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.

Busy Season Begins

Well, life has been crazy, crazy, crazy for the past few weeks and is just finally settling down. It's kind of nice to look at my calendar and see it blank for a little while, at least. At the end of September Bryan and I headed down to Utah for a Whitney family vacation. Generally when we go to Utah we bring Callie with but since we were headed to Snowbird, where we would be staying in a hotel, we left her behind and had some friends in our ward look after her and the house. She honestly probably preferred this but she is a very people-loving animal so we were afraid to leave her on her own but she seemed to do well and wasn't even mad at us when we got back! It was a relief to not have to worry about anything back home.

We got checked in to Snowbird on a Saturday when Oktoberfest was in full swing there. It was only slightly annoying to have a band playing loudly outside during the day but after Sunday everyone left and it felt like we pretty much had the place to ourselves, which was nice.

On Sunday we went down to Sandy and went to Sacrament Meeting at a local ward. We thought we were being so good but in conference the next week someone talked about going for all three hours when on vacation! I'm not quite there yet...

We participated in a few Snowbird sponsored activities while there. Each day there was a morning hike and Mike went out on those at least a few days a week. Shelley and the kids went to some kid friendly activities and I think Bryan and I only went to the movie ("Now Your See Me") and Bingo, pictured below.

We spent the rest of the vacation mostly just relaxing. We played board/party games pretty much every night, which was a lot of fun. Bryan and I also brought our Wii U, which was a hit. There was a lot of this happening:

Note the kids' involvement in the gaming. I especially love how in the first picture Bryan is playing with Ethan with his left hand and playing the Wii with his right-- look closely.

Months ago when the vacation was planned I couldn't wait to get in a pool, assuming that I'd be so heavy and lumbering around that it would be a huge relief. I bet when the baby is born I will notice a relief but so far I haven't really noticed this heaviness too much. Regardless of all that, I thoroughly enjoyed the pool, which was heated. We went several times while we were there and it was so fun. Everyone else had a chance in the hot tub but I didn't dare.

Here are the siblings enjoying a beautiful view in the hot tub! One morning we woke up to a snow storm! We decided it would be fun to go swimming in the snow, since the pool was heated. That was a cool experience. I wish I'd remembered the camera. Bryan especially enjoyed sitting in the hot tub while snow fell around him.

On one of the days Sandi, Shelley, Ella and I had a lot of fun putting together cute Halloween craft!

Here is my final product, which is currently sitting atop my mantel. Isn't it adorable?

Speaking of adorable, Ethan helped too. :)

From our hotel room we had a beautiful view. One day we went out for a short crisp walk in the autumn air and I snapped a couple of pictures.

I took a picture out our window on the morning of the snow storm but this doesn't really do it justice. There were several times when you'd look out and all you would see was pure white. Bryan said, "Well, it looks like the world got deleted."

We were there for a whole week and checked out on Saturday, October 5th. We drove down to Shelley's house listening to conference and finished up both Saturday sessions watching it at her house. I just loved conference this year. There were so, so many talks that I found inspiring and applicable to my life. As I said, we were driving during most of the first session and then we drove home to Boise during the last session on Sunday and I actually felt like driving while listening made it easier to, well, listen. Sometimes when you're sitting on your couch watching it its a little easier to become distracted or fall asleep, but sitting in the car, focused was really good for us. I'm grateful these sessions were so good for me since I'm worried I'll be kind of distracted during them in the coming months and years :).

Anyway, after Saturday session was over and we were still at Shelley's we set up for my baby shower, which was set to be during Priesthood Session (something we had planned before the church decided to make it available on TV and the internet, meaning Bryan sat in the other room on Ethan's glider watching it the whole time my shower was going on). Look at this awesome cupcake cake! It was so delicious.

There were many pictures of my opening gifts but I figured one would suffice. If you look in the back you can kind of see these cute Dino lanterns we made for the shower decor. I love them! I'll be hanging them up in the baby's nursery so you'll get a better view of them when I finish that and post pictures.

I just decided to include a few shots of my guests. Thank you to all who came! It was so fun and nice to see everyone. I'm grateful I got to have a shower in Utah with friends and family I don't see very often. Thank you so much Shelley and Sandi for all the work you did putting it together!

