Thoughts & Memorial Day (with special memories)

Hi. 

I sure thought I was going to have a May baby! But, if I don't go into labor by tomorrow, that isn't going to happen. Which is ok, too. Whenever the little guy is ready (although I'm good with sooner than later at this point :) )

It's been a weird week, and things just keep getting weirder! I have a feeling things are going to feel weird for a while. It's just such a strange feeling knowing we are about to go from just the two of us, to three. We are both beyond excited, but it's the little things that we take for granted that keep popping into my head making me feel weird! (strange word of choice? - but it just fits!). Sean and I do pretty much everything together. Well, we did up until the last week or so when I have been glued to the house for the most part. I'm either completely exhausted, too heavy feeling to want to go walk around too much, or just still trying to nest at home! This is one of the big reasons I'm ready for him to get here. I'm ready to start our new routine and life as a family of 3! Really, we can't wait!! I keep dreaming of the day we show up at the pool with our little baby in tow, sun hat and all...I mean, the cuteness. I can't even.

On to some random things...

~ This is how baby hung out most of last Saturday. That's his bottom, haha! It just cracks me up when I look down and see it poking out so much. 

37 weeks 5 days

~ This past Monday was Memorial Day. We spent it at Boyd and Carol's. The boys swam, but the pool was too cold for me and the hot tub was too hot! We had a fish fry that totally hit the spot! We had homemade corn fritters, fried catfish, fries, and hushpuppies. And cole slaw! I made 2 dips for an appetizer and Aunt Mary made a really good apple spice cake. We spent the majority of the afternoon up there, and it was really nice and relaxing, as you can see from SP...

Boyd frying the fish

The first batch!

I was going through some old pictures the other day and found some from Memorial Day from 2012 & 2013. These pictures feel like yesterday. Gosh time flies, doesn't it?

2012 - this was just shortly after my dad was diagnosed. We all gathered on the mountain to be together, and it was a beautiful time together :)

(I tried to go back and link up to my Memorial Day weekend post from 2012, but apparently I didn't blog it. Let this be a reminder for me to remember to blog. I'm sad I didn't do it!)

We were watching Yasha swim in his baby pool

This was the weekend that my dad helped me work on an art project I wanted to create in his barn.

Memorial Day weekend 2013, again, on the mountain all together :)

SCT and SP manned the grill that weekend!

 ~ This is the vegetable that is about to be my entire backyard. Did I mention he planted TWO of them?

Zucchini. The leaves, I can't even describe how big they are getting!

The snap peas that the caterpillars LOVE :(

~ While he enjoys his Hard Apple Cider, I enjoy my Red Raspberry leaf tea (cough cough).

~ I washed these yesterday. It was quite strange opening my dishwasher this morning and forgetting they were in there and seeing baby bottle parts! Now, where to store them...time to make kitchen space for baby!

~ I finally got SP to get my suitcase down from the top of the closet this morning. My energy today I hope is going to be focused on getting things packed up so when D Day comes, we will be ready to go and will have one less thing to worry about!

~ I am doing Moms on Call and need to finish the web seminar. Maybe I should do that instead of pack my bag, hmm. Ok, fine, I'll do both!

~ We are going to dinner tonight in Plano with Ryan and Mel. I sure hope baby doesn't want to come tonight before we get home, yikes!!

Happy happy Friday! 

The Nursery

Welcome to our nursery! We've spent a lot of time in this room making it special for our sweet son who could arrive any day now, woo hoo! It is definitely my favorite room in the house. I enjoy just sitting in the chair and playing music for baby, or reading him a book, or talking to his Grammy on the phone :) We do a lot of that!

Let's get to it. First let me say for some reason the colors are not turning out that great in these photos. The color of the walls and that orange pouf especially! The wall color is a fresh mint green and the ottoman isn't nearly as red as it looks in the pictures. 

The hot air balloon picture was the initial inspiration for the room. We found it after endless nights of staying up too late in the bed with the iPad looking through hundreds of pictures on Etsy. Sean was the one who actually picked this out, and the second I saw it, I knew we had to have it! We didn't want a nursery that screamed baby baby. We wanted something that would grow with him as he matures into a little boy. The orange, grey, and mint green were our color inspirations. From there, other things just started happening. We have no real theme, which is fine by us!

This is the blanket my mom specially made for baby SLP. The other side is grey and white soft minky fabric. I love it so much! It's so cute, and I love the added pops of color it adds in the room. And yes, I know, the stuffed animal (gifted by Lauren Hilton) and blanket will have to move when baby comes for safety reasons.

