Baby Shower For Baby Ellerbroek!

Well it is very obvious that before our sweet little baby has even been born there are many people who really care and love the little one. Oh and there's apparently many people who would love to babysit too. The baby shower hosted by two great coworkers this past weekend showed me just that. I was overwhelmed with kindness and humbled by generosity. I wanted to recap the great day with these pictures, but I couldn't post any pictures without the photography skills of Collette. She brought her camera and snapped away all afternoon. Thank to her I actually have pictures to share!

Jean and Megan were the amazing hostesses. Seriously, they know how to throw a party! Equipped with fun games, amazing food and sweet baby decorations, no detail went untouched.

The table was decorated with gender neutral plates and napkins plus pink and blue hydrangeas. Perfect for a little surprise baby. I can't wait to hear the announcement in the delivery room. Will it be a boy or will it be a girl?

Collette took a lot of detail shots which I adore. She even included the invite and cake.

My favorite food was a tie between the delicious breakfast casserole made by Jean and the cake ordered by Megan. I was lucky to be the only one who got to bring home the left over cake. Well, maybe Joe was equally as lucky because I did share with him too.

If you look closely you can actually tell that the bakery misspelled our last name. I didn't even realize it until Megan pointed it out. I guess they missed the last E (common mistake I must say). It was an easy fix though and was pretty unnoticeable.

The games began pretty much right when the guest entered the door. Everyone was given a clothes pin to stick somewhere on their clothing. If they crossed their arms or legs in any fashion and someone caught them they'd have to forfeit their clothes pin to that person. It got pretty intense for a while. Some were way into the game and others were out of clothes pins immediately (the latter was me).

Another fun game that we will not find out the winner to for some time was to guess the birth date and gender. Everyone got to put a pink or blue stamp on the date they thought baby Ellerbroek would arrive. I look forward to keeping an eye on this in the future. My office had talked about creating a pool for the baby birth date, gender, weight etc. Makes the anticipation even more fun!

The last game was one I thought I might be able to win... unfortunately I did not. Megan froze small plastic babies in ice cubes. The challenge was to put one in your drink and as soon as the baby broke free from the ice cube you yelled "my water broke!" I warned everyone that if I ended up winning I wouldn't yell out in an alarming way. Lucky for the guests, and their blood pressure, I did not win this one, but it was a lot of fun to watch the little baby floating away in my drink.

Before opening presents I asked that no one laugh at me if I happened to open one and didn't quite know what the present was. I have learned a lot about what baby needs and some of the items have been completely new to me (for example: swaddle sacks, breastfeeding storage bags, butt paste, etc.) Lucky for me majority of the guests were not moms so chances were if I didn't know then they wouldn't either.

I was blown away by the amazing gifts. The highlight that had everyone talking was the tricycle made out of diapers, bibs and receiving cloths. It was so cool we still haven't taken it apart at home. The colors match our nursery perfectly and will be great for either a baby boy or girl. Props to Collette once more for this creation.

We received many items on our registry which just helps Joe and I feel more and more prepared for this little one to arrive. I can already tell our kitchen will soon be taken over by baby items like the bottle warmer, bottle drying rack and bottles galore.

Joe arrived at the end of the shower to meet everyone and thank them for their generosity. Well that and to help carry the gifts to the car, let's not kid ourselves. He timed his arrival perfectly because the cake was just getting cut. Do you think he sensed that?

I also wanted Joe to take a group shot of us girls for the memories. I know Collette spent lots of time behind the camera, but I didn't want anyone to leave until we got a shot of the entire group. It was an amazingly gorgeous day (I believe upper 60's or low 70's for temps). We took advantage of the weather and snapped the photo out front of Jean's house.

We even got the hostesses in on the I-O-W-A action... thanks to Megan's suggestion. Of course we all know Joe was game for this pose and I had to share the fun picture.

Thank you all so much for hosting and attending this shower for Baby Ellerbroek! It was so much fun and we are so grateful for all the wonderful memories and gifts. Two more months to go!

