best pregnancy body oil

I just picked up a new bottle of my favorite pregnancy oil and am so excited to start using it again!

Is that weird? I'm excited to slather on some oil?? I suppose it sounds a little odd, but I used it almost the entire time I was pregnant with C and didn't have a single stretch mark after he was born. It's a little hard to find in stores but my local Whole Foods special ordered it for me and I had it in three days.

It's by Weleda and until recently was called Pregnancy Body Oil but has now been renamed Stretch Mark Massage Oil, which I find a little less appealing. Name aside, this stuff works wonders and I highly recommend. I will warn you that the bottle does tend to leak if you travel with it and it bounces around in your bag, so I usually just leave it at home and take a travel size tube of heavy moisturizer or stick of coco butter with me while I'm away.

Here's the info from the Weleda website...

Weleda Stretch Mark Massage Oil

This stretch mark massage oil made with almond oil helps smooth tight skin and prevent stretch marks

Nutrient-rich Weleda Stretch Mark Massage Oil is an intensive hydration that nourishes and smoothes stretching skin as your baby grows.

Weleda Stretch Mark Massage Oil works with the purest ingredients that nature can provide.

A base of sweet almond oil in our Stretch Mark Massage Oil works gently, delivering intensely moisturizing essential fatty acids that keep your skin supple and protected from drying. Because pregnancy is a big job for your muscles and skin, our organic arnica flower extract helps ease tightness and provides a layer of comforting warmth when you indulge yourself with our almond stretch mark massage oil. Weleda Stretch Mark Massage Oil also contains nourishing wheat germ oil conditions and refines your skin’s texture with a high quantity of vitamins A, D and E. Regular use of this almond stretch mark massage oil visibly helps to correct the appearance of stretch marks on your pregnant belly, your thighs, bottom and breasts, and helps prevent the appearance of new ones. Now you can take a deep breath, relax and save the deep stretching for yoga.

past few days + kichen paint

Hey y'all.

We've been busy unpacking, decorating and eating turkey here. We ended up staying in town for Thanksgiving and I cooked at home while I put Kyle and C to work unpacking boxes. Not really {I wish!} but we have gotten a lot done in the past week or so and it's slowly starting to come together. It's still a long way from being picture worthy, but the progress is making it feel more like home.

Apart from unpacking, we've been to a few of the playgrounds in our new neighborhood. C also loves having a bigger backyard to play around in! I literally had to carry him back into the house last night kicking and screaming because after almost 2 hours, he STILL wanted to stay outside in the cold and the dark to continue playing.

This one below is a teaser preview of our Christmas card, which I finally ordered last night....

After unpacking our next big project is painting the kitchen. The current color is kermit green {no joke} and it's got to go. As quickly as possible.

It's almost too awful to post on here, but just so you know I'm not joking here's a peek...

Love C's face in that one. We have a few more pics of Thanksgiving dinner that literally look like we are all sitting in front of a green screen weathermen use in TV studios. It's not pretty I am totally baffled as to why someone would choose to paint a room this color.

Current front runners are in the blue/grey family. The room opens up to the family room, which is a tan color. I'm not in love with the tan either, but repainting would require painting the not only the family room but also the entire hall, stairway, and upstairs hall {which opens to the family room} and I'm not about to tackle that big of a job right now. So we need something that coordinates but lightens all the tan all up a bit....here are a few ideas...

Benjamin Moore Mt. Rainier Grey

Benjamin Moore Winter Lake

I'd rather go more grey, but with the tan in the family room, I'm worried about it not flowing well. I painted a large swatch of the Mt. Rainier Grey and it's actually quite blue and reminds me of a baby boy's nursery. The winter lake is pretty, but potentially too dark. So, back to the drawing board for me. Suggestions welcome!!

baby news: its a.....

Our awesome doctor was able to squeeze us in for an ultrasound at our 16 week appointment today and we were so excited to find out we are having a....

GIRL!!

It was just a quick ultrasound so we didn't get very many good pics of what she looks like,but hopefully we'll have some more to show you after the 20 week ultrasound. 

We are so excited and I can't wait to pick out little girl clothes and {my very favorite} bloomers!!

xoxo

new house + birthday

We are finally all moved in and officially in our new house!

We've definitely made progress unpacking over the last few days, but are still living in a sea of boxes...just when I unpack one, it seems like another one appears out of nowhere. Or after putting things away I decide to reorganize what I just did and it seems to take forever. Everyone is happy as can be here, though - Red is a whole different dog with more space and a larger yard, C loves his new playroom, I love having more storage space and Kyle loves that moving is an excuse to get a new TV :)

I'll show you all some photos once we get a few more things arranged around here. Right now all I could show you are pictures of boxes....and more boxes.

