HELLO WEEKEND


image via

It's FRIDDAAAAY! For some reason this week felt exceptionally long but I think it's the new exhaustion I have acquired from entering the third trimester! My belly is getting BIG and carrying around all that extra weight is making me one tired cookie. He's also waking me up in the middle of the night lately by having a dance party in my belly...I'm all about dance parties but not at 2am baby boy. Can't believe it's 13ish weeks until I get to kiss his sweet cheeks...eee!

So got any plans for the weekend? James and I are in full out nesting mode so I'm hoping to get a few things done around the house! If you follow me on snapchat, you'll see that he surprised me by doing a diy ombre to a dresser we bought off used vic! It's beautiful. Courtney came over last night and helped me plan out the nursery/studio. So I am getting amped to start decorating!!

I ordered this from Target and cannot wait to put it above his crib! I also ordered these plates & these plates for my shower because they're just too cute.

Spring is in the air around here! We've been getting some nice sunshine but also a ton of rain showers...no surprise there! I checked out the Essie Spring Collection and it just seems a bit too summery for me (not pastel-y enough for my liking) but I do dig this shade. I have zero inspiration to buy spring clothes because these days I just want to be in my H&M maternity legging/pants and a t-shirt. So please buy some white jeans so I can live vicariously through you....!!!

Hope you have a wonderful weekend! 

XO,
Laura

PS. LET'S BE FRIENDS!

 INSTAGRAM // FACEBOOK // SNAPCHAT: lauraliira
TWITTER // PINTEREST

OUR PREGNANCY STORY


I've been waiting awhile to share our pregnancy story. It's a bit of a complicated story because there are other stories intwined with it. But it's a story of God's goodness, so I just can't not share it with you. Just a disclosure- this may be a bit TMI as I talk about cycles and ovaries and all that fun stuff haha...don't say I didn't warn you!

When James and I got married, we knew we wanted to wait awhile before having kids. So I went with the IUD as birth control knowing I had a good five years of not having babies. But after two years of marriage, the ovaries started yearning. Little, cute babies everywhere with all their cute baby things...oh that can do some damage to your ovaries.

But James was still in school and then we bought a house so we decided to wait to start trying. Until we had dinner with some awesome pastors who encouraged us re: having babies while we were young. After some prayer and chats, we decided that I would get my IUD taken out and we would give it a go! Surely we wouldn't get pregnant right away.

And we were right as much as I didn't want to be right. The ol' IUD peaced out in early March and I didn't get pregnant until September. My body took a little bit of time to get on track and then James was travelling with Towers & Trees during a number of my "fertile windows" ha. It got to be a bit frustrating during the summer as I discovered my cycle going from 30 days to 32 to 40 (!!!!) to 35. When I look back on my app that tracked all that, we ended up just missing my fertile window days almost every month lols. During those months when my cycle was longer than normal, I obviously took pregnancy tests. I had a friend who hooked me up with those free stick ones so I couldn't not take them (they were freee!) 

I admit it was definitely disheartening to dip the stick and only see one line when it seemed that everyone was getting pregnant around me. But God gave me peace about it and I knew it would happen when it would happen.

September came around and James was in town the whole month. BOOYAH! This was our month to actually "try". Because my cycle was unpredictable, we decided to strategize a bit. So for a two week period let's just say we "tried" a lot. This also happened to be during our local rock festival, Rifflandia, where James played two shows at...so I can proudly say my son was conceived during a rock festival that his daddy played at (pretty freaking awesome, if you ask me, ha!!)

So fast forward a couple weeks...I decide not to test until at least day 32. I didn't feel pregnant. Some women know they're pregnant the second they conceive...I was not one of those. 

But I had a dream.

Let's get this straight though. I dream a lot. I've even had dreams about babies before but this dream was different. I don't even particularly remember what exactly happened in the dream except for the fact that I was pregnant and my sister was pregnant too. I woke up and just knew it was from God. I knew that I was pregnant. I even recorded it in my journal. 

I remember telling James when he woke up and I could tell he thought I was a little crazy. He knew I heard from God but this had been something that had been on my mind for a long time, so logically I could have just had a dream. But I KNEW....like I said before, I didn't feel pregnant but I knew that God was telling me I was. I told a couple friends as well, along with my sister. 

Now my sister was on her own fertility journey. Her and her husband had been trying for almost two years. So it was with so much joy and such a privilege that I could share that God was going to make her dreams come true.

So I waited five long days to test. I still wanted to wait until day 32 to test. I felt so crazy over those five days. One minute I would be talking to my belly saying "Oh hello little guy!" (which was my first instinct that I was having a boy) and other times I'd be talking to God, "Am I crazy? Did I just make that dream up?" 

But Monday morning came and I woke up before six like a kid on Christmas morning. I bolted to the bathroom, peed into a cup and then dipped the stick that would change my life. Immediately two lines appeared. Thank you Jesus. First of all, I'm not crazy...and second of all, but really first of all, I couldn't believe how amazing God is, that he would tell me in a dream that I was pregnant!!! I took two more tests to be sure.

I then woke James up with the news...and this is the one thing I regret. Man all you people who wait to tell your husbands and come up with really cute, creative ways...how do you do that!! I just could not hold it in. James obviously was so excited but he is not a morning person and it was 6am...so let's just say I didn't get the reaction that I wanted and next time I will wait till he's fully awake before I announce the news, lols. 

We told a few close friends and I excitedly called my sister to let her know that a. God was right, I was pregnant and b. she would be pregnant soon. James and I announced our exciting news to both our families one week later over our joint Thanksgiving dinner and that was the best.

And guess what? 5 weeks after I found out that I was pregnant, my sister got the news too. And we just found out she's having a little girl. Little boy and girl cousins who will be born five weeks apart.

