weekend getaway

We headed down to D.C. last weekend for a quick visit to our nation's capital and with Dan's aunt Margaret who was the perfect hostess even though she was sick. We've been there enough that we've seen the big sites so we enjoyed a casual morning at the Eastern Market, an afternoon at the National Portrait Gallery and an evening hanging out in Georgetown. Sunday morning we headed to the farmers market at Dupont Circle, the National Cathedral, and a yummy lunch at 2 Amy's pizza with sweet Margaret. But I think one of my favorite parts about D.C. is driving through all the adorable neighborhoods and gawking at the gorgeous homes! It was short trip but we managed to pack a of fun in two days.
Sunday morning we took a quick walk through the farmer's market at Dupont circle where these lovely flowers were on display.

The national cathedral on a stormy sunday.

The crowded Woodley Park metro with all the families headed to the National Zoo

It was definitely spring in Washington D.C.

I think this door is the perfect color of pink

and I think Dan was just making fun of me when he asked me to take this picture

Georgetown at dusk. Such a fun weekend!

time for a change

I've been scouting out diaper bags and although I'm not sure if I'm going to go the traditional route I have had my eye on these handy little diaper "clutches" from Petunia Picklebottom. I am not only loving this green pattern but also the handy little changing mat that slips inside. The great part is it is small enough to fit inside most medium handbags which mean Voila- any bag is a diaper bag. Thought this was a fun find for all your mom and moms to be out there.

Spring has sprung

Dan and I took a little jaunt to Brooklyn this past weekend to check out the botanical gardens and explore prospect park. It was definitely worth the trip, so any of you city folk who never venture beyond manhattan should take a little trip!
One of my favorite things about New York this time of year is the magnolia trees blooming everywhere! There are pink and white trees all over the city!
Dan was getting really annoyed with my chatting on the phone half the time, but you've got to take advantage of those free weekend minutes!

Popcorn popping on the apricot tree!

More magnolias. Get off of your computer and go outside, hopefully it is spring where you are!

small space, big style

Small Space, Big Style happens to be my favorite show on the HGTV network and they just did a feature what I think is the most adorable and stylish place yet, the home of interior Designer Krista Wooten, who happens to be Ruthie Sommers of assistant. Her stylish bedroom is pictured above and I must say, given the chance, I'd move into her little Santa Monica cottage in an instant!

If you have the chance to check out this episode of Small Space, Big Style, don't miss it!

childhood

When I saw this polaroid on my cousin Katrina's facebook page, I knew I had to steal it! Katrina, her sister Amelia and I used to spend hours climbing around and making forts in these gigantic bails of hay. Ahh childhood! So much fun.

p.s. In case you can't tell I am the one in the minnie mouse dress which was pretty much the only item of clothing I was willing to wear for about two years!

Island in the sun

Why is it once you get back from a vacation all the rest and relaxation and fun memories from it seem to vanish the second you walk back into your home and start to sort through the mountains of laundry? Hawaii was wonderful and fun and we loved every minute. In fact we loved it so much and were there so long that it felt weird to come home and back to Manhattan!

Here is just a snippet of some of our pictures from the trip...

Our daily beach haunt right in front of the hotel

The Black sand beach on the way to Hana

Lava rocks

We could have sat here for hours

If you know Dan, you know he loves plaid shorts

We were always tired by dinner and ready to go to bed

We wondered what they were really up to when they went golfing every morning

The boys -Willie who was sleeping and Warner who we missed so much on the trip

Dan is a very patient person, especially when we are shopping

Time for bed!

Ready for dinner and Hula Pie after a long day at the beach

Eliza Jane always posing

cute Willie!

Will and Dan getting really sick of me taking pictures

We miss them already! thanks for all the fun, sun, yummy dinners, morning walks, rounds of golf and countless games of scrabble and phase ten! it was worth the 19 hours of flying each way!

oh baby!

Thanks to everyone for the comments and suggestions on my last baby post. I am still sorting through all the good advice and links you gave me but know that I am so grateful for all the tips. Keep them coming! While we are on the topic of the baby, some of our family was giving me a hard time that I never posted pictures of my belly, or from our last ultrasound. The photo above is me at 23 1/2 weeks. I feel a little shy about posting the anatomical picture of our little guy so I figure he'd probably be embarassed about that too, so I'll spare you that but here is a really bad photo of his sweet little profile. Although it is hard to tell from the picture below, I swear based on the shape of his head he looks exactly like Dan. People keep telling me you can't tell what they look like based on these pictures but regardless I am convinced we are having a mini Daniel, which I was why I included the picture below of Dan and Laura to give you a little preview of what the little guy is going to look like, I can't wait to see if I am right!
Our weekend was jam packed with Laura in town and we were sad to see her go, but not before she and her friends checked some old favorites and some new favorites in Brooklyn. It was so much fun to have her here to celebrate her birthday and hang out! Thanks for coming to visit Laura! We love you!

swooning

One of the things I am most excited about for little baby's arrival is to have a captive model to take pictures of all day long and perfect my techniques! If you want some inspiration in this area you should definitely check out my friend Erin's blog who posts one wonderful photograph after another of her adorable babe Carson.

Well, in a search for daily inspiration, I was doing my usual online browsing and scavenging today when I decided to check out one of my favorite high end children's websites, Flora and Henri, their clothes are simple and timeless and beautifully European. I am smitten with the styling and photographs of their spring collection photographed at the fair. Not only do I love their clothes for children, but I love the emotion in all these photographs!

Now if only actually buying something from Flora and Henri was in my budget!

alive and well

We've been back from our trip for a week but I haven't seemed to be able to think of anything to blog about since we've been home. I'm going to try and get some pictures from the trip up soon but I still need to go through and edit them so it may be a few days. It was wonderful and we had perfect weather and Dan got to golf to his hearts content and we were reminded how much we love my family. In fact the trip was so great, it was really hard to come home. Don't get me wrong we love NYC, but coming back to our empty apartment felt really weird!

This week marks my 24th week or pregnancy, which sort of freaks me out because it means we actually need to start getting ready and focused on baby's arrival which I'm sure will come quick even though August 2nd seems really far away right now.

Anyway, my purpose for this post is this- do any of you have any great baby resources or websites or products that you would recommend? I'm posting links below to a few of my favorites but I'd love to get some tips from actual moms about what they would recommend since I am starting to get really overwhelmed by all the stuff they sell and wondering what I will actually need and use once the little guy comes. PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!HEY ALL YOU LURKERS OUT THERE, THIS MEANS I WANT TIPS FROM YOU!

And if you are in my same boat, here are a few websites I scavenge frequently researching what is out there, none of these are too original but they do the basics well:

Babystyle
Land of Nod
Pottery Barn Kids
Albeebaby
Giggle
polkadotwhale
hipandlittle
janieandjack