26 Weeks

Wow, the 3rd trimester is just two weeks away! This is flying by.

The baby is still moving like crazy and is getting bigger everyday. A neat development this week is that his hearing is becoming better and better. He can hear every conversation I have... kind of strange! Maybe I should watch what I say :) Here is what he looks like:

And here I am!

26 down, 14 to go!

Major Life Development

You may remember this post from early August. We decided to keep our house on the market until November 1, giving it 3 months, and if it didn't sell after that we would stay there longer and maybe try again when the baby is no longer a baby.

What we thought was impossible was possible. It sold this past week.

We were pretty shocked to say the least. We had completely resigned ourselves to the fact that we were going to stay there. Even more shocking is that we are closing on our house January 5. Preston is set to arrive sometime around February 4.

We are currently house hunting. When people find out they say, "Oh! How fun! How exciting!" We aren't really there yet. We are thankful that our house sold, but facing lots of life changes all at once is a little scary. Make that terrifying.

Recently, I have become more thankful for my marriage than ever before. Funny how in somewhat stressful times, I realize how fortunate I am to have married Brian. After many heart to hearts with one another about all these life changes, I can't help but be thankful to have him by my side.

Your father knows what you need before you ask him. So do not worry, saying 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Today's trouble is enough for today. (Matthew 6:8, 31-34)

I Love Craigslist

A little over a year ago, I was reading my favorite magazine Southern Living and stumbled across a spread of photos featuring an Atlanta bungalow. I saw this photo and was floored.


My dream living room. Perfect combination of old and new. After reading about the living room in more depth, I had to have the piece above the couch. Of course, the owner came across it at the Scott Antique Market in Atlanta for a steal of a deal. It is an old plate rack, that the owner now uses to display old sepia family photos.

In my family, we are blessed to have lots of old family photos. We have childhood photos of Preston's namesake, my great-grandfather Preston Johnson from the late 1890's. On my father's side, we have old photos from my grandmother's childhood growing up in Jersey City after her parents came through Ellis Island from Czechoslovakia. My mom gave me copies of all of our old family photos. We also have some from Brian's family in the 1950's.

So for the last year, I have been stalking estate sales, Craigslist, Ebay, Etsy, you name it, trying to find not only an antique plate rack like the one pictured above, but also old picture frames. The picture frames have been pretty easy, having now purchased several from estate sales. The plate rack was the hard part. Last winter, I stumbled across this French beauty:

But it was $2,000 and had to be shipped from Europe. Um, no. But I loved the detailing at the top. Then just this week, I came across this photo on Craiglist.


I don't really think this picture does it justice, but it is big like the one featured in Southern Living. It lacks detail, but it is antique, very sturdy and only needs a little work to be gorgeous. The best part? I got it for $75.

I can't wait to fill this with old family photos, and plan on hanging it above the couch one day. I love Craigslist. One man's trash is another girl's treasure.

25 Weeks

This month the baby is the size of an eggplant!

According to Babycenter, the baby is about 13.5 inches long. He is fattening up for sure, because my belly is certainly growing. Here is what he looks like:

And here is what I look like:



25 down, 15 to go!

First Baby

I love this dog so much. This is our sweet dog Brother. We hope he adjusts to being a brother officially. We think he will. We love you, Bro!

24 Weeks and Doc Appt

So, I am in the sixth month of pregnancy! The baby weighs a pound and a half and from here on out, should gain one ounce a day. His face is almost fully formed with hair, eyelashes and eyebrows. Here is what he looks like:

I had a doctor's appointment this past week. I am having a perfectly normal pregnancy and very thankful for it. I did talk to my doctor about one strange symptom I have had recently - tingling wrists and hands. Apparently, this is carpal tunnel syndrome which is very normal in pregnancy. There's not much I can do for it, and it should go away after delivery, so that's good. Other than that, it was a pretty quick check up. Preston had a great heart rate and was kicking like crazy during the appointment. He doesn't like to be messed with.

Another interesting development has been my belly button, which is now officially an outie. Gross! Also, I have got a lovely little dark line going down my belly. Double gross! I am assured that these will go away, but for now they are really creeping me out.

Here is what I look like:


24 down, 16 to go!

Martin Wedding

So, this post is a little late, but on October 2, my friend Michelle got married! She asked me to sing in her wedding and I was happy to do so. Also getting married that night, was my college roommate Bailey. Hurt and Benjie came in town for their wedding and stayed with us. It was great to catch up with them! We took a few pics before and at the wedding. It was a really great weekend!

