It's a...

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It's a sweet baby GIRL!!!!

We are so excited and thankful for this precious little life! We absolutely can't wait to meet our DAUGHTER in March!!! Lots more pictures to come from our gender reveal party!! :)

  

18 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: 18 weeks and 1 day

Size of Baby: According to The Bump, the baby is the size of a sweet potato, weighs almost 7 ounces, and is about 5.6 inches long.

Total Weight Gain: +6 pounds, I gained 1.5 pounds this week.

Gender: We will find out TOMORROW!!

Maternity Clothes: I'm mostly wearing maternity clothes and I need to get some more things!! I've been a major outfit repeater here lately!

Wedding Rings On/Off: On

Stretch Marks: None yet

Sleep: I really haven't had many weird dreams this week. I did have one that was about the baby, but I *cannot* remember if it was a boy or girl in my dream! I'm sleeping pretty well even though I wake up at least once every night.

Cravings/Aversions: I haven't been craving anything super specific lately, but foods that are cold have sounded really good. McDonald's ice cream cones have been calling my name on my way home from work!

Symptoms: I feel like my hair is getting thicker {and I already have really thick hair!}. I also think that the texture of it is a little different.

Movement: I think I may have felt the baby move this past weekend. It was really faint and just felt like bubbles popping. I haven't felt it since, but I also haven't spent much time being still or laying down, either, which could be why I haven't noticed it again.

Mood: I've been happy most of the time, but I've also been crying *very* easily over really silly things. Like the dedications on Dancing With the Stars. Or Daniel leaving me the last tootsie roll with my lunch. You get the picture. Complete silliness.

What I Miss: I can't think of anything I'm missing right now!

Looking Forward To: Our ultrasound tomorrow! I just can't believe it's almost here! I'm also super excited about the mini gender reveal party we're having for our family this weekend. I'll post pictures! :)

Best Moment This Week: Getting things ready for our gender reveal party and actually having the decorations I made turn out like I was hoping they would! I plan on sharing tutorials and printables for some of the stuff I've made!

  

Perfect Pumpkin Bread

One of my favorite things about fall is all of the pumpkins! I love seeing pumpkins everywhere, I love pumpkin candles, I love pumpkin spice lattes, and I love pumpkin bread. There's something just so homey and cozy about pumpkins. I light my pumpkin candles as soon as I get home every day and it instantly makes our house feel so warm and welcoming. I love it. It's the small things. :)

I first had this pumpkin bread a few years ago when one of Daniel's co-workers sent him home with a loaf. We both loved it and ate the whole thing in about two days. Maybe it was just one day. It was a long time ago...I can't remember. Don't judge. Anyway, he asked her for the recipe and I've been making it several times every fall since. Making this pumpkin bread even made it onto our fall bucket list. It's that good, y'all.

I made my first batch of the season this a couple of weekends ago and I cannot even tell you how good our house smelled. You will not be able to wait for this bread to come out of the oven! It has the just the right balance of pumpkin, cinnamon, and nutmeg and it is perfectly moist.

You've got to try this pumpkin bread this fall. You just might find yourself eating an entire loaf in one day, too. ;)

Perfect Pumpkin Bread
Makes 3 loaves
Printer Friendly Version

3-1/2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1-1/2 tsp. salt
1 heaping tsp. cinnamon
1 heaping tsp. nutmeg
3 cups sugar
1 cup oil
4 unbeaten eggs
2/3 cup water
1 can pure pumpkin (not the pumpkin pie mix)

1. Mix all dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
2. Add all remaining ingredients and mix until smooth.
3. Grease three medium-sized loaf pans (8" x 4"). Pour the batter into the loaf pans as equally as possible.
4. Bake at 350 for 1 hour or until the bread starts to pull away from the sides of the pan. Check with a toothpick to make sure it's done.
5. Cool, slice, and enjoy!

  

17 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: 17 weeks and 1 day

Size of Baby: According to The Bump, the baby is the size of an onion and is about 5.1 inches long.

