Another Awesome Find for Ellie Jo

I'm totally aware that this is a terrible picture, but it was just to give an idea of what we got!

Yesterday, while Bryce and Robert were watching the Seahawks game, I was sitting on the couch (sort of watching the game), and I decided to search Craigslist. I just typed in "Eddie Bauer play yard," and this listing came up. It said that this play yard needed to be sold for $50! The listing said that the seller was willing to accept less for it, and I was amazed. I originally thought it was the same model that we registered for, ($149), but it's slightly different. It's definitely a different color scheme, and it's actually this model ($172)!

Anyway, I saw that it was in Renton, and I emailed the seller, asking if I came and got it the same day, would they sell for $35? She wrote back, and said absolutely! That's 80% off retail! So, since Robert wanted to stay home and I can't go get a Craigslist purchase myself for safety reasons, I called my dad and he went with me. He even volunteered to drive down there for me!

It was an easy drive, and we found it no problem. The play yard came with all the components, and is now completely wiped down and sanitized. I'm leaving it set up for a couple of days, as I had to spray it down with my Mrs. Meyers Clean Day Cleaner. (See this link: Mrs. Meyers Clean Day MRM-14270P3 Mrs. Meyers Clean Day Bathroom Cleaner, Lemon Verbena, 24 oz, 3 pack (Google Affiliate Ad)Mrs. Meyers Clean Day MRM-14270P3 Mrs. Meyers Clean Day Bathroom Cleaner, Lemon Verbena, 24 oz, 3 pack (Google Affiliate Ad) ) 

It just needs to dry and let the cleaner do its work, and then we'll pack it away until Ellie Jo needs it.

So far, we're only $285 into baby furniture and big purchases, and we've got all the nursery furniture, an amazing play yard set up, an adorable swing, and a super cute bouncy seat. I'd say we're well on our way to being ready for sweet miss Ellie Jo!

20 weeks!

Forgive this picture; I was so tired when we took it! But this is me at 20 weeks pregnant with Ellie Jo!

I finally can wear some of my maternity shirts. I'm still wearing my regular pants, because they still fit. I feel like I'm carrying so high! Most of the time, I like to wear my lounge pants and t-shirts to be comfortable. Jeans are even too much for me if I'm just around the house, lol. I'm definitely the queen of comfort right now.

After 3 months of feeling totally exhausted and super, super sick, I'm finally getting my energy back! Yesterday I picked up most of the main areas of the house, and didn't have to sit down and rest! I felt amazing after accomplishing what I did. Since about a week before Christmas, we've hardly been home long enough to sleep, let alone keep up on housework - and that bothers me so much! But this week, I got a lot done. I even had time to clean all of our towels using this Pinterest idea! It worked decently, but I think it was talked up quite a bit.

Yesterday, I did laundry, and folded it all. Now if I could just put it all away....

I'm planning to keep Christmas decorations up until after New Year. I really need to just relax a little bit before I really tackle that project. I'm looking forward to it, so I can get more of the house ready for the baby.

Speaking of which, we have been so blessed by amazing gifts from our family and friends for Ellie Jo! If you missed my post on this, check it out here.

Anyway, for those who have asked, I am still getting sick. Not as much as before, but when I get sick, I lose everything. Most of the women I've talked to don't really have a way to relate, as most of their sickness was first thing in the morning, or only when their stomach was empty. I find myself wishing it was that easy for me, but the truth is that I can't eat dinner without expecting to lose it all, even when I take my medicine. I'm not gaining weight yet, but hopefully by the next appointment with the OB, I'll get good news!

I have been able to drink between 32 and 64oz. of water every day! I normally hate plain water, but as much as I love vitamin water and juice, it makes me sick most of the time. (Again, we're finding that unless I get a solid 9 hours of sleep at night, my digestion pays the price). But my water intake has me feeling good!

