Bikinis and Breakdowns

During the summer work weeks, Charlie and I often go to our neighborhood pool around 5-6 in the evenings. We are home from work, the pool isn't crowded, we catch up, and one of us likes to feel weightless in the water. Its great actually. I have been rocking my pre-pregnancy bikinis; however I have officially out grown those. How do I phrase this delicately? Oh forget it, side-boob is not attractive. So Friday evening, I tried out my pregnancy tankini, black and white print, trimmed in red. Once I got this on, queue the waterworks and emotional breakdown. To be honest, I do not know what the big deal was; my best guess is hormones. Its not that I am unhappy with my pregnant body; ironically I am incredibly secure rocking this little boy's baby bump. Charlie is so into this pregnancy and always makes me feel so amazing about myself and builds me up that I don't have time to be insecure about my pregnant body. However, the pregnancy tankini combined with hormones did not go over so well. In my mind, I attribute tankinis to growing up (no, I do not fret about aging either), being a "mom," something we wear to hide flaws, or something we wear becuase its not considered appropriate to wear bikinis anymore. I totally understand that others do wear tankinis while not pregnant because they feel more confident, more secure, or they are more conservative than me. To each, their own. Pre-pregnancy, I have not worn bikinis with the intention of showing off my body (which is exactly what they do), its just something I have worn since I was a little girl during the summer months. Bikinis are my norm in the summertime, so why do I feel the need to change my norm just because I am pregnant? I have wanted this belly for 2.5 years, and I have it, so let's rock it. To fix the breakdown, on Saturday morning I made a trip to my local Pickles and Ice Cream in Southpark and fixed this problem in a very "Mary" way. Behold my new maternity leopard print bikini.

Thank you Lord that you have blessed me with a ridiculous emotional breakdown, which only means that this is a healthy pregnancy and Mason is growing and developing exactly as he should. Healthy pregnancies mean tantrums and breakdowns over nothing and for that I am eternally grateful!! Have a great day ya'll.

25 Weeks

I cannot believe we only have 15 weeks to go until we meet Sweet Mason. To be honest, I am not going to update each little bullet point that I normally do for these posts. Instead I will just hit the highlights:

At 25 weeks and 1 day pregnant, I feel fantastic and trying to savor the last few weeks of feeling this way before the exteme heat, swelling, fatique, and discomfort completely set in. Little man has caused a total weight gain of 16 lbs and continues to move constantly. My belly button is in, but my former belly button piercing has flattened out and my actual belly button is getting pretty shallow. I got in trouble this week with Charlie for running up a balance on my Ann Talor LOFT card for maternity clothes, but I needed clothes and I took advantage of a promotion, so I "SAVED," right?? I continue to wait for USA Baby Charlotte to call to inform me all pieces of Mason's bedroom are here and to set up the delivery time. Charlie is adamant about putting everything together. Crown moulding is up in Mason's room and crib bedding is due to arrive any day now. I cannot wait to post pictures of his bedding.

On a similar note, as I type this, our dear friends, Ross and Lindsey, are in labor with their first child, Tatum. We received a call at 2:00 am this morning informing us that Linds' water broke. I cannot wait to go and meet this sweet child, and Mason is ecstatic, full of kicks, and ready to meet his future girlfriend. I will post pics of the happy family when I have them.

Hope ya'll have a great day.

Mason's Room is Officially in Progress

As I sit here and type this, our two dogs, Tonka and Stella, are cuddled up with us on the couch. I just keep thinking how much of a rude awakening these two are in for......but so are their mom and dad.

This weekend was low-key. We have stayed around the house and began official work on Mason's room. Let's just say, we could possibly be on a first name basis with the Lowes employees. Don't get me wrong, I have decluttered and organized what baby "stuff" we have received from people or my yardsale adventures. Charlie was adamant about painting Mason's room himself. Painting was completed about 2 weeks ago, and this weekend started the crown moulding project. So far, Charlie is 95% complete with this project. Here are some pics so you can see the nursery progress.

