*GIVEAWAY* Paperlust Studio - My Favorite Pregnancy Journal

Hi friends!  Thank you so much for all of the sweet well wishes.  We're so excited to welcome a new little one! When I was pregnant with Olivia I always wanted to keep a journal so she could look back and read it when she was older, but I never found one that I liked and then things got rather busy so it never happened.  With this baby, I was determined to document all of the special milestones, weekly updates and trimester round ups, which leads us to Paperlust Studio.

I'm thrilled to be partnering with Colette from Paperlust Studio, home of the most stylish, functional pregnancy journals.  I chose the Classic Pregnancy Journal and I am so happy with it!  I love the sleek black and white design and the pages are filled with quick, easy to fill in questions to perfectly document your pregnancy.  You can also choose devotional journal pages (which was my second choice!) and blank pages that you can fill in however you choose.  Also, new to Paperlust Studio are IVF pages, a sweet way to document a mama's journey to welcome a little one.

Here are some of my other favorite designs:

Marker Stripe Linen Journal

Butterfly Garden & Printemps Journals

Gold Foil Journal

Colette has graciously offered to give away one of her pregnancy journals to one of you lucky readers!! Simply click the Rafflecopter button below and enter to win!  Giveaway ends Sunday, November 1 at 7pm EST.  No spam or giveaway accounts please.  Winner will be contacted via email.

If you can't wait for this fun giveaway to be over, simply use code "birdsnest" to receive 15% off your Paperlust Studio order.  Thank you so much to Colette for partnering with me!

GOOD LUCK!! XO a Rafflecopter giveaway

SURPRISE!

We are so excited to announce that Olivia is going to be a BIG SISTER!

I feel like I've known forever and we are finally sharing our secret!  The first trimester really wiped me out, hence the absence on the blog! There were so many times I wanted to share our news because I felt guilty for the lack of posts, but I'm hoping to feel better very soon as I'm in the second trimester.  My due date seems to be going back and forth between April 23 & 28 (Olivia's birthday!) so I'm getting a 16 week ultrasound to check the growth.  Super excited about that because we can find out what the baby is! Currently, the baby is measuring 13 weeks so that would be consistent with the first due date. Another surprise is that my twin sister is also expecting her second baby and we are due ONE day apart (or four with the second date)!!! How crazy is that?!  The girls were born 8 weeks apart so this may be a Father of the Bride situation this time where the family slides back and forth between hospital rooms ;)  I'm so happy to be sharing the experience with her again and even more happy that we both have toddlers.  Aka...after the fourth meltdown of the day, lip gloss on the walls and no nap ninjas, we can text each other with emojis and phrases like "kill me" with full understanding on the other side... of course those feelings are only here and there ;) 

Anyway, I have some fun giveaways coming up that you won't want to miss and I'll be sharing more details of our baby news soon!  So excited to share with you XO 

Books We Love || Inspirational Nursery Rhymes

Hi friends! Today I'm excited to be sharing Inspirational Nursery Rhymes with you. Jackie was kind enough to send us three books from their collection, complete with an adorable tote!  Olivia absolutely loves books, so much so that she'll request to read more and more books one after the other...esp at bedtime ;) The books are perfect for teaching life skills to young children such as responsibility, giving thanks and believing in yourself.  

It's so important to read to children and its so nice to read stories with background meanings that little ones can relate to.  Olivia was so excited to read them with me and even requested to take them into her bed to read after she napped.  The illustrations are super cute and definitely relatable...especially the above preview about sharing.  Toddlers & sharing don't always mix so this is a great model for them ;)

{via IG: @inspirationalnurseryrhymes} 

Be sure to check them out on Instagram @inspirationalnurseryrhymes and their website here. We're off to go read more! Enjoy your Friday XO

Lately

How is it October already?! The summer has flown by and now the fall weather is quickly approaching (which I love) and it's been a whirlwind.  We had such a great few months and I'm looking forward to the holiday season starting up.  I feel guilty I've been absent lately but I have a lot of exciting things coming up for October that will surely make up for it ;)

While I settle back into a normal fall routine (tutoring, toddler classes...things that don't involve hanging around enjoying summer breeze) I wanted to share what we've been up to lately (@thebirdsnestblog)...

Looking forward to catching up with all of you soon! XOX