Canvas Print Giveaway

This post is going to look familiar so I apologize for that. The good thing though is that it is redundant because I am now giving away one beautiful custom canvas. You can win your choice of canvas up for $60 value and 60 x 40 centimeters in size. What do you need to do to win? Rafflecopter will guide you through everything.

If you missed my original post about these gorgeous personalized canvas prints, you can check out what I think of them below.

When I was contacted by Photo-Canvas to review their products, I jumped at the chance. The Photo-Canvas site was incredibly easy to use and offered a wide variety of options. My favorite option was the mirror wrap. I have had problems in the past with not being able to get my images to look right because the image needed to wrapped around the canvas. I know, I know that's technically the way it should be done but sometimes it doesn't always work out. The mirror option today solved this problem for me. Of course they will also wrap the traditional way too.

The canvas arrived insanely fast after my order was placed. I have been ordering a ton of stuff online lately in preparation for the new baby and I'm sure you know as well as I that fast shipping isn't usually the case, especially with personalized items. I was even more thrilled when I opened the package. The canvas turned out beautiful. I have ordered a couple of other canvas prints in the past from a different company and Photo-Canvas completely surpasses them in quality and craftsmanship. While my other canvases look nice, my Photo-Canvas canvas looks like someone personally took the time to make it for me rather than it being pumped out from some huge factory where you are strictly an order number. In the future this is where I will be buying all of my canvas prints from.

Although I went the more traditional route with the canvas I ordered, Photo-Canvas also has a large variety of artistic canvas prints that you can create and purchase. Here are some examples of my favorites.


Banksy Style Canvas, Lichtenstein Style Pop Art Canvas, Custom Portrait Canvas


a Rafflecopter giveaway

39 Weeks

Yep... still pregnant. Baby girl is still hanging out in utero. I have my appointment a little later today but I expect everything to be the same as it was last week. The one big change that started last night is that I have been nesting like a maniac. I don't really remember doing this with Aubs. Maybe it's because I had more time then. Now I need to get done what I need to get done in the little bits of time I have at night, during nap and when she is at preschool two mornings a week. My house doesn't exactly sparkle at the moment but it is clean. Clean enough that if my in-laws had to stay her with Aubs, I wouldn't be embarrassed. All my laundry is done, I have 30 meals or meat for meals stocked up in the freezer, I figured out what the weird smell was in the pantry(bad potatoes)and there are no dirty dishes in the sink. Pretty good if I do say so myself.

I am still uncomfortable, obviously that will just continue to get worse before it gets better. This afternoon I was having a ton of braxton hicks. I think it was because I was moving so much today. This morning while Aubs was at school I vacuumed the entire house and beat out the rug in Aubs room. Her rug is really cute but it is a cotton jersey shag and it collects an insane amount of dust, sand and hairbands. I also finished and put away all the laundry. Then when I picked her up from school we headed over to Sam's Club so I could stock up hurricane style before the baby gets here. I guess all that activity got the baby riled up, hence all the braxton hicks. They weren't painful though, just really tight.

In super cute pregnancy news, every time someone asks Aubrey about her sister, she pats and kisses my belly. It took her awhile but maybe be is warming up to the idea.

Aubrey's Birth Story- Better Late Than Never

It’s taken me a long time to sit down and actually write this because it happened almost 2 ½ years ago. Giving birth is a pretty surreal experience on it’s own and then trying to recall all the details so much later is tough. It’s one of those things that I think mothers tend to romanticize after the fact because they have so much love for their child that the joy of the event stays on as clear vision while the not so great stuff is forgotten over time. This is why I am making my husband help me fill in the blanks because although I remember some of the bad I mainly focus on the good, which is great but doesn’t make for a very honest birth story.

