6 Weeks

This week I started developing a strange sense of smell.  I always thought that the heightened sense of smell would just mean that I could smell everything a bunch more.  That may be true for some people, but not for me.  Instead, most things smell fine, but I am super sensitive to some certain smells.  The kitchen smells like rotten food.  Our car smells disgusting.  Strong food smells like hummus makes me feel sick.  My favorite meal, Costa Vida enchiladas, smell a little different to me now.  I didn't realize that things wouldn't just smell stronger, but also different.  I am starting to feel so nauseous.  I think I'm in for trouble.

No picture this week as I haven't felt up for getting out of bed for a few days.  My belly looks the same anyways.

5 weeks

I know it's silly to take these pictures so soon.  Try to get over it. :)

We told my family today!  When my mom got pregnant for the first time, she told my dad by taking a stuffed rabbit that she had made and putting it on it's back on the table and drawing x's on it's eyes to make it look like it was dead.  For those of you who don't know, way way back in the day they used to have to kill a rabbit to do a pregnancy test.  Not sure why.  But, that's why the dead rabbit.  So, last time I was at my parent's house I snagged my old pink stuffed rabbit that I was given for Easter when I was a kid.  I cut out little x's and stitched them over it's eyes and put the bunny in a bag.  We were going up to Logan that day to see my dear cousin Haley give her mission homecoming talk in church.  My brother lives in Logan and so I knew it would be a good time since the whole family would be together.  After sacrament meeting, I made all of my family come outside.  They kept asking 'why?' and 'what are we doing?'  They are not good little sheep.  But I finally got them all there and told my dad I had a birthday present for him (his birthday is close to what I think the due date is.)  I handed him the bag and he opened it up.  They were so surprised!  My mom kept saying, 'You stinker!' which I'm not sure what she meant by that really.  Haha.  My brother and sister didn't quite get it so mom explained about how she told dad she was pregnant and about the rabbit-killing test.  It sounds really morbid when I write it down, but it was cute and fun in real life, I promise.  I know most people probably wait longer, but I'm glad I didn't.  It made me a little more excited and I am so happy I get to talk to a woman about my pregnancy now.  I'm still having a hard time believing that I'm really actually pregnant.

Put a Bird on it! An Easy Way to Decorate a Throw Pillow

 Before we get started, if you haven't seen the Portlandia 'Put a Bird on it' sketch, please feel free to watch it now.  Portlandia is one of those shows that are totally dumb but I keep going back to for some reason.  I can't tell you how many times I've quoted the Sacajawea sketch even though it's the most annoying thing in the world to watch.  


If there's anything I love, it's super easy crafts that you can use to decorate your home.  Today I'm going to show you how I put a bird on a throw pillow.

1. Get a plain throw pillow that you like.  I bought two apple green pillows for my couch.

2. Draw or print out the shape you want and then cut it out.  I wanted a bird on a branch, so I sketched it out on a piece of paper.

3. Pin the paper on felt and cut it out.  Don't make the mistake I did, buy non-pilling felt!

4. Hand stitch around the edges of the design onto your pillow.

5. Done!  See how easy that was?

What I Wore: Ruffles Galore, Colored Shorts, Floral Dress, and More

I love this top from Anthropologie!  Of course I bought it on ebay for much cheaper though. 

Mint ruffle tank top: Bisco Falls from Anthropologie, bought on ebay

White crop undershirt: Hapari

Denim shorts: Aeropostale

Pearl ring: bought in Hawaii

My grandma's apricot trees sure make a cute backdrop. :)

Ivory ruffle sleeve tee: Forever21

Turquoise shorts: American Rag from Macy's

Cognac sandals: Old Navy

Flower headband: H&M

The funny thing about this belt is that when I bought it, it fit great.  But now, it somehow stretched out a good ten inches and needs to be pinned on.  I don't know how that happens.

Floral ruffle dress: Forever21

Ivory crop undershirt: Hapari

Tan knot waist belt: Wet Seal

Tan moccasin shoes: Payless

Pink necklace: Downeast

This is one of my dressy/casual outfits.

Ruffle button-up top: Goodwill

Teal cami: Forever21

Waist belt: came with a different top

Leggings: ebay

Silver sandals: Payless

Teal earrings: Forever21

I love pencil skirts.  This polka dot one is versatile and oh so classy.

