Decking Our Halls

Over the long weekend, we broke out some Christmas decorations around the house.  We don't put up too many, mostly because we know we won't want to go around putting them all away when we're sick of looking at them on December 26th. So we try to add some holiday cheer without going crazy - we will leave the Clark Griswold status to our neighbors, whose lights we can enjoy from our kitchen window. ;)

The white lights and mistletoe on our pallet headboard that Tyler made are my favorite.  Something tells me I will be spending far too much time in bed until Christmas.

Our kitties are fans of the ambiance too. :)

While I would LOVE to have a real tree, unfortunately, it's not very practical when our cat thinks it's her personal jungle gym...

That photo was from last year (when she was still a kitten).  But we had a feeling things wouldn't change much, which proved to be true when she had the tree knocked down the other day before I could even finish adjusting the branches.  So, to save myself from some time and energy (and stress) we stuck with the fake tree again.  And used all shatterproof ornaments.

You might notice that there are no ornaments on bottom foot or so of the tree.  That was done on purpose. 

 To add a little bit of real greenery, we picked up a few wreaths to hang around the house.  We put one on the front door, one on the side door (on the inside), and a boxwood wreath by our kitchen table.

We also whipped up some s'mores hot chocolate one night.  It's delicious and ridiculously sweet.  Definitely a drink and dessert in one!

We rubbed marshmallow around the rim of the mugs, flipped them over and pressed them into some crushed graham crackers.  We just used packets of Swiss Miss hot chocolate, topped with mini marshmallows, and popped the mugs in the oven on a baking sheet at 400 for ten-ish(?) minutes.  We didn't really time it, just watched them until the marshmallows started to brown (and our kitchen started to smell so yummy).  When we took them out of the oven, we topped them with some chocolate syrup and more crushed graham crackers.  Obviously the mugs were very hot, so we let them cool for a few minutes before drinking.  Perfect for a festive movie night! 

16 Weeks + Happy Thanksgiving!

How far along:  16 weeks

Gender:  The suspense is killing me, today especially. I would love to score some Black Friday deals for Baby N - from my couch, in my pajamas.. I'm not one of those crazy people ;)

Belly button in or out: In, though it does seem to be getting more and more shallow.

Maternity clothes: Hoping that I can squeeze into one of my dresses for my work's holiday party next Friday... yikes.

Stretch marks: None yet.

Sleep: Still going to bed super early but haven't been quite as tired throughout the day as before. 

Best moment this week:  Seeing both of our families on Thanksgiving!  And eating some delicious food, of course.

Worst moment this week:  Not much to complain about this week. :)

Miss anything:  I wouldn't have minded having a drink or two yesterday.

Movement: Same as last week.  Not really sure, but I've read the stronger, more noticeable movements should be coming in the next few weeks.

Cravings:  Still pretty much just food in general!  I guess I would put pizza under the cravings category lately.

Queasy or sick:  Feeling good!

Looking forward to:  Relaxing over the long weekend with Tyler + my fur babes.


Here are a few pictures from our Thanksgiving.  I'm not very good at remembering to take pictures, so there aren't too many!

We started our day with the breakfast of champions...


...& headed out to good old Hubb for dinner with my family...




...hung out with our fur niece, Miss Amelia...




...ate some yummy desserts & had birthday cake for my grammy...


...took pictures of our giant heads ;)...

...before heading off to see Tyler's family (where I didn't take any pictures, oops!)

Hope you all had a very Happy Thanksgiving!

15 Weeks

How far along:  15 weeks

Gender:  We officially find out on 12/17! Can't wait!!

Belly button in or out: In. 

Maternity clothes: Still only wearing the one pair of jeans I bought.

Stretch marks: None yet.

Sleep: Good, other than the couple nights this week that I woke up around 2 am and couldn't fall back asleep.  Couldn't shut my brain off.

Best moment this week:  Hearing Baby N's heartbeat again, for sure!  I would go to the doctor every week just to do that if I could. Need to get my hands on one of those dopplers..

Worst moment this week:  Having the worst headache ever one night that had me in bed at 6:30 pm. Or, the three times the phone rang when I was trying to sleep off my headache.

Miss anything:  What I would give for a sandwich... I'm not usually one to really want deli meat, so I think this is one of those wanting something you know you can't have things.  I already warned Tyler that I'll probably be asking for a grinder as one of my first post-baby meals. ;)

Movement: Debatable.  I've definitely felt some subtle things that don't seem familiar to me.  Though, at this point, I guess that's not that out of the ordinary.

