~ the Final Quarter begins... 30 weeks! ~

It’s been a HECTIC  past few weeks!  My little sis got married, we went to Austin for our good friends Rachel and Joe’s wedding, getting the condo ready for a new tenant, and have finished up some house renovations and begun the bathroom renovation on the house…. I’m starting to feel a little panicked as I haven’t really had any time to work on the nursery/should probably be reading more baby books/etc… but I still have 10 weeks give or take, so hopefully I’ll get it together!

I kind of wanted to wait to blog about Ellen and Rachel’s wedding until we get pictures back because they were both so incredibly beautiful and my iphone photos don’t do them justice.  But for the time being, I have to say that the fact that I was obviously completely sober and still had a BLAST should speak for itself as to how much fun they both were!

 SO adorable and so happy!

 

Sadie got festive for Ellen's wedding too :)

 With the beautiful bride!

 

Joe and Rach's get-away mode of transportation - love it!

I am always emotional at weddings, but watching your little sister come down the aisle… it took all I had to hold it together!  Plus, she looked absolutely perfect, the exact picture of what I imagined her looking like on her wedding day.  At she and Rachel’s weddings, it struck me (like it always does when I’m a bridesmaid)  while standing up at the alter as they took their vows how incredibly special it is to be a part of someone’s wedding day.  To stand by your close friend or sister’s side and get to witness that incredible moment as they get married is truly awesome.  (Plus, my friends have good taste - I adore all the grooms of the weddings I’ve ever been in, and it’s so exciting to see them and their reactions during the ceremony!)

Anyway, like I said, more to come on the specifics of the wedding once I can document with pics.

In baby news…

I’m 30 weeks today (took this pic last Thursday) !!  It’s sooooo soon, I can’t believe how fast the pregnancy has gone by!

Total Weight Gain: 23 lbs…  ugh.  Totally normal, but ugh.

Maternity Clothes: still a combo of maternity and normal clothes in larger sizes

Stretch Marks: Not yet.   I have recently started to see that linea nigra (the dark vertical line under the belly button caused by pregnancy hormones… weird)

 Belly Button in or out:  In still… but definitely more flat.

Rings on or off:  On… have to use soap some days to get them on, but they’re on!

Sleep: the Snoogle preggo pillow has continued to make sleep a million times better… it does create a fortress around me, so I don’t know how much Patrick loves it, but… it’s amazing. 

Best Moment of the Week: getting to see all of my family at Ben and Ellen's wedding and all of our Austin friends last weekend!

Miss Anything: Sushi and vino… same old, same old

Movement: tons… you can see my stomach moving so much more now, it’s crazy.

Food Cravings: not really any cravings, just not really wanting a lot at the moment I guess because it’s hot and I feel full really easily since she’s gotten so big.   Lots of smoothies at the moment

Symptoms: heartburn, starting to tire more easily again, and there is one area in my back that kills me by the end of the day

Exercise: running/walking and weights.  Also started some rowing at the gym since I feel like I’ve gained some in my arms.

Happy or Moody: UMMMMM  I could say mostly happy, but… I think it’s more accurate to say 50/50 on this one right now. 

Looking forward to: Going to Ashville next weekend, just Patrick and I and Sadie.  We haven’t had hardly any time between him traveling so much for work and everything else going on, so I’m so excited to get away for a few days.

 

 

~ this old house ~

It’s been awhile, but I’ve been busy making this old house our home ... again J

We are SO, SO happy to be back in Charlotte and in our house! And we jumped right in with the projects, natch. We took the bar out of the man cave and made it into an office area for Patrick since we’ll need the old office for a guest room as the old guest room becomes the nursery. This called for new paint and carpet in the guest room and new paint/closet shelving, a ceiling fan, and crown molding in Aubreys room. I'll put up photos of that soon with other nursery stuff.

Our biggest project since moving in has been tackling the backyard though. There was ivy completely overgrowing the patio as well as the rest of the yard. So we uprooted all of the crap everywhere and planted shrubs surrounding the patio/mulched. We also added a walkway down the other side of the patio to the yard, planted a weeping cherry tree, put up our birdhouse FINALLY (we bought it three years ago!) and basically just revamped the whole look of the yard. I’m kicking myself for not getting “before” pictures, but the important thing is, it looks amazing now.

we have literally 200 of these bricks in our backyard now... I swear they prob weigh 20 lbs each so you can imagine how long it took to get them all from Lowe's, in the car, back home..

but it's worth having a decent looking backyard now!

 

 

of course, a certain someone loves the ivy :)

 

I don’t know if it’s because I’m pregnant and get tired more easily or if it’s because he’s just a work horse, but Patrick is literally a machine when it comes to house projects… he will literally just work for 6, 7, 8 hours straight… it’s insane! It also helped that we got to employ my parents for a weekend with house/yard help (which I’m sure is the one thing they didn’t miss when we lived in TX, ha!)  We're still working on some little things like changing light fixtures and such and getting ready to start remodeling a bathroom and putting new floors in the laundry room... I definitely missed house projects!

In baby news, I’m pretty sure I’m getting bigger by the day ;) I have my diabetes test at my appointment this Friday, so I told myself I’m not eating ice cream this week… which is killing me. It’s only been three days… and it’s killing me. I think that’s a sign of a dependency problem :/

Also, today we had our 4D ultrasound and it was so incredible… I am just amazed at what technology can capture! I’m sure most people don’t really care about our ultrasound photos, but I just can’t get over how much you can see… we’re thinking she definitely inherited the “Boyle” nose and it’s kind of amazing to see something that resembles you, even if it’s just slightly and in an ultrasound! She has her right hand up by her face and is constantly moving it, waving, covering her eyes,

As Patrick says, she’s already the cutest little girl in town! no biased Dad here ;)

until next time ~ xoxo