One Month!

I'm a little behind here (like 10 days) but I wanted to start the trend of a monthly post for Liza!  

Here are a few updates about our sweet little peanut:
-You give us between 6.5-8 hours of sleep every night -- not even close to continuous though!
-You mostly like baths.
-You love laying on your playmat and listening to music/watching the lights/looking in the mirror.
-You hardly fit in ANY of your clothes -- some are the right size in the body, but far too short for your long legs and some are huge in the body, but long enough for your legs!  What can we say, you're built like your mom and dad.
-You make mom and dad soooooo happy.
-You instantly bring a smile to grandma and grandpa's faces :)
-Whitney is still not sure what she thinks about you...though she seems to be warming up a bit.
-You love to sleep on mom and dad's chest -- curled up with frog legs.  And we love it too!

 Happy Thursday everyone! :)

Liza is here :)

hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!  i realize i fell off the map for about three weeks, but we have good reason - our sweet girl made her arrival just over two weeks ago - september 17th (her due date -- what can we say, she's punctual like her mom)!

 our little peanut did not come into the world quite as we had planned, but she was healthy and in the end, that's all that mattered to us.  more to come on that story, but i just thought i'd let you all know that she is here.  i'm finally starting to feel like i can get a few things done around the house (when i'm not snuggling and loving on Liza), so hopefully i'll join the blogging world again. till then...here's a few more pictures of our peanut...

M...I...A

Life has been a little crazy this week.  I'm back to school, 39 weeks pregnant, and figuring out my new position.  I made mac and cheese for dinner this week...which may not seem like a big deal, but for a girl who loves to cook, you know I must be dragging.  As far as the baby update goes - she's still happy to hang out with me ;)  I just got home from a doctor's appointment and she thinks little Liza might just make it to her due date and beyond.  Fine with me -- I'm still pretty comfortable, only have a little swelling, and sleeping like a rock.  Those are the big updates, but I'm hopeful to get a blog post or two this weekend (seeing as we have nothing planned...yes)!  
Happy Friday everybody! :)

Liza's Room - the big REVEAL :)

Well, baby Liza will be here in less than a month.  The nursery is {almost} done and I've been waiting to share it with you until we got a few photos back from our photographer friend who recently did some maternity pictures for us!  

First, let's remember what this room looked like before {back when it was our guest bedroom}:

We started by painting it blue over spring break.  At that point, we still had NO clue if we'd be having a girl or a boy.  And even though we thought 'it' would be a girl, we still opted for blue.  I'll have to find the paint can, but it is from Sherwin Williams.  

Don't worry we didn't leave their names on the wall :)

Then, we got the crib and the dresser set up.  And then the room stayed like that for quite some time...

Until we finally found some time and energy in late spring/early summer.

Here was our list for her room:

• Add closet organization and remove closet doors
• Add shelves to display pictures/"L"/etc.
• Add shelves for diaper 'bins'
• Find rug for the floor (DIY perhaps)
• Find fabric for curtains & crib skirt
• Hang paper lanterns
• Make curtains
• Make crib skirt
• Wash clothes/burp rags/blankets/etc.
• Spray paint "L" yellow
• Hang pictures above crib
• Get chair delivered and in place
• Make a bookshelf

Although the list doesn't seem too bad, it wasn't always easy to accomplish when JW works 10.5 hours every day and I can't do too much lifting/moving by myself!  But, we're happy to say it's done!

The first pic is from our maternity pictures...pardon the rest of them.  I was eager to post and didn't edit my own!

The quilt on the back of the chair is JW's baby blanket :)

Liza's "Anywhere Chair" from PBKids, so she can fit in with her older cousins!

We like to call this the 'Twister' rug.  Maybe we've played a game or two on it :)

Diaper bag packed and ready to go to the hospital

We also like that a lot of the colors and design will be great when she wants a 'big girl' room.  And if not, most of the items in there are easy enough to switch out then!

Here's a cost breakdown:

