Week 36

Where: The Ballard Condominiums with my lovely shower hosts!



Week Recap ~

• Total weight gain/loss : +35.5 lbs
• Sleep : Meh. Not happening like I would like it too, a bad nights rest is beginning to be the norm.
• Best moments : Definitely our shower! It was great to have a laid back afternoon and celebrate our little girl. Pictures below!
• Movement : There isn't a whole lot of room in there for her to do any big movements, but she is still finding a way to move about.
• Symptoms : My skin has started to be very dry. I am lathering up in lotion every night, but no lotion seems to be good enough at this point.
• Maternity clothes? : Yes
• Food cravings or aversion's? : nothing stands out this week
• What I am eating : pasta, steak, jalapeno poppers, Mexican - lots of quesadillas lately, lamb burgers, chicken sandwiches, fries, yogurt
• Exercise : Not much this week. Walked to dinner once.
• Gender : Girl still
• Labor signs : She's for sure head down!
• What I miss : Wearing my wedding rings. I haven't had my engagement ring on for a few weeks, but I had still been wearing my band. As of this Tuesday though it is no longer being worn. :(
• What I am looking forward to : Hopefully the pool this weekend :) Also, I now have all the prints I purchased for the nursery and we will be hanging them this weekend. I am excited to see how they all pull together on the wall. Fingers crossed they look good! Oh and being full term starting Saturday!
  
  
  Seattle Shower Pics:
  
  Condo ladies and great friends! Mandi, me, Aly and Shannon
  
  
  
  Items marked so I knew if I could consume them :) 
  
  
  
  Gummy bears soaked over days in vodka! Highly recommend trying this out
  
  
  
   Grill masters Brian and Eric (below)
  
  
  
  
  
  
   Opening gifts together.
  
  
  
   The guess the celebrity baby game was a big hit.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I just really loved this picture of us :)
  
  
  Thanks so much to Mandi and Aly for putting on a great shower for us! We really have found great friends here in Seattle. :)

Baby Shower

This post is super late, but better late then never right? Good thing baby girl can't ready yet, don't want her to think that way. hehe. Anyways, Easter weekend Stephen and I hoped a plane and headed to St Louis. My sweet family threw me a baby shower. It was a wonderful time, got to visit with many people and celebrate the soon to be new addition to the family.

 

My sister & mom put together a great day, with the help of my aunts, mama, cousins and mother in law. All of the decorations were so great, the food delicious and the company delightful as always. :)

Me with my mom and mother in law.

Aunt Nancy and I :)

Jessica and I :)

Family! Thanks ladies for helping out with the shower. I had the best time!

Kozlen ladies :)

 

Sisters! Ellen spear headed the shower and she did a great job. Everything was amazing.

Old friends! So great Holly was in town too, so she got to come celebrate with us :)

BFFs :) Love all these ladies and their little men!

Thanks to everyone who came to celebrate! I can't wait for everyone to get to meet our baby girl.

Week 24

Where: Ship Canal/Lake Union, Fremont, Seattle, WA (Happy St Patrick's Day!)



Week Recap ~

• Total weight gain/loss : I have no idea again! I forgot to get on the scale yesterday morning and today I am in Portland, OR and our hotel room didn't come with a scale. :)
• Sleep : The begining of the week was terrible, but the end of the week has been much better. I often think I just wear my body out so much with bad sleep taht eventually it just gives up and lets me sleep really hard for about 2 days before going back to waking up all the time.
• Best moments : Had a fun and semi relaxing weekend, celebrating Stephen's birthday. Pictures way below. Also, video chatted with some of my girlfriends this week. It is always nice to see their faces. Some of the kiddos joined as well. They are all getting so big!
• Movement : Pretty much the same as last week, movement but not a ton. She makes herself known a few times a day but isn't partying it up in there yet.
• Symptoms : Tired from lack of good sleep. Also, had more indigestion this week than I have had in a while.
• Maternity clothes? : Yes! I bought a few more things last weekend too. Just a couple more of the Gap body shirts. They are my favorite and Gap had everything 30% off. I couldn't pass that up :)
• Food cravings or aversion's? : Nothing new here
• What I am eating : We cooked at home one night! haha yes just one, but hey more than the last two weeks. Stephen made burgers on his new grill he got for the house. We also had some chineese food, small plates at a dinner out, greek. Lunches I had chicken sandwiches a few times and some salads. Breakfast was fruit and greek yogurt pretty much everyday.
• Exercise : We walked a lot around our new neighborhood last weekend. So much that I ended up pretty sore from it. I think I am pulling my shoulder's forward or something strange when I walk a lot.
• Gender : Baby Girl still!
• Labor signs : None
• What I miss : This is harder than I thought each week. I haven't been missing much. I've been fairly stressed out, so I guess right now I miss being able to have a drink to just relax and calm my mind. I'm just always thinking of what is next for everything lately.
• What I am looking forward to : This weekend. We are currently in Portland, OR. Stephen had to work here today, so I tagged along and am working from his office as well. We are going to do some small hikes around the Columbia River Gorge area, if the weather cooperates, and we have some things we want to look at here for the nursery. No other plans, we hope for it to be a relaxing, fun weekend and I think it will be!

