ABC's

A. age :: twenty-four

B. bed size :: queen (currently piled with seven pillows for me and one pillow for Tim)

C. chore you hate :: shaving my legs - does that count as a chore?

D. dogs :: no-thank-you

E. essential start to your day :: raspberry smoothie made by Timmy

F. favorite destination :: Hawaii!!!

G. gold or silver :: gold

H. height :: five feet, four and a half inches

I. instruments you play :: piano (kind of), flute (kind of)

J. job title :: wife, mom-to-be, graphic designer, support analyst

K. kids :: Baby Love! (yup, still pregnant)

L. least favorite :: DENTIST (just thinking about the dentist makes my skin crawl) 

O. overnight hospital stays :: once for tonsils

N. nickname :: Sweet Bea (my family), Little Darlin' (Timmy) M. maiden name :: Davison

P. pet peeve :: people who complain all the time

Q. quote :: "Words which do not give the light of Christ increase the darkness." - Mother Teresa

R. righty or lefty :: righty

S. siblings :: older sister, younger sister

T. time you wake up :: 6:45 AM (weekdays), as late as possible (weekends)

U. useless information :: I love eating ice.

V. vegetables you dislike :: sweet potatoes, squash

W. what makes you run late :: the snooze button, being distracted by Timmy's kisses

X. x-rays you’ve had :: dentist x-rays

Y. yummy food :: fresh summer tomatoes

Z. zoo animal favorite :: penguins

 (ABC Banner made for Baby Love's nursery)

Loving LZ.

Baby Love is still snuggled inside my belly. I’m getting the feeling that she’s pretty happy and doesn’t have a whole lot of motivation to exit. When our good friend Laura offered to do a maternity photo shoot for us on August 25, I naively thought, “Oh dear, that’s so close to my due date. I hope I’m still pregnant!” Right. No worries, I was still VERY much pregnant and that’s a good thing because Laura, as always, captured many sweet shots of this special stage in our lives. 

 
Laura is kind of like our life photographer. She first photographed us when we were newlyweds. And again last year for our one year wedding anniversary. She also photographed us this summer – we were lucky to be chosen as “models” for a school project – when I was 21 weeks pregnant. You can see the first two shoots here and here. 

 
She also gave me the photos from this summer’s shoot last week, and I love them all.

 I had to laugh when I saw this one.
I remember being so proud of my “bump” at that point…

Laura is amazing. We love Laura and we love her photography talent.
 
Check out her website! www.laurazastrow.com

Stuffed Turtle.

Because I'm on a sewing kick these days, I decided to try out another pattern I found online for a sweet stuffed turtle. Using leftover fabric from decorating the nursery, I quickly stitched each piece together and the end result is this cutie.

There is something incredibly enjoyable about making a stuffed animal. It’s so fun to cut and sew each piece and watch it “become” something. My favorite part of this project was sewing in the little feet, tail, and head. The addition of those parts suddenly made my pieces of fabric a turtle.   

Thirty Seven, Thirty Eight & Thirty Nine

Baby Love is now around 19 inches long and weighs about 7 pounds.
She can be compared to a watermelon.

Yes, a watermelon. Let’s not even think about that. 

At thirty-eight-almost-thirty-nine weeks, I can happily report that I’m feeling great. Super-duper even. Now we’re just waiting, waiting, waiting. Sometimes I'm okay with waiting. Other times, not so much.

Each day that passes leaves me more anxious to meet this baby, but also thankful for another day with just my sweetie. I will miss our hugs with my tummy getting in the way, miss needing Timmy to pick things up for me because I can no longer reach the floor easily… miss feeling Baby Love's many kicks and wiggles, miss daydreaming about the uncertainty of the future, and miss Timmy's passionate prayers into my belly button. (Which really no longer exists, by the way.)

We've been praying into this little soul for nine (ten, really) months. I feel a special whisper in my heart, and I know that this baby - whoever s/he turns out to be -
will be one who knows God. 

God is so amazing. I can't wait to find out what day
He has destined Baby Love's birthday to be.

P.S. I'm really hoping for an August baby
so that Baby Love can share a birthday month with my Daddy.

