Total Transformation

Well we did it!  We managed to transform our "junk room" into a frilly little nursery... a daunting task that I doubted could ever be done before our little princess arrived.  Of course, she has given us plenty of extra time work with! :)

We had so much stuff to organize, purge and give away, but we slowly chiseled at it until the room was clear of everything except baby stuff.  Then we picked the bedding from Pottery Barn Kids and had the painters come and paint the walls lavender.  Slowly but surely the other pieces have come together, although we still have some work to do once she is here and has a name!  Once we have her newborn pictures done, we will add those to the empty frames on the gallery wall, and I have a couple of decals that still need to go up as well.  Then we will get a decal with the monogram of her name to put above her crib.  I just love the curtains, colors, and floral/bird accents :)

 Before Pic... "junk room"

Crib & Beddding

Storage, Glider & Gallery Wall

Curtains

39 Weeks... And Counting

Well, week 39 has come!  I never got to this point with Ethan so this is a completely new experience for us.  The anticipation and waiting that comes with each day, the wondering if today will be the day, the looking for "signs"... now I understand why women say the last weeks are the longest!  We are ready!  But we are also trying hard to be patient and enjoy these last moments as a family of 3... however long that lasts. One thing we know for sure is that we will be holding this sweet baby girl in our arms on or before March 26th.  That is the scheduled induction date if she doesn't come on her own before then.  I really do not want to be induced though, so please be praying she will decide its time before then!  Perhaps, tomorrow? :)

We are waiting anxiously to meet you baby girl!!! XOXO

Oh Baby!

This weekend was just fantastic!  My friend Paula planned the perfect baby shower for our little girl with the help of my other friend Toni.  Everything was perfect- the food and cake were delicious (it was at my fave brunch spot), the mingling with friends/family was delightful, and all the pink and frilly baby girl stuff was just adorable!  We are just so blessed and incredibly thankful for everyone that came to celebrate with us... and those that couldn't make it down, but were with us in spirit :)

We are so ready to meet this baby girl!!!  Most all of the clothes, bibs and blankies have been washed and put away in her room, her carseat is in the car, and now we are just waiting anxiously!  3 weeks or less... hopefully! 

Friday we had our last sonogram and our baby girl is perfectly positioned (head down and super low) so I am hoping that means she will be here sooner than later.  The technician told us she has lots of hair and weighs a little less than 6 lbs right now.  We didn't get to see her precious face because she was nestled so low in my pelvis, but we will see her in person soon enough!  Now if this weather will just warm up again so I can get back to walking!!!

We love you already baby girl!!! And so do so many others <3

San Antonio Fun

Last Thursday, before the weather got all cold and "winter-like" we decided to make a day trip to San Antonio to take Ethan to the zoo and the River Walk.  He had been asking to go to the zoo for a while, and Troy had a bonus vacation day from a Saturday training they had to do last month, so we took advantage of the opportunity while the weather was nice and before our newest addition arrives.

We went to the zoo first.  Ethan loved the monkeys, sharks, alligators, and lions.  His favorite attraction though was the carousel, which we rode several times!  He also enjoyed petting some goats and feeding the fish.

 Ethan and Daddy with the monkeys

 His best alligator impression!

 Snack time... animal crackers :)

"Petting" (or more like tugging on) the lory bird while Daddy fed it nector

Petting the goats

 Riding the shark

And the lion

After the zoo, we headed to the River Walk and ate lunch then took the River Walk boat tour.  Sweet Ethan kept calling the river the ocean, and he enjoyed seeing all the ducks swimming in the water and waving at the other boats as they passed by.  One of the bridges you go under is called the lovers bridge and the tour guide told us to kiss our loved ones if we wanted, so we did.  Then Ethan thought we should get kisses every time we went under any bridge, so we got lots of sugars from our little guy on that boat ride! :)  He got lots of sugar too, because we bought some pastries at the Mexican bakery where we had lunch and enjoyed them on the boat!

Such a fun day we got to enjoy mid-week!  Although, now Ethan asks me every day "Where we going today Mama?"  :)

Merry & Bright

This is a long one....  I decided to just do a single Christmas post instead of one for each "event," so feel free to just scroll through the pics if you want!

December was crazy busy for us and I was fighting off some kind of virus for the majority of the month, but we still managed to enjoy the holidays as much as we could.  Our last Christmas as a family of 3!

This year Ethan LOVED Santa, and Tommy the elf, and Christmas lights, and reindeer, and baby Jesus!  He was SO completely in the Christmas spirit!  It was infectious, really. 

We got Christmas off to a start by visiting the iconic Trail of Lights in Austin.  I'm still not sure if that was the best idea or if we will do it again.  It took us two hours just to get there with the crazy traffic and by that time it was after 8pm and Ethan was getting tired.  We went through the lights rather quickly, stopped for some taffy at Candy Land (three times actually... I think that was the highlight for Ethan), had a funnel cake and then headed back to the car.  We didn't get home until almost 11!  I was mostly worried how Ethan would do since he had only been potty trained for about a month, but we had no accidents.  And he got to use a port-a-potty for the first time- Oh Joy! :)  Lucky for me, Troy took him, and lucky for both of us little boys can pee standing up and not have to touch a thing!  (I dread having to take the baby girl into one of those nasty things one day.)

