Tuesday, February 28, 2017

My 35th Birthday Weekend!


Last Friday was the big 3-5 for me.
5 years ago, for my 30th, I had a dinner in San Francisco with a bunch of our friends.
You can read about that {HERE}
I knew I wanted to do something fun for my 35th since it is (kind of) a milestone birthday.
You know me, I LOVE birthdays!
Since my birthday fell on a Friday, I decided to take the day off work, go to Starbucks & get a mani/pedi.
When I woke up he had flowers, a card & some gift cards waiting for me on our bedside table.
Kevin let me sleep in, got the kids ready and took them to school. 
So nice.
Getting a pedicure is one of my favorite things!
 Before I picked up Luke,  I did some shopping. 
And, then we picked up the girls when school was out.
It was so nice having the morning off.
My birthday usually falls on Memorial Day weekend, but I have decided from now on, that whenever it falls during the week, I am going to take the day off work. 
Who wants to spend their birthday with 125 middle school kids? Not me? ;)
 Friday night is pizza night at our house (and I love pizza!) so we got my favorite kind, Zachary's Chicago style pizza. So good. And, had my favorite Chardonnay. 
Saturday was my birthday "party".
I got a limo to take myself and 6 girls to Napa for the day to go wine tasting!
 Mimosas on the limo ride there:
Me & my friend Kelly:
  Our first stop was one of my favorite wineries, Cakebread Cellars.
Me & my sisters!
Can we just mention my younger sister Rebecca? She had baby Olivia on May 15th. These pics were from May 31st. Doesn't she look great? (And, a huge thanks to my mom for watching Olivia so that Rebecca could come wine tasting with us!)
Cakebread is one of my favorite wineries!
 The grounds are so pretty.
 And, their cab is one of my favorites!
 This was my 3rd time wine tasting at Cakebread. It's been fun everytime!
 After Cakebread, we headed to Dean & Deluca for lunch.  Another one of my favorite spots in Napa.
 You may recognize Dean & Deluca from Felecity....she worked at that coffee shop on the show in NYC. Dean & Deluca in Napa is a huge gourmet market.
It has fine wines, cheeses, pastries, candy, espresso, salads, sandwiches & more!
I had an amazing Pesto Chicken Salad Sandwich on Foccia Bread.
 I need to try and re-create that recipe! It was amazing.
The back drop of Dean & Deluca is so pretty, tons of vineyards & rolling hills.
After lunch, we headed to Frank Family Vineyards.
I had never been to this winery, so I was excited to try it out.
Whenever we go wine tasting in Napa, I always like to try out at least 2 new wineries.
Frank Family Winery was so cute. It was so quiet & serene there. I really liked it!
I really liked their Chardonnay.
I loved how lush & green it was there.
 Enjoying the grounds:
After Frank Family Vineyards, we headed to our final stop...Alpha Omega.
The was the first time I have been here. It is a newer winery.
It had a neat outside area with fountains surrounded by vineyards.
We didn't do the tasting here, we just bought a bottle of wine & brought it outside & sat around the fire pit under some trees.
It was a great way to end the day.
 Me & my friend Jackie:
 Me & Suzanne:
Such a fun day!
 Then we loaded back into the limo and headed home!
Rebecca pumping on the limo ride home. Classic.
When we got back to my house, I had party favors for my friends. 2 of my favorite things. 
A bottle of Cupcake Chardonnay & a TJ's chocolate bar :)
Thankful for my sisters & friends who celebrated with me in Napa!
Sunday we headed to church and then Sunday afternoon our court had a birthday block party:
And of course, cornhole!
It was SUCH a fun birthday weekend. 
I felt loved & celebrated.
My 35th year is off to a great start!

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Twenty Seven Weeks


Guess who's officially in the THIRD TRIMESTER?! Final stretch, here I come!

Question: If you saw this chick running on a treadmill next to you at the gym, would you think she was pregnant or just a little chunky in the gut? {Because that's why I'm dressed this way today-- I was just at the gym. It's really not warm enough outside for a tank top just yet:)}
27wshirt

I'm pretty sure there's no denying it now, right?
27w

And because I love collages and repetition, here is the final product for my second trimester. I cannot believe the difference in the last 4 weeks. Geesh! Baby has been growing up a storm.
thesecondtri
So many thoughts going through my mind lately, as I cross over to the third and final trimester. First and foremost, I'm overwhelmed by the pure happiness I feel on most days. I adore feeling my little man jab my internal organs; I cherish these moments preparing for his arrival; I am overcome with excitement and anticipation for my baby boy to snuggle with me in my arms. Pregnancy has treated me kindly and I am incredibly grateful for this entire experience thus far.

