Making even more progress... assembling the nursery.

This past weekend we began organizing and assembling the nursery. Brandyn has been moving out the office furniture and moving in the baby furniture over the last couple of weeks. So on Saturday, we arranged the room and began to hang the artwork on the walls. We also added a shelf (which came from my parent house, from my childhood bedroom) to hold some of the toys, books, etc. Here are a few shots.


I love this sweet wall decal. We ordered it online from Simply Stick It Designs. Their prices were great, we were able to customize the order as we wanted, it arrived with in days, and it was very easy to put up!


The other artwork, as you may remember, are a DIY (do it yourself) project that I took on a few weeks back.


All in all, I think its coming together pretty nicely. You'll note we still don't have doors on the room... but those are one order... and we should have them in less than two weeks. And with Baby C arriving in 7 (or so) weeks... I'm glad we've gotten things pretty well finished!

A little about... me.

This week seems to be a very contemplative week for me. First my post below about "My Normal Life"... then I listened to a podcast - Pregtastic - on Adjusting to your New Mom ID... then I started chatting about the topic with a few friends... then my friend Janessa wrote about the topic in her blog... so hear I am... contemplating ME... who I am... who I will become... and how I will balance the two "Lives."

And so I'm inspired to write it all down... NOW... before sleepless nights and fatigue take over and I can no longer remember my former self. Here it goes... a little about... ME.

- I enjoy time with family. Either just Brandyn and I out at a movie... or heading out of town for the weekend to visit one of our families. Time with family is important to me.

- "Hanging out with my girls" is very important to me. I have several "groups" of girl friends... and it really rejuvenates me to spend time with each of them. Every year for the last 6 or so years, a group of my St. Mary's girlfriends and I take a weekend get-away trip somewhere relaxing and fun. I belong to a girls book club (two of them actually!)... thought one of them is really more of a social excuse. I also *used to* belong to a wine group... we call ourselves "The Winos"... I gotta get that started up again... that was so much fun!!

- I enjoy entertaining. Each year, amongst other things, we host an annual "Cinco de Mayo" party (this year will be our third), and I host a girls night "Oscar Party." Brandyn and I both love having people over for meals, and have a fun time cooking/prepping together in the kitchen!! We love hosting couples game nights at our house as well!

- I enjoy being healthy. Planning out healthy meals, grocery shopping in advance of the week, having lots of fruit/veggie/snacks available for Brandyn and I to eat. I enjoy searching out new recipes (mostly Weight Watcher approved) and cooking 4-5 times a week. I very much enjoy long walks. Walks around the neighborhood, walks on the trails near our house, or walks on one of the many regional park trails in our area.

- I enjoy a good happy hour! Anytime... anywhere... any drink!! ;) Be it an after work drink with co-workers or friends... a Friday night outing to a bar... or just an casual night at home. I enjoy relaxing with a nice glass of wine... a cold stein of beer... or a crisp dirty martini!

- I love to travel/take vacations. They don't have to be big like our summer trip to Ireland (but that was GREAT too!!)... they can be medium... like last summer's trip to Boston... or just small... like our trip to San Diego a few years back.

- I love being a home owner... and all the things that go with it. I enjoy decorating/adding to/changing up our house. I love dreaming about the projects we want to undertake (a new fireplace... a new kitchen... a new front door). I enjoy gardening and having flowers blooming during the Spring and Summer.

Will I *ever* be back to my "normal" life?!?!

Lately, I find myself saying "Well, in my normal life..." followed by:

- I take a lot of walks.
- I eat very healthy.
- I am a wine drinker.
- I drink a cup of coffee every morning.
- Etc., etc., etc.

But now, a lot of things have changed. I've eliminated my my wine/coffee habits, for Baby C, and have replaced them with bad eating habits of hot chocolate, macaroni and cheese, and Top Ramen. In my "always tired" state, I've replaced regular walks with going to bed early.

While I keep treating this stage of my life as temporary... I keep wondering... will it EVER be back to "normal"... or will I just keep substituting my life around? Once Baby C is born, you won't hear me saying "I used to drink wine"... but you *might* hear me saying "I used to go to Happy Hour with friends once a week or so... but not anymore."

Aw, the beginning of so, so, so many changes!

Showered with love!

Two weekends ago, my sister-in-laws Jennifer & Shelly threw me a fabulous shower to celebrate the arrival of Baby C with Brandyn's Fresno Family. Both sisters, grandmas and several aunts showered Brandyn and I with love and loads of gifts for Baby C.

Jennifer, Shelly, and me.


My Mom (Nana), me, and Brandyn's Mom (Grandma).


Brandyn's Aunt Denise made this blanket for the baby, along with several cloth story books too!

And the nesting begins...

