The Fabulous Holiday Blog Challenge: Day 8

Day 8

Christmas Wish List

Honestly, there's not a whole lot I want or need this year.

The main thing I would like to get for Christmas (which I recall hubby saying he'd get me) is this:

  

The 8-film Harry Potter boxset.

I haven't bought a single Harry Potter movie, despite temptation (especially after they were re-released not too long ago with some neat packaging!), because I knew after the last one they would release the entire series in a box set. Sure, it might not be THE set with all the extras and such that'll be released later next year, but honestly, if I ever watch the special features at all I probably wouldn't watch them more than once and really I just want to own the movies in a set like this.

I think we might be buying a Blu-ray DVD player with WiFi-capablities for our family room too since we currently don't have a DVD player in there and it would be nice to have since we spend a lot of time in there with Jay being too little to play around in the basement yet. Sam's has a few we're interested in.

Other things I wouldn't mind getting include:

Mary Kay Limited Edition Nail Lacquer in Plush Plum
Bath and Body Works Vanilla Bean Noel LipLicous Lipgloss
Bath and Body Works Vanilla Bean Noel Triple Moisture Hand Cream
Rockbuds by Chicbuds
The Pack-It in orange polka dots or black plaid
The book "Heaven is for Real"
Portal 2 earrings from J!NX

On our joint list, hubby and I put:

Super Mario All-Stars for Wii
Donkey Kong Country Returns for Wii
Thor on Blu-Ray
Cowboys and Aliens DVD
Fast Five on DVD
Boondock Saints DVD
The Family Guy Star Wars Trilogy on DVD

And then there's Jay.

In his stocking we put...

A candy cane tube with mini Reese's Cups
A Colgate beginners toothbrush set
Aquafresh beginners toothpaste with the Nerdle Gurdle guys on the box
Elmo Let's Get Clean bath book
Happy Hippo, Angry Duck board book
Elmo board book from the $1 section at Target (not pictured)
A 2 pack of his favorite binkies
And a 2 pack of Sesame Street figures Super Grover and Murray

Then for presents...

The Leapfrog My 1st Leaptop laptop
Playskool Step Start Walk n Ride push walker
The official Chica plush from Sprout's The Sunny Side Up Show
Talking Yoda  plush
A plush talking Super Why
Super Why DVD
A plush Winnie the Pooh
Winnie the Pooh DVD
The Best of Elmo vol 1 & 2 on DVD
The 2011 Children's Place Holiday Monkey (boy)
Some wooden puzzles

I'm sure he'll have more fun with the wrapping paper though! LOL...

My 1st Mother's Day

This year was the 1st year I got to celebrate Mother's Day!

We found out on Thursday that we were doing Mother's Day brunch at 10am with my inlaws, so I ended up going to the Saturday evening service at church as they started this Generations series this weekend that I had been looking forward to and really didn't want to miss, however we'd have to miss our regular Sunday service at 1030am and hubby wasn't too thrilled at the idea of going to the 830am service and having to get up earlier than that.

So I took Jay with me (hubby works Saturday evenings) and dropped him off in the church nursery. They said he did really well - he snuggled with one of the ladies in a rocking chair and she said he took a little snooze too. They asked me to bring him back again sometime as I guess they don't get too many really little guys in the nursery much these days!

I also won a goodie bag during service - they had us fill out the comment and turn it in and they drew 4 names and mine was one of them! In my bag was a small candle, some chocolates, a journal/devotional, a pen, some "Thank You" notes, and a little manicure set. Pretty neat!

The sermon was pretty good too - this week's was on Mothers, next week's on Toddlers. Should be interesting!

Sunday, hubby told me happy mother's day when our alarm went off. Baby boy joined us in bed at 815am, after sleeping for 6hrs or so in his crib, and I passed him off to daddy at 9am so I could get ready to go. Kiddo was tired - we could barely wake him up to get him to eat! lol...

We met my inlaws at Stockholm Inn (this authentic Swedish pancake house that's ALWAYS packed when we go there as Rockford has a huge Swedish population) and had brunch with them. We got done around noon and they came over to the house for a little bit before we all went for a 2pm showing of Thor.

We put a blanket over his legs to keep him
warm - we took it off at the end & this is how
we found him curled up, snoozing! LOL

I was hesitant to take Jay with us, as I used to manage a theater in college and I really didn't want to be one of *those* parents that has the screaming little baby with them (and while Jay is usually pretty good, he is teething right now so there's no telling when his mouth will start bothering him!), but he did GREAT! We fed him before we left and then he fell asleep in the car and HE SLEPT THE ENTIRE 2 HOURS OF THE MOVIE! I was shocked! There was a few times he stirred a little in his carrier, but he just readjusted himself and fell back into sleep. He woke up as we were leaving and strapping him back in (we undid his straps just in case we needed to pick him up and take him out in a hurry and we did sit down near the front on an aisle). He seemed a little confused as to where he was though! lol...

