Feathering the Nest

Yesterday, along with family and close friends, we celebrated the gender reveal for our little bun-in-the-oven. It was an amazing day and we were blessed to be surrounded by so many loved ones as they shared in our special moment. It was the perfect way of finding out if our little dragon is a boy or a girl!! Team Boy! Team Girl! Cutting the cake to find out what the icing inside would reveal. If the icing was pink it's a girl, if the icing was blue it's a boy. The icing was blue so we knew we were having a boy!! It's our son!!  So happy!!

This weekend Chad painted the nursery “Pale Sea Foam.” I’m not so sure the name of the color actually does it any justice. The color is this gorgeous light robin’s egg blue. I just love it! Seriously, when we were at the hardware store getting the paint they showed us the color to verify it was correct, I literally shouted out “gorgeous!” I couldn’t wait for Chad to get the color up on the walls. I, being pregnant, could not be around the paint fumes but I snuck in quick to take a look at the color as he first started applying it. I loved it. It was perfect. It was cheery yet serene and relaxing. I’m not sure why I love Pale Sea Foam so much. Do I love it because I really think it’s a beautiful color or would I love any color we put in there because of what it represented … my baby’s room.   I did find myself the next day going into the nursery to just sit and look at the walls. It was relaxing and it was happy.   Though the room seemed empty and bare of furniture and other ...

In the last 8 days we have ate grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner 4 of those nights. God Bless my husband's heart for being so supportive in my pregnancy cravings and food likes ... or in this case food loves. I seriously can't get enough grilled cheese sandwiches. But I should mention these aren't just your normal day to day grilled cheeses. These are my husband's gourmet grilled cheese that are just too scrumptious for words. He takes French bread and butters the outside. He then sprinkles garlic powder and dill onto the butter for an extra flavor explosion of buttery toasted bites. Inside he fills the 'wich' with American cheese, and a sampling of havarti cheese or even perhaps pepperjack cheese. All I can say is they are AMAZING! I am so lucky to have such a wonderful husband who continues to not only dine on these yummy treats and never complain that he is getting sick of eating them, but for also being the best grilled cheese chef in the world!

While I have seen steam come from Tiffany’s ears, I don’t really believe that there is a dragon residing in her womb. Not because she couldn’t have a reptile inside her – consider the sources – but because dragons only exist in fairy tales (and also, for you zoology nerds, in the shape of a monitor lizard on some Indonesian islands, which include Komodo). Our child will be born under the Shengxiao – or Chinese zodiac – sign of the dragon, just like his or her old man and both grandparents Schmitt. Needless to say there will be a lot of dragons surrounding one lone rooster (poor Tiffany). The good news is our child could be magnanimous, stately, vigorous, strong, self-assured, proud, noble, direct, dignified, eccentric, intellectual, fiery, passionate, decisive, pioneering, artistic, generous and loyal. On the down side baby Nation could also be tactless, arrogant, imperious, tyrannical, demanding, intolerant, dogmatic, violent, impetuous or brash. A dragon can be an intense a...

There is nothing I love more than projects and I’m pretty sure they love me too.   I love to keep busy. I hate just sitting. Perhaps I have a touch of ADD or perhaps I just can’t allow myself to be truly lazy. Either way it means if I’m bored and got some down time I find a project to wrap myself in. Planning for the wedding was great. There was always a project to do. I love DIYs and I made sure to involve as many as I could in my wedding. I put together my centerpieces, made place cards with sayings, made table numbers (I never got to use), and made homemade tags for the favors. Basically, if I could make it I did it. Now that the wedding is done there is less to do … or so I thought. Low and behold we have a baby on the way which means there is always something to do. However, it’s not always what I want to do. Some projects involve cleaning the room that will be the nursery and organizing items within this room, etc. However, I have made sure to find plenty of crafty projects I...

This morning Chad sent me an email related to the baby which he stated “OMG, we need to be careful.” At first I was worried thinking it could be something health related to the baby or something obviously scary. However, I was relieved to see the story he had forwarded to me was not nearly as serious as I thought … or so I think.   Below is the story he sent me from the New York Daily News … Study: Bad baby name could leave your child sadder, dumber Being called a name can hurt -- even if it's the name your parents chose for you. Data gathered from nearly 12,000 adult participants found that a bad first name can not only ruin your self-esteem, but it may actually make you lonelier -- and dumber -- research published in the journal of Social Psychological and Personality Science shows. The majority of the 12,000 people who partook in various experiments testing name desirability on the European dating website eDarling, responded that they would actually rather remain single tha...

Less than 200 days before baby arrives … well I should probably say less than 200 days before baby is due. That is probably a bit more accurate. We are finally nearing the end of the first trimester which means a big sigh of relief.   I can’t wait to make it into the second trimester. That means we made it over a major hurdle. It also means the return of some of my energy and I am hoping the “glowing” stage of my pregnancy. I have actually had pregnancy pretty easy. No morning sickness, no vomiting (except for taking my prenatal on an empty stomach … note to self to never do that again), no crazy mood swings (at least in my eyes – ask my husband and he may say something different J ).   My only true signs and symptoms of pregnancy were feeling exhausted and completely wiped out and the feeling of an upset stomach in the evening ... but never anything that lead to being sick. I can only hope that the next two trimesters go as smoothly. Everyone says the second trimester is...