Other than that, I'm just trying to organize our registries and all of Ellie Jo's stuff! The daybed in the guest room will be going back to it's original home, at my dad's house. More than likely, the entertainment center and TV in there will also have to go to my dad's. This will make my old room there a nice place for Grandma Freeman to stay when she comes to visit Dad. :) It will also free up space in the guestroom here to make it a nursery for Ellie Jo. (I am keeping the office as it is). Now if we could just find a new home for the spinet piano in the office, we could move the two bookshelves out of the guestroom and into office!

All in all, I'm feeling very little stress, and I'm getting more excited because of all the blessings and neat baby items that are making their way into our home!

Blessings & DIY Projects Started for Ellie Jo

Robert and I received a wonderful blessing the day after Christmas!

I'd been texting with my friend Michelle, and was telling her how excited we were about our baby girl, and that I'd registered for the same swing she had for her daughter (who is now 10 months old). She offered to give us theirs! I was blown away! I told her "thank you!" about 3 times, and promised to pick it up that afternoon. When I got there, she also had a bouncy seat, 2 huge bags of clothes and a brand new Baby Sac diaper bag! I couldn't do anything except hug both she and Zack (her fiance), and thank them over and over!

Here are some pictures of the blessings that Robert & I received from our friends, Zack & Michelle, on the day after Christmas!

Amazing and adorable baby swing!

Super cute bouncy seat!

Tons of clothes!

Fantastic new diaper bag!

I was so humbled by Zack & Michelle's generosity! We'll definitely have to do something super nice for them in return. :)

Because of our amazing blessings from our friends, I was able to spend a little of the money we'd set aside for those purchases. I chose to spend it on baby stuff that I would be making personally for Ellie Jo. Robert was so sweet to accompany me to Joann's, Target and Wal-Mart, and he even took me out to lunch at Red Robin to satisfy a pregnancy craving for chicken tortilla soup! What a sweet hubby!

Here is what I made last night:

3 travel diaper wipe cases! (I used this Pinterestidea for it)

1st case! You can see I did my trim differently
than the Pinterest idea. I only went around the top
half of my case.

2nd travel case!

3rd travel case!

4 custom burp cloths! I just used hand-me-down
receiving blankets and some cloth diapers :)

Burp cloth #1

Burp cloth #2

Burp cloth #3

Burp cloth #4

As I write, I was briefly (and pleasantly) interrupted by my friends, Ryan, Emily and their adorable daughter, Sophie! They came over and dropped off some infant toys, another diaper bag, and a black and red Baby Bjorn carrier! The blessings are just pouring in for us, and sweet Ellie Jo!

Huge thank you to Zack & Michelle, Ryan & Em for blessing us so abundantly with your generosity! And another thank you to my mom for volunteering to wash, iron and fold all of Ellie Jo's clothes and get them all ready for her. (We left them all up at her house so my mom could tackle that project).

We are so grateful for everything. :)

Homemade Christmas 2012/ Christmas Gifts

Homemade Christmas 2012 wasn't what I wanted it to be. I had big dreams, and little energy. But I was excited about the gifts that we did make!

We made peppermint candy cane sugar scrub using
this Pinterest idea! It's FABULOUS! I use it
every day.

We also did Brown Sugar Scrub
from this Pinterest idea, and it was super
easy and works fantastically!

We made Strawberries 'n Cream Drink mix from
this Pinterest idea! I used bigger jars and did
more layering with mine than what was pictured,
though. In hindsight, I'd use smaller jars.

Homemade Vanilla! We just used whole vanilla
beans, split down the center, and vodka! We let
it cure for at least 3 months, and it probably could
have cured even longer! I wish I could have done
more of these, but I didn't think ahead to get more
apothecary jars. Next year, I'll get a ton of jars
and such from Ikea!

Here's the vanilla with the free printable labels
I found!

Last, we did hot cocoa drink mix the same way
we did the Strawberries 'n Cream drink mix,
but we used hot chocolate mix instead of Strawberry
drink mix.

We got to bed very, very late on Christmas Eve. I was up baking my famous banana bread at the request of my mom for our breakfast at her house this morning, and we still had a few (small) gifts to wrap. I was feeling exhausted on Christmas Day. Robert woke me up at 8:15 (sounds late, usually!), and it was hard to pull myself out of bed. He went to bed even later than me, but we had a Skype Date with Uncle Eno & Auntie J, as they are away from home right now. (They were the first to know that we are having a little girl!)

