Window Shopping

When I initally started blogging my intent was too blog about my family, not about all the material things I would like to buy. As it is, I get such satisfaction from putting together the dream scenarios (aka collages) it is almost a much fun as shopping. With the added benefit of no buyers remorse, and agonizing if I will like it in ten years. I tend to think I have to hold on to my stuff for the rest of my life. Any old way, when I have time to blog, the kids are otherwise occupied. Since we don't have a t.v, they use the desktop computer to play games ,which has all of my photos stored on it. That also keeps me from blogging about them because I would like to show you who I am talking about. When I run them off my other computer I will be blogging about my big boy, Sam, next.

So, since I am being all worldly and materialistic I will show you show of the other junk I love.

I saw a post on Two Ellie the other day about her friend Brook's nursery, so I had to check it out. It is gorgeous, I love her style and the fact that she seems to shop in the same dives that I do, you can see more here. By the way, I just learned how to link, thanks to my sister in law, Nichole. Thank you so much Nichole and I apologize for my deficiency in this area before. Although, it will become evident how much I window shop, I am afraid.

Since, we are on the subject I am so pumped about baby boy's nursery. He was going to be Drew, but my husband is having some issues with this now. He feels God is leading him to the name Timothy. He prayed for him by the this name and who can argue with this logic. His logic is like that a lot, unarguable. It either makes such sense that to protest would make you feel stupid or you are arguing against the Heavenly Father. Can't win either way. That might be his name, so I need to pray that God will make me feel comfortable with this name. I just know it will shortened to Timmy or worse Tim-Tim. I don't hate the name, it is fine as a middle name. I really would like his name to honor God, as his Daddy has mentioned. He is, after all responsible for blessing us with this little one. The name dilemma is one reason I thought it would be nice to have a girl,we had a name for her, Molly Grace.

O.k so I got off on a tiny little tangent. I have been inspired as I am sure many others have by the recent offerings in the Serena and Lily catalogue. How killer are those headboards? I think it would really break up all the wood furniture I have, to have an upholstered bed. I made one prior to purchasing the bed we now have. It was definitely a beginner result. Just a big ole beige rectangle, it would have been cute dressed up with some nailheads,in retrospect. It would probably be hard for me to sell this option to Andy, since he might remember my first attempt. Also, even more difficult since I would have to buy one this time. I am not getting any smaller and more agile these days. I have shown one on Layla Grace that is to die for, but the one's on S&L ain't bad either see. Speaking of Serena and Lily, I do love their crib bedding. However, my pet peeve is that their crib skirts are too short. I prefer them to touch the floor, as I do with all bedskirts and curtains. Especially for the price. Chintzy. My favorite set is Ben. I am using a similar palette in our nursery. I have finally nailed down my fabric choices and I will bore you with them one last time, then I will be starting on the bumper pads. I am going to attempt to make box cushion bumpers. It is a headache, but I spent too much money on the cording, so now I have to do it myself. I have my fingers crossed that the curtain panels that I purchased will work. If it all comes together as I hope, I will only have the baby bedding to make. Not too bad.

Finished Cradle

I finished this little project fairly quickly, but I am not the swiftest on posting. I used Valspar spray paint from Lowe's in Baby Blue. The white pique fabric has been in my stash for a while, I believe it came from Jo-Ann's. I have no idea what designer or anything, it's pretty standard. The interior of the bumper and the sheet were made out of a print by Annette Tatum called Prairie Sea. I bought it online at Sewmamasew.com. I used Wright's Quilt binding for the ties and extra wide ric rac in color 706. Typically, I would have not cut corners on this step and made my own, but it is about my least favorite step in sewing. Also, he won't be sleeping in this little cradle for as long, so I didn't want this bedding to take forever. Most of the time , I completely under estimate the time it is going to take to make things. The most pleasant surprise in all of this was the simplicity of the fitted sheet.

Since, I have been searching the internet over I have found several new sources for my fabric addiction... The aforementioned Sewmamasew.com; Hawthtorne Threads.com and of course my old favorite Fabric.com. Quilting fabric is awesome- hip patterns, cute colors. It is the perfect weight for bedding (duh).

