Hi! Hope you are all doing well! Our project time the past few weeks (ummm, more like early Oct but I am way behind!) have been spent prepping the baby’s room. Pardon the coloring on the pictures. I can’t seem to get myself in to take pictures when the lighting is right. And the camera is being held hostage in the car lest we forget it when rushing to the hospital.

This girl, I tell ya, she is not one bit anxious to see her room despite our best efforts to make it ready for her.

When I was in Texas I found fabrics I loved for a great price and my sister-in-law’s mother agreed to make a bumper for us! While I was in the fabric shop I grabbed a few extra 1/4 yds of fabrics that were coordinating and I just couldn’t resist.  If you happen to be in the Dallas/Ft Worth area check out Cabbage Rose Quilting Shop in Ft. Worth.  At most fabric shops my problem is not loving any of the offerings but in this place you will find way too many choices!! I leaned towards vintage-looking  prints with florals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My friend lent me her old Pottery Barn crib. We called PBkids and they sent us a special kit to make it a fixed side crib! I highly recommend doing this if you have a crib you want to use but it’s drop-side. Easy, peasy fix and it’s free! Owen gnawed on the sides of his crib…so while it is slightly dangerous to reuse as a crib it converts into a full bed headboard and baseboard. So someday that will be sanded down and used in his room when he’s older.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The letters for her name I got from my friend Jennifer at 163 Design Company. I covered them with fabrics samples that I got to compliment the bedding. She made them exactly how I wanted them, got them to me super quickly and her prices are awesome! Shameless plug! I paid for them so don’t think I am bragging on her because I am doing her a favor. I just really love her stuff!  I have a few of her things around the house. Her monograms make great gifts!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I found this chair on Craigslist. It was the big splurge of the room but a good deal nonetheless. The robin egg blue linen cover was filthy. I did a couple of rounds of Oxy soak and it is much improved but after a couple of weeks of seeing it au natural I think I have decided to keep it this way. The little duck pillow was sent to Jackson when he was at MD Anderson by my friend Annie. She had it made out of the little robe her kids wore when they were little and I took care of them. I can’t wait to send it back to her when she has a grandbaby someday…(someday, those teenage girls better not see this as encouragement to have a baby now!!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the paint color we pulled the pale blue green from the bedding. We used a darker shade on the paint chip for the backs of the book shelves. I am having a hard time finding the paint chip or the link on Home Depot but we used Behr Premium Plus and I believe the name of the wall color was Country Mist and the background on the shelves is the next shade darker on the chip.

Curtains. I was hunting through my box of curtains and found these sweet, lace curtains. I had to wrack my brain to figure out where they had come from but I remembered that my friend Annie had given them to me years ago when she no longer needed them for her little girls room and they were neutral enough to try in one of my apartments. I never used them then for some reason but they are perfect in the babies room.

Shelves. I shopped the house for things that I could use in baby girls room. These pictures were taken a couple of weeks ago and I can already see that I have fussed with the shelves a bit more and things have moved and more has been simplified.

The walls. I used embroidery hoops from Michael’s to make inexpensive art with the pieces of coordinating fabrics from the bedding.  I picked up this picture at HomeGoods almost a year ago. It’s been residing in the laundry room until now. When I saw it it reminded me of  what I would hope to instill in a little girl should we ever be blessed with one (and myself). I love the wind blowing through her hair, making it wild and messy. I love her determination and confidence and of course her shoes like the ones I wore when I was a girl.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The changing table ($5 at garage sale) is being used as closet storage and we plan to use a changing pad on the bed since the room is so snug.  The headboard for the bed was from our neighbors in Bern…when they packed out for another FS tour they underestimated their weight and started tossing stuff. I spruced it up with Annie Sloan’s Chalk Paint. I found a free headboard in Switzerland and also used chalk paint on that as well although I didn’t take pictures of either of these.

For lighting I wanted something sweet and feminine. Everywhere I looked light was over $100 and while it was cute I didn’t think we would use them long term. I had bought this $6 bird cage originally as decor for the room but with the room being so small we didn’t need any more stuff.  So, Seth sawed off the top and we used a cheap Home Depot lighting kit to make the bird cage into a light.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So there you have it…or most of it at least. Now come, baby, come!  We are so excited to meet you!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Sorry for the silence around here. I have 3-4 posts half written and while I have been wanting to get back on here and share things with you all I have been knee deep in school prep, garden processing and some major nesting.

