Reason #2 I am stoked to move: (Sorry I missed 2 days till moving)

Location, Location, Location

When we decided we were going to start saving to buy a house there was some debate on where to look. We knew we were going to be in this house for a while, so this was a big decision for us to make together. We liked living in the midcities area because it was in the middle for both of our jobs. Yes, the traffic sometimes stinks but it was meeting in the middle for both of us. We started conversing trying to decide between the midcities or moving back to our hometown. My family and all of the hub's family lives within 10 miles of each other. So we decided we wanted to be close to family. Very soon after, we found out that we were expecting we knew we needed to stay close.

I am so happy that our child will be growing up and seeing their extended family. It is so special to me. So our new home is 3 miles away from my family's abode! I am so excited to be close again!

Reason #1 I am so excited to move:

Tomorrow is moving day!!!

While I am working the movers will be coming! I feel like the time was going by so fast trying to pack, but this week has gone by slower than ever with the last packing I needed to do. But tomorrow we will get to unlock our new home! :)

On the Hunt

3 Days until the Big Move: #3 Reason I Can't Wait to Move

Hunting for a Kitchen Table

The move into our house has sent me on a hunt for a kitchen table. Our current table matches our china hutch and will be used in the formal dining room which leaves us without a table for the breakfast area.

I had a monster of a TV line up for tonight but the weather had other plans.. in the form of tornadoes, rain and golf ball sized hail. The Biggest Loser, Glee and The Voice was replaced by our meteorologist David Frinfrock and his goofy self. So instead of crying during the BL season finale, I was on the hunt for kitchen table ideas. Here is some of the inspiration I found...

Love these 2 farm table beauties.

The Nester. I love her...

Obviously I am drawn to the white tables.

This is similar to the table the current owners have in the breakfast area. Love the pedestal base! I could use a little black furniture in my life.

I cannot wait to find the perfect table to occupy our new home. I sense a Canton trip in the near future. :)

I am going to count yesterdays accomplishment of tackling the mountain of my husband's closet as two spots on the moving count down. I cannot believe that moving day is quickly approaching... the packing has continued and we are getting down to the silly do dads that are a pain to pack. No matter which box you put those pesky pieces in there is no method to packing the random stuff.

So here we go...

4 Days Until Moving Day: Reason #4 Moving Day will be the Best Day EVER!

The Backyard

One of the amazing parts of our new home is the backyard. Now compared to the monster of a yard we have right now it is a definite downgrade size wise but an upgrade when it comes to shaded space. There are a lot of trees covering the backyard which will provide shade and hours of exploring nature with our little nugget. I cannot wait to show our child everything that I love about nature. The previous owners have a cute little picnic table under the shade of the tree with an adorable swing hanging from the branch. LOVE IT! I think I may just recreate this little oasis. I cannot wait. Only 4 more days baby.

I'm off to convince my sweet stubborn husband that movers are the way to go... because this preggo lady will be useless on moving day :)

T Minus 5 Days

6 Days until Moving Day: Reason #6 I'm Ecstatic to Move

The Ultimate Purge

When I married Tom I also married his clothes. He has an award winning collection of T-shirts. Now I admit I have some sentimental attachments to some odd things but when I was doing multiple loads of laundry during the week I quickly downsized my T-shirt pile. Now I now with the husband's line of work he wears a uniform, but in his spare time he is wearing T-shirts for Crossfit and going out so the laundry basket is full of Ts but with his stack he could fill 3 baskets.

After a week of begging, the hubs must have woke up on the RIGHT side of the bed because he walked out of the bedroom saying, "What can I do to help?" Well right this way sir... we went straight to the closet. I don't think he knew what I had in mind. He sat there and I did the rest. By the end two huge stacks of clothes are on their way to be donated and the boy looked like a battered puppy. Poor guy...

It's going to be so nice to move into our new home with ALOT less clothes. Hallelujah! :)

8 Days Until Moving: Reason #8 I'm Stoked to Move

Construction Sucks!

The above picture is only a portion of the construction that has haunted my drive to and from work. Highway 121 has been under construction since the day we moved into our home. I sometimes did enjoy my drive with my starbucks in hand before taking on my Kinderbabies. But the days when the highway was shut down completely forcing me on a round a bout detour I hated life. Moving back to our hometown we won't need to pass through this construction on a daily basis. The last day I drive this drive will be the 3rd happiest day of my life.

Reason #7 I'm Stoked to Move: 7 Days until Moving Day

We are HOMEOWNERS (for real) Oh yeah baby! We closed on our house yesterday afternoon and we have the keys in our possession! :) I swear I signed my name 1,000 times yesterday and may have signed my life away. That was one of the most stressful processes, and from my fatigue today I had been stressed to the max. I feel like a huge weight has lifted off my shoulders. We gave the current owners a leaseback until this Friday so the waiting continues. Until then... I have been staring at the key all weekend and I will be cuddling with it tonight!

I can't believe it is all happening.