Hattie's Invitation Suite

Hattie and Matt are engaged... 

And their wedding is quickly approaching.
I know they're both counting down to the day they say
"I do".

Hattie asked me to design their wedding invitations to look like a page out of a book, with the RSVP card resembling a "due back" card from the library. They are having an outdoor, nature, book-ish themed wedding with shades of gold, copper, and mallard green - perfect for a fall wedding. I loved the idea and really enjoyed combining all her thoughts into a pretty invitation suite.

Congratulations Hattie and Matt! 

Only 40 days to go! 

A Conversation: About the Nursery

Overheard from downstairs, as my 7 year old nephew inspected Baby Love's nursery:

Nephew: If this baby is a boy, he's gonna be so mad. He's gonna be so mad!

Timmy: Why?

Nephew: Because there's girl stuff in here!! There's PINK stuff.

Timmy: Oh, well buddy that's not pink, it's actually a shade of red.

HAHA. My neice, sister-in-law, and I were listening to this conversation from the couch and couldn't stop laughing. This particular nephew is hilarious and constantly surprising me with his thoughts and opinions. His twinkley eyes and cherub cheeks make him irresistible and able to get away with almost anything.

And Tim's response is priceless. I love that man.
Baby Love's nursery is all done! I'll post photos soon!

Babymoon Album for Timmy

For Father’s Day I made Timmy a “Babymoon” album. I purposely made it in the same style as this album I created to document our year 2010. A simple binder at Target, clear plastic sleeves, brown Kraft paper, and bright photos. It’s simple and structured, which makes this project one I can actually finish on time. (All my other scrapbooks exist in a half-finished state.)

The album is divided into several parts. It begins with statistics about the trip, a map of where we went, and a record of our hilarious conversations. Then it advances in chronological order. 

Each day starts with our journal entries for that day. (Tim and I bring our “vacation journal” with us whenever we travel. This is a tradition we started on our honeymoon and it has accompanied us all over the world. Every night before bed, we’ll each journal our thoughts on the day, recording what we ate, where we went, and any silly conversations we had that day. I LOVE it.) 

The journaling is followed by photos, and after I gave Timmy the book we spent several date nights entering “captions” for each photo. (I found this to be more fun to do together. Also, I love that the captions are written in our own handwriting, adding an extra personal touch to the entire album.)

I love it. I’m so glad that I recorded this – before the baby comes. Our Babymoon feels like one of our last ties to “just us two” times and soon my camera will be flooded with photos of Baby Love and our hearts will overflow with memories of “family of three” times.  

Last.

 oh, restless, fleeting time,
which will be the last?
every little feeling,
that passes
has a first,
the in-betweens,
and the last.
we know the first
we live the in-betweens
and we await the last
the moments are marked
the emotions are breathless
the feeling is falling away
because sooner or later
there will be
a very
last
date night
when you hold me with both hands
when there is no one else
when time has no bearing
and when we are
just
two.

 (26 Month Anniversary Date)

Cloth Color Book.

My mom came out to visit us this week. Timmy and I love it when she visits, and she will often pop over to spend the night when my dad is out of town on business. Whenever she comes, she always brings a yummy treat - this time it was blueberry oat squares - and we always do something delightful.

Our definition of "something delightful" varies from trying a new recipe to making a fun project. Before I got pregnant, we made things like scarves and desserts and dresses. But since then, we've been working on things like stocking my freezer with frozen meals and sewing diapers, burp cloths, booties, and bibs. She is the perfect sewing partner because she really knows what she's doing, and I can often have an idea or see an inspiring photo and she will be able to figure out how to make it without any instructions. Yay Mom.

While Mom was out this week we made a soft fabric color book for Baby Love. I got the idea from this, and we modified it a bit to make it exactly how we wanted it.  

To make the different color pages we sorted through scraps of fabric and put them into piles by color. Then we sketched out different quilt block squares and assigned a different one for each color. It didn't take long to cut and sew each block together.  

We ended up with 8 different 6"x6" colored blocks - red, orange, yellow, green, teal, blue, purple, and pink. (Yes, I'm going to teach my baby the color teal.) The hardest part was arranging them in the right order so that when the book was all sewn together, the colors would progress correctly.  

