17 Weeks: The onion

Little Sweet P is now 17 weeks (very soon to be 18 weeks... like tomorrow). I didn't exactly get this posted/done very soon in the week... but the point is that the baby is 17 weeks and it is the size of a large onion. That is pretty big! My email said about 5.1 inches long.

So here is how big baby is: 

Here it is... my bump.. my small baby bump... It may be small but I know I finally have a bump! :) 

How Big is Baby?

So for those who are pregnant/have been pregnant may know the emails I about to talk about. I get an email every Thursday morning at 10:35 am from thebump.com telling me what week I am of my pregnancy and how big baby is for that week. I get so excited on Thursday mornings - it is almost pathetic. I love getting the email because it usually compares the baby to a fruit or vegetable and you get a good idea of what size it is. In the past weeks it has been a tiny apple seed, sweet pea, raspberry, lime, lemon, and apple - just to name a few. This week? 

Avocado!! 

I happened to have a avocado sitting around in our fridge so I got it out so I could get a better idea of how big Sweet P is. The email said it was about 4 1/2 inches long from head to rump. 

Yes - the baby is in there - and it is about that size. Crazy!! And to all those who are wondering if I have a baby bump... not really! I am sure soon though! 

Good Deals!

I love good deals. I remember going to Old Navy last January and randomly finding 5 things for $10 on their incredible clearance sale. I was pretty pumped so I thought I would tuck that memory away for next January. Enter this weekend - I heard that Old Navy had all their clearance on sale for an additional 40% off. Woohoo! Here is what I got - it was not quite as good as last year (last year they did an additional 50%) - but still... pretty good deals. 

I had actually had my eye on these two items and got them for cheap. The striped shirt was under $3 and the cardi was about $8

Got the tanks for about $2 - $3 each. Always can use more tanks! 

I tried some Maternity Dresses on that were on Clearance and they looked like really frumpy on me at this point - I did find this dress for $3 that I think can still be a "maternity" dress and be wearable after baby too.

Speaking of Maternity. I got Maternity Jeans. You can't pass up $7 for stretch jeans that I will probably be forced to by someday... 

And no I don't really have a "baby bump" yet... so it might be a while til these get worn.

And I couldn't resist.We aren't sure what it is yet- but I think these could be gender neutral even though they were from the boy's section. They both have little bear ears. SO CUTE!

Todd went the next day and got some cheap jeans, a sweater, button down shirt and sweatshirt. Believe me - we will always remember this awesome sale and hopefully get even better buys in the future!

What about you? Any awesome sales you always look forward too?

New Curtains!

So I did a little work in my bedroom today. I have had these new curtains I have been meaning to put up for months and finally I was productive! :) I love productive days like today! 

So here is the before shot of one side of our bedroom- since we have been in our house (believe me there are other before pictures I will show later!) I got the boring curtains for $2 - but have gotten their money's worth in the last couple years. I didn't like the heavy closet doors and they always stay open (I think that is the 5th time in the history of living in this house that those closet doors have been shut.)

 

A shot of both closet doors. The brown just doesn't go with the colors. 

So here is what I did today! I really wanted heavy black curtains and it was hard to find them for some reason. After looking for a bit, I found these faux silk curtains in a really long length at Walmart.com for $20 a piece. Pretty good deal if you ask me! They are really nice heavy fabric and have an inside white liner. I have had these for months - I just HATE hanging things - but I found these tracks for curtains from Menards yesterday. All you do is hang the three mounts to the ceiling and pop the track in and it has all the clips attached. You just clip the curtains in and the curtains can easily slide back and forth. 

I also hung some wedding photos in the corner. It is about time I am getting those put up too.

Here is a shot of the his and her closets half open.

I really think it gives the room a nice chic look It also seems like the ceiling is taller with the floor to ceiling curtains. Finally I will "shut" my closet doors because they are so easy to pull back and forth.  This is one of the last projects I am finishing up of my mini makeover of my bedroom. More pictures of the whole bedroom soon!

Baby Sweet P

So by now I think everyone has heard about our great news that our little family will be growing here in July. We are so excited to have a baby and now everytime I see someone else's baby I want to meet our little one! I am getting anxious and I am only 14 weeks! But soon it will be 7/7/11 before we know it and Sweet P will be here! So I thought I would share some pictures from the day we found out in October that we were going to parents!

So this is the morning we found out we found out we were preggo! We suspected that we could be pregnant the day before and bought the test but it said it was best to take it in the morning. That night before we could not sleep and kept waking up in anticipation to take the test. You can tell in the picture that we look a little sleepy - but yet excited! You can suspect it is coming but it still is shocking to see that plus sign saying you are pregnant! 

I took another pregnancy test later when I got home from work. You can tell it clearly says "pregnant"

 We went our for a celebration dinner to Victoria's and then took some pictures with our sticks. 

Can you sense our enthusiasm? :)

We went out and bought a baby onesie that says "Big Deal like my Daddy" 

Happy!

