Everly's Birth Story

Since I know you're just dying to hear it (riiiiiiiight...) and I think it would be good to have it written down somewhere, I thought I'd share my birth story with you guys. Fair warning: it's really long and really, not much happened other than a typical birth story, but I wanted to make sure I could remember every little detail. So, for your reading pleasure, I share with you (after the jump), Everly's Entrance.

Presenting...

I know this is a little late but for my 200th blog post, I proudly present for your approval,

Everly Faye Davis

Born December 13th, at 3:39 pm

6 lbs 12 oz, 20.5 inches

After many false starts, she has finally graced us with her presence. I just can't believe she's finally here (and how much hair she has)!

Holiday Baking

So, I've gotten a bee in my bonnet about holiday baking/candy-making. I just have to make a mess in the kitchen or I'm going to implode with boredom. So, without further ado, I present to you this year's holiday baking list!

• Chewy Gingerbread Bars
• Cookie Dough Truffles
• Creamy Dreamy Fudge
• Chocolate White Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Shortbread Cookies

My mouth is watering already. Now, the worst part - grocery list making and grocery shopping. If I could figure out a way around these two tasks, cooking would be much, MUCH more enjoyable. As it is though, I happen to love cooking, so I guess it's a good thing that there is something to prevent me from cooking (and baking!) myself, and my family into an oblivion. :) I'll post pictures when I'm done! And if you're local and want some, let me know. I'll have more than enough to share!! :)

And if you find yourself with nothing to do over the next three evenings, might I suggest the Apex Nativity Celebration? It's a three night long celebration of Christ at the Mormon chapel in Apex. There's hundreds of nativities from all over the world, beautiful decorations and paintings displayed and wonderful music. And on Saturday night, there's a performance of Handel's Messiah with a full choir and orchestra. It's an amazing event and I highly recommend seeing it!

Staying busy

In an effort to get my mind off of a certain someone's imminent arrival, I've been trying to keep busy. Between having my brother-in-law, Daniel, with us and doing small craft projects, I've been mildly successful (emphasis on the, MILDLY). A few days ago, I created these super easy and cute glitter Christmas tree decorations ...

My big girl camera is packed in the hospital bag, so you get crappy phone pictures! :)

(tutorial found here) 

and printed off some new subway art for my mantel ...

(print one off for yourself, here). 

Hopefully, it will look a little more Christmas-y when I get the nativity and stockings up tonight.

Today, I have plans to work on my thank you cards from my shower (oops, these have totally been ignored!) and the Christmas cards/baby announcements for this year. And tonight, Matt and I are going to decorate the house for Christmas. I feel a little less grinchy as a result. :) And if anyone wants to hang out (because I would LOVE some company/distractions!) let me know! Here's hoping the next few days go by quickly!

False starts and frustration

Last night, I started having contractions at a fairly regular rate. I mean, I've noticed having braxton-hicks contractions for a while now, but these were gratifyingly 10 minutes apart for a solid couple of hours. Matt and I were taken aback and started a frenzied rush around the house. We hadn't put the stroller together, or installed the car seat yet, not had I packed my hospital bag. But for several hours, I had a secret hope that this baby was on its way, I didn't have to be induced and that I didn't have to pregnant all that much longer.

But around midnight, the contractions started being farther apart and eventually stopped. I went to bed, and woke up this morning completely and thoroughly exhausted. But I bucked up and got ready for church, only to have a few annoyingly intermittent and slightly painful contractions start back up. The painful part got my attention and I (being a first timer) got worried and called the on-call physician. She said it was probably nothing but the baby having "dropped" some (probably from last night's activity) and that her shoulder or something may be digging into my back. But unfortunately, there's not much they can do and as long as the baby is still moving around and my contractions are not closer together. So ultimately, nothing to worry about and don't come to the hospital.

