20 Weeks

Click here to see my other weekly pregnancy update posts.

Click here to see my step-by-step chalk art tutorial.

How Far Along: 20 weeks and 1 day, I *cannot* believe I'm halfway there! These weeks are just flying by!

Size of Baby: According to The Bump, the baby is the size of a banana, weighs almost 10 ounces, and is about 6.5 inches long.

Total Weight Gain: +9.5 pounds, I gained three pounds this week. I'm pretty sure part of that has something to do with the ridiculous amount of Halloween candy I've eaten in the past week.

Gender: It's a girl!!

Maternity Clothes: Mostly maternity clothes with just a few pre-pregnancy things mixed in.

Wedding Rings On/Off: On

Stretch Marks: None yet

Sleep: I've been sleeping just okay these past few nights. I'm having a hard time getting comfortable because I really want to sleep on my stomach. I'm not really waking up that often in the middle of the night, but I just don't wake up feeling very rested. I also sometimes get sharp pains when I roll over. They're very temporary, so I'm not really worried about them. I'm thinking maybe it's just the ligaments that are stretching? That might be a ridiculous idea...let me know if you know what it is! :)

Cravings/Aversions: Anything really cold is my favorite right now (strawberry Luigi's Italian ice!). And...like I said above, Halloween candy has been my friend this week. Well...I guess the word "friend" is debatable since I gained 3 pounds. :-/

Symptoms: I'm really feeling pretty good for the most part. I still have very random nausea, but I think I've figured out that it hits me when I take my prenatal vitamins without enough food. One weird thing that's happening is that my ears will plug up randomly during the day. It's like when you're driving in the mountains. I have no idea why this is a symptom of pregnancy but I read about it in "What to Expect..." Very weird.

Movement: I'm so excited that I can finally say that I've *definitely* felt her move. At first, I was just feeling her at night when I would lay in bed really still, but now I feel movement quite a few times off and on throughout the day. It's such a weird feeling, but I absolutely love it!

Mood: Happy!!!

What I Miss: I'm really not missing anything, but if I had to say something it would be moving around easily. I'm noticing that it's getting hard to get up from a chair or out of the car and bending over to pick something up off the floor is way harder. Thankfully, I have 21 little helpers at school all day that are more than happy to help pick things up for me! I know that all of this will get much harder in the next few months, though, so I'm definitely not complaining!!!!

Looking Forward To: We got the baby's room cleaned out for the most part over the weekend and I can't wait to start buying bedding and cute stuff to decorate!

Best Moment This Week: We bought a crib and changing table/dresser this past weekend! Daniel put the crib together last night, too! We have a crib in our house!!! It's getting real, people!!

  

Gender Reveal Party & Ultrasound Day!! {Plus FREE Printables!}

We have been looking forward to finding out what our baby is ever since the day we found out we were pregnant! I remember thinking that very night that we had 14 L-O-N-G weeks to wait. Those weeks went by so fast, but yet so slow at the same time! Our appointment wasn't until the afternoon, so my day at school felt like it lasted forever! My students were so sweet, though, and were so excited all day, too. :) Our math data question of the week was whether they thought I would have a boy or a girl. All the girls except one voted for girl, and all the boys {plus one girl} voted for boy.

Daniel and I met that afternoon and all the way to the hospital, we talked about how we couldn't believe the day had finally come! We both wore pink and it turns out we were right!

Even though we both thought it was a girl, hearing the words, "It's a girl" was so amazing. It just made it a million times more real for both of us. She was a little wiggle worm and moved around the entire time. Of course, we thought everything was incredibly adorable. :) Here we are right after finding out!

After we were done at the hospital, we went out to dinner and did some shopping to celebrate. It was so much fun being able to buy our little girl something!! We both just fell in love with this adorable little kitten blanket!

We also got this sweet ornament for our Christmas tree this year. We're going to put one of her ultrasound pictures in it.

