Friday, May 29, 2009

Showing You Where We Live

I've decided to join in on the "Show Us Where You Live Friday" home tour going on over at Kelly's Korner Blog, mostly because this week is children's room/nurseries, of which I have two that I am very proud to show off (and already have pictures on my computer). And as you'll see, this is Carter's room as it was originally decorated. It is now a two year old danger zone that honestly doesn't look as good in pictures. But anyway, let's get started.

Both my children used the same nursery furniture because I'm cheap thrifty like that. Actually, it's worked out quite nicely since Carter got moved to a big boy bed right before Olivia was born, and he no longer needed things like a crib and changing table.

But anyway, here's the boy's room, two nights before he was born, aka, the day it was finally finished. I like to plan ahead, obviously.

For Carter's room, I wanted something boyish, but I am more into patterns, colors and textures than I am actual themes like trains or Noah's Ark, for example. Throughout the planning of this nursery, I must have shown Nick at least twenty different fabric samples that I liked, NONE of which he ever agreed to. One day, I found a twin camouflage comforter set at Wal-Mart (Kelly will be so proud), and I suddenly had a vision of how my mom and I could turn it into a fabulous nursery. The second Nick saw the camo comforter, he was in love, so that was that. We (mostly my mom) then created what you see above. [She likes to say that I'm the designer and she's the one that makes it happen. While that's mostly true, she is FANTASTIC at knowing exactly how to make my ideas come to life.]

I bought these two chest of drawers at Ikea, put them side, and Voila! a changing table is born.

I searched for a long time for something cute to occupy this large [blank] wall, but all I could ever find that matched my color/camo theme was military related, and that wasn't really the direction I was headed. Then I came across these letters at JoAnn Fabrics and painted them the same color as the lower half of the wall, and I couldn't be happier with how they turned out. (They're still up in his room actually; perhaps I think by leaving the letters up that he WILL stay little forever.)

Here's a better picture of the bedding that my mom made. We took the original camo twin comforter, cut out the size of a toddler quilt and then lined/bordered it with off-white chenille. The window treatment was also a standard valance that we bordered with chenille to make it say "baby" instead of "army fatigue". We used the remnants from the comfortor to make the bumper pads, a basket liner and the lampshade you see in the pic below.

(Wish I had turned off the tv for the next picture, but oh well. Life goes on.) I had grand plans of watching tv late at night while I was nursing baby, but as it turned out, I got pretty quick at nursing him while half asleep and running back to bed as soon as I was finished. I also love the "CaRteR" letters/sign that my dear friend Jen Pendell made for me. It matched the room PERFECTLY.

And that's it for the boy.

****************************************************************

Next up is Livvy-Lou's room.

The curtain fabric was the inspiration for this darling dwelling. Since this was our baby girl, I'll be honest, Nick didn't have much say in the fabric choices. I fell in love with the polka dot fabric the second I saw it at Hancock Fabrics and knew it would be the base for Olivia's room. I then found the stripe fabric to coordinate and LOVE how it all came together.

Once again, I told my mom what it looked like in my mind and she made it happen. And I'm sure she'd be the first to tell you that making nursery bedding is a whole lot easier the second time around. She did a great job adding the stripe to the bumper pads and making the bedskirt completely out of stripes which looks fabulous still even now that the crib mattress is lowered.

And the framed name? Pure genius, I think. The frame was purchased (backless) from Hobby Lobby for about $20 1/2 price. I bought a foam board, covered it with fabric, and adhered the letters with double stick tape. This is probably my most favorite thing in the room.

Covering that lampshade wasn't easy, but once we added the hot pink, feather-like trim, the shabby chic-ness (not a word, I know) impressed even me.
My friend, Jen, the same one that made the sign for Carter's room, also made one for Olivia, perfect colors and just the right amount of frill, if you asked me, so it found a home right above her bookshelf.

And here we have the same Ikea chests-turned-changing-table, transitioned seamlessly into the girl's room.

Well folks, that's how we do nurseries deep in the heart of Texas (or in our household, at least). Thanks for stoppin by!

