Prepping for work Halloween Party

I got the go ahead to plan a party at work for my coworkers and executives for Halloween. I spent the day on it today, off and on, looking into food, games, images and plans to make it all come together by Friday. Im pretty excited, I think it should be a lot of fun! We will have a costume contest with 3 top prizes awarded by peer votes. We are having Rudy's BBQ for lunch with the staff contributing sides and desserts. There will also be games and smaller prizes to keep things fun throughout the afternoon. I am hoping that the team gets into it and has a great time! I love planning parties and events. It is a great chance to be creative!

We had massive amounts of rain last night and through most of the day today. I had a terrible time staying asleep with how loud the rain and thunder were last night. We of course need the rain and I love it, but am super tired today after the whole thing. I really should head to bed, but wanted a chance to write a little note about my day.

Baby is kicking me a bit right now, it is really at random and quite funny. I never know when to expect it so so sometimes I get caught off guard in the middle of a sentence or something and wow there it was, a little kick or arm in the side. really pretty amazing!

I was able to get on the first set of appts for the H1N1 vaccine. It just arrived at the doctor today with first distribution on Wednesday morning. I am scheduled at 8:30am on Wednesday and when I spoke with the nurse to confirm my time today, she said they are completely booked up and once they fulfill the appts. they made for wed, they are completely out. I imagine they will order a new batch right away, but I was still pretty surprised. Jamie will need to get his done at our GP, as the ones at the OB are, on this set anyways, for preggie people only. Hopefully his will be this week also. At least I feel a bit better now knowing I have the appt scheduled especially since there have been at least 3 people in my office with confirmed cases over the past 2 weeks. They of course came through with no problems at all, but I am at a much higher risk. I guess even though I was miserable being sick with a chest cold last week, it kept me away from the worst of the outbreak at work... ah for small blessings (or maybe big in my case)

Well, keeping the eyes open and the text making sense is becoming much harder now, so Ill sign off. Until next time, have a great night!

xoxo Ally

Updates

Hi Y'all,

I just realized how long it has been since I posted last, sorry to keep you waiting on news. Things have been fun and busy the past few weeks. We had our visit

from cousin Donald, and we had a great time. Introduced him to fried mac and cheese!! It was a hit!

We had our second painting party to do the nursery, it is a bright yellow and so cheery. It really brings out the color of the wood and the drapes. I cant wait to put up the shelves and get it all set up for baby. We also finished the nursery bathroom, the blue is amazing!!! We also picked up the yellow towels to match the ducky theme and they just pop off the blue, it is great!

The Guest room is coming together, we hung up the night stand shelves and have put in the curtains. We are still yet to install the headboard and wall shelves, and move the mirror, but it will all come together over the next few weeks.

I would like to say a BIG Thank You to all the people that helped us paint over the past few weeks, y'all are the best neighbors / friends anyone could ask for and we are so blessed to have you.

Baby has been kicking a lot lately which is sooo exciting. Jamie got to feel his first real "soccer" kick as he calls it the other night. That was awesome! I have been trying to have him be able to feel the kicks for a while, but baby was just not cooperating and would stop or roll before he had a chance to. He wonders how it doesnt make me motion sick especially since they will just keep getting stronger?? ;) Only two weeks to go until the third trimester. Things are really progressing so quickly, I cant believe it. I am enjoying every minute of it and am so thrilled to be pregnant!! I cant wait to meet our little one in a few short months! I find my self often looking at these amazing Texas sunsets or lightning storms and think of how much I cant wait to share this great big world with our baby. There really is so much to see and experience and I can barely wait!

Dodge and Tess are doing great as well. Dodge is getting bigger by the minute! He is over 35 lbs now and would love it if every minute he could be on our laps!! He will forever be a little lap dog in his mind, no matter how big he gets! We are playing fetch right now with his ducky while I write, he gets so excited to fetch it all day long! He had his sunday cookie today, a greenies teeth cleaning treat that is shaped like a toothbrush, it is super cute and he loves them, and its great, it gives me a chance to clip his nails!! Now if only there was something to keep Tess distracted while I clip her nails, we'd be in business! She is being so snuggly, she would absolutely not leave Donald alone when he was here for his visit. She has really decided that she loves company and spends as much time cuddling on the couch with them as she can. She loves to snuggle up next to me too, any time I sit anywhere in the house, she comes running over and sits right next to me waiting to be pet and brushed. We got her a furrminator a few weeks ago. Anyone who knows what this is knows how amazing it is. Anyone who has not heard of it would be shocked!! it is a comb with a big handle and really tiny teeth. It pulls the undercoat and all the loose hair off her coat, it is just crazy effective. we end up with enormous balls of fur every time we brush her and she just loves it, mostly on her face, but all over too. it is too funny to see her flop over on her back with her feet in the air so we can get her tummy!! If I ever can snap a pic I will post it, but getting her to stay that way is not as easy.

