Thanksgiving Weekend Recap!

{36 weeks} 

I can hardly believe Thanksgiving has come and gone and I am now 36 weeks! I wanted to be sure to get a Thanksgiving post in so I wouldn't forget this special weekend in my pregnancy. 

Although I am thankful everyday, I was especially thankful this Thanksgiving for a healthy pregnancy and our growing little family. I feel like my heart could explode when I think about the love I have for my husband and the little girl we will be welcoming into the world in just 4 short weeks! I could not be more thankful for this life God has given me.

Last year we celebrated Thanksgiving in New York with David's brother. It was the first time I had ever had Thanksgiving dinner at a restaurant, which was a fun experience! We had a blast celebrating Thanksgiving in the Big Apple, but it was nice to be home this year with the entire family. Unfortunately, David's brother was unable to be at this year's Thanksgiving due to his busy school schedule. However, he will be home for Christmas and the arrival of his little niece, which we are all excited about! 

Thanksgiving this year was spent with both sides of our families. The topic of conversation this year revolved around little miss Leah and her upcoming arrival ;) Leah is the first grandchild on both sides, so to say there is excitement for her arrival would be an understatement. David's mom even went out to the baby stores at midnight on Thanksgiving to go Black Friday shopping for little miss Leah after all the cooking and festivities from the day/night...I wish I had that kind of energy again! 

My mama-in-law and all the yummy food from Thanksgiving! These are the only photos I got from Thanksgiving and they were on my point and shoot. I have been too exhausted lately to lug around my professional equipment.

Friday, we spent the entire day/night next to the fire putting up our ginormous tree, decorating the house, watching Christmas movies, and eating large amounts of Thanksgiving leftovers. What is more perfect than that? I am much more exhausted this trimester, so for me this was the perfect day spent with my hubby. I will be posting a Christmas decor home tour later this week!

Saturday, my hubby took me on a fancy date night to the Skyline Club where he wined water and dined me! We started off the evening by going to monument circle to see the tree (little did I know we would have an even better view once we actually got to dinner). After walking around the circle we headed to dinner and had a great evening laughing, talking, and eating entirely too much. 

View from our table!

Unfortunately, what was an amazing weekend turned pretty crummy around 3:00 am when I woke up feeling very sick. I spent all of Sunday sicker than a dog with what looked to be food poisoning. I'm so thankful for my husband who took such great care of me {and Leah}. He is the best caretaker. He made sure to take my temperature every 30 minutes to make sure my fever didn't spike and bought me all the gatorade and popsicles a girl could ask for ;) After a rough two days I was finally back to myself on Tuesday. {thank goodness!}

Despite the food poisoning from the restaurant, we had a great Thanksgiving weekend. It was filled with family, food, and great memories :)   

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend as well!

{We also celebrated Thanksgiving with our friends at our Annual Friendsgiving Dinner! If you missed that post you can check it out here}

Pumpkin Patch & Weekend Recap!

10.13.12

7 1/2 Months Pregnant :)

I LOVE FALL!!! 

Fall is my absolute favorite time of year.  I love the crisp air, vibrant colored leaves, cozy fires, pumpkin patches, apple cider, Halloween, and the fact that Christmas is just around the corner, which makes me all giddy inside...especially with the arrival of our little girl :)

This was our first wedding-free weekend in almost two months and we made sure to make the most of it! Friday night we had a date night at one of our favorite restaurants. We spent the night talking, laughing, and eating entirely too much! We are making sure to get in as many date nights as possible before our little Leah is here and they become few and far between :)

Fuzzy iPhone photo from our date night

Saturday we spent the day at Stony Creek Pumpkin Patch picking out our pumpkins and Leah's little pumpkin. It was a perfect day for hot apple cider and pumpkin picking. We then spent the night with our good friends. My best friend is getting married this Saturday so we spent the night talking about all things wedding! We even tested out one of their wishing lanterns, which was so much fun! We each wrote a wish on the lantern and then watched it disappear in to the sky.

Sunday, we spend the day photographing a surprise anniversary proposal for one of our favorite client couples, who have also become good friends of ours! Have I mentioned how much I love my job? Being able to capture special moments in people's lives is what I love most. We then finished off the weekend carving our pumpkins :)

My hubby, dental student during the week and photographer during the weekend, at our session Sunday.

Our Pumpkins :)

Leah's Pumpkin :)

Yes, I know! Everything we do is baby related...can you tell we're excited?
I hope you all had a wonderful weekend as well!

Happy Wedding Week To My Best Friend!!!

Jenny, I can't wait to stand with you this weekend on your special day!!! Let the celebrating begin! 

I love you!!! 