We swung by the house to get my mom's gift and headed over to my parent's house, as it was already 430 and dad said to be there around 5. We had a cookout and hubby and I took a little snooze on one of the couches while Grammie played with and read books to Jay.

We came home and daddy took care of Jay for me for the night - feeding him, changing him (stuff I usually do), etc. We watched the new episode of HBO's Game of Thrones and Jay and I fell asleep on the couch snuggling together while daddy did stuff in the office.

Overall it was a nice day.

I'm still waiting to see what my actual gift is - I gave hubby some ideas earlier in the week as he really had no clue what to get me... so far I got a card from him and one from Jay though (both were really cute!). He said I'd get it today as we didn't have money til Friday and he didn't have a chance to get it on Saturday, but I haven't gotten it yet and I don't want to be a nag, asking, so I guess we'll wait and see! =D

We got my mother-in-law this tulip reed diffuser set with tulip scented oil from Yankee Candle and we got my mom this cute votive/tealight holder with a duckie in a raincoat and umbrella with a little froggie like they're sitting on the edge of a pond together (like Grammie and Jay) and a pack of tealights to go with it.

Our Christmas Holiday 2010

Christmas came and went already this year - I can't believe there's only 1 more week left in this year! How crazy is that!?

It almost scares me as that means Jay will be here in the flesh in less than 2 months and iono... as excited as we are to meet him, I am a bit nervous/scared and just not quite ready for him to come out yet!

Anyways, I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday - I know we did!

I spent Thursday evening (Christmas Eve Eve) watching some of the classic Christmas specials - I made it through the animated How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and most of Frosty the Snowman before passing out on the couch! I had planned on also watching The Little Drummer Boy and Santa Claus is Coming to Town but just couldn't stay awake!

Tiger and her belated birthday/Christmas present

We also gave Tiger her belated birthday/Christmas present too which is this combination carpet scratching post with a feather "birdie" that snaps onto it. OMG she LOVED it! Once she realized it was hers, she went nuts playing with it for a good 10-15 minutes before wearing herself out and taking a break! It was amusing and entertaining watching her! I need to go out and buy some of the snap-on feather "birdies" as she already lost the one that came with it, lol...

Hubby got off work from UPS at 430am Friday, so he got a few more hours of sleep than he had been - Thursday morning, at 730am while filling out his timecards, he completely passed out at the computer and all his full-time supervisors caught him in the act and woke him up with their laughing. Photos were taken too - it was pretty amusing! Poor guy though, he's fighting off a cold as last week he only got about 4 hours of sleep a day and then this week he was getting 2 hours of sleep or less a day! I knew he was going to get sick and he did... fortunately I've been lucky enough not to catch it... yet!

Christmas Eve they didn't need me to come into work so I relaxed in the afternoon and then hubby and I met up with my family at church for the annual Candles and Carols Christmas Eve service at our church. It only lasts about 45 minutes and goes by pretty quick, although poor hubby - he kept dozing off every few minutes! I kept having to poke him when it came time to light our candles at the end of the service, telling him he didn't want to be the one to set fire to anything or burn down the church because he couldn't stay awake for Silent Night! lol...

After that we went back to my parents house and snacked on Swedish meatballs and veggies while mom finished dinner - we always have Shepherd's Pie which is basically a meat, potato, cheese and veggie casserole and she also made her chicken tetrazine and some other stuff. After dinner we had time to kill before dessert (which was assorted cheesecake - yum!) so we opened presents.

I got the Shark Vac-then-Steam that I wanted - it was a combined gift between my parents and my mom's dad. We also got some DVDs (Beauty and the Beast, Inception, Fantasia/Fantasia2000, the Star Wars original trilogy set), and hubby got his A-Gloves and a leather folio/easel case for his Samsung Galaxy tablet (which my aunt kept calling an iPad and we kept having to set her straight that no, it's an Android tablet, not an Apple one, lol... hubby's not big on Apple tablets or phones since he works with Droids).

I can finally tell what we got everyone, as I've been dying to share! We got my dad the brand new Tom Clancy book which is the next one in the Jack Ryan series as well as a bookmark; we got my sis a Wicked the Musical 2011 planner/organizer/datebook as well as a matching bookmark; we got my mom the 70th anniversary 2-disc Gone With the Wind DVD as I remember he mentioning how she needed to get that one eventually as it's one of her favorites yet she didn't own a copy of it; we got my 11 year old cousin the Avatar game for Nintendo DS as well as a long-sleeved graphic tee from The Children's Place; we gave my uncle the Airplane! DVD; and my aunt we gave her this glass angel tealight holder I bought from Partylite with some candles to go with it. I didn't know my sister's quasi-boyfriend was joining us and taking part in gifts so we didn't know to get him anything - oops! (and I say "quasi-boyfriend" as they're not officially dating until she's 18 this spring, but he's pretty much been accepted into the family and they're ALWAYS together it seems).

