I find redecorating therapeutic in the highest sense. When I’m stressed, I clean the house, When I’m bored, I think of ways to change up the decor. When I’m pregnant, I morph into an obsessive home decorating monster. During Caleb’s pregnancy, I found enough time to hand make just about everything in his room besides the furniture. This time around, I have none of that time, but I still have the nesting itch. So instead of concentrating on one room, I’ve expanded to the entire house. Since we moved in 5 years ago, every wall except the living room and two bedrooms was white. Doing something about that was first on my agenda. So for my birthday, I asked for an entire painting of the kitchen/dining/living area. After three years of figuring out what to do with the open floor plan, I decided on a dark red for the kitchen and a light neutral green for the rest of the area. Nothing made me more excited than watching those sterile white walls disappear. Here is the result:

I was thrilled with the outcome… but then came the discovery that we were having another little boy. This opened up a whole new slew of decorating opportunities. We decided to keep Caleb’s room the nursery and move him into the spare bedroom right across the hall. This way, we could transition him into a toddler bed and provide him a new room to grow into while at the same time, keeping the nursery theme the same so we could reuse most of Caleb’s baby decorations. My sister-in-law helped create the ultimate little boy room with super awesome airplane murals on the walls:

Caleb was so excited for his new room, he insisted sleeping there before we were even ready. We haven’t had any issues transitioning him from his crib to the bed. So lesson learned for the next one: If you don’t want problems with the extra freedom that comes with a bed, make a room where they want to spend all of their time despite the freedom.

Now that Caleb was happily settled in his new room, I moved ont to Project Nursery. I wanted to reuse the bedding I so painstakingly made with my own hands and wanted to keep the same blue walls. But I needed it to still be a unique room for Nathan. One trip to Hobby Lobby helped me decide on a western theme. Since there was paisley already in the pattern of the fabric, converting to a cowboy room would be seamless. I just added a few extra decorations for identity and texture. My oh-so-creative sister-in-law came over to help me on the rope name above his crib. In less than a week, Nathan’s new nursery was complete:

All three projects were very low budget. All furniture was either what we already had or given to us. Decorations for the kids’ rooms were either products of great sales, reused from other rooms or inexpensive materials. I love knowing every room in our house is now complete and has an intentional purpose. It’s a peaceful contentment knowing our house is the perfect size and we need nothing more. And as of right now, my monstrous nesting instinct has been pacified….. but I do have exciting plans already in place for a few years down the road.

It’s actually been a few weeks since it was painted, but here’s a picture of our new paint job! I was dead set against anything brown or tan as living in AZ, you see enough of it. My desperate plea for a splash of color was granted. Now we have a fresh new blue house. I am so happy!

Now we just need some greenery in our red rock yard….

After  three months of sawdust, noise and plastic tarps, we’ve finally reached a goal. The interior is finished! Mostly, anyways. there are a few minor items like doorknobs and paint touch-ups, but it feels so good to finally remove the child\doggy barricades and let everyone roam free in our fresh new family room and office. We’ve spent the entire day in the family room and it has been awesome. It came out exactly how I wanted it: bright and roomy. Now Caleb can pull out every one of his toys and still have room to run around without tripping over anything. We pulled out the hardly-used chaise from our bedroom and put it in the corner for a cozy reading nook. The huge closet does a wonderful job storing everything we could possibly need. Here are a few before and afters for some good shock value:

Before, nasty messy garage:

After, sweet tranquility:

Before, a plain old garage door:

After, gorgeous archway:

Before, cramped and cluttered:

After, nice and spacious:

There’s plenty of space to spin around…:

…and lounge around:

Andy’s picked out the perfect colors for his new office:

And Caleb has more storage room than he could ever need:

The next step that will hopefully happen within a few days is the exterior painting. We let our Facebook friends vote for their favorite color and most of them chose the riskier option (hurrah!). We will probably be the first blue stucco house ever… and I thoroughly intend to start a trend. No more tan houses!!

To state the obvious, our lives have turned into a frenzied disarray. Dozens of people hammer away at various parts of the house throughout the day, everything is coated in a fine layer of sawdust, and we have a gaping hole in our living room wall. It’s chaotic right now, but the changes are very exciting. Here are some pictures I took this evening right before the sun went down.

