29 Weeks

Leland is getting WAY bigger...and so is mommy's belly!

frontal view...you can see a faint view of "the line!"

this is my go to "dance move" when I'm not pregnant and even MORE fun to do when I am pregnant! Nate LOVES it!

How far along? 29 Weeks

Total weight gain/loss: 19.2 lbs. I only gained a pound this past week and I'm very proud since we were in Buffalo, New York celebrating Christmas and eating delicious and unhealthy food for 10 solid days!

Maternity clothes? Yes.

Stretch marks? No. Keeping my fingers crossed!

Sleep: Sleeping great. We got to sleep on a brand new FIRM mattress in Buffalo at Nate's parent's house.  Linus, our puppy baby, was such a good boy sleeping with us and slept in until anout 7:30am every morning.   I slept great while I was there...something I had been stressing about for about 3 months! 
 Other symptoms: The varicose veins are still a problem but when I ice them they feel so much better! 

Best moment this week: We had our first baby shower at Nate's parent's house.  It was so nice.  All 4 of his sisters were there and about 8 people that I had never even met before!  Like I said when we were getting married, people are SO GENEROUS!  I couldn't believe how sweet all of these people were coming to a baby shower for me when I had never met them before.  It was wonderful.  We got so much stuff!  We even got our first CLOTH DIAPER & WET BAG!!

Movement: Yes! Lots. 

Food cravings:  Sweets. Rootbeer floats!

Anything making you queasy or sick: These past 4 days, Leland has been moving so much that sometimes I get a little nauseous!  

Have you started to show yet: Yes.

Gender: BOY!

Labor Signs: No

Belly Button in or out?  It is still in but getting A LOT flatter!

Wedding rings on or off? On

Happy or Moody: Happy!

  Looking forward to: We are looking forward to 2013!  This past year has been sensational!  We bought a house, got our puppy baby, and made baby Leland!  We can not wait until he arrives sometime in March!  Very exciting! I am also looking forward to having my baby shower in Snellville, Ga that is being hosted by my mom's friends and my two sisters on January 12th!

      The baby shower was so great.  We received so many things!  I think that bath items are my most favorite!  They are so cute!  

     My sister in law, Jill , made me some adorable items as well; I got a whale onesie and an anchor bib and burp cloth!  She also loaned me a precious knitted sweater that Addison, her son, and my other nephew, Emmaus, wore that she made.  

     Nate's brother and parents found the cutest handmade Noah's Ark shelf and animals at a local craft show.  The animals are perfectly painted and the wooden look of the whole thing is so perfect! 

     One item I am very excited about is our first cloth diaper & wet bag!  Nathan and I are planning on cloth diapering once Leland is about 2 or 3 months old.  I have a parent of one of my students who mentioned that she would donate all of her cloth diapers to us.  I can't wait.  We also registered for a bunch of cloth diapers and a sprayer attachment that you attach to the water pipe on your toilet that hopefully makes it easier to get rid of poopie! There is an adorable cloth diaper store right next to Nate's parent's house in the Village of Hamburg where they live.  It is FULL of all of these patterned cloth diapers and accessories.  The owner was so helpful.  I may or may not have spent 45 minutes asking her every question I could think of about cloth diapering!  This is the website for her store! Fresh & Fluffy!  You should check it out.  I bought an adorable wet bag to hang next to our toilet to put dirty diapers in.  We also registered for a couple of them from Buy Buy Baby so that we have a spare while one is in the wash.  She also recommended that we get two small ones to keep in each of our diaper bags! The prints that they have are so precious so we can be super stylish, environmentally friendly, cloth diapering parents!  hahaha!   

Here are a few of the Baby Shower goodies:  

is this not the most adorable handmade toy you have ever seen?!

 

Look how sweet this sweater is!  Leland will be such a gentleman when he has this on!

We HAD to buy a few Buffalo Sabres items while in Buffalo! 

Our first cloth diaper!  Oh yeah!!!!