After that we had dessert and some of us sat around and chatted while the others went in the family room and watched the 2nd showing of 24 Hours of A Christmas Story. Hubby fell asleep during the movie and it was around midnight when I got him awake enough for us to head home.

Christmas morning we woke up by 10am and watched the last half of A Christmas Story together in bed. My mom called and said they found a few more presents for us that my sis had forgot to wrap so once we got dressed we swung by their house again - we also got Iron Man 2 on DVD and I got the book "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and a Punky Brewster 8-episode DVD that mom said dad had to get for me! hehe

We drove the hour and 15 minutes out to my inlaw's house, arriving there just after 1pm and promptly got stuck in their driveway. Here's the thing - my inlaw's driveway is about a 1/4 mile long and a pain to shovel when it snows a lot and if it's not done well, it's easy to get stuck in! Also, hubby's car is front-wheel drive and one of the tires needs replaced as the tread sucks on it right now. 2 of my brother-in-laws were home, but instead of shoveling the majority of the driveway, they just shoveled a path, which of course hubby's car went off, lol... one of them had to come out and help us push it the rest of the way to the parking area! lol...

We sat around and hung out with everyone while my mother-in-law finished making dinner, although my father-in-law has walking pneumonia so I had to keep my distance as I really can't afford to catch that, even if he is on antibiotics! Hubby's other younger brother and his girlfriend showed up just before dinner and we ate it all up - it was yummy!

Present from my mother-in-law

After dinner we exchanged what gifts we had, as my mother-in-law was a bit preoccupied the last 2 weeks with my father-in-law being sick and didn't have a chance to go into town and get gifts for everyone yet. One of hubby's brothers got him a fleece jacket that he can wear at work and gave me a pair of A-Gloves. My mother-in-law did have a gift for me - she got me this really neat porcelain mother and child figurine from Partylite which you drop in scent oil and it makes the room smell nice! She asked if I got my Sketcher Shape-Up shoes from anyone yet - I told her I got a check from my grandparents which I was going to put towards them and she said she'd give me the rest of the money to get them, so I'll be getting those soon too, as I can't wait to wear them this spring once the weather is nice when I take Jay for walks in his stroller!

Hubby's 12 year old sister is really into Nancy Drew right now so we got her the next book in the series (#15) with a bookmark hubby picked out for her as well as a Nancy Drew PC game that she didn't have yet. We got his mom a glass cross tealight holder from Partylite with some candles for it and we got his dad the The Blue and the Gray miniseries DVD set. We combined his brother's gift as we got them Call of Duty: Black Ops for the PS3. For hubby's older brother's family we gave our 3 year old nephew a Thomas the Train memory matching game, our newborn infant nephew some cute onesies with monkey's on them, and for the family we got them the Toy Story 3 DVD and some popcorn packets. They sent us cute onesies for Jay as well as a pack of Dallas Cowboys booties that'll match the onesies we got him in Dallas perfectly! My aunt also got us this rubber bath duckie for Jay that tells you if the temperature is too hot.

After that, hubby wanted to play some CoD: Black Ops with his brothers, but they had to pack some stuff up to take to a friends so him, me and his sister played it for a bit. I'm pretty horrible at shooters (in most I tend to pick a spot and camp it and shoot as people run past, or in Halo I get a vehicle and mow people over with it!), but hubby and I did decent at the Nazi Zombie level, as we formed a strategy where I would stay back and shoot from a distance while he would stay up front and do all the tasks you do in the level. I got bored and joined the girls for some pumpkin pie while hubby started playing the story-mode.

We left around 830, as my brother-in-laws were heading out to their friend's house and we had to leave at the same time otherwise we'd never be able to get the car out of the driveway! It took all 3 of them to push us up and out to the road and took nearly 10 minutes!

I also found out that my bestest college buddy (my longterm college roomie) got engaged!!! They're not having the wedding til 2012, but she already asked me to be a bridesmaid and I'm sooo excited! While I was a Jr. Bridesmaid in my aunt's wedding 13-14 years ago when I was in Jr. High, I've been dying to get asked to be a bridesmaid in one of my friend's weddings for years, so I'm thrilled I finally get to be an actual bridesmaid for someone!

