Thursday, January 31, 2013

Got Style

Girlfriends got style... don't be jealous... Everyday she pulls out a new look, and today's just happened to be complete with her dinosaur socks (made be her sweet Tante-aunt in German), and purple sparkly shoes (on backwards). Oh, I just adore my little fashionista.














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Wednesday, January 30, 2013

14 Week { bump }

Today I technically hit 15 weeks, but these shots and updates are from week 14... the start of my second trimester. I can't believe how quickly time flies... just about as quickly as my tummy seems to be expanding. Each day I feel like I'm being stretched from north to south, east to west...  but thankfully the nausea has lessened, and energy is slowly coming back. What has started, are headaches and back pains... ugh. I've had to ingest some caffeinated drinks just to to ease the pain... but since that doesn't help most of the time, I'm fairly certain it's all because of hormones.

Cravings: I still love fruit.. berries in particular, as well as oranges and apples. Blueberries are at the top though. I cannot get enough of them. Chocolate milk seems to be my "go to" drink to calm heartburn or take my pre-natal pill. I get the Horizon's brand... and it's fantastic. Soup is always tasty to me, at any time of the day (the other day I inhaled a quart of won ton soup from the Chinese restaurant... it was FANTASTIC).  Now comes the part where all vegans/vegetarians and clean eaters should look away/close their eyes... I'm LOVING hotdogs... in particular the NY Dog from Sonic, loaded with sauerkraut and onions. Now that I got that off my chest, I might as well admit that yesterday I ate 2 of them... yup, 2. Who does that? ... me. Oh, and chocolate... I love me some chocolate lately... not a lot... just a piece at a time. 

Turnoffs: Not too much affects my sniffer anymore... in the beginning, everything did... but lately, not that much. I still can't do anything with coconut milk in it, because it was something that I cooked a lot of in the beginning of my pregnancy, and now, it just doesn't sit right in my tummy when I smell it. Although this isn't food related, brushing my teeth seems to make me gag/dry heave like NO other. Seriously, it's almost guaranteed, that whenever that tooth brush goes in my mouth, I'm heaving at the same time. It's sad... but it is what it is. 


Even though I recently purchased preggo jeans... yes, I caved... I still wanted to be able to wear some of my pants that I love so much. My favorite wine colored pair, were begging to be worn, and although my legs/butt fit into them perfectly still... I could BARELY button that button standing up... forget sitting in them. So, I purchased a belly band as well. It's sort of uncomfortable, but totally doable for 1-2 hour errands, where I want to "look okay" and not wear my stretchy leggings for the umpteenth time.  I'm at that "puffy" stage, where I'm kind of sort of showing, or like I'm bloated/ate too much... hopefully this stage passes soon. It's amazing how much my belly has popped, when everything else has stayed the same. It's still early though, and I'm SURE lots will change along with my belly as well.

Daddy's thoughts on the pregnancy thus far: "Before this pregnancy has ended, I will have visited every gas station in OK to get a hotdog for my wife... and I want to know the sex of the baby IMMEDIATELY (so that I know if I'm going to have to pay for another wedding or not)..." 

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Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Unexpected Adventure

We sort of had an unexpected/unplanned trip to Dallas, TX today (not sure how I'm still awake to actually blog about our adventure, but here I am)... and an adventure it was. You're probably wondering why we made our way to Texas, but it's the nearest vehicle processing center, and our Toyota made it all the way from Korea! We've been sharing 1 vehicle over the last 2 almost 3 weeks here in America, and over 4 weeks in Korea... so as soon as we heard it was in Texas, we jumped in the car and made our way there to pick it up. We left at "O'dark thirty" in the morning (6:00 am on the dot), and made it there with plenty of time to pick up the car, visit my beloved Ikea store, and FINALLY see what all the buzz is about in regards to the store, World Market. We dined on Swedish meatballs, received 1 hour of free babysitting (thank you Smaland at Ikea), picked up much needed items for the house, and fell in LOVE with World Market (hello OK, it's time you brought one into the state).




















Before we left, we made our way to one of the malls nearby, and managed to find a GAP that had a MATERNITY section... I was on cloud 9. Yes, I left the store with a pair of 1969 skinny jeans for 35.00, and a fun top for the summer (pictures to come soon). On our way out, we definitely hit a thunderstorm... like, "ran to the car and was SOAKED" thunderstorm... but we had a beautiful sunset on the way home...