Monster print wet bag!  How great is this pattern

28 Weeks

How far along? 28 Weeks
Total weight gain/loss: 18 pounds
Maternity clothes? Yes.
Stretch marks? No. Keeping my fingers crossed!
Sleep: Sleeping great. Sleeping in the guest room has been great on my back and I'm sleeping almost 9 hours a night (I know I'm crazy!)
 Other symptoms: varicose veins are still pretty annoying and painful at times. I just take it as a reminder that I need to slow down sometimes!
Best moment this week: This past weekend, Nathan and I did some crafting for the nursery! I made a cloud mobile for above the changing table, recovered a small lamp for the bookshelf, and I sewed three strands of bunting to hang above the crib! Nathan cut out a large "L" to hang over the twin bed and spray painted it red. He also sanded the small rocking chair that we will spray paint red as well and place in Leland's book corner!
Movement: Yes! Sometimes I am stopped in my tracks because of what I'm feeling inside! Crazy!
Food cravings:  Rootbeer floats!!
Anything making you queasy or sick: No.
Have you started to show yet: Yes. Today was our Christmas program at school and I wore a new black dress with white polka dots and about 6 kids said that they could really see the baby an that they thought it was coming out very soon! Haha.
Gender: BOY!
Labor Signs: No
Belly Button in or out?  Still a small indention but I'm guessing it will be out in about 2 weeks!
Wedding rings on or off? On
Happy or Moody: Happy!
Looking forward to: Having a white Christmas in Buffalo!

Here are some sneak peaks of the nursery crafts:

This will hang over the twin bed in the nursery!

Hubby / Daddy sanding the rocking chair from my little cousin.  We will paint this the same color red as the "L" and it will go in the reading corner!

"L" for Leland painted red!  It looks so great in the nursery!

Christmas at the Kivetts

Well, I finally mailed out our Christmas cards!  They will arrive to everyone's house right at Christmas time.  The plan was to do a card similar to the one I saw on Little Baby Garvin .  We set up a mock studio in the nursery and Nate's sister, Jill , took our pictures on Saturday afternoon.  Funny how you can plan and plan and things just don't work out quite how you expected!  I guess this is practice for plans not turning out exactly as I imagined when we have a newborn arriving in a short 12 weeks!  AHHHHHHH!  

Here are the Christmas photos that we sent out this year:

This was my favorite but Nate wasn't too thrilled to send everyone he knew a 5x7 of this photo.  This ended up being a small one on the back!

Our puppy baby, Linus, was supposed to be in the picture with us but was an absolute maniac and he had to have his taken by himself!

This was the photo that we used on the front of the card.  A sweet compromise between husband and wife!

Hope everyone has a very Happy Christmas!  

Love,

Katie, Nathan, Leland, & Linus

** to make a cute photo backdrop we hung some white icicle lights; then we added a white sheet on the wall and one on the floor; we hung the fake mistletoe from the ceiling to add some color to the picture and make it more merry!**

How to make a cloud mobile for a baby......

     I have been loving all of the precious cloud mobiles I have seen on Pinterest.  I am not a fan of the ones with raindrops hanging from them (sorry if I offended anyone who was wanting to add raindrops to their mobile).  I like the ones with hot air balloons, rocket-ships, and airplanes.  I decided to make one to hang above the changing table.  I thought that it would be a cute accent with the rocket-ship fabric i have in the nursery.  Bunting will be hanging above the crib so I wanted to have something to hang above the changing table for Leland to look at!

     Here are some simple steps if you would like to make one for yourself:

clouds cut out and pinned for sewing

 Step 1:  Cut cloud shapes out of white felt.  I decided to make 4 clouds.  You will need a front and back to sew together to make them 3-D.  If you are making 4 clouds, you will need to cut out 8 pieces.  Using disappearing ink is the best so that you do not have dark edges on your finished product. I just free handed the clouds.  All clouds are different so there is no messing up with this project!

clouds sewn together, ready for stuffing

 Step 2:  Sew your cloud pieces together.  I do not have the best sewing technique and sharp turns are not my friend.  You may have better luck than I did when sewing your pieces together.  Slow and steady wins the race in a project like this!  If your technique is not sensational then I recommend using white thread instead of gray like I did so that your imperfections do not show up as much as mine do!

 **Be sure to leave a small space open so you can stuff your clouds with fiberfill to give them a more "realistic" look! **

clouds stuffed and sewn closed

 Step 3:  Fill your clouds as full as you would like them.  In my case, I filled them as much as I felt comfortable being able to sew the last part closed.  The puffier they are, the more difficult to sew closed! 

clouds attached to the mobile and hanging in the nursery

 Step 4:  Choose an embroidery hoop to attach your clouds to.  I chose an 8 inch hoop that I had in the craft room.  I used silver thread to attach the clouds to the hoop and the hoop to the ceiling.  I tied three strings to the top of the hoop.  This is the part that I found to be the most difficult.  Making the top three strings exactly the same length is challenging.  You need to spend time to make this perfect so that you do not go crazy staring at a lopsided hoop hanging above your baby's head.  After you have attached the hoop to the ceiling you can hang your clouds at the desired length from the hoop.  If your hoop is level before you hang the clouds, then adding your clouds should not alter your hoop. 

finished product

Step 5:  Admire your finished product!!