 

Other Happenings:

 

I was all over deals this weekend for baby girl. Got all of the above clothes at Goodwill for a total of $8! The jeans(Baby Gap), jean jacket and Cardinals (brand new looking!) onsie will be for when she's a little older. The white onesie and leggins(Gymboree) she will be rocking this summer. 



Saturday our new neighborhood was having a kids gear sale at the community center. We got up and walked down for the opening. We did not have a plan and were a little overwhelmed, but we did end up getting some good items and saving well over $100! Pretty good for two first time parents having no clue what they were looking for. haha! I picked out some stuff while Stephen held it or looked up on his phone to see how much items originally were. I forgot to take a picture of all our deals, but here is a book we picked up:

Haha! We loved it and it was just $1. We also got a bounce seat, a bebepod(its a bumbo) with trays, a newborn cloth diaper and a man looking Skip Hop diaper bag for Stephen.

Saturday evening we went to the Sounders vs Timbers soccer match for Stephen's birthday. We had great seats!

 

It was pretty cold, but I kept semi warm in his new Sounders hat from his mom and dad. It's so cute, I might have to claim it as mine!

Fancy dinner at home Sunday, as an early bday dinner. Dungenous crab ($4.99/lb! told you all over the deals this weekend. haha). As part of his birthday gift I cracked half of his crab for him. I am slightly better at it than he is, I have years more experiance in crab cracking. :) I will say he does do a good job, he is just slow at it. So by me doing half of his we are finished eating at the same time. 

Tuesday night we had a night out in the city after work. We went to a National Geographic Live lecture, K2 Danger and Desire on the Mountain. The speaker was the first and only woman to have summitted all 8,000+ meter peaks in the world, unassisted with oxygen. The talk was about her 14th peak, K2, and the journey to do it. It was pretty neat and inspiring. We also had great seats, up in one of the "fancy people" boxes.

Week 19

Where: Suson Park, St. Louis, MO



Week Recap ~

• Total weight gain/loss : +10 lbs (big gain week!)
• Sleep : Pretty decent this week. I wake up a lot to go to the bathroom
• Best moments : Spending last weekend with my bffs, still reeling from it. Also, talking baby names with Stephen. Oh an hearing the heart beat. Baby is sounding good!
• Movement : Still none
• Symptoms : Been a little tired lately, had some long work weeks. I also cannot eat full size meals, the food doesn't sit right. I still can't seem to stop eating too much sometimes at lunch or dinner.
• Maternity clothes? : Yup. Loving my flare jeans (seen in the picture above)
• Food cravings or aversion's? : Same old same old...mexican, fish & chips. No big aversions..taking it easy on spicy foods.
• What I am eating : Greek yogurt parfait (from the grocery store and they are amazing), turkey salad wrap, pickles, sausage with rice and broccoli, bananas, spicy beef & broccoli, breakfast for dinner. fish and chips, meatloaf, oranges
• Exercise : A nice walk in the park with the kiddos. The sun is finally shinning here in Seattle, hope it stays over the weekend for some walks.
• Gender : We find out in 6 days!
• Labor signs : None
• What I miss : Hmm not sure this week.
• What I am looking forward to : Diaper class tomorrow and my parents visiting! They get in next Thursday evening and are staying till Tuesday (some people have birthday's coming up! Chewie and I!)

St Louis Weekend Get Together

Last Thursday I took off work and headed to St Louis for a much needed long weekend with friends. 12 years ago I headed to the University of Missouri - Rolla and made the best friends I could ever imagine having (I also met my husband, added bonus). These ladies below, plus a few that aren't pictured, seriously are one of the best things in my life. We have been through everything you can imagine, good and bad, together. I know no matter what I need, a laugh, a cry, someone to just listen to a rant these girls will be there to do it. Not only have we all been friends for 12 years, not a day goes by that we do not talk. We have an insane email history since graduating and each day at least one person is sending out an email - from just saying hi to needing advice to what we are eating. I could go on and on and on about them. Instead let's just recap a great weekend.

 Some of the lovely ladies of my life + a few of their little men.

I have mentioned that all of my college friends have boys. Here are 4 of them, from left (youngest) to right (oldest): Lou (Leslie), Desmond (Nickie), Phillip (Kara) and Hudson (Lauren)

I love to see how they interact with each other. 

Most of our weekend was spent hanging around Kara and Steve's house (Thank you again for having all of us!). We made lots of food, ate, drank, played with the kiddos, chatted and played some games. I never laugh as hard as I do when with them. We did venture out of the house one day. A couple of us hit up some baby stores and then we all convened at lunch for Mexican. 

Bumps at El Mags! From left to right: Bethany due July 2, me due July 6 and Amber (Stephanie's sister) due July 17. Can't believe how close together all our due dates are!

