Full Term

We are officially full term!

Little girl: consider this your eviction notice! It's been by far my most enjoyable pregnancy but I'm ready to meet you. Sleep on my stomach and not pee every 10 minutes!

I'm still able to do pretty much everything I need to and have gotten all of the baby stuff out, organized and washed. Her diaper bag is ready to go to the hospital, my bag is planned out, car seat ready and big sisters are over not fitting on my lap any more.

My Parents came two weeks ago and painted the nursery. They've helped with all dozen of their grandchildren's nurseries and I think it's so sweet. I offered to do the trim work along the ceiling and they had none of it, so 18 foot ceilings and all, they painted the whole room and even let Addiston help a bit.

she was pretty proud!!

I'll post more pictures when we finish it (hopefully next week) But the crib is now re-assembled and important things in place so if she comes (which she's welcome to) We're ready.

Jared also remodeled the laundry room for me for a Valentines present.  We've done homemade presents for each other on valentines our whole relationship. When we were in college and had first started dating we both only worked part time and agreed we'd rather spend the money on a nice meal and make gifts than eat in the school cafeteria and buy gifts. That still rings true for us, so the tradition continues. 

Before:

After:

More functional, appealing and a fun automatic light that turns on when you walk in the room! 

Yay for capable husbands! 

We also had our last big family outing before the baby comes, on Valentines day. Disney Live came to Nashville and Jared was able to get a great deal on tickets so we took the girls, who loved every minute.

They dressed up, swung glow stick wands around the whole show and enjoyed cheesy fries during intermission. 

We had "spring break" mid winter from our homeschool group last week which I didn't realize but I really needed. It gave me a chance to focus on some stuff around the house and get all the little things in order for me to feel ready to have the baby. We also had a cleaning crew start last week which makes nesting A LOT easier. :) They'll come once a month and deep clean the whole house for at least a year. We'll reassess from there to see what life with three kids is like. It was perfect timing though because we hosted a baby shower for my friend Kari saturday (she's due a month after me) and it was so nice to not have to have half the party prep done!  

This week is back to life as normal, school, playdates, meetings, and then a few fun things this weekend for my birthday, but more than anything it's a waiting game. I'm trying to be the calm pregnant lady who is cool with the kid staying in until I'm 42 weeks and miserable she's finally ready to come out but lets face facts: I have a 3 & 5 year old asking every day if she's ready to come out, I'm short and she's pretty much out of room and I've commenced all the old wives tales of walking, drinking special tea, eating spicy foods and hanging out on my yoga ball to try to help the process along! We're ready for you little one. 

Are you kidding me??? A house update!

ok so, concerning the house, the last two weeks have been like one big long episode of punk'd.

Seriously I'm waiting for Ashton Kutcher to pop out from behind my fridge with a camera crew and tell me it was all in good fun.

First of all I want to preface this by saying I love our veterans, I'm beyond proud to be an American and come from a long line of Military men.

That being said the VA loan process is a joke and has made my life a nightmare recently.

Our buyer is purchasing our home through a VA loan. That means we pay his closing, the government pays some fees and that there are some pretty strict guidelines the house has to meet for him to be allowed to buy it.

Our house is 20. We've taken care of it but it is NOT brand new. We received a list last friday of things that had to be accomplished by today in order for the VA to approve him getting the money. Jared is a very capable guy. He's built me some furniture and can repair just about anything that breaks but it was beyond the realm of physical possibility for him to do everything that needed done. So we scrambled to find a handyman to help which we did by the skin of our teeth.

Just some of the examples of what needed done: Repair/replace and paint all wooden window, door, and threshold trim that has weathering. Re-caulk around all window and door frames. Replace window screens. Pressure wash siding, scrub eves and soffits (bottom side of gutters), caulk wood seems and paint. Add splash guards to all downspouts. Repair any drywall settlement cracks inside the house (we've had two contractors come out to tell us all the minor drywall cracks in our home are cosmetic)-we had to repair them anyway. Re build back steps, stain to match deck. Add handrail going downstairs. Replace 1 cracked time in downstairs bath. Replace perfectly good electrical outlets with new ones. And this is not even all of it.

We spent all weekend neglecting our kids, paying people to help and last night asked the appraiser to come early in case there was anything that popped up so we could fix it before this morning. By the sheer grace of God we passed and finally were able to take a breather. Before diving head first into packing the rest of our house.

