Thanksgiving, Shower, Birthday

I completely forgot to post about Thanksgiving!

We spent the day with some other American friends who live close by. We all brought stuff, and you'd hardly even know that we weren't in America. We ate turkey, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, rolls, veggies, dip, cranberry sauce, stuffing, and pies!

My friend made these placecards for us. Mine has a little turkey on it for Paige, isn't that adorable?!

Just a few days after Thanksgiving, my friends hosted a cupcake shower for Paige!

(it says "Welcome Paige")

I love these lanterns-they match the nursery perfectly!

These cupcakes were amazing!

Me with the hostesses!!

Jut two days later, we celebrated Daniels' 33rd birthday!!! I insist on putting a candle in everything the day of your birthday....and singing....it just never really gets old. 

We had homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast. 

Daniel's fave is cookie cake. I added mint chocolate chips this time too.

I am going to try to post pictures of the nursery before we leave tomorrow....but no promises. We're packing now and getting everything ready to go. We'll be in the States tomorrow!! 

love

laura

30 Week Recap

I finished 30 weeks! It sounds so weird to say I'm 30 weeks pregnant, it always sounds so far along, ha! This week has been pretty busy....getting ready to go to the States on Sunday and lots of other things have just taken up a good bit of our time.
My friends gave Paige a baby shower on Tuesday nite. It was a cupcake theme and beyond cute....i'll try to post pics tomorrow. The nursery is a good way done...we have the crib, bedding and wardrobe ready. We'll get the changing table and baskets and things like that when we get back in April.
We also celebrated Daniel's birthday yesterday! It was a pretty busy day, but we had fun and managed to squeeze in Starbucks and have friends over for dessert :)

Here ya go!

How Far Along: 30 Weeks

Size of Baby: As long as a cucumber: 15-17 inches long and a little over 3 lbs

Weight Gain: 19 lbs

Gender: Girl-Paige Olivia

Movement: It was a little scary this week. There were a few days that Paige wasn't moving at all like she had been. She moved everyday, but not like she used to. But starting yesterday morning she got her groove back and has been moving non stop. She is currently turning my belly into all sorts of shapes!

Sleep: It's okay.

Maternity Clothes: Yes.

Symptoms: Really sensitive lips, dry skin, back/hip pain

Aversions: I guess hamburgers.....not much else

Cravings: Chocolate, Coke

What I miss: Running. I've really missed it this week.

Best Moment of the week: Having a baby shower for Paige and feeling her move like normal again yesterday.

What i'm looking Forward to: Eating some Chick fil a this week! And showing off my belly bump to the fam!

I'll try to post nursery and shower pics tomorrow!

love

laura

29 Week Recap

So sorry I am just now posting!! There has been some serious drama in the blogging world. I got a message saying that all my space was full so I couldn't post any pictures. I ended up just resizing this so it would let me post it. But I need to figure out how to add space without paying every month. If anyone has any ideas or tips, PLEASE PLEASE let me know!

Okay.... so I'm practically 30 weeks by now, but this was taken when I was 29. And yes, I am wearing the exact same sweater as my last photo.....I'm running out of things that are long enough. I have plenty of shirts that are still too big (width wise), but are about 3 inches too short. I'm convinced I have a very long torso for someone who is only 5 feet. 

This week we put up the crib and it's starting to look like a nursery! If blogger will cooperate, I'll post pics in the next few days!

And random, but I went to the dr on Friday-the day after thanksgiving and also right after I ate mcdonalds. Probably the WORST time to ever be weighed! So before i even stepped on the scale, the dr said "So are you still like carbohydrates?" I was like ummm, you know......

I'm pretty sure my dr believes in only eating meat and veggies and that carbs are from the devil. But seriously, I believe in a well rounded diet and that includes bread :)

Also, we were with some friends this past weekend and my friend was nursing her almost 3 month old. He started making some really loud, kind of coughing noises. My other friends son, who is 5 looked at my belly and asked if that was my baby making that noise! Ha!

Also.......my nephew made Paige her own ornament that says Paige, and My first christmas! SOOOO sweet!!!

How Far Along: 29 Weeks

Size of Baby: Butternut squash-about 15-16 inches long, 3 lbs

Weight Gain: 17

Gender: Girl-Paige Olivia

Movement: She moves a lot!!!! It's starting to feel really weird the bigger she gets. She moves so much and it feels so weird, i'm wondering what she is doing in there!

Sleep: It's been better.

Maternity Clothes: All pants and most shirts-even though the sweater in the pic is a normal sweater. crazy!

Symptoms: Dry, sensitive skin. Back and hip pain.

Aversions: not really anything

Cravings: Hot water, chocolate

What I miss: Sleeping on my back

Best moment of the Week: We went to the dr this past Friday and had an ultrasound. He said the separation in her kidney's has shrunk and is barely even there!! And she is back on track for her size! We are so thankful she is doing well and everything looks really good!

