Rock a Bye Baby

In last week's post (tackling the registry and other to dos), I mentioned the search for the perfect chair. I can not tell you how thankful we were to finally make a decision on this and get it ordered. I am sure that our mothers, were ready for us to make a decision and move on. I know for sure one of them was:). I also know that if she is going to spend as much time as she wants in this chair, with this baby, she will be happy that we got a nice comfy one.

When I tell you that we spent more time in search of this chair than we did picking out our next car, I am totally serious. Chair shopping proved to be much more challenging than expected. From what I hear, you spend a lot of time rocking the sweet little ones in these chairs, so comfort is key.

What I learned on my journey is that even the ugliest ones available are also REALLY expensive. I decided that if I was going to buy anything, I wanted to not hate it.  We had looked at this Pottery Barn chair early on but had some sticker shock. Then, like I mentioned, as we kept looking we learned all chairs are expensive, even the ugly ones. We decided on the one in the above photo that I am glamorously "modeling" for you all. It will be coming in the below color.

All I wanted was an upholstered (not wooden or leather) chair that was semi-modern with clean lines that swiveled or rocked. It didn't have to recline or have an ottoman. I wanted to be able to sit in it before buying it, which made the Little Castle chairs not an option. A lot of folks recommended these but I wasn't dropping $500 on something I couldn't see in person. I liked the way they looked but I just couldn't commit.

So, assuming that I will rock more than one baby in this chair, and that I will continue to like it when these babies are older, we went for the Pottery Barn chair. We are really grateful that our parents help us with making decisions and purchases like this. If we didn't have them, we would probably just not have anywhere to sit.

Good thing we ordered it when we did because it takes about 10 weeks before the can deliver it. By the time the nursery furniture gets here, Jeff gets the room painted (more on that) and decorated, the rug gets here (oh, yeah, another story!), the chair will be here just in time for the baby. We also saved 10% by registering for a few items at Pottery Barn.

If you are looking for a giant leather chair that looks like a 400 lb, 80 year old man would rest comfortably thru an entire Sunday of football or a wooden rocker/glider chair built for a quilting granny, you should be able to find that in a single afternoon instead of weeks of searching.

I have a whole list of stuff to tell you about, what do you want to know next? I am thinking paint samples and our (super long) process of choosing an accent wall color will make for an interesting story. Ok, maybe not super interesting but it will do.

Registry, and other works in progress.

Since we are expecting this baby to come in May, we have been super busy the last few weeks preparing for his arrival! Maybe I was kind of naive about this but I really thought that the crazy busy times, started after that baby got here. What do I know!

We are getting it done, little by little. We made the announcement to the world that we were expecting (seen here), then shared our gender reveal (here), now for the real prep work! Its kind of like planning  a wedding, except I am much more into this than I was the wedding. Maybe because, unlike the wedding, we can make decisions how we want to, and not have to tip toe around what works for everyone else, friends, family, friends of family. Nope this one is all us.

I am trying really hard to keep the habit of posting here at least once a week. There is so much I need to update you on, but I will spread it out, as to not overwhelm you as much as I have been overwhelmed the last few weeks. For now, I want to share my excitement about our upcoming shower!

My awesome girlfriends, Kristen (maid of honor from my wedding) and Julie and Casey (gender reveal party planners) are hosting this. I have no idea what they are planning but it is always awesome. Just like this shower invitation that I got in the mail this week. They know how to pick fun things that make me happy and know that I love to be surprised. How cute is this invite!

I am especially grateful to Casey for helping us with our registry and making sure we did it on time!

This guy is a handful but he is great to have around!

girls just want to have fun!

My mom and mother in law will be flying to Richmond for the shower, which will be nice. It is hard not having them be here but they do the best they can to be a part of each special thing. I would have loved for them to be here for our gender reveal party, but when Casey and Julie surprised us with having them join us via Skype that was pretty awesome too!  Totally unexpected and very special.

Registering kind of snuck up on us, I didn't realize it would be so intense! And such a time consuming process. Of course, I do have the world's most thorough researcher for a husband. He has read this book, cover to cover and refers to it as his bible!
 
Seriously, if you or someone you know (who likes to make ultra informed decisions on everything) is having a baby, get this book. Jeff has read it cover to cover and it has all the safety information and the best place to buy everything.


It really helped us when registering. We are registered at a few places (see below for details). Babies R Us is a big box store that has a lot of stuff and is easy to order from so we went there. I added Amazon.com at the last minute, because it was suggested to me by previous new mamas who said having gift cards to Amazon was great to be able to order things yourself and have them show up to your door. I also registered for like 5 things at Pottery Barn because it saved us 10% on this chair. More on this agonizing chair decision and how we spent more time chair shopping than shopping for a car.

