Mother's Day Thoughts

Sunday, May 12th, Mother's Day.

I want to give a shout out to two amazing woman in my life.

My mom......

My mother is so full of love. She has given up so much to support us over the years, I'm sure we will never truly know all of her sacrifices.  One thing is certain, we always came and still come first in her world.  

I know it wasn't easy dealing with us throughout the years.  Raising two girls is no easy task...although I can't know from experience yet, I do look back and remember everything my sister and I went through and she has had to go through the same things along with us...... mood swings, boyfriend breakups, friendship woes....just to name a few.

She has been there for all of our success and accomplishment as well.  We were never deprived of "I Love You's" or hugs and kisses.  Even if we didn't want to hear it, she told us she loved us and was always proud of us. 

 Deep down she may have not always known the right thing to say in some situations, but now I know, it didn't matter what she said...she was there for us.  She still is there for us.  I can't wait for my daughter to meet my mother and feel all the love she still has to give...because I know her love is endless.  She is the true definition of a mother.

My sister....

My sister has been a mother to my niece now for 5 years.  I remember when I first saw her as a mother.  My niece was born in May 2008 and I went to visit them in Illinois just a couple months after she was born.  They had not even been in Illinois a year.  Ryan, my brother in law, got a job out there after graduation so they made the move from Pennsylvania to Illinois shortly after.  They had no friends, no family, and my sister was pregnant with my niece.  A lot was changing for them in a short amount of time.

When I went to visit for a week, I was so amazed at my sister.  My niece suffered from colic for the first few months of her life and things were not always easy.  I was really in awe of how much love my sister had for Aubrey.  I had never seen her in a "mother" role.  How did she know what to do?  How did she keep calm when Aubrey was crying and hard to settle down?...I asked myself.  I could tell that although things were not easy, and there were frustrations and times of doubt, my sister had a love for my niece that was pure and unconditional. Her purpose in life now was to care for this tiny human.  And she has done such an amazing job at raising her to be a kind, caring and loving little girl.  I look up to her, as I always have, not only as a sister now, but as a mother.

Relaxing Saturday

The month of April was extremely busy!  Between birthday parties, bridal showers, my baby shower and our child birth class, I haven't had any "free" weekends until this month.  Aaron and I slept in until 9AM!  Which is late for us.  Aaron spent the morning getting ready to go golfing.  Him and his brother had a tee time at 11:30, so today I just did my own thing.

The morning started out with some breakfast and watching all the wildlife in our backyard.  We just hung up the bird feeder now that the weather is nice again.

Between the deer that pass by our yard daily, birds, chipmunks, squirrels and bunnies...there is always something to look at.  That is when Jasper (the neighborhood cat) doesn't scare everything away.  The other day I was watching the bunnies playing in our back yard and I look over and Jasper was crouched down behind a tree waiting to chase them.

watching the bird feeder out our back windows this morning

Since I didn't have any real plans today, I lounged around in the living room for the majority of the morning.  Once I got the motivation to get a shower and ready to go out, my first stop was to Babies R Us.  I have been there so much lately I feel like I have every product memorized.  My only reason to go there today was to get another nursing bra.  Luckily I had a coupon that got me a $10.00 gift card if your purchase was over $40.00 which mine was.  Not a bad deal.

After Babies R Us I couldn't help but stop by my favorite children's consignment shop, Lil Frogs Fashions.  Since I discovered Lil Frogs, I have been hooked.  They have amazing quality clothes for great prices.  I don't mind spending money there on clothes for Baby Girl Frye because they are so cheap, yet so cute.

My purchases today consisted of two jackets with hoods (the white one is 0-3 months and the yellow one is 3-6 months), jean shorts and Gap pink tank top (size 12 months), and an adorable pair of size 2 pink sparkle shoes.  All for $12.00!

new pink sparkle shoes for Baby Girl Frye

After the consignment shop, I stopped by Dairy Queen for a little treat.  A nice little relaxing day so far :)

I'm due next month :)

It's May already and my due date is next month! Eeeek! I've been feeling so good lately but I'm hoping this isn't the calm before the uncomfortable storm ;-)...we will see how I feel in a couple weeks because from what I hear and read, the last one or two weeks is when the uncomfortableness (don't even think that is a word) is the worst.  As of right now though I feel really great!

My Cinco De Mayo celebration this year consisted of organizing the nursery closet and packing my hospital bag :)

We took a Child Birth Class a couple weeks ago.  It was all day Saturday and Sunday at the hospital we are delivering, which just happens to be the same hospital where Aaron works. We both thought the class was really helpful and it helped ease some of my anxiety about what is about to happen to my body.

Even though I still have 5 weeks until my due date, I figured it would be a good time to start gathering and packing things for my hospital bag. So that is what I did last weekend...packed my bag, baby's bag and a snack bag with treats for Aaron in case the labor lasts a while.

Looking back through my weekly bump pictures I put together a collage of the last 20 weeks.  I cannot believe my due date is approaching so fast.  Looking back at my pregnancy, it really has flew by!

Things I am grateful for at 35 weeks pregnant....

• Nursery is finished and ready for baby
• My hands and feet are not swollen (wedding rings are still on!)
• Hospital bag packed and ready to go
• Sleeping soundly at night and back pain is very minimal
• The weather is getting warmer outside and summer is right around the corner!
• Appetite is normal....no cravings and no real food aversions
• Found some AMAZING maternity clothes at a local consignment shop to get me through these last few weeks of warmer weather....got 10 shirts and 2 pairs of capris for $60 last weekend!---oh yeah!
• Energy level is still very good!
• Baby is still very active....that has not changed at all since I started feeling her around 19 weeks...I love feeling her movements, rolls, kicks, nudges...it's all simply amazing :)

Picture taken on May 6, 2013-34 weeks

 

Took a walk down to our private lake last week on a beautiful spring day!

Evening walk around the neighborhood on a gorgeous day