Nursery Progress

My amazing Mother-in-law came this last weekend to paint our nursery. She is a crazy good painter and has done it professionally. Lucky me! To see my inspirations, click here. You will notice that the pictures from my inspirations and what she painted are exactly what I described. 

So here's before....our guest room minus the furniture. 

And here is after.....

Drumroll please....

Be prepared to be amazed....

(This wall is where the crib will be.)

It is even better than I imagined! I keep going up to the room to check to see if I dreamed it. I am so happy! It's exactly what I wanted, and I can't wait for our furniture to arrive, so it can start looking like a nursery. And I especially can't wait to put Lylah in there, play with her and watch her grow. What a blessing!

Jimi Ruth Bowen Kelly Smith

Yeah, that's a lot of names. You don't meet someone with that many names everyday. But that's who she was....one of a kind. My Grandmother passed away on Friday, May 13th. She had battled illness and Alzheimer's disease for years, so in many ways, this was a sweet release from her pain. But that doesn't make the loss any easier.

She was such a unique lady. Widowed at 36, she was strong and brave. You didn't mess with Jimi. And you didn't want to be on her bad side. But while she was tough and firm, she was also hilariously funny, sweet and very generous. I'd like to think I'm like her in a lot of ways. I want to be more like her. Not afraid to say what I think, but at the same time very genuine and loving.

I think of her when I smell coffee, and Clinique lipstick. She was always dressed to the nines, and she loved gold jewelry. I hear her in my head when I teach my students, because she was an awesome teacher. She loved to teach, called her kids her "Little Toots" and taught them how to speak correctly. I think of her when I smell bacon, as she always made us bacon at her house. And I think about her when I am crafty, as I know I got that from her.

We buried her in Mangum, OK on Wednesday, after a service in Edmond. I sang "Amazing Grace" at the funeral, and I was worried my voice would crack. But as I sat next to Ryan, he asked me if I was going to be able to sing without crying. I told him if she were here, she would tell me to "Get it together, it's just a song." And I really believe that. She would have loved it, and it wasn't even that good.

I will miss her terribly. I will miss who she was before Alzheimer's set in. I will miss her laugh and her catch phrases. "Ta de ta de ta de." That was a common one. I will miss hearing her call Denise "BD" which stands for Baby Doll.  I will miss hearing her stories about my Dad, and how she'd embarrass him in front of his friends. I will miss her big smile and her generous spirit. She never came to see us without a gift. I will miss playing Spinner with her and I will miss watching her win without even trying. I will miss the abundance of Christmas ornaments we received from her, most of them Texas themed, much to my Dad's chagrin. I will miss everything.

Here she is on our Wedding day. Beautiful, as always! And in yellow, her favorite color.

Nursery Inspirations

Two blog posts in two days? Don't fall over cause you can't believe it. I can't really either. Just wanted to share some Nursery inspirations....

I loved the walls in the Reading Room on The Lettered Cottage. If you have never checked out www.theletteredcottage.net, prepare to become addicted. They are so talented!
I had originally planned for one green stripe around the whole room, at about waist level. But I kept finding more inspiring pictures....and I fell in love with the tan stripes:

I love this, but NOT pink. :)

So I considered this, but decided I would rather do an accent wall, so that we could always change it out, or easily change it from a nursery to a little girl's room. 

So here's what we're going for (pending tan color choices, and with thicker stripes)

I found some wall decor that inspired me as well...
(Again, not pink, but LOVE this)
This is NOT painted on the wall. Can you believe it? It's gorgeous! I don't think I'd do the tissue poms (not that small or that many any way) but I love the name plate.

Love that this a chalkboard, and I love "You are my Sunshine" because my Mom always sang it to us. :)

Cute mobile and I love scriptures in a baby's room...

The neutral-ish walls would be great with our fabric:

So there you go...We'll see how it turns out! My awesome mother-in-law is on her way to help Ryan paint it tomorrow! Yay!