I was scheduled to be induced on March 7th, which was a Sunday at 6 o’clock. My due date was March 9th and the reason that my midwives wanted to induce me was because I had Gestation Diabetes. The complications that go along with GD are having large babies and possible placenta deterioration towards the end of the pregnancy. I decided to go along with the induction because I was pretty over being pregnant at that point and the risk of placenta deterioration scared me. Don’t get me wrong, having to push out a huge baby scared me too but a huge baby was a lot better than one that wasn’t getting proper nutrients.

We got to the hospital, checked in and were led to our delivery room. They had me change into a hospital gown and then had a nurse come to put an IV in my arm. Having the IV put in was one of the worse experiences of the whole process. It took three nurses and a ton of digging around in my arm for them to finally give up and call the “IV team”. Apparently I have deep veins that roll so it’s tricky for an IV to be administered. I have never been in the hospital before so I had no idea that this would be such an issue. Thankfully the “IV Team” nurse was able to get it in almost immediately. Unfortunately the damage was already done and I had bruises all up and down my arm and soreness for about a week afterwards. Next my midwife came and administered Cervidil to induce labor. I was also hooked up to monitors at this point to track any contractions and the baby’s heart rate. I was also put on a monitor to track my blood pressure because it got unusually high when I got to the hospital. Nothing life threatening but my blood pressure is always prefect so they wanted to keep an eye on it’s new elevated level. What can I say, I was just a bit nervous about having my first baby.

The hubs and I then settled in for the night and ordered some dinner. I was on a restricted diet because of my GD, I had salmon and broccoli and he had meatloaf and mash potatoes. It was our last supper as a carefree young married couple. After we ate we decided to watch the Oscars because there wasn’t much else on and Joe wasn’t about to argue with me on what to watch. I wasn’t too concerned about sleeping because I figured that the induction would be a long process because of what I had read online. Plus I had no signs of labor before we arrived at the hospital so I thought that she was going to be a tough one to coax out, I was wrong.

Around midnight I started to get pretty regular contractions. Nothing crazy just your run of the mill early labor contractions that were happening about every 10-15 minutes. I may have not even know these were regular contractions but I was hooked up to a machine that told me they were. At about 3 am I felt what I thought was my water breaking. It felt like just a small gush of water so I rang the nurse and let her know. She said that there wasn’t enough fluid to test and to buzz her back if I had felt anymore. As soon as my next contraction hit it felt like a water balloon has burst in my stomach. It was the strangest feeling and that’s the only way I can really describe it. There was no denying now that my water had broken. I buzzed the nurse and then had Joe help me to the bathroom so I could clean up a little. I dripped the whole way- it was pretty funny actually. Joe had to grab a towel and wipe up after me so that the nurse didn’t slip in Aubs amniotic fluid when she came in to check on me.

Since my contractions still weren’t insanely painful and it seemed to be go time, we tried to lay down and get some rest. I’m pretty sure I didn’t get any actual sleep and I can’t remember if my the hubs did or not. Around 6 am is when things started to hurt, like really hurt. The timeline from here on is kind of blurry but I know it was light out by the time I asked for an epidural so I must have endured the pain until about 7:30/8:00 because it was March and it gets light later during that time of year. They told me that the epidural guy was currently tied up but they could give me pain meds through my IV or I could take a hot shower to help alleviate the pain. I opted for the shower because I figured if I was going to take any pain meds at all, I might as well wait for the good stuff.

I was in the shower for at about 45 minutes, although it didn’t feel like that long. Having the hot water on my back during my contractions was such a relief. If I ever decide to attempt natural child birth, the only way I would do it is in a tub because of the warm water. I should also mention that before I went to the hospital the night before, I had spent about an hour blowing out and flat ironing my hair. I had this vision of myself in pictures right after the birth looking fabulous. Obviously my vision drastically changed once I went into heavy labor. Anyway the only thing that got me to leave the shower was the promise that the anesthesiologist was on his way.

