Merry Christmas!

Happy Christmas to everyone! I love this time of year and I am so excited. The build-up to Christmas is the best part. The anticipation...times with family and friends...the food...the giving and receiving of gifts...the celebration of the birth of Jesus...and more. Ted and I LOVE Christmas; it is our absolute most favorite holiday.

Ted and I hosted our small group Christmas party, which was tons of fun. The highlight of the party was the vintage bed pan that was traded around during our white elephant gift exchange. Ted and I had it at one point, but we lost it and received some random tea lights and tea light holders. At least we didn't get the weird squash....

Ted and I had our Christmas together this morning at home. Ted got me so many lovely gifts.

Lots of chocolate. (For the baby of course)

Two books.

An awesome Simple satchel. (see simple shoes website) :)

A crazy nice diaper bag that is so cool. It doesn't even hint at being a diaper bag.

BRIGHT GREEN Simple shoes.

and more little things.

Here's a pic of the Diaper bag. So CUTE!

I got Ted a new wallet, a pair of jeans, the Tales of Beetle the Bard (or whatever :) ), lots of Bath and Body Works stuff he likes (C! O! BIGELOW!), the She and Him CD, and some other little things.

Today we are hanging out in Boyne with relatives, going to the Christmas Eve service at 4pm in Charlevoix, and then headed back to Boyne for Shrimp and cheese fondu. (A Polleys Christmas Eve tradition). I just got done with my duty of slicing the french bread for the fondu. YUMMY! Tomorrow we will wake up and have a big Polleys family Christmas, and just relax.

Oh, by the way, my belly is beginning to show, I am a pregnant mama and proud of it! I got some new maternity jeans just to prove it! :) Being pregs is fun!

Oh no....a new obsession!

I was online today and found the cutest crib bedding at a website called serenaandlily.com

Aren't these the cutest..I NEED to find out if I am having a boy or girl! ;)

(and I need a bigger budget!)

Baby Polleys Update

Hi all!

I wanted to give a little update about the baby growing in my belly! :) I am 14 weeks and 5 days pregs. Yesterday afternoon I had my four-month doctor's appointment, and I knew some of you wanted to hear about it; especially my mom who had to leave for Alaska yesterday morning.

I still don't know the sex of the baby, but I will find out at my next appt. So, I will keep you posted. BUT, I did get to listen to the baby's heartbeat for the first time. It beats 150 times per minute, which is soo fast! But, that is perfectly normal. I almost cried when I heard it because it made the baby that much more real (sometimes it's still hard to believe that I am pregnant.) I was so happy to hear its little, tiny heart deep, down in my belly.

I also found out that I still haven't gained any weight. My doctor isn't worried about it, he said that since I am just entering the second trimester and the holidays are coming up, he wouldn't be surprised if I gained 7 to 10 pounds before my next appt. in January. I know I am supposed to be gaining weight but 10 pounds in 4 weeks??? That's 2.5 pounds a week! It will be interesting to see how my body changes over the next month.

Speaking of that, I got my first taste of maternity clothes from my mom and sister yesterday at our little family Christmas. They got me some cute layering shirts in three different colors and then a sweater coat that is mid-thigh length with big buttons and a tie around the upper waist. It is super cute. It will be perfect for when I am bigger in February and March (and April, May and June!)

My mom also got me a Boppy which is like a U-shaped pillow that I can use during breastfeeding and for the baby when s/he is first learning to prop him/herself up and sit up and such! :) It is soooo exciting!

Here is a pic of the sweater I got. It is super warm. I think I will wear it a lot when I work at the library, it is always chilly in there. :)

Here is a pic of the Boppy I got. It is girly colors but it is just a slip cover. I think once I find out I will pick a fabric I like a have a new slipcover made. I know someone who would just love to do that! ;)

RIF! (Reading is Fun!) :)

So here I am sitting at work…typing up some stories. I feel kind of guilty, BUT it is a really slow day AND I only have 30 more minutes left here anyway. I wanted to write while I had some ideas fresh on my mind. I just checked in the Movie Dan in Real Life, which makes me really want to go home and watch it because Ted and I LOVE that movie.

I then started wishing I could go home and start reading my book right away because I LOVE that too. It is called The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I am only on page 80, but I can already tell it is more than worth the read. It sounds like one of those old lady books that get mixed up in the jumble of the other 5 books she is reading (trust me that really happens, I see it all the time). But, this is not a book just for old ladies!! It takes place right after WWII in England and on the Channel Islands. It is written in letter format. So you get to read all of the letters one particular lady is sending out to various people and what they write back to her. The premise is that this lady (Juliet) is an author and TIME magazine wants her to do a piece about the war in relation to literature. She finds a group of people that live on one of the Channel Islands that formed a book club during the German occupation. I know it sounds like it is iffy…but you should give it a chance.