I had white felt leftover from another project, an embroidery hoop, and silver thread in the craft room so this project cost me 2 hours and $0!  My kind of project for the nursery!  Since you only tie the thread to the hoop, it can be used again when I want to change up the nursery! 

Lamp on the bookshelf in between the crib and twin bed!

 I bought this lamp from the thrift store for $4.  It had ugly fabric on the shade that would not look good in the nursery.  It is just the right size and very slender so it fits just right on the book shelf that is in between the crib and the twin bed.  I recovered it with navy and white stripped fabric in about 15 minutes using spray adhesive and hot glue, a crafter's best friend! 

Week 27

Cauliflower was too boring and the lack of hockey in our lives right now is pretty depressing so we went hockey themed this week!

How far along? 27 Weeks

Total weight gain/loss: 16.8 lbs. I still have 13 weeks to go so I do not think that I will stick to my 25lb. goal.  Maybe 30lbs. gained will be my new goal!! 

Maternity clothes? Yes.

Stretch marks? No. Keeping my fingers crossed!

Sleep: Sleeping great. This past week, I have woken up about 3:55-4:15am everyday to use the restroom and Leland is doing back-flips!! It is amazing how much you can actually feel.  Sometimes I get a little concerned about all of the movement I can feel.
 Other symptoms: Since this is a blog where I plan to keep track of my pregnancy (changing life and crafting creations) I guess I need to add this to the weekly update!  I have developed varicose veins.  Not the most pleasant things to have.  I have made it 27 weeks without any pain or sickness so I am not complaining...yet!  They are pretty painful when I stand up a lot, which is something I do for about 5 hours a day.  Teaching is not a job where you can sit all day, especially when you teach 4 year olds!  I am constantly walking around, helping children, walking up flights of stairs, playing with them on the playground, and moving from one place to another.  I have tried to make an effort to sit down as much as I can.  The kids bring me pillows from our cozy corner to sit on and are super sweet!  I try to take our puppy baby on a walk each day when I get home because he has been by himself in the house for 6-8 hours and I feel horrible about that!  Then, I take a warm bath each night and ice the veins.  Awesome.  Hopefully they won't get as bad as some of the comments that I have read from people on pregnancy blogs!

Best moment this week: Planning for baby Leland's nursery with Jill.  I feel much better having a plan about what exactly we are going to be making for the nursery! 

Movement: Yes! Lots.  I feel everything and sometimes it is WEIRD!!

Food cravings:  Sweets.  Mexican food - this is nothing new.  I could eat Mexican food every meal, every day, pregnant or NOT!

Anything making you queasy or sick: No.  

Have you started to show yet: Yes.

Gender: BOY!

Labor Signs: No

Belly Button in or out?  It is still in but getting A LOT flatter!

Wedding rings on or off? On

Happy or Moody: Happy!

  Looking forward to: Growing growing growing.  I'm pretty excited for the baby showers that are fast approaching!  Nate's sweet family in Buffalo has one planned for December 28th.  My sisters and my parent's friends have one scheduled for January 12th in Georgia, and my Nashville and Birmingham friends have one planned for February 2nd.  I'm sooooo excited!!

Baby Leland's Nursery Inspiration!

     A few months ago I saw a nursery pin on pinterest for a baby named Hank
( Daffodil Design ).  The nursery is painted a pale grey color and filled with all things "boy".  Most of the decorations are handmade, found on ETSY, or from a thrift store.  When looking at the pictures, it looks so peaceful.  She had a pillow sitting on a window bench made with Sarah Jane fabric of little boys playing with rocket chips.  It is so precious. When we found out we were having a boy, I immediately ran to the computer and just stared at her blog of her baby boy's nursery.  After our gender reveal party, I ordered several yards of Sarah Jane fabric from fabric.com!  My first purchase for Baby Leland!
    Above you will find Baby Leland's Nursery Inspiration board.  We painted the nursery a soft grey, Benjamin Moore Lattice to be exact.  It is the same color that fills our whole house.  It is amazing how the same color can look so different when paired with different accent colors.  I love that about paint!  I plan on using navy, red, and teal colors to accent the grey walls.  I am not normally into nautical themed rooms but I found some adorable Sarah Jane fabric of little boys playing pirates and then some crib sheets with adorable sailboats on them.  My sister in law, Jill Hickman over at Just Dandy is helping me with all of the bedding, curtains, and other fabric related creations!  You should check her stuff out on ETSY, it is amazing -  Oh Just Dandy.  We plan on making window length, navy and white stripe curtains for the two windows.  She is also making me a teal with white polka dot crib skirt and maybe one for the twin bed we have in the nursery as well!  When we planned last Saturday the list of things to do looks completely over-whelming.  She reassured me that we can get things done and we will do large projects first and then work down to smaller ones.  I think that I am most excited to make some adorably soft blankets using the printed Sarah Jane fabric backed with minky and a contrasting binding!  I can't wait to start completing projects!
    Last night, Nathan asked me what my plans were for the weekend.  I explained to him that I didn't have any.  He couldn't believe it.  So, last night before going to bed I managed to make an entire "To Do" list of things that we could do around the house, and more specifically, the nursery! Some of the tasks on the "To Do" list are: make bunting for above the crib with Sarah Jane fabric, make a 3-D cloud mobile with white felt and an embroidery hoop , cut out an "L"from hardwood and paint it red for above the crib, recover a lampshade I bought at a thrift store,and paint the precious child sized rocking chair for the reading nook from my cousins red!  Nathan was very excited to wake up this morning to a "To Do" list waiting for him!