Park time after lunch with the guys. Hudson and Phillip tolerating more of our picture taking of them. Lou was there too, but sleeping. Phillip had his first swing experience and we all took a nice walk around the park.

Later in the evening we had a surprise baby shower for our friend Molly. Molly lives in Virginia. We all sent gifts to a friend of hers there and her husband snuck around getting them wrapped and setting Molly up to the computer where we were all waiting on Google+ to have her shower. She was so surprised  It was super fun. Technology really is amazing. 

Then the boys got in their St Pats gear and we made them do more photo shoots. :)

Baby K went home with quite the loot as well. He or She got some sweet gifts from his fraunties (friend+auntie). Spoiled already :)

And I purchased some cloth diapers. A small selection of the types I like to make it easier when I am searching around town here or online. Leslie also is letting us borrow her stash of infant size ones and Yuri has been sniffing at them and trying to figure out what they are. Wonder if it is cause they smell like a baby? 

It was such a great weekend. I am glad I was able to take the time to go for this long weekend. Being with them really does something for the soul. Looking forward to the next get together already!

Week 18

Where: The Ballard, Unit 504, Super Bowl Sunday - Go Chiefs! :)

Week Recap ~

• Total weight gain/loss : +7 lbs (no change)
• Sleep : Better, still waking up a few times a night to go to the bathroom
• Best moments : Taking 2 vacation days and spending them with my friends. I think I will just do a separate recap post on how awesome it was. :)
• Movement : None still. I wish it would come soon!
• Symptoms : I have had some pains in my side. I am pretty sure it is just my round ligament. It is infrequent, so I am not concerned. We go to the doctor this week, so I will double check there.
• Maternity clothes? : I'd say I am wearing them 90% of the time, not that I fit into them all that great yet.
• Food cravings or aversion's? : I have mostly been wanting Mexican still or fish and chips. I never turn down either of those.
• What I am eating : I am a few days behind in this post and after spending the last part of week 18 on vacation I really cannot remember what I had. I do think I did fairly well on vacation. We had a ton of food out all of the time and I snacked a lot but I had a ton of fruit and veggies(with dip) most of the time.
• Exercise : I finally did my yoga dvd! It is a little slow for me and I can still do a lot of the poses without the modifications they are doing, but I am still going to try to do it a few times a week.
• Gender : ? getting closer to finding out!
• Labor signs : None
• What I miss : Being close to the people I love. This includes family, but after an amazing weekend with friends I hate being so far from all of them. A good number of my close friends live in St Louis now and I wish I was around to visit with them more. Do not read the above and interpret this as I want to move back though. :) If asked, I can say with certainty that I do not want to move.
• What I am looking forward to : Doctor's appointment this week, we love getting to hear the heartbeat and this weekend we are taking a cloth diapering class. I know quite a lot, but when I talk to Stephen about it it is like I am talking a foreign language. So I thought it would be a good idea for us to go where someone else can explain it to him. It will be our first baby class.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from Steve and I (Chewie & Yuri too!)

2011 was a pretty big year for us, who knows what 2012 will have in store. We do know a few things: we are going on a 18 day trip to Ecuador in April, we will be getting back into shape, we will be experiencing more of what this wonderful city has to offer. We hope: to have more visitors so we can show off this place we love so much, to get to spend some short trips to see friends and family members and to not have to go to any funerals this year.

While 2011 had a few sad moments, we lost too many loved ones this year, it had a ton of awesome moments. Steve and I were so busy this summer that I stopped documenting everything we were doing on this blog. So here is a short recap of a few things we did this year...

We made a huge life decision and Steve took a job that moved us to Seattle, WA.

We rented our house in Olathe, KS sold over half our possessions and made a huge move accross the country.

The move allowed us both to take amazing road trips(separately) with our best friends.

I quit my job and then found one quicker than I was expecting.

We visited West Virginia for Rebecca and Randy's wedding. We had a great time getting to spend time with family members we don't see very often. It also was Steve's first time in WV so we did some hiking and saw the bridge and gorge.I got to go and visit with some of my girlfriends in Omaha, NE for Molly & Ben's wedding reception. It was a good time, as it always is with my friends.

Yuri went swimming and loved it. Chewie hated it so there are no pics of him.
We did a good number of hikes. This one is from a 4 mile hike to a mountain lake. Steve got in and said it was so cold he felt his heart stop! It was so beautiful. Too bad I broke one of my toes hiking the 4 miles back to our car.

We took up some water sports. There is so much water here it is hard not to do something on the water each weekend. We did stand up paddle boarding in the sound and once in a lake.

We kayaked a lot also. This is us kayaking through the arboretum, which is really cool with all the lilly pads and secret passages. You even go under highways to get to it.

We had visitors this summer too. Steve's parents and Jessica came out to visit, as did Ellen and my mom and dad.

We celebrated our 2nd anniversary with dinner at one of the nicest restaurants in town.

We got to experience the Cardinals World Series Game 6 win from downtown St. Louis, with two of our best friends.

Goodbye 2011 we had a great time!