An Overdue Update

I just realized it's been a little over a month since my last post! Unacceptable, I know. I don't even know where to begin with the whirlwind that has been the past month. I guess I'll do my best to keep things in chronological order.

7/21/2012:

I had my first Baby Shower and it was absolutely fabulous! It was hosted by 2 of my great friends, Brady & Cassie...along with 2 surprise co-hostesses, the lovely Michelle and Cassie's momma! I'm so happy with the turnout. I was able to see a few friends I haven't seen in years, along with a good sized group of my amazing family! Here are a few pics :)

My pretty corsage that Brady made.

Cassie made this cute onesie/washcloth/etc. castle.

Brady made this arrangement - it matches Harper's room perfectly!

My mom's contribution - this cute little princess cake!

My friend, Patricia, made these adorable little shoes. Her mom also made a crochet blanket for Harper, but I don't have that picture handy :(

Cassie, her mom, and Michelle all pitched in on this amazing Pack'N Play!

We got a ton of other gifts too!

So many things to open!

"Pin The Baby On The Belly" got really awkward, really fast!

My beautiful cousin, Caitlin. I just realized our dresses coordinated!

(Don't look at my face.) Harper's Grandma Cheryl & Aunt Katelyn!

Two of my good friends, Sara & Aubrey.

I'm still trying to round up more pictures from this shower! If you have some, send them to me!

8/4/2012:

I had my second Baby Shower, which Brad was actually able to attend with me. This one was hosted by his mom, Cheryl, and sisters, Lauren & Katelyn. It was great! Most of Brad's family was able to make it, along with my family and some friends I hadn't seen in ages! It was a paaaaacked house! The most exciting part was that we got to meet Brad's oldest sister and two of her daughters for the first time ever! It was so special that all 5 of his sisters were able to be there. 

This shower was cupcake themed, because Brad's mom has decided that Harper's nickname is going to be "Cupcake". Speaking of, I think this little Cupcake needs to come out of the oven already! I'm ready to ice her in adorable outfits and bows!!! Brad's mom and sisters did an amazing job with all of the decorations! It was definitely something straight off of Pinterest!

I loved the cupcake cups around the lights! (There's my belly in the mirror!)

Game supplies and prizes!

One of many cupcake towers!

Even the sandwiches were shaped like cupcakes!

Grandma Cheryl made this ADORABLE diaper cake!

So cute! Lauren made the banner!

Beverage Station!

The beautiful hostesses!

This is Brad's oldest sister and 2 of her daughters. This was our first time meeting her and our nieces in person! We can't wait til we get to see them again!

Harper's Great-Grandma, Marilyn!

This one is definitely getting framed! My Honey Bunny with all FIVE of his sisters! 2 Hogans and 3 Hajeks!

Brad and his excited Momma!

The rest of the story:

Shower #3 actually happened yesterday, but there will be more on that in the next post! I still have to gather up pics and upload them. Let's just say, one person's gift definitely stole the show and resulted in me crying like a baby...which led to other people crying, because I was crying...there will not be pictures of my ugly crying face, lol

I am so thankful to everyone who has contributed to, and attended, the showers. This pregnancy has been such an amazing experience for Brad and I. All of these parties have definitely made me much more excited for her to be here! I can't wait for her to meet all of the loving people who can't wait to be a part of her life! I guess it's just one of those things that's bittersweet though, as much as I want her to be here, I know I'm going to miss being pregnant. I was just talking to my good friend, Alexia, about how I'm pretty sure I'm going to have an emotional breakdown over not being pregnant anymore. There's just something about it. Even with all of the aches, pains, nausea, fatigue and feeling like a cow, it's all so worth it every time I feel her wiggle in my belly.

