i n • p u r s u i t

My life is overflowing with blessing. God has been so abundant in his gifts to us this year. Here are just a few things that I'm grateful for: Mike, my wonderful husband. These past few days, we've been sleeping in together. We haven't done it in a while because of early morning Crossfit and his new job (not complaining, I'm grateful for both!). But it has been such sweet together time, just snuggling in bed and chatting as we slowly wake up.  This child that God has so graciously blessed us with. Mike and I are excited to be parents and cannot wait to meet our son. We prayed so long for this and he's almost here! And oh my gosh, I just love to feel him move. I am always touching my belly, and that's because I love to feel him from the inside and out. :) God's impecable timing. I'm grateful for the time that Mike and I have had together before baby. We've been married for a little over four years and this past year has really been the best....

Every week, I basically feel like, "Augh! XX weeks? How did we get here?" I cannot believe I get to meet my little baby in, hopefully, a month and a half. We had our last Bradley Class! I'm SO glad that we took that class. It's one thing to read a book and read aloud random excerpts to Mike, but it's HUSBAND-coached childbirth and I'm SO glad we were able to sit down and learn from Mary . If you're in the Upstate and interested in natural childbirth, I highly recommend checking her out! I had a fabulous maternity shoot and I am so excited to see the results. :) In the less than fabulous.... Thanks to my good ol' pubic bone pain, I am full on waddling at home. I try really really hard to walk like a normal person out in public though. Not sure if its convincing at all, though. Rolling over in bed makes me feel like this . We are in full on baby prep! We bought a travel system. I've washed, folded, and put away a bunch of baby clot...

Over the weekend, Mike was flipping through the Publix Grape magazine and came across a really yummy looking recipe. It's basically several of my favorite foods all mixed into one dish. Last night, he made it for dinner (I'm so lucky to have a talented cook in the house!) and it was super yummy.  I of course, Instagrammed my dinner and someone asked for the recipe. After a quick search, I realized it wasn't online anywhere. This recipe is just too good to not share, so I wanted to post it here for you! While I included the whole recipe, but Mike used store-bought gnocchi instead of making it from scratch. (If he makes this again--fingers crossed!--I'll update this with better photos.) Prep: 1 hour Bake: 45 to 60 minutes at 425º Ingredients: 2 pounds russet potatoes 2 egg yolks 1/2 teaspoon salt, divided 3/4 to 1 cup all-purpose flour 2 slices bacon, cut into 1/4-inch pieces 1 large sweet potato, peeled and coarsely chopped 1/4 teaspoon gr...

[ source ] I have this picture in my head. It's a portrait, actually. I told Mike I'd love a family portrait...of all six of us. "Six??" Yes, I was including Peggy and Joan. I would particularly like it to be a Christmas sweater portrait because, well, why not? Finding a Christmas sweater for Mike, Charlemagne, Bella and me would be as easy as a trip to Target. (As Charlemagne will not be born until the new year, I have a lot of time to plan this portrait.) But what about Peggy and Joan? Do they have to be left out of the Christmas sweater fun? Apparently not. You guys. People make sweaters for chickens! My exceedingly good day has just gotten better. :) [ source ] [ source ]

I started scrapbooking when I was in high school. I had to put together a senior portfolio in which I basically scrapped several short personal stories that I had written over the year. I really enjoyed making it and I dove into scrapping. I have, I think, three scrapbooks from this time. But scrapbooking takes a LOT of time and I eventually stopped and got rid of all my scrapbooking supplies. I switched to photo albums, and while photo albums are functional and easy, they aren't nearly as pretty as scrapbooks. Eventually, I also stopped this and didn't print out any photos for a long time. I took up scrapbooking again when we got married. I wanted to make a wedding scrapbook, a reception guestbook/scrapbook, and then to start documenting our life together. Mike got me some really adorable scrapbooking supplies for our first Christmas together after we got married. My goal was to record the most important events in our lives (our wedding, honeymoon, holidays, vari...

Like I've said before, I just love Cara Box! It's so nice to get to know other lovely bloggers and I just love making care packages. My two lovely partners for this round were Stephanie and Tracie. I sent  Stephanie a Cara Box  and  Tracie  sent me this one! So, I had big plans for taking great photos of the amazing Cara Box that Tracie sent me, but I've been neck deep in my new obsession (project life!) and Bella and I have devoured the box by now, so.... Onto the contents of this seriously incredible box. 1. A pair of earrings. Love these! They're gold & silver and I actually really like to mix my metals. And I really really love me some earrings. :) 2. Fleece lined tights. Um, hello. Black tights? Pregnant lady? Match made in heaven. LOVE that they are fleece lined because it's getting colder here, y'all! 3. Cinnamon bun candle. Love. I've been burning this constantly. This is the first year that I've burned fall-scented ...

32 weeks and just like that we have less than 2 months left to go. :) Still rockin' a select few non-maternity clothes. Like everything above the waist in these photos. Because this is a "boyfriend" cardigan, I could even button it up with out pulling if I wanted to. That smells like success to me! A few days ago, a lady working at TJ Maxx made me feel miserable. First, she said something about me and a watermelon. I didn't hear quite what she said, didn't really care, so I just smiled and nodded. Then, she asked when I was due. "January," I told her. She made this awful face and then said with a pained look, "And there's only one in there?" Haha, lady. You're being so kind! I just smiled again and said, "Yep. Only one." The really annoying thing is that she just wouldn't stop. And I couldn't get away because I was waiting in line and she was manning the line. She basically said I was huge several times in sev...

When Mike and I found out we were pregnant, I promised him that we would have no jack-and-jill baby showers. I cannot imagine that most men want to attend baby showers! The shower his mom threw, however, was for both guys and gals. But it was less baby shower and more "let's hang out with family" time. Which was, by the way, wonderful. It was so great to see at catch up with everyone! I totally regret that I didn't bring my camera. I don't think I have any photos of Mike and I together at the shower. Also, I wish I had gotten a photo of Mike (the oldest cousin) holding John (the youngest cousin at just seven precious weeks). I did remember to grab some shots of the decor though. Mike's mom put so much work into making out shower a lovely event. Everything was just too adorable! The food was delicious. There were desserts for days! It was really hard to restrain myself from just one more cupcake, haha. :) We got a lot of really cute outfits th...

31 weeks down, [approximately] 9 to go! Mike and I, along with his sister Kristy, flew up to MI very very early Thursday morning. Main objective was out baby shower, but we also got to spend time with family which was equally important. Kristy took these photo Sunday before we flew out. As a kid, Mike helped his father plant a lot of trees around the yard. This apple tree is one of them. Wednesday was the seven month mark. We just keep getting closer and closer to meeting our son! :) On the way to MI, we had a layover in Chicago. I was sitting alone in the food court (Mike & Kristy had gone to a book store to look around) and Redditing . I came across a thread so funny that I couldn't stop laughing out loud. I almost started crying, seriously! All I could think about it how I must've looked like a crazy pregnant lady. LOL The truth is: I absolutely hate how I look in these photos! It's the result of several days of eating junk and not wearing makeup. Also, I t...