The Nursery in the Making

We have started on the nursery but it has definitely been a slow process and we aren't close to being finished, so keep that in mind when you see the pictures. This room, before it became a nursery was our office/junk room. The walls were white and it was pretty much a "catch all" room for everything in the house that didn't have a home. Although I didn't get a picture of the room in that state, this is our before picture.

 The brown chair on the right side of this picture will be leaving shortly, and will be replaced with a glider or rocker of some sort. It is hard to tell in these pictures, but the walls are now a very light green. Joe and I love how the color turned out!!

BEFORE pictures

Joe and I had planned on having the crib put together before Mom got her last week, but when we got the crib out of the box, we realized that we had no hardware to put the crib together. It took TWO weeks for us to finally get the pieces we needed, but they arrived and we assembled the crib yesterday. The furniture is big for this small room, but it is absolutely beautiful and we love it!!

The piece of furniture on the left side of this picture will be a dresser/changer combo. We opted for this instead of a dresser and a changing table, because of space and the fact that this will grow with a child of any age, whereas after you are done with a changing table it really has no use.

After getting the crib together and moving it around the room 50 times to get it in the perfect space, this is what we have come up with right now. Keep in mind again, that a lot of the smaller things in the room will be moved and changed around. So, these are our DURING photos.

We will have some wasted space in the corners, but we decided to put the diaper genie in one corner close to the changing table, so it is out of sight, but functional.

I couldn't resist! :) Eli keeps us company while we set up the nursery!

Lastly is the closet. The closet has been the most difficult process for, and I'm sure I will change it 100 more times before committing it to it's final state, but this is the BEFORE picture.

Boring and simple. It was originally used to house Joe and I's work clothes.

This is the DURING photo of the closet. It won't be this jumbled when I am done. :)

At least now, it is a little more functional. The drawers in the middle of the closet house caps, socks, shoes, and misc. accessories. The baskets below it contains wash clothes, burp clothes, towels, and bibs.

More photos to come!

31 weeks pregnant!

I will try not to slack on my blog again. I am horrible at this, I know! I have a lot to update, but I'm not sure where to start! Okay, lets start with this past weekend. (The weekend of September 10th) Mom drove up to spend the weekend with me and come to my shower on Sunday, September 11th. She arrived on Friday afternoon, so we went to dinner, then Joe and I showed her around Waxhaw. Saturday, Mom and I went to Ikea in Charlotte then over to Concord Mills to do some extra shopping. All in all, I think we were out for 9 hours or so, but we had a blast!  Sunday was the day for my first baby shower!

Let me just say, that it was fabulous! We had an awesome turn out and were extremely blessed with everything we received. We got a lot of the items we needed, and I feel so blessed that everyone was sweet enough to be so generous! I owe a huge thank you to one of my good friends Sally and the other Girls in my Sunday School class who put together such a beautiful shower for me. They took care of all of the food and decorations, and Laura's Mom made the most amazing cake! It was delicious! I will post a few pictures today from my shower, but I am waiting on people to send me all of the good pictures! :)

Sally made this with fabric and tissue paper for Baby Kendall!

This is only a part of the food table! It was so beautifully set up!

 The beautiful cake

 Sally and I

This was our nursery floor after unpacking the car, and not everything fit in the picture!

Alright, the next update will be on my pregnancy so far. I am 31 weeks pregnant, which means I only have 9 weeks to go and November is closing in quickly! This week, Baby is about 18 inches long, and somewhere around 3.2lbs! Kendall's little brain continues to develop faster then ever and she can now perceive information from all five senses! Although Kendall is doing amazing, we had an unexpected trip to the Doctor yesterday, because I have been having really bad dizzy spells...almost to the point of passing out, so Doctor Sal wanted to check Baby and I out to make sure everything was okay. Kendall's heartbeat is still as strong as ever and her movements seem to become more frequent with each passing day, which is great! And although my weight gain and everything is right on track, the Doctor is referring me to a Cardiologist to make sure my dizzy spells are just part of pregnancy and not something more serious, so we will keep our fingers crossed. Now, since I have not updated my belly photo in a few weeks...here I am at 31 weeks!

  

I'm almost to that 30 week mark!

     I am just days away from officially being 30 weeks pregnant, and in the almost always uncomfortable stage. I'm starting to find that it's very hard to get comfortable for more than a few minutes at a time, whether it be sitting, standing, or lying down. The added weight is starting to catch up with my back and my hips, making it hard to do much of anything, but regardless, we are getting so much closer to the time we get to hold our precious baby Girl and that makes all of the pain worth it! We have a little more then 10 weeks to go, and this week, we have been cleaning out and setting up the nursery. Our plans were to have the crib put together on Monday, but when we got all of the pieces out of the box, we found that we didn't have any hardware to put it together, so it will be a few more days before we will get them in the mail. As soon as we get the crib put together, I will post some preliminary nursery and closet pictures. :)
     On a fun note, Mom is coming up on Friday for the weekend, and I have my first Baby Shower at the church on Sunday afternoon! I am so excited and I can't wait!! More pictures to come!

