Painting is DONE!!

Hooray, hooray, the painting is DONE!!

Now I feel like I can really start getting the room ready. I'm super excited now about seeing my new baby boy in his room. I never really felt this way with the old nursery, because it never really had a future occupant I could name. It was just for the "baby". Well, this is Maverick's room and I can't wait to meet him.

Derek did a super job with the chair rail and finishing touches for the room. Luckily we have great neighbors and borrowed all the tools (saw, air compressor, nail gun) that we needed to finish the job. We had beautiful weather this weekend which allowed us to get the chair rail painted outside in record time.

It's hard to see with the lighting in the room, but this is the finished product. There is a medium blue below the chair rail, with a lighter blue above. The chair rail and trim in the room is a cream color. I couldn't be more pleased with the final product.

The finishing touches to the room will be the artwork I hang up on the walls. You can see two pictures I'm considering for placement above the crib in the crib. They will either go above the crib or on the opposite wall over the changing table. I also have another picture (actual photograph) of a hot air balloon that once hung in my room as a child. I'd like to get this picture re-matted and framed if budget allows. I also have some decals of vintage looking planes and clouds that I plan to place around the room.

Finally, Grandma is working on making the curtains out of some blue material with tiny hot air balloons that I found. Can't wait to see it all coming together.

Pretzels with Grandma

This post is made possible thanks to somebody that left this kit on the MOPS swap table. How I love the MOPS swap table. I find all sorts of goodies left there from food, toiletries, clothing, books, and much more. I could have a whole post just about that.....but onto the pretzels.

As I was saying, somebody left this make your own pretzel kit from Auntie Anne's and since Grandma had come over today to help with the boys while Derek was painting I figured we'd give it a try.

After making the dough and kneading it, you have to let it rise for about 45 minutes. Chandler really got into the kneading part and started using his elbow, shirt and all.

Then you make the pretzels and bake for about 8 minutes. We decided to make half of the batch cinnamon sugar and half salt pretzels. They actually came out good. They were especially yummy straight out of the oven.

Here Chandler shows off his cinnamon sugar creation. Yum!

Haircut Time

Today I decided to give the boys haircuts. Chandler has gotten quite well at sitting still for me as I'm not the quickest with all the steps it takes for his hair. I buzz the back, then use scissors to take off some of the over all length on the top. Finally I have special layering scissors that I use to even it all out and (hopefully) make it look more natural.

See how still and serious Chandler can be while I try to get his bangs straight.

Now Brighton is a totally different story. I still like his "babyish" look and I've yet to use the buzzers on him. I just scissor cut his hair, keeping most of the length and then layer it as best I can.

His bangs were NOT straight at all across the front because he would not sit still. Derek was able to take a few pictures of Brighton during this process, but ultimately ended up having to stop so he could hold Brighton's head still and/or keep his attention by naming animal noises and various body parts.

Overall I'm pleased with the outcome and even more so with the $30+ that I saved!

30 Weeks----Eeek!

How is it that I'm already 30 weeks along? That means I have about 7-10 weeks left. I actually checked the calendar and I only have 4 weekends where there is nothing "planned". I really need to get on the ball and figure out what needs to be done. I had a midwives appointment yesterday and I'm measuring right at 30 weeks and the heartbeat was strong.

It really kicked in how little time I have left when I was told they'd start seeing me every two weeks until 36 weeks and then every week. I guess I'll be making several trips to Chapel Hill this month and next.

Coming up soon (2/1/11) is our ultrasound to check the progress of Maverick's kidney. Hopefully it will be completely normal. Thank you so much for all your prayers!

Napping or Quiet Time?

So Brighton is finally at the age where "nap time" may be ending and "quiet time" may be beginning. This is probably one of the last pictures I'll have of him sleeping in the crib. He no longer sleeps in a crib at night and hasn't for a while now, but he naps in the crib. I find when he's contained he sleeps better. Well, lately, he has been crying for an hour or more and just won't settle down at nap time. This makes mommy very frustrated!

The past week or so, I have tried calling it quiet time and giving him some books to read just like Chandler does. This seems to do the trick as you'll see from the above picture. Since Derek has been painting in the nursery since this past weekend, Brighton has been napping in his bed (no longer contained) and is doing great. Chandler reads books on mommy and daddy's bed and Connor (for the moment) is relocated to the bathroom or the nursery. I think we need a bigger house!

Painting Update

By Sunday, the top coat above where the chair rail has been painted with a little help from Grandma. Now all that is left is the trim and the chair rail which will be painted cream like the rest of the house. Hopefully it will be completed next weekend so the nursery can start getting put back together again!

Let the painting begin!

Today we decided to get started on painting the nursery! Let's just say it better be a boy! We are locked in to blue now!

The boys wanted to help, so Chandler helped daddy mark off the line where the chair rail will go while Brighton helped by sticking tiny pieces of painters tape all over the walls. Later on in the day, Grandma came over to help paint above the chair rail line and put a second coat on the bottom. We had gotten some free Benjamin Moore paint for the bottom color that was $20 a QUART! It turned out great, and had virtually no odor. The top color we bought at Lowe's and let's just say mommy had to keep the door shut because of all the fumes. Wow! What a difference. Anyways, I'll have to post some more pictures that show the top color soon. We have purchased the chair rail, but it may be a while before that last step gets done.

Sunday, Derek went to try and paint the trim in the room and the paint (that we keep outside in the shed) was virtually frozen! We are keeping the can inside, and we'll see if the consistency changes back into something we can paint with.