Kelly's Baby Shower

My good friend Kelly from college is pregnant with her first child, a boy to be named Johnny Austin Neubauer. She is due 2 weeks after me on May 29th, and even though she lives with her husband Dan in Beufort, South Carolina, they were able to make it home to Yorba Linda this past weekend for her baby shower! I hadn't seen Kelly in months and I was so glad to have been able to visit with her and rub her cute little belly. She won't be back in town until the late summer with her new son, and I am looking forward to meeting him then!
The shower was beautiful, her mother and sister Shelly did a fantastic job arranging everything. We had a delicious sit-down lunch, played a few really fun games, and watched her "ooh and ahh" over all the little baby clothes and gear she will need when little Johnny arrives.
Kelly and Dan both come from 2 of the most wonderful and loving families around, and without a doubt, they will be the absolute best parents. Even though Dan is leaving in 2 weeks for a 7 month deployment, Kelly has the most supportive family to help her through delivery and the first few months of being a new mom. I wish I was closer to help her however I can, but since we will both be up late at night nursing newborns in the spring, I will make myself available for round-the-clock text messages and phone calls whenever she needs, haha!

Congrats to Kelly and Dan!! Enjoy the pictures.

Yorba Linda Country Club

Lots of gifts for baby Johnny!

Kelly, Courtney and me, all friends from college!

 

Grandma Tina, Dad to be Dan, Kelly, Grandma Carole, and Auntie Shelly

The grandmas are so excited!!

"Schmoopie" makes his appearance to help open gifts

Cute little boy clothes

A quilt that Dan used when he was a little boy

Little fighter pilot jacket!!

Zoo trip

Our friends, Val and JC Steve were in town with their little girl Zoe, so we took the opportunity to go to the world famous San Diego Zoo with the kiddos. We were joined by Court and Kevin Pendleton and their little girl Madison. The weather was great and we had a wonderful day, despite the fact that we arrived at 11 and all 3 girls typically nap around 12:30. We powered through until 3:30 and no one had too much of a melt-down (of course all the kids passed out before we even got out of the parking lot!)
Enjoy the pics!

daddy and his girl ready to go!

Zoe (20 mos), Avery (19 mos) and Maddy (28 mos)

Holding hands, walking through the zoo! SO cute!

Monkey baby

Taking a rest on the Daddy Express

Doing her flamingo stance

Polar Bear exhibit was AMAZING

Watching the polar bears play

Me and my girl and Ms Polar Bear

Avery and Maddy playing with the saber tooth

Photo booth fun

Feeding the goats in the petting zoo

Court (preggo with baby Jake, due in June), Val (not preggo yet, haha)

and me in front of the zoo sign

Avery can say her name!

I guess that doesn't sound like a big deal and maybe it isn't, but I was shocked to learn that my own child possessed this skill the other day! We went to an OB appt to check on baby sister and the receptionist was chatting with Avery while I was checking out. She leans over the counter and asks Avery, "What is your name?" And clear as day without missing a beat, she replied, "Av-eee!" My jaw dropped!  I swear, literally every day something new pops out of her mouth and it is so exciting to us. It makes us feel so proud (and a little nervous, time to watch our language!) She needs to stop growing up so fast, boo hoo.
Anyway, she is a little shy with this new skill but Alex managed to get her saying a few choice words on video, so enjoy!

Kisses Video

This is one of the many moments of being a mother that makes all the tough ones SOOO worth it!!

Harper's Nursery PART 2

Ok, so we have made some progress!! The painting of the room went very well over all. We have 3 light blue walls and one pink wall. The stenciling project turned out to be a doozie, which I had sort of anticipated but didn't really grasp the full scope of.
First of all, not that this is new information to anyone, but painting is a pain in the BUTT. You have to block off hours of uninterrupted time, change your clothes and have necessary supplies like water and good music on hand. All of these things become MUCH more challenging when you have a toddler running around. Needless to say, the stenciling ended up taking me close to 2 weeks since I only had 2 hours or so a day during Avery's nap to commit to it (by the time she goes to bed I am WAY too pooped to go through all of that again and I have studying to do for my classes). We got half-way done with the wall when we decided to make a slight design change and add a chair rail so the stencil wouldn't have to be continued to the floor (yipee!) and it turned out great!

Here are the painted walls and the stencil is up and ready to go.

We did a lighter shade of the same pink color as the wall, and I used the same blue on the other walls to accent part of the design.

I learned many things: definitely use spray adhesive on the back of the stencil before placing on the wall to get a tight fit so paint doesn't seep under and blur the edges of the design (put a piece of cardboard under before spraying); go slowly and use very little paint even if it is tempting to rush it; don't leave the stencil on the wall too long after finishing the stencil (the spray adhesive ripped some paint off the wall, boo)...