What a great treat 3-day weekends are!! Especially when they are filled with family and and jam-packed with fun! On Sunday, my mom, dad, brother, his wife Katie and their 2 1/2 year old daughter Evey came for a visit. We started off the weekend with a trip to the Oakland Zoo!! I'm not sure who had more fun "Nana & Papa" or Evey!! Actually - I think we all had a great time!

After a nice relaxing night on Sunday, we rested up to take on a few chores Monday morning/afternoon. My Dad, Ryan and Brandyn worked on taking down the Baby Room doors and door frame. We have French doors on that room and want to replace them with glass paneled doors (eh, the kid doesn't really need any privacy!).


While the men were working on the "bigger" project... the ladies took on a decorating task - adding curtains to the living room windows.


The guys helped out too! Oh, and even Evey helped out!

All in all it is was a VERY productive weekend at the house of A, B and Baby C!

Grow baby, grow!!

And the belly gets BIGGER. Taken at 32 weeks.

Special Moments...

So many ups and downs of pregnancy. 40 weeks is a LONG time. Sometimes I forget to just LIVE in the moment and enjoy it for what it is. Reflecting on my current 31 weeks, here are my thoughts.

I feel so truly blessed right now to be experiencing such personal and private moments between my son and I. (Hee, hee... my son!). Recently, I turned to Brandyn and said "I'm going to the store... and I'm taking the baby with me!" LOL. Really though, it is pretty cool to spend the day carrying my baby around... feeling him move... watching my belly jump with his squirming.

He's moving around a lot these days, but differently than he was before. Before I could feel random kicks through out the day. Now... I feel movement. If I put my hand on my belly, I can almost always find his little rump (or some hard body part). Then he slowly moves across my hand - adjusting positions. I still get the occasional KICK. Like I did when I was falling asleep on BART earlier this week. He totally woke me up with his strong kick... and it was all I could do to keep my mouth shut and not cry out from being startled awake!

This morning I was talking to Baby C, as all the books encourage you to do. I'm not even sure what I was saying... something like "Are you playing around in there? I feel you kicking... can't wait to play with you out here." And then I found myself walking to the car... STILL talking out loud... about the frost on the front yard and how cold! I hope Baby C appreciates hearing my voice... 'cause I'm starting to feel like a nut!

My DIY How To

THANKS for all the positive feedback on the room decor. I had a lot of fun picking out the pictures and putting the project together. Here's how easy it was.

After much hemming and hawing about whether or not I could bring myself to TEAR OUT pages in a book... I found myself at a used book store (thanks for the suggestion Nesters!). I dug through the books and realized that many of them (priced very low) were colored in. I figured those books were probably never going to be purchased by someone to read, so that would justify my cutting them up! ;)

I purchase three large books (most of the books were about 5x7 size) these were 8x10. I used an exacto knife to cut the pages very close to their binding. And wall-la!

I think one of the keys to making it look professional was the matting. That always adds a lot to a piece. I used 11 x 12 frames with 8 x 10 mattes.

Making *small* progress on the nursery... my attempt at DIY artwork

Once you find out the sex of your baby... the next obvious question is... how will you decorate the nursery? What theme will you have? And with a boy - its pretty limited. Sports. Trains/Autos. Jungle. And that's about it. There were many, many cute bedding sets with these themes, but none that Brandyn and I could seem to agree on.

So, we went with something a little more neutral. An alphabet themed decor.
Our thoughts were to use this basic bedding set... and "spice" up the room with a little wall decor of our own. I was inspired by some very pricey pieces of artwork - thank Pottery Barn Kids - framed images of popular children's books/stories (Dr. Suess, Curious George, etc.).


So after thinking about it, and canvasing my friends, I decided that I could MAKE the artwork for much less than I could buy it.

And so I did. I think it came out pretty well, if I do say so myself! ;) The finished product. I spent about as much in total, as the cost of 1 and a half of the pieces featured above.

Welcome to 2009!!

2009 is going to be a BIG year for A, B and Baby C! Most importantly... Baby C will be making his appearance early this year!

As I'm sure that I'll be busily distracted and have my hands full in just a few short months... I thought I'd write down a few of my 2009 goals/New Year's resolutions to help keep me on track.

- Begin composting at home.
- Grow a few of vegetables/fruits/herbs in our back yard.
- Cut my hair and donate to Lock of Love.
- Participate in the March for Babies.
- Get back on the healthy living/eating bandwagon.
- Become a mom! ;)
- Editing to add one more goal... I'm a little scared to put it in writing... but I have optimistic goals for breastfeeding. First... I plan to at least make it 3 months (while I'm on maternity leave)... then I'd LIKE to get to 6 months... and I'd really LOVE to get to a year. Let's see how it all goes.

Not all necessarily in that order!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!