Fiesta!

Without further audieu, the post I've been teasing for two weeks ~ Our Baby Fiesta / Gender Reveal!  We decided to do something fun & different for us, crazy parents-to-be (along with our friends and 
family) to find out the sex of Baby Sass all together.  The timing was perfect since Nick's birthday was the same week as our 20 week ultrasound. Next was figuring out how we would do the reveal. Turns out Hershey makes pink "It's a Girl!" and blue "It's a Boy!" kisses! So during one of my sleepless pregnancy nights I came up with the idea to fill a pinata with the kisses and bust it open during a Birthday / Baby Fiesta!   

Luckily I know a guy who could get his hands on these for me ; )   

We went to our 20 Week ultrasound and had our sweet ultrasound tech write down the sex of Baby Sass on a piece of paper and seal it in an envelope. She was happy to use lots of tape to ensure neither of us got tempted... From there we handed the envelope over to my co-worker, Emily & her 3-year-old Stuart to fill our Donkey Pinata! 

Our Official Donkey Filler

Next up was getting our house "fiesta ready" for our guests! 

 Donkey strung up & ready 

Table (pre-party)

Thanks Oriental Trading for the decor :) 

Next up the arrival of our friends & getting our families all set up on video Skype. Let me stop here and say how lucky we were to have wonderful friends present but our families share in the memory. Our families were online from: Kentucky, Indiana, Minnesota, even ALASKA!  Awesome.

Ok, the moment we've been anxiously waiting for ~ time to bust open that Donkey! 

Jenna was up first!

Next up Katie

Finally we brought in some man power - Jeremy

Boom!

IT'S A GIRL!!!

Here is a video that Nick & I made using the footage. Disclaimer: this 1 minute video took us over 2 hours to edit & add music to in iMovie... So enjoy  : )  

And if you are still reading and want to see some post-reveal party pics, here you go:

Parents of a daughter &  over the moon! 

So there you have it pals - that's how we found out that Baby Sass is a GIR!. We would be thrilled either way but of course this Mama (one of 3 girls) is so happy to have a little, precious girl to start. 

xoxo

21 Weeks

Hello hello!  Week 21 was another busy one and at this point I think it will stay that way until 2012.  No complaints from me - it's all fun stuff so I don't mind and Baby Girl is a wonderful travel companion. 

On Friday morning we jetted off to Charleston, SC for my sister's Pomtastic Bombtastic Weekend (aka Bachelorette Party).  We flew from Orange County to Chicago to Charleston. We arrived late on Friday night and joined up with the other 7 girls for a weekend of fun! 

Here are some pictures from our weekend:

Al-Pom, this is your weekend! 

Sissies @ our beach house

Pom & her Entourage

Here is my attempt at our "week of" picture - the Party Edition!

Hoptown Girls in SC! 

Good times were had by all! We ate delicious Southern food, shopped, shared a lot of laughs & celebrated the wonderful Al-Pom. Now counting down the days til Pom's BIG Day on New Years Eve. Eeeee so exciting!  And yes, Fiesta pictures and video are up next. Kiki (my loyal follower) - I promise.  : )

Have a great week friends! xoxo

20 Weeks!!

Hi friends.  WOW it's been quite the week here! On Tuesday we had our 20 week ultrasound & check-up appointment.  We told the ultrasound technician about our pinata / gender reveal fiesta so she was sure not to show us anything. It is always so fun to see our baby especially this time because we could see the heart chambers & all the other vital organs. Everything looked good and we had another stellar check-up with our doctor.

Funny that I am wearing blue and Nick is wearing pink.

-Morning of our ultrasound-

On Friday morning, I chopped off my hair!  With my ever-growing chest and now baby belly, it was time for something on my body to decrease. I love my shorter locks and it is for an awesome cause too! 

Mama's new do'

Donating to Pantene's Beautiful Lengths Program in honor of my Gammer

Friday was Nick's 29th birthday! I surprised him with my new do' when he got home from work. We celebrated his birthday with World Series baseball (yay Cardinals!), beer & pizza, per the birthday boy's request.  No beer for Peepers but I did have a mini Diet Coke.  

And Saturday was the day of our BIG REVEAL but that's going to require an entire post but, I think the picture below will tie you over in the mean time.  ; ) 

Tickled pink!

Yay!!  Seriously an entire post is necessary for the fiesta and finding out that our Mini Peeps is a GIRL!!  It's COMING SOON, very soon! 

xoxoxo

19 Weeks

Howdy Friends! This post is late due to "Peeper's Midwest Tour" to Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana and Tennessee all in 5 days. Phew! I didn't get a chance to take my usual "week of" picture but here are a few from Week 19...

Midwest here we come! 

Aunt Mimi & Anna before bed!
First stop: Louisville, KY

4 Generations present (well, one will be more present in March)
Third stop: Bloomington, IN  

My Aunt Sandy and Gammer (my grandmother) gave the baby two adorable gifts - one is the Owlie pillow and the other is a Noah's Ark with stuffed animals to go on it.  So thoughtful!

Day with my favorites @ Al & D's new house
Fourth stop: Indianapolis, IN

I spent Saturday in Indianapolis with my sisters, Mom, niece, brother-in-law and soon to be brother-in-law.  It was a blessing to see my sister's new home, go to a cake tasting for her upcoming BIG day, visit the church where she will be married and just have family time.

My little pumpkin. Baby is about this size.