I spent the day running stuff to Goodwill, packing the final cookware and toiletry items in preparation to close on the new house in the morning when I get a call from our amazing realtor.

Mind you, we've had a buyer back out. A cracked foundation, a timeline put on our house we're purchasing making us accept a lower offer, a ridiculous list of house fixes and as I'm taping shut the box with our alarm clocks, my sound machine, and the books that sit on our nightstands our agent tells me our buyer had a last minute credit ding and isn't eligible to close tomorrow. He says it's a mistake but mistake or not we are on hold until the issue gets resolved.

We're exhausted, our poor girls want their toys out of boxes and don't understand why we have to wait longer. And I want my kitchen back, to cook on more than one skillet and to be off of the crazy real estate carousel.

Addiston's big girl room

Well as many of you probably noticed and as my husband pointed out we took all most of Addiston's stuff to make Isabella's room. He was left feeling pretty guilty about the whole situation, where as I was excited to turn her room into a big girl room that I knew she would love.

It didn't happen in one fair swoop as I'd hoped it would, but isn't that how life goes? We plan for something, make preparations and then everything gets thrown all out of kilter?!? With the nursery being delayed in it's completion the nesting crazy mom-to-be in me wanted to get everything done I could. First things first we got rid of the crib, Addiston was so ready to be in a real bed and it really has made our lives a lot better (for those interested-NO she still doesn't sleep from the time we put her down till morning, she usually gets up at least once during the night but will simply come in our room to say "hi" and then Jared walks her back to bed-where she stays till sunrise, upon which she climbs into bed with us, since her room faces east and ours is completely blacked out!) At first we just threw a mattress on the floor and let her get used to the concept before we hoisted her 3 feet off the ground.



She is sleeping in my first "big girl bed" a day bed that my sister Heather and I shared at my dad's house and the bed that I slept in until the night before my wedding. My parents offered to upgrade my bed when I was in high school but I love that bed, and I love that Addiston loves it too. It did have it's fair share of dings and paint chips from being moved three or four times so I touched up the white parts and those bronze parts on the posts used to be brass, so it has had a minor facelift!

The second thing to go was her dresser, I was anxious to start washing baby clothes that had been in storage for nearly two years while I still had energy and could carry and laundry basket up and down stairs. I needed a place to put all these clean clothes so one afternoon we pulled the ol' switch-er-oo.
This dresser is low and Addiston loves that she the top, and see in all the drawers. We found it online and I refinished it to match her room.



Jared's parents got Addiston this sweet rocking chair for her 2nd Birthday. She loved to sit in the glider rocker with me and read and I knew that was going to be her biggest adjustment at having her room redone. Luckily she is in love with this little "addy sized" chair and I find her sitting in it several times a day reading to her dolls.

The rest of the room took some careful matching of shades of pink, Addiston's room was very carefully painted to match the nursery bedding and I didn't want to change it or move her to a new room and while I love the shades of pink in there, they are more of a dusty rose and peony pink as opposed to the bubble gum-hot pink that is so easy to find in little girl decor.



She loves her new room and hasn't once gone into Isabella's room and said or even eluded to the fact that just about everything in there used to be hers. We've worked really hard to try and squash the m-i-n-e word that she picked up from her cousins. I don't know if her easing going-ness will change once there is actually a baby sister here using all of the furniture but for now we're happy, and so is she!

Oh and she got a new chandelier too...gotta love the vaulted ceilings that let me do frilly stuff to my girls rooms!

Isabella's Nursery

So In just a few short weeks our sweet little one will be joining us and with the light at the end of the tunnel is growing brighter and brighter the type A side of me has been getting more and more stressed at her room not being complete.

I know she won't sleep in there for a good 6-8 weeks and that she wouldn't know the difference if it were still bright orange with flecks of army green showing through but I'll know and thats apparently good enough for Jared! :) (or maybe it was the to-do lists that kept popping up all over the house!) Either way it's done and I love it!

My dad-who painted Addiston's room, said that he would come down and paint Isabella's room as part of my birthday present, he's a pro and can do a better job than Jared or I and in half the time.  I was thrilled to have him and Jared was thrilled to get out of painting. The week before he was scheduled to come my mom broke her ankle so his trip got delayed...8 weeks. A few of my sweet friends offered to come paint the room for him since they know how I can be, but I declined and waited for my dad to come down.