9 Days Until Moving Day: Reason #9 Why moving will be the best day ever...

The Commute

I was a few minutes early on my way to work this morning so I drove past our new home. I was hoping to see a SOLD sign plastered across the realtor sign but no such luck. I decided to time my new commute from the new place to school. It's a WHOPPING 5 MINUTES! :) What a sweet, sweet sound! I have been driving through construction zones, and detours galore so far this school year so a few left turns will be nothing.

My sweet husband's commute will be a bit different. I am so thankful that he was willing to sacrifice his 10 minute drive for almost 40 miles one way. We decided if we were going to buy a house we wanted to be close to family. Then when we found out we were expecting it only confirmed out decision to move close to family.

So nine more days of driving the drive. I may miss my "me" time each morning but the extra 45 minutes I will be able to enjoy my bed sounds so much sweeter! :)

Baby H News: We got to hear Baby H's sweet heartbeat this afternoon. No sonogram... no gender news but we will know for sure in 4 weeks at our next appointment. What is crazy is that in 4 weeks, school will be over and we will be in the new house. How wonderful :)

The doctor was doing her thing and she was pressing on my stomach checking the baby and her exact words were, "Whoa that's a big baby. More like 16 weeks along..then again look at the daddy!" Remember I'm only 14 weeks. Good grief... big baby... delivery... ouch! Thanks husband. I can't wait until our next appointment.

10 Days Until Move In: Reason #10 I'm stoked to move

The WALK IN Closet

Me and the mister have been sharing a miniature closet in our current love nest. So I feel like anything bigger by merely inches would be a huge upgrade. Our closet is no walk in but only opens with accordion doors and me and the hubs worked out a system but we are pumped for our new closet.

When we toured our new home I felt like Carrie Bradshaw walking into her new apartment closet. Heavenly....

Maybe it's not as big, and I definitely won't have the shoes like she did. But I will be in heaven when each piece of clothing will have a place of its own.

On a complete opposite note... we have our 14 week check up appointment tomorrow! We will get to hear and see out sweet Baby H. The husband is determined to find out if it is a boy or girl! He is not above begging... We are so blessed! :)

Hallelujah and Pass the Spoon

I got the best email tonight on our my home from Crossfit tonight! We are FULLY APPROVED for our loan to purchase our first home! This was such a huge weight lifted off our shoulders. We have spent the past few weeks sending document after document to our lender. I mean everything you can think of. I really wouldn't have been surprised if they asked for a pee sample from the both of us.. TMI? But no more. We are literally just "twiddling our thumbs" until Friday, our closing day as our realtor told us. And I can think of nothing I would rather be doing.

I stopped at the store on the way home and then rushed home and impatiently waited for my husband to come home so I could tell him the news. I looked like Kali's twin waiting by the glass door, wagging my tail in anticipation. I barely waited for him to walk in the door before jumping up and down sharing our news!

Let the celebration begin...

Yes we celebrate big in our home... coconut milk ice cream out of a plastic gladware with plastic spoons. (My mom and I got overzealous and packed away the entire kitchen so we are left eating off paper plates with plastic utensils).

This is what Pure Joy looks like. (Well and weeks of stress, packing and pregnancy at 8 pm) It was the perfect way to celebrate! :)

I dislike the above picture for two reasons: 1. You can see the abscence of my widows peak where my hair never grew back after a freak accident in 5th grade. (We can save that story for another day) and 2. You can see our hideous cabinets of our current residence. Which leads me to my next reason...

11 Days until we Move: Reason 11 Why I am Stoked to Move

The Kitchen

If you look closely you are able to see kitchen cabinets in our current rental house. These babies were my nemesis upon our move in. Our landlord did a quick once over cleaning for our debut and obviously neglected the cabinets and the previous tenants must have fried everything because I was left with off white cabinets from the 70s Brady House covered in a yellow grease/ grime. My sister was a saint those first two nights painting cabinet door after door with new white paint. Don't worry she left me to do the dirty scrubbing and I treated her to a chick flick teeny bopper marathon. Even after their extreme maker the kitchen was never what I wanted it to be. So I am very excited to move into a home with this gorgeous heart.

Welcome to our new kitchen...
Sure the kitchen may need some TLC and a few modern updates but the abscence of grease stains and Brady-licious cabinets fire me up! Carol Brady eat your heart out. 11 more days; so close but still so far.

Let the Countdown Begin

If everything goes smooth and according to plan we will be moving into the new and improved Love Nest in 12 days! And we are closing this Friday... geez louise! I have been busy this weekend packing up box upon box. It makes it seem real though.

Pregnancy hormones and packing make for an interesting combination. I feel like I am on a roller coaster of emotion. I am trying not to stress so in order to distract myself I have been staring at pictures of our new home. Here is a special kind of countdown expressing how excited I am about moving.

12 Days: 12 Reasons I am stoked to move....

Reason #12: Split Sinks in the Master Bathroom

I do love my husband, but the living here in the current home we share a small bathroom with only one sink and share the cabinets. I am not an anal clean freak by any means but I have an organization to my madness. So the thought of having my own vanity, sink, cabinets and drawers makes my heart pitter patter!

