diapers and skinny jeans

Today was one of three baby showers little DLR has.  I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful family. There were so many people that loved and supported us- laughing, telling stories, playing games and eating food.  It was a beautiful Saturday, indeed.  Even the sun decided to come out and play for the afternoon. We are still sorting out the tons of photos from today, and will hopefully have some video footage of all the (ADORABLE) onesies, tutus, sandals, bouncers, tubs and everything our little girl could have possibly ever wanted or needed. My family is so hilarious- and creative!  My mom and aunt put together the most gorgeous decorations that could seriously be right out of a Better Homes and Gardens magazine.   Not even kidding.   All I'm saying is... we Votta's definitely know how to party.  I had such a wonderfully long day of driving, middle school musicals and parties.  I'll leave you with a few photos from today's shower before I tu...

Hi baby.  I've been thinking a lot of you today.  Your shower is tomorrow and we're seeing one half (my half) of the family.  They're loud, fun, and overpowering in a good way.  I'm sure you're going to have a blast listening to everyone laugh and tell stories and of course- eat some great food.  You've been getting so big that you're crushing mama's lungs and making it extremely difficult for me to breathe lately.  That's okay.  You just keep on cookin. Your recent growth spurt also reminded me of another cool pregnancy symptom.  The boobs I have?  Yep- they're going to feed you soon.  I'm saying goodbye for now to the sexy side of my breasts and saying hello to your new size D 'yummies'.  I looked down the other day and thought, hmm, what IS this?  Milk?   Now?  Right. Everything in my body is changing and preparing for your arrival.  Me and your papa have been getting things ready in your room and I'm co...

I recently found this absolute TREASURE over at WREN handmade  while searching for ideas for thank you cards.  I have a whopping total of three baby showers, and am so entirely grateful for all of them.  I wanted a really cool way to say thanks, and wanted to be able to get my hands dirty in another DIY project.  As soon as I start these, I'll post the process to the blog.  But for now, why don't you feast your eyes on the beautiful original idea of Laura's.

Goldenview Ultrasound from Kate Votta on Vimeo . As part of my week 31 update, we went to Golden View Ultrasound in Chicago. Erick and I saw our chubby chipmunk for a few minutes, but for the most part she was uncooperative. You'll see me playing music to my belly and jumping around trying to get her to change positions. Go ahead. Laugh.

I can often be found puffy-faced and teary-eyed.  This week had me crying in the bathroom of a Friday's restaurant.  Crying in the dressing room of Motherhood.  Crying while listening to Kings of Leon at Coobah's for dinner.  The beloved third trimester encompasses what I like to call "lots of emotion with even less explanation."   Hitting thirty weeks was a big milestone for me.  Something about seeing the big three-zero made me feel that much closer to the home stretch, the end in sight.  I really love being pregnant.  I love stretching in the morning and feeling her stretch right along with me.  I love feeling her kick and punch on the car rides home from work and knowing she's as excited as I am to go home to Papa.  I'll be honest though, I miss my old body.  I'm hoping it bounces back quickly, but I'm not getting my hopes up. Sleeping right now (and any time so far this last trimester) has been extremely uncomfortable.  ...

Thing is, I LOVE that camera.  I haven't taken pictures recently of... anything... and I always get really weirded out now even taking pictures of myself.  It's like that borderline narcissism thing which I'm totally not at all, (but I just have a new CS5 that I want to play with!!)  Totally not cool.  Erick has been working downtown for the past three days so I can't bug him for photos, and well, this baby has been stuck in my belly for the past nearly 8 months so I still have to wait for her to make an appearance.  Trust me, after that, this blog will explode in De La Rosa cuteness.  And maybe I can snag the camera to do my video... I really need to make my 31 week update!  I'm procrastinating so bad and we're getting really close here, folks!  Plus.  I feel like shit and I want to talk about it.  Haha.  I promise in the next few days I'll get it up, so let's plan on Friday or Saturday.  Yay for Easter weekend!  We'll b...

Almost forgotten Fuji scans from our SXSW trip.   Semi crappy quality with the tendency to bleed; my beloved Fuji Instax.  You are a giant piece of black hunkiness and you look like you're straight from a 90's tourist's hands.  I love you.  I need to feed you more film.  I'm going to get on that this weekend.  <3.

Oh.  My.  Gosh.  *MINI FREAKOUT!*   Hopefully this isn't borderline weird or something.  I just got super excited for a moment.  Kinda like that dog that pees all over you if you get her too worked up. I won't pee though.  Maybe. THE Marshall's, my favorite blog family in the entire universe whom I found (ever so gratefully) from my friend Abby  , is my second follower.  Haha.  I feel like such a dumb person, like a scary Justin Bieber fan or something... but you guys don't know how big of a deal this is for me!  I'm sure other new moms or his other followers can relate.  Every day I feel like a broken record... "BABE! Did you see that video of Tessa blowing bubbles in her MILK?!" "BABE! Should I do my hair like this?  Cole makes it look effortless!" "SEE?!  Ryan has a Merlin Steadicam too!" "We definitely have to take HD videos of our baby when she's born" "How did she stay so good looking through her pregnancy? ...

