News & Confessions

  Hey y'all! Tuesday I was officially 23 weeks. So I thought I'd give y'all a little update on how Baby H and I are doing!
   First of all I can't believe I haven't mentioned this before, but I've finally felt him kick!!!! I felt him when I was just over 19 weeks(I know I'm talking about it a whole month later, but I guess it's better late than never). I was absolutely ecstatic to finally feel the first twinges of movement from Baby H. Now I'm constantly checking to make sure he's moving frequently. So basically I jump from one crazy to another. Oh well!
  

    Apparently Baby H is the same size as a bunch of grapes(see above picture), which explains my craving for grapes haha! He should weigh about 1 1/4 pounds, and measure over a foot in length.  Another exciting tidbit, he now has taste buds!!!
    As for me, my indigestion has been a lot better since I switched vitamins, but when I do have it I've found popsicles help the issue. Something kinda cute is how Dillon's has had sympathy indigestion. I'm wondering if he'll be having anymore of my symptoms haha!
    According to my pregnancy app swelling is common at this point. Which I think I noticed when my finger turned purple from one of my rings Sunday. Yikes! Thankfully once I took it off and ran warm water over my hand for a few minutes it went right back to normal.
   Also I've heard I could be experiencing Braxton Hicks contractions about this time, but so far I haven't felt anything resembling one. Honestly I'm a little freaked out to know I could be having them now, even though I've been reading up on how to make sure it's just that and not the real thing. Definitely not something I'm looking forward to.
   The other day I ran into a friend of mine who just happens to be pregnant as well. She's about 10 weeks ahead of me and I'm still bigger than her. I'm beginning to think I'm about to have a 15 pound baby, or I'm just fat. I guess I'll find out in March. She's a pretty outspoken friend of mine, so naturally she turned to me and asked "why are your pants so big?!". I couldn't do anything but laugh. To know her is to love her!
    I've found that the bigger my belly gets the less I want to take a shower. Which is weird for me since I'm the kind of person that usually washes her hair everyday. It's like I would go the whole week without a shower if I could. I know, I know, super gross to admit that, but at least I don't actually do that!
    I don't know if I've shared this before, but I've really missed hotdogs more than any other food during my pregnancy. I even had a dream where I had 4 chili dogs at once. I was severely disappointed to wake up from that dream.

    Oh by the way, the pregnancy app I mentioned above is called Ovia Pregnancy. I know I just talked about an app in my last post, but it's a cool app! And this one is free as well. You can track what you eat, check that you took your vitamins(which comes in handy if it's hard for you to remember), read up on what to expect for that week in pregnancy, and so much more! I really like it because it's an easy way to keep a record of your pregnancy, something I'm sure I'll one day share with Baby H.  Ovia also has an awesome fertility app if you're trying or planning to in the near future. FYI, the picture of the grapes is from that app!
     That's all for now, thanks for reading!    

Holidays On The Cheap

   Hey y'all! I'm sure everyone is busy making plans and lists for Thanksgiving next week, I know I am! According to the buzzfeed quiz I'm the tradition enforcer. I was pretty surprised by how accurate that is haha!
   Speaking of traditions we just finished up a tradition at our house of putting up all of our Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving. It really makes it feel cozy to have all our decorations up for Thanksgiving. Plus we have longer to enjoy them before we have to take them all down. If the stores can put up their Christmas decorations now why can't we?!
   Here's what I did with our mantel:

   I felt like doing something a little different this year, more simple. All, I repeat all, of the items on the mantel were purchased from the dollar store. We actually used those glass vases as centerpieces for our wedding. I really like these led candles better than the plain white ones. First of all for looks, second of all for the effect they give off. They're way brighter than the small white ones.
   In other news, the other day when we were picking up our weekly groceries, Food Lion had a bin of pumpkin flavored baking goods on sale. And I may or may not have bought 10 boxes of pumpkin pudding on sale for 30 cents each... I also found a few boxes of Jello brand pumpkin cheesecake mix for 50 cents, so I made 2 of the boxes the other day, and here's a picture of the end results:

   It didn't firm up quite like I expected it to just from chilling in the refrigerate for an hour, so I put it in the freezer for about 30 minutes, which seemed to help. It had great flavor and everyone enjoyed it in our house, but it was nowhere near like what you think a pumpkin cheesecake would be like. I can't wait to see what I can do with the pumpkin pudding.
   By the way!!!

  I'm sure y'all don't care about this but I just had to share my phone background since no one really gets to see it and I think it's adorable haha! I made it on this app called Marley Lilly(it's free by the way). I know the app is suppose to be used to shop on their site but they have a great feature where you can choose from tons of different backgrounds patterns and colors. And as you can see you can add your own monogram to it! And yes I've already made my Christmas background....and one for when Baby H arrives....
   That's all for now, just a post to say hello! What kind of traditions does your family have around this holiday season?