Hanger Tip

I found this idea on Pinterest, and I was so excited I got to use it!  We NEVER have chip bag clips around here.  Whenever I think to get some clips, I am at the grocery store where you can buy 2 large clips for like 3 or 4 bucks.  No thanks.  So I used this idea!

Take a hanger like this that holds skirts or pants. 

Find a very strong guy or something strong to break/cut the clip ends off of the hanger. 

Source: craftster.org via Amanda on Pinterest

Now you have a clip for your chip bag or whatever kind of bag!  I love it when I find ideas I can use!

Nursery Inspiration

Lately I have been browsing Pinterest for some nursery inspiration.  I have found a few cute ideas that I may try to incorporate for our nursery.  I will probably pull bits and pieces from all of my favorite pictures.  I definitely like the nautical look.  Not literally nautical with sailboats and water, but more like stripes, navy, red, wood, etc.  I also like vintage.  I love old toys, wire baskets, and things with character.  I guess that makes my nursery style "Vintage Nautical" haha. Here is what I have found so far!

Source: lafactoriaplastica.com via Amanda on Pinterest

I have a Coca Cola crate that I bought last year at a yard sale.  I have just been trying to figure out what to do with it.  I'll definitely be doing this!

Source: houzz.com via Amanda on Pinterest

I like the use of wood and the navy stripes.  Very cute.

Source: projectnursery.com via Amanda on Pinterest

I love the neutral colors.  This nursery looks very relaxing.

Source: ohdeedoh.com via Amanda on Pinterest

I know this is a girl's nursery, but I really like the color of the crib.  Grayish blue.  Cute.  I will either keep the crib white or do a color like this.

Source: blueprintbliss.blogspot.com via Amanda on Pinterest

I like the vintage look of this with the wire basket.  Not sure that I'll hang wire baskets on the wall, but I have already bought one to at least keep diapers, wipes, and stuff on the dresser.

Source: aimee-weaver.blogspot.com via Amanda on Pinterest

I love this.  What a great verse for a boy's room.  Such a great reminder of how a man of God should be.

So these inspiration pictures will hopefully help me get in the right direction!  I am excited to start working on it!  I have already been browsing craigslist and some other sites for a study and sound but inexpensive dresser that I won't mind making my own.  I will be using a dresser in place of a changing table.  It makes more sense in the long run, plus I think it will be a better use of space.  I will keep you updated with our progress!

16 and 17 weeks Pregnant

Well....I will be 18 weeks pregnant tomorrow, maybe I should do an update?  Haha.  I have been SO busy lately.  The last couple weeks before Thanksgiving break were very busy at school.  Then we of course had our gender reveal during week 16!  I am still overjoyed about our little boy!!!  Yay!!!  We have been getting the house ready over Thanksgiving break.  Not really nursery stuff, but we are rearranging a few rooms in preparation for the nursery stuff.   We have a very small office and a very small guest bedroom.  The office is going to be the nursery, and the guest room is going to stay a guest room but also serve as an office, craft room, workout room, and will have enough room for the baby to play.  Haha, we are asking a lot from such a tiny room.  But we are determined to make it work!  As my husband said, the guest room may not win any design awards, but it will be functional!  I will keep y'all updated with that.  

Over the past few weeks, our little boy has started moving a lot more!  I feel him every day, at least once every couple hours.  Usually a lot more than that.  I even had a moment a couple days ago when I was sitting on the couch looking at something on the computer, and I saw my stomach twitch out of the corner of my eye!  I was so excited!  I hope Adam gets to feel him soon.  It's so exciting to feel him! 

I won't make you read paragraphs from the Baby Center this week, but I did take a few pictures here and there that I'll share with you.

This picture was made at 16 weeks.  The baby was the size of an avocado!

I would NEVER normally order this.  I don't like country steak, but my pregnant self does.  She is weird.  Yum Cracker Barrel!  Adam made me order the green beans.  Blah.  He said the baby needed some nourishment.  Isn't that what vitamins are for?  J/k, sort of.

Ok, I know I need to lay off the pizza.  BUT, this is thin crust veggie!  I finally followed doctor's orders....not that I haven't been all along! :)

This photo was taken at 16 weeks 4 days pregnant.  This is the day we found out we are expecting a SON!

17 weeks pregnant in this picture.  I am starting to round out at the top!

A few weeks back, I found some jeans in my closet that I can still wear with the Be band.  So I have been sporting those as often as I can!  They are getting uncomfortable though.  My maternity pants are comfortable, they are just still a bit big.  They are baggy in awkward places.  My stomach can no longer be sucked in, at all.  It's just out for the world to see!  Which of course is fine.  But it is a little bit difficult adjusting to my growing body.  Sleeping is the main issue.  I have always been a stomach sleeper.  Every night, I make an effort to go to sleep on my side.  But it never fails. I always wake up on my stomach, which means I am crushing my bladder....which means I have to get up about 4 times a night.  Not fun.  So I found some extra pillows in the house that weren't being used, and I am going to try to fix up a make shift pregnancy pillow tonight.  We'll see if that helps til I can get the real thing.  