Totally brought my Nikon d700 along for the adventure and didn't pull it out once! I'm definitely addicted to taking photos with my iPhone. It's light and easy... and super convenient. All these photos were taken with it (not edited one bit). Also... pardon my TERRIBLE look... no kidding, I brushed my teeth, washed my face, and put on some "comfy" clothes for this adventure.
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Friday, January 25, 2013

It's a Brick... House.

I can't believe how much progress/movement we've seen on the house, over this last week. We've visited it twice, and each time, something new was finished, and something new was being started. We started off this week with insulation/sheet rocking... and they've completed that! Wow, with it done, it actually makes a house, look like a house, when you're inside. Helps the house, take shape. As soon as Charlotte ran to her room, she stated, " My room has ceiling and da walls!"... she couldn't be more excited to see all the change...




On Thursday, they started bricking our house... so FINALLY we're starting to get a little taste for how the outside will look as well... we're loving it... all! 



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Thursday, January 24, 2013

In Her Blood

Ever since we made it back to the US, Charlotte can't stop talking about starting gymnastics. My mission has been to find a gym that is perfect for our budding Ukrainian gymnast. Girlfriend totally has it in her blood, and now it's just a matter of finding the best for the best. I think we'll start off with some basic tumbling and then go from there... but for now, she LOVES prancing around in her suit. Little does she know that she'll have to ditch the shoes and headband when it's actually "show time"...




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Wednesday, January 23, 2013

rightfully "earned"...

With this move back to America, after living overseas for 6.5 years (Germany and Korea), there has been SO much acclimating going on over the last (nearly) 2 weeks. Not only are our internal clocks trying to get right in this time zone, but we've been bombarded by American culture... and so far, I'd say we're taking it on like champs. I have never been surrounded by so many choices in my entire life. I was introduced to "Whole Foods" and other scrumptious establishments (seriously, where has Sonic been all my life?),  walked the aisles of Target multiple times (staring like a deer in headlights), and then made the HUGE decision to jump on board with an iPhone... wait, it wasn't a HUGE decision... it was inevitable. We're an apple family, so it only made sense... and not just that, but I've been carrying around/using a "Zack Morris- Saved By The Bell" phone for the last umpteen years, that I feel as though I've "earned" the right to be a proud owner of the iPhone 5.

I'm COMPLETELY floored by how "smart" this phone is... With my "duh" pregnancy moments lately, I feel as though it's going to be my lifeline. The hubby even set a reminder to take my prenatal vitamin daily... genius! You can laugh at me, and how I'm a newbie to this all still... but in the meantime, I've jumped on board with Instagram, and y'all should come and follow me... and share in my daily photos. I'd love to see yours as well... 


Come follow- @karendavisphotography ... I'll eventually have a shortcut to it 

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Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Insulation

It is fun to see all the tiny/huge changes in the house that are happening daily/weekly. We try not to go over to it TOO often... but it's hard to resist a stopover, especially if we're in the area. With all the "passed" inspections, they seem to be busting out some serious work. At the end of last week, they prepped for insulation, which is this week. Once insulated, sheet rocking starts, and bricking of the house. We should see some significant "change" over the next week. There's something super fun about seeing it all come together. We picked out lighting yesterday, and appliances last week... whew, sometimes making these choices, is super tough. Then again, I think, I'm so happy to be HERE doing it, rather than in Korea over Skype! 






This house, is like a playground for Charlotte... every time we're there, we don't have to worry about "occupying" her time with ANYTHING... she's got that covered. 
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Monday, January 21, 2013

1st Trimester Re-Cap

Oh friends, I'm still slapping myself in the face every morning when I wake up, because of the big news... want to make sure I'm not dreaming... but then I run to the bathroom having to pee, or start dry heaving, and it quickly helps me realize, I'm not... this is for real. Getting pregnant has been such a struggle for us/for my body... that it's still so surreal. Sometime soon, I'll be sure to post about those struggles soon enough, just so you know how amazing this little blessing is... and how this is totally God's plan for us, not my own...

I'm nearing near the end of my first trimester (2 days, who's counting?!)... and because I really didn't announce it until a week or so before entering the second trimester, I thought it might be fun to do a little re-cap... and then starting my second trimester, try and come out with weekly/bi-weekly post updates... on the bump, on the cravings, how I'm handling my changing body, funny things Charlotte says in reference to the baby (oh there are a lot of those), etc. 

