The question du jour seems to be, “Is the nursery ready???”

I’m pleased to finally be able to say, “Yes!”

Or maybe I should be honest and say, “Pretty much.”

I have not been able to find a bumper that I love.  The problem here is that I couldn’t just find a ready-made crib set that I loved. I wanted something more modern and that didn’t have modes of transportation or animals all over it.  Evidently that’s a hard thing to find when it comes to boy bedding.

I went out on my own and fell in love with this fabric for a crib skirt and this sheet.  I really want a plain linen colored bumper but have had zero luck finding one.

As for furniture, we re-used Arle’s crib, rocker, and ottoman.  The bookcase, changing table, and side-table were all found on the most productive flea market excursion EVER.  Bethany and I both came home with major First Friday loot on our latest adventure down to the West Bottoms.

In order to give you the best view of the mostly-finished product, Bethany brought her fancy-schmancy camera over to take pics of Boyd’s new digs.  She’s too good to me.

I love how it all came together.

The prints above the crib are from the calendar Trav and I had back in 2004.  They’re advertisements from the London Underground and we’ve held onto them all these years just waiting for the perfect place for them.

The large red “B” came from Stuff in Brookside here in Kansas City.  The adorable “I’ve loved you from the start” print was a gift from our sweet friends, Laura and Eric.

The car print above the changing table is from this Etsy shop.  I put it on my Christmas list and my awesome bro-in-law came through with it.  Thanks, B.

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It’s hard to believe, but the calendar reports that I am actually 38 weeks and 5 days along.  According to our latest ultrasound, the babe is one big boy.  Especially his head.  Three days ago it measured one day shy of 42 weeks .  That’s how heads in my family come, so it really wasn’t too much of a surprise.

It seems to be going by so quickly.  I’m sure a huge part of this is due to the fact that it’s been such an easy pregnancy.  Praise the Lord for that.  So incredibly grateful.

I’ve done an extremely poor job of keeping track of the this and that from the last 34 weeks, so I thought I would jot down a few things to remember this experience.

Cravings:  Tillamook Cheddar Cheese and Multi-grain Club Crackers have been the one constant here.  It’s what I eat for lunch almost every day, along with some sort of fruit.  Lest you think I’m some sort of health nut, I’ll also confess the delight I take in Dr. Pepper in a can and homemade snicker doodles.

Foods that gross me out:  Salads and chicken, but only if made in my own kitchen.  Not sure what the deal is with these, but they’re both things I normally love but just can’t take in my current state.

Weight gain to date: 30 pounds.  Here’s to hoping I drop it quickly.

Favorite maternity clothes:  Gap’s Pure Body t’s are pretty much what I’ve lived in.  They’re sooooo comfortable and I doubt I’ll stop wearing them even postpartum.  I’ve pretty much just layered my regular cardigans and jackets over the top of these in order to feel a bit more “put together.”

I have one pair of Gap boot cut jeans that I wear with heels and a pair of Gap skinny jeans to wear with flats.  I look ridiculous when I wear the skinny jeans, but I’ve just learned to deal with it.

Really though, I only wear the above when I’m out and about somewhere that requires me to look somewhat decent.  Otherwise I absolutely live in black velour yoga pants and the matching hoodie my parents gave me from A Pea In The Pod.  It’s the most comfy thing I own and I LOVE it.  I’m sure Trav would love to burn it after I give birth.  He has to be so sick of seeing me in it.

Thing I’ve loved most about being pregnant:  Feeling the little guy move.  It’s the most incredible thing ever and I adore it.  I especially love it when Trav or Arle feel it, as well.  So amazing.

Things I’ve liked the least about being pregnant:  I had a brief bout with prenatal carpal tunnel syndrome at 32 weeks, which was totally bizarre.  It lasted five days and my doctor said it probably would last until delivery.  It was horribly painful and I was not looking forward to 8 more weeks of it.  Trav prayed for me that night and I woke up feeling 100% better.

Again, praise the Lord.

The only other pregnancy thing I’m not a fan of is my ginormous “booms” (as Arle calls them).  Wowzers.  I know some girls dream of hitting it big in the chest department, but that’s something I’ve never desired.  I’ve always been happy as a clam with my average-sized set and don’t really know how to handle the large and in charge pair I’m toting around these days.  They’re seriously on the verge of obscene.

Thankfully, though, those are my only complaints.  I’ll take my carpal tunnel and big booms and thank the Lord those are the only things I have on the list.

Nursery status:  Stay tuned.  Hoping to post pics of the room tomorrow.

Here’s a belly pic from 37 weeks that my sweet, sweet, sweet friend, Bethany, took.

I know I’ve been m.i.a. in the blogging world and have already decided my new year’s resolution is to blog more, but I just had to take a sec to show you all this adorable little print and glue (or tape) nativity I found on Pinterest.

