I have been on a MAJOR reading kick lately…In the last couple of weeks, I have read the following books: Circling the Sun, All the Bright Places, Boston Girl and now I’m currently reading The Other Boleyn Girl.  Anyone who knows me, knows I like to read but usually I don’t read this much!  I am attributing it to the fact that the library has had some great Kindle books become available (usually the waiting list is months-long) so I’m trying to take advantage.  #freebooksbitches !!!

As it turns out, I am not the only one!  Penny has been “reading” her books more than she plays with her toys so the other day, we decided to take her to Barnes and Noble, which she LOVED!

I imagine we’ll be taking a lot of trips to the bookstore and library this winter.

Here she is in action at the doctor’s office:

What a miracle, my 18 month old daughter can read!

In other news (but also along the same lines), we are trying to make room in Penny’s nursery for another crib.  Currently, we have this bookshelf that also doubles as a diaper changing table up against the window…

We are planning to get rid of this and put the 2nd crib up against the window so this past weekend we worked on removing the books (hence why it’s empty).  [Eventually, the diaper changing area will move to the dresser.]

I found these great space-saving DIY book ledges online via Classy Clutter and decided that we* would build these ledges!

*By “we” I mean that my husband built and installed the ledges and I painted them (team work, people!).

There are 3 pictured but we actually built 4 of them.  I was rather pleased with how they came out!

I hope you guys have a great weekend!

It’s almost Friday!!!!!  I have had a very long week so I am very much looking forward to this weekend.

Admittedly, we do not get out of the city much.  With how bad traffic is around Chicago and the fact that Penelope hates her car seat after 5 minutes, there really isn’t much of an incentive to get in the car and drive.  But last weekend, we made an exception.  We went to Goebbert’s Farm, which was about 45 minutes away (without traffic…on the way home, it took much longer…grrrr).  Everyone agreed that it was worth the trip out there for the petting zoo alone.  Here are a couple pictures from our crazy adventure out into the suburbs.

In other news, I have actually gotten better about working out and eating somewhat healthy.  I’ve been plagued by headaches this pregnancy and cutting sugar from my diet seems to have helped a little.  This afternoon, I completed the following workout:

Jog/walk x 25 minutes followed by…

3 Rounds of:

wall sits w/ bicep curls x 15
squat jumps w/ overhead press x 15
plank x 40 seconds
Russian Twists x 15
Push-ups x 10
Step-ups x 10

It was one of the better workouts that I’ve done in a while and I’m hoping to keep the trend going into the weekend!

If you are Facebook or Instagram friends with me, you saw the news that Penny is going to be a big sister!

She can hardly contain her excitement!

In order to try and prepare her, I bought her a little baby doll and she will not put it down!!…above is exhibit A and below, exhibit B

Maybe this means she’ll love her little brother too?? I doubt that, at least at first.

Anyway, when I picked Penny up from daycare a couple weeks ago, they told me that she LOVES the arts and crafts stuff.  This made me feel like a terrible parent because I absolutely never do crafts with her but we’re trying to change that.

She looks like she’s having fun, right?

Last weekend we went to the Lincoln Park Fall Fest then dinner with 3 other couples and their kids…it was a bit crazy with so many kids but we all had an awesome time!  Once again, I failed with the picture taking so I only have 2 low quality pictures to show you…hey, it’s better than nothing!

I mean seriously, do the pictures get any worse than that?