Anniversary Gift

Four days before Kalia's arrival, and 2 days before my scheduled induction, Chris and I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary.  We don't really do typical gifts for our anniversaries...we plan a trip instead and call it our anniversary gift.  Well, this year our anniversary gift was Kalia.  And she was promptly late!

I wanted to give Chris something that told him all of the things I loved about him, so I got a deck of cards :

Took construction paper and typed up various things I loved about Chris, and decoupaged it to one side of the card (yes, for all 52 cards!) :

And then took the pictures that Erin had taken of Chris and I back in November, used glossy print paper and printed out the images to size of the cards, and then decoupaged those to the front of the card.

I put the cards in a tin box.  I actually meant to decoupage the tin box too, but ran out of time / energy prior to heading to the hospital.  Chris really appreciated the gift, and had a lot of fun reading through all of my serious and funny ways that I love him.  He also loved that it incorporated pictures of us that he can go back and look at anytime.

For dinner that night, we headed to Melting Pot.  The hostess / waitress / manager all couldn't believe I was out and about at 40 weeks and 4 days pregnant, but I told them I was trying to test my luck to go into labor on my own.  It didn't work out too well, but not for lack of trying!  Here's a few pictures of us from dinner that night.  Man oh man, I was so pregnant in these photos!!

Hopefully I'll get around to posting the final nursery sometime soon!  Sorry I haven't been responding to emails / comments just yet, but supposedly this sleep thing gets better :-), so I should be back at projecting with a cute helper, and responding to comments / emails soon!!

Hope everyone has a great week.  Happy Monday!

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Coming Up for Air

Hey guys!

I know it's been quite awhile since my last post...but little Miss Kalia is keeping me quite the zombie these days.  I think I've been on the computer a handful of times since we've gotten home.

One of my big concerns prior to having Kalia was breastfeeding.  I really really wanted to be successful at it, and was worried that I might not be.  Well, Kalia is already taking after her Mommy and Daddy in that aspect and is quite the over-achiever.  She feeds about every hour to hour and a half, which doesn't leave me much time to get any sort of restful sleep at all.  Which means I'm a zombie all day / all night long.

One of my neighbors put it best...we're in survival mode right now.  Chris feeds me and Kodi, and I feed Kalia.  We've managed to go on our nightly walks almost every night the past week, which even though it takes away from sleep time, is helping me keep my sanity around these parts.

I actually do have some projects to post that I finished up prior to little miss Piggy getting here, but I just haven't been able to get on here for any significant amount of time.  I can start pumping next week, so Chris is going to take over one of my night time feedings, and let me get more than 1 hour of sleep at a time.  Woot!  Hopefully I'll start to feel like the 'old me' energy wise again at some point.

Every day is a blessing, every day is rewarding, every day is a challenge, and every day I'm thankful.

Oh, and as a side note...breasts for breastfeeding are so poorly engineered.  I can tell they were made by a man.  There is absolutely no reason for both faucets to turn on when you latch onto one.  What a bad design!

Anywho...

'Till then, hope these cute photos will tide you guys over!

1 week birthday walk...we were finally allowed outside!  Kalia is so funny with her hands!

Just have to make a note that the camera is on a fence post on a self-timer for this photo.  How Kodi knows where and when to smile is beyond me.  He's part human I think!

Go Gators!!  Kalia's Uncle Shawn and Aunt Christina really really love Kalia.  They're Seminole fans, and this headband is from them.  Now that's love!

Daddy moment...Kalia loves him so much already.  See her hugging him?!  Chris is amazing with her!

Awww...the swing and the bouncer were two of the best gifts ever!!

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Kalia's here!

The absolute best project that I've ever done in my entire life made her grand entrance on Tuesday, June 7th, at 4:07 a.m.. It wasn't always an easy road, but one that I'd do again and again to get her here.

She came out weighing 8 lbs, 6 ounces, and 21 1/2 inches long.

We're all so happy she's here!

My two favorite people in the entire world :-).

I'm taking some much needed family time, so project postings will be on hold for a bit.  This latest project has taken quite a bit out of me!  There aren't words to express how great the reward is though...

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Laundry Room Redo

I'm chucking this one up to psycho husband, not psycho wife this time.  Normally I'm the go-getter and starter of projects around this house, but Chris takes all the credit for this one!

We've been looking for a new washer and dryer for quite a few months now.  I told Chris when we were redoing the front doors that he had to put his search for the perfect washer and dryer that were perfectly priced on hold for now.  I couldn't handle dealing with the door issues and trying to figure out what the hey washer / dryer I wanted, and where had the best price, at the same time.

Well, the door had been in for a good week before Chris decided to resume his washer / dryer hunt.  And he found the perfect washer/dryer for sale for 25% off both.  So last weekend, we tredged our tails up to Lowe's, had them price match a set from Best Buy, and came home with a delivery date of Thursday for the new set.

Our laundry room has been in a sad, sad state since we moved in.  It's one of the rooms we've yet to touch.  The fact that we came home from this with 2 days to spare before my official due date didn't bother Chris at all.  Chris took out the old appliances before I could snap up a few before pictures, and it was late when I was taking this, but here's sort of where we started :

Here's  a picture of our old dryer to give you an idea of what we were working with before.  This thing was on its last leg!

Saturday morning, while I was finishing up Kalia's nursery monogram, Chris spent quite a bit of time cleaning out the old dryer vent.  Wowzer...that thing was most definitely a fire hazard, and I'm so happy that he got it done before Kalia gets here!

