Baby on the brain

I am getting so excited to meet our baby. Today I am 29 weeks pregnant. Only 11 more weeks till my due date, and although I am not expecting to go early like I did with Charles, the thought is still in the back of my mind, so really it could be less. or more. ha! Either way, the excitement is brewing.

This is from our 20 week ultrasound. It so fun to imagine what this little boy will look like.




One thing I noticed right away was a resemblance between this ultrasound picture and the one we have of Charles at 20 weeks.
 
Baby boy on the left and Charles on the right

Do you notice their upper lips? How they both stick out over their lower lip? Charles' upper lip still does that and I think it's one of the cutest things ever. See?


What a darling little profile!

So will Baby Boy have that same cute upper lip? I guess we'll just have to wait and see!

Fourth of July

This was our first fourth of July back in Minneapolis and boy was it a hot one! A whopping 101 degrees to be exact! We left the comfort of our air conditioned apartment and headed to a friends house to bbq. Luckily there were water balloons, squirt guns, and just plain old buckets of water to keep us cool.

 

This was the first fourth of July in four years I think that I didn't make 'my' flag cake (I say 'my' because I got the recipe from Pioneer Woman who got it from Barefoot Contessa.) In reality, with this heat, the icing stripes would have melted away within a few minutes. Instead I made chocolate chip cookies and lemonade cookies, both of which have been part of my cravings as of late. When it comes to cravings I have been wanting chocolate chip cookies and lemon dessert-y stuff. yum yum yummm.

While I don't have a picture of the cookies, I do have a photo of Chris' three meat creation.
Behold, a bacon wrapped burger stuffed with shrimp. oh yes

 

Despite the heat, we had a really good time. We are thankful to be back with old friends and for the new friends we have here too.
As the evening went on we could hear people setting off fireworks and Charles didn't really like the loud noise. He wanted to see them but not hear them. We got home just when the real fireworks were starting and could see some from the front of our building but after a few minutes he wanted to go back in. Perhaps next year he will be more into it.

 

"nothings says 'U.S.A.'s the bomb' quite like a bomb pop".. S. Kirby

Catch Up

I accidentally deleted my last post, maybe my last two? I'm not sure.. So I am going to attempt to re-post it. ugh.

In the last month we have...

Cooled off at the splash pad
 

Checked out local parks


Walked around Lake Calhoun with friends

 Had many visits with Nana while she was home


Settled into our new apartment

Ate at the Tin Fish with friends


Celebrated Daddy



Passed my glucose test!

Began my third trimester!

(I realize this belly picture is a bit weird, having been taken in the bathroom at my clinic but while waiting the hour for my test I was texting with my NY bestie and sent this picture to her. I thought I'd keep it since I haven't taken nearly as many pregnancy photos with this baby as I did with Charles.) 26 weeks

The Big Reveal

When I was pregnant with Charles we waited until he was born to know if he was a boy or girl. I loved not knowing and having the surprise at his birth. With this baby we decided to find out what we were having. After the ultrasound Chris and I kept it to ourselves for two and a half weeks (!!!) until we could have family and close friends over to tell them first.
On Sunday we had a 'reveal party' to share the big news.. Boy or Girl??
When guests arrived they were asked to wear their guess by pinning either a mustache or a bow on their shirts.



Later we read through some old wive's tales about how to tell if it's a boy or girl. You know, if you're carrying high it's a girl, low it's a boy. If your face gets fat or pimply it's a girl. If your hands are really dry it's a boy. If you have bad morning sickness it's a girl. If you crave salty foods it's a boy, sweets it's a girl. We even hung a ring on a string over my belly to see if it swung left to right (boy) or rotated (girl).
The option was given to change their guess if they wanted. Then it was time for the big reveal.

Team 'boy'

Team 'girl'

(we obviously already knew what we were having but we wanted to be in the pictures too)

I had made a cake the day before and dyed the batter, the icing concealed the secret so that when it was cut into it showed either blue or pink :)







BLUE! We are having another boy! I am so excited for Charles to have a little brother. I am almost 23 weeks along and hoping the summer goes by fast. We can't wait to meet our little guy!


this photo is from a few weeks ago already.. 19 weeks along

update

What have we been up to? Let me show you...

Como Zoo
 

Lake Calhoun


Cupcake quest with Jessica


playdates with Hannah


parks


Mother's Day crafts


Baby Shower for Amy and 'reunion' with college roommates


Onesies

Charles and Uncle Anthony

Charles loves his Uncle Anthony. And I am pretty confident that Anthony loves his Charles too :)
It's fun to see them interact and imagine how they will get along in the years to come. I predict that Charles will continue to look up to his uncle and that as they get older a strong friendship will form. It's important to pray for the children in our lives and we pray for both these boys.

He might not want to admit it, but Anthony looks up to Chris, and Charles looks up to Anthony (and his daddy too of course).
Here are the three of them. Chris was showing Anthony some yo-yo tricks while they were both listening to their iPods, so of course Charles wanted to do the same. Chris gave him a yo-yo I gave him my earbuds so he could be part of  the action too.

Back in the saddle

I know, I know.. It's been a long time since I have posted. Lets just say that being exhausted and throwing up every night really takes away the desire to blog. But, I am happy to say that I have felt much better the last week and a half and am now ready to begin posting again.

I'm not going to attempt a 'catch-up' post.. that would be overwhelming for both of us. I will however show you a little project I did.
A few months ago I bought this lovely, yet a bit gaudy, mirror at goodwill thinking that I would paint it a fun, fresh color to give it new life and make a cool piece to hang in our home. I envisioned turquoise.

However, after perusing through the colors of spray paint at Michaels I saw something that caught my eye. It wasn't turquoise, but it made my heart flutter. A little more vintage looking. A little more throw-back. Would it work??




You bet it would. I love it. It looks great on our mantle (even though the lighting in this photo is awful)  and although we are moving in a few weeks and will no longer have a mantle or fireplace (sad face) I just know that we will find a perfect spot for this beautiful mirror.



And a little note about spray painting.. once you spray paint one thing you are hooked. Since this mirror I keep thinking about things or seeing things that I want to revamp with a can of spray paint. My almost weekly trips to goodwill with my friend Rebecca are probably not helping this cause. I haven't bought anything else yet, but let me tell you, I can see a whole lot more spray painting in my future.