Weekend Wrap-Up

Happy Monday, Everyone! :) We had a nice, quiet weekend here in good ole Mississippi. But we are really looking forward to next weekend. Derek gets a four-day weekend and the Dawgs play the first game of the season on Saturday...woohoo! We are really enjoying living in the land of the SEC again and the fact that we'll actually get to see most of the games televised!
We've got Uga (he's near the bush) & our Georgia flag hanging proudly in front of our house (even though our neighbors are Techies!) in preparation for this weekend's game!

Anywho..back to our weekend. We had our neighbors over for homemade pizza on Friday night, and we had a lot of fun! We are loving the fact that our neighborhood actually feels like a neighborhood here. Most of our neighbors in our condo in VA would barely muster a smile when you passed them, so this is a really nice change of pace for us!

We were scheduled to have our maternity pictures taken on the beach early Saturday morning..but Mother Nature had other plans. We ended up having a very wet weekend, so hopefully we'll be able to reschedule and have our pictures taken later this week. Speaking of Mother Nature, we watched lots of documentaries about Hurricane Katrina since this weekend marked the 5th anniversary of "the storm" (this is how everyone who lives here refers to Katrina). It's amazing to think how far the Gulf and Keesler Air Force Base (which was 95% destroyed) has come in 5 years! Derek has always been obsessed with the weather, but he definitely watches the tropical activity a little closer now that we have seen first-hand what could happen. It made it very real for us when I went to my first doctor's appointment here and we had to choose an alternate hospital to deliver our baby at in the event of a hurricane...crazy to even think about!

We mostly stayed closed to home this weekend and got little projects done around the house...including hanging Baby Girl Smith's name above her crib! :) Pictures to come soon!

And the winner is...

After a few months of debating names, we have finally finalized the name for Baby Girl Smith. We had 3 names that we both really liked, and we were struggling to narrow it down. (Of course, we both agreed 100% on our boy name..but couldn't decide on a girl name!) In about two weeks, we will be adding a little girl to our family named....
Shelby will be her first name, and Schumacher (my maiden name) will be her middle name. For those of you that may not know, Schumacher is also my middle name now as I kept my maiden name as my middle name after our wedding. So, Shelby & I will have the same monogram. :)
I tried to be crafty and make her a bow holder myself...I just finished it yesterday, and Derek mounted it on the wall. (Derek would also like it to be noted that he did the staining of the wood piece that her name is on. He did a great job making sure it matched the nursery furniture!) She doesn't have many bows yet, but I have a feeling it will fill up quickly!

On another note, the cushions for our glider & ottoman as well as our ABC collage arrived last Friday, and the crib is being delivered tomorrow! Hallelujah! So we'll be sharing some updated nursery pics soon. :)

37 weeks!

How far along: 37 weeks!
Weight Gain: 25 pounds..yikes! I definitely put weight on the quickest in this last trimester! 25 pounds sounds like so much to me, but the doctor always seems very pleased with my weight/blood pressure at each appointment and assures me that a weight gain of 25-35 pounds is the goal.
Maternity clothes: I have thankfully been able to go this whole pregnancy without wearing a single piece of maternity clothing (with the exception of my belly band in the 2nd trimester to help me fit into my work pants!). I am still living in skirts & dresses!
Sleep: I'm still sleeping pretty well...only waking up to readjust pillows for comfort. I was worried I would be waking up to go to the bathroom a million times at night, but that hasn't happened to me yet.
Movement: Yes! :) She's definitely gotten bigger in there, and Derek enjoys trying to identify her limbs when they are jabbing out of my tummy. :)
Food cravings: None!
Symptoms: None really. Something I should have shared long ago as it's not really a "new" thing....my belly button has definitely popped! It's weird to have an outie. :)
Gender: GIRL!!! And I'm thoroughly enjoying having an excuse to purchase all things pink. :)
What I miss: Nothing! People always ask me how I'm holding up/dealing with the discomfort of pregnancy in the Mississippi heat...but to be honest, I haven't hit an "uncomfortable" point (yet!). I am still enjoying being pregnant!!
Best moment this week: Hearing our baby is still "head down" at my doctor's appointment yesterday. :) My mom delivered me breech, and I would like to avoid that if at all humanly possible...so I was thrilled to hear Baby Smith is playing by the rules!
What I'm looking forward to: Spending more quality time with Derek before we become a family of three. And I'm also looking forward to getting our crib & glider cushions whenever they finally ship! And we ordered two more things last night that we're really excited about...
I had been wanting an alphabet canvas to put above the changing table in the nursery. But most of the ones I found online that I liked were about $140, and I wasn't about to spend that much money on the ABC's! So then I found this one at Target for only $25...
I really liked this one...it's so cute and colorful, but it just really didn't "go" with the nursery since we're doing all pinks and greens in there. Enter Etsy! The pink/green ABC canvas was my very first purchase on Etsy! (I found it here for those of you who are curious.) I'm still very new to Etsy, but basically it's a website where people can buy/sell things that they make. And I've already made another Etsy purchase from here:
You can't really tell from the picture, but these are stickers. You buy these stickers (there's one for zero-twelve months), and for each month of the baby's life you put him/her in a little onesie..plop the sticker on..snap a photo..and voila! You've captured the growth of your baby in his/her first year of life! Here's an example of the finished product:
Now we're on the hunt for the perfect frame for these photos.
Milestones: Birthing classes with my hubby. :)

It's hard to believe we've just got 3 weeks to go till my due date!

