Maternaty Photos......Check!

Honestly I wasn't going to do them, I was thinking how possibly could I take photos right now and feel good about them. But Ellie from Vitella Photography, who did our engagement and wedding photos talked me into it. I am so glad we decided to do them. I feel like it is a time that is easy to forget once the little man is here, and she captured our excitement perfect. Here are a few of my favorites....

Here is a link to Vitella Photography if you would like to see more of her amazing work!
http://photosbyvitella.blogspot.com/

36 Down 4 (HOPEFULLY) To Go!

Really four whole weeks? I just know I am going to be late too. It is kind of bitter sweet, I know that he will come when he is ready. Enough people have said that to me by now, but this whole can't tie my shoes or shave my legs thing is getting a little old. Being pregnant is a beautiful thing, yes but 10 months (because it really is 10) is just too long! My good friend had her baby on Saturday, she was about three weeks early. Everything is great and her baby boy is beautiful. Now she is at home loving him up, and I just can't wait to be there. My mom was late all three times, which gives me little to no hope that he will be here early. I was talking to my baby while driving to work today. Telling him, that I only want him to come out when he is ready, but if at anytime he feels ready he should come on out! Working is getting harder, I feel bad sitting more then my students are used to. I am usually on my feet all day and getting down to their level, it is just to hard right now. I know they all understand, and they are all so cute about the baby coming. Asking me questions, like "what did the baby have for lunch?" and "Mrs. Schrader, did you have your baby last night?" I am going to miss this class:) But the rate I am going I still have another month to enjoy them!
Best-

2011 Year in Review

Starting a family has made me look at my blog in a different light. Honesty, when I started blogging it was to document our home and all the different adventures we were going through to make our house a home. Later I got caught up in how many followers I could get, which I am a little embarrassed to admit. Now I am looking at it as documentation for my family. Something to look back at and say "those were the good ol' days" Hopefully it just keeps getting better, but it is always fun to look back. So today I am reminiscing about 2011 and where we are in our lives...

This year was a year of some changes and celebrations.
By changes I mean the baby in my belly right now. Something that has definitely changed our whole home and life (already!) We got pregnant at the end of May which was a little sooner then we had planned, but God laughs at plans and he sure was chucking at us when we thought it wouldn't really happen for at least 3-4 months after we started trying. Which I am not complaining about at all. It just meant our one year mini vacation and our trip to Vegas were a little more low key then we originally planned:)
Celebrations were very plentiful. We had a very fun mini trip to see one of my good friends from college get married, we had a great time in Vegas for Ryan's brother's wedding and a great mini Trip to Galena for Ryan's best friend's wedding. I have to admit Ryan's best man's speech was the best I had ever heard (you know it's a good one when people are crying and laughting at the same time). We also celebrated Ryan's Master's graduation. He is now all set to be a principal and even got to try it out for 3 months when he filled in for a maternity leave. We celebrated our one year anniversary in Minneapolis with a wonderful dinner and night at a beautiful wedding. It couldn't have been more perfect. And of course we celebrated the day we found out about our little man!

It's 4 am!

Yep, I think my body is getting me ready for what is about to happen in 2 months!! I can't believe it is coming up and to be honest I am a little nervous. It must be the scared of the un-known. There are somethings I do know...
#1. It can't be too bad if woman have more than on child
#2. God wouldn't give me something I couldn't handle
and that's about all I feel I know right now.

We are going to two classes this month, one a child care and the other for nursing. Nursing scares me too, I just hope I can be strong and stick with it even if it doesn't come easy for me.

As far as feeling...I feel pretty good, can't wait til I can bend down and put my boots on without becoming out of breath:)

I am a little scared of having a big baby, since all three of my mom's were over 8 lbs with my brother almost being 11!! I did past the 3 hours Gestational diabetes test (which was awful by the way) I don't understand how they think it is okay to have a pregnant woman fast for over 15 hours! Thank goodness Ryan was there to catch me when I fainted in the waiting room:) But again it was all worth it, because I am Gestational Diabetes free! I still am a little concerned about the big baby thing so I have cut down on the breads/carbs and am trying to eat tons of fruits and veggies. It's better for the little man anyway.