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Tagged... Crazy Eights

8 Things I look forward to:
1. Two potty trained children & no more diapers... ever
2. Evenings at home with no housework to be done
3. Texas Rangers games, even if only on TV
4. Friends having babies, lots of them!
5. Getting my nails done every couple of weeks, so relaxing
6. Sundays
7. Date nights
8. Smaller jeans (okay, maybe not really the smaller jeans, but the smaller waist to go with them)

8 Things I did yesterday:
1. Checked facebook, multiple times I'm sure.
2. Shared my in-depth of knowledge of sporting goods with others. aka, I went to work.
3. Fixed pork chops, mashed potatoes, beans and cornbread for dinner
4. Went through the mail... booooo!
5. Opted out of pre-screened credit offers for the next five years! Hooray!
6. Blogged to my expansive* list of anxious followers
7. Had an hour long phone conversation with my college roomie & dear, sweet, very pregnant friend, Haley
8. Fell asleep as the Rangers were loosing in the bottom of the ninth; I couldn't hang on any longer

*Yes, I think five followers classifies as expansive, thankyouverymuch.

8 Things I wish I could do:
1. Wear open toed shoes to work
2. Sing (stole it from Andrea, but it's true)
3. Clean my entire house in 20 minutes without breaking a sweat
4. Be creative on my own accord without stealing borrowing ideas from others
5. Pull off some of the latest fashion trends without looking like an idiot
6. Shop for myself, guilt-free
7. Make/tempt/bribe Carter into eating (and enjoying) every food I fix
8. FLY! (okay so not really, but I thought it sounded cool)

8 Shows I watch:
1. Law & Order
2. Law & Order: SVU
3. The Big Bang Theory
4. How I Met Your Mother
5. Jon & Kate plus 8 (was practically in tears on Sunday night)
6. The Amazing Race
7. American Idol - always, every season
8. The Hills & The City (sad, but true. Oh and I lumped them together because they're practically the same show to me still.)

8 People I tag:
1. J-Mac Hanging it up over at The Mills Family Blog
2. My newly engaged friend living the Life of Lorin
3. Shelly B and her Little Green Frog and Turtle
4. Gracie, the centerpiece of The Willis Crew from Gracie's Perspective
5. Turner's new mommy, one half of Justin and Angela
6. Jessica, currently cooking another little one for the Grace Family
7. The coach's wife, MVP of Team Reed
8. Tabes! the glue that holds together The Crawford Family
(And Haley: I planned on luring you into telling us about your Day to Day... but decided against it since I know how much you hate these things. If you're in the mood, however, you can consider this a tag and answer it anyway!)

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Blogger Question

I think I already know the answer to this question, but I figured I'd ask anyway just in case my more experienced Blogger friends had a different answer. Some friends' blogs are private, which I completely understand. I have no problems viewing their blogs, but they don't show up in my dashboard, obviously because they're private. So my question: is there any other way to know when they've posted a new blog, other than simply checking their blog sporadically? Thanks!

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Fun at Nana & Jajas

We enjoyed a great holiday - aka weekday off from work - at Nick's parents' house, or as they are more affectionately known to the kiddos, Nana & Jaja. There was swimming, cooking out, fishing, 4 wheeler rides, lots of dog "walking" and even a little down time in there somewhere. Apparently, I only got out the camera during the poolside fun, so for your viewing pleasure, I present what I like to call, "The Art of a Good Jump". (This boy has no fear of the water.)


Olivia wasn't too sure what to think of the pool, even though her feet were the only part of her body that adorned the somewhat cool water. She mostly hung poolside with Nana.

Lucky Number 7

Nick and I celebrated seven years of marriage, May 17th, 2009.

It seems like FOREVER ago that we were married, but at the same time, if you'll allow me to be cliché, it seems as though it was only yesterday. We've experienced many things in the past seven years (college graduation, jobs in the real world, purchase of our first home and the birth of two precious children), yet I know there is still so much more to experience in the coming years. Here's a picture of us during our first dance as Mr. & Mrs.


For our anniversary, I wanted to do something semi-special, perhaps a nice dinner out that didn't include a drive-thru or the option to super size, and maybe something fun afterwards. So I asked Nick to plan it. His first idea was leaving work early and a night at the Rangers Game. While I'm sure most of you females reading my blog are rolling your eyes at the thought of having to sit through a sporting event on your anniversary and equating that to as much fun as cutting your toenails or cleaning your toilets, the idea is ACTUALLY something I enjoy very much. Normally. However, like I said before, I wanted to do something a little out of the ordinary, so I pushed him to come up with something else. He tried hard researching nice restaurants and getting creative with locations and even made reservations at one place. He was trying so hard, bless his heart, but nothing was coming together like he wanted. In the meantime, I decided that I really did want to go to the game and just hang out with him in one of our most favorite environments (if you really know me, you know how much I love baseball and how much more I love the Texas Rangers, so I'm really not being sarcastic here). We left work early, leasurely strolled through the ballpark, bought some new fan merchandise and enjoyed the game from our fantastic seats in my favorite location. The weather was awesome and the Rangers held on for a victory in the top of the ninth. The game concluded with fireworks, and really, I mean it when I say, it was the perfect date for this simple girl. Here's a picture of us at the game, taken 7 years after the one above:

(You might notice that Nick's nose is a little red here. Poor thing came down with some kind of cold/hacking cough/thought he was dying illness the day before, but he wouldn't let me postpone our date. I drugged him up real well right before the game, and until the drugs wore off in the eighth inning, he was great!)

