Saturday, December 29

Caught Ya!

Coop has a new favorite spot to relax...in the nursery! Kurt and I have recently been "catching" Cooper sleeping on the floor by the baby's crib. And it's really stinkin' cute! He's going to be such a protective "big brother"!

Tuesday, December 18

happy

Did a little Christmas shopping after school today and realized I was going to be late for my workout. Decided to skip my workout and head home. Wrapped some presents {until we ran out of tape} next to our glowing Christmas tree and changed into my PJs early. Ate some delicious cookie dough, ordered some pizza, and addressed our Christmas cards that came in the mail today. Now watching Home Alone with the pups and my hubs {while Baby W is dancing in my belly}. Only thing that might make this evening better? Snow. 

Perfect.


Monday, December 17

Few, Quick Updates

I'm feeling way too lazy right now to do a whole two week belly update {plus I haven't had Kurt take any pictures for the last three weeks...oops!}, so I thought I'd share a couple things that have been going on around here lately. 

I got a call last week that our glider/ottoman had arrived at Buy Buy Baby. We were really excited to pick it up but knew it wouldn't fit in my car. Friday night we asked my brother and Quinn if we could borrow their car so we could go pick them up. We stopped by their house and ended up hanging out with them {minus Julia who went to Yuletide with my parents} and eating dinner. We eventually made it to Buy Buy Baby around 8:30. They had it ready for us, so we put it in the car and headed home. Josh helped Kurt bring it upstairs. We probably shouldn't have ordered both the ottoman and chair, but the ottoman came with this particular one so we figured we should go ahead and get it. There really just isn't a ton of room. We'll keep the ottoman off to the side for now and we'll move it more towards the middle of the room once we are really using it. The color looks great with the bedding and it is SO comfy. I can already see many late nights spent half asleep feeding and rocking Baby W...!


{This picture doesn't really do it justice since I took it on my phone. But, you get the picture! I wish you could see the cute Boppy cover that is already for the baby...my friend Anne got it for us and we l.o.v.e it. It's covered in dogs. One looks like Coop and another looks like Olive. Perfect.}

There are TONS of Christmas parties going on right now. We had three two weekends ago and were invited to two this past weekend. We ended up only going to one. Here's a picture we took from the one we went to this weekend...while we didn't dress the part {ugly xmas sweaters}, we still had a good time. I didn't get to participate in the Dizzy Elephant gift exchange....guess I'll have to wait until next year! 


I'm feeling pretty good. Only 6 weeks left {hopefully} AND I only have 15 days of school left before I begin my maternity leave!!! I have my 34 week appointment on Wednesday. We'll see if the doctor still thinks the baby is breech or not. I'm not really sure anymore. I absolutely cannot believe that Christmas Eve is a week from today. I can't wait for school to be over so we can spend time together and celebrate our 10th Christmas together! Enjoy the week. Hopefully I'll be back sometime to share more of what has been going on around here. 

Sunday, December 2

More Nursery Updates!

Okay, this is probably going to be a long post, but I am SO excited to share all of the work we got done this weekend in the baby's room! I'm not going to lie, I have been putting off decorating Baby W's room and really been dreading it. I'm not great at decorating, but I always have these great visions of how I want something to look. Things never really work out how I have envisioned. Last weekend while we were hanging out, I spent quite a bit of time writing down things we needed to do/buy for the baby's room and looking up pictures online of ideas for the room. This week while I was out running errands, I spent a lot of time looking around for things to buy for the room. I have a habit of looking around for decorations but not buying them thinking something else better may come along. I didn't do that this week and I'm so glad I bought the few things I did! 

We had a couple big projects we were working on this weekend.
1. Making/painting bookshelves to hang.
2. Cleaning, organizing, and adding shelves to the closet.
3. Cleaning, folding, and organizing all the baby clothes {and baby gifts we've received}. 

Project #1 - Bookshelves

I found a couple different bookshelf ideas on pinterest that looked fairly easy to make. Kurt and I went to Lowe's on Friday night to buy the wood and paint for the bookshelves. This project was pretty cheap and I'm so glad we attempted it. We probably spent around $25 with all the materials and now we have plenty of room for the baby's books...we actually need more to add! :)

Lowe's cut the wood to the size we wanted for free so we didn't have to do anything but assemble them. Kurt borrowed the nail gun from his dad {and now wants one of his own!} and it made putting the shelves together a breeze. It took us no longer than 10 minutes to put all the shelves together before painting. 