Daniel's protective nature came out full force as he inspected some of the strollers. It was hilarious. He started throwing around words like suspension! He's definitely in charge of the stroller research. :)

The next few days we were busy getting ready for our gender reveal party. We decorated the fireplace with pink and blue balloons and a pennant banner that I made to match the invitation.

I made some tissue paper pom poms {tutorial coming soon!} in baby colors to hang in the kitchen. They were really easy and I love how they turned out!

For food, we did "Boy Cravings" {salty/savory} and "Girl Cravings" {sweets}. You can download a free printable of the tent cards at the bottom of this post.

We had veggies with veggie dip, buffalo chicken bites, my mom's famous {and super yummy} taco dip, and pigs in a blanket. Don't the pigs in a blanket look like little babies? So cute. :)

On the girl side, we had our reveal cake {with pink frosting on the inside!}, pink and blue chocolate cake pops, he/she Hershey bars, and fruit with fruit dip...which was still in the refrigerator when we took the picture. :-\

I also did an old wives' tales printable that we displayed. It looks like most of the old wives' tales were true in our case!! There's a free {blank} download for this at the bottom of this post, too. :)

We kept the pink and blue trend going with the drinks. For the pink sparkling punch, I made this recipe. The blue punch was just limeade with a couple drops of blue food coloring.

Both of my parents and my brother-in-law, Dale, wore blue {or something in the blue family...Mom :)} to cast their vote for a boy.

Aliesha and Vanna both thought it was a girl!

Vanna wanted to make sure that everyone knew that she thought it was a girl!!

We weren't telling yet! It was so funny when everyone realized they had to wait until we cut the cake to find out! There may have been some "hurry up and eat" talk going on...I won't mention names. :)

Finally, we cut the cake!

You can't tell in the picture, but that's pink icing in there!!! :) Everyone was so excited to finally know the news, and Vanna was jumping up and down squealing, "It's a girl! It's a girl!" So precious.

Everyone brought our baby girl gifts, too! My mom and dad came with both boy and girl gifts. Inside the girl box were these precious outfits. Baby clothes are the cutest!

Aliesha, Dale, and Vanna got her this adorable Lion King book. The Lion King was my *favorite* movie growing up {could have had something to do with my Jonathan Taylor Thomas obsession!} and is still my favorite Disney movie, so I absolutely love that our little girl will get to know all about Simba at an early age. :)

On Monday, we headed back to work and were excited to share our news with everyone. I took "she" Hershey bars to my students. I laid them face down on their desks and then they flipped them over at the same time. Their reaction was so cute!!

I took pink cake pops to my coworkers with "It's a Girl!" tags {free download at the end of this post!}.

One of my sweet friends at work let me borrow this cute carriage pin to wear that day, too.

We absolutely loved sharing our news with everyone! We can only imagine how wonderful it's going to be when we get to introduce our sweet baby girl to our family and friends!!

Now, for the free printables... Just click the links below each picture to download a PDF of that file. I've also made an invitation and complete DIY printable party kit that matches the chevron, polka dot, chalkboard theme. You can check them out in my Etsy shop if you're interested!! :)

 

Click here to download the tent cards

Click here to download the "It's a Girl!" circle tags

Click here to download the old wives' tales printable

  

{Five on Friday} October 25, 2013

Oh happy day...it's Friday!!! Also known as "Croissan'wich Day" in my house these last couple of months. Yes, the trend has continued and I look forward to my Croissan'wich every. single. week. :) Here's my five on Friday for this week...make sure you read all the way to the end. I'm sharing an *incredible* video today that someone shared with me. You've got to check it out!

Happy Friday! :)

 

One.
I cannot even believe that next Thursday is Halloween! I love Halloween...not for all the creepy, scary stuff, but for the fun stuff. Like candy. And Reese's peanut butter pumpkins. And candy. Anyway...Halloween is not super fun as a teacher. I mean, it's fun, but it's *wild* fun. Like the kids are c-r-a-z-y. I'm always glad when the day is over. This year for their Halloween treat, I made them these monster water bottles and taped a sugar-free {you know, to help with the crazy} packet of Hawaiian punch on it. I love how they turned out and I think the kids will love them, too. I found the water bottle printables at Catch My Party.

