Go Commando.

On September 18th Jay ran a 5k race full of obstacle courses called Go Commando. They started at Mahtomedi Highschool and took a bus to an area that is used for winter recreation (aka the middle of nowhere). Team Ortho transformed it into a crazy and fun obstacle course. Once they arrived they chose which heat they would race in during their wave and then they were off; climbing hay bales, logs and sliding down through fast tubes of water that took runners into a pit of mud! I know there was also fit pit jumping and other crazy activities that made me nervous, but it sounded like so much fun and I was bummed that I missed this one. A 5k would have been much easier for me to run than our last 7k! Look how muddy they are!My hubby is so handsome! That is our best man (one of them) to his left and his girlfriend Sara and another friend. If I hadn't had a wedding that day I would have been there cheering them on! His next race is Halloween weekend and I'll be there for sure, wishing I could run too. I'm so glad he is so active and enjoys fun and healthy activities in his free time, we love to do this kind of stuff together!

Banana.

21 weeks 2 days. I don't really see how a banana weighs more/is larger than a cantaloupe, but that's what they say! She's 10.5 inches long, almost a foot long, that seems huge! And she almost weighs a pound. Bump is getting rounder! This weekend was fun although busy as always. Yesterday we went for a long bike ride because it was gorgeous fall weather, I love it when it's so crisp and a little bit chilly. We also worked on a few small nursery projects which I'll upload images from later. This weekend my Mom sewed her curtains and made us a few more things and I can't wait to see them all. I'm going over to her house to decorate Halloween cookies tomorrow so I'll pick them up then and share some pictures later. We ordered the final element for her nursery today, so hopefully we can get everything put together sometime soon and feel finished with that part of the preparation. I'm so glad we started decorating early, because I know I won't have the energy in a few weeks. I'm already having trouble finding the motivation to finish some of the projects I started which has NEVER been a problem for me-I love this creative stuff. I'm hoping to finish those up this week and be done by the weekend. Our chair is also in!!!! So I hope we can pick that up this week or weekend too. Everything is coming together :)

Cantaloupe.

Here she is at 20 weeks 2 days. She still looks so small to me. I take these images in the morning before work so that I can truly see how much space she needs, because after a day full of eating and drinking my stomach does look a little bigger. By taking it first thing when I get up/get ready I can really see how much room her little body takes up :) And this is her piggy bank we got her so that we can teach her about saving money. And just because it's girly and cute. My parents always had a piggy bank for me growing up and I loved sticking my extra change in there, counting and saving my money.

Halfway there.

I'm finally past halfway! I can't believe it. This pregnancy is flying by, even though I have had my fair share of miserable moments, I love every second of it. Although I'm almost to 21 weeks, here's a visual of where she's at now {from thebump.com}.Last night I was able to catch up with some of my girls over dinner and it was fun to see them after so long. Everyone is so busy and I don't get to see them often so I love when we get to spend time together. Mon gifted little bean with this adorable little Carters snowsuit that I just have to share with you. She'll be toasty warm on the way home from the hospital and throughout her first winter in Minnesota! It is so fuzzy and absolutely precious. I can't wait to see our sweet baby girl in it soon. Thanks Mon!!! And I have a confession. Holy Hannah do I love baby Gap! It might just be the death of me, walking through that store. I usually walk by touching everything and wishing I could buy it all for bean, and the stuff is so cute that I pine for it. Lucky {or I'm beginning to think not so lucky} for me I have a baby Gap right inside the building where my office is, and when I need a walk I end up browsing there. Today I made my first purchase and bought her an adorable little summer dress off the clearance rack. I will definetly have to take a picture of it and share it with you, because you too will love it..I just know it! Little girls are so much fun to shop for!

Alright. This leads to my next confession. Etsy. Need I say more? Ok, I will. I have this thing where I 'window shop' and I'll look for things that I like and want to get her but know I shouldn't. I love handmade items! Here are the current top obsessions:

I absolutely love owls, giraffes, and elephants. I could only find cute owl hats though.