For Christmas, hubby had mainly asked for Best Buy giftcards as he was originally wanting to put them towards a new computer monitor since both his flatscreen LCD ones crapped out within a few months of each other and we've been using my old boxy 8-year old Dell one. However, he had recently been debating about putting the giftcards/money he got for Christmas towards a PS3 or XBox (eventually deciding on a PS3 as it has a Blue-Ray player). After playing CoD: Black Ops last night, he decided he wanted the PS3 more. He got several giftcards for Christmas, and we split the check my grandparents send us every year, plus he had some money saved up and his mom said she'd give him some for the "fund" as his Christmas present, so last night we went online to Best Buy's website to see what kind of deals they had on them. We're getting the 160gb PS3 bundle with LittleBigPlanet and an extra controller and it comes with a $50 giftcard too. Since hubby can't wait, we're putting it on the Best Buy card that I have and will just pay it off when we make January's payment on it. He also added CoD: Black Ops to it as well.

So today I'm picking up our PS3, stopping by Target to see about getting another DVD rack (as we realized last night while putting our new DVDs away that we have no more space!), stopping by Borders and picking up the 2011 WoW trivia desktop calendar since it's 50% off now and I have $5 in Borders Bucks that expire this week, and then stopping by Gamestop to trade-in a few games and maybe get a few newer ones (I'm thinking Batman: Arkham Asylum for PS3 and Mario Party 8 for Wii). Hubby invited a co-worker to come over and play video games tonight too so I need to clean up around here a little (he originally was going over to his place after work, but I pointed out that his co-worker has seen him more in the last 2 weeks than I have and I'd like to spend some time with him now that he's not working almost 100hrs a week, lol...)

How have your holidays been?

Braxton Hicks and other thoughts

So I think I'm finally experiencing Braxton Hicks. And seems Walmart is the place for me to get them as both days I've noticed them this week, they've started while I was in Walmart!

The first one I noticed was on Wednesday while I was shopping for lower carb food for me to eat for my diet. I had been walking around for about 45 minutes when I felt this tightening on my left side and it seemed pretty hard. At first I wasn't sure if it was Braxton Hicks or if it was just Jay stretching out and trying to make more room for himself like he often does. It lasted for a brief moment although it came and went several times while I was walking around in the store and I had to stop pushing my shopping cart and just kinda put a hand to my side and wince in slight pain for a moment til it passed.

Then yesterday (Friday) I was out there again picking up a few things I had forgotten on Wednesday and same thing - after walking around the store for a bit, I felt the tightening on the left side again and it felt hard when I put a hand to it. I stopped for a moment, winced and breathed and waited for it to pass. It came and went a few times as the night went on I noticed, making me a little irritable when hubby was deciding to be a little lazy. He was like "what's wrong with you?" and I told him and he was all "oh..."


I think I figured what we're going to do as far as Jay's furniture and stuff, since we most likely won't be moving til March at this point. While it was already decided that I would move my clothes around in our walk-in closet to make room for the dresser/changing table and we'd go through and clear out room on the floor for more space in there, this morning I came up with an idea for the Pack n Play we're hoping to get. In our bedroom we have this one wall that has a smaller couch on it. I'm thinking we see if we can store the couch at my parent's house in their basement til we move and we'll have room to put the Pack n Play up along that wall and then on our registry we also have a little 2 shelf table thing that we can set up next to it and put some of his stuff on top and then on the shelves below we can put his books and these baskets I'd like to get to put his toys away in. So it'll be like his own little area in the bedroom for now.

We're hoping to get the co-sleeper we registered for too, as we figure at nighttime we'll use that so if he wakes up in the middle of the night for feedings I can just roll over and scoop him up, but the Pack n Play we'll use for naptime so I can shut the door to the bedroom to keep the cat out and he can sleep peacefully without us having to worry about him being unattended in the co-sleeper.

While we registered for a lot of things on our registry, the things I'm really hoping we get are the Pack n Play, the co-sleeper, the 3-in-1 travel set (with stroller, carrier and carseat), a bouncy seat, a breast pump, the bathtub set, the fishbowl crib toy, and the basic necessities (ie: diapers, washing stuff, grooming kit, basic clothes, etc). Most of the other stuff like a swing and walker and exersaucer and all that stuff is just extra - we don't necessarily need it, but it would be nice to have, ya know?

Memorable Christmas Gifts of the Past

Since Christmas is right around the corner, this week's Flashback Friday post is devoted to memorable Christmas toys/gifts.

One of the first Christmases I can remember I got quite a bit of toys, including a red tricycle that I road around the house that first morning as well as my brown Fischer Price cassette recorder.

Another memorable gift was the year we got a Nintendo game system. I've mentioned it before in various posts on here - my childhood best friend and her older brothers had a Nintendo at their house that we would play often and since I had an interest in video games, when an older cousin got a Nintendo he sent us his older Atari system, but it just wasn't the same. The Nintendo system we got came with 3 games - Super Mario Bros., Duck Hunt (with the gun controller) and a track and field game that worked with the Nintendo trackpad.

