& just like that, we are finished with month four!

Weeks 13 - 16

TYPO // I was NOT tired and groggy the whole time. HA!

Month four was wonderful. Women were NOT lying when they say that the second trimester is the BEST! I'm loving it so much. Each day I'm feeling more round and I'm loving this little bump that I'm growing for this little one that I love so much already.

Some questions we have been asked

how many kids do you want // even from when we were dating we always said we both wanted a lot of kids. I've been a fan of five for as long as I can remember, but ever since we were engaged and planning for marriage, we have both said that three might be the magic number. That is the minimum we want, then we will discuss the possibility of more. I grew up with one brother, Peter grew up with a brother and two sisters - so I would love a big family because I didn't have that and he would love a big family because that's all he knows. So, Lord willing, we would love to have at least 3 and be a family of five!

what is your plans for the nursery // well... surprise, we are finding out the sex now. I was more than comfortable with the idea of waiting until a Saturday morning a few weeks ago. I rolled over in bed and put my hand on my tummy and said outloud "I have to know what you are!" and with that the decision was made. I just can't wait!!! Peter of course gave me his "I told you so speech" but he was happy about the decision.
With knowing what the sex is I'm looking forward to adding little touches of boy or girl in the room but the majority of everything will be gender neutral because we want to use the nursery for all of our kids. I would love to have a pale grey color on the walls and add in a lot of white and natural wood accents. I have a lot in mind and I will share more with a post specifically about the design ideas very soon!

do you have names picked out // yes, we do! I'm going to keep things quiet here on the blog until we know the sex for sure but we are so excited about the names we have chosen. The boy name has been known for a very long time and it has always been REALLY hard to agree on girl names, so I was very happy when Peter mentioned a girl name that I also loved. Now, we just need to find out what this little angel is.... and agree on a girl middle name if this little one is a girl!

Mountains, Falls and Friends.

Having friends visit for the past few days was so wonderful! Cassie and I have been so excited to have some time to hang out in person (more than just our wedding weekends) and I'm so glad that her sweet husband made it happen for her birthday gift! It is such a cool thing to meet someone and instantly click but also have fun all weekend with our husbands. I guess when you are busy making memories you forget to pull out the camera as much as you'd like, but the memories we did create make me so happy!

We started the day on Thursday with breakfast at Tandem and then went up to Caesars Head State Park and the fog was so beautiful! The higher we went up the mountain, the thicker the fog became. We really didn't have much of a view but it was a lot of fun to find the little cave above and walk around for a bit. 

Then we drove to Looking Glass Falls for a beautiful waterfall that we knew we'd be able to see with the fog. I really can't believe I haven't been here before because it is so beautiful. 

The rest of the day was spent in Asheville for lunch and Brevard for a brewery and live music, but more on that a little later this week! Of course we had to take our guests to see downtown Greenville and I'm so thankful that the rain held off for most of Friday so we could enjoy it. Besides a little bit of mist off and on, we were good to go for a lot of walking downtown. 

There was a lot of eating and laughing during the three days we had to spend together. It was so wonderful to have our sweet friends in town and show them around all of our favorite places, and even find some new places with them. I can't wait for the next time we are all together, whenever that may be! 

be our guest.

I was inspired by New York City based real estate platform, Compass, recently about their project, Starter Stories!  If you are in the market for a NYC Apartment, I would suggest starting with them! They can connect you to the perfect place and the right neighborhood that fits your personality. It can definitely make home searching much easier and fun.

I am so excited about this chance to share our home a little more on my blog. I started to think about what area I wanted to share next and of course I was hoping to share our downstairs ½ bath and back hallway renovation but that is taking much longer than I hoped. It is about 60% finished right now but we haven't had the extra time to complete it. However, the one room that I have been able to complete is our guest bedroom!

We officially have our first house guests visiting us right now and I'm so excited to share the little space they can call home for the next few days. We love having the extra space for a guest room and we are so thankful for the chance to finally use it.

One of my favorite parts about this room is the colors. This bed was in my old room before I got married and I loved making it bright and colorful. A little flash back post to when I completed the headboard for my bright green room. When we came to see this house for the first time and I saw the color on these walls I knew that my bedding would be perfect!! It really is surreal how perfect they match. It helped make this house seem like home since everything just clicked. 

I love walking by this room and seeing the bright colors and the welcoming vibe that we have in this room. Now that we've had our first house guests, we are ready for more!! Come on family and friends, we welcome you!

Jocie Pots // a giveaway {CLOSED}

Today is a special day, today is my best friend's birthday! To celebrate her birthday I wanted to showcase her wonderful talent with pottery and do a fun giveaway. Jocie will be giving away a set of 4 small lace plates in either cream or pink, you pick!! I love these plates for special desserts or even to layer with regular plates for a salad. They are delicate, beautiful and the perfect touch to any table.

Over the weekend I spent some time at Jocie's "palace" and snapped some pictures of her in action. You see, The Palace is a very special place for her and you can read more about it on her website. You can also take a look at her etsy shop for the latest creations that she has made. 

sweet little Kozmo, the shop dog!

