Hey, Babe

Fantastic news.  Little Dude decided to make his debut on Saturday {his due date!}.  He came out looking like the Sunbean's twin, though they look differently already.

 

We're not sharing his name via the internets, but if you're my friend on Facebook we've shared it there.  If you're still itching to know, just shoot me an email and as long as you're not a creeper, I'll share.

So we're all just hanging out, getting to know each other.

His birth story is an emotional one for me, and as soon as I have the time/energy/free hands to get it all down, I'll make sure to blog about it.

We're feeling very blessed to have a happy, healthy {and ludicrously hungry} baby home with us.  For a few hours there, things were looking like they might not have a happy ending, so we're just so thankful that this little guy is ours.

More details to come. 

College Bingo

I found this on Pinterest yesterday, and nearly hurt myself laughing.

I have for sure been in at least one class where these things were happening.

I bet you have, too.

Enjoy a good laugh, and then call your roomie and reminisce.

Terrible Two?

 via me on Pinterest

Someone {well meaning, of course} sent me a poem the other day.  It was a poem about going from having one child to having two children.  It talked about learning how to split your love in half.  I'm not going to post it here, because just thinking about that wretched poem makes me start sobbing, and I really don't want to stare at it on my blog.  Sorry.  Use your imagination.

But this thing has had me thinking {and bawling my eyes out}.  I know this is an emotion that nearly every mother has experienced, but that doesn't make it easier.  I want my little Sunbean's life to be happy and fun.  I want her to feel the love of her parents, and I want to teach her to feel the love of her Heavenly Father.  All of these things are possible with several siblings, but the transition will be tough {for both of us}.

I think this is weighing especially heavy on my mind, in particular, because I don't have happy memories with my siblings.  That's because I don't have any siblings.  I'm an only child, so I don't know the fun, excitement, and camaraderie of brothers and sisters.  I witness it all the time, especially with MacGyver and his family, but that doesn't help in this particular scenario.  I've enjoyed being an only child, but it makes this next step in our lives something quite new for me.

So after a few days of moping and freaking out, I decided the best thing to do would be to just make each of these last days with the Sunbean count as much as possible.  I know that when Little Dude arrives {seriously, buddy, any freaking time now}, I'll need to give him more of my time at first.  There will be the hospital stay {my first time away from the Sunbean}, and then the first few days at home, getting nursing established.  So while I'll still be there for my little girl, my time won't be all hers anymore.  So we've been playing the games she wants to play, getting out the toys she wants out, and even going to the places she wants to go {how lucky am I that her favorite place to go is Starbucks?!?}.

But the past few days sure have been fun!  It's not a parenting style I could do every day {there are, unfortunately, things like dishes and laundry and dirt and dust and church responsibilities and groceries and bow businesses that also fight for my time}, but I have loved setting everything else aside for a few days.  It's been fun to see what the Sunbean chooses when the choice is all hers.

Lots of people {again, well meaning, I'm sure} have been telling me how 'terrible' the Sunbean will act when Little Dude arrives.  They've been sharing stories of their own children who stopped eating, sleeping, had potty trouble, etc.  I really hope that this major life event doesn't shake her to the very core {as so many helpful people predict}, but I know it will change all of our lives.

And why shouldn't it?  Our family is getting a new person!  We'll all need to get to know each other, and that will take time and patience.  But we figured out life with one kid, so I think we'll figure out life with two kids.

So from now until Little Dude decides to make his debut {I'm hoping for right now}, you can find me playing on the floor with my little girl.

Stream of Consciousness

I really, really, really wanted to blog about something besides pregnancy.  But I seriously can't help it.  I don't have enough non-pregnancy-related thoughts in my head for an entire post.  Sad, but true.