It's been such an amazing journey and, at the end of every day, I know this has all been God's plan all along. Everything has just fallen into place so perfectly. Although I'm still very sad over our first pregnancy not carrying through, I feel like that experience has made me cherish this one so much more. It's not something that just happens. This time around it's just so apparent that this is the time for us to be parents. Brad and I have grown a lot over the past couple of years. Both of us had kind of been avoiding the subject of getting pregnant again. Then, in December, shortly before Christmas, we finally talked about it again and found that I had been avoiding it, because I just thought he still wasn't ready and that, when he was, he would come to me about it, and he had been avoiding it for the same reason...on top of his fear of not knowing how we would handle the emotional hardship if we lost another one. So, after talking for awhile, we realized that we were both ready to take that risk again. The funny thing is, in God's apparent sense of humor, about a week after that conversation....voila! We found out I was pregnant on January 24th and had our first Prenatal Appointment on February 16th, at which point the doctor determined that I was 8 weeks pregnant...which means we conceived a little over a week after that conversation. 

This is how I "told" Brad we were expecting. It was a Tuesday evening, I was at home and he was at work and I sent him this picture with no explanation. About 2 seconds later he called, I could HEAR his ear to ear smile, and said "Is that what I think it is?!?!?". I said yes and he immediately asked if he could start telling people...I told him no, not yet. lol

 Of course, there was that initial "fear" when we first found out, even though we were definitely very excited. Those thoughts did start running through our heads as far as finances and everything go, because everyone always talks about how expensive babies are. I called our insurance and, as it turned out, we actually have amazing coverage when it comes to pregnancy. Then, when my January paycheck came at the end of the month, there was a very nice surprise...I got a significant raise. That was one of the first things that really put my mind at ease that everything was meant to be and would be okay. We waited til March to actually tell people we were pregnant, just in case. Around that time, Brad got a small raise at work also. He actually just got an additional, much more significant, raise this month and was accepted into a manager training program with HEB. So, hopefully he'll be getting a nice promotion in the near future :) It's just like every time something happens that causes a little bit of stress, something else happens to counter that and completely put our minds at ease.

On another note, over the past couple of weeks I've also slipped into Fall mode! Fall is my favorite season and, although I know August is still Summer, I start going Fall crazy as soon as August comes around! I got some new, gold curtains for our downstairs windows and spruced up our Fall wreath. It used to be all cream-toned flowers, but I added some rust tones in there! Once I finish up the mantel decor, I'll take a picture of the decorated mantel with the gold curtains on the side. I even put in my big Fall Scentsy order last week...I'm officially stocked up on my favorite Fall scent!

I've always made sure to decorate at least a little bit, but now that Harper's almost here I think the decorating is going to get a bit more extreme. I want to make sure she remembers always having a beautifully decorated home!

Yeah, the Fall doormat is out too :)

Tonight, I'll say goodbye with an up-to-date belly pic! Enjoy!

It's very round!

The anticipation is becoming unbearable!

Words cannot describe how anxious I am for this antsy little bugger to be here!

Here are some of my favorite shots from last weeks sonogram.

She has her daddy's little nose.

 She was opening and closing her mouth so much, it looked like she was talking!

This one is slightly terrifying, but she was yawning and you can see her tiny tongue!

This was one of the clearest shots that came out. 

You can even see her eye slightly open.

She kept putting her hands on her face.

Tiny little toes <3

And now for my absolute favorite:

Sucking her thumb for us...you can even see the little bubbles!

Our little acrobat is squirming around right now...I think she knows I'm talking about her!

So, finally getting an idea of what her pretty little face is going to look like isn't the only exciting thing that has happened over the last week; her bedroom is coming together too! Brad, our moms and his sister, Katelyn, all helped get the room painted up for me. It turned out absolutely gorgeous! 3 walls are yellow and the 4th (where the crib will be) is a beauuutiful purple! The purple paint even had a fabulous name: Cloudberry. Clouuuudberrrry! hehe It's just so funny to even say!

With all that painting that got done, this weekend all I wanted to do was decorate! Over Saturday and Sunday I hung up the artwork, etc, that we have so far. I also had Brad place the furniture where I wanted it. I still have some fun things to do with drawer-fronts on the 2 dressers. I'll post pictures of the Clouuuudberry wall once the crib/curtains/etc are all set up.....to give you the full effect ;) For now, you get pictures of the rest of the room. It's still a work in progress, but we're pretty proud of it!

