When rolling over in bed counts as extra exercise! Yep, that’s the point I’m at in this pregnancy. Which I am soo grateful for because up until I was seven months, I really didn’t feel all that pregnant at all. So I’ll take the uncomfortable days right now because there aren’t many of them left!
Little man is the size of a butternut squash, but feels like a watermelon some days! It depends on how I’m standing, sitting, bending, etc., but sometimes I feel a leg or an arm just poke out like pow here I am! It takes me by surprise every time, but he’s super active and moving all the time which is always a good thing.
Oh, and I know I wear the same shirts all the time but it’s all about comfort right now. I’m not about to buy a bunch of maternity tops that I know I’m not going to wear again. So I’m just wearing all my bigger loose tops right now and that works for me. I did have to buy one pair of maternity leggings, these are the exact ones because even my biggest leggings were too tight! The leggings from Target are the best and very comfy!
The past day or so I wasn’t feeling the greatest, and was taking it super easy. I didn’t have a fever thank goodness, but it’s always a little scary when you don’t feel well being pregnant. I’m back to my self again, and have my not so great appetite since I’ve been pregnant back, which is a good sign whatever infection my body was fighting is over.
Hadley lost her second tooth of her little seven year old life! When she lost her first tooth, she was a little scared of the thought of a tooth fairy coming into her room to get her tooth so I made this little sign to hang on the wall outside her room. When I was growing up, I remember the tooth fairy leaving a quarter, now a days it’s up to a dollar!
When my husband is working at the firehouse, I just love it when he sends me selfies at random times. This particular photo, he had to help someone into the ambulance, while he was on the engine. Isn’t he just so cute? ♥
The weather was unseasonably warm for this time of year, so Hadley had this great idea to do water balloons on the driveway while I worked inside. This girl should’ve been born in the summer, she could be outside all day and all night.
We had movie night practically every night during Christmas break. I don’t mind movie nights ever because I’m the type that can watch movies over and over again. Yes, even kid movies!
Tuesday, December 28
Keeping up with a workout routine for this entire pregnancy just has my mind blown. When I was pregnant with Hadley I never worked out, maybe went on a walk or two, but nothing of this caliber. I’ve worked out almost everyday for the entire pregnancy!
Posted my 32 weeks update on Instagram! Click on the link to read more about the update.
My love for planners continues, and for this year I went with the Happy Planner again! Four years and counting. I wrote an in-depth post here if you’re interested in my 2022 planner.
Thursday, December 30th
With Hadley being on Christmas break, she was able to go to one of my doctor appointments, she got to see her baby brother on the ultrasound! She still doesn’t really understand how there is a baby in my belly, but it was fun for her to go and see everything with me.
Started the whole “nesting” mode around the house, and cleaned out an entire cabinet to make room for baby stuff in the kitchen. Three years we’ve been in our house, and I still have room in cabinets which I just love! I don’t want a crammed kitchen!
For our little Keurig corner, I bought two mugs with the initials “K” and “M” for Kevin and Mandy for us to use for coffee and tea latte’s. I put a little Happy New Year sign in this corner for the new year.
Friday, December 31st
We did not have anything big planned or New Year’s Eve this year, being pregnant and Kevin getting over a sickness we just chilled for the most part. We went over to my parents to watch the Bearcats play in the Cotton Bowl! Too bad it was a loss, but still an exciting time for our Bearcats.
After the football game, we headed home for our own little New Year’s Eve celebration. We had sparkling grape juice, and added some gummy bears to it, and toasted to a new year! Hadley wasn’t a fan of the juice, but I sure was!
Was surprised to see the top nine Instagram posts for 2021 were majority baby related!
Saturday, January 1st
Christmas decor started to come down! Being pregnant, it takes me a lot longer to do things now so it was a slow process and lots of sitting down, but I managed to get all the decorations down, and Hadley helped taking the ornaments off the tree.
After Kevin was feeling poopy for a few days, he finally felt good enough to put together the baby dresser. It took him all day with lots of breaks, but it’s done!
Sunday, January 2nd
33 weeks in, and still on the workout routine. Some days like any days are a struggle, but once it’s over I feel so good! I’ve been sticking with the same YouTube video prenatal workouts. Nancy Taylor is my favorite, they are easy and get my heart rate up.
Grandma and Grandad sent Hadley a cute little stuffed animal in the mail for Happy New Year! She loves getting things in the mail with her name on it.
