The Envelope Please ...

 

 

   The inside of this envelope contains our baby's gender.  I'm dying to know. 

 

Yesterday we went to our 20 week anatomy ultrasound and I just loved getting another chance to see our baby move and turn and lift his/her legs and open his/her mouth. 

 

The last ultrasound we had was at 13 weeks and I know this is cliché, but boy do babies grow fast.  The difference in size, development, and movement was incredible.  

 

We just loved every minute of it.  We are doing a gender reveal this weekend so we did not find out the sex yesterday.  As much as DFH and I loved staring at the little peanut, both of us kept looking away nervous we would see any "parts" when the tech got close to the midsection as we didn't want to ruin the surprise. 

 

 

 

Hi Baby!  Looking Good!

 

 

We have a big weekend coming up and I can hardly wait.   I am anxiously waiting to jump in the car Friday afternoon and head down to DC. 

 

Next Monday my friend LES and I are getting sworn into the Supreme Court of the United States so we had been planning to go to Washington, DC this weekend for months before I even knew I was pregnant. My parents had also planned to come down to DC from New Jersey for the swearing in.   Sunday also happens to be my birthday. 

 

Before DFH and I were pregnant I knew I wanted to do a gender reveal.  I have always loved watching other parents-to-be find out the sex of their baby in creative ways in front of their family and friends, plus I love surprises.

 

After we were pregnant I struggled to figure out a way we could do the gender reveal to include our families who both live in New Jersey.    We were all so busy and it seemed impossible to find a weekend we were all available that fell in a relatively small window, but it was really important to me that both sets of parents were there.

 

Then I realized that DC was closer to NJ than Pittsburgh and the weekend fell right at the 21 week pregnancy mark.  Perfect.  We invited DFH's parent's to join us in DC for the weekend, and they immediately said YES! 

 

So now this weekend both families, my friend LES, her boyfriend, and DFH and I are headed down to DC for the weekend.  We are touring the White House, doing the gender reveal, celebrating my birthday and I will be sworn into the SCOTUS.  Can there be a more fun weekend????

 

Tonight I am giving my friend ALV the envelope and she is going to call or text my friend Allie who lives in DC and is setting up the reveal this weekend.  EEEeeeekk. 

 

So what do you think boy or girl?

 

 

DFH has said 100% boy from day 1.  I though boy from the beginning, but now I am thinking maybe girl, I really have no idea.

 

 

 

 

 

Weekend Recap

  

   Good Morning!  Happy Presidents Day!  I am one of the few who actually had to work today, I am super jealous of those of you who have off and hopefully you are enjoying your day in your warm houses, because brrr it is chilly here is Pittsburgh.

   DFH and I had a very productive weekend.  On Saturday the high was 1 degree so we thought it was best to stay inside.  We decided to tackle some of the home projects that had been sitting for months and ended up spending 9-10 straight hours reorganizing the basement, purging our filing cabinet, and throwing out bags and bags of old magazines, junk drawer receipts, and other miscellaneous stuff that had been collecting dust.  I think it is safe to say that some nesting has set in, haha.   Once we finally sat down to relax we both fell asleep on the couch after about twenty minutes. 


  On Valentine's Day we bundled up and headed downtown to the strip district to purchase our Valentine's Day dinner.  I had talked about the Strip District in previous blog posts, in addition to numerous sidewalk vendors, and street food the Strip has a lot of great specialty stores that  many local restaurants use to get their fresh seafood, homemade pasta, meats, etc.

 

Picture VIA

  We first stopped in Strip District Meats to pick up some exotic meat for our entrée.  There were so many cool choices, turtle, python, kangaroo, antelope...and the list goes on.  We decided on kangaroo medallions, a nice lean red meat that was pregnancy safe.    You can check out their exotic meats online HERE.  The prices were reasonable too, so if you are local stop in, even  just to check out their wide variety.  They also carry your usual butchered meats as well. 

 

Picture VIA

 Next, we popped into Wholey's to pick out some seafood for our appetizer.  Just like Strip District Meats, Wholey's carries quite the variety.  We ended up choosing one of our favorite treats, escargot and also picked up some other random items including some pear juice to make mocktails for me.

 We stopped into some of our favorite shops, such as Pittsburgh Popcorn to check out their weekly popcorn flavors, ate some street tacos, and did some people watching.  I loved this giant Sidney Crosby mural painted on one of the shop's garages in the Strip. 

  The remainder of the day was spent running errands and having a "Suburban Sunday" as we called it.  We hit up the mall and Target, stopped in Bed Bath & Beyond, and Kohls, but we got a lot of errands done we had been putting off.  It is so nice to end the weekend feeling organized.