I got myself dried off and re-gowned and headed back to my bed. That 5 or 10 minutes waiting for him was complete hell. I think it was because I had gotten so much relief from the shower that my body went into a little bit of shock when I started feeling so much pain again. Not only that but my contractions were pretty much on top of each at that point so by the time I would catch my breath from one another one would start up. When the anesthesiologist arrived I was told to sit up on the side of the bed and try not to move. Joey stood in front of me and I was able to lean against him. The shock that my body was going through had me shaking like a leaf. Thankfully they were able to get the epidural in between my contractions when I was shaking a little bit less. Oh how much did I love that epidural and the epidural guy (whose name happened to be Kelly), so much that words can not even describe. I still felt my contractions and was still in some pain but nothing even comparable to what I had been in. The also let me have a cherry ice pop at this point and it was the best ice pop that I had ever eaten.

Within 45 minutes I started to feel a ton of pain in my right hip. The pain grew more intense with every contraction. I let the nurses know and they believed that my epidural was positioned where it was only going to the left side of my body. They had me lay on my right side to try and have gravity do it’s thing but that didn’t work. Plus it was hard to lay on my right hip because it hurt so bad. They decided to try to “top off” the meds in my epidural and hope that the increase of medicine would alleviate my pain. Unfortunately that didn’t work either, it just made the left side of my body completely numb to the point where I couldn’t feel my left leg at all. When they kept having me turn side to side my husband had to help me because I couldn’t feel anything. An anesthesiologist who had just started her shift came into check on me after she heard about my situation. She saw me gripping the bed so hard that my knuckles turned white every time I had a contraction and asked the nurse if they had recently checked to see if I was fully dilated. The nurse checked and sure enough I was at 10 centimeters.

The nurse then briefed me on how the whole push thing was going to work and then said that we were going to do a few practice pushes until my midwife got there. My husband held my one leg and the nurse held the other and we waited for my next contraction so that I could push. Within the first few pushes little Aubs was already willing to come out. The nurse told me to stop pushing so that she could find my midwife. After about 10 minutes of feeling like the baby was going to fall out of my body, my midwife arrived and we were able to get the show on the road. After 28 minutes of pushing Aubrey Hope was born at 12:19 pm on March 8, 2010.

They immediately put her up onto my belly and told me not to pull her because she was still attached to the cord. I couldn’t believe how little and perfect she looked and that she was the one in my belly that whole time. As soon as the cord was cut and they wiped her off a bit, I pull her up onto my chest and laid with her skin to skin for about 10 minutes. She didn’t cry but she was very alert. I then nursed her and she latched on immediately. During this time they did whatever was necessary down below, I had a small tear that required a couple of stitches. I suppose at some point during this time I delivered the placenta too but I honestly have no recollection of it. I was so focused on Aubs that I have no idea what was going on with my lower half.

After I was all cleaned up and Aubrey had nursed for awhile I literally had to pull her off my boob so that they could weigh her and check all the that other stuff. She weighed 7 lbs 9.5 ounces and scored a 9 on her apgar. I remember just staring at her when she was laying on the warming table and they were checking everything. I thought she looked so much like my side of the family. Strangely enough, I though I saw my granddad in her most at the time. Also I should mention that Joe held her for the first time after I was done nursing and before they started weighing her and checking her out.

All in all it was a pretty easy birth beside the few hiccups. During all the craziness I told my husband I never wanted to do that again but the mind is pretty good at helping you forget like I had said before. I am just so thankful that she was healthy and that I was able to hold her for so long right after she was born. Those first moments of her life are something that I will cherish forever.

38 Weeks

38 down- 2 to go, hopefully no more than that. Well I suppose I should get the complaining out of the way first. I have been really uncomfortable the past few days. I have a hard time sitting because the baby likes to stretch out a lot and when I'm sitting, especially on the floor with Aubs, the baby will push up hard against my right rib cage. Aubs doesn't quite get it when I need to stand up when we are in the middle of playing a game so she has been getting frustrated with me lately.

