A Nursery for Baby

Well, the time for baby to come is nearly at hand and I have his nursery put together for the most part. There are a few things I'd like to get but they will have to come later and aren't essential now. However, I thought I'd share a few pictures of the (pretty much) finished product.

Ta da! The quilt hanging over the crib side was the one I wrote about a few blog posts ago. My mom and I made that together. My mother in-law and I made the lanterns above the glider for my baby shower in Utah. I had the idea for a brontosaurus looking into the crib from a similar wall decal of a giraffe doing much the same. I talked to the Etsy store owner and she made this for me! I love the effect (though our walls are a little textured so it was a feat to get to stay stuck on the wall).

Here is baby's dresser and changing station. I am sad that the lighting was such that you can't see the final picture in the series. It goes with the stegosaurus one on the left (both from Target) and is of a blue brontosaurus. The middle picture was one I had the idea of from Pinterest and I made myself in Adobe Illustrator (what a wonderful 30 days it was to have that and Photoshop briefly). I also got the idea for the ribbons on the lampshade on Pinterest. Bryan's mom make the little polka dot brontosaurus and my sister Lindsay gave me the cute triceratops clock!

I love this glider. I could sit in it all day long. It is easily the most comfortable chair in our house and has such wonderful back support. We got it from Babies R Us as a part shower gift, part birthday gift from my parents. The quilt is another I made that was mentioned a few blog posts ago. I made the pillow with leftover flannel from the same quilt and applique material from the one on the crib. I'd like to get a small end table for the side of this for the baby monitor and maybe have a little book holder at the bottom.

I really wanted to have a pterodactyl mobile but I couldn't find one I liked. I had this idea mostly on my own with a few ideas from Pinterest. I used varying shades of green card stock and a pattern from Pinterest to make them and hung them from two embroidery hoops with fishing line. Then I put some felt clouds around those. 

I really like this closet organizer from Target, which is mostly the point of showing this picture. Eventually I'd like to maybe have a little white toy chest up against this wall. I'm sure the play center won't be a permanent fixture there.

Anyway, the mystery room from my house tour is finally unveiled! I hope you enjoyed seeing the pictures.

Bryan's Birthday

This is going to be a short, mostly picture-less blog post. However, I've always at least mentioned our birthdays on the blog so I felt I'd be remiss to pass right on by Bryan's. His birthday was this past Monday and he turned 27-- woohoo! For one month every year I am older than my husband. I'm glad that month is over-- we prefer just being the same age. We both feel like 27 sounds so much closer to 30 than 26 did but, as everyone says, getting older beats the alternative. Anyway, Bryan was able to take off work for his birthday. He has two floating holidays that he can take each year and he decided on Veteran's Day... and convinced his work to let him take it a week late. Clearwater is so awesome-- great work environment and so flexible and willing to work with you. We sure lucked out in that department. So anyway, we slept in and then had German pancakes and Bryan opened presents. One of his presents was a LEGO Wii game so we spent a bunch of time playing that. I didn't have the day off so I still did my normal Monday duties-- mostly laundry. We also took our car in to get looked at for a squeaking noise it's been making. We want it completely safe before we put to car seat in. That's going to cost some money so that's annoying. Anyway. after that Bryan came with me to my 37 week appointment-- more on that in a bit. It's neat because he got to hear the baby's heartbeat on his birthday just like I did! Then we went out to eat at Cracker Barrel. We love Cracker Barrel-- there is something so great about comfort food. After, we picked up the unfixed car (they need to order parts) and headed home. We had Texas Sheet Cake, the birthday cake Bryan grew up loving. Then it was back to playing our game. He had some surprise visitors from his primary class bring him cards and cookies! I think he was really touched by that. It was a simple day, but it was nice to spend it together. I'm grateful that I married the husband I did. I feel completely comfortable with him and I know that he loves me. We have a goofiness together that is all our own. I can tell he is going to be a goofy dad and that our kids are going to be laughing a lot. I wouldn't have it any other way. Happy birthday to my wonderful husband!

In other news, we had my 37 week appointment on Monday and they checked my cervix for the first time. First of all-- holy toledo that was uncomfortable! Baby is doing well with a heartbeat of around 148 bpm. Hearing that is always my favorite part of the appointment. Anyway, apparently I am already dilated to 3 cm (almost 4) and am 80% effaced. Um, wow? The doctor said this is not necessarily an indicator that he's coming soon. I have a lot of friends who say they were dilated early on and then their baby still surpassed their due date. Every baby, every woman and every pregnancy are so different, though. There is no way to tell if it will be tomorrow or if I'll end up having to be induced on December 16th! I sure hope it is somewhere in between. I would really like him to stay in until after Thanksgiving. Then we can enjoy delicious food with friends and decorate for Christmas so that when he comes we can really only focus on just him. Also, this Friday Bryan and I have tickets to see Brian Regan that were not really inexpensive and are non-refundable so... really want to make it to that. Also, we're going with some friends to Catching Fire the next day and I'd like to see that before he comes. Callie has been especially attentive and snugly to me lately and I wonder if she senses what is going on. Animals are very intuitive so I wouldn't be surprised. I call her my "sweetheart cat" because she is so loving. I'm grateful we got her when we did-- she was a huge comfort to me during all the difficulty of trying and failing to get pregnant. She gave me something to nurture and she has one of the best personalities I've ever experienced in a cat. Here's a picture of her this morning sleeping with her face smashed against my knee (under a blanket):

Anyway, I guess that wasn't as short as I thought it would be. I have a tendency to ramble. Oh, well. Here's my most recent bump picture at 36 weeks (we'll see if I make it to having a 38 week one or not...):

Halloween 2013

Bryan and I didn't do very much for Halloween this year but I thought I'd share the little that we did do. Most things this year have been pretty simple, especially the closer to my due date it gets. I love Halloween but it was no exception. However, it's not Halloween if you don't carve some pumpkins! We bought some pumpkins a couple of weeks ago and kept them outside until last Monday when we carved them for FHE. Here we are, getting started!

It rained all day on Monday and the pumpkins were freezing to pull the guts out of!

I wanted to do something to do with our big event coming up but I didn't want to make it cheesy so I carved a mom cat and her kitten. Cats are my favorite thing to carve on my pumpkins-- I should really branch out.

Like Bryan! He has a new idea every year and it's always clever, I think. He decided to carve a rocket ship.

Here are our pumpkins all lit up outside just before the trick or treating started. Last year for Halloween we lived in a townhouse that was near a couple of neighborhood but also near a very busy road. We thought we'd get some trick or treaters due to the neighborhoods but not a one showed up. We ended up eating a lot of Halloween candy over the course of the next week as a result. This year we were very excited because we live in a nice neighborhood with a lot of young families and we knew we'd get some visitors. We weren't disappointed! It was a lot of fun and sometimes pretty funny, especially with little kids. We had one little boy come up to our door, knock, hold out his bag and with some questioning say, "I want some candy." His mom called from the road, "No, what do we say?" He thought for a minute and then said, "Trick or treat?" It was pretty cute.

This year's costume was pretty simple. An orange shirt with a sewn on felt Jack O Lantern face. It cost me $3.45 plus the little time it took to hand stitch the face on. Bryan didn't dress up. We basically just sat in our living room waiting for our doorbell to ring all night but it was a lot of fun!

We are highly anticipating next Halloween with an almost one-year old! I already have costume ideas rolling around my head.

Last of all, here is my most recent bump picture.

Right now I'm about 34 1/2. Very exciting! Nesting mode has been enacted.