O'Baby: Maternity Pictures

Hello! Still here and still pregnant. Currently 39 weeks 1 day and feeling every extra ounce and every possible emotion. Excitement. Apprehension. Fear. Impatience. Concern. Loss of control. Thankful. Joyful. Ready to meet our kid. Not ready for life to change. And everything in between. 

Mama B is coming down tomorrow and Sportyspice is heading this way Friday with my niece. Baby is due the day after my birthday [WHICH IS MONDAY, what?!] and I've always thought it would be wonderful to have a baby for my birthday. But, we all know baby knows best so I'm trying to hope and pack my patience at the same time. 

One way I've distracted myself is pouring over our maternity pictures I took when I was 36 weeks. I hadn't planned to take pictures [justifying the money was tough] but the photographer, who is a friend, had an incredible first year package so I said "what the heck?" and just went with it. She was increidble efficient and had a great eye for pictures and allowed Le Husband and I to be ourselves [he hates photos] which was helpful. I knew we didn't need a full hour for our pictures and when she suggested a split session with me doing fitness pictures I was thrilled. Never thought of that [which is so weird] and I'm grateful for her awesome idea. I love the pictures from both sessions and am having a hard time picking WHICH ones to buy. Let me know your favorites!

ALL PHOTOS PROPERTY OF PINKPERSISTENCE AND ADARA EVENTS & PHOTOGRAPHY

Adding a Little Usher to the Week {These are my CONFESSIONS}

I confess. . .

|| there are no words to describe the idiocy of this guy. I can only hope selfless with high jackers doesn't become a trend. What is this world coming to and why are people so ridiculous?

|| I went a lil balls to the wall in my sports conditioning class on Tuesday and shhhhheewwwweee my shins are NOT happy with me today.

|| it may sound braggy but I was thrilled with my gym outfit Tuesday. I had forgotten how slimming my Spartan shirt fit and having it paired with one of my favorite leggings made me feel fierce. Might have been why I was so aggressive in class!

|| the baby bug grabbed me for a hot second yesterday when my dear friend shared a video of her son with me. He is just the cutest lil thing and his sweet lil voice melted my heart. I'm back on the no kid right now train, but one day look forward to having my own lil minion :)!

|| while I'm super stoked spring weather is here the ahem -- body maintenance -- has me all kinds of wah. The one good thing about the winter is sweat pants and long leggings at the gym. #bootomorefrequentshaving

|| I am both nervous excited and nervous dreading our going away party this weekend. I've kind of thrown it together at the last minute when our other plans didn't pan out. It will be much more informal that originally thought and I'm so grateful my parent's are allowing us to use their home. I just hope the food, drinks and desserts turn out how they are pictured in my mind. I know what matters is just enjoying friends, but we all know how important it is to be a good host. #prayersforniceweatherplease

|| whipped cream spoons have been my dessert of choice this week. Not fancy and not classy, but oh so delicious.

|| the notification issues on Instagram has this girl all 'what is going on'? I just joined and it seems like things are changing but I don't know what is changing. I'm just gonna keep liking pictures and commenting as normal, please don't be offending if something changed on my end [follow me here].

|| I may have recycled my Easter top to work this week. There was a big meeting with a vendor and I didn't feel like figuring out another fancy outfit. #addedthepearlsforextrabling #dontjudge #pictureatstoplight

What do you confess today?

linking up with  Natalie & Kristin

Weekend Away That Was All Play

Good morning and a happy Monday to all. I hope your weekend was wonderful and Monday is being kind so far. Our weekend was a blur of motion as we headed to Cincinnati for a quick family visit. It will be our last visit until we move [!] and it was nice to hang with family for a few days. Now we are back cranking through the work week and time to get serious about packing up our apartment and finishing up planning our trip. 

This weekend I… 

… woke to snow bright and early before our flight. 

… enjoyed the luxury of the AA Admiral's club thanks to Le Husband's CC. #theonlywaytotravel

… practiced my Italian for our trip.

