Phase One Complete

The before pictures of Caden's Nursery:

(Caden's nursery)

(Caden's Nursery)

This week is the week to get the nursery painted and start addingin the details. This weekend I cleaned out all of Caden's things and cleared the room so I could start painting. Sunday we went to the rodeo and when I got back I went out and bought all the paint supplies I needed and did not already have. Man paint has sure gotten expensive, but this should last for awhile. Unfortunately Caden's room decor only lasted a year =( But I boxed it up for use when he gets his own room one day.

Today (Monday) my goal was to put the first layer of paint down - which was white. It will eventually be a white border and part of the chevron wall I will be creating. The reason for this is that I needed it to dry really good so that tomorrow when we starting taping and painting the other colors the paint would be dry and ready to go.

(Painting the white border)

(Painting the white border)

(Painting the white border and the background to the chevron wall)

My mother is coming into town tomorrow and staying through the week to help me finish the room up and do some other things on my list. I should have updates on the progress throughout the week so that by this weekend you will get to see the finished result. I'm super excited about it and hope it turns out the way I imagine it to look like.

Everything Girl!

So for the past three years of my life I've been knee deep into boy stuff and it is so much fun! Now that we found out we are having a girl there are a few things I need to change just to add to the fun of having a girl and because its necessary!

One of those things would be a new diaper bag. I love my diaper bag I have right now from Pottery Barn for Caden. Its all boy and super cute, but in no way did I want to use it for Codi because I wanted something girly and cute. My goal when looking for a new diaper bag was the size. Since I'm going to have two children 13 mths apart I need a diaper bag thats big enough to carry for two. Connor has his own backpack and loves to wear it, so I'm good there. I use to have a JJ Cole Diaper Bag with Connor and really liked it alot because the material was wipable and there was lots of compartments, diaper changing pad, and a pacifier holder. Well when I had Caden I needed a little bit bigger bag and opted to go with a Pottery Barn diaper bag but the bad side of it is that its cloth and the bottom gets really dirty, but other than that its held up pretty good.

So all in all I started looking a JJ Cole diaper bags again because the price was right and there are some cute ones with cute designs out there. Here is what we got! It is the JJ Cole Technique Diaper Bag and comes in several colors - we choose the Red Flower.

Secondly we've used the same carseat for the last two babies and its very neutral with a little bit of green, but it of course has been well used and the material is pretty nasty. Yes we've washed it but we wanted something fresh with our new baby and more girly. So we opted to buy a carseat cover that fits our carseat. Its cheaper than most because all you do is slip it over your current cover to seat cover - the more expensive ones you take off your current carseat cover and the new ones has a new backing on it for comfort. They run rather pricey and since my mother bought it for us we went with the cheaper route. So we will just take off our cover - wash it and then replace it and had the new cover on top. Here is what it looks like!

Both sort of match Codi's room because her room has turquoise and coral and gray so I thought both were super cute and different! I can't not wait to receive both in the mail. One more week and then we will start painting the nursery!!!!

Caden Eight Months

We started something new with Caden that we did not do with Connor. We started taking his monthly pictures so we could see his growth throughout his first year. At the end of the year I am going to put all the pictures in a book together and use as gifts. Caden will be 11 months old on the 11th, but I've only edited up through his eight month photo. So here it is!!! He turned eight months on December 11, 2011.

Our Crazy Life Right now!

Well swimming as finally wrapped up and my swimmers ended the season with some amazing times and medals. I can not be a happier coach for my first year of coaching! Who knew I would actually like coaching swimming after all the years of my life I committed to swimming 20+ hours a week (like a part-time job). So yay now that swimming is basically completed minus the banquet and fundraiser coming up I can finally focus on baby #3 and spend some quality time with my family!

Here are a few things that we have planned in the next months - which leaves me with not alot of free time, but its all fun so I can't complain.

First on our list: This weekend we are headed to Austin to visit my parents and spend some quality time with them. We plan to go to the Longhorn Caverns or the Austin Zoo so the kids can have some fun. I also plan to bring back one neat piece of furniture (more on that later).

Second on our list: In two weeks (the start of SPRING BREAK!!!) my little family is headed to Seaworld and the River Walk. We all get in free because teachers get free passes and then my kiddos all fall under the free status - not fun and cheap trip!!!

When we come back from Seaworld - during Spring Break my mother is coming down for part of the week to help me decorate baby Codi's nursery. Right now I'm in the process of refurnishing the dresser and hope to have that completed before Spring Break and then I need to spray paint the rocking chair. When my mom is here we are going to paint the walls, make a bed skirt and curtains. Poor Caden will be kicked out of his room for a week because of the paint smells. My goal is to have the room completed by mid April.