I also remember getting quite a bit of Play-Doh sets over the years - I LOVED Play-Doh and back in the late 80s/early 90s there were plenty of sets you could get to make all sorts of crazy Play-Doh creations! I remember one of the sets I had was Burger King set - it came with a Play-Doh "grill" to make burger patties and fries and there were the stamps to create lettuce and tomatoes... I had too much fun with Play-Doh!

I loved coloring books too so every year Santa would bring me some. One year he really confused me though as he brought me a whole stack of new coloring books, however some were duplicates! I didn't understand why Santa would do that and then I started to feel bad, thinking that some little kid out there was some of their coloring books because Santa accidentally gave me multiples! Oops!

One big gift I got in grade school was my American Girl doll Samantha. As I've mentioned before, at one point in school, American Girl dolls were all the rage at school. Us girl were always checking the books out of the library and reading them together in our freetime. Some would bring their dolls to school... at the time there were the original 3 - Kirsten, Samantha, and Molly - and they had just added Felicity. Kirsten was the more popular one at school and me always having to be a little different, I wanted Samantha instead - I loved her Victorian style and stories! My parents got her for me for Christmas one year and I was thrilled!

Another memorable gift was the year I got my stereo in 5th grade. We actually have amusing video footage of this one as my dad (or "Santa" to my sister) played a prank on me with it. I had opened all my gifts and it wasn't there, despite me not having opened a "big" present yet (my parents would get us 1 big, more expensive present that we really wanted each year). As we opened presents in the living room, my parents told me to go retrieve the stockings that hung on the mantle between the kitchen and family room. I didn't really want to, but I did anyway and I think my sis followed. As we went to go get them, we both noticed a big large box wrapped in the middle of the family room. I knew that had to be my big present, but my sis, being the little 3 year old she was at the time, insisted it was hers. My dad, who wrapped it, had forgotten to put a gift tag on it, which only led to the feud as my sister insisted it was her present despite what anyone told her. She then began to fight with me over opening it, getting all upset when my parents told her to let me do it. I unwrapped it and sure enough, it was a box with the stereo I wanted on it. I opened it up though and there was an older junk radio in the box! My dad thought it was funny - turns out he hid the actual stereo somewhere else in the house! lol...

What memorable Christmas gifts have you gotten over the years?

Our Christmas List

Thought I would share our Christmas List for this year.

For me, there's really only 2 things I *really* would like to get:

1. A pair of Sketcher's Shape-Up shoes
I was trying to watch my weight and lose some before I got preggers and I really think having a pair of shoes like this will help me get back into shape after Jay comes, as I plan on going for walks and pushing him in the stroller regularly this spring and summer once the snow clears up. I think these would be really beneficial for me to have. I really like this mostly black with white pair that's on Amazon (which has them discounted as normally these shoes cost like $100 in stores). I own a pair of Sketcher's sneakers but I've had them for nearly 10 years and they're pretty worn out so it's about time I get new ones anyway.

2. Shark Vac then Steam mop

I saw an infomercial for this not too long ago and thought "wow!" It's a vacuum and a steamer that works on hard surfaces. I personally HATE cleaning the bathroom and kitchen floors around here as I got scuff marks in the kitchen I can't get up and I use the Swiffer WetJet mop but it doesn't seem to work as good as it once did - I feel like all it does is just push the dirt around as I still have to bend over with a paper towel and pick up the dirt. The infomercial sells it for like $250 but they throw in an iron as well - places like Target and Walmart sell it for $150. I could see getting use out of this, especially with a baby around as I'll need to keep the floor clean more often once he starts crawling around. The commercial makes it look so much easier to clean the floors and my mom has a similar model that she loves and she can verify that it is a lot less work when it comes to getting the floors clean!

Other gifts I wouldn't mind getting are the Jillian Michael's "30 Day Shred" DVD as I hear the workouts are only 20-30 minutes long and I could easily squeeze that in once a day while Jay is napping; Several Disney DVDs - Toy Story 1, 2 and 3, Beauty and the Beast, and the Fantasia/Fantasia 2000 70th Anniversary 2pack. I also wouldn't mind getting the book "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" as I plan on getting this one eventually and Walmart has it for like $5.

The main thing hubby wants is a new flat screen monitor for our desktop, as the 2 we had both died and we're using my old school boxy Dell monitor. Because it's kind of expensive though he's requesting Best Buy giftcards so that he can put those towards getting the one he wants. He also wants a 7" folio-type case for his Samsung Galaxy Android tablet as well as a pair of "Agloves" which I guess are gloves that work with touch screen items so you don't have to remove your gloves to answer your touchscreen phone. He also always is happy to accept Border's giftcards too.

On our "combined" list (items that people can get for both of us), we have several DVDs - Inception, Iron Man 2, Get Him to the Greek, the Star Wars Original Trilogy (we got the prequel trilogy for Christmas last year), and the Back to the Future 25th Anniversary trilogy set. We also requested Mario Party 8 for the Wii as well as Donkey Kong Country Returns for the Wii and the World of Warcraft 2011 Trivia desk calendar.

