A baby is such a good excuse for a party

Pin It Now! there is this nice feeling of community that comes with having a baby.  i've been fortunate enough to have two showers in the last few weeks - one a few weeks ago with the girls from work hosted by my friend Rima and one hosted by my mom for family and friends this past weekend. At both we were so spoiled  - but the nicest thing about the showers was all of the visiting that took place with all of the ladies in my life.  i have gone on before about how fortunate i am to have the group of friends that i have but it's so true

these pics make me laugh because although I know how big I am I kind of don't really realize until I see pics like this - ha ha!  Bumpalicious!  I can remember back when I was first preggo trying on the foam belly at Gap Maternity and doing a ridiculous dance for Kirk and my Mom in it thinking "there is NO WAY I'll ever get THIS BIG" ...hmmm, I was wrong ;)

For hostess gifts for both i gave the hostesses necklaces from Luxe Designs - they are a great Canadian company that my neighbour told me about.  On my friend Rima's from work I put her parents names plus words that describe her to me and on my Mom and Aunt's I put their grand kids/great niece and nephew's names plus our baby's name on a charm for them to open once the baby is born.  The designers go to the One of A Kind show every year and I'm planning on going this year with my mom and the new babe (might be a bit aggressive since it's literally weeks after he's due to arrive but we go every year so I definitley want to try to make it there).  If I go I'll for sure order one! 

My friend Meag and I are due a few days a part - both expecting boys so obviously we expect them to be best friends too! 

I think it's really kind how people tell me that I look the exact same except for my belly but pics like this are proof that this is not the case - chubby cheekies! 

 The grade school gang - so crazy and nice how long we've all been friends, love these girls:

 Maya was a great helper during the gifts - I was dying laughing b/c with almost every gift she would lift it above her head and spin for everyone to see and also exclaim VERY loudly "OOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHH SOOOOO CUUUUUUUUUUUUTEEEEEEEE" about almost everything including a set of nail clippers with a picture of a bear on them.  ha ha.  she's so funny/cute. 

The world's most delicious cake - we had it upside down for the first little while and were all trying to figure out the design -- then Maya came by and said "oh that's a cute carriage with a baby bottle" and we realized.  ha ha. 

So the showers have been had and I've made a decent amount of freezer meals.  I'd say we are just about ready for this little guy to arrive!

xoxo

Freezer dinners

Pin It Now! I've been off work for one whole week and I have to admit the first day or so was SO STRANGE - to go from the same routine every day for almost 6 years to knowing I won't be back for about a year felt awkward at first. 

Throughout the week I found my groove and got some good cooking done for when baby gets here.

I made this Martha Stewart lentil soup and froze a bunch of it in individual mason jars and then this Giada marinara sauce with turkey meatballs - we had it for dinner on Thurs night and it was delish.

Up Monday is this Italian wedding soup also from Giada - I mix it up a bit and put pastina pasta instead of the egg in the broth and then spinach instead of escarole but this is a yummy freezer dinner. 

I'm still on the hunt for more good freez-able meals that we can heat up easily once the baby gets here so holla back if you know of any ;) -- my offical due date is 3 weeks today so geting close! 

have a great day - xoxo

Tour De Nursery

Pin It Now! i can't believe i only have one week of work left until i start my  mat leave - the past few weeks have been bittersweet....i am so excited about what's to come but the thought of not being at the job that i have been going to every day for the past 6 +years seems so strange and as much as i know i will love my mat leave i will also miss my job and all the people that i work with. 

the things that i won't miss are how sore my back has gotten sitting all day at my desk or the intense pain that has started radiating through my wrists by mid day - physically i think my body is starting to tell me to wind it down.  i think mother nature is also having a say in my repertoire these days....I'm up every 2 hrs to pee which was kind of annoying at first but now I'm just kind of used to it and my schedule has just started to shift to be one where i am just not sleeping through the night....hence the really early morning blogging.

not to say that I'm not enjoying pregnancy - obviously the end goal will be worth it but there are a few other things that i love about it - pull up pants for one....those have come in super handy the last few weeks and although i do look forward to wearing normal clothes again the elastic waist band is a pretty clever invention that i will miss.  People are SO nice too, that's another big plus - I have started to get a lot of people asking if they can touch the belly and honestly I don't mind. 

onto the baby's room:

we started this project AGES ago - back when my belly was smaller than a small country (see visual reference above ;))  - it seemed aggressive at the time but it took a lot of time for a lot of of what we'd chosen to arrive so it was a good move.
once we decided to abandon our original "baby/lamb" theme and just go for things we liked the process went a lot smoother

 this is the view from the door - we did bean board and kept the colour pallet neutral (inspired by Joanna ;)) - it was Kirk's idea to go almost to the ceiling with the bean board....i wasn't sold at first but love the way it turned out.

 this is the view from the opposite corner.  that pompom cluster is one of my fave. things in the room.  we got it from etsy and k. helped me hang -- ideally i would have liked directly above the baby's crib but wasn't sure that was the smartest idea in case one fell down. 

(ben is really starting to wonder what's going on)  

view of the change table

crib view with baby's cozy quilt and matching pillow 

Etsy finds:

Quilt - Modern Myrtle

Prints - Farouche

Owl - BWinks

Pom Poms - Fiesta Pom Pom

Alphabet Print - InkTreePress