Well I had better get going. We are tidy-ing up the house and getting ready to head out and about for a little while. I hope you have a great Sunday.

lots of love,

Ally and baby

New pic of Baby Lovell

We had our latest ultrasound yesterday and got a new pic of our little one. this is the baby laying on it's back with the head to the right side of the pic and the tummy along the bottom. you can see the profile of the eye area, nose, mouth and chin as well as a bit of the ear.
Baby is 1 lb. 4 oz. and the heart beat is great! There has been a lot more movement recently. and baby was very active during the ultrasounds, did not want to stay in one place for more than a few seconds. What an amazing feeling, those little kicks! I have been waiting so long to feel them and now that I do I am anxiously awaiting the next one each time. It definitely feels more real now too. I know I have seen the baby several times, heard the heart beat, etc. But feeling the baby move makes it so real and wonderful!
I got another bit of exciting news for the moment anyway... the diabetes specialist was so pleased with my numbers and my food intake, that she said I could drop down to testing every other day so long as my numbers stayed good on my testing days!! :) Yeah for my fingers!!
In other news I found the most adorable website today with all kinds of things that are the exact theme of our nursery. If anyone is still confused as to the colors or theme, this is a great place to look. A few people have asked so here are the colors again: Yellow, Brown and Green with accents of Blue Jeans and Bright Red. The website is www.smallinthesaddle.com I hope you love it as much as I do!
Well must get back to work. More to do on the guest room this weekend. will update you as I have more. Have a great afternoon.
xoxo,
Ally and Baby

Painting the rooms and a little surprise today

We finished the painting of the Guest Room over the weekend. It looks so great!

The teal is dark and rich and fabulous and I cant wait to accent it with all the pieces Im adding.

We also

started the nursery bathroom. We went with a bright cheery sky blue and the first coat looks great. We will do one more coat to finish.Then we will add bright yellow towels, and rubber duckies and it will be all set for the baby.

Today we are at 23 weeks and I felt the baby kick today!!!! It was not very strong but amidst the popping popcorn ;) there it was, just above my belly button and my tummy even moved a little. I am thrilled and cant wait to feel more!

Well Thursday is our next ultrasound appointment so we will be able to see how much the baby has grown and hopefully get another picture to share.

Until then, lots to do to get ready for Donald's visit

Have a great night,

love, Ally

Making progress on the house

This weekend we are painting the guest bedroom and I'm making curtains and a custom headboard for the bed. I am sooo excited to get all the pieces put together I think It will be great! The walls are going to be a dark teal called mermaids cove. The curtains are chocolate brown raw silk. And the headboard is a pattern that I have designed out of 4 fabrics sewn in strips across the front. I am using chocolate and teal to tie in the walls and curtains and then adding in lime and khaki for accents.

I have extra fabric that I will make into throw pillow and just for a fun punch I will add in magenta to a few things to keep it interesting. I am thinking of appliqué -ing a flourish onto some fabric and making custom shams for the pillows that are in there. I also want to make a bench cushion for the cedar chest that I have in there to be a comfy spot to sit. There is also a mirror that I plan to paint to coordinate with the colors and styles and will rehang with some artwork or stretched fabric in patterns of similar colors.

It is raining here now which is great, but hopefully there will be a break in the rain tomorrow so we can air out the rooms that are being painted. I will have to be a good girl and stay up in my sewing room so I dont inhale too much for the baby. It will be a great way to keep me working on my curtains. and then all I will have left is assembling the headboard since I finished the fabric cover today.

Hopefully we will have it all done by next weekend, as my cousin Donald is coming into town for a conference and will be staying with us. I want to have it at least in a nice condition by then. Deadlines might actually get us to get it finished!

Next it will be on to the nursery and the nursery bathroom. we might even get some of it painted tomorrow, but we will have to see.

Then on to fall decorations!!! Stay tuned. Have a great night.

xoxo

Ally

Desperate for movement

Waiting to be sure your baby is moving is extremely nerve racking. All the emails I get and the books I read about pregnancy say that I should really be feeling the baby move, nothing strong, but lots of movements, and I really dont feel like I am feeling lots of anything. I do occasionally as I mentioned yesterday feel those tiny popcorn like movements but nothing that is enough for me. I worry some days that perhaps something is wrong, I feel like there should be more there than there is. I am counting the days until my next ultrasound just to be sure that I can see the baby move and hear the heart beat. I am certain that I am just paranoid, but it doesnt seem to make it any better.