We kicked off first grade yesterday with Jackson! He was very excited to go back to school with only the slightest anxiety. He plowed through the day and I was holding my breath for the breakdown. It came at around 6 pm when I think he was just so worn out from the day and full of things to tell us about. He is most thrilled to have his own desk and pencil box this year. He has a few kids from his class last year which helps to ease the jitters. His teacher seems to be a great fit for him and has a great reputation at the school. Owen heads off to preschool tomorrow and as he says he “has been waiting for years and years to go to school”. We are praying for a healthy and happy school year for both boys. There will be lots of changes with a new baby and all of that good stuff but hopefully school will provide a consistent routine! So far so good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The garden is winding down but not without lots of tomato processing! My fingers are weary from the peeling, seeding and prepping…but of course thankful for the unexpected bounty. I have nearly given up though and I must admit our watering is slowly tapering off. The freezer is stocked with garden veggies to pull out throughout the fall and winter.  Fall is closer than it feels I imagine so it’s probably time to close down shop. We will be growing a mini fall garden of  lettuces and such but nothing too major. We have a family of mice living in our melon patch so I just avoid that area all together!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nesting is in full swing as are contractions. Somehow the increase in contractions makes me feel the real need to prepare for baby girls arrival, which likely leads to more contractions. Seth leaves for Peru on Sunday for a week of uninterrupted sleep, pisco sours and ceviche   work so my projects will need to be on hold in order to focus on keeping the boys alive and the baby girl in! To say I am mildly terrified to have him an overnight flight away at 32+ weeks pregnant with contractions warming up is an understatement. But Seth rolls into adventures and planning with great calm regardless of risk so we will all just roll with him (at least on the outside). I have avoided photos this pregnancy…feeling huge and not so fun about it all but since the camera was out Seth made me take one. Here is baby girl at nearly 31 weeks.   Ignore the puffy eyes, etc. I believe Owen woke up in the 4 AM hour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ll be back here soon to really play catch up! I promised that last time but we’ll see if I can get it done! More on Jackson’s birthday, the rest of summer and the baby nursery coming soon!  thanks for stopping by!

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At my last OB appointment they asked me if I wanted to do a genetic screening blood test. While I would never even consider terminating a pregnancy I am absolutely on board with knowing what we can to know how to prepare. I asked if the test would also give us information on the sex of the baby….yep and with 99.4% accuracy! I left my appointment and talked to Seth. He had known I might have testing done but never asked about it so I decided as long as he didn’t ask I wouldn’t mention it and then would be able to surprise him once I got the call. The midwife mentioned it would be done in a week…so I called at the one week mark. And the two week mark. By week 3 I was going a bit crazy wanting to find out but also a bit terrified to get a call when I was by myself.

Last Monday my phone rang while I was seeing a speech patient. I silenced the call and called them back as soon as I left the appointment. It went to the nurses voice mail so I eagerly awaited her call back. When she called back she told me that the baby looks healthy with no blaring neural tube stuff going on. The baby looks great! Whew. And then she asked if we wanted to know the gender. I said “OF COURSE!!!”. She told me it’s a girl. I asked her to repeat it because certainly she was mistaken. We make boys…everyone we know for months have been telling us it had to be a boy, yada, yada. But she said again with a slight laugh at me that “it is in fact a GIRL, a female!”  (We have had lots of questions on whether or not we wanted a boy or girl. Anyone that knows we well knows that I have always longed for a daughter. I had totally prepared myself that this baby could very well be a boy and that that would also mean that we would likely not ever have a daughter. I had no doubt that we would be over the moon with another boy but I also see something so special in families with little girls. It’s just different. So in many ways this little girl is an answer to lots of prayers! I thought the answer would be that God would give me peace without having a daughter so it feels like an amazing treat that he decided to bless us with what we so much desired.)

Now I had this big secret. I couldn’t wait for Seth to be home to tell him!!!!

When I got home from work I dug out the couple of little girl things I had from friends during my other two pregnancies. I decided it would be fun to hang them inside Seth’s closet so when he got home and went to hang up his suit he would see the girl clothes.  Needless to say he was thrilled with the news but also in disbelief like me.  In such disbelief that he called the doctors office himself the next day to confirm!

The next day we decided to tell the boys.  We filled a big metal bucket with balloons and when they pulled off the quilt a bunch of pink balloons popped out. They are delighted with the news and can’t wait to meet their little sister!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Friday we are all going together for the 20 week sonogram! Jackson is so excited to get out of school to go “meet” the baby. Can’t wait for our little date with her.  We are nearly half way to meeting her which is hard to believe. With two big ones and tons of activities going on I am afraid she will be here before we have time to blink!

 

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