My mom and I got creative one weekend and made this cute mobile out of the extra blanket fabric. I decided once I realized the amount of time the baby can actually have this hanging over his crib, I didn't want to spend $100+ on one from Pottery Barn. So we got our creative minds to work and put this simple one together. It matches perfectly with the pops of orange, and the best part? When the oscillating fan or AC come on, it moves!! 

The dresser (really an antique buffet) that my mom and I found at a local Keller antique store was the first thing purchased for the room. I knew I didn't want a traditional matching dresser for the room, and when I saw this, I knew it was exactly what I wanted! I love how it has the little mirror below the shelf for the baby to look at himself in! We replaced the ceiling fan with this light fixture that SP was able to put on a dimmer, which is awesome! It will come in very handy for late night feedings, and diaper changes. The pictures above the changing table were made by me :) I busted out my dad's Prismacolor pencils and got to work drawing these for baby boy :) The balloons were found at Hobby Lobby after needing a replacement for the insanely expensive vintage hot air balloon mobiles I found online! I found these in the party section and couldn't believe how well they matched the room! I also added the Van Gogh print "Van Gogh's Bedroom Arles 1889". I have actually had the opportunity to visit this exact bedroom when I studied art in Paris back in college. I bought this print back then, and really liked how it looked in the nursery, not to mention it adds some culture for him :) 

Detail of the artwork

Next to the dresser is a basket filled with cloth diaper supplies and lotions, etc. My mom made this basket liner to match. Again, love the pop of color it adds :)

Next, we have the contents of the dresser. The top two drawers contain bibs, swaddles, socks, grooming essentials, and little hats :)

The second drawer down has extra wipes and burp cloths. Then the cabinet has my prefolds, flats, and a few disposable diapers. The other basket on the right holds his newborn and 0-3 month clothes, and the bottom drawer has the next size of clothing and some extra space, yay!

We found this bookshelf at IKEA! It's just the right size for baby boy. I love that he will be able to reach his own books and things later on. 

I made the ABC poster on the computer. The wooden stump is leftover from our wedding. I like the natural element it brings into the room.

This boy has s lot of books! This isn't even half of them!

I think that's about it! Now that the nursery is complete, we are just waiting for his arrival. It's hard to grasp the fact that one day soon our precious baby boy will be laying in our arms, in this special room, we made just for him!

So now...we wait....

38 week bump!
(excuse the fuzz...that is from the cloth diaper inserts that I just finished putting away!)

It's New! It's Fresh! It's SO CLEAN!!!!

I think since the day Sean and I moved in (3 years ago) we have talked about getting new carpet for our house. We would go on and on about it, but then would talk ourselves out of spending the money and just purchasing another rug to go on top to cover up old stains from the previous owner. YUCK! Well, my good friend is a carpet sales rep so we finally called her for some new carpet. For the majority of last week, my house looked like this...

Total chaos to be exact! I have to give props to SP for tackling most of this. I moved a few small things here and there, but for the most part, he did it all! I am just not up to all the heavy lifting these days, being 35 weeks pregnant at the time...

So as hard as it was seeing our house, which I've been working so hard on to get ready for baby while nesting like a crazy person (sort of!), it was well worth the chaos for a few days!!

Out with the old!

In with the new pad!

Loved seeing the old GONE!

Here's the new carpet! We still don't have the house fully back together, but we are working on it. I am finding myself wanting to clean out more now that everything got removed from the tops of all the furniture & floors of closets. Now that I've had so much "white space" (that was for you Blue Eyed Bride) for so many days, it's been difficult for me to put every accessory, every candle, every picture, back into place! Now I feel like it's too much! AH! 

Work in progress! But isn't the new carpet pretty :)

I am also having a hard time wanting to cover up this carpet with my rugs. But, I like my rugs, so I will get there...maybe in a few days :)

We are so happy to have a fresh start before Baby arrives. It is a good feeling to know when he does tummy time, if he rolls off of his clean blanket or play mat, I will be ok with his face going down on this carpet instead of our old stained, matted down carpet. It's a good, clean, feeling :)

Lastly, I read once that Martha Stewart suggests in order to keep a room clean and tidy (the Martha way - don't gag, mom!), do the following:

Before leaving a space, look around and clean it up. Don't leave things just because you are finished with them to put away later. 

Ok, so I realize with our lives about to transition into total chaos baby mode, this is probably easier said than done for us right now, but isn't it a nice thought? I sure wish I could be just like Martha (gasp!)!

Baby Shower & Mother's Day!