After the Skype call, I got to see what Santa brought! In my stocking I got the movie Soul Surfer - which I started asking for when we were on one of our Hawaii trips in the last couple of years, and again when we were in Las Vegas in January - and some Lindor truffles! As usual, Santa left an apple and an orange, too. :) My "big" Santa gift was a new ironing board! I was so excited when I saw it!! It's sturdy, and very padded, and I'm super excited to get to use it! (I'm probably the only wife in the United States who would enjoy a gift such as an ironing board or new vacuum, lol!) Robert got some baseball cards, new ear buds, and some peanut butter Lindor truffles in his stocking. The little gift I got him was already (accidentally) revealed to him a few months back.

Leave it to me to run a home-based business on Etsy with my husband, completely forget when it's his day to fill orders, and he sees something I ordered for him for Christmas on there. Sigh. Thankfully, he was sweet and told me he'd "forgotten" about it, and was thrilled to open it!


It's hand-crafted s'mores soap! I really wanted to get some for Bryce, too, but there was only one available, and Robert says he will share, lol.

My gift from Robert is way cooler than what I got him - for creativity, if no other reason. He went and retrieved a card from somewhere in the house (I forgot to buy him a card - pregnancy brain), and I opened it up and read it (it's super cute!), and found a bunch of cash in there. Like, a lot of cash. Cash that I don't usually ever see, because I just do the financial management on the "back end" of things here at the house. I was confused by it, because I had no idea where the money came from or why he would give it to me. So he pulled out 5 more envelopes. I was instructed to choose one to open, so I did. It was this:

He said I could choose to buy a Kindle Fire HD, or (open the next envelope)....


...a new, really nice DVD case (ours are small and not going to hold much more) or (open the third envelope)....


...a new sewing machine! By no coincidence the same one that my BFF Jenny has! He even reached out to her and asked her what one she has, knowing that I love it! I had two more options (open the fourth envelope)....


....a new iPod! Mine is pretty much dying, and as of this month, is considered a "classic" or "antiquated" model through the Apple Store. It wouldn't be a necessity, except that for my job, I do a lot of document comparison and tedious web content editing sometimes, and I always have that iPod going to keep my ADD in check while I work. The last option was (open the 5th envelope)....


....a page full of a bunch of little stuff that I could purchase all at once and combine what I wanted. Some of these things included: a new sewing kit, a smaller and less expensive DVD rack, a label maker, a laminator, a thread holder for my sewing kit, and a choice of two shoe racks for this Pinterest idea. (scroll down a little to see it).

He told me it was difficult to "siphon" out some of his tip money throughout the last month to make my special Christmas gift possible, lol. (Gee, that couldn't possibly be because I re-did our budget and spreadsheets in November, and monitor them daily, could it?) We are 100% open about all things in our home, and money is no exception. Anyway, he explained that he wanted me to have something really nice, especially with the baby on the way. So sweet! I only requested to wait to purchase what I wanted until after Christmas was over so that I didn't accidentally buy something twice.

Since my parents got me pretty much everything on the "small gifts" page, I did choose to order the Amazon Kindle Fire HD, and I even had enough money to get the 32GB instead of the 16GB, with the money my dad gave me. (He totally specified it's not for savings or bills or baby; it's for me, lol. I think he knows me pretty well.)

All in all, I think we got spoiled rotten, and Ellie Jo even got a ton of gifts, too! We feel so blessed :)

Thinking About Goals

Yes, that's right! It's nearly the end of the month, so I'm thinking and praying about my goals for the new month and the new year!
Tonight, I'm up super late, because I'm dreaming up some DIY projects that I need to purchase supplies for. Robert has agreed to go with me to Target and Joann Fabrics tomorrow if he doesn't get called in to work, so I can stock up on the things I need for at least 5 of these projects!

