Liam's Baby Shower!

Thank you to all my Coast Guard wife friends for making Liam's baby shower a couple weeks ago so special!  I truly feel showered with all your love.  I want to especially thank Jill Wood for opening up her home once again to a shower.  I tease her that her home has now become baby shower central and we should keep the tradition alive. :)
I also want to thank Adriana Willingham for slaving over all the food and helping to organize the shower from the very start, as well as Janna Glavan who also helped host and came up with the fun games for the shower along with the group painting for the nursery.  Words can't explain how blessed I feel to have such awesome friends.
Currently it is PCS time for the CG, which means permanent change of station or in layman's terms we are losing a lot of great wives this summer as they follow their husbands careers and move to a new CG station.  I was so happy that in this crazy time of transfer season, so many of these wives still attended the shower.  PCSing is a very stressful and hectic time, so taking some time out to show their love was extra special.
I have to admit in Cha's 16 years of service to the CG and out of the handful of air stations we have been to, Atlantic City Air Station has had and does have one of the best group of CG wives I have had the privilege to meet and get to know.
I also want to thank my good friend Kristen Wilson for attending, even though she is not a CG wife she has been a great support and friend.  So grateful we meet at Sadees Boutique in downtown Hammonton the summer we moved here and our daughters have become such great friends!  It makes me sad to think we have to potentially move next summer.

Just some of the spread

Janna the hostess with the mostess

Baby Simon can't handle all the fun

Michele with Simon, everyone was getting their baby fix

Amber and baby Preston

I am not a bacon eater, but baby
wants bacon, baby gets bacon

First game is everyone writes their prediction of
what time the baby will fully melt/arrive

Second game was a memory game were you had a couple minutes to
 look at the baby items on the tray and try to write down as many
items you can remember.

Tray of items

Love this pic of Kathryn finding the floor as the best place to play
the memory game.  Love these ladies ingenuity and willingness to do
what ever it takes to get the job done. ;)

Gift time, Jill was helping record all the fabulous gifts!

Moment I found out the group gift purchased the PBK curtains
and would be shipped to me.  I was just expecting some gift cards
and to go that weekend to purchase them.  So happy my quest for
curtains is finally over!

Such great gifts from everyone!

I just loved the idea that during the shower everyone had a hand in painting a chevron painting using the nursery colors of orange and gray.  Chevron is also a pattern used throughout the nursery, such as the curtains and bedding.  Cannot wait to hang the painting and I will be sure to post the final product of the nursery.  Thank you all for helping me with the finishing touches to the nursery.

Melanie painting some lines

Every ones names are placed on the back of the painting, so sweet! 

Final product before the painters tape is removed

Thank you ladies so much for making Liam's baby shower so wonderful!  I think O had as much fun as I did, playing with all of your kids/her friends.

We had to end the shower, the way we ended Adriana's shower, with a back to back pic.  Although this time around she is no longer prego and holding her bundle of joy Simon.  Crazy to think that at the next shower this pick will be with baby Liam.  It is a bitter sweet thought, because on one hand I cannot wait to meet Liam and for him to be apart of our lives, but on the other hand my days of being pregnant will most likely be over for good.  Overall I have really enjoyed being prego, I am one of those people that benefits from the hormones.  Cha wishes there was a pill I could take to trick my mind I was prego all the time because he feels I cook better and drive better, HA!  Baby brain is a crazy thing!

Happy Father's Day!

During O's last week of school she created some masterpieces for her Daddy.  She said they are for, "Father's Week".  She is definitely a Daddy's girl and loves him very much.

The day before Father's Day I spent most of the day creating my own masterpiece for Cha.  I saw this creative hand made card on Zulily and thought it was such a great idea.  O helped by coloring the tie.

This looks pretty simply, but there is a lot more into it than you would think.  Lastly I gave him a red Porsche back roller that was another great find at the Antique Market shop.  It actually feels really good and O loves to roll the car on our backs, which is a win win!

Cha spent his day going on a bike ride, followed by lunch at Five Guy's and then shopping at the outdoor Tanger Outlets in Atlantic City.  It was a beautiful day to be out side, but I am definitely feeling my limitations of being out in the hot sun, while 33 weeks along.  I pretty much now know what hot flashes are going to feel like and it is no bueno.

32 Weeks and Final Ultrasound

Here is baby Liam's close ups at 32 weeks old!  This will be my last ultrasound before he is born.  He is a healthy little boy that weighs 4 lbs. 11 oz.  O weighed around 6 lbs. when she was born and I have a feeling Liam is going to be over 7 lbs. 

I just love seeing his face with those big fat cheeks and pouty mouth.  We brought O along so she could see her brother for the first time and experience the ultrasound process.  The first half of the ultrasound  the technician took close up pics and measurements of all the organs, bones, and amniotic fluid.  Everything looks good and the tech commented on how active he is.  I have to say he is much more active than O ever was in-utero, sometimes uncomfortably so.  He is also still in correctly facing head down, unlike his sister who did the middle splits on my pelvic bone the entire pregnancy.

O kept asking,"when will I see the baby"!  We tried to explain to her that you are looking at him, but just specific parts of him.  I think she thought it would be an actual pic of an entire baby, waving and smiling at her.  I have to admit it was harder to make things out this time around compared to the last ultrasound.  Everything was on a larger scale, smashed together in a smaller space.  Most of the shots looked like Rorschach paintings. 

