The nursery in progress...

It's been a busy month with little time at home but we have made a little progress in the nursery and I thought I'd share the update! We decided on bedding that was pink and green and I was convinced (worried about too much pink) that a green or yellow wall color would work. Well after LOTS of paint samples, we agreed, pink was the only way to go. After cleaning out the room, then touching up all the trim, Brian painted the walls and it's been such a refreshing change already. I am obsessed with the rug we picked for the room and was pleasantly surprised that it's as soft and cuddly as it is cute! We're hoping to get the crib in and set up this weekend (in addition to the shutters finally finished - in case you were wondering what ever happened to that project!!) Stay tuned :)

"Baby-moon"

Well, I think a babymoon is a romantic vacation where hubby and wifey jet off to a relaxing place and enjoy each other and some R&R before their baby comes. Our vacation wasn't quite that, as it was mostly spent with family BUT nonetheless it was an awesome vacation and we were so happy to get away! We spent the first half in the Vineyard where we celebrated my birthday with Brian's family, and also had the chance to go out on a couple of dates and spend some great QT together. After that we were off to Chatham, where we stayed with my parents and sister. While in Chatham, we had a chance to go to the beach, out to eat at a few great restaurants AND attend the beautiful wedding of our friends Pat and Adare! Irene cut our trip a little bit short didn't interfer with the weather during our stay at all. It was a great week weatherwise and I'm really glad we were able to get away and have some fun! Here are some pictures from our trip!

The growing belly at 32 weeks

Here we are, just 8 weeks to go and almost overnight I'm feeling very pregnant! I am just starting to notice myself slowing down a little bit and it being just a little harder to get up and move around. I still feel good and hope I can continue to feel this way for at least another few weeks! It's amazing how much can change in just a few days. The baby's kicks are stronger and much more frequent and I can now feel her moving around, as opposed to just feeling little kicks. In addition, my belly seems to have really popped and I have a feeling that I might be one of those women that develops a waddle, with 8 weeks to go, its looking inevitable! We have a Dr. appointment next week in which we'll get an ultrasound and an idea of how baby GG is measuring. It's very exciting to be visiting the Dr. every 2 weeks, just another little thing that makes it feel like it's getting close!

Whats in a name?

As I've come to realize over the last 8 months - a lot!! Brian and I agreed when we found out we were having a little girl that we'd keep the name a secret until her birth. Well lucky for us, this hasn't been too difficult since we haven't decided on a name yet! In the beginning, we had a boy and a girl name that we loved but no less than a month later (and after we found out it was a girl) we had ditched the girls name and had created a short list of a few other favorites. Just the other day Brian threw out a whole new name that we'd never discussed before, calling that his #1. Oy vey! I certainly thought it might make things a bit easier when we knew the sex, but that hasn't mattered one iota!

I hadn't appreciated all the little aspects to picking a name for our little baby in the beginning. As the DD gets closer, we seem to be even less likely to commit to a name prior to her birth. For starters, you have to decide if it goes well with your last name... Gerges, sounds sort of easy, right? Not always! Then you have to decipher from the given name, if you'll have a nickname and if that nickname works with Gerges, etc. Then there is name association, spelling, and the list goes on and on. Just to make things even more complicated, my wonderful husband, decided about 2 weeks ago that all names ending in an A, are out. Julia, Olivia, Emma, Stella, you name it, if it ends in an A - it's out. Hmm, thanks Bri for complicating this so much more! :)

So... we're being quite indecisive but we're confident when we do pick, it'll be the perfect name for our little girl. Your guess is as good as ours at this point as it looks like we'll be making a decision when we get to meet her! Just 8 weeks away now!!!

Hitting the big 3-0!

This is a big week for us as my 30th birthday rolls in and we reach the 30th week in the pregnancy! Lots to celebrate and to do so, we're going on vacation for a week which we are verrrry excited about! It'll be really nice to have some time to ourselves and time with family as we head to the vineyard for the first half and then Chatham for the second half to meet up with my family. It's been a very busy few weeks with birthdays, weddings and working on the nursery so it's the perfect time to get in some R&R! Actually, I should start packing since I wont be home tomorrow night or Friday before we leave :) I'll leave you with a few pictures of the growing belly when we return hopefully I'll have some pictures of the painted nursery! Have a great week!

I love, LOVE

Let's be honest, who doesn't love love? Falling in love, being in love, witnessing love and being surrounded by love... it just makes you feel cozy like your favorite blanket on a cool fall afternoon. Last weekend we made the short trip up to Hartford, CT for a friend's wedding and it was a day filled with so much love. The bride was beaming and beautiful, the groom was grinning the whole day from ear to ear and the joy and love from family and friends that surrounded them on their special day was infectious.We were so happy to be there to celebrate such a beautiful day.

Unfortunately, I neglected to check our camera battery before we took off so I was only able to capture some shots from the ceremony and cocktail hour before the battery died. The rest of the night we spent chatting with friends and cutting a rug on the dance floor :) I found myself falling in love with my hubby all over again as I reminisced about our special day and how far we've come in a short time. Our hearts are so full as we get ready for the next phase of our life together and baby GG makes three!

Pictures of our LOVEly day:

Ahhh home improvements

We've been so lucky to have been able to make some big home improvement to our house since we moved in, in April 2010. We've redone the bathroom from top to bottom, ripped up the carpets and redid the hardwood floors and most recently renovated our kitchen! All necessary improvements and we're enjoying all the updates!

Next up on our list are smaller scaled improvements but to me, just as important :) The first is one I've wanted to do since we've moved in - change/update the shutters and paint the trim of the house white! It's pretty funny that I didn't notice this until our new neighbor pointed it out a month after we moved in, but our shutters had squirrel cut-outs in them - yup, squirrels! Ehhh, not cool. Brian was able to easily get the shutters down one night after work and has primed the new ones. I'm hoping that this weekend while we're home he'll be able to paint the new ones and get them up, but we've got a lot to do this weekend so I realize that might be a tad ambitious. One can hope right? I can't wait until the shutters are up and trim is painted, I know it'll be the perfect face lift!

We've also done lots and lots of organizing around the house and a few weekends ago threw out about 6 bags of junk that we'd accumulated over the last few years. Boy, did that feel good! We've switched our closets around and are ready to start turning our spare room into a nursery! Tonight, it's a grey room, that is almost empty, with a "desk" for our laptop but in a few short weeks, it'll be painted a light green or yellow and have a crib!

Here are pics of what we've been working on!

Before - any yard work last year

 (can you see the squirrels??)

During - I prefer no shutters to the squirrels!!

The soon-to-be nursery!

The home stretch....

Well we still have a little ways to go but we're 28 weeks and now in the 3rd trimester!! At our doctors appointment on Monday we had the chance to see a growing baby GG in an ultrasound again! Her spine, her leg bones, her heart.... it's just so amazing! She weighs 2 lbs and 14 oz now, a little above average :) Everything looks good and I'm still feeling really good. I hope to have another 3 or 4 weeks of feeling this good. Just enough to get through the heat of the summer and all that we have going on this month! Then things will quiet down a little in the early fall and we can relax and get ready for our little one to get here! We are SO excited to meet our baby girl!

I feel like I get a little bigger everyday and although I wasn't feeling the most photogenic, Brian snapped a few pictures of me at this stage to share!