For months I’ve looked for the perfect pumpkin onesie for Andrew’s first birthday. I know I am picky and not normally cheap when it comes to the perfect outfit. I just couldn’t find one and could get it by the time I needed it.

​So I did what I also do, I make it. I pulled out one of his white onesie and my trust iron transfer paper and got to work. After searching online for a while I found a “one” that I liked and put it into a word document. I ended up printing it in three different sizes since I wasn’t sure what one would work best on the onesie. I also planned on using the other two for another project. Next, I cut out the image, cutting off as much of the blank area I could before ironing onto the onesie.

The onesie came out cuter than I hoped and was the perfect thing for him to wear as he dug into his smash cake!

I loved how this photo collage turned out for Andrew’s first birthday party. However, it was a lot more challenging than I thought it would be! Why? Because it was so hard picking on only 12 pictures of this little cutie!

After going through all of the months of pictures I narrowed it down to 16, Jack couldn’t help me narrow it down anymore either so I chose to just print out all 16. I bought the little string of lights at Michael’s along with the project board. I taped the lights in place in a zig-zag pattern all over the board then started adding pictures. I actually liked having a choice with the extra pictures because some of the pictures looked dark, too similar, or too crowded next to each other. That ultimately helped me narrow it down to the 12!
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The photo collage came out great and such a fun way to display his first year!

In my last post I announced our little boy has arrived and this post I am going to share my birth story including tricks I did to induced labor. I am convinced they worked since he came suddenly and a little dramatically. I was 39 weeks and 5 days. At our last appointment on Tuesday it seemed like we weren't making any progress and it started to feel like I was going to be as stuffed as the turkey on Thanksgiving later this week. I'm not sure if it was the lack of sleep or the full bladder every 5 minutes, but I was seriously ready for him to be here already so I decided to see if I can jump-start things. On Wednesday I made a batch of "Labor Day Tea" a high concentrate of Raspberry Tea (16 bags for 3 cups of water). On Thursday I went shopping with my mom at Costco which was a lot of walking, or waddling in my case. On Friday I had another prenatal massage and had her work pressure points to help induce labor and later in the day had another batch of "Labor Day Tea". Later that night I started feeling my tummy get really tight and then release, but no pain. I wasn't sure if it was something that I started making up in my head cause I was getting more anxious or it was the real deal. After talking to some people it seemed I was having Braxton Hicks contractions since there was no pain and they weren't increasing. After getting some good sleep, things started to change and quickly. Around noon we were running errands and started to feel off. No pain, just odd. By two things were getting a lot more intense so I called my mom giving her a heads up. The pain started and contractions were starting to have a little pattern and coming on quick and strong. Jack called the hospital and they said there was no way of knowing for sure and to come in. We waited another 30 minutes and started spotting so I knew I had reached 3cm so we decided it was time to load the car. I went to the bathroom one more time and felt a pop and I knew my water had broke! Amber and Aaron were in their driveway and seen what was happening and once I waddled to the car they knew it was go time. As soon as we got on the freeway my water kept coming...all the way to the hospital emergency room. Around 4 I was in the Labor and Delivery room things started moving very quickly, my contractions felt like minutes apart and strong and an epidural was needed, not that Jack helping me moan through each contraction wasn't sweet, they were just too quick for me to come back from to relax and was worried I would get too tired to push. While waiting for the bloodwork for the epidural Mom and Jeff came into the room even though I think I might have scared my step-father a little with my moaning, lol. By the time I had the epidural I was past 5cm and the pain turned more into a pressure.

Once at 8cm things started to get intense. I could feel him moving down, but not staying down. The doctor even seemed surprised I was still at 8cm, then all of a sudden I was surrounded by about 4-7 nurses and they were giving me oxygen, trying to put a monitor on the baby's head, and having me change positions because his heart rate was skyrocketing and crashing. It was around 8 pm at this time and the doctor came to me and said it's time to get him out. The baby is too stressed and we're not sure why it could be because his umbilical cord wrapped around his neck and my heart sunk. I didn't get this far along to lose him. So I said okay just give me a moment with my family. The four of us prayed and I was whisked off to have a C-section. Jack sat next to me and we just stared into each other eyes and tried to hold hands. With some tugging and pulling he was out and placed into the incubator and we heard him cry for the first time and my eyes filled with tears.

Then things got scary. He wasn't breathing probably and they needed to rush him to the NICU. They stopped by just for a second so we could see him for the first time and both of us were shocked to see how blonde he was! They quickly then rushed him off to NICU with Jack following. All I could do was lay there while they put me back together. Once I was in the recovery room, Jack came in talking about how cute he is and how strong he was. Before heading up to our room they rolled me into the NICU, so I can see him. They told us he had swallowed meconium which was causing some difficulty breathing and was giving him oxygen and he was going to have to stay in the NICU for the night. I don't think I really heard a thing the nurses were saying, all I could do was stare at this little thing that we had created.