After lots of rearranging, we sewed them together into rectangles of two. Then we sandwiched the rectangles with quilt batting and sewed them, right sides together, leaving a space for turning. After the "pages" were sewn and turned, we stitched them all together down the middle of the book.  

Ta-da! Baby Love's first book of colors!

This book makes me so happy. One of my favorite parts is that many of the scraps we used have specific memories from my own childhood - like the penguins from the backing of the quilt I had growing up. Baby Love won't be learning colors for a while, but the pretty shapes, bright hues, and contrasting shades will keep her pretty baby eyes entertained until she learns what to call them. 

And I kind of believe that nothing is cooler
than making baby treasures with your mom.

The Last Straw.

I've been trying to keep a positive attitude when it comes to these last weeks of pregnancy. I believe that when you start acknowledging/complaining about something, it makes that something ten times worse. Positive words go a long way in making unfortunate situations bearable. So I've avoided complaining about my sleepless nights, my huge uncomfortable belly, my return to all-day morning sickness, a constant stuffy nose, my inability to breathe, and the fact that none of my clothes fit me anymore. And I really, truly have been enjoying these last weeks of pregnancy. For real.

But then. The Last Straw. I started getting a *sty on my left eye (thanks to my pregnancy hormones) earlier this week and then the right side of my body - and only the right side - began to swell. Yesterday morning it all hit me at once, and I woke up with my eye nearly swollen shut and my right foot resembling a sausage. And I say "woke up" very loosely because I was awake most of the night due to my throbbing eye and nausea so in reality, I didn't wake up but just surfaced to consciousness from my zombie-like state. And I looked in the mirror. I think my exact words to Timmy were, "I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE." Meltdown.

A trip to the eye doctor confirmed my sty and showed that this cranky doctor was having a bad day too. He commented on the fact that my sty did not seem to be TOO bad and poked it repeatedly, asking me if it hurt -  in a voice that showed he didn't think so. My response? Yes, it hurts. It hurts like the dickens! Every time I blink it feels like someone is stabbing my eye with a needle! (Do you know how often we blink? Every three seconds. Yes. Miserable!) So he condescendingly agreed to prescribe some antibiotic drops. As he was filling out the prescription on the computer, I noticed an error message flashing in the corner that said, "WARNING! May present risks to fetus. Not to be taken when pregnant." which naturally caused some concern on my part...  But when I questioned him, he said, in an altogether unfriendly voice, that it would be FINE and shoved a handwritten prescription at me. Obviously, this prescription was torn to pieces shortly after leaving Dr. Cranky's office and right before calling Tim and sobbing hysterically about the horrible ordeal. (Crying doesn't help sties feel better, by the way.)

Meanwhile, my poor right foot just kept getting bigger and bigger. I called my midwife. She told me this freakish right-side-only swelling was probably due to the position of Baby Love and she was putting pressure on the blood vessels on my right side. She told me to lay down on my left side and relax. She also let me know that putting a black tea bag on my sty would take care of the problem naturally - no baby-harming antibiotic drops needed. I love my midwife. (I should have gone to her first.) But laying on my left side hasn't seemed to help much. You can add "lopsided" to the list of adjectives describing me right now. Also on that list would be miserable, emotional, and whale-like. (Pampered, loved, and happy are there too, thanks to my sweet hubby.)

The silver lining? My mom happened to be out visiting this week, and that was lucky for me because Moms always make being sick better. It's funny how just having Mom around makes things seem less scary. Also, my brand-new glasses with an updated prescription came in the day before I had to stop wearing my contacts due to my sty. I couldn't have functioned outside my house with my old glasses (the prescription is from a long time ago) so these new glasses enabled me to once again join the world of the living - at exactly the right time I needed them. Although I'm not totally certain I WANT to be outside my house...

*The word "sty" kind of makes me want to puke and I feel like it sounds like I have some sort of gross disease. Sties are just blocked oil glands in the eyelid, FYI.

**photos from a recent date night... see how well Timmy takes care of me?