  Our fabulous 50's chairs! One is a deep purple and the other is

a deep pink. I still need to paint the legs a metallic gold.

Hopefully these built-in bookcases will finally reach their full potential!

I also want to do something fun with the back of each shelf.

If all goes according to plan, they should coordinate with the drawers on the furniture.

 Here's a closer shot of the artwork. I bought the 2 pictures from HomeGoods at

The Rim in San Antonio. Brad's mom bought the matching bulletin board from a

HomeGoods in Dallas.

 Brad's mom found this adorable little wicker shelf at an antique shop

here in Corpus Christi.

She's going to be such a diva with all of her little sock shoes!

 This is the other set of pictures I got at HomeGoods.

Here's a good shot of the other little vanity/dresser. This is what

we're going to use as the changing table. (The little decals on the mirror

match the bedding set.)

Oh, and look what seems to have snuck it's way into the room last night:

..............Brad.

His explanation was: "It's a girl!!! See, she's pink!!!!"

Oh, Brad! I can't live with him, I can't live without him! He confessed to me last night that he "took some pictures of the room to show off at work, because it's coming together preTTy well." I asked him who he showed it off to, his answer was "Anyone who would look!" Sigh. He's always reminding me why I love him so much!

Amazon Baby

I had my 27 week prenatal appointment today!

Good News: I passed my Glucose Test with flying colors! (Yay me!) This means I don't have to take the yucky 3 hour test.

Questionable News: Dr. Hyde said my belly is measuring a bit bigger than it should be for 27 weeks. At my 25 week appointment the measurement was in line with what's normal, but I exploded over the last 2 weeks! Since I haven't gained any weight, that only leaves one explanation........amazon baby. It's not really anything to be alarmed over. It could just means that I'll most likely be having her sooner than my due date of September 27th.

We'll be having our 4D Sonogram next Thursday, which I'm extremely excited about. I can't wait to see who our little angel looks like! As of today, we'll actually end up having 2 sonograms on that day. The 4D, of course, but due to the amazon baby theory, I'll need to have another regular sonogram that same day to see just how big she is.

I just can't believe how quickly everything is happening. It feels like just yesterday we were finding out I was pregnant and, now, it's possible we might have our precious little blessing in as little as 8 weeks! At this point, the feeling is that she will be coming at least a week early, possibly sooner.

This picture is from 6/27/2012. I'm pretty sure I've gotten bigger over the past couple of days. Just to give you an idea of how huge I am, consider that my hand is resting on the front of my leg!

In other news, unrelated to the pregnancy, I got a pretty drastic haircut today! My hair had just gotten so long and unmanageable, I finally decided to chop it off. I'm pretty happy with the outcome :)

Excuse my terrifying face, there's a severe lack of make-up!

Girl, oh girl!

These last few weeks have absolutely flown by! Brad and I had our 25 Week Prenatal Appointment today. Part of today's appointment was a Glucose Test....yuck. Have you ever had something so sweet it burned? That's exactly what it's like!


Well, I've decided to go ahead and share our 20 Week sonogram pictures of Harper. I absolutely cannot wait til we get to see her again! We should be having a 4D sonogram in the next couple of weeks where we'll actually be able to see what her sweet little face looks like <3 I'm still betting she's a little mini-me of Brad!

[Her little profile looks just like Brad.]

[She's looking at you!]

[Tiny little arms.]

[Can't wait to play with those toes!]

[Last, but not least, the bump. (It's bigger now, than it was in the pic.)]

Mother's Day Madness

I feel like I've been letting this poor thing fall by the wayside! 


Mother's Day has come and gone, and it was definitely one of the most well-orchestrated yet. Who knew that getting married made the simplest things so complicated to plan out? Brad's sister and brother-in-law came down to spend Mother's Day weekend here, since they hadn't been able to come down from Dallas in months. This meant that Mother's Day festivities with his mom were going to need to happen on Saturday, instead of Sunday, since they would need to be heading back pretty early in the day on Sunday. Hallelujah.


