oh the simple things

Yesterday, my mom, aunt, grandma and I went out shopping for the day.  I love these ladies and the precious time I so often get to spend with them! One of our main missions was to find the fabric that would be used in the nursery for the curtains, bed skirt, and possible a couple pillow covers.  Well we had tons of luck in that department, plus I found some other things that made me oh.so.happy!

First things first....the nursery.

I found material a week ago at a fabric store that I loved, but was extremely disappointed yesterday when we made it there to purchase the material before their sale ended on it and they were out.  Then, with my grandma's (an amazing seamstress) help, we determined that in order to do what I wanted to, it was going to be at least $70 just for material for the curtains.  On sale.  Um...nope.

So being the creative women they are, my mom, aunt, and grandma started explaining to me that you can use sheets to make curtains, etc.  I had never thought of that! So we went on a sheet hunt! I lucked out at one of our last stops...TJ Maxx.  Loved the store before.  Love it even more now.  For $39.99, I found the perfect King size sheet set that will have enough material to make the curtains, a bed skirt, and pillow covers. (That's almost half the price that just the curtains were going to cost.) And should I add that I actually like this material better?

the material next to a frilly pink pillow I snagged at Home Goods!

the material and pillow next to the wall color (although the pic doesn't show it too well, the color combo together makes my heart so happy.  Love it!)

Other simple finds that made me so excited were the goods pictured in the next photo...

-a free Bath and Body Works Moonlight Path travel size spray (love the scent!)
-a new planner (from Target) that is spiral bound and lime green.  perfection. (my heart leaps for joy when it comes to planners.  weird. i know.)
-a floral website password organizer (again, from Target, of course).  This was a guilty pleasure I had to have.  It will make my pregnancy brain a little less annoying.

Plus...

Since Miss Adeline will make her debut a little over a month before Christmas, I decided to get started on my Christmas shopping.  I made a nice dent in my list already just from yesterday! yay!

Okay, I think that's all for now.  My heart was overflowing with excitement over these simple things.  Aren't the simple things the best?

20 week update...halfway there!!

How far along: 20 weeks! Halfway!!

Baby size: Cantaloupe....say what?! She's 11 ounces based on our ultrasound.

Total weight gain/loss: At my 20 week appointment, I had gained 7 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight.  The doctor let me know that since I started out in the lower average range for pre-pregnancy, she would like me to gain around 30.  That seems like a daunting task! :) So my goal is still around a pound a week and to continue to work hard to stay away from "empty calories".  So far so good (for the most part)!

Sleep: Still great.  I'm loving having the option each morning of sleeping in or getting up and getting some things accomplished.  Summer is wonderful and I"m super spoiled to my "schedule" already.

Movement: It just keeps getting better! She moves a lot now.  She's super busy every evening.  Last night I even started feeling some jabs like they were kicks (or maybe some punches since that's what she was doing in the ultrasound).  I had Justin put his hand on my belly and right then, she gave him a big jab in the hand.  He was so excited!

Also, in the ultrasound she was moving and squirming like crazy.  When they were trying to get a good look at her face, she put one hand in front of her face almost hiding.  The ultrasound tech jiggled the wand on my belly and then she threw the other hand in front of her face being shy and turned face down as if to be completely finished being on camera.  Too cute!

Food cravings/aversions: Dr. Pepper still.  So weird.  And I had my first crazy, pregnant girl craving the other night.  At 11 pm I got a huge craving for a Taco Bell Nacho Bell Grande.  Thankfully, it passed without Justin having to go out at 11 pm at night.  I really am not enjoying Mexican food in pregnancy even...but for some reason, that sounded so good.

Pregnancy Symptoms: Still can't complain.  Leg cramps still but nothing unbearable.  I'm also starting to feel a little more pressure on my ribs and back by evening.  Oh and getting out of breath.  Easily.

What I miss: I think the thing I'm still dealing with the most is my body having limitations.  It's so weird for me since I'm such a busy body and a do-it-myself type person.  I've been working on cleaning out and organizing our basement.  It really bothers me sometimes that I need to depend on others to help me move heavy things or reach high up on shelves.  Thankfully Justin holds me accountable and asks me if I've gotten on a ladder or tells me to take breaks...because if not, I might push myself too far and I certainly want to be honest with him! :)  I'm just not good at asking for help...but I'm getting over my silly frustrations since it means a healthy baby.

What I'm looking forward to: Meeting her! With all this movement (and I know it just gets better), I feel so connected to her and can't wait to get to know our sweet little girl!

