our first family photos

This last Saturday we had a friend take our first family photos. I was starting to have a lot of regret for not having maternity or newborn photos taken of myself and Ryan. I mentioned it to Jim and he said we could still get photos done while Ryan is still itty bitty. Though he's not his newborn 7lbs, these are still so fabulous.

All photos were taken by Ciera of Pixiedust Photography. She's an incredibly talented photographer with a passion for child and family photography. You can find her work on her blog, Pixiedust Photography and her Facebook page.

let's get real here: the weight debate

Today I'm just going to vent. Sometimes I feel so much better when I can just write (or type) out my feelings.

My pregnancy was smooth sailing. I couldn't have been luckier. I casually exercised at the beginning of my pregnancy, but really let it take a back seat because of how tired I was most of the time. By the time I hit the mid point, I was so used to doing nothing that I continued doing nothing.

I've always had a huge self image problem. I was never thin enough regardless of my weight. I'm pretty sure what I saw in the mirror was not how other people saw me. I currently weigh the most I've ever weighed in my entire life (not pregnant). Not a single thing I wore when I found out I was pregnant with Ryan in January fits today. Part of me knows I had a baby just 10 weeks ago - 7 of which I was not cleared for exercise. But the other part of me feels like this has always been my life. Like I've always had Ryan and I should just be thin again already.

I return to work soon and had to go out and buy new clothes, just so that I didn't have to wear too-big maternity clothes back to work. The size on the tags were like a huge blow to the gut. It made me want to cry.

I'm obsessive compulsive about it. I count calories to death, I work out - but there isn't much more I can do beyond that, but sit and think about how much weight I have to lose and how much time it's going to take. It's terrible. It makes me feel terrible. I always knew this was part of pregnancy. I tried so hard to talk myself through it ahead of time to make it all ok. I'm now realizing just how hard of a time I'm actually having with it.

I've been counting calories for a week and a half now, going to the gym or getting on the treadmill at home. I've registered for a half marathon with a friend who had a baby in July and we're working our way in to training for the June race. I have half of my baby weight to lose still, plus the pounds I was up when I got pregnant. It's going to be a long hard road, and I wish it didn't have to be. 

life with Ryan

These last two months have been a whirlwind. This little boy has grown so incredibly fast.

In the last two months Ryan has been sick with an eye and ear infection and struggled with weight gain. He's started smiling and cooing. He's had his very first set of vaccinations and only just grew out of his newborn size clothes a week ago. He's happy, healthy and pretty darn agreeable to just about anything I ask him to do.

In just 3 short weeks I return to work full time and I'm going to miss him so much. I chose to work just a handful of days this month with my first day being this last Tuesday. I was away from him for 8 hours, and it seemed like the longest 8 hours ever. The sheer excitement that came from that adorable child when he laid eyes on me after that 8 hours absolutely melted my heart!

Here are some photos from Ryan's first month:

Ryan & Daddy

Auntie Erica

Grandma

Grandpa

On the way home!

First time sleeping at home.

Cuddled up with daddy.

Daddy loving his little boy.

So tiny on Grandpa's chest.

Ryan's first Halloween

I don't spend a lot of time on the computer anymore, he keeps me pretty darn busy, so I hope to start updating more often soon.

Welcome Ryan!

Welcome to the world Ryan James!

October 1st, 2011 - 8:43pm

7lbs 14oz - 19 3/4"

Ryan is truly the single greatest joy in our lives. He was welcomed via c section last Saturday evening perfect in every way. Being parents to this beautiful child has been far more rewarding than we could have even imagined. Each day we look at him, we can't believe this is our life. We have been truly blessed over this last year.

The Baby Shower

I was treated to the most beautiful shower I've ever had the pleasure of attending. My mom and her friends are absolutely amazing when it comes to planning. The decor was gorgeous and the food was delicious. I'm lucky enough to have cousins who bake like professionals and they provided the most amazing cake and cupcakes.

Myself, my mom and my sister.

The shower theme was nautical. We love living on Whidbey Island, we love the ocean that surrounds us and we love our boat. We are so excited to introduce the northwest island life to our son and nothing fits us better than all things nautical.

The afghan on the left with the anchor was hand made by my cousin, Rachel. She did an amazing job. The quilt on the left was made by our close friend and neighbor, Uschi. The quilt was one of my very first gifts for the baby. I completely skipped a bedding set because of this quilt. The rocking horse is from my friend, Alison. She stained it to match his bedroom.

Poms, eyelet lanterns and stars hung above the food table. They've all come home with me to hang in his bedroom. The giant frame was held chicken wire - I took photos early so you don't get to see all the adorable photos that were attached of his ultrasounds, my weekly belly photos and a few of me as a child.

The shower was at 11:00am, so we had a brunch spread. It was delicious. Mini crustless quiches, strawberry spinach salad with the most amazing dressing I've ever tasted and fresh bakery bread.

There was a great sparkling fruit punch along with lemon water. We drank from mason jars and each little straw had the cutest little striped red and blue flags on them.

The cupcakes were made my the Cupcake Queen herself, my cousin Rachel. She knows how much I love fondant and she made marshmallow fondant star toppers for each cupcake. I'm also a frosting girl, and she totally outdid herself on the frosting for these cupcakes. I was in heaven.