The huge hole that will soon be an archway into the new room:

What is soon to be the new living room. That creepy dark doorway will be Andy’s new office/man cave:

The view from the new living room into the house:

Our new enormous new patio roof. It will be insulated and finished with a ceiling fan when all is said and done. The  ply board wall on the left is the office addition:

And the view from the backyard. The room on the right is the office addition sans windows

I recently made some small changes to Caleb’s room. I wanted to change it from his nursery to a “big boy” room. There was no need to change the paint color or rearrange the furniture so the changes are subtle. But for me, it’s enough to get excited about. My sweet Sister-in-Law made the cute artwork for the walls.

It’s also been a while since I updated everyone on our little guy. It’s hard to remember since I don’t do monthly updates anymore. Caleb just got over a scary sickness of which he had a fever as high as 104.6. We now think he has an inner ear infection just by the way he’s been acting recently. His balance is off and he’s cranky all day long. We’ll be going into the doctor tomorrow to find out for sure. Aside from that, he’s been doing great. He can say (with much exuberance) “dog”. He also waves and says “bye” and “night night”. “Noi noi” is a favorite, but I have  yet to figure out its meaning. He blows kisses, points to a variety of body parts and dances. He can throw and catch a football, kick soccer balls, and bounce basketballs (much to his father’s delight). He had figured out how to turn on, unlock, and navigate his way through my iphone. It’s a little unsettling that he knows more about technology at one  than I did at five years old. His sippy cup has become his lovey of choice and he demands it at bedtime. This has been quite a struggle because he likes to play with it and chew on the spout instead of falling asleep. First thing in the morning he prefers to lounge on his toddler couch with sippy cup in hand while watching his favorite cartoon “Boz the Bear” in order to properly wake up. He loves the outdoors. He would spend all day outside if he had the choice. He’s also discovered bugs and is fascinated by the creepy crawlies that lurk around the backyard. There aren’t that many in AZ so we actually have to search them out. He is such a cuddler and loves to give hugs and kisses.

He has become quite the celebrity at our local stores. I tend to frequent Target and Sprouts during my weekly errands. The garden center lady at Target dotes over him every time we visit. The moment she spots him, she squeals with delight, calling him “my little gerber angel baby!”. There are also a couple of cashiers at Sprouts who get excited when they see us come in. They also fight over who gets to ring us up. I guess he’s quite a little ham.

Come Wednesday, half of our house will be in shambles…and I’m so stinking excited!

Why?

Hopefully in a few months the garage will be transformed into a huge family room and an office/fourth bedroom will be built onto the back of the house. We will also extend our patio roof, built a carport off the side of the new family room and paint/stucco the entire outside of the house. Some people (okay, a lot of people) think we’re crazy to live in AZ and not have a garage. But I know from experience that as long as the car is in the shade, it’ll be fine. Besides, why should the car get the biggest room in the house? The extra bedroom will free up some space for more kids and/or  hobbies and the family room will give us some more breathing room. It’s way better than moving in this economy and we love our house for so many reasons (awesome layout, awesome backyard, great location) we really have no desire to move.

Once demo starts on Wednesday, our lives will become full of noise and dust. But the exciting changes far outweigh the inconveniences we’ll have to endure. Andy and I keep joking that house projects are one of the things we do best together. We love going to Lowe’s and looking at flooring, lighting, etc. I played Sims 1-3 simply to build awesome houses and now I kind of get to build my own.

Here are a few “before” pictures with some homemade conceptual art:

I finally got the hankering to turn Caleb’s nursery into a big boy room. My Sis-in-law gifted me some ridiculously cute canvases and an awesome growth chart a few months ago. I set them aside thinking I would get this redecoration started “right quick”. Two + months later, I’ve finally gotten around to it. Fortunately, I didn’t have to repaint anything because the artwork I got matched perfectly with his already blue room; one more thing I didn’t have to worry about. All I had to do was replace some wall decorations and move a bookcase. Easy Peasy. I figured this transition was also a good time to take some current portraits of Caleb.

