36 Weeks

We have less than 30 days to go....!

We're working so hard to get things organized from all the wonderful gifts we've received for Miss Violet:)

Look at this mess!

I'm so happy with some of the progress we've made in her nursery this past week. The curtains finally came in and we got a new light fixture hung as well as a bookshelf. Just a few more details and her room will be ready and waiting for her.

This past weekend we had another beautiful shower for our Baby Girl. Here are a few pics that I took but I need to get the rest from other people who took them for me.

This shower was given for us by Steve's family and the hostesses were Aunt MaryAnn, Aunt Lorie, Aunt Pat, Aunt Lana and Aunt Sandy Luken.  It was held at the Big Spring Country Club on May 18th (a bonus birthday treat for me!).

How cute is that chicken salad in a pineapple boat???

The wine bottles are the hostess gifts we gave out. It's the Cabernet that Steve bottled last summer and he made custom labels for them.

I just want to thank everyone who came together and worked so hard to celebrate our Baby Girl. Again, I was just so excited to make it to a point to have a baby shower and I just enjoyed the day!

And here is 12, 24 and 36 week comparison of belly shots. I'm running out of room to grow!

***Ok I am dying looking at these pictures....Not only am I much wider but it looks like I shrunk a few inches too! 

34.5 Weeks

I'll start off with a doctor appointment update....

Today we had a regular checkup and they decided to let us do an ultrasound.

We found out that Baby Violet is now 6 pounds!!

She's gained about 2 pounds in a month so if she keeps that up, then we're looking at an 8 pounder coming our way...Everybody please pause here and say a prayer for me....LOL:)

Last weekend we got to celebrate our baby girl with her first Baby Shower. I have to admit, I was so excited for this day, not because she would get so many cute presents but, because I was just so grateful to have made it to this milestone. I'm just so thankful that we made it to a point to even have a baby shower. 

 It was a great day and I want to thank my Aunt Trish, Aunt Phyllis and Rebecca for putting everything together and making it so special for our sweet girl. They had such sweet details like her "rainbow" cupcake cake and they even handed out potted Violets for prizes. I also want to thank everyone who came and celebrated with us (here's a shout out to those who traveled all the way from Arkansas!).  She is so loved already...

I also got the privilege to celebrate Mother's Day in a new way this year. This day has long been a difficult day for me as a Mother whose children can't be here with me. I remember my first Mother's Day when I was pregnant with Lila & Cole and it was just a wonderful day for me. I really did feel such a mix of that feeling this year along with the missing pieces I've felt from these three years past.

Mother's Day 2013

I just thanked God for giving me another chance to experience this day while pregnant with our second daughter and I remembered my sweet babies who I desperately miss so much. This is just another example of the weight of  joy and grief. And this is undoubtedly a challenge that we will always face.  And that's ok...

We can find beauty in the ashes and see the rainbow after the storm. It's our choice which moments to grieve and which to cherish. And we take them both together for they are the words on the pages of our family's story. And we'd never dare to erase even one of them...

I'm Still Here!

I know I missed last weeks post and I was close to missing one this week too!

Everything is just fine over here we've just been soooo busy this past week with Derby and my first ever baby shower (Yay!!) and I'm still fighting Steve for computer time with him working from home.

We're only about 6 weeks away now from meeting our sweet girl and I'm trying to get my butt in gear to get things situated for her. I am definitely feeling more heavy and tired this week so I've been resting as much as I can, while I still can:)

We have a checkup on Monday with our OB and before then I hope to go through my shower pictures and update with some of those.

Thank you everybody who came and celebrated with us! (And for not putting my pictures on facebook!)

32 Weeks

 Baby Violet is going to be stylin' for sure when she gets here.

Look at the cute outfits we were surprised with this past week:)

 

 A couple people asked me last week about what the nursery colors will be. We had decided on a look for the nursery before we picked out a name for our girl. We wanted to do a light gray and light pink color scheme. We wanted something light and airy and we both agreed on that design. Then we named her "Violet" and debated on what to do.

I wanted to stick with the original plan. She has her whole life to have a purple room so we are forging ahead with pink. I'll probably incorporate some light purples in there somehow but I'm not sure just yet how that will come about.

We don't have a "theme" per say (like characters or butterflies, etc...) but we are doing a more modern nursery and coordinating our colors. We like clean lines and not a lot of clutter.

And because I got asked about this also last week, here are the links again to our registries:

Babies R Us

Target

Babylist
(Babylist is an online registry where you can combine any item from any store all together on one list. All purchases are internet orders except some items from Pottery Barn Kids)

I get more and more excited every time we get something new for Violet. I've come a long way from a couple weeks ago when I was too hesitant to get things in order for her. I really feel like once I faced those fears that a burden has been lifted off me. I still have things I struggle with but that is one hurdle that I'm glad to have taken a "leap of faith" over. 

Speaking of faith.... Monday I had a date to meet some friends for lunch and I was really struggling that morning  with some things that had happened that past week. I had a breakdown in the shower and had to just stop and say "God, I am giving this to you. I cannot carry this burden anymore. It's too heavy."

While driving on my way to meet up with them I got stuck behind a dump truck on the freeway. And what did it happen to have written on the back of it?

