SHE'S HERE!!!

Manhattan Grace has arrived! She was born at 1:25 am on December 16. She weighed 6lbs 10oz and was 20in long. She is the best Christmas present we could have ever asked for and we feel so very blessed to have her in our lives. More details on labor and the like to follow...

Update

Well, today is Manhattan's due date and early this morning I started having contractions. I already had an appointment scheduled at 11:00 am the doctor said that if I don't have our little precious tonight that he will be inducing me tomorrow at 5:00 am! We will see what happens! As I write this my contractions are about 5 minutes apart and lasting over a minute. I'll be sure Sean keeps everyone posted :)

The Final Days...

This is how I'm feeling right now...

Everyone says that the last couple of weeks are the hardest part of pregnancy and I always thought that it couldn't be that bad. However, now that I'm experiencing it, I must say that it is THAT bad and maybe even worse! Everyday it is getting more and more uncomfortable just for me to do normal daily tasks and I seriously cannot wait to be done with pregnancy. On a more positive note I have to say that I am so blessed to have had a great pregnancy with absolutely no complications and there are only ten days to go until Sean and I get to welcome a beautiful little girl into the world. We are so very excited and cannot wait to meet her!

Loving Life

So I have kinda let Alexa carry the blogging load lately and I thought today would be a great day to write about what has been going on with me lately. There are some serious changes on the horizon for us and I gotta say, I COULD NOT BE ANY MORE EXCITED. Alexa is ready to be done with this whole pregnancy business but I have to applaud her for the way she has handled everything. She is still working full time, being a great wife, and still has not gone a day without wearing her heels. Move over all of Hattie's things that belong in the nursery closet, Alexa's heels are here to stay! I am sure Alexa will roll her eyes when she reads this, but I am amazed that she is still wearing those crazy things at 35 weeks. She looks amazing and I am excited to see her as a mommy. Speaking of being a parent, ummm.... who in the wide wide world of sports would have thought that Sean Pack would be a dad at 25. I chuckle quite often at the plan of our creator. I know its all happening for a reason and at this time for the same, but holy cow. That's all I will say about that. I am excited. Now to get to some things that have been going on with me lately.

Flawless.

So Alexa surprised me a few weeks back with an early Christmas present. I don't know if many of you know this, but I really like nice things. :) Luckily, Alexa shares my similar taste and in this particular situation, and we got a steal on pretty much the nicest pen I have ever seen. The Mont Blanc website would snub their noses that I called the pen a "pen". The "precision writing instrument" shown below will be the pen of choice for me for many years to come. Thank you sweetheart, I love it!

Chicago.

Alan, (my father-in-law) won a trip for two to Chicago during a competition for his work. The perks of the trip were awesome and I gotta say, Alan knows how to travel. We went to Chicago for a taping of the PBS show Soundstage. I am sure not a ton of you know what the show is, as it is on PBS, but it is basically a concert for TV. We saw Michael McDonald, formerly of the Doobie Brothers. It was really awesome. It was a relatively small stage/venue so we were really close. It was really a fun night. We had a reception before the show where we got to meet Mr. McDonald and get pictures and things with him. The taping was for a Christmas show, which is always a favorite for myself. It was a quick trip, but we stayed in downtown Chicago in the Magnificent Mile Marriot and got to bum around Chicago for a day. We ate at the Lux du Cafe, among other places and it was fantastic. I absolutely love Chicago and I want to go back so bad. Alan knew that I desperately needed new running shoes, so we stopped by the Niketown and he was so kind to buy me a new pair of shoes. They of course are pictured below. I have the yellow ones though :) The shoes are pretty much the best pair I have ever worn. 1 mile becomes 4 pretty easily. So it was a great, great, great trip and I thank you Alan for taking me. I had a blast. It was good father-in-law, son-in-law time. Thank you.

Spoiled

Manhattan and I are very spoiled. Sean bought us this and I am so in love! Thank you baby :)

Fun Projects

Can I just say that I am absolutely, positively, ObSeSsEd with Hobby Lobby?! Oh my goodness! Magan introduced me to this fabulous place and I am 100% hooked! So, I saw this wreath on the Better Homes and Gardens website that I really liked and normally I am someone who just thinks that something looks fun but I don't attempt to actually make it...BUT today I branched out and made a wreath! An actual wreath! I am so excited about it! All of the supplies came from HL and the total project cost me $16.50!

Another couple of fun projects that both my mom and I have been working on are for little Manhattan. My mom found a bassinet for $5 at a garage sale that was in great shape but wasn't really my taste. I showed my mom what I wanted and she offered to help me make this skirt to cover the whole thing! It's about 3/4 of the way done it's just missing a BIG bow to go in the front :)

I searched and searched for "shabby chic" crib bedding and couldn't find anything that I remotely liked for our little princess. I of course told my mom about my dilemma and she said that she would be happy to make it for me! My mom is just amazing! Because so many people have asked to see the progress on the nursery I thought I would show the samples of the fabrics and trims that will be used to create Manhattan's one-0f-a-kind bedding! Her crib is a distressed sage green and I think that it will all tie together really well. I promise as SOON as everything is complete we will post pictures!

Lately

It's been a little while since I have blogged and I thought I would catch you up on a couple of happenings.

Amanda had her BABY!!! Little Ronin was born on September 12th and weighed 8lbs 2oz and is as cute as can be and I absolutely adore him! And I must say that Amanda looks just FaBuLoUs!

We celebrated Sean's 25th birthday with family and friends--it was a lot of fun! He even got to indulge himself with TWO ice cream cakes from Baskin Robbins which are his absolute favorite.

I've entered into my third and final trimester and I am starting to feel HUGE and a lot more UnCoMfOrTaBlE! Luckily the countdown has begun and the end is in sight! We even signed up for our Labor class this month at the hospital! Sean is really looking forward to a fun filled Saturday with 6 hours of absolutely no football :) I told him that I've had to do endure this pregnancy thing for 9 months, he can survive one day! Here are a couple of pics of me at 29 weeks. (Yes, I know that the first pic is a little blurry but I just had to show the heels! They are about the only thing that makes me feel remotely attractive these days!)