Here is a few repeats of the pattern. It looks awesome! The stencil has very easy to follow directions (read them FIRST!!) and has many "windows" of design that overlap with what you have already done so you are sure you have aligned it right before starting the next one. The amount of paint used is so minimal it dries as you go so I never had any problem with smudging.

And after many touch-ups, here is the finished product in the light of day!

Another shot with the blue walls in the pic.

I am VERY pleased with the way it has all turned out so far. Shout out to Alex for doing the chair rail perfectly and helping A LOT with the solid walls (and not at all with the stencil, but that is 100% due to my control issues not his lack of offering!) Now I have a few more elements to add (wall letters, mobile, glider, rug, etc) and then all we need is a sweet little BABY whose face I cannot wait to see and kiss! Eek! 14 weeks (or less, hopefully less haha) to go!

Harper's Nursery PART 1

Today I am 24 weeks (6 months) pregnant and we are finally ready to get started on this baby girl's nursery! For those that know me, I am very "project oriented" and love to plan things so this is pretty exciting for me at the moment!

We found a great deal on a hand-me-down American Baby crib and dresser/changer set, and we have decided on the color scheme and bedding pattern we are going to go with. The fabric for the bumper that my handy dandy mom is going to sew for me looks like this:

As soon as it arrives (3 weeks, argh!) we will go to Joanns and shop for complimentary fabric for the other side of the bumper and the ties, cording, etc. The tutorial we are planning to use to make it is this:

http://sew4home.com/projects/pillows-cushions/356-stylish-baby-nursery-crib-bumpers and maybe there will be enough fabric to make a changing pad cover and pillow as well.

Here is the room as it currently looks:

If that isn't a blank canvas, I don't know what is! The furniture is an ecru, off-white color while everything else is various shades of white. We DEFINITELY need some color in there!

Since we are renting and we can't wall paper or build any wainscoting or chair rails (which I would REALLY love to do) we have decided we are going to use a faux-wall paper affect and stencil the crib wall with this stencil, in a light pink on pink tone with accents of the blue, using this blog as a technique guide:



We intend to add some other design elements like the letters of her name on the wall, but done a bit differently than how we did Avery's (hanging from ribbons):

I plan to put the letters on the non-stenciled wall above the changing table. All the other walls will be in a shade of blue/green like this, but a few shades lighter:

In addition to the crib and dresser, we will have another dresser in the closet (this girl has SO SO SO MANY clothes already! Sheesh!) and we intend to get a corner piece to go in between the crib and changer for the monitor camera and books, and a low storage bench of some kind under the window. We also want to get a glider like this one for the corner where the swing currently sits in the pic (that will move into our room so Mama can take a shower!):

 and maybe a rug like this:  

or this:

I love DIY projects, so I plan to try and make a mobile somehow along the lines of this, centered on the ceiling above the crib with a ceiling medallion surrounding the hook:

 or this:

And I also plan to make some decorative flower balls to hang at various heights above the glider like this:

I am so excited to get started! I will keep everyone posted on here (as most of my FB community couldn't care less about this, haha!) as we get going on it.

Thanks for reading!

It Keeps Happening...My Birthday

So I am 31. Get over it. I am! Getting older sucks just as much as it does rock (at this stage, at least!) so I am just going to see the glass (of non-alcoholic wine, ugh) half-full and be happy about where my life is at this age, and for all the amazing people I have in it! That is what it is all about, right?
My fantastic husband out-did himself this year! He took Avery downstairs as soon as she woke up so I could sleep in a little bit, then they both came up with home-made french toast on a tray! After my delish breakfast in bed and a few wonderful gifts, I was told to go enjoy myself for a few hours. So after my OB appt (not necessarily my choice but enjoyable none the less) I went and got a shellack mani which turned out really good. Then, we went and picked up Alex's cousin Jessalyn, and Uncle Gus from the airport as they were staying with us for the weekend from Utah. They babysat Avery for us so Alex and I could enjoy a great dinner at Jake's Del Mar. I really felt special all day.
On Sunday, my dad, step mother and Oma came down to take us out to brunch and for a visit. In the afternoon, we had family over for a joint birthday BBQ for myself and Alex's mom whose birthday is on January 15th. Alex took care of everything and the food was delicious and the company was fabulous.
It was a really great day and I am thrilled to be who I am, where I am, and at the age I am. If I wasn't 31, I wouldn't be living in this amazing house in Carlsbad with a sweet baby girl in my arms and another in my belly, with my best friend of all time. LIFE IS GOOD!

Breakfast in bed by Chef Boyar-hubby

Gifties from momma and flowers from Court :)

Dinner with my love and a Hula Pie, what more could a girl ask for??

Happy Birthday to ME!

 (Umm, I want that corner piece with LOTS of frosting ;)

This family loves to take big pictures (Avery was napping)