The Pillow that Was or Wasn't it

I started working on this flower pillow from the blog Two Girls Being Crafty in August. I finished about a month or two ago. I decided to make mine a little bigger and I took her advice and tacked the rows onto the fabric a little closer together. I should have left more room from the edge of the fabric to the first row of petals to make sewing it together easier. 

I got the button and fabric from Hobby Lobby. I had the yarn on hand. I mostly hated working on this pillow because it was pretty tedious. However, it's pretty cute. 

20 Weeks

We're halfway there. Our appointment on Monday went well. We found out the gender of the baby. It's going to be difficult not to use personal pronouns/ possessive adjectives on the blog. I already slipped up once when talking with someone. Other than telling us the gender, the anatomy ultrasound looked at organs and the brain. Everything is looking great, and we couldn't be happier. We're pretty much besides ourselves knowing what our baby is going to be. My brain is in full on craft mode.

My mom and I went to a sketchy looking flea market, which ended up having some really great finds in it, after the ultrasound. I want to get all of the furniture second hand. I'm hoping my mom's crib will be usable. If it's not I think we still have a couple other options in the family. I'm not so keen on buying a second hand crib from someone I don't know. We'll see. Back to the flea market- we found the exact style of highchair that I wanted, and we got it for a steal. I'll need to add straps and I'll make cushions for the seat and the back.

In other exciting baby-related news, I am 99% sure I found the color for the paint for the nursery. This is Air by Serena and Lily. I think I found a similar color at Sherwin Williams, where I have a coupon to put to use. Or I'll see if they can match it.

And... I bought yarn to make this blanket! I am subbing a light orange color for the green. I don't want to go all blue and green for gender neutral.

Celebrity Sighting

On December 18th we dined at Mr. B's, one of our very favorite New Orleans restaurants. We waited around Jackson Square for the Annual Christmas Concert at St. Louis Cathedral. There was a lot of waiting and I felt like I had failed at planning the one festive thing we'd do during the holiday season. Anyway the concert was not traditional music which we knew before going. It was the cathedral's boys choir, concert choir, and their orchestra performing Hodie. Since we were there so early I wikipedia'd it and was able to get the lyrics. It was a really beautiful musical telling of the Nativity story. I enjoyed it but next time I would bring a cushion for the pew.

Then we had some time to wait before caroling in Jackson Square began. We also needed to find a restroom which is close to impossible in the French Quarter if you're not eating or drinking in an establishment. As fate would have it this Louisiana something or other store was open and were very nice to let us use their restroom. It's possible they thought we were there to see...

... John Besh, y'all! Who probably has a restraining order out against me, but we'll get to that. I got out of line for the restroom when I realized he was there. If I was going to take any photo that day it was going to be with him. He has three restaurants in New Orleans, and I've eaten at two of them a few times each. I have posts in progress about those dining experiences, but obviously they were memorable. So I introduced myself and asked him if I could take a picture with him. Then I told him how my family had so much fun at Luke that we were singing and asking for him so we could kiss him because the food was so good. Hence my reasons for thinking there is a restraining order out there. Seriously though he was really nice and didn't seem scared of me. Also, he was there promoting his cookbooks.

High on meeting a celebrity and yuletide spirit we joined the crowd to sing carols. Leave it to New Orleans to have people with hand grenades and other sorts of beverages in the crowd. Really? I mean Bourbon Street is two blocks away. You are loud and belligerent and apparently only interested in taking party pics. Anyway we stayed for about 8 carols including Good King Wenceslas which in my opinion is highly underrated. 

So it was a really long day, and I should have taken more pictures to make this all more exciting. Hopefully you enjoyed my story anyway.

19 Weeks

I decided that I think I do want to document my baby bump each week. So here I am at 19 weeks. Almost halfway there. It's hard to believe I'm that far along when I've only just started showing in the past couple weeks. I'm pretty positive that I felt the baby move on Tuesday. It's something like I've never felt before, and I felt unbelievably happy (so I know it wasn't gas). 

I'm not really craving anything. I'm trying to eat well and I'm going to start prenatal yoga this weekend.

We'll find out on Monday if it's a girl or a boy. I think we're going to keep it a secret until my baby shower. I'll have to keep my crafting projects on the down-low, but you better believe the crafting is about to be full-on.

Merry Christmas

You may have noticed that I've dropped the ball on blogging. Well I also dropped the ball on Christmas this year. We did put up decorations outside (which I forgot to photograph) and inside, and we somehow managed to get most of our gifts bought and sent before Christmas day. Wait a second, don't the 12 days of Christmas start on Christmas day. So... really I'm not behind on posting this family photo! I suppose I can't justify sending cards out now since it's the 12th day of Christmas, so here we are on Christmas Eve.

I know you've been missing pictures of someone cute and sometimes fluffy. Santa was really paying attention this year to Theo's wishes. On Christmas morning we made him wait on this festive rug.

Then we let him stalk his new Bolt doll! I meant to take a picture of what became of the old one... but... you know... I... wait for it... forgot. I'll tell you that he was missing half of all four of his legs, his tail, and a significant amount of stuffing.

He was so worn out from all the excitement, he decided to take a break under the tree.

I hope you had a very Merry Christmas. We certainly did.

Geaux Tigers

Since Michael didn't have the week of Thanksgiving off, we couldn't spend the holiday in Kentucky with his family. Fortunately we did get to see his brother and sister and their families here at home, although it wasn't for as much time as we would have liked. Good things did come from us not going to Kentucky since Michael's parents gave us their tickets to the LSU vs. Arkansas game. (And I got to spend time with my sister and her husband since they won't be here for Christmas. And Theo got to play with his new doggie cousin, Nola.)

If you follow college football you know that LSU is not messing around this year to say the least. This was the third game I've ever been to and most definitely the most exciting. We were super nervous, especially when Arkansas scored two touchdowns before we scored. Thankfully the Honey Badger did what he does best and things started looking up for the tigers. Sadly I was just walking out of the bathroom when Tyrann Mathieu decided to return a punt for a touchdown. Then I got lost in the wrong section. It's really hard to find your seat when everyone is wearing the same colors. And I guess being in the wrong section doesn't help. LSU continued to lay down the law. We cheered and I hi-fived a stranger. It was such an awesome game.

I decided we definitely needed a picture of "Baby's First LSU Game" as our child will have no choice but to be a tiger fan.  

And there's my reason for being a tiger fan, my handsome husband.

I can't wait til we beat Georgia week, but I'm not looking forward to a rematch with Alabama. That game was rough.

My Current Craft Project

I'm not even going to pretend to apologize for my absence. I guess it wasn't so bad with those two posts about food in October, but I know you really want to hear about our adventures back at home. Honestly the past couple months have not been too exciting as far as exploring the city and eating awesome food. This is due mostly to the fact that I have been working on the most awesome craft project ever. So awesome in fact that Pinterest can't even handle it's awesomeness.

Yep, we made a human. My emotions started at completely freaked out (even though this was the desired outcome) to completely sleepy and now to being pretty pumped and starting to feel a little more like a human myself.

As for Theo, he doesn't know anything is different except for the increased snuggle time with me, which he is not complaining about.