Look at that precious headband! You all know this little girl will be the most photographed baby in town...so I'm gonna need some cute props! Ok in all honesty-I have not purchased much for this little bean. It's just SO fun to look and imagine all the girly things that she might like once she's here. She's been gifted most of the things she has, so I mostly just browse {drool}....but I will be making some purchases before she comes so that I have what I want for some awesome newborn photos, and some cute accessories for her. I'm so excited to document this little girls life in pictures! I had my eye on the little dress I purchased at Gap today for some time now. I kept going back to it every time I visited. Instead of paying $30, I paid $7. It pays to be patient and window shop often!
Now you know how I spend 75% of my day at work!! Speaking of which, I should get back. Daydreaming about my baby girl is so much more fun though.....

**update: I found a picture of the Gap dress online. It also comes with a white ruffle-butt diaper cover...feast your eyes ;)

Content.

Love love love love. My heart is bursting with love for this little bean in my tummy. I love this little ball of energy so much. I never knew I could feel love this way. It's a strange experience, and I'm sure it will only get more intense once she is born. She's pretty quiet in the morning and throughout the day {although I can feel her all day long} she gets pretty wiggly at night. I think it's because of our nightly long walks, and because she likes to hear her daddy's voice ;)

My Mom + I e-mail back and fourth all day long. Lately our chats usually end up about the baby. Today she told me she had went to purchase a crib mattress pad and two pink sheets because she's setting up an old crib in my room at her house. She's so excited. It made me appreciate that we have both our families close to us. I have no idea what I would do without the help of family, because I'm already overwhelmed. But more than that, I'm just so excited to be able to share the day to day milestones of our little girl with them. I'm so happy her Grandparents will be an active + present role in her life. Not to mention, my Mom already made us promise to bring her over once a week so she could have alone time with her....so we get a built in weekly date night!!!!!! We were both so excited. It left me feeling so content with our little life.

Tonight I'm shooting a newborn session and then it's date night. Tomorrow I have another wedding and I hope the weather cooperates. It's a good thing I make a nice chunk of change + enjoying shooting weddings, because working on the weekends sucks. I'm so excited for this wedding season to be over, only 5 more on the books this year! Next year I'm definetly not booking as many because I like my weekends free. We do have some plans for some festive activities this weekend, so I hope that pans out. Happy Friday!!

Childcare options.

Ok friends, we are in need of some help. We are looking at our childcare options and would love some referrals. After working at a daycare center in both the infant + young toddler rooms for over a year, I know we don't want to send our baby to a center. Even new, high end centers make me nervous, having first hand experience at one. {I worked at a Primrose}. We are open to a smaller, in home daycare if we have some good references to check out...but really we'd love to find a mommy friend who already stays home with her baby, or even someone who wants some extra money or doesn't have/want to work full time. A good friend of mine is closing her in-home daycare just a few miles from our house and I am super bummed because I totally trust her and would have loved to send our little girl there. So now we are exploring options, and everyone says it's never too early to start.

I'll have about 5 months of maternity leave and then Jay will take over for 1.5 months on his own, so she'll be about 6-6.5 months when needing childcare {depending on when she's born}. It will be sometime in the end of August. Do you know of anyone you could recommend or an in home daycare that you love? Help a pregnant lady out.

{This post is not meant to offend anyone who sends their children to a center, it's just our personal opinion/feeling about it and everyone is different!}

19.5 weeks.

19 weeks, 4 days...only 2 more days until I'm 20 weeks and officially half way. I took this picture this morning. It's so dreary here today so the picture is a little dark, but you can see her popping out! Oh and I have gotten a few questions on the color of our nursery. I was going to check last night and forgot, but I believe the color of the walls is Behr's botantical tint. We really liked seafoam pearl and went in thinking we were going to purchase that, but when we saw the swatch we wanted a little more teal/aqua so it would pop. Botantical tint was just a little more vibrant. We are really happy with how it turned out!
Yesterday I was pretty sick all day, so I was starving by 2 pm. I knew I was going to have the night to myself since Jay had softball and I was excited because all I wanted to do was lay in bed and moan in my misery ;) Jay said I could order pizza so I called on my way home so it would arrive shortly after I got there. I totally ordered TWO pizzas for myself because I just couldn't decide what to get {remember my post about my pregnancy indecision?} I think I literally thought about it for like 20 minutes. Who takes 20 minutes to decide what pizza to order? This pregnant girl. I was in heaven with my caffeine free diet coke and pizza in my lap. We have a ton left over so I brought some for lunch today. Pretty much the best lunch ever. It was so nice to lay in bed and fill my stomach which had been empty all day and just watch tv. It was just the night I needed....and wow now I'm drooling over my pizza I will be eating for lunch.

