My shoes are getting tighter

For the most part, I really do love being pregnant.  People are usually extra nice to you.  And they also want to touch you - which I have always found so odd.  Complete strangers finding it perfectly ok to touch my belly.  I admit, pregnant bellies are cute.  And I don't mind one bit when friends and family feel to see if little man is moving around.  But it honestly weirds me out a bit when someone in the grocery store thinks its ok for a quick rub.

I am always tempted to pat their belly in return.  But never actually have the nerve to do it.

I think that my feet are already starting to swell.  My shoes have felt kind of tight the last few days.  When I was pregnant with Ashlyn, I started retaining water like crazy during the last 6 weeks.  To the point that my husband told me (after I got off a plane returning home from a business trip at 35 weeks), "Your feet and legs are virtually unrecognizable to me."  He was not being mean.  Because it was so true.

I remember looking at my feet and not knowing who they belonged too.

And then I remember looking at my feet a few days after giving birth and seeing my ankle bones again. It was a great day.

Here is where I am having some trouble.  I want tater tots from Sonic.  Fries from McDonalds.  Can we say "More sodium, please?"

My goal is to start eating a little healthier because I honestly do think it would help.  Either that or I am just going to have to be ok with packing on about 50lbs this go-around and buying some bigger shoes.

DIY Exterior Window Shutters

We have a rental house that we are trying to sell.  This is the 2nd time it has been on the market in the past year.  I am hoping it will sell this go around.  It has desperately needed shutters on the exterior windows in the front of the house.  But they are not cheap, especially when you have to have them made into custom sizes (for example, these windows are tall and skinny and super close together).

I looked online for a while trying to find a tutorial about how to make your own shutters.  I did not really find anything - so Christopher and I just came up with our own method.

Here is the house before - Silently screaming, "HELP ME PLEASE".

Here's the scoop.  We went to Home Depot and bought 2 large pieces of inexpensive thin plywood.  We had already figured out the measurements for each shutter (8 total), and had them cut the pieces for us right there at the store.  We also bought super cheap thin long strips of wood to frame them.

Christopher drilled the thin pieces of wood around the edges of each "shutter" to create a frame.  And then added a couple of pieces in the middle.

The finished result...

After all 8 were finished, we spray painted them with a glossy black exterior paint.

 And here is the house after the shutters were installed (he just drilled them directly into the masonite siding).  SO MUCH BETTER.  And the best part - EVERYTHING for this project cost a total of $64.

When I was getting quotes to have them custom made, they were going to be at least $100 each ($800 for 8)!  Crazy.  I would say $8 each is MUCH BETTER.  :)

You can't even tell they are "homemade" and super inexpensive.  They add some much needed curb appeal to the front of this house - and hopefully will help attract a buyer soon.  Fingers crossed!

Big Girl Bed

Here are a few pictures of Ashlyn's new "big girl" bed.  Christopher made the headboard out of a leftover piece of wood he was "hoarding" in the garage.  I even got to use my new sewing skills to make the piping around the edges :)  

Here is the before.

There are about 9 billion tutorials online about how to make a headboard so I did not include step by step instructions.  

This is what we did - Christopher drew the shape we liked on a piece of plywood and cut it out with one of his saws.  Then we used a queen size foam mattress pad from WalMart as the cushiony part (we cut it in half and used both pieces to make it thicker).  Then staplegunned (is that a word??) the fabric over it and added some piping around the edges. Chris mounted it to the wall with some heavy duty picture hanging wire and screws.

Honestly, it's not perfect.  Nor anywhere close.  But it looks super cute and is pretty darn comfy to lean up against with that big foam mattress pad.  

I would love to add a couple of decorative pillows.  Any thoughts/ideas/suggestions?

Christopher laughed when I told him I wanted to put more pillows on the bed.  He does not understand why you would ever put more pillows on a bed than you would actually use to sleep on.  

Ahhh...don't you just love the way their minds work????????

Easter Eggs and Third Trimester

Happy Easter!  We had a great day celebrating our risen Lord and Savior.  Today also marks the beginning of my third trimester - 28 weeks!  I can't believe little Chase will be here so soon!

Ash loves giving kisses to her daddy.

Me and my best friend Ashley - we are due about 5 weeks apart this summer (and secretly hoping our little boy and their little girl will grow up and get married one day).

 And here are our two sweet and precious girls, Ava & Ashlyn (Ashlyn apparently loves giving kisses to lots of people).  

 She loved hunting Easter eggs today and putting them into her basket.  

Big Girl Room Art Collage

I finished the art collage to hang above Ashlyn's new bed.  I had so much fun working on this. I think the hardest part was narrowing it down to what I actually wanted to use in each of the frames.

Here is the original plan laid out...

For the round white frame, I used a wooden letter "a" from Michaels and cut out a piece of scrap fabric to go on top - Modge Podge worked perfectly for gluing the fabric to the wooden letter.  I even used a little around the edges of the fabric to keep it from fraying.

Glued the finished letter onto a sheet of pink cardstock and put it in the frame.

 For one of the large frames, I used a greeting card from Pier 1 taped to scrapbook paper (sound familiar??  I did the same thing in the playroom). For 2 of the other white frames, I used this adorable piece of scrapbook paper from Michaels that had mini Valentines printed all over it.  I cut out a few of the individual squares from the sheet of paper, blew them up on a color copier, and taped them onto some fun scrapbook paper.

These are a few of the examples of the Valentine's Day scrapbook paper - so cute and perfect for a little girls room.

 And finally here it is all finished and hanging on the wall over her bed.  I was actually pretty proud of myself as I only had to re-do 2 nails the entire time I was hanging everything.  I love that it adds just enough pink...but not overwhelming :)

18 months!

Happy year & 1/2 birthday to my sweet baby girl!  She is growing up so fast.

The paci has officially disappeared.  Much easier than I thought it would be.  She is still having a little trouble comforting herself during naps at her babysitters - but is doing well at home and I am sure it will get easier.

She is starting to say a lot of new words which has been so fun.  "Cow", "off", "Bible" and her favorite right now "DAD---DDDDDY" (it used to just be "da-da").  She says it all of the time.  She and I were walking around TJ Maxx this weekend.  Do you know how Christopher found us when he came in after parking the car?  She was saying "DADDY, DADDY, DADDY!!!!!!!!" over and over again in a very loud voice.  I always ask her to say "Mommy."  She just looks at me, smiles, and says "Daddy."  

One of my favorite things she does is ask for me to turn the music on while she eats in her highchair.  A little music to dine by?  Why certainly, dear.  This is how she asks - she bounces up and down in her highchair (best way she knows how to dance with a tray strapping her in) while pointing to the radio that is by the fridge.  Then she will frantically rub her chest (sign language for "Please").

At her doctor's appt. today, she weighed 23 lbs which puts her in the 38th percentile for weight.  She was in the 10th percentile for height at 30 inches.  She hated getting her shots but I think this is the last round until she is 4.  Whew!