Baby William's Room!

William's baby room is finally finished!  It's just crying out for the only thing missing... him!  I can't wait until he completes the room! I never got to do this for my other two boys, so it is really special being able to decorate and really make a place for him.
As you can see, the colors are dark brown and blue mostly.  Martin made that high shelf for all of his books and little keepsakes.  I made the mobile hanging above the crib, which has birds, a cloud, a sunshine, and a hot air balloon with his initial.

The rocker was my surprise gift when I came home from the hospital with our first baby, Elijah nearly six years ago! It's still in great condition!  The crib was Owen's, but he is now sleeping on the bottom bunk of the big boy bunk bed! The navy blue blanket on the rocker was knitted by Linda Bruner, and I just love it! It is so soft and cuddly!

It's all pretty simple, but I love it.  It makes me feel so happy and calm when I am in this room.  Even just seeing the door open a little from the living room, makes me smile.  The shelf next to the crib is mostly for blankets and things that he won't be able to mess up in case he ends up grabbing them later on. The blue basket has rolled up swaddle blankets in it, that I just can't wait to use.  they are the perfect size and made out of a really soft, breathable fabric.

You may not be able to see the air plane on the wall next to the window, but it is really cute.  It's made out of wire and dyed blue and greenish nylon.  I thought it mad ea sweet accent.

The curtains are also hard to see in the pic (sorry), they are sort of the inspiration for the entire room.  My mom made them out of this fabric that I love.  They have the same color of blue as the walls, but in a damask sort of pattern. Brown ribbon loops hold them onto the curtain rod.

This is the framed scrapbook page that I made of his name that you see on the wall above the crib. The brown decorative pieces will be spots to fill in his date of birth, weight, length, and time of birth. And of course I left a spot for a picture!

It's hard to make out the middle name in this picture, but in case you didn't know we have chosen: William Jude for our little guy. (Jude -meaning- Praise- which we thought was perfect)!

I made the jar book ends by painting the metal and adding the painted accent on the glass fronts. the other one is brown. then I filled them both with glass accent beads. I also loved the brown "W" next to it!

This is the changing table (Elijah had been using it for a dresser until a couple weeks ago). I thought it a good idea to place it near the window... ha ha. That blue thing is a hamper, my mom got it for me when Jenny, my sister realized I didn't have one and was planning on throwing his clothes in with the mounds of other laundry I already do. 
And of course, there is his cute little bouncy chair, which I plan on taking all over the house depending on where I need him to be!



That's pretty much the grand tour of the nursery! Hope you all enjoyed it!

His cuddly friends waiting for him! My favorite is the little blue elephant (he's from a collection called "the blue nose friends)!  So cute!

DIY Kid's Dresser!

So, here is the dresser we started with (above), minus the top drawer which I was working on and the drawer pulls that we already removed.  We paid $30 for it from a yard sale, and put an additional $35 in to fixing it up. We sanded, painted, replaced all of the bottom boards on each drawer to make them more sturdy, and as you can see... I had a little fun with the fronts of each of them too!  I used colored paper and Mod Podged each one, then made some accent pieces for some of them, also with paper and Mod Podge! We also filled the holes where the original drawer pulls went and drilled new holes in the center of each so that we could use simple single drawer pulls.

Here is the finished project!  It is going to look so cute in my boys room (which has a slight "rocket theme).  The top drawer, which I should have taken a close up of, has little trucks, planes, boats, and rockets on it, but it is hard to tell.

here is a side view.

An "e" for my oldest son Elijah, this will be his drawer

I used the same paper from the top drawer to make these letters!

4-week Countdown!

In less than a month, there will be a brand new person in our family!  It's hard to believe he's almost here- our baby William! Yesterday I had my 36 week appointment.  We talked about how I want the birth to go, and what to expect.  I feel more than ready for that day.  I'm much more worried about life after his birth than the actual delivery.  The post-delivery care (which yes, I sort of forgot about), and having a newborn again along with two very busy boys... those are the things that seem challenging.  Sometimes I wonder if I'm going to be okay, if I can really handle life with all of these BOYS!

Four weeks will go by quickly, and our lives will change forever.  Owen and Elijah will have a new little brother to love and learn from.  And we will have another son to teach us and stretch us beyond what we thought possible.  Isn't that what children do?  They show you what love really is.  Through nurturing them, we too nurture our souls by growing in patience, compassion, and selflessness.  I am such a different person than I was before having kids, and with each one I change a little more.

This time around it feels different... maybe because I have wanted this baby for so long, and he has been in my heart long before he was ever in my womb.  I can't wait to look into his eyes with the knowing feeling that he is mine and see him finally looking back at me.  We'll be having him at the Midwife clinic where I had Owen, and I'm expecting things to be rather similar.  I love being able to give birth the way it was meant to be... simply, naturally, and beautifully.  I'm lucky, I guess that my body cooperates.  Owen was delivered quickly after only about 5 hours of labor.  Martin got to help deliver him, which was so special, and we are planning to do this with William also. 

With just weeks left, I'm constantly trying to get more and more done.   The summer has been a nice transition period since we haven't had the schedule of school to deal with, but shortly after William's birth school will begin again.  This means I have to get everything ready... school clothes, supplies, organization, etc.  We're almost finished with a dresser for the big boys room.  It's about fifty years old, but now you couldn't tell. We painted the frame off-white, and each drawer is a different color, with boyish accents like a rocket, moon, stars, and the word "imagine."

The baby room is perfect.  I love going in there just to sit.  Sometimes I hold the little heavy-bottomed elephant my mom bought for William and rock in the glider, imagining holding a baby instead. I'm not sure we'll be in there much other than to change diapers, maybe to nurse, but he'll be sleeping in our room for a while, and I see myself nursing, well everywhere!

