{Still here}

Hello there,

I have fallen off of the blogging wagon :/ I am almost 38 weeks along now and I am feeling VERY uncomfortable and ready to be a mama!!! I know, I know, "he needs to cook a little more" (or so they keep telling me), but I think he is cooked enough (lol). I am trying my hardest not to be too grumpy & irritable, but it has been a challenge, I'm not going to lie (my poor family). I cried for no reason the other day. Super awesome. My husband has had to put up with a lot, and I appreciate it very much.

I have everything ready -- more than ready. We are just waiting to meet our little guy!!!

37.5 weeks

Happy Sunday!

-L

{Cutest Book}

Now we are finally getting a little bit of that winter weather I have been craving. Not much, but a little...
In fact, it's sunny already - LOL, but it has felt good to stay home and to be warm and cozy for at least a little bit. I have been catching up on house stuff as well as reading my book. Reading was a big part of my childhood. My mom is someone that can read a book a day (not exaggerating), so from an early age, she taught us that reading was fun and very important. As a grown up, I have really tried to be a "reader" because I really do like reading, but I am not as avid of a reader as I want to be. I always have a book started, but don't get through them very quickly. It's something that I am trying to be better about.

Anyway, for Oliver, I plan to make reading books a priority, starting with those adorable little "board books" that babies "read" (chew on, throw around, etc.). I was at Barnes & Noble with Ali and the kiddos the other day and I stumbled upon the MOST ADORABLE "Valentine's Day" themed board book that I simply had to have.

Check out this adorableness.......


I cannot wait to read this cute little book to Oliver!!! It really is the most adorable book I have ever seen. :) That's all, I just wanted to share that with you. I am officially 36 weeks (9 months)!!! 4 more to go before the big due-date! Hurry! Hurry! ;)

Have a happy day!

-lisa

{I heart Missoni}

Today I am 35 weeks....5 weeks until my due date!! Yay!! Needless to say, I am getting super excited and am feeling ready!! As you've seen, I have Oliver's room ready to go, and have been wrapping up all of the little projects and buying all of the last minute things that I will need when he makes his appearance. I have bottles ready, am drowning in swaddling blankets, and am all set with burp cloths, bibs, diapers, and wipes :)

The one thing that I never thought was a super useful thing to have is a crib quilt/comforter. Although they are adorable (my friend Catherine registered for one at Pottery Barn Kids that matches her daughters bedding and will be embroidered with her name -- sooo cute!), they are usually big and a little bit cumbersome, and seeing as how babies aren't even supposed to sleep under blankets for a long time, what really is the point?!

Well......after checking off my "want" list, and thinking about it a little bit, I did find something that they theoretically could be useful for.....you could use one as a floor blanket. When Ali's daughter Hayden was born, I had bought a "padded floor blanket" for her. It was this ADORABLE quilted/puffy blanket with pink & yellow birds on it. It wasn't a crib comforter, but an actual "floor blanket", but it looked similar to what I would think a crib comforter would. Anytime we had her on the floor playing with her, she would lay on this cozy blanket. I was thinking that all of the blankets I have for Oliver are thin, and that I might like to have a thicker "floor blanket" for him. For the house, or if we go to the park and sit on grass, or if he has to be changed in the back of the car.....a blanket like that could be pretty useful after all.

Soooo....my search began, and I found it . . . . . . MISSONI for Target! :) All of the Missoni for Target baby items are on sale, and I happened on these beauties.....

**Missoni for Target - "Patchwork" Quilt - $49.99

**Missoni for Target - "Black & White" Quilt
Aren't they AMAZING!!!?!! And they have bumpers ($49.99), crib sheets ($14.99), and crib skirts ($29.99) that coordinate....SO reasonably priced!!

These are SO SO SO stylish!! If I hadn't picked my own fabrics for Oliver's bedding (and had seen these sooner), I would have had a lot more to consider. I am still 100% in love with what I chose, but I do love that these are neutral, yet so modern and un-baby-ish!! Are you with me on this...? :)

Here are a couple of additional patterns that are available....