We used three pieces of wood and nailed them into an L shape. Each shelf is 2 feet long and there is plenty of space to put a bunch of books on each one. 


This is what each shelf looked like before we sanded, primed, and painted. Pretty easy. After Kurt stapled them together and helped sand them, he went upstairs to work on the closet while I primed and painted the shelves. {I also managed to do 6 loads of laundry while we were doing all this work!} 

I didn't take any pictures of the bookshelves in the middle of painting because I was on a mission to get them finished as fast as possible...not to mention the paint that was on my hands that I didn't want on my camera! Thank God it was so warm on December 1st or I wouldn't have probably been able to do this project on my own. I think the paint fumes would have been a little much for me if we had to do it inside. Plus it was much easier to not have to clean up a mess inside!  



This picture was taken after one coat of primer and two coats of paint had been applied. Since I was out in the sun, the bookshelves look MUCH more yellow than they do inside and on the wall in the baby's room. I was a bit worried about the color when I was painting yesterday, but I really do love them in the room now that they're up. I'm guessing you're wondering what the yellow W is that is sitting on the cardboard as well. I found a project on pinterest that I did yesterday and I went ahead and quickly painted the W while I was painting the bookshelves. You'll see a picture of that project in a bit...

So here's the finished product...



What do you think? We love them! They were SO easy to make and really inexpensive. We plan to put the chair we bought next to the bookshelves so we can grab a book to read while we're sitting with the baby. Now we just need to buy some more books! 

If you look below the bookshelves, you'll see one of the things I bought this week while I was out and about. I wanted one place to put all the baby toys to keep them somewhat organized and accessible for when the baby is more mobile. I found this grey wicker basket at Home Goods this week for $20! I love how the grey matches the room and is big enough to fit a bunch of toys. Keep your fingers crossed that neither of our four legged children get into the basket and play with some of the toys! :) {We left the room open today while we were gone for 3 or 4 hours and everything was okay.}

Project #2 - Closet  

I didn't take a very good 'before' picture of the closet yesterday before Kurt starting working. I thought I had one, but not really. Here's a picture I took awhile ago before we even painted the room. You can kind of see what the closet looked like before... 


Anyway, the closet had only one shelf. The top of the shelf was FULL of our stuff that we had been throwing up there since we moved in. The half that you can't see in this picture has some of Kurt's clothes and shoes. We had already cleaned out some of the closet when this picture was taken, but I couldn't believe how much stuff we had stored in there when we took everything out yesterday...


Not too long ago, we spent a ton of time cleaning out this room and this is what it looked like yesterday when we took everything out of the closet {and before I was able to put all the baby gifts away...}! You literally couldn't move in the room! Where did we get all this crap?!?

So after we got the closet cleaned out, Kurt moved the one shelf that was in there up a foot or two. If you look closely in this picture, you can see the holes from where this shelf was originally hanging. 


 While we were at Lowe's, we bought another long shelf to add into the closet. We hung one of Kurt's shirts from the top shelf to make sure that he could still use some of the closet before hanging the second shelf. We also had an extra shelf in our garage that Kurt cut in half. The plan was to put two half shelves in the closet on the left side to have more room, but we ended up only hanging one. That way, we have quite a bit of space at the bottom of the closet to store baby things that we don't want out around the house. 


 Here are both sides of the closet. I wish I would have taken a picture before Kurt put the doors back on. Either way, we feel like we have a ton more space/storage and we were actually able to put a lot of our crap back on the top shelf! Kurt can still use the right side for a few of his things that can't fit in our closet and the left side has a bunch of room for baby things. We've put a lot of baby things in the closet that will probably be left out once the baby arrives, but it feels good to have them out of the way for now. Let's see how long we can keep the closet this organized...

Project #3 - Organize

I love organizing things. It makes me feel less stressed out. However, I wish I was better at keeping things organized. I was having a hard time starting this project. If you asked me to organize my clothes, I'd have an easy time doing it because I know how I like my things organized. I've never had to organize baby clothes before so it kinda stressed me out. I want to make sure I have things in places that make sense and are most accessible. I'm probably not making any sense, but it stressed me out. I made myself finally start getting things put away yesterday. Here's what I've decided on so far...