I have a doctor's appointment this week.  Just my regular 4 week check-up.  I wish I knew what day the appointment was...but I lost the appointment card.  Hopefully they will give me a call soon and let me know what day it is!  I hope it isn't tomorrow.  We are supposed to be getting a lot of rain the next day or two.  I don't like driving in rain.  I had a wreck on the interstate once due to rain that involved me and the retaining wall.  Not fun.  

Well, hopefully I will do a better job at keeping up with the updates.  I know the next few weeks will be crazy at school, trying to fit everything in before Christmas break!  But I will do my very best!  Have a great week!  

A Very "Pinterest" Thanksgiving

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving!  Woo hoo!  I am so happy to be off of work for a few days.  I am getting some major organization done around this house.  I will post more on that later!  I started off the morning with a strong case of morning sickness (that is becoming a regular event around here), and then I hit the grocery store to pick up the ingredients for my Thanksgiving Day dishes.  I definitely used this holiday as an excuse to try the Pinterest recipes I have been drooling over!  Adam and I always have 2 Thanksgivings every year.  Each family brings a few dishes, and someone is responsible for the turkey.  Thank goodness it's not me, because this would totally happen.



Yeah.  I won't be doing the turkey.  The first dish I am making is a dip/appetizer.  I am hoping it will be a favorite since we have a few spicy food lovers in the family (the main one being my husband!).   It's spicy crandberry cream cheese dip!

Source: jamiecooksitup.blogspot.com via Amanda on Pinterest

This recipe is Hawaiian Sweet Roll Ham Sandwiches! They look delicious!  I am definitely looking forward to making these!

Source: beyerbeware.blogspot.com via Amanda on Pinterest

Lastly, as a side dish, I will be making my favorite potato recipe- red dill potatoes!  You may remember when I made them HERE. 

Source: newlywedhares.blogspot.com via Amanda on Pinterest

What will you be making this Thanksgiving? 

Gender Reveal- Part Two!!!

If you haven't read Part One of our Gender Reveal Party...go HERE!  My husband and I did a different version of the gender reveal party.  Instead of taking the gender results in an envelope to a bakery and letting them make the appropriate cake, we did a slightly different version that allowed us to pick up a premade cake the day of the reveal.  This is a great option if you decide last minute that you would like to have a gender reveal party, which is kind of what happened to us.  Go HERE if you would like to hear that spill. 

After we went to the ultrasound, Adam had to go back to work, so I went to Michael's Craft Store to pick up a few things to make some decorations for the party.  The first thing I got was some ribbon.  I wanted a spool or two of pink ribbon as well as blue ribbon so I could make pins for everyone to wear to show what "team" they were on. 

Soooo sparkly!!!!!  This ribbon was about $3.00 for 5 yards.  Not the best or worst deal ever, but I couldn't deny the sparkles!  I bought 2 of each color since I wasn't sure how much ribbon it would take to make one pin. 

I got to work.  All you need to make these is a hot glue gun with glue sticks, ribbon, and pins to pin them on the shirt.  I'm sure you could just use super glue or fabric glue if you don't have a hot glue gun.  First, I did a 

test ribbon to see how long I needed to cut each piece.  Once I found a length I liked, I cut the rest of the strips that same length.  I managed to get about 15 ribbons per spool.

I twisted them, sparkle side out, just like a breast cancer ribbon. I secured them with one small drop of hot glue. I didn't glue the pins to the ribbon.

 

Ohhhhh sparkles......

After I finished the ribbons, I wanted to make a few table decorations.  I saw a cute idea on pinterest, so I decided to give it a try.  I did my own version.  Go HERE if you would like to see my inspiration. 

This is a cute little table decoration where you can list fun facts about pregnancy with a boy/girl, cravings, suspicious, old wives tales, etc.  I chose to list cravings and let Adam do a version of his own.  It turned out really funny.  I also got the supplies for this project at Michael's.  You will need place card holders, double sided scrap book paper, a bowl (or something else you can trace to make a circle), and a marker.  I went to the wedding aisle to find some place card holders.  They ranged anywhere from $19.99 to $24.99.  Umm...no thank you.  So I decided to skip the place card holders and walk around the store until I came up with a better idea.  I moved on to the scrap book paper.  I wanted a cute boy pattern and a cute girl pattern.  I instantly found a boy pattern that I liked. 



Back side



close up of back side



Front side

 

Close up of front side

The girl pattern was more difficult to find.  There wasn't one I was just crazy about.  (Was that a sign??)  Haha.  I had to choose one that had a fairly pale design and wasn't too busy so my words could clearly be read.  I finally chose this one.

front side

back side- it has a linen design, but that's hard to see.

After I found the paper, I still had to find something to hold the paper up for the table top decoration.  I kept browsing the store, until I came upon the Christmas section.  I hoped there might be something in there I could use.  SCORE!  I found several packages of 2 place card holders for........$0.99 each!  Each package had a white snowflake and a red star.  Christmasy...but I could still use it.  I figured we are close enough to Christmas for a snowflake, and the red star by itself didn't really look Christmasy.  I liked it.  Not sure about how many table top decorations I would make, I bought 3 packages (6 placecard holders).  I ended up using 2 of the packages.