What's on your Christmas list this year?

Oh happy day!

I must say, I love this time of year (despite the cold weather)!

Today the first of our packages from Amazon.com arrived AND my friend who had the PartyLite party a few weeks ago dropped off the stuff I ordered from there.

This year for Christmas I had a pretty nice gift card balance in my Amazon account so we decided to help save money on gifts this year we would order a good chunk of it online.

Our stuff from Amazon is in 3 shipments.

The first shipment arrived today, 2 days early, so that was exciting as this shipment had something I ordered for us - on Saturday they had a 1 day sale where you could get the DVD set of 7 Classic Christmas specials for just $12.99 and since I already had it in our cart, I just added a few other items to that order to get the free shipping on order of $25 or more. I'm really excited to have this DVD set and look forward to watching the specials on it with Jay in the years to come. It has the 4 major classic - Frosty the Snowman, Little Drummer Boy, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, as well as Frosty Returns, Cricket on the Hearth and the Mr. Magoo Christmas special. I've been wanting to get it ever since they released it a few years ago as they don't show these ones on TV nearly as much as they did when I was growing up (Frosty was always my favorite!), but it was always at least $30 which we never really had the extra money to spend on it. Amazon had it for $16.99 so I thought that wasn't bad, but when I got the email about it being on sale for $12.99 one day only at 3am I jumped on that!

Our 2nd Amazon order just got shipped out today (I was waiting for the price on an item to drop back down as it went up over the weekend) and should arrive sometime next week, while the 3rd order won't ship til mid-December as it was an item that we pre-ordered and hasn't been released yet. We will have it by Christmas though! We got some really good deals on stuff though - if you're on a budget for Christmas gifts, I really recommend checking out Amazon as they got tons of great deals going on and if you order $25 or more you get free shipping too!

Other than that, we got 2 gifts through PartyLite, another I'm getting with giftcards from Gamestop as soon as the 2nd giftcard arrives in the mail (I was hoping it comes today so I can use it Friday as the items we're getting are $20 cheaper that day), then I need to pick up a gift at Barnes and Noble on Friday and a few things at Walmart and we are all done and I can wrap em up and put em under our tree which we're setting up this weekend! Yay!

I enjoy shopping - whether it's for myself or others and I love when the gifts we ordered start arriving!

Now I need to finish getting ready as I'm running out to the mall to pick up a Pewter candle snuffer for $2.99 that my friend who works at Yankee Candle is holding for me (she said it's the last one they have in the store and isn't sure when more will be in as they sell out pretty fast!) and then pick up my sister and meet hubby at the movie theater across town as we're seeing Harry Potter and the Really Long Camping Trip, er Deathly Hallows part 1 tonight!

Clothes and Candles

Yesturday was a bit of a fun day.

I went out shopping with my mom for a bit as I needed to find a coat for winter that I can actually fasten shut as my casual coat and my warmer coat both won't shut over my baby bump. I also needed to find a pair of boots for winter that didn't have much of a heel on them as the only pair I have have a decent sized heel on them and I don't want to risk slipping on ice and falling while pregnant (as I slipped and fell on my butt a few times last year!).

We went to Burlington Coat Factory and found both, plus we got me 2nd pair of maternity jeans in a lighter color since I just have the one pair and my lighter pair of regular jeans are fitting a bit too snug around my hips these days.

I had originally wanted to get a warm, puffy coat but as I tried some on, they didn't look too good on me - they only made me look bigger. As we looked around, I found some that had more of a trench and pea coat style to them and those actually looked pretty nice. We found one that fit pretty well and looked good on me and got it - mom said if I needed more room too we could always just move the buttons on the front over a bit.

Also yesturday, a friend of mine became a PartyLite candle consultant and had her debut. I went and brought my mom and mother-in-law. I haven't bought any PartyLite since the last party she co-hosted with her cousin's wife nearly 2 years ago and I wanted to get some tealights in another scent; my mom hadn't bought PartyLite in years as last time she did she bought enough to last awhile and just now needed to get some more.

Angel Aroma Melts Warmer

I pre-shopped online to get an idea of what they have and picked out a few of the "guest offer" items to get as gifts which hubby approved, so I bought those last night and a pack of tealights to split with them so we got my aunt and mother-in-law's gifts for Christmas done and out of the way. I already know what I'm getting my mom too, just a matter of finding it in town or ordering it on Amazon.com. They had a special going on too where you can get 3 dozen (3 boxes) of tealights for $25 so I picked out 2 more fragrances (I wanted to get at least 1 box so I can put different ones in our kitchen table centerpiece) and then if you spend more than $40 you get an item half off so I got this really neat Angel aroma melt warmer for $12.50 and then a pack of melts to go with it - I figured it'd make a nice piece for Christmas and then after the holidays a nice piece for the bathroom.