At the rehearsal dinner Friday

Before the wedding at our house

Hurt and Me

Cute pic of Robyn and John Michael at the wedding

Cutting the cake

The bride and me

Fav pic of the weekend :)

Congrats Michelle and Ryan and Bailey and Mollie!

23 Weeks

So no more fruit updates, because apparently thebump.com does them month by month from here on out! Booooo!

Anyway, here is what the baby looks like:

It is amazing to me how much Preston is growing. He moves so much! Brian calls him Mr. NFL because it his dream to have Preston be a kicker or punter when he grows up. I hope not, because kickers have way too much pressure on them and if Preston is anything like me, he won't handle pressure well. Funny story - Wednesday night I was sitting on the couch just watching my belly move and jump. Brian put his hand on my stomach and he swore he felt fingers touch where his hand was and he proceeded to freak out! I highly doubt he can discern body parts, but regardless, it was really funny. I am starting to get to the point where I know where feet are, hands are, and where his head is. It's just crazy.

And here I am!

People ask me how I am feeling all the time. It's funny, it's like they expect me to feel awful and hate pregnancy. I have been really blessed with this pregnancy. I feel really good, never feel sick, have a good amount of energy, and have been keeping the weight gain at bay. We'll see how I feel in the 3rd trimester, but if I always feel like this when pregnant, I could have lots more kids :) Both the 1st and 2nd trimesters really haven't been bad for me, thank goodness!

23 down, 17 to go!

Preston's Nursery: Chapter 1

Brian and I are about to tackle Preston's nursery. We've done a ton of research looking at other nurseries, measuring our space, figuring out how to maximize items we already have, and narrowing down paint colors.

The room is our current office - it's pretty small, at a whopping 9 ft x 12 ft. See below. Not the best pictures. We use it as an "office" even though most of the time we are on one of our two laptops using the wireless in our house.

Standing in nursery, door to hallway.... changing table will go where

the blank wall is

Closet and corner where chair will go

Wall where crib will go... currently the desk area

Window wall... chair will go to the right, thinking about a window seat underneath the window

When we bought our house, this room was wall to wall wood paneling. We rarely went in the room, but when I started grad school I knew I would need a place to study. We sanded and painted the wood paneling, as well as the closet, windows and trim, and it really brightened the space up. While this space was incredibly important to us when I was in grad school (I can't even tell you the countless number of hours I spent in this room), it has become the abandoned room. Now, we use it mainly to store stuff when we don't feel like hauling it to the attic.

I didn't want to have to redo our guest bedroom, because we do still need it. So, we figured we can combine the office with the guest bedroom by adding an internet jack in that room and putting our printer/scanner/copier on top of the dresser in there. We also plan to repaint the guest bedroom to the color on the office walls - Ralph Lauren Oatmeal. While Ralph Lauren no longer sells their paint at Home Depot (sad!) and I can't find it anywhere in Memphis, I saved the paint chip and plan on having Ace Hardware match it. The guest bedroom is currently highlighter yellow... don't smack it, Brian and I were still in the learning stages :) So a nice, soft oatmeal color will make a dramatic difference in that room.

Enough of that. Below is a layout of Preston's new nursery.

The closet in the room is pretty unique I think. It's like it's already set up for a baby! It has shelving and everything. We'll remove one shelf for P's hanging clothes and I will proceed to purchase these cuties from Etsy to help divide his hanging clothes:

Stay tuned for more nursery chapters. Brian and I are really excited about doing a nursery for Preston! Chapter 2 will entail our final paint colors and coordinating fabric colors. I recently blogged about a trip to Atlanta and mentioned our Ikea success. Chapter 3 will highlight some of these finds and what we are doing with them.

Roadtrip

We took a little over night roadtrip last weekend to Starkville, MS for the Georgia/MS State football game. Unfortunately, we didn't win the game, but we had a good time with the Pela's. We spent the night at our family's farmhouse and woke up Sunday morning to pick turnip greens and mustard greens. All in all, it was a fun weekend!

The last of the okra

22 Weeks

The baby is the size of a papaya!

He's finally at one pound! Now just time for him to fatten up. Here is what the baby looks like:

Here is what I look like:

22 down, 18 to go!