The paint color contrasted with the former builder paint color.







Pre-crown picture

The closet before the crown.

After the crown moulding was added.

Another picture of hubb's work.






Dad working on the lil man's room.

I love the angles in this picture.





It just makes me smile when I get to see Charlie working with all his power tools that I know he loves. I also find it incredibly attractive that my husband knows how to do things. This week, the crib bedding should arrive the nursery furniture is due to arrive any day now. Holy Moly, this is REALLY happening. SQUEEL, I just cannot believe we have been so blessed.

In other news, we are in the process of switching churches. We love our former church, but after some thought, prayer, and realization, we have decided the fit is just not quite right for this family. So I leave you with this thought that was discussed in this morning's service. You know on Sunday nights, sometimes we become overwhelmed or just not excited about tomorrow or what Monday brings. Maybe its because we have to go back to work, to the grind, to a job we find meaningless. Just remember, when these feelings overwhelm/overtake you, You and nothing are meaningless if the Holy Spirit is in the midst. Hope you have a Happy Monday!

Reagan Turns 4

Last Saturday, May 14, 2011, Reagan turned 4. My sweet, beautiful, adorable niece Reagan is already 4 years old. In the big picture, its quite amazing that she is 4 and just as fiesty as ever, but on the selfish side, I miss that cute infant/toddler who was so cute and cuddly. She is still cute and cuddly, but she is now a little girl and I fear there is not much more time that she wants to be cuddly. She takes dance lessons for goodness sakes. I arrived early to help my sister get her ready, french braid Reagan's hair in pigtails, and take care of last minute party details that are essential to a 4 year olds birthday party. Here are some pictures of the big event.

Welcome to Reagan's House













Some pre-party pictures with Lori, Gavin, and Reagan

Reagan and Mommy

Ice Cream Truck Fun with all Her Friends







Tinkerbell Cake

Cake is Served








Her Kitchen for her New Playhouse

Lori and I










Lori, Mom, and I

21 Week Update

Good morning sweet friends. I just want to start this day off with praise for another beautiful day, we are here; in the now, so let's make the most of this day that has been given to us. We have so much to be thankful for in all our lives: family, friends, blessings within, homes, warm beds, and people to share our lives' journey with. God is so good and continues to richly bless Charlie and me; I have no clue what we did to deserve any of what we have both outside and within. So thank you God for this day and for the many blessings given to us.

I have decided that I am going to attempt more blog posts. There is just so much going on, and there is so much I want to share. For right now, I am going to share the 21 week update on Baby Boy Cagle.

How Far Along: 21 weeks, 1 day

Weight Gain: up 1/2 lb per 19 week appointment

Maternity Clothes: Almost always

Stretch Marks: None

Sleep: Very well

Best Moment of the Week: Feeling our little man move more and more everyday and night. Also purchasing the stroller and carseat. It feels great to finally take action and begin preparing.

Gender: Team BLUE!

Belly Button: Getting more shallow

What I Miss: Nothing, I LOVE carrying this baby.

Symptoms: Nothing new really. My chin acne may be disappearing. Either way, I don't care, its my badge of motherhood that I wear proudly. But the sun may have helped clear it up.

Looking Forward To: A great weekend with a prenatal massage and Reagan's dance recital.

Milestones: I am the most pregnant I have ever been and blessed with a baby boy.

Crying and Shopping

Yes friends, that sums up my week. These hormones can be pretty intense and leave me jumping to irrational thoughts. For example, Thursday afternoon I received fabric swatches in the mail, and was super excited to see how the lil guy's nursery fabric would coordinate. Charlie came home and informs me that he does not like the nursery fabrics, and oh by the way, he wants to revisit a name for the lil man that I thought we had closed the book on and put on the shelf.....I thought for good. Cue the overwhelming thoughts/tears and then ding dong goes the doorbell, my dad arrived to take me to dinner. So the kicker and what came out of my mouth to Charlie was "What does it matter to you? You are colorblind." He really is, he gets his blues, greens, pinks, etc mixed up. Plus, my husband just does not have the ability to see the finished product, he typically hates the bits and pieces, but loves everything once its altogether. To compromise, I took the one fabric he liked (brown fabric with blue giraffes...which he thought the giraffes were pink) and looked up all the coordinating fabrics to go with the giraffes. He did not like those, and just told me to do what I wanted, he was sure he would love it. Just don't make his room girly.