That is the most frustrating thing I've dealt with this whole pregnancy: "Yes it's normal, no there's nothing that can be done about it". For the most part, I've expected to be uncomfortable and hormonal on top of huge, but I feel like I've had both common and uncommon symptoms of pregnancy that have impacted my ability to function on a daily basis. I can understand that being pregnant is a huge shift in for your body and that it takes some adjusting on your part to deal with all that comes with being pregnant, but why is there so little that the doctors can do when it comes to the aches, pains, bleeds, etc.?

And I'm frustrated that I am still pregnant after last night. I know my due date isn't until this Saturday, but I am done. I'm done with stupid things people say, I'm done with random people thinking that it's ok to touch my belly and I'm done with not being to bend over. And the worst part now, is that every time the baby moves, I think it's a contraction. Any slight change in pressure or sensation has me on pins and needles thinking I might be starting another episode like last night. It's seriously feels like I'm a race horse, in the gate and some jerk face is rattling the door to my pen just because I'll jump. It's completely draining me of all energy and is putting serious strain on my ability to react to things rationally. I just want to be done. 

Some Homebaked Goodness!

While perusing one of my favorite websites (Tastespotting - Love it!) I stumbled across this photo.

Photo found at Jamiecooksitup.blogspot.com

Don't these make you want to run into your kitchen and make a huge mess with flour? Because I certainly did! The recipe was a bit fiddly (I'm not a great baker) but totally crazy delicious.

I made these puppies for Thanksgiving this year (mine did NOT look that pretty) and after that small success, I decided to try some of her other recipes. Matt and I had the braided sandwich loaf last night, and man was it good (but again, not as pretty as hers turned out, but closer to the mark than the rolls. That means I'm getting better at this baking business, right?)! And since it makes two BIG loaves, I froze one of them before rising and baking for after the baby comes. I'll let you know how that one turns out.

So, if you're ever looking for some totally delicious recipes for dinner, side dishes or desserts, look no further! You won't be disappointed!

 

Consider my brain wrinkled

Did you know that the plural form of octopus is octopuses? I had always assumed it would be octopi, after the latin tradition (e.g. radius to radii, etc.). But because the word is derived from Greek, octopous, you add an -es to the end and call it good! Crazy, right?

Now in honor of my newest brain wrinkle, I submit for your approval the video that caused it. It's crazy what you'll stumble upon when you can't sleep.

Turkey Day 2011

Happy Thanksgiving!!

As I was prepping our Thanksgiving feast this morning, it struck me that this will be the last Thanksgiving Matt and I spend alone for a VERY long time, so I'm going to revel in the slow, relaxed pace of the day today. I'm not going overboard on anything. Just having the basics. No fine china, no fancy tablecloth, no flowers, just me and Matt enjoying some good food and thanking our lucky stars for our little girl on the way.

This year, I would have to say the thing I'm most grateful for is pinto bean. Matt and I didn't have the easiest time getting pregnant, so to be able to have kids without having to turn to fertility treatments was a blessing (both financially and emotionally). I'm grateful that Heavenly Father thinks well enough about Matt and I to bless us with one of his precious spirits and I hope we're able to be blessed a few more times (although, not too many more times!). I'm grateful that after a rough start to this pregnancy, things settled down into a more manageable discomfort. Throwing up and feeling nauseous ALL the time was no fun, and not sleeping for several weeks was no fun either. But the latter third has been more comfortable. And even though things are starting to be uncomfortable and I complain, I thank my lucky stars that I am not on bed rest, that my baby is perfectly healthy and active, and that I've made it this far into my pregnancy with very few problems.
 

I would be remiss if I did not mention my gratitude for my family, friends and especially my Savior for His love and sacrifice for me. I have a firm testimony in the love of Christ and how freely His love is given to all. 

I hope you are spending your Thanksgiving exactly how you want to this year (whether with family or not!) and that this day is full of gratitude and good food! And bonus, here's a photo of me from today. I'm almost 38 weeks. What?! When did that happen!

You can come out now!!

Baby Shower

I didn't take my camera, not did any body else for that matter, so unfortunately I HAVE NO PICTURES... AGAIN!!!!!! Oh, but someone did take pictures of the cakes. Priorities, people.

