Ringing in 2012

I have never had much of a "party-er" type of personality, but this year our low-key New Year's Eve celebration hit an all time low... as far as social activity/celebration goes.  We rang in the new year with a game of Scrabble... which I lost. lol  We couldn't even watch the ball drop in Time Square because our TV was being cranky and refused to let us get any channel in that televised the events (we are one of the few households in the country, I think, that still don't have cable).

(Dec. 31st also marked our one year anniversary of actually moving into our new home! We've done SOO much in the last year, it's kind of hard to believe!)

While the evening was pretty mellow, our day was productive... we started work on the nursery!

Jacob and I have had the paint color picked out for awhile now, and I purchased the fabric for the curtains several weeks ago.  Jacob also go some help moving all of the office furniture out of the room and into our guest room (so now we have a combo office/guest room), but we were waiting for a "free" weekend to start the painting.  Friday night I asked Jacob if he thought this weekend would be a good one to paint.  Surprisingly, he said sure and even called in his "helpers"  (parents and aunt) who had mentioned that they wanted to help out with the project.  So, yesterday morning we went to Home Depot, used some of your Christmas gift card balance and bought some paint.  Jacob, his parents and his aunt painted the nursery (here's what it looked like before) while I worked on sewing the curtains.  By the end of the day, we had our "finished"* product!

Prepping

And there goes some color!

And the paint is up!

And now for my curtain creations!

Curtain pattern close up

Finishing touches (c/o xmas gift exchange!)

I'm really happy with the way the color turned out.  It's a little more "sea foam-y" than the green that we were going for, but it looks nice and it goes will with our curtain fabric, so I'm happy.  Now I'm just antsy to start getting some baby furniture in there so I can start decorating!



*I say "final" product because the curtains weren't really done until this morning.  After doing all of the sewing and ironing last night, we hung the curtains and I saw that there was a big spot on the center panel.  I looked like a wet spot, but wasn't wet... maybe a grease/oil spot of some sort?  So, I threw the panel in the laundry to try to get the spot out... and it shrunk!  I know that I should have washed the fabric before I sewed the curtains, but I gave myself extra length/width as a "just in case" measure... but I didn't know that the muslin would shrink almost 6 inches in length!!  I was NOT happy.  And, to top it all off, the spot didn't even come out!  =P  So, this morning I took some pre-washed fabric left over from my Christmas table cloth sewing project and made a replacement panel.  It is now hang up over the window and looking fabulous. =)

Face Lift

My blog was in need of a cheery face lift. 

It's kind of amazing what an uploaded background photo and a new color scheme can do! =)

(One of these days I'll sit down and actually created a banner/header for myself... for now, the text will just have to do).

Christmas Recap

So, after our fun-filled Christmas Eve evening, Jacob and I got a few hours of sleep and then got up to drive down to my parent's place outside of Eugene for Christmas Day festivities.  It was really nice not to have to be there until about noon when my brother was picking up my nephew from his mom's house.  It meant that we didn't have to leave the house until about 9 AM to get there in time to open presents.  I didn't get up until just before 8... I think that's the latest I've slept in on Christmas in a LONG time!

Jacob and I picked up some warm beverages and breakfast sandwiches at Starbucks and then made the 2.5 hour drive down.  Traffic was actually pretty non-existent... which REALLY surprised me!  I was expected a lot of holiday travelers.  I guess that we must have beat the rush.

We got down to my parents' place, visited for awhile and waiting for my brothers, sisters (in-law, to-be, and might-as-well-be) and nephew to get there and then we opened gifts.  We kids did a secret Santa gift exchange with the catch  being that everything had to be homemade... for the most part we did pretty good! lol

Jenn made Brittney a crocheted headband.

Scott got a wood carved "Legend of Scott" Nintendo game from Rob.

Jacob made Jenn a hanging photo mount/mobile thing

Scott printed up a Pendleton Roundup poster for Dustin

I made Rob a photo/document board for his office*

Brittney** made me these decoupaged switch plates.  I'm really excited to put the "Awake/Asleep" one in the nursery!

Dustin drew Jacob's name... he made him a sandwich. =)  I wasn't able to get a photo before Jacob ate it for lunch.  =)

Our unofficial "goal" on Christmas is to see who can make Mom cry with our gifts.  There were some doozies this year.  In addition to the traditional yearly photo calendar that we give her, Jenn and Brittney got super crafty:

Jenn's masterpiece

Brittney's

My nephew also got to experience the joys of homemade goodness with his Pokemon Trainer shirt c/o Jenn:

After opening presents, we played some Yahtzee, ate some Christmas goodies and then headed over to my Grandma's house for more presents, dinner and games.  My brother Scott and his fiance, Jenn, got the game HeadBanz for Christmas, so we played a little of that.  You've probably seen similar things in drinking game and/or group ice breaker format.  Someone gets a card with a word on it and that have to ask questions to figure out who/what they are.  It was pretty much hilarious:

Much later than anticipated, Jacob and I finally climbed back into the car and headed home to sleep before our last day of our mini vacation... a day of REST! Finally! lol  We had a great time with our families, but definitely appreciated a day of nothing afterward!

