A Vintage Garden Tea Party

This weekend we were so honored to be thrown an amazing baby shower by my friends Lisa, Shawn and Jamie. The shower was at Lisa's home which is always a treat to visit. These women completely outdid themselves. I was blown away at all the details they put into this amazing shower. Everything from the invitations to the food to the flower arrangements were so thoughtful. The pictures do not do justice at how beautiful everything was. There were so many wonderful women that came out to Lisa's home today to celebrate our baby girl. We received such thoughtful gifts from everyone which are so appreciated.

The invitation read for everyone to wear their a chic chapeau (hat) to the shower. It was so fun to see everyone's hats. I am a hat person so I loved it!

A really special gift was given to us by Lisa. She wrote a story of the gift in the card. When she found out she was pregnant with her son the first thing she bought was a stuffed bear that she just had to have. Her son is now 13 and he wanted to give the bear away which broke Lisa's heart. He told her that he wasn't a baby anymore and she needed to give it to someone else having a baby. Lisa decided to give it to me for our baby. The bear had been torn so she gave it to my mom to repair. My mom made a little outfit for the bear to cover the damaged areas. This gift was so thoughtful and brought tears to my eyes. What a special gift to pass onto our daughter!

Thank you to everyone for coming today! It is a day that I will remember always! You all truly know how to make a girl feel so special! I can't wait for all of you to meet our daughter!

27 Weeks...and our Baby Moon!

Last week Dan and I celebrated this pregnancy with a mini vacation aka our Baby Moon. The intention of a baby moon is a last vacation before the baby comes. Kind of like a honeymoon before the baby. We booked a trip back in June and decided to go to NYC for a long weekend. Dan had never been and I hadn't been since high school.

We stayed at the W Hotel that was 3 blocks from Rockefeller Plaza. It rained about half the time we were there but that didn't stop us. We went to Central Park, Times Square, Rockefeller Plaza, basically all the main tourist attractions. When Dan and I travel we normally go non stop and walk everywhere. This time was a little different which I was not expecting. I pushed myself as hard and I could and there were times that my body just told me to slow down. Luckily there were benches everywhere and New Yorker's are very kind to pregnant women.

One morning we were at the NBC studio watching the Today Show and Brooke Shield's just walked right past us. It was too fast to pull out my camera, but she is so beautiful in person. She had just come off of the Today Show and walked past with her assistant.

The main part of our trip that both of us were looking forward to was going to go see Wicked. Dan had never been to a Broadway play and didn't know what to expect. I think we were both blown away at this show. It was worth the money we spent on the tickets and we will definitely be seeing it again one day. During intermission I stood up to go to the bathroom and went to wait in the very very very long line. One of the workers came over to me and whispered for me to follow him. He took me to an elevator and told me to take it to the 2nd floor where a woman would show me where to go. So I took the elevator and it was to the handicap bathroom! To a 6 1/2 month pregnant woman this was like Christmas. I felt like a celebrity!

Here I am at 27 weeks. My weight gain has slowed down a lot which makes me very happy but I am still getting bigger as this little girl keeps growing. She must be having a great time because she does a dance party in my stomach all day long. Next week I will be officially in my 3rd trimester!

26 Weeks...are we there yet?

Here I am at 26 weeks! I have really enjoyed this pregnancy but I am definitely ready to have my body back. I realize that I have a long way to go before that happens but I'm already excited to wear normal clothes again and not feel so huge.

Our baby girl is growing everyday. This week she is 14 inches long! Crazy! I have been having braxton hicks for a long time now. I wasn't sure what they were until I told my doctor about what was going on. It doesn't hurt but definitely stops me in my tracks sometimes.

My first week at work went pretty good. It's hard starting a new job because you feel like you have no clue what you are doing. Hopefully I'll catch on quick! Part of my job is doing sales meetings and food shows. When I got home from work Friday this was on my front porch. Holy samples! I didn't even know UPS would deliver a shipment this big to a house. Now our dining room is now full of boxes and my wonderful husband and I will be building 150 sample kits :)

We have a busy week ahead again. We started looked at day cares last week and are going to look at more this week. A lot of them have waiting lists and we keep being told that we need to make a decision. There is a lot involved when you have a baby!

Current Obsessions

Lately I have been obsessed with number of things:

1) Essie Nail polish: Have you guys seen this? I love this brand! you can buy it at Target and it goes on great! I am obsessed with the color choices.