… laughed at my 1% fluency. 

… was majorly bummed when our delayed [mechanics] flight kept us from picking up nephew from school. 

… had a delicious lunch with Grandparents and loved surprising grandma.

… jumped in full swing to lego, beanie baby and wrestling time. 

… brought along our homemade tortilla recipe and created some delicious fish tacos for dinner. 

… snapped a bazillion pictures of our adorable second nephew. #ohmygoodnessthosecheeks

… woke up to the phone ringing at 730am because our nephew wanted us to join him for Saturday errands.

… got ready in 15 minutes and met them at the door.

… reveled in the smell of doughnuts at our second stop for the day.

… devoured my cinnamon toast crunch chocolate doughnut. #holysugarcoma

… took our second set of grandparents out to dinner at a delicious Cajun restaurant. #familyisthebest

… started up wrestling as soon as we got back home. 

… watched a little bit of Frozen and Despicable Me before dinner. #Ineededanap

… became a car aficionado after a lesson with lil man. #guesswhogotallthepinkcars

… ate a delicious dinner, drank some wine, played legos then went to bed as soon as the boys left. 

… passed out for eleven glorious hours and felt like a new person on Sunday morning. 

… packed up, helped make breakfast and got it one last play session before we left for the airport. 

… kissed and cuddled this lil face a million times before we left. 

… practiced some Italian on the plane, read and prepped my BODYPUMP playlist for Monday's class. 

Now I'm charging through Monday and looking forward to a quiet evening at home. How was your weekend?

Linking up with these beautiful ladies whoop 

A Week of Thankful Family Fun

Morning, friends. Anyone struggling after a long weekend? *raises hand* Le Husband and were actually in Cincinnati all week for family time so I'm definitely on the work struggle bus. We drove up last weekend, went to the OSU game [dagger still] then enjoyed LOTS of fun family time all week. There was some remote work done, but for the most part it was a week of chill time and lots of delicious food. I'm so grateful for such a wonderful married into family and loved all of the holiday cheer together. While it's tough to split the holidays, it's fun having yearly traditions.

Here's a lil bit of our week long holiday.

* A pirate birthday celebrating for a very special three year old. 

* The fabulous LEGO HAT Kathy made for my lil nephew. He looks so cute in it but hates pictures #dudes.

* Our annual zoo lights trip and our annual picture with the pretty twinkles in the background.

* Lots of baby snuggles with our six month old nephew. His leg rolls are so delicious and his smile is precious. I LOVED getting my baby fix while babysitting multiple times during the week.

* Even though it isn't a full body shot, I was able to snap the elusive holiday picture with Le Husband. He's not a big picture guy and usually we're too busy catching up with family to pose for pictures, but I grabbed one right before we left. #atleastwehaveitdocumented

* Thanksgiving day was full of family, fun and of course food. I stuffed myself silly at brunch and dinner and took home a few servings of leftovers to enjoy during the rest of the week. 

* Extra baby snuggles at the dinner table.

* My Thanksgiving outfit was a hit and one I plan putting on repeat later in the year. #cheerstoplaid

* As is my goal every year,  the first round Christmas cards went out the Friday after Thanksgiving. I can't wait to start hearing from friends and family, mail this time of year is just the best. 

Not pictured:

+ The time I walked into a pole and the bump that showed up afterwards. #ugh

+ Our five trips to the gym to stay on track workout and food [hah] wise.

+ A hellacious Monday working from Ohio when things were on fire at work. Glad I was able to help but working from home and losing a vacation day was not fun. #betterbelieveImgettingitback

+ Lots of Dunkin Donuts coffee and trips to the store. 

+ Dogs, dogs and more dogs.

+ Our crazy back roads trip to and from Cincinnati. #whattheheckgps

+ Naps on naps on naps.

+ Football on football on football. WAY TO GO BUCKS! Way to CRUSH *ichigan!