Mint lace detail tee: H&M

White undershirt: Downeast

Black and white polka dot pencil skirt: H&M

Mint skinny belt: Came with skirt, from H&M

Black lace rosette flats: Forever Young Shoes

Pearl necklaces: gift

4 Weeks

I promise there's a baby in there

I might as well start the weekly posting thing now. You can't see anything yet, but there's definitely a baby in there!  I took a pregnancy test again today just to make sure the last two weren't lying.  When I remember that I'm pregnant, I get excited and feel so happy.  I'm praying that everything goes well and we get to meet this cute little jellybean.  This is all so surreal, especially since I got negative test results every month for so long.  I'm assuming everyone feels this way until they actually start getting big or have crazy pregnancy symptoms.  I'm excitedly planning how to break the news to my family.  I think I have a great idea. :)  Blake is pretty excited, and I think he's proud of himself haha.  I'm trying not to panic about finding somewhere to live that is going to fit us and the baby.  Sometimes I think to myself 'What were you thinking getting pregnant? You're not ready!'  But then I think about how lucky I am to even be able to get pregnant and of how cute our little baby will be and I can only feel happy.  I assume that no one really thinks they're ready to have a baby.  It's like the biggest change you can make in your entire life. 

TBT: 5 Years Ago (Tomorrow)

I'm going to skip ahead for a minute in our little love story because tomorrow is the anniversary of a momentous occasion.

It was August 15, 2009.  That morning I woke up and got ready as always.  Blake had gotten home from his summer working in Arizona the day before, and I was eager to see him.  Although we weren't actually engaged yet, I had already put money down on our reception location a month or so earlier.  We were serious about this thing.  Blake had bought a ring for me in Arizona and was having his aunt and uncle who are jewelers put a diamond on it since the ring was an anniversary band.  Blake told me that morning that the ring was ready and so we should go pick it up from them in Ogden.  I thought it was weird that he wanted to bring me along to pick it up, but he does strange things sometimes so I went along with it.  The funny thing is that we had our engagements scheduled later that day, so I knew he was going to propose before that evening.   

Blake arrived at my parent's house and we left together for Ogden.  He asked me if we could make a quick stop on the way there, and I said that was okay.  He pulled into the parking lot at Union Station, the place where most of our dates happened. 

"How about we take a walk around," he said.  We walked past the train tracks and all around the outside of the building.  Finally, he led us toward the trains and then right by the blue 2002 Olympics train car.

"Remember this spot?" he asked me.

"It's where we had our first kiss."

"Maybe we should try that again." 

When I opened my eyes afterwards, he knelt down and held out my ring, diamond and all

"Amanda, I love you.  Will you marry me?"

"Yes!"  And then the hugging and kissing and being super happy commenced, and the "officially engaged" period began.

Re-enactment later that day

5 years later and I'm still in love with this ring.  And my husband too.

I'm Pregnant!!!

Today we finally got that positive pregnancy test we have been wanting for so long!  Instead of finding out at home, we found out at the doctor's office.  This is a little TMI, but I was having bad cramping after every time I used the bathroom, and since that is not an early pregnancy symptom I've ever heard of, I decided to get checked out in case it was a UTI or something.  I was able to meet with a CNM.  She didn't seem to think it was a UTI and instead thought it could be a result of early pregnancy shifting my organs around a bit.  The urine test was not showing an infection.  She wanted me to take a blood test to check for pregnancy, but I told her last time I got blood drawn I fainted.  So she was going to have me go home and take a pregnancy test in a few days like I had planned.  As we were about to leave, she asked the nurse if they had enough urine left to do a pregnancy test, just in case it would show up this early.  So we waited a couple minutes and the nurse told us it was positive!  I gasped a little and looked at Blake with the biggest smile on my face.  The midwife gave me a fistbump and congratulated us.  I gave Blake a big hug and tried not to cry too much as we walked out to the car.  I was so happy, and also in disbelief.  When you've been having negative tests for most of a year it's surprising when you actually get a positive.  When we got home, I took another pregnancy test just to be sure.  Yep, still positive!  I still can't believe there's a baby in there.  It's nuts.  I'm trying to tell myself that I shouldn't get too excited because I might miscarry or something.  But guys, there's a HUMAN in my BELLY!  How crazy is that?!?!?!?

Baby's First Birthday Infographic

You may be thinking, 'Wait, she has a baby?" Don't worry, I don't have a secret child I have hidden from all of you.  I do, however, have a very adorable nephew.  I made him this cute little infographic for his mom to put up at his birthday party.

Pretty frickin' adorable

Do you have a young child with a birthday coming up?  I might make one of these for you too.  But unless I love you as much as I love the Pattys (which is a whole lot) then you are probably going to have to pay for it.  Money doesn't grow on trees around my house, ya know? :)