My cousin, Brynn made the blue velvet ruffle cake. I'd come across a picture of one on Pinterest and had to have it. This is the absolute best velvet cake I've ever eaten in my life. The frosting was cream cheese and sadly didn't like the sun. But I don't care, it was delicious! My sister came across this adorable whale topper and my brother colored it for her. It was pretty sweet of him!

The blessing table was incredible. Each guest wrote a sweet note to our baby boy and hung it on the line. At the end of the shower they were collected in a small album for me to take home. I'll get to read each blessing and prayer to him as he grows.

Pinwheels made the center pieces on each table and were the favors for our guests to take home. My mom let me help with these, which I loved. I'm a crafty person so I was happy I got to help with something!

The little guy was spoiled rotten!

Carrie, Jennifer, Mom & Lisa

These are the ladies that made it happen. Carrie hosted in her gorgeous back yard, making for one heck of a garden party. They all helped my mom collect and implement ideas. They set up and took down the entire thing and also helped prepare the food. They're amazing and my mom is so lucky to have the best friends.

There are more pictures floating around on other cameras. When I end up with those I'll post more of the fun. A big thank you to everyone who made the shower so incredible special. I felt beyond blessed. From those who helped plan and put on, to those friends and family members that attended. It was an amazing day I'll never forget.

28 Weeks! It's a busy one.

Hello gratuitous bathroom shot of my pregnant belly. 28 weeks has been a really fun one so far. I hit 28 weeks on July 1st, turned 28 years old on July 3rd and today celebrated Independence Day with my extended family. I haven't been to our family 4th in years! It comes with my line of work, sadly.

Not a ton has changed pregnancy wise except getting bigger. Baby boy is a mover and a shaker. He has the ability to contort my belly now based on how he chooses to hang out in there. He's not shy to spread out from side to side, making my belly look like a football and causing some serious hip pain. But I still love him.

I've been becoming increasingly more stressed about my age the older I get. I tried my hardest to embrace my 28th birthday with open arms and it was rather successful. I feel like this will be my greatest year yet. I spent a wonderful sunny day out with my mom, sister, aunt and cousin. We went shoe shopping and treated ourselves to manicures. We followed up with lunch at my favorite cafe in Coupeville and Coupecakes from the cupcake shop. It was super fun.

This coming weekend we head back to Winthrop for our last trip sans baby. We stayed in an adorable cabin there last year and decided it was too great not to go back. 3 nights just the hubby and I out in the warm Eastern Washington woods and weather. Can't wait!

Hope everyone had a safe and fabulous 4th!

25 Weeks

Well, there's the belly in all it's glory. It decided to grow a mile and drop while on an awesome visit to my mother-in-law's in Oregon last week.

I'm having some minor back pain just under my shoulder blades, but nothing that I can't tolerate. Otherwise I feel totally normal! Except for the rolling over in bed part, that's getting harder. I'm up 18lbs and I'm hoping it starts to lay off my face. It's already round as it is and I don't need it to fill out any more!

Baby boy moves a ton and responds to being poked at. He's really such a joy already. We met the main OB of our office and he's really nice and informative. We feel pretty confident about either one delivering when the time comes. He was also very sweet and let us take a good long look at our little guy last visit. I think he used the word perfect about four times when describing him and his anatomy scan results. Love that!

My motivation to blog has been minimal. I've been doing virtually no cooking or thrifting at this point. I find myself to be far too busy working and planning. I've been working hard on simplifying the house and ridding ourselves of unnecessary items that are just taking up space. My project lists are miles long and I only have 102 days until his due date to get them finished.

I haven't been able to comment on my reads for weeks. Google simply won't allow me to log in to leave comments and it's really frustrating. I'm not an anonymous commenter, so I just move on. It really disconnects me from the blogging world and those I really like keeping up with.

I'm not sure I'll continue blogging the way I used to when baby arrives. It may just become something more simple and as time allows it. Life has gotten far too busy for me and I've been making it a habit to spend less and less time on the internet knowing I won't have much time for it soon.

I do have a couple of projects I'm working on that I'll be sharing before our little one arrives and I'll get them up as I get finished. Hope all of my blog friends are well!

staycation

A couple weeks ago, when we had our anatomy scan, we invited my husband's dad and his wife up to join us for the appointment. They made a mini vacation out of it, and I was lucky enough to have an extra long weekend and made a staycation out of it!

Two full days chock full of tourism. We love being tourists at home and taking full advantage of places people travel to see. The little water front towns, the shops, the food and the ocean. So it was fun for us to take family along for what we like to do as often as we can.

The Skagit Valley Tulip Festival takes place in my home town every year during the month of April. We hit the festival on it's very last day this year. I haven't been since I was a kid and it was so fun to walk through the fields of flowers.

Row upon row, field after field. It was a beautiful sunny day with happy clouds filling the sky. Because of the crazy cool and wet weather we're having this spring, the tulips were late. There were still many that hadn't even made their break out of the soil. It's so rare. And though there were a few fields that had been topped, there were still plenty of flowers to see.

Tulips don't smell good. In fact, most of them don't smell like anything at all. So strange for a flower.

It was so nice to be "home". To walk through the fields and remember what it was like to be a child growing up there. Before the town grew to be a city. Before I grew up to be an adult. Before I became jaded.

Jaded, that makes me chuckle to myself.

Overall, it was just a really beautiful day.