​Jack and I are so thankful this Thanksgiving day to announce our little boy was born this past Saturday. Welcome to the world, Andrew Grant! 

Our little bundle of joy will be arriving next month and we are in full preparation mode. This past weekend we put the finishing touches on the nursery. I am so excited and relieved that it is finally finished!

As in my normal style, I didn’t want this room to be too babyish, boyish, or themeish. The walls were already a neutral shade of grey and thankfully didn’t have to repaint. However, Jack had to install a classic Americana light fixture since the old one was a tad too florally for the room. I knew I wanted to add a few more Americana touches, along with a little world travel thrown in. I started by finding the vintage canvas map at Hobby Lobby. I also got the moon and cloud from there but changed them. I ordered some vintage travel poster from Zazzle, they were places where Jack and I have traveled together. I used simple frames I got at Target to hang them in. The two storage boxes I used as shelves were also from Target. The only artwork that remained in the room was a drawing of the Paris Statue of Liberty in front of the Eiffel Tower, representing the two countries of Jack and me.

I wanted to keep the guest bed in the nursery since I figured there will be some nights I would have to sleep in thereafter he is born. I added fun Americana pillows and even a cute vintage map pillow I found at Hobby Lobby. We bought the crib from Wayfair that looked similar to the guest bed and I love that it had a storage drawer underneath. We bought a desk from there as well to use it as the changing table.

Lastly, I found the perfect nursery rocking chair on clearance at Target. It was half off and I am so glad it fit in my Jeep! We installed the perfect reading light next to the chair about the antique side table that belonged to my grandmother that we refurbished. We also refurbished her old pantry cabinet to use as a bookcase.
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To complete the room we installed new blackout curtains in navy, added a few stuffed animals. I even put the flag quilt I made years ago along with the new baby quilt I just made for him. Now, all we have to do is wait for him to arrive!

This cake is the perfect representation of what I wanted for my baby shower to be. It is beautiful, classy, elegant, and Americana. With the beautiful fresh strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries topping it, to it’s rich and delicious cream cheese frosting, even the simple French vanilla cake was absolutely perfect and everything I could have hoped for.

I did struggle a little the day of the baby shower with finishing the cake and the matching elegant cupcakes because my hands have started to go numb on Apparently baby boy is on a nerve in my spine and has been causing the numbness. This made it difficult to pip the cream cheese frosting and I had to take breaks to give my hurting hands a rest. Thankfully I was able to push through and was able to complete everything in time. I couldn’t be happier with how the cake and cupcakes turned out and how fabulous they looked displayed in the art gallery where the shower was held. I dare to say it all looked just like a work of art! ​

As announced on Monday, We are having a little boy. Last weekend we had a gender reveal party. I know some think these are a little cheesy, and normally I would agree, but I needed the distraction from my Dad and I’m always willing to host a theme party.

I struggled to try to figure out how we should make the big reveal for weeks. I search Pinterest for ideas but I wanted something different. Then I realized I had all of these white colored M&M’s leftover from the Nuts/No Nuts snacks. I decided to be a little extra mean to the guest. I placed all of the white M&M’s in cute little kraft favor boxes and put a question mark on the bottom of the lid, before wrapping the box with a red and blue gingham ribbon topped with a small fake sunflower. Only one box had the actual answer and Auntie Amber got the honor of telling everyone that we are having a boy!

It's a Boy! Our little bundle of joy is a boy! Last month we announced we're pregnant and yesterday on Father's Day we posted that Jack is going to be an amazing father to our son.

The day before Father's Day we hosted a Gender Reveal party for close family and friends (will post about soon) and they were the first to learn the wonderful news through a special box of treats. Everyone is excited we are having a little boy and the baby shower plans are already in the works!

We are so excited and can't wait for him to be here. ​

Jack and I are so excited to announce that we're PREGNANT! This is the answer to many many prayers, we've been struggling with getting pregnant for the last several years and even started seeing specialists. We even went through a very devastating miscarriage at the beginning of the year. We are looking forward to our Rainbow Baby arrival in November!

We had some fun telling a few friends and family members over the last few weeks. We shared the news with my mom with Starbucks with Grandma on her cup, it took her over an hour to figure it out and thought I was lying when I finally told her. My aunt learned when we were on our way out of town and my mom was saying a prayer for her, me and the baby to be safe. Amber learned by getting a bottle of wine that said: "Only the Best Super gets Promoted to Auntie". We decided to make the public announcement yesterday on Facebook on Mother's Day. I posted "Jack and I wanted to wish everyone out there a Happy Mother's Day; especially to my wonderful mother, who's being promoted to Grandma!" I included a collage of photos Amber took of us announcing it.

​If all goes according to plan we might just be announcing the gender reveal on Father's Day....so keep an eye out!