Weekly Pregnancy Updates : 33 Weeks

 | Shirt | Leggings (similar) | Boots |

So yes, I realize the dresser behind me is sort of a catchall for a random mess o' stuff but in all fairness, I just finished painting the wall behind the crib and the dresser is holding a bunch of stuff that was just...laying elsewhere.  And pay no attention to the haphazard drawer pull...the ones on that drawer are getting replaced and these 2 are just hanging out until those arrive.  This photo totally makes me look sloppy and lazy but whatevs.  And does the potential of little man being here in a month freak anyone else out but me?!?

How Far Along:  33 Weeks

Maternity Clothes: Yes, with the exception of a shirt here and there.

Stretch Marks: No, fingers crossed.

Sleep: It's actually been semi-decent this week.  I wake up a few times but at least I'm getting right back to sleep.  I'll take what I can.  That and a few mornings where Selah has slept in an extra hour have been awesome.

Best/Worst Moment This Week: I started Selah potty training this week.  I'm sure I'm getting a few raised eyebrows for doing this at 8 months preggo but with all the colds I've had in the last couple months, I needed to at least give it a real go before D Day.  And she's totally rocking it!  She's had 3 accidents over 4 days and I'm so proud of her.  And me too...let's be honest.

Have You Told Friends & Family: Yes.

Miss Anything: A better immune system.

Movement: As I described to a friend recently, it feels like I have a 6 foot long octopus in my stomach some days.  Yeowch!

Food Cravings: I've been trying not to bake or bring any desserts into the house lately because I have zero self control.  That being said, I've been wanting a little sweet something at night so the 5 pound bag of chocolate chips I bought at Costco has been helping with that.  I grab a small handful (yes, handful...don't judge) of those in a little bowl and eat those after Selah's gone to bed and that helps with my sweets craving.

Anything Make You Queasy or Sick: Our dogs' smell.  Yep...can't really stand to be around them.

Have You Started to Show Yet: Onward and outward.

Baby Is A: BOY!

Wedding Rings On or Off: Still on comfortably.

Belly Button In or Out: It's definitely visible through my shirts.  Can't wait for that to go back.

Happy or Moody:  I'd say pretty good for the most part.  I'm surprised at myself for not losing my mind when it came to potty training as I'm sometimes not the most patient person around....cough cough.

Labor Symptoms: Still Braxton Hicks and an occasional cramp here and there but still okay.
Looking Forward To: Making it to Thanksgiving with little man still IN my belly.  37 weeks is the magic number in order to deliver at home here in Colorado so that is my personal goal.  Not sure just how much past that I want to go ;)

Fall Burlap Wreath Tutorial

No big shocker that I've been dying for fall weather to roll around here so I can not only start wearing cool weather clothes and stop being a miserably hot pregnant lady but also so that I can do some fall decorating.  I'm not sure what's up with Colorado's weather lately but it's seriously disappointing.  We've had a couple of awesomely cool and rainy days but then it will stay in the upper 70's and sometimes 80's for days.  Sorry but what the crap Colorado!  If I wanted to still be wearing shorts (not a good look right now, trust me), I'd be in Texas or Florida!  Anyway, enough of my hormonal tirade about the weather.

 

We're much more of the decorate for fall and not Halloween type of decorators around here.  Classy fall, I like to call it.  I had a few items that I picked up last year at Michael's that I knew I'd be using again.  I seriously love the white pumpkin look and you can get 3 different sizes of these plastic (?) white pumpkins at Michael's, along with the super cute scarecrow too.  I grabbed the straw bale from our local feed store and the 4 different orange pumpkins from our grocery store because they were way cheaper than getting them at the pumpkin patch.  Yes, we go to the pumpkin patch at least a couple times to do all the fun thing there but I have an issue spending $20+ on 1 single pumpkin.  Yes, I'm a cheapskate and Selah doesn't care where they come from as long as she has one.

So while I was loving the front stoop decor, I knew I needed a new fall themed wreath for the front door.  Because we certainly don't want some summer themed wreath wrecking the fung shui up there.  How declasse'.  Just kidding.  I scoured trusty Pinterest for some ideas of what I'd like to have and decided that I definitely wanted burlap and I figured I'd get accent inspiration while browsing the aisles of Michael's.