In the meantime, I am enjoying my other two boys, or should I say three counting Martin? Owen has become such an imaginative chatter box.  He loves to stay in-character throughout the day for whatever it is he is pretending... mostly superheroes, but there is the occasional monster, robot, or animal. Elijah plays along for a while, but wants to do his own thing eventually. They both love building, and thank goodness now Owen can pedal his tricycle, so they ride around together, when I feel like I can make it around the block a few times!

 Martin has been absolutely wonderful throughout this pregnancy.  He gets up early to help me with chores before work, and we spend night together on the couch with icecream, a movie, and usually I get a foot rub. He's nearly finished with the adorable baby hat he's been knitting for William. I can't wait to see it on him!!! I'm going to miss all of these evening we've had when the boys are in bed and it's just us.  But then again, it will be pretty easy to hold and nurse a baby on the couch next to him!

                                                              WHO'S PREGNANT?

And then there were five!!!

Baby Ready

                                               Lots of Kicks happening in here!


Today I feel so full of joy.  I'm actually excited about changing William's itty bitty diapers that I have all lined up in the diaper organizer in his closet.  Six weeks seems like too long to wait for him.  I feel as if I know him already like holding him is only moments away, not weeks.  He had the hiccups last night, and the constant bump-bump of my tummy just made me smile with such joy.  He's a real little person in there doing real things all day long.  It is so amazing! I keep trying to catch him on video moving because someone told me that when I'm not pregnant anymore I will miss watching him in this special way.  Of course every time I turn on the camera, he pretends to be shy and keeps completely still.  He is definitely my boy! Today I finally caught him... for a few seconds my belly bulged and rippled from his movements.

We got the changing table moved into his room today after I cleaned it out and wiped it down.  Elijah had been using it for his dresser, and it also had purple crayon all over the inside which he helped me scrub off today! He hung a toy organizer behind the door.  And I had Elijah help me move the glider chair back in the baby room because I just couldn't wait for Martin to get home to do it.  I also set up a diaper changing station in my bedroom, where he will be sleeping, for those middle of the night changes.

One of the things I decided to do this time around is making a double or triple recipe once a week or so for dinner, and freezing the extras.  Tonight I made chicken and green chile burritos. We ate seven of them for dinner, I froze fifteen individually, and turned the rest into two casserole pans of enchilada style dishes  and popped those in the freezer as well.  I'm planning to do meatloaf this way, and also some snack type things like muffins or breads.

If the heat doesn't kill me, I'll keep on cooking, but it sure is getting tough! We've had a few days in a row now over ninety!  I"m more of a 70-degree type of girl, so it's going to be a long six weeks! Yesterday I couldn't bring myself to turn on the stove until after nine when I boiled an artichoke and ate the whole thing myself while watching a movie.  I also made homemade lemonade... yum! That is always awesome on a hot day/night.  I was actually tempted to sit in the kids little pool with them yesterday.  They have spent every day in some kind of water whether the water park, or sprinklers, or kiddy pool in the backyard.  Today we actually ran out of sunscreen, so I wouldn't let them stay outside until we bought some more!



 Here's the video of William moving... the boys are playing cars in the background, you'll hear them. :)

Predictably Unpredictable

How can I still be surprised at the unpredictability of my life?  Elijah and Owen fell asleep on the couch today around 4pm which never happens... ever.  But can be explained- they were up extremely late last night for fireworks, smores, and sleeping in a tent in the backyard.  This however doesn't mean that they slept in, oh no.  They still came through the screen door very chipper at 6:30am. So, I knew the crash would come, I just didn't know when.

(side note: I wish I could capture my belly on video right now!  William is doing his
sea monster thing, making my belly move in unnatural ways like an alien possessed watermelon)!

Martin came home to a nesting wife, and for once it felt like I could actually get something done because the big boys were still sleeping on the couch! I filled the diaper organizer with the one small package of newborn diapers I bought today (knowing William will most likely only need these his first two days, after which he will move right into the size one diapers because I only have very big babies).  I cut tags off of things and put other things in piles of this and that. I smiled ecstatically at the scrapbook art I made of William's name and added a few greyish-brown bows.

Then, I got hungry... and for some reason there was nothing to eat... again.  Honey went out for pizza... again.  Oops. Nesting wife apparently can't also be nurturing, cooking housewife. He came back with Chicken garlic/ olive and pineapple pizza and cheesy bread!  Bless that man! I contributed a salad.

Of course the very late nap of two boys meant a longer night. They were still full of energy by nine. We took a walk around the neighborhood after dinner, then I left them to wrestle and run with daddy in the front yard while I snuck away for a cool shower. When I got out... They were in their room, daddy asleep in the rocking chair.  This is actually pretty typical.  He often falls asleep before they do if he is in charge of the putting to bed portion of the evening. He pretends otherwise, but it's hard to miss a zonked out dad, and hyper kids enjoying it.

I thought I would get to watch a movie. Hah! Every ten minutes one or both boys came out for some life altering reason... hugs, kisses, water, potty, more hugs, other complaints about sleeping. At this point Martin moved to the couch and fell back asleep, leaving me up and down, pausing my non-kid movie, taking one to the potty, getting the other a drink, opening a window, turning on the "the moon lamp." At 10pm, Owen came out for one last daddy hug and Martin accidentally whacked him in the neck because he didn't notice Owen standing there- which instantly brought on unexpected tears and absolute need of consoling.  Then Owen asked if he could sleep with daddy on the couch.  I gave up... my sleeping  partner, my movie, relax time, what else could I do? After all, I'm pretty tired too.

For some reason I remain open-minded, hopeful, optimistic even about how the days will go.  Maybe tomorrow they'll sleep in. Probably not, but a mom can dream.