Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Nursery Progress!

On Sunday, we had a big day planned -
the Big Nursery Workday!  
My parents had volunteered to come and help Saunders and I work in the nursery, and I was so pumped about it ... I think this may have been the part of my birthday weekend that I was looking forward to the most because the nursery was driving me INSANE.  It was literally keeping me up at night.  The room that's becoming the nursery has been our home office since we moved here, and we'd been piling nursery stuff in there on top of home office stuff... and it was a total nightmare!  Saunders and I had tried to clean out in there a few times over the past few weeks, but it was one of those projects that seemed to look worse and worse the more we did!  Here are some before pictures, and these don't even begin to accurately represent the drama that was going on in this room ... we'd pulled all the stuff off the bookshelves in an attempt to organize it, and it had definitely made the room look worse than these pictures show.  I forgot to take a "real" before photo on Sunday morning, but trust me - it was starting to resemble a Hoarders episode in there with stuff piled up all over the floor.  Definitely overwhelming!
I had come up with a big plan during my nights of insomnia - I thought we'd approach it like a Clean Sweep episode with various areas for moving and organizing things.  All baby stuff that went back into the room went into the master bedroom, office stuff that went upstairs went into the foyer, and other stuff that needed a new home on the main level went onto the dining room table.  The room was quickly cleared with four people working, and it was such a relief to get everything out and be able to vacuum and dust the room well!  The dining room table pile was the biggest pain to sort through, but Saunders and I powered through that task while my parents patched holes, painted touch-up spots, and carried stuff upstairs.  My dad even vacuumed the whole upstairs floor and my mom reorganized my gift closet, where gift bags, wrapping paper, and tissue had slowly migrated out all over one extra upstairs bedroom ... so knocking those two things off my to-do list was a huge bonus!  Then it was time for moving furniture around, decorating, and organizing the baby stuff that was piled in our bedroom.  My grandmother Mamaw came over for lunch - my mom had brought a big pot roast and veggies, too - and she brought my birthday present and pound cake.  While she was here, she helped, too.  Katie Anne also deserves a ton of credit for her behavior during the nursery clean out ... she played so well independently the whole time- playing baby dolls, Barbies, and princess dolls ... putting together puzzles ... playing hopscotch - and she made it so easy for all the adults to work because she didn't need anything more than a few drink refills from us!  She even took herself to the potty and washed her hands by herself anytime she needed to go, so she was a total big girl while we were working.

It took about 8 hours to go from completely trashed to almost ready for Baby Saunders, but we did it!  The nursery looks so much better, and I have definitely slept a lot better at night knowing that I have a room basically ready for the baby in case he decides to come early!  I still have some projects to do and a few other things to buy, but the room is about 90% complete.  
Here are the after pictures:
 (Obviously, the theme of the nursery is UGA!)

I've done several projects for SJ4's nursery, and I've got a few more either in-progress or on my to-do list.  Here are the ones I've finished - I painted two picture frames and letters for his initials...
Katie Anne really wants to make a picture frame for his room, too - she wants to put a picture of her and him together in it after he's born.  So, we're going to head over to Hobby Lobby and get a small wooden frame for her to paint.  Katie Anne and I also went through her old baby toys and got them organized for SJ4... I'll post pictures of that project later.

My other to-do projects are:
* finish the curtains for his windows (I'm almost done - hopefully I'll finish these today).
* finish the blanket I'm making for him.
* make a UGA fabric Boppy cover - I found an easy pattern on the internet.
* decorating the plain white lampshade on his dresser with red rick rack.
* hang the rest of the stuff on his walls - I've got one Jack Davis print framed that you see in the pictures, and I've got one more to get framed.  I'm trying to decide on what else (if anything) to put on the walls.
* Jillian is making a name sign for over SJ4's closet like KA's in her room.
* moving some books from Katie Anne's bookshelf to SJ4's. 
* buying a basket to hold his board books and something to sit on his dresser for diaper changing supplies.
* getting all SJ4's clothes, recieving blankets, etc washed and put away.

I'll post pictures of all these projects as I get them finished!

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Celebrating my Birthday!

On Saturday, we celebrated my 29th birthday with my family.  I had a great time!  
 We started the night with my parents treating everyone to dinner at Maggiano's, and it was fantastic!  We all had a great time and ate a ton of wonderful food.
 I had the Rigatoni D, and it was incredible - but the bowl filled with pasta was absolutely giant! 