Sigh of Relief...

I can finally breathe a big sigh of relief. I've only been a military wife for 3 years, and so far I have loved it. However, one thing I do NOT love about it is having to find a new hair stylist each time we move. It is such a terrifying experience when I go to someone new for the first time. This time around, I got my hair cut the week before I left VA so I could have plenty of time to find a new place. I put off getting my hair cut/highlighted as. long. as. possible. But I couldn't take it anymore...I finally took the plunge today because my hair was driving me cuh-razy!

But I am relieved to say that all went well! I was practically sweating bullets the entire time, but it all turned out fine! :) I was very worried about getting my hair done in Mississippi...but I will say that Derek & I both enjoyed the price difference between getting my hair done in VA and here!

This isn't a very good picture (it was just taken after sitting through two hours of birthing class tonight..fun times!), but at least you can see my hair still looks somewhat normal! Ha!
And for those that may be curious, I am 36 weeks & 6 days in this picture. I will try to get a post up tomorrow with some pregnancy details!

Progress

I've been in Biloxi a little over a month now, and we're slowing turning this house into our home! When we first got here, our to-do list and our "things to buy" list were both about a mile long. And it felt like every time we got one thing crossed off, we thought of two more things to add to the list. Consumer Reports has been our BFF for the past few weeks...we never make a purchase without consulting her first! She helped us pick out our new lawn tools, washer/dryer, microwave, Derek's new bicycle...okay, I think you get the idea. :)

We still have a lot more we want to do in the house, but since Baby Girl Smith may be making her big debut in 4 weeks or less (I only hyperventilated for a few minutes when the instructor of our birthing class told us "it could really be any day" once you hit 36 or 37 weeks), we figured we better shift gears and start focusing on the nursery!

Here's a look at the room before we got started..take note of my many piles shoved to the side of the room.
Since we took that picture, some of our furniture has arrived..we are still waiting on the crib though. If you know me, you will not be surprised by the amount of pink in the pictures below. :) We are actually doing a pink/green color scheme...it just doesn't look like much green yet! We're still waiting on the cushions for the glider & ottoman to come in, and they will be green.

We're also still waiting on the tie-backs (or whatever you call them!) for the curtains.

The changing table is in the beginning stages of being organized..as you can see, some of the baskets still have their tags on. :) I am quite pleased with how the basket situation turned out. I wasn't loving the Pottery Barn Kids baskets that were recommended to go with our changing table, so I was on the hunt for quite a while..but I'm happy with the end result! And here's a peek at her closet! (The painting next to the closet was made by Derek's step-mom!)
And here's Derek hard at work staining. We're staining the letters of her name to hang above her crib...whenever it arrives!
And last but not least...here's a picture of me sporting my new baby bag in all of my 36 weeks of pregnancy glory. :)
We are no where near ready for her quite yet..but we're getting there! And definitely getting excited! :)

How could I forget?!

I almost forgot one of the best parts of going to St. Louis (aside from fabulous family)...food! :) Whenever we go to St. Louis, we have to have Imo's pizza! Fortunately, my Aunt Karen & Uncle Lee not only had delicious Imo's pizza for us when we visited, but they also had toasted ravioli for us and a salad complete with Provel cheese. Oh, Provel. I can't even describe how good this cheese is..it just melts in your mouth! We always stop at the grocery store on our way home to GA to pick up some cheese (you can't buy it in the South). Derek has never been happier for me to spend $40.

Derek is reluctantly posing for a photo after his post-call nap :)

So, as soon as I got back to Biloxi we broke out the Provel cheese and the Imo's salad dressing and made some delightful salad & pizza...

As you can imagine, we still have lots of cheese left...I can see a lot more homemade pizza nights in our future! :)

Highlights from St. Louis....

For those of you who may not know, my family is originally from St. Louis. Growing up, we would always load up the car for the ten-hour trek to visit our family at least twice a year. As my sister and I got older, those trips got a little harder to plan trying to coordinate four people's busy schedules. I actually hadn't been back to St. Louis for 3 years, so it was such a treat to be able to go this summer! It was just the four of us--my parents, sister, and me. (Hubby had to stay in Biloxi since he was just a month into his new residency.) It was so nice to take a trip just the four of us and get lots of good quality family time in.
It was a whirlwind trip! We drove up to St. Louis on Friday and spent the evening with my mom's sister's family.

left to right: my sister, me, Mom, aunt, & sweet cousins :)

Saturday we spent time with my Uncle Lee & Aunt Karen during the day, and that night my parents had a wedding to go go. Then Sunday was a family baby shower for me followed by a family BBQ..so, so fun!!!

My mom's sweet friend Kathy hosted the shower for our baby girl who will be making her debut in just 5 short weeks!

After the shower was the BBQ for the Schumacher family. My dad is one of 6 boys, and it's always a lot of fun when all of our families are together. Just wish we could do it more often! Here's my dad and all of my uncles. :)
Then we headed back to GA bright & early Monday...this trip gave new meaning to short, but oh so sweet! Hopefully we'll be able to go back up to visit family again soon so Derek and Baby Smith can join in on the fun. :)