Fancy meeting you here.

Saturday, November 19, 2016

Hello, third trimester.

Welp, we did it! We made it to trimester 3! And, according to my countdown app, that means only 68 days until we will be expecting a little lady.

This is the only recent-ish pic I have with baby bump on board. (I really should take more photos.) I guess I was 27 weeks in this picture? I'm currently 30. We went to Dallas to visit Lindsay, Scott, Boston and Russell, and I had to get a pic with this pretty blonde because the next time we see her she will NO longer be pregnant. Boston and Russell are expecting baby boy Evans ANY day now— which is actually so crazy!

We've been working HARD on baby girl's nursery.

Definitely was in need of some color.

That's a little better. These curtains are SO cute—got them from Anthro. Merry Christmas baby Clark?

The most patient guy in the world. Building all the things.

This last picture is actually what her nursery looks like this very minute....lol. A mess! Drew and his dad were working on the floors in here last weekend and we haven't quite picked up yet. Hopefully girly doesn't show up in the next few weeks. We're not quite ready!

Drew's mom, Leanne, is a pro at sewing. It doesn't look like it yet, but we're doing flamingos in her nursery. So I ordered Rifle Paper Co's Flamingo fabric and Leanne sewed a suuuper cute blanket for the crib. She actually ended up sewing two—one that's softer with ruffles. I am OBSESSED with blankets. I want them everywhere, so you know I was excited.

This geometric pattern is the back side of the flamingo blanket.

SO CUTE.

Second ruffly blanket on the baby glider—which is a dream. It was a gift from Amy and the Clarks. We love it—it's SO comfy. Thank you, Clarks!

So let's talk about how much fun the third trimester is!

- I get stuck on my back like a roly poly more than five times a week.

- Baby girl's fave place to punch me is in the spleen. Which HURTS.

- I can't sleep without my pregnancy pillow (THANK YOU, ALISSA. You're an angel. Best gift ever.)

- I'm hot always, even when everyone else is clearly freezing. (My whole office hates me.)

- I'm hungry a lot and have to eat at meal times, but no cravings at all. I want coke a lot, but I wouldn't call it a craving. I haven't had a Diet Coke since I got pregnant and I MISS IT SO MUCH.

- I can drink coffee again! With zero nausea problems.

- My back and ribs are trying to KILL me. They hurt always. Can't sit at work without my heating pad. Embarrassing?

- I've been working out regularly, which means my energy is BACK! Welcome energy, you've been OH so missed! There's a bike and barre studio that's new in Waco and I joined! Been going for a month and some change now. It's really great—and fingers crossed it whips me right into shape for labor.

The studio owner took this pic of the three preg girls in barre class a few weeks ago. Yay for kindred spirits!

Babymoon round 2? Drew and I found REALLY cheap plane tickets to Denver, and Drew has never been to Colorado. So heck, we're going to Denver! And Boulder. And Estes Park. For a super quick four-day trip December 4-7.

View from the condo we booked—adorable.

The first night we're staying in downtown Denver, but the second two nights we're staying in this super cute condo in Estes Park. We were originally going to stay all three nights in Denver, but being so close to Rocky Mountain National Park, why not rent a car and head to the mountains. It'll probably be snowing like crazy. And we'll probably freeze. But LOOK at that super cute property. I'm insistent that we will go hiking. Drew says I'll be 33 weeks pregnant and we'll just have to see. *eye roll emoji. BUT either way—we will see plenty of snow and plenty of mountains and hopefully an elk?

THIS is Estes Park in the winter. IT'S BEAUTIFUL.

Thanksgiving is next week and I'm so grateful. I'm currently battling a cold that has knocked me off my feet the past few days (don't feel comfy taking cold meds while preg, so it's even worse...) and I need a break. Haha. It'll be really nice to have a few days off work to relax and get better. Also I LOVE Thanksgiving, but I LOVE Black Friday even more. Before you panic that I hate thankfulness and family time, allow me to remind you that Black Friday is me and my mom's thing together. We are SERIOUS BF shoppers, but it's all in good fun and all for tradition's sake. We promise not to trample you—unless you're going after the last Apple watch.

It's crazy that this is the last holiday season that Drew and I won't have a little sidekick. Lately, we're taking a lot of time to hang out together before life changes big time. It's been nice, but also crazy that this "newlywed" season is coming to an end. I know the next season will be even sweeter, but I did really love this one.

It's starting to feel pretty dang real. Sometimes I just find myself sitting in baby girl's nursery (a room we've never had a reason to spend any time in before we got pregnant) and it's surreal to think that this little room is going to be a space we are SO familiar with in just two short months. It's the little things like that that have made me so reflective and sappy lately.

Tomorrow we have maternity pictures, which is funny—because at our engagement pictures, I had the flu, and I'm pretty sure I was actually running fever at our wedding. So of course I have a super-cold for maternity photos. That's how big photo events happen in our lives. I'm sure I'll have a stomach bug or something just in time to go into labor. But I promise to show those maternity pics to y'all as soon as we get them back.

Weeeeelll, that's my update! I'll keep ya posted—these last few months are gonna be so fun!