Weekly Pregnancy Update (31 Weeks)

Just like my brother I'm in the 30's now (shout out to Scott who just turned 30 years old on Friday. Happy Birthday brother!) No, I'm not 30 years old yet, but instead I am 31 weeks pregnant. I'm right at that mark where no more traveling is allowed per my doctor. I guess I'll be staying put here in Charlotte until this little baby decides it's go time.

Unfortunately it has been a crazy busy week for Joe and I. We have yet to snap my weekly pregnancy pictures. Don't worry, we'll make sure to document something. I'm pretty sure we haven't sat at home one night this week to watch TV or eat ice cream. What a shame! I do, however, have these nice pictures I took a couple days ago. They will just have to do.

Week Number: 31 Weeks, 3 Days
Baby Size: Head of Lettuce (19 inches and 3.5 pounds)
Sleep: I have been winning the sleep game lately. I'm pleasantly surprised with how well I've been able to snooze. I got ride of the pillow I was testing between my knees (someone suggested this to help level out my hips). Instead I grabbed a small pillow to rest under my belly. When lying on my side it's the perfect size to support the extra weight. It is a regular occurrence, however, for baby to start moving right when I'm relaxed and close to snoozing. Luckily it doesn't bother me much, did I mention how good of a sleeper I was before getting pregnant? I'm the type that can basically sleep anywhere (car, plane, etc.) The other morning I woke up around 4:30 and rolled over. Baby took this as the perfect opportunity for a dance party. I kid you not this child would not stop moving and the kicks/jabs/head butts were fierce. I kind of enjoyed it.
Movement: I pretty much summed up the movement above. Now that room is getting more and more scarce and baby is building muscle along with fat I get a few good jabs each day. I've read a couple times recently that around this time I should start counting kicks. Different websites recommend laying down for one hour and counting movement to make sure and get to at least ten. Well, let's just say I haven't needed to count any kicks, they happen quite regularly. I take them all as a happy sign that baby is healthy and growing.
Clothes:
Symptoms: I have been fortunate enough not to swell at all. My wedding rings are still somewhat loose (I was worried I wouldn't be able to wear them by this point in pregnancy due to swelling. This is really just something I witnessed in other people though so I shouldn't automatically assume it happens to everyone). I have also avoided the dreaded heartburn which I hear can be brutal around now. I'm counting my blessings to be able to avoid some of the nasty pregnancy symptoms. On the other hand, I've seen one weird/odd change in my body. I hate to even bring this up, but I want to document my true pregnancy so here goes... I've grown more hair on my belly. There, I said it. I'm not proud of this one, but it's the pregnancy cards I was dealt. It kind of makes me laugh though. Now my fingers are crossed that this stops once baby arrives.
Belly Button: Mine is still an innie, but wow, does it stretch! I'm curious to see if I can keep this innie of mine throughout the entire pregnancy. I'll keep you updated.

Best Moment of the Week: I think the best thing recently is feeling completely content. Although there are still items on our baby-to-do list, I feel like we're sitting at a very good spot. I told Joe the other day that my feeling of anxiousness and excitement to meet our little one is definitely outweighing any possible fear of labor. I also asked him to snap me out of it if I ever bring up labor in a fearful way. I know there's nothing to be worried about.
Looking Forward To: Tonight I'm attending a breastfeeding class at Babies R Us. I'm pretty excited about it because the whole idea of breastfeeding is so foreign to me. I'm sure I will learn a ton and hopefully it all will come in handy later on. Oh also, I mentioned this already, but his coming weekend is the baby shower my coworkers are throwing for us! Again, I'm blown away by their kindness to do this for Joe and I. Really they're doing it for our little one and I'm sure they're all excited to meet our baby eventually.

