Crafting and Hobbies

I've had a lot of fun going sewing crazy for this new little one. My mom bought me a sewing machine for my birthday last year, but I didn't put it to much use until recently. I've been trying to remember everything my mom ever taught me about sewing, and then I've been teaching myself a little more. I still have a lot more learning to go, but I'm happy with the things I've created.

This is what I'm most proud of. It's my first quilt! I know it is far (SO FAR) from perfection, but it still turned out okay. I really love the design and the colors. My mom's in the process of getting it machine quilted for me, and then I have to figure out how to do a binding.

Front 

Front closeup- please don't comment on how uneven my blocks are

 Back

Back closeup - again, not perfect, but a fun back

I've also done several smaller things.

 Car seat cover with quilt scraps

 Isn't this fabric just adorable!

Bibs and burp cloths

Rich and I also decided it was time to invest in a good camera with little girl almost here. We look at our friends' blogs and see some of the great pictures they take, and we want to be able to do that, too. So we got ourselves an entry-level DSLR, and are currently in the process of learning how to use the beast! The fun thing about it is that this it's a hobby both of us can enjoy together. Let's face it - Rich isn't exactly dying to use the sewing machine, and I am basically clueless when it comes to fantasy sports. But we are having fun learning how to use our camera together and love taking it out to experiment.

Here's some of our work. Again, don't judge - we're just beginners. (Fun fact - some of our favorites come from Rich's parents' yard. Pops Nelson sure know how to keep up a yard!)

Chunky Legs

Hopefully we've reached the under a month mark. I'm at 36 weeks, one day today. And this baby isn't exactly small.

Funny thing is, two weeks ago at my appointment the doctor said I was measuring kind of small. She thought baby girl might just be a little more petite, but we scheduled an ultrasound just to make sure things were fine.

Small? Not so. In her photo shoot yesterday, baby Nelly measured in at a healthy 6 lbs., 10 oz. If she follows the estimated half a pound per week weight gain up to the due date, I'm going to be delivering an almost 9 lb. baby. I guess that's payback for our moms. Rich weighed 8 lb., 12 oz., and I was a monstrous 9 lbs., 11 oz.

We weren't expecting to get any 3D pictures, so it was a fun surprise yesterday to leave with some cute face shots. The technician was upset that we couldn't get anything better, but I was thinking, "Are you kidding me?! This is my baby's face!"

The technician also showed a great shot of our little girl's legs, and, oh boy, they were chunky. She still has 4ish weeks left to bake, but she already has some seriously adorable rolls on those thighs! (I wish we had a picture of those legs, but then again it wasn't exactly taken at the most modest angle.) I think we might have spotted a double chin during the ultrasound, too. My aunt Heather always tells me that I was so cute as a baby because I was so chubby, so I just know that this is going to be the cutest baby ever.

And now we know for sure that she is in fact a she. I mean, we were pretty sure, but wouldn't it have been quite an adventure to bring home a baby boy to an apartment full of pink? It's not that we would have been upset at with boy - it's just that it would have been an expensive change to make.

We're getting close to the finish line here, and Rich and I couldn't be more excited. We can't wait to bring home our little girl!

Nelly Treat

Our idea of a good time in the Nelly household lately consists of a movie, popcorn, and Rich's signature strawberry daiquiritas. We don't know enough (i.e., anything) about alcohol to know if they're closer to virgin margaritas or daiquiris (or neither) so we coined the term daiquirita for the drink. Last movie we watched? The Muppets, brought to us by the Easter bunny. If you haven't seen it, you really need to. We LOVE it.

Not included in the picture: my 12-pack of RC Cola

You might think from our treat, our movie of choice, and our Easter baskets (don't miss Rich's baseball and basketball cards) that we're actually a couple of 8-year olds. But, no, we're about to be parents.

Here's to living young!

Updating

Yeah, it's been a while. We know. We've been busy around here getting ready for baby. We're at 32 weeks and 4 days today, but who's counting, really? Now that it's April, we can officially say that our baby is coming next month! Even if we go past our due date, I'm almost completely certain that I will have this baby before June (my doctor is always saying how petite my frame is and how she doesn't think it can handle a huge baby, and I'm fine with that).

I don't feel like typing a big old long update, and I don't think anyone really feels like reading one anyway. So how about some pictures?

Comparison Picture

I cannot believe that I have changed this much. I'm pretty sure when I took the first one I thought I was as big as I am now. 

21 weeks (1/12/12)                                     31 weeks (3/22/12)

I went to Utah for about 2 weeks in February. It was a fun trip with lots of family and a huge baby shower. I was ready to get home, though. I've never been away from Rich for so long.

