Just as expected this week was somewhat of a whirlwind. Papa Bear was back to teaching his herd of mini bears and I was back to my regular work schedule too. It's been a little tough adjusting as I miss him terribly during the day and being carless during the day comes with it's own set of obvious drawbacks. Though I am grateful I have my babies to keep me company and oddly enough I'm still not over cooking and baking as I have continued with that all week long. It's resulted in some amazing meals and we are all quite happy about that. 

We are so looking forward to this long weekend. We have some housekeeping items on the agenda (such as a visit to Ikea) but there's plenty of fun things I'm looking forward to - like fall shopping and enjoying our last few opportunities to eat outside. 

Hope all of you have a wonderful one as well!

xo

It's been somewhat surreal to realize how much time has flown by since we found out we were expecting. That day in April seems like yesterday and yet here we are six months later closer than ever to the due date. My weight gain is finally picking up which I'm quite happy about, though I must note that being at the cabin for most of the working day without a car often makes it difficult to eat on demand; especially if I'm craving something that's not in the house. The negatives have been the loss of sleep (it's tough to get comfortable with this soccer ball in my belly) and the fact that I swear this kid grows by the hour and let me tell you some of these "growing pains" really hurt. 

On the home front things are progressing well. It makes me happy to know the baby's room has a fresh coat of paint and we'll be buying some of the furniture this weekend. I can't wait to see it all come together! 

I have so many thoughts swirling around in my head about bambino as of late. But one of the most mind boggling ones to me is that because seven years ago two crazy kids met and fell in love there will now be one more little human on this earth. 

I've also been going through our baby photos, I suppose in an attempt to figure out what this little guy or gal is going to look like. Turns out we bore quite a resemblance to each other as babies! Save for my awful paleness and probably due to the fact that until the age of two (according to my mum) most people assumed I was a boy. 

Obviously I'm hoping the kid takes after it's father... boy or girl. 

Just look at those rolls! And that drool! Oh my!

This weekend was the last one before the school year starts and I head into the third trimester (aka right before things get really crazy). So we decided to be terribly lazy and just do a whole lot of nothing. It rained almost every day and we brought out blankets, put on some new records and settled in on the sofa. On Saturday night we did venture out for our belated anniversary dinner. We had the best time at one of the restaurants at Skyland resort. The place had practically 360 degree views of the mountains and I ordered an embarrassingly large chocolate cake as my dessert. 

I also cooked a lot this weekend. I don't have as much energy as I used to these days so I take advantage of any bursts that I may encounter. I made my mum's pelmeni on Friday and Sunday for lunch I made a creamy mushroom soup. And then wouldn't you know I spotted the most darling toadstool right in our yard a few hours later! 

I'm a little sad to bid farewell to our summer routine but autumn is in the air and there's a lot to look forward to in the coming months so I suppose it evens out in the end. 

Here's to a successful new school year!

A year later and I still can't get enough of the horses all around where we live. I could just watch them endlessly. I've always been mesmerized by their beauty and elegance...

to my love

my best friend

my everything

thank you for four amazing years

i love you

This belly has been coming in quite nicely the past couple of days. We haven't been doing as good of a job as we should be documenting it so we took a few minutes yesterday to capture it. It's still kind of surreal for me to see myself in the mirror! It's also hard to imagine that I'm going to get quite a bit bigger than this when it already feels like I'm being stretched to my limit. 

All in all I am feeling well. Sleeping is not what it used to be since I'm a stomach sleeper and long drives in the car are no fun at all but I'm feeling good, baby is moving around constantly and everything seems to be coming together well in preparation for bambino. 

And for that we are incredibly grateful!

This week is shaping up to be a productive one but a busy one too. Since Kevin is going to be home for just a few more weeks before school starts we've been cleaning and organizing the house in preparation for bambino's soon arrival. When we moved in last year I kept telling myself I would organize after I unpacked. Of course after weeks of unpacking the last thing I wanted to do was organize so things have slowly been getting out of control and exploding out of closets and spilling out from under beds. 

Mum and dad are coming this weekend to help with some things around the house and spend some time with us. We're planning on going to the county fair with them and picking up some fresh fruits and veggies from the market. 

But right now we're all about work, work, work... 

This week has just flown by! I can't believe it's already Friday! We got to spend a few days in Roanoke, VA this week and got to enjoy some of the best Korean food I've had in a while. I used to love getting Bibimbap at a restaurant in California and I've been craving it since we left so I was pretty much in heaven devouring that bowl. 

We also had our "big" ultrasound appointment yesterday where they measured the baby from head to toe. We were thrilled to hear that it is perfectly healthy and developing just as it should and seeing its sweet face just melted our hearts. We couldn't believe how much it had grown since our last ultrasound! It's amazing to me how much I love this little pumpkin already and we haven't even officially met.