This post contains affiliate links, meaning any purchases made using these links will earn Taz + Belly a small commission. You can read more about our affiliate relationships here. Here’s another one of those baby centric posts that not everyone will appreciate, but for those of you who are also trying to pack a hospital bag, you need this as much as I would! Plus, who doesn’t love being nosy and peeking inside someone else’s luggage?! I haven’t added toiletries to my bag yet, but I’m still using those on a daily basis. I have packed everything else on my list, so in an emergency, I could throw my makeup bag on top and head for the hospital. If you follow along on Instagram, you might have seen my stories about what bag to pack. I’ve gone back and forth about buying a pretty ...
Bumpdate | 36 Weeks
I might only be sharing a monthly bumpdate, but I’m still taking weekly photos to share on Instagram — and to preserve for the baby book — so I figured I would catch up at the beginning of each update post. Here are our weekly photos since we last checked on baby. I am honestly amazed at how quickly this year has flown by - for anyone not paying attention: I have been pregnant THIS ENTIRE YEAR?! I'm getting lots of comments on my body / the belly these days, especially from perfect strangers, and it's always so weird and catches me completely off guard. Everyone has an opinion about how I'm carrying or what we're having or if we planned for this baby (when they see the girls, but WHAT THE HECK?!). Mostly, I just want to not discuss the state of my cervix while checking out at the ...
The Daily Dime | August 2018
After several weeks of bragging on how well I was sleeping, stupid acid reflux reared its ugly head. For the last week or so, I've been waking up in a panic and can't go back to sleep. The first several days I really tried to stay in bed and at least rest, but this week I decided to just get up and be productive. On Monday, I was wide awake at 3:18 a.m. and decided to get up and get started with my day sometime around 3:45. I made coffee, did laundry, cleaned the kitchen, and wrote a few blog posts! I'm still really loving my mini bathroom makeover, although I hope to paint the walls black and all of the woodwork a different white, at some point in the future. The girls joke that you can see yourself from every angle, except when you're on the toilet (thank ...
Showers + Sprinkles
I'm not usually up drafting posts at 3:48 on a Monday morning, but pregnancy does very weird things to your internal clock. For several weeks, I had been sleeping so well, but for the last four or five nights I've been awake for several hours in middle of the night. Baby likes to crawl way up underneath my ribs when I'm sleeping and it causes the worst heart burn. I always wake up feeling like I'm going to be sick and Josh fusses because I refuse to take Tums. I'm not convinced anything would help at this point -- I just feel gross because there is no room left inside this body! I was planning to share these photos later in the week, but I'm currently waiting on a pot of coffee to brew and making a grocery list for tomorrow, so this seems like the perfect time to get a post up. I ...
Little Letters | August 2018
Dear Friday, I am so happy to see you. Every week feels like an eternity, at this point, and I feel like last weekend was forever ago. I only have twelve more days to report to the office and I'm marking them off with a big X, every chance I get. Dear Anniversary, It's crazy to think that I've been married for sixteen years. SIXTEEN YEARS?! We were such babies then and while so many things have changed, so many things are exactly the same. Dear Blog Friends, Did you even notice that I pressed publish five times this week? It's been a really long time since I managed to share a post with you every single day. It might not happen again for awhile, so I really hope you enjoyed it. Dear Ella, You were such a champ this week. I know that transitioning to a new school and learning ...
Sophie’s Third Grade Interview
I shared Ella's back-to-school interview on the blog yesterday, but little sister's is just as wonderful to watch! While eight years old was a rough year for Ella, Sophie seems to be thriving. She is hilarious and so thoughtful and she has the most sensitive spirit. I think she's been looking forward to ruling elementary school without a big sister on campus and her first few days have been wonderful. She's changing classes for the first time -- she has three teachers this year -- is separated from her best friends from last year, and has moved to the front hall, which she sees as a very big deal. She got all of her hair cut off on Sunday and after three whole days of loving it, she woke up yesterday with a much different attitude. She slept on a wet head, making it stand on end, ...
Ella’s Sixth Grade Interview
I always say I'm going to share more video on the blog, but with our camera upgrade earlier this year, it's actually possible. I'm hoping to up my video game as we get closer to baby's arrival and start sharing regular vlogs here on the blog. I'm not sure that I'll try and set a rigid schedule, but I'm hoping to capture more of what our family is really like and -- hopefully -- that means sharing more of them with you! Our first video project on the new camera was capturing the girls' annual back-to-school interviews. While we've done a video format once before, but we usually stick with a list of questions and answers. The girls were excited to see the camera set up when the got home from school on Tuesday and we were able to capture their first few thoughts about a new school year ...
Book by Book | What I Read in July 2018
Affiliate links appear in this post. Any purchases made using these links will earn Taz + Belly a small commission. You can read more about our affiliate relationships here. I am so thrilled to have read so many books last month! I'm sure our weekend getaway helped -- I read two, cover to cover, that weekend -- but I just found more time to sneak reading in my daily life and it was so good to feel like my normal self again. We've been super busy this summer and I've hopefully wrapped up most of my bigger projects to accomplish before baby. In theory, that should give me more time to rest and read, but in reality it might just give me more time to nap. I've already wish-listed a few parenting / baby books that I want to read, but I have plenty of BOTM selections to catch up on, too. ...