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 26

Where: Fisher's Restaurant, Belleville, IL

Week Recap ~

• Total weight gain/loss : +19.5 lbs, no change
• Sleep : So, so. I was battling a cold most of the week that made it hard to sleep. 
• Best moments : My mom and sister threw me a wonderful baby shower. It was so great to celebrate baby girl and spend time with friends and family. More to come on the shower, it deserves it's own post.
• Movement : Yes. I can tell she is getting bigger too. She spent all of Friday moving around in all kinds of new places.
• Symptoms : I had a rough week, body wise I was a mess. So it was hard to notice any pregnancy related symptoms. I said I was battling a cold, well on top of that mid week I rolled my right ankle. This caused me to fall to the ground and bang up one of my knees pretty bad. Don't worry I am alright, just sore and scratched up. My ankle was fairly swollen but it is going down each day. It wasn't my worst rolled ankle to date. ha
• Maternity clothes? : Well with my fall I was down a pair of pants. I ripped open the knee on one of my jeans. Thank goodness it wasn't my favorite pair! I had a coupon to Gap, so Friday after work I decided to go and just look. Well I walked out with 2 pairs of jeans to replace my one tore pair. :) They were on super sale too!
• Food cravings or aversion's? : I wanted pizza pretty bad this week. We decided Friday night to try out a place in our new neighborhood that we heard was really good. It was SO disappointing  It for sure didn't satisfy my craving. Will have to try for pizza again next week. 
• What I am eating : Pasta - my mom brought me my favorite pasta all the way from New Jersey over the weekend. Sal's Penne Vodka, no pasta anywhere compares to it. I ate it for a few meals while in St Louis. 
  
  Steve also grilled for us a few times this week, sausage and peppers one night and steak, mushrooms and sweet potatoes another. Breakfasts were the same as always - greek yogurt, oats, fruit. Lunches were mainly pasta, salads or chicken sandwiches. 
• Exercise : Did some light, short neighborhood walking and we went to Ikea (counts as exercise these days, plus that place is huge)
• Gender : Girl!
• Labor signs : None
• What I miss : My family! It was so great to see almost everyone (missed you dad!) over the weekend. We are a long ways from all our family most of the year. We love getting to see everyone. I know it is going to get harder over the next few years when we have a little one. Everyone will need to start making plans to come visit us more often :)
• What I am looking forward to : The sun! When we got back to Seattle the weather was amazing. I was convinced it was here to stay until next winter. Unfortunately the forecast changed to rain all week :( Also, child classes start next week! We are signed up for a variety of classes, but the main one is a 6 week course, once a week. 

Catching Up!

Its been quite a while since I have posted anything. Everything has been so busy lately. I'm just now fitting in some time to blog. A few weekends ago I traveled to St. Louis for many many wedding happenings. Mom and Ellen were able to come into town also. It was great to get to see them for a weekend and have some helpers along for wedding stuff. I got in earlier than I expected Friday night and was able to meet up with Kara(who just happened to be in town the same weekend!), Nickie and Jenni. It was good to get to hang out with them. I was also able to spend some time with Leslie and Paul who were kind enough to let me stay with them.I got up early on Saturday and began a long, but fun day of wedding stuff. I had a meeting with the florist first, then met mom, Ellen and mama at the dress shop. I put on my dress and it fit perfectly! Then it was off to the caterer. We finalized so many details. It felt great to get so much figured out. After the caterer it was almost time for my first shower of the weekend. Hawaiian theme at the Kozlen's house!

Kozlen group pic

James' group pic

Awesome pillow Ellen had made for me.

The shower was super fun. I felt like I could post a ton of pics from it. Kim had made up a few games for me to play, that I know got lots of laughs out of everyone. The food was yummmm. Karen knows what I like...lots of dip. hehe. Thank you to everyone that helped with the shower and thank you to everyone that could make it!
After the shower Ellen and I ran wedding related errands for the next 4-5 hours. Then it was back to Mama's house where I put everyone to work crafting the rest of the night. They had a blast I just know it. hehe

Sunday we had another shower, in Belleville. It was brunch and was awesome! Its a wonder that I have lost any weight with how much I love food. haha.

Mom's wonderful friends, Rosanne, Tracy and Toni, who threw the shower. Thank you ladies!

Awesome cupcakes and a bride Barbie cake :)

Thank you to everyone that was able to make it to this shower also. I had a wonderful time and it was great to get to visit with all of you!

50 Days!

Today is 50 days till the wedding! Steve and I would go out and celebrate tonight, but I will be spending my Friday night in the car. It is worth it though. This weekend is filled with wedding stuff in St Louis. 2 showers, a dress fitting, florist and cater meetings. Plus my mom and my sister are in town, so that makes it extra special. :) I plan on putting them to work on a few things. hehe.

Making Progress

Another weekend in town meant getting more things done for the wedding. We had directions printed off for the invitations, now we have everything we need to start addressing and sending them off. I did some minimal crafting, making pom poms with the rest of the yarn I had. We also finished getting registered. I am in the market for some shower and rehearsal dresses and I found one this weekend. My shower at Steve's parents house is Hawaiian themed and I found a great dress at Target for it. See below. But mine has a totally different print(they didn't have the right one online to show you). Mine is pink, orangish and yellow and has hibiscus flowers on it. I think it will fit the occasion very well and I can take it on the honeymoon. :)