I had a conversation with Kristal once, about how the reality of pregnancy is hard to grasp sometimes and we wondered if it would take until delivery to totally understand it. We were saying how we thought it'd feel 'real' after the first doctor's appointment and although it was amazing, it didn't fully hit me then. So I figured once I made it into the second trimester, then I'd really wrap my head around the pregnancy--but nope, still very surreal. Perhaps feeling movement would do it, or starting to officially show would make me feel more pregnant...but both of those things didn't really make me feel like a mommy-to-be as much as I thought. The next big milestone, our Big 20 week ultrasound, was a sure fire way to comprehend the baby growing inside me and I just knew that after that day I'd feel pregnant. Again, definitely one of the best days in my entire life and I have to admit that finding out the sex and therefore deciding on a name absolutely helped me conceptualize my baby boy a little bit better. But I don't think it REALLY hit me until the past few weeks and I have no idea why. I've just felt a strong connection with baby and the love I already have for my son chokes me up sometimes. Maybe it's the raging hormones, or the fact that when I logged into The Bump the other day I saw this ticker time line and it gave me a visual I couldn't ignore:
First of all, the 'third trimester' link was a shock to see. Secondly, the 27 week green bar is awfully close to the end of the journey, don't you think? Only 92 more days? Craziness, I tell you.

Other thoughts on my mind: I can't sit with my typical bad posture anymore because my innards poke up into my ribcage now. I'm pretty sure it's my giant uterus nudging the rest of my organs aside as it grows, but what a strange feeling! Maybe shorter torso'd girls feel internally cramped earlier than 27 weeks but I'm just now getting that symptom. Also, I'm totally neurotic about getting stretch marks. My tummy is feeling a little more taut and every little itch I get makes me yank up my shirt and inspect for stretchies. I don't have any yet, and I keep telling myself that my mom never got any, but let's just say I've been slathering on the lotion religiously...just in case.

Also, I had a dream that the baby decided to come out extremely early....as in, 8 weeks early. In my dream, Nate and I were trying to take a 'family picture' of me with my pregnant belly when all of a sudden I dropped out our child from my ute. He was, of course, absolutely gorgeous, and fully dressed looking like a 4 month old or something. Nate and I were so excited but we both kind of looked at each other like, 'Are we supposed to put him back in to bake a little bit longer? He can't be fully cooked yet, can he?' So perhaps my subconscious is a little nervous about mister man making an early appearance into this world or something, right? I know I can't control when I go into labor but obviously I want baby to stay in there as long as he can to get fully incubated and stuff...I'm sure by the end I will laugh at this statement but right now I just want him to stay put for the long haul. No dropping out of my ute anytime soon, okay buddy?

Other baby news? I received the most beautiful invitation for my first baby shower! If this isn't a 'Julia' invitation then I don't know what is. My friend Maggie made the invites without any input from me---this is all her magic---and you should totally check out her Etsy shop, The Paper Perfectionist. She is incredibly talented and creative and nailed this girl's style like none other. I mean the colors? Exactly my nursery colors:

invite3

The pennant banner? My favorite thing ever, since I made one for Hannah's shower and will be making one for the nursery in due time.
invite2
And the tiny baby in the buggy? I used a very similar icon on my canvas print for baby boy. It is just too cute, you guys.
invite1
And don't get too excited over the 'H' up there. Maggie asked if we would release the rights to his first initial but we knew people would just try to guess if they knew the letter. So she stuck with the letter of our last name. Just a few more months, people.

I can't believe this shower is just a month away. It's going to be so much fun! Hannah is hosting it at her house...yes the one with the brand spanking new baby:) She'll have some help though and it's sure to be a blast. I wasn't really sure if I'd have another baby shower besides this one but apparently my mother-in-law wants to throw one for me up here in good ol' WI and Nate's PT classmates want to throw me one, too. Isn't that so cute? I'm one lucky lady. For reals.

So that's me in week 27: crossing the third tri threshold with an extraordinary amount of happiness, growing a real pregnant belly, still running three times a week (still slow as heck but I haven't urinated on myself yet!), and getting really excited about baby showers. And just trying to soak in the moment without getting too far ahead of myself....isn't it hard sometimes?
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