 

And this is what I came up with and it was pretty easy if I do say so myself!  Never mind the Christmas wreath hanger on the door.  It's not a Santa so it works.

So what do you need?  I grabbed an 18" floral frame wreath, a sprig/branch/twig/whatever the heck you want to call it of faux fall leaves, a roll of some fall-ish looking ribbon and a 20 foot roll of burlap.  I should've grabbed 2 while I was already at Michael's but truth be told, I 'knew' I had another roll of burlap floating around the house somewhere and would use that.  Yeah...never found it so I had to run back to grab another roll.

• Wreath: $4
• Leaves: $3
• Burlap: $7 x2.  I had a 50% coupon for one of these.  Michael's regularly has 40% off one item coupons on their website you can use.
• Ribbon: $3 (I believe but it wasn't more than $4)
• Total cost (minus the hot glue gun burns): $24.  There are lots of places online that sell similar wreaths for $50+.

First start by wrapping and weaving an end of the burlap around the wreath frame.  See?  Technical photo showing my professional weaving ;)

Then, just weave in and out or over and under on up the frame, jooshing and fluffing as you go. 

Once you've made your way back around to the starting point, just weave the ends in and secure as best you can.  You can see that there's a bit of a spot that's not as full as the rest but since I was going to be adding the leaves, I wasn't too worried since I knew they would cover that area.

Busting out my handy glue gun, I just arranged them in a way I liked and glued them in to the burlap and frame as best I could.

Okay, now the bow.  I will be the first to admit that I have no idea how to make a full, fancy bow.  There were pre-made bows at Michael's that I could have bought but again, my cheap side won over and I grabbed the roll of ribbon for $3 to make my own and saved a few bucks.  I seriously had no idea what I was doing but just kinda rolled and folded and hot glued the bow until I was happy with how it looked.

So there ya have it!  A fall wreath that is somewhat idiot proof, affordable and has your door lookin' good!

Weekly Pregnancy Updates : 31 Weeks

 | Shirt | Jeans |

I've had so many tragic run-ins with hair stylists that I've long been doing my own hair because I can't find anyone that hasn't screwed it up in some form or fashion.  I had a great hair stylist 3 years ago but she stopped doing hair and I've been playing Stylist Roulette ever since.  Had a trim that took 2 years to grow out because it looked like a dog chewed on it?  Yup.  Had a severe brassy orangey-blonde ombre look when I clearly asked for (and brought a very clear photo) that I wanted subtle balayage?  Another yup.  So I got a wild hair and decided I wanted to add some more balayage to my hair.  Yes, I was a bit nervous because I've done it in the past and got a tad crazy with how long I left it on.  This time I was much more conservative and it turned out exactly how I wanted it!  Might have to do a tutorial next time I do it...hmmm.

How Far Along:  31 Weeks

Maternity Clothes: Yes, with the exception of a shirt here and there.

Stretch Marks: No, fingers crossed.

Sleep: That dang insomnia is back at it again.  Really wish it would go away so I could go some sleep before little guy comes and then it's just up multiple times a night.

Best/Worst Moment This Week: The cooler nights but having highs in the mid 80's one day was a little ridiculous.

Have You Told Friends & Family: Yes.

Miss Anything: A decent night's sleep; taking a deep breath; energy.

Movement: This boy is growing and my insides can tell...oy!

Food Cravings: I've had a thing for Ritz Bitz cheese crackers recently. Let's just say the Target brand crackers are better than the name brand.

Anything Make You Queasy or Sick: Our dogs' smell.  Yep...can't really stand to be around them.

Have You Started to Show Yet: Onward and outward.

Baby Is A: BOY!

Wedding Rings On or Off: Still on comfortably.

Belly Button In or Out: It's definitely visible through my shirts.  Can't wait for that to go back.

Happy or Moody: A little moody, let's be honest.  I'm not feeling awesome or comfortable and I'm just anxious to be more flexible/mobile/energetic again.