He and my grandmother came down the week before Addiston's Birthday and not only did he paint a formerly bright orange room a beautiful shade of champaign but he painted it again when I decided that the color I had originally chosen was just a hint too light! (Yes sometimes pregnancy does make you irrational!) Thanks Dad!

We are using the same crib and bedding for Isabella as we did for Addiston, so it looks similar but I think it's just different enough. Jared has been feeling a little guilty about "stealing" all of Addiston's nice stuff but she has gotten new "big girl" furniture-which will be shown at a later date!

Incase you don't remember here was Addiston's nursery


Here is Isabella's









Where I'm told Addiston will read to her baby sister!

I got a lot of my idea's for the room on Pinterest.

Pink ceiling!

tree/shelf

When we first saw our house, we both said that this would be the first room that was re-done, it was a boys room, painted bright orange (and only one coat) so the previous two colors shown through. ICK! Well as it turns out it has been our second to last room on the remodel list, only leaving the master bath-which we won't be touching for a while! I know we are both relieved that Isabella's room is done. Now all that's missing is the baby girl to go in it!

Unextreme makeover: Playroom edition

If you give a mouse a cookie, he might ask for a glass of milk.

Likewise, If you give a girl a trip to Ikea and a paintbrush, she might redo her a room. Then she might be inspired. Like she might feel so fantastic with accomplishing something-with turning a space into something that breathes happiness-that she wants to keep going.




And with no further ado I give you the playroom

Jared's old bed w/ my old bedding

toy wall


did I mention the entire room is a chalkboard? thanks martha Stewart!



When I was young-like really young, can't-quite-master-the-shoe-laces-thing young I used to stay up way past my bedtime and watch a design show-"you're home" with my mom. It was way out of my repertoire of the brady bunch and disney channel flicks but I liked hanging out with my parents-still do! Anyway the host of this show waskitty bartholomew and she taught me how to decopaughe and Jared is amazed by it and well a decade or so later that late night design show gave my kids playroom a lil more pazaz.


and mom's craft room tucked inside a closet!


I like to mess up a room just to clean one. I rob Peter to pay Paul, dumping piles from Addy's room to the kitchen, from the kitchen to our room, from our room to the spare room, until the spare room serves as the audition tape for Hoarders. But what happens in the end is that I'm so excited about what I accomplished-about all the rooms that look new and refreshed, homey and inviting, that I'm inspired to clean that last room, those remaining piles. I love new projects.

When I was pregnant, I poured all of myself into the nursery. When it was finished, I'd spend my evenings sitting on a chair in her room taking it all in. Sometimes I'd cry because I couldn't believe it was real. The crib would hold a baby--my baby. There's something special about the space you create for your kids. This one was especially meaningful because now that I know her-what she likes, how she thinks, what turns the corners of her mouth into her sweet smile-it was so much fun to create ideas that would capture who she is.

So if you give a mouse a cookie, he might ask for a glass of milk. and if you give a girl a paint brush she may just not stop at the walls!

Dad...Dad?

Around 6am every morning the sun slowly reveals a sliver of it's golden glory atop the house across the street from us. It's beautiful if you're up to see it, framing the house in a very touched by an angle kinda way. It starts slowly illuminating the street and then the yard glistening with dew from the night before, eventually it rises to above the towering trees behind their house and like magic a baby begins to cry.

You see Addiston's room however beautiful and magical a little girl room it is, faces east and has a massive arch window, my girl is cursed with my light sleep and wakes with the sun every morning. Jared usually goes and gets her and she cuddles with her mama in the big bed for another hour or two before she starts to smack me on the side of the head (I'm pretty sure that's 13 month old for gentle) then as soon as I open my eyes I hear "hi" I can't help but smile and kiss the top of her crazy bed head. She pops up like a muskrat and looks from side to side, straining her neck to see into the darkened bathroom then pointing to the closed closet door, behind pacifier she declares in a questioning tone, "dad...dad?"

The last three weeks or so Jared has been going into work a little earlier. Addiston's schedule is a little better. When the sun wake's her he very slowly starts to get ready for work and usually by the time Addy gets up he's gone. I attempt to explain that he's at work and he'll be home later to which she points to my phone and says, "dad...dad?" so we call the daddy. You can hear the smile in his voice as he greats his girls giving us the report of his day so far then maintaining a one sided conversation with his daughter as she presses buttons on the phone. Eventually she always hangs up on him on accident and we go about our morning routine.


