Love

I plan on making one of these little forts for Kinley and perhaps one for my reading center in my classroom. It is made from pvc piping which is one of my favorite things to make stuff out of. I have made many classroom items out of this fantastically cheap material.  Baby Love will definitely have one of these in her room when she gets a little bigger. I am in Love.

We Could Put A Baby In There

Even though Baby Love won't go straight into her nursery at least it is ready for her whenever we are ready for her to go there. I am sure it will be sooner rather then later, but for the first week or so we are going to keep her in her bassinet by the bed since things will be a bit crazy for a while. Nesting wise it feels SO good to have this checked off of my list. It of course couldn't have been done without my AWESOME parents and my sister who is much better at visually seeing if things are straight or not (I do not have this ability). Now for a tour of Mckinley's Room.

Snuggle Spot

Pretty Lights

Book shelf by door when you first walk in

My favorite corner

Baby Girl's Bed (The pictures over the bed will stay there, but the pictures are being changed out to some brighter nursery rhymes)

So many books

Mckinley's growth chart is the only thing yet to be hung up

Changing Table

Baby Love's Sweet Nursery

More Things To Do

I forgot a few things off of my list of things to get/do

1. Changing Pad
2. Extra changing pad cover
3. Extra sheets
4. Pacifiers
5. Bottles
6. Baby Sling/Carrier
7. Pump (after we make sure everything is a go)
8. Memory Book
9. More washcloths for cloth wipes
10. Extra car seat base
11. Nursing Stuff
12. Wipes for Brent
13. Car Mirror/Sun shades
14. Things needed for mommy after baby comes
15. Clothes line/clothespins
16. Wet bags
17. Mobile above changing table

For # 17 I want something to hang above the changing table to keep Baby Girls attention during diaper changes. I am thinking about something with pink and brown birdies made of felt.
  

 I think I can crank out a few of these since I have SO much extra time on my hands right now.

Checked Off

We got a ton done this weekend and it feels so good.
1. Finish nursery

2. Hang chandelier

3. Buy mattress
4. Bumper pad (1/3 of the way complete. I am waiting for the monogrammed part)
5. Curtains
6. Paint changing table/dresser and line drawers
7. Organize diaper stash
Clean out kitchen cabinet
Buy baskets to store tiny baby things
8. Clean out bathroom closet
More baskets for tiny baby stuff
9.  Make cloth wipes2 (I found some awesome ones at BBRU)
10. Find nightgown for hospital
11. have car detailed
12. have house detailed
13. clean out freezer
14. Birthing class/breastfeeding class
15.Pack hospital bag
16. Buy nursing tops
17. Pack an after the hospital mommy kit
18. Get maternity papers signed
19. Hang clothes line for diaper drying/sunning

We also did a bunch of yard work today. Brent FINALLY got to cut the front yard while I pulled weeds. Pulled dead azalea bushes and replanted/moved others. Dug a trench and placed some metal border separating the grass and whatever is growing next to the driveway (a mixture of ground cover that grows everywhere, monkey grass, daffodils, and some weeds). I think I may have over done it just a tad, but it was worth it just to get it done. I also bought  little zucchini and squash plants and some tomato seeds to do a mini garden since I want to make my own baby food for Mckinley I thought maybe I could grow a few things of my own. This means I need to turn the garden/compost pile really good and dig up those random potatoes sprouting. Hopefully these plants won't teaseme like last year. I got huge plants with nothing growing on it. That shall be done tomorrow along withe recleaning my house. I swept and put stuff away today and of course the floors are already a less (dog hair and dirt from yard work) and the kitchen table is covered with things we had to cut off and remove to hang the chandelier in the nursery.

Speaking of the nursery here are a few pictures of the progress we have made. All I have left to do it clean, sand, and repaint the changing table/dresser. And I am going to try to take off the existing handles and add some cute decorative knobs.

                   This was before spray painting the small shelf pure white (it looks much better now)

 

 

         
            We are just waiting for the back bumper pad with Baby Girls name monogrammed on it.


Last but not least baby girls closet. I just want you to know I have only bought Baby Girl maybe 5 outfits everything else has been given to us. We will not have to buy our child clothes until she turns 1.

Before I forget I found this awesome website called Wholesome Babyfood that has lots of puree recipes. I can't wait to start making my own babyfood for Baby Love. It also goes month by month or by stages when you should start introducing different foods to baby. I was going buy a recipe book, but once I started looking up puree recipes on the internet I started to think it would be easier, cheaper, and I could find more recipes. I am going to add recipes to a notebook as I go depending on what baby likes.