Mango.

This weekend was busy but fun. I shot a wedding with my friend Leah on Friday and had a fabulous wedding at Gibbs farm on Saturday. Sunday my in-laws and Jay's brother and girlfriend came over and spent the day with us. Our little girl is spoiled already...her closet went from empty to half full in a matter of days! We can fit a lot more in there now thanks to her Daddy who put in another shelf. Thank you, everyone for her special gifts. She's the size of a mango right now and moving around like crazy. As I am typing this she's kicking my side!
The best news is, she has a name! Yep, we finally came to an agreement and chose a name that we love. But this is a little teaser because Jay wants to keep it a secret, so my lips are sealed. I just had to share because it took us forever to remotely agree on anything-we have very different taste when it comes to names. I'm super excited. It's fun to be able to call her by her name around the house, especially now that she is getting more interactive with me. Jay hasn't been able to feel her yet but I'm hoping it's soon. For now she'll still be bean on here! I can't wait to share her real name eventually.

I'm off to spend some time with my hubby and this wiggle worm!

Our sweet, sweet potato.

I still can't believe we are having a girl, I feel like we won the lottery. We have a SHE! Here she is at 18.5 weeks along. We had our anatomy scan follow up appointment today and everything looks great, she's happy + healthy, praise God! I miraculously gained 3 more pounds, so to date I've gained 5 total. Almost half way! woohoo!
Front view, getting rounder by the day!
Thank you for all your love, support and excitement over our little bundle of joy. It means so much to us! Tonight we have a fun little evening planned. We are headed to my Mom's for pizza and the VIKINGS season opener vs. the Saints! This will be her first official Vikings game so we need to show her who's boss. Let's go Vikes!!!!

it's a girl!

3 short words that completely changed my life in an instant.

Laying on that table, the world stood still. I couldn't tear my eyes away from that beautiful little bouncing baby on the ultrasound screen, hands around her face and feet wiggling up and down. It wasn't until my husband squeezed my toes with a huge grin on his face that I realized I was in fact still mid-anatomy scan. "Are you serious?" were the words that first responded. When our tech confirmed that yes, she was serious we were having a baby girl...I almost couldn't believe it. I was so completely shocked, and I don't know why-because there are only two choices of sex, so it was a 50/50 chance. But to hear those amazing words, "It's a girl" literally stopped my world. To actually know the sex of our baby was unreal. "That is awesome, did you hear that Jay?" was all I could say as tears blurred my vision of our precious little bean-ette.

We walked out of that appointment in complete awe of God. How amazing that he chooses each and every baby individually, and this was the child he chose for us. We talked about how glad we were that we didn't get the choice, because it was that much more special. That he would gift us with this baby girl was unimaginable to us-how could we deserve this amazing gift? We sure are thankful and counting our blessings. I haven't felt a high like this since the day we were engaged, and then again the day we married.

Earlier that morning we had planned on getting up and having breakfast together before our big appointment. Naturally I was so excited that I couldn't sleep, so we woke up a little early. We just kept grinning at each other, today was the day! We were so excited. Jay got up to let Nemo out and I turned to lay on to my side. Almost instantly, it happened. I felt little flutters of movement and small pokes on my belly. I put my hand on my stomach and felt our baby kick for the very first time. They felt like the tiniest little feet but there they were, kicking my side and wiggling around saying, "I'm here Mama!!" Hands down one of the most amazing things I've ever experienced. I called for Jay to come feel, but of course she stopped as soon as his hand replaced mine....little stinker. I can't wait to catch her in action again so he can feel her kick. She's pretty active tonight too but daddy is at softball right now! A few months ago, while dancing together at a wedding, Jay had told me he wanted to have a little girl, because he wanted a baby that looked like me. He nodded towards a daddy dancing with his baby girl and said I want to dance with our little girl like that. It was the cutest thing ever, and sparked my excitement towards having a girl. Needless to say, we have not stopped smiling all day. I think it's safe to say that this day ranks up at the top of the best days of our life.

