The long and short of it..

I was originally going to wear this maxi dress to Serena's recital this past Saturday but I changed my  mind at the last minute. Of course changing an outfit last minute is always disasterous when you are going somewhere because you have no idea what to wear!

I wasn't feeling to comfortable with the dress or the hair...at least not for the recital, plus I remembered we were going to a friend's BBQ afterwards so this certainly wasn't going to work. The concept seemed nice at first, but it just bugged me for some reason. You know what maybe because I wasn't used to the hair. This was the first time I've actually succeeded at wearing the messy side bun. I'm used to leaving my hair down.

 

My little ballerina..

It's been a great weekend. On Saturday Serena had a ballet recital and it was beautiful! I wish I could have taken pictures of the actual performance, but they don't allow flash and it was dark other than the stage. She had alot of fun and I'm so glad she's happy with ballet and still wants to continue doing it for many years. She really is a natural at it and Lord knows I don't say that about all the things she's done.

After the recital we headed over to a friend's house for crawfish and yesterday the day was spent at another friend's house for yet another cookout. Today we had a lazy day. Well lazy for H and the girls. I was busy cleaning and cooking. In the afternoon, I took the girls and one of Serena's friends for a walk to the park.

(Note to self: Do not go for a half mile walk around 3pm when the sun is blazing hot.)

Some Iphone pics...

and scenes from today....



On working out..with a bump

If you've read a previous post of mine, wayyyy in the beginning. I mentioned that I've been active since I was a little girl. Exercising is so important. I started soccer when I was 7 and have played pretty much my whole life exceptt for High School when I was active in Volleyball, cross country, and track. I didn't start playing soccer again till about 24 and then stopped when I was 27. In between sports I've tried to work out on my own but it's tough. I'm sure you guys know how it is. Getting the motivation to work out is hard.

When I was pregnant with Layla I didn't exercise at all! I was too paranoid about something happening since I had a miscarriage 11 months before I conceived Layla. It had nothing to do with exercise of course but I was still scared and was very cautious about everything, no caffeine, no being around harsh chemicals, etc. Well I ended up gaining 35 lbs, had a long and difficult labor and then I strained my right shoulder/neck pretty bad 3 months into breastfeeding. I know not exercising was part of it.

That's why this time around I have been walking alot and have recently (as of 3 days ago) started lifting some 5 lb weights to start toning up my arms. Lifting the baby everyday isn't cutting it alone, plus over the past months I've gotten some new little knots around my shoulder blade, that means other muscles are compensating for the weak ones. I've got to get them stronger. I am being careful though. I start by stretching my neck, traps, back and arms and then do the light weights occasionally followed by my heating pad. I only plan on doing the weights 3 times a week.

Anywho, I brought Layla outside yesterday for some photos before I started my exercises and my legs got eaten up by mosquito's! There must be something about my skin because Layla was fine.

.::scratches::

Beauty talk..

I actually have two products to talk about today and a video to show you on an awesome trick to conceal under eye baggage. I'm sure all you mommies with babies that keep them up are going to love this!

I'm going to start with a negative review first. As I mentioned before, my roots are pretty bad right now but not noticeable in my last post below, which is one reason I'm kicking myself because I should have just left well enough alone. Well I purchased Clairol's root touch up this weekend from Walmart and I applied it this morning. Let's just say I'm very dissapointed. I left the dye on even longer than the recommended 10 minutes and it hardly took. In fact my roots look even darker. I hate it. That's what I get for thinking a $5 product was going to do anything. The thing is I've used it before years ago and it worked fine.

Never again!

So yep, now I'm just going to wait another 1-2 weeks before I decide what to do next.

Another product I purchased was Maybelline's instant age rewind eraser dark circles treatment concealor. I know this one has been around for awhile now but I'm just now trying it. I usually use a Laura Mercier concealor but I ran out and thought I'd try this since I've heard good things about it.

