Organizing.

We're closing out 2012 by organizing the house. I'm sitting on the floor in the bedroom, sifting through a box and Scott pulls a few bags and boxes from under the bed.

Apparently, I stuffed a few things under the bed, hoping they'd disappear. Sigh. I know there's still boxes and bags waiting to be organized in Maryland. Why do I save everything???

I finally threw out an old Kirsten Dunst issue of Vogue (Marie Antoinette). Progress.

The dollar store...

Sells baby hangers. How did I not know this? I picked up a few packs in pink.

Striking gold on Craigslist!

We weren't planning on having a dresser for Babybug. The layout for the nursery is odd, and our plan was to stick a bookcase in the corner (between the crib and changing table) and use baskets for organization.

Today, during naptime, I sat in the nursery for awhile and looked around. I kept thinking that there had to be another way. I mentally rearranged furniture, thinking about the best use of space. Scott and I were going back and forth on how to organize things. We're coming up close on a deadline here!

On a whim, I checked Craigslist to see how much dressers were going for. Just to see. I saw an ad posted today for an antique white dresser. It looked slim. I quickly looked for measurements and flew into the nursery with the tape measure. If you can believe it, it was the perfect fit for the little "nook" next to the closet. We have an odd section of the wall, where there's a tiny bit of room...enough for a chair or a small bookcase. Our plan was to stick a cheap Target bookcase in there and put a lamp on top. A sturdy dresser seemed much better.

Everything fell into place. Scott liked the idea of the dresser and agreed that it would get years of use. The measurements were perfect, almost as if it had been built for the nursery. The color would match the crib. I also didn't want to miss out, so I called the man on the phone and he was willing to take the ad down if I was serious enough. I quickly got ahold of my friend Erin and she was happy to let us borrow her minivan.

I can't believe it all worked out, especially since this all started just a few hours ago. I couldn't be happier or more relieved. Babybug has a real dresser, the nursery is nearly done, and we managed to find exactly what we needed on a budget! It's really a beautiful piece. The inside of the top drawer says "Virginia House Solid Woods". Wow.

Merry Christmas Eve!

I'm 32 weeks today.

Christmas Eve is probably my favorite day of the year. So much to look forward to. Today, once Scott gets home at noon, the 3 of us will go out to lunch at Chickfila. Then, it's off to Kroger for some groceries. Starbucks for a decaf latte for Mommy. Relaxing at home until church at 5.

Once Jamie goes to bed, then it's [the annual tradition of] Chinese takeout for Mommy and Daddy, and watching "Love, Actually".

Jamie knows that Santa's coming tonight. He's very excited. It's cute.

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Nursery progress

I hope to have the nursery done sometime next month. With 8 weeks to go until my due date, and 5 weeks until I'm full term...wow, that sounds close, doesn't it?

This week, we've assembled the crib and installed wall shelves. Yesterday, I organized the closet and separated all of the baby clothes into sizes (I'll wait to wash everything in January). I pulled the baby blankets out of Jamie's closet and realized that we should be mostly set on blankets, although they're mostly blue (but cute and soft!).

My sewing to-do list...
1. Crib skirt
2. Basket liner
3. Burp rags
4. Bibs
5. 1-2 blankets
6. Cloth wipes

Scott's to-do list....
1. Make name letters to go over crib
2. Take care of any heavy lifting/moving things around/carry things up and down the stairs for me
3. Take baby items out of the attic & set up in the appropriate places

And then there's the task of washing and prepping the cloth diapers, making sure we have the odds and ends good to go on that.....aside from needing some other odds and ends for nursing, pacifiers, toiletries, baskets for the bookcase.....I feel like we're on the right track. I'm also hoping to find the perfect lavender lamp for the nursery. Target seems to be sold out of the one that I fell in love with several months ago. Sigh. What a bummer.

I'd also like to make some baby hair bows. If I have time.

Baby oranges.

Jamie loves clementines. He calls them baby oranges.

I'm dividing up the orange sections, and I feel a few kicks as I'm eating.

Me: Baby sister likes baby oranges, too.
Jamie: Yeah, I know.
Me: You knew that? (he nods) What else does she like?
Jamie: (thinks) Umm...broccoli!

Well, alright, then!

31 weeks tomorrow!

In 2 months, Babybug will be here!

I'm feeling bigger. My small maternity sweatpants are officially too tight as of this morning. So, I pulled out a very comfortable pair of maternity large pants. Bless Old Navy.

My large (Scott's) tshirts are getting tight. Socks are leaving lines on my ankles, which is exactly what happened with Jamie. It's also getting harder to bend over. Now I really have a free pass to let the