we're back!

Disney World was great. Florida weather was AMAZING! We went swimming while we were there. While it was 75 degrees, it was 25 degrees back home in Ohio. I miss Florida. I LOVED our hotel room. It was perfect. I think really I just love vacation in general. Having all three of us together for a whole week, no responsibilities, minimal cleaning, no cooking.. it was bliss.

I wanted to be able to have an awesome recap ready for you guys next week, but my computer is acting up. I have about 750+ pictures to go through, so once I get this machine working properly, it should be a couple weeks until the vacation recap posts.

vacation

We're on our way to the most magical place on earth! Well, we will be tomorrow. :)

 Almost everything is packed, save for a few last minute items (toothbrush & things like that). I'm excited, but super nervous about flying. I hate flying, but this will be worth it. I'm hoping that Florida treats us well!

pregnancy details

First of all, this pregnancy was/is a total surprise for us. We were not trying. Quite the opposite actually.Ii was charting to avoid. We didn't even have sex during the "fertile window". I'm still kind of in shock that it even happened. Let me take you back 4 weeks..

January 2 - All morning I had been having a tingling feeling in my boobs that felt like let down sensation. It was really strange, but I just put in on the back burner in my brain. Later that day, I got in the shower and noticed that my boobs were leaking. I honestly thought I was going crazy and just seeing things. I looked again. Yep, leaking milky stuff. I think at this point I exclaimed 'What the hell!?' and jumped out of the shower, shaking. Fast forward about 10 minutes.

I was getting dressed and debating with myself on what this could mean. Is there something wrong with me? Can random leaking happen 1.5 years after breastfeeding? Am I pregnant? I looked at my chart. 7 dpo. Surely too early to take a test, plus it is VERY RARE to leak that early. I decided to just call my doctor and ask what I should do (come in for a blood test, wait another week and take an hpt, or go get some labs for whatever else could be going on b/c there is NO WAY I could be pregnant. Unfortunately, my doctor's office was closed for New Year's Day. Crap.

So I let Ben know what was going on, and decided I would take a pregnancy test in the morning just so I could let my doctor know I got a negative hpt.

January 3 - Woke up, peed on a stick. Brushed my teeth while I waited. Grabbed the stick..

super duper light positive.

Called my doctor, explained how there was just no way this could be right. She ordered a few blood tests, one being a pregnancy test. The others were to be ran only if the pregnancy test was negative. After a fiasco at the lab, I finally got my draws done, and waited almost all day to hear back from them.

My phone rang and my hands started to shake. The nurse said that the test came back positive, but the numbers were really low, and I needed to go back in 2 days. Well, the next day I took another hpt, and Thursday I took another. Both were positive, of course. After my second draw the nurse called to congratulate me because my numbers were doubling perfectly!

We had a few days filled with shock, frustration, and how are we going to do this?! But we're getting excited now. I had an ultrasound last Thursday and baby is perfect, we even heard the heartbeat. I have another ultrasound this Wednesday! Oh, due date is September 17th!

i've been MIA

what's been keeping me away?

this.

more to come later..



the past few weeks..

i did my first TWIN photoshoot. to top it off, they are about Parker's age so it was interesting. such a great learning experience and I actually got some really great shots!

i've reopened the shop

i've been working on lots of new products to put in the shop

i've been chasing after a crazy {almost} 2 year old

i've been working on LOTS of dinosaur themed things

basically, life feels crazy. i have tons of posts coming up with pictures, recipes, and more iteresting things.. i promise! but for now, have a picture.

hello December.

How is it December?

How is it that I am supposed to be sending out the invitations for Parker's 2nd birthday party, today?!

I'm supposed to be sending them out today, but they aren't finished yet (oops!) so they will hopefully be going out Monday.

Speaking of Parker's birthday party..

All my ideas for it are really coming together! If you remember, I was kind of waffling on the colors of the party. I loved the sprinkles I had, but it just didn't feel right to put the whole party in those colors. So I've incorporated some tan, red, and leaf greens. The dinosaurs are still going to be in the bright colors. I decided to make mini lava cakes, which I am SUPER excited about! I'm also a little nervous, because it will only be my second time making cake from scratch. (No more box cakes for us since we switched to Real Foods, again I promise to post more on this at some point). My first cake ended in almost disaster. The middle didn't cook. I had planned on layering ice cream on top of it, but saved the cake my scooping the middle out and putting the ice cream in there. I still don't know what I did wrong, but I'm hoping since these will be cooked in cupcake pans, that it won't happen again.

Other than the ideas, I basically have nothing done. This just isn't like me. But with everything that has been going on, I haven't had time to do anything! So now I have 6 weeks to get EVERYTHING made and ready. I can do this.. I hope.

Blog Much?

Wow, I've been super committed to this blog, huh?

I've kind of been distracted with a lot of personal things lately. Nothing too horrible, but still, nothing I feel I can share on the interwebs. sorry! & yes, everyone is ok.

I've shut down my etsy shop for awhile. I just have too much going on right now & I can't give it the attention it needs. I'm hoping to open it back up around February.

So what have I been doing? We've been going to the park a lot, trying to get all the outside play time in that we can before it starts snowing.

I took some fall pictures of my sisters-in-law

sydney

jozie

journey

Yep, my sisters-in-law are little. Sydney (who is actually step-SIL) just turned 9, Jozie is 8, Journey is 10. MIL and FIL had the boys, then waited 14 years and had the girls. Got divorced just a few years ago, MIL remarried. There is also Preston who is Syd's brother, he's 11. Their house is usually madness and I have no idea how they survive.

Anyway, I've also been:

Writing (not on the blog, obviously)
I made Parker's Halloween costume (he was quail man!)

Working on a baby shower present for my best friend Heather

Started NanoWrimo

Started twitter! You could follow me ya know! ;)

Switched almost completely over to Real Foods, more on this another day.

I'm sure there is more, but the point is, I've been BUSY. I actually came to the blog to escape my NanoWrimo. I just needed to write something other than that story.

Oh yeah, I write. Not professionally or anything, but seriously. Most people in real life don't even know this about me. It isn't something I like to talk about. Mostly because I'm afraid they'll ask me what I write about, and I'll have to say 'murders' or 'destruction of the world' or 'stalkers' and they'll give me that look like I'm crazy. I used to write poetry in High School. I just recently picked up writing stories, but I haven't finished one. I'm hoping Nano will push me to just finish one. Maybe one day after that I can talk about it more. Or maybe not.

Ok, this was a nice long distraction, but I feel like I'm rambling now. Hopefully I'll be back in a few days!