I feel like I am so ahead of the game. Hopefully I will still feel like this when we are only a few weeks out from Baby Love's arrival.

Big Day

I have a lot planned for my Good Friday. First I have to go return the lime green spray paint I bought awhile back to spray baby girls chandelier (we have no decided to paint it pure white instead of the cream color it came in) and then we are going to add cute colored lamp shades. I also need to spray paint the wicker shelf my dad dropped off yesterday.

Hopefully after I spray all of this stuff Brent can finally get the grass cut without any traces of white paint (lord knows our yard needs some help. It looks like wheat is growing it has gotten so tall).

I also really want to finally paint the wall next to the laundry room with the chalkboard paint. I am supposed to meet some friends at the park for a play date so we shall see if this actually happens.

I guess I need to go get started so my daddy can come hang up the chandelier (I would do it myself, but everyone thinks I am some fragile butterfly and won't let me climb up a ladder).

P.S. The nursery is almost finished!!!! My mom brought over the drapes, valences, and 1/3 of the bumper pads (the last one is out being monogrammed with baby girls name). I promise pictures shall be posted once it is finally finished (even though you can't begin to judge the cuteness in pictures because it just doesn't look the same).

Good Things come To Those Who Wait

And we have all waited long enough for some pictures of baby girl's new room. I snapped 1 quick picture today after finally rearranging the nursery furniture to where it will be someday soon. Now imagine all of these fabrics from earlier. Just imagine how adorable the room will look with a little lot more color all around the room.
 
And here's an in progress shot of baby girl's closet.
 
Here is her adorable rocking chair. My amazing mom recovered the old cushions of my great grandmother's rocking chair. If that isn't a pretty special chair to rock my little girl every night.
Now let's move on to the scary pictures? I gave you the good stuff first, but now we have to see how we got to the pretty stuff. Things aren't exactly perfect in our little house right now (they are actually a down right mess hence why the husband and I are escaping to my parent's lake house by ourselves this weekend to get away from the mess). This is what we had to wade through the first night of nursery renovations. That would be a mattress, ancient sewing machine, desk, and baby swing on it's way to the in laws.
It gets even better people. Now we started cleaning out baby's closet so we can paint it pure beautiful white. This means we have to remove ALL of my clothes, pack away the winter clothes, and transfer all of our jackets (and we have a lot between the 2 of us for some reason) up into the attic to our covered free standing closet Jen and I put together. The rest of the clothes were air locked into vacuum bags and thrown (literally) into the attic to be placed nicely away at a later date.
Our poor den as it pretty much looks right now as I am sitting here typing. Don't you just love my make shift second bed. This is where I travel to after waking up for my mid-night potty break most nights. Isn't the clutter surrounding the tv tray and covering the tv tray glorious?
Our poor tiny hallway is riddled with painting supplies and tools.
 
Mommy's new closet. I added a second bar to fit the rest of my clothes (the one's I can fit in right now) and hung up a shoe organizer for the few shoes I actually wear.
 
The poor kitchen table is covered with junk from every room. Notice my amazingly stylish $.97 paper like hat I purchased from Home Depot which I never wore and am now suffering the long lasting affects of rubbing my hair all over wet paint while painting the closet.
Hopefully tomorrow I can get our house back to normal (or what is normal for us). there may still be papers all over the kitchen table (they may or may not be the taxes we need to finish very soon) and there will probably still be a box of shoes in the living room until I can find a suitable home for them. Hopefully by next week after my loving mother returns from her travels following the Tigers to Tulsa I will be able to sneak you a peek at further transformation of baby love's room. Until then I leave you with something I love today. Mom and I went browsing today and we cam across this adorable little lamby jacket. I kind of have a thing for baby lamb stuff and a good friend has actually bought me the matching lamb blanket, bib, and burp cloth. It seems only fitting that I should get the matching lamby jacket (maybe the little stacking toy also). Can;t you just picture tiny little Mckinley in this soft little lamby jacket this winter.
One last thing for the day. Here is the 21 week belly. For some reason the first shot the belly doesn't so big, but the second shot is out of control!
 

Checked Off

There is still So much more to do, but I can't finish a bunch of projects until the nursery is finished. Here is what I did complete today from 9- 12:30: 1) Reinforced Vegetable garden (stay away Stella!) 2) Hung a second rod in front closet 3) Hung shoe rack in closet 4) rehung old flag pole holder because the new one we bought was a piece of junk (thank goodness I don't get rid of anything and still had the old one.) Not everything is checked off of my list, but I think I did pretty good in a few hours. I did however think of a few more things to add to my list. 1) rake leaves in back yard 2) put leaves in vegetable garden/compost pile and mulch 3) reseed grass in backyard 4) Hang ceiling medallion and chandelier 5) Hang curtains in nursery 6) Find boxes for baby's closet Now that my delicious left over Chinese food as been devoured I will get back to checking things off of my list.