Sign on her door

Then I have my swim banquet at the end of March and then we are into April and I will be about 31 weeks pregnant.

We will start off April celebrating Easter with our family/friends. We plan to have Caden's 1st birthday party Easter weekend since I will get a four day weekend and also celebrate my Dad's birthday since Caden and my dad share the same birthday on April 11th. It will be a fun weekend of celebrations!

Caden's invitation I created on the computer

Then its countdown to baby with a baby shower for Codi at the start of May - hosted by my sister =) (she has never been to a baby shower of mine because she lives in Dallas - so I'm super excited to share this with her). We hope our precious girl is to arrive by c-section on May 21st.

Wow is all I can say - its a busy Spring which is unusual because our Fall is usually the the busiest time and Spring seems to go forever!!!

Bows Galore

I'm am really excited about having a little girl and I really like all the bows that are out there to purchase but man are they expensive. I know my mom can make them because we would sell them at our craft shows, but I wanted to learn for myself so I could save money. So yesterday I spent a little bit of time on the internet searching for some how-to videos and I thought for those that want to learn too I would share my findings: Click on titles for videos! Enjoy!

1. Stacked Boutique Hair Bow

2. Easy Hair Bow

3. Pinwheel Bows and Boutique Style Hair Bows

4. Infant Mini Hair Clip Bows

5. Head Band Bows with Ribbon Spikes

6. Velcro Infant Hair Bows

So the key to making bows -save all ribbon scraps because you never know what you could use. You will need probably a hot glub gun, ribbon, ruler, pencil, and a hair clamp, and embroidery thread. If you know of any other cool sites out there please share!

To register or not

To register or not for this baby.......a part of me thinks that its not necessary because this is my third child and I do have a lot of the needed baby supplies. The other part of me says "yes" because I'm having a girl this go around and I do not have a lot of the needed girl stuff. I honestly do not need much but clothes, bows, shoes and socks but much of that is hard to register for because when people actually go to the stores those items are hard to find.

So this is what I decided to do: if people are going to buy me clothes and shoes, etc they will buy what they like and I'm sure it will be cute! Then I decided to register for items that I need for the nursery and for the bathroom.

I went with these stores for now:

1. cottonbabies.com (they told me it would take about a week for my registry to come up on the screen.

I registered for some essentials here.

a. cloth diapers

b. diaper bag

c. wetbags for travel for the cloth diapers

2. anthropologie.com

I registered for some decor for the nursery.

a. 6 knobs for the dresser I'm refinishing

b. Owl figurine that matches the colors to put essentials in like swabs

3. potterybarnkids.com

I registered for some bathroom items and room decor

a. 2 bath towels
b. towel set
c. monogram pillow for her room


d. owl stuffed animal

My goal until baby comes now is to go through what I have and decide if its needed for Baby C or if I need to sell or donate it. Then the money I make off of those items I will put towards her room and needs. Decorating and planning for a baby girl is fun but they sure need way more than boys do.

Over Spring Break I plan to start transferring Caden's stuff into Connor's room and getting their room set up so it looks more like two boy's room instead of just one. Then I will go ahead and paint Baby C's room and start working on refinishing the furniture. Poor Caden will have to sleep in a girly room for a couple of months, but I don't think he will mind yet. Wow I'm going to be busy =)

Fabric update on baby Girl Bryan's bedding

I have decided to branch out and make this baby her own bedding this go around. Oh and the plus side I'm saving lots of money. I bought 4 different fabrics at 2 yards a piece to have my mom make 4 cribs sheets while she is in Florida visiting her mother. A crib sheet these days goes from $19-40 bucks a piece. I'm getting 4 crib sheets for $30.

Here are the 4 fabrics - they look better in person (photos are hard with fabric)

This is the website I found for the crib sheet pattern

Crib Sheet

Then I've decided to make my own crib skirt as well. The cool thing with this crib skirt is that I only need enough fabric to make two sides of the crib skirt, because the other two sides are hidden against walls. I have my crib in the corner of the room. Again I'm saving a bunch of money. I believe a crib skirt goes for $50-100 and I'm getting it for less than $25 bucks.

Here is the fabric that I ordered for my crib skirt and I hope it comes in this week!

And here is the website(Young House Love) where I found out how to make a no-sew crib skirt

Crib Skirt

In the end I hope it all matches and works well together. Then I will try to figure out what I'm going to make with the extra fabric I ordered from the crib skirt fabric. I'm thinking either a pillow sham, a cushion for the rocking chair (more on that later), or add it to the curtains when I get those made (more on that later too).

We are still trying to decide on a name! Naming your third child is hard - even if its a different gender.