• Here's a quick tip:  if you can think of nothing else to comment on besides my size, just don't talk to me.  Well, unless you're going to tell me that I look great.  Then go right ahead!
• In sacrament meeting today, we sang a Primary song {A Child's Prayer}.  I loved hearing the Primary kids sing along.
• Speaking of Primary, it was HOT today.  And the kids were cuh-razy.  One child did look at me curiously and ask if I was having a baby.  Love it.
• Want to know what I hate?  People telling me when I'm going to have this baby.  For reals, people.  If my doctor {who is familiar with my baby-birthing-parts} can't give me an accurate prediction, neither can you.  You're just guessing.  Quit.  Unless there are money and/or prizes involved.  For me.
• After church today, we realized we don't have any butter.  That's a travesty when you need dessert.  Luckily, my fall-back recipe is the peanut butter cookies that only use peanut butter, an egg, and a cup of sugar.
• Awhile back, I became the proud owner of Erin Cobb's Clean Color workflow video for Photoshop.  Seriously, this girl is a genius.  I first learned Photoshop back in high school {9 years ago....eep!}, and when I recently got CS4, it was like learning a new program.  This video was perfect for me to learn the nitty-gritty details about how to edit my photos.  Now I want to go back and edit everything.  I'm quickly learning, though, that not every photo can be edited this way.  Otherwise, I'd be editing all day and all night.  But seriously, if you're in the market for a good tutorial for photo-editing, check her out.  I'm just new at this, but here's an example of my novice use of her editing technique:

Mostly, this just makes me excited to have another green-bean-eating chubby little baby around.

Happy Sunday to you!

One would hope I'll have some new baby pictures to post this week.  No one's pregnant forever, right?!?

The Kids' New Room

Last week I debuted our new master bedroom, so here's another big project we've been working on:  the shared sleeping space for our kids.  I didn't realize how big of a challenge this would be.  We explored every option that our 1,000 square feet have to offer, and a shared room seemed to be the best option for us.

In addition to the challenge of beds, toys, and clothing for two crammed into one small room, we have a boy/girl combo here.  So that kind of rules out a ton of design schemes.  I wanted something that could look a little girly, but not too bad for Little Dude.

When I first found out I was pregnant, I saw an ad for Sherwin Williams that used the paint chip Aquatint.  I fell in love with the color, and wanted to use it somehow in the room.

We ended up using 50% of the color, and love the way it looks.

 

The first thing I decided on was brown accents.  I picked up a few of those brown polka-dot crib sheets at Target {on clearance}, and was then on the hunt for the Sunbean's bedding.  I knew it needed to have aqua and brown, and I wanted something undeniably girly, since the rest of the room would be more neutral.  I found this at Pottery Barn {clearance + free shipping!}.  It was the perfect piece to pick up some more color for the room.

I really love the reading nook we made for the Sunbean {and Little Dude, I suppose}.  It's the old elementary school teacher coming out in me.  We used this tutorial, and really didn't change much.  The wonky part of the wall?  That's the Sunbean's actual name spelled out in wooden letters.

I totally scored this white dresser at Target one day.  Loooooong story, but it was clearanced down, we bought and started to put it together, only to realize it was damaged more than we thought.  I called back and spoke to a manager, and I got to name my own price.  A brand-new white dresser that needed minimal repairs for $50?  Yes please.

The outfit is Little Dude's blessing outfit.  I've never had anything monogrammed before.  It was exciting.  The poor little guy has quite the girly stack of cloth diapers up there.  My favorite part is the number knobs.  Originally from Pottery Barn, we found them on eBay and painted them turquoise.  I made the changing pad cover.

Here's Little Dude's space.  Love, love, love this crib {from Walmart, of all places}.  I love the modern lines.  It doesn't have a huge presence, so it's perfect for a small room like this.  You can't see it super well, but I made a crib skirt that matches the stripes on the changing pad.  I also DIYed the lamp shade cover.  Little Dude's name is hanging to the right of this picture, but I cropped it out.

Our DIY light is probably one of my favorite parts of the room.  It's just three chinese lanterns from Ikea + three light kits {also Ikea}.  MacGyver is super skilled, so he rigged it right up to the light-socket-thing, and we added that little cap {just a few bucks at Lowe's}.