Here is a picture of the color scheme to be pursued. I love the dots, stripes, and the giraffe print. Since our furniture is dark, I plan to only use the giraffe print as accent here and there.

I went by Lowe's to pick out paint swatches and plan on starting to paint this week. So exciting, and Charlie is so ready to paint and install crown moulding.

In other news, we purchased our stroller and carseat. Here are those pictures too:

Meet the Peg Perego Pliko Switch Classico Stroller in Kiwi and the Primo Viaggio SIP 30/30 Infant Carseat in Pepper. Charlie picked out the carseat color and I picked the stroller color (there is your compromise). While they do not match, you will never see the stroller and carseat together. The stroller seat completely pops out so as only to leave the frame and the carseat clicks right into place. The carseat and stroller seat, when either is used, can face towards me or face the world. I LOVE how compact the stroller is when collapsed and I LOVE that the carseat is inverted so as to help prevent gas and reflux. I thought I would always go the Britax route since that is what has been used in my family, but the safety reviews and customer satisfaction reviews are so close, that we went with Peg.

Lastly, the "shopping" part, as in the title. Here are some purchases from this week: I went a little crazy.

Let's just say the first is dress is definitely more friendly on the wallet. The tie dye dress, was a bit pricier; however it was the MOST comfortable dress I have ever worn. It will be great in July for my maternity photo session with Kim Graham, our wedding photographer. Additionally, when trying these on yesterday, I would pull the fabric out in the stomach area to get an idea what happens to the dress's fit when my bump gets bigger. These were the only 2 that did not hug my rear end. I also hit up the 30% off at Ann Taylor LOFT maternity yesterday.

Ok, off to get ready for another baby shower at LKN. I hope ya'll have a great Sunday and enjoy the remainder of your weekends!!

Half Baked

This week marks the half-way point on our journey to lil man. I cannot believe how much time has passed and all the new things that are happening from week to week. There is so much to be thankful for and this past week this has been so evident:

Charlie and I feel the lil guy move every night and have now established a routine of laying in bed and feeling the gymnastics take place;

I have ordered fabric swatches for his nursery;

We have made progress on selecting his name...more on that at another time;

Dinner with my sweet cousin, who is an amazing mother and woman of God;

A baby shower for a longtime friend who is being blessed with a baby girl;

A friend finding out she is having a baby girl (that baby is going to be stunningly beautiful);

Lunch date with a fellow infertile (I can smile about this now) and her son;

An over-hour conversation with a dear friend;

celebrating Mother's Day and oh so much more.

This Saturday is my niece, Reagan's, 4th birthday. My sister is having a "housewarming" party for her since she has a brand new playhouse. A girl has to get established....I see lots of pink and purple; lots of princess with a splash of diva. Wouldn't you know she has 2 boyfriends these days? When I pick her up at daycare some days, her teachers tell me how bossy she is to them. HA! Someone is fiesty just like their aunt!

This week's updates:

How Far Along: 20 weeks, 1 day

Weight Gain: Up 1/2 lb per doctor's appointment from last Monday.

Maternity Clothes: Most definitely

Stretch Marks: None

Sleep: Very well this week

Best Moment of the Week: Mother's Day when Charlie felt the lil guy move.

Gender: Team BLUE!

Belly Button: In, but getting shallow

What I Miss: Nothing, I LOVE carrying this child.

Symptoms: RLP and great sleep

Looking Forward To: Getting the fabric swatches and getting the nursery construction underway.

Milestones: I am the most pregnant I have ever been and blessed with a boy!