So a lot happened on Wednesday.  I really, truly mean a lot.  I got home and passed the efffff out, I couldn't even imagine cramming anymore than we did into our day.  Let me start it out for you: First things first, woke up for my 30 week appointment (should have an update on that soon!)  and so far everything looks great.  No diabetes for mama, and I'm officially done with all bloodwork for the rest of this pregnancy.  HURRAY!!  From there we had our tradition of Wednesday Breakfasts and we headed up to Over Easy in the Ravenswood neighborhood of Chicago.  This will always be one of my favorite breakfast joints.  The sassy eggs rule (and are a cult favorite) and I ventured out to try the sweet and salty pancakes on this visit.  They were STUFFED with BACON.  Can it get any better than that?  Nope.  Didn't think so. Sweet and Salty Pancake Platter from Over Easy We then headed to a few baby boutiques, found a lot of ...

Screws from my MacBook laptop. So it finally happened: my MacBook circa 2006 has passed away.  Today is a sad, sad day.  And it wasn't just her old life that did her in, it was her loving owner.  I freakin' spilled coffee all over her first thing this morning.  I really truly can't believe it.  Erick successfully pulled out my hard drive so we'll see if I can't transplant that into an (eventual) new computer.  *Sigh* In other news, I was able to take some quick snaps with the FM10 before I left.  And one of them is of my beloved new french press, whom I've lovingly named Frenchie.  And who is also partly to blame for the death of my MacBook.  Hmmph.  I developed these quick prints on my lunch break.  Nothing special,  just a bunch of crap until I have someone adorable to take pictures of.  TWO. MORE. MONTHS.  xx kate.

photo from a nursery edition of one blogger's extreme makeover. This right here is on my April to-do list.  Finish our little girl's nursery.  I have so many random ideas in my head for woodland creatures, ugly dolls, vintage toys, and homemade artwork from me and Erick.  It's been so busy and I really feel like besides the crib and paint, we haven't put much effort into making it a super rad space for her.  I want her to have a bunch of cool things to look, explore, and play with.   Lomo LC-A Original 35mm camera This is on my April lust over/to-get list.  Still out of my price range at the moment, but a lot more feasible then my lofty goal of ever owning a Polaroid 600SE.  I'm obsessed with film lately, even though it's INCREDIBLY hard not having the instant gratification of a digital camera.  I might even sell my old Rebel XTi to make room for one of these.  Hopefully it's worth even that much.  We'll see.  I plan on takin...

Hector + Illiana.  Glad you're back for a while. I pulled out some old film from our trip to San Francisco. xx kate.

xx kate.

Don't you ever wish you could go back in time and erase all the bad decisions you made, or people you've met that you'd be better off without?  I think about that sometimes.  And it figures that, as watching Hot Tub Time Machine yesterday all I can think about are past life decisions, ex-boyfriends and ex-girlfriends and getting all emotional.  It has to be the hormones.  I'm not even sure why women in general let stupid stuff affect them.  I even wonder when, like, my mom stopped thinking about all my dad's exes.  Cuz they're married and happy and don't think about stupid stuff anymore.  Does it take years?  Centuries?  Gosh!  It's exhausting consuming time worrying about ridiculous images in your head and memories that don't matter anymore. This is just a little peek into my un-perfect head, which is sometimes filled with insecurities.  And I guess I'm okay with that, because at least that makes me normal, right?  It's kind...

One year ago on April 3rd, we launched a new and revolutionary product that changed the lives of Americans.  And also-- kjvedlr was created.  A new and revolutionary way to fall in love. I have too many great things to say about this man for one blog post, so I'll spare you the sappy and I'm leaving you with this while we go enjoy eachothers company for the few hours we have left before work.

1. Crib completion, finally. 2. Spent the day downtown. 3. Ring shopping. *sigh!!* 4. Homemade chilaquiles 5. Apple munching in the sunlight. 6.  We clean up pretty nicely. Expedit Workstation from IKEA Just a quick update before I turn in for the night.  I really hope to pick up this desk in the next few weeks.  I really need it, and can't wait to put it in my little corner.  Man.  My own space.  It's going to be fantastic.  I am absolutely worn out tonight, we spent the entire day cleaning.  We really needed to get the apartment looking better, though so I won't complain too much.  Now I'm off to soak my tired back and *hopefully* convince someone to massage it before he's too tired to do it. :)

Well isn't that a mouthful.  Tonight I'm reviewing one of the many Lush goodies I was gifted (surprisingly) tonight after a random State Street Macy's trip.  Erick is seriously, seriously, seriously  the best.  And if all of y'all have never heard of Lush, I suggest you not online visit their site , but go walk into one of their stores.  I kid you not- it's like being an adult in a candy store.  The smells are overpowering, but not in a Yankee Candle kind of way... more like a yummy bath things kind of way.  I'll be honest in saying most men would rather not enjoy this journey, but your woman will definitely love you even more if you treat her to some Lush every once and a while.  Just saying. So on to the marshmallow magical goodness.  This pinkish cupcake adorable little guy is about a $6 indulgence.  And while that is a little steep for a one-use, you could easily take a butter knife to him and get 2-3 baths instead.  This is fr...