Shower at Lolli's

My mother-in-law aka Lolli hosted a shower for me and Ramona this weekend. It was raining and the traffic was crazy but eventually everyone got there despite the highway closure due to an accident. We had an intimate gathering of family and friends. It was a great time to celebrate our upcoming arrival and share baby stories about me and Nick. We received amazing gifts and are so blessed to have such great support. We got a baby food maker from Lolli! I'm really excited to make Ramona's baby food when we actually get to that point!

We finally got a picture of the Snowden ladies - my little sister Apryle, mom, me and my sister Alicia!

It wouldn't be a Wills gathering without great food!

The cake was delicious of course. It matched the invitations complete with a bird on the front!

Thank you Lolli for a great shower and all the time and energy you poured into it.

37 Weeks

37 weeks and growing. We only have 3 weeks left! Nick and I have been reading Oh Baby, The Places You'll Go by Dr. Seuss/Tish Rabe to Ramona. I am preparing for maternity leave and by preparing I technically mean that I'm thinking about it a lot. It's so stressful to plan that far ahead especially since my kids don't know the routine of things yet.

Maternity Photos

Here's a sneak peek at our maternity photos. We took them on Labor Day. It was extremely humid which did not work in our hair's favor. However, these are really cute. I can't wait to see more. Carleen Sparkman of Charm Me Photography took the shots at Rose Park in Mansfield.

Sweet kisses from Nicholas.

Baby belly love.

Look at that 36 week and 2 day belly!

Another Day at the Doctors

I had a routine checkup today. It was my last bimonthly appointment which only means I go weekly now. Ramona is somewhere around 4 pounds now. Dr. Robbins said she's average and will probably be 6 lbs something when she's born. She's right on schedule for her due date as well. There's probably only a few days give or take from her projected Oct. 3rd arrival. I have at least 2 to 3 weeks left. I've gained 4 more pounds..ugh. I guess I'm just going to quit counting because I'm on track to blow through my weight goals.

They started on the house today. I guess it's a good thing Ramona doesn't look like she's coming too early because the tear out is slow going. They took out the marble in the entry and the dining room along with the laminate in the kitchen. To our surprise linoleum was underneath that laminate. I was hoping that entire tear out would be done today. Let's just hope the wood goes down by Friday. I am not as stressed about it as I thought I would be. I guess I just figure I'll wait until tomorrow to see how much is done before I stress. It might just be because I'm too exhausted from moving all that crap off the floors last night to have any energy left to stress out.

36 Weeks

I can't believe it's already been 36 weeks. Where has the time gone? I hear these next 4 weeks will drag, but with the remodel officially beginning (We close on Tuesday!) I don't know if that will be the case with me. I am also hoping to get my students in more of a routine and more independent before my precious Ramona arrives.

I went to get my nails and a pedi today with my mother in law. I am having pregnancy photos taken Monday morning by Carleen Sparkman of Charm Me Photography. Check out the link. She has some very precious photos. Let's hope Ramona is a good newborn model for her!

We went to Chuy's tonight to celebrate Nick's Uncle Bobby's 50th birthday. The entire Wills family was there (except Allen and Taylor)  including Nick's 2 cousins - Trey and Trista from GA. It was nice to see everyone especially since we really don't see them anymore. We went to Dave and Buster's afterward and played around eventually ending up on a trivia game to burn up all the money left on our card. There were 6 spots and so we all played against each other once everyone left the game. It was lots of fun and extremely tiring. I'm glad it's a 3 day weekend to recover from the madness.

Baby Shower #2

I am so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends who attended my baby shower. My sister Alicia took on a huge job of having it at her house with her husband out of town and 2 kids! My friend from 4th grade Kristina hosted the shower along with Alicia. It was so beautiful and absolutely perfect! It was great to see friends I had not seen in a while and open Ramona's first presents! I can't thank Alicia and Kristina enough. They did a fabulous job.

This is only half of the clothes Ramona got! We ran out of room on her clothesline. There was a definite theme of pink in all of her outfits!

This cake was so delicious. It's from Kathy's Icing on the Cake in Arlington. She made Alicia's shower cake and Bryson's birthday cakes. It's made me start thinking about Ramona's 1st Birthday cake already! I know it will be here so quick I won't even be able to believe it!

Nick sent a gift to the shower. I really didn't know what it was. I knew how much it costs (thank you mint.com), but I kept thinking it must be something for the nursery which wouldn't make sense because I'm "not allowed" to see certain items for the nursery. Basically I didn't know what to expect. It was a Kate Spade diaper bag! The pattern is one that I love and have loved for a while. I didn't really know what I was going to do for a diaper bag. I think it's like a purse in that you will want it set up a certain way once you really know what you like. At least I'll look like a trendy momma!

35 Weeks

Well Nick accidently cut off my stomach. We didn't notice it until later, but you can tell I'm bigger. I can still wear my jean capris. They are actually more comfortable than some of the pregnancy jeans I have. I started school on the 24th, so I've been so tired lately. Of course my adrenaline has kicked in, so I am still able to get all the beginning of the year things done (or as done as I normally do) in my condition! Ramona doesn't know what to think of all the new noises she's been hearing this week...along with her mommy raising her voice! She kicks and/or hits me when there are lots of things going on in the classroom. She'll come out knowing how to use the restroom and walk in the hallway since that's all she's heard me say about a million times a day for a week!

I had a doctor's appointment on Wednesday and thought it was on Thursday. I was really late to it, but everything appears to be good. I'm up a total of 22 pounds since I became pregnant. I was hoping to only gain 20 pounds total. Definitely not going to happen, and I still have 5 weeks left. New goal under 30 pounds?? Gosh I hope I don't gain 30 pounds. Guess I shouldn't have had that caffeine-free dr pepper float - oops. I really have been eating pretty sensibly. There's only an occasional night with some oreos and milk.

We ordered our monte luca glider after our last childbirth class and my first day of school on Monday. I am really excited about it. I tried to like other gliders, but I just couldn't pull myself away from the monte. I don't think it will make it to us by the time Ramona does, but it will be here within 6 to 8 weeks. Here's a picture of me a while ago perusing swatches on the orange monte luca glider at Baby Bliss. We ordered ours in chocolate.