We made it to church for the first time since Covid has been around. I’m so glad we went, it was packed! They recently re-did part of the church, so it was nice to see the updates after two years.
Last workout of the year! Another YouTube video. I have this idea for 2022 to try and keep track of how many workouts I do for the year, so at the end of the year I can look back and say I did 300 workouts out of 365 days or something like that. It would be neat to do!
Well, there you have it! Our recap from last week of Christmas festivities, and the end of Christmas break. The kids are back in school, and it’s been an adjustment sleep wise, plus a late soccer game the first day back, but after a few early bedtime nights we’ll be back to normal.
Happy Tuesday everyone! Hope you have a great week!
This year has been even weirder than last, but still pretty amazing in the midst of the pandemic craziness. We’ve got some awesome things to look forward to in the new year. Can’t wait to see what 2022 has in store for us.
It’s no secret that I’m a huge planner girl. I love planners, I love the accessories, and I love everything about the process of planning out life. Four years ago, I bought my very first Happy Planner!
The Happy Planner helps you keep your life organized in such an easy way, the planners are practical, pretty, and the material is high quality that lasts all year long. I take my planner with me to work everyday, and usually look at it a few times when I’m at home. The planner gets shuffled around everywhere and the durable material and binder rings makes it last all year long with no problem.
In 2018, I bought my first happy planner and haven’t looked back since! And I keep the planners, I don’t know why, but I like to keep them for a few years.
The planner I chose for 2022 is called In Every Season Classic Vertical Planner. I always choose the weekly vertical version. Each planner has 12 full monthly spreads (one for each month), and a two-page spread for each week.
At the beginning of each month, there is a blank page where I put birthdays. I don’t send birthday cards for every single family member, but almost some years! I know the little ones enjoy getting mail, and when I hear feedback on how much they appreciate it, makes it that much better.
For the actual monthly spread, I write all of our monthly bills, and subscriptions on the due date. I’ve always done color coding for each family member and it works great! You can see the different colors on the left-hand side under the notes section.
Here is February blank, not filled out yet so you can see what it looks like. In the notes section, I’ll put important reminders for example, if a bill is almost paid off, or to remember to schedule family photos, things like that.
Each monthly tab is laminated which helps for wear and tear all year long. These planners really do last through all the hustle and bustle of everyday life.
I use this pencil / pen case for all my planner markers, pens, pencils, etc. I carry this with me all the time also since I use color coding for everything.
These are the markers I use for the planner. My favorite pens I’ve used for two years now, are the BIC Intensity pens, purchased on Amazon. They write so well, and pass the smudge / bleed test so they don’t go through onto the other planner pages.
In the very back of the planner, I always buy these packs of Colored Fill Paper. I use them for things like dates to remember for the next year, or something that might’ve came up this year that didn’t happen before, my husband’s work stuff / paychecks, just random things. It’s nice to have extra pieces of paper to write things down on that you wouldn’t put on a daily page in the weekly spread.
Something new I’m trying this year are these Budget Debt and Savings Classic Filler Paper sheets. We have been working super hard these past few months paying things off, so I thought it would be helpful to try and use these sheets for the new year.
The Happy Planners come in lots of different designs and sizes! I always go with the Classic size, but they also have mini sizes and big sizes to suit your needs. There are also many other items you can add on to your planner such as pens, stickers, pen holders, bookmarks, planner covers, and much much more. Check out all the different accessories here.
This planner has our entire lives in it, and I’d be so lost without it. I’ve tried going the electronic route when it comes to calendars / planners and I just can’t do it. There is something about writing things down, and crossing them off, that helps me plan things so much better. I will always be a planner girl!
Yes, the sound effects are totally necessary! Anytime I move, sit, stand, basically do anything I feel the need to make a noise or grunt or something. And if I’m super active during the day, then I’m useless at night. Still managing to exercise in the mornings which is awesome, going to try and keep that up until the end.
Doctor’s visits during the third trimester are very uneventful, other than I have to do an ultrasound every week now. Getting to the doctor every week from here on out is a bit annoying, but thankful everything is looking healthy, which I am overly grateful for. My blood pressure has always been great, never had issues with that thank goodness.
My weight gain has been very good at this point, which I’m very happy with. I still like a crazy person, weigh myself everyday. Ever since I started my keto lifestyle roughly around two years ago, I’ve always weighed myself every morning. I am not doing keto while pregnant, it’s not very good to go low to no carbs, and besides I crave carbs! I know that I’m going to gain weight being pregnant, it just helps me know how much I really am gaining throughout this pregnancy and very happy with the results!