Cravings:  Same as last week.  If candy counts, chewy sprees got the best of me at the grocery store.

Queasy or sick:  Feeling good, unless I get overly hungry.

Looking forward to:  Thanksgiving.  And 5 glorious days off from work in a row.  Our plans currently include: sleeping, eating, decorating our Christmas tree & watching Christmas Vacation for the first time of the season.  Exciting stuff!

Here are some outtakes from our photo session with my favorite little furbabies.  They're excited for their new little brother or sister, even if they don't look it. ;)

And because Tyler's birthday was on Monday, a belated Happy 

Birthday to my best friend! :)

14 Weeks

How far along:  14 weeks

Gender:  We won't find out until about 4 weeks from now.  I had a gut feeling it's a boy for a while, but am officially undecided after having a dream we found out Baby Noel is a girl.  The Chinese Gender Chart says boy, so we shall see!

Belly button in or out: In. I'm not going to lie, if and when this happens, I will be totally freaked out.  I have an irrational fear that my belly button is going to explode (at any time, not just while pregnant).  Totally weird, I know.

Maternity clothes: I bought my first two pairs of maternity pants this past week.  I'm wearing the jeans I got in the picture above.  Most of my work pants are fine, some of my jeans (other than super low-rise ones) can only be worn (comfortably) unbuttoned with a hair elastic keeping them up! ;)

Stretch marks: None yet! I bought Mama Bee Belly Butter and have been rubbing it on every morning. If nothing else, it makes my skin soft and I like that it doesn't smell like much of anything.

Sleep: Pretty good, other than the usual middle of the night cat feedings (wish I was kidding), and getting up to pee usually 2-3 times a night... Oy.

Best moment this week:  Other than officially entering the SECOND TRIMESTER (woo hoo!!), nothing too exciting happened this week. BUT I'm excited that Friday was my last week of hour+ long commutes, for a little while at least.  It's been a long four weeks.

Worst moment this week:  Forgetting to put salt in my chocolate chip cookies.  Seriously bummed.

Miss anything:  Not having to wake up to pee multiple times during the night.  And not waking up hungry enough to eat dinner for a family of four in the middle of the night.

Movement: Nothing yet. Other than what was likely my imagination the other day...

Cravings:  Nothing too specific lately!  Just "food in general" as Tyler says.

Queasy or sick:  Feeling good. :)

Looking forward to:  Celebrating Tyler's birthday tomorrow with his fam.  Chinese food and cake? Yes, please.  Also looking forward to my doctor's appointment on Wednesday.  Who would have thought I'd look forward to going to the doctor's??

Announcing Baby Noel

Tyler & I are BEYOND EXCITED to announce that we're expecting our first Baby Noel in May 2015!! We are thrilled to be starting this next chapter in our lives!

We found out on Labor Day (9/1/14).  I had a gut feeling that it could be it but was also in a little bit of denial that this could actually be happening.  I decided to try to take a test first thing in the morning even though I thought it might be a little early in the week to know.  I was seriously just about to throw the test in the trash when I saw the second pink line show up on the screen - I was so surprised, I thought my eyeballs were going to fall out of my head.  

Tyler was still asleep so I went in to wake him up.  I stood there staring at him for a minute like a total creep, went back into the bathroom to make sure my eyes weren't playing tricks on me, and then finally went back in the bedroom. I shook him until his eyes opened and immediately shoved the pee stick in his face.  Upon his confirmation that I was, in fact, not just making things up, I started crying like a baby.  It was a tad overwhelming, but we were so excited!!

I ended up taking another test later that morning (for additional confirmation, of course) which clearly displayed "Pregnant" on the screen.  I also took another test 4 days later, just to be sure. ;)  The end result was all the same - we are going to have a BABY!

We waited until the following weekend to tell our parents and siblings, when we would see them in person.  Everyone's reactions were everything we hoped and more.

We told my family the day before my mom's birthday, so we got a special card for the Grammie-to-be from Baby Noel.   I also found this wine bottle label on etsy and picked up a bottle of champagne to wrap up with the card.



My mother-in-law's birthday had been the week before, so we just tried to pass off her gift as another birthday gift.  Luckily she didn't question why we were giving her another gift after we had already celebrated the weekend before. ;)  Tyler and I picked out a couple baby-related items at Target and wrapped them up in a cute bag.

Of course we got it all on video, so here it is for your viewing pleasure! :)


I am certainly no video-editor, but I think you'll all get the point. ;)

Finally, I leave you with my 12 & 13 week bump photos from the past two weeks.  I am going to try to remember to take a picture every week (we'll see how that goes).