I Absolutely LOVE My Nursery!!!

I have the most wonderful husband and mom. They painted the nursery last week while I was at work. I had an idea in my head as to what I wanted and left the two of them with instructions. They followed them perfectly! :)

After the paint was finished, I went in with some craft paint and did the accents of the hills and the grass on the mural wall. All the ladybugs and dragonflies are wall appliques that match my bedding set and were easy to just stick up there.

The remaining 3 walls are just stripes! Kurt even pulled out his laser level and made sure they were all perfect and not crooked!

There are some more ladybug accessories I still want to put in the room to complete it (hamper, wall hangings, lamp, mobile, etc), but I'm not shopping for anything else until after my baby shower...

We also have matching curtains to hang, but haven't gotten around to that just yet. The room will probably be 100% complete in the next couple weeks.

I'm getting so excited and just love how it's turning out! Now all we need is this little baby girl ! 6 more weeks!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, It's Even Worth This...

OK, as you can see, I officially have cankles! My feet and ankles have been getting so swollen lately and my toes look like fat little sausages. But I still love being pregnant, every minute of it!! It's just starting to get a little uncomfortable these days. (And if I would have had to pick my feet in a line up, I would have never guessed these were mine. It's so weird to see them like this)

7 more weeks until my due date!!!! I can't wait!!!!!!! It's going to be all worth it in the end!

One Last Getaway Before Baby Arrives

We went back up to Colorado over Labor Day weekend and stayed with my parents at their summer home. It was sooooo nice to get out of the heat. The weather was absolutely beautiful. I think the high may have been about 80 and it got down to 50 at night. Sure beats the AZ heat!

It's about a 7 hour drive to get to the house... Not too bad. When we drove through Holbrook, there was this pretty double rainbow. We just had to get a pic...

Since the last time we were in CO, my dad had this huge garage built behind the house. It fits the motorhome, boat, quads, etc. It turned out really nice.

He had this great idea to have the contractors build a deck up on the backside of the garage so we could put chairs up there and get higher than the trees to see the beautiful scenery.

This is one of the views from up on the deck. You can see forever. My mom put up flags since it was Labor Day. I love this shot of the flag blowing in the breeze overlooking the countryside.

My dad also got a new pontoon boat so of course we had to test that out.

There is a lake (McPhee resevoir) that is only about 5 minutes from the house so we took a couple trips to the lake on our vacation. Kurt is in the front trying to catch a fish, but not having any luck this day. Can you tell how excited Bailee is to be on the boat? I think she was a little beat from all the running earlier in the day. (She liked to follow the boys when they went out for rides on the quads. She ran her little heart out).

My grandpa was the first to catch a fish. We were fishing for trout. It was so much fun and so relaxing.

My mom packed a cooler with leftovers and made us all ham sandwiches for lunch. It was so nice! And boy did that taste good after a day full of fishing. (notice Kurt in the background w/ a mouthful). heehee

The 2nd trip I caught two trout and Kurt caught two as well. We were giving my dad a hard time calling him "net boy" because he wasn't catching anything and was the one assigned to get the net when ours were biting :) My dad finally gave up on fishing and decided to get a little nap in on the lake. He still held his pole just in case the fish decided to bite his line. I thought this was too funny! He's totally sleeping here!

Here's Kurt and I on the boat. Note to self, horizontal stripes and a prego belly don't go too well together for a picture :)

At the end of the day we'd take a drive around the area and see all the deer that have come out. This is a little hard to see since the sun was starting to go down, but look at the deer in the skyline.

All in all, we had a very fun, relaxing time. It was hard to come home and back to reality after that. And let me tell you, Bailee had a blast! When we got home, she slept for almost 2 days straight. She's so funny. That's a lot of work for an old dog!

We probably won't go back again until next spring. It sure is nice to have a vacation spot so close that we can use anytime. I love our little getaways!

Whoa Baby!!!

OK, so I've definitely felt that I've had another growth spurt in the last month or so. All of a sudden I just feel ginormous :) Don't get me wrong, I love every minute of it! I had Kurt take another picture so I could compare.... Yep, this baby is GROWING!!!! This was taken Aug 23rd.

And this was taken just last month on July 17th. Wow, what a difference a month can make... I put on the same outfit for the picture since some shirts make you look more prego than others... this is definitely not the shirt that's popping out :) To think, I have 3 full months to go. I wonder what I'll look like then? Haha....