I'm happy with it and I recommend it. It does a really good job. I have to say the texture is a little thicker than Laura Mercier's concealor but overall I feel the coverage is the same. I've heard the applicator is a little tricky to use at first and I did have to give it quite a few turns the first time, but now it comes out easy. I just dab a little on and then blot with my sponge.

Earlier this year (back when miss Layla was still not sleeping through the night) I was searching YouTube for some good under eye concealor tricks and I found a video with a trick I've never seen before. What a novel idea! You must watch and try it for yourself. I've been doing it ever since, only what I do is I conceal the under eye are as I normally do and then put a little more concealor just along the shadowy area and blend down. Watch the video and you'll see what I mean.

16 Weeks!

• How far along? 16 weeks.
• Total weight gain: I'm not sure. I was up 3 pounds at 14 weeks.
• Maternity clothes? Yes some. The top I'm wearing is a Liz Lange maternity top I got from Target during my last pregnancy. I'm still able to wear my pants but I have to use a hair tie to hold them together since they won't button.
• Stretch marks? No new ones. I was lucky to only get one small one that's hardly noticeable above my belly button. I did also get some on the sides of my butt which always grows when I'm pregnant.
• Sleep: It's been pretty decent.
• Best moment this week: It was last Saturday at 15 weeks when I felt the baby move twice.
• Miss Anything? Having energy.
• Movement: It's still hard to tell. Since last Saturday it hasn't been definite taps, just occaisonal pressure or shifting? and it's not everyday.
• Food cravings: Still buffalo chicken
• Food aversions: Not much other than still one of my husband's cologne's smell.
• Gender: Not sure yet.
• Labor Signs: No.
• Symptoms: Off and on nausea. Belly starts getting tight sometimes and after a really big meal my belly just feels so huge that I feel like I waddle sometimes.
• Belly Button in or out? In
• Wedding rings on or off? On.
• Looking forward to: Feeling the baby move more.

Under the weather..



Yet.....I'm still doing things around the house.

I'm a terrible sick person I really am. I'm not that great at just taking a load off and relaxing. Well not that one really can when it's just you and a 12 month old in the house, but still I could have spent more time relaxing on the couch and let her play with her toys in the living room. But nope. I ended up cleaning the kitchen really good, washing some clothes, and windexing the back door windows. Part of the reason I have a hard time laying around when I'm sick or in pain is because I think about what's hurting more whereas if I'm moving around my mind is not focused on it and mentally it makes you feel not as sick. The mind is a powerful thing.

Oh I'm talking about yesterday by the way. That's when it started. I woke up with a sore throat given to me by not naming any names ::cough...serena::...cough:: and feeling just very sluggish. I got Serena up for school, dropped her off and started my day with Layla. I did try to take a nap when I put Layla down but of course of all days she only napped for 30 minutes. So nap I did not. Later on she proceeded to be extra whiny and clingy for a good while, and I may or may not have wanted to breakdown during her lunchtime.

How could I be mad at this face though? How? 10 bonus points for looking extra cute too.

To make matters worse around 4pm my muscle knots started to hurt something awful. When your body is fighting an infection it feels more sensitive so I suppose this is why I got slapped with an extra dose of hurt. It was bad though. Not even my heating pad was helping and I couldn't find my tylenol, not that it would have helped anyways. I could barely talk by the time H called me on his way home from work. I was just so miserable. I was feeding Layla her dinner and I just cried. I must have confused her. The funny thing is, I felt a little better. Sometimes you just have to let out that pent up frustration and have yourself a good cry. When you cry you release stress hormones and one of them is cortisol.

Conditions such as inflammatory disorders and skin disorders are treated with sythetic cortisol. Also small increases of cortisol have some positive effects:

• A quick burst of energy for survival reasons
• Heightened memory functions
• A burst of increased immunity
• Lower sensitivity to pain
• Helps maintain homeostasis in the body

This is probably why my pain level goes down after a good cry. Which isn't too often. H gave me a good shoulder/neck massage later that evening too. I woke up this morning feeling better. More energy, though still a sore throat and my muscle knot pain is barely there. It's so weird how that works and I have yet to unlock the reason why I can have a really bad painful day and the next day it's practically non-existant. That's not too say some pain won't appear later this evening. I never know what's going to bring it on.