Lemon Raspberry Cake - just like my wedding cake! It was my favorite!!

Black Forest Cake - Super delicious and both were made by a super talented lady in my ward!

It was so nice to have my friends and my family there to talk to and catch up with. Our surrogate family, or "The Other Davises" as we like to call them, hosted the event for me and let me tell ya it was really nice. My only request for my shower was to have friends and good food. And there was plenty of both!!

One of the really great things that Shanon did was have everyone bring a decorated onesie in different sizes. They are SO adorable and I love them so much! I'm going to take a permanent marker and write the names of the people who gave them to me so I can remember them every time my little girl gets dressed. I can't pick my favorite! And I *love* that they are homemade. So a BIG thank you to any of my readers who came and decorated onesies for me!

Blogger Hates Me

Recently, I switched my blogger account over to a different email address. Since then, I've had nothing but trouble with my google reader and the blogs I've been following! I've even had Matt look at it and he can't figure out why it's doing what it's doing. Ugg. I have a love/hate relationship with technology and this is exactly why. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't! Why can't it just work?!

Favorite Things

Here are a few of my favorite things right now:

Sweet potato pie

No, not the blue grass band (found here and also very good!), but the actual pie. We got a boatload of sweet potatoes in our produce box and I've struggled with using them all up, so I decided to make pie. I used this recipe from Allrecipes.com and it is fantastic! I doubled the recipe because I had almost 3 pounds of sweet potatoes and thought it couldn't hurt to put more sweet potato in each pie. It turned out great! So much better than pumpkin pie (to me, at least!) and I could use some of my NC goodness.

Adele

Photo courtesy of www.adele.tv

I love this woman's voice! But I don't like her live. I've heard a few live recordings and the woman has some serious pitch and support issues that makes it hard to listen to. I also recently saw one of her videos on youtube and she was smoking. SMOKING!! Why is she trying to ruin her beautiful voice? I don't quite understand it, but I truly think she has a beautiful, rich quality to her voice that is so pleasant to listen to.

Pan Am

Photo courtesy of worldscrews.blogspot.com

What can I say? I'm a sucker for anything set in the 60's! I just love the fashion and the hairstyles! I also love that it follows the lives of the stewardesses. I've always loved flying and secretly wanted to be a flight attendant for a long time (until I realized they keep crappy hours/sleep schedules and are away from their families for long periods of time). The acting is passable, at best, and the plot is the same every episode, more or less, but I still love it. I can't help myself!

T-minus one month, and counting...

As of today, I have exactly one month left in my projected pregnancy time-line. Now I realize that this baby could come earlier (if I could be so lucky!) or later (unfortunately, what is most likely) depending on this baby's sense of timing. I just can't help feeling excited but completely neurotically crazy at the same time.

In other news, we got our pack 'n play yesterday from my mom (thanks, mom!!) and in my excitement, I set it up immediately!

Sorry about the quality! My BGC battery was dead!

I was so proud of myself, having set it up all by my lonesome. So needless to say I was surprised when Matt came home kind of grumpy. After some prodding, he finally admitted that he kind of wanted to be there when I set it up and he felt like he missed out! What can I say! My excitement ran away with me! I'm so sorry, sweetheart!!

Also, I got the best compliment yesterday in yoga! My teacher came up to me while we were doing a modified moon salutation and she whispered in my ear, "You have great body positioning and awareness! Your poses always look just like they do in the books!" I was so happy to get this compliment especially because I try VERY hard to self correct and know where my body is in space, and at practically 9 months pregnant to boot! I felt like that was a win for me, especially when I feel like I must look ridiculous trying to modify the poses to get around the soccer ball in my belly. Have any of you felt like you've had a "win" moment recently?

Nesting

I think I'm finally feeling my nesting instincts kicking in. All I want to do is move furniture around. I don't necessarily want to clean anything. Just move things around. We've also been struggling with how to make the nursery/craft room and guest room work for us upstairs and I think I've finally figured it out. I honestly cannot believe it didn't occur to me sooner!