Total Weight Gain: +4.5 pounds I lost a pound this week. I guess the gain from last week was all the birthday celebrations!

Gender: Next week is our big ultrasound!! We are SO excited to know what this little baby is!

Maternity Clothes: I'm still able to wear both regular clothes and maternity clothes, but I find myself gravitating more to the maternity clothes that I have because they are *so* much more comfortable!

Wedding Rings On/Off: On

Stretch Marks: None yet

Sleep: I've been sleeping pretty well most of the time this week and waking up less in the middle of the night. There are still a couple of nights when I wake up super early and cannot go back to sleep!! I've been having *crazy* dreams, though. I can't remember many details once I'm fully awake, but they are *weird.*

Cravings/Aversions: Nothing really new this week. I'm still not eating a whole lot of meat. I'm wanting lots of water...and it has to be *really* cold. Lots of ice is a must.

Symptoms: As I mentioned before, I'm having really weird dreams {none about the baby yet, though}. I'm still pretty tired, but I have days where I feel like I have a little more energy. My sense of smell is also completely off the charts. If I cook with onions or garlic, I smell it in the house for WEEKS {and if you read the chalkboard, you know I don't enjoy that}! I've started using frozen chopped onions and jarred minced garlic which has helped a little! And my Scentsy is always on and my pumpkin candles are always burning!

Mood: Overall, I'm still really happy most of the time. I do cry even easier than normal, though...and anyone that knows me well knows that it already didn't take much {at all} to make me cry. I once cried at a dolphin show at the Georgia Aquarium. I know. It's not even like I'm a huge dolphin lover or anything! I just kept thinking about how proud their trainers probably were. So...that probably gives you an idea of how often I'm crying these days. :)

What I Miss: I would really love some sushi! I'll have to wait until March for that, though!

Looking Forward To: Finding out if this sweet baby is a boy or a girl and also feeling those first flutters!

Best Moment This Week: Daniel and I went on a Starbucks date this weekend. We went to Starbucks *all the time* when we were dating. It was fun to sit there now that we're expecting our first baby and talk about all those sweet memories.

  

Weekend Rewind {Another Birthday Celebration}

I've mentioned before that September is a *big* birthday month for our family. Well, this year September was not only a big birthday month, it was a *big* birthday for me. Yes, I said goodbye to my twenties. I'm not sure yet how I feel about that, but everyone tells me that the thirties are some of the best years. I will say that my thirties are definitely off to a good start since they're starting with me becoming a mom. :)

Since it was a big birthday, Daniel wanted to plan something a little extra to celebrate. I've mentioned my love for Japanese steakhouses before. Well, my sweet husband remembered this and planned a night for my parents, my sister and her family, and us to go to one of our favorite Japanese steakhouses. I was so excited when I heard that he picked Mizu because it's been a couple of years since we've been there!

Vanna wanted to take a picture so Mommy {my sister} could be in it. So sweet! She didn't do a bad job, either! :)

One of the things I was most excited about was seeing how Vanna reacted to the chef cooking right in front of us. She was a little leery about the fire at first, but after seeing all the action at some of the other tables, she was pretty excited about seeing everything! I love these pictures of her!!

Daniel couldn't have picked a better place to celebrate my birthday. We had so much fun! {Side note: Those hibachi chefs could really work on being a little less sloppy at the table. My goodness!}

After dinner, we came back to our house for one more birthday surprise. Daniel asked my mom to make me my absolute favorite cake...German chocolate. My mom makes the *best* German chocolate cake! {I'm so mad that I didn't get a picture of it!}

It was such a fun night with my family! I'm so thankful that he planned it. It definitely made turning 30 a little sweeter. ;)

  

{Five on Friday} October 4, 2013

It's finally Friday...and I am SO glad! It's been a killer week around here. Being a teacher is no joke, y'all. It's tough. Be sweet to the teachers in your life! Send them chocolate. It helps. :) Anyway, we've made it to the weekend! We don't have a whole lot planned other than heading out for a Starbucks date. I love, love, love going to Starbucks in the fall! And Starbucks is something from our fall bucket list {although we'll definitely be going more than once this season!}. We both have free birthday drinks on our Starbucks cards, too! Yay! Well, whatever you end up doing this weekend, I hope that you have a wonderful one.