I didn't take a very close up picture, but next to the changing pad you can see another cute basket I bought from Home Goods. It's perfect. It has a little yellow in it and I think it's a perfect size for the changing table. I put some diapers, rash ointment, hand sanitizer, and a few other things we may need on a regular basis when changing Baby W. 


In the top three drawers, I tried to think of things we'd use a lot. In the left drawer, I started putting burp cloths, swaddling blankets, and Boppy pillow covers. In the middle we have lots of extra diapers and wipes. And in the right drawer, I put onesies.  


Underneath those drawers, I started putting outfits. In the left drawer, I put all the sleepers and in the right I started putting outfits. There are a few things that are hanging. We have tons of hangers and space in the closet that we can use when we need it.


What's so great is we have SO many more drawers for other things. I'm so happy we bought both dressers because I know we can use the storage for so many things. So I know things are pretty organized right now, but I'm not sure what I'm going to do once we have more outfits in a variety of sizes. How am I going to keep different size outfits organized...stress. 


While those were our main projects this weekend, I thought I'd show you a couple other things in the room. 

I'm not quite sure this is where all of these things are going to permanently live, but here are a few fun things we've gotten for the room...


From the left to the right:
-That is the W from the picture above with the bookshelves. This week, I bought a wooden W, one piece of scrapbook paper, and a picture frame {$12} from Michaels. I painted the W the same yellow as the bookshelves. When it was dry, I set it on the glass, cut the paper to fit in the frame and put it behind the W, and closed up the frame. It was a quick and cheap project! 
-The owl is something I bought from West Elm. I've been eyeing it and knew it would be a cute addition to the room. 
-Paddington Bear is SO cute. My mom bought that for the baby while they were in London this Fall. We need to keep him high up so Coop and Olive don't eat him. :)
-The frame on the right is from my aunt. That is not a picture of us...yet! It says on the top, "One Lucky Baby, One Happy Family." I can't wait to put a picture of us in it soon! 

Kurt and I are not huge stuffed animal people. However, while we were cleaning out the guest room this fall, we found three that we knew we wanted to keep for Baby W. They are currently waiting in the crib...until they need to find a new place until the baby is older. 


The dog on the left was a gift from Kurt to me one Christmas. He bought it for me because it kinda looks like Coop. The IU bear in the middle is Kurt's from when he was a baby! We absolutely love it and can't wait for our baby to have it. The bear on the right was a present that I bought Kurt when we first started dating. I'm not really sure why I thought it'd be good to buy him a stuffed animal, but Kurt kept that bear in his room all through college. 

On the front of the crib, we have this little sheep hanging. {Thanks Peck!} Not only is the sheep cute, he is a sound maker. Kurt and I sleep with our white noise app {crickets and water to be exact!} so we thought our baby would like some noise, too. 


If you look behind the lamb, you'll see the new bedding! The crib skirt is already on and the two sheets we bought are washed and folded on top of the mattress. I'm waiting to put one of the sheets on until we get a waterproof mattress cover. 

The latest addition to the room is above the crib and I absolutely love it. My friend Lauren lives in San Fran and obviously couldn't come to my shower today. She is so thoughtful and sent Mer some decorations for the shower today. We loved this little banner so much, we decided to hang it above the crib! It's so perfect. 



 I was kinda dreading having to buy more things to fill the wall space above the crib and now I don't have to worry. And, it will always remind me of how much fun I had at my shower today and Lauren! 

 It may not look like we got much done, but it feels like we did SO much yesterday. I'm actually starting to fall in love with this room and absolutely cannot wait to spend time with our baby in the room. We still have some things to do and do have quite a bit of things to find places for {see corner of the room in the next pictures}, but we're getting there! I'd like to also buy a fun mirror to put somewhere in the room. We have a few more projects we'd like to do, too. 



So what do you think? I think I'm ready for a baby to be in this room! :)

Week 31

Week 31


Well I must say, I was pretty productive last Sunday after I finished blogging. I got the first 5 Christmas presents wrapped and under the tree and finished a couple weeks worth of laundry. This week definitely wasn't as crazy as the month before, but we still had quite a bit going on. Only 3 more weeks of school before Winter Break. I. Can't. Wait. 

What's going on with baby: Baby W continues to grow {let's hope not too big!}. He/she is around 16 inches long and over 3 pounds. The baby can turn it's head from side to side, which I can definitely feel at the top of my belly since it's breech....I don't think there is much room up top for a head and shoulders! The baby continues to move around quite a bit, especially when Daddy puts his hand on my belly. 