*Rob sent me a photo today of my gift in use... it actually looks pretty good! lol

** No, you're not reading that wrong.  Her name is Brittney, as is mine, and as is my other brother's wife (though she spells it with an "a").  It gets complicated sometimes... but we manage. =)

24 Weeks

Size of baby: According to Babyzone she's about the size of a papaya!

Total Weight Gain/Loss: I need to start remembering to weigh myself at the beginning of the day, I know that my weight fluctuates about 2 lbs from beginning to end.  Right now I'm weighing in at about +21, but between the extra holiday weight and my dinner that I just consumed, I'm guessing that I'm closer to +19.  Still more than a pound from last week, but considering I consumed a LOT of crap over the Christmas weekend, I think I'm doing ok.  I'm also interested in starting to get some more exercise... anyone have any prego-friendly suggestions for me?

**Update: Weighed myself this morning (12/28) and weighed only + 18... which is in line with my expected pound a week gain.  See!  I told you!  I'm not nuts or trying to rationalize my weight. ;)

Maternity Clothes: Maternity bottoms, regular clothes tops.

Gender: It's a girl!

Movement: Still moving... more at the end of the day than the beginning.  And, when she kicks in a staff meeting at work I have a hard time not laughing at the idea that she's just as bored as I am. ;)

What I miss: Fish.  Random thought I know, but I miss eating whatever seafood I want!

Sleep: The last few nights have been really rough.  I started using a body pillow and another for back support last night.  I don't know that it helped much.  Between not sleeping well and having to get up about twice to use the bathroom I was pretty tired this morning.

Symptoms: Having a hard time with these ligament pains... I keep moving in a way that didn't used to be a problem before and now I get a sharp muscle-pull like pain.  It's getting really annoying.

Cravings:Nothing really... at least, nothing out of the ordinary.

Best Moment this week: The holiday weekend.  I love the Christmas season and enjoyed spending the time with friends and family

What I am looking forward to: Starting to think about/plan the nursery.  Jacob and I plan to start painting in a couple of weeks, and I've been doing some Craigslist shopping for a rocker/glider to buy with my Christmas money. =)

8 Weeks

24 Weeks

Christmas Eve Recap

This was not technically our first Christmas in our new house.  Last year we closed and got our keys on Dec. 23rd and had a small Christmas celebration with the following evening with Jacob's folks, brother and niece and nephew, but this WAS our first full on Christmas... and we were asked to host Christmas Eve dinner for his extended family!

I LOVE hosting.  I enjoy the planning, organizing, decorating, etc. that goes along with it.  And, with the beautiful house that I am fortunate to have, hosting large parties in an option.

(Room for dinner parties/etc. was one of the requirements that I had when we were house hunting).

Several weekends ago, in preparation for the holiday, we went out to Sandy, Oregon to a Christmas tree farm to find our perfect tree (this is something that I haven't been able to do in YEARS!  I haven't had a big enough living space to have a tree in quite some time.  I was more than a little excited to finally be able to get one!)

Then it was time to hang our ornaments!  I had a BIG tote of Christmas stuff that has been sitting untouched for years, and Jacob's folks passed along his ornaments a couple of years back.  We decided to steer clear of the traditional colored "filler" ornament balls and leave our tree completely decorated in "memories".

I also set up my Christmas "village" and some lights.  The village is still pretty small... only a couple of buildings.  But, like I said, I haven't had the opportunity to really decorate for the holiday in quite some time.  And, to be able to have MY piano to put it on was an even greater gift.

As the hosts for Christmas Eve dinner, we expected about 24 guests, which meant we needed to move some furniture and arrange our "great room"/formal living room for dinner seating for two dozen.  With the big "L" shape that we have in our living/dining room we can totally do it! lol  I LOVE that!

When the majority of our guests had shown up for the potluck style event (Jacob's family does a waffle/breakfast bar for Christmas Eve dinner with everyone bringing an item) the cooking started... family style!  (Meaning:  I didn't have to cook solo for 24!  Woo!)  =)

After a filling dinner of waffles, eggs, bacon, sausage and a variety of different appetizers and desserts, it was time to clean up, relax, socialize and open some white elephant gifts... in our OTHER big room (I'm so lucky!)

The evening went off without a hitch.  Jacob and I both enjoyed spending some time with the family and playing hosts for the big event.  We were also happy for all of the yummy breakfast left-overs that we were left with!. ;)  Our guests were all gone by about 10:30, and we had some time to rest and relax before our Christmas Day festivities... which I'll cover in another post! =)