Well, as I said, we drove back to Boise on Sunday and the next day was my birthday!!! I had a lot to do that day to get the house back together and the bills paid after vacation. I guess that's what happens when you grow up-- responsibilities don't just fall to the wayside even though it's your birthday. It was a pretty low key day-- though I did have my doctor's appointment so I got to hear baby's heartbeat on my birthday. That is the best gift I could ask for. Bryan and I went out to eat at Goodwood and just ordered dessert since we didn't have anything for cake at our house. Afterwards, we went to the movies and saw "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2" with movies tickets we got for free when we bought our car! Bryan and I both love the first movie-- this one was entertaining but, I'd say, not as good as the first. Still, it was fun.

Later that week Bryan and I attended a "CPR for Friends and Family" class at St. Luke's downtown. I'll actually be delivering at St. Luke's in Meridian but this was the only place the class was offered. It was kind of a maze to get to but we made it on time. It was very long but I'm glad we went. We're not really doing many classes but this one seemed so important. What if something happened to my baby and he needed CPR and I couldn't help him because I hadn't attended this class? I'm not saying I'll have a cool head in such a situation but at least I have the knowledge and all I can do is what I can do. Even still, Bryan is better with handling such situations so I would hope he'd be there if it did happen but I know I am prepared, at least. Anyway, it was good to take the class.

This past Saturday I had my second baby shower thrown for me by my good friend in the ward, April. We had a milk and cookies bar and everything was so cute and put together! It was kind of themed after the book, "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie..." which was one I loved as a kid.

Don't you love the milk and chocolate milk cooling in canisters over ice? I thought that was so clever.

Here we are measuring my belly with ribbon. We played a game where everyone had to cut a ribbon and guess how big my belly was. My friend Celeste won! I think she won like three of the games, in fact!

Here I am with all of my gifts, which I somehow fit into this big bag. Thank you everyone for the awesome gifts!

Again, here are my guests, not including April herself. I wish this last picture wasn't so blurry because it is so cute!

Thank you for all your hard work and for throwing me my shower, April! It was so much fun!

Well, last but not least here are the latest pregnancy pictures, which I've been lagging behind on in this blog. I do have my fresh off the press 32 week picture, taken minutes before I pressed publish on this post!

32 weeks-- I can't believe it! It feels so much closer now. I think I still am having a hard time believing I'm going to give birth soon. I just have no idea what that will be like, no matter how I try to prepare myself. I also can't believe this is my son in here-- what will he look like? Who will he be? As I'm typing this he's nudging me in the ribs. I love feeling him move on a much more regular basis these days. It's definitely becoming more real. Anyway, enough rambling. Peace out, internet.

Baby Crafting Week

Aren't moms great? As I'm going to be one pretty soon, I've started feeling an even greater appreciation for my own mom. A couple of months ago I got this idea in my head that I wanted her to come out and we could have a craft week making all kinds of things for baby. I remembered when one of my sisters was about to have her first baby and she and her husband lived with my parents that they spent a while making blankets and burp cloths and such. I kept thinking about that and I really wanted to be able to do that with my own baby. I consider myself an intermediate crafter and seamstress but my mom has been doing this so much longer and I trust that practiced hand more than my own. The idea would not let go of me and so I practically begged her to come! She has a very busy life right now but we were able to find a time to make it work and we both had a ball!

She was supposed to get in Sunday night but, due to flight delays (with no apparent reason?), didn't arrive until Monday morning. We spent that day going over the projects we wanted to complete and the measurements we would need. We made our list, checked it twice and then headed out to doisome fabric shopping. For one of the quilts we got most of our fabric from a local quilting store called Quilt Expressions. They had the biggest collection of cute fabric that I have ever seen! We then hopped over to Hancock's and then finally Joann's. The rest of the night was spent relaxing and preshrinking the fabric.

