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Barefoot & Pregnant

I’m pregnant!! WOO HOO!

I’ve wanted to share this news with the whole world for some time, but I didn’t feel like it was official until I heard the heart beat. Penelope & I listened to the heartbeat at the doc’s office on Tuesday, and all is going well! We are just thrilled. The crazy part is that I’m nearly 14 weeks along! I didn’t think I was that far along at all. Surprise!!

My belly is starting to grow now & I feel like I need to make the necessary arrangements for my upcoming giant belly. I’ve needed a full-sized apron for ages, but now that I’ll have a huge belly just asking for stains & spills; I finally made one.

I made sure my apron was high-waisted & pleated to add room for my growing body. We’ll see how well it fits when I’m 9 months & bursting at the seams. It didn’t take me much time at all to make it, so I made a matching apron for Penelope, too. I’ll post pics of her soon.

Here’s the breakdown of my pregnancy so far:

  • Morning sickness isn’t nearly as bad this time around as it was with Penelope.
  • I’m craving spaghetti, top ramen, pizza & a special brand of English muffins.
  • I’ve gained about 10 lbs so far.
  • I swear I’m having a boy, and we will be finding out in about 4-5 weeks.
  • I’m totally exhausted all the time.
  • I can’t eat sweets; the smell of marshmallows & Nutella makes me want to vomit.
  • Everything smells like mildew.
  • I’m due sometime in February, no exact due date yet.

So there you have it, the cat’s out of the bag!! Hope you have a good weekend! My weekend plans include taking a million naps & desperately try to catch up on all the sleep I lost in New York.

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BlogHer Recap

BlogHer was a whirlwind of a trip. I’ve realized I’m not as young as I used to be; parties, prepping for parties, fab suites & the bustling of the big apple just WORE.ME.OUT. If you’re not familiar with BlogHer, it’s a crazy pants blogging conference. I just bought the expo hall & parties pass, so I didn’t attend any sessions. I didn’t even have time for sessions, it was SO crazy busy.

The first two days were spent being crazy, crazy; prepping for the SocialLuxe party. We all worked so hard to get everything perfect for the big event. Can you believe these swag bags?! They were completely stuffed with the most amazing things. Chris was pretty happy to find out that I was coming home with another pair of skull candy headphones.

{Survival kit photos courtesy of She Posts}

The Avery survival kits were a big hit at the party. I had the privilege to work with Avery & design the labels for the kit. I can’t tell you how handy these kits were & how wonderful Avery is. The bandaids, hand sanitizer & Starbucks gift card definitely saved me!

Friday I spent half the day touring private designer showrooms with 31 other bloggers with Shop At Home. Thanks to them, I went home with some fabulous shoes & a yummy scarf that’s getting me all excited for fall(I’ll share pics later). After my little shopping spree I got pampered yet again at the Getting Gorgeous party & met up with some really fantastic bloggers & sweet brands.

Friday evening I helped out with the Kirtsy Gala by painting inspiring words on people. Unfortunately I didn’t take any photos of what I did. If anyone has any, would you send them my way? Pretty Please? I’d like that. In addition to the body art, I participated in the art gala by donating a piece to the show. I’ve been dying to share it with you & now that the party is over, I can! I was assigned to read & create something in reaction to this epic post. You better believe I was sobbing after reading it.

I wasn’t quite sure how I could do any justice to this post. It was a pretty tough assignment. I finally took inspiration from an ad on the sidebar & made a little piece about that. I’m not sure I’ve done any justice to the author or her story, but it was an honor to work on this project & so great to have an excuse to break out my watercolors.

This trip was exhausting, but absolutely worth it. I’m not sure I would’ve been able to survive the big apple without my friends & family looking out for me!! My mother-in-law drove 11 hours up to SLC to spend time with Penelope & Chris. My mom met me in New York & helped me survive by making sure I had enough food!! Moms are the best.

Did you go to BlogHer? I’m not sure where to find all the BlogHer recap posts, so if you’ve written one, please include the link in the comments! I’d love to read all about your experience.

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BlogHer Business Cards

I made the epically long trek from Salt Lake City to New York Wednesday. All went really well: I got randomly chosen to be pat-searched just minutes before my plane departed and I got terribly ill on the plane and upon getting out of the cab. A brave little topiary outside of the Hilton entrance fell victim to my illness. Sorry little guy! I couldn’t be happier to be visiting this fabulous city! I’ve never been here before!

I’ve been looking forward to passing out my business cards at BlogHer for a while now. Now that I have everything all in one place, I’m so excited to share with you what I’m handing out to the fabulous folks I meet here!

Mrs. Fields generously provided me with 11 dozen logo cookies (they’re as delicious as they are adorable). Uprinting provided me with business cards (still love them!). I made & cut vinyl “i still love you” stickers with my silhouette SD and stuffed them & my business cards in the envelopes I ordered through the fabulous Action Envelope. To polish the whole presentation off, I hand-calligraphed “<3 Melissa” on the front of each envelope. Call me crazy pants.

If you find yourself in New York/BlogHer, come find me! I have some goodies to give you!!

Well, this is my peace out until Monday when I hope to have my act together enough to share more NYC/BlogHer details. Hope you have a great weekend!!

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Four Years & Counting

Four years ago today, Chris & I got married. Gosh, we’ve come a long way since then. We’ve been through school, graduation, employment, unemployment and parenthood so far and it’s been awesome. We’ve got a lot more ahead of us, too.

One of our many engagement photo outtakes. We were in a silly mood that day.

I’m so happy to be making this crazy journey with Chris. He’s my best friend. I thank my lucky stars we were able to find each other in the mess of the college dating scene. I love you, Chris!!

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Happy Fourth of July!

Hope you had a happy fourth of July weekend! I sure did. My parents were here visiting from Charlotte, so we packed the weekend full of barbecues, pool parties & dinners.

Friday, my folks treated me, my siblings & our kids to Toy Story 3; Penelope sat sweetly on my lap the whole time & I just about bawled my eyes out. Friday night we hung out with my dad’s family and I got a peek at my uncle’s new iPhone4.

Saturday, my dad & I ate lunch at Bruge’s Waffles & Frites where we enjoyed the most delicious waffles & fries & fry sauce ever. Seriously. EVER. Saturday afternoon we partied with my mom’s family & went swimming. Not sure I’ve ever seen Penelope so petrified of water before.

Sunday, I barely squeezed into this patriotic outfit; I must’ve gained weight or something in the last month because that skirt does NOT fit anymore. Oh well. Sunday evening we dined with my grandparents; Penelope & her cousin had way too much fun playing with dress-ups, toy guns & water.

Of course I forgot to bring my camera to every single thing this weekend! I seriously missed out on some great photo ops. BLERG!

How was your holiday weekend? What did you do?

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