 

Please make sure you check all the details below for the giveaway and enter as many times as you wish! Also, this giveaway is for US residents only. I will announce the winner a week from today on this post, and also email the winner directly, Good Luck!! & happy birthday to Jocie!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Friday Five.

Well, after a few weeks off from my Friday Five thanks to the CRAZY & busy times lately, I'm very glad to be back in a routine here! I've missed making time for this blog but that is been impossible recently. Making time takes time, ya know? So now that things are settled a bit I can take my moments to breath and type. It's a wonderful thing! Hope you all had an awesome week, here are a few of the things that made me smile.....

lunch dates in downtown greenville with gorgeous weather
and a sweet friends a lot this week! 

meeting a new, sweet baby, and buying over 20 cloth diapers
from her mommy that didn't need them!!!

all the sweet friends that have donated their maternity clothes,
it has really meant so much to me.

All the bags and tubs full make my heart so happy!

Jesus, decaf coffee & girl time! 

The spring weather and my pretty new DIY wreath to celebrate!

the strange and the good.

One thing about pregnancy that I knew I would experience, but wasn't quite sure how it would go down, is the emotional side of everything. I tend to be an emotional person with most things already so I was wondering how that would change. Little things always get to me but now they REALLY get to me. I feel more passionate about certain things and while having discussions with Peter about them, I've always kept my cool. One of the many things that I've always been thankful for with our relationship is how we've always been able to TALK OUT anything. Just in the past few months I've been turning on the waterworks while talking so easily. Some big things, some little things (like what to eat for dinner or Peter correcting my driving skills – seriously!), so I'm never sure how things will go.

Here's a little story for ya…. just recently I had an overwhelming sense of thankfulness for that man of mine and I reached for my phone to send him a little "I love you, thank you for loving me, and thanks for being the father to our growing baby" kind of text, just because I felt I needed to. The night before, I had asked Peter to grab my vitamins and some OJ before we started The Walking Dead since he was in the kitchen and I was already on the couch. While he was getting all the vitamins together he mentioned that my prenatal vitamins were getting low and asked if we needed to get some more. I reminded him that we had them set up on auto ship from Amazon to save money and he said he'd check tomorrow and see when we should get them. Fast forward to the next morning, as I said, I was sitting at my desk and thought I'd send him that mushy, I'm an emotional pregnant women text, and when I grabbed my phone from my purse I saw I already had a text from Peter. He was just letting me know when we should receive the next bottle of prenatal vitamins and asked if we should move it up? Tears, guys… I had tears. In my head I was thinking, he remembered to check on my vitamins! I didn't even remember about my vitamins!!! He is so thoughtful! How did I find him, I am so blessed!!!

Oh man, some of the emotional side effects of this growing baby can be tough. I can sit on my bed and cry about my shoes all around my room instead of in my closet. Those things happen, but then the moments happen when I feel so thankful and grateful for this life that I get to live and the little life that we are creating. In awe of a God that created women to bring life into this world for His Kingdom and the privilege and honor that I feel that He has given me that task. It is good. it is strange and crazy at times but it is also sweet and so, so good.

His Name.

One thing that I have learned about marriage is it takes work and time. I'm not saying it isn't fun, I love the work and the time put into this relationship, but it is really easy to lose sight on the most important relationship I have. The lyrics below from Bethany Dillon's song Say Your Name hit home for me. 

i’m trying to find a moment with You, these days are speeding by

this ring gives me a new point of view, i’m a dealer in my time

& if I can make a confession, my time is torn between 

the man who has won my affection, & the God who made me

oh, it all looks different

but that doesn’t mean anything has changed

still I reach for You.... when I am afraid.... & this breath that comes from You.... helps me say Your name

I know that time is precious and that my time should be spent at His feet everyday, but it is so easy to lose touch when I have a man in front of me that needs my attention. I also know that time will only grow more full when we have this little one here. Even then I want to keep His Name at the front of my mind. Being thankful and finding His Grace for my life in every moment. 

At church on Saturday night (yes, I looooove that our church has Saturday night service!) the pastor hammered all of this in place for me. It is a funny thing when you are thinking and praying about something and then God places it all in your lap to take a look at. We are going through the book of James at church and this passage was so wonderful to hear: 

{James 1} 22 But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. 23 For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. 24 You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. 25 But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it. 

I have to make time for His word. I have to set aside moments in my day for Him alone. I need it. I have to learn His word and do what it says, living it out. That is what I am called to do as His child. Before I am a wife, and before I am a mother, I am his child. That is the most important role in this life, the only thing that will matter in the next life with Him. 

Pregnancy Post // First Favorites.

The first trimester wasn't the easiest but I know that I had it a lot easier than some.

I thought it would be fun to keep track of all the things that helped that first month

go by a little bit better. I know all of these things made a difference!

1// new toxic free beauty products

I read THIS article when I found out I was pregnant and my thought process changed completely about what I put on my skin. I mainly looked for parabens and mineral oil and after a lot of research I decided to go with all the items above.

Tarte Cosmetics has wonderful products that truly last and look beautiful on. I'm completely in love with the mascara and the concealer.