Other than that the baby is good. I have been 2 centimeters dilated and 50% effaced since last week, no change since the first check. At my appointment this morning I made my midwife feel around my belly to see if she could tell me if the baby was big or not because she feels bigger than Aubrey to me. Of course my midwife doesn't know for sure but she said that this baby feels like she will be bigger than Aubrey who was 7 lbs 9.5 ounces when she was born. I told her I'm cool with anything under 9 pounds and she laughed at me and said as long as the baby is healthy. She's right but for some reason I'm terrified that this baby is huge, that she is going to be 10 plus pounds. One of the more silly reasons is because I hate when people say, "Whoa that's a big baby." I think that if she is 9 plus pounds then I will definitely get a ton of those comments because 9 is on the bigger side. I guess I just can't be so sensitive about it. There were a handful of people who said that about Aubrey when she was born and it really rubbed me the wrong way. I mean she wasn't even 8 pounds, I think in the 7's is pretty average. Actually I hear about babies being in the 7s and the 8s way more then them being 6 pounds or less. Oh well, we will just have to wait and see.

We are so excited to finally get to meet this little one!

My Top 5 Baby Items for Newborns

Today I am linking up with Melissa to share my top 5 picks for baby items. I'm going with straight home from the hospital brand new baby items because I know that a lot of soon to be moms are curious on what has worked for other moms. Plus I think as the baby ages you can kind of feel out what you need and what you don't. Here are the 5 things that I'm making sure I have for when I first bring our new baby home.



Boppy- or really any other nursing pillow but I personally used a boppy. If you're nursing this will be your best friend in no time. It helps comfortably position your baby for you while you are nursing. It also leaves at least one of your hands free to do other things like take a drink of water (you think you're thirsting now- just wait until you are nursing every 2 hours), using your phone or pretty much anything.


Miracle Blanket- Aubs loved to be swaddled up tight and from what I've heard most babies like to be swaddled to some extent. Being a nervous new mom I was constantly afraid that she would pull herself out of her blanket she was swaddled in at night and cover her face. This completely solved that problem because it is pretty much a baby straight jacket and there is no getting out of it if you use it correctly. I'm sure that older babies who are swaddled might be able to but we stopped swaddling Aubrey around 4 months when she began to roll over.


Earth Mama Natural Nipple Butter- If you are nursing, your nipples are about to get more of a workout than they ever have in their life. This will leave you feeling very sore and sensitive. I tried many of the popular brands of nipple ointments on the market but didn't love any of them. Honestly a lot of them were too thick to apply for how sore I was. I got the Earth Mama brand after a recommendation from a friend and never looked back.


Bundlers/Sleeper Gowns- I received a lot of these from my baby shower when I was pregnant with Aubs and I didn't like them at first glance. I thought that they were weird and that I wouldn't really use them. Well I couldn't have been more wrong. They make night time diaper changes so easy. All you have to do is pull them up to change your little ones diapers, no zipping or snapping required. This is especially helpful if you have a babe that tends to drift off after feeding, they are less likely to wake up the less you fuss with them. My second runner up is sleepers that have snaps. Stay away from the ones with zippers when your baby still isn't sleeping through the night. With zippered sleepers you pretty much have to undress the baby completely just to change their diaper. At least with the snaps, you can just do their legs.


source
A Pen & Paper- this is pretty much for peace of mind. The first few weeks that Aubs was here, I wrote down every feeding and every wet or dirty diaper. The reason I was so on top of this was that I wanted to make sure Aubrey was eating enough and I was able to tell that by the amount of diapers she was producing. You could probably also log this on your phone, I'm sure there is an app out there somewhere for it. I just thought leaving a pen and paper out on the counter was convenient because then my husband could also write down any diapers that he had changed.


I hope that this helps any soon to be moms out there. If you are a mom already and want to add something to the list, leave it in the comments so that you can help a new mom out too.