I really want to keep a guest room available for friends and family to stay at any time (because I know how much I love to sleep on a bed, rather than an air mattress). But I don't want to give up having a craft area. And since the baby will be here soon, we were basically trying to fit three rooms into two.

But I have realized that there is an unused room in our house with lots of storage built in and we won't have to sacrifice closet storage!!

We have since painted those cabinet doors white. It looks much better now. :)

Ta Da! I'm moving my craft stuff into the green room. Currently the most action it sees in a day is when I go get something from my "pantry". I don't even walk into that room that often!! So, when we were trying to figure out where to move my craft stuff, it dawned on me to utilize that space and all the shelves built into it! :) Here's the plan:

• Reorganize the shelves so that the bottom shelves are empty for craft things
• Add a DIY drop down table where the orange cabinets are in this picture, replacing the current cabinet doors. This is be my new desk
• Make curtains to cover the bottom few shelves and revamp the current curtains that are covering the pantry
• Move everything downstairs

I think it will be fantastic once it's done! Now I need to get to the really awful part and start organizing and cleaning out. Blech!

Homemade Laundry Soap

We were about to run out of laundry detergent when I came across some startling news about it: you can make your own for MUCH cheaper. AND it supposedly works just as well.

What the what?! How have I not known this! Any way, I was immediately intrigued and set about researching different recipes and the one I went with is this (it happens to be the simplest as well):

Ingredients:

• 2 cup washing soda (NOT baking soda. They are different, chemically speaking)
• 2 cup borax
• 1 - 5 oz bar of soap (you can use any really. Doesn't seem to matter which, but I used a castile soap with a lovely lavender scent. Others have also used Fels-Naptha or Zote which are marketed as laundry soaps in bar form. I didn't see these at Target when I bought everything, but your grocery store or Wal-mart may carry them)

Instructions:

• Grate or otherwise mangle your bar of soap into small, small pieces
• Mix together with washing soda and borax
• Put in a container

And done.

It seems much simpler and easier than the liquid detergent recipes. Any way, other recipes seem to say you should use about 2 tablespoons of the dry detergent per load (or a little more if it's really dirty). When you break down the costs, it's just unreal when compared to the liquid Tide I've been using.

Tide (Free and Gentle liquid) =  ~ .28 cents per load

Homemade = ~.07 cents per load

I've seen some people's calculations as low as .05 per load because they used regular ivory soap, but I really liked the lavender scent. But one of the best parts is you can even use this in high efficiency washing machines because it is a low sudsing (is that even a word?) detergent. Cool, huh?

I've still got a few drops of Tide left in the bottle, so I'll use that up before I'll breaking into my new batch of homemade soap, but I'll be sure to let you all know how it goes!

Happy Halloween!!

Is everybody ready to see the costume?

Ugg. Fat Face strikes again! Can't wait for the swelling to go away!

Ta-Da! I didn't have enough paint to do the pants as well, so I just wore my jeans. I also wore this today to my OB/GYN appointment and all the nurses and other patients thought it was so cute. I think the bow really adds to the cuteness. :)

I think the head looks like a crash test dummy, but whatever! It was the best I could do!

I hope everybody has a wonderful and safe Halloween!

Halloween Costumes

Our ward is doing a Trunk-or-Treat this year and Matt and I are dressing up! My original idea for a costume is not going to work. I thought it would be fun to be a pirate lady carrying a cannon ball, but in execution, the cannon ball idea just didn't come through. It just looked like I was wearing a black t-shirt with a weird string thing hanging off of it.

Any way, since the trunk-or-treat is happening this Saturday, I've had to scramble a last minute idea for a costume and I think I've found it!

Kinda creepy, yet kind of cute, right?

I love this blog because it's a little bit of everything (but mostly sewing) and I know I could totally pull this together pretty quick. The only hard part will be finding a long sleeved black shirt for me that I'm okay with painting a skeleton on. I don't want to pay full price, ya know? So here's hoping I can find something cheap!

I will definitely post pictures of the two of us wearing our skeleton costumes at the trunk-or-treat next week!