Snowmageddon... in Charlotte

I mentioned the snow last week that came to Charlotte. Now I want to prove to you that Charlotte really does get some snow every once in a while. My days were all running together, but I believe it was Wednesday when we started to get the heavy snowfall. Most of our coworkers didn't even bother driving to work, but Joe and I braved the weather and made it in. Actually the roads were completely fine in the morning, we just knew we'd need to keep an eye on the forecast and upcoming snow so we could leave work early and get home. Here's a shot of the snow starting to fall from Joe's office building.

Here is how we found our house when we arrived home. Beautifully covered with white powder. It's not often we get to see this since usually snow fall here doesn't stick around long enough for us to enjoy it (or witness during daylight hours).

I especially loved the view out our backdoor. The back yard was covered and I got to watch big flakes fall for most of the day Thursday. Gorgeous.

Joe brought his laptop home to continue working, but I begged him to take a break and go outside with me. We got requests from family to run outside and make snow angel and I was happy to oblige. We got bundled up and headed out. I knew Joe couldn't resist... as soon as we got outside he started making (and throwing) snow balls. Unfortunately I was the only "fun" target to throw at. Lucky me.

The snow ball fight quickly turned into Joe tackling me into the snow (which by this time was probably 5 inches deep). Don't worry, the baby was not hurt in any way. While on the ground I figured it would be the perfect time to make that snow angel I planned on. I'm trying really hard to open my eyes in the picture below, but it was snowing so hard I could hardly see.

Here we shall show off our beautiful snow angels. They're pretty hard to see, but believe me, they're there!

We even thought the baby should have his or her own snow angel.

After making baby's snow angel I looked up to see Joe starting to roll a ball of snow. He said it was time to make a snow man! For someone who wasn't even sure he wanted to come out and play in the snow, he was sure enjoying himself. We rolled together some snow and made, what I think, is one awesome snowman. I even ran inside to grab a carrot for the nose.

Joe posed with the snowman...

And then he pretended to kick the snowman...

Then it was my turn to pose with the snowman...

Then I sized him up to see who had a bigger belly.

Sadly just a couple hours later the sun came out and our snowman's head fell off. He had a good run, but it wasn't meant to last. Then a couple more hours later his torso took a fall. Surprisingly the temps rose to the upper 40's that afternoon so you can't blame the snowman for struggling. He was fun while he lasted.

As an update, here is what Mr. Snowman looked like over the weekend. I'm shocked the carrot was still around and a little rodent didn't find the free food. The weather this past weekend was very nice, but there's still a little bit of snow hanging around. I'm sure it will all be gone this week when we see temps close to 70 degrees. Gosh I love Charlotte!

Photo Friday #61

This week brought snow to Charlotte, which made people panic, which meant they went home early or cancelled school. Instead of getting our panties in a twist, Joe and I took advance of this weather. Spur of the moment (literally about 4 hours before the game started) Joe suggested we should go to the Bobcats home game. They were playing the Mavericks and we could get lower bowl seats for only $10. Since we were already at work and Uptown (about a block from the arena) I thought, why not? We grabbed dinner beforehand and made a night of it. Well, we only stayed until half time, but we still figured we got our $20 worth. This is the last season our home NBA team will be the Bobcats. Beginning next season they're changing the name back to the Charlotte Hornets. The team played well and we were happy to see them (possibly) one last time before the Bobcats no longer exist.

Weekly Pregnancy Update (29 Weeks)

Now that we've hit February this whole "due in April" concept is hitting home. Time is flying and I'm torn between anxious feelings of getting to meet our baby and enjoying pregnancy while I'm still pregnant. While uploading these pictures I took a look back at the early ones and wow, what a difference! Eventually I'll show them side by side for you. I can't believe how big of a difference there is. In other words, I can't believe how big my belly has grown! Actually I can look at it a different way... I can't believe how small I once was! Ha, that's pessimistic of me. There's plenty more growing still to come and I love it.

