Our Baby Shower!

We had our baby shower back in August, and I thought I would share theme and color scheme I picked out along with some of the photos that we took. I was on Pinterest for ever obsessing about the baby shower a looooong time before we even decided when to have it! I got a few printables from Pinterest, and I picked up my party supplies from Party City. We found out that we were having a boy, so I wanted to do a blue theme, but I didn't it to only be baby blue. I decided on doing different shades of blue and I also wanted it to be elephant themed. Originally, I had my eye on elephant party favors, but when the time came to pick them up, they were sold out in the stores and online.... They only had pink elephants, but no blue anywhere. (Just my luck...) I settled for animal party favors instead, and everyone ended up loving them. To tie in the animal themed favors, I picked up a couple of animal center pieces. I had a hard time finding a place that does custom cakes, and I ended up going to a grocery store and just getting a sheet cake customized to my shower. It turned out so cute and everyone really loved it. In the end, our shower turned out exactly how I pictured it, and we had such a great time with out friends and family, and even the rain didn't stop us from having an awesome party!

Here are the party favor tags I used.

Here is the elephant guest book print out I used.

That's all for now lovelies!

I think my next post will be about our gender reveal. It was kind of a pinterest fail, but it still went over great with everyone.

xoxoxo

My 3D Ultrasound Experience!

Before I was pregnant I had already decided that I wanted to get a 3D ultrasound of my baby whenever the time came, it looked like a really neat idea and something special to keep for a long time. I decided to forego the traditional maternity photos and do this instead, because I wanted the opportunity to see my baby and have special photos of him before he gets here. Also because the cost of a maternity photo session and this were about the same. My sister has since volunteered to take some maternity photos of me when she comes up because she's adamant that I have some done haha! It wasn't a big deal to me either way, but I know she wants to, and she's a really excellent photographer. I heard a lot of positive things about UC Baby, and a friend of ours recommended them as well. I first found their page on Facebook and then I got to their website from there. They have package deals, that while albeit a little on the expensive side, depending on your budget were worth it to me. (Because we all know how expensive it can get to get all the things you need for a little human) but you can always make your own package if the ones they offer are too much or you don't want as many things. I opted for the silver package which included things like a live broadcast of the session for any friends or family that couldn't be there to see it in person. I did that especially for my sister because even though she's all the way in California, she's been a huge part of my pregnancy since the beginning and I knew it was an experience she would cherish. My package also included a free repeat session if my baby's face was obstructed and couldn't be seen well, as well if they couldn't determine the gender if we wanted to know. I also got all the photos the tech took on a disc and 2 print outs. I bought a heartbeat bear that was separate from my package, they record your baby's heartbeat and put it into a teddy bear as a keepsake. It was more for me than for the baby haha but I hope it's something he'll cherish as much as I do someday. We picked the Vaughan location, and it was an over all very friendly, warm and wonderful experience. The room was dim and there was soft music playing and everything had a very relaxing vibe to it. The lady who did the ultrasound was quite friendly, and chatty, and when we were having trouble with the live broadcast at the beginning, she immediately went out and had the issue resolved. I can't quite describe the feeling of seeing my baby in such clarity while he's still in my womb, it was nothing short of amazing and I could have watched him all day. It's absolutely something I would recommend and encourage any mommy to be to do, I'll most definitely be doing this with my next baby (but that won't be for a while yet haha)

If you're in Canada and are interested, you can check out their website: UC Baby

That's all for today!

xoxoxo

Catching Up! (Life Update)

Hey there!

Just wanted to sort of catch up with you all about the goings on in my life over the last several months. Aside from previously working 5-6 days a week, I'm also happy to announce that I am expecting my first child in November! I am currently 33 weeks, and I was hoping to share this journey from the start with everyone, however, I was working full time and I also have been dealing some health issues that made doing almost everything exhausting. My life was literally work, eat, sleep and repeat. I want to share these things with you all, for anyone who may be suffering from the same condition, pregnant or otherwise. Also, being a first time mom, I would also like to write about that experience and how I'm feeling about my life changing. I've really missed my blog, I've felt like it's been the place I can express myself freely about anything in my life and a place where I can share all the things I enjoy. So, for the foreseeable future, this nerdy girl is back! I'll be sharing the usual things that I always have, but now I will also be sharing randoms about pregnancy, babies, and parenthood. Be on the lookout for my baby shower post and my 3D ultrasound post coming soon! I was thinking about doing bump photos every week on here with the time I have left, or I may just share them all in one post at the end. 