Eating for Two

Apparently, eating for two is a myth, but tell that to a pregnant lady. I dare you. NO, don't. It'd be a bad idea. Cause you would get glared at, or maybe worse. Apparently you are only supposed to eat an extra 300 calories, and as someone who has spent a large portion of her adult life counting calories, I can tell you that is NOT much. It's like a bag of chips and yogurt.

But I get asked a lot if I have had any weird cravings. The answer is, no, not really. In the beginning, I was just starving. I would see something on a commercial that looked yummy, and I had to have it. We ate out a lot, and that was not good for our Dave Ramsey envelope system. I felt bad about it, because I have friends who were super healthy during pregnancy. But, it got better. After 9-10 weeks, I moved into a stage where I was hungry and wanted something specific. I went through craving "stages". I had to have toast (like a LOT of toast) for several days. Then it was Schlotzkys sandwiches, pickles (I know, so cliche), strawberries, Fun Dip (don't judge) and then I am sure Ryan will never let me the cupcake faze. This was during the big ice storm and I sent him to Kroger in the snow with all of the crazies to buy me vanilla cupcakes. What a good man.

But now, I feel more in control of my eating. I am eating so much better. I have been eating lots of granola, yogurt, raisins and fruit. I seriously felt out of control the first trimester with my eating. I remember crying to Ryan telling him I was so hungry, and I had to have McDonald's fries. It was not a great time health-wise. But now I feel more in control. Oh but trust me, there's still a stash of Fun Dip hidden in the pantry. But I'm not telling where.

A Baby Name, A Belly and A Big Nursery Purchase

I had a lot of trouble coming up with my third "B" for my alliteration title. Hopefully you appreciate my effort.

We have named our little girl Lylah Denise. She is named after my husband's late Grandpa Lyle, and my sister Denise, who is named after my Dad, Dennis. Also my middle name is Denae (After Dennis) so we've got lots of namesakes for our ittle girl.

Here I am at 23 weeks....this was last week, now I am 24 weeks. But this picture is cuter. This dress is awesome and I recommend it to any pregnant girl...it was only $10 at Forever 21. And it's not even maternity. So comfortable. I have two and I want another one. Yeah, you need a cardigan for church, blah blah, but it's still great.

We ordered our Nursery furniture! And we are going to paint in a few weeks. Here is the Nursery collection we ordered. We ordered the crib, combo unit and hutch. So just ignore the armoire to the left and tall dresser on the far right. There is no way we could fit all of that....plus we are putting a twin bed in there. 

Here are fabrics for the bedding that we're having made :)

(The green doesn't quite match, so it might be a different color, but you get the idea...)

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It's girly but not extremely girly. I knew I wanted polka dots, but I couldn't find anything pre-made that I liked. But then I found out my friend Angela of "Ruthies Red Apple" (Search for her on Facebook!) can make it for me and I am so pumped. My awesome Mother-In-Law is making the crib skirt. I may try my hand at a few pillows, but I'm no seamstress. We'll see how that works out!

It is so fun to plan out her room and think about her playing, sleeping and living there. We can't wait to meet her! 

Things are moving along! Shower dates are set, furniture ordered...her room is completely bare and ready for paint! It's going by so fast!!

Babymoon

Ryan and I had a marvelous time in Hot Springs, AR at Bartee Meadow Bed & Breakfast. It makes me miss it just talking about it! Everything about this place was just delightful. Here are a few reasons I loved it: 

1. An adorable, cozy cabin with a beautiful view. 

 2. This guy was there with me. Here he is outside the cabin, which was so cutely decorated for Easter.

3. Little touches, like our names EVERYWHERE, welcoming us, wishing us goodnight, etc.

5. A hot tub on our back porch!

6. A delicious steak dinner with my favorite guy.

7. A picnic! After which I owned Ryan in a game of Horse.

 7. Sparkling cider and cookies on our last night, which we consumed wearing our fluffy white robes that were provided. We lived in those!

It was so wonderful and relaxing. No dogs, no cooking, no noise, and only a little rain. (But even the rain was romantic!) I love my man!

(Ignore my white arm. Please. For my sake.)