The place that I am most excited about registering was a small local store, Franklin Goose. They have very unique, environmentally friendly products. You can order online, which is great for our out of town friends and family. The staff is SO helpful and knowledgeable on the 2 things that are really important to us, cloth diapering and making your own food.

We went to a diapering class there that was SO helpful and we are ready for the challenge, yes, I know you think we are nuts. No, we don't care what you think, we are doing it anyway. Unless you think we are awesome, in that case, we agree. I don't know why I am surprised when people say super negative things about something I am excited about, but that somehow 30+ years into this life, it still kind of gets to me.

Because so many of our friends and family are out of town and won't be able to join us for the shower, we wanted to include registry information here, if you wanted that.  I added the links so you can go straight there, some of them were not easy to find! Anyone who sends anything before the March 23 shower, I am saving your gifts to open then so it can be like you were here in spirit.
Babies R Us
Amazon
Franklin Goose 
Pottery Barn

Things coming soon:
The Chair Shopping Adventures
More details on the Gender Reveal Party
Weekly Pregnancy Photos Journal
Letters to the Baby
Hiring a Doula
Why Cloth Diapers?
On a Mission for the Perfect Chair
Nursery Decor

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Winter Retreat to Park City, UT

Park City, UT 2013

My in laws decided to pack up and head west about a year or so ago. After building their dream house, the now live full time in Park City, UT. Tough life living in such a beautiful place. Last week, Jeff and I went out for a week. This is great timing for us because Jeff enjoys skiing with his parents, while the slopes are not so crowded. It is the week of the Sundance film festival so people are engaged with movie going and star spotting. I saw Nicole Kidman!

I dont ski. Not just because I am pregnant right now, but because I just don't. Yes, I have tried and no I am not good at it and I do not like it and NO, I don't want you to teach me. I am perfectly fine shopping, or eating, or lounging, or blogging or snow shoeing or doing anything else.

Jeff skied 3 or 4 days while we were there and he also worked a few days remotely so he wouldn't have to use so much vacation time. If you follow me on Instagram (@starstylist), you probably saw my pics of our adventures. Here are some....

There was plenty of wildlife spotting. Here is one of my daily deer photos

and the elk, which I really wanted video of but this quick Instagram shot out the car window was all I could get:( I really wanted a snow bunny shot but I only saw them at night.

I captured some fun shots of Baby Jeff. What a cutie! Right?

We got our baby his first Sundance Film Fest t-shirt. He can't wear it until he is about 2 but thats cool. It  is his souvenir from his first time there. We had tickets to more but we managed to make it to see 2 movies. One very weird one  (Two Mothers) and one very hilarious one (Austen-land).

I managed to keep on my workout schedule and even stuck to my January Workout goal (you saw this video right?) to mix it up with at lest one strength day, one yoga day and one day of swimming a 1/2 mile. How dedicated am I? So dedicated that I swam here. Yep, its heated and didn't seem like the worst idea until I had to get out:). So far I haven't missed a week yet!

I did some blogging and some Vlogging, yeah thats what us cool kids call video blogging. I did one on my 1 minute (out the door FAST) face, that is here.  And I also did one for my March Money Making Makeup Artist workshop, that is here.  By the way, I really need some help getting the word out on this so anyone who wants to share it and help would really make me happy, hint hint! I also did one on my must have products for winter so stay tuned for that one!

You know I LOVE anything S'mores. Some people only make s'mores when they go camping. I am of the belief that this treat can be enjoyed indoors, like this...

Before we left, I decided that it was time to learn to use this camera that I had bought 3 years ago. It is very fancy and has lots of bells and whistles but I needed some instruction to be able to put it to use. My friend, Julie, who took those lovely photos from our gender reveal party, gave me a lesson before we left. I promised that I would put some of her teachings into action and practice.

I even took it out on the day that I convinced Jeff to go snow shoeing with me. Now, I have only been once, which was last year with Casey (who was 7 months pregnant at the time). Casey and I went on a short little "snow walk", which is what I thought Jeff and I were doing. Instead, we trudged a few miles thru the golf course and I swear it was uphill both ways. I could have sworn I was going to die out there. Thankfully, I had my phone and called my father in law to come and pick us up because there is no way I was going to make it back home. 

Here are some of the non-iPhone photos that I took....what do you think?

little too close!

thats better!

Snow Walking with Moses

Just practicing with some things lying around.

Here is some video of our snow-shoeing past and present. We like to have a good time:)


Our next visit to Park City will be in the summer, which is a bit more my speed. I won't be pregnant then and will have the grandparents on hand as babysitters, so I plan to really have some adult fun. I will probably be moving more quickly and breathing less heavily then. I hope.