G2 Nursery Reveal

It's the moment you've all I've been waiting for...

The nursery is complete with the exception of G2 sleeping soundly in the crib. Nope, she still doesn't have a name. Why is this so hard? We still have a theoretical 6 weeks to decide. Still, it's really bothering me.

If you can remember, this is what the room looked like before it became a nursery.

Now...

 

It's a bright cheery yellow with coral and teal accents. I have to confess that my inspiration for the room came from the fabric we used on the valance.

If you can't tell, it's a frog pattern. Of course, Chloe and her sister have to have a frog of some sort in each of their rooms. Mark used to think I was odd for incorporating frogs in Chloe's room. He's learned to appreciate (some of my) peculiarities.

My mom did so much to help with this nursery. She knows how to do everything and has really good ideas when it comes to DIY. She helped me create the valance, sewed the bed skirt and painted the nursery.

The bed skirt is ingenious. It was designed so that as the crib is lowered with each stage of development (laying, sitting, standing) a ruffle from the bottom can be removed and the skirt won't drag on the ground. This was huge for me since I cannot stand it when skirts touch the ground (long story).

 

These bad boys are just fabric wrapped canvas. Well, the middle one is actually paint. I'll be putting the baby's first initial on the middle one if she ever gets named. I wanted to incorporate more of the fabric into the room. Since we won't be using bumpers this time, I felt like the room looked a little stale without added pattern that comes from the bumpers.

This was fun (see above)! I really wanted to reuse all the furniture we used when Chloe was a baby. But, the crib wasn't safe so we purchased a white one. (We buy pretty inexpensive cribs.) I then decided I needed the dresser to match, so I painted the one Chloe used white. If the drawers would have been white, it would have been too much. That was when my mom suggested painting the drawers a color. I decided on two different tones of pink...both of which are in the chevron fabric from the bed skirt. I just loved how this piece turned out. I'm so glad I took the time to do this project.

I really love the way this nursery turned out. I do not think the pictures do it justice. No matter.

Here's to six more weeks. I'm praying for five. :)

May Flowers

Dear Chloe,

Even the Crape Myrtle outside of your bedroom window is ready for you to be here! It bloomed this week (just for you). See for yourself.

Love,
Mom

I took this photo with my iPhone. Thus, the blurred image. The camera is packed for the hospital.

One Weekend Off

I finally had a weekend off! Mark and I quickly decided that this weekend would be less about relaxing and more about scrambling to tie up loose ends around the house. First project...tiling the guest bathroom. To those of you that had to use the disgusting mess we called a guest bathroom, I am eternally sorry. The bathroom looked like it had never been cleaned (for the record, I had scrubbed multiple times and the mold/mildew and stains were not coming off).

Both pictures are before...

We will have the tub refinished in the next few weeks. Then we will paint the walls and the cabinets and change the faucet on the sink so that Chloe can have a cute, clean bathroom to primp in (don't tell her dad that I said primp).

My handsome hubby hard at work...

My projects were a little easier this weekend. I spent the entire time deep cleaning and doing laundry. I also bought a few storage pieces for Chloe's room and tried to finish hanging the decorations. I still have a little left to do but I'm going to try and wait for the shower to be over so that I know what I'm working with as far as organizing goes. We have 9 weeks left and we are so ready to hold her!

I'm going to take a moment now to rave about my awesome husband! I could not have asked for a better partner through all of this! Without being asked, he has helped pick up around the house, cook, clean, and do laundry. He has been getting the projects that I deem urgent completed so that when Chloe gets here we can spend time with her instead of working around the house. I can't think of single time that he has complained about any of it. Except yesterday when he had to use the tile saw in the cold weather. It's never fun to be wet and cold. I'm sure that in his nightmares he hears me say, "Babe, can you do me a favor?" His answer is always, "Anything for you." What a great guy with amazing hubby skills! I can't wait to see him use his daddy skills.

Lastly, we went to the lake for a bit today. It was pretty cold today but that didn't stop Clyde from jetting out into the cold lake. What a goofball!

NO PINK NURSERY

We are finally finished with the nursery. Sort of. I still have a few finishing touches and I'm sure after our shower there will be much more organizing. But for now, we are done.

I said, 'no pink.' As soon as I found out it was a girl, I was foaming at the mouth for anything pink. What can I say? Things change.

I could NOT have done this amazing room without my mom. Mark and I are so grateful that she was more than willing to help! She has such creative ideas.

Nesting: Full Speed Ahead

I think I am completely out of control at this point. All rational decision making skills are shot for the next few months. Mark and I made a trip to Babies R Us this week and we came home with the nursery decorations. I didn’t stop with the bedding…no. I went for IT ALL! Lamps, wall hangings, blankets and extra sheets. My only explanation to Mark was: ‘This is our first baby!’

Bless his heart. He tolerates me very well. I’m usually not this spend-happy and VERY conservative with our disposable income.

I think Mark is in his nesting phase, too (if guys go through one). He spent the weekend painting over the bright orange in the nursery. I didn't even ask him to do it. Let me say, orange is an extremely difficult color to cover up and I miss my orange walls a bit.

I can’t share anything about the nursery until we have it complete. My mom knows but only because she is going to help paint and needs to start getting some ideas. Thanks Mom!  Hopefully, we will have something to show by mid-February.

I think we have our name list narrowed down. I don’t want to reveal anything until we have decided on at least two ‘for sure’ choices.

I had a few packages arrive this weekend for Baby G. Thank you so very much to the people who sent them…you know who you are. Love you all! Baby G is going to be the best dressed kiddo in all of Austin.

Hope you all had a great weekend.

Post Vacation Update

I have a blog half written about our trip to New York. I'm just not sure I feel like finishing it. Call me lazy. Instead, I thought I would give you a prego update and post a few pictures of our trip/anniversary. For the record, we had a blast in NYC.

Sorry there are no 'belly pics' yet. That's because there is no bump really. I can see it but I'm positive that anybody else would think I was crazy if I mentioned my 'baby bump.' I expect that sometime in December we might have a reason to start snapping belly shots.

I'm at 11 and a half weeks which means that we will hear the heartbeat for the first time on Tuesday's appointment. I'm ready to get more confirmation than a blue line and nausea that there is actually a baby on board.

I have no idea what I want to do with the nursery but I do know that I want to keep things somewhat gender neutral so we can reuse some of the stuff for future babies. If I was going to play the odds in Vegas, I'd say that Baby G will be a girl. Everybody we know has a boy. When you're playing roulette and winning on red, black is bound to hit soon. We know it's a 50/50 chance and we can think of a million reasons we want a boy and a million reasons we want a girl. So here's to the cliche'. "All we really want is a happy, healthy baby!"

Here is our 2nd year anniversary picture. Can you tell we were exhausted from our trip? I didn't even do my hair that day!