+ Finally getting to see Sportyspice after her engagement. We toasted with champs and I gave her a bride bag I bought two days after I found out her boyfriend was going to propose. #yaysissyboo

I hope y'all had a great Thanksgiving holiday and would love to hear all about it. Any new recipes to share? Sending EVERYONE some extra coffee and sparkles today, rock out your Monday!

Linking up with these beautiful ladies whoop whoop 

Seconds to Minutes to Hours to Days { Weekend in Numbers }

Beautiful Babyspice in London. [my weekend didn't have great pictures, so I stole hers!]

505.2 || the number of miles between Le Husband and me this weekend.

18,000 || the number of seconds it took to deep clean my apartment. #youcaneatoffanysurfacenow

10 || the number of minutes I spent filming a make up video for y'all.

17 || the total number of hours I slept over the weekend.

28 || the age Babyspice turned on Saturday. #happybirthdaysissyboo

14 || the number of minutes I was able to FaceTime with BabySpice on her birthday. #toodlepipdarling

2 || the fingers of whiskey I drank to virtually cheers the birthday girl.

12 || how many years I've had the nail polish I used on my nails.

16 || the number of pork chops I seasoned, cooked and chopped because Le Husband forgot to freeze them before he left. #whatwouldhedowithoutme #porkchopsonsale #meatfortheweek

240 || the number of minutes I spent with my bestie, L at her new home.

50 || the number of 'excuse me mommies' we heard while we were catching up. #threekidslovemama

30 || the minutes I spent driving home from L's.

144.50 || the amount I spent on groceries for the week.

8 || the number of towels washed, dried and folded.

3 || the number of goals I missed in my indoor game.

3 || the number of goals I scored in my indoor game.

3 || the number of goals I blocked in my indoor game.

2 || the number of goals we won by in our indoor game.

0 the number of subs we had at our indoor game. #ithinktherearetoomanysentenceswithindoorgame

10 || the number of points the Cowobys beat the Eagles by on Sunday night. #hollaatthemboys

45 || the number of minutes it took me to prep for the week.

900 || the number of seconds I spent icing my shin and ankle.

23048304823048 || the number of calories I consumed over the weekend. #okmaybethatsabitexcessive

2 || the number of days until our FALLING FOR FALL LINKUP!!!! Don't forget to link up on Wednesday, friends!

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How was your weekend, friends? Did you do anything fun?

Linking up with these beautiful ladies whoop whoop < 3

The Weekend of Labor, Boys & Marriage

Morning, loves, how are you after the three day weekend? I hope you weren't 'laboring' too much and were able to enjoy the extra day off. I had a wonderful weekend as we were home in Cincy visiting Le Huband's family. We had a fabulous time, as usual and I soaked up nephew time whenever possible.

This weekend I...

*snuggled my adorable lil nephew baby C.

* played 500 different versions of Legos with my darling nephew A.

* visited an Alpaca farm which was a ton of fun. Those kids are a lil crazy but super soft.

* perused through the beautiful Alpaca fiber garments. I almost bought the most amazing sweater but decided I had enough already. I did buy a lil summin summin for the winter!

* played and loved on the boys again. I love coming to visit my family because I get the perfect dose of baby and lil boy. Can we talk about those cheeks?!?

How was your weekend? Ours was fabulous with family and if you read yesterday you saw it was our two year anniversary [here if you missed it]. I can't believe it's already been two years, time flies when you're having fun with your best friend. I'm excited for our celebratory dinner tonight, cheers to many more years of marriage :)!

linkinguphere

We're Off to See The Baby…

Good morning and happy first Monday of June! Seriously, how is May already over? I hope y'all had a great weekend and are ready to face the week. While I'd enjoy another holiday weekend I can't complain too much because I just got back from a four day weekend in Ohio. Yup, this girl right here only worked a two day week last week  [feel free to give me the side eye, I totally understand] and then we jetted off to Cincy to meet our new two day old nephew. It was a wonderful family weekend and I'm super sad we are home and without a cute bambino to snuggle ;)!