A week before Thanksgiving (this past year)... I knew SOMETHING was up, because 1. I was a few days late, and I'm as regular as regular can be. 2. I went for a run, after my 5k, and ended up dry heaving the entire 1.5 miles that I ran. 3. My body refused my morning cup of coffee.... oh what a devastating day that was. I no kidding brewed my morning 3 cups of coffee, and just about after pouring my first cup and taking a sip... the sip that I love MOST... I rushed to the toilet to vomit. That was definitely my body's way of telling me that I needed to look into this. Pregnancy test purchased a few hours later... I couldn't WAIT to find out results, so I headed to the store bathroom with Charlotte... opened up the test... peed on the stick... and 5 seconds later... had a positive read... not 2-5 minutes like they encourage you to wait... 5 seconds. Charlotte was a little confused by what happened, asked if she could pee pee on one... and then asked if I was okay (because I was crying)... yes, sweet little one... I was totally overjoyed, and I couldn't have thought of a better person (other than the hubs) to have shared the news with right away... she was FLOORED, to say the least. Immediately kissed my belly. 

Getting through the holidays (Thanksgiving and Christmas) was SUPER tough... not only because we were keeping it a complete secret until we heard a heartbeat and shared with our family... but because I was SOOOO sick. While everyone was indulging in all the yummy food/goodies that come with the holidays... I was only able to stomach a few things: strawberries, blueberries, crackers and gingerale. That's an amazing diet, ay? Not only was I plagued with the ALL day (not just morning) sickness, but the thing that was worse, was my energy level... it was 100% zapped. I could sleep ALL day, and often did. There were a few days where I'm fairly certain that Sesame Street raised Charlotte... because I could barely pick up my head. I felt like the BIGGEST Mama fail ever, but, it's exactly what my body needed in order to support that little one inside me. 

The worst timing EVER though... but I'll take it. JUST as I was REALLY sick, we started our moving process (packing out, living out of a suitcase in our house with temp furniture, sleeping on air mattresses)... and I'm pretty certain that if my hubby could give any advice to any fellow men out there, he'd say, "DO NOT KNOCK UP YOUR WIFE RIGHT BEFORE A HUGE MOVE"... because I was useless. He gets SO much credit for handling everything, because there's NO way we would have made it to OK. In fact, if everything were in my hands, we would probably just NOW be packing up... because I'm feeling more human these days. It's taken nearly this ENTIRE trimester to feel somewhat normal... Feeling sick though, definitely helped remind me that I was pregnant... and just like they say, "the sicker, the better"...

Days before leaving Korea, we heard our very first heartbeat (the entire family was in the room). It took nearly 2 minutes to find, but once found, there was no DENYING what that sound was. It was a strong beat, according to the technician.. measuring at 164 beats a minute. Not just any beat.. but a STRONG one... a reassurance. Two days later, 1 days before flying out, I saw our little one, on an ultrasound. Same strong heartbeat.. and he/she was totally sleeping and cuddled up all snug right up against my back/spine area...fluttering it's little feet. It REFUSED to flip around, so we weren't able to get a cute little profile shot... but hopefully at our next appointment he/she will show us their sweet little face.

I'm just a few days away, from hitting 14 weeks (aka the 2nd trimester), and that brings me to a July 24th due date... not sure I'm excited about a summer pregnancy (in the OK heat), but I'll take what I can get. Right now, baby is measuring 8 days bigger... so it's possible that due date will change in the future. We shall see... after all, they'll come along when they're done baking, right?

Charlotte and the hubby couldn't be more excited! We pray for baby all the time, and guess about whether they will be a he/she. Either way, they will certainly be loved. I've decided... since I LOVE that tree in my yard (by our house that's being built), that I'm going to take my "bump" shots there... to document this journey. It's an oak tree... and absolutely beautiful. I foresee a tire swing hanging on the REALLY long branch (you'll see in the photos below)... it's the perfect spot... because we don't know what he/she is... I've been calling baby, "sapling"... which makes it pretty appropriate. So here I am at 13wks5days pregnant- and yes, I'm starting to "pouch". It's kind of getting tough to pull off as a "food baby" these days... it doesn't tuck back in, after the food digests. 







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Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Build Me Up

I've definitely mentioned in previous posts about our adventure of building a house (we've done EVERYTHING over Skype with the help of some wonderful friends) in Oklahoma... and now that we're HERE... in Oklahoma... we've FINALLY had the pleasure of seeing "our house" up close and personal. Unfortunately, we still have quite a bit of work ahead of us. In fact, we have about 8 weeks worth of work ahead... but this is the fun part, right? Seeing the inside come together... since the outside is nearly complete. That's what I keep telling myself at least! So, over the next 8 weeks, I'm just going to bombard you all with the journey of my house... whether you like it or not. It will become "home" and that's what matters most.



