HOW GOOD IS GOD!!!! I'm still in awe of his goodness as I feel our little lion kicking away. I can't say I haven't had fears (so many) but his promise has kept me grounded through it all. My faith has grown as I've seen this miracle grow in my sister as well.

And I know some of you don't share this story. Pregnancy is such a crazy, vulnerable thing, my heart breaks as I know so many who have experienced loss but all I can say is, God knows your heart, he is faithful, he is good and he's still at work in your story. Don't you forget that.

Love you to the moon & back,
Laura

ILLUMINATE 2016


Illuminate 2016!

Illuminate 2016. Oh you were so sweet. This was the 7th year we've done Illuminate...incase you're wondering what Illuminate is, it's a conference our church puts on for girls in grades 6-12. We put it on to inspire, encourage and equip girls to live the life God has called them to! Those teenage years were some of my darkest years and I know I would have so benefitted from an environment where I heard of Christ's love for me and that I was not alone in this thing called life. We also encourage the girls to be themselves, they are not objects, they do not need to compare themselves to others on instagram or be something that they're not....they are GOLD just as they are! We also like to PARTY...dance parties, lots of food and special productions (like James singing Bruno Mars- Treasure to the girls as confetti fell from the ceiling #heartmelt)

It's a little crazy doing something 7 years in a row but again I am amazed and in awe of what God did!  He always does something new. I've heard so many stories of so many girls meeting with Jesus. Even if He speaks to one girl, all the work is worth it. I've heard stories that for some girls, this is the highlight of their year...again I'm so humbled that we get to be a part of that.

I'm so thankful for our amazing team who volunteered countless hours to make this the best Illuminate yet! We were also so blessed to have guest speaker Nicole Reyes come to us from NYC...she's phenom.

Most Photos by Stephanie Christo Photography & Photos of Nicole Reyes & the Panel by Behind Elissa's Lens

I'm already looking forward to planning next year!!

XO!

-laura

PRINTABLE MARCH CALENDAR


PRINTABLE MARCH CALENDAR

Well I'm back and all of a sudden it's MARCH! I took a bit of a break to do Illuminate (which I can't wait to tell you all about next week) and then recover from Illuminate but now I'M BAAAACK!

Three months to go until #babyliira makes his grand entrance so I'm all about getting things done this month!  On the blog, around the house, at work...I'm ready for a productive March!
And what better way to get organized than to make your plans on a pretty calendar? 

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD YOUR MARCH CALENDAR

Happy Friday everyone!

XO,

ssheart

PREGNANCY POST // 6 MONTH BUMP UPDATE


IMG_7767.JPG

How far along are you?

I'm in my 24th week! Can't believe baby boy is supposed to come in 15 weeks! This trimester is flying by! In 3.5 weeks I'll be entering my THIRD trimester!

How big is baby?

Baby is about a foot in length and weighs just over a pound! I have a couple pregnancy apps and they compare him to a cob of corn, an eggplant and a zucchini!

Feeling:

The best yet. I am loving all this new found energy. I can stay up past 10pm and I don't die the next day if I wake up at 6am. Although, I am finding it hard to be productive at night if I worked all day. Illuminate is on Friday so I know this is going to be a CRAZY week but I know God will give me all the strength I need and all the help I need too :)

It's also been amazing to know the sex of the baby. I am a type A planner and I seriously would be having panic attacks if I didn't know the sex lols. We're going to be doing the nursery up in April so I'm having a ton of fun pinning all my inspiration on my NURSERY BOARD!

This month has been the one with the least worries which is kinda funny because after my ultrasound my doctor told me that I had a low lying placenta. She didn't put me on any restrictions and told me not to worry because in 90% of cases, it moves up as the baby moves up. It can get sketchy in cases where the placenta stays lows and then covers the cervix because that means baby can't get out naturally and you're most likely put on bed rest and will receive a c-section. God has given me so much peace about it and I'm really not worried. I know without a doubt that He is taking care of my baby. (And that's not saying I haven't had fears this pregnancy..I'm actually working on a post of all the crazy fears I've had lols)

I feel The Lion (our nickname for baby boy) move around all the time and it is the best feeling!! He's usually down low but sometimes I get big kicks around my belly button. It brings me so much joy that I get to feel my sweet baby. James has been feeling kicks as well! And funny story, one night James put his ear on my belly, trying to hear the Lion's heartbeat but apparently the Lion didn't like that because James received a huge kick to his ear...so sweet. 

Food love:

My appetite is definitely increasing!!! I can eat A LOT, which was not how I rolled pre-pregnancy. I'm trying to eat healthy things but man a pregnant girl sure needs her sweets.

Food hate:

Don't really hate anything but a homemade spinach salad isn't very appealing right now.

Exercise:

I'm so thankful for the energy I'm experiencing because it's really motivating me to keep going to the gym! I've been going about 2-3 per week and I'm still walking to work. I'm finding things are taking me a lot longer than before but I'm so thankful I can still do them.

Clothing:

I'm all about showing off the bump! For once in my life, I'm proud of having a belly lols so I'm wearing a lot of tight t-shirts and tanks over my maternity jeans. I tried wearing regular leggings the other day and they were sooo uncomfortable so I'm probably going to purchase a pair of maternity leggings. I feel right now my bump is HUGE and I'm still trying to imagine how it's going to get even bigger....the human body is an amazing thing!!

What I'm looking forward to:

Our doctor's appointment today! Also we have an ultrasound in March to see if my placenta has moved up (please pray it moves up!!) so I'm looking forward to another opportunity to see my sweet baby boy on that ultrasound screen.

6 month bump update!

Hope you have a great week!

XO,
laura