Of course, I've always been a fan of Lush Ocean Salt but the grease lightening was so helpful when I got a bad cold and I didn't want to take my normal medication for fever blisters. This stuff zapped it all away so quickly.

Thanks to Target's Natural Beauty line I found the Yes to Cucumber line that I really love.
I also decided to go back to one of my old reliables that I kind of forgot about, but this cleansing lotion feels sooooooo good on my skin. Thanks to the Yes to Cucumber face cream I remembered this cleanser and thought the two together would be amazing. I've been using both every night and day! AND, thankfully, both are very affordable. 

2// naps, all the naps!

Not much I can say to explain this but I love my naps.... this hasn't really gone away in my second trimester. HA!

3// fruit

Once the nausea passed during week 9 I started to crave fruit. I have to have a banana every morning and I've also found a new love for mango. I read somewhere that a mango is so good for babies because of all the vitamins that they have and I never liked fresh mango but I thought I'd give it another try since it would be worth it. I was happy to find that I loved it!! And of course my usual fave, super crunchy, purple grapes. YUM, add in a little vanilla yogurt and you have one of my favorite snacks. 

4// OJ with prenatal vitamins

I'm actually taking THESE and THESE every night and I tried to take them with water a couple of times and I thought I would lose it. Oh man, so bad.... not the best taste and I could hardly swallow them. Then I figured out that OJ really helped and I could actually take them without gagging. Thank God for OJ! 

5// raw almonds

Seriously, the only thing that got me through those first few weeks of nausea! My nausea was all over the place... whenever I thought I had it figured out, it would change. I started with just a little in the mornings, then it changed to evenings, then it changed to ALL DAY for about two weeks. I was so afraid that I would have to deal with that for a long time but thankfully it ended earlier than expected. BUT - raw almonds were my go to and they always settled my stomach!

There you have it, my secret weapons for my First Trimester!!

What were some of your favorites??

& what do I need for my Second Trimester?

Pregnancy Post // month three.

Holy cow, month three???

well, here are all the details and pictures below....

Weeks 10 - 12

Things have been so great the past three weeks and I'm so happy to end month three on a high note!! I was afraid that I would feel terrible until the 2nd Trimester but I'm thankful that things turned around at the end of 9 weeks and by 10 weeks I felt like my old self again. I was really afraid that I would hate pregnancy and after dreaming about being pregnant for a while now, I was super bummed. So, I'm very happy that things have changed and I'm loving it.

Some questions we have been asked

When do my new weeks begin //

On Mondays. I love that I get to start each week with a new milestone and it helps me stay organized here on the blog as well. Most of my pregnancy related posts will happen on Tuesdays but this is a special Thursday post since this is week 13 for me and that means I've started month four.

Any decision on finding out the sex //

I'm hoping that I've won Peter over but I'm not pushing it.... we will make our final decision at our 20 week ultrasound which has now been scheduled!! Can't wait to see our little one and make sure all the measurements are good to go during the Anatomy Scan.

That being said, I do have a gut feeling that this little babe is a girl and so do a lot of people, including Peter.

You switched to a midwife??? //

Yes, I did! I'm so happy with the decision and I feel such a peace about working with this group of women. I will be delivering in a hospital but I had a hope of trying a waterbirth and that option was not available if I stayed with the OB I was using. They informed me that the Midwife Group at GHS works very closely with them and if waterbirth is a big deal then I could switch to them. I had already heard about them from a friend of mine but I still wasn't sure if that was the right place for me to be. Thankfully, they have a meeting once a month called "Meet the Midwives" and it was the perfect opportunity for me to test the waters (no pun intended!). I left the meeting on cloud nine!! I had happy tears several times during the meeting and I knew the Lord was pushing me to switch. The women are amazing and their passion for Moms and childbirth is so comforting! I could not be happier with my decision to switch and now I can have my chance to try a natural waterbirth in the hospital, I'm so excited! 

 I think that's it for now....

if you have any questions or comments, please don't hesitate to leave them below.

I love to learn and grow from all of the wonderful mommas out there!!  

Sights + Seats // Methodical Coffee

Over the weekend Peter and I had a day full of dates and it was wonderful! We had plans to go to Charlotte for the weekend and help some family move into their new house but those plans didn't quite work out so we ended up with a day all to ourselves. After some lunch we decided to head downtown for some coffee at the most recent spot that just opened, Methodical Coffee. I've been dying to try it out and so has Peter. 

I chose a latte with almond milk since this was the lowest caffeine choice. I've definitely cut way

back on the amount of caffeine I have now with the baby so it was a nice little splurge this weekend

to have one full cup of coffee to myself. 

Peter chose a slow drip coffee, his favorite kind. The blend was a Rwandan bean from 

Huckleberry Roasters in Denver, Colorado. I had a sip and it was delicious. 

Very smooth,creamy and just a hint of chocolate. 

The staff was so nice and helpful (it was so great to meet Angie in person since I've known her through Instagram for a long time!) and the entire place was beautiful. I'm super envious over the back splash and I want to recreate it our kitchen! So, thanks for that inspiration and the delicious coffee on a lovely Saturday afternoon. Now I just have to try my best to not walk downtown to this new spot every day while I'm at work!