Nana's Labor of Love

I suppose that a lot of you that read my blog know me personally or know me from a distance. (creepers. Haha. Kidding) Well, if you don't and don't know my family's story, here is your chance to find out a little about it. 

My mom, who is a crazy awesome crocheter, entered this contest that Lion Brand yarn is having. You can vote once a day until May 13th. Her story is called "Nana's Labor of Love". WARNING: It's is an amazing story and a tear jerker. So, grab the tissues before sitting down and reading it. Please Please Please Vote! Every day. You know you want to. :)

Here is the link: https://apps.facebook.com/lbstorycontest/contests/202727/voteable_entries/47808146

And here is a picture of the afghan wrapped around my niece Olivea with her mommy kissing her little  forehead.

She used to be so tiny! 

 

Baby Afton's Room!

Like any pregnant mother, I am so excited about decorating the baby's room! There are only two problems.

Problem #1 being that the baby doesn't have it's own room yet because we haven't bought a home yet and are still living in our duplex where the spare room's floor is not visible because of all of our stuff. Maybe we will just knock down a wall and make our neighbors share. Just kidding, we love them too much. However, our home situation will soon change. (update on that later)
Problem #2 We have no idea what this baby is!

To solve the issue for the time being, I have been making mood boards and plans. Everyone keeps asking me if I'm going to have a theme. The answer is yes and no. I hate animal themes and stuff like that. All you people out there who have done or are doing an animal theme, it's not that it's ugly. I just have issues with it. Please, no hard feelings. So, we are doing color themes! Which is way more fun and you can pretty much do anything as long as the colors are similar. All problems are solved.

If Baby Afton is a girl, we will be doing the colors Purple, Grey, and White. I have assembled a mood board for you guys along with a list of where you can get some of this stuff or where I plan to get them.

1. I planned to buy a larger dresser at a garage sale and paint it white and then put a changing pad on the top of it for a changing table. You can also get a dresser like this at Pottery Barn Kids but I'm not willing to pay that price! Yikes! 2. I love this Graco 4 in 1 crib at Walmart. It's a pretty good price too.

3. Print Set - Mysteries on LioLittleLion Etsy Store. 4. Dahlia Bumper at Pottery Barn Kids. 5. Sabrina Toy Chest at Pottery Barn Kids. 6. Dahlia Quilt at Potter Barn Kids. 7. Dahlia Skirt & Sheet at Pottery Barn Kids. 8. Wicker rocker which I had planned on purchasing at a garage sale.

If Baby Afton is a boy, we will be doing the colors Yellow, Grey, and White. I have assembled a mood board for you guys for these colors as well along with a list of where you can get some of this stuff or where I plan to get them.

1. I planned to buy a larger dresser at a garage sale and paint it white and then put a changing pad on the top of it for a changing table. You can also get a dresser like this at Pottery Barn Kids but I'm not willing to pay that price! Yikes! 2. I love this Graco 4 in 1 crib at Walmart. It's a pretty good price too.

3. Boys airplane nursery art from PaperLlamas Etsy Shop  4. Harper Bumper at Pottery Barn Kids. 5. Sabrina Toy Chest at Pottery Barn Kids. 6. Harper Quilt at Potter Barn Kids. 7. Harper Crib Skirt at Pottery Barn Kids.
8. Wicker rocker which I had planned on purchasing at a garage sale. 9. Model Airplane that I want to either hang from the ceiling or set on a shelf.


You may notice that I don't have a rug on either of these mood boards. We are actually planning on buying really comfy cozy carpet to install wherever we live that will be perfect for the baby! A lot of the things I chose are similar for each gender that way when we have another child and they are a different gender it will be fairly easy to use the same stuff. :)


Let me know what you think! I can't wait to find out what this baby is!

Swagger

So, I've been thinking about this for a while now and my friend (who is also pregnant) shared a video

with me that fit with my blog post so I figured I would share it. :)

I cracked up! So funny. This couple has a lot of other funny videos. I think it's mostly funny for parents or new parents. Anyways, on to my post.

I've been thinking about the Mommy & Daddy styles or "swagger". I know this is a hard concept to grasp but just roll with me here. My mind can go weird places. (trust me) So, you look at the families and think how cute they are and you automatically associate them with having their own style. Take a couple of families that I know at my church and everywhere. (I will not name any names on this but I'm pretty sure some of you will know who these people are.)

Family 1. (We will call their swagger "Chic-alishis")
There is one family who always seem to have it all together. The Mom is the most beautiful person you will ever meet and she always looks amazing. She has three kids and she always shows up to church looking great no matter what day it is, as do her kids. HOW?! Her husband works and she is a stay at home mom. How in the heck does she do it?!

Family 2. (We will call their swagger "Rock-a-by-swag")
Another family I know through a family member has the coolest style. I think they have like 20 kids. Just Kidding. I think they have 6. For that I give them props because seriously, I would die. They are all like punk rocker. All of them. I know what you are thinking, "Really? I bet they look really weird." Quite the contrary. They look awesome. When you see them all together they look so put together and cool. Also, they all have like name brand clothes which make them look really cool anyways.

Those are just a couple of examples. How in the world do these families coin their own Swag? Gabe and I don't have any swag. We are just.....Gabe & Caitlin. So, how are we going to have style when we have this child and everything goes to hell in a hand basket slightly crazy. Cool Moms and Dads. Please share your secrets. Because I got nothin'. I don't want to be known as the weird family who never showers. Haha.

Ok. Now that you have endured my strange mindedness. go....think.....share....with me.

I've Been Inspired.

Hello all! So, it has been almost a month since I last posted on the blog. I know. I'm really terrible. However, My mother has started a blog and has inspired me to blog more. Her blog is amazing! She has only posted two times so far but they are really good reads. I highly suggest checking it out. It's called Where Trust Begins.

She talks about what God is teaching her through everything she is going through.

So, I suppose I will tell you all what has been happening these last few weeks with the baby. I'll make a list because I like lists. :)

1. I am currently 18 weeks! Wow. How amazing is that? The baby is the size of a sweet potato. 5.6 inches from the little baby butt to the head.

2. The baby started moving last week! (yes, I will be using many exclamation points in this blog post. hehe) I love when the baby moves. It's like a calming drug. Everything feels right with the world when I feel a little movement or kick. We found out that like many babies, this one is stubborn and will not let Daddy feel it kick. As soon as Gabe runs to feel the baby kick he or she stops kicking. Poor Daddy. We also found out that the baby likes music....or hates it....haha. At church on Sunday, when the band was playing, the baby was moving so much. Gabe also tested it with his phone by putting music on and then putting the phone up to my belly. Haha, fun times.

3. I found this awesome baby carrier at a Mom2Mom sale at my church last weekend.

How much did I snag it for? $5 baby! Yeah that's right. This Momma can shop.

4. My cravings have settled for a while. By settled, I mean I only crave a few things. By a few things I mean A&W. I LOVE A&W food right now. I think that it's amazing bad that there is one on the way home from work. I'm pretty sure when we pull in, the workers are like oh that pregnant woman and her husband are here AGAIN!

5. We were able to hear the baby's heart beat on the tenth which was amazing. It's so cool that there is actually a living baby growing inside me. Love it. The heart beat was at 140. Which, if you believe in the old wives tale, that means that it is probably a boy. But I definitely know that it's not always true. But shhhh. My husband would scold me if I said that it could be a girl. He definitely wants a boy way bad.

I think that's it with the baby news. I promise I will post another bump picture as soon as I can...remember. haha!