Maternity Style..

Being pregnant is fun (well when you're not dry heaving or feeling miserable). People are nicer, you get to eat pretty much what you want (ya know because you're eating for two lol), and you get to let it all hang out without worrying about your waistline.

I love dressing my bump. Through weeks 4-8 I usually wear loose tops because it's the awkward stage for me where it just looks like I have a beer gut and you're left wondering is she or isn't she? From week 9 and on though, bring on the form fitting tops! In a sense it just makes me more comfortable because it takes out the guessing work and my bump is already pronounced. Later on in my pregnancy I still like wearing clothes that show off the bump because looser tops or dresses end up making me look like I'm wearing a tent.

Exhibit A:

I was only 32 weeks in this picture. Loose dresses on me in third trimester = tent.

Now compare it to my 34 week picture with Layla. (also off on my left hand side bar)

I looked like I was growing a huge egg out of my stomach but at least I didn't appear bigger than I already was. By the way, the above top is a liz lange for Target maternity top. They are sooo comfortable and affordable. I have them in 3 different colors. In the below picture I'm wearing the one in white. I was 37 weeks when that picture was taken. As you can see I liked my tighter tops all the way towards the end. I did get alot of stares because my belly was so big on my small frame but looser tops would have probably garnered even more stares and comments.

I am also a fan of maxi dresses and form fitting dresses when it comes to dressing a bump.. Here are a few that I'm lusting over.

Isabella Oliver ruched tank dress

A pea in the pod drape maternity dress

ASOS maternity dress with pleat

ASOS maternity dress with dipped hem

So before I go, I'll leave you with an outfit post from the other day. Oh and just a quick baby update. I had a doctor's appointment yesterday and I got to hear my little bean's heart pumping away at 159 bpm. Still high and I'm still thinking it's another girl. We find out in six weeks!

Belts are also a nice accessory on the bump and I like that ruffles make me look chesty because I'm clearly not.

Have a great weekend!

Layla's first birthday recap!

It's still hard to believe my little baby turned one. It really does go by so fast. Layla started her day a little after 7:00 am like she always does. H brought her in the room and we snuggled on the bed with her telling her happy birthday. Serena woke up and came in the room about 20 minutes later and we all just layed in bed for awhile playing with Layla.

About 30 minutes later we got up and started the day. We had breakfast and then started cleaning and decorating. Around 2:30 pm the first guests arrived and I had people trickle in after that. The party lasted till about 10:00 pm because the guys ended up playing poker in the backyard, but I had put Layla down to bed at around 8pm.

Here are the details on the party. I really wanted to keep it on a budget and we were able to except for the food. I think we went over budget there but that was due to poor planning on the food.

Theme

I started planning Layla's birthday party pretty late in the game. I literally did not have a theme till 2 weeks before the party (I know...tsk..tsk. bad mommy), but I think it all came together nicely in the end. The theme was "April showers bring May flowers"

Invitations

I found the invites by chance at Walmart. I was actually looking for poster board and came across these cute little flower themed invites. The package came with 8 invites and envelopes for only 99 cents. Score! I thought they went great with her theme so I bought two. Our guest list was 37 people but alot of them were H's family and my family so that really consolidated the number of invites I needed. Honestly I'm not into spending alot of money on invitations since they get thrown away anyways.

 Decorations

Initially I was thinking of going with spring colors: pink, white, green, blue, light purple, but once I saw some items at Hobby Lobby I switched to the a brighter version of the colors mentioned. It worked out well because the craft stores had their Easter stuff marked down to 70-80 % off. The highlight of my decorations were the felt clouds that I made. They came out cute but were so tedious to make and twice I had to start certain parts over because I tangled up the string.

 I made ten of them and hung them up at the top of our deck so it could look like it was sprinkling. I went with green table covers so it could look like grass, and then had felt flower water cans on the table surrounded by umbrellas I had cut out.