This weekend I…

… prayed hard during our flight and let RHOC reruns distract me through the turbulence. Thankfully our flight was pretty smooth and I wasn't too jumpy.

… landed in Indiana which meant my USA states visited went up by one [woohoo 27]. We had a quick two hour drive to Cincy and stopped at Denny's where I inhaled a 13 oz steak with my eggs. Guess that early morning flight made me hungry.

… went straight to my BIL/SIL house to see the new baby [oh em gee so precious] and pick up our other nephew to take him to the zoo. It's crazy how much lil AB has changed since March, he is talking up a storm and so interested in animals. We had a placed walking around in the afternoon trying to tire him out for mom and dad.

… woke up bright and early for some food prep, lil kid fun and then we were off to Summer Fair. I had heard to much about the fair from Le Husband's family and I was super thrilled to be able to visit it this year. There are so many amazingly talented vendors and all of the crafts are fantastical. I also enjoyed the best cold pressed coffee in the world, so tasty!

… ate a delicious family dinner Friday night and enjoyed more lil nephew time with both lil boys.

… Saturday morning I went back to Summer Fair with Le Husband's mother because we both wanted to get some Christmas shopping done. I am 95% done with my sister's presents and have a few treats fort he rest of the family as well. Can't beat supporting an American made entrepreneur while getting ahead for Christmas can you?

… packed our bags and headed off to the pool after the fair. It turned out to be a gorgeous 80 degree weather day and we all enjoyed laying out in the sun. I finished American Sniper [soooo good] and loved rocking my new Summer Fair pool hat [$50 cheaper than the Kate Spade hat I was planning to buy] while sipping some delicious sangria. 

… played in the pool with my nephew and also feasted on an amazing meal Le Husband smoked. Did I mention he converted his uncle's propane grill into a smoker? Oh yeah, he did and the ribs, chicken and brisket turned out to fantastic. I picked a winner, ladies.

… devoured my first [and second and third] smore of the season and then traipsed around the lake and woods with my favorite lil man. It was such a wonderful Saturday and I had such a fun time with Le Husband's family.

… spent Sunday morning eating a delicious family breakfast and soaking up the family time. I can't tell you how long I held this lil guy and y'all he is just a peach and a half. Sweet lil boy was probably awake an hour, total, that we saw him and just slept like a champ while being held. I don't think there is anything sweeter than holding a sleeping newborn babe, I miss him already.

… headed back to Indy to catch our flight back home. As seems to be our normal our flight was delayed but since we were still landing at DCA it wasn't too bad.

I am ready to rock this week out and hope you are too. What did you get into this weekend?

Linking up with these beautiful ladies whoop < 3

Hey Baby, Hey Baby, Hey!

Hey, pretty ladies, what's shaking? Did you have a great weekend? Are you rested and ready to tackle Monday? I'm not rested but I'm ready to get after it today. We only get so many Mondays in a year so I'm making the most of this one.

This weekend I headed down to Texas to visit my beautiful new mommy BOFF! I flew out early early Friday morning and after a super turbulent flight (ugh) landed safe and sound in Texas. I don't know what it is about turbulence but when the flight attendants can't get up during the flight that just makes me sooooo nervous. There wasn't a lot of sleep on the flight, but I did enjoy my Disney movie ;)!

Lynn and sweet Evelyn met me at the airport and y'all she is absolutely gorgeous. I forgot how incredibly tiny newborns are since I haven't been around one a few years. Evelyn is the perfect mix of mommy and daddy and is just the sweetest most preciously adorable and snuggly lil thing.

I mean that face, that FACE!!!

When we got home I got the lay of the new baby land and finally got to hold sweet lil girl. Oh my goodness, that new baby smell is the best thing in the world isn't it? Le Sigh! I accompanied Lynn to Evie's two week appointment and girlfriend was so good. I learned a ton (which I'm hoping to bank in my brain for when the time comes) and it was fun being there with Lynn. Although the heel stick wasn't fun for any of us, but Evie was a champ.