"Medallion"

"Exploded Floral"
So...the point of the story is . . . . we now have 2 crib quilt/floor blankets for our little guy! The "Patchwork" and the "Black & White". YAY!!!!! Check and check! :) One for inside the house and one to keep in the car at all times!! Might be a tad excessive, but I couldn't resist!! I am SO excited. They already arrived and they are just as dreamy as I thought they would be!

If you are pregnant and are in search of cool crib bedding, check out Missoni for Target . You won't regret it!!

:)
-lisa

{happy weekend}

Happy Saturday everyone!

It's been a beautiful winter week out here!!! And when I say "winter", I mean.......

:) I know I would LOVE a white winter, but this is pretty great too!!

I'm super jealous that my sister is in beautiful Hawaii for our friend Ashley's wedding, but am happy that I can be here to help with her kiddos. Her hubby and I are taking them to Noah's school friends "Star Wars in the Park" b-day party today! Awesome!!

Oh...and I had my 34 week doctor appt yesterday and all checked out great. My next appt is in 2 weeks, and from there I will see her once per week until I have this little guy!!! SO close!!! SO EXCITED!

xoxo Have a great weekend!

-lisa

{He's trying to bust out!!! ;) }

Happy New Year's Eve everyone. I cannot believe how quickly 2011 flew by!! I am very much looking forward to 2012 and hope that everybody has a fun, safe, and happy New Year celebration tonight. We are going to head out to a friends house for dinner pretty soon, but I managed to get a little down time this afternoon to sit and enjoy the beautiful, peaceful day. As I was sitting there, my little guy starting moving around like ca-razy, and I was able to catch his "awesome moves" on video.

Check this out......it's not very long, so if you watch it till the end, you'll see that that is where he really moves like crazy!!

(**The camera is up by my chin, looking down at my almost-34-week belly)



He is trying to bust out to celebrate the New Year with us, I think. He moves around ALL-DAY-LONG!! It is a pretty wonderful feeling (aside from the keeping me up at night - lol). I really hope the next 6 (+/-) weeks goes by quickly so that we can meet him already!!!

That's all. I just wanted to share that with you! Again, have a VERY happy New Year everyone! xoxoxo

-L

{Nursery Reveal}

NURSERY REVEAL!!!!!

So, I had wanted my favorite photographer friend to capture Oliver's nursery for me, but the day that she was here (the day of my baby shower), she mentioned that because there isn't much natural light streaming in throughout the day, it wasn't ideal for the impromptu photo session. Sooo.....I thought I would take it upon myself to snap a few photos of it anyway, before it really gets cluttered up with the stuff that the baby really needs (LOL).

Here she is in all of her (instagram-lightened-up-photo) glory.....


**Note: It's a circle tour - starts at the entryway and circles around to the right and back to the door.






















(Sorry for the photo overload. I just wanted to make sure to show it all!!)

NOTES:

**I am still trying to find the perfect spot for some of my favorite items, specifically the owl from one of my besties that I shared in my previous baby-stuff post. The crate from her that I love made it in as a toy chest beside the crib. I am just looking for the perfect place for the owl :)

**No, I did not make dog portraits of our two fur-babies. LOL! The dog portraits above the crib were a total fluke. As you know, I am an avid 'Marshall's' shopper. Well, one day while perusing, I stumbled upon those two dog prints stretched on canvases. It just so happened that the only two that they had were the exact kind of dogs that we have - a Yorkie and a Black Lab. So, alas, they had to be ours. $16.99 each well spent!! Now Oliver's sisters will be watching over him while he sleeps, and the orange in the prints compliments the closet doors and the gallery wall prints. :)

**I decided against hanging the handmade hot air balloon mobile. At the end of the day, it wasn't needed, and I wasn't thrilled with the way that it looked. Not bad. Not great. So, I left it out.