Hello, third trimester.

Welp, we did it! We made it to trimester 3! And, according to my countdown app, we only have 68 days until we will be expecting a little lady.

We've been working HARD on baby girl's nursery.

Definitely was in need of some color.

That's a little better. These curtains are SO cute—got them from Anthro. Merry Christmas baby Clark?

The most patient guy in the world. Building all the things.

This geometric pattern is the back side of the flamingo blanket.

SO CUTE.

Second ruffly blanket on the baby glider—which is a dream. We sat on it by chance in Buy Buy Baby, and fell in love with it. Amy and the Clarks kind of surprised us with it. We love it—it's SO comfy. Thank you, Clarks!

So let's talk about how much fun the third trimester is!

- I get stuck on my back like a roly poly more than five times a week.

- Baby girl's fave place to punch me is in the spleen. Which HURTS.

- I can't sleep without my pregnancy pillow (THANK YOU, ALISSA. You're an angel. Best gift ever.)

- I'm hot always, even when everyone else is clearly freezing. (My whole office hates me.)

- I'm hungry a lot and have to eat at meal times, but no cravings at all. I want coke a lot, but I wouldn't call it a craving. I haven't had a Diet Coke since I got pregnant and I MISS IT SO MUCH.

- I can drink coffee again! With zero nausea problems.

- My back and ribs are trying to KILL me. They hurt always. Can't sit at work without my heating pad. Embarrassing?

The studio owner took this pic of the three preg girls in barre class a few weeks ago. Yay for kindred spirits!

Babymoon round 2? Drew and I found cheap plane tickets to Denver, and Drew has never been to Colorado. So heck, we're going to Denver! And Boulder. And Estes Park. For a super quick four-day trip December 4-7.

View from the condo we booked—adorable.

I'm insistent that we will go hiking. Drew says I'll be 33 weeks pregnant, and we'll just have to see. *eye roll emoji. BUT either way—we will see plenty of snow and plenty of mountains and hopefully an elk?

THIS is Estes Park in the winter. IT'S BEAUTIFUL.

Weeeeelll, that's my update! I'll keep ya posted—these last few months are gonna be so fun!

Thursday, September 15, 2016

"Babymooning" + Gender Reveal

We finally found out on September 3rd that we're having a baby GIRL!

I have cool friends and a cool mom who threw us the funnest gender reveal party! (This is my blog, and funnest is a word.)

We were able to have the party on the rooftop at the Silos which was so nice. We were worried about the heat and also we were expecting some rain, but it ended up being the perfect breezy night.

My friends put together this sweet table with the cutest little pins (in the terracotta pots) so you could "wear your vote". Pink for girl, blue for boy.

For the record, I wore a pink dress and Drew wore a blue shirt. So I wore a navy pin and he wore a pink one. Even. Just in case.

My friends Hannah, Alissa and Whitney took a LOT of care in keeping every aspect of this party a surprise. Other than the time and location, we had no idea what to expect—not even the gender reveal "activity". Turns out, it was (of course) awesome. Smoke bombs.

If you watched Dawson's Facebook live video you saw me get confused about the smoke color after they were lit. The tips of the bombs had been painted blue, so the bomb put off sliiiightly blue colored smoke before it turned pink.

So I yelled, "IT'S A BOY! Yeah?!"

And Alissa yelled "Nope!"

Well I was VERY confused by this for one millisecond, until I turned back around and the smoke was suddenly pink. Hence my shocked face.

We freaked out.

We had SO much fun with this party. Seriously. Thank you SO much to our friends for working so hard and keeping the secret from us so well! They gave us ZERO hints, and I worked right next to them all week. I gave them the envelope with the gender inside on TUESDAY and they kept their lips sealed until Saturday night.

And my sweet mom made everything happen with the food, drinks and the delicious desserts. She's awesome. Of course, everything was so yummy.

And thanks to our friends and family who traveled from Houston, Dallas, Temple and Austin on LABOR DAY WEEKEND just to hang out with us and celebrate baby girl Clark. We had a pretty dang big crowd and it was loads of fun to find out in front of so many friends. (I was initially nervous about that part.)

If you're considering doing one of these parties, go for it. They're low pressure, short and sweet, and no one has to worry about gifts or fuss.

Okay so here's the fun part...I tell you what Drew and I wanted...boy or girl.

I avoided this question throughout the ENTIRE beginning of our pregnancy.

What do we want?

"We want a healthy baby. Ten fingers, ten toes."

I said this about a hundred times.

But here's the truth.

About three days after we found out we were expecting, I told Drew I had a gut feeling it was a girl. He agreed, he had been thinking girl, too. So throughout the whole pregnancy we both kind of ran with that. We did both waver at a few points. I had a few dreams it was a boy. The funniest was when I dreamed that after delivery I was introducing the baby boy to family and kept saying, "It's a boy! But the next one is going to be a girl!!"

Drew would've cried happy tears if it had been a boy. Naturally. I think just about every man wants a little boy. BUT, I also knew he would be thrilled with a girl. Which you can see, he was. And just like lots of moms want little girls, so did I. Though, of course, a boy would've been perfect, too.