After dinner, we headed back to our house for cake, ice cream, and presents!  My mom had a little surprise for me, so Katie Anne entertained while we waited in the living room.
Then, it was time to go into the dining room and see what my surprise was - it was a "Beach Party"!  Everyone had lots of fun beach decorations and things at their seat.  It was a lot of fun!
Saunders had ordered a cake from a lady who works at my school - and it was so tasty!  It was a yellow cake with white icing and a fresh strawberry filling.  It was wonderful!
While we were eating our cake and ice cream, Katie Anne loved to play her kazoo - she thought it was hilarious!
 After cake and ice cream, I got to open all my fun presents!  I got lots of great stuff - CD's, earrings, a game, an I-Tunes card, and My Little Pony stickers from Saunders and Katie Anne (those stickers are for us to share, by the way) ... stationary, a new wallet, a prenatal massage, and a new dress from my parents ... and a lap desk and the latest book club book from Greg and Jillian!  It was a wonderful birthday party!

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Century Bank's Ten Year Celebration!

It isn't just my birthday this weekend ... its also Century Bank's!  This weekend, the bank celebrated their 10 year anniversary with a Saturday morning celebration for customers.  They had a bouncy house for the kids and a big tent with lunch for everyone like popcorn, snowcones, and hotdogs.  But, the biggest hit for all the customers was the giant shredding truck!  The bank paid Cintas to bring out their big mobile shredding unit, and all bank customers were invited to bring old papers that needed to be shredded to the bank to shred them in bulk.  This sounds like it wouldn't be a big deal, but it was a big draw for customers!  Car after car kept pulling into the parking lot with bags, boxes, and trashcans full of old financial papers to shred... and the big Cintas shredding truck just chewed through it all!  There was a little tv on the side of the truck so you could watch your papers being shredded, and it was actually really neat.  The weather was great, the turnout was good, and lots and lots of paper got shredded - so it was a success all around!  

Daddy and Katie Anne went to the celebration first, and I joined them for a few minutes after Abby's vet visit.  Katie Anne had a blast and ate like a field hand - she ate her first grape snowcone, a big bag of popcorn, and polished off a hotdog, too.  Of course, like everyone there, Katie Anne thought the shredding truck was pretty cool - but it didn't hold a candle to the bouncy house!  She was a little bit afraid of the bouncy house at first, and who could blame her?  You literally had to climb into a giant tiger's mouth, complete with two sharp teeth, to get inside.  However, Daddy convinced her that the tiger was not real, so she was ready to play after that.  She played in the bouncy house for over an hour and was soaking wet with sweat by the time she was through!

Katie Anne and Daddy had a great time at their father-daughter morning out!

Healthy Abby!

This morning, I took Abby to the vet for her annual check-up.  Last year, the vet gave Abby a hard time about her weight... she was up to 38.5 lbs.  (She was 27 lbs when we got her six years ago, so she'd put on some major weight.)  However, I started walking with my mom (and sometimes my dad, too) every single morning during this pregnancy to try to stop the crazy weight gain train that I was on - and I've been taking Abby and Ginger with me.  They absolutely love the daily 1.5 mile walks, and we could really tell that Abby has been shaping up by how loose her harness is getting.

So, it was no surprise when the vet said that Abby had lost weight since last year - 5.5 lbs!  She's down to 33 lbs this year.  Everyone at the vet's office was very proud of her!  They said her optimal weight would be around 30, so we'll work on that - when I work on losing this baby weight, Abby can work on those last 3 lbs.  Besides just the weight loss, Abby got a great bill of health.  She's in great shape for her age.  Abby took her shots like a champ.  
She was very proud of herself - see that big grin?!?

Friday, June 25, 2010

Happy Birthday to Me!

Happy Birthday, happy birthday, happy birthday to me!
Today, I turned the Big 29!  

My actual birthday was a pretty casual day since it was a weekday, and Saunders had to work.  Katie Anne and I hung out together this morning, and then we met Saunders and his parents at the Swheat Market - Doc and VJ took us out to lunch to celebrate my birthday.  They surprised me by asking Swheat Market to make me a little chocolate cake!  Here are some pictures from our lunch together:
Making a wish...

That evening, after Saunders got off work, he and Katie Anne took me out to dinner.  I chose to eat at the Appalachian Grill, and it was so delicious!  We also did a little shopping downtown - it was a fun family evening!  Here are some pictures from our dinner:
VJ had given Katie Anne some glow bracelets at lunch, and she had fun accessorizing with them at dinner.
One without the flash so you can see the "glow":
I had a fun 29th birthday today, and I'm looking forward to more birthday celebrating tomorrow!