love & time

olive turned 6 this past month, making me a mom of a big kid,  i am just weeks (maybe days -- please, please) away from being a mom to a little tiny boy and in just a few days i will be married to the most incredible man for FIFTEEN years! life goes so quickly! certain moments i really try and slow down and savior.

 watching her sleep is one of my favorite things

 just having her close

 oh man, if this doesn't make you feel like "maybe i have done alright as a mom so far!?" i love her so much!

turning 6! manicures, ears pierced, sushi and a visit from grandma

it's hard to believe that we will have a little boy to share our love with soon! it's amazing how much you can love someone. i remember, before we were about to have olive, looking at brian and wondering "how can i possibility love someone else as much as i love this man?" and yet the heart can stretch in amazing ways. when we talked about the idea of having another baby i remember thinking again, "how could we possibly love someone as much as we love olive?" and again, as we get closer to this little boy being born, we know how easily our hearts have already stretched and will continue to stretch....

mom hugging my growing belly while home for thanksgiving

it is also hard to believe that brian and i will be married for FIFTEEN years next sunday!?! how is it even possible that that much time has gone by? that we have experienced that much? (married at 18 & 22, dylan, the army, living in germany, deployments, dc, olive, buying a house, undergrad & grad school, back to dc, having a baby boy) that we are that old!!? one thing i am sure of after all of these fifteen years - i am the luckiest woman in the world to have such an amazing partner in life! he is my best friend, an incredible human being and such a loving and amazing father! i love watching him with olive. they are so close and have so many adventures together. i can't wait to see him holding this new little baby and watching them grow in their love for one another.... and I am so lucky for getting to keep loving him (more and more)  for the rest of our lives!

nesting, knitting and adventuring

we don't seem to post on here as often as we would like. we have been a little busy, as we ready for the baby and spend as much time as a family of three before we become a family of four.

ADVENTURING

the other weekend we took a trip to new york to see my brother and his girlfriend. we spent most of saturday at the natural history museum, where olive learned about dinosaurs, the planet and the early humans on earth. she brought a notebook and would sit down and sketch pictures and take notes of what she observed (she was so much fun to watch).

we have also been enjoying fall in DC. it's taken a bit to cool down, but the leaves are beautiful and the air is starting to feel crisp. walks to dupont circle or a drive (since i can no longer bike) to eastern market to walk around the open markets. brian and olive even went to a farm in virginia last weekend for a friends' son's birthday party.

olive also has been going to gymnastics every tuesday with two of her friends from school. she LOVES it.

KNITTING

i haven't knit anything in a while, but finally picked up some yarn and needles and made the baby and blanket and a pair of warm knit pants.

NESTING

we have slowly been decluttering our apartment (as best we can) to make room for this little baby boy.

i am now almost 8 months. this pregnancy is FLYING by. i'm mostly tired all the time and my hips are killing me, but we are all really looking forward to this baby being born!

my friends sent this rocker, moses basket and lamb skin for the baby... perfect for our small space!

okay, time to put olive to bed....

it's a BOY!

it's funny how knowing the gender has made it all feel a little more real for us. i looked up at the screen as the nurse was identifying the liver, kidneys, heart and all i saw were grey globs. but when i saw the profile picture and one of the hands it was so great to see the baby!

olive is in NH for 2 weeks, so brian and i called her on FaceTime to tell her the news. she has been going to all my appointments with me so far, so i was sad that she wasn't there for this big one. we held up the picture from the sonogram explaining that we got a picture of the baby today. then i asked if she thought it looked like a girl or a boy. she responded "boy." when we told her she was right, her face had a huge smile..... for about 5 minutes, and then she realized that that meant it wasn't a girl. but she reassured us that she would love him anyway. you have to love kids and their honesty!

thank goodness for technology! we so wanted to see her face when we told her.

this time around we are doing everything on a smaller scale, literally. being in a 1 bedroom apartment has made us reevaluate what we need for a baby. we just don't have space for anything, so we are working hard to downsize on some of our things to make room. luckily olive has a mini-loft bed, so we are making the space below the baby's space. we plan on staying in our apartment (we LOVE our tiny apartment, both for it's character and it's location) until next summer, so we have to make it all work.

my friend jess gave us her moses basket which is perfect for our small space!

i am still not feeling the best. i haven't thrown up in almost 2 weeks (knock on wood), but it seems as a replacement i have been getting migraines. oh the joys of being pregnant. i am using what energy i do have to travel (we have been to NC, NYC and NH/ME so far this summer) and reorganize our space - oh, and go to work. brian has been incredible! i honestly can't believe he is still putting up with me. and olive, she has been great too! she talks to the baby and tells him how much she loves him.

olive goes back to school on monday, august 25th. that's when time is really going to fly! it will be fall and then winter before we know it and then we will be a family of four!

baby # 2

life here has been a bit crazy these last few months, mostly because we are having another baby! 

the first trimester was a rough one this time around. even though i am now officially in my second trimester (i'm 15 weeks), i'm still not feeling great, but i'm (not so) patiently waiting for the energy to kick in and the nausea to go away!

we have lots of planning to do still. we will stay in our tiny little apartment for one more year and then figure out where to go next. it should be a fun adventure trying to figure out how to make olive's room into a room for two and our little apartment baby-proof.

olive is very excited to be a big sister. she has her heart set on a sister, but we are slowly convincing her that a brother would be okay too. at my last appointment olive got to help the doctor to hear the baby's heart beat. she'll be going to all my appointments this summer and she couldn't be happier! she looks forward to finding out if it's a boy or girl, as do we!

it's different in so many ways this time around, but we look forward to wild ride ahead!

Life Lately....

I injured my back last week and have been home, in bed since. I watched 4 seasons of The Good Wife, caught up on The Voice and watched a few bad movies on iTunes. As I'm starting to be able to move around a bit more I'm thinking of all the knitting I should have been doing, studying (I have one more MTEL to take in June) and posting of pictures. Brian and I post pictures on Instagram and Facebook, I forget about our little blog we started.  So, here are some pictures of life lately....

I completed my student teaching in April. I will miss those kids!!

Spring came to DC

Olive and I visited home

Enjoying the city

Enjoyed time with friends who visited

Oh, and Olive got a ball and a glove!