Another book you should read: The Mysterious Benedict Society. It is for young adults, but it is good writing, just like how Harry Potter is for young adults but adults love them. I have read The Mysterious Benedict Society and I got the second book in the series, The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey, as an early Christmas present (Izabella opened it yesterday, convinced that she must have another present to open…she is 2 J ). These books are about 4 kids who were orphans and then were recruited for a secret mission. Lame sounding? Maybe… Super entertaining and a fun, relaxing read? YES!

Sorry to Amazon for copying and pasting the pics. I really hope that isn't illegal. :)

and now....it is time to go home! Yay for multitasking!

PICTURES!

Okay, so I got really excited when I got home from work and I decided to upload some pictures. I also realized how lame and boring my blog looked. So here is a sampling. :) Enjoy!

Pre-Baked Apple Pie that I made in September

and...voila! A yummy homemade apple pie made by chef Sarah. Her first ever!

Here is one of our favorite ornaments on our tree. On the back it has our wedding date.

Here is our pretty tree. We had so much fun decorating it.
The roses are from my dad for graduating.

The Kitchen. Very white, yet very functional. It will be remodeled before we move someday.

Here me in my grad garb. A very fun morning, with a fun family lunch after!
Me and my hubby.

Izabella and then Olivia, my neices. My sister likes to take fancy pics of them. :)

Okay, that's all for now. :)

Lots of Things to Share!

Well the news is out! I love finding out who already knows about our new little baby-to-be. Info like this spreads like wildfire. I went back to work today at the library and half the staff already knew! I hadn’t worked since September! It is so funny. I love telling people and seeing how excited they get, and I love how excited Ted and I are.

I am fourteen weeks pregnant now. My clothes are almost too tight, but not yet. I think I am going to have to do some maternity shopping in January. Yay! We will find out if the baby is a boy or girl in January as well. Ted and I cannot wait to find out, because we are dying (well, mostly me) to do the nursery. One of my coworkers just gave me the idea of decorating the whole nursery in black and white (which babies love because it is what they can distinguish most) and then accent with bright red. You can make it cutesy if it is a girl, and it works super great for a boy. So we will see. I LOVE the idea.

In other news…My mom is visiting from Alaska, and she is busy visiting all her friends and family. She got to come to Mount Pleasant to see me GRADUATE!!! I finally have my Bachelor’s and soon I will have my provisional certificate to teach. I am so excited. Hopefully, I will be able to find a full time teaching job for next fall. But, back to my mom…she loves AK (and so does Nick) and she has lots of stories. We are having a family Christmas tomorrow (Tuesday) with my sister Samantha and her two girls Olivia and Izabella. I can’t wait till next year when our baby will have its first Christmas! He or she will be about six months old; it’ll be so much fun.

So that’s all the big news I have for now…Graduation, Baby, Mom visiting, Family Christmas…and we are still organizing and LOVING our new house. We have our tree up and lots of Christmas decorations. I will post some pics from the family Christmas and of the new house. I just need to find the time. I am very busy as you can probably tell. :)

Mmm...Turkey and Potatoes

Happy Thanksgiving!

Ted and I are spending time at the Polleys Parents today. I am kind of bummed about not seeing anyone on my side of the family, but it is nice to just relax and not have to travel anywhere far.

Dad and Tami are in Florida visiting my Grandma Barbara.

Mom and Nick live in Alaska.

Erica, Chris and Emma live in Pennsylvania.

Sam, Bill, Olivia, Izabella and my Grandpa all live 4 hours downstate.

So, our options were sort of limited anyway. I have a lot of school work to do this weekend as well so I can make sure I graduate. :)

Happy Thanksgiving to all and remember to count your blessings. There are so many things to be thankful for that are easy to forget.

An Early Christmas Surprise!

Sorry I have not posted in so long (for those of you who check this daily, waiting for my next magnificent post)...

I have been sooo busy with school (Dec. 13th is the big day!), and moving into our new house. Ted and I have been trying to put our house together before Thanksgiving and Christmas, which I think we may be 99% done by Christmas.

Right now we are painting our bedroom. The color is called Mercer Blue, or in other words a grayish-blue. It is very nice and is going to go awesome with our new sleigh bed. Today we are actually going to paint the trim and we will be done.

Our next item to tackle will be furniture/TV. We are going to be buying bits and pieces over the next few months as our budget allows. We are excited, and our house already feels like home.

So you are probably wondering what the early Christmas surprise is....well, for those of you who do not already know, I am pregnant!

It is crazy, fun, exciting, and even more CRAZY! But we love it and we are so excited for this little baby growing in my belly as we speak (or type). Right now, I am 11 weeks along, so I am not showing or wearing maternity clothes or anything like that....yet.

All I can say is that God couldn't have planned a better time for us to have a baby. He or she will be born around June 13th, a perfect little summer baby! :) I have all winter and spring to care for and nourish this baby while it grows, we can't wait!!!!!

So, I guess the next item on our To Do list should be the nursery!

Love you all!