Baby Shower

My mom and sister threw me a big family baby shower while I was in Utah. I have never seen so many people in my parents' house. Thank you everyone who came and made it so fun!

The Nelson girls

Okay, I love this picture because of Lola's outfit here. She would not take off big brother's boots - they were her shoes with pretty much every outfit while I was there.

Valentine's Day apart from Rich was no fun, but he didn't forget about me.

I Love My Birthday

 BYU vs. Gonzaga on my birthday. Don't be fooled by Rich's shirt - we still cheered for the Cougars (and I can't fit in any of my t-shirts anyway). Considering Gonzaga gave us the tickets and he's working for the school, the least he could do was wear their shirt.

 Red velvet birthday cake - it was DELICIOUS!

And I still blew out all the candles in one go.

Silver Beaver Dinner

Rich's dad received the highest volunteer award you can get for scouting, and Scott flew in for the occasion.

Getting Ready for Baby Girl

Do you know how ridiculously expensive baby bedding is? I did not want to spend $50-$100 on a bed set that I didn't really even like. So, with help from Pinterest, I decided to make my own for much less. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

I bought this baby bumper at Value Village (and then washed it). I found several tutorials on how to recover it and went to work.

Rich said it looked the cover was eating the bumper. The worst part of the whole process? Making the stupid ties. They took forever!

Putting together the crib

 The final crib, just finished today!

I really like my color combination. Thanks to my sister-in-law, Courtney, I have been crazy about gray and yellow lately. And then I wanted to throw in my favorite melon-y/coral-y colors to make it more girly without making it uber babyish. The matching baby quilt is still a work in progress.

So now it's down to getting the last necessary items. We just got the car seat and stroller, and I have so far been able to resist the temptation to put it all together. We have billions of clothes. And we have the crib, changing table, and dresser. We've still got many essentials to go, but I'm still trying to figure out what those are.... 

Resolution

I don't know what my deal is, but I am not a fan of cooking, especially cooking dinner. It seems like I build up anxiety all day long as I think about how I have to cook dinner, and then dinnertime comes and I'm almost afraid to cook. I'm afraid fear making something that flops. It's expensive to make something and then end up hating it. This means I have my few trusted recipes, and it's easy to get sick of them. I also fell into a nasty pattern when morning sickness took over my life. What's for dinner? Well, I don't want to even leave the couch, so we're having a box meal, again.

I knew I needed to change my attitude toward cooking, so one of my New Year's Resolutions has been to be better about dinner. Sounds vague, but I needed it vague because I have a lot to work on. First, cooking isn't a big deal - why be such a wimp? Yes, things flop, but rarely so bad that you can't at least eat it. Then you don't make that again. And forget about those box meals - a real dinner will taste so much better.

The biggest lifesaver for me in keeping this resolution:

Have you discovered how amazing Pinterest is yet? You should. Crafts, DIY projects, fashion, humor, artwork, home decor. You name it. It's all on there and more. Including recipes. Thanks to some wonderful pins, I have discovered that there is more to cooking than just standing in front of a stove. It's about creation and creativity. And seeing how good you can make food taste.

So far, my resolution is basically a success. I have mostly avoided box dinners, and I have even branched out for dinner. Rich is happy about this - he encourages my exploration into the world of cooking. I'm still afraid of intense recipes that require more ingredients than I have in my cupboards and cooking techniques I've never even heard of, but I'm getting better.

Big success: Cafe Rio chicken burritos with cilantro-lime rice and creamy tomatillo dressing - tasted almost exactly like Cafe Rio

Flop: A certain recipe for crockpot macaroni and cheese - much too dry and rather chunky

Needs some work: Winger's amazing sauce - too runny and just not quite the right flavor

Excited for these:

Pesto stuffed shells

French breakfast muffins (not dinner, but they sound so delicious)

I discovered this great website today: Budget Bytes. The author breaks down the cost of each of her recipes for the whole meal and per serving.  Plus, her recipes look super delicious.

If you have any suggestions on how to stay positive about cooking, I'd gladly take them. Also, any of your no-fail recipes would be much appreciated. I'm working on building up my own recipe arsenal.

Here's to a future of positive cooking!

In baby news,

things are going well in the belly so far. I reached 23 weeks yesterday, and I am feeling kicking and movement all of the time, although it took me forever to realize that what I thought was my stomach twitching was actually baby girl. Rich was able to feel her kick for the first time last week, too. I was pretty sure I was feeling her kick on the outside, so I had Rich put his hand on my belly to make sure. At one particularly strong kick, Rich said, "Was that her?" and I knew he felt her. And then I teared up because I'm already an emotional person, and I'm pregnant. I've only felt a couple kicks as strong as that since, but I'm looking forward to more in the future.