Just a quick maternity pic post

We did them at 28 weeks and I am in love. Seriously how do I not order so many? I mean I went crazy with the wedding ones, so eventually I will have to resort to the old gallery wall on the stair case. I started one with wedding pics. Sigh, still need a few with new frames. Anyway, Erin from Erin Dietrich Photography in South Carolina did them. How on earth did I find her...long story but she is from Goshen, Ny so it worked out perfect.

We did them at Krista's parents farm. Old school farm pics in the winter. They were incredible. My plan is to take the four canvas prints in the living room from the wedding and then add two from the maternity session. I can't post belly pics all over the house that would be weird. Oh and the chevrons are no more. We went stripes in gray and white, but more on that later. Then I plan on ordering four 8*10's and making a square in the baby's room and one canvas to sit in the shelf opposite the square. Matt was such a good sport about it I can't believe it. He was amazing.
I ended up getting my hair and make up done that day. I am so glad I did. I felt pretty. I can't believe I never thought of that for our engagement pics. Oh well, these are totally awesome. I can't wait to order and hang prints. Here is a sneak peak at the pics.

Wow 30 weeks today! 10 to go : )

November was so busy. I can't believe I am in third tri and there are only ten weeks to go. Obviously, I want to make it full time and I'm still comfortable but I can.not.wait! Seriously I wish I could snap my fingers and have a baby here. We had two showers in November. One was thrown by my mother in law and the other by my mother. The first was in jersey and my mom made the trip with me since Matt had to work. Mil did a tea theme complete with scones and tea sandwiches. She also gave me Matt's grandmother's vintage tea cup. It's so pretty but I am terrified of breaking it. It will likely sit high up on the shelf. We got a ton of great stuff from the shower and it was so nice to share it with Matt's side of the family. Sadly I was caught up in the moment and didn't get to take pics. My SIL took some, so I'm hoping she will send them soon.

The next shower was thrown by my mom. We had it at the Erie and the food was amazing. They really out did themselves with a brunch style menu and mimosa fountain. Mom did a story book theme. We have so many books to read to Liam I can't wait. She used adorable bed linens as table cloths, topped the table with a pillow, and made centerpieces balloons, stuffed animals, and paper lanterns made from books. The cake was the same baker we have been using for the past couple of months. It was her best one yet. So yummy. Mom also made cupcakes and used cotton candy to represent thing one and two hair. Matt was able to come to this one. I was surprised but giddy that he wanted to be there. Shocked me. We got so much stuff, honestly there isn't much more we need. Both sets of grandparents helped with the nursery. Matt's parents bought the dresser and mine bought the crib. We are so lucky and so is Liam. I am thrilled and so thankful my college roommates were able to make the trip! My good friend Jessica from second grade attended. Her mom made an adorable quilt for the baby. My BF Melissa, friends, family and favorite cousin. The only person missing was my sister. Sadly our grandfather passed away the week before, so Ash came home to attend services. I wish she could have been there but I'm glad she was there for grandpa's funeral and I actually got to spend more time with her under those circumstances.

24 weeks viability!

I haven't done a chalk board pic since 20 weeks. Slacking! I can't believe how quick this is going, but the last 3 weeks seem to be dragging. I feel good and still no complaints.

I ran through my first trimester but only sporadic in the second. Not because I didn't feel well, but because I was tired, busy, lazy, yada yada. I'm up 10lb so far. I need to get going again. Hoping to run until 30 weeks and then switch to the elliptical. My only complaint with running so far is my boobs. They are big and in the way. I hold my hand on the top of my stomach when I run to keep those suckers from bouncing too hard. My speed has slowed and that's hard to watch. Mostly walking with a few minutes of running here and there. I try for 5 and 6 minutes at a clip and then walk for a few. So today I decided to pick up where I left off. 30 minutes on the treadmill 2.2 miles. Hope to get another 2 in tomorrow and 10 for the week. Ahh, it's baby steps but adds up. So here are two pics. One is from the beginning of Oct, right around week 18 and 20. The second is from today 24 weeks. I felt so stuffed today, the side view pic shows it.

My first destination wedding!

My friend bridge got married in Daytona beach this past weekend. Since we could only afford the trip if we didn't go as a couple, my other college roommate Amanda and I made it a girl trip. Amanda's mother is bridge's aunt and she joined us too. This was my first ever destination wedding.

We boarded the plane out of Newark and headed south. Once in Fl we rented a sweet mustang convertible. After that it was off to find the hotel and a place to eat. We were all pretty beat, so we didn't last long that night. Dinner was at a place called down the hatch. The food was good and the atmosphere was even better. We sat on a Pier, listened to a band, and had dinner.