Our Weekend in Asheville

   What a relaxing weekend! Joe and I decided to head to Asheville for Labor Day weekend, but before we could leave on Friday, we had a baby doctor appointment and a Couple's 1-hour massage. Our Doctor's appointment went very well as usual. I found out that I'm slightly anemic, so Doctor Sal put me on an iron supplement which I'm not terribly excited about, but I know that that's what is best for Me and Baby Kendall. On a brighter note, I passed my Gestational Diabetes Test, so that is a great thing!
   After the Doctor's visit, we went straight to our massage appointment. We both got a 1-hour massage gift certificate for Christmas, but haven't had a chance to use them until now. It was a great way to start off the weekend!

   Joe and I made it to Asheville around 4pm on Friday afternoon, and sat out by the pool until we went out for dinner. Saturday morning, we woke up and got ready to spend the day at the Biltmore! Saturday early evening, we went tubing on the French Broad River and Sunday we came home. Here are a few pictures from our trip. 

The Biltmore House in Asheville, NC.

Joe and I on a "back patio" the size of our house! lol

One of many Biltmore gardens.

A gorgeous sunflower field on the drive up to Antler Hill Village.

  

Thank Goodness It's Friday!

This week seemed like it was going to go on forever. Joe and I went to my Doctor's appointment this afternoon for the Glucose Tolerance Test and an Ultrasound. I wouldn't say that Glucose Test was as bad as I thought it was going to be, but I wouldn't say it was fun either. We should get the results by Monday or Tuesday, so we'll keep our fingers crossed that I passed! The Ultrasound was scheduled, because at 18 weeks, my placenta was very low, so they wanted to make sure it had moved to it's correct place, and thankfully it has! As far as the rest of the appointment went, Dr. Sal says that Baby Kendall looks and sounds great! I am still on track for measurements and weight gain, so hopefully I will stay on track for the last 13 weeks of my pregnancy.

On another note, I am sad to say that Joe and I had to cancel our plans for the tractor pull tonight, so for those of you who were looking forward to pictures, we will have to post some next time! After the Glucose Test, I had a pretty bad headache, and decided it would be better to stay home and rest then be out late and risk feeling worse when I got home.

Speaking of pictures, here is the newest belly picture for 27 weeks. My belly seems to have grown overnight. I'm sure it hasn't been that drastic, but it has certainly come out of nowhere.

This is Eli helping me clean out the office and closet to help prepare and get organized before we begin the nursery project.

One of my good friends, Michelle O'Connor made this beautiful blanket for Kendall and shipped it to me this week. I can already tell, it's going to get a lot of use!

 These next two are some of Kendall's newest outfits. The pictures don't do them justice, but they adorable little outfits. I absolutely love the brown romper below. It will be perfect for Kendall in the chillier months!

 She will be here before we know it! 13 weeks and counting...

A Little Update...What we've been up to.

As of today, I am 27 weeks pregnant! That means that I only have 13 weeks left! I believe starting tomorrow, I am officially in my third trimester and that also means it's time for the dreaded Glucose Tolerance Test! Joe is taking me to the Doctor tomorrow at 3pm. I'm not looking forward to the test, but on a brighter note, they are going to do an ultrasound right after, so we will be able to see Baby Kendall again! The Glucose test is given to just about everyone nowadays to test for Gestational Diabetes and it involves drinking a super sweet, syrupy orange drink and then waiting an hour to have your blood drawn. I should get the results a few days after I take the test, but hopefully I will pass it.

I had to ask off for work because of the late appointment time, which is great, because I almost never get a Friday night off, so tomorrow night Joe and I are going to......are you ready??.......a TRACTOR PULL. ha ha. I'm pretty sure it's got to be one of the most redneck things I've ever done in my life, and although I know nothing about them, I've heard they are funny, so I'm going to see what the hype is all about. If you are lucky, I will take some pictures and post them. We are going with a few couples from our Sunday School class, so at least it will be great company!

Now for the fun stuff!!
~Just a few fun facts about Baby for this week:
            * Kendall measures out at 15 inches long and weighs just over 2.2lbs!
            * Her taste buds are very developed this week, and I have found that my love for spicy food                                              
               gives her hiccups!
            * Joe and I can see my stomach move when our little Girl kicks, hiccups, practices gymnastics
               and even during her nightly boxing practice! lol
~I am getting very excited for my Baby Shower coming up in just a few weeks on Sunday, September 11th! Hopefully, I will have a good idea of what all I need and where to put it after the shower.
~This week, we will start putting our nursery together. Our furniture has been ordered, and it should be in sometime in the next few days, so we can go pick it up.
This is a picture of our furniture minus the tall dresser. (Obviously that is NOT our bedding, and we won't have slate walls, or a red floor. ha ha) I will be sure to take before, during and after pictures of the nursery and nursery closet and post them as we go.

Right now, the nursery is our office/junk room, so we have a long way to go, but we've bought the paint and the organizers for the closet. These are the nursery colors we are going with. The lightest green will be the color of the walls. The darker green and brown, the color of the bedding, then I am going to mix in different shades of pink to bring the whole room together. 

I plan to paint a whimsical tree behind and above the chair we will have in the nursery, but I haven't decided yet. These are a few of my ideas, although the tree would be in pinks, greens and browns. 

If anyone has an opinion on which you like better, let me know! I'm open for ideas!

How Adorable!

These are the two newest additions to Baby Kendall's growing wardrobe, and I have to say, they are absolutely adorable! My friend Sally bought these and brought them to Sunday School as a surprise for me. I thought that was so sweet and that I needed to show them off since they are so cute! The onesie's are complete with a matching hat and wooden hanger! I can't wait for Kendall to be able to wear them!