Getting my five to six day a week workouts in, and feeling great! When I say feeling great, I definately don’t feel like my normal self working out but I’m so happy that I’m still moving my body 32 weeks later! Just about everyday, I am doing the Nancy Taylor Prenatal Workout which is pretty easy, gets my heart rate up, and my body moving. I feel very proud of myself for maintaining a workout routine for the most part almost daily. I feel so good after my workouts, which is why I do the majority of them in the mornings unless I’m in the office that day. I feel energized throughout the day, until mid-late afternoon and then I’m pooped.
Little man is the size of a cantaloupe now. But feels like I’m carrying a bowling ball some days! For real, I feel like I’ve got the pregnant lady waddle going on some days. If I do too much during the day, like lots of laundry, cleaning, up and down at work, then I can feel it at night. The belly literally feels like I’m carrying a gigantic bowling ball around and it hurts!
That’s all for now mamas! Stay tuned for a few more final pregnancy updates!
We’ve had some fun with the Elf on the Shelf this year! We call our elf Snitch, and he has had some adventures this holiday season. The excitement of finding him each morning is just the best, some mornings were more boring than others but for the most part it was all a success!
Part of our Christmas Bucket List this year, was to go downtown and do the bumper cars and ice skating. We went in the morning on a weekday, and it wasn’t very crowded. The weather was very cold though! The big kids were rockstars at ice skating, Hadley tried it at least but wasn’t a huge fan after she fell twice. She loved the bumper cars, so much fun!
We played Christmas card games, matching and go fish. I keep this set of cards in our Christmas bins, and we only play it during the holiday season to keep it special.
We take turns putting the angel up on the tree, we keep a handwritten list inside the angel container to keep track. This year it was Natalie’s turn, but she wasn’t at the house when we put the tree up so she let Hadley put the angel up in place of her. Growing up, my Grandma and Grandpa did the same thing with all of us grandkids, took turns putting the angel up. Love the little memories we are creating for our kiddos.
The one and only Black Friday purchase we made this year was a mini Keurig maker! I made this little corner of the kitchen a coffee / tea area. Kevin is a one cup of coffee kinda guy, and I like my chai tea latte’s!
Something about a clean kitchen before I go to bed makes me so happy. I try very hard to clean off the counters and dishes before bed, because waking up to a clean kitchen is just the best for me.
I’ve not written a blog post about this, but for two years in a row now I’ve made my own holiday planner for the season. It helps me keep things organized and it’s festive too!
Another Christmas Bucket List item is to make Christmas cookies! Since I’m 30+ weeks pregnant, I try not to stand for long periods of time so this year Hadley did a lot of the baking herself! I sat at the kitchen table, and basically told her what to do, and she did it all herself. She’s going to be a great baker!
Hadley and I got our Christmas mani/pedi done the week of Christmas! We knocked out a lot of our Christmas bucket list the two weeks before Christmas. She loves to get her nails and toes done! It was her idea for the blue snowflakes, and we loved it!
Kevin loves to make fires, and we did a lot of them during the holiday season. Hadley loves to watch and help him make the fires. He would make a fire every night if he could!
Another Christmas Bucket List item, go to the Festival of Lights! We ended up going with our cousins and had the best time. It was cold, but not super cold where it wasn’t enjoyable!
We made it to see Santa just in time before Christmas! This Santa is THE best around, he used to be at the Macy’s downtown but when they closed he moved a little further away. We drive about 45 minutes to see him each year, but he’s so worth it. He takes his time with the kids, really talks to them and makes them feel so special. Plus, he has his real life reindeer outside to see before you see Santa!
This was our first year going to the Coney Island Christmas Night of Lights! It was really neat to see, but not sure we’d go every year. The car line was about 2 hours just to get in to see the lights, then about 30-40 minutes of lights, and then you are done. So overall, almost three hours in the car! My god I had to pee like three times, thank God for portalets!
We celebrated our Christmas two days early this year, due to Kevin having to work both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. So we left out the traditional cookies and milk for Santa!
Santa came!
We always make a big breakfast before we open presents, I know it drives the kids crazy but that’s what we do. And by big breakfast we have pancakes, biscuits, mini cinnamon rolls, bacon, sausage, goetta, eggs, donuts, orange juice, and chocolate milk. And when I’m not preggers, mimosas!