Milestones: She weighs 11 ounces...average for babies at this point! Yay! The ultrasound tech showed us her measurements on the growth chart already from the 15 week and 20 week ultrasound.  She's staying right in the average curve and is progressing exactly how she should!

Also, everything down to the four chambers of the heart looked perfectly healthy in the ultrasound.  Praise God for answered prayers!  Healthy babies are nothing short of a miracle.  God is so good!

Adeline's profile

we can't get over the size of her foot! :)

Also, supposedly now she is getting a taste for what I eat from the amniotic fluid.  That is so amazing to me...but makes so much sense based on what I've heard so many women in my life talk about as their pregnancy cravings and then what their child likes to eat.  (Even myself based off my mom's cravings.)  Justin told me to start eating every fruit and veggie I can think of.  Easier said than done...but I think I have a pretty wide food palette going at this point.  I'm not a picky eater at all...and I would love for her to be like that too.  I also told Justin that when he sees me putting a french fry to my mouth (one of my fave comfort foods), to smack it out.  Haha...right.  I know the sweet thing can't be a completely healthy eater.

Best moment this week: Seeing her on the ultrasound screen again and this time in more action and her punching or kicking her daddy was a highlight.

Moments with Justin: We're talking about her so much now.  Every time she moves, I say something to Justin.  Seeing his reaction to feeling her kick was so sweet.  He also had a very happy first father's day.  My mom and dad bought him a baby carrier because all along he's sworn he won't "wear" our baby.  I told him, he's crazy.  As soon as he learns he can have his hands and hold onto her, he'll be hooked.  He was actually excited to get it even though he's joked about not using one the whole pregnancy. :)

brief update...19 weeks!

How far along: 19 weeks

Baby size: Mango

Total weight gain/loss: Up around 6 to 7 pounds.

Sleep: Great! I do like that I am able to stay up later now...for a while I was such a party pooper and fell asleep so early.  I'm back to my night owl tendencies.  One pillow between the legs is still the trick!

Movement:  Yes and it's so amazing! I love feeling her move around! During my 19th week she was starting to get rowdy enough where I thought Justin could feel her from the outside...but not quite yet.  I feel her mainly at night when I'm sitting down on the couch and in bed.  However, I do get a bump or poke during the day randomly sometimes.

Food cravings/aversions: I'm still going with Dr. Pepper.  And I'm still enjoying chicken much more than red meat.

Pregnancy Symptoms: I honestly cannot complain one bit.  Leg cramps is about it.

What I miss: Nothing really.  Still not enjoying maternity clothing and how difficult it is to even get dressed for a day at home in comfortable lounge clothes...they even are starting to feel tight! :)

What I'm looking forward to: Our second ultrasound! (Which since I'm a slacker, we've already been and I'll update you in the 20 week update.)

Milestones: Movement getting more frequent.  I expect it now and talk to her a lot more to get her moving.

Best moment this week: Really having this pregnancy feel a lot more real to Justin and myself due to feeling her alive inside me.  Amazing.

Moments with Justin: He's getting super excited to feel his sweet baby girl kick from the outside.  He puts his hands on my belly quite often just in hopes of feeling her.

nursery bargain

We have a great flea/antique market in our small town.  Some junk...but lots of treasures.  A few weeks ago I found a great, solid wood dresser/changing table and was very impressed by the quality, condition, and price.  I let a couple weeks go by and stopped in one afternoon just to see if it was still there.  It was.  I took it as a sign!

I texted a pic to Justin, my mom, and my sis-in-law to get input.  Then my mom, dad, and Justin all went to look at it to check out the condition...they were all very impressed with the quality.  The price was $95.  However, I knew it had been up there for close to a month and after talking with my parents, decided that it was reasonable to ask for at least 20% off the price since it was a big item.  (Most dealers at places like this will come down 20% off their asking price...just a tip!)

Justin and I went in one evening, called the dealer and left a message with our offer of $70 and didn't get a call back.  So I called the next morning and the lady answered! She countered with $75 and I was thrilled! (Honestly, I thought $95 would even be a great deal.  So to get this great piece of furniture for $20 less is even better!) We paid for it that day and they held it for us.  Justin and our brother-in-law picked it up two days later and it now sits in our empty room...waiting for a sweet baby!

I know I mentioned in an earlier post that I wasn't sure about wood color for the nursery.  For some reason, I didn't think I would, but I'm really loving the whimsical, young feel of this natural wood color.  It's just very serene.  I think we will still go with a white crib.  And if we really feel like it, we can paint this white.

