Have a happy Easter!

For a heart-warming Easter message, watch this beautiful video that had us in tears the other night. 

Fun tweaks to the girls' room

We painted what the girls deem "the purple room" last year when Hallie moved in.  At the time, we had it set up as bunk beds.  When Claire moved in about six months ago, we converted the beds to twin beds.  The girls have loved sharing a room (even if it takes them hours to fall asleep at night because they are chatting so much).  And we love the soft hue of lilac walls but were craving some more pops of color. 

Here are some of the tweaks we've made to add color and more personalization.

To avoid the room being a little too much "matchy-matchy," each bed features colors and accessories particular to Hallie or Claire.

The foot of Hallie's bed has the comforter from her nursery set.  The varied colors totally look like Hallie to me and I love that we are able to keep a bit of her baby room as she grows up.

Clairey keeps the Minnie Mouse rag quilt I gave her at the bottom of her bed.  Needless to say, our girl is crazy about Minnie Mouse.  And it allows us to add pink to our otherwise purple room.

My sister-in-law, Kaylene, made these custom initial pictures for each girl for Christmas.  The girls love them and always refer to them as "the letter that Aunt Kaylene made for me."  That is the official title.

Even though Hallie's artistic abilities have much improved since she was three, I can't bear take down her older pictures.  Although, that knight in shining armor is from several months ago.

I love, love, love the addition of their initials above the bed.  Not only do they add that needed bunch of color, but the are super sentimental.  The fabric flowers that adorn them are hand made by me out of their old baby clothes.  Sigh.  (I have another project made from baby clothes to share some time later).  And the jewels on each letter are heirlooms from my Grandma Allen.  How neat to look up every day at jewelry their beautiful great-grandmother used to wear.

 

And finally, the benefit of a somewhat smaller home is having our bundle of kids across the hall.  It's quite perfect for dad to run to the girl's aid from midnight bad dreams and for mom to save her starving boy in the wee hours of the morning.

Our Baby Boy Nursery

We had a really enjoyable time putting together Grant's nursery.  And yes, I mean we.  Chris and I were able to complete each part of the project together.  It started when I found an artist I loved.  I shared his print with Chris and we looked online at all his work and were able to pick out our favorites.  Then the rest of the nursery slowly fell into place around it. 

Let me give you a tour . . .

Right as you walk in the door, this is what you see.  The Catalina poster is perfect because that is where we were on our tenth anniversary cruise when we found out we were expecting Grant.

I reused the keys, hooks, and chalkboard from the old nursery.  This time I distressed the wood behind the hooks.  I picked up the clock at World Market.  It is perfect for glancing 3 am but the glare of the nightlight as I stumble in to feed Grant in the middle of the night.

One particular thing we love about this nursery is that it will turn into a "big boy room" with ease.   I found the compass rose at Pier 1 at the very beginning of the pregnancy.   I tucked the idea away in my head that if I was having a boy, I would return to get it.  The comforter is a Target find and the other pillows were found at Home Goods.

I used an old frame and cut cork board to fit inside.  Then I covered it with this Waverly sailboat fabric and added more prints from our favorite artist.

This room is quite small, so we took the closet doors off.  This has worked perfectly so far.  Grant's baby clothes go in the white hutch we picked up at IKEA about ten years ago.

The baby's toys can be put up high for right now since he won't need them for several months.  Although, I am toying (get it) with the idea of keeping them up there so I can pull down one basket for him to play with at a time.  This would be much more manageable.

This basket is filled with some classic children's literature characters every little boy should be acquainted with: Frog and Toad, a beast from Where the Wild Things Are, the inquisitive mouse from If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, and Corduroy.

The girls generously donated their most "boy" stuffed animals and Grandma Judy found a lovable cow.

We love this monkey.  Both the girls love dressing him up.  The trunk (found at Home Goods) stores more toys.

My Mom gifted us with the crib from Target.  This was kind as the used one we had for our first two was no longer safe!

Chris and I think this is our favorite picture in the whole house.  We might put it in an office some day.  It is a perfect picture of a little boys dream and a tribute to the state we both hail from.  My Dad would have loved this one.

I had two 12 by 12 frames I wasn't using so I fitted them with cork board tiles.  It was fun to pick out pictures and mementos of things and places that are meaningful to us.

I have a picture of my Dad as a little boy since Grant's middle name is after my father.

And finally - the cutest part of the nursery: Grant James.

Grant- One Month

It has already been over a week since our sweet boy hit his one month mark.  And these pictures are a week and a half old already.  It just shows you how busy he keeps me.  But, I still wanted to document his cuteness at this age. As well as capture a little bit of what life with our little Grant James is like.