• Fabric for curtains & crib skirt ($65 from fabric.com w/ coupon)
• Crib (Free, hand-me-down from JW's sister)
• Dresser ($285 from Buy Buy Baby - apparently they take Bed Bath & Beyond coupons...if we'd only known that or if there was one closer than 4 hours away)
• Chair ($1100 - YIKES, we spent on this bad boy because we plan on using it in the living room for years to come and because my parents have the same model chair in their living room and we LOVE it...it's a Smith Brothers in case you're wondering)
• Shelves (FREE, leftover lumber & paint from one of our many other projects)
• Closet Organization (FREE, again leftover paint and lumber and JW used a wire closet insert from a basement closet we never use)
• Bookshelf ($3 - leftover white paint and lumber and trim, and then a $3 sample of the yellow paint from Lowe's or Home Depot)
• Frames & Art (Art = $5 to print at Walgreens [rather than killing our ink cartridge]; Frames - Ryba frames from Ikea - I think they cost $10/each)
• Blue Room Paint ($30 - we had some leftover from a room in our basement and had to buy another gallon from Sherwin Williams to finish it all off)
• Curtain Panel Rings ($8 - SUPER sale at JoAnn Fabrics plus my teacher discount)
• Paper Lanterns (Free - leftover from our wedding decor)
• Rugs (the big one was $40ish from Ikea...it was a great deal and we love the playful colors; the small blue one - FREE - my mom crocheted for us)
• Mirror ($40 from HomeGoods - one of our first purchases too)
• Bins (some free from our registry, some $5/bin on sale at Meijer)
 

Well, what do you think??? :)

Hello lover.

I can’t believe it’s already Wednesday!!  As usual, this week has flown by on me.  I blame it on summer school starting up again.  Anyway, it’s time to link up with Jamie and chit chat about what I’m loving this week.

[1]

Fresh produce from our CSA and how it helped me to make these ‘Farmer’s Market Lasagna Rolls’ last night for dinner.  Recipe on those later today!

[2]

The rain yesterday.  Our yard was looking pretty dry (seeing as we’d rather water our garden than our lawn).  I know our garden loved the rain too.

[3]

Liza’s room is getting closer!  Here’s a few sneak peaks on what we’ve been working on lately!

Bookshelf that JW made for our little one!

Picture that my cousin, Chelsey painted specifically for Liza's room :)

Bassinet for our baby girl.  This came from my Grandma and she had used it for her kids, grandkids and even great grandkids.  And YES I will take the stuffed animals and blankets out before I use it.

[4]

This little girl is kicking and moving like crazy!  Every once in awhile her little jabs here and there are a bit uncomfortable, but I know it means she’s getting bigger and stronger.

[5]

Of course, I’m loving my wonderful husband, JW.

…and the Whit-bug!

 What are you loving this week?

The Simple Things.

Today I’m linking up with Jesslyn Amber for “The Simple Things”.

Here’s the simple thing I’m loving this week:
YELLOW

Our baby girl’s room will have plenty of it!

 (even though my husband feels that with too much blue and yellow we might produce a little girl who loves U of M…I’ve assured him she’ll be a Spartan fan)

Here’s just a few of the pops…

~A onesie I just couldn’t resist~

~One of the signs I made in Publisher that hangs over her crib~

~Some flags that I’m still trying to work into the room~

Recycled from a baby shower I hosted for baby Connor!

~Her new bookshelf that Daddy made~

Man, JW is a talented guy

~Her first present Grandma Patty & Poppa Mark~

~Fabric that will become the crib skirt~

You might notice I posted the same fabric but in blue yesterday -- that will be the curtains!

~My first attempt at a sign~

Yikes, bad photography...!

The sunshine has been plentiful this week and we’ve loved it!

Happy Thursday kids!

What I'm Loving Wednesday

Maybe it's just me, but I love being able to write this blog about wonderful things going on.  It seems that so often we don't celebrate these events/people/days enough.  Here's what I'm loving this week:

[one]

That as I write this, Baby Liza is moving around in my belly!  It's so cool to feel little jabs here and there :)  Oh, and here's an updated pic of the belly bump.  Needless to say, I've popped.

[two]

We got to see SO many friends and much of Jon's family this past weekend.  We squeezed so much in, but it was worth it to get to see some of our Lansing area buddies!  And it was great to celebrate two graduations in one family!

[three]

That JW and I got to go to our first Tigers game together on Sunday.  We were especially thankful since it had gotten rained out on Saturday and there were tornado warnings on Sunday.  But, once the storm passed it was an awesome night for watching baseball and the Tigs beat the Bo-Sox!  We also had pretty awesome seats -- here's a few shots from where we were sitting!

Hello Boesch!

Oh hey Jhonny Peralta!

[four]

That we got to spend some time at the lake on Monday.  We knew we couldn't consider it a true Memorial Day weekend without some Burt Lake time. 

[five]

Jon's cousins came and spent a few nights with us.  They were kind enough to take me in once we sold our house in Okemos last year and it was great to spend time with them again!

[six]

The Whit-bug of course.  She was a swimming machine this weekend and was pretty tired Tuesday morning.  But she still loves to jump off the dock even as a 10-year-old pup!

[seven]

My hubs, JW.  He makes me smile.  He works so hard around the house to get things done for Liza and I.  He puts in 10.5 hours at work every day and still manages to come home in a good mood (well...most days).  He is my rockstar :)