Let God carry your load.

Very catchy and very timely for me. I'm sure that was no accident. I love it when He reminds me to let go. As much as I know better,  I always seem to need reminding and I LOVE it when He smacks me across the face with it!

Cast your burden upon the LORD and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken. Psalm 55:22

31 weeks and adjustments...

It's been quite a few days since I've been able to get an update on here because we have been so busy!

Steve is working full time from home now indefinitely so we've been adjusting to our daily routines.  Mostly I would update the blog during the day in the office but now he's in it most of the time so I let things drag a little last week.

We've also been working more on the nursery. Our crib is put together and we love it! We also got our dresser/changing table in and got that put together last week.  Hopefully we'll get our chair we ordered in this week and then we can see how it will all fit together.

Of course we also have two new neighbors building houses simultaneously on either side of us right now. It has made for a noisy and messy week. I guess better for them to do it now then start when we have a newborn trying to sleep....

We had a project we were trying to wrap up outside as well and I want to give a HUGE thanks to my in-laws Sheri, Ray, Hannah, Dennis and Lana. I am about completely worthless with manual labor right now and Steve really needed help so thank you so much for showing up for him.

Last Wednesday was our first "Baby" class where they mostly talked about normal things you'll see when you bring your new baby home and when to not freak out and when to call your doctor.  It was a good class but I was looking for more of a "I brought my baby home now what?" kind of class. Ha!

Steve said don't worry, he's got this. So that takes care of that....lol

We had a doctor appointment last Monday where I completely guilted our doctor into letting us have an ultrasound:) Our little girl is not so little anymore. She's already at 4 pounds with 8 weeks left to go!

 I said "oh my gosh, is that too big?" and the ultrasound tech laughed and told me no. I said I guess I'll have to really start eating those salads and I think I freaked her out because she told me to don't stop eating!

 I said "lady, no problem. I couldn't stop if I tried"...

Everything is still looking just as it should with her and we have our next appointment next Monday. She is getting stronger everyday and I love the time we spend together when she is awake:) I also love how much she responds to Steve's voice. I think that is just the sweetest thing ever.

We were leaving church Saturday night and he reached over and put his hand on my belly and started talking to her and she started moving around as soon as he did. She had been still for a while before that. It just melts my heart...

So you can see we've been so busy getting ready for our little Violet! There are so many changes going on around here and we can't wait for our biggest one yet to get here:)

30 Weeks

30 Weeks......woohoo!

This is my past week in pictures:

 

This beautiful blanket was handmade by my dear friend Rebecca. I called her last week for therapy lunch, and she surprised me with this!

And what is extra special about this blanket is the fact that she made it before she even knew our girls name. She had intended to make it pink but saw this color thread at the store, which she says they never have, so she went with this instead.

Not knowing that it was there just for us all along. 

We just love sharing moments where God is in the details and this was a great example of that!

Here is Elly in her usual spot. This time baby sister kept kicking her in the face while she was trying to sleep so she kept getting startled:)

Here I am trying to make cookies for a Baby Shower and my belly is totally in the way of my rolling space. What you can't see is the blanket of flour that it is covered in...

And look what came in the mail this past week...Our Crib!

Of course the day it was delivered it was supposed to rain and Steve was working late so I had to shove this sucker into the garage using my best assets...

Also, I found out this week that Team Yager is one of the top 5 fundraising teams so far for the March for Babies in Louisville! I was so excited and proud to see this. Thank you to everybody who has donated and, if you haven't yet, we have one month left to collect donations or you can click on the sidebar link on this blog and donate online.

Go Team Yager! 

Let's get real about......Baby Registry

Oh. My. Word.

We have a couple baby showers coming up so we thought, "Hey, we better register..."

I do remember going through this a little bit before but this time it completely overwhelmed me. Do we really need all this stuff for a little baby??

I finally got my butt in gear and did all the research on the safety ratings of everything and we got er done! 

Steve gets to be in charge of the scan gun

Thanks to all my friends that I emailed a hundred times asking about their "go to" products and what was a waste of time and money. I am a minimalist at heart and I just can't fathom having all these products in my house that the websites and stores recommend.

On the flip side, I don't think I'll ever get enough of all these adorable girly dresses and shoes and bows:) This is probably the most exciting part so far of having a girl because I melt just about every time I see a ruffled bloomer. sigh.

I have to share the most unexpected item that I encountered while registering. I have affectionately nicknamed this: "The Breast-alizer"

 

You can call me the new kid on the block but I've never seen this before and thought it was hilarious. They just think of everything don't they....

We ended up with a registry at Babies R Us and Target. 

 I also saw some random items online that I loved so I made a registry through Babylist that organizes all your online requests and the websites you can order them through. You can find the link to that registry here.

Nursery Update:

We went on a shopping trip to Ikea this past weekend hoping to score some nursery furniture but we completely crapped out. But, we did put the final touches on the big nursery project we've been working on.

Here are some sneak peaks:

This was really a Labor of Love by Steve. He wanted to tackle this project to do something special for our girl and I'm so proud of how it turned out. And, he got to use a nail gun so he was too excited about that :) 

Now I can't wait to decorate this room and put a precious little girl in it!