I had wanted to do a bit more like have flowers along the fence but time just got away from me. The plates, napkins, utensils, streamers, and goodie boxes were all bought at either Walmart or Family Dollar.

Overall I was very pleased with how the decorations came out and I gave myself a pat on the back for spending so little. With the decor I spent about $45. I spent the most on the felt, batting and prisms for the clouds. The watering cans were part of the Easter markdowns and came out to $2.99 but I bought 4. I also had coupons to use for Michael's and the fabric store.

Food

Ah yes the food which was the main source of bickering between H and I. Ok so initially we talked about making brisket with potato salad, corn on the cob, baked beans, and cornbread. The sides weren't really going to cost much but the brisket was. The cheapest we found it to be was at HEB for $2.87 lb. The only problem was we didn't start looking at prices for this till late in the game and then H decided he didn't want to spend the whole day in front of his smoker. We both dropped the ball in the food section so in the end we literally went to the grocery store around 8pm the night before the party and bought salad, chips, veggies, drinks, beer and some other things. We just ended up ordering pizza for the party. It definitely made life easier because we didn't have to worry about cooking. However between the trip to HEB and the pizza, we spent around $220 and ended up with around 25 people at the party. We did buy some things for the house at HEB and we did have leftover pizza which we ate for lunch and dinner but still, we went way over budget there. Alcohol will really drive up your cost though.

A nice little extra was that my parents brought over their popcorn machine and also bought the cake which was nice of them.

Little make shift stand lol.

Layla

I was really hoping she would follow her morning routine so she wouldn't be overtired for her party and luckily she did-for the most part. I gave her a bath around 10:00 am and then put her down for a nap. It was a short nap since she was up around 11:20 but at least she got some sleep in. She was such a good baby during the early afternoon while we were setting up and Serena was such a huge help in keeping her entertained. H and I both felt like we didn't get to spend much time with her though since we were busy getting everything ready and then entertaining the guests. Also our moods were tense. I admit I get a little stressed and easily irritated before a party and I feel bad that I snapped at Serena and H a few times.

When the guests arrived Layla was pretty much held by everybody and she was having a good time till about 5:00 pm. If she skips her afternoon nap, this is around the time she starts getting cranky. So we went ahead and did her cake. I didn't feed her any but I gave her a little taste. She had the opportunity to put some in her mouth but she was more interested in how it felt on her fingers. After the cake I took her inside to open presents and then she played with a couple before I finally put her down to bed around 8:00 pm which is her normal bedtime.

Oh before I forget, her outfit we bought the day before the party at Babies R Us. I was going to have her wear a dress she wore just once for her spring pictures she took recently, but H wanted her to wear something new. I'm glad we went with this one piece. It's so cute!

So overall the party was a success but can I just say "phew" glad it's over with. Next time I'm at least going to enlist more help in the decorating and setup process.

14 Weeks

• How far along? 14 weeks.
• Total weight gain: I'm not sure. I haven't weighed myself since my last appointment but I think I have gained a couple pounds.
• Maternity clothes? Yes some, I have been living in a pair of Heidi Klum for motherhood maternity pants and I am starting to outgrow some of my regular tops.
• Stretch marks? No new ones.
• Sleep: It's been pretty decent.
• Best moment this week: Hmm that's a tough one. Not anything new on the baby front other than a growing belly.
• Miss Anything? Having energy.
• Movement: It's too hard to tell.
• Food cravings: Buffalo chicken
• Food aversions: Not much other than still one of my husband's cologne's smell.
• Gender: Not sure yet.
• Labor Signs: No.
• Symptoms: Off and on nausea. Not much energy though it's not as bad as the first few weeks.
• Belly Button in or out? In
• Wedding rings on or off? On.
• Looking forward to: My OB appt next week.

In adding to the movement question, I thought maybe I had felt something around 11 and a half weeks and then again around 12 weeks but maybe it was just gas. I can't tell. I am on high alert though. It's like I feel something and I'm all "who..wha..what was that?" I stop what I'm doing and get all quiet as if I'm going to hear something lol.

Happy Cinco De Mayo. :)