Bubbles with Nanny

A few months ago, bubbles were big around my house. At first they were big fun but then they turned into a big pain. It was a 24/7 bubble blowing zone. Every time a bubble container was spotted not matter what we were doing at the time, we had to stop and blow bubbles. One thing that also began to cause a problem was that Aubrey wanted to blow the bubbles herself and couldn't quite get the hang of it. Sure she did it every so often but combine not being able to do it every time with being two years old and you have yourself a recipe for disaster.
I started to hide the bubbles every time we were done playing with them and they were soon forgotten. Over the weekend we were at my mother in-laws house and she said that she was going to go inside and get bubbles. I warned her that it might not be a good idea but she could give it a try. Well surprise surprise Mama- your girl is now a bubble blowing queen.

Great Baby Boutiques- Kivelli Baby Giveaway

If you're anything like me you like unique baby items. The best place to find these items is through specialty boutiques. Luckily we now have the online world to help us find these great shops and items. A boutique that I recently stumbled upon is Kivelli Baby. All of their items are beyond beautiful and the quality is top notch.

Kivelli Baby carries everything from blankets to children's jewerly to booties but the item that I would really like to talk to you about is Kivelli Baby's travel blankets. The idea of the travel blankets is absolutely genius. They are just like your child's favorite soft blanket but a bit smaller to prevent bulk and drag. They also have some great extras that will have you and your little loving this blanket in no time. The front of the blanket has a pouch where you can store a snack, extra binkies(aka pacifier) or any of your on the go essentials. There is also small hook where you can hang your child's favorite toy or even tether that binky to prevent it from dropping. On top of all those great features it also comes in beautiful damask prints.

Wouldn't you love to win one in the color of your choice?





a Rafflecopter giveaway

37 Weeks

Yep! You read the title right, I am 37 weeks today and technically full term. Which means that this sweet little babe can come on out whenever she pleases. One more week on the inside would be good though because this mama still has things to do. Actually my ideal date would be September 1st because it was my Grandma's birthday and I know that she would just get a kick out of one of her great grandchildren being born on her birthday. Also if you have been reading for awhile you know that my due date September 6th is actually the day before my 29th birthday. I'd rather not spend my birthday in the hospital so a week early would be nice. All these wishes are great but you know as well as I that she is going to come whenever she wants regardless of my silly requests. I was induced with Aubs 2 days before my due date and she was born the day before. My induction went really fast so I'm assuming if I hadn't been induced then she would have come in the next couple of days regardless. Speaking of Aubs birth- I really need to write her birth story down before little sis comes. Obviously little sis is going to have one so it's only fair that Aubs has one too. Maybe I can get something in the works by tomorrow but don't hold me to it.

Kid's Craft: Coffee Filter Butterflies

When I was in high school I was a day camp counselor at a resort called Skytop Lodge every summer. Four summers of wrangling 3-10 year olds left a ton of craft ideas in my mental filing cabinet. Sadly many of them aren't 2 year old friendly but I remembered one craft the other day that I thought would be perfect for Aubrey- coffee filter butterflies!

The craft is simple and easy plus the only skill required to complete most of it is the ability to scribble with markers which happens to be right up Aubrey's alley. Another bonus to this craft is that you probably already have the materials in your home. All you need are markers, coffee filters and clothes pins. I unfortunately didn't have the coffee filters (thanks Keurig) or clothes pins but I just picked them up on my regular grocery store shopping trip.


First, get that cute kid of yours to sit down and color a few coffee filters.
Scribbles are encouraged since all the colors will run anyway.



The next few steps are all you unless your child is older. Explain to your child what you are doing regardless especially when you bleed the colors in water. Aubs loved watching that part.

Fold the coffee filters in half 3 times to form a triangle.


Place coffee filter tip down into a glass or cup with a little bit of water in it and let coffee filter absorb the water almost to the top. It will continue to absorb through once you remove it from the water.