It’s sweet.

It’s simple.

It’s FREE!

Arle is LOVING it and so am I.

A big thank-you to designer Marloes de Vries for making it free for all!

In addition to the big shower this past weekend, we also had the privilege of attending Arle’s very first ballet recital.  The first of many, I hope.

Her Grammy, Nana, and Lebo made the trek all the way from New Mexico for the big show and our sweet friends, Evan and Jessie made the trek all the way from KC, MO. 

Arle seems to be quite the natural when it comes to ballet.  I mean, she’s only about 3 1/2 steps behind on the choreography, which seems to be pretty impressive at this stage in the game.  Am I right, or am I right?

If she does continue with this whole ballet bit, her momma’s gonna have to learn a bit of self-control.  I was a ridiculous mess through the whole routine.  I snuck up to the front to snap pics and was doing well for the first 4.8 seconds.

Then I got teary-eyed.

Then I got hysterical. Laughing hysterical, not upset hysterical.

I’m not sure what happened, but I suddenly went from sentimental tears about my baby growing up and dancing in her first recital to laughing uncontrollably through the rest of the performance.  I was so embarrassed but I seriously couldn’t get a hold of myself.  Fortunately it was such a hard-core laugh that it was silent, but it was NOT without buckets of laughing tears running down my face.

What’s wrong with me???  What kind of mother laughs throughout her daughter’s first on-stage performance???

I mean, a bunch of three and four-year-old girls dancing to Pretty Little Angel Eyes and all doing their own rendition of the actual choreography is hilarious in my book, so I’m just going with it. 

Anyway, Arle had a ball and thought the whole thing was fabulous from beginning to end.  Not a bit of stage fright for this kiddo.  She never thought twice about going on with the show.

Her friends Kate and Hannah were in the class with her and they were all so stikin’ cute at the recital. 

Here’s the video for those of you with some time on your hands.  Arle is the third girl from the right (Apologies for the quality.  Evidently our video camera is a piece of junk). 

When I moved to Kansas City seven and a half years ago, I had no friends here.  We knew no one.

I remember praying and praying and praying that the Lord would bless us with amazing friends.

Man, did He ever come through on the answer for that one.

A group of these fab friends decided to throw me a baby shower.  A FABULOUS baby shower.  So creative, so delicious, so fun, so EVERYTHING.

Meet the hostesses (minus Rachel-we missed you, Rachel!)…

Christine, Kristin F., Kristen L., Jami, Kristin L., and Jessie (Dearest Christine, Rachel, and Jessie, start blogging and you TOO can have your name hyper-linked!!).

These girls went all out with an adorable bee-themed shower. B = Bee.  B = Boy.  And B = Boyd, the name of the sweet little nugget growing by the second in my belly.  Boyd is my maiden name and the name we’ve wanted to use for our first son for a LONG time.

Delicious eats and yummy drinks were served up to all the guests.  Jami pretty much re-decorated her entire house in order for the whole thing to look the part.  She even made homemade beeswax lip balm as party favors.  How she fits these sorts of things into her crazy schedule of being a mommy to three littles, I’ll never know.

Here are some more pics from the super-duper-fun day…

(all courtesy of Jami’s camera)

Thanks, girls, for a fabulously fun day.  You mean the world to me and I’m so grateful for each of you.

Visit Jami’s blog for more on the shindig.

A couple of posts ago, I talked about how Arle is so over Star Wars bedtime stories.  Lots of peeps assumed that she was over Star Wars all together.

Au contraire mon frere.

She and Trav still spend LOTS of time pretending the Force is with them.

How did Arle get into Star Wars, you ask?

Trav’s parents saved all of his SW toys from his childhood and delivered boxes full of them to our casa two years ago. At the time, I couldn’t imagine them ever seeing the light of day again.

But then Arle was staying with our friends Evan and Jessie one night.  They were trying to find a show for her to watch on t.v. and stumbled upon a Star Wars episode of Family Guy.  They thought all cartoons = kid shows and let her watch it.  She talked about it for weeks and Trav began telling her more and more about the real deal Star Wars.

And then, just when Arle thought her daddy couldn’t get any more fantastic, he began dragging his childhood toys out of the boxes in the basement one by one.

She was OBSESSED.

As Halloween costume talk began this year, Arle decided she wanted to be Princess Darth Vader.

Duh.

She seems to have a thing for emasculating famous men (remember Snuggly Princess Elmo?).

One of her boy buddies told her she couldn’t be that because Darth Vader is a boy.  She was convinced he was right for a few weeks, but then decided she didn’t care what he said and went with it.

The result was pretty awesome, in my opinion.

