Babymoon and other updates

Dear Blog-

I am sorry for the neglect...things have been busy and frankly I just haven't felt like updating you lately. Please forgive me...I still love you.

Nathalie

OK now that that is out of the way.....Andrew and I have been keeping busy lately. I really should start with telling you all about the beautiful baby shower we had at the beginning of November. I don't have any pics with me today from the event though so I will have to postpone my remarks from the evening to a later post.

For now, please enjoy some recent shots from our latest adventures and projects.

Adventure #1: A&M vs. Baylor football game. Location: Waco Texas

This is always a fun event for us since Andrew attended Texas A&M and I attended Baylor University. It was an exciting match up...well the first half was anyway. A&M came back in the 2nd half and ended up with the win. I was sad but it made for a more pleasant ride home with my Aggie.

Adventure #2: Colorado Babymoon and Thanksgiving  Location: Colorado

The week of Thanksgiving was spent in the lovely mountains of Colorado where I grew up and my family still lives. We saw deer, snow, and ate like kings (I am dreading my OB appointment tomorrow for fear I gained 12 pounds)! During our visit with my family Andrew and I took a couple of days for an official "babymoon". If you are not familiar with this term, it means one last hoorah before a couple becomes parents thus ending time alone forever. We got countless advice that one last trip "just the two of us" would not be regretted and cherished for years to come. We chose to visit the little town of Buena Vista Colorado and spent our time exploring and enjoying the mountains and time together. It was awesome.

Lovely river we walked along....

30 weeks on this day! It snowed while we were there which sadly covered the mountain views, but it was still really pretty!

I imagine this will be one of our last "just the two of us" photos....crazy!

Adventure #3: Nursery Art Project. Location: Julianne's room 

I have been slowly working on a few things for our girl's room. I found a tutorial online for this and thought it was such a great idea. My inspiration came from the quilt I had made for her and loving the fabrics that were used.

I love that it is unusual and custom made

Another view...I decided to order 3 of the fabrics in the quilt online and use it as artwork on the wall.

First I went to Hobby Lobby and chose some plain wooden frames in the size I desired. These cost me a total of $10 (made 3 frames)

Next I cut the fabric slightly larger than the frame

Then I ironed the cut piece..

gathered my supplies....not pictured here, but a husband is also nice to have around to operate the stapler while the wife holds the fabric tight

I started on one side pulling the fabric tight as I went and then did the same on the opposite end. Saved the corners for last....again...Andrew was very helpful for this part. Thanks babe!

For the corners I tried to wrap it like a gift. Seemed to work well....

 And Done! I am going to be changing the way they are hung...going for something more A-symmetrical I think. I didn't want to not show the finished product though. I am very pleased with how they turned out! Total cost: $25

I also now have some extra fabric to use for other things in the room as well. I don't really consider myself a crafty person, but this was so easy I would totally do it again or recommend others trying it.

Thus concludes this ridiculously long and random post. Thank you for reading....assuming you still are.

Nathalie

My Momma

I thought I would take this opportunity to write a post about my Mom. She lives in Colorado but surprised us this week with a visit! We literally came home Tuesday night after our childbirth class and she was in our living room with my sister (Maria was dog sitting for us). It is such a treat because I don't get to see her as much as I would like. We have been having fun this week hanging out.

Some fun facts about my mother:

1. She is petite and cute and always put together.

2. Both of her parents were born in Mexico but immigrated (legally I might add) to the states before she was born. I wrote an essay on my grandmother's challenging and inspirational journey to the US once and won a scholarship. It is an amazing story...and kind of off topic...I apologize

3. She speaks fluent Spanish, is very creative, makes excellent tamales, is a gifted Real Estate Agent.

4. She has decided Julianne will call her "Mamacita" "Cita" for short. I think it's perfect.

 This was her reaction to the news that she would be a grandmother. I wrote her a card from the baby and stuck a piece of rice on it to represent the baby's current size. She was excited to say the least....

5: My mother is not a fan of having her picture taken as you can see from the above image. I am not sure why this is as I have always thought she is such a pretty lady.

6. She is generous and has the gift of hospitality. She is constantly throwing parties and events in her home for her many friends.

I would have always told you that I love and appreciate my mom. However, as I go through this pregnancy I am beginning to realize that maybe I never understood how much she loves me. I love Julianne, but I am told I will love her unlike anything I have ever known once she is here. I cannot begin to understand that but am eager to experience it. I suspect how I relate to and love my mom will change as well. I think I may even feel bad I didn't appreciated her more. I suppose this is part of the joy a woman experiences when she becomes a grandmother, but the whole thing blows my mind. With that I will end this post.

Nathalie

2 years

This weekend marks mine and Andrew's second anniversary. He he has asked me out for a date tonight to celebrate and I am getting really excited! I cannot believe it has been 2 years since I walked down the isle to become Mrs. Andrew McClish. I found some old shots in facebook today to commemorate the occasion. We were married on November 1st at an outdoor ceremony in Colorado. People thought I was nuts to plan a wedding that late in the year in Colorado's unpredictable climate. The fact I wanted the event to take place out of doors on a mountain was even more ridiculous (it usually snows this time of year). You know what happened though? God gave us the most beautiful day! The weather men were astounded and kept talking about how it hadn't been as warm in over 35 years. It really couldn't have been more perfect for our nuptials.

