Holy Cankles Batman!!

After a long work day with real shoes on!

Seriously?!?! It has been cankle city here this past week and I am none too pleased. I am 37 weeks and if I have to deal with this for the next 3 weeks I don't know if I can handle it. Yikes!! I've been elevating my feet as much as possible and at night the swelling comes down for the most part. My one saving grace is that I don't have to go to an office for work so I don't need to wear real shoes. I generally cruise around in barefeet or my flip flops. So, any of you who've been pregnant before have any advice for me?

Lazy days!

So, it's the end of a 3 day weekend with President's Day, but I've totally extended my 3 day weekend into a 5 day weekend! That means I have two more days of nothing. Well, technically I took these days off to finalize baby preparations but let's be honest, we're pretty much done. Saturday felt pretty productive with us going bowling with some friends, I had a pedicure, and we watched 127 Hours. Pretty good movie! James Franco did a great job though I still think Colin Firth should - and will - win the Oscar this upcoming weekend. Other than that I didn't do much except normal weekend chores. It was raining all weekend so it was awesome to just be inside, curled up on the couch...even though I was uncomfortable most of the time due to my expanding size. Nothing else new to report. I pretty much did nothing all day today except reading on my Kindle and watching some TV with the pups. I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow and that's the extent of my day.

Some exciting news to report is that Scott and I bought a new digital SLR camera! Whoo hoo! It will arrive on Wednesday and we are so excited for it. It took Scott several days to figure out which camera, lens, etc, to purchase - and if you know him you know he is crazy indecisive - but he finally figured it out. So, when we get the camera expect lots of new photos...maybe not of my expanding size (though I may buckle down and get one more shot) but definitely pictures of the nursery will be coming shortly. Stay tuned!

Month in Review...so far

Roxy and Koa

I know everyone out there has been anxiously anticipating my next post, so here it is! First, I had to post a picture of the cutest puppies around. Yes, even though they are almost 1 1/2 years old they are still my little babies. Look at those faces! Roxy is the chocolate lab and Koa is the Golden Retriever. They went to the vet a couple weeks ago for their annual exams and they were super excited - especially because Roxy absolutely LOVES to go in the car. Koa...not so much. They get to the vet and there are so many good smells and then we have to go into the exam room. They are still very excited and fine, but when they come back from getting shots they are pretty much ready to go. They both had 3 booster shots and were exhausted by the time we got home. They are always such troopers though! Plus, we had to make sure we got them in before Keira's arrival so we had to make sure they were all healthy. They are so ready to be a big brother and sister. Now, however, they need a bath because they seriously smell!

We also had our annual Superbowl party and that was a blast! We had some great friends come over, great food to eat, and enjoyed watching the game (and of course the commercials). We usually have this party every year though last year since we were just moving into the house we weren't able to have it. We were pretty distraught about it, but now we're back in business. Also, this year we expanded our NFL pick 'em league so some of the competitors came (including our big winner), which was quite the treat.

Valentine's Day was this week and in all honesty Scott and I have never been big V-Day celebrators. It's definitely a Hallmark holiday, but it is of course nice to express your love for that special someone when maybe you don't every day of the year. With that said, we don't usually go the gift route but we always do a nice card and some candies. This year Scott also brought me flowers and cooked me a delicious meal (since we refuse to go out to dinner like the rest of the world on V-Day)! Seriously though...the meal was ridiculously good! We had bacon wrapped filet mignon (yeah, start salivating now), sauteed mushrooms, and the most amazing Cheesy potatoes au gratin (Williams Sonoma recipe)! We also had bread to complement the meal and we opted out of a salad since we were having so much food already. Let me tell you, those potatoes are delicious heated up as well. I've had them every day since. I was a bit bummed though because I bought myself some Sparkling Apple Cider and I forgot about it. I had it Tuesday night instead. Look at that deliciousness below!! YUMMY!!

cheesy potatoes au gratin

In case everyone was curious about Scott's progress on his artwork...well, it's coming along slowly but surely. He has now finished each of the letters for Keira's name though he has to put final touches on them and then fill in the background. So, to me, the hardest part is over, but what do I know since I'm not the artist!