You can barely see my sink in the picture above, but her is the Hubs on the opposite wall :)

I am so excited!!! 5 days until closing... 12 more days to pack! Let the countdown begin.

Sayonara First Trimester

I have been very lucky thus far in my pregnancy. Throughout the first trimester I never got sick. I did feel nauseous at times but never any vomiting... like I said quite lucky. There have been a lot of changes, some I was not ready for.

I have never been a napper but now I find my peepers closing in the afternoon when the Kinderbabies are at specials. I am not above curling up in the corner of my classroom behind my home center on the floor for a few minutes. Classroom carpet in not comfortable.

This week the Bella Baby Band made its first appearance. After joining Crossfit and the Paleo lifestyle I got some new jeans and after my belly started growing those jeans are just a little snug, Belly Band to the rescue! I feel like we may be best friends by November. Getting dressed for work every morning has become the worst part of my day. I am in between sizes and I don't fit into any of my BC clothes (Before Crossfit clothes). I am so looking forward to the summer where I don't have to get dressed for work every morning. Only 18 more days... Hallelujah!

Now that the first trimester is over I am feeling great. My appetite and energy are coming back. The second trimester I am trying to focus on eating as Paleo as possible and geting through my workouts. I am still doing crossfit, with a few modifications and listening to my body. I found a blog that is encouraging and inspiring its called Pregnancy, Crossfit and The Paleo Diet. My 3 loves.

This week starts the 14th Week! I realize I am a bit behind but we documented the 12th week with these cute stickers my sister bought me from Etsy. The first 3rd of my pregnancy has flown by I cannot believe that in 6 months we will meet Baby H!

The bump may have been a little enlarged after my mom's Mother's Day celebration dinner, but here is the Baby Bump at 12 Weeks in all its glory.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to my sweet mom. She is my best friend. I feel so blessed to be raised in here love, her kindness and unconditional support. I was lucky enough to be with her and help her celebrate on her special day.

I remember so many memories of my mom growing up. She always encouraged the sister and I's creativity. For hours upon hours we would play Barbie's creating these fantasy worlds for those plastic beauties. We would use the stairs in our house to create multilevel mansions for our dolls and even when the time came to shut the night down, my mom would not make us clean up the 14 story houses...even if it meant stepping on a few pointy stilettos while walking down the stairs in the morning.

There were a few questionable moments too. Like when days before moving to the great state of Texas my mom took me to the salon to get an early 90's Dorthy Hammel chili bowl/bob hair cut. After moving to Texas and being excepted in all my hair glory I attended my first birthday party and the grandmother there said, "Aw what a cute little boy..." To this day she tells me I asked for that cut. Sure....

Chili bowl and all- my mom is the best and I will consider myself lucky if Baby H one day looks at me like the way I look at my mom. She is my world. I love you mom! :) Happy Mother's Day.

P.S. Baby H- I will never give you a chili bowl! Just kidding mom.

A Blessing in Disguise

Here is a picture of the room that will be Baby H's nursery in our new home. When I walked into this room during our viewing, that is when I KNEW we had to have this house. I mean... How perfect could this be!??! I love it!
We found out that this room has a blessing in disguise. If you look closely you can see that they installed white wainscoting on the bottom half of the room. Before the current owners applied the wood they covered the walls in bible verses as a blessing for the room and their baby girl.
I just got the chills again, like the first time I heard this.

I love that our Baby H will be sleeping in this room and will have this blessing over him or her. This is something that makes our new home so special to us.

I heard from our lender today and she said everything is going well with our financing, so we are just in the waiting period now. Its so hard to be patient... Be patient, be patient, don't be in such a hurry! :)

P.S. I mean how perfect would that room be for a little baby girl?!?!? :) Just kidding. (Not really)

Jinxed it.

I always love a good bargain, but this time I hit the jackpot! I was actually looking to spend my birthday Old Navy giftcard on myself, but I ended up with other plans. When I was walking to front to check out feeling sorry for myself and my expanding midsection, I saw the mother load. A extra extra clearance rack full of baby clothes. The only problem was there was only girl clothes. But everything was marked $.97! I almost talked myself out of it but I confirmed the return policy with the salesman and went to town. I mean $.97.... who could pass up that kind of deal.

Be still little white hearts...

Nothing is sweeter than a baby in jeans.
Unless there are heart pockets on the hiney.

Precious rosette hoodie.

This is my favorite steal.

Winter jacket for $.97! Maybe they can wear it on May 1st next year with a cold front like the one that is hitting us currently.

I think I scored big! Everything for less than a dollar. I love great bargains!

My sweet husband thought I was crazy when I showed him all of the pink. But I think after two years of marraige he has learned to embrace my craziness.

Of course, now that I bought something, well a lot, of things pink. We will definitely be having a boy. I probably just jinxed it :)