I used a bowl to trace to cut out 2 large circles from each piece of scrap book paper.

   I did the same thing with the pink paper, and then I cut them out.

Next, I wrote my corresponding cravings for each gender.  If the craving or symptom typically meant I was to have a boy, I wrote it on the boy one.  Vice versa for girl.  We had separate boy and girl tables at the party.  Here is how they turned out!  Adam's decorations crack me up.

All of the other decorations are from my mom.  She did a really great job with the party!  My mom also has a white plate on a stand.  We used a pink and blue expo marker to keep track of the votes.  After each person voted, they got a pink or blue ribbon according to how they voted.  So much fun!

Some family members who couldn't make it voted by phone.  And....here's a picture of the losing team!

And the winning team!!!!  Go Team Boy!!! :)

Our friends and family would have been happy with the outcome either way.  It's fun to see who guessed what though.  My friend Samantha was also able to come.  She is very much pregnant with her little girl and looks so cute!!   She will be due in January; I can't wait!  And yes, our kids will one day be married.  Maybe. :)

I'm so happy that we are pregnant together.  It's great to have a close friend going through the same thing!  We are both SO excited!!!

We had such a fun gender reveal party.  I'm so glad we got to share it with our friends and family.  I can't wait to start getting the nursery ready and buying cute little clothes!  I will be sure to post our progress of the nursery.  Right now it is being used as an office, so it has a long way to go!  Check back in to see the progress!



Gender Reveal Part One!!!!!!

Thursday was the big day!  My head is still spinning from all of the excitement.  It makes everything SO real knowing what our little baby is. 

Here's how it went down.  We went to the doctor's office for the ultrasound.  We told the tech that we did not want to know the sex of the baby til later.  I gave her a card, and in the card I wrote "Boy" and "Girl" each with a colon next to it.  I told her to choose from yellow, white, and chocolate cake and to assign a flavor to each gender. 

We got some really cute pictures!  The baby was really active.  I took some advice from a few people who said they were not able to find out the gender because the baby would not cooperate.  So, they told me I should drink a coke on the way to the appointment.  I did, and that baby was movin!  The baby tried to suck its thumb, wave at us, stretched, and even did a few kicks.  It was so cute.  I felt bad for giving it a jolt of caffeine like that, but really, it was for its own good....or my good. :)  I will post pictures of cute lil baby when I feel like moving off the couch. :)

We bought a DVD of the entire ultrasound (everything that we saw...and didn't see...on the screen), and we were also given a BUNCH of pictures.  We couldn't see one of the pictures yet though, it was private.  Haha.  Get it?  Nevermind.  Just before we left, the tech told me to get a chocolate cake.  Chocolate!  Yum!  But what does it mean???

I decided I would go and buy a cake instead of making one.  It seemed less stressful that way since I still wanted to have time to make some party decorations.  I will do a separate post on DIY gender reveal party.  I went to my local publix.  They didn't have a huge selection of pre-made cakes.  But they had two smaller ones that worked out perfectly.  Unfortunately, I don't have a great picture of the two of them.  They were small and round with chocolate frosting.  One had pink detailing and one had blue detailing.  Perfect! I had the baker write "boy" on the blue one and "girl" on the pink one.  That's as creative as I could get since there wasn't much room on the cakes for words. I may or may not have picked myself a little treat up to get me through the afternoon.....shhhhh!

 
We had the party at my parents' house.  My mom served chili and Brunswick stew.  I had the chili since I haven't been a BBQ fan lately.  It was delicious!   After much coercing (not).....it was finally time to CUT THE CAKE!!!

Before we cut into the cake, we passed around the card that had the color codes in it.  Adam and I did not look at the card.  We wanted everyone to announce to us the gender when we cut into the cake.  We knew the cake was chocolate on the inside, we just didn't know what the chocolate meant.  Here we are with the sealed envelope!

We used the ribbons to show what "team" we were on.  I will include how I made the ribbons in my DIY gender reveal post.  Adam and I both were on "Team Blue."  :)

Passing around the envelope....

We decided to cut into the blue cake instead of the pink one.  We just had a feeling it would make sense to cut the blue cake. :)  Ready for the big moment!

We cut the chocolate slice, and set it on the plate....and everyone was just clapping, gasping, and yelling.  We still had no idea what it was!!!  We had to ask what it was!  Finally, somebody yelled it out, but I had to see the card for myself!

It's a BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We were so excited, but not surprised.  Y'all know that I have predicted boy from the beginning!  I just knew. :)  Mommy's instinct! :) 

We are SO excited!!!!!!!!!!!

Did you guess correctly?  My poll says that most of you were wrong!!!! :)  (And I was right.... hehe!)

We can't wait to start getting ready for this little guy!  Now onto finding the perfect name!  Go HERE to see Gender Reveal Part Two!!!