Caleb’s also at the stage where everything is novel. He’s also discovering that every part of his body has a name. He’s got all the facial parts down and is working on the rest of his body.  He loves pointing out these features on other people and animals too.  It’s a great laugh when he gets up close and personal exploring someone’s ears, hair, eyes, etc.

Here’s the portrait series I’m using in his room. Truthfully, there were about a dozen to choose from. I had such a hard time deciding on only four that I put them all up on Facebook and let everyone else decide for me. That made things even harder. After much deliberation I finalized these four. I’m printing them out in 11×14 prints and hanging them around the window. I’ll post the finished room when the get here.

We moved into our current house almost three years ago. When we saw this:

we put “remodel the bathtub” at the top of our to-do list. Now, almost three years later, we can finally check it off our list. Why we kept putting this off eludes me. The tub has been Toby’s personal bathing spot because no human would willingly shower in there (sorry Mom!). Since Toby’s white, no one notices the tiny paint chips stuck in his fur. Not wanting to risk some toxic contamination, we crammed poor caleb into his infant sink tub until he couldn’t fit onto it anymore. From there, we transitioned him to our bathroom. I finally got tired of Caleb’s creepy rubber duckies staring at me when I showered and called someone to fix the guest bath tub.

Now it looks like this:

Caleb has his own bath, Andy and I can shower in peace, and Toby can be paint chip-free. Win win win.

I finally had enough motivation to paint the bathroom when I ordered my first prints for the house. Here they are displayed in our “new” bathroom.

And here’s the other side of the bathroom, complete with toilet-drumming baby:

Over the past few weeks, we made some renovations to our living room. When we moved in, most of the house had tile floor and the living room had a huge arcadia door. The problem with the door was that it was a 20-something year-old squeaky single pain heat monster. During the 100+ degree summer, the living room would be at least 10 degrees hotter than the rest of the house, and with it being the most used room of the house, this was a problem.

We also had a rug we bought for the previous house to cover up the tile in the living room. Since Caleb’s been here, I’ve been sitting on that floor more than the couch and have noticed how thin and uncomfortable it was. We decided to invest in a new dual pane door and some nice new carpet to help the living room feel more inviting. a few weeks ago, we got our new carpet installed and the door was installed yesterday. I can’t believe how much more comfortable the room is now. The carpet is so thick and plush and makes the room look twice as big. The door reduces glare and definitely keeps the heat out.

Before:

Notice the gray rug and aluminum patio door

After:

My gracious husband hung up the remaining decorations for me last night, and today we got a few remaining items and touched everything up. After literally months of sewing, painting, assembling and decorating, The nursery is complete. Here are those long awaited pictures as I promised:

Nursery from the hallway

Dresser and shadow boxes (Andy’s first pair of shoes are in the center one)

Crib, rocker, and the letters Brandi painted for me

9 weeks to go! Caleb is over 3 pounds and over 16 inches long. Andy and I both agree we feel cheated out on this week’s produce of the week: four naval oranges.

We had a doctor’s appointment today and got some questions answered. I’ve been a little concerned with the baby being breech this late in the pregnancy. I could tell by how low his kicks were and how he liked to have his head on my right side just under my ribs. One night this past week I thought he turned and have felt his kicks all over the place on top and on the sides. I told my doctor about this and he felt around. Turns out that he’s lying transverse (sideways) with his head on my left side and his feet kicking my right side (which totally makes sense to me now) so he’s not quite head-down yet but he’s on his way. I guess he likes taking his time. He’s been pretty laid back as far as fetuses go so maybe that will carry over into infancy. I wouldn’t mind a calm baby.

Other than that, We did the normal doctor’s visit stuff with the heartbeat and uterus-measuring. His heartrate was in the 150’s which is a little higher than before only because he was nice and awake. He even kicked the dopplar a few times trying to get it off. I measured 28 weeks but the doc said that was pretty typical for a transverse baby.

Ever since he turned, I’ve been getting these wierd sensations when he scrapes his hand or foot across me. The only way I can describe it is like getting tickled from the inside. I’m usually a very ticklish person normally especially on my side. Since his feet are right there, everytime he moves his foot across my side it makes me jump. This seems to be one of his favorite activities right now because I’m getting “tickled” several times a day.

