Where did February (and March) go?

Well I am not sure where the time has gone.  February flew right on by.  I always think of topics to write about, but then I get home and get busy on some project OR get busy laying on the couch.  It's really one or the other.
 
One big project I worked on was hostess gifts for all the showers I had in February and March.  I found an idea on pinterest for making modge podge picture frames and kinda put my own spin on it too (of course).  So during the week I mainly shopped for that stuff or worked on painting or modge podge-ing the scrapbook paper on the frames.  I meant to take pictures, but sadly I never did!

The other projects were preparing the nursery and the guest room to get some work done.  We had them painted and new carpet put in.  I really love how it turned out!

And we were showered with many gifts and lots of love all month!!!  So I guess that is where the time went.  I tried to come up with a coherent post about it all, but I don't think that is possible now.

So instead.... picture time!

Still need to put things on the walls and we still might get a rocking chair.  But it's as done as its going to probably get for a while :-)

Beyond Blessed

February 18th I had my first shower.  It was just beautiful and given by my high school girlfriends.  And their Moms were invited plus a few guy friend Moms that we were all close with.  It was so wonderful to see everyone!!!  On top of that, they totally spoiled me and baby girl with so many amazing gifts.  I was overwhelmed by how generous they were.  And it was just a fun time - long awaited - and I had worried before hand that I would get all emotional.  But I didn't - it was just fun and happy!

That weekend we were also prepping for the house to be painted and carpet done.  So Bear had been working on that while I was away at the shower.  I came home and he had moved most of the 2 extra rooms into the garage, and was cleaning out the kitchen and the living room.  My pregnant brain was completely overwhelmed by the major mess everywhere!  I was happy he was doing it - it had to happen - but I thought my nesting pregnant brain may explode at the sight of it all.  PLUS, I had a car full of gifts to unload.  I tried not to freak out.  And I did hold it together, but barely.  I decided to put all the shower gifts in my closet - thank goodness we do have quite a bit of storage space in our house! Then I proceeded to clean out baby girls closet and the guest closet into various places in the house.  I managed to fit it all in the hall closet and coat closet by the front door for the most part.


Then February 23rd, my coworkers hosted a shower for me.  It was also completely amazing - above and beyond anything I could imagine!  Plus, my old RF friends came over too.  They gave me even more wonderful baby items - so cute! - and even had diet punch for my GD.  It was a lot of fun!  And when I got home those gifts had to go in the kitchen - I just wasn't OK with putting them in the garage at that point.

Then on February 25th my sister and cousins had put together a family and friends shower in Lexington.  It was once again amazing!  My sister did a fabulous job of getting it together.  Aunt Amanda :-) She did the cake and made a very cute bouquet out of socks and wash cloths!  And everyone there once again spoiled, spoiled, spoiled us all with amazing things for baby girl.  My cousin gave me TWO amazing gift baskets packed full of everything little girl.  My favorite - the cutest little flip flops ever.  So cute.  And everyone else gave amazing things too of course. (I haven't gotten the pictures yet or I would share)


And my final shower was on March 3 in Dime Box.  It was just as wonderful and amazing as all the others.  They gave us our stroller and we had fancy drinks with real stemware and we ate on real plates!  It was just really nice - and once again everyone went above and beyond to shower us and our little girl with so much love and so many cute CUTE baby things.  There were also fabulous favors - decorated sugar cookies.  And yes, I did eat some.  And no, I won't tell you what my blood sugar was after :-)

I have been truly overwhelmed by everyone's generosity.  I don't even know how to accurately describe how it feels.  We are very thankful.  And this baby is truly loved :-)

Thanksgiving 2011

We had lots of plans for Thanksgiving week and luckily most of them fell into my "we MUST DO THINGs" mindset.

For Thanksgiving on my side we went to my Grandpa's and also celebrated his 93rd birthday.  My mom and aunt mentioned needing a small cake and I volunteered - with hesitation - because I always seem to get myself into things I shouldn't.  But it actually turned out nice and I was glad I did it.  Tuesday I baked and Wednesday I decorated.

I didn't do a big announcement about it being a girl and just kinda told people.  That just fits with that side of the family.  Then we went to Bear's family and he asked his Mema to tell everyone.  We had other plans to tell everyone, but then didn't end up doing any of them.  But it was still fun!!!

So Thanksgiving was very nice, except of course the football game we shall not speak of.

