Travel Diaries: the many decisions of a girl's trip

So, I have some girlfriends and we like to eat. We like to eat, gossip, shop, and laugh. But above all of the eating, gossiping, shopping, and laughing, we like to travel together. 

Each one of us has a bit of wanderlust and travel bug in us at one time or another, and while we're usually dreaming up of going somewhere like this...

(our honeymoon on Kauai)

...we've somehow ended up staying in the great state of Texas. There's a LOT I can say about Texas though, and we haven't even covered half of it! We've been to Austin, Fort Worth, Dallas, Houston, and Fredericksburg (sometimes more than once) together and no matter the circumstances, it's always a blast. 

Naturally, when I told them I was pregnant about a month ago, they insisted we do a babymoon. No, Mark's not coming, it's just a girl's trip! As usual, we spoke about grand vacations in Colorado or Utah, but after we took a breather and looked at our schedules, we realized another Texas trip was the most realistic.

I have to say, though, we are all pretty excited about this one! We are pampering ourselves with a trip to the JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort & Spa, in (you guessed it) San Antonio. Growing up in Texas, San Antonio was a must-see when you were about 12 but then after that, you remembered the Alamo just fine and the city is usually overshadowed by the much "cooler" and more diverse city of Austin, just an hour north. When I proposed this hotel to my friends, one goes "San Antonio, really?" but once I sent her the link, she changed her tune and said it looked REALLY nice. 

Situated north of the city, we'll be on this expansive resort with the best looking pools I've ever seen in Texas. Y'all, they have an adult pool! This 6 month prego mama is going to be ALL about that! Plus, that lazy river is going compliment our lazy bodies pretty well all weekend!

Part of staying in the resort means that we want to take advantage of all of the amenities. When we were booking at about 9am the other day, we were all drooling over the menus at the multiple restaurants. We are DEFINITELY staying on site for dinner!

We are all SO excited for this girl's trip to catch up, relax, and get in some quality girl time in this beautiful area of Texas. We wouldn't have it any other way!

Baby Buchanan's gender reveal party

My weekend was full of emotion and family time as my sister and mom hosted a gender reveal party for our little one!

I was a ball of nerves and anxiety (not sure why!) during the party so I didn't take any pictures, but as they filter in from other people I'll try to remember to post them! (as promised-I added some pictures from my sister at the bottom!)

Before the party!

These are our excited faces...

My mom and sister (and other helpers) did a great job at decorating and planning fun games and we loved seeing our family come together to love on our little one! There were name suggestions, guesses on the gender, and trivia games that entertained us all before the big event - cutting the cake!

Neither Mark or I had any strong feelings as to what this little one was, but he was going with girl and I flip-flopped and by the time of the party, was going with boy (even though we wore the opposite colors...Mark didn't have pink and I felt we should equally represent the genders so as not to appear biased!) We cut the cake about an hour into the party and here's what that was like...

A boy!!! I've watched the video over and over again for my reaction, the crowd's reaction, and especially Mark's reaction. He can be pretty reserved but for a split second the BIGGEST grin came across his face. He won't admit it publicly, but there were some tears coming from his side! He is SOOOO happy to get a little sidekick!

no pressure!

love my dad's reaction! haha!

We are so so SO happy to be blessed with a son and we are looking forward to all of the joys of raising a boy! To make everything more 'real', we headed out to run some errands on Sunday and my intention was to buy one tiny little boy thing to commemorate the event. That turned into us each buying one thing...and then Mark talked me into the rest. I couldn't believe it! He is usually pretty stingy and hates shopping but he really wanted to get all of this...and I thought a girl would be expensive! Of course, if you know me, you know we got all of it on sale!

So in the meantime, I'm pinning like a crazy person and planning this little one's nursery. 

Oh yeah, and we're trying to decide on a name! We had a girl name picked out but hadn't settled on a boy name yet. Naming a child is HARD, y'all! We get within a few names but then we can't just settle on something. It's driving me pretty crazy and I *might* have had a meltdown yesterday morning because this little jumping bean inside of me doesn't have a name yet, but I know it will come and when it does, it will be good! Secrets, secrets though, because we are going to keep that name between the two of us until this little guy is born! We want to keep a little suspense going!

For now, just keep up with me on instagram and Pinterest as I go into crazy momma overdrive over our little boy. Love him SO much already!!!

Five on Friday - baby gender poll!!!

It's Friday! I've been looking forward to this Friday more than others for a LONG time...I'll tell you why at the end!

-one-

Texas has decided to catch up with the rest of the United States during the last two weeks. Winter has come and hopefully it will be gone soon! With 1 full snow day and two delays last week, we thought we were in the clear. Then, on Wednesday night, we got 5 inches of snow dumped on us. Yes, that's right, in TEXAS. We haven't seen this much snow in 5 years and I was away at college when that happened so I am pretty happy to see it this time! The roads were a mess yesterday but I made it to work at noon (because yes, Texas, and it was above freezing by then). We spent the morning admiring the white stuff and playing the backyard.

Snow in the yard...

...and ice in the street!

-two-

I made good use of my morning off and caught up on some quality reality television. I interned in Austin during college and I met a group of girls that had weekly get-togethers to watch the Bachelor. That's when I started watching. I (sort-of) liked the idea of Chris this season because he seemed like a good guy but OMG he is such a dud. He seems pretty dull, honestly. I've gradually fallen more and more off the Bachelor bandwagon and I'm thinking this MIGHT be my last season...we'll see. Thoughts?

-three-

I cut my shameful tv watching short and bundled up to head to work around noon....and I mean BUNDLED UP. It was below freezing in Dallas and I wanted to ensure I wouldn't be cold if I slid off the road and got stuck! 

I love this scarf. See my post here on where I got it.

