2 weeks old

Nathan is a pretty happy baby-unless he's cold-or hungry. I tried taking his 2 week picture but he didn't like being unswaddled from his blanket.

One Week Old

By the Grace of God

People often say the best day of their life was when they get married or their child is born. My son was born Sunday morning. I didn't know what to feel the day he was born. I too will probably look back on the night as "the best day of my life" simply because it's the day my own baby was born. The night we went to the hospital and I gave birth I was exhausted-I hadn't slept for 2 days prior and the sleep I had before that was pretty sporadic and rare. I was too tired to feel anything after giving birth. Everything happened so fast-we went to the hospital late Saturday night and 6 hours later-early Sunday morning we had a beautiful baby boy.

The first night in the hospital when it was just me and my baby alone in our room-all I could think of was by the grace of God....I gave birth to a beautiful and healthy boy. The doctor and nurses said I did great but the truth was I didn't feel like I did anything special. I would have been lost without Greg by my side; the entire time he held my hand and comforted me through the contractions. Just typing and remembering this brings tears to my eyes. We also had an amazing nurse-who coached and encouraged Greg and I through the labor process.

My desire to have a "natural birth" was fulfilled.....but not because of my own will power or some uncanny resistance to pain (labor hurts.) The truth is I was scared and as the big day inevitably was coming-I considered an epidural and asked that it be available if needed. That first night after I delivered I thought about the fact that I gave birth to a healthy boy without any pain medication and the only thing in my mind was by the grace of God.....I know my family and friends were praying for me and their prayers were not in vain.

February 10th, 2010 - Due Date Pics

Still waiting.......I never imagined I'd be pregnant past my due date-but babies come when they come. There's a lot of people ready to meet this little one growing inside of me. Let's hope he makes an appearance soon.

37 weeks 5 days

Another preggo photo:

The Nursery is coming together

Several months ago Greg and I had a continuing argument over our baby having a room devoted to just baby. We live in a two bedroom home and the spare room has been the storage/hobby room since we've moved in. It housed tools, crafts, projects, bins of clothes, and anything else you can imagine being stored in an attic or basement. Greg felt that the baby could share the spare room (now the nursery) with all of his tools and projects. I on the other hand felt like my dreams of early motherhood would be shattered without a picture perfect nursery to care for our baby in. Both of us were in need of compromise. I've come to accept that a 2 bedroom home is what it is (there are many who have far less and I should grateful for what I do have) and there's nothing wrong with sharing spaces. Greg has come around to the idea of having a nursery and has bent over backwards to make it happen. (I love him even more for that) His tools are now stored in our shed-which is a better spot for tools but not always the most convenient to get to. (his tool box is on wheels so he can easily wheel it out when working on a large project)

The nursery is nearly complete! There are a few things I desire but I can make do without for now. A dresser and a rocking chair were on my priority list and we are still searching yard sales. To toot my own horn for a moment-the nursery has come together for less than $60 out of pocket. Many items were given to us and a few things I've re-purposed. I purchased:
A crib and mattress for $35
A couple of closet organizers (and other "baby items") from a friend for $20
The nautical themed crib bedding set, curtains, wall hangings, and matching diaper holder I picked up all for $4 at our on base thrift store.
I'm happy with how the room turned out and with little money spent.
Eventually I'd like the room to be themed in classic children literature characters. (think Madeline, Curious George, Charlotte's Web etc...) Originally I had envisioned a Beatrix Potter themed nursery (I still love her characters) but I think a general "kids books" theme will last longer into childhood and is more versatile when it comes to finding items at thrift stores.

Anyways....on to the real purpose of this post. Pictures of the nursery.


This book shelf once held crafting supplies. Now it holds diapers and bibs. On top of the shelf is a basket of "keepsake" books given to us for the baby and 4 Dr. Seuss characters I found at our thrift store for a quarter each.

Here is the "changing station" I was hoping to have a dresser with a flat top but this card table will work just fine and with a table cloth over it no one will ever know it's just a fold up card table. The green thing hanging on the wall matches the closet organizers perfectly (another thrift store find for a mere 50 cents) It didn't have any hardware to hang it up with. I cut a wire hanger and attached it to the back, it didn't look very nice so I tied a blue ribbon around the top and I think it looks much better. The canvas storage hanging thing holds random items like wash clothes and newborn mittens. Next to that you can't see it well but there is a diaper storage thing hanging off of the ironing board attached to the closet.


I just love this musical mobile. It was given to us last night from one of our neighbors. It doesn't match the "nautical theme" on the crib, but who cares? It's so cute.


Here's the closet-in lieu of a dresser (hopefully temporarily) we are using these canvas closet organizers-I think they work pretty well. I have small "new born size" onesies folded on top,other baby wear/pjs next, and below are larger clothes that don't hang like pants and shorts.



Lest anyone think the room is perfect and complete here is a picture of the entire closet. It doesn't open all the way because there is a fold down ironing board on one of the doors but you can see that baby items only take up about a third of the space. Squeezed in the closet is everything from a large welder to bins of winter wear, board games, books and boxes galore.

Vanilla Beans!