Luckily, Bear has been very cooperative about things I want done around the house, but it may end soon as I continue to think of things that "need" to be done.  However, the we did accomplish quite a few things on our time off after Thanksgiving.  I almost exhausted myself, but dang it they got DONE.  And some have been waiting forever!

• The Wednesday before Thanksgiving we got the TV mounted over the fireplace -- by professionals!  We needed power and cable on the other side of the room, plus the mount, so I really wanted it done correctly and Bear didn't object.  This way we have a clear walkway to the other part of the house AND we can have more options for rearranging the living room furniture.  Also, I want a recliner and that was the only way to fit it into the furniture grouping.  Now this gives me another thing I have to do which is decorate the very large empty living room wall that is now blank.  But... not before we paint the entire room - or so Bear suggests and I won't object!  Not sure when that is exactly going to happen yet ... to be continued.  

• Friday we of course shopped!  Until I almost dropped and I didn't even go out until lunch.
• Saturday we continued with the projects.
• We bought a new dining room light fixture to replace the yucky brass and white ceiling fan.  Bear hung it and also centered it to my liking.  

I tried to take a picture, but it was really hard to get it right.

See!?  Anyway, I like it.

One without the light on in the daylight. 

• And we also got a pendant for over the sink and he hung that too.

• He almost got to hang the mantle back under the TV, but we needed more things from Lowes, which we did get, but we were too tired by the time we got to that. 
• THEN we got all the Christmas decorations down from the attic.
• Then, side break while I cleaned out my entire closet and put together things to give to goodwill. (I SWEAR I hope this energy lasts!)
• And then, I did fluff and put all the lights on the tree.  And that is where I had to call it quits.  I was so tired and my hips and feet hurt!
  

Project: Backyard walkway

This weekend Bear and I completed a project from start to finish. Can you believe it?! I know, I can't believe it either. But something I can't believe even more is that we didn't fight ONE TIME! I guess we have worked it out while discussing this project a million times over the last (at least) 4 years. So we knew the expectations before we got started.

This is what we tackled in the backyard. As you can see it needed some H-E-L-P.




We started by moving all the rocks out. And then we added a black rubber border and started leveling the dirt.

Then put down paper to prevent weeds and then we had to put all the big rocks back in. We only ended up with 2 big rocks that didn't fit. I thought that was pretty good!

And then we worked our butt off hauling in 5/8 inch pea gravel from the back of Bear's truck. He shoveled it into buckets and I hauled the buckets to the needed places. That is probably the biggest reason I can barely walk the last few days! I am still sore too.


And we have 1/4 of a yard of pea gravel left over... sigh... anyone need any? Because it is currently riding in the back of Bear's truck. Probably not so good for the gas mileage.

Then to finish it off, even though we were tired, we went back to Lowes and got flowers and mulch to finish up the flower bed. It looks pretty nice if I say so myself!!

Voila!

Happy Valentine's Day

Hope everyone is having a good Valentine's Day. Mine is going OK, got up and went to church WITHOUT my valentine which didn't make me too happy... but ya know I guess that is how it goes. At least I went and it is the third time in a row. Sadly a record for how it has been going lately.

Not much new to report. We haven't been up to much on the weekends which has been sooooooo nice. I love it. So please no one need us to do anything for a little while longer.

One thing I do need to do is finally decide on a paint color for the bathroom. It has long been driving my husband crazy that I put putty in the nail holes and never painted it. Now it is currently driving him crazy that I put test paint colors on the wall but haven't just chosen a color and bought the paint. Sadly, I spent $10 on sample paints, which are HUGE at Sherwin Williams FYI, and I still don't really like either color. But I don't want to spend any more $$$ on the samples either! I mean what am I going to do with what is currently left already? Sigh. Maybe next weekend I will decide.

Here is the current state of affairs.... note the new light fixture, I did finally put 2 new light bulbs in it. The colors are hard see in the pictures but I think we will go with the one on the right. I don't know. It is too dark for me but the one of the left is too bright baby blue. GAH. SEE THE PROBLEM!? It's just that the tile in there is brown, and I don't want it to turn out looking country brown and blue you know? I plan to put beachy stuff in there like some black frames with white matts with B&W beach pictures. I am hoping to use some of our own pictures and then I also have some cool star fish we found at the beach when we went on our trip over Christmas (except currently trying to get them to not smell so bad!). Then white rugs and shower curtains. And also a conch from our Bahama trip. I just hope it ends up tasteful and not 1980's beach condo. We will see.