    Now, I must get to crafting! Happy Saturday! I will share my creations later this week!

Week 26

Leland is getting serious about growing now!

I can't believe we only have 3 more months!

How far along? 26 Weeks

Total weight gain/loss: 15 lbs.  After going to our appointment on Thursday, December 6th, they said that I have gained 17 pounds.  Well, I'm sticking with my 15 lbs. since I weigh myself almost everyday and they only get the joy of doing so once every 4-6 weeks!

Maternity clothes? Yes.

Stretch marks? No.

Sleep: Sleeping great. We have moved to the guest bedroom at the Kivett household!  My parents gave us the most AMAZING king bed with a pillow top mattress for our master bedroom when we got married.  Normally, this is the best bed ever to sleep in.  I am finding that it is almost impossible for me to roll over and get out of bed 4 to 5 times a night to go to the bathroom.  I tried sleeping in the guest bedroom one night at 2:00am when I had been tossing and turning for 3+ hours and it was AMAZING! My back feels great and I sleep almost 10 hours a night.  I know many of you may think that it is impossible to sleep that long, well, I have been doing it the last 5 nights! I don't even wake up to go to the bathroom more than once!

Best moment this week: I am sticking with the best moment being that Nate can feel baby Leland kick!  Brittany even felt Leland kick one day last week...of course it was after I ate a HUGE burrito FULL of pickled jalapenos! Also, I just found out that a precious friend is PREGNANT!  I cried when I got their Christmas card announcing the little blessing growing inside her so I would have to add that to one of the best moments this week!  Thought of another great moment, I passed my gestational diabetes test! Yay!  I was a little bit anemic so I just need to take my iron supplements more and I should be great!

Movement: Yes! I think that on Saturday I saw Leland do a 180* rotation in my stomach!

Food cravings:  Sweets.  Mexican food - this is nothing new.  I could eat Mexican food every meal, every day, pregnant or NOT! Since I have only had heartburn twice, once from a PB&J sandwich and once from Del Taco, I'm sticking with Mexican as long as I can!

Anything making you queasy or sick: No.  

Have you started to show yet: Yes. I'm measuring 39 inches around and our midwife measured me from the pubic bone to the top of my uterus and I was measuring at 27.5 inches.  I'm supposed to be 2 inches either way from how many weeks I am.  I was 25 weeks and 6 days when she measured me so I am right on track.  

Gender: BOY!

Labor Signs: No

Belly Button in or out?  It is still in but getting A LOT flatter!

Wedding rings on or off? On

Happy or Moody: Happy!

  Looking forward to: Growing growing growing.  I can't wait to go to Buffalo, NY for Christmas.  IT BETTER BE A WHITE CHRISTMAS!  Nate's sisters and mom are throwing us our first baby shower while we are there so that will be so much fun!  Our next appointment is January 10th, 2013!  We took Christmas card photos this past Saturday...here is a little sneak peak of our puppy baby!

Linus, our puppy baby, had to take a photo by himself because he was an absolute maniac during the photo shoot!

**I need to give another "Thank You" to Jessica from Little Baby Garvin ( http://littlebabygarvin.blogspot.com/  ) who has the MOST creative chalkboard ideas ever! **

Christmas time in the city...

     I love Christmas time.  Really, I love anytime that I can decorate my house and spend time with family and do cutesy things! Nathan says that I can make any time an excuse to do cutesy things!

    This is our first Christmas in our own house and I was more than ready to decorate.  I have a whole list of things that I would LOVE to accomplish this holiday season:

1. decorate our home

2. have a cookie decorating party with friends

3. watch Christmas movies (really this should never be crossed off of a list because I could watch Christmas movies all year round!)