The other great thing about this is it's exactly what I wanted to find for the nursery since we don't have room for a dresser and changing table.  I've always loved the idea of combining the two.  It already has snaps screwed into the back, so we just have to find a changing pad that has the snaps to secure it on top.

And finally, Baby Bargains, is our registering and planning bible right now.  I highly recommend it! They recommend a good deal on buying a new changing table/dresser combo is about $500.  That means we saved $425 off their suggestion.  (Although I know most people wouldn't even pay $500 as getting "a deal".)

So there you have it...our first nursery purchase!!

miscellany monday

Joining up with Carissa today for Miscellany Monday!

1.  My faith is restored...In Wal-Mart.

I bought all of the above for $21.30...saving $10.09 on this trip! But something I did that helped me out was price matching.  I was so hesitant to do this...it just seemed like too much effort and not worth it.  Silly me...it was super easy! Bring in the ad, or print out the ad online, tell the cashier which store has the item and for what price.  Wallah.  They change the price with no questions. (I did this for Triscuits, strawberries, and grapes.)

And let me add, I got two freebies due to their great prices and utilizing coupons.  Ivory bar soap...free.  Tank top...free. Love it.

2.  I have professional development today and tomorrow.  Work? In the summer? Gross.  (Yes, you can call me spoiled.)

3.  I've learned lately that being short is sometimes a difficulty.  But being short and pregnant is something else.  Point proven as you watch me get into our new truck (which I'm driving at the moment until we find a new vehicle for me.) This truck sits up kinda high and doesn't have running boards.  I'm thanking Ford for making a handle on the top of the inside of the truck so I can climb myself into it.

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4.  Reusable ice cubes are destined to make our lives easier in this house.  Justin works outside and, therefore, packs a cooler for lunch.  Ice is important.  It's especially important in this crazy heat.  I found these awesome reusable ice cubes at The Container Store this past weekend.  Hello time saver!

5.  Today starts the second week of my summer break. My first week was perfect.  Relaxing, productive, and laid-back.

Monday-Morning walk with Cheri, lunch with my mom, ran errands
Tuesday-Morning workout, found great deal on changing table at local flea/antique market and bought it, lunch with Page, cooked-out for dinner
Wednesday-Morning walk with Cheri, lunch with my mom and dad, relaxing evening at home
Thursday-Went out of town with my mom for our annual church conference at which I was a delegate (vote on certain decisions for the church) and she's on the board of trustees, meetings during day, dinner and nice, relaxing evening with my mom
Friday-Morning worship service at conference (very inspirational), meetings, afternoon of shopping with my mom, spent evening hanging out with my dad and Justin during my mom's evening meeting (they came to meet us so Justin could take me back home since my mom and dad stayed around town to meet up with old friends and my mom had more meetings), then we all had dinner together and Justin and I headed back home
Saturday-Slept in, cleaned, worked on our yard and mulched all of our beds, went fishing and had a picnic dinner with our best friends, Chad and Cheri
Sunday-Church, lunch with family after church, went to grocery, went back to church for mission trip planning meeting

Perfection.  I have a feeling (or at least hope) they'll all be this way!

weekly update-18 weeks

breaking the "no horizontal stripes" rule of pregnancy

How far along: 18 weeks

Baby size: Sweet Potato!

Total weight gain/loss: I'm up almost 6 pounds from pre-pregnancy weight.  (Can I just say pregnancy is extremely humbling as you watch the scales go up and you are supposed to be happy with that.  Whew.)

Sleep: Good! Now that it's summer I'm getting plenty of rest...yay! I get up with Justin each morning...he has to leave our house around 6:45.  And it's funny because some mornings I'm exhausted and go right back to sleep and sleep like a rock until my alarm goes off again.  Other mornings, I am wide awake and can't go back to sleep.

Movement: I'm so excited to report a big fat Yes! And this is the first week I'm confident it's movement.  I had felt more pops and twists this week than in the past.  Well at one point this week Justin and I got Boone going and he started barking really loud.  All the sudden I felt a big jolt under my belly button.  It was so funny.  (I'm loving the fact that supposedly she's already getting used to noises from her environment like Boone barking and it won't bother or startle her when she's here.  I was excited when I read that in one of my magazines...because Boone is her big bro...and we would like for her to get very used to him asap.)

