The Nursery: Part III

After clearing out the room entirely, we got to painting. We spent many hours in Home Depot deciding on colors. We brought home piles of swatches and slowly narrowed it down. Ben had always wanted a really bright green color. I liked the color but I was just worried it would look to boy-y (yes, that's a word. :D) if we were having a girl. (At this point, we didn't know what we were having). I finally decided that green would be cool. It is a gender neutral color and we were going to have purple accents that would make it even more neutral. I also told him I would add some bright pink if it was a girl. Here we are painting the room:



I wore a mask just in case.


After the room was painted, we ordered our monster decals. We got them from etsy.com from a shop called Stephen Edward Graphics. He had nine different monster decals. We got to choose the two colors that we wanted for each decal. We were very pleased with the result.

The decals are sticky on one side. We peeled the back of the paper off the decal and stuck the graphic to the wall. Next, we pulled the top piece of paper off the monster and it stayed stuck to the wall. It was surprisingly easy and we really didn't have much trouble with it.



This was the first one we did. We were so surprised by the vividness of the colors! They really stand out and look great against the green walls.


Ben putting up another decal:



I told him to pose like the monster. The resemblance is scary.

With horns:

Me and my favorite decal:

Before we put up the decals, we taped areas in the room where we wanted the shelves and the crib. That way we had the room mapped out before we did anything and we could see the best places to put monsters.
Check out our monster splat mirror!

See our cute dresser?

We found some sheer curtains at Ikea. We decided to take the doors off the closet and put up curtains instead. I really hated the closet doors because I could never get them to open right. They were also bulkier and since the room is pretty small, we wanted to be able to get in the closet easier. We didn't realize they were this sheer so we're going to get a few more to put up. I told you I would add pink if it's a girl!

We painted the outlets and vents purple to add a little splash of color to the room. Here I am touching up the outlet.

We also bought some white shelves and painted them purple. This is Ben measuring for the precise location.

Here are the shelves with our original monster inspiration. We found these metal bobblehead characters at Target right after Halloween.

Finally, our last project was the crib. They delivered it on a Tuesday afternoon and we put it together Wednesday after work. After a few restarts due to poorly written directions (!) we finally got the crib together.

Studying the directions...

I did it!

and with my allen wrench!

The finished crib and trundle!

Some shots of our finished room. You can see the purple window curtains in this shot. They match the outlets and really add a cool pop of color to the room.

The room is too small to get a good shot of the whole thing. I had to stand in different corners and just take pictures of the different walls. I realized while posting this that I don't have any shots of our armoire. We also need to add in the lighting for the room and we're looking for a bright colored rug to add some color to the floor. Of course we obviously need the crib mattress and bedding or else it won't be too comfortable for baby. We're just about finished though... and with 15 weeks to spare!

Photo Dump

I just downloaded a bunch of pictures off my camera last night and realized that a lot of the ones I had taken were meant to be posted. So these are all old but I still want to post them.

Spaghetti and Salad

Sometime early on in my pregnancy (probably during one of those periods where I was constantly hungry) I decided that I really wanted spaghetti and meatballs. Ben never wants spaghetti and he was closing that night so I decided to make myself some. A warning: I am the WORST at deciding how much pasta is enough. When I was growing up, we would make at least a pound for dinner and somehow I believe that I should still make about a pound even though we were feeding 8 back then and now I'm only feeding 1. (This is the reason I need to have a big family. I don't know how to cook for 2 people!) So.... my plate of spaghetti.

Yummy, right?
Well on this same night, I decided that a salad would go wonderfully with my spaghetti. Again, not so great on portions. I hard boiled some egg because I love egg on my salad. This is what I came up with:

This was also during the time in my pregnancy where I would be really hungry but I would get full after two bites. This was probably the after picture. :D

Belly Pics: 16 Weeks, 2 Days
Ben and I went to dinner for his birthday like 2 months ago and I had him take a few belly pictures since I was actually in a cute dress. Here they are:

Alex
One night while Ben was closing I was sitting on the couch watching TV. I guess Alex decided that she wanted to watch TV with me, so she hopped up on the couch. She's done this occasionally with me and Ben home but never with Ben gone. I thought it was hilarious. She just sat next to me on the recliner, watching TV. When she got bored, she just hopped down again like it was nothing.