I've been boiling over with house idea's and projects lately. Pintrest is causing me to loose more sleep than I'd like to admit. The toy room is making slow progress. Yesterday I refinished two dressers for our bedroom and I've been re-organizing little odd spots around the house. Addiston is amused by me sorting papers and scrambling around. Sometimes she hops in on the action, but just like her dad she prefers to sit back and take it all in.


While I thrive on holiday adrenaline and birthday party planning sessions, new projects and crafts, it's the in-between that is truly worthy of celebration. Right now I miss my family, the little things, watching my sister's kids run around half naked after bath time, watching my nephew's latest tricks, being able to sit down and play cards with my grandma. There's something comforting about being able to just show up unannounced, having people pop in on you, having people love your kid like their kid. So to make up for not having family, live around the corner we improvise, with sweet older ladies from church who love on my girl and college friends who play peek-a-boo on command.

As much as we love our friends, sometimes it's just not the same. We mask the distance with phone calls and probably put way to many miles on the new car. Usually I talk to my dad about every day but he's been M.I.A for the last few days. So look dad the baby gate's up!


Well it's late, I've been chipping away at the bag of pistacios placed strategically next to me by my husband waiting to go to bed and in less time than I'd like I'll hear "dad...dad?"

the in-between

This morning was my repeat blood glucose test. I was suppose to have one sooner than now but somewhere along the line it fell through the cracks. It was less than thrilling to say the least, but necessary so, eh, it happened. I don't do well with needles and had to go it alone so that someone could stay with the babe, so there were watery eyes and lots of deep breathing. My only hope is that this doesn't come back into my life.


Lately it seems like every time I turn around I am slapped in the face with something to be thankful for. Like when I had to ask a friend to watch Addiston last minute and, even though she is not a morning person, she acted like it was no big deal. Or that yesterday we had a group of friends over for no apparent reason and our home was bursting with love, laughter, and slight hint competitiveness, which in my opinion is the perfect combination. I can't even begin to describe how grateful I am that that Addy is almost six months old, and perfectly healthy. We have been blessed and with the reminders flashing in my eyes like vegas lights I feel like I need to pay it forward in some way, and I think I may have an opportunity to do so coming up. The associate pastor at our church has asked me to speak at a rally in early february and while I'm excited and hopeful that my story can reach others I am shakin' in my boots about it, and I am in no way scared of public speaking, so I'm taking it as a sign that something in me realizes that this is big and I need to be prepared.

It's the in between times that get ya, the ones that really have no glitz or glamor, the normal days that so many of us forget to realize are a miracle in and of themselves. This weekend was wonderful, the perfect balance of running about and relaxation. Having people over to try new food, deepen our friendships and then an in-prompt-to afternoon of video games, deep conversation, and appples to apples topped off with frozen pizza.


Saturday morning Jared bought an antique grandfather clock at an estate sale, and I'm pretty excited. It looks great in our table-less dinning room. :) We're still filling this house, but we did cross another room off the the to-do list that virtually came along with the house. The Foyer. It's big and open and has some killer angles!

One of our cats made sure the ladder was safe for us! 15 feet up, no fear!
For some reason the only before picture I have is awful, I'm not sure I even meant to take this picture, but you get an idea of the bland wall color, and 80's drapery!

but now It's much better!


well, except for that stellar brass fixture, which we realize needs to be replaced, no worries.


This afternoon I spent a little time in the kitchen accompanied by my little sous chef whose favorite kitchen utensil is obviously my spatula.


Carpe Diem.

The first night

Oh welcome back routine! My girl and I both thrive in the daily routine we have settled into and for the past week or so it has been missing from our lives.


Weekend before last we said sianara to the daddy and took our first girls only road trip (I'm sure their will be many more to come!) we set out to Grandma and Grandpa's house in Cincinnati. My parents along with myself, and Jared were all slightly worried about us two traveling the five hours each way by ourselves but we did great! She slept almost the whole way and there was barely any traffic!

We spent the first night there hanging out with Aunt Heather who is a pro with the babies and then on Saturday Great grandma came out to see her namesake. And Sunday we attended her cousin Elaina's first Birthday party where she slept most of the time!

3 year old in a 3-legged-race (don't know if it's a good idea but it was entertaining)

Meeting uncle Jeremy for the first time (sorry bout the blurriness manual focus was on)

Uncle Tim feeding her a bottle!

Last weekend we (all 3 of us) ventured the 8 hour car ride to Daddy's home! Her first time there. As always the entire weekend was laid back and filled with rich amazing food and family! My mother-in-law can cook! Saturday they had a baby shower to honor the little one and she was introduced to her amazing family up north!