Also, I've been really good about staying active this week.  On Monday and Wednesday I took a long morning walk with my best friend, Cheri.  On Tuesday, I did a prenatal second trimester workout DVD, on Friday I walked around a lot shopping with my mom, and on Saturday, we worked on our front yard and mulched.  Each day that I was really active, she was also extremely active in the evening.  On the one day I was not active (Thursday), I felt her maybe just a couple times.  Talk about motivation to get moving! :)

Last neat movement story...we went fishing Saturday night with our best friends, Chad and Cheri.  I grew up on a farm and did all the outdoorsy stuff including fishing. (I'm talking even putting the live worms on the hook.) Justin loves to fish and loves outdoorsy stuff too.  Well, thankfully, this little girl must love the outdoors and being by water too, because as we fished, she moved constantly.  I loved it and it was so relaxing and peaceful to focus on as we fished.

Food cravings/aversions: Dr. Pepper, Dr. Pibb, Dr. Thunder.......or whatever crazy rendition of it you can find...I'm loving the taste of it.  I'm limiting myself though due to the caffeine.  Supposedly if you go more south you can find caffeine-free regular Dr. Pepper (we just have caffeine free diet...which I am completely staying away from aspartame in pregnancy).  Boo.

Pregnancy Symptoms: Um the ladies continue to get bigger.  (That's getting old!) Hormones are up and down.  Some heartburn.  Calf cramps.  Nothing really worth complaining about.  I daily thank God for how simple this pregnancy has been so far and just pray that it keeps up that way.

What I miss: Really nothing...I'm super blessed to have this sweet baby on the way.  However, if I'm going to be honest, as easy as this pregnancy has been so far for me (knock on wood), I don't think I'm one of those people that will ever say "I love being pregnant!" I love that people can say that, but I just get weirded out when anything is different with my body...and let's just say a lot is different with your body when you're pregnant.

What I'm looking forward to: Our second ultrasound coming up in a couple weeks.  I'm anxious to see her again! (Ditto from last week!)

Milestones: Well movement really started this week....big yay for that one!

Best moment this week: Feeling all the movement and getting active!

Moments with Justin: Adeline received her first belly kisses from Daddy this week.  I think the bump getting bigger is another way that it continues to get more and more real to him.

nursery inspiration

When we found out our sweet baby was a girl...Justin wasn't crazy about the idea of the walls remaining the blue color.  (I'm pretty sure we discussed that we wanted a gender-neutral color on the walls last summer...wink wink.) Anywho...after much discussion of me politely explaining that I had strategically picked out the primer and paint to be chemical-free...and that I had spent some of my precious moments of my summer last year painting the room, he decided that we could make it work and it was okay if his baby girl had walls that were blue.  Whew.  Close one.

So I started my hunt for color inspiration to help ease his worries even more.  (He's good at picking out colors of automobiles...not so much for interior design.)  I wanted to give him a visual.

Here are a few things I have found online that have given me color inspiration:

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This isn't a nursery...but I love the color combo of the white, pinks, blues, browns, and greens. (This will probably be my main go-to picture as we decorate.)

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I love the colors again...this time with some yellow thrown in.  I also like the DIY inspiration found in the photos.

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Love the whimsical feel to this one.  (You can find more pics of this room by clicking on the source link under the picture.)  The coral and orange colors caught my eye here.

So my big dilemma right now is deciding on the furniture color that will best accent our blueish/aqua walls with the white beadboard...white? light brown? dark brown? a mixture? I would love to hear your thoughts!

how we paid cash for our new vehicle

my handsome hubby driving his new truck home

When we found out we were expecting, we knew it was time to make some changes with our vehicles.  Justin drives a Mustang and I drove a Honda Accord...both two-door cars and not baby friendly.  Thankfully, we had been planning for this!

A little background...

Justin and I are debt-free other than our mortgage.  We "don't do debt".  Which means financing, making payments, and credit cards are out of our vocabulary as a couple.  We both went through Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University before getting married and have used it as our financial foundation as a married couple.  We felt that God really spoke to us through this course due to the strong biblical foundation Dave Ramsey uses to explain the importance of staying away from "stupid debt" such as credit cards and financing purchases and using cash instead...with the main priority as being good stewards of what God gives us so that we can give as much of our earnings back to God as possible.

Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and He will establish your plans.

-Proverbs 16:3- 

It just made sense to us.  And it still does.  We've seen God bless us like crazy, bless others like crazy, and provide in ways we can't comprehend.  So needless to say, we paid cash for our most recent vehicle purchase and plan to do so for our next vehicle purchase.  Was it easy? No.  Frustrating? Oh my...yes.  But I do want to share with you what worked for us in hopes of helping you take the same steps in order to remain debt-free if your family feels called to do that.  (Please remember these are my personal opinions based on our situation and how we have seen God work in our lives.)