On the couch

Watching TV

Uh, Why are you taking my picture?

Me & Al

Nursery Preview
I took a bunch of pictures of us redoing the nursery. We still have to show our parents the finished product (or nearly finished) but after that, I'll post all the pictures. Here's a little sneak peek:

Alex is trying to peek in too!

Please show me. I'm being good!

More to come!

Babymoon Trilogy: Around the House

For the rest of the week we decided to just work around the house. We got so much accomplished! Ben put up new locks on our doors including a super sweet new deadbolt with a coded combination! So now if you want to break into our house, you have to get passed the key, the deadbolt combination and the guard dog! (Seriously, she's vicious.)

He also put up some tint on our sidelights. We used to have window frames and curtains hanging there but the curtains were ugly and Alex chewed up the frames during one of those times when we were outside and she wanted to come out too. The curtains were also horribly dirty because of her constant slobbering on them. We took down the curtains and the frames, cleaned the windows and put up a new tint. We really like it because we can see out of it, but it's hard to see back in most of the time. I think it's a much cleaner look and it wasn't that hard! (Although Ben may have a difference in opinion on that one.)

Finally, we finished the nursery. Yep, that's right. It's done. We are so happy with the result. It definitely looks very neat. The monsters on the wall are super cute and we're very pleased with its originality. I promise I'll post photos soon. We also got our crib last week. Of course we had to set up a delivery time and it needed a signature so Ben set up the time for the day he closed. It was supposed to be delivered between 9 and 12. He waited until 11:30 when he had to go to work. Of course both of our moms were unavailable to sit at the house that day so he left a note on the door telling them they could leave it and hoping they would accept it as a signature. Luckily, when I got home it was on the porch! It was huge! I had to have my brother come over and take it inside for me. When we looked at the paper they had left, it said that the crib had been delivered at 1:05. So much for between 9 & 12, huh? Oh well. We got our crib and we were able to put it together last Wednesday. We're so excited!

Babymoon Trilogy: Columbus

DH and I took last week off and decided to take a mini babymoon vacation. We headed up to Columbus for a few days to do some shopping and just get away for a little bit. We didn't take a single picture. (Sorry!)

We left early on Monday morning. We drove my sister back up to OSU since she had been home for our party. Since she had to work at 9:00, we left at 6:45. This is earlier than I leave for work but somehow the idea of getting up early to start a vacation isn't nearly as bad as the idea of getting up to go to work. We got to Columbus right around 9:00 and I called the hotel to see what time we could check-in. The check-in time is officially 3:00 but they said if the room was ready, they would let us check in any time. We decided to grab some breakfast first. We drove around until we saw a First Watch and we just decided to eat there. It was very yummy. We were contemplating what we should do next and decided it would be best if we could get into our room and then go from there. I called the hotel again to see if the room would be ready. (We "fought" for probably 20 minutes about who would call the hotel and I guess I lost. I just wanted to specify that this was all me... :P). We would told it would be no problem to get our room. We drive up to our hotel....twice. The first time Garmin was really confused and she kept recalculated which confused us even though we could see the hotel. We were also confused because we couldn't figure out where to park. It looked like they had Valet parking (which we definitely didn't want) or a garage but we thought you had to pay for the garage. We thought maybe you would get your parking validated at the hotel or something. After driving around the block a few hundred times, we pulled into the Valet area to ask where we should park. The valet kindly informs us that valet parking is the only parking available. Oh, and you have to pay an additional $21 a night for it. Thanks for that mention, Hotwire. We grumbled about this a little bit but ultimately surrendered our keys and went up to our room.

The room was very nice. It was really big! We had a king size bed (finally some sleeping space!), a couch, a chair, and a desk. I was surprised at the size of the room. At the front desk, they gave us a couple of coupons for movies. Obviously, we don't refuse movies and we had already planned on seeing at least one during our vacation. We decided to catch a quick matinee since it would be even cheaper. Obviously we went to see Iron Man. I really enjoyed it! Nothing like a good superhero movie to kick start your vacation. When we got back to the room, we took a little nap and then decided to catch an early dinner at Schmidt's Sausage Haus. Yum. We feasted on delicious dishes such as pretzel bites, Reuben sandwiches and Bahama Mamas. Of course we couldn't leave without an infamous cream puff. Swoon.