They also have this new S-Pod travel fragrance thing that you can buy refills for - they say it's great for the car or a bag - I figured it would be perfect for Jay's diaper bag so I got one of those and a pack of refills (since it doesn't come with any). They say it lasts at least 45 days, but the candle lady said she used one for 8 months before she had to put a refill in.

S-Pod Travel Fragance Sticks - I figured one for Jay's diaper bag would be perfect!

I think I made out pretty well - the only part of our "joint" money I spent was on the 2 gifts, a pack of the tealights to split (since what good is a candle holder if it doesn't come with a candle?), and part of the tax/shipping. The rest of the items and tax/shipping I used my own small stash of money I had been saving (my "allowance" if you will, as it's the percentage of my paychecks I get to keep to myself and spend as I need/want on food, gas for my car and whatever else I want to save for or spend it on).

I'll probably host a party for my friend in the Spring as right now I just can't commit to a date/time for a party like that - we got the car situation which when it's ready we have to figure out a day to go pick it up, if I get hired seasonal somewhere my hours will be on a week-by-week basis, we have our baby classes the next 2 weeks plus another doctor's appointment in just over a week and then I've got appointments every 2 weeks... oh and we're meeting with the bank again this week so *hopefully* that goes well and we'll have to squeeze in house hunting and all that too... and with the holidays coming up, yeah... I just don't want to commit to hosting a party or anything like that right now. My friend mentioned hosting one around the time Jay is born - either before or after - as we could have it at her house and it'd be sort of a gift/gesture from her and I can get some candle freebies. So maybe I'll do that =)

I think burning candles is sort of my way of "nesting" as until the last few months I never really consciously burned candles or worried about having nice fragrances in our home. But lately, I've noticed I'll sit in bed with a book and burn a candle on our nightstand, or I'll light the candles in our kitchen centerpiece while we're eating dinner or I'll light a candle while I'm cleaning or doing the dishes... and I also finally refilled our Airwick Mini that's in the main hallway with a vanilla scent (it helps cover up any smells from the bathroom that might go in the hallway, as well as the litter box that's in the closet near the front door and just makes it smell nice in here when you first walk in).

Baby Showers and more

Wow, just realized I haven't posted in this blog at all for August yet - my bad!

We have our next doctor's appointment a week from today, at 14 weeks, 1 day. We're going to be having another ultrasound, but while I'm sure they'll let us see the kiddo, this one is actually to take a look at my cervix and make sure there won't be any complications when it's time to deliver as I had the LEEP procedure done almost 2 years ago (in December) and they just want to make sure it's open enough and not closed or shortened or anything strange.

When exactly does the 1st trimester end and the 2nd trimester begin? I thought 13 weeks was the beginning of the 2nd trimester, but I've also read online that says it's 14 weeks, or even 16 weeks!

I went to a baby shower over the weekend - not for myself, no, that's waaaaay too soon! It was for my husband's 2nd cousin's wife, as they're expecting their first, a little girl they believe (as far as the U/S technician could tell, as the baby was being difficult, straddling the cord at one point and not facing the right direction another), near the end of October.

Hubby and I got them this Johnson & Johnnson gift set that has lotion, shampoo, and other goodies in it; a cute hooded towel and a set of wash clothes with a little star shaped cloth toy; a rattle that was on their list as well as a 3 pack of teethers they asked for. I also got them the book "Love You Forever" as they had a bunch of books on their list and that was one of my favorites to read with my mom when I was a kid. When I saw she had the Johnson and Johnson gift set on their list I had to get it for them as that's our last name and thought it was amusing - hubby and I joked about telling our kiddo that it's named just for them! hehe...

She had only registered at Babies R Us, but after taking the advice of my mom (who suggested that when we make our registry to check out Target and Walmart as they carry a lot of the exact same stuff but for better prices) I printed out her list and went to Target. Sure enough, I got several items that were the exact same ones on her registry for at least $1 less if not more, as well as a few comparable items to what she had listed.

I had fun shopping though this time around, as I was taking all the baby stuff in, getting ideas for when we do our registry later this fall.

She had 3 other pregnant ladies at her shower, including myself, and got us each gifts too! My bag had this cute little white onesie with yellow trim and ducky feet; a set of plastic toy keys; a nightlite, and 2 Winnie the Pooh bibs. It was all really cute!

And when I came home, my Infantino ecoSash Baby Carrier I had won last month was waiting for me! It definitely looks like something we'll get use out of, that's for sure!