One.
Friday mornings are my favorite morning of the week {this does NOT include weekend mornings! ;)} for several reasons, one being that I give myself permission to get myself some breakfast fuel in the form of Sonic or Burger King. I have gone to Sonic or Burger King every Friday morning so far this school year. I'm not sorry, either. I went to Sonic the first several weeks but then got burned out on their junior breakfast burrito. I was contemplating where to go one Friday and the deliciousness of the Croissan'wich came rushing back to my mind. I haven't looked back since. Egg and cheese Croissan'wich for me, please! And I text Daniel every Friday morning telling him how good that Croissan'wich is. It usually comes up in the evenings, too...and sometimes on Saturdays. If you haven't had one in a while, do yourself a favor and treat yourself to one soon. Yum.

Two.
We are SO excited to find out what Baby Richardson will be! Just a little less than two weeks to wait. We're planning a small gender reveal party for my parents, brother, sister, and their families. Even though it's going to be super small, I still had to make an invitation to send out. I just love how it turned out!! I'll definitely share pictures of the party, too. I've been pinning ideas like crazy!

Three.
My room mom does appliques and made me this super cute t-shirt for my birthday. I love the chevron and polka dot combo and I really haven't seen any pocket t-shirts with the actual shape of the state sewn on. Cute, cute.

Four.
Do you have a Scentsy warmer? I have one and I love it...but I hate removing the wax from it. I saw somewhere that you're supposed to just pour the liquid wax back into the little container it came and reuse it, but I found that the wax loses its "scentsy-ness", so I just throw it away now. I found a super easy way to do this. I used this tutorial to clean out some of my Bath & Body Works candle jars and thought it would work on my Scentsy, too. It does!! Just put the part that holds the wax into the freezer for an hour or two, and the wax will break up easily with a butter knife! SO much easier than pouring hot wax onto a paper plate and waiting for it to harden so you can throw it away...not that I would try that or anything.

{Source}

Five.
I'm a sucker for anything baby related right now and these little videos are just precious. They show babies experiencing everything from fireworks to bubbles for the first time. And let's be honest. We've all wished we could do #6 before!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

  

16 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: 16 weeks and 1 day

Size of Baby: According to The Bump, the baby is the size of an avocado and is about 4.5 inches long. The baby can also pick up the sound of my voice now!

Total Weight Gain: +5.5 pounds I'm thinking that part of this may be from all the birthday celebrations! :)

Gender: We find out in 2 weeks!!

Maternity Clothes: I'm still wearing a mix of maternity clothes and regular clothes. Maternity clothes are *definitely* more comfortable. I'm not able to wear a lot of my regular shirts, though. They're either too tight around the tummy or not quite long enough for the belly band or maternity pants.

Wedding Rings On/Off: On

Stretch Marks: None yet

Sleep: I've started sleeping better these last few nights!! I still wake up around 4:00, but I've been able to go back to sleep pretty quickly. So thankful for this!

Cravings/Aversions: I'm still eating veggies, just not as often as I was before. Applesauce and apples with caramel dip are still really good. I don't think there have really been any new cravings this week. I haven't been a huge fan of meat, though.

Symptoms: Nothing much out of the ordinary. I'm still tired, but that's pretty typical. :)

Mood: It's been good this week! No crying at dinner or other craziness like that! :)

What I Miss: I really can't think of anything I'm missing right now!

Looking Forward To: Planning a mini gender reveal party for my family!

Best Moment This Week: Going to our 15 week appointment and hearing that sweet heartbeat again. It was 145 bpm this time. At 12 weeks, the heartbeat was in the 160s and everyone was saying they thought it was a girl. Maybe not?! :)