Make those clothes pins do double duty and hang the filters out to dry in the sun.


Once they are dry pinch the middle and clip into clothes pins. You can get fancy like me and add stick on jewels or leave them plain. You could also let your little one have at the clothes pins with washable markers if they (and you) are up to it.



That's it! I hope you enjoy this fun and easy craft and hopefully I can keep adding more as Aubrey gets older.

My Own Masterpiece- Personalized Canvas Print

If you haven't guess already, I love photographs. Taking them, displaying them and looking at photos that others have captured. One of the more recent trends in displaying photos is by having them printed on canvas. Of course I am totally on board with this trend because it's like having your own little personal masterpiece on display in your home.

When I was contacted by Photo-Canvas to review their products, I jumped at the chance. The Photo-Canvas site was incredibly easy to use and offered a wide variety of options. My favorite option was the mirror wrap. I have had problems in the past with not being able to get my images to look right because the image needed to wrapped around the canvas. I know, I know that's technically the way it should be done but sometimes it doesn't always work out. The mirror option today solved this problem for me. Of course they will also wrap the traditional way too.

The canvas arrived insanely fast after my order was placed. I have been ordering a ton of stuff online lately in preparation for the new baby and I'm sure you know as well as I that fast shipping isn't usually the case, especially with personalized items. I was even more thrilled when I opened the package. The canvas turned out beautiful. I have ordered a couple of other canvas prints in the past from a different company and Photo-Canvas completely surpasses them in quality and craftsmanship. While my other canvases look nice, my Photo-Canvas canvas looks like someone personally took the time to make it for me rather than it being pumped out from some huge factory where you are strictly an order number. In the future this is where I will be buying all of my canvas prints from.


I hung mine at the end of the hallway on a bright green wall, I just love the way it pops off that color and catches my eye.


Although I went the more traditional route with the canvas I ordered, Photo-Canvas also has a large variety of artistic canvas prints that you can create and purchase. Here are some examples of my favorites.


Banksy Style Canvas, Lichtenstein Style Pop Art Canvas, Custom Portrait Canvas


If you are in the market for a canvas or are stumped on a present for someone, I highly recommend that you check Photo-Canvas out. Their customer service and quality greatly surpasses those that I have experienced from other companies. Also right now they have a buy 2 get 1 free deal on their standard and montage canvas prints so you can get one for yourself and then a couple as gifts. Awesome, right?




I was provided with a Photo-Canvas product for review but all opinions stated in this post are my own.

Currently

Can you see my belly in her sunnies? Completely unintentional but hard to avoid these days.

It's currently 4:15 in the morning and I have been tossing and turning in bed for 45 minutes because I have way too much on my mind and am feeling overwhelmed. Instead of just lying there worrying my sleepy little head off, I figured I would come out in the living room and write this post which I had planned on writing during nap time today but chances are I will probably want to nap too.

Wishing: For my mind to shut off when it's time to sleep- but that one is pretty obvious. What I am really wishing for is a healthy new baby and a safe delivery. I'm a little scared about going into labor at home because Aubs was induced so every aspect of my labor last time was monitored and I was able to buzz a member of the medical staff if I had even the slightest question. This time since I don't have GD there is really no reason for me to be induced so chances are I will be going through all of the early stages of labor at home. I know I'll be fine and women all over the world do and have been doing it since the beginning of man. That fact really doesn't make me any less nervous, even though I wish it did.

Reading: Nothing really at the moment except other blogs. I go in and out of stages where I read a lot and right now I'm in a stage where I am not reading at all. It's probably also because I have so much on my plate at the moment that I feel guilty reading. Also any "spare" moment that I have had over the past couple of weeks has been spent watching the Olympics.

Cooking: Freezer meals. When I was pregnant with Aubs I had stocked up about 40 meals so that we wouldn't end up ordering take out or I wouldn't stress myself out about cooking when I was exhausted or felt like I didn't have the time. I probably won't make quite as many this time around because like I said before, I feel like there is a million other things that need to be done too.