We decided the only expense we were willing to incur for this laundry room redo was the actual washer and dryer (they're expensive enough, even on sale!), so for the rest of the laundry room, we used what we had laying around.  Chris painted the walls leftover gray we had from Kalia's nursery (Moonshine by Benjamin Moore), and I painted the laundry room door Lucerene by Benjamin Moore.  We took the laundry room door off to sand it down and paint it.  I think we were daring Kalia to arrive.  We have a thing with having doors off while I'm entirely too close to labor (see here).  Chris painted most of the trim work...I helped some, but he gets to take the credit for most of the work.  After all of that, we were left with this :

Which was such an improvement, but those stupid laminate cabinets were driving me nuts.  We thought about pulling them off of the wall...but we're not sure what's behind them, and neither one of us was really willing to get into dry-wall work.  So the cabinets stayed.  I lived with them for a full day before deciding there was no way they could stay that color, so I got up early Monday morning and primed the cabinets.  When Chris got up, I was sitting at the computer, and he wasn't very happy to see paint on my hands!  He was a good sport about it though and helped me put on the two coats of white paint (Ultra Bright White by Behr), which isn't a perfect paint job, but it really makes the room look so much better!

These cabinets are temporary anyways, but I can at least live with them this way.

On Thursday, the Lowe's guys showed up with our new washer and dryer...

We actually had a laugh at Kodi's dog bowl.  That's the first piece of furniture Chris and I built together, quite a few years ago.  When we redid the kitchen at the old house, we had the granite guys take the leftover granite from our kitchen sink cut out, and make the top for this using our dog bowls for cut measurements.  They hesitated initially, but we told them it was either that, or we'd go elsewhere.  They obliged!

The trim in here finally matching the white doors looks so much better.  Only 2 + years in the making of getting rid of all of that old awful off white trim!

I love the new color of the washer and dryer too!  Maybe I'll actually do some of the laundry now!  Chris would be oh so happy with me.  The only "gender tasks" we have in our home is that Chris does Kodi's poop patrol in the backyard.  He drew the short stick somewhere in here.

Ahhhh...SO much better!!!  We've got a few things planned to finish over this laundry room...building pedestals, adding some wall decor, and as previously mentioned, removing those cabinets and adding some functional shelves up there, but this is such a huge improvement from where we started!  And...I absolutely do not plan on doing any of that this weekend.  At 41 weeks pregnant, my 'mojo' is most definitely running out!

Hope everyone had a great week and enjoys their weekend!  Today is Chris and I's 5 year wedding anniversary.  I'm so thankful, lucky, and blessed to be married to the absolute perfect soul mate for me.  Chris is not only everything I could've possibly wanted in a husband, he's my very best friend in the entire world, and I can't imagine a single day without him!  Happy Anniversary babe!!  (I know, enough mushiness...sorry!)  When we got married, everyone started asking us when we'd have kids.  We told them all we planned on waiting till we had been married for 5 years or so before expanding our family.  We didn't really intend to make it this close to our 5 year wedding anniversary, but that's what you get when you have two engineers in one marriage I guess!

Happy Friday!

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Welcome to My Birthing Month! Take Two!

Oiy...in my first "welcome to my birthing month" post I said I wasn't even entertaining the idea of going later than May for my due date because I live in Florida and it's too hot.

Well, Kalia has other plans, so I'm just along for the ride.  I've tried every sane old wives tale in the book, and she's just not ready to get here yet.  Plain and simple.  I actually went for a 4 mile walk on Sunday with Chris and Kodi, and as I was dragging my tired body up my driveway, one of the neighbors told me I should keep going so that I could walk Kalia out of me (to be fair, she had no idea that I was coming in from going that far).  Yes, I'm sure if I managed to walk for an entire week, she'd show up eventually!

But...without a doubt, she'll be here this month.  Very soon too...and that's all that matters!  One of my nieces birthday is June 17th, and she said it would be so cool if Kalia and her could share a birthday.  I told her that would not be cool at all!  She'll be turning 8, and she agreed with me that she was just ready for Kalia to get here now too.

This past weekend, Chris and I finally headed to the plant nursery to fill our empty planters.  We also ran to Lowe's, Marshall's, went out to lunch, ran to Wal-greens, and finally ended at Publix before heading home.  It's funny how differently you look at places when you're 40 weeks pregnant.  I notice where the bathrooms are first, and then second where a good place to lean against or something to sit on while we're deciding what to purchase.

Anywho, I thought I'd show you guys our pretty new plants today while I'm waiting for Kalia to get here.

We spent a few hours out here on Sunday and Monday, and I'm really loving the pop of color these plants add to the pool deck.  We were supposed to get rain on Monday / Tuesday, so that's why our hammock is missing...but I took a nap in that for a little bit on Sunday too...before getting up and heading on our 4 mile walk.  Sigh...restless exhaustion at it's finest!

Anyone else experience the 'over-anxious' neighbors or random people you run into at the stores telling you what to do to get your baby to come out any faster?  I feel like I should make a maternity shirt that says "what NOT to say to a 40 week pregnant woman" and put a list of things on it for people to read and think about before saying something.  I'm so anxious as it is already!!  Oh well, everyone means well by it...I know, I know!  40 week pregnant hormones + patience just don't go so well together these days!

I still have another room we gave a face-lift to to show you guys too, so stay tuned for that one!

Hope everyone's having a great week so far...Happy Wednesday!

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