What's going on with me: All the books/websites say that I could start feeling Braxton Hicks contractions now. I'm not really sure if I have or not, but there are definite times when my belly is harder than others. Some of those times I think it's the baby's head or shoulders I can feel. My back doesn't hurt as much as I expected it to. I've been sleeping pretty well. I usually wake up between 2 & 3 to go to the bathroom and sometimes have a hard time falling back to sleep. While it's hard for me to stay up later than 10ish most nights, I do sleep better the later I go to bed. I typically get a good 4-5 hour stretch of sleep before I'm tossing and turning. The 20+ pounds I've gained have started making my feet really hurt by the end of the day. I try to stay off my feet as much as possible, but that's not really realistic with my job! :) I am starting to notice my feet and hands swelling a bit by the end of the day. Nothing crazy. My rings still fit, but they are a little more difficult to take off than usual. I'm still feeling really pretty great! I do think that working out 2-3 times a week has really helped. My plan is to continue working out until I deliver. It's definitely getting a litter harder to workout and I don't really feel like I've done much when I'm finished. But, it's better than nothing! 

What happened this week:
-Monday after school I had a quick parent conference. After that, I came home. Kurt and I actually had time to make dinner together and enjoy some time just relaxing. 
-Tuesday was another day with meetings after school. After I was finished, I rushed up to Noblesville {thank God we don't live up there because the traffic is terrible!} to pick up the bedding for the baby's crib! I really probably should have gone another day, but I was too excited to wait. After driving for close to 45 minutes to get up to the store, I rushed back to get to 5 Seasons to work out with my mom. I was pretty late and only got in about 30 minutes of working out. When I got home, I helped Kurt pick up the house a bit before Lauren and Tom came over for dinner. Kurt made chili in the morning and I made some cookies when I got home. Both were delicious! Lauren and Tom hung out for a bit and then we watched the IU/North Carolina bball game. It was a pretty late night considering the game didn't start until 9:30!
-Wednesday I had pilates after school. I decided to run a few errands after working out to try and buy some more Christmas presents. I made it to a few stores before I was ready to get home and eat some dinner! I hate how early it gets dark now...it feels so much later than it really is!
-Thursday after school, I went to run some more errands. This time with ideas of things I wanted to buy for the baby's room. It was a really successful trip to a couple stores! {Pictures to come of things I bought for the room...} After shopping, I met my mom to work out. We went to dinner together and went to The Blue Door to do a little shopping. I was pretty tired by the end of the evening from being on my feet a ton all day. I was ready to get home and get in bed after a long day. 
-Friday I went to get a manicure. When I was finished, I met Kurt at Lowe's to pick up some things for our projects we wanted to do in the baby's room. After that, we went to my parent's house and all went out to dinner with them. We finally got home around 9:30. We hung out for a bit before heading to bed. We knew Saturday was going to be a busy day. 
-Saturday, Kurt had to get up early to go pick up a few tools from his parent's house and the head to IU North for his New Dad class! When he left, I got up and watched a few shows before cleaning the house. He got home around noon and we got right to work on all of our projects {bookshelves, closet shelves & reorganizing, laundry, etc}. We worked on things for over 7 hours. I was absolutely exhausted by the end of the day, but felt SO great about all the work we completed. I am absolutely loving how the baby's room is coming together and am so excited to be able to spend time in there with our little one!! Once we finally sat down, we really didn't feel like cooking anything for dinner. We picked up some Chinese food, watched the second half of the IU game, and relaxed for the rest of the night. Of course, I fell asleep on the couch pretty early while Kurt stayed up and watched some Christmas movies without me....there is NO way I could have stayed awake! :) 
-Today was another great day! Mer and Magee hosted a baby shower for me. I'm so thankful for great friends! I had so much fun seeing so many friends I don't get to see very often. When I got home, Kurt and I finished up a few things in the baby's room and I put another load of baby clothes in the washer. I plan to put that all away tonight before heading to bed. 

Our next doctor appointment is Tuesday. I'm guessing it will be quick and painless {although I have to get a shot...ugh} like last time. I know the baby is still breech so we'll probably talk about that some more. We HAVE to get a  pediatrician finalized so I'd like to talk to the dr about that. 

Only 15 more days that I have to get up early before I'm off work for two weeks. I'm SO excited.