Anticipating: Besides the impending birth of my second child, I am anticipating my 36 week check-up later this morning. With all of the braxton hicks and uncomfortable pressure I am having, I am wondering if I have made any progress as far as dilation goes.

Missing: Being able to move around comfortably. This is pretty much a problem in everything I do. It's most noticeable when I am doing dishes because I always end up with a wet belly or when I am playing with Aubs. You should have seen me trying to color with her on the floor the other day. Yeah- coloring on the floor won't be happening again until there is no longer a small human residing in my abdomen.

Don't forget to enter the Shabby Apple Giveaway! It ends Friday at midnight EST.


Linking up with the lovely Wendy & Ranadin today. Head on over and check out what everyone else is up to or better yet make a list and link up too.

36 Weeks

I'm standing in the nursery here. The crib goes right under this gorgeous quote that my friend Jaime made for me. It looks a little crooked in this picture but it's not in person- blame the hubs photog skills for that one.


Welp... only 4 weeks left! I'm pretty excited about this because I'm getting pretty uncomfortable to do anything and also and more importantly we will get to meet the little miss. Back to the uncomfortable part. Maybe I just don't remember it but I don't remember feeling quite like this with Aubs. Joe and I went out to dinner on Saturday night for our anniversary and planned to do some shopping afterwards. Dinner was great but shopping didn't go as smooth. About an hour in I started having contractions and had to stop walking about every 50 feet. Umm yeah so that was a little scary. When I was pregnant with Aubrey I was so eager to get things going that I was walking laps around my neighborhood at nearly 40 weeks and didn't feel as much as a cramp. I don't know if it's because it's my second baby or what. This whole pregnancy has been so different from my first one that it's crazy.

I'm good otherwise. I am actually getting really excited to have a newborn around again and to get our life as a family of four started. We are also finally starting to get all of our million little projects checked off of our list. The nursery is almost done and Aubs big girl room is well on it's way to being fully decorated. So yeah other than feeling like my water is going to break in public, life is pretty sweet.

Fantasy Baby Registry

Since all I have is new baby on the brain lately, I thought I'd share some of the baby items that I have been lusting after. This is my fantasy registry for two reasons. The first reason being that I don't have a registery because I don't need one. I have an almost 2 1/2 year old and we saved all of her stuff. Plus with number also being a girl, we even have clothing covered. The second reason is because I wouldn't even register for most of this stuff because a lot of it is pricey and unnecessary. It sure is pretty though and a girl can dream, right?


A. Serena & Lily Sausalito Moses Basket- I love moses baskets. I have always wanted one even with Aubs but I don't think I would use it much. It would most likely become a photo prop. I like the standard weaved moses baskets too but since this is my "fantasy" registry, I found the fanciest moses basket around.
B. mamaRoo "bouncer"- I love these things, they are like futuristic baby gear. Instead of vibrating like a regular bouncer it actually simulates a person bouncing a baby. If you have a minute, head to their website and check out the video.
C. Boon Flair Highchair in pink- We already have a highchair and this pink one would totally clash with my house but isn't it the coolest high chair that you've ever seen?
D. Baby Bean Bag I found this on Pinterest awhile back. Doesn't it look like the comfiest baby seat ever? I wouldn't mind one of these in grown-up size.
E. Tribe Singapore Sling Bag- Oh this bag... so beautiful but sooooo expensive.
F. Britax B-Ready Stroller with all the bells and whistles I kind of hate strollers. No I'm not one of those attachment parents who thinks that stroller are evil but I do think they are evil because they are a pain in the ass. Being in a crowd with a stroller sucks. You can barely move, you constantly feel like your going to run over everyone's heals and your child pretty much has the worst view ever. I actually don't plan on getting a double stroller at all. Yes, I may change my mind but at this point the plan is to put the baby in an Ergo and Aubs in the stroller or let Aubs walk because she has never been a big fan of a stroller. With that said, I would like this fancy stroller just in case. I don't have the money for a just in case stroller so I will stick to my original plan for now.