 A few weeks later (8 weeks) we got to see Sweet P for the first time. I think this is such a cute picture and you can even see its tail it still had back then! 

At our last appointment at 12 weeks we got to hear the heartbeat. That was cool to hear the heartbeat even though it was really faint. I have another appointment in a week and then a couple weeks after that we will get to figure out what we are having!! We are excited to find out what we are having. I finally want to start picking out some baby clothes and plan the nursery but have been holding off. I am sure there will be more photos and stories to come! :) 

Happy 2011!

Happy New Year!! 

So I redesigned the blog. I thought since I haven't blogged in a while and since it is a new year I would just redo things a bit to inspire me to write more - because obviously I haven't written on the blog since June. Oops. 

So last year I had 2010 goals - and I thought I would review over those and see how I did. I believe I said that I wanted to blog once a week and obviously that goal didn't exactly work out :) But I think I did pretty good on the rest: 

1) Learn to cook: I have tried 24 new recipes from June - currently. I know I tried several before that as well. I have made some recipes that I will never try again and some that have already become family favorites. So I guess I could say that I did pretty good on this one. 

2) Budget: I did not start the year off good with this one - but this summer I started to listen to Dave Ramsey and  read a few of his books and it has helped us tremendously with the budget! The last couple months we have had a budget and KEPT it! :) We didn't start the year off great- but ended it good though! 

3) Exercising: Well - this one is always a struggle. I would say I did more exercising than last year. I got a Gazelle (you know the one elliptical machine that Tony Little (man with woman -like long hair in a annoying ponytail) endorses on the informercials). Anyways I park it in front of the TV and watch shows with Todd while getting a quick workout in. I did mention the Wii we had in last year's post -but I haven't used that to work out since January. 

 So all in all I think I did a pretty good  job with my 2010 goals. So what about my 2011 goals (since I hate "resolutions") ? Well I am a nerd and doing this "24 goals til I turn 24"  - I started kind of late and instead of starting these goals after my birthday last year - I started them in June. I will share the list sometime but I am starting to think I am running out of time - I probably won't get all my goals done this year but at least I tried right? 

Hope everyone had a great new year! I can't believe it is already 2011. Where does the time go? I know Todd and I are excited for 2011 because it will be a big year of change for us with Sweet Pea's expected arrival in July. I wish you all the best  for 2011! 

Contentment.

Goodness... it's been a whole month since I have updated the blog... slacking... sorry.

So I gave myself a challenge for the month of May. I love clothes and accessories... I am a bargain hunter and love sales and coupons to my fav stories so it is not like I spend a lot of money. They are usually "little purchases." I am the kind of person that passing up a New York and Co. or Express Coupon I get in the mail seems wasteful... Its like free money... right? :) Ok.. so you have to spend money to save money... I guess not free. So we got down that I love to shop...
I challenged myself for the month of May that I would not buy one piece of clothes, no shoes, no jewelry, ect. At times it was hard. I even threw coupons away! GASP! I would see coupons or advertisements on Tv or from my email that talked about incredibles deals but I did not crack!!
The reason for the challenge:
1) To save some money - I don't think that I really spend THAT much on clothes - but how about not spending any one month?
2) To learn to be CONTENT with what is in my closet. That is hard. But I look at my closet and I have more that ENOUGH clothes that I need I have so much. When I watch commercials or see advertisements - its like it is telling me that I need more. But do I really NEED that tank or that pair of shorts? I don't NEED it. I WANT it.

So now I am trying to really filter through when I go shopping in the future if it is something that is more a need or just a want... and yes I have already bought something in June - a pair of $3 Capri Leggings. But that might be my only big splurge for the month... :)

I read a book in college and I am about halfway through it again. It is called Calm My Anxious Heart (by Linda Dillow). It is about worry and contentment. I haven't got to the worry part - I am just getting through the contentment portion.

One thing it talks about is being content in the stage of life you are in. This is hard for me to do sometimes... Since I have been little it has always been... well when I get a drivers license..., when I graduate High School ... When I go to College... when I get married... when I get my full time job... then I will be content. Still I have my drivers license, graduated High School, went to College, got married, have my full time job... and still am I content.. no. It is such a process. This book has just given me inspiration to be thankful where I am in life.... which is hard at times... but with the Lord's help... hopefully I will be more thankful.

It also talks about being content with what we have. Like talked about above... I always want more. My thinking is always "well if I have this... then I will be content." But I get that, then it is on to the next thing. I am trying to have a new perspective of this. It does not help that I live in America - basically the most wealthy nation... that constantly throws it in your mind that you need, need, need. Contentment is not part of their game. If Contentment was the popular thing, advertisers and marketing people would be out of jobs. I am sure that I will need to keep reading this book over and over to pound it in my head that I need to be Content....

Philippians 4: 11-13:

"Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength. "(New Living)

I love this passage by Paul...who was truly content. Being content is something I can achieve through Christ who gives me strength... but only by HIS strength.