We next decided to hit up buybuy Baby. They are owned by Bed Bath & Beyond which means we still get a discount! We went there in the hopes of finding a reasonably priced crib but that was a fail. Instead, we walked around the store looking at everything I would LOVE to have. I forced Ben into the clothes section and just started pulling things off racks telling him to look at this! and this! ooh, and this one! He humored me by nodding and smiling. I fell in love with the sun hats and the adorable clothing. We have decided not to buy very much clothing for our little girl just yet because we don't want to end up with too much and have her not even wear some things. I just wanted to buy one outfit to celebrate that we're having a girl. We bought just one, and then we bought another one because... Uh, hello. It was monsters. For a girl.

From there, we decided to just call it a night. We wanted to check out our hotel pool because I got a new suit (!) and we were hoping that a little swim would help both of our backs. We got into our suits and headed down to the pool. We had high hopes because we had to enter a secret elevator and use our secret key code to even get to the floor with the pool. (Okay, so it was just our room key, but secret key code on secret elevator sounds much cooler.) We get to the pool and the first thing I notice is that the pool is strictly 5 ft. That's it. No shallow end, no gradual working your way up to something deeper. Just 5 ft all around. I was a little concerned because I'm only a few inches over 5 ft and I really didn't want to tread water the entire time I was in the pool. They did have some stairs that let you gradually get into the pool, so I just figured I'd stay on those. We both stuck one foot in the water. It was FREEZING. Not just a little cooler than we would have liked. It was cold. Very cold. We tried to make the best of it, but after stepping onto the next step, we both decided it just wouldn't be worth it. We were incredibly disappointed in the pool. One of the things I looked for when booking a hotel was an indoor pool. Fail.

We defeatedly headed back up to our room. We watched some baseball on TV. I don't remember who was playing, I just know we were really paying attention to the scrolling scores at the bottom to see how the Reds were doing.

On Tuesday, we decided to head to Easton Mall. We just decided to walk around a bit. The first store we went to was a dog store. We don't usually buy things from these specialty stores because they are always so expensive. The lady there was very helpful (and also trying to make a sale) and she explained all of their different dog toys. She pointed us to one that is virtually indestructible (necessary for Alex) and that has a minty smell/flavor. We both just laughed because Ales LOVES mint. She likes to go through my purse and chew up my gum. She's also been known to chew on nearly empty toothpaste tubes. We decided we had to get her this ball and another tug toy. Then we found some adorable monster toys and bought those for the nursery. What? Doesn't everyone decorate their nurseries with dog toys? Or just the cool people? :D

We ended up just walking around the whole mall area, stopping in shops that sounded interesting to us. We stopped in a lot of kitchen stores where I drooled over all the colored appliances and Le Creuset cookware. I dragged Ben into ALL of the baby clothes stores and almost died of cute overload. Seriously. This was the conversation in every store.

Me: Aww, look at all the cute things!
Ben: Yep
Me: Oh! Look at this one. Isn't it just adorable?
Ben: Uh huh.
Me: Ohmigosh! I LOVE this one. Seriously, how cute is that?
Ben: It's great.
Me: Oooh. This one is my FAVORITE!
Ben: That's nice.
Me: Nope, I lied. This one is my favorite.
Ben: Maybe we should go.
Me: Can I buy them all?
Ben: No.
Me: You better get me out of here. I think we're going to go broke.

Okay, so his reaction might be a little exaggeration. But he wasn't running around the store professing his love for all the cuteness either.

We had dinner at a place called Adobe Gila's. We got a coupon off of restaurant.com for $25 off our meal. The only catch was that you have to spend $40. Most of the restaurants on that site only require you to spend $35 or less so we figured it must be a pretty upscale place with $20 plates. We walk into a bar that serves Mexican food. Their most expensive thing on the menu is $12. They were having a half price appetizer special. We were struggling to reach $40 worth of food. We ordered an appetizer and the two most expensive things on the menu simply because they cost more. We also both had to order a dessert. Luckily I'm eating for two right now and for the first time EVER Ben was full before I was. I just kept eating. The food was good, but nothing outstanding.