 I wanted to carry orange flowers and I thought these were so pretty.

 Ceremony location and set up. My entire extended family helped decorate and I am still trying to thank them for all of the hard work they did.

 

Getting ready to marry Andrew! I was so excited and eager to get the show on the road

I asked my brother to give me away in absence of our Dad. I loved that he walked me down the isle. When we got to the end of the isle I took part of my bouquet and set it in an empty chair next to my mom we reserved for my Dad. It was a special moment.

We're hitched! Too bad Andrew was looking down for this moment

posing for the photographer...she liked when Andrew dipped and kissed me...we have a lot of these kind of shots

It was a great day. Looking back I realize how much I have learned and grown in the last 2 years. I am so thankful God called me to be Andrew's wife. I can't imagine anyone else loving me as patiently and selflessly as he does. Happy Anniversary babe....I love being your wife and can't wait to see what this year brings as we become parents! 

26 weeks and nursery paint project

This week marks the last of the second trimester...wow that is hard to believe. Here is what I look like as of this morning. Somehow I am just not a graceful, elegant, pregnant woman. These pictures seem to be difficult and awkward for me to pose for. Maybe because shots from the side are something I have been trying to avoid most of my life. I personally feel prettier from the front. Anyway..here is our attempt. Also...where the heck am I supposed to put my hands for these? This is not the solution I know...it looks like my hand is in my crotch. I assure you it is not!

Feeling great, still have lots of energy, and getting really excited about meeting our little girl. She is moving all the time and I constantly wonder what she will look and be like. It is fun to be anxiously giddy about her arrival, when up until now I have honestly felt more overwhelmed over the concept of becoming a mother. Don't get me wrong, the weight and responsibility Andrew and I feel as we prepare to become parents has not gone away. However, I feel more confident to take it on the closer we get to our due date.

It has also helped that we are getting a lot of stuff done in preparation for Julianne. We have taken a class on breastfeeding, start our Lamaze classes next week, registered (this is no easy task), and painted the nursery! Well I say we, Andrew painted the nursery on his own last weekend while I attended Baylor Homecoming with my dear friends Katy and Sarah.

Since Andrew is an Aggie not a Bear, he could care less about Baylor Homecoming and elected to stay home and paint the room. He also didn't want me to be around the fumes...what a great guy! Here are some before pics....we went through a lot of samples.

Above is looking in the room from the doorway

Wall of samples...for some reason the color on the paper never seemed to match the color on the wall. Later we found out that Lowes' paint color mixing software was messed up. Would have been nice to know before we made 9 trips, but finally we mixed our own color using 2 of our samples and had Home Depot match it. Result: finally got a color we liked!

We decided after the paint was up that we needed to sell this bed. It would have been great to have, but with the baby furniture there was just no room. So I took some pictures of it for Craig's list

It sold in less than 12 hours

Unfortunately I didn't take any other pictures of the room with the paint so you are stuck with my Craig's list sales pics. I think you can see though how nice the paint looks!

I will take more as we pull it all together, but had to brag on Andrew and his paint job today. I am so ready to get in there and set it all up for our baby girl!

Nathalie 

24 weeks

So turns out I am just terrible at documenting this pregnancy week by week. The last belly pick was taken back at week 15 or something. Oh well...Andrew took this pic this morning as I was putting on makeup which is why it does not include my face. It is shocking to look at this....it is like, is that really me? I have a similar reaction when I pass a window or mirror and catch a glimpse of myself. Although the growth has been substantial lately, I am still feeling pretty good. I have some ligament pain I am dealing with that is completely normal but still have energy and lots of stamina. My belly makes it a little harder to wash dishes I've noticed, but life is pretty normal otherwise. Well...except for the fact that we will become 3 in 3.5 months!

Julianne is moving a ton now! It is so fun to feel her squirming and punching throughout the day and night. Andrew can feel her too and each time she kicks him he lights up in amazement. I can't wait to see him with our daughter. I know he will be so tender and sweet to her and I am so excited to witness it! She is a lucky girl to have Andrew as her daddy.  

The nesting phase is here in full force and I have loved cleaning out the closets and purging our life of all the stuff we no longer need. A couple of Saturdays ago I went through every drawer, cupboard, and box in our house and kept just the essentials. It was a long day but now we have room for Jules and all her gear. Her room is still a work in progress and the pic below pretty much sums up how I am feeling about how the nursery is coming together.

The main challenge is the wall paint color. We are trying to get a neutral green color in there that is not too dark for the tiny room. Seems simple enough but at this point we have been through 8 paint samples and made countless trips to Lowes to find the right color for the walls. We are close and I am excited for how it will come together, but at the same time a little beat down by the project at this point. Hopefully we can find the right color soon. I think it will be easier from there. I will have to write an entire post about the nursery and take a pic of the wall with all our samples.

So that is 24 weeks in a nutshell...

Nathalie