Saturday was the wedding. After goofing of that afternoon we headed to the beach for the ceremony. It was beautiful and perfect. Dinner was held at the Chart house, in Daytona Beach at a marina. The food was excellent! I'm so excited for Bridgette and her groom.

30 blows!

30 blows was the theme for my husband's 30th birthday party. I found some inspiration via Pinterest and went to town. Originally I wanted to do a southern BBQ food menu with a pig roast, some bails of hay for seating, and adorable food markers. Well things changed quickly and I decided to have a food truck. How awesome right??

We kept the menu BBQ theme. The party started with apps. I made bacon, apple, onion custinis, which I saw on Rachel Ray. I made the mistake of cooking it in a crock pot, which in turn, made it less crispy for the toast, but the toast off set it. Kind of like a bruschetta. I made a buffalo chicken dip, always a super delicious no fail. And we also served veggies, dip, crackers, and cheese.

On to the food truck menu. Plan b-stro did the catering. They pulled into our driveway and set up shop. The food was amazing. They served pulled pork sliders or buffalo chicken fried chicken, with sides of Asian coleslaw, horseradish potatoes, and baked beans. I am so thankful for my genius idea. Honestly though, when we were wedding planning a knottie bride had one at her rehearsal dinner and I thought fab idea. Magically a year later two food trucks came to town in port. Seriously we never had one and now we have two. Had they not come to town I would have been cooking. Ha.

So dessert. I thought since we were doing BBQ why not have a pig blowing out a candle on an apple. Except I do not bake. Also I found adorable pig faced cake pops but w everything going on didn't have the time to give that a whirl. We hired the woman who did the bee cake last week for the pig cake. She did an amazing job. It was red velvet with buttercream and fondant. I had a Wife fail and forgot to buy candles. But we had sparklers, left over from the wedding. I stuck a sparkler in the pig and we sang happy birthday.

Decor: so back to the theme. I made centerpiece a with blow pops and cut a piece of card stock w the cricket that read 30 blows. Then I made a 30 blows banner. I had a hard time running a theme through it, but they got the idea. It's not like you can go BSC for a 30 year old guy the way you can for a child's party so mom brought balloons for something extra. The best part of the party was the food truck. I tried to keep it a secret from Matt, but ya know I couldn't contain myself and told him anyway.

Married one year

Ya know, I thought I had this all typed out and just had to had pics...nope I was wrong. So now I kind of feel like a bad wife. But without further delay, lets talk our first anniversary. We had two, well three, dates to celebrate our anniversary. I mean, who doesn't like to celebrate multiple times. Kind of like the birthday week concept. Anyway we went to the Melting Pot in Hoboken, which was my date to him. Neither one of us had been there and it was a treat. So we ordered a cheese fondue appetizer and with that they gave fruit, crackers, and bread for dipping. Need I say more?? Dinner was several different meats in a Merlot wine and Dessert...Dessert was honestly the best part and I'm not typically a dessert person . We had a sample of rice crispy,  fruit, cheese cake, yummy marshmallows covered in graham cracker crust and I should have wrote this sooner, because there was plenty of deliciousness but I'm forgetting. After dinner we walked off some, yea right, and looked at the city from the Jersey side.

On to date number two. Matt found this adorable restaurant in the town of Goshen, but apparently the town of Goshen is closed on Monday night, so he found another restaurant, even more adorable. We ended up at II Tosero. A small Italian family run place right in town. The food was amazing. Matt had chicken parm, like there is another option, and I had pasta with....god I can't remember. Lets blame my memory loss on being pregnant. Anyway what I do remember the food was phenomenal and the waiter was super kind. He couldn't have been much older than 16, that kid new his menu and his food. He even brought us out salads because the dinner was going to take longer than expected. Not that either one of us noticed or were in a hurry. Well babe, thanks for the date and for missing Monday night football. I do remember we went on a Monday. Thanks to shift work, its highly unlikely that we will ever celebrate anything on the actual day.

And finally date number three. Surprise Surprise we had dinner again.  This time at Friday's on Matt's parents. I think we were super busy running around Middletown and decided to do dinner out. Fridays was like any other, but I thought it was funny that Matt wanted to order a beer. He got carded but didn't have his wallet. Apparently Eli enjoys leather and decided to munch on it after taking it off the counter. Sorry love, you didn't get a beer. But you did get a new wallet after what 15 years?? We could have worked a scheme if we thought ahead of time and I could have ordered your drink. Despite turning 30 this year, they still carded you. xoxo

The great thing about celebrating our anniversary this year was that we did it three times. Most of the time we don't get to eat dinner together or even have the same days off. So to do it three times for a special event was priceless. Next year we are taking a vacation! 