Looks like I might have to go maternity clothes shopping soon, since they're starting to get stuff in for fall. I also wore my pair of tan cloth capri's yesturday and could barely fasten them, which is kinda sad, as those are really comfy! Right now I think I'm down to my jeans and my jean capri's fitting, and a few of my tops are starting to look a bit tight too. I also need to get a new jacket for winter since mine was a little snug last year - there's no way I could get it to zip over my bump this winter! I'll also need new boots too as the only pair I have are heels and yeah... probably a bad idea to wear those when I'm 6-9 months preggo!

A fun week of new

Got some other stuff to share from this week.

Monday, the maternity belly button bar I ordered came in. A mutual friend I know mentioned this site to me on Facebook a few weeks back and since I'd hate to take out my navel ring I've had for 8 years and risk it closing up, we were thinking about just using fishing wire for it. But then I checked out this site and decided to get one of their maternity belly ring bars. It's basically just a flexible piece of plastic, but it's long enough so when your belly grows it will still fit and you don't have to worry about the hole closing up. It also came with a free titanium steel bar too so you can wear it after your go back to your normal size. I got the metallic blue colored one, as it comes in blue, pink or purple and well, I like the color blue.

On Tuesday I finally went out and bought a new bra - I had noticed the week before that my regular bra, despite being on the loosest hook, was just too tight, it was smashing and smothering my girls, no wonder wearing a bra for more than a few hours started to hurt! I ended up going from a 36B to a 38C - wow! And I think they're still growing too... but this one'll last me a little while... I think.

I also made the announcement to my bosses on Tuesday as well by showing them our ultrasound photos. I wanted to wait and tell them last, after we had our first doctor's appointment, just in case there was something majorly wrong with baby - no point in letting your bosses know you'll need time off in 6-7months if something ends up going wrong and well, you don't (for awhile, I was scared I was having an etopic pregnancy due to the strange abdominal cramping). I wanted to be completely sure before I told them. They were excited, my boss's wife (who I also consider one of my bosses) talked with me about pregnancy stuff for a bit too and showed me stuff online that she recommends I put on our registry, such as this huge swaddling blanket that a company on Amazon sells in different patterns - they're bit expense ($18 a piece) but she said they're huge and work great and even if you got 2, you'll be set. She also showed me this teether named Sophie the Giraffe - it's got long legs and a long neck and is made out of the soft plasticy material that all teethers are made out of. She said her daughter has one that her boys (one's right around 1 I think while the other is maybe 2 and a half), she said now that their mouth is bigger, they like to stick Sophie's head in their mouth and chew on her that way, lol... it's pretty cute though!

On Wednesday I attended my first ever Twitter Party, which was hosted by The Survival Guide for Rookie Moms. Rookie Mom found me on Twitter awhile back and invited me to enter in one of their Infantino baby playmat blog giveaways, and I learned about the Twitter Party through their website. The Infantino baby stuff is REALLY cute - if you're a new or expecting mommy, I definitely recommend checking out their site and enter to win some of it through the Rookie Mom blog. Anyways, at the Twitter Party, they were giving away 36 items total and it was a fun way to meet some moms of young ones as well as other expecting moms like myself. I was a little bummed when the party wrapped, as I hadn't won anything despite my participation, however they did have one last giveaway, but due to technical difficulties they had to announce the winners the next day. I woke up Thursday, checked my Twitter and sure enough - I had won something! I won one of these really neat EcoSash Baby Carrier by Infantino, so that's one less thing for us to put on our registry! Yay!

 

I was so excited! 

Friday was a fun day - my old friend Jackie from Jr/Sr High Youth Group was coming into town for the weekend for her brother's 21st birthday and we were getting together for lunch. We went to Chili's since the Noodles and Company they're building wasn't open yet and had this really good smoked turkey sandwich combo with a bowl of potato soup. It also came with fries. I had a strawberry lemonade to drink too - the whole thing was pretty good! She also gave me this neat Pregnancy Calendar that you can get at Hallmark and writing fun, memorable things about your pregnancy and there's stickers too! She said her mom had one for each of her pregnancies and she used to love looking back through hers and thought it would be fun - I already started filling it out when I got home =) After lunch we went over to my friend Erika's to spend some time with her since she couldn't make it to lunch with us since her husband wasn't home from work til 3 and she didn't have anyone to watch the kids. Her 3 yr old went over to the neighbors to play, while we had fun watching her 4 month old - she's definitely a cutie!

After I filled out some of my new pregnancy calender, I took a little nap while waiting for hubby to get home from work and we went out later that night for Buffalo Wild Wings as I had a craving for chicken wings. Usually I get the Caribbean Jerk ones, which are a bit hot and spicy, but I knew I wouldn't be handle them pregnant, so I opted for the the medium sauce on my boneless wings... however it was still really spicy! I think next time I'll just go with the most mild, the the sweet barbecue, although hubby's honey barbecue ones weren't bad, although I could taste the honey in them more than I normally can!

I'd say it was a pretty fun week!