4. send out a family Christmas card

5. drive around to look at lights

6. go see the lights at Opry Land

7. go ice skating on an outdoor rink (I can't ice skate this year so I will have to settle with watching Nathan skate)

8. drink lots of hot chocolate!

9. participate in a white elephant gift exchange

10. play in the snow

I could add several more to the list, but these days I am trying to be reasonable with lists and don't want to make things too out of reach!

here is our Christmas chalkboard!

our mantle with just enough room for a stocking for baby Leland!

drinking hot chocolate with our puppy baby!

puppy baby posing in front of the fake tree we are using this year instead of a real one.

I wish that I could capture how beautiful our house looks with lights but I just can't seem to make it work.  We have little candles in each window and lighted garland around our door.  We strung white lights on the two large holly bushes on either side of our house.  It is perfect.  In fact, our cul-de-sac in our neighborhood is the prettiest!  Everyone was very classy with their decorations and it looks so beautiful at night! We are so lucky to live on such a wonderful street!

I wrote this with a silver pen on black card stock.  I LOVE it!

I will keep you updated on how much I have achieved on my Christmas to-do list! What would be your top 10 things to accomplish this Christmas season?

Our adorable Christmas tree from last year.  The bunting is my favorite!

Christmas piano with a precious Christmas baby!

Wedding invitation ornament!

2011 ornament I made with part of our real tree!

Update:

1. decorate our home

2. have a cookie decorating party with friends

3. watch Christmas movies (really this should never be crossed off of a list because I could watch Christmas movies all year round!)

4. send out a family Christmas card

5. drive around to look at lights

6. go see the lights at Opry Land

7. go ice skating on an outdoor rink (I can't ice skate this year so I will have to settle with watching Nathan skate)

8. drink lots of hot chocolate!

9. participate in a white elephant gift exchange

10. play in the snow

#2: Cookie decorating party with the Paper Leaf Society!

#9: Participate in a White Elephant book exchange!

#10: Play in the snow!

#7: Go ice skating!

#4: Send out a family Christmas Card!

Totally successful Christmas season!

Gender Reveal Party

     On October 27, 2012 Nate and I had a little gathering at our house to reveal the gender of Baby Kivett.  Our original plan was to go to our ultrasound on Tuesday, October 22nd and have the tech put the gender in an envelope and a friend would stuff lanterns with either blue or pink confetti.  On the day of the party we would pull a string and find out if baby Kivett was a boy or girl! 
     Well, things did not go according to plan.  We went to our ultrasound and midwife appointment to check on Baby Kivett.  Everything was perfect and baby was growing well and I was healthy.  Nate wanted to know so badly what we would be having before the party.  At first, I was totally against peeking.  Well, around 8:00pm that night I couldn't stand it!  We decided though that we could wait until Saturday to find out.
     Throughout the entire pregnancy I didn't have any dreams of baby being a girl or a boy.  I had thought girl because most of my friends had boys, we didn't have a girl name picked out, and I thought that my Dad would have 3 daughters, and 3 grand-daughters, and a girl dog.  Tuesday night I had the most vivid dreams of Baby Kivett being a GIRL!  On Wednesday morning, I woke up before my alarm and told Nate we HAD TO PEEK!  He was all for it so it didn't take too much convincing!  He ran downstairs and got the envelope and our puppy baby, Linus, jumped on the bed with us.  He tore it open.  There it was in little pink letters..."It's a BOY!"  I WAS IN TOTAL SHOCK! 

Here we are right after we opened the envelope!  It was a lot of fun knowing when no one else did and special opening it together in bed with our puppy baby!

Cupcakes from The Cupcake Collection! My favorite!

The confetti filled box!

Aunt Jill is making her guess of whether she thinks it is a boy or girl!

Dad and cousin Laurel!

 

Here I am filling out the old wives tales of gender prediction.  According to the the old wives tales, I was supposed to be having a girl!

After Addison got over the initial shock of everyone screaming and throwing confetti into his face, he was very happy to have a new baby boy cousin in Nashville

Uncle Ne, Gi, and Addison!

We took a tally in my classroom to see how many kids thought it was a boy and how many thought it was a girl.  On Monday morning, I brought blue balloons to the classroom!

Here is our baby boy - genitalia and all!

We will have little boys just 9 and a half months apart!

Besties at the party!

My sister, Kristen captured this photo while driving to Virginia.  How perfect! 

The party was so much fun.  I loved having everyone together to announce the gender.  

Leland Henning Kivett