1.  Save, save, save.  In order to pay cash for a vehicle, it takes planning and saving.  Since getting married, we have worked hard to save at least a fourth of our income.  Recently, we've been saving half of our income.  A good sized chunk of these savings have been designated for car purchases.  This has been huge.  It takes intense budgeting, discipline, and saying "no" to a lot of tempting purchases along the way.  But it pays off. 

2.  Don't trade-in your car.  You won't get what it's worth.  We used Kelly Blue Book to price our cars, cleaned them up, took quality pictures, and posted them on Craigslist for free.  While we're still waiting for Justin's to sell, mine sold within a week of posting.  Even if it doesn't sell that quickly...it's worth the wait! We got at least $3000 more for my car by selling it to an individual and getting cash than we would have with a trade-in. 

3.  Research.  Of course, you want to get the most for your cash.  If you like a certain body style of a vehicle, find out what years it was made, and try to buy a vehicle with that model that was made earlier...it will save you money.  Based on the quality of the car you are purchasing and how well it has been taken care of, you may be able to go up in mileage, which will cut off some costs as well. 

4.   Negotiate prices and extras.  This is huge.  Be your own advocate.  We went into each deal we tried to make with our firm price.  We researched the value of the car and knew exactly what we were going to make as our offer.  Justin was so great at this because he doesn't get emotionally wrapped up into these things like I do.  Choose your number and stick with it.  (This is another great thing about using cash...when you are financing, it's easy to let the number go up...with cash, it's not.)  Also, negotiate for extras.  The truck we purchased was just a few hundred miles away from a standard maintenance that Justin has researched a lot about.  Because we knew this, we negotiated to get this into the final asking price and got it documented that they would throw in the maintenance. 

5.  Don't fall in love! Enough said.  When you get emotionally involved, you'll do crazy things...such as going over your budget.  There are plenty of the same vehicles out there.

6.  Watch for extra fees. If you buy from a dealership...they almost always try to throw in extra fees because "all dealerships do this".  Don't fall for it.  We were firm with the dealers that we weren't paying the fees...or at least they were going to have to go down in the vehicle price to account for it.  To give an idea into how crazy this is...one dealership we worked with had over $700 in fees while the one we purchased from just had a fee of a little over $100.  (And remember that taxes and licensing get thrown in at the end too.) 

7.  Negotiate for the "out the door" price.  As I mentioned, many dealerships will throw in fees.  You, of course, must pay taxes.  And then there is the licensing and registration fees.  Ask for those numbers.  Determine the taxes yourself (your state sales tax times the amount you are going to pay for the vehicle).  Once you see those numbers written down, negotiate for an "out-the-door" price.  By doing this, we got the overall price of the truck down by around $1500. 

8.  Buy at the end of the month.  I've always heard this and it worked wonders for us.  It wasn't, but from now on, we'll intentionally buy at the end of the month.  The dealerships have a quota they want to meet and each individual salesperson has their own quota.  At the end of the month, they will do some crazy things to meet that quota.  Because of our timing, we purchased the truck for $1500 off the asking price out-the-door.  We also got the routine maintenance that would have ended up costing us between $400 and $500, plus there was a quirk with the windshield wipers that they fixed for free that would have cost us around $200.  Because of our timing, our firm negotiating, and them wanting to sell the truck, we saved over $2000. 

9.  Hide your payment plan.  While we realize the whole world doesn't work on the cash mentality like us, we got very frustrated with some dealerships that basically laughed in our faces and didn't value our money at all.  Some would even tell us that we would get a better deal financing.  (Thankfully we called their bluff and are smarter than they think...knowing that financing often leads to you paying more than the value of the car when it's all said and done.)  We started hiding our payment plan when dealers would ask if we were financing.  We simply replied with "we're not sure".  Once they started in on numbers, that's when we threw in the cash bomb.  We bought from a dealer that valued the fact that we were paying with cash. 

10.  Remember, patience is key.  We got down to the final offer with three other vehicles before we finally found the truck we purchased at the price we budgeted.  While it's hard to stand up and walk away from something you've put in a lot of effort and time, it was well worth it.  Looking back, we see God's guidance as we obediently walked away from three different deals when they wouldn't accept our offer. 

