Working Weekend

Since Adam and I were finally in town this weekend, we decided to bust it and get some work done on the nursery. My sweet hubby worked so hard and did everything I asked. It's harder for me to do some of the big things these days so I need a man to help. :) We made mucho progress in the nursery. Adam finished the paint, which looks amazing I might add. He did a wonderful job-looks professional. Here's a before pic.

While Adam was painting, I was feeling productive so I thought I would put one of the cribs together. Not thinking, I put it together in the living room while watching football. When it came time to take it into the nursery, guess what?! Yep, didn't fit through the door. What do ya know? After yelling and cursing (I was so proud of my crib building skills), Adam took the darn thing apart (not totally just enough to fit through the door). One of the cribs almost finished.

After watching the TN game, we decided to go downtown since the weather was so nice and have a date night. :) We sat outside at Pomegranate and had a delicious dinner. Instead of going somewhere for drinks after dinner (what we used to do), we decided to get really crazy. We hit up BABIES R US baby! What else would you want to do on a Saturday night, lol? We thought we were going to buy mattresses with coupons we had but ended up getting a twin feeding pillow (only one they had) and a changing pad for the dresser we would be getting on Sunday...which leads me to my next topic...the dresser...

Sunday we woke up to a beautiful Fall morning. We had coffee and read the paper (I just look through the ads and coupons) on the back patio which was very nice. After Sunday School and a huge Mexican lunch (I have been eating pretty healthy lately, so I deserve it right?), we decided to tackle the bear of getting the almost 200 lb dresser from Babies R Us to our house with Adam's VW GTI. No problem, right?! I know what ya'll are thinking if you know how big a GTI is, but as much as I'm ready to get rid of that car I have to say that through the years it has proven to be very helpful when it comes to hauling things. Doesn't look big, but fold the seats down and there is more room than you think. Keep in mind our knees our in the dash, but still...we have hauled so many things in that car. Well the GTI let us down on Sunday. I figured it wouldn't fit but it was worth a try. Let me tell you though, this dresser is huge and in a box already put together. I don't think it would have fit in many SUVs. So, apparently Home Depot offers a truck you can rent for $20 for 75 minutes. Yup, ya'll this is a lifesaver if you don't have a large vehicle for hauling things. Adam was the man and got that thing to our house and back to Home Depot in time. Whew! The biggest items are now in the nursery.

Thankfully we had help from the neighbors to get it out...





And the final product...




I want to wait to post pics of the entire nursery until it's completely finished. Don't worry I will definitely post them though. As of last night both cribs have been put together. I still have a shelf to put together. Next on the list...mattresses. Anybody know a place to get a good cheap one (actually two)? We want to go cheap on these. Well there you have it...a VERY productive weekend! I am very happy with our progress. I think this is why we start our weeks so tired. We work so hard on the weekends and forget to rest.

Bring on Fall

Like I have mentioned before, I am usually a summer person. This year has been a little different though. Due to my pregnancy and the hottest summer ever it seems, I am ready for fall! The cooler temps the past mornings have been wonderful! I have already gotten my Fall scented candles out and my Fall decs down from the attic. Call it nesting, pregnancy, or just wanting a change in season, but I am ready for some cooler weather. Don't get me wrong, hate winter but this year will be a little different. :) I have also been trying to get my house in order. We moved the guest bedroom (now nursery) to where the office used to be (downstairs). We had to move all the office stuff up to the bonus room which has been our catch-all room for a while now. It was such a disaster because we just basically threw everything up there with no rhyme or reason. Since I have had some time off work due to coming back from Ktown early, I have been determined to get the bonus room organized. I have made major progress. It is now an office in one corner, a sewing area in another corner (not that I sew that much but I plan on learning more), my out of season closet along one wall, and we have a couch and recliner on the main wall. I still have some work to do but have made major progress. It looks a lot better! You can actually walk in there now. Adam has been so sweet about helping paint the nursery. He has painted after work several nights, which I greatly appreciate. All we have left is the trim work. Next on the list: putting the cribs together and moving in the furniture. I will post pics once it's complete.

A pic from last year to get you in the Fall spirit:

Football Time in Tennessee

Even though we ended up not going to the game (decided it was way too hot for preggo and ended up storming), it was wonderful to be in Knoxville on game day. If you've never experienced it, there's nothing like Knoxville on a UT game day. I started off my day by going to Body Pump with mom. Adam even joined in. :) After a great workout, Dad took us to Pete's for lunch. Pete's is a great diner downtown that serves awesome breakfast and meat and three. It's one of my parents favorite places. It was so great to see everyone wearing their TN Orange. You have to remember I live in SC where it's all Clemson Orange and USC Garnet. Due to the near 100 degree temps, we opted to watch the game at Downtown Grill and Brewery. It was perfect except for the long rain delay. We were able to get a good seat to see TVs and the food there is so good! Of course that's what I'm all about these days, ha ha. I did have a Beck's non-alcoholic beer. You have to have a beer while watching football. Yes, I need to add an "S" to "Quarterback". This tank was too cute to pass up though.