Cradle project

Brown cradle+blue paint+pretty fabrics= something similiar to image below.

I love the color of this cradle, not crazy about the cowboy linens. I will post results...

Johnny Baseball

We are at the ballpark about 3 sometimes 4 days a week. Between two teams with games and practices we can log in the hours there. Not to mention the friends that we have to go watch, and the high school team. Suffice it to say, we are obsessed. We are not alone, we do have friends that share the same obsession. Thankfully, with all of the boy children that we seem to produce we won't have to give up our pastime for a while.

John is our middle son and he had to play t-ball again this year. His Daddy tried to move him up to the Peanut league, even though he is two years younger than the age requirement. He passed the evaluation and did very well ,but they stood by their rules. They have them for a reason, Andy. Anyway, that was just God's hand because we have seen how competitive the rascal has become and he needs another year to learn how to control himself.

He is a good size kid for his age, so it is expected that he should act older. He is only five years old, though. And it is very evident sometimes, especially when he loses a race. The first incident occurred when he was racing the kids on Sam's team (whom he practices with almost always). He lost. O.k first of all they are three years older than him, but he thinks he is equally matched. Anyway, he was FURIOUS that he lost. He exclaims, "WHAT!" and proceeds to fall out like I have never seen. He throws his legs out from under himself- similarly to the seated bounce like you used to do on a trampoline except he was on red clay. You know it had to hurt. It was so hard not to laugh. Andy thinks this quality is a good trait (this fierce competitiveness), but we have to learn how to harness it. You think.

I fear for the children that he gets after when he fields the ball. They don't all know to stop running when they get on base and if he gets the ball, he is hot after them to get them out.

Of course, it might be a little funny to me because he mine and I know how sweet and gentle he is most of the time. It was not so funny to the other Mother at the ballpark who drug him up to Andy and said he mauled her son on the playground. Never before has he gotten into a fight with anyone, so you can imagine my shock. Evidently, the other child would not let him on the playhouse. I was not there, I had to leave to attend a baby shower, so I cannot attest to any of it. Regardless, whether he was profoundly provoked or not, we can't maul people. He got into big trouble for that one.

Temper control issues aside, he is extremely shy. Last week, he had to take his test for kindergarten. He would not hold his head up and speak to the teacher. Hopefully, he did look up once or twice when she evaluated him. He said he only missed one answer, I have yet to hear from the school. They did say that he was very smart before we left (do they say anything else). He cannot wait for kindergarten, he finally gets to go to school with Sam.

He is such a unique member of our family. He is the only one who has remained blonde, hence the name Blonde John. He looks so much like his Daddy it's not funny. He has always been a Daddy's boy, so I have been ecstatic that he finally shows me some affection. He is very excited that we are having a baby and he is very careful and loving to me. His reaction to the news of another baby brother, "WHAT!" and a fallout.

Next, installment....Sammy superstar! I have to take more photos, I have been very slack this season.

Nursery wishlist

I have had a good bit of computer time on my hands. Its Spring break and we have a stomach bug. I don't yet, praise the Lord. So lacking a T.V, I surf the net while the pooties (aka my kids) watch DVD's. I really miss the TV when someone is sick. Anyway, I took a nap with Jack, since we did not get any sleep the night before. He threw up in the bed while we were visiting Matt and Nichole at the beach. Talk about a vacation buster, I hope that we left before he could breathe viral germs on everyone. After the first vomiting episode, I couldn't sleep for fear that he would asphyxiate. My two others slept in the bed with their cousins, so then I was afraid that they would throw up on them. Not a pleasant nights sleep, to say the least. Anyway, while I was napping with Jack I had the idea that I could use the "theme" that I passed on for the baby shower for the new baby's room. I couldn't justify buying anything themey for a shower, it's just one day. By the way, I haven't posted any photos of said shower because the memory card was not in my camera. It is too bad, it was super cute. I even baked a few things myself for it. Not typical of me.
The theme that I really thought was super cute was a forest friends that I saw here...
http://www.hostessblog.com/2009/09/woodland-forest-party-theme-part-2-creatures-crafty-details/

