Summer

Life is better in the summer with grass between our toes 

and sun kissing our skin. 

Hope you're enjoying yours.

Maternity / Spring Family Pictures (& a giveaway winner)

I just had to share our pictures from the fabulous Tess Smith Photography from a couple weeks ago! Once again, I'm in love with the pictures and there's a reason she's been our family photographer for 3 years now.

There were a few more, but these are my favorites!

And now for our winner of the Jamberry Nails giveaway! Congrats Gillian!

9 Years Down

Happy 9 years of wedded bliss to my soulmate and other half. I feel so blessed to have found my best friend for life and thank God every day that you are mine.

"Soulmates; two halves of the same soul 

joined together in life's journey."

No Relaxation Here

The whole 'try and really relax in your last month of pregnancy' thing isn't really happened for me thus far. This weekend I had two photo shoots, we ran around shopping for a new patio furniture set and we spent a lot of time working on the landscaping around the new patio.

 

Other than that, we enjoyed the pool and I worked on Deuce's nursery a bit. Hopefully next weekend will be a bit more relaxing!

Had to share this adorable smile from the newborn I photographed on Saturday. Some say smiles at this age are all gas, but I believe that at times they are genuine. You can't tell me this adorable smirk is all gas and not just a happy baby girl!

Also don't forget to enter to win a full set of Jamberry Nails! Click here for information!

3 Cheers for Summer

My absolute favorite season is here and I can't WAIT to enjoy the heat by the pool for one more month until baby girl makes her debut.

Pure Michigan

For our last getaway as a family of 3, we chose to head over to South Haven, MI and enjoy a few days laying on the beach. We rented a small cottage and enjoyed not doing much in the sunny and warm 70-80 degree temps each day. We basically took long beach walks, tossed the ball around and built sandcastles. (Ok, Derek did a lot more than I did with Drew on the beach but hey, it's hard to squat down 35 wks preggo and play in the sand!) All of this was then followed by making s'mores and long restful sleeps each night. Pure bliss I tell ya!

Here are just a few of the 200 shots I took while there. We were definitely blown away by how amazing these beaches are. The sand was as fine and soft as Florida and the water was blue and clean!

On the last night we head into town to enjoy the views from the Pier after dinner and a stroll around the quaint downtown area. 

  

On our drive back to Cleveland, we detoured up north a bit to Detroit for a one night stay. My brother will be starting residency there next month and I'm SUPER excited to have him live only 2 hours away. We've been on opposite sides of the country for the last 5 years and I have missed having him close! 

Also had to get a bump shot with my dad. I'd say I'm bigger, but not by much! 

The key word around these parts is *relax* and we did just! Both with my boys at the beach and then for a day with my family. Life is going to speed up enough soon so we're doing what we can now to enjoy these last 5-6 weeks!

35 Week Update

Five(ish) more weeks? Um... wow.

We have a few more final touches to the nursery, but hopefully I'll be getting pictures up soon of that! The pack n play is set up, the car seat out and ready and all clothes/accessories have been washed. I'm also so excited for our house cleaner coming tomorrow morning that we plan to use at least through August as I just can't keep up. My nesting has been out of control and seeing dog hair sets me off so she's much needed!

Now for a quick update and bump picture from our trip to South Haven, MI this past weekend:

And just for shits and giggles, here's my mom in her 8th month of pregnancy with me! Can I just say I'm SO glad that I don't have to own or wear a 1980's working gal maternity slip? 

Nursery Mobile

So I still need a few final touches in the nursery before I put full pictures up, but had to share my biggest DIY project.

After we found out Deuce was going to be a girl back in February, I started envisioning what I wanted for the nursery. I knew I didn't want too matchy-matchy and I'm not a big pink person, so I started my search for bright, colorful nurseries that still had a feminine touch. In my quest for mobiles, I came across this post and fell in love.

I decided not to take pictures along the way as I followed her tutorial word for word. It took a sore hand from punching circles and probably 3 hours total to make, but in the end I love it.

The paper chips are quite thin that a window breeze makes the entire thing sway. Can't wait for baby girl to enjoy it soon.

More to come from the nursery soon!

Wanna See Some Boring Concrete?

We're working on a new patio and the first step was to tear out the tiny slab and build a larger patio floor. So, yeah, it's kinda boring to look at but whatevs. We still have to purchase a new table and chairs, build up some mulch beds around the curve drop off, decorate with flowers and more, but I had to at least show off the newest piece!

Here's the boring builders stock slab. (Ignore the ugly patio furniture, it will be gone soon)

The slab didn't even stretch all the way to the house and the dogs would dig in those straw/dirt areas. Drew's toys did not fit with our table and chairs, grill, plants, etc and it was just plan boring and ugly.

Here are some mid-construction pictures:

We choose not to do stamped concrete as it was another $1,000 that we didn't feel was necessary. (Has anyone ever gotten concrete torn up and re-poured before? ...it's pricey!) Instead, we added a border, rounded the edges, added colors and more than doubled the square footage that we had from the builders slab. The color in the main area isn't quite what we wanted but our contractor will be staining it darker for us soon.