Sunday we planned on heading to the outlets in Pigeon Forge. We got up early to get there right when they open to beat the Labor Day crowds. Boy, am I glad we did. By the time we left, it was ridiculously crowded. I would not have been a happy camper trying to shop with all those people. We stopped by my friend Ashley's house on the way home to see her newborn baby boy, Bryce. He is adorable! She was so sweet to give me a bunch of maternity clothes, which is a HUGE help! So cute too! Thank you Ashley!! :)

We ended up coming back Monday morning so Adam could get back to work on Tuesday and not waste a vacation day. We will need all of those we can get soon. All in all a wonderful weekend with my parents in Ktown. We have decided we are not traveling again for awhile. We have been burning up the roads lately, so we need to stay at home and get some things completed (ummm...like the nursery). I think I have started my nesting phase. I am very anxious to get the nursery complete in case I go on bed rest. Truth be told, I just want it finished.

Nursery Update

Well after much debating and searching, we have finally decided on furniture for the nursery. Let me tell you, we had no idea how much trouble we would have deciding on the nursery furniture. To say it was a fiasco is an understatement. I'm not really sure why it was so hard. Maybe it's because we don't want to spend a fortune and have very particular taste, but thank goodness it's decided! We ended up ordering cheaper cribs from Target and cancelled the cribs we had on order at Baby Furniture Plus Kids. We feel a lot better about spending half as much on these which look fine if you ask me.

This past weekend was "Operation Nursery Furniture". We are traveling next weekend and really wanted to have the furniture squared away (decided and ordered) before we leave. While I have pretty good energy, I want to take advantage and get the nursery finished. I hope I don't have to go on bed rest, but you never know when things may change. After deciding against the Nadeau Banana Basket Buffet, we were back to square one. Adam and I decided to get up Saturday morning and head to the Gaffney Outlets where we were sure we would find something cool and inexpensive at the Pottery Barn Outlet...hahahaha!!! What a waste of time and gas. Needless to say, we didn't find a thing in our price range (actually I didn't see anything I loved). Still determined to get this done Saturday, we drove back to Greenville and loaded up on burgers and fries at 5 Guys. Hey, we needed energy to get this furniture shopping done, right?! ;) After stopping at several other places, we still had nothing. One of our last stops of the day was Buy Buy Baby. At this point we were ready to buy anything. We found a little chest of drawers and with changer on top that we liked, so we settled on that (didn't buy yet though). At least we had found something cheap that would serve its purpose. I was ready to collapse at this point (didn't know furniture shopping was so exhausting), but Adam insisted we get stop by Lowe's for some more paint samples for the nursery. Side note: I HATE Lowe's!! I don't know why. Maybe because I'm not a fix-it-upper kinda girl but wow! That's one store I do not like going in.

After a nice Saturday afternoon nap, I felt a little re-charged. We had a great Mexican dinner and came home to watch the Netflix movie we've had for over a month. BTW-Black Swan (wasn't sure if it was going to be good or not) was awesome! A lot better than I expected. A little dark, but definitely some great acting. We were good Sunday and got up and went to Sunday School. Our church is in a little bit of a transition period between ministers so we decided just to do Sunday School. Plus I had to teach Attack Sunday afternoon, so it's nice to have some downtime beforehand. I had enough energy after Attack to hit up the pool for a little bit. Still trying to have a little color.

Sunday evening we decided to check out Babies r Us' furniture (still wanting to see if there's anything else that we would like better) AND we got a 20% off coupon in the paper we could use on furniture. Well, guess what?! All of our searching is over (hopefully). I've said this before, haha. I mean it this time because I am so tired of looking at stupid furniture. I like the accessories part better. :) I posted a pic below of what we found. It's a lot nicer than the Buy Buy Baby one and we will get more use out of it. Plus with the coupon, it ended up being about the same price, which is key! :) The dresser is on order...thank goodness!!! I have another cubby-like shelf in mind and then we are finished with the nursery furniture decisions! Whew!

Football Time in TN

Yes guys! It's that time of year again...we have a little over a week until kickoff for another football season. Can't wait! The boys are very much looking forward to their first UT Football game. :) Even though they won't be able to see it, they will definitely be able to sense the awesomeness of Neyland Stadium on gameday. I have no doubt they will start kicking those little legs once Rocky Top starts playing. I have many memories in Neyland Stadium that go way back to being a little girl. I was probably 2 or 3 (not sure) when I went to my first UT game. Needless to say, I hope my boys will experience the same excitement I get when I enter the stadium. Got my orange maternity clothes ready to go. One more week and we're loading it up and heading up to Good Ole Rocky Top!! Go VOLS!

20 Week Update

I am officially 20 weeks today, over half way, yay!

