Baby Mack

Kelly & Joey had their baby back in December. He came a week early during a snow storm but was perfectly healthy. It also worked out well that he was early because Kelly wanted to spend as much time with him as she could before starting back at nursing school in January. Visiting Mack was so fun - he has the silliest expressions. And when is holding such a cute, adorable baby not fun. But this time, knowing that there's a baby growing inside of me, it's different holding a newborn. Still fun and exciting, but it caused my brain to start running a mile a minute with all sorts of questions and daydreaming.

Here is a week old ...

And here he is almost 3 months old...



I am so thankful that we're having Baby B around the same time as so many of our friends. Matt and I were ready so regardless that "all the cool kids were doing it" we would have been trying for Baby B anyway. But it is so much more fun that our friends are having babies too. While we won't be in the same school district -- Mack and Baby B will be in the same grade at school, just like Kelly and I. It's so fun thinking about them being friends! (Plus there are SOOO many other babies being born plus or minus a year of Baby B -- it's incredible!)   

Oh Gable...

Such a silly dog!

Nursery Mood Board

After weeks months of consideration, we decided to go to go for a grey / yellow / teal theme for the nursery. (And when I say "we" I really mean, I decided and then told Matt and he didn't have any objections.) It's fun but still neutral enough (hopefully) that we won't have to repaint the room when we decide to sell. Here's my current mood board.

 

I have gone around and around on this... but I finally made my first purchase today so now I'm somewhat committed. I bought the yellow zig-zag (chevron) fabric to make curtain panels and also a crib skirt. Thankfully my mother-in-law can (and likes) to sew, so she's going to make those for us. And depending on prices I might ask her to also make some teal crib sheets, a pouf/ottoman, a changing pad cover and also pillows. More to come!

Vacation day!

I used my first vacation day since starting the new job in October on Jan 4th! (Even though I have PTO time to take, it's weird to take it now knowing that it's "stealing" time from baby later this year.)

We started off the morning with a doctor's appointment. Around 20 weeks they do the ultrasound where they check the baby to make sure they are developing properly and if you want, they can typically tell you the gender. Because of Christmas, I was actually at 21 weeks + 2 days for my appointment. After lots of discussion we decided not to find out the gender. It was a split decision - Matt wanted to know and isn't into surprises at all and I kept going back and forth about finding out. I've always thought I would wait, but the temptation to find out is pretty strong but I really want the surprise - for me and for telling our family and friends. I knew if we did find out we wouldn't be able to keep it a surprise from family and friends so that helped encourage me to convince Matt we should wait.

The ultrasound was really neat. It was a huge relief to finally see the little one growing inside of me. Everything they check for medically at this appointment was just as it should be. The baby had its hand up near its face so it was a little more difficult for the ultrasound tech to get the profile and face pics but we got a couple to bring home with us.I did find out that I have an anterior placenta which means the "thick" side of the placenta is near my belly button rather than my spine. It's not a big deal, but it does mean that we won't be able to feel the baby's kicks as well as we would have with a regular placenta. While it's kinda a bummer, finding out was mostly a relief. People told me - oh you'll know when you feel the baby. But I've been feeling movement since Christmas but wasn't sure if it really was Baby (which made me nervous). Doctor said that my questioning is typical - whew.

After the doctor's appointment we did some window shopping for floors (nothing purchased yet) and then drove over to Iowa City. We got to hang out with Stacy and Maya before heading to an Iowa Wrestling meet. I never thought I'd be someone to get pumped about wrestling, but weirdly it's actually a really fun sport to watch (maybe because Iowa is/has always been good makes it more fun). Plus trips to the Carver Hawkeye Arena mean ICE CREAM CONES. Such a delicious tradition. After we watched Iowa win the meet we went over to our new favorite IC hangout - BackPocket Brewery.

We stayed the night in IC (actually we got "upgraded" to a room with a jacuzzi tub because the tv in our original room didn't work) and before heading back to Huxley we stopped at Wendy and Kyle's new home. It was fun to compare pregnancy notes with Wendy and I was totally jealous of their custom built home. Love their floorplan - especially their master suite!

Hello Maya!

OT - Hawks get the win!

Love BackPocket's stone-fired pizza!

Checking out the fire pit at BP

Seriously... smiling for the camera isn't so bad Matt.

Pics from Andrew & Gilly's Wedding

Andrew & Gilly got married on July 21st. It was a fantastic wedding. Here's a few of my pics from the night. There were many cool details I could share but I I'll have to add those later.

(yes, I just discovered how awesome instgram is. I may have went a little overboard.)

Wouldn't it be great if Matt & Renee lived closer...

This is a frequent statement at our house. While an hour and a half isn't that far... it's not that easy to get together. But when we do, we definitely make it worth while :)  Plus Renee's Matt is a great influence on my Matt because he usually convinces him to ditch work and be fun instead. haha!  :) 

Baseball Gossip

Matt really hates baseball. So when we got invited to an Iowa Cubs game last week, it still took a bit of convincing to get him to agree to go even though it was free tickets, $10 in vouchers for food/booze, and an evening out with some fabulous friends. Fortunately, Matt eventually warmed up to the idea.  We had a great night out with friends (which we knew we would have) and we didn't actually watch any baseball (which Matt was relieved about).



Thanks Liz for taking this pic of us!

We started the eveing with beers at el Bait Shop and then picked up Lime-A-Rita's at the ballpark. As you can see in the pic, the lime-a-rita's are pretty big and at 8% alcohol it didn't take long before we all got a bit giggly. We hadn't gotten together in a while so it was so fun catching up in each others lives. Plus sometimes our topics of conversation shifted to the realm of not-so-kid-appropriate which made us even more giggly. I'm sure the people around us were either highly entertained or completely annoyed by us. oops! Regardless it was a great night out at the ball game! 

Proof that Matt can have fun at a baseball game :)





Gable still eyeing the baseball that he destroyed within 5 seconds of bringing it home from the game!

 

Green Beer and Football

St Patty's day is always a fun celebration for us because Matt's birthday falls on the 18th. And while we don't go quite as crazy as some of those hardcore Irish wannabees, it seems to enough fun for us. :)

This year the opening game for the Iowa Barnstormers landed on March 17th. We invited some friends along and decided to make an event of it by tailgating beforehand. It was pretty warm day in March so we definitely lucked out on that!

Here's some pics of the St Patty's Day / Matt's Birthday festivities...

Tailgate!

Liz showing off the green bday cupcakes

Jello shots - cake vodka and lime!



Book club ladies



Can't be a legit tailgate unless someone plays catch in the parking lot

oops - blurry

oops - Em's eyes are closed

High five we scored!

3rd row seats!