This is my friend Melissa. Her little boy is due just a couple weeks before our baby girl. It is so much fun being pregnant at the same time as a good friend. We can compare stories, Dr visits, what kind of ice cream we had for dessert, and all that fun stuff. Her and her husband were married 11 days after Kurt and I, so we thought it would be perfect if our babies were born 11 days apart as well. It could happen, our due dates are only about 15 days or so apart. We shall see :) Doesn't she look fantastic!!!

All in all, I've had a terrific pregnancy so far. But just as I was boasting about how great I felt and not getting morning sickness or any other ailments... I ended up catching a cold this week. And let me tell you, that's no fun at all when you're pregnant and can't take a whole lot to make it go away. Worst part was, my birthday was this past week (on the 27th) and I've been sick so couldn't really do much.

Kurt was awesome though. He surprised me in the morning with a birthday gift, a new camera. I didn't even ask for one. My other one has been on the fritz lately and irritating me, so he picked up on that. He made me a nice birthday dinner and we laid on the couch and watched a movie and went to bed early. I felt bad because I wasn't in the mood to go anywhere, but he still managed to make my day special. I just love that man!!!

I was hoping to be 100% better since we're leaving this afternoon for Colorado for the week. This cold just won't seem to go away though. Oh well, it'll give me a chance to relax anyway. I can't wait to get out of the heat for a little bit. It will also give me a chance to test out the new camera!!!! Yeay!

Staple Items in this Pregnant Wife's Kitchen!

I was doing pretty good last year not having junk food around the house, but now that I'm pregnant, it's a whole new ball game! This has been my favorite treat lately. Kurt was out of town last week helping his mom, which left me home alone every night with this....

DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!!!! And I didn't have to share with anyone either. I was in heaven. Nothing like ending a long day w/ my feet propped up and a nice yummy bowl of ice cream and oreos. What more could I ask for? I did miss Kurt though. Even though he was only gone for a few days, it made me realize just how lucky I am to have him around every day. It also made me appreciate all the things he does around the house since I had to take care of everything while he was away. I guess I've been spoiled :)

My parents were out of town last week as well and left me with one of their puppies (my brother took the other). I had forgotten what it was like having a puppy around. She's 6 months old (Bailee is almost 6 years). This little puppy was cracking me up all week. She's a little stinker. If it wasn't tied down, she carried it all around the house and ended up taking everything out the dog door and into the backyard, including toys, kitchen rugs, dog beds, etc. She's too funny.

One day they decided to bring sticks into the house! We have a small fire pit in the backyard and have small logs piled up on the side of the house. Bailee has NEVER touched these logs. Apparently the puppy helped talk her into it because they were both running around the house chewing these up as if they were bones.

I was picking up after them all week.

Bailee ended up stealing everything from the puppy and tried to hide upstairs. That little puppy always wanted to play and ended up finding her wherever she tried to hide. Let's just say it was an interesting week.

I'm glad things are back to normal now!

EEEWWWW, WHAT'S HE DOING?????

Oh, it's just Kurt grouting the tile in the bathroom. What did you think it looked like? :)

I couldn't resist posting this. Although it's a nice light pretty color when it dries, the grout looks like he's playing in poo when he's doing it. And it was even worse when I came around the corner and saw this in the bathroom. I thought it was funny! Good thing it's only grout!!!!

Happy Birthday Tanner

I'm a little behind in this post. It's hard to believe that as of last week, this little boy is one year old. My nephew, Tanner, just celebrated his first birthday on July 25th. Where did the time go?

It seems like just the other day this little sweetheart came into the world. He was 8 weeks early and only weighed 3 pounds 10 ounces. He was such a fighter!

He spent the first 4 and a half weeks of his life in the NICU, but had lots of visitors to keep him company. It was so hard to stay away from that little guy for very long. I still can't get over how tiny he was.

A week after he was able to come home, Kurt and I got to babysit him. Kurt was a bit nervous since he was so tiny, but I have proof that he held him. (even though it's only because I put him in his lap and walked off). Kurt gets nervous around new babies. He has a "you break it you buy it policy" but says that it will be different when our baby is born.

Here is Tanner growing up. Almost crawling in this shot.

I am just so in love with those baby blues. He has the prettiest eyes!

For Tanners 1st birthday, he had a pool party at his house. Here he is in the pool w/ his big sister Sage. He just loves hanging out in the water. Who would blame him in this heat?

He even had a pinata for his party. He didn't really show much interest though. Maybe next year.

He did, however, know what to do w/ the birthday cake. Did any of it even make it in his mouth? :) MMMMM, Chocolate! I think all in all, he had a wonderful day.

Happy Birthday Little Tan Man!