On Tuesday I had a doctor's appointment so she was able to come with me to that. I took my glucose test for gestational diabetes and that came back normal. Woohoo! I had an orange drink that I had cold and with a straw and it really wasn't as bad as some people experience. We also got to hear the baby's heartbeat, of course! He's still healthy at 150 bpm! Then we came home and cut out all the fabric for every single one of our projects. My mom was able to complete some receiving blankets (seen below) that night while I was at my weekly scouts meeting. They are very cute and go so well with my color theme of blue and green!

On Wednesday we sewed and pieced both quilts together. That sounds pretty simple in one sentence but entailed so much. For quilt #1 we had strips of flannel to sew together, then we had to cut that out with batting and minky on the back (so soft but so stretchy-- a nightmare to sew with!). Then we sewed on the satin binding, which I have never been good at. Thank goodness mom was there for that! She showed me how to do it correctly so I feel more confident in it in the future. For quilt #2 we used appliques so we had to get special double sided fusible interfacing and that was scary but ended up not being too hard at all. I had to cut out my patterns (dinos) and then fuse them onto the background fabric and then we stitched around them, sewed the border in place and then sewed that on with the batting and backing. My mom also started the side seams for the curtains. At night we had to run out and pick up a few things we'd run out of or forgotten.

On Thursday we pretty much finished! I sewed on the ribbon ties to quilt #1 and my mom hand quilted around the borders and dinos for quilt #2. We also sewed all the casings for the curtains.

On Friday we went out and had some fun shopping at the Carter's outlet, so that was our mostly free day! After Bryan came home he hung our curtain rod and we (mom, mostly) sewed the hems on that while I finished up the flannel quilt's ties. As you can imagine, we did a lot of ironing during this whole process and I may or may not have a battle wound from that. I'm so glad we were able to finish up everything that was a priority.

On Saturday, my mom flew home. The week went by really, really fast! It was sad saying goodbye but she later texted me to say, "Next time I see you, you'll be a mommy!" What a surreal thought! I'm so grateful that she is coming out to help me when the baby is born. I've got a pretty awesome mom who is so loving and giving. I'm a pretty lucky girl!

So here are the rest of the the final products:

Here is quilt #1, our flannel baby blanket. I mentioned this on Facebook but my mom made me a flannel patchwork quilt before I was born. This was back in the days before you found out what you were having so it was blue and pink! I loved that blanket so much that I took it everywhere with me as a little kid. I even remember taking it out in the garage on a scooter. That is probably where all the rips and tears came from. It used to look a lot more like this quilt but these days it looks like a rag. Whenever I was kind of sad, it was a comfort to me... so much so that I slept with it in my bed until I got married. Yes, I slept with my baby blanket until I was 24 years old! Maybe I should be more ashamed to publicly announce that on the internet, but I'm not. It now resides in the bottom of my wedding dress bag. I never wanted it to get thrown away so I kept it somewhere safe. Anyway, the point of all of that is that my flannel blanket meant a lot to me. I doubt this baby will react exactly the same but I really do hope he loves it at least a fraction of the amount I loved mine.

Here's quilt #2. Long ago, even before I found out I was having a boy, even before I found out I was pregnant I got it in my head that I wanted my baby boy's nursery to be blue and green dinosaurs. I scoured the internet looking for bedding sets that fit the bill but nothing did. I was thinking I wouldn't spend all that money on a bedding set (babies are expensive) and just find a cute fitted sheet but then the idea came to me that it might be possible to make the crib quilt that I had roughly imagined. I got on GIMP (every day I pine for Photoshop but it is not to be right now) and made a mock up of the quilt with some silhouettes I found on the internet. Then I researched appliques and everything kind of came together. I'm pretty proud of myself for coming up with it.

It's hard to see but the curtain fabric is the same as the dinos pictured in quilt #2. They are simple but were kind of a hassle to make because we put black out fabric on the back, which made them really thick and not hang exactly as I'd expected. That's okay, though. I'm going to be thanking myself (and my mom) when baby needs a nap in the middle of a sunny day!

Anyway, that post ended up being much longer than I'd expected and I hope I didn't ramble on as I'm wont to do. Thank you so much mom for coming out and helping me do this. I couldn't have done it (at least as sanely) without you! Also, just thank you in general for being a great mom and for loving me and this new baby so much!