Week Number: 29 Weeks,2 Days
Baby Size: Butternut Squash (about 3 pounds and 17 inches)
Sleep: This is one area I've started to struggle with slowly. Every night is very different, but most nights lately have resulted in me waking often. Weather baby is moving around (see below because that movement didn't happen only during the day) or I'm rolling from side to side. Still a ways to go before the due date, I realize so I just keep a positive attitude that each night will be fine.
Movement: Oh boy I think our baby hit a growth spurt this week. It was two days ago that I didn't think baby slept one wink all day. Not only was it (almost) constant movement, it was strong movement! Some of those kicks were truly painful. I think we have a strong little one growing. I also think our baby has grown a lot lately because I can feel the hard spots in my belly where the baby is laying more often. I think the precious real estate in the womb is growing scarce. Of course this is all great news that our baby is developing and getting ready for the grand entrance!
Clothes: My wardrobe has slowly, but surely dwindled. There are still a few items I can still wear, but for the most part I've transitioned to the maternity clothes. Luckily we purchased a fair amount over the past few months to help. I really think the hard part about maternity clothes are picking out the outfit for work each day. When I'm at home I can easily find something to wear, but looking professional, yet being comfortable at work all day can be tricky.

Best Moment of the Week: As lame as it sounds there wasn't really any milestones or exciting events in the past week or two. Maybe my highlight was at work yesterday when I was helping greet guests in the hotel lobby. I had 3 or 4 guys come up to me and mention the pregnancy or congratulate me. I found it very touching, especially for guys to notice my belly and say something. It's safe to say there's no hiding this baby belly of mine any longer.
Looking Forward To: My baby shower! I just got the invite yesterday from my coworkers, it was so cute. I'm definitely saving it for the baby book.. It is so kind of them to throw me this party. I really shouldn't say it's my baby shower because it's definitely for Joe also. I work with a great group of gals (yes, the whole area sales team is female) and I'm so lucky that they want to host such a special party for us. Looking forward to February 22nd!

The Nursery - Dresser and Changing Table

I wanted to share the other DIY adventure we had to prepare the nursery. You might be thinking that Joe and I are pretty handy, why don't we DIY more often? Well the truth is we're not and this was a lot of work so I'm not sure we'd be up for it again.

We had been looking on Craig's list for some time just to get an idea of nursery furniture. We weren't too found of buying the crib used (due to regulations and such), but the dresser and changing table were another story. We also knew we wanted to stick with our paint colors and add white furniture to match. We found these beauties on Craig's list located nearby and scooped them up right away. I didn't get a good before shot of the dresser, but here is the changing table.  I loved how sturdy it was (many changing tables appear wobbly and my fear would be it toppling over while baby is kicking). I also love the storage space. Of course the color wasn't what we were envisioning, but we had plans for that. Oh plus we paid only $80 for the two pieces (plus about $20 to rent a truck for pickup. Can you believe these didn't fit in our Altima? Bummer).

First things first, we read up a bunch online to figure out how to tackle this project. I finally got to whip out my electric sander (thanks to Marriott and redeeming some incentives points for this baby a while back) and it did the trick. It was hard work, I kid you not, but well worth it.

You can see the pieces below of the dresser fully sanded down. Keep in mind it was maybe mid July when we tackled these so North Carolina was hot, hot, hot! We did all the sanding in the garage with a fan.

Next step was to completely wipe clean each piece with a damp cloth to make sure all the sawdust was removed. Then we moved all the pieces inside (again, it was very hot outside) so we could paint. We've learned from other projects that painting outside when it's 90 degrees does not allow the paint to dry. Our dining room has served well for multiple projects, thanks to a large plastic cover and both of us being very careful. We used simple white paint and finished the pieces off with a semi gloss coat. We wanted a tiny bit of a shine to them.

And here is the finished product! We actually chose not to replace the hardware because we thought it would look really good against the white. Plus that meant we wouldn't have to worry about matching up the holes or puttying over them if we chose to go for pulls. We did replace the magnet on the door to the changing table to help it latch properly. That was a small expense in this awesome cost saving project of ours.

And just a few more shots of what the items looks like in the nursery once we moved other stuff in. We love the finished products and I hope someday our child will appreciate the hard work too. Ha, just kidding!