Last night we prayed together for our appointment and most of all for a healthy and happy baby, and our prayers were answered. "For this child I have prayed, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him"- 1 Samuel 1:27

This is a picture of us right before we went in to the doctor. This will always be one of our favorite memories!

What a beautiful day!

I am so excited fall is here, it's always been my favorite time of year. This morning I opened the windows letting the crisp breeze in as I did a few loads of laundry and cleaned the house. I had my pumpkin spice candle burning and now the house smells delicious!! It's so refreshing to have fresh air throughout the house instead of having central air on. I took my puppy for a walk and now I'm preparing for the day.

I've been cleared to "work" {photography} by my doctor so I'm off to a wedding! I have weddings every weekend until November....let's hope I make it through! Jay is doing well at Nationals, they won last night so they advance today and have a game this morning. We miss him at home but I am glad he is having fun!!

And I know you all know I'm excited for this:

Baby bedding.

I finally had some time {and light} to take some pictures of some of my projects...this is a padded play mat for the baby to lay on. It can be folded up and stored in a diaper bag, etc. I had a little trouble finding gender neutral fabric because I loved either really boyish patterns, or really girly patterns...but when my Mom found the apple material I knew that was it! I love the modern/retro look to it. Below you can see a closeup. Please disregard the wrinkles, they all need to be pressed still.
And here is the nursery bedding! This was a lot trickier to pick out because not only did we want it to be gender neutral, but we also wanted it to match our color scheme. We wanted colors that were bright, happy and stimulating for baby. I'm a fan of funky, fun prints and nothing that is too "adult" for the nursery. We are going for a modern, clean look. Ultimately we decided on a tealish blue, yellow and white. This is the top of the blanket.
I just love these precious retro animals and funky color combination/patterns.
This is the reverse {back} of the blanket.
And here is a peek of bean's crib :) All of the animals are handmade except for the lamb.
More pictures/projects to come this weekend!!

Catch up.

I forgot to blog about a few things in my last post so let's play catch up. Last week we headed to the fair on Thursday, the very first day...and I think that will be our tradition from now on! It was 70 degrees and breezy, there were no crowds, and we didn't have to wait in any lines! It was so fabulous, and let me tell you-a pregnant woman's dream ;) We didn't eat much because everything is so expensive, but we had a really fun time together. We shared some fries, cheese curds, and of course sweet martha's cookies. All in all we did pretty good. We went to the miracle birth center and checked out the animals for as long as my stomach could handle, and we also visited Jay's brother at the footlong hot dog stand and did a lot of people watching. After a few hours of wandering around I was really tired so we headed home, but not before visiting the sports tent to check out the Viking gear and watch some of the NFL game!

Friday I was able to work a half day and then I took off early. Luckily I was able to catch some time with Amy who was in town for the weekend, and we spent 2.5 hours catching up! It was so fun to see her and know what is going on in her world, and I got to visit with her Mom, Dad and Deren after awhile too. So excited that she'll be back over the holidays...I love old friends :)

Baby is growing like crazy!! Bean is currently about the size of a sweet potato, but within just 2 weeks it will grow to the size of a cantaloupe! crazy!! I have a feeling my belly will start popping out very, very soon. Only a few more days until we hopefully find out the sex. I really hope that baby cooperates. I heard that if you drink some pop & eat some candy on the way it will get baby moving before the ultra sound. Any mamas out there have a suggestion? I think I will die of anxiousness if we don't get to find out! haha.

Jay left early this morning for his nationals softball tournament so it's just me and nemo for the weekend. I hope I have enough energy to get some things done around the house while he's gone...including putting the nursery together and getting some pictures to finally share of all my projects! Wish me luck! He'll be back on Sunday and then we are heading to my Mom's on Monday for a family bbq. I have Monday and Tuesday off and the extra long weekend will be so nice.