  Sunday night we started with escargot and then cooked our kangaroo medallions and made a side of garlic and parm green beans.  We cooked the kangaroo and seasoned it with salt and pepper like a normal piece of steak.  And the verdict.... mehhh.  Neither of us loved the kangaroo, but both of us couldn't decide what it was we didn't like about it.  It had a unique taste, but we wouldn't call it gamey.    We probably would not get it again, but we are so glad we tried it.  We love sampling unique food. 

    Hope you all had a great Valentine's Day too. 

2015 Yearly Recap: Part II

 

  I always forget how much goes on in a year until I look back, which is why I love doing this recap each year. 

 

   Here is what I was up to July through December 2015!

 

 

 

In July we celebrated ALV's birthday with a fun girls day of pampering and shopping.

 

ALV also hosted a 4th of July/ gender reveal party and we learned Baby S was a BOY!

 

DFH and I spent some time in July on LBI for a family reunion.  We hate living so far away from everyone and the beach

In August ALV, LES and went to the Rascal Flatts concert.

 



 

LES and I drove to Washington, DC to visit Allie for the weekend. 

 

In August I got to spend some time with some of my favorite college friends when they came up to Pittsburgh for a wedding. 

 

We ended summer with a bang and had an awesome Sunday Funday Labor Day Weekend.

 

In September we celebrated the wedding of Kasey and Jeremy.

 

We flew to the Hamptons for my cousin's wedding. 

 

The lovely bride and groom Katie and Connor.

 

 

In September we also showered ALV and Baby S.

 

My sister JLP and her fiancée Kevin visited us in Pittsburgh for the weekend.

 



 

In October we attended James and Gwynne's wedding.

 

DFH and I celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary with a delicious dinner and a self guided bar crawl. 

 

My grandparent's visited us in Pittsburgh from NY.  We took an awesome bike ride through the city and added love locks to one of the downtown bridges. 

 

 

In November we found out we were pregnant!!!!

 

We went to another Pens game.

 

We went back to NJ for Thanksgiving.

 

We ran the turkey trot and announced our pregnancy to family. 

 

 

We celebrated JLP and Kevin at their engagement party.

 



 

DFH and I rang in the New Year with dinner at Station in the Bloomfield neighborhood and at a party with friends. 

 

 

2016 has already been pretty amazing cant wait to see what else is in store!

Year in Review: PART 1

 

 

I know, I know, it is February, but I was MIA while I had my first trimester "hangover" and I really love a good recap so here is part one of my 2015 year in review in February.

 

 

In January I flew to California to visit my good friend Jenna who had recently moved to Manhattan Beach from Chicago.  We had the best time

 

We ate and drank our way through the weekend and dinner at SUR was a must.  ( Although no celeb sighting).  We biked, we shopped, and ate and drank some more. 

In February our friends Luke and Alaina visited us from NJ.  They helped us with some projects we were working on in the house and after a long hard day of work relaxing in the hot tub was necessary.  ( Also worst picture ever - but the only one I took all weekend).

 

 

At the end of February I drove to Washington, DC to visit my sorority sister Allie.  We spent the day exploring the cute town of Alexandria, VA and did some touristing around DC.

 

 

In February DFH and I braved the blizzard and enjoyed great seats at a Pens Game. 

 

DFH also finished our mudroom. 

 

In March our friends Brook and Jess visited us from NJ.  We took in the sights of the city with cocktails on top of Mt. Washington

 

 

and celebrated St. Patrick's Day at a Pens game. 

 

In April we went home to NJ for Easter and celebrated with family and monogrammed eggs. 

 

DFH surprised me with a date night to see Dirty Dancing at the local theatre.

 

 

In May we finished repainting the outside of our house.  

 

Lara, Allie, and I went to see Hall and Oates for our first outdoor concert of the summer.

I ran the Pittsburgh Marathon Relay with these girls.

 



 

We celebrated Oliver's 2nd birthday. 

 

 

and spent the weekend in Maryland at the music festival Delfest. 

 



Also in May my sister got engaged.

 



 

In June we finished redoing the office and hung our barn door. 

 

I was so honored to be asked to be my sister's Matron of Honor.

 

 

and we finally got to celebrate my sister's engagement while we were home in NJ.

 

 

We attended our good friend's Luke and Alaina's wedding.

 

 

 

and loved getting to hang out with so many high school friends. 

 

Posing with the bride and groom.

 

 

Just two weeks after Luke and Alaina's wedding we went back to NJ again, this time for Tom and Rosie's wedding.

 

 

 

Stay tuned for part II....