Here are some pregnancy highlights:

How Far Along: 20 weeks

Size of Babies: Baby A is 10 oz and Baby B is 9 oz (as of Tuesday)

Maternity Clothes: Still wearing non-maternity clothes (lots of flowy tops and dresses, have to wear shorts/pants low and have gone to the rubber band trick on some of my jeans)

Gender: BOYS! Van Earl and Elijah Willis (good thing we already had the boy names decided)

Movement: Yes, have finally started feeling them (more than a flutter every once in a while). The past couple of days I have really been feeling them. They are busy boys.

Sleep: Hit or miss. Sleep great some nights and others not. Think it has to do with hormones more than getting comfortable. I got a Boppy full body pillow which helps too. I also have 2 fans on me because I get so hot.

What I Miss: Still missing my red wine, not being able to buy cute fall clothes without stretchy or elastic or a big roomy belly (have to buy big girl clothes, ha ha), sleeping like a baby (I used to be the world's greatest sleeper), raw sushi.

Cravings: Not really anything in particular right now. I still have more salty cravings than sweet (very weird for me). I eat a lot of carbs.

Aversions: Nothing in particular, maybe fruit. I don't hate it but just don't really want it.

Symptoms: Finally am having more energy (for now). Uh a growing belly?! Really sensitive to the sun as I found out at the beach last weekend, lower back ache (dull), HUGE boobies! (having a hard time finding a bra that fits, and breaking out here and there (it's worse than when I was a teen).

Best Moment of the Week: Seeing my 2 precious baby boys on Tuesday in ultrasound at the high risk doctor. They are growing equally for the most part and are doing great thus far. We keep praying it will stay that way!


Ya'll stay tuned for more updates...

Baby Moon

Adam and I had a wonderful time in Charleston this past weekend. We decided to take one last beach trip together since it will be a long time before we will be able to get away by ourselves again. I guess this is what some call a "Baby Moon". We had a fabulous time and the weather was great! I am so glad we were able to do this. We took off work on Friday so we headed down early Friday morning. I have been having great energy so that made the weekend that much more enjoyable. So thankful for that! Last time we were at the beach I was in my first trimester, so I wasn't feeling wonderful. We got some good sun... apparently my skin is suddenly really susceptible to the sun (a pregnancy thing I'm sure), and I got burned pretty badly which is not like me. I normally tan pretty well. It felt good to get some color though. I haven't been loving the hot weather we've been having so haven't gotten my normal summertime tan. We also did some good eating while we were there. If you know Adam and I, you know we like to eat good food, so we definitely took full advantage of all the great food in Ctown. We kicked off the weekend at our favorite place on Sullivan's Island...POE'S! Ya'll know what I'm talking about if you are familiar. Poe's has the best burgers anywhere, hands down! We were able to have an awesome date night downtown at Basil (a great Thai place) Friday night. We've decided we need to hit up all the not kid friendly places while we can, ha ha. The rest of the weekend was just as nice and filled with some wonderful memories for us. Here's a preggo pic of me on the beach at 19 weeks. Yes, getting bigger and bigger...

On a side note, we have been going back and forth about the nursery furniture, so this was the big topic of our weekend, ha ha. See things have already started changing quite a bit. Instead of what bar do we want to hit up tonight, it's what cribs, dresser, etc should we do in the nursery? Hilarious! We are definitely ready for the next chapter in our lives and are excited for the challenge ahead. And Yes! We have no idea what we are in for. Anyway, we have had the hardest time trying to decide exactly what we want to do about the furniture. I went ahead and pulled the trigger and ordered the Serena and Lily bedding. It went on sale, so I took that as a sign plus my wonderful mother found an awesome coupon code to use that gave us $66.00 off. After looking extensively at other options (trying to find cheaper), it ended up this was the best deal for what I wanted. Here's the kicker! We have decided to cancel the cribs we ordered. (We only put a refundable deposit down.) They are so nice, but let's be realistic. The boys will only be in them for about 2 years, so what's the point in spending a lot? Yes, we have found some cheaper (waaaaayyyy cheaper) cribs at Target that will work just as nice. We are having 2 babies, so we need to save where we can. We figured with the nice bedding and other furniture you won't even be able to tell the difference. That brings me to my next topic...furniture! After looking at tons of different types of "baby" furniture and getting very frustrated I might add, we have decided to go a different direction. Of course there is some beautiful baby furniture out there but we are trying to be economical (most of it is so expensive). Plus we want something that is different that will be used forever (whether it be in the boys room or somewhere else in our house). We found an awesome store in Mt. Pleasant called Nadeau Furniture with Soul. The furniture has a distressed look and comes in all different colors, which we love. They have 2 stores in ATL so we will probably end up taking a day trip to get the dresser/changing table and maybe a bookshelf that we have our eye on. Plus the prices aren't terrible. Here are some pics of the dresser (it's really a buffet) that we're thinking about.