I thought since I wanted to make some animals and the colors would work maybe I could bring it all together somehow. Again, the reason I do not usually have everything really pulled together like I would like-money. All of these little cutesies are expensive. I can paint and sew and with the exception of the the knit dolls, I could make it all. Famous last words, that I have said too often. Maybe I should spend more time working on this stuff and less time blogging about it. It really helps me to get a vision thought if I make these collages. Unfortunately, I put them together and want everything on them.
I think the tree of life painting is a definate, so I am going to head up to Big Lots and see if they have any more of those giant canvasses I saw the last time I was prowling around in there. The animal alphabet canvas is too cute, but that might be too much of a good thing.
My buddy Jennifer helped me iron out my fabric placement for my crib bedding. I do believe I am going to hire out the bumper pad, it is not worth my sanity. We might not have groceries for a week but.... I have to buy the remainder of the fabric as well. Thank goodness I have half the pregnancy to go, so I can get all of this done. Never mind the other projects I have to complete for other people. Whew!

Master Bedroom wishlist

Maybe, Andy will read this one day and buy all of this furniture for me. Since, we will never have a little girl's boudoir, I think mine should be ultra feminine. All of this fabulousness is from Layla Grace.com. The bed costs about 4 grand. Just a drop in the bucket isn't it? The bedding is from Pom Pom at Home, to whom I have my lovely hairdresser Fran to thank for introducing me to. It is killer with a capital K. The collection looks like antique linens, it's constructed alot like the heirloom dresses that I so covet. So either, I compromise and have bedding that looks like this or one dandified little baby boy. I have no problem with boys in heirloom garments, but I have a slew of naysayers now in the form of brothers. I can just hear it now," Mama, why is the baby wearing a dress (aka daygown)." They all wore them, but they were all to young to know any different when the next one came along.
Anyways, I would like to purchase all of this stuff and really fix up my room. The price tags of these items prohibits me from that iclination and sends me to Goodwill and to my sewing room to try to copy them . I have recently sworn off trying to fix up junk. My new tactic is to just wait and see if Andy will come through. I can always dream, can't I?

Its a Boy!

Well, it has been an exhausting day. I feel like all the energy has been sucked out of me. First thing this morning we had a visit to the baby doctor. We had our ultrasound, our little boy is perfectly formed and just beautiful. He is already very sweet, I can tell. I think he is going to be very laid back. Maybe from his positioning in the womb, he's stretching his tiny little legs. I was very surprised at my reaction, but I was just tickled to death. Honestly, I suspected this baby was a boy, but everyone else thought girl. Andy was amazed I can assure you. I think I am a little relieved, of course because he is healthy and developing normally, but I was so afraid that I would pass all of my insecurities and doubts down to my little girl. It's not easy being female, I have a lot of expectations for myself that are very hard to reach sometimes. The way that my brain over-analyzes and speculates, it is exhausting. Anyway, I know that not all girls are like this, some boys are, my poor brother Chris shares this affliction. My boys are definitely not like this, they share their Daddy's acceptance of things at face value. I am grateful for these little boys, they are teaching me. It has taken me a lifetime to develop these tendencies and unfortunately, the won't go away overnight.

Back to the baby, we have had so many hilarious reactions to the news of our boy. Mostly, they sound as if they have been kicked in the stomach or possibly lower, if you catch my drift. Some people are very kind about it.

Getting to see him via the ultrasound also coincided with his decision to make his presence known to me. I thought I could feel him moving but it was such a tiny little feeling. Now he's moving around and kicking and I can really tell. That is such a great comfort.

I am still battling some extreme exhaustion. I might need to have my iron checked. I felt much better Thursday(or was it Friday) night after I had eaten a delicious filet prepared by my Brother-in-law, Matt. Thank you Matty and Kitty Cole for the celebration dinner. It was ridiculous as usual.

Sorry for the lack of photos, next time I will do better. We are having a baby shower here Saturday morning, I will post some pics of that.