This is probably the most accurate picture of the colors, too.  We added crown moulding {my new obsession}, and painted the ceiling with the leftovers from the bathroom.  I think it's called Limelight.

For the main artwork, I picked up a pack of cute flashcards at a boutique when we were in Florida.  I've seen them other places, though...they're called Alphabeasties.  I mounted them on scrapbook paper, and framed them.  They are hung all around the room, accented with those white flowers that I can't get enough of.

I DIYed these in Photoshop {heavily inspired by something I found on etsy} for above Little Dude's crib.

We all love the way it turned out, and the Sunbean claims that she's excited to share her room with Little Dude.  It has been a fun project to satisfy my nesting needs!

Hats Off

Congrats to MacGyver, who is officially an engineer now.

I love that guy.

Master Bedroom Re-Do

We had quite the lengthy list of things that we wanted to get done before Little Dude's arrival.  On the top of the list was figuring out a plan for our master bedroom.

We live in an 80's ranch, which is to say, we have small bedrooms and small closets.  It makes planning any sort of decor difficult, because so much of the space is taken up by dressers/nightstands/beds.

When we got married, MacGyver's parents gave us a beautiful bedroom set.  Dark cherry wood, a sleigh bed....perfect.  It had two nightstands, a dresser, and a chest of drawers.  Just one problem:  it really didn't fit in our room.  With the headboard, footboard, and the rest of the matching pieces, we could barely walk in our room.  Not good.

Then we started the whole "Less is More" philosophy, and committed to loving every single thing in our home.  If we both didn't love it (or use it!), it was gone.   While we loved the idea of our bedroom furniture, it just wasn't working in a house our size.  And since we don't have plans to move in the immediate future, that left us with one choice:  get rid of the furniture.

This actually worked out well.  MacGyver's parents wanted to use it for their master bedroom.  That made me happy.  So here's a 'before' picture of our room.  It's not totally accurate, because we'd already removed the headboard and footboard.  Also, we are not pigs.  It's trashed because we didn't think the snap a picture until we'd already starting taking all of our clothes out of the dressers.

We really didn't have a design scheme going on.  We prefer modern decor, and our bedroom set was a little more traditional.  We were stumped trying to come up with a good balance between the two.

Then I saw the bedroom renovation that these cute people did.  It sounded perfect for our needs, so off to Ikea we went for some stand-alone wardrobes.  Rather than using any type of dresser, we planned to use the wardrobes for all of our clothes.  Instead of getting the pricey doors, we opted for some curtains (also from Ikea).  Behold, the finished product:

MacGyver added a header at the top of the wardrobes to make them appear to be 'built-in', rather than big ol' white boxes (I trust him, but I'm not gonna lie.  I took Tylenol PM for a solid week before I believed the header wasn't going to come crashing down on me in the night).  We love the paint color in our kitchen so much that we just brought it into the bedroom.  We already owned the bedding and artwork, so that was easy.

One big change was adding the crown moulding.  This is the first room we've done that to, and I love it.  I can't wait to continue it through the house.  I thought it would make the ceiling look short, but we love to paint our ceilings a color other than white, so I don't think it shortened it at all.

Here's a view from the foot of the bed:

I love how soft and romantic it feels.  I made the headboard out of some MDF and canvas.  Super simple and it cost less than 10 bucks.  Every single piece of clothing we own is in our wardrobes.  We have some drawers and shelves, as well as hanging space, so everything fits well.  We do have a closet in the room (to the left in the picture above), and we keep longer items (dresses, tunic, etc), shoes, bags, and our laundry basket in there.

Here's a shot of the other side of the room:

We'll have to come up with another plan for that corner after Little Dude starts sleeping in his crib.  Maybe a parson's chair or a large mirror?  Or some type of plant?  For now our (homemade) bassinet fills the space nicely.  I DIYed the art on that wall with Photoshop, personal mementos, and family pictures.

We really love our new room.  It is really easy to keep clean with the wardrobes containing all of our clothing, and it just feels light and airy.  With the floorplan of our house, just about everyone that comes over sees our bedroom, and now I'm proud to show it off!