For those of you who don't follow me (or my boards) on Pinterest, here is what I've got in mind for projects to accomplish (or at least get started on, and finish a few items of each idea) before the end of January:

DIY Ergo Carrier teething pads - to save my Ergo straps

DIY Baby Bibs - you can never have too many!

Source: chickpeastudio.typepad.com via Kimi on Pinterest

DIY baby blocks

Source: make-your-own-baby-stuff.com via Kimi on Pinterest

DIY Wipes Clutch case (I plan to make 2 or 3)

Source: homemadebyjill.blogspot.com via Kimi on Pinterest

Homemade cloth wipes

Source: homemadeginger.blogspot.com via Kimi on Pinterest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, I know that seems pretty ambitious, but a lot if it is really easy, and the patterns are simple! Even if I just get started on some of this in January, I would be thrilled. My friend, Michal, asked me today if I was nesting - and the truth is, I don't know! Lol. I just know that I want to get a start on these projects now so that when I find myself bigger and bigger every day, I don't get back-logged on my DIY projects. 

 

Disclaimer: I have no idea if any of these ideas are going to be money-saving ideas. That is not the reason I desire to do these projects. They just look fun and personalized, and it makes me feel more involved with Ellie Jo while she's still an inside-baby. :) I also don't anticipate help from Robert, nor is it expected. He's got a big undertaking with the nursery furniture that he'll be painting for Ellie Jo. :) 

 

Stay tuned!    

Merry Christmas! Pink or Blue?

Merry Christmas, everybody! This is the post I'm sure a lot of you have been waiting for....

IT'S A GIRL!!! On or about May 13th, 2013, we'll welcome sweet little Elizabeth Johannah Crombie into our family!

We are so excited! I wish the tech had let me use the video camera so I could capture Robert's enormous grin when we were told what we were having. Our "big gift" to our families was our gender reveal! We filled boxes with pink balloons, and tied little individual notes to some of them. They read, "Ellie Jo," "It's a girl!" "Princess" and "Sugar & Spice," and all had the female gender symbol on them. :)

The schedule of the day was: My mom & Perry's house with all my parents, my younger brother (Michael is in Switzerland this year for Christmas), and Auntie Karen. Then, Grandpa & Grandma Byers' with that whole side of the family. Naptime. Then, my mom's house again with some of my cousins, aunts and Uncle George.

Here's my mom, stepdad, dad, brother and Auntie Karen opening the gender-revealing package!

Also took a few still pictures.....

From left to right: Auntie Karen, Perry, Mom, Tristan, Sarge and Dad

Sargee usually gets to open the first presents.... so he naturally thought this was for him.

Anticipation....

Everyone's opening at a different pace

Mom finally got theirs opened, and Dad and Sarge are still getting the paper off Dad's

Ready to reveal!

You know what that means - IT'S A GIRL! :)

Getting all those balloons out...

Little tags on all of them (see pictures of that later in this post)

Reading every tag...

I'm pretty sure Auntie Karen was super excited!

My brother really wanted a boy, but you can't hide the excitement in his face!

Still looking at it all :)

I only thought it was fair that Auntie Karen had her own special box
to open, since she's been so close to me for my whole life!

Sarge - popping the balloons was the best part for him!

Here's Robert's parents opening their gift at Grandpa & Grandma Byers' this morning!

 Also got some still pictures there:

Mom & Dad ready to find out what it is!

Anticipation was immense!

Here it comes....

IT'S A GIRL!!!!

Pulling out all the balloons :)

Everyone was watching them fly out of the box!

Yay!

Reading all the tags was fun :)

Tossing them around for everyone to see.

Grandpa Crombie reading all of the tags :)

Grandpa & Grandma Crombie all excited :)


Since my mom's family from Vancouver could not come up for Christmas this year, I called all of them this afternoon and told them what we are having. But I thought it would be really special for my Uncle George and Auntie Sue to open one more "gender revealing" gift for the rest of the family that was gathering at my mom's tonight! (Sorry this video is blurry; I don't know what happened!) Hearing Acacia squeal with delight made me laugh so hard!