On Friday, my mom and Louis drove in from the mountain with dinner in tow :) She made us chicken and dumplings again because I have been seriously craving them ever since she made them for me when I was up there visiting her a month ago! She brought one bag to eat on over the weekend, and one for us to freeze and thaw for when baby arrives!!! Isn't she the best momma ever, like ever EVER? We had Chateau Parks ready for her when she arrived, complete with dog toys, fresh flowers (thanks to Adam who sent them here for Mother's Day), and a can of sardines : /

Equally happy to see each other :)

On Saturday morning, Sheryl met us at our house so she could ride up to my cousin's in Flower Mound with us for my shower that day at 11. We left Sean and Louis at home playing in the yard.

My cousin's Jennifer and Carol were so sweet to host a baby shower for me on Mother's Day weekend. We had a great turnout and I received some awesome gifts to help complete my registry!

Becky, Aunt Mary, Carol, Claire, Me & Baby, Mom, Jennifer

Jennifer made the banner on the mantle and said she thought I'd like it b/c it was "home-madey", haha!

They got so creative! Look at that watermelon (excuse the black lines on the melon baby, apparently Greg thought it'd be funny to stick a mustache on it, but Jennifer took it off - hence the leftover black lines :)

Carol made 2 delicious quiches, and Jennifer made a super yummy potato hash brown casserole! They also had fresh fruit and mini bundt cakes! I could've eaten that whole 3-tier stand of bundtinis myself :)

Alison and I first in line for food - shocking, I know!

Alison and Lauren (sisters) showed up in practically the exact same outfit - how funny!

Lori, Melanie & I / Kristen & I / Tiffany & I

My mom wore her mother's charm bracelet. This is her showing it to my Aunt Mary and Claire. It was fun for them to look at all the charms of the older grandkids (myself not included). 

Baby and I with our two favorite moms - Grammy and Nana, as he likes to call them ;)

The shower was so much fun and I think I hung in there pretty well, considering I was at the end of my 35th week of pregnancy! Standing really gets old these days, and I hear it's only going to get worse, yay!

While we were at the shower, Sean and his dad went to lunch, so SP put Louis in our bathroom. Sean got home before us, and while heading home, I got this text from him. It read, "Ummmm...." - here was the picture included...

That's right, Louis escaped from jail! I guess he jumped up on the door and it popped open! Much to his surprise, I'm sure :) Thankfully he's a good pup and he didn't hurt a thing in our house while we were all away. It gave us all a good laugh, that's for sure.

After the shower, we just relaxed at home. My cousin's were having a crawfish boil back in Flower Mound at 5, but I was feeling too tired to go. Sean went as representation :) My mom and I were happy to just chill at the house and eat more chicken and dumplings for dinner. We were having Jack and Sheryl over for a Mother's Day breakfast on Sunday, so we had some things to do to prepare for that. My mom was so sweet and went to the grocery store so I could stay home and rest. While she was away, I sat down and read my dad's baby book that she had brought with her for me to see.

I have been so determined I was not going to do a baby book. I just felt like it would be something that would sit around and never get filled out. Well, after thoroughly enjoying looking at my dad's, I decided SLP was going to need a baby book of his own. Even if he doesn't ever look at it, his children someday will think it's fun to go back and read about their dad when he was baby, just like I found it to do with my dad. 

When my mom got back from the store, I told her my new intentions, and I think she about fell over! She apparently made a run to Hallmark on her grocery store run and saw a baby book she wanted to get for me, but made herself put it back down knowing I was not going to use one. She INSISTED we go back the next day so she could show it to me. So that's just what we did. After Sunday's breakfast, off we went to Hallmark. I liked it, and now this special book belongs to my baby in my belly :)

On Sunday, we had a delicious spread. French toast casserole, almost-but-not-quite burnt bacon (my favorite!), scrambled eggs, and coffee cake that Sheryl bought at Central Market. It was all so good! After enjoying said food, we opened gifts. I was quite surprised when I was given 2 gifts for already being a mother :) So thoughtful of my mom and Sheryl. I was definitely not expecting that. My mom gave me a cute framed saying, "Being a Mom is the hardest job you'll ever LOVE!", and Sheryl gave me a box of diapers & wipes.

The rest of the day on Sunday looked like this...

My mom had one last sewing project for the nursery, but other than that, we just chilled for the afternoon. Later that evening, SP did some BBQ chicken on the smoker. He nailed it! We were all licking our fingers at the end of the meal! We had mashed potatoes and vinegar cucumber and onions with it. Yum yum!

It was a beautiful weekend. We really got to relax. Sometimes we just have to go, go, go the entire weekend! I feel like we got some good visiting in, things accomplished, and some chillin' time too :) 

I am so glad my mom was able to spend this Mother's Day with one of her own. It was special having her here to celebrate my first, unofficial, offical Mother's Day with as well :)

35 weeks in counting!