Do other people go this long into their pregnancy and not really feel much? Am I missing it all and just dont know im feeling anything? All questions that plague me from one appt to the next. I am really hoping that by my next appt, next Thursday, that I am sure of the feelings that are happening and that when I see the movement on the screen I can feel it too. I know the baby is still very small, but I am really showing now and dont feel I have much t show for it if you know what I mean.

On the bright side however, maternity clothes really do make all the difference in the world. I have never been against them and even went to buy a few helper pieces as soon as I had difficulty fitting into my pants, but wow, they really are so much more comfortable on a preggie body. I bought a new dress for work and it is jersey knit but is so pretty. It is plum colored and very rich looking and on one shoulder/decolette there is a grouping of raised ruffled flowers. It fits so well and covers all the right places too. I have one more dress coming in the mail that will hopefully be just as great and will really help me get through the winter. It is grey and has long sleeves. It looks very chic, but nice and comfy too. Hopefully with my new leggings it will make a great outfit when it gets cold out.

Well the timer on dinner is beeping at me so I should head out. Until later, have a great night.

much love, Ally

New Pots and Pans!!!

I finally got my new pots and pans and ohh what a deal we got!! I have been dreaming of finishing off my collection for several years now, so that I have a full set of Calphalon cookware that I LOVE!

When we got married we got a set of pans that were very nice, but very different from anything I am used to cooking with. The intent of the pans was to cook thing simultaneously (one pan on top of another) and at the end have a fully cooked meal. Well you must have had to have been a genius to plan and figure that one out because I never once made a meal that way. and too, Im sure it was how I cooked in them more than anything else, but everything stuck to these pans and they discolored really badly.

So we decided that when we could, even if it was piece by piece, that we would replace these

with the Calphalon ones. I new that I loved Calphalon since I have been using one pot that Auntie Lynn bought for us for the wedding. It is the best Ive ever used and I use it for everything I can. nothing sticks and it is sooo easy to clean, not to mention it cooks so evenly. So I was hooked and had to have them.

Well we put the other set up for sale and decided that we would use that money to buy the new set and it worked out to be an even better deal. We just happened to go to the outlet mall the other night to walk around. As it was near closing we figured we wouldnt go in any stores, just on our daily baby walk. Well we happened to pass the Calphalon outlet and just thought we should get pricing since we had the money now and needed to make a decision on which pieces to buy. Guess what!!!??? All the open box items in the collection I wanted were HALF PRICE!!! and that meant half price of the outlet prices, we were sold! We only spent probably 15 minutes and bought every piece that I wanted for way less than we ever expected!! I was one happy girl let me tell you!

The next morning I unpacked and washed them all so that they would be ready to use, and

stacked them neatly in my now bare cabinet and could not hardly wait to cook in them. Since then I have made pudding, sautéed broccoli and eggs using a few different sizes and styles of my pans and I couldnt be happier! everything cooked so perfectly, I didnt even have to re-plan my cooking strategy, it was just perfection and I Love, love, love them! And I love Jamie for buying the whole set for me even though I know we could have used that money for the baby or getting the house painted or other things, but this time it was all for me. He is the best!

I will be busy planning out my menu for the week based on getting to use each one of my new pans, which of course shouldnt be hard since I have been cooking in these pans for years, even if just in my head.

Of course now that you all think Im crazy for my obsession with cookware ;)

Things are going well with baby so far. We have another ultrasound in a week and a half and should be feeling more kicking soon. I read a description that finally made sense for what Ive been feeling from the baby so far... like popcorn popping in my tummy. It is the strangest thing, and its not very often, but that is exactly what it feels like. I cant wait to feel more!

I guess you could say I am having more cravings too. Nothing out of the ordinary yet, just things that come to mind that dont seem to leave until Ive had them. Like the other day, I drove past a Bennigans and thought of their potato skins and just had to have them. Now the strange thing is I drive past that same Bennigans every day!! Then even stranger, I didnt want the potato skins from there, because they put course ground black pepper all over them, I just wanted them. So we ended up going to fridays instead and those were perfect!

I am doing well with my blood sugar too. It is well within my target range, so the specialists and docs couldnt be happier, which is all we can hope for. I will just keep on this track and hoping that things remain in the green and the baby doesnt get too big.

Well we are heading out to take Dodge to the park so I should get going. Ill try to be better and write more often, Have a beautiful Sunday.

xoxo

Ally and baby