SO...What are we going to name this little baby girl?!!!

Baby girl has actually been named for a few months now, but we aren't sharing. I know, I know—so annoying. But we kind of like having a secret. And we also don't want anyone's opinion...because it's already her name.

We didn't have a "for sure" boy name picked out, so it felt perfect when it was confirmed that she's a she.

Don't stress, it's nothing weird. You'll love it.

SO THE BABYMOON.

I actually hate the term babymoon, so let's call it a "last fling before the diaper bag" or something.

We've heard our friends RAVE about the little town of Seaside, Florida. So about three months ago, we booked it.

I know, I know, Zika virus is in Florida. But Seaside is actually like thousands of miles away from Miami. We were safe, and our doctor agreed we were safe. I honestly don't think either of us got even ONE bite. We wore tons of nasty greasy bug spray.

We drove there. 12 hours. Which was surprisingly not that bad. We had no kids or babies or small bladders in the car, so we only had to stop for gas and food.

When we got there we COULDN'T believe how beautiful the beach was. The sand is white and sugary and the water is so clear you can watch the fish swim around.

The city itself is actually where The Truman Show was filmed. It's the most beautifully put together and cleanest little beach town. The food was great and the people were really friendly.

We stayed in an adorable little condo about a mile outside of Seaside. It was cheap because it was technically off-season. Which we found hilarious, because it was 90 degrees and sunny the whole time.

Seaside has the cutest food trucks. Seriously.

^^^ What being preg on vacay is like. Root Beer after Root Beer.

Did I mention delicious food??

How about the beautiful beaches? Did I mention that?

The last night in town we traveled to Rosemary Beach (photo above), which was about a twenty minute drive from Seaside. It was SO pretty...very European vibe. We saw a swanky wedding on the beach and ate at a little tapas restaurant that was owned by a Baylor grad. So. Cute. Highlights were the chocolate fondue, my Nutella latte and watching Arkansas beat TCU.

Literally, y'all, we had such a blast. Seaside is so pretty and so cute and so fun. It felt homey and I was sad to leave. (But also glad to be getting back to routine.)

We got home shortly after 11 p.m. Sunday night. We both took off Monday, too, because 12 hour drives are surprisingly exhausting. We got up early Monday and did some major #adulting. We went to the social security office to legally change my name (LOL) and also went to the city and got another copy of our marriage license (We lost the original in our move.) Then we went to the bank and had my last "Crelia" card changed to "Clark."

I'm so official now. Just took a year and a half. Drew was very concerned about me doing this name change so that we could file taxes together or something. (Accountant life.) So I'm glad to have that behind me.

Pregnancy update:

Kicking:

Pregnancy is treating me much nicer these days. The night before we left for vacation, September 6th, Drew felt baby girl kick for the first time. I was 19—almost 20—weeks.

He did freak out slightly. And now he reaches for my belly alllll the time. Which is hilarious because of course she isn't quite moving all the time.

Lately she's moving quite a bit. It's kind of fun, but can also be slightly obnoxious at bedtime. I have a sneaking suspicion this will only get stronger and more frequent.

Baby bump?

As far as showing, I am. But you can't really tell unless I want you to. Haha. In a t-shirt and shorts, you'd never know. In an empire waisted dress, you'd figure it out pretty quick.

Registry:

I started messing around with a registry. It's on BabyList (shout out Hannah) which is a cool site where you can register to any site or store all in one place. It's so legit.

Feel free to stalk, judge, and offer suggestions on mine. I've been polling all my friends with babies to see what I need and don't need. Feel free to troll and let me know if I missed anything or registered for anything dumb. I'm sure I did, because mostly all I paid attention to were baby blankets. If you know me, you know my love language is definitely cute blankets. So having a baby is another opportunity to collect a few more, right?

Link here: https://babyli.st/kaylee-drew-clark-registry

Cravings:

We've been doing the Whole30 for a while now. (We obviously took a break on vacation. Sort of. Despite the photos, we actually did really well sticking with mostly healthy groceries and staying away from the worst of it.) But this week I REALLY wanted biscuits and gravy. Why? Don't know. Someone said it, and from then on it was stuck in my head. So what did I do? I taught myself how to make homemade biscuits and gravy. I felt pretty cool honestly when Drew wouldn't stop talking about how awesome they were.

I do fully understand that this could be because I've been feeding him zucchini noodles, clear broth soups and tons of fruit. He was prob just happy to see any carbs at all.

Dough^^

^^ finished product. I promise they were perfectly done, they just didn't brown at all on top?

Other than that, nothing crazy.

We scheduled maternity and newborn pics. We started collecting a very small pile of baby things we've received: a few A&M baby onesies, some super soft little security blankets, a shelf I had to have, a print I had to have and some other cute odds and ends.

Y'ALL THAT'S IT FOR THE UPDATE. Who made it this far?? Haha

More soon.

Hello, third trimester.

Hello, third trimester.

"Babymooning" + Gender Reveal

Pink bathroom no more