Meet Ava Elise, Our Favorite Valentine

Mommy's first words to Ava: "Are you ready for this life?"

Ava Elise was born on February 12!

Ava, we can't believe your ours to keep. What did we do to deserve such a perfect little angel? You've already brought me more happiness than I thought my heart could hold.

The Nursery

While we're still anxiously awaiting the little one's arrival, here's a quick viewing of the nursery.

I saw this nursery while browsing design blogs and wanted to give something similar a shot.

Call it nesting if you will, but it was important to me to have the nursery fully finished before Ava's arrival... and the hubs and I pulled it off with plenty of time to spare.

After we refinished the floors, installed new double-pane windows and French doors, put up crown molding, base boards, window trims, and closet doors, and gave it a feminine lavender hue, our drab old office had already shown a total transformation. Then add the crib and dresser handed down from my brother, his wife, and her family (for which we are so grateful!), lavender damask and polka dot crib bedding, ruffled duvet cover for the big girl bed she will eventually grow into, number and alphabet posters in silver frames floating below a flock of bird mirror decals.

Still a few details to be added later, but I do believe our girl will be quite happy here.

Pregnancy Reflections

I just can't believe how incredibly fast (and easy!) this pregnancy has flown by. For nearly nine months, the developing baby inside of me has consumed all my thoughts and the majority of my actions (no wine?! no sushi?!). But even though I can hardly remember not being pregnant, it still feels like it was only yesterday when Alex and I heard the baby's heartbeat for the first time on my 28th birthday last year.

Unlike many of my pregnant friends, I had no morning sickness and very little nausea (which can be attributed to prenatal vitamins on an empty stomach, the foul stench of the Bart train, or the thought of raw chicken). Other than that, I had virtually no cravings (outside of my usual penchant for anything sweet, but especially fresh fruit during the third trimester).

I did my best to eat as healthy as possible to ensure that the little bun would be fully baked with the best ingredients for life. I gained the majority of my pregnancy weight quickly in the beginning, which prompted me to cut out sweets altogether and exercise for an hour nearly every day during the second trimester when my energy level started to pick up. This was the best thing I could have done because I honestly never felt better.

Practicing yoga at 7 months was the first time I found it to be a challenging workout.
[Please ignore the construction dust on the floor as we've been remodeling.]

And it's been no surprise that sleep has been my very best friend throughout the first and third trimesters. Now that I'm on maternity leave, I've been loving my 10 hours of sleep routine. But of course, this will all change in the next few days... and I have a hunch that every minute lost will be more than worth it, even more so than during the college days when we lived by the motto, "Sleep is a luxury."

Queen of Hearts Invitation Tutorial

I just finished these invitations for my friend's baby shower. We're having a Mad Hatter tea party in March but I thought it would be a good idea to send them out (or at least have them stamped, sealed, and ready to deliver) before I might go into labor.

I wrote out the invitation text in a simple Word doc and printed this White Rabbit image in the bottom-right corner of some 5x7 white linen card stock I ordered from CutCardStock.com.

I was trying to figure out the best way to decorate the backs of the invitations to make them look like actual playing cards. I was just about to glue a diamond patterned scrapbook paper onto the back of each one when my mom came up with the brilliant idea of enlarging a real playing card and photocopying it onto the back of each invitation. We also photocopied the front side of the Queen of Heart card (but covered up the center where we printed the invitation text).

Then use something like this to cut the rounded corners... et voila! 

 P.S. You might want to seal the deal with these awesome postage stamps.

Do you still love me?

Whenever Alex and I fight, this is what I say, playfully, to smoothe things over. I started doing this before we started dating (yes, we did have a couple little tiffs before we even started dating) and long before he first told me he loved me. Sometimes it frustrates him when I say it now and there's a real issue that needs to be discussed, as if I'm glossing over the problem or not taking it seriously. But for some reason, all playfulness aside, I need that reassurance at that particular moment when hostilities between us are escalating to know that even though we're fighting now, everything is going to be okay between us. And maybe subconsciously I also want to remind him not to be too harsh with me, because if he can still love me despite it all, maybe it's not really worth fighting about.

A Time to Nest

Though Ava is not due for another month, I am officially on maternity leave until June! (Not bad California!) Assuming Ava is on schedule of course. My job has been insanely hectic these last couple months since my boss left the company and I took on his role in addition to my previous one. Now that I will finally have some time to myself, there are so many things I want to accomplish. First of all, we are in the middle of major remodeling (we have to finish the nursery!) so of course that will take up the majority of my time for the next few weeks. But one project that has been hanging over my head is our wedding album that I am determined to finish before I have to start working on a baby book. I also want to start cooking more. I haven't really cooked much since Alex is home all day while I'm at work with an hour commute each way. But now it will be my turn to be the domestic housewife, if only for a few months. Oh, and in the next month or so I will also be caring for a newborn, and from what I hear that can be a pretty demanding job by itself, so we'll see how long I'll be cooking and cleaning during this limited "nesting" phase.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Holiday cookie party time!

For the last several years, one of my best friends Jenne (who hosted my adorable little birdie baby shower) throws a fantastic holiday cookie party. We each bake about three dozen cookies that we bring to share so that we end up with a sample of everyone's goods.

But the best part, everyone agrees, are the many, many sugar cookies Jenne provides that we decorate together. There are some very talented artists in the group, and my humble works pale in comparison, but here are some of my own sparkly-sprinkled favorites:

Jenne has the best cookie cutters and frosting colors! How about an ugly cookie sweater contest?