Nursery and bump updates

Summer is FLYING!  We go back to work in a little over two weeks and I'm now scrambling to get everything accomplished that I had hoped to over the summer.

Baby Girl is growing like crazy and kicking and jabbing up a storm.  I love feeling her move, and it hasn't gotten too uncomfortable yet (besides one foot-in-rib incident a few weeks ago).  I'm still feeling good, and just hoping my energy level keeps up awhile longer! 

I had a great trip to Kansas City, St. Louis, and Kentucky in June (Brett joined me for the KC and Kentucky legs of the trip, but I was on my own in St. Louis and for most of the traveling).  It was so nice to spend time with friends without feeling rushed, and I was very aware of the fact that travel will be drastically different next summer, so I took full advantage of my independence!  I had my first baby shower in KC, hosted by some wonderful girl friends.  It was such a special day and Baby Girl and I got very spoiled! 

We spent a week at the beach in Gulf Shores over the 4th of July.  My parents were with us for the entire week, and Brett's family was able to join us for the second half of the week.  We had a wonderful time.  Baby Girl seemed to love to water and the beach (just like her momma!) and was super active all week long.  Again, we spent a lot of time talking about how different next summer's beach trip will be with a 9 month old! 

We're 3 weeks into our 5-week childbirth class.  Last week's class included a tour of the hospital, which made everything seem very real!  I'm very pleased with what we saw though, and I am hopeful that we will have a great experience there.

The nursery is coming along, slowly but surely.  The crib and glider are put together.  We've found a dresser that we are going to get custom painted, and we should have that in the next few weeks.  I'm working on finding some other decorative items for the walls, etc.  Her closet is already quite full!!  (I haven't been able to resist cute sale items that she can wear next summer.  Every unborn child needs two swimsuits hanging in her closet, right?!)

A few nursery pics:

And the recent bump pics:

28 weeks tomorrow, and another doctor's appointment.  After tomorrow I start going every two weeks already!  Hard to believe that time is moving so quickly.  Will update again soon! 

22 Weeks!

Time is flying!

Back to Blogging...

I've officially fallen off the blogging bandwagon.  However, there are big changes coming in the Taveau household, and I've decided that I really need to start documenting better! 

Baby Taveau is due to arrive October 9, 2012, and we could not be more excited!  I know myself all too well, and considering that I still haven't finished our wedding album (almost 3 years later), the odds of me keeping up with any sort of baby book are not good.  I think blogging is a more realistic expectation as far as keeping up with the milestones of this pregnancy and of Baby Girl once she arrives!

We found out we were expecting on January 28, 2012.  Our initial reaction was a mix of shock and excitement, heavy on the shock- those first few days we sort of just stared at each other in disbelief.  I had a rough first trimester as far as "morning" (more like all-day) sickness and fatigue goes, but once I hit about week 11 I started feeling much better and have been feeling pretty good since then. 

We had our big ultrasound on May 15 and were thrilled to see a healthy, very active, baby GIRL!  (Insert more shock- I think I must have subconsciously thought it was a boy because some days I still can't believe it's a girl!)  We've hit the ground running with planning for Baby Girl since then.  I'm trying to take advantage of our summer break and the fact that I'm feeling good to get as much accomplished now as possible.  We've already gotten her bedding (we're going with a lambie theme), the crib and glider are ordered, and as of yesterday, the room that will soon be the nursery is empty, clean, and ready for baby gear! 

The next few weeks are going to busy, as we've got trips to Kansas City, St. Louis, and Kentucky planned to visit friends.  I've also got my first baby shower in KC next weekend! 

I'll leave you with a few pictures!

The growing bump...

And the nursery, as it looks currently.  Note the adorable lambie chair that I scored at the Pottery Barn outlet in Memphis a few weeks ago!

If you're looking for my recipes...

... I've moved them to a new blog!  I've decided to start a new blog that is strictly dedicated to cooking and recipes.  Please check it out at http://whatmarisamakes.blogspot.com/

My hope is to continue to post here about our house and our life in general, so keep this page bookmarked too! 

Our Anniversary

July 11 marked our one year wedding anniversary. I can't believe a year has gone by since our wedding day. In some ways it seems like it's flown by, and in other ways, it feels like we've been married for much longer than a year (in a good way!)

Our anniversary fell on a Sunday, and Brett had to be up super early for football Monday morning, so we decided to celebrate on Saturday night instead. We started out at home by opening a bottle of champagne that we had saved from our wedding night, and drank from the toasting flutes that we used for the wedding. We sat out on our balcony and enjoyed the champagne and some appetizers before we hit the town!