My Very Own Honey Do

There are so many things that need to get done before baby love arrives. This week we got a huge chunk of stuff done these past 2 days, but there is still so much more.
What has already been completed:
1) nursery painted
2) nursery closet cleaned out
3) my clothes moved to front closet
4) coats moved to free standing closet in attic.

What needs to be completed:
1) Clean out top of front closet and office closet
2) new bar hung in front closet for more clothes
3) shoe rack hung in front closet for my shoes
4) Office cleaned out
5) furniture moved out of front room
6) junk dropped off at good will
7) maybe hang crown molding and chair railing
8) maybe paint pink in nursery
9) kitchen cabinet purged for baby things
10) laundry room reorganized

I can keep going, but just looking at the list is already making me tired. I will be starting on this list today. I am going to start with the front closet. I need another pole to hang clothes and a shoe rack to store some of my shoes. The rest will be stored under our bed (add to list clean out under bed). I suppose since I am in there I can clean out the top of the closet to store my purses. Hopefully I can get a few things checked off my list this week and I promise I will add some exciting pictures of the nursery redecoration.

The Beginning of the End

Today is the beginning of the Guest Room/Baby Room Remodel. It is not really a remodel, but really a redecoration. So far today I have pulled the sad ole decrepit sewing machine, desk, and rocking chair out of the soon to be nursery and they are currently residing in our tiny den. There is already a mattress in there (the nasty box springs are outside under the carport), but the nursery is basically empty.

We didn't really think ahead when we got the crib and we went ahead and put it together. Can you really blame us? We were just so excited and since we only had hand written directions from Laura's dad we were just so proud of ourselves for setting it up in about 30 minutes. We will just have to scoot it into the middle of the room, cover it with a tarp (it is holding most of the baby stuff we have gotten so far) and walk around it.

Now I am just sitting here working up the strength to head out into the beautiful day (it has been raining since last night) to buy myself some odorless/safe for pregnant mommy paint to start painting the trim, windows, doors, walls. Wish me luck and I will be back later with some updates on how the day is going.

Ch Ch Ch Ch Ch Changes

I feel like this week my life will change forever. I know I will be saying that the day I actually go into labor, and I will probably say it many other times, but this is the week. This is when we find out. This is when we know who we will be meeting. I will have to find something else to blog about. Tuesday Brent and I celebrate our 3rd wedding anniversary which is a huge event in itself (It still feels like it was just yesterday we were listening to Death and Flashlights), but Wednesday is the BIG day. I now wish we had made the dr. appointment earlier in the day, but then I would have to keep the secret even longer. Oh my God I don't know how I will stand it. Good thing is there are a few people who will be getting a phone call right after (Lis, Cary, Amber, Laura) so if you are lucky and live out of town or I won't be seeing you anytime soon you might you should be waiting by the phone cause I will be a calling. Then I have to wait until dinner that night for the big reveal. I am still not sure how I want to do it. I have 2 boy/girl outfits and bibs, I might make surprise cupcakes since we are celebrating Dad's birthday also (sorry daddy if we are taking away some thunder from such a big birthday you are really old you know), or I could do the Almond Joy (has balls.....see earlier post for clarification Week 17, Mounds don't (get it nudge nudge). The last option is the funniest, but I don't think my mom would prefer that reveal. Now it feels like things are really happening. We received our crib from Laura and Steven yesterday and even without detailed instructions (Thank you Laura's dad for writing down where every screw and bolt went) Brent and I put that baby together in about 30 minutes.

Isn't it beautiful. It is exactly what I wanted. I don't think I will ever be able to thank the Laura enough for this. Now all we need to do is get the extra bed and sewing machine out of there. The funny thing is having the crib makes me want it to be July even more. I keep the door closed to the room because I keep walking by and staring at it or playing with it somehow. I have moved the mobile and re tightened screws, and I just can't stop looking at it. I just feel so ahead of the game and once Spring Break gets here we will really be rolling along. We are also almost done with our diaper stash. So here it is in all it's glory. For those of you who don't know about cloth diapers. Basically this will be the diapers we use everyday, wash about every 2 or 3 days, and after we are done building our stash we will never have to buy diapers ever again. So instead of spending a few thousand dollars on diapers we might spend $300-400 on diapers for 2 kids. Plus we won't have the trash that regular diapers make. Here is some information on using Cloth Diapers for anyone who is curious So here it is the list of what we have and what we still need. 12 newborn g diapers 5 small g's 4 large g's 18 small g cloths 5 new Best Bottom covers (cloths and inserts are what hold the poop and pee) 15 small BB hemp inserts 2 small BB stay dry inserts 1 BB overnight doubler 3 small/ 2 med dappi fitteds They came as freebies not sure if they will get used (maybe with the BB covers) and a bunch of prefolds to use as inserts for g's What we still need: Maybe a few more small g covers Medium and Large g diapers and cloth Med and Large BB inserts Cloth wipes which I will be making from cute flannel material very soon Dang that seems like a ton now that it is all written out. I still can't believe in 3 days we will know. I have been feeling baby love more and more lately and I love every kick (once again remind me I said this in a month or 2), every turn, and every stretch.