In other news, yesterday was my birthday and we had a great brunch at one of my favorite local restaurants. It was so funny how times have changed over the past few years. What would have once been a crazy night out for my bday is now a subdued Sunday brunch with friends and lots of babies!

sorry for the blurriness!

The major drawback to yesterday, though, was that I dropped my phone early on in the day and the screen cut out and all I could see was the "white screen of death". Scary stuff, I tell you. I spent a good part of the afternoon in the Verizon store and am now rocking a temporary phone {courtesy of the Verizon store manager who felt so bad that I was phone-less on my birthday} until my new iPhone arrives on Wednesday.

Hope you all had a great weekend, too! I have some VERY exciting news for you in my next post....

dog waking...toddler style

We make them stay in the backyard just in case Red's alter-ego, Red the Bandit, decides to make an appearance and he bolts....with C in tow.

PS. Thank you all for you sweet comments about baby #2. We are so excited!

PPS. Happy Birthday, Mom! xoxo

big news!

Yep, we're having another baby! And C is going to be a big brother! I'm currently 14 weeks along and due May 6th, 2012. We are so excited that C and his little sister or brother will be roughly 2 years and 2 months apart - not too close in age, but close enough :)

In all honesty, I been feeling pretty *meh* for the past few months. Nausea and exhaustion are not a good combination when you have a toddler running around - imagine that! Luckily I'm feeling better now and am very thankful the nausea subsided just in time for us to move! So things are a little crazy around here these days, but a good crazy.

I can't believe by this time next year we'll have two little ones running around {or one running, one crawling} but I am so thrilled to be a mommy again and have a sneaking suspicion it just might be a little girl this time.....!

So look for more maternity and baby posts in the coming months. I'm going to try to mix things up a bit so this isn't solely a baby blog. Also, if there is anything in particular you'd like to see posts about, just let me know.

xoxo 

hand cut map art

London mapcut by studiokmo

detailed pic of London mapcut by studiokmo

So as I've been dreaming about how to decorate the new house, I've been perusing though my ETSY favorites for some art inspiration and ideas. I just re-visited one of the coolest shops I've ever come across and wanted to share here. Studiokmo creates incredibly detailed and intricate hand cut maps of cities all over the world. The actual handcut maps are quite expensive - rightfully so because I imagine they must take forever to make - but they also have smaller prints created with very thin vertical lines.

Boston print by studiokmo

Manhattan (left) and Paris (right) prints by studiokmo

San Francisco diptych print by studiokmo

I love the Boston print {there is also a diptych of Boston but it isn't currently listed on their ETSY site} and think it would look great in an office area or in a wall gallery type display. If you aren't up for displaying an entire handcut or print they have much smaller postcards sizes, too.

moving {soon!} + new house to decorate

So we are moving in mid-November {yay!} and I've freakishly been trying to clean out every drawer and closet in an attempt to organize what I'm putting into boxes. This is no small feat, I tell you. Every time I think I've made progress, I turn around to see that C-man has just undone in 5 seconds what I've spent hours doing. It's so deflating.

Despite the chaos of packing, cleaning, moving, etc with a 19 month old hooligan running around, I am beginning to get very, very excited about decorating a new house.....! I never felt satisfied with the way our current house looked and am really over the moon about being in a new {much larger!} space where I can put my own stamp on things and make it feel more like home. I've had a million of so ideas spinning around in my head and wanted to share a few inspiration images with you....I'm hoping to start with the downstairs living space because we'll likely spend them most time there, and then move upstairs to the bedrooms.

LOVE this first one from Lonny...

Source: meohmymama.blogspot.com via Marisa on Pinterest

Source: sketch42blog.com via Marisa on Pinterest

Source: havenandhome.blogspot.com via Marisa on Pinterest

Source: amberinteriordesign.blogspot.com via Marisa on Pinterest

Source: myflightsofwhimsy.blogspot.com via Marisa on Pinterest

Source: jaggedlittlelife.blogspot.com via Marisa on Pinterest

Source: pinkwallpaper.blogspot.com via Marisa on Pinterest

Source: designmanifest.blogspot.com via Marisa on Pinterest

Source: angiehranowsky.com via Marisa on Pinterest

The living room extends into the kitchen space, so I'd like the space to have a cohesive look and flow into one another. As you can see I'm all over the map, right now, so I need to spend some time narrowing it all down and finding what works for us and our budget. Plus, I could have posted about another million mages that I absolutely love, so this is merely a small sampling of where my head is right now. Overall this will be a lengthy process I'm sure, but I'm so excited for it to evolve over the next few months!

trick or treat

I'd say we had Halloween success here. He was a little skeptical at first, but once he got the hang of it he was tossing candy in his pumpkin with the best of them. There was a little confusion at one house where he thought he should give them candy {a full sized snickers bar, nonetheless} but we quickly figured that one out and everyone thought it was pretty cute.

Only 364 more days until we get to do it all again!