We also visited Santa at the mall a couple of times.  One impromptu trip when we were there before Thanksgiving and Santa was just hanging out with no visitors, and one intentional trip for pictures.  Ethan went right up to Santa and when asked what he wanted for Christmas, he said "a really big present, a blue one."  It just so happened he got a really big present from Santa... but it was not blue.  What a difference a year can make... last year the only way he would go near Santa is with me holding him!

This year we also had intentions of starting a family tradition of going to the Christmas Tree farm in Elgin and cutting down a small tree to put in the playroom for Ethan to decorate.  Well every weekend that we were free the weather was bad, so we ended up just picking out a "small" tree from Lowe's.  Really it was about 5 feet tall, so I guess it wasn't that small.  In fact Ethan said it was really, really big!  We let him decorate the tree with some non-breakable ornaments and candy canes.  Most people decorate their tree and leave it that way, but not Ethan.  Almost every day he was in there rearranging ornaments (which he calls "instruments")!  I think he must have thought the tree was something like his play felt tree or his tiny advent tree that he decorates, un-decorates, and re-decorates every day. 

The weekend before Christmas, we had fun decorating a Gingerbread house that my boss had given me as a Christmas gift.  I helped spread the icing and Ethan arranged the candy.  He ate a fair share of it while he was decorating, but a decent amount did make it onto the house.  We are actually still eating on this thing.. and it is still super tasty!

This year we had a few special visitors for Christmas.  Gabby & Peepaw sold their house in Murphy and moved to the Hill Country!  We are so blessed to have family close by now!!  While they looked for a house here in Austin, they stayed with us so we got to enjoy their company over the holiday break.  We also had a little elf arrive on December 1st to spend Christmas with us.  Ethan named him Tommy...  Well, actually he wanted to name him Tom (after our neighbor who had recently spent a few days over here staining our fence), but we settled on Tommy being a more fitting name for an elf.  Tommy quickly secured a special place in Ethan's heart, and thanks to Gabby he now has some Tommy PJs that he wears to remember Tommy until he returns next Christmas!

On Christmas morning we woke up and opened gifts at home with Gabby & Peepaw.  Troy got a(nother) new computer, I got an ipad, and Ethan got a rocket ship play tent, a roller coaster, puzzles, games, a big fire truck, a stick horse, and the list goes on!

 

Then the weekend after Christmas we drove up to Dallas to celebrate Christmas with Memaw, Papaw and Aunt Cindy on Saturday, and the Ferrell/Hughs/Mason/Park clan on Sunday.  Ethan enjoyed playing with new doggies and sleeping in a really big bed at Aunt Cindy's house, and had fun playing with his cousins on Sunday at Aunt Sherrie's.  His favorite toys from the weekend are surely the bath ferry boat and the super sized fire truck puzzle!  Even baby sister got a few gifts.  And shame on me, but I did not take a single picture the entire weekend :(

Our final Christmas celebration was with the Matuses in Spring the weekend before last.  Ethan had a great time playing with Dominik and Anthony, and enjoyed petting/chasing/admiring Grandma & Grandpa's neighbor's cat called Abby!  This boy is an animal lover, no doubt!  He loves the little barking puppy he got, the giant dinosaur puzzle, and the Clifford LeapPad game cartridge.  He is not spoiled at all... simply very well loved! :)

Thank you everyone for the generous gifts!  We enjoyed the time with family and appreciate all of you for hosting us!

T Minus 8 Weeks

We are at 32 weeks!  How is that possible?!?!  This pregnancy is going by so fast... too fast, really.  And this baby girl is SO active, just like her brother was (remember we called him Squirmy Matus!)

We are making slow progress, but progress nonetheless, preparing for our little girl's arrival in 8 weeks.  I've washed some clothes, blankets, sheets and burp clothes and put them in her closet, Troy put the crib back together and we arranged the furniture in her room, we bought a few boxes of diapers to get us started, and I've made an overwhelmingly long list of to-dos.  At least now all of the things in her room are hers... it is no longer a storage locker!  Now I sure hope that ultrasound technician was right, and this baby really is a GIRL :)

Ethan tells us everyday about all the things he is going to teach and share with his baby sister.  He is such a good big brother already!  I just hope he is this eager to help and teach once she is actually here!  Today he told us he was going to show his baby sister his funny joke of hanging his dinosaur upside down from its tail on the bookshelf, and he is going to share his bubble bath with her when she is bigger, and he is going to show her the little sticker he got from school today (I asked him if he was still going to have that sticker when she gets here in March and he said yes, but she will have to be bigger to get stickers. LOL!) Such a sweet, sweet boy!

I'm going to the doctor every 2 weeks now, and my last appointment was Monday.  Everything continues to go smoothly and we are both doing well!  My next doctor appointment will be February 4th.  This time we also hired a doula to provide labor support, and I just love her!  She is a massage therapist and yoga instructor as well, plus her name is Summer! :)  I see her about every 2 weeks for a massage and to discuss any aches, concerns, etc. and it is so nice!

Here are few pictures of my growing belly and one sweet profile pic of our baby girl from the 20 week sonogram.  We will get to sneak one last peek of her again in just a few weeks on February 18th!