Getting Ready for Baby!

It is so much fun getting ready for this little girl!

We bought our nursery furniture a couple weeks ago and Kurt put the crib together last week. Here it is in pieces. It actually wasn't too hard to get together. I think we had it up in under an hour.

And this is the final product. I just LOVE this crib. We looked at so many and this was the one I kept going back to. I just knew it was the one and I am so happy it's what we ended up with!

Rather than the slide down side, this one just has a drop down top. The top 9 inches or so fold over so you don't have to bend over so far to reach the baby.

And here is the changing table. I thought this was the neatest idea. It's reversible. When you're done using it as a changing table, it flips over and the drawers flip too so you can use it as a 3 drawer chest. We also bought the dresser that matches, but at the time I took these photos, it wasn't upstairs yet. I left my camera at my brothers house last week so can't get the recent shots I took. I'm sure I'll post more pictures in a couple months when the paint is done and all that fun stuff.

And for those of you who want to see the prego belly... Here it is! I am getting HUGE these days. I've seriously gone through a growth spurt in the past 3 or 4 weeks. It's crazy! But so worth it. I still can't get over the fact that a baby is growing inside of me. I just sit and rub my belly amazed about the miracle inside. We are so blessed to be bringing this little girl into the world. I can't wait to meet her and find out who she looks like. 4 more months!!!!

Oh... one more thing. She has a name!!!! We have decided to name her Brooklyn. We're still working on the middle name, but it will most likely be Brooklyn Renee. That's what we like best so far.

Floor Update

OK... the floor is not quite finished yet as planned. Kurt is doing a WONDERFUL job though. It's really looking fantastic. I am very pleased so far. I am so impressed with what he's done. It has totally changed the look of our house. I absolutely love it! Here are a few of the in-between shots to give you an idea. Should be finished hopefully in the next few weeks! Keep your fingers crossed for me :)

This was taken the first day Kurt actually started laying the tile.

I just had to include this shot. It seemed like every day I came home the refrigerator was in a different spot. It was cracking me up. I'm happy to report that the kitchen is complete now, grout and all... so the fridge is back where it belongs.

It's coming along. This room is also finished now too. It was the biggest room and the easiest since he could lay full tiles instead of having to cut each piece.

Here is "supervisor" Bailee making sure Kurt did a good job... Little to the right she says! :)

And after a hard day's work, she's always up for a nap. It's tough being the boss!

Final pics will be up in a few weeks. Thanks Kurt for all your hard work!

Ultrasound

We had our ultrasound on Thursday. My "feeling" has been that it was a boy. I've been totally thinking that for about 2 months now. Boy was I WRONG. She's all girl. I was a little shocked to see that. Boy are we excited though!!!!! We're having a baby girl!!!!!!

When we first got to the ultrasound, she was all curled up in the fetal position w/ her legs crossed tight. She did not want to cooperate. Then she got the hiccups and I think that's when she loosened up and gave us the shot we were looking for. She never let us see her face, but we definitely know she's a girl now. I'm so excited to not be calling her "it" anymore!

She has a strong heart, organs look good, spine looks good, she's measuring perfect for her height and weight so far... All in all, everything is great! She's in a breach position right now, but obviously she'll be moving all around in the next few months. She was sleeping in a spot where her head was being bounced by my aorta pumping. It was so cute. It looked like she was dancing like those SNL guys w/ their heads bopping to the side. It must have been soothing to her though because she was not wanting to wake up and let us take her picture!

I just love getting a peak of that little baby growing inside. It really brings things into perspective and lets me feel closer to her. We feel so blessed and could not be more happy about bringing this little girl into our family!

She's going to have Kurt wrapped around her little finger. He'll be surrounded by females now, including the dog!!!

Under Construction!

Kurt has decided to do some remodeling before the baby comes.... Our downstairs was all carpet in the living room and den, and linoleum in the dining, kitchen and bathroom.

Since our dog is an indoor dog, she sheds all over the place and the hair just works its way down in the carpet. No matter how much vacuuming we do, we can never rid it of hair.

Here are some before pics:

Well, we can't quite get rid of the dog just because we're adding to the family... so to clean things up a bit, our whole downstairs is going to be ceramic tile. Kurt is doing the work himself which will save us a ton of money.

Here are some of the inbetween pics... Kurt has ripped up all the flooring and our whole downstairs is concrete now.

It's kinda messy in the meantime, but will be so nice when it's finished.

Stay tuned for the "after" pics. Hopefully it won't take too long to complete. I want my house back to normal so we can start thinking about working on the baby's room next :)