It was so nice not having to figure out both moms on one day....Lord know my mom demands a ridiculous amount of attention from me on days like this! Saturday, we had lunch with his parents, his sister and her husband. For her Mother's Day gift, his sister and I had been on a covert mission over the last month secretly working on a photo book. I had to sneak into their house and snatch pictures of the kids from the day they were born, til now, then Lauren worked on designing the book and getting it all put together.


So, all along I figured his mom would get super sentimental and most likely tear up a bit, but none of us expected her to start full on crying! She cried so much, it made me tear up! Nonetheless, it was absolutely sweet, Lauren did an amazing job putting it together, and his mom was so appreciative.

[Brad with his mom and sister after a great lunch at Fajitaville!]

 [Brad's "Then & Now" section of the book. Look at cute little baby Brad!]

 [One of my favorite parts - "10 Reasons Why You're So Loved"]

On Sunday, since Brad had to work, I drove my happy little self to Alice to spend the day with my mom. We did a whole lot of nothing...and loved every minute of it.We started the day at Agua Dulce Baptist Church, where Pastor Chris shared a perfect Mother's Day video...they even had snacks!  After church, we had lunch at Nortex Bakery and it was SO good. I hadn't eaten there in years; it definitely gave me nostalgia! After about a 3 hour nap we went to the Alice movie theater and watched Dark Shadows, which was not at all what I thought it was going to be. After the movie, we went on a mini-shopping trip, then I came home to get to bed for work the next morning.

After such an eventful weekend I was completely w-o-r-n o-u-t! I can't forget that this was also my first Mother's Day weekend also, well, technically ;) 

 [After lunch on Saturday, I came home to this beautiful little surprise from Brad <3]

[Brad's mom wasted no time in beginning to spoil her soon-to-come grandbaby.]

[She's also decided that her nickname will be "Cupcake".]

[Aunt Lauren isn't wasting any time either!]

[My mom went totally summer crazy with all these little suits! Also loving the Scentsy monkey!]

Brad and I have begun taking part in the spoiling also! We've been going baby-crazy with our shopping over the last week. I've actually found a couple of really good deals too. It's just so hard to not buy EVERYTHING WE SEE!

 [We had our eyes on this turtle for months. It's the first thing that made us really hope for a girl.]

[How adorable is that gaudy little bib? Can you believe I got it for $3.51?!?!]

 [Keeping with the monkey theme.]

 [Cute little crawlers in perfect fall colors! (That's brown, not black)]

 [Keeping with the cupcake theme!]

 [I am OBSESSED with these little sock shoe/headband sets from Dillard's!

I am bound and determined to get every color. Plus, for $5.99 per set, you can't beat it!]

 [We stumbled across this cute little sleeper at Kohl's on sale for $3.23!]

I still can't get over how much of a whirlwind this whole journey has been and now that we're more than halfway through it is even more crazy. I still cannot wrap my mind around the fact that we will have a baby shortly after summer! Ah!

Oh, by the way, did I mention we're having a girl?!?! 

Our First Purchase for Baby!

We officially bought our first piece of "furniture" for little Baby Hajek!

I had been peeking around at high chairs for a couple of months, but wasn't really happy with anything I saw. I've always dreamed of having a pretty, antique, wooden high chair when we had a baby. So now that having a baby is a reality, I wanted to make sure to find the chair I'd always imagined.

I had been looking and looking to no avail and then, last Saturday, I found it! My mom and I were antiquing and came across the perfect little chair. The funny thing is that, just the night before, Brad and I were just noticing that since our dining set only has 5 chairs, it was like there was a spot reserved for Baby!

This is the chair we got. It was already completely sanded down.

I'm excited to refinish it into our own :)

What's perfect is that the style is very similar to our dining set. So I'm wanting to stain the tray and footrest the same shade as our tabletop, and then paint the rest an antique, off-white, just like our table and chairs. (See below)

It should fit in perfectly :)