So to my husband of seven years, thank you for a great date night, and more importantly, thank you for helping me strive daily to be a better wife and mother for you and your children. I love you!

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

A little bit of advice

If you were thinking about using your 2 1/2 year old to entertain your 9 month old while you cleaned up after dinner, do not, I repeat: DO NOT leave the full container of Gerber fruit puffs on the table where said 2 1/2 year old can reach them, remove the lid and share them with his sister.



Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Thankful to be Mommy


Look at these lovely flowers that were waiting for me on the counter when I walked into the kitchen on Sunday morning. Happy Mother's Day indeed! "Dasies are such a happy flower." (Haley will get the reference.)

Below, you can see the even more lovely vase that Nick and Carter crafted for me one night last week.

And I was so excited about the item hanging from one of the flower stems that I snatched it up before taking a picture of all the items together, so I took this photo of it with my phone later. I love my birthstone, and (thankfully) Nick knows it too.


The rest of the day was a little crazy because of the mother's day gift my sister and I crafted for our mother, but that's whole other post. I was glad to be able to spend my evening at home on the couch, magazines in hand, while Nick bathed both children and put them to bed before cooking dinner. (And by cooking, I mean calling Chili's To Go, picking up dinner and bringing me my delicious chicken sandwich in my very own styrofoam container. Yeah, we're fancy.) We finished the evening up with the season finale of Amazing Race and I didn't feel bad for taking the night off and not even touching the 3 loads of clean laundry that are currently waiting to be folded and put away.

In all seriousness though, I am truly thankful for the blessing of being able to call myself a mother. I thank God every day for my children and my husband and do not for one minute take any of it for granted. Here's to celebrating being a mother!

Friday, May 8, 2009

9 Months!

Nine months ago today I was in the local hospital recovering from my second c-section that brought our little princess into this world and changed our family from a party of three to a party of four. We had a visit with our favorite pediatrician this morning, and I'm happy to report that Miss Thang is doing quite well. She weighed in at a healthy 21.3 lbs, 29" long, and whatever head size it is that puts you in the 97th percentile for head circumference (which is 29" I think; wait, does that mean that her body is as long as her head is wide? Sheesh!). I snapped this shot of her this morning in the waiting room, because I am a terrible mother and forgot to take one yesterday on her 3/4 year birthday. So just what exactly are you doing these days, Livvy-girl?

  • You've recently learned how to crawl and you've taken off all over the house. The only way we can keep tabs on you is hearing your little hands slap the tile as you peruse the scenery of our abode.

  • You're pulling up on anything and everything that will be still for a few seconds, including your brother, Carter and your furry brothers, Sam & Cisco.

  • Speaking of which, you've also recently become intrigued by the dog feeder/dog food in the pantry which reminds us that we'll have to keep that door shut 24/7 until you learn your boundaries. You haven't consumed any Pedigree yet, but mommy knows it's only a matter of time.

  • You love many foods your brother would never touch, including green beans. You're so over the pureed baby food stage and enjoy feeding yourself even if that requires a bath after each meal.

  • You hate laying on your back (unless it's in your crib with a bottle at bedtime). All other times, you flip over before we can stop you and on more than one occasion, we've been forced to get you dressed while on your stomach or sitting on your knees. Not an easy feat if you ask me.

  • You squeal to show your likes & dislikes, which was cute at first. But now I think you've learned that it's an excellent way to get the attention of a big person. The louder the better.

  • And last, but certainly not least, you bring joy into our lives on a daily basis. We knew what it was like to love a son, and you're showing us how much fun it is to love a daughter with a strong, spunky personality.

Monday, May 4, 2009

Have you ever...

...seen a daddy looking so happy to be at home with a sick baby?




He sent me this text a little while ago and said, "Apparently O can only sleep on my shoulder." Yeah that OR apparently she's most at peace snuggled up with her pops. Oh heavens for little girls and their daddy's... the term "wrapped around her finger" doesn't even begin to describe this relationship.