Labor Symptoms: Still Braxton Hicks and an occasional cramp here and there but still okay.
Looking Forward To: Our family/maternity pictures this weekend!  I've had our outfits planned for, ahem, awhile and unfortunately the weather is proving to be a little warmer than I'd like so I will be thinking cold thoughts while sweating in my fur vest.

Yummy Fall Pumpkin Glazed Cookies

So it's no big shocker that fall, and all things fall, kinda get me all jazzed up.  Throw in temps in the 50's (like they're supposed to be) and I'm set.  It was the perfect morning yesterday to hit up the local pumpkin patch but the heavy rains the day before kept it from opening so I decided that getting our fall fix at the grocery store would have to do.

We hadn't even actually made it into the main part of the store before it looked like fall had thrown up in our cart...your normal, run-of-the-mill pumpkins for carving, fat squatty Cinderella pumpkins for our front porch fall display, apple cider.  I think you're getting the drift here.  Oh, and I can't forget the massive straw bale in the back of my vehicle for the aforementioned front porch display.  I'd found a couple recipes online that I wanted to try and of course, I needed some pumpkin puree for them.  As much as I wanted to go all nuts and whip out every pumpkin recipe I had, I decided to start with the Pumpkin Glazed Cookies and they don't disappoint.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup softened butter
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup pumpkin puree {canned pumpkin}
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 large eggs
4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (I added a little extra...can't have too much pumpkin pie spicyness!)

Glaze
3 cups powdered sugar
4 tablespoons water
1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (again, 1/4tsp didn't seem like quite enough)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with wax/parchment paper.  This kinda goes against what the recipe says but I used my KitchenAid mixer to mix everything together instead of doing it by hand.  It does a better job of mixing things and is faster at it so that's a no brainer.  I combined the butter, oil, pumpkin, sugars, vanilla and eggs first. Then I added the dry remaining dry ingredients.  Go slow with the mixing because the bowl will be full and you don't want to be cleaning it off the counters and floors!  I used an ice cream scoop to scoop out the 'batter' onto the baking sheet and then flatten to 1/2 inch thick using the bottom of a glass. Bake 8 minutes.

Go ahead and mix the the glaze ingredients while the cookies are baking since this only takes a couple minutes.  Once you pull each batch of cookies out, let them cool a couple minutes on the baking sheet before moving to a cooling rack or, if you're like me and have a too small cooling rack, a long piece of foil on the counter.  Take spoon and kinda joosh and smear (yes, those are technical terms) glaze over each warm cookie.  Let the glaze harden on the cookies at least a couple hours before moving them to wherever you plan on storing them: cookie jar, container, cookie jar, etc. 

Try not to eat them all at once and enjoy!

Weekly Pregnancy Updates : 30 Weeks

How Far Along:  30 Weeks

Maternity Clothes: Yes, with the exception of a shirt here and there.

Stretch Marks: No, fingers crossed.

Sleep: That dang insomnia is back at it again.

Best/Worst Moment This Week:

Have You Told Friends & Family: Yes.

Miss Anything: A decent night's sleep...and we all know that ain't coming back any time soon; taking a deep breath.

Movement: This boy is growing and my insides can tell...oy!

Food Cravings: None recently.  I'm running out of room in the stomach area and it's a fine line between being full and being in pain from the lack of room and getting kicked because Little Man does not appreciate his digs being encroached on by a burrito.

Anything Make You Queasy or Sick: Our dogs' smell.  Yep...can't really stand to be around them.

Have You Started to Show Yet: Onward and outward.

Baby Is A: BOY!

Wedding Rings On or Off: Still on comfortably.

Belly Button In or Out: It's definitely visible through my shirts.  Can't wait for that to go back.

Happy or Moody: A tad irritable because I can't get around physically like I used to and I wish I had 1/2 the energy that Selah does.  She's in this sort of defiant stage and loves to test us.  Not good for the waning patience.

Labor Symptoms: Still Braxton Hicks and an occasional cramp here and there but still okay.
Looking Forward To: The weather staying fall-like.  We get teased with a couple cool days and then it's back to 80.  Not cool.  And of course we're in the home stretch with 10 weeks to go!  Holy cow...the time has flown by!