2) My body pillow: OMG this thing has saved my hips. I bought one a few weeks ago and I don't think I will ever give it up. Luckily it is skinny so it doesn't take up much room in our queen size bed. One day we will upgrade to a king.

3) Water with lemons and oranges: I have been slicing up lemons and oranges and putting them in a pitcher of water in the fridge every morning. The flavored water is so refreshing and I think it's making me drink more water.

Anyway, that's it!

25 Weeks...something is in the water!

Nothing new to report this week really except it feels like I'm getting bigger and bigger everyday! The weather has been great and I'm looking forward to cooler temps and being outside more. Baby girl is kicking like crazy still and now we can see her thumps on the outside of my stomach. When Dan talks to her she now kicks back. So far she loves when her Daddy talks to her, she loves yoga and church. Those are the times when she kicks the most. I'm still waiting for Bella to be sitting on me and she feels the baby kick her.
We have so many friends that are pregnant right now! Something is definitely in the water! It is so much fun going through this time with people who are experiencing the same thing. I felt for a while that we were the only ones without kiddos but apparently not because we are all pregnant right now!

Thank you everyone for the sweet comments last week! I started my job today and so far so good. I'm glad I have experience in this industry so I'm not totally lost. We have a busy week ahead but all good things. Have a great week!

A God Thing...

There have been some things going on in the Tumis household over the past few months that I have not written about yet. First of all, I resigned from my job the end of April. This was a HUGE decision that Dan and I had been talking about for a long time. I started my job immediately after I graduated from college and had gone a million miles a minute for five years never slowing down. I worked for a great company but I had outgrown my position and wanted desperately to find something else. When I resigned I was scared because I didn't know what I was going to do with my time off and I didn't know how long it would take me to find a job.

Dan and I struggled to get pregnant for a while. We were told we had a small chance of getting pregnant on our own which was very defeating. When you decide that you want to have a baby you expect it to happen right away and it doesn't always happen. So trying to get pregnant plus my job was extremely stressful. The morning I resigned Dan left me a note in my car saying that he knew that something amazing was going to come from this and that I was making the right decision. The day after I resigned I was at home so upset wondering if I had done the right thing and I thought to myself, "what if I'm pregnant"....I took a test and it came back positive. I had always wondered what it would feel like to see a positive test. I laughed and cried and thanked God for this miracle. I truly believe that everything happens for a reason, and this proved it even further.

I have always been very career focused. I loved having my career and having something to do everyday as simple as that sounds. Immediately I started interviewing for jobs with some great companies. By this time I was about 10-12 weeks pregnant. I decided to be honest about being pregnant in my interviews. During one of my interviews after I told them I was pregnant the owner actually said, "wow you and your husband have had way too much time on your hands." I wanted to cry and tell them that this baby was the best thing that has ever happened to us and that we wanted it so, so badly. I am not sorry for being pregnant and I realize that the timing is not ideal, but I will work my tail off to be a great employee.

After worrying, talking it to death, and interviewing a ton, this Monday I start a job with a great company and I am beside myself excited. This is the job I have been waiting for. It is the next step in my career and I can't wait to get started. Am I nervous about starting a job 6 months pregnant? YES! Luckily, I have spent the past 4 1/2 months working on the nursery and just relaxing. I'll miss being able to take naps if I want to, but I can't wait to be challenged again. I have loved my time off and I have spent a lot of time with friends but I'm ready. I admire all the stay at home mom's out there and I believe that it is the most difficult job in the world. I know it will be hard to go back to work after the baby is born but in the long run I think I will be a better mom because I have a career. That is just me, not saying anything about anyone else. I admire every mom that stays at home with their kids.

The next few months will be crazy busy but luckily I have an amazing hubby that helps me a ton. He might have to take over all the cooking for a while so I can rest at night. I know this has been extremely long, but I want to remember all the wonderful things that have happened lately. Sometimes you have to just believe that everything happens for a reason.

24 Weeks...almost in the home stretch!

We are 6 months down and our little girl is the size of a papaya! I can feel her getting bigger by where she kicks. At first her kicks were really low and now they are more towards the middle of my stomach. Feeling her kick is a normal thing now. She kicks ALL day long and Dan and I can see her little kicks through my skin.

I've been going to an hour long yoga class at my gym and it is definitely getting harder. It would be so easy to just give up working out for the next few months because I am not seeing any results, but I'm determined to keep working out until the end. It makes me feel so much better and I know it's good for me.