About my pregnancy!
I found out I was pregnant March 19, I wasn't exhibiting any symptoms, but like the saying goes, when you know, you know. I had an inkling that I may have been pregnant, my period wasn't overly late, but I still thought I should take a test and see what happens. I bought a test, without my husband knowing, because if it was positive, I wanted to surprise him. I wasn't nervous or anxious taking the test, like I had been the few times I've taken them in the past. I was actually pretty calm about the whole situation and I felt like I would be upset more so if the test came back negative. When I saw that faint second pink line, I can't even describe the overwhelming happiness I had. I cried like a fool in my bathroom and I just couldn't stop looking at that stick. I have no idea what made this time so much more different, all I knew in that moment was that I have never wanted or loved anything more in my life than I did just then. I really wanted to come up with a cute way of surprising my husband about our first baby, but I ended up being too excited to keep it to myself that I ended up just blurting it out and showing him the positive test! (I can be notoriously bad at keeping things to myself sometimes.) He was so happy and really excited that it didn't really matter how I told him haha!  I did end up taking a digital test the next day, just to make doubly sure, and that test came back saying I was 3+ weeks pregnant! Looking back, I think I was about 5 weeks when I found out. The very first person I told besides my husband of course, was my sister! It was something that I absolutely couldn't not tell her, she's my very best friend and I had to let her know! I wish that I could have told her in person, but we live so far away, so I Face Timed her and I will always remember her reaction. She's been nothing but supportive and excited since the beginning and I don't know what I would do without her being here for me. We decided to tell his parents the weekend after that, because Easter was that weekend and I thought of a cute way to let them know they were going to finally get the grandbaby they always wanted. We got an Easter basket, filled it with candies and a baby onesie with a cute card.  Needless to say, they were ecstatic, especially my hubby's mom. I sent an edible arrangement to my mom's office at work and she was so excited, she emailed me to tell me how happy she was and that after she found out, she didn't want to work for the rest of the day! To my granny. I sent her some flowers with a funny little poem. We didn't tell anyone else until I was well out of the first trimester, mostly because I was super paranoid and worried that something could go wrong. We got an ice cream cake for our group of friends to let them know and everyone else we either told in person, called and eventually I put out the first ultrasound on Facebook.

I remember the day I had my ultrasound done, I was around 12 weeks and I was excited but terrified at the same time, because that was the ultrasound that checks for things like down syndrome. All the fear was washed away the second I saw my baby. Everything was suddenly so much more real and I cried so hard right there in front of the tech and my husband with no shame what so ever, because I was so happy. When we got the second ultrasound done, (I was around 18 weeks) it was the anatomy scan, which is also the scan where they can determine the baby's gender. We always talked about having a little girl, and we were leaning more that way, but when the tech said it was a boy, I was overwhelmed with happiness, love, and excitement, that I of course cried my eyes out haha. I can honestly say that I have had zero feelings of disappointment and I'm so excited for my little boy! The most important thing to us for this entire pregnancy was that the baby was healthy and thriving, and is he ever! I just had my 3rd scan last week, to measure the baby and check the cervix and placenta, and I'll be finding out those results on Friday. (I didn't scan that ultrasound on my computer, so it won't be in this post.) Even though my baby is very healthy and super active, (so much so that he gave our tech a hard time while she was trying to measure during the ultrasound!) I always worry and I pray everything turns out well. I am very much the worry wart and I always have been. I don't really see that changing, especially now that I'm going to be a mommy! 

I think that will do it for this post!

I'm happy to finally be back at it and I can't wait to share this new experience with you all.

What kind of pregnancy/beauty/lifestyle/makeup posts would you guys like to see more of?

xoxoxo

Ipsy Generation Beauty Toronto 2016!

Hey there beauties!

It's been a long minute since my last post, I've been a busy bee to say in the least! One major change is that I've been working nights! I finally found a position in my respective field, and even though nights don't leave me very much free time these days, I love it! Being in the lab makes me as happy as makeup, if you can imagine! So that's where I've been lately.. I'm also working most Saturday's, so my only free day is Sunday, in which I hope to post at least once a week if anything else.. I have all these ideas buzzing around in my head, but it's hard to find the time to put it out there. Anyway! Back onto the topic of this post! This last Saturday, my sister flew in and I took her to Ipsy's Generation Beauty! It's the first Genbeauty event here in Toronto, and I think in Canada as a whole. We get IMATS, but I've never been.. I hear it's hectic! I'm glad it was a 2 day event, even though it wasn't overly crowded, the lines did end up being exceptionally long.. We ended up waiting in the Makeup Forever line for 2 hours! (Super worth it though!) there were over 20 different exhibitors, some were selling products, but a lot weren't selling anything.. My sister and I managed to hit all but maybe 4?? Which, we decided we would only hit those if time allowed. It wasn't a big loss, we hit all the ones we really wanted, so we were super stoked about that. I feel like things could have been better organized, the lines weren't all that efficient, and the staff were all over the place. Also they sometimes closed lines, even if they weren't all that long, so we would have to check back later and so on. We almost missed out on Too Faced that way.. We managed to get in line in the last 15 minutes of the second day! (Talk about cutting it close!) I would have been so bummed to have missed that one. I also feel like they should sell things at each "booth" places like NYX and Benefit had new products and nothing for sale! (Nice for my wallet but not for the makeup junkie in me.)

The exhibitors were:

• NYX
• Too Faced
• Smashbox
• Makeup Forever
• Ipsy
• Tarte
• Royal & Langnickel
• Rock Your Hair
• Crown Brush
• Benefit
• Luxie Beauty
• Absolute NY
• OGX
• Pur Cosmetics
• Pur~lisse
• Essence
• Cake
• Pixi Beauty
• Nudestix
• Caudalie
• Physicians Formula
• Skinfix

We got to all of them, except for: cake, pur~lisse, skinfix, and we went to caudalie, but they weren't giving out samples the first day, and we didn't make it back on the second day. The same thing happened at NYX, we did manage to get a coupon for the new NYX store that opened that weekend at the Eaton Centre for a free product with a purchase. (The lady said you only had to spend a dollar, but let's be real here, who goes to ANY makeup store and doesn't buy a ton of products?! ha ha)

We had such a blast, I really hope Ipsy decides to host Genbeauty here in Toronto again next year!

Have you ever been to a show like this before?

If so, what did you like/dislike and what was your favorite item?

Stay tuned for my Genbeauty Haul post!

xoxoxo