life at the woods: March 2012

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Bluebonnet cousin pics

I am lovingly calling these bluebonnet pics some of the worst ever, but I think in about 10 years these will be some of my very favorite pictures!! Ally and Wyatt definitely win the prize for best smile and everyone sure does look precious:))). My Ryan has a REALLY hard time in the sun and if he has to squint at all he's pretty much done...and we all know how he just LOVES pictures anyway. I'm betting my sisters captured some better ones so check out their blogs soon!

For your entertainment and enjoyment----:)

I love these people SO much, and I am thankful every single day that we get the privilege of raising this crazy crew together!!

Sunday, March 11, 2012

My new favorite room

Ahhh, the nursery is finished--yea! I really, really love the way to turned out. The transformation from a red play area/office to this is remarkable. Every where I look in here I see my friends and family because we literally had nothing for a third baby. We needed a crib, clothes, towels, bottles, baby toys, nursing gear, basically everything. We have been very blessed to have been given a crib(thank you Kelli), repurposed some furniture (thank you Erica,) and given lovely hand-me-down baby cloths, maternity clothes, a bobby, a swing, bouncy seat, high chair, etc. (thank you Caryn and Kacey). This nursery is full of love!

Here the view from the front door/living room.

My amazing girls, Erica and Heather painting Brady's bookshelves one day at playgroup. They are rockstar painters!

The lighting when I took these pics wasn't great but you get the idea. Here's Brady's closet :). Kacey and Lauren sewed that cute little curtain for me. Thank goodness I have some crafty friends.

Another view of the changing area and bassinet

The crib

And other storage area

All I did here was add a little trim to these lamps,

frame my favorite verse and,

ask Erica to make this black clock the perfect blue :)

This precious chair was from the old FBC Woodway building. Who knows maybe I sat in that seat 30 years ago?

Mom gave me this cute 'B' hanger and the outfit was once my nephew Wyatt's.

Erica repainted this cherry wood plate rack a pretty cream color, and this side table went from dark cherry to cream and gray!

This button 'b' was from Brady's shower and it matches perfectly

Ally and Ryan each gave Brady a couple of items for his shelves. Ally choose these stuffed animals and Ryan gave Brady his first baseball and baseball piggy bank. I made the burlap letters, and the blue button was also from my baby shower. Erica painted these shelves too and took them from yucky light brown a yummy disressed cream.

This glider was a gift from my Nana when I was pregnant with Ryan. Nine years ago denim was the in thing :). We had it recovered and I think it was the perfect finishing touch. This chair has been used to rock my babies for years and now we'll be using it once again.

There is something very special about preparing a nursery. I know that Brady would be just fine in any room but creating his nursery has been a wonderful thing for me to do in order to mentally get ready for Brady's arrival.

We can't wait to meet you Brady!

Getting Ready for Baby!

It has been so fun putting together another nursery. This one was very different because adding a nursery meant moving our home office. At first it was an incredibly daunting task but little by little we have moved the office, got a new computer, TV, painted the living room, bathroom and nursery, recovered the glider, had a garage sell, baby shower and I can say that things are almost finished!! Whew. It was a pretty significant transition loosing our two desks, but we're getting used to it now and I'm very thankful that we decided to stay put in our house for a while.

The day we put the crib up this is what we found...they were 'hiding' :)

I'm sorry but when did they get so HUGE?? Seriously I was shocked that day by how old my two children are!! It's time for a teeny tiny one to join our family.

You can see the start of the nursery in this picture. I am loving the color of the walls in here. It's a really light gray and the bedding is a super soft blue from Restoration Hardware Baby. {I love everything in that catalog.}

Another thing I found in the RHB catalog was some ADORABLE alphabet canvasses. I kept looking at them and coveting them and almost buying them several times, but the price...oh my word the price!! They were $320 before tax and shipping and I just couldn't justify spending that much on them----even though they were AWESOME! I decided to recreate them myself and I am very proud of this project.