And we got a couple pictures of that event (although my camera was being temperamental!)

Uncle George & Auntie Sue opening the gift!

"What do you think it is???"

YAY!

It's a girl!!

Look at the joy on Jaden's face!

Acacia kept picking more balloons up, lol

A few minutes after this picture, Shane (striped shirt)
came up to me and said, "Thank you, Kimi for the
balloons!" Melissa (my cousin; Shane's mom) and I
got a good laugh out of that one!

Sheer excitement!

And last but not least, introducing our sweet baby girl - Elizabeth Johannah (Ellie Jo) Crombie! Read below the pictures for the details of the ultrasound appointment (or skip it, if you don't want to hear all about it, lol!) 

Here is her profile - a pretty clear picture!

This is her with her hand in front of her face! I'm pretty sure she's actually rubbing her upper lip with her thumbs like I did (and may or may not still do when I'm tired, lol).

 Here's the front of her face -it looks like an alien! Although this wasn't as freaky as the spine shots - I'm thankful the tech didn't have us take those home!

 Another hand and face pic - this time, the fingers are in her mouth :) It was weird when this picture was taken, because I could feel her moving her little elbows around!

Another picture with her hand in her mouth, lol.

 


DEFINITELY a girl - there is no question about it! Thankfully, she wasn't shy. (The quart of orange juice and constant intake of sugar at work that I had all day probably didn't hurt, lol!)






Right after the tech confirmed the sex of the baby, Ellie Jo decided to kick me repeatedly in the bladder. I was telling the tech I could feel that, and so he rolled the probe over that area in my lower abdomen, and sure enough, her little foot was there, kicking away! He said, "WOW, you have had a lot of water today, haven't you?!" I said, "Yeah, about 40oz. and then a bunch of orange juice...." So he was trying to get specific pictures and views of the baby and me, and because she insisted on jamming her foot into my bladder, and because I was so uncomfortable, the tech told me to get up and go to the restroom so he could try to get the baby to move for him, lol. It worked, though. And I felt so much better! The whole appointment took about an hour and a half, and a doctor came in to tell us that we had a happy, healthy, normal baby, too. :)

After the appointment, I made sure to text and call family and my co-workers to let them all know that we had a good appointment and that we'd tell everyone on Christmas Day what we were having. We headed home so I could eat dinner, and then Robert said we really should go run some errands. We needed to go to Party City (as Dollar Tree had no plain pink balloons that came in a package of just pink), Winco (for the rest of my homemade Christmas gifts), and the outlet mall for a couple of our gift exchange gifts.

While we were in Winco in the checkout line, I was getting kicked (or maybe punched, I couldn't tell) in the ribs and it was uncomfortable. So, I put pressure with my hand on the top of my belly, and was eyeing this lady's shrimp salad and she noticed and said, "Funny thing is....I'm buying that for my daughter, who's pregnant, too!" I laughed, and said that the baby is active at night, and that's when I have most of my cravings. She asked when I was due, and I said, "May 13th." She said, "WOW, same day as my daughter!" THEN, she proceeded to tell me that she was having a girl!

An update on me....
I'm craving things now! A lot! But I'm not giving into them all the time. I got some Cap'n Crunch Berries on Thursday, and I was thrilled, because they haven't been on sale for several weeks (when I started craving them), but we found a good deal on them at Winco. Which brings up a slightly unrelated topic.....Robert has requested that we do weekly shopping at Winco as we are able. It's sincerely cheaper than any other store by a longshot.

I'm feeling very tired, but still trying to do housework/ Christmas prep like usual. Sadly, this year I am so far behind, because my energy was just zapped (thank you, Ellie Jo!) But I'm thrilled with what I've accomplished, anyway!. I keep reminding myself that I'm doing very well, for having made it through the most difficult part of the pregnancy already, and trying to relish in my accomplishments, as opposed to focusing what I haven't gotten done. Plus, this is such a short season of my life, and I'm trying to enjoy it! It's so fun to get plans for homemade baby stuff!

We are so very excited about our baby news, and cannot wait to meet our sweet little Ellie Jo!