The Kids' Room: A Few Updates + A Big Boy Bed!

Fisher's toddler bed finally arrived Monday afternoon. I had no plans of him sleeping in it Monday night since he hadn't even seen it before (and I wasn't going to be home for bedtime), but Fisher thought differently. Once that bed was in place, he was pumped about going "night-night". Brent said he was already asking for the lights to be turned off at 5:30pm. What a funny kid!

Well, with Fisher's enthusiasm and Brent's complete lack of fear, I allowed the first night in the big boy bed to happen while I was away and Fisher did perfect! I'm so proud of our little guy and hope he keeps it up. The toddler bed transition was one of my main concerns as far as prepping ourselves for Emmy's arrival. I'm so relieved that it hasn't started out as a battle. 

Before the toddler bed arrived, Brent and a couple friends repainted the kids' room a really light gray color. The existing tan (leftover from when the room was our master bedroom) was not very kid-friendly in appearance and didn't play well with the overall look we were hoping to achieve. Luckily, with the new wall color, additional artwork, updated scones, newly painted switch-plate covers & air-return vent cover, and, of course, the new toddler bed, our kids' room is right on track. 

Here's what it looks like now:

You didn't even notice the return air vent in the room did you? That's probably because it no longer looks like this:

Yeah, the disgusting brown color was a little more noticeable once against the pale gray walls so we hit it with a can of white spray paint and now it blends beautifully. (Thank goodness!) See?

Much better, right? I also updated the wall sconces by adding maps to the shades. I love that the result doesn't stand out too much, but still plays perfectly into the room's travel theme.

Here are some closer looks at the lights:

(Before)

The updates still to do are:

• Add gray curtains to the window (replacing the original white curtains)
• Make & hang the pegboard-artwork, mirrors & shelf above the changing table (replacing the original large round mirror)
• Purchase a mattress for the crib
• Make the bedskirt for the crib
• Hang the hot air balloon mobile above the crib
• Hang our maternity photos from Fisher's & Emmy's pregnancies 
• Plus whatever else my pregnant self decides to add in over the next 9 weeks. :)

I love how this room is coming together! I think it will be the perfect balance of little boy and little girl and I love how bright and airy it looks with the new wall color. Fisher likes it too!

Until next time...

There's Another Baby on the Way: 28 Weeks Update

We've arrived at 28 weeks and I feel very, very pregnant. My main complaints at the moment are acid reflux, cramping & back pain while up on my feet for too long at work and of course, the constant peeing. Picking up Fisher is definitely wearing on me so I'm trying to limit who much I carry him around these days. 

I had my check-up today and Emmy's heartbeat sounds perfect and I'm measuring right on track. She moves ALL THE TIME so she seems happy and healthy which is reassuring. 

I gained another 5 pounds this past month (ugh) putting me at a total of 20 pounds. I'm really hoping I can keep it from going too much higher. (I gained 28 pounds total with Fisher and really don't want to go over that number this time around.) I've had a crazy sweet tooth this pregnancy so I'd like to keep that under control for the next couple months. It's time for Emmy to do all the growing and mommy to do a bit less. We'll see. 

Here's what I'm looking like these days with my 20 extra pounds:

We're moving to appointments every 2 weeks now which means Emmy will be here before we know it. I still can't believe we are going to have two kiddos by August! I finally ordered Fisher's toddler bed today so we'll see how that transition goes. Just another thing to check off the list to prep us all for Emmy Josephine's arrival. 

Until next time...

There's Another Baby on the Way: 24 Weeks Update (late)

As you should expect by now, this update is a little over a week late, but here it is none the less. Over the last month I gained my largest amount thus far: 6 large pounds. I felt the increase in size so I wasn't surprised. (Although I still hate watching those numbers jump up.) Emmy is measuring right on track and all looks good for me as well. 

Here's what I'm looking like at this point:

The big news this month was that Emmy's arrhythmia that we had heard at previous appointments didn't show up during my ultrasound/echo and we didn't hear any at my last appointment either. Her heart looks perfect and now that we aren't hearing any irregularities, we should be in good shape. 

The other super wonderful news is that I passed my glucose test! Woo hoo for no 3 hour test!  Unfortunately, I am slightly anemic (like I was with Fisher) and have to add an additional iron pill to daily routine. Not a big deal, but who enjoys taking pills?

According to Baby Center this week (25 weeks), Emmy measures around 13 1/2 inches in length and weighs a pound and a half, but is beginning to exchange her long, lean look for some baby fat. She is also growing more hair. (Here's hoping for dark curly hair so we know this kid came from me.)

Until next time...

The Kids Room: Building our Travel Theme

When we started talking about having another baby, we went ahead and switched room with Fisher to allow him to have more space and, ultimately, so he could have a future roommate. Our guest room is also Brent's office so putting both kiddos in one room is by far the best choice for our home. I just hope the transition goes well once little Emmy is here.  

There is quite a bit to be done before Emmy arrives, but I've started putting together some of the decorative elements which is getting me really excited. I told Brent that I'm just going to ignore all the troubles that may arise as we get a toddler and newborn to share a room and focus on how stinking adorable their shared room is going to be. Sounds like a healthy approach to me. 