The Peanut is kicking a ton, the other night Ryan had his head on my stomach it was really neat to see his head move up and down because of how strong our little man's kicks were.  He's going to be a tough one:)

 I wanted to post a few holiday family photos before it is February...

The three big babies

I was in charge of the desserts this year, I made a peppermint cheese cake, cherry cheese cake and Oreo balls..yum

I don't know why I feel the need to hold my stomach for every picture, I think it is pretty obvious there is a baby in there:)

One of my favorite photos, I think my dad is due about the same time a me.

Christmas morning, next year I'll be holding the little man!!

best,

Adding on to The Little Man's nursery

Meet Mertle the Turtle and Henry the Horse

30 before 35

I have been catching up on some blogs over Christmas break and one of my favorites, http://www.emyselfandi.com had a great idea about actually putting down some goals that she would like to accomplish before 30, that gives me a little less then 2 years, and I want some more time, so I'm changing it to 30 before 35 which seems a little more accomplishable for my life right now.  This is going to be an ongoing post so here is what I have so far.
1. Become a mom
2. Catch up and keep up with my blog
3. Go on a cruise
4. Teach my son how to snow board
5. Stay in a cabin in Utah
6. Have $20,000 in our savings
7. Figure out my sewing machine and actually use it!
8. Knit my baby a blanket
9. Take my husband to a Bears Game
10. Finish my masters
11. Teach a college course
12. Take a road trip across country with my family

The Little Man's Nursery

When we started converting the office into a nursary we still wernt sure if we were having a boy or a girl.  I knew i wanted to stay nutrual with the wall color and then just accent with either bright blue or violet. 

 Here is the Peanut's closet.  Ryan put up the organizers which made a huge difference in the amount of storage we have now. 

 Here is the built in book shelve Ryan just built for our reading nook we are creating in the room.  It will be solid white soon.

We were super excited a few weeks ago, I got a call from Ryan asking me to guess where he was on his way to, I had no idea.  So when he told me Buy Buy Baby, I was really confused because after registering there for 4 HOURS I was sure I would never be able to get him in that store again!  Well it turns out all the nursary furniture came! They told us 12-18 weeks because it was a new model, so we were planning on not having it until January.  Well it was all put together that night and I am in love with it. 

As the weeks go by....

 Here I am at 19 weeks. Finally started to feel better!! At this point we had no idea if we were having a boy or girl. (the baby picture is of my husband, my Mother In-Law gave it to us when we told her we were expecting)

 Here is 21 weeks.  Finally found out we are having a boy!!
We are taking pictures every other week, this way it's easier to see the growth. We decided to take the pictures in the little man's closet to show how much stuff we are accumulating throughout the weeks for him.

Here I am at 23 weeks and am now feeling him kick all of the time!  Ryan finally got to feel him moving around at the end of the 23rd week.  I think we can pin that as my favorite part so far!  I feel great, except for not being able to put my boots on without sitting down anymore:)
Our first shower invites went out this week, I am so excited! 

So much better!

I am feeling like a new person! No more going to bed right after work, I actually can stay up til at least 9 :) So things are starting to get done, we moved all the office furniture down stairs to the spare room, Ryan primed the nursery, and my belly is growing growing growing! All I have wanted for the past few weeks is bread, I have been eating like two loafs a week! It was the only thing that made my stomach feel better, which is kinda weird because before I was pregnant I didn't even like bread. Ahh, just another change that has happened since this lovely experience started. Can't wait to post some pictures:)

Next stop......baby!!!

Yes, I said it and the answer to your question is yes I am...16 weeks to be exact! How am I feeling? Um like I have had 90 day hang over! I called my mom this morning asking her in between sniffles and tears "Am I ever going to feel normal again?" I could tell she was trying to hide her smile behind the phone and said "of course you will"
Right now I am saying YEAH RIGHT!
Don't get me wrong, I am super excited to be pregnant and to have a baby, but no one told me I would feel ugly and hung over for weeks and weeks! Sorry to be so negative, and honestly I don’t care how sick I get if that means my baby will be healthy.