These next few items, I don't actually need but the prices aren't too bad and I will probably end up getting them anyway.


Blooming Bath- Love this. We already have a baby bath which was a hand me down from Aubs cousins but I really do love this blooming bath. Plus I think that Aubs will get a kick out of helping me give the baby a bath in the sink with it.
Beaba Babycook Baby Food Maker- I really wanted one of these last time around but we had to buy so much new stuff that spending the money on this seemed like too much of a splurge. I did mention that I wanted this to my mom the other day so Gam and Granddad may be gifting it.
Minnetonka Double Fringe Side Zip Bootie- These don't need much of an explanation, I mean come on.

Shabby Apple Giveaway

All items from Shabby Apple. Clockwise- Headliner Dress, Love Knot Necklace, Serenade Dress and "A Elephant Never Forgets" Print.

Have you heard of Shabby Apple? If not, I suggest you head on over now and check it out. It is a boutique with the most adorable dresses around. If you need a dress for any kind of occasion whether it be formal or casual, I bet you'll be able to find something from Shabby Apple that is perfect. Many of their dresses are vintage inspired and modest without looking overly "mature" making them perfect for family events and weddings. They also have beautiful skirts, blouses and swimwear.

In addition to women's clothing they also have children's clothes, housewares, jewelry and other accessories. I'm a big fan of their necklaces and earrings. The necklaces are simple but still make a statement and many of the earrings are made with gorgeous gemstones. I also am pretty sure that I will be purchasing that elephant print shown above for Aubrey's room this weekend.

Shabby Apple has been kind enough to give one of my readers a $50 gift card to their boutique. There are just a few things you have to do below to enter- easy as pie. In addition to the gift card they would also like to offer all of my readers 10% off through the end of the month by using the code mallorysmusings10off.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Put a Ring On It

Four years today, I married my husband. I'm still pretty sure it was the right decision ;-) Since I've shared some pictures here and here, I thought I would share our wedding video. Enjoy!

0100 from mallory on Vimeo.

Video by Well Spun Weddings


Happy Anniversary Babe!

35 Weeks

Just when you thought I couldn't get any bigger, I went ahead and proved you wrong. The scary part? I still have five weeks to grow to even more shocking proportions. I stopped by my husband's office last week and got 3 twin comments. Fantastic! Oh well, I mean I am the woman who the doctors were worried about because the baby was measuring small. I guess they wouldn't think that now, huh?

Physically I haven't been feeling too great. I hate to be the whiny pregnant woman because I feel very fortunate to be able to carry a baby to term but I have been feeling a bit sick lately. I have headaches quite frequently, especially in the morning. My blood pressure has been perfect at all my check-ups so as of right now it isn't much of a concern. The other thing that has been going on is that I have to be careful about not going too long without eating. I used to wait until Aubrey laid down for her nap to eat lunch but now I have to have a snack before hand or else I get a bit nauseous and jittery.

In other baby news, I started washing teeny tiny clothes this week which makes everything seem a lot more real. Some of the clothes are so unbelievably small that it is hard to imagine Aubs had ever fit in them. The nursery is also finally coming together so that's nice. We definitely had Aubs nursery done way sooner than this one but that's okay. This nursery is a but more difficult because we really don't have a theme, just colors. With Aubrey's everything was from the Pottery Barn Penelope collection so we pretty much just bought all that stuff and painted the room pink. This time around I'm looking for things everywhere and anywhere to go in the room. I've had some pretty good luck finding things that work nice from Land of Nod.


Trying to get Aubs to give her sister a kiss-
I'm hoping we can get a more successful shot like this before the baby is no longer in there.


Linking up with The Paper Mama