I started by having my friend Erica match the color of the bedding perfectly and paint these three canvasses for me. {She's got some major talent with Annie Sloan Chalk paint! She painted those cream candle sticks you see in this picture too, as well as several pieced for the nursery--thank you Erica!}

Then I went to Crop-Paper-Scissors and bought a bunch of scrapbook paper that would make the perfect flashcards for the canvasses.

Then I re-created the Restoration Baby A-Z flashcards on my MAC. This was by far the longest and hardest part but well worth the time.

Then I printed each card on the correct paper, cut to size and then tea-stained about 10 of them, all of which I 'd never done before so there was some trial and error for sure :).

After they dried I modge-podged them onto the canvasses and here they are.

They look a LOT like the originals to me and I only spent $28--yea!

I hope Baby Brady likes them:).

I cannot wait for there to be a sweet baby in that crib!!

Date Night

This year our church had a very cool Daddy-Daughter Date night. Ally was looking forward to spending time with Mark, so Ryan and I decided to go on a date as well. It was hilarious because we went over a few things that boys do on a date like; compliment your date on how they look, open the car door, restaurant door, pay for dinner etc. It was very funny to watch Ryan do these things for his momma! We had a blast and we'll be making this an annual tradition.

Here we are before our big night. Ryan had on a collared shirt under this sweatshirt just for me :).

Can you feel her excitement??!!

And his too..he he. He was actually very excited because our date started off at 135 Prime with Steak and Shrimp and then we headed to see Star Wars Episode 1 in 3D. I let him choose what he'd like to do and I thought he came up with a wonderful plan!

Ally and Mark went to dinner with us and then they headed to church for a night filled with crafts, food, pictures and a REAL CARRIAGE RIDE! Ally came home glowing and told me every detail of her fantastic night.

She got these beads at church and had just had to wear them in the picture.

I love that our church put on this wonderful night and that over 300 daddies treated their daughters to a night they'll never forget. I also love that I got to spend some quality time with my giant 8 year-old son. He chatted the night away and I just listened...it was perfect!

Monday, March 5, 2012

Cute As A Button Baby Shower!

If you know me well at all you know that I am not the best pregnant person. That's probably saying it too kindly. I'm pretty miserable. I'm SO sick the first 16 weeks and then SO tired and uncomfortable at the end that no one needs to come into my line of fire. Not to mention the current stress of Ally's last few weeks, Ryan's new migraine symptoms, Mark having to miss his trip this year because a 35 week prego can't go on a Caribbean cruise.... blah blah blah. Bottom line is, this time has been really hard and I am ready to be D-O-N-E. I know that I shouldn't complain and I am forever reminded that women do this every single day but I am never going to be one of those blissful, joyful, non-swollen, "oh my goodness this is the best time of my life" kind of girl. If you are one of those women that's awesome for you, just don't rub it in!! Strangers constantly telling me I look so cute, or WOW you still have 5 weeks, no way!! It's comical the conversations and comments that I've gotten this time around. Please know that I LOVE the results of pregnancy and I can FINALLY see the light at the end of this tunnel...or birth canal. :).

{Total side note: my kids have been asking 1 million questions about how that baby gets out of my tummy so that has been my "official" answer. Never thought 'd be talking to my 8 and 5 year old about the birth canal, but so be it. They are awesome, inquisitive little people and I can't wait to see them with Brady.}

Basically I am SO thankful that I still have friends and family to call on after the last 9 months...HA! Seriously, I don't think I could have made it without you, so THANK YOU. Some of my very favorite people on the planet insisted on throwing a baby shower for sweet Brady, and I'm so glad they did. I was really hesitant to do it at first simply because it's a third baby and all, but I am grateful they talked me into it because it was the perfect little shower. And, I even managed to take a few pictures of myself pregnant :). I had the best night and felt overwhelmed with gratefulness.

The super cute shower invite done in Brady's nursery colors. LOVED every single Button detail of this night!