We had dinner at The Majestic, which is a downtown spot we had been wanting to try for quite sometime. We sat downstairs in the Jazz club, where they had a 3-piece band playing. The food was good and the music was great... we really enjoyed the experience.

After dinner we decided to walk to The Hilton President, where we had our wedding reception, to have a few drinks in the Drum Room. Just being there brought back so many wonderful memories of our perfect wedding weekend.






We had saved the top layer of our wedding cake, and it had been waiting patiently in our freezer for the past year. I have to say, the cake was what I was most excited about for our anniversary. I was absolutely obsessed with our wedding cake and couldn't wait to taste it again. It did not disappoint! It was definitely not as pretty as it was a year ago, but man, did it taste amazing!


Sunday we had a really lazy day. We ordered pizza, ate more cake, and watched our wedding DVD. All in all, it was a perfect anniversary!

I am so blessed to be married to such a wonderful man... and can't wait to see what's up next for us on this amazing journey we're on together! Happy First Anniversary Brett, I love you!

I'll leave you with a few of our favorite wedding photos...

SUMMER!

It's finally SUMMER!! We've been off for a week now, and I'm soaking in every glorious minute of it. We enjoyed a nice, low-key weekend at home to recover from the end of the year madness, then I was off to Iowa for a quick trip to see my besties Lauren and Elissa, and of course Lauren's adorable baby boy Micah. It was great to see everyone, to finally get to see Elissa and John's new house, and to get my Micah fix. He's getting so big and is so much fun!

My summer to-do list:

• LOTS of cooking. I have a bunch of recipes bookmarked to try and can't wait to spend some serious time in the kitchen!
• Getting closets, cabinets, and our storage area cleaned out and re-organized.
• Deep cleaning of our condo... it needs it BAD.
• Getting into a serious workout routine. I'm really wanting to start swimming again. I swam for the first time last week and it felt great- but man, it's hard work after a 10-year hiatus from the sport!
• Spending lots of quality time playing with my nephew and sister-in-law.
• Enjoying the summer with Brett! We've got some road trips planned and have a short list of Kansas City attractions we want to visit.

Recipes coming soon:

Homemade spaghetti sauce

Chocolate cobbler

Maybe another few... we'll see how they turn out first!

Happy Summer!!

The Best Laid Plans...

I'm taking a break from the standard cooking posts tonight to give an update on us...

Many of you know that we have spent much of the past several months actively searching for, applying for, and interviewing for jobs in Nashville. We have been talking about moving there for the past few years to be closer to my parents, and felt like this summer would be the perfect time to make a move. We (naively) thought it would be pretty feasible for us both to find jobs we could at least live with while we got ourselves established in Nashville.

To make a long story short, it has not gone as planned. The job market stinks.... go figure! And while we seriously contemplated taking a huge leap of faith and making the decision to move with only one of us having a job, we ultimately decided that would be too huge of a risk in this crappy economy. We are both lucky and hugely grateful to have great jobs here that we love. So, after many weeks of tears, sleepless nights, stress, and round and round discussions, today Brett and I signed our contracts to stay teaching here in KC for the next year.

To say this has been a challenge in our newly married life would be an understatement. We are both so incredibly disappointed that things did not work out as we intended. And for me, the biggest challenge has been not being able to control things to work out as I had them planned in my head. But we have both finally come to terms with the way things are working out, and are seeing the blessings in all of this.

We have built ourselves a good life here in KC. We love living downtown, we've got great friends here, and there are so many things that we would miss about this place. From the BBQ, to the Boulevard beer, to our favorite downtown 3 mile running route, to the Farmer's Market on Saturday mornings... it's all beautiful.

As I mentioned earlier, we both are lucky to have jobs we love. I have the most wonderful friends as co-workers, and I love my kids and the work I do for them. Leaving my job was going to be so difficult, and I am definitely glad that I can put off those goodbyes, for now at least. And the hugs and "happy dances" I got today when I signed my contract just reminded me how much I love everything about my job.

As for us newlyweds, this experience has definitely strengthened our relationship. We have been reminded that no matter where we are living or what we are doing, we will have each other, and that just makes everything okay.

Most importantly, we have been reminded that God's plan for us is bigger and more beautiful than we can ever understand. We truly believe there is a reason that we are meant to stay in Kansas City. We do believe we will end up in Nashville eventually, when the time is right. But now was obviously not the time for us to move, and we are so excited to see what the next year brings.

Thank you to our friends and family for all the support you have shown us during these crazy, stressful few months. We love you all, and you serve as daily reminders of the many ways we have been blessed.

So for now, signing off from Kansas City... (for the next year at least!)

Love,
B+M