There is nothing better...

Than an ice cold glass of apple cider. I just cannot explain for refreshing and delicious it is. The only thing I can conceivably come close is.... drum roll please!

Love the veggie baskets!

Totally awesome carved pumpkins and squashes!

My sister made that red dress!

Found this little guy over in the garden section.

The State Fair! Ok, ok, I know this is totally corny but I *love* the state fair. There is so much to see, do and taste that it can't hardly be fit into one day! My favorite parts have got to be the big giant vegetables, or maybe the hideously dressed people that come out every year, or perhaps it's all the food! I can't ever decide which part is the best!

Can anyone guess what I have in common with this watermelon?

And this year, the fair is even more fun because not only did enter one of the fair's competitions, but a few people I know did as well! My sister entered a few items, namely a quilt, and won 5th place!! I don't know if she won any prize money, but that's still an achievement! Also, a friend of mine, Britt Brostrom, was recently featured in the New and Observer for winning 3rd place in a pie contest! She also won 1st place in the horseshoe throwing contest! Way to go Britt!

I, on the other hand, did not do as well as I had hoped.

There were no ribbons on my pictures, which was a major bummer, but it was still cool to see my photo hanging on the wall like a real gallery. Here I am with my picture (sorry for the blurriness! It's the only one I got!).

I am *so* tired after the 5 hour trip to the fair. I just cannot keep up with my sister (power walking champion of the world) with my back and feet hurting like they do! I tried, but in vain. By the end, I was limping along quite pitifully. Oh, but I had such a great time, seeing the giant vegetables, eating lots of food and having the weight-guessing carnies comment on my immanency (which is not immanent enough!). Regardless of the heckling I received, I am glad I went today. And I'm looking forward to going again. On Thursday. With Matt. :) Hope everyone can make it to the fair this year (and if you do, be sure to go see my photo!!) and have a great time!

Belly pictures

I apologize about the quality, as I only had my phone to take pictures with, but here are a few pictures of my belly. (I also want to say it's a lot harder to get a side picture of yourself that isn't crooked.) It's getting pretty big and obnoxious, especially when the two year old wants to sit on your lap to snuggle while you read books at night. Also, it kind of sucks when said two year old pushes/kicks/falls on the belly. Ouch!


I can't see my toes anymore, so I tilted the camera out a little. It's good to know they're still there somewhere!

 

Sheesh!

Here's hoping I don't get too much bigger. I won't, right... right? 

People ask the strangest things

Sunday, I was asked (by a father of 4 mind you) what it was like being pregnant. What immediately came out of my mouth was, "You have a wife and four children. Ask her." He blushed, but persisted in saying that he thought it must be better than digging holes or something. I quickly corrected him, remarking on how much I would take the back breaking labor any day. Just a thought...

Halloween Blocks

I saw some blocks like this on another craft blog (can't remember which) that was actually about something else. They just happened to be in the picture and I thought to myself, "I could make those." My sister (Thanks Megan!) cut out the letters for me and supplied the blocks. I spray-painted them black (using the new Martha Stewart spray paint stuff - totally awesome!) then gave 'em a coat of slime green, just for good measure.

Freshly painted slime green

After that, I put the letters on the paper and mod-podged the heck out of those suckers. What do you think?

Final product. Cute, non?

I am so excited about Halloween this year! :)

And the winner is...

 

Jumping Jellyfish!

After much deliberation, I narrowed it down to three photos and had them all printed. When they arrived, it was pretty evident which one was the winner. I had it framed (and still can't believe how much it cost) and it's ready to be dropped off at the fairgrounds later this week! I've got my fingers crossed and I have lowered my expectations to just having it deemed worthy to be a part of the competition! Apparently, just because you enter your work in the competition does not mean it's automatically good enough to be a part of the competition and get hung up on the walls at the fair. Crazy, right?

Well, regardless, I'm going to hang it on my walls when this is over. Unless, of course, someone at the fair decides they must have it and buys it from me. :) A girl can dream, right?