Mover and Shaker

Is baby loves new name. I guess the chocolate cake and tea I had today has really gotten baby moving. I wish I could feel a good strong kick (remind me of this later when I am complaining about being kicked in the ribs or bladder all night). Is it bad that I sometimes drink a soda just so I can feel baby love moving around? 8 more days and we will know who we will be meeting. Jill and Ben found out yesterday that in a few short months they will be meeting Mr. Noah. I am so excited for them and their new peanut. Now we are just waiting to find out if Noah will have a best friend and is Ms. Ellis will have a boyfriend or if Noah will have a girlfriend and Ellis a BFF. The waiting is driving me mad. I got my request for the day off back and I will be home freaking out all day next Wednesday. I will be baking cupcakes (to be decorated/filled) after our dr. appt. And wrapping baby outfits and just being crazy like I normally am. Mom and I looked at drapery styles last night and we planned out what fabrics we would be using for everything. Then bed will of course will be pink/blue, brown, green. My awesome rocking chair will be brown and white zebra. The curtains will be brown with a coordinating or matching valence. My mom also fount the most perfectly soft rug. It is green with a brown and white braided stripe around the edge. This shall be the prettiest baby room ever! Now we just have to get the bed and sewing machine out of there paint, put up the edging and molding, hang the chandelier and get the crib, shelf, and rocking chair and then we shall be baby ready! Brent and I are going to the Rhealana consignment sale tonight after I meet Laura for yo-lo of course. I have no idea what we will find since we don't know what baby love is yet. I will mainly be looking for cloth diapers. I can't wait for the consignment in South haven because we will know by then and we can get some summer clothes. I feel like I am ending this post without really an ending, but I am really tired and in need of some of my mom's homemade cheesecake {yum}. Here is something that makes me happy today. I think it would look cute on my wall of stuff in my happy green kitchen. What is better then a wooden teapot clock from Decoy Lab

Week 17 Has Come and Gone

I can't believe week 17 is over. Today I am 18 weeks pregnant. 2 more weeks and we are half way there! I think Brent was so out of it this morning that he didn't really understand when I told him this. He is not a morning person like his wife so mornings are going to be super fun when baby love gets here. I have started planning the big reveal for next Wednesday. I have taken (actually requested. I am waiting to hear yeah or nay) the day off and I have purchased a few items, but now I have a new idea of how I might reveal. I will not be giving any names or specifics of the person who made this comment, but I work with them at school and I was telling this person that I was thinking about wrapping up candy bars. Almond Joy for a boy and a Mounds for a girl and I was telling her "because Almond Joy's have ......... " and before I could get nuts out of my mouth she loudly proclaims "Balls" in the middle of the school office. I have never laughed so hard in my life. So yes I may do that or this unnamed person gave me another cute idea. She said to get an empty box and get some helium balloons and put them in said box and when family opens the box pink or blue balloons will fly out. Now I have a song stuck in my head that I shall not sing because it is inappropriate, but Something In a Box will be your clue. I blame the person I work with who shall not be named for sending my mind there this morning. Alright I am back from the dark place. For some reason I decided to weigh myself this morning to see how I was doing gaining/losing weight. I don't want to be losing any weight, but I am not eating as much as I was. Before I got pregnant I used to eat ALL of the the time and for the first few weeks after being sick for a while I ate a ton, but now I am not really hungry. I am really hungry when I wake up, but besides that I don't feel too hungry. So I weighed myself and from the beginning which we will say week 4 since that is when I found out I have only gained 12 lbs. I am hoping since I am almost half way baked that this is a good sign. I just can't imagine gaining more then 20-30 lbs. My back is already suffering from the extra poundage. Here is the belly today. I am actually 18 weeks today and I of course forgot to take a picture last week because the baby is taking over my brain!