Two.
I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was struggling with figuring out something festive to put on our front door. Struggling = buying all the supplies to make a wreath and then returning them all out of fear that I won't like the finished project. Well, I ended up just buying something that was already made and I love it. And it was cheaper than all my wreath supplies. Win! I also love it because it will work for September, October, and November.

Three.
I think we found the photographer {Fresh Grace Photography} we're going to use for our maternity pictures and newborn pictures. I *love* the pictures she has in her online galleries. Now I just need to scour Pinterest for some maternity picture ideas and outfit ideas. Cute maternity clothes have *not* been easy to find.

Four.
Speaking of pictures, I found this cute Etsy shop called BirdieGoGo that does sets of frames for gallery walls. These frames are just what I need. I feel like they're really reasonably priced, too! I have wanted a gallery wall ever since we moved in our house, but have never had the nerve to buy a bunch of frames and go for it. I'm thinking this set will be just perfect to use for the sweet baby pictures in our future. And the wedding picture that's still on our bedroom floor after three years. I know. I'm ashamed.

{via}

Five.
Someone recently sent me this YouTube video called "Who You Are: A Message To All Women". It talks about who we are in Christ and it's incredibly powerful. This video pretty much sums up in three minutes everything that Daniel and I hope and pray that we can teach our daughter. You've got to watch it. I dare you not to get goosebumps. {There is also a "Who You Are: A Message To All Men" video. Click here to watch that one.}


Thanks for reading! Wherever you are and whatever life brings you this weekend, I hope it's wonderful. :)

  

19 Weeks

Click here to see my other weekly pregnancy update posts.

Click here to see my step-by-step chalk art tutorial.

How Far Along: 19 weeks and 1 day

Size of Baby: According to The Bump, the baby is the size of a mango, weighs almost 8.5 ounces, and is about 6 inches long.

Total Weight Gain: +6.5 pounds, I gained half a pound this week.

Gender: We found out last Thursday that we will be having a sweet baby GIRL!!

Maternity Clothes: Almost everything I'm wearing now is maternity. I can still wear regular jeans and pants with the belly band as long as I'm wearing a blousy shirt. You can totally see the belly band through the shirt even if it's only slightly form fitting.

Wedding Rings On/Off: On

Stretch Marks: None yet

Sleep: I have to say, I've been sleeping great this last week! It is SO nice! I haven't really been waking up until about 30 minutes before my alarm goes off. I feel like maybe I'm reaching the "honeymoon" stage of my pregnancy. I'm sleeping better, I haven't been as sick, and my energy is getting a *little* better. :)

Cravings/Aversions: The craving for veggies is gone...sadly. I was hoping that one would stick around. The good news is that I haven't really started craving anything that's terrible for me. I'm still wanting mainly healthy foods, although I have enjoyed some Halloween candy lately! What is it about seasonal candy?! It's so much more tempting!!!

Symptoms: I really can't think of any specific symptoms I've been having lately. Like I said, I think I'm in the honeymoon stage! :)

Movement: There have been a few times where I've felt something that I *think* might have been the baby, but I'm still waiting on the moment where I know for sure that it's definitely the baby moving!

Mood: Happy!!!

What I Miss: I would really like to eat at Subway, which is weird because I never really wanted Subway before I was pregnant. It will have to wait until after March, though!

Looking Forward To: We are planning to start working on her room this weekend. We have a LOT of cleaning out to do first! Her room has been the room in our house where we just put random stuff ever since we moved in. The cleaning part isn't going to be fun, but actually working on making it into her room will be so much fun!!! :)

Best Moment This Week: It was amazing to see this sweet little profile at our ultrasound. We love her so much already! It was also so much fun being able to tell our family and friends that we were going to have a baby girl!