So I'm back in Cali - getting settled and getting excited / ready for our Baby/Birthday Fiesta on Saturday! Wooohooo!  More preview details to come!  xoxo 

OH and you can still vote Boy or Girl!  The poll my Mom sent out BOY is WINNING!  However, there is still a chance for Mini Peep to be a girl...  ; )

18 Weeks

Hi Pals! Here's the exciting news of the week - I finally felt some baby movement, little flutters but I'll take it.  With each day this pregnancy is becoming more of a reality and I am loving it.  Living far away from our families has / will always be challenge but I feel so blessed for everyone who calls to check in, my team at work who forces me to nap or rest on a daily basis (no joke), my girlfriends / sisters who text or comment about how much they are DYING to know if baby is a boy or girl and everyone prays for us each week. It is overwhelming (in a happy sense) when I stop to think about it.  Ok, enough sappy preggo gab!

Mini Peep is now the size of a large baking potato and I believe it!

Leggings, I love you no matter what. 

Side note: this will be my last long hair picture. Next week I am my wonderful hairdresser in KY is chopping off 8+ inches and I am donating it to Pantene's Beautiful Lengths Charity.  :)  

Wearing pink in support of my Baby Girl vote! 

Ok dear ones, I'm outta here! Nick has fraternity brothers visiting this weekend and Mama's got stuff to do.  Enjoy your weekend. xoxoxo

17 Weeks

As promised a weekly picture of preggo Peepers!  This week we had a doctor's appointment and got a gold star report from our doctor - always a good thing.  We scheduled our 20 week ultrasound and appointment  for Tuesday, October 25th, this is when we find out the sex of Baby Sass! Eeeeeee! BUT we won't be sharing until the end of the week at our Birthday / Baby Fiesta. Nick's birthday is on the 28th and we decided we'd do a joint event with our friends & family.

Any thoughts of if Baby Sass is a boy or a girl? I'm clueless so I'd love to hear your predictions!

Have a great week everyone! xoxo

16 Weeks

Well here I am, 16 weeks & a few days....  I still feel great but am clearly starting to feel like things are a-changin'.  Nick swears that Dorsey can sense that I am pregnant; I on the other hand am not convinced. We had a super busy week last week but enjoyed a nice quiet weekend.  This pic was taken on Saturday!

Mini Peep, you are the size of a large avacado 

Of course D had to be in a picture too! 

We have a doctor's appointment this week at the 17 week mark. Keep us in your prayers for a good, healthy check-up.

 xoxo 

Happy News!

Dearest Readers (if there are any left!),

I'm so excited to share with y'all that I'm pregnant! Baby Sass will be arriving in March 2012. We are beyond excited about this little, growing miracle. Here are pictures taken around week 12 that we sent to our parents and sibling as our way of announcing the news! 

Here's the scoop:

I'm 16 1/2 weeks now! Time seems to be flying! 
I feel great, no morning sickness - thank you Jesus 
We won't know what we are having until end of October & yes we will be finding out.

Soon to be Parents in March

We have had two doctors appointments with ultrasounds and both went great.Please keep us in your prayers for a healthy baby... I can already feel the love and blessings from out here in Cali. : )  

Dorsey Dog is waiting for bebe

Baby, we are so excited!

I'll be posting a weekly picture so you can catch a glance of the expanding Peepers & Mini Peep. Oh  feel free to start sending your pregnancy and child raising advice - I'm all ears! 

xoxo

Mirror Mirror on the Wall

A few months back my sister was in search of a sunburst mirror to put above her fireplace. I was floored when I started helping her search because the prices range from pretty affordable to ridiculously expensive. There are some fancy schmancy ones such as this one:

Source

After seeing a few DIY versions out here in the blogosphere and I finally decided to jump in. I used tutorials from Third Floor Design Studio and Isabella & Max Rooms as my guides to get going. 

Here's what I used:

4 packs of dowels (99 Cents Only Store)

1 pack of chop sticks (99 Cents Only Store)

1 pack of bamboo skewers (99 Cents Only Store)

1 8 inch scalloped craft mirror (Michaels)

1 8 inch pine wood disk (Michaels)

Gun glue & glue sticks 

Rustoleum Metallic Gold spray paint (Any hardware store)

"99 Cents Only Store" is my most favorite store in California. For those who've come to visit us, they've experienced the fun first hand. I'll devote an entire post to it later. 

So here's how it happened:

I started by doing a dry run to figure out the dowel, bamboo, chop stick pattern / ratio.  I recommend this step before you get out your glue gun.

Satisfied with the look and ready to glue

Note: I used a glue gun and some blogs suggested Gorilla Glue. I tried it with the first dowel and it was a total bust for me... And keep in mind that it won't be pretty on the back with all the glue and sticks but that doesn't matter friends. 

Ready for spray paint 

Confession: the gluing part took me a little while. Ok, well over an hour and it shouldn't have taken less than 30 minutes. I blame some of it on the Masters Golf Tournament that Nick was watching nearby!  I would hear cheering so I would pop in to see what happened... Any who... I wasn't in a rush so my snail-paced gluing wasn't an issue... 

Nick getting some of the excess glue off before we put on the final coat. 

Another note: When you are spray painting start with the back first and be sure to get in between all the sticks and the ends. 

Another Confession: I always end up needing Nick for some part of my crazy project ideas and luckily he is happy to jump in. 

Here she is! 

It's current home is above the daybed in our office / guest room. 

We previously had another mirror up so we used the pre-existing nail for this addition. 

That's what I've been up to out here in Cali.  What's new with you?  My sister Amy has been decorating like a mad woman and I'm hoping that she'll let me do some show and tell soon. (hint, hint) 

xo