This room, this perfect little girl room, full of pink and prayers for this little one. A room that we spent hours painting every little detail and then a few more hours re-painting the parts we messed up.

This perfect room with the furniture we deliberated over, matched fabrics and paint chips to. The perfect bed that she can grow up in and the mobile I spent days making. The chandelier that was searched for high and low on the internet and hung with care by a daddy precariously posed atop a 10 foot ladder.

This room that last week her daddy pointed out we rarely used except for a few diaper and wardrobe changes a day.

Well last night she got to be a part of that room, after a few nights of being back in her house and readjusting to her normal routine the daddy decided that last night would be a good time for her to sleep in her own room for the first time! I reluctantly agreed-knowing it was time but still not wanting her to be out of my sight!

She did great, (slept till 5am, ate, then went back down till 8.)

and I only shed a few tears! I hate how fast it's all going, sometimes I get frustrated when she wants to be held constantly or when she is fussy for no apparent reason. But just for a split second, then I remind myself that a year from now she'll be squirming to be out of my arms and I won't get to snuggle her whenever I want because she'll be on the move. So for now I enjoy her littleness, her dependency and the fact that before she was born and I realized how big a waste of money it was I spent $20 on a onesie!

Pieces of childhood

As we put the finishing touches on the nursery, things are seeming more real. As if this watermelon growing on my front side isn't evidence enough, I daily get reminders that soon I will be the parent, the provider, the healer of ouchies, the responsible one. Sometimes it's scary and I can hardly breathe thinking about it. Most of the time it's sheer joy at the anticipation of meeting our little miracle and watching her grow.

Well, today everything just sort of shifted into place. Ya see there's this shelf. It's really not important at all, it wasn't made by a family member like some of my husbands furniture, it isn't the finest quality, it isn't even that unique. It is a plain wood shelf that was purchased and Minges Pumpkin Festival when I was a kid.

The Minges Pumpkin festival is a annual thing in my home town that I have missed only once since I was able to remember. It's not flashy or that big, it's important to my family but to the rest of the world it's just another fall festival. There are crafts for kids, a ton of fair style food (meaning very tasty unhealthyness) and tents full of hand made crafts and home goods, everything from jams and candles to furniture...like my shelf.

According to my mother, I needed a shelf in my room. I didn't know why, I didn't ask questions, she said I needed it and we were at the Pumpkin festival and she bought one. It was naked wood, a light wood if I remember right, those of you more knowledgeable about such things may be able to identify it, but really it's irrelevant!

We painted it green, a light airy green, sort of like the color of a banana before it turns yellow, the faded green that's got hints of white in it, not the harsh green of a banana that needs another day before it's eaten. My room was multi-colored at the time, white with slashes of color all over the walls, and my mom felt that green was the best color, so green it was painted. I kept tea pots shaped like elephants on it for years. I would hide candy in them because my older brothers (both of whom have an insatiable sweet tooth) would raid my room for goodies when I wasn't home because they knew I hoarded them. They never found that particular hiding spot, those elephant tea-pots. They were the best!

When I entered junior high we moved. My room in the new house was yellow with white accents and I got to choose what color to paint the shelf this time, apparently I was old enough for my parents to trust not to pick a completely putrid color. Ha, little did they know. It got painted bright pink! I'm talking almost neon, 80's leg warmer pink! Through junior high, high school, and college it kept many things, from cheerleading memorabilia, to prom photos and pictures drawn my my nieces and nephews. When Jared and I got married the shelf was hung in the spare bedroom/office. It remained pink but housed a model car, a diploma, and a plant. It was a grown-up's shelf, collecting dust and all, but it was still bright pink :)

Well this week I decided that Addiston's room needs a shelf. (yeah, yeah I'm a little like my mother) I have no use in our new house for my pink childhood shelf, it doesn't match any of the spare bedroom's and I think Jared frankly would rather see it burned than hang it in the den, so today I found myself standing in the garage painting it brown. It's the perfect brown, I promise, it was color-matched by some high tech machine at Home Depot so that it would perfectly match the color brown in our little one's bedding. And as I stood there painting the shelf, remembering where it hung in my different bedrooms growing up, what items were deemed important enough to have a place of honor where I could barely reach, it hit me, this indescribable feeling and reality all wrapped up into one.

I'm the mom.