We went out to lunch afterwards and it was super delicious. My Barbi salad was amazing and I indulged in a delicious strawberry cupcake, too. It was such a fun lunch out with the girls and sweet lil girl just slept away as we enjoyed our delicious food.

We ran a few errands and then it was back home for naps {all of us}, feeding and waiting for Daddy to get home. Everyone was tired for the week so we enjoyed some Mexican takeout at home. Oh, we also experienced a severe thunderstorm and tornado warning for a bit, then the skies cleared and all was well. Finally learned what 'that crazy Texas weather' means, haha. After dinner we watched Interstellar and y'all that was one weird movie. I had heard amazing things about it but whoa ways it long and strange. Not sure I'd recommend it, am I crazy? Has anyone else seen it? Thoughts? Weird!

Saturday we hung around the house all morning, napping, feeding and snuggle lil girl and then had lunch. Afterwards we all got ready and headed out in the afternoon to enjoy the gorgeous weather. I'm talking 90s with no humidity and gorgeously sunny. So much better than the 60s and rainy back at home, woohoo! It was a fun walk into downtown and I thoroughly enjoyed soaking up my vitamin D!

Evelyn was a sleeping rockstar in her stroller and the adults enjoyed some drinks and then we headed to another restaurant for dinner. Lynn's brother Metis there and it was fun hanging with him :)! The food was delicious and the patio was so nice with the weather. 

Once dinner was over we headed home to watch some baseball and then everyone hit the hay early. Sunday was a nice chill day at home and the it was time for me to leave to head to the airport :(! Double sad face because bad weather in both Dallas and Houston had me stressing a connection that shrunk from an hour to 15 minutes. Luckily I was able to change my flight to one through Nashville that got me home without the worry of getting stuck. Le Husband was a major champ and drove all the way to BWI to come get me. I married a good one, thank you #superhusband!

It was such a great weekend hanging with my BOFF and her beautiful little one. I feel so blessed to have witnessed one of my best friends with her first children, it was a pretty incredible experience! She is such an amazing mom and I was in awe of her and her husband as they cared for sweet lil Evie. I've been around newborns many times, but never for longer than a few hours. Praise and applause to all you mamas and daddies out there because y'all are rock stars. Babies are amazing miracles but goodness they require a lot of work ;)! Trust me, I've babysat and I know that babies aren't lil toys that are all fun and games, but I never realized how around the clock parenting a newborn baby is for mommy and daddy. #parentsareawesome #hugstoallyall

I'm sad to be home and so far from Lynn and her precious family, but I snapped plenty of pictures to remember sweet lil girl. Can you believe we forgot to get a BOFF picture together?!?! Drat! I can't wait  until our next visit whenever that may be and I can't wait to watch sweet Evie grow up < 3!

How was your weekend? Did you do anything fun? Hope you have a fabulous Monday!

Linking up with these beautiful ladies whoop < 3

Flying Friday

Morning and happy Friday, friends. Currently I'm in the air flying down to see my BOFF and her beautiful babygirl Evie. I'm so excited to hug my new mommy friend and to snuggle her precious baby girl [if you haven't already, check out her blog for the birth story and pictures of precious Evie]. Oh and I'm leaving the cold to go to the warm, triple win for this girl :)!

Before I leave, I thought I'd share a few of my favorite links of the week.

This video of kids recognizing their mothers while wearing a blindfold. The bond between mother and child is just amazing. #yesitearedupwatching

Gilbert Blyth died last week. Oh be still my little preteen heart. Gilbert was my first crush and I loved him and Anne together. So sad he's no longer with us.

An American at the Bolshoi on Youtube. This was soooo fascinating, even if it is from 2010.

How to make the perfect ballerina bun by the Washington Ballet.

Tim McGraw and Faith Hill's daughters are so gorgeous. WOW!

I hope y'all have a fabulous weekend. Enjoy the last weekend in April < 3!!!

linkingupwithamandatoday