Up next: Matt's 30 blows birthday party. Which we already had but I am playing catch up. I'd like to pat myself on the back for my menu. My plan was to keep it a surprise but I suck at that. More to come, hopefully before November!

Half baked.

20 weeks and counting. We had a gender reveal party this past weekend. It was such a good time. My mom came up with a bee theme from Amy Atlas's book and Pinterest and we went to town with it. On Thursday we went for an elective ultrasound, because we originally thought that Matt would miss both the doctor appt and the party. Turns out he was able to make the party but not the appt.

Anywho, 2 days early we knew were were team blue. We both had a feeling it would be a boy. It was so hard not to tell anyone until that night...well we did tell 2 people. My sister and Matt's best friend. Neither of which would be there or see anyone between now and then. So it was safe.

In keeping with the bee theme, I made a banner from her cricket machine. Which to my surprise wasn't nearly as complicated as I thought. The banner said, "what will it bee?" Mom did yellow favor bags w honey cough drops, Yankee candle wax tarts and homemade honey.

We did a photo booth with a yellow fabric for a background and guest picked a prop to take a picture of their guess. Lips or a mustache.

I found two bakers. One did a bee cupcake and the baker filled the cupcake with blue filling. A local friend of my mom's made the bee theme cake. We served Tennessee honey cocktails and for a non alcoholic drink it was honey pomegranate iced tea. Matt and I counted to three and they bit in. My cousin Brooke ripped into it and shouted "I knew it was a boy!" My poor dad was just eating the top of the cupcake, despite explaining it to him, and he was all, "wait how do you know?" Poor dad. Mom was shocked too. Two grandsons! I know she was rooting for a girl, maybe next time mom. Matt's mom cried, happy tears of course...I think : ) I'm really happy we had the gender reveal party to share with our family. Matt and I thank everyone for the love and support. So baby smith will bee Team Blue!

Another month has passed

What's new around the totes house? I suppose a good deal. The garden ended up produces Tons of squash, watermelon, and sunflowers. Everything else was a bust. Eli managed to pick quite a bit for himself. At least some one got use out of the garden this year. Next year I'm going with all flowers.

The dining room was stenciled. While its not perfect, I do like it. I plan on building a wine bar, maybe around Christmas time, for the dining room. Can't wait and hope I can replicate my pin but scale down the size to half.

We are 18 weeks 3 days and I just popped. You can tell depending on what I wear. I have gained 3.5 lbs so far, all is well there. I have not been able to continue running. So sad : ( I don't have the energy to log the miles I did. I'm lucky if I get 1-2 runs in a week. Since vacation is over I am hoping to get into the swing of it again or move on to the elliptical. I did take one spin class, which I loved, but haven't been back bc of my schedule. Mom picked up a jogging stroller for me to use this spring, from a yard sale, until I can figure out what I rally want. I know I'll get back to it. I really wish I got to those other two 5ks back in May.

So up and coming. We find out the gender Oct 5 and plan on a reveal party that night. Bee themed, I made te invites : )

Matt's 30th Oct 13. I'm so excited to have a food truck cater the event. Also made some BBQ themed invites. So glad I bought that program.

B's destination wedding in FL, Oct 19, which will be a fabulous girl trip for my BF and I. After that we are on to the holidays. Things are moving pretty fast!

Gallery wall, chevrons, and baby appts.

We have been busy around here. I finally finished the living room. Decided on a gray, cement, and off white color pallet. Did I mention the yellow/gray color pallet fail? No? It was ugly! I need some new accent pieces such as lamps, pillows, and a throw rug and then I'm done. Well...I do want a bigger tv with some type of mantle and the tv mounted to the wall. But it's not in the budget for a while.

I ordered some wedding prints for the house. Since we never did an album I figured some prints on canvas and a stair gallery wall would be nice. 4 canvas prints will go in the living rooms. The rest were hung up on the stair case. I was poking around hobby lobby and the frames were supposed to be 50% off, well not the ones I wanted apparently. And since I decided to go BSC with the number of gallery wall prints, those effing frames would have cost me about 200.00 sigh! Since I spent about 80 on the prints I don't think a 300.00 gallery wall was appropriate. Anywho I found those acrylic frames and got all I needed for 40.00! sweet! Well guess what, I fricken hate them. They bubble, look tacky, and cheap. So I went rooting around the house for frames. Since I mostly have black, I replaced what i could and hung up the rest. In time I will replace them. And by in time I mean in the next week or so. I am not the type of person who starts something and could not finish.