Have you paid cash for a large purchase? I would love to hear about it! And please don't hesitate to contact  me through email if you have further questions about Financial Peace or our personal decision to remain debt-free. 

rearranging for baby+the beginnings of nursery talk

This weekend, hubby let me know that he was ready to get started on the first project in the nursery which will be adding beadboard to the bottom of the walls.  Needless to say, this get-it-accomplished type-A gal was ready to do whatever it took to help him get started! The room that is going to be the nursery was our office...so of course, the first step was to clean out the craziness that was the office.  (I'm pretty sure we hadn't filed away papers since March when we found out I was pregnant and the first trimester exhaustion kicked in.)  Here's a look at what it looked like before the mess of papers hit it:

a glimpse of the office post-makeover...for more pics click on the post link below

You may remember from last summer when I did a mini-makeover to our office.  We painted with a chemical-free paint and a color that would be baby-friendly down the road because we knew the room would be a nursery one day.  (Looking back, it's crazy to think that it's already been a year...but at the same time...that it's only been a year and we're getting it ready for Adeline!)

After hours of sorting through paper, shredding, filing, throwing things away, making piles of books to sell, etc. etc., it was cleaned.  However, we had our next dilemma...moving the office into the guest bedroom.  Piece. Of. Cake. (Thank goodness!)

What the corner of the extra bedroom looked like...

Now with the office included and the chest of drawers moved closer to the doorway...

We're very pleased with the end result...and the best part...no purchasing of new furniture was needed!

And this now leaves us with this to work with...

 

Let the fun begin!

weekly update-17 weeks

How far along: 17 weeks

Babe size: Onion--about 5 inches from head to bottom!

Total weight gain/loss: About another pound...I'm holding steady at gaining about a pound a week...give or take a few ounces. (I'm pretty sure I'm gaining it all in the chest--oh my!--and love handles.  Just had to be honest.)

Sleep: Still pretty good.  I wake up constantly to switch sides.

Movement: Been feeling some pops and twists, but again, nothing for sure that I could say is baby.

Food cravings/aversions: I'm back to really enjoying grilled chicken...a food I could basically live on pre-pregnancy.  I'm still not fond of anything that's too sweet such as sugary beverages.  They still leave me with that metal mouth taste.  However, I'm loving chocolate.

Pregnancy Symptoms:Well I definitely felt more pregnant this week.  I'm feeling more round ligament pain...mainly when I get up from sitting for a long time.  Also, by the end of the day, I feel a lot of pressure at the top of my rib cage and just feel heavy all over my stomach.  Taking walks has been helping tremendously with that. 

What I miss: My normal clothes fitting.  Many still do...but I especially miss being able to put on whatever pair of shorts, capris, or long pants I choose.  Getting dressed is starting to become a hassle.  I can just imagine what it will be like down the road!

What I'm looking forward to: Our second ultrasound coming up in a couple weeks.  I'm anxious to see her again!

Milestones: Baby's bones are hardening and she is accumulating body fat now!

Best moment this week: Getting the office cleaned out that is going to be the nursery.  We wanted to get it to a point where we could work on it as we got the urge this summer.  Now I need to work on getting the closet cleaned out...because she's already accumulating quite the number of items!

Moments with Justin: I need to start writing these down as they happen because pregnancy brain causes me to forget! I guess one of the sweetest things I do remember from this week is after we got the office cleaned out, I noticed Justin standing in the doorway looking into the empty room.  It's becoming so real to us even more so now and I thought it was so sweet to see him looking into the room just thinking about everything that is to come.

what I'm loving

Today I'm loving...

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This adorable hospital hat from Tweetlebug Boutique that I received as a gift today for little Adeline! A sweet teacher that was on my team this year said it was her favorite item she received for her little one and so she surprised me with one today.  I've had my eye on these and was planning on getting one...so sweet!!

Our new truck! We finally found a truck for Justin after a crazy amount of shopping around.  We had a cash budget we were sticking to, which made it more difficult, but so worth the wait! Hubby is so excited and looks mighty handsome in his new truck, I might add.  I'm loving driving it some too! I plan on doing a post very soon about our trials and tribulations of saving up and paying for an automobile with cash in hopes to help some readers out too.  One down, one to go.  Now on to find my new vehicle! :)

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My recent finds at Bath and Body Works! I'm loving the scent of this Coconut Pineapple lotion for summer.  Best part...I had a coupon and got it free!! I also found this amazing Apricot Vanilla Lip Gloss for half off.  It's yummy!

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Tomorrow is the last day of school! Enough said.

What are you loving? Link up with Jamie here!