Spring is On the Horizon!

Yes, there is still snow on the ground, yes today's "warm" was 38 degrees, but Spring is in the air!!! And in the last couple months Dean has been growing so fast! I love that time is moving and seasons are changing, but I'm starting to realize my little "newborn" is becoming a  little tiny boy! (sorry these are all sideways) 8/9months

 In fact, he is now sleeping in a crib. I know I know, you say "where was he sleeping before?" Well all you momma's don't be afraid to say, baby's can be tough, and maybe you don't do things "by the books"... for us, getting sleep and letting Dean sleep in a stationary swing was more important that putting him in a crib. (Who says they HAVE to sleep there anyways??? Well..everyone) lol BUT as of this week he is now in the crib. He wakes up and then sits himself up and cries for an hour (of course I go in and out checking on him) BUT I figure he's got to figure it out soon right??

Now baby sleep aside, The New Year started great, got to do something I've wanted to do a long time, do a PAINT Nite with Julie! It was fun and I love getting to spend time with my preggie friends :)

Speak of Preggie friends we threw a shower for 3 of our Pregnant friends "Boy's Club" babies. There are going to be tons of babies all around! The shower was at our house and it was a fun Children's book theme. 

Baby Pics of Everyone

Hungry Caterpillar Cupackes

In the new year we've also celebrated lots of birthdays. First Mark's birthday was in January. We celebrated with MN shaped cookies, Whiskey cupcakes and Whiskey of course.

 
 
 

Then came February and Valentine's day, and we celebrated like usual, no gifts but heart shaped pizza for Mark and baked goods for me :) Even Dean took part, eating Beet colored muffins. (The only way he'll eat veggies anymore is by baking them into muffins! We also bought some nice new plants for the house to start to bring a Spring atmosphere to our house!!

 We also got to celebrate birthdays with all the Aronsons and it was fun to watch the cousins play together! Dean is finally getting old enough that he interacts with people! In fact, when we leave daycare now, he cries. I guess I should be happy, but sometimes it still makes a mom feel sad :(

Vanilla cupcakes with Nutella frosting

Today he turned 9 months and he has decided that he is now big enough to pull himself up on everything we own. I'm afraid he's going to start walking early like his momma.... hope not!

Big boy taking bites out of a whole slice of bread

Really we are just happy that he is happy and healthy! (After having the stomach bug last week :( )

In other news, I am now working on complete fitness certification in a new modality. It's called Oula, and even though I LOVEEE Body Flow, I may love Oula as much or maybe a little bit more! It's a Dance party, , workout, to top 40's music, with fun, sexy, flirty, strong moves! Not only do you get an amazing workout, but you get a nice release and fell young and beautiful again! I'm loving teaching intro classes and I can't wait until we have full Oula classes! Right now I'm teaching 2 a week at Eagan YMCA, Wednesday and Saturdays, and I LOVE the me time, PLUS the other ladies who are bringing it to the twin cities with me are amazing too! Check out the website https://oulafitness.com/ for more!

One of the neatest things about Oula are the monthly affirmations.
January-Be Present

February- Be FIERCE
March- Be Inspired!
-This month I'm thinking about what I really love to do, why I do, and who inspires me to do it! Hope you all can do the same this month :)

Now of course extra fun pictures of my baby :)

 

Baby is full term in 1 week!

This post will probably be full of pregnancy updates... because baby is coming so soon!  Since my last post we got to celebrate three different baby showers! The first one was at my school, and my 1st grade team put on a fun little baby shower after school. We got our crib mattress, lots of cute clothes and other things we needed for little A like diapers. The next day I got to celebrate AGAIN with Nancy (Mark's mom's) friends. Anne drove me out to Afton and we enjoyed a fun shower with all of the Afton ladies. There was a GREAT gluten free menu, complete with gluten free salads, muffins and a delicious chocolate pudding! The ladies got us our Pack-n-Play which we have in our room for when baby comes home and sleeps in the room with us, as well as the voice monitor, noise maker to put baby to sleep and lots of books to read baby before bed.

Pack-n-play

Clothes from school shower and cute monkey blanket

Gifts from the girls

The last shower I've had in the last few weeks was yesterday. It was a small group of us, just me, Susan and Julie and Anneke. We had a great time though! We started by playing with my little nephew Henry (who was definitely the star of the day) then ate some delicious food! My favorites were there just like at my school shower, tortilla chips, fruit, and Julie even went to the gluten free bakery to get me CUPCAKE :) We also spent a while decorating little oneies and for a group of girls who claimed to "not be artistic" I think we did a great job! I know Mark likes his Ninja turtle inspired one :)

Our Onesies (please note Curious George and Dino (SUSAN!) Elephant and Ninja (JULIE!) BYOB (Anneke!)

Thanks to ALL the generosity of our friends and family the nursery is finally feeling ready! We inherited BUCKETS of clothes from Mark's side of the family (being the 4th boy in the last 8 years) and any gear we have not received as gifts or purchased we are borrowing from Anne and Mike. I still have yet to finish decorating it (I have a vision) but all the key parts are there! We put tthe crib together (finally) and are just waiting for our glider to arrive next week.

Bookshelf

Closet organized Newborn and 0-3

Crib Unfinished

Crib Finished

Organizing all the clothes we inherited

As far as how I'm feeling... I'd say for being 36 weeks pregnant I'm doing pretty good. I had to stop doing most things at the gym, but I have gotten into the pool a few times. First time at 34 weeks (since had to buy a different maternity top!) and once the week after. I'm hoping to go more this week since it will be too rainy to walk. Mark and I have been trying to walk every day, and I'm still doing my daily morning yoga; but I have yet to attend a Zumba class since about 32 weeks. I find that now my body tells me when I overdo something, and I start to get cramps. Dr. said as long as they go away when I rest and drink water it's ok, so I'm just trying to listen to my body and when I feel any pains to stop and rest. I've had a lot more practice contractions, which are scary, and every time I think to myself "What if this is the beginning of the real thing?" (Granted most of these thoughts have happened in the middle of the night). Dr. says things seem good. I am now on to weekly appointments and my vitals have been great and his heartrate has been good as well. Last week he measured a little bit small so if he continues we may have to look into that, but my Dr. suspects it's because he's laying kind of sideways. (Which I know from his constant kicks to my right rib....) He is moving ALL the time and at night the movements became alien crazy!

34 Weeks pregnant about to swim

36 weeks pregnant

Jimpa getting to know Henry

This past week was a fun week in addition to the pregnancy, in that my dad was in town to visit! He came in on Good Friday, and we got to spend some time with him getting to know Henry (who he absolutely loves!) The rest of the weekend we got to spend with him and Paul, Susan and Henry. Saturday we went down to my parent's NEW HOUSE in Northfield, MN, and realized what a CUTE location they have gotten. My dad also got to see ALL the work he has ahead of him. Then on Sunday we went to Minnehaha falls (a bit warmer than the last time my dad was here!) And we did the hike along the falls to the Mississippi river. It was a BEAUTIFUL day.

Pretending to walk Henry

Laughing at Jimpa and Henry

The rest of the week my dad got to spend time with Mark and I in the evenings after work (since he was staying here) and a few days with Paul and Henry. The rest of the time he sepnt getting their new house ready: repairing a leaky roof, installing new door locks, replacing doors, changing the vents in the heating unit, checking out the plumbing, setting up utilities. Etc. He worked VERY hard while he was here! Not the most relaxing vacation! But we were glad to have him, and can't wait for him to be back in a couple months when Baby A is born!