On Wednesday, we woke up and began our drive home. First, we stopped at The Book Loft, which is probably my favorite place ever. Luckily, we planned for this and I was able to go to the bathroom before we left our hotel (Right, Family????). Even though I have a Kindle, I still love to look at books. We thought it might be nice to get some books for the baby and maybe some books to learn what we're supposed to do after we take the baby home. (I keep forgetting that the end of my pregnancy means I actually get to take a baby home with me and while I'm an excellent baby sitter, I figured I might want to get at least one book on the dos and donts of caring for an infant). We looked around for awhile, but ultimately decided not to buy anything. I just couldn't decide. I think sometimes I'm worried that I'm going to buy something and then someone would buy the exact same thing for the baby.

About 10 minutes into our drive home, it started pouring. I really wanted to stop at the Motherhood Maternity Outlet in Jeffersonville because I knew I needed a few dresses for different events I have coming up this summer. We stopped there in the pouring rain, I picked up some dresses to try on and basically hated them all. For some reason, they all looked really funny to me. (It may have something to do with this big belly that I still don't always know how to dress). I did end up finding one that my mom may have to alter depending on how it looks as I get bigger.

It was so nice going to Columbus because since we knew we were only going somewhere for a few days, we didn't spend a lot of the time driving. We got home around 2:00 on Wednesday afternoon so I didn't really feel like we wasted a day just driving. Don't get me wrong, I'm all about the 2 week road trip out west but it was actually nice to just be home 2 hours after we left. Overall, I would say our trip was a success. We had a lot of fun and it was nice to just get away for a little bit.

Wow. If you read this whole post (and without pictures!), MAJOR props to you. I didn't realize it would be this lengthy. If you just skipped to the bottom....well, I probably would have too.

The Nursery: Part Deux

Today is Daddy's birthday. No, not my daddy.... baby's daddy. (Or my baby daddy if that's what you choose to call him.) Today is his last birthday of freedom. Today is the last birthday where he gets real presents from me instead of handmade presents from our kids. :) Maybe.

So what does Daddy get to do on his super exciting last birthday of freedom????

He gets to paint the nursery!!!!! Woo hoo! Yippee!!! What a great way to spend a birthday! Now before you all think that I'm a mean wife for forcing him to paint the nursery on his birthday, let me set the record straight. I told him he didn't have to paint anything. I told him he could sit on the couch and watch movies and play baseball all day. He WANTS to paint the nursery. Who am I to deny him what he wants???

We went to Ikea last weekend and bought some furniture for the nursery. It is so super cute! We both love it a lot. We were excited to get started on the nursery so on Sunday, we went out and bought paint. We spent hours in Home Depot agonizing over which color would be perfect. (I'm not even exaggerating. Well, maybe it wasn't hours... but it was a long time. And we did agonize!)Oh, you want to see what color we chose? Be forewarned. This color is not for the faint of heart.

That's right. It's a super bright, super bold limey-ish green color. We think it will be awesome and will go perfectly with our crazy monster themed room. The whole room will just be a mass of super bright colors. I can't wait to see the finished product!!

The Nursery: Part 1

We went to Ikea last weekend. Oh how I love that store. We picked a couple things up for the nursery and I decided that I wanted to make at least 4 different nursery themes. They have so much cute stuff there! I won't show you what we actually bought, but I'll show you some of the things that I would put in my 2nd or 3rd nursery if possible. Like how cute is this creature? I could build a whole room with just the things they had with him on it...

Or, what about this crib sheet set. Seriously? A little drummer bed just like its Daddy? Yep, love.

Finally, I would love love love to have these. Maybe when we get a bigger house and we have a playroom. Maybe we'll have a castle themed play room or something. Oh, one can dream....

A treasure chest? So cute!!
And look at this! It opens up into a mirror. The picture really doesn't do it justice.

So there you have it. Some of my favorite nursery themes. Since I only get one nursery in my house, maybe I can convince grandparents, aunts, and uncles that they should redo rooms in their houses for nurseries too!