The nursery is a little more complete. I was able to get the crib mattress and some sheets with the money from my baby shower repeats and some gift cards. So now the crib is basically ready. Once we get the rocker we’ll be able to hang some things up and really finish the nursery. Here are some pictures of the crib. And for all you who are worried about my set up, I will not have the bear, pillow or blanket in the crib when the baby’s in there. It’s merely for my aesthetic enjoyment right now.:

Okay, with some gentle persuasion from Andy, I gave in and decided to update on nursery improvements. I think everyone remembers what it looked like pre-baby:

Since then, Andy and his aunt painted it and the furniture has arrived. I was able to put a few of my sewing creations in there although I don’t think I’ll be able to use the bumper or the mobile. The crib is kind of an awkward shape. the bumper sits too high and can’t tie around the posts when it’s almost to the top of the rail and the mobile only fits crib sides that are 2″. As you can see, the sides are way thicker. I may have to persuade Andy to hang it from the ceiling.

The dresser looks great. All it needs is a changing pad on it. If you look closely, you can see our wireless internet gadgets squeezed under there. Unfortunately, the only cable hookup is in this room so that will have to stay.

For another project, I copied some pictures out of my first addition Peter and Wendy book (for those of you who don’t know, that book is very special to me and is probably one of the few things I would rescue from the house if it were on fire) and framed them. Here they are framed…:

… and here is what they actually look like since I couldn’t get a good picture of them in their frames:

That’s all we have so far. We’re mainly waiting on the rocker to come in so we can finalize where everything will be laid out in the room. Once that’s finished, we can hang up the shadow boxes and the beautiful letters my sister-in-law painted for Caleb. I guess I will be keeping everyone updated now, thanks to Andy.

Today we visited Baby’s-R-Us once more, and at Briana’s urging finally picked out a crib and dresser and ordered them;  very nice, dark cherry wood, and we’ll have them within 7-14 days.  Bri insisted we order them early due to the fear that they wouldn’t be in stock or available soon.  I told her they would surely be available immediately and sure enough they were.  I was right! (I get to be right once every 7-14 days….)  I’m glad we ordered them though…every little purchase like this, every preparation, makes it all the more real.  Here are some pics of the purchases…

Now we have to get the room ready and paint it (I’ll be doing that to prevent pregnant-paint-mommy-syndrome…very scary).  The crib is convertible, meaning it will be able to become a regular bed once that day comes.  Because of this, we also had to order the rails for it as well as a guardrail, because if we wait it might be out of stock by then.

I completely remember having a guardrail as a kid.  My dad made me one.  I was terrified of falling out of bed at night. One time, in the middle of the night, I somehow fell off and got all wrapped up in my sheets, and was left screaming for help from the floor of my room.  Luckily my pops saved me from under the covers.  Phew.  Remembering that guardrail had me thinking of a common Christian misconception though.

A lot of the time people on the outside of Christianity look at things like God’s precepts/commands as rules and regulations that those inside must “follow” in order to be seen as righteous in God’s eyes.  They don’t realize that God’s commands and precepts are truly just like guardrails on a bed.  They’re there for a purpose, and the purpose is not to make people jump through hoops, but to protect us.  Christ alone is our righteousness, not our obedience to rules.

God gives us his word and the wisdom and truth within it as a “guardrail” for our lives.  He knows the things that will make us fall out of our beds and get twisted up in the sheets that would destroy us.  It may seem like a silly metaphor but it’s an appropriate one.  God knows what’s ultimately best for us, and a Christian’s obedience is a reflection of their faith in Christ and comes through an understanding of God’s ultimate control and sovereignty.  That his “guardrails,” his Biblical precepts and commands, keep us from self-destructive lives in which we fail to glorify Him.  What’s amazing is that those times we still manage to jump over them and fall out of bed (which I all too often do), He’s there to comfort us and rescue us in the middle of the night, just like my Father did when I was a little dude…twisted up in my dinosaur sheets.

Now that I know my brother and sis-in-law got the quilt I made them (see this post), it’s now safe to show everyone the finished product….

Here’s the quilt all laid out:

And here it is after I wrapped it up to send away: