more weeks to order that since babies can gain approximately a half a pound per week at this stage.  He’d like to wait until the beginning of June to get measurements so that we are a little closer to the end.  At this point, he hasn’t mentioned anything about inducing early depending on size, since we don’t really know a size, but I’m wondering if we will have to go that route.  I’m really hoping to avoid a c-section as well, but since we don’t know Bean’s measurements for sure or what position he’s in, I know a c-section is always a possibility. 

My ankles and hands started to swell up for the first time on Easter and swell daily since then.  They usually go down at least a little bit overnight, and my blood pressure has been great (I even monitor it at home with my own cuff on really swollen days), so we’re not too concerned about that at this point.

I have a really hard time getting up and down from chairs and in and out of the car.  I’m still driving myself places, but it’s becoming somewhat of a hassle.  If my belly really does expand any farther over the next couple weeks, I won’t be able to drive myself anymore because I will no longer fit behind my steering wheel!  I have really short legs, so I have to have the seat closer to the wheel in order to reach the pedals and see the road.  I have already put my seat back a little, and I don’t feel comfortable putting it back even more.  Rolling from one side to another in bed is even more of a chore now.  I have to get up literally every two hours to go to the bathroom overnight – nature’s way of preparing me? 

Bean’s movements have become much more than the typical thumps from kicks or punches that I was feeling before.  These days he seems to get hiccups more often, or at least I feel them more often, and he’s very squirmy.  The squirms are somewhat uncomfortable at times, and one day it was so bad it gave me a sore spot!  I’d much rather feel him moving though than not, because I get very nervous on his “quieter” days.

I still have reflux and heartburn issues, only sometime it’s a lot worse now because my stomach is even more squished in there.  Tums usually does the trick along with laying on my left side.  My craving lately seems to be pancakes.  I have eaten pancakes about 4 times in the last week and a half.  At least I never got really crazy cravings so far, and I haven’t sent Hubby out at weird hours or anything for food I needed right that minute. 

We had our 3D ultrasound at the beginning of April, and that was an awesome experience.  Bean was pushed up against my placenta the whole time though, so it was hard to get a full face photo, but it was still a good experience, and I’m very glad we decided to do it.  Here’s what our little man looks like (I think he’s going to be a cute one!):

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have decided on a full name for him.  As of now I think I will still only refer to him as “Bean” on here though, just as I only ever say “Hubby”.  The nursery is just about complete.  It still needs the wall decals put up, a photo frame or two hung, and just some organization of the clothing and toys we received and bought.  The crib is all ready, even though he won’t be sleeping in there right away, and the changing area is all set up.  We have the Pack N’ Play all put together and waiting, and the swing is even set up in the family room already.  The only really major thing that has to be done yet is installing the carseat in Hubby’s car, and the extra base in mine.  We have to order the extra base online, and Hubby already tried to install the carseat, but had a lot of trouble getting it level, so we will be heading to AAA at some point to get carseat assistance.  Other than those few other minor things, we are pretty good with our prep for his arrival.  I always thought initially that I would deliver late, especially because I came almost 2 weeks late.  Now, with him possibly measuring bigger, and all the June babies I have read about being born now already, I’m not so sure if I will make it to my due date.  Father’s Day is the 19th this year, and it hit me yesterday when I was looking at cards – I came home and told Hubby he might have an official first Father’s Day this year already if Bean comes even 4 days early!

So, I know this post might have seemed like I was complaining a lot.  I’m 34 weeks pregnant, feeling huge, swollen, and uncomfortable – I’m allowed to complain!  But that does not mean I’m not very excited to meet Bean and wish I wasn’t pregnant – I’m very happy to be pregnant, and can’t wait until he’s here now!  :)

Favorite Kitty Pic Friday!

<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="http://stephscreativelife.blogspot.com/"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHe-niZhfEaKY6MAUwqTd_3c5MQp501sz1jPEA_seJhPXG5ie1W1Z5sDhRHez3qg8fxQ1pmHfTRhFpjhGosOx733H7zggKjzU-ITHwvDXF6GRfizjAP5E2LfAOUqKJ60KARciSZzt74vM/?imgmax=800" /></a></td></tr></table>

Happy Friday!  I know my posting has been very non-existent lately, but I had a full 2 weeks+ of painting, cleaning, etc.  We had our baby shower, and after all that was said and done, I needed some relaxation time.  Apparently my energy isn’t coming back now though.  I still have things to do that will require a bit of energy, and I just haven’t been able to find it.  I do have more posts that I want to create, just need to sit down and write them now!
So, here’s my choice for this week’s post.  I think it’s very fitting to how I feel lately:
Lazy, lazy, lazy.  I took this picture while we were painting.  We kept the kitties in our very large bedroom (with everything they needed, of course) while we painted.  This was a common sight to walk into.  Sometimes we even caught them snuggling with each other, which was adorable, but unfortunately I didn’t manage to get any pictures of those times.
Hope you all have a good weekend planned!  I will be attending a baton competition tomorrow, and a friend’s wedding in the evening, and on Sunday we are getting a nice dining room set from my aunt and uncle.  We will finally have a complete dining room set, and a table in our eat-in kitchen!  It will make the house seem a little more complete.   :)

Painting While Pregnant

I believe I mentioned on here before that Hubby and I were going to tackle the biggest paint job of our entire house last weekend while we had my dad’s help to get started.  Well, after a (slightly longer) weeklong process, we finally have all the walls in our front living room, entry, entry hallway, staircase, and upstairs hallway painted.  All that’s left to do today is the touch ups.  I started off this project, with some of Hubby’s help, one week and two days ago by sanding rough spots on the walls, spackling any divots and imperfections, and fixing nails pops that got missed on the first go around.  That fixing didn’t end completely until this past Thursday.  The walls were terrible!  Every time we thought we had things pretty fixed up and prepped for paint, we’d find more to fix.  So, last Saturday the upstairs hallway got painted, on Sunday the staircase got painted, the entry hallway was done on Monday, and then the front living room and entry were finished up between yesterday and the day before.  Hubby did end up doing the majority of the work, because painting that much surface area at 28/29 weeks pregnant is even harder work than normal.  I feel bad about that because I wish I could have helped more, but my body just couldn’t take any more than it withstood already.  He had taken this entire week off for this project and a few appointments we had scheduled, and now he says he’s actually looking forward to starting work again on Monday because he will be more physically relaxed.  Except for now we have to clean a majority of the house by Friday afternoon and I most likely will need a lot of his help for that too.  The house is a mess to begin with, but adding in all the painting and sanding we’ve had to do, it really needs a good clean up.  And I say it has to be done by Friday afternoon because his parents are arriving that evening to stay with us for the weekend since my baby shower is next Saturday.  So, needles to say, it’s been a very busy and tiring week, and the next week isn’t looking much better for me.  Between the painting and the appointments, and the location the appointments were in, I need a good break, but I probably won’t get that until Monday the 18th!  The appointments we had to go to included my 3D ultrasound, which was an hour away, and Hubby’s last oral surgery follow up, which was also an hour away.  Both trips took us to good shopping areas as well, so we ended up doing some of that with our time too.  I know I missed my Favorite Kitty Friday post, as well as Getting to Know YOU post (I also missed some big blog hop party this week too), but some days I couldn’t even tell you what day it was, and when I wasn’t helping with the painting task, we were not home, eating, or sleeping.  I will be very happy when this is all done and I can relax a little more.

To give you insight as to how behind I am on things, my Google Reader count is up to at least 625 unread items, there are at least 40 unread e-mails sitting in my inboxes, and I missed doing those posts this week.  Hopefully I will be able to start catching up on things, like trying to do at least 2 posts this week.  I would like to do a post about my 3D ultrasound too, but we’ll see how the week goes along.  We also started our Prep for Childbirth classes too, so that’s been thrown in there as well.  I can’t wait until Monday the 18th…

One last thing before I forget – I read this blog:  http://www.lifeofsaucyb.com/  Every Monday, she does a “Make Me Laugh Monday” post where she posts a picture of her cat, and accepts caption ideas.  On Thursday of that week, she will pick the commenter who made her laugh/who’s caption she likes best, and this past week my caption was chosen!  As a reward, she has my blog button featured on her sidebar.  Please check it out, and enjoy her blog!

Favorite Kitty Pic Friday!

<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="http://stephscreativelife.blogspot.com/"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHe-niZhfEaKY6MAUwqTd_3c5MQp501sz1jPEA_seJhPXG5ie1W1Z5sDhRHez3qg8fxQ1pmHfTRhFpjhGosOx733H7zggKjzU-ITHwvDXF6GRfizjAP5E2LfAOUqKJ60KARciSZzt74vM/?imgmax=800" /></a></td></tr></table>

TGIF!  Well, not really for me.  We are starting that really big house painting project this weekend while we can get my dad’s help (even though I will be at a baton twirling competition until the afternoon tomorrow), but I’ve already started prepping the walls by sanding and spackling, and taping of the trim will hopefully get somewhat done today.  So, while many of you enjoy your weekend, we will be hard at work here for quite a few days this week.  We do have some exciting things happening this week though – I start my Preparing for Childbirth classes on Sunday, and we go for the 3D ultrasound on Wednesday!  Especially excited for that day!  :)
This week, as promised, I have Favorite Kitty Pic Friday in video format.  Hopefully I get this all to work properly, since I never put video in a post before.  Here’s Dusty:

I hadn’t seen Dusty do this in a while, but sometimes when he gets wild, he really goes wild!  He’s up in the cat tree perch, and you have to consider that there is a big hole that takes up a good portion of the resting area – it’s amazing he doesn’t fall through at all!  We don’t usually have the video camera charged and ready to go, so thankfully Hubby’s phone can shoot video so we were able to finally get at least one of the cats doing something silly!

I hope you all enjoyed this video – I still laugh every time I watch it!   :)  If you would like to share your own favorite kitty photo or video, just create a post of your own, grab the badge from the top of this post, and link your post here in the comments.  If you don’t have a blog but would still like to share, just leave a comment with the link to your photo.

Hope you all have a wonderfully relaxing weekend!

Decisions, decisions…

Wow, I’m actually getting a post in before Favorite Kitty Pic Friday this week!  I scheduled that post for tomorrow very early in the week in order to make sure it got posted this week since I didn’t get to do it the last 2 weeks.  But I thought about something I wanted to post, and I figured I better do it now or it will fall to the wayside.

I have made some decisions lately, and there are still a few decisions I have to make.

1. I have decided not to peek at my baby registries.  This is very hard for me because I’m so curious and would love to know what kinds of things we are getting and what necessities might be left for us to purchase.  I did end up seeing a couple items that were purchased because it was early on after shower invitations were sent out and I was still adding/removing things from the registries.  Also, my mom can’t really keep a secret, so I even know who the one item is coming from.  Which is one of the reasons I know about my shower as well.  It was never planned as a surprise, because we had to coordinate scheduling with the out of town in-laws, but she would never have been able to keep it that way anyway.  She says she would have been able to, but she blurts out everything at some point, and I’m absolutely sure I would have figured it out somehow either way. So – no more looking at the registry.  We’re done adding things to it at this point anyway, and I need some surprises from this shower!

2. I have decided that the “joys of pregnancy” are not always so joyous.  Sleeping is becoming more difficult since I have to sleep on my sides and apparently want to sleep on my back more than I ever thought I would want to or ever did in the past.  My hips hurt so much throughout the night and it feels like I’m a beached whale when I try to get up for middle of the night bathroom trips or even (especially!) just to roll over to the other side.  I have reflux issues.  I’m somewhat of an emotional person, but lately, “somewhat” emotional doesn’t even begin to describe it.  I notice I get irritated sometimes at stupid things, and so much more that I watch on TV makes me cry.  The show “One Born Every Minute”?  I bawl during every episode.  I used to be able to watch those shows in peace, but now I just cry all the time.  What am I going to be like when I finally have Bean??  One emotional mess coming up!

3. We have decided to have a 3D/4D ultrasound done.  This was up in the air for us at the beginning, mostly due to cost and the fact that it wasn’t a necessity, but furniture and such is.  Well, since we are well furnished now and it was all gifts, we decided to go for it and get a peek at Bean in there.  I have to schedule it yet, but I’m hoping to do that tomorrow and will hopefully have it done in about 2 weeks – depending on appointment availability.

4.  We have decided to take on the biggest paint job of our whole house in about 2 weeks.  Due to the layout of the house, we kind of have to use one color for the front living room, entry, entry hallway, staircase, and upstairs hallway.  It’s such a huge undertaking that we have recruited my dad’s help for a weekend, and Hubby will even take the week off work to continue and finish the job.  We decided we wanted to get at least this paint job completed before Bean arrived, because after that who is going to feel like taking on that huge job, and it will be done for when he starts crawling around and can touch walls with messy hands and such.  Right now those areas are still painted with contractor grade paint, which is not scrub-able at all.  If we get it painted, it will be easier to clean, and our house will finally start to look more finished.  We will still have some more rooms to paint yet, but those are smaller easier rooms and can be done anytime then.

5. We decided to go on a trip in August.  The baton group that I teach for is going to one of the Jersey shores for almost a week to perform on a stage right at the boardwalk.  I’ve taken this trip many many many times, but this will be our first with a newborn, and depending on when Bean decides to arrive and how he ends up entering the world, we’re not sure if this is going to be ok, or not such a great idea.  Guess we’ll have to wait and see!

6. We decided Hubby should have his wisdom teeth removed last week.  He had it done last Friday and is still in some pain from the one extraction site.  That particular tooth hadn’t really come up through the gum much and was actually sideways in his jaw.  I feel really bad when he’s hurting because I told him he should have it done after hearing all the reasons from the oral surgeon why it would be a good thing to do now, even though they weren’t bothering him now.  He goes back tomorrow to have things checked out, so hopefully his pain is all normal and there are no infection issues or anything.  I can’t remember how long I had pain when I had mine done, but I seemed to luck out with my surgery – no swelling or bruising, and I don’t remember the pain being that bad or lasting longer than a couple days.  So, hopefully everything is ok with his mouth. 

And for the decisions yet to be made:

1. We have a first name picked out.  Everyone seems to like it.  We’re still not 100% committed to a middle name though.  At least, we have not both said we are 100% committed to it, though I have a feeling we will end up going with it.

2. To circumcise or not to?  That’s the big question…

So, that is all for now.  Look for my Favorite Kitty Pic Friday post tomorrow, and next week I might have a video for it instead of a photo, if I can figure out how to add in a video that has to come from Hubby’s phone.  It’ll be a funny one though!