**The instagram setting that I chose to use ('RISE') really lightened everything up a lot, but you all know that the true colors are school-bus yellow (as I have been calling it), gray, black, and crisp white :). I am not a photographer by any means, so this is the best I could do ;)

I hope you like it as much as I do!!! Now bring on the B-A-B-Y!

xo -lisa

{It was awesome & a small tribute!!}

Ahhhh.....the holiday season is coming to a close. One final hoorah - New Years Eve (which come on people, I'm 8.5 months pregnant. The hoorah will be pretty mild this year) - and then it's onto to 2012. Needless to say I am SOOOO excited for what the New Year will bring and I anticipate myself being the HAPPIEST girl around!! :)!!! All of that being said, this 2011 holiday season went off without a hitch. It was festive, it was yummy, and it was actually . . . relaxing. After celebrating Hanukkah with my husbands family, it was on to Christmas with mine. I did all of my wrapping on Christmas eve day (listening to holiday tunes, of course), and spent a ton of time eating and chatting with the people that I love most! I didn't have my camera out for much of the weekend, but trust me when I say that it was a very happy time.

Just for the record, here I am at 32.5 weeks along.....

(this picture makes me look much smaller than I am/feel (I guess black is slimming). I feel pretty uncomfortable in my jeans now...I am ready for him to come out (lol)!!!

And now, back to my holiday spiel. Even though as I grow older, the holidays (for me) are less about presents and more about family, I did want to share one gift that I gave this year that I put some thought into.

Back-story - I don't talk about him too much on here, but my husband is a wonderfully sweet and funny guy. He has a huge heart and is SOOO excited about the upcoming arrival of our little boy in February! As he relates to this post, he has not traditionally been a Christmas celebrator. He grew up Jewish, and his family is amazingly festive and fun during the holidays...it's just a different kind of festive than having the tree, stockings, and jolly-big-fat-guy that a lot of us identify with. I am in love with his mom's enthusiasm when it comes to the holidays. She makes it clear that it's not about getting, it's about being good people in the world and loving wholeheartedly. She truly is an amazing lady. In regards to "our little family" and how things will go in the future, I have been planting the seed that while I am not really a religious person, I am a VERY festive and traditional person, and I have such fond memories of celebrating both Christmas and Hanukkah (my dad is Jewish too) as a child. I really want our kids to have similar traditions to the ones that I have always cherished; the best of both worlds, we would always say. Soooo.....this year, I did get my husband a "Christmas" gift (well....a holiday gift that I put under Ali's tree and gave to him on Christmas morning).....


Ok, so I don't have a picture of the actual gift (ha!), but that was the card attached to it. I got my husband a super cool backpack filled with all of the "baby essentials" that he will need when he and Oliver venture out into the world together!! You know....a changing pad, diapers, wipes, diaper creme, powder, burp cloth, dirty diaper disposal bags, toy (you get the idea). Now I know that Ollie will be attached to me mostly in the beginning (being that I plan to be his food source), but if and when his daddy is ready to take him on a solo adventure (and give mommy some much needed alone time that I am sure she will be craving), he will be all set!!

I wanted to make sure that my husband knows how much I appreciate him and how much he will be needed during this special time. He is a very hands-on guy, and I feel SUPER lucky about that! So, I hope the gift showed him that I am looking forward to being "Mom and Dad" with him and that I can't wait to see him with his very own mini-me!

Now we get to wait in anticipation to see who he will look like most. Here is an adorable picture of my husband (the little Jewish boy) dressed up like Santa back in the day..... (ha!)

Look at that double chin and those hazel eyes - SO cute!! Oddly enough, I can't put my finger on any of my baby pictures at the moment, but once I do, I will post some. It will be fun to compare and contrast!

And finally, just for fun, here are some pictures of my husband and me from 2010 (some of our engagement photos)....



...and soon....baby will make 3! :) YAY!

xo Happy Tuesday!

-lisa