We have one more doctor's appointment in a few weeks where I have to do the glucose test, and then we start going every two weeks. Crazy! My doctor is going to monitor the size of the baby really close at the end so she doesn't get too big. Watch her be 7 lbs or something when she's born and I have done all this worrying for nothing.

Dan planned a date day for us this past weekend and didn't tell me what we were doing until that morning. We started the day playing putt putt. Any time Dan and I are trying to figure out what to do he suggests putt putt. In the 8 years we have been together we have never played. Guess who got 3 holes in one?! This girl did! It was a really fun morning.

We had a picnic at a park and enjoyed the beautiful weather after putt putt. I am SO ready for the cool weather to be permanent. Dan took me to get a pedicure and enjoyed getting one himself. He says that he went with me because I am pregnant but I think he enjoyed it :)

The last part of our date was going to the movies in Allen called iPic. It was by far the neatest movie theater we have ever been to. You pay a little more but the price includes free popcorn and a drink. The seats were so amazing and you even had your own blanket and pillow. We ordered dinner that was really good also. I expected the food to be ok, but it was great! The most difficult part was eating in the dark.

Overall, my hubby planned such a fun day for us to spend together. I guess it's my turn to plan our next date day. We are so excited to expand our family and it makes me cherish the moments Dan and I have together by ourselves. We only have a few more months of just the two of us!

23 Weeks...I have officially turned into my mom

Turning into my mom is definitely not a bad thing! She is one of the strongest most beautiful women I know! I've mentioned before that she sews and quilts and is making our baby bedding. She also made a lot of our clothes growing up...Oh the styles in the 80's...She really is a great seamstress I promise! Apparently these jumpers were in style back in the day. My favorite is the matching scrunchie headband. Anyway, I've had some extra time on my hands lately and why not add another hobby to my list? I finally, have started to sew. I consider myself pretty crafty and have wanted to start sewing for a while. I pulled out a sewing machine that my MIL (mother in law) gave to me and my mom helped me figure out how to use it. So far I am loving it and can see how it can be addicting. So far I've made some cute burp cloths for our little girl. The state of our kitchen table is a disaster at the moment! Luckily my hubby is understanding of my hobbies.

We are at 23 weeks this week! Only 17 more weeks left but who's counting :) Our little papaya is kicking up a storm still. Maybe she'll be on drill team and do the kick line like I did or be a basketball player like Dan was. Whatever makes her happy! All I know is that she is VERY active most of the day. We have another doctor's appointment tomorrow afternoon and I look forward to hearing her heartbeat again. It's nice that I feel her move all the time now so I know she's ok but it's always great to hear the heartbeat.

We registered at Target this week. Target was SO much easier to get around. I got lots of advice last week so thank you! We need all the help we can get! I had to post a pic of my cute husband manning the scanner gun.
I hope everyone has enjoyed their long weekend! I know we have!

22 Weeks...yes we moved ahead a week

When we went to the doctor a couple of weeks ago she moved our due date up to January 2 because our baby girl is running ahead of schedule. So now I'm at 22 weeks instead of 21. I don't feel like I'm getting much bigger but the bump is definitely rounder. This week baby girl has decided to use my bladder as a trampoline. Or maybe a big balloon to roll around on. I feel like bathroom trips happen every 5 minutes! It's worse than the first trimester! It makes it worth it when I can feel her kicking and flipping in my tummy. Dan FINALLY felt her kick last week. His face lit up when he felt the thumps.

There are many difficult things about being pregnant (like not having any control of your weight and being the heaviest you have ever been in your life) but I try not to rant about those too much :) There are also some awesome things about being pregnant. One of the greatest perks is front row parking places!! I have found expectant mother parking at Nordstrom, Market Street and Babies 'R Us. It was so great to go to the Nordstrom anniversary sale and park right in front! It's the little things, right?

We registered this week at Babies 'R Us. Holy overwhelming! This baby needs A LOT of stuff and we have A LOT to learn! Just the bottle aisle was overwhelming. Maybe things were easier a long time ago when there weren't as many options. Hopefully we'll be able to figure it out when the baby arrives.

I'm looking forward to the busy week ahead and the long weekend coming up!

Must Love Dogs.

I know I have expressed my love for my pups many times before but I do really love them. I was going through my phone pictures the other day and I realized a few things:

1) What would I do without my phone camera?
2) I really take a lot of pictures of my dogs...probably too many
3) I dress my dogs up a little too much for my enjoyment
4) Am I going to dress my baby up as much as I dress my dogs up?