24 & 25 Week Update :)

Post written back on 9.10.12

How far along?  24 & 25 week update!
Total weight gain/loss: 16 pounds!
Maternity clothes? Yep
Stretch marks? Nope
Sleep: Sleeping through the night (except for the occasional bathroom breaks)
Best moments: Feeling her movements get stronger! There is nothing I love more than laying on the couch or bed and just feeling her move. I still smile at every movement she makes. To me it's such an amazing experience.
Miss Anything? Laying on my stomach but that's pretty much it!
Movement: Yep, lots :)
Food cravings: No strong food cravings. I do enjoy apples more than I ever have in the past.  
Anything making you queasy or sick: Overeating and the dreaded heartburn I always here about from my mama friends is starting to come late at night :/
Have you started to show yet: Yep!
Gender: GIRL :) 
Labor Signs: None
Belly Button in or out? In
Wedding rings on or off? On 
Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy!!!
Looking forward to:  I'm looking forward to so much!!! Meeting her and feeling her movements get stronger! Celebrating Christmas with family and our new bundle of joy!  Cuddling next to the fire with her! 

There are also big things happening in my best friend's lives that I'm so looking forward to:
Standing next to my best friend, Jenny, at her wedding! Finding out the gender of Andria's baby! (My best friend, Andria, is also pregnant (about 6 weeks behind me) and I'm so looking forward to finding out if Leah's BFF will be a boy or a girl! It has been amazing sharing this experience with my best friend and I can't wait to see our children interact together :) Post on Andria's gender reveal party coming soon!

Over Half Way!

Today I am 22 weeks and feeling great! The best moment up to now is feeling her move! I'm starting to feel lots of movement and every time I feel something I just smile :) There really is no better feeling. I first felt her move on August 2nd, 2012. It was early in the morning and all the sudden I just felt these little movements that felt like nothing I had felt before. In that movement I knew it was her and I just couldn't stop smiling. The next day, August 3rd, David felt her move for the first time. It was so sweet to see his little face light up when he could feel her little movements. Being pregnant is the most amazing experience and I'm enjoying every minute of it with my hubby. We are both so excited to meet her but are soaking up every minute of watching her grow and preparing for her :)

How far along?  22 weeks!
Total weight gain/loss: At my 20 week appointment I had gained 9 pounds
Maternity clothes? Yep
Stretch marks? Nope
Sleep: Sleeping through the night
Best moments: Feeling her move all around, sharing this experience with our family and friends each week, and seeing all the love everyone already has for our little Leah (pics below of the sweet little packages from my sweet grandma and sweet friends) 
Miss Anything? Nope, not that I can think of!
Movement: Yep, lots :)
Food cravings: No food cravings just an increased appetite 
Anything making you queasy or sick: Overeating 
Have you started to show yet: Yep, since about week 16!
Gender: GIRL :) 
Labor Signs: None
Belly Button in or out? In
Wedding rings on or off? On 
Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy!
Looking forward to:  Feeling her movements get stronger! Meeting her! Standing next to my best friend, Jenny, at her wedding! Finding out the gender of Andria's baby! (My best friend, Andria, is also pregnant (about 6 weeks behind me) and I'm so looking forward to finding out if Leah's BFF will be a boy or a girl! It has been awesome sharing this experience with my best friend and I can't wait to see our children interact together :)

I love how my grandma addressed the package to Little Miss Wood...she is the cutest! :)

The adorable gown on the left was from my sweet friend, Aly! The gown is from the super cute shop SheShe Made (www.sheshemade.com).  
The adorable headband on the right was from my best friend, Andria's, mom :)   

Thank you so much sweet friends!!!

Nursery & Baby Girl's Name!

A sneak peek into our nursery!
Can you spot our baby girl’s name? :)

If you spotted Leah you are right ;)

Leah Kimberly Wood

We have actually had this exact name picked out for years!
We love it :)

I have to give my husband credit for the hard work he put into his little girl's nursery. He spent 2 weekends turning the bottom part of the chair rail into a tufted fabric wall. He took my crazy vision and made it happen! :) A lot of people on Facebook were asking about the wallpaper. The wallpaper is a Candice Olsen design that can be found on her website. It's a textured sand particle wallpaper that shimmers!
  We are having so much fun designing and decorating our baby girl's nursery! We still have a lot more to do but I was too excited to not share our progress! The dresser and changing table will be delivered next week and we are still on the hunt for the perfect chair. We also hand painted a little piggy bank at a local pottery place for the nursery that will be done next week!  We had so much fun making a little something custom and for her and I can't wait to put it on her dresser!
I will post a full blog post once all the finishing touches are done :)


In other news, I'm so excited for a weekend full of celebrating great friends!
Saturday I'm attending a baby shower for a fellow dental school wife and friend, Lacey!
Sunday I'm attending my best friend, Jenny's, bridal shower :)
Can't wait to celebrate these girls!

