Reveal Day

I'm learning to take deep breaths and cherish each moment.  As much as it seemed to take forever, once this big milestone day got here, I realized how fast things are really flying.  It's easy for me to say that, and realize that a few days after the fact, but up until 9:00am the morning of July 13th, I thought this day would never come.  It was REVEAL DAY!  We would find out if we were having a beautiful baby girl or a precious baby boy.  Everyone asks "which one do you want?" and how could you not answer with "it doesn't matter.  We just want a happy, healthy baby."  Of course that is true, but sure, we had different reasons for wanting a boy or girl.  We didn't want one over the other...just for different reasons.  With a boy, there was the joy of Jer having a son.  He does so well with our nephew Grant that I could peacefully and easily envision him with a son. The picture below is a frequent occurrence when they're together. Footballs, basketballs and baseballs are all interchangeable. With a girl, there was all the love and goodness and, well, girlishness that I can master.  We have other reasons for each and truly, we would be happy with a boy or girl. 

The day of...

We woke up early today.  Just like a normal work day.  We were going to stay down at my parents tonight and tomorrow.  We had to get there early to drop Diesel off before our appointment.  I woke up with "Christmas Morning" excitement.  It was big.  We loaded the car and off we went.  After dropping Diesel and our bags off at my parents we headed to the doctor's office.  It was a quick appointment.  We were called back for the ultrasound.  The tech asked me if we were finding out the gender during our visit and I looked at her like she had three heads.  I may or may not have blurted out, "um, that is why we're here!"  I guess she had other things to check for during this visit.  Oops.  I laid on the table, cold stuff on my belly and the screen turned away from me.  J sat in the chair and strained his eyes to peer at that screen.  I stared at the serene view on the light tile above my head.  All the while, we talked with the u/s tech about the heat, her pool, why we don't have a pool (power lines), how her daughter was picked for the all star softball team, and a bunch of other things.  In the middle of random, space-filling conversation she blurts out "this baby is a GIRL!"  I cried.  We sort of knew what to expect because at our 16 week appointment I pleaded with our midwife to please check.  She did and she gave us her best guess.  She was right.  The good  Lord has blessed us with a baby girl.  I wanted to call my momma right away.  Of course I could not because I concocted some elaborate plan to have a reveal dinner that night.  Silly me!  I shared the news with a select few and J and I set out for a day of fun, shopping and girly goodness.

We went to Target and bought a few things - Daddy's Princess outfit, I love Auntie onesie, and a shark bath towel (because Daddy Jer loves sharks.)  J also picked out a body pillow for me with a giraffe print cover because he thinks I will need one for comfort in the weeks and months to come.

We spent hours in Buy Buy Baby and Babies R Us.  We checked out all the latest and greatest baby gear.  We acted like kids and played catch with the balls.  We pushed strollers around to see which ones turned the best.  J was all over the carseats, checking them up and down.  He wants only the best and the safest.  Good man. 

We even bought our crib and dresser!  We didn't plan to, but we fell in love with one and couldn't beat the current price.  The same goes for our bedding set.  We planned to register for that stuff...bedding, blankets, mobile, lamp...but when we both loved a certain set, and it was on clearance, and it was being discontinued, we decided to snatch it up.

After shopping we headed to lunch.  I was hungry.  Hungry, hungry.  We went to Mongolian BBQ and it was delicious.  After lunch we stopped at Partridge Creek.  I was actually quite proud of how well I showed self-control.  We went to two of my favorite stores and bought only ONE thing at each.  Please, applaud me now.  That is some serious restraint.  First stop, BabyGap.  J picked out a little onesie that says "I Love My Mommy" with a print of two bulldogs on it.  Awww yeah.  It is perfect.  Then we had to go to Janie and Jack.  Janie and Jack, how I love thee.  Upon entering the store I swear the skies open up and you get a glimpse of Heaven.  Baby clothes Heaven, that is.  We picked out the most perfect little sweater capelet for our baby girl to wear this Fall.  Well, next Fall.  She will be nestled up in my belly still this Fall.