And lastly, but most def not least, we have had several baby appts. We are growing right on track at 13 weeks 1 day, as of today. I haven't been sick, or anything wacky related to being pregnant. Also I made it out of the first tri without gaining a pound. Whoot whoot. 2 more trimesters to keep my weight from going bananas. All that being said, I haven't worked out in like 2 weeks. It's sad but I've spent most of my free time doing house projects, so that's gotta count for something right?

Also I ordered a stationery program. Friggen totally excited!

Married 10 months

Yesterday Matt and I took a little day trip into the city. This was my first actual 3 day off in a while, so we made it worthwhile.
We headed out to Coney island, which I bet was something amazing back in the day. Today, not so much. It's like a dumpier seaside. Is that even possible? After walking around it started to rain, so we headed for the aquarium. It was a small quick tour but cute nonetheless. We had the brooklyn pizza and then headed to the single A mets game. The Brooklyn cyclones game was fun. So much easier to negate than Citi Field. But I think we must get a real Mets game in before October.

Running +1

Its super important to me that I continue to workout while pregnant and eat well. I am so scared of gaining weight and well, too much weight. I don't want to be one of those yo yo dieters, doing cleanses, detox, or only eating this or that. So it is my goal to continue on with a healthy lifestyle and not eat any fried pickles.  Keeping that in mind, its my goal to log about 300 miles, running for as long as I can and then switching to the elliptical. I hope to get to some spin classes and some yoga while I am at it.

Week 4: June 11th completed a total 10 miles. Mainly in the gym.
Week 5: June 18th completed a total of 4 miles. We are not off to a good start here.
Week 6: June 25th completed a total of 5 miles.
Week 7: July 2: One stinking workout the entire week. For whatever reason I picked the 4th of July. It was so hot but we managed 2.5 miles.
Week 8: July 9. Clocking in at 9 miles. We are getting back up there.

No belly pics yet and thankfully none showing yet either. Not that it should.  The pics above are the last few weeks since we found out. The test, walk way over the Hudson, my first ultrasound at 7weeks, and the 4th of July.

Back to healthy

It has been a while since I blogged. I went back to work 3 weeks after getting bit. I had to have multiple follow ups with the plastic surgeon. Some people say you can tell, but others say they see the scar. I can see it in photos. My bottom lip is hard and I lost feeling in it, but occasionally, if I get hit it hurts. That being said it is much better than I anticipated so let's just be happy about that.

Speaking of healthy, we started TTC in March and got a BFP on June 7th. It was quicker than I thought because of the whole coming off of BCP thing. But we are happy, healthy, and excited. I have my 10 week appt in 2 weeks, but already went in for a confirmation and u/s. the HB was 142. I can't wait until the next. I'm hoping to keep up with running. The heat and exhaustion has been killing me, but I'm still tracking. I'm aiming for 7-10 miles a week for as long as possible. Down from 16-20 but I'll get back there at some point. I just want to stay healthy, eat right, and exercise. I think the long term benefits out weigh any cravings...so far anyway.

Dirt, dirt, and more dirt. Trying our hand at landscaping.

Matt and I finally dug up all that mulch. When we bought the house the original owners had a bad ass swing set in the backyard. Unfortunately they took it with them but left the mulch, the wood borders, and that ugly sandbox turtle. Back in April I had big dreams for our backyard...and I still do, but it's hard work.

There was a 1/2 assed flower bed behind the garage and some over grown weeds. We decided to make it less weeds more flowers, plant some veggies, and grow some grass.

Well after getting bit I pretty much didn't do anything for a month. Kind of late for veggies and grass, but we tried anyway. I planted tomatoes, cucumbers, summer squash, eggplant and watermelon in pallets with inspiration from pinterest. Also planted lavender, sunflowers, and sweet peas. If they don't bloom I will be super sad. I'm hoping to make it a wild flower/veggie garden. Next year I'm hoping to get on the ball sooner and yield more blooms. If the grass doesn't seed I'll be calling in the pros for some sod, but I'm hoping we don't have to go that far.

But before I post before & afters I need to share my top soil fiasco. We don't have a truck, so I needed a delivery. I called 2 companies and they both said about 6 yards. The trucks came and dumped it. Holy shit that's a ton (probably literally) of dirt. 2 dump trucks. I was nervous it was too much AND I was right. Way too much. If I wasn't such a dope I could have saved about 100.00 but I digress. My neighbors and co-workers got their hands on dirt, lots of free dirt. I couldn't stand the thought of paying someone to remove it. Ugh! Hopefully next year will be much easier since the hard stuff is out of the way. Thanks Matt for filling the flower bed and lugging block for me. <3 your hopeful green thumb of a wife!