Insulating was done this week... which means sheet rocking is up next...
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Monday, January 14, 2013

Secrets are For Everyone

It's been awhile since I've posted... and my posts have been far and few in between... and it's because we've been trying SO hard to keep a secret for quite some time (like, before Thanksgiving!) Secrets are fun... there is no lie about that... but super hard... tough... to keep...

Charlotte loves secrets... but trust me, it has been SO hard to get her to keep this one... She lights up every time we talk about it... 

So... close your eyes... and scroll down just a little bit... 


Yup, you read that right... Charlotte's going to be a big sister. Some of the family has asked, "Are you adopting again?!"... and while we'd LOVE to adopt again (in the future), Charlotte replies with, "Mama... she had the baby in the belly..."  God is good ... no wait, He's GREAT dear friends. This has been over 5 years in the making... and we were so blessed to hear a heartbeat and see that little babe just days before we left Korea. We are OVER THE MOON excited... I think more so, because now that I've shared, I can complain to you all about how sick I've been! Or share with you how my love for coffee has completely DISAPPEARED (I feel like it's a tragedy)... but really it's because we've been waiting for this forrrrever (cue the voice from the movie "Sandlot").

Now that I've gotten that out in the open, and have no more secret to hide behind... expect me back on the blog coming at you with tons of fun posts... my energy level is returning, and I just know 2013 is going to be GREAT!

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Saturday, January 05, 2013

intentional.

Every end of the year, I try and come up with a list of wishes for the new year... but of course, focus on  accomplishing one thing. Lets face it... a list is SUPER difficult to get through... especially for this Mom who struggles through daily checklists. One of my wishes, which is probably one of my hardest things to accomplish and therefore truly a resolution, is to be more "intentional"...

 in·ten·tion·al (n-tnsh-nl) adj. 1. Done deliberately; intended: an intentional slight. See Synonyms at voluntary. 2. Having to do with intention.

And to understand "intentional" a little better, lets do a quick look up on the word, "intention":

in·ten·tion (n-tnshn) n. 1. A course of action that one intends to follow. 2. An aim that guides action; an objective.

I know what you're thinking... "Don't you usually think before you act?" or "How do you get through your day without planning?" or "Don't you set goals for yourself?"... now remember what I said in that first paragraph?... I truly struggle even with a day to day checklist/to-do list... I tend to be sporadic, a "fly at the seat of my pants" kind of girl. Being intentional... actually takes a TON of effort, while it might come naturally for many.

Yes, I want to be intentional in my walk with the Lord, friendships, relationships with my family (extended), and with my husband...I'm hoping that by working in one area, I might be able to rub off on the rest. However, this year I'm striving to be more intentional... in PARENTING. And although it's only day 5 of the new year... I can already say that it's going to be a difficult task... but nonetheless, a task.

Wanting... yearning to be "intentional" in parenting, means admitting that often I let "busyness" and "being tired" get in the way of my goal. I "happen" upon results, instead of strive for them... When really, I need to be more focused on the goal... I need to pursue "the goal"... I need to be more engaged in Charlotte's life... not because I'm her mom, and I should be... but rather because I DESIRE to be. I recently read this awesome resource on an app on "Intentional Parenting" and wanted to share this with you (these are NOT my words):

"Intentional parents know that, in order to reach the goal, we must teach our children. Unfortunately, the word “teach” conjures up a picture of school desks and textbooks in most people’s minds. But that’s a very limited view of teaching based on the model the ancient Greeks gave us. “Teaching,” to them, meant dispensing knowledge. So they would gather as many brains as possible into one room in order to have the teacher dispense knowledge efficiently. The Hebrews, however, had a very different concept of teaching. To “teach” in the Hebrew culture meant building a relationship, spending time with a person in order to learn from watching him and interacting with him. Now, this form of teaching took a lot of time; it was in no sense efficient. But it was highly effective. God has called parents to that effective kind of teaching. We are called to develop deliberate relationships with the children He has entrusted to us. Those relationships form the bridge for effectively imparting wisdom and preparing our children to be godly adults. Once we have built that bridge of a relationship, we will have an effective transporting structure in place for teaching our children. We can give them the best gifts a parent can give."

Tough thing to strive for? yes.  Is it something that I'll accomplish 100% in 2013? definitely not. Has being in the middle of a crazy international move in the middle of the holidays helped? not one bit. Is the strive worth it? absolutely. I will not give up.

Do you all tend to be "intentional"... or do you struggle as I do? Please tell me I'm not the only one out there! Please someone, join me on this journey...
















Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it (Proverbs 22:6).
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