Shopping done.  Let's go to Mom and Dads where we'll share dinner with them, Livi, Grant and my sister Beckey.  I made two reveal cakes...one pink, one blue.  I had to be prepared either way and didn't want to spend my afternoon baking cakes.  We planned to let my mom do the honors of cutting the cake and revealing pink or blue cake underneath the frosting.  Everyone gathered around the table and shortly after, bright pink cake was revealed!  We're having a GIRL!  Dinner followed.  It was also delicious.  J served up his famous tacos.  We ate. We laughed.  We loved.  Life is good!

Let's bake a cake

I fell in love with this button cake when I first saw it.  I needed a reason to make something similar.  I thought it would be perfect for our little reveal dinner with my family.  And so it was.  I bought my fondant and tried my hand at making buttons.  Can I just say, I love working with fondant! 

My martini picks and shot glasses have been collecting dust for the past 4 months, and they will be for the months to come, so I put them to use today.  They are the perfect size for my fondant buttons.  Our reveal dinner is tomorrow, but so is our ultrasound.  I do not do well with secrets and I do not do well with waiting.  That said, I had to bake two cakes to be prepared.  One pink, one blue.

ReFashioned Tees

I debated whether or not to keep this blog strictly about pregnancy, birth, baby, marriage, family etc.  I had to have this discussion with myself because I wanted to share some cute, and simple, crafty things I've done recently.  I thought that maybe I should not put that here.  Then I thought that was crazy talk, because what am I if not crafty?  So, the debate is over.  I will share whatever I want on my blog.  Yep, it's mine. I guess I have control over that. 

Without further ado...my shirts!
(I'll apologize in advance for the poor quality photos.  They came from my cell phone and at the time my goal was cute shirts, not great photos.)

For the first shirt, I refashioned an old, super comfy, super soft tee shirt using a bleach pen.  That's right! You actually want to get bleach on your clothes for this project.  I got the idea  here.  Actually, I first saw it on Pinterest, but this is where the idea stems from.

I recommend putting something between the layers of your shirt, otherwise the design will bleed through.  I used a piece of cardboard.  I'm sure you could use some wax paper or even a plastic bag.  I started to draw out my design with chalk.  Not so easy on a loosey goosey teeshirt that likes to stretch every which way.  I quickly gave up on that and just went in blind with my bleach pen.  If you look closely, you'll see there are both a turquoise and a white part of my design.  The green in my shirt bleached out differently depending on how long the bleach was left on. Once I realized that,  I did what I wanted in white first.  At the very end I added a few lines and dots that I intended to be the bluish tint.  Once my design was done and my colors lifted I rinsed the whole shirt in cold water to stop the bleaching.  I'd like to tell you that I then promptly put it in the washing machine for a quick wash and dry and put it away neatly in my dresser.  I did not.  It hung up (after the cold rinse) at my studio for a few days, then it sat in the back of my car for the weekend, spent a day or two in the dirty laundry pile and just recently made it out of the dryer.  That's how I roll.   All in all, I'm happy with my NEW shirt.  For less than $4 (the cost of the bleach pen) I can turn multiple old shirts into new shirts.  Love that!

For the second shirt, I rocked that Old Navy $2 tank sale.  I bought 5 tanks in fabulous colors and plan to turn them into something amazing, adorable, fabulous, what have you?!  With this little purple gem I took some inexpensive left over fabric and cut circles.  3 per flower in various sizes for a variety of flower sizes.  Once I had my circles, I snipped four parts into them to add some dimension.  I stitched them together and then on to the shirt (after laying them out multiple times to find a pattern that I liked.)  Once they were on the shirt I used some fabric and gem glue to add little buttons to the center of each flower.  For this shirt I chose to use all of the same buttons.  You can use all different types, like my friend Rachel did, and it also looks amazing.  You can't go wrong with this idea.  It is so simple and inexpensive.  Oh, and I do not sew.  That means that if you also do not sew, you can still make this shirt.  I don't consider threading a needle and doing a few quick stitches sewing. 

*Just a side note on shirt number two.  I had to put it on and mark with some chalk (or maybe I used a Crayola colored pencil, I don't remember) where there were gaps.  When the shirt is flat there were no gaps.  Once it was on and stretched out a bit, those flowers seperated.  No big deal.  Just whip up a few extra flowers and fill in the holes. 

Baby Love - The Weeks Go By {11 weeks - 18 weeks}