The roads were slushy and SUPER icy in some areas, but the baby and I made it safely!

-four-

Speaking of the baby...

I have a tiny bump! It's bigger after I eat, for sure, but it's there. I am so happy that there is finally some sort of outward proof that there is a baby in there! There is a little bit of inner proof, too...I'm about 85% sure I've felt the little one moving around in there for 3 consecutive nights! It's such a cool feeling but pretty much just a tickle! It happens after I eat and when I'm laying still at night in bed. I feel like I'm finally getting to the fun parts of this pregnancy!

-five-

Last, but DEFINITELY not least as this has been on my mind for weeks...we have our gender reveal TOMORROW! I wrote a little about it here and how we are able to find out so soon. Tomorrow afternoon we are heading to my parent's house to cut the cake and find out if we are having a he or a she! NO ONE at the party knows the gender, not even us. Only the doctor and the baker know. :) 

I made a little poll to see what you guys think - I have NO idea but it's fun hearing all of the guesses!

Is baby "B" a boy or a girl?

boy

girl

it's twins!

Poll Maker

Vote and let us know what you think!

(as always, I'm linked up for five on Friday here!)

Happy Friday!!!! 

impulse buy

I'm super surprised with myself. So far, I've bought NOTHING for baby. Nada. At least that was the case, technically, until last week. 

A friend of mine added me to a community yard sale group on facebook a couple of months ago and I didn't think I would use it much but so far I've had some good luck! I've been a regular craigslist scourer for the last few years typically in search of unique pieces of furniture. The trend right now is antique/vintage furniture in great shape or refinished, whether it be to it's original glory or more of a shabby chic look. 

When I found this buffet on the facebook yard sale page for a steal, I had to jump. I asked Mark by texting him "I want this." and then "I have it reserved, let me know when we can pick it up." 

I've done a ton of research and shopping and I felt like I found a great deal for a really cute, nice buffet. I even refinished an old dresser of ours so I know the kind of work it takes to restore something like this, and I was happy to find it for an affordable price with the work already done!

Anyway, I call it baby's first impulse buy, and I think it was worth it!

This, of course, is not it's final resting place. We are bursting at the seams with furniture and until my March guests come and go, we will keep the guest room as-is. The plan is to switch out the full bed with my sister's crib as my niece transfers to a 'big girl bed'. 

Right now, the buffet is filled with all of the clothes my sister handed down to me :) I had to jump at the chance to get (lots of) free clothes basically right after I told her we were pregnant. She sells her kids' things at a consignment sale called Just Between Friends and she was about to sell a ton of her newborn girl clothes and shoes. 

Right now, I have everything separated out into girl, boy, and gender neutral. There are about 3 boy things because my nephew is 6 and she has already sold most of his stuff! So once we find out the gender, I'll pull out whatever gender it ISN'T and give it back to my sister to sell.

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Speaking of finding out the gender........we find out on Saturday!!! I feel like this is a HUGE milestone in my pregnancy. I'm only just about 14 weeks along and I'm not showing yet, but finding out if this little baby is a he or a she is a big deal. We are able to find out early due to a new test called Verifi. Usually these are expensive and we were going to be patient and wait until 20 weeks, but the lab my doctor uses caps the cost at $25 if insurance doesn't cover it. The test checks for all of the trisomies and other chromosome problems while also determining the presence of a Y chromosome, which indicates there is a little boy in there. You can do the test as early as 10 weeks!

Anyway, my mom and sister are throwing a gender reveal party and Mark and I are going to cut into a delicious cake to learn the gender along with some of our closest family. We did this for my sister and my niece and it was SO fun to all share in the excitement together. I just don't know how I'll make it to Saturday, it seems so far away!

I'll be sharing on instagram and facebook once we find out the gender, so follow me there to be the first to hear the news!

snow, strawberries, and SHOES!

Last week and this weekend were a little out of whack because of the winter weather we experienced in Texas. Monday, Tuesday, and Friday all brought either ice or snow, and with that came CRAZY traffic...

This was my view from my office.

We closed our office down at 2 so I made the trek back home and was happy to get home to this cozy, snowy place!

Although I've been super lucky to miss the morning sickness part of pregnancy, I haven't felt 100% all of the time. I did absolutely nothing on Saturday, all day, except play on my phone and think of things that I should be doing. I gathered up all the 'feel good' I had left in me on Saturday night and Mark and I went down to Dallas for dinner with friends. It was delish and I even got some mac and cheese to take home. :)

One big thing on our to-do list is to reorganize and revamp all of our closets. We have existing elfa shelving but we need to make the best of the space so we'll be adding in some more storage. I went to Target on Sunday and I am thinking something like this unit below:

Also, I'm totally convinced I'm cursed. I wrote here about my shopping habits and how I always tend to have a shopping drought followed by a shopping flood. Well, at Target (duh) I found these shoes and just about died.

I texted a couple of girlfriends and told them I had to pick ONE because I couldn't buy both. I ended up going for the black and brown simply because I'll probably get more wear out of them.

As I was waiting for the replies from my friends, I found 3 more pairs that I wanted. Gah!!! Why do I find ALL of the things I want to buy at once?!

I bought these :)

brown and black flats

striped flats

Um, hi!?!

nude bow flats

Perfect for summer! I love the olive and navy!

striped lace up shoes

I have these, and LOVE them!

Gold glitter sandals

Ok, um, hi. This is awkward, but, YOU WILL BE MINE!

embellished sandals

I also treated myself to a new throw for our couch. It's ivory and textured and soft and I love it!

Another one of my Target purchases from February is growing right along. I got this little strawberry growing kit in the dollar section and I'm proud to say that they are actually growing!

Snow one day, dreary the next. 

So that was our weekend! Laziness and Target...sounds about right!

Happy Monday, all!

(I'm linked up here!)