View of the shape from our bedroom:

Now just picture it with a 2 foot mulch bed around the rounded part, some cute furniture and tons of plants/flowers!

We are most happy with the amount of room it gives us now and love the rounded edge. Can't wait to get it all finalized!

Now the countdown begins for how many days left until I can enjoy some summer brew on an adirondack out there! 

Surprise Sprinkle!

"Friends are the family you choose" 

-Jess C. Scott

Some of you might have seen on IG that my girlfriends threw a surprise sprinkle for baby #2 this past Saturday. I've mentioned on here before that we don't have any family within a day's drive and these ladies have become my family over the past few years. I value each of our friendships highly and think the world of each of them!

My dear friend Lana hosted and even made a Kansas City-ish dinner with delicious pulled pork and cheesy potatoes. How thoughtful is she?

Thanks again for making me feel so loved ladies! XOXO

Derek's Birthday Gift

You know that feeling when you come across the PERFECT gift for someone? Well back in January, something popped up online about driving real race cars and I just knew Derek would love it. Except for telling a few friends, I've kept it secret for 5 months and was super excited for the day to finally be here.

So on Saturday morning, we loaded up the car and drove to the track. We're really not Nascar people so it was a new experience for us, but we picked a perfect day with the sun and 74 degree temp.

Derek had to sit in a 35 minute class before suiting up and being assigned a car. I guess these cars can get up to 150mph but only the pros with the ride-alongs do that. I purchased the driving experience for Derek so that he could have total control and he thinks he got up to 120-125. That's still too fast for me and I definitely had a case of the nervous toots.

If you are into Nascar, then I'd strongly recommend doing this at a track near you! And if you aren't, it was still a fun once-in-a-lifetime experience!

Ball Boy

As much as Derek has been so excited to play baseball with Drew, I've been dying to get my guy on the tennis courts in our neighborhood!

Fun fact of the day: I first held a tennis racket when it was barely bigger than me and began lessons shortly after. I played forever and went on to be co-captain of my high school team senior year. I was USTA ranked in high school and even won the intramural tournament in college my freshman year. It was my chosen sport and I loved it.

So, as soon as the weather was nice and we had an evening without plans, we hit the courts. Thankfully, my mom found this picture of me at my first set of lessons around the same age as Drew. Fun, right?! And don't judge, mustard pants were all the rage in the 80's.

I've definitely lost my game and the belly gets in the way of my swing, but at Drew's age it's just about hitting the ball over and over and over with two hands. He's a lefty so it was a bit backwards for me, but I was giddy with smiles at the thought of having courts so close during his childhood. And the best part right now? He freaking LOVES collecting the balls. I'll enjoy that phase as long as I can.

I have the cutest ball boy.

Derek's Birthday

Another year, another birthday down for my amazing husband.

So lucky to have celebrated your last 12 birthdays together. I know you read this blog so I can't reveal your gift here but you'll find out in a couple of days and you're going to love it.

And I  fell even more in love with you when you said you only wanted red lobster for your birthday. It was glorious devouring cheddar biscuits with you.

Love you Bunzer and Happy Birthday!

Tears Behind the Glasses

I know phases come and go, but this one has been going on for a couple weeks and I have to admit that it's been pretty soul crushing. 

Along with Drew going through a definite 'trying threes' phase, almost at the same time a couple weeks ago, he began this daddy-only phase as well. Double whammy. But I get it, kids go through phases and it's a normal part of development. Just like his slobbering and nail biting and yes/no phases, we'll get through this one too. 

And then Saturday at 1:12pm, we hit the lowest point possible.

We were in the pool and he was clinging to daddy and wouldn't let me play/hold/swim with him. Fine, whatever. I'll just hang out and enjoy the weightlessness feeling on my big belly while they bond more. Then at one point, Derek said "why don't you jump in once to mommy". Instantly his smile faded, he looked at me with a pouty face and said "I don't like you, I want daddy".

My stomach clenched.

Thankfully we were in the pool and I had my big sunnies on, or Derek and others would have seen the tears streaming. I played it off well but my insides felt like they were burning and I was beyond crushed. I get that my pregnancy hormones are already raging, but I was full on fighting a nasty cry.

We all say things like this growing up. I'm sure I said that to mom or dad at some point, but I wasn't expecting that until Drew was a teenager or around then. I'm sure he didn't mean it, said "I love you mommy" out of the blue only a bit later, and life went on, but I will never forget those words. 

Ever.

It's the timing that stinks the most. I had hoped to enjoy more snuggles, kisses and sweet moments with my little man over these next 7 weeks before baby sister comes. I wouldn't have minded if this phase had come right when she's born as it would have probably made life a bit easier on all of us. I guess that's life though. 

Someone please bring me a margarita.

(that i can put in the fridge and drink in 7 weeks)