We decided to go with a travel theme for the room. We have airplanes for Fisher and will have hot air balloons for Emmy. (I ordered her mobile yesterday. Mom found a steal online for me and I can't wait for it to arrive.) We also have incorporated maps, globes, bicycles, etc. to help with the overall theme. So far I'm loving how it is coming together and it seems to be a good balance of little boy and little girl elements. 

Here are some photos of the room as it is now and some details on how it will be changing:

To the right of the armoire will be Fisher's new toddler bed. (The glider is moving to our living room to make space and to keep me from having to nurse in the same room as Fisher at night.) The plane prints are (super inexpensive) newly placed artwork that I'll give more information on in a moment. 

The canvas above the armoire will eventually be a graphic and colorful painting of the phrase, "He's got the whole world in His hands." The globes and lamp will stay as well as the little red airplane sitting on top.

This area I'll need to do a separate blog post about sometime because that used to be a door. Yeah, I said a door. And now it is an awesome custom bookcase created by my father. We absolutely love it and wish we had covered up that extra, unused exterior door back when we were using that room as our master. Oh, so much better! I also love that it brings the white of the armoire over to the opposite side of the room.

I found these adorable bike shadowbox prints for a few bucks each at Michael's and hung them on the side of the bookcase for a little extra "travel theme" fun. I absolutely love them  (and the price!) 

This is the view of Fisher's (soon-to-be Emmy's crib) side of the room. Above each sconce I hope to put a small framed print of both of the kiddos birth stats and I'm going to add a little banner across the map canvas to bring in some extra frilliness for Emmy. We'll also have the new hot air balloon mobile hanging above the crib and there will a bed skirt created by my momma. (Fabric selection shown below in the "project section".)   

The changing table will be painted coral and the mirror is being replaced with some sort of artwork and a shelf for storage. Since there are two doors into this bedroom, I created a "E" and "F" initial for each of the doors. It's one of my favorite little projects so far. Check out the details below. 

So there's an idea of what the room is looking like so far. Here are some of the projects I've accomplished to help pull this room together:

First, there are the plane canvas prints that will be above Fisher's bed. My mom found these on clearance at Hobby Lobby for $12.50 each. (Awesome!) I thought they need to pop off the wall a bit more so I opted to paint the edges coral to match the changing table paint. I love how this little extra detail turned out! And the prints look great with the little planes we hung from the ceiling (another 50% off find at Hobby Lobby.)

The "fly" letters I grabbed at Michael's and painted pale blue. Then I added some dry brushing of a navy blue to bring out some depth. They are simply hung by some 3M command strips that will easily remove off the wall. Another simple detail that I really love and Fisher seems to dig it too. Easy peasy!

Next I created the initials for the kiddos' bedroom doors. This is my favorite (and super fast) project so far. I'm kinda obsessed. Check them out:

Adorable, right?! The letters came from Michael's, the "flowers" are made out of old maps, leftover buttons and scrap burlap. The paint is the color we will be using on the changing table and the other room accent color. I just accordion-folded stripes of map, hot glued the ends together, hot glued on the burlap and button and hot glued in onto the letters. Super easy. They are also hung up with the 3M command strips. 

Love! Love! Love! Thoughts?

The big things still to accomplish include: ordering Fisher's toddler bed and mattress, painting the changing table coral, getting my awesome mother to make a crib skirt for Emmy and a duvet cover for Fisher, switching out the mirror over the changing table for a shelf and some sort of artwork/storage/who know what, painting the artwork above the armoire ("He holds the whole world in His hands") and swapping out the shades on the wall sconces for white ones.

Here's the fabric we'll be using to create the bedding and a picture of Fisher's future big-boy bed. Blue is for Fisher's duvet cover and the print will be Emmy's crib skirt. I love the combination and can't wait to see it all come together!

I'm sure there is lots more I'll think of in the next couple months, but at least I've started. 

Wow, that was a long post. 

Until next time...

Flashback: Announcing Baby #2

I knew I was pregnant pretty much immediately. My body let me know what was going on well before it was time to take a pregnancy test so when we returned from our Thanksgiving trip to Kansas City, I quickly took a test to see if anything would pop up yet. And, boom! Just like that I had the official news. 

I decided to wait until the following day to share the news with Brent. When I returned home from work, I gave Brent a little ice-cream "happy" from the grocery store. 

"If I'm going to get fat, so are you! (We're pregnant!)"
Free printable from craftaholicsanonymous.net.

Since I took the test before I even had a missed period, Brent was completely shocked. He had no idea I could know already. It was so much fun to surprise him with the news!

Waiting to share the news with the rest of our families was killer. I wanted to spill the beans as soon as possible. Luckily, Christmas lined up with an appropriate time to announce. It was such a joy to share our news over the holiday (and we were even able to capture it on camera!) 

We used a template (from TheCreativeMama.com) to create a custom book about Fisher's birth to announce the news. We kept a copy for Fisher and then gave a copy to each of the grandparents to keep. I was able to customize each of the pages and even switch out a few that I didn't need. 

Here's a look at some of the pages:

We just told the grandparents that we created the book for Fisher as a Christmas gift and thought they would like a copy too. Here's some video of their reactions:

So fun to have their initial reactions recorded! Needless to say, I believe the parents were completely shocked (as well as Liz - the only one who cried) and I guess my siblings were expecting to hear some baby news in the near future. Either way, what great memories!

Until next time...