How much do I love...

...my new blog design?  Are you digging the new layout, navigation bar, background, banner, and side bar as much as I am?  I've done the designing on this little blog-o-mine the entire time I've owned it with very little guidance, knowledge, or skill, and it's always looked okayyy but never great.  With a new baby on the way and an intensified desire to document our little lives, I decided it was time to either invest heavily in my coding skills or hire a pro.  Since I can't stay awake past 8PM most nights (thanks, baby Lowe, for turning your mom into an early to bed, early to rise kind of girl), the decision was easy for me - hire the pro!

Luckily for me, a few web logging friends had already used someone to get gorgeous results on their blogs (specifically Boonies in the Boonies, a favorite mommy blog by a girl I've known since elementary school!).  All I did was click on the Designs by Linds button on their blogs (and now on mine - see sidebar) and read through the options.  I was hooked - I needed her design in my blog life.

I promptly emailed her my answers to her questionnaire, and she replied later that same evening.  She actually started on the blog two days later, which was quite pleasing for your friend the instant-gratificationista.  We spent about a week going back and forth on her test blog and making tweaks.  I was so pleased all the way through the process - she had great ideas, great design, and awesome customer service.

The blog went live about a week ago, and even since they I've seen little things I wanted adjusted, and she's done them with no issues at all.  Seriously, friends, if you're wanting to step your blog game up, click on the button on my sidebar and start talking to Lindsey.  She's awesome!

Mystery Reader

Alli's teacher has a cool program going right now called "Mystery Reader."  Every Friday, a person comes to read to the class, and each day the kids are given new clues about who that person is so that they can guess.  Last week, in honor of Alli's birthday, it was Ryan and I.

Here were our clues:

1. We love to go to the beach.
2. We love the Dallas Cowboys and the Arkansas Razorbacks.
3. Our favorite colors are pink and green.
4. We have two dogs and two cats.
5. Our family is having a baby in May.

Last Friday on Alli's birthday eve, Ryan and I went to her school to have lunch with her.  We brought her McDonald's and sat with a table full of her friends discussing the winter play coming up on Monday and Alli's birthday party (recap of that here).  Then we said good-bye, with Alli pestering us all along about being the mystery readers.  We just kept telling her that we had to get back to work.  She got a little concerned and followed her friends out to recess.  Then we snuck back into the classroom and waited on recess to end.

The kids starting streaming in from recess, squealing that they knew it was us.  Alli came in last with her hands over her eyes and ran straight for Ryan's lap.  I read Olive the Other Reindeer to the class - it's a really cute book about a dog that thinks she's a reindeer after mishearing that line in Rudolph ("All of the other reindeer" for those slow on the uptake).  The kids really enjoyed it, and we even fielded questions after the book, such as "Are you really having a baby?"  "Is it a boy or a girl?" and "My dad's favorite color is green!"

Pregnancy Update - 15 Weeks

I love that some of my pregnant friends are doing this, I think it's such a great way to document your pregnancy.  I can't remember anything from being pregnant with Alli over eight years ago, so here's hoping keeping this log helps me out this time around!

How Far Along: Almost 15 weeks

Size of baby: According to The Bump, baby Lowe is the size of a navel orange, 4 inches long and weighing 2 ounces

Maternity clothes: I really need to go get some.  Those work pants are just too tight these days.

Gender: We have an appointment December 27th and are hoping to find out then!!  We cannot wait!!!

Movement:  I really am feeling some flutters, I think.  It's hard to tell right now.  At our last ultrasound, the baby was squirming all over the place though.

Sleep: Sleep has not been great.  I am having a lot of insane dreams and am waking up around 3AM and cannot go back to sleep.  Plus, I have a really sore throat right now which is not helping matters.  I'm hopeful I'll get better sleep soon.

Symptoms: I had a lot of nausea early on, but it's consistently improved.  I still have spells with it though.  I am working through the extreme exhaustion too - a few weeks ago I was going to bed at 7PM, but I can actually make it until 9PM most nights.  I'm also not hungry much, which is unusual for me.

What I miss: Wine.  Maybe we should just remove this question.  It's not going to change throughout the pregnancy.  I especially missed it this week with all of the holiday parties we attended.  Being the sober lady is not much fun.

Cravings: Nothing extreme really.  

Food aversions: I've gotten over most of those - bacon was rough there for a while (poor Ryan). 

Best Moment this week: Going in on Thursday and hearing the heart beat.  It took the doctor a while to find it, but once he did, he said it was very strong (150-160 bpm).  It's always nice to know things are going well!

What I am looking forward to: Finding out if we're having a girl or a boy, and decorating that nursery!!

Happy Birthday, Alli!

Our sweet not-so-little-anymore girl Alli celebrated her eighth birthday on Saturday.  We started the day out with her birthday party, which she shared for the second consecutive year with our former neighbors Addison and Samantha.  The girls' birthday is just a week after Alli's, so it's a great opportunity to get the majority of the second grade together for a bash.  This year, we decided to do the shindig at the bowling alley.  We had well over twenty kids there for two hours, and everyone seemed to have a great time!  Cue photo montage.