Gender Reveal Party!

The Sunday after we found out we were having a baby girl, we hosted a Gender Reveal Party for our close family and friends! I got the idea from one of my best friends who had a gender reveal party with her son! I loved the idea and knew I would do the same once becoming pregnant! We had to keep the secret from everyone for two days, which was just torture, but well worth the wait! This was one of the most special days so far in my pregnancy! As if I wasn't excited enough for this day, my grandma flew in from Florida to surprise me and be at the gender reveal party! My grandma and I are extremely close so having her there meant the world to me. Talk about the most wonderful surprise :) The day was so full of love and excitement! We have the most amazing family and friends. Thank you to our family and friends for making this day so special for us :) 

Final Votes

Boy: 17

Girl: 18

 Pregnancy Cravings Table 

 We had cupcakes filled with pink icing and then had all our guests bite into them at the same time to reveal we were having a baby girl :)

We are so incredibly blessed with such an amazing family and friends!

Special thanks to my mother-in-law who helped put the party on!

Gender Reveal Video!
The day we found out the gender of Baby WoodI'm so grateful to have these short videos that perfectly capture our special and intimate moments of being pregnant with our first child. I'm so fortunate to have a creative husband that cherishes memories as much as I do. He is the one behind the magic of all our videos :)

Baby Wood's Gender Reveal!!! from Rachel Wood on Vimeo.

IT'S A....

GIRL!!!!!!

We could not be more excited!!!! :)

The hubby and I are spending the rest of the day celebrating together and purchasing our first outfits for our little GIRL :)

Gender Reveal Video Coming Soon!

Announcement Video!!!

Once finding out the exciting news that we were pregnant, I decided to hide a camera and video tape my husband, David's, reaction! We then decided to secretly film telling our family and close friends! This is the sweet video David put together of all the footage :)

Pregnancy Announcement! from Rachel Wood on Vimeo.

Our video was also featured on my favorite blog, Analyze This. Aly is a friend of mine and I was so flattered to be featured on her blog! If you are looking for an awesome blog to follow this is the one! She is hilarious! Here is the link:

Announcing a Pregnancy - Cutest Idea Ever!

Our Facebook Announcement Photo :)

Announcing Baby Wood to all my close girlfriends :)

We are so thrilled! Words cannot express how overjoyed and blessed we feel for our little miracle! 

Pure happiness!
We are loving every minute of this journey and are excited for everything that is to come!

3 Year Anniversary and Babymoon :)

Happy Anniversary to my best friend and love of my life! Three wonderful years of marriage and now we are a family of three :) I feel like the luckiest girl in the world to be living this beautiful life with you!

The roses and sweet note from my hubby :)

This year we celebrated our 3 year anniversary in Cabo! This was the vacation for celebrating the 3's! David becoming a 3rd year in dental school, our family growing to a family of 3, and our 3 year anniversary! We had the best time together and with our best friends, Scott and Kara :) 

Anniversary dinner on the beach :)

11 weeks :)

Wedding Day
6.20.09 

David, I love your more than you will ever know!

1st Trimester!

The first trimester has definitely been rough! I've been battling a lot of nausea, headaches, and indigestion. My hubby, however, has been so amazing during this time. He runs to the grocery store for me daily, cooks all meals (cooking makes me extremely nauseous), and has been doing all the housework!  All while going to school full-time and he has not complained once! I'm so thankful and grateful for him!  As I hit 12 weeks the morning/all day sickness starting to slowly subside! I hope to start feeling normal again very soon! Even though I feel terrible most of the time I still can't help but smile! I'm just so excited to be pregnant and am soaking up every minute with my husband, family, and friends.  It has been such a special time in our lives and I know it's only going to get sweeter :) 

How far along? 12 weeks!
Total weight gain/loss: None, yet! I'm still patiently waiting for my baby bump!
Maternity clothes? Nope
Stretch marks? Nope
Sleep: Sleeping through the night
Best moment this week: Seeing Baby Wood kick and move all around at our 12 week ultrasound and announcing to everyone our exciting news!
Miss Anything? Being able to eat!
Movement: Not yet
Food cravings: Food cravings? I'm lucky if I get anything down
Anything making you queasy or sick:  Pretty much everything! Food, Smells, Car Rides, etc!
Have you started to show yet: Nope, but I can't wait until I do :)
Gender prediction: At first I thought boy but my entire family thinks girl, so I think it is starting to rub off on me :) (I honestly just want a healthy baby but I'm secretly hoping for a girl ;))
Labor Signs: None
Belly Button in or out? In
Wedding rings on or off? On 
Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy!!
Looking forward to:  Finding out the gender of Baby Wood!