What I'm looking Forward to: I have a baby shower tonight!!! My friends here are giving us a cupcake theme shower and I am beyond excited!!! If blogger doesn't hate me, I'll try to post pics tomorrow.

hope to be posting again soon!

love

laura

A little news

Life here has been a little crazy. 

We were originally planning on delivering Paige in a nearby country, not too far from us. But through a lot of different circumstances, we found ourselves deciding to go to the States.

We'll be in Oklahoma in a little less than 2 weeks! We'll spend some time in the Oklahoma/Texas area and spend Christmas with Daniel's family. The first part of January we'll travel to my parents who live in Illinois.

We'll deliver Paige there, then make our way back here by April.

We of all people are probably the most surprised that we're going to the states for almost 4 months. We bought our tickets a little over a week ago, and almost every day since then we say something like "can you believe in XX days we'll be in america?" It's pretty surreal. We didn't take the decision lightly. We prayed about it and really sought the Father's wisdom. We know this is where He is leading us right now and we have great peace about the decision. But still....a little weird. 

So I'm in a little bit of panic mode trying to get the nursery ready. I know I won't be able to get it completely set up, but I'm trying to get as much done so when we return it's one less thing I have to worry about. 

Daniel painted last week.....let's just say it looks great, but the color is WAY brighter than we thought it would be! We also bought a wardrobe (since closets are nonexistent here). I just ordered the crib and a rug, and hope they get here soon. 

That's our news......if I don't post in a while it's because i'm making our 100th to-do list!  :)

love

laura

Random Photo Post

I was travelling last week and have just random photos I want to share.

First, Sarah sent us a Christmas package/baby Paige package. We were allowed to open our Christmas presents early (separate post). This is my new mug!

Daniel and I had a date night at a Turkish restaurant two Saturdays ago.

This was the tub at the hotel where I stayed. It was really big and deep and I was pretty careful getting in and out.

I was at a womens training last week, which meant lots of girl talk and lots of Starbucks!

Back in my city, I took some friends to the Toys R Us here. I saw this. It was near the baby bathtubs. 

There really are no words.

Our city just got a GAP....like a reallllll GAP!!! It even has a baby and kids section, and totally felt like being in America. This was the babyGap.

I was away for our 3 year wedding anniversary, but these greeted me when I came home!

We went out for dinner this past Saturday nite to celebrate. There is this amazing italian restaurant in our city that is our fave. But we got there and it was a special reservation only wine tasting set dinner. We ended up going to a restaurant near our house instead. But we plan to re-celebrate in a couple of weeks.

love

laura

28 Week Recap

Wow, can we say big mama?! The last couple of weeks I would say I/Paige are going thru a growth spurt! What's shocking, is this my regular sweater, that still fits. I fee like i'm already running out of things that cover the belly. I'm afraid to be walking down the street one day with my belly showing and not even know it. But I already get tons of stares here, so might as well make it interesting right? ha

How far Along: 28 weeks

Size of Baby: Small Cabbage-around 16 inches long, 2.5-3 lbs

Weight Gain: 16 lbs

Gender: Girl-Paige Olivia!

Movement: Not 24/7, she is definitely more of a night mover. But when she moves, my belly moves too!

Sleep: It's a little better. Still not great, but it's better.

Maternity Clothes: All pants, and most shirts

Symptoms: Back and hip pain, realllly dry skin

Aversions: None really

Cravings: Chocolate, hot water

What I miss: Not too much.....maybe eating lunch meat

Best Moment of the week: Sharing her name with everyone!

What I'm looking forward to: We were supposed to do the follow up ultrasound last Friday, but the dr changed it to this week. So i'm excited to see how much she's grown and how her kidneys are doing.

love

laura

What's in a Name?

Announcing.................................................................

Paige Olivia

Whenever we would talk about baby names, Daniel focused on the meaning of the name. If a name sounded great but didn't have a strong meaning, it went out the window. You can imagine how productive and fun our 'what should we name the baby' conversations went, ha!

For years, I have loved the name Paige for a little girl. Ever since we found out we were having a girl, we've called her Paige. But we had a hard time with the middle name. I am very thankful that Daniel was pretty quick to like the name Paige. It probably didn't hurt that I would refer to our baby as Paige all the time....slowly winning him over :)

So I forced suggested to Daniel (several weeks back), that we should go to Starbucks, take the baby name book, and get serious about naming our little girl. After throwing out a few random names, we found Olivia. We loved the way it sounded and felt like it really was the perfect completion for our little girls name.  

Here's why:

Paige-a servant, assistant, or one who brings a message

Olivia-Olive or olive tree, which symbolizes peace

So together, our hope is that our daughter will be

 "a messenger of peace, or one who brings peace."

We absolutely love her name and can't wait for her to get here!!!!!!

I have SOOO much to post, i'll try to get my weekly recap up later today, along with tons of other stuff that is happening.

love

laura