Christmas Eve night we went to my brother-in-laws house. We surely missed Kevin, but he was busy literally fighting two fires. One was a car fire, and the second an apartment fire. The second fire photo above is my husband kneeling down at the door.
Christmas Day was just Hadley and I at home. Snitch the Elf left her a goodbye note, saying how well behaved she was and he’ll be back next year. And in summer clothes of course, this girl was born to be by the water. After dinner, we did a little movie night and she picked out Santa Clause 2 and we had popcorn. If only Dad were home to make us a fire!
Hope you all had a great Christmas, and holiday season!
Christmas won’t be the same this year, but we’re making it through. I’m wishing everyone a happy, and healthy time with the ones you love the most.
Blessings at Christmas “May the blessing of joy abide within you; May the blessing of peace rest upon you; May the blessing of love flow out through you; May all the blessings of the Lord be yours at Christmas and in the new year.” — Author Unknown
Our 2021 Christmas bucket list is finished! Not much time to complete every item, but we’re sure going to try to do as many as we can! Bucket list link here.
Exercise is still a major part of my routine, especially while being pregnant. It’s helped tremendously my mood, my health, and just feeling good overall!
We’ve been having so much fun with Snitch the Elf! One night this week, he was taking a ride down the banister. It’s so fun to experience Christmas through Hadleys eyes, makes everything so much more magical!
Reached the 30 week mark in my pregnancy! Some days I really wish for a cocktail, but that can wait a few more weeks right? Little man is the size of a bunch of broccoli. It feels weird to be in the 30 week mark now, time is just flying by!
We have lighting under our cabinets in the kitchen. We turn them on at night sometimes and it just gives off this cool glow. Lights are from Amazon.
We still need some larger items for little mans room, but I’m starting to get more of the smaller items. Things like baby wash cloths, sheets for the pack ‘n play, a lamp, and a cute little sign. When I found this sign with “little man” on it I threw it in my cart immediately!
Happy Friday! Looking forward to this weekend. Today is my daughters last day of school and then she’s on Christmas break. Up for this weekend is, a basketball game tonight, baking cookies tomorrow, and the big kids come on Sunday! Have a great weekend!
I know there’s not much time until Christmas, but it’s done and it’s ready to be checked off. If we don’t get to all of them, which we probably won’t, that is perfectly okay. It’s something our family looks forward to every Christmas, especially Miss Hadley. And I look forward to picking things to do, and drawing them!
Here are the bucket list items:
Wear Christmas jammies
Decorate the front porch
Mail Christmas cards
Christmas mani/pani
Take a drive to look at Christmas lights
Bake cookies
Buy a strangers coffee
Have a Grinch themed meal
Holiday movie marathon
Decorate a gingerbread house
Visit / take a picture with Santa
Bumper cars at Fountain Square
Go to the Festival of Lights at the Zoo
Donate a toy to a kid in need
We’ve already started some of the things on the list, need to cross some off. But we are excited for Christmas, it’ll be here before we know it!
Do you and your family do a bucket list for Christmas?
The elf on the shelf has been going strong this week! The elf is such a great motivator for getting ready for school in the mornings. I think her favorite one this week was movie night!
Sent our Christmas cards out this week! Read more about who we used here.
We finally put the angel on our tree! The kids take turns every year, and it was Natalie’s turn this year but she’s been busy with sports and hasn’t been here for a few weeks so she let Hadley put it on for her.
Starbucks to help make the workday go by faster! Chai tea latte is my favorite.
My work planner for 2022. I use a planner for work, and a different one for personal/home. I can’t imagine having lots of work things in my personal planner, I like to separate personal life from work life.
Hadley’s school has homemade gingerbread kits you can buy. We made this the other night and she went to town. They used a small milk carton from school lunches, and glued graham crackers on to it. Super cute and so simple!
29 weeks! Little man is moving and groovin in my tummy. Feeling him move everyday is such a cool feeling.
We hang the Christmas cards we receive in the mail on the basement door. Since the door is in the kitchen, we see it everyday so it’s the perfect spot! Love seeing all the photos and cards each year.
Miss Hadley sleeps just like her Daddy, all crazy and spread out. She’s the best sleeper though. Girl loves her sleep!
Happy Friday folks! Another busy weekend sort of. Movie night tonight, soccer game tomorrow, and then a birthday party for Hadley tomorrow night. And Kevin working lots of overtime. Single mama for the weekend. Have a good one!
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