Afterwards, we hit up our favorite Mexican restaurant La Hacienda.  In my pre-pregnant life, I would have really enjoyed a margarita after all of that party stress, but I opted for the more baby-friendly water instead.

We came home to open family presents with Alli.  She really racked up.  It was almost an embarrassing display - a new purple North Face jacket and gloves with a white hat, along with the complete collection of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles plus their sewer.  Cowabunga is back, baby.

Then we spent the afternoon watching Christmas movies (The Santa Clause and Ernest Saves Christmas), followed by a trip to the Fayetteville Square.  The wait to see Santa was long, but it was worth it when he sang Alli a happy birthday song!

 Your girl was feeling a bit under the weather, so after the Square excitement, I needed to grab some cough drops and hit the hay.  This morning, we had our one last birthday celebration by singing to Alli one more time and having her TMNT cake (girl is obsessed and we don't have any issues feeding the monster!).

Cake was followed by a game of perhaps the most disgusting but family appropriate kids game I've seen in a long time - Doggie Doo.  You feed the dog, crank his tail, and...well, you know.

I can't imagine a more perfect birthday weekend with our sweet girl, and I can hardly believe her little sassy self is eight!!

Father Christmas

This past weekend, Ryan tackled the major challenge of lighting our new house.  He did our previous house himself for the past few years (seen here), but as you can see, it was a bit smaller and easily reachable from our four step stool.  Our new house has two stories (Ryan and Alli cave upstairs, one day I'll decorate it and and we can have a fun reveal), so we were a bit worried about tackling the big peaks.  So worried, in fact, that we got an estimate on getting the lights installed:  $500 - no thank you!  So Ryan bought some clips and an extension pole and got to work.

It was a perilously windy day that only got worse as the hours wore on, but Father Christmas would not be deterred.  He diligently lit every peak, even the very highest.  And then he got kind of green when I asked him if he tested the light strands before he hung them.  Luckily though, everything went on (via the automatic timer at 5:15PM) without a hitch.

 Now we're sitting here in our completely decorated for Christmas house "enjoying" the Cowboys game (as much as one can enjoy the roller coaster Cowboys).  If only it were cold enough for a fire...

Pleasing Pantry

While our bellies were filled with food and our hearts were filled with love this Thanksgiving, our pantry was filled with food, dishes, tablecloths, spices, and cookware.  With five adults rummaging through making various dishes, our normally orderly pantry took quite the beating.  It's taken me about a week of staring at it to decide something had to be done.

I had already starting the cleaning out process in the picture above, but you get an idea of the junkiness level we are talking about.  OCD mama's nightmare!!

Enter me - and about 30 minutes later, check out the results!

Deep breaths, everyone.  Isn't that better?

Owning Christmas

It's that time of year again - and I'm not just talking about rosy cheeks, Santa Claus, and watching Elf one hundred times.  I'm talking about that time of year when I dominate the holiday season with my uber-preparedness.  There's nothing I hate more than the last minute (unless it's a last minute shoe purchase on a whim...remember those?), so I like to get on Christmas fast.

December is a hectic month for us, because our Alli Bree has a birthday early on, followed by of course a birthday party.  Then we have two work parties plus at least two friend parties - not to mention all of the shopping (double duty for a kid who was born in the same month as Jesus!)...it's enough to wear a normal person out!

But fortunately for all of us, I am not normal.  I am Superwoman!!  Even with some nagging nausea, full time exhaustion, and end-of-first-trimester loveliness, I have managed to greet the month of December with my shopping halfway done, my Christmas cards addressed, and the vast majority of my Christmas decorations up (give me a break, I just bought the new lighted garland Sunday night and I cannot stay up past 8PM on a weeknight right now!).

How great is that stack of addressed and stamped envelopes just waiting for December?  I even thought ahead enough to order a new stamp of our address!  It looks great, plus it saves serious hand cramps.  And I got my Christmas card deer out again, so he's anxiously awaiting holiday greetings from our friends.  I just love Christmas cards!!

We've also added a little to the holiday decor around here, which is always fun. I got this egg basket in Prairie Grove last weekend, and my mom gave Alli this adorable nativity set.  And when we were browsing through Target last weekend, we (I) just could not resist this deer pillow. They have this little guy everywhere.  I just had to get the doormat to match later on.  Isn't he precious?

Father Christmas is appearing today to hang Christmas lights on our house, put out our giant inflatable Santa, and arrange our lighted deer in the flower bed.  I cannot wait - our new neighborhood already has a lot of Christmas spirit, so I'm anxious to not be the Scrooge.  I'll be inside cleaning the house and hanging my garland.  I hope to get out sometime today and knock out a little more Christmas shopping. Tis the season!!