I found some inspiration on Pinterest and then got busy.  I made a tutu out of hot pink and black tulle, the buttons on her shirt out of duct tape, and glued and huge tiara onto a DV mask.

Easy peasy.

The glitzy heels were Arle’s touch.

Evidently I have a blog that I seem to have forgotten about.  Or lost.  Or possibly ignored.

I’ve been using the excuse that my laptop was broken.  Again.  But it’s been fixed for a week now and I’m just now blogging.

I hijacked Trav’s laptop on a regular basis in order to do important things like surf Pinterest and such.  Why didn’t I blog during those moments on the computer?

I think it’s because I’m afraid that I’m going to turn into the blogger that gets pregnant and then only ever blogs about being pregnant.

Leftover scars from 6 1/2 years of infertility, I suppose.

I realize now, though, that those girls were just excited.  And that’s great.  I was excited for them.  Honestly, I was.

But I was also always reminded of the fact that I desperately wanted to be pregnant but wasn’t.

Now I am actually pregnant and THRILLED to be so.  But I also want to be sensitive to those who desperately want to be, but are not.

So I go to an extreme and just don’t blog at all.

I’m dumb, I know.

So in an effort to get back into the blogosphere,  I decided to do a photo dump from my phone.

Warning to those of you on Instagram:  You’ve already seen 99% of these, so feel free to excuse yourself at any moment and go do something more productive with your life like pinning some new recipes on Pinterest or something equally entertaining.

Just a few of my faves.

This is what happens on the drive home after you let a four-year-old stay up until 11:30pm partying with her friends Logan and Maddox.

Arle wanted to dress me up for a Christmas Ball one evening.  All of my hair accessories, jewelry, and makeup were her doing.  Lovely.

One weekend we walked to the park.  Miss Priss and Trav climbed a tree together.  Isn’t her hair fabulous???  It’s her post-braids look and I love it.

Here’s my almost 24-week belly.  And our filthy bathroom mirror.  I’ve cleaned it since then.

Arle’s first field trip = her first bus ride.  I went as a volunteer.  My hearing will never be the same.  I do NOT remember buses being so loud.

Miss is taking ballet on Mondays.  She’s a natural ;)

This last pic is from WAAAAAAAY back in May and was taken by Trav’s brother while we were at a dance club in Mexico during their sister’s wedding.  I don’t know why I love it so, but I do.  Fun times had by all.

Remember a while back when I told you about Arle’s Star Wars obsession? 

Part of the obsession included frequent requests for Star Wars bedtime stories from her daddy.  That all came to a screeching halt tonight. 

Trav came downstairs laughing, after tucking Miss Priss into bed.  Here’s the conversation that went down just minutes before.

Arle:  I’ve forgotten about Star Wars stories.  I’ve put them out of my mind.  I don’t want those anymore.  I still like the movies, I just don’t want the stories anymore.

Trav:  Ok. 

Arle:  Maybe next time you can tell one about hippies.  Do you know about hippies? 

Trav:  Well, yeah, I guess so. 

Arle:  Are they big or are they small?  Do they walk down the street?  What do they do? 

Trav:  Well, hippies are people.  They dress kind of funny and say things like, “Hey dude.” 

Arle (starting to whimper and fake cry):  I’m scared of hippies!

Where does this child come up with these things????

So Bethany twisted my arm, held a gun to my head, and forced me to take more bump pictures last Thursday.  She’s a good friend like that.  It’s a good thing she’s going to such extremes because I wouldn’t have all of this, uh, growth documented. 

And is it just me or is the bump a bit large for 19 weeks? I know girls that you can’t even tell are pregnant this early on.  I still can camoflauge it with the right clothes, but put something tight on me and there’s no denying that something’s going on here.  From what the doctor tells me, I’m growing quickly because of a few reasons…1. baby boy’s growing almost two weeks ahead of schedule (wahoo!), 2. the tilt of my uterus, and 3. the location of my placenta. 

I’ll gladly take it all. 

It’s a fun and friendly reminder that I’M PREGNANT!  Let’s not forget what a miracle this whole thing is. 

Please, oh please, tell me you read Jami’s blog.  If you don’t, you’re definitely missing out.

First of all, she’s so freaking hilarious.

Secondly, she’s so freaking creative.  She can make ANYTHING…as long as Crisco’s not involved.  She loathes Crisco.  Passionately loathes Crisco.

Thirdly, she’s so freaking honest.  Doesn’t matter if she’s talking about how she and her husband’s marriage survived adultery, or how hard it is to be a mom, or her feelings on Crisco.  The girl’s honest and I love her for it.

Anyway, Jami had a fabulous idea to invite a bunch of fabulous ladies over to do a fabulous craft.

It was fabulous.

This is what I came home with to hang on my door.