One More For The Day

My mom bought me the most awesome Valentine's Day present today. I can't wait to take down that yucky ugly ceiling fan, finish scraping the ceiling, and hang this up. Then the room will really start to feel like my baby nursery. I still have no clue what it will actually turn out to look like in there. I am scared to go to the fabric store with mom because I am afraid I will change my mind on fabrics. All I know is this will be the most gorgeous baby room ever. My mom is amazing at this type of stuff and just like my wedding we are both on the same page of what "We", no not Brent and I, but what mom and I want. Oh and one more thing! Exciting newsflash of the day Brent said he would eat meatloaf if I made it! That is a HUGE victory for me. I love meatloaf and have wanted to make it forever, but he always said he didn't like it, but last night at Vinegar Jim's he tasted it and said he would eat it if I made it. Now I can add a new recipe to my small repertoire. I already told him once the baby comes I am cooking and he is eating what I cook. Hopefully baby like stuffed zucchini, spicy fish, stir fry, and now meatloaf or we are in trouble. Maybe I need to start adding new recipes to my box before baby love starts eating real food.

Week 11

Week 11 is almost over and I am feeling Fantastic! After my Monday morning random moment of getting sick and after waking up at 1am to pee and never being able to go back to sleep my return to work was Awesome! I have gone ahead and started wearing just my maternity pants and that may have been the greatest decision I have ever made. I tried a Bellaband, but I always felt like my pants were going to fall down and since my mom bought me a ton of cute maternity clothes and a few people have given me some I want to get as much use out of them while I can. I have only gained 6 pounds so far not sure if this is good or bad, but I am ready to look pregnant and not just fat).

I was Outed at school this week. We were doing our weather graph and I was asking my 4k kids if they knew what was going to happen this weekend (It is supposed to snow Sunday and Monday we are praying for a snow day). Well instead of hearing how excited they were about the snow one of my babies raises her hand and says "Mrs. Roxanne is having a baby!" I was so shocked. Then 2 other of my kids piped up that they knew I was having a baby too so I had to tell everyone. I told them I had a baby in my belly and soon my belly would start getting really big to which one of my little girls says "Like Santa's?" SO we continued on our lesson, but later on at lunch they started asking questions like "How did the baby get in my belly" (this could have gotten really interesting, but I am good with random questions) I replied that "God had put the baby in my belly." Christmas has just passed and we had talked a lot about how God had put a baby in Mary's belly so one of my babies suggested we name the baby Jesus. I about peed my pants I was laughing so hard. Everyone had an opinion about what we should name the baby (Power Ranger, Baby, Flick/That was our Elf On The Shelf's Name). I said we had to wait and find out if we were having a boy or girl baby before we picked a name. Now everyone is telling me what kind of baby they want. Of course all the boys want a boy baby and all the girls want a girl baby. I told them we would all get a chance to guess what the baby was before we found out.

Well finally they wanted to know how the baby was going to get out of my belly. I went with the good ole "it will come out of my belly." They wanted to know if it would pop out of my belly and one wanted to know if it would pop out of my mouth! I am guessing this will be a hot topic until they forget or until I actually start getting big.

I thought I had picked out my nursery bedding and went ahead and ordered it (mom didn't care for it much), but it was adorable. I want the room to be kind of antiquey and I really like lambs so this bedding was perfect because it was called sweet lambie. I also got the lamb mobile that matched. Yesterday we went and looked at Hancock fabric and didn't find anything we liked, but when we got home I wanted to show mom a website that made custom baby bedding. We looked at a few pictures and then I pulled up one called Kinsley and immediately fell in love. There is a blue version for boy bedding and of course a pink version for girl bedding. I went ahead and canceled the other bedding, but I am keeping the lamb mobile. We are also going to use some Beatrix Potter stuff like figurines and a lamp.

I am ordering this decal in green to go behind the bed.

There is so much adorable lamb stuff I have found to fulfill my need for lambies.

I have started my cloth diaper stash already because I wanted to play with them before the baby actually gets here and learn how to use them and I needed to find the newborn sized gdiapers because they are hard to find. So here is my fluff stash so far.

1 Best Bottom 1 size diaper (top left), 2 small gdiapers and (bottom left), 12 newborn tiny gpants (right side).

12 tiny g pants (newborn size)

My FAVORITE! Best Bottom diaper. I will be registering for the rest of these.

I feel like I have already done so much in such a short amount of time. I have started purging my house and getting rid of junk. We donated a ton of stuff this morning and a ton more stuff has been finally put away in the attic where it belongs. I started cleaning out the nursery and I am hoping next week I can get the bed, dresser, and sewing machine out of there and get the 2 chairs out of the den. Our house looks HUGE with all of this junk gone! I already feel so prepared.