The first month was incredible.  Other than a slight lack of patience due to the lack of sleep, Chris and I kept commenting on how perfect everything was going.  Here are some of the other things we observed:

• Grant would cry if he was hungry or overstimulated.  Other than that, he was a content as could be. 
• We learned quickly that Grant loves to get rapid kisses on his lower cheeks and neck.  Even at two days old, his eyes would get wide (like above) and his breathing would speed up with excitement.  Now it is an almost sure-fire way to get smiles from our little guy.
• We love that Grant (for the most part) has a little lamb cry.  It is much softer than our girls were at that age and, therefore, way easier to cope with. :) 
• Grant despises his car seat.  Really, he loathes to be in it. 
• He is super-tolerant of his two adoring sisters getting in his face.  They poke and prod at him and he just looks on with love and awe. 
• Grant despises the bath.  Really he loathes to be in it. (Deja vu?)
• He fit into his newborn clothes until right about the one month mark.  He can still wear some newborn onesies - but they are getting quite tight.
• There are few things Grant loves more than a tight swaddle and some good hard pats on the back or bottom.
• We've searched for the best lullabies for him and think we've narrowed it down to:  Sweet Baby James, When You Wish Upon a Star, Rainbow Connection, and All Through the Night.
• Grant slept in Mommy and Daddy's room for the first three and a half weeks.  He now sleeps just across the hall in his own room.  But with his door open and our door open, he pretty much is in the same room still. :)
• We're totally a nickname family. Therefore, he is called Budgie Buddy (or just Budge), Granty-Wanty, Granters, His Royal Grantness, or the longest (and oddest one): His Lordship, the Earl of Grantham (that's from me and it's admittedly inspired by my favorite show- Downton Abbey).
• Chris will deny this, but he totally gets the most smiles from Grant while playing.  Grant tends to be more serious when I play with him.  But when I feed him and hold him, he brings out the big smiles.
• As Grant rounded on four weeks old, he started suffering from lots of colicky symptoms.  The one we had labeled our "easiest infant - by far" was soon crying around the clock.  We had almost a week straight of his endless agony.  Desperate to help him, I cut chocolate and almost all dairy out of my diet.  This seems to be making a difference.  We also have tried Mylecon (though it didn't really work with our first two) and massaging lavender essential oil on his tummy.  These help too.  The most effective help though is a strict routine that goes a little like this: feed, burp, feed, burp, feed, burp, feed, burp, wipe up spit up, feed, burp, feed, burp, feed, burp, feed, burp, wipe spit up, change diaper, feed, burp, feed, burp, feed burp, wipe spit up, hold upright for twenty minutes, then swaddle and lay him on Mommy's chest at a 45 degree angle while Mommy pats (rather vigorously) any gas bubbles out.  He usually falls into a deep sleep on my chest and can be laid down from there.  This is really the magic routine . . . it just makes every feeding last about an hour plus.  And when he is feeding every two hours . . . one (as in me) runs out of time to do anything else very quickly. And because of the reflux, he sleeps better propped up a little.  So he spends most nights in his swing or infant seat. 

Now for the gushing part, we unabashedly adore this little baby.  As in - every one of us can't help but gawk and coo over him . . . even when he is fussy.  He is totally the king of the household.  I love to see Chris fall to pieces over him.  For some reason, I thought it might be easier for a dad to be in love with baby girls more (probably just because they are the opposite sex).  However, Chris might just be the most ga-ga for our baby boy than all of us.  It melts. my. heart.

The joy of boy

I have three brothers.

Chris has two brothers.

As a teenager, I imagined myself as the mother of five boys.

When I was pregnant with my first, I thought I would have a blonde bouncing baby boy - he would be Jack.

Then our first ultrasound delivered the news - it was a girl!

Two and a half years later, we delivered another glorious girl.

So when I discovered I was pregnant with number 3, (and after 5 years of girl mommyhood)

I thought it might be easier to just have another girl.

I already had a beautiful pink nursery.

I had about fifty hair bows.

Though the thought of a boy was exciting, it made me nervous.

My girls were the refined colonies and a boy represented the untamed wild west.

Ten months later - I am experiencing the joy of a baby boy.

Oh, I know I haven't really experienced having a boy yet.

The years will be bring me lots of new surprises.

But, I do know that he has my whole heart.

Even when he screams and cries for hours in a row.

I love this little guy.

pictures that tug at my heart

When I get overwhelmed some moments, these are the type of photos that just melt me and make all my stressors seem to slip away.