My beans arrived today and they smell heavenly! they are still in the vacuum sealed package and the aroma seeps through. After months (years?) of reading online various blog posts about making your own vanilla extract I've decided to try it for myself. I shared my frustrations with Greg about always running out of vanilla extract and how expensive a tiny bottle of it costs. I told him I should just make my own-the concept intrigued Greg and he did the research for me and found beanilla They didn't have the cheapest prices but they offered a large variety and a lot "education" on vanilla beans. Turns out there is a variety of vanilla beans available and each have their own unique flavor and nuance. Greg is big on subtle flavor differences (go figure with his espresso obsession)He strongly encouraged me to order a variety pack of vanilla beans and try them all out to see which kind we liked best and just for the fun of tasting different creations. I found this post which outlined some of the differences in each bean. I can't wait to get started. I'll have to have patience as it will take several months for the extract to "mature."

I'm going make 8 batches of extract-one for each bean. I'm also going to set some beans aside to experiment with-vanilla bean ice cream is the first thing that comes to mind but I know there is a plethora of recipes out there that call for "real vanilla beans" and I've shied away from them because I didn't have any beans and I wasn't about to shell out $7 for two tiny shriveled up beans from the grocery store.

oooh I'm so excited-I don't think that I would have invested the money in vanilla beans had it not been for Greg's encouragement and his own curiosity to see what comes. (in the long run my homemade vanilla extract is going to be loads cheaper and tastier than store bought)

32 weeks 5 days

Here's a photo from December 20th at our small group bible study's Christmas party.

28 weeks 3 days

Last night I went to a dinner party with the boat wives. I had a wife take my picture. My smile is pretty fake-we had just taken several group shots with all the wives and I was all smiled out.

They aren't kidding when they say the 2nd trimester is the best. Just a couple of weeks ago I felt great and had energy. Now I feel like I've just ran full force into the third trimester and it's no fun. I'm larger, slow moving and tired all the time. It does beat the 1st trimester morning sickness.

pregnancy photos 26 weeks 4 days

I finally had some preggo photos taken. I went to lunch with a friend today who's moving off of Guam. We had our cameras and of course my friends were willing to take some pics of my growing belly. They know that I am not being as proactive as I should be at taking photos on a regular basis. I am growing larger and not just in the belly but everywhere else too. My friend was tickled pink when I allowed her to rub my tummy.

Anyways here they are:

Blessings for Baby

A fellow Navy wife gave me an awesome high chair today. It's solid wood, attractive and very unique. I really like it-plus it was free. She purchased the high chair from a Swedish company called Svan. I've been searching online for the chair because it's so different and I wanted to read an instruction manual of some sort. The chair can be modified as the baby get's older to become a "regular" chair. It also came with an extra seat cushion and the rubber guard on the tray to keep the wood protected and make clean up easy.

Ohhh I'm so excited!

She has a 4 year old boy and now that he's growing out of the baby/toddler stage she's blessing me with his baby items. She also gave me two safety gates, a training potty, and an umbrella stroller. She's a very nice lady with good taste in "stuff" and I'm feeling blessed by her generosity.

Gorgeous pics of Guam

Yesterday was my last day of class at PIU. The school had a retreat this weekend (I didn't go but I heard all about it) One of the guests was an amazing photographer. I just checked out his blog and he took some pictures of Guam that are AMAZING. Who knew this island could be so beautiful?

The church I attend allowed PIU to have the retreat on their campus so in the pictures you'll see some interior shots of our church.

Anyways go to danfieldsphotographyblog.com and take a look at some pretty awesome photos. The first few posts are pictures of people but if you scroll down you'll see the Guam pics. There are quite a few from Chammorro Village-which happens every Wednesday night.

23 weeks and 2 days

Here they are (about a month late considering my last preggo photo was taken at 17 weeks)

mmmmm....Zuppa Toscana Soup

I get my soup fix while Greg is gone. I love to eat soup -Greg doesn't. Soup is healthy (usually) and freezes well. I make a big pot and eat soup until I'm tired of it and freeze the rest. My neighbor came over to use my stand mixer to make butter cream frosting for a birthday cake she was making. In return for letting her use my stand mixer she left me a pint of cream and some sugar (I love free food)

I was tempted to make ice cream with the cream but when I saw kale on sale for 97 cents a bunch I thought of Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana Soup. I read a few recipes online and than decided to just wing it and make my own-it turned out so yummy. This was my first time adding cream to soup-I usually make a roux or add milk to make a creamy soup. I wouldn't put this soup on the top of my healthy foods list but it sure is yummy. It's been a while since I've been to Olive Garden so I can't really compare flavors but I think my version is pretty good. It's heavy on the kale and light on the sausage-to make me feel better about eating it. It's delicious!

I think if I served it as a first course to a meal-Greg would like it (he just hates soup as "the meal")

I'm so happy-I got e-mails from my hubby!

After 3 weeks I have finally heard from Greg. I received about a half dozen e-mails today-none of them were in order and there were some gaps in days but I didn't care- just to read something from Greg was a joy. And now I can rest assured that Greg knows we are having a boy and he's happy!