We have about 4 weeks left until her arrival (if she's on time of course), so he should have some time. Also, we haven't overscheduled ourselves too much in these coming weekends because we need to finish preparations. Well, let's be honest, I've been done preparing at this point excluding some minor things but I am a planner and have had things done for a little while now. Car seats in the car, hospital bag packed and in the car, CDs and movies ready to go for the hospital, nursery done, laundry done, registry complete, etc. I will say though that we are both excited for our maternity/paternity leave. It can be quite difficult to make oneself be productive when I know I'll be on leave for a whole 12 weeks! What you say?!?!? 12 Weeks!! I know, Bank of America is pretty awesome! Scott even gets 6 weeks off with American Express so he is anxiously awaiting his leave as well. He has set himself a little to do list of projects he wants to complete (i.e. backsplash our kitchen, play Xbox, yardwork, etc). He is always such a go getter whereas I'm happy just chillin' on the couch.

Last weekend I did have my first bout with pregnancy swelling, which I was none too pleased about. Saturday was extremely busy with a baby prep class, lunch with a great friend, a couple errands, and by the time I got home I looked down and I had cankles!! WHAT?!?! This could not be! Immediately I got lazy and sat my butt on the couch to elevate my feet. This seemed to help a bit and a lot of the swelling went down, but there went all my productivity to clean the house. I mean, hello, I had cankles! I cannot clean like that! The next morning the swelling was gone, thankfully, and now I've been more aware...i.e. I've been more lazy than normal! :o) I also had my first weekly doctor's visit this past Monday, which went well. A bit invasive if you ask me, but I guess it comes with the territory when you're this far along. Oh, and I had to have blood drawn and anyone who knows me knows my fear of needles. I have been working on it though and there were no tears. It's pretty much a mental thing because every time I get a shot or have blood drawn I anticipate the worst and when it's over I'm like, that's it?

So, that's about it on updates for now. I'm sure you're all bored by now, so until next time...

Hello!

Me and Scott at Zoo Lights December 2010!

I'm not going to beat around the bush with this. I'm not the funniest, most witty person around so likely anything written will be quite boring - unless Scott is the one to post. So, feel free to read at your leisure.

Right now I am "working." Quotes were used due to the fact that I have my personal and work computer up, but am writing this post instead of actually checking emails or calling clients. I am going back and forth a little bit, but I'd say my time is being used 75% blog/25% work right at this moment. We've started this blog to give everyone a glimpse into our lives. We're not that exciting, so feel free to stop reading here. Though, I will give you a brief update of what's going on if you'd like to know.

First, we are having a baby in March! YAY! Can't wait as I have been increasingly uncomfortable. So far so good on the swelling part though I'm guessing that will come soon enough. However, sleeping pretty much sucks. I have a body pillow, which my mom got me and it's fabulous though I am just not comfortable and I wake up every couple hours. I guess my body is prepping me for sleepless nights that will be coming shortly, but if you know me at all you know I value my sleep. Eight hours generally doesn't work for me. I'm at 100% with a good 9 to 10 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Not gonna happen any time soon. You can see in the picture below that I'm getting bigger by the day, but of course that's to be expected with only 6 weeks left before we get to meet our baby girl.

So, I'm sure there's an easier way to place photos where I want them to be. Since this is my first foray into blogging I would appreciate any comments to advise how to actually insert a photo. This one took quite a while and I'm sure it's easier than I made it. If not, I'm not sure how many photos I will be uploading in the future. To insert the photo I clicked on the 'add image' icon when I composed this and after uploading the picture, it went straight to the top of the post. So, I had to go into 'edit HTML' and do all this other stuff I'm not good at. Any advice is very appreciated!!

So, Keira Nicole McFarland is due on March 18th and we have already completed the nursery. I will post photos once I take them, however my slacker of a husband still has his one task to do in there. That's the artwork. I'm not very creative at all, so he is in charge of that. He is very talented and is painting each letter of her name on a small canvas to put on the wall. He's doing it in jungle animals and the ones I've seen so far are great. However, he is only to the I and the K and the E are only about 85% finished. He just hasn't been "feeling it" lately to finish. Again, if you know me at all you know I'm a planner. So, I am now stressing over something I really have no control over. Not acceptable! I mean, I know she won't be in her room for a couple months, but realistically how much time will he have to complete those paintings once she's here? Yeah, pretty sure we're all on the same page now.

So, we do have a very busy month with our upcoming Superbowl party, more baby classes, finishing to prepare for Keira's arrival, work and life in general! So, signing off for now.