The tech at one point put the ultrasound on 4D for a bit and I was hoping she would print the pics in 4D.  We never got to see O in 4D due to the cost, but it was kind of neat seeing it.  We also never got an ultrasound so late into my last pregnancy, one benefit if any of being high risk.

But finally at the end she took some close ups of his face.  Liam's arms were covering his face and hands close together in fists, making it impossible to see his entire face.  The tech keep shaking my belly and taping it with the ultrasound wand to make him move, but he was not feeling very photogenic.  Poor little guy was probably thinking,"would you please leave me alone".
When O got a good look she shrieked with excitement and yelled out "he looks just like me," which melted my heart.  But she is right, from what I can make out.  He has the same pouty lips and button nose.

This is one of my fav pics of his two hands making fists in front of his face.  He looks so intense!

Another pic of fists in front of his face, but you can see the bones in his left hand and part of his face and eye

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Happy Mother's Day and 28 Week Belly Pics

 Happy Mother's Day to all the mommy's and mommy's to be out there!  I woke this morning to my daughter surprising me with a hand made sign that her and Daddy made.  For some time now O has been telling me she has a surprise for Mother's Day and I am shocked she kept it secret so long, hiding it under her bed.  First thing when she woke she grabbed the sign and came running into my bedroom screaming "Happy Mother's Day" and then spent a lot of time explaining her art and what it meant.  She said she tried her hardest to paint flowers, but "they are really hard to make".  I received many kisses, hugs, and I love yous, followed by pancakes for breakfast by Cha.  It is not often I get a meal made for me, to eat first and fully warm. :)
For lunch we might travel up to Marlton to eat at Zoe's and Pinkberry, with a much needed stop to Buy Buy baby to purchase baby supplies for the up coming baby boy.

 Each day this past week O came home from school with a hand made Mother's Day gift.  I always love seeing all the crafts she makes at school, but it was especially sweet when she gave me a craft made just for me.  I think my favorite is this wheel burrow with flower.

 A card with her hand traced out holding some pretty flowers.

 The last craft is a flower hat, which is meant to be hung on the front door.  She told me, "it must be hanging on the outside of the door to let everyone know it is my Mother's Day and she loves me", too cute!

 We have continued to keep the tradition alive of my husband taking belly pics of me in the babies bedroom.  I just love that these images are seen through his eyes and point of view in the very room our baby boy will soon be.  I cannot believe I am already 28 weeks!  This pregnancy is flying by at warp speed.  My pregnancy with O seemed to last forever and felt like I was pregnant for an entire year.  It boggles my mind that I only have about three months left.
Cha asked me the other night if I am over being prego and I said not yet.  However, I am starting to feel my physical limitations, such as putting on socks, tieing shoes, and bending/squatting when gardening.  Things are going to get really fun when the weather starts to get warmer.

You might be wondering what is that gear looking thing on the window seal.  The nursery theme is modern industrial with a lot of planes and car stuff.  I saw this orange decorative wood gear on sale on PBK and thought it would be perfect, especially since our colors are oranges and grays.  The nursery is coming along!  The dresser and step stool being up cycled are almost done.  All that is left is finishing touches like art work, crate toy chests, and hamper.  I am also on the hunt for a really cool air plane, maybe even a zeppelin to be hung from the ceiling.  Cannot tell you how excited I am about his nursery, it has become a sanctuary of sorts for me as well as for Cha.  Some times I will find him sitting in the rocking chair, just chilling in the room.  We are very excited for our bundle of joy!

Happy Easter and 25 Weeks!

Wishing you all a Happy Easter!  I cannot believe it is Easter already and that I am 25 weeks into my pregnancy or about 6 months with 105 days to go.  The baby is supposedly the size of a rutabaga.  I just love the fruit or vegetable they pick to represent the size and weight of the baby each week.

Overall I am feeling great, continuing to work out and so far keeping up with a very busy spring schedule.  Every other day this month has been full of birthday party's, local Easter activities, friends in town and school Easter celebrations.  One of the school Easter celebrations was an Easter parade, were the children in O's pre-k 3 class wore decorative hats and walked around the black top, while parents played paparazzi.  As you can see in the pics I didn't get the memo of decorating a hat, so the teachers gave O some bunny ears.  Thank goodness she didn't seem to mind nor notice she was without a fun Easter hat.

The parade was lead by O's teacher Miss Ramono

O is the caboose

Love the creativity of every ones Easter hats

O's pre-k 3 class or Graduating Class of 2028!  Scary thought!

O loves going to school and making a new set of friends.  Everyday when I pick her up she hands me a stack of things she learned or created that day and once we get in the car tells me about a new friend in class.  One day the aid told me that O invited her entire class over for a play date.  Ha, that's my child!  O loves people and needs to be surrounded by friends at all times, which was a motivator for us to have a second child.  Thank goodness we live in a neighborhood full of children her age she can play with.
Next Tuesday I will be signing her up for Hammonton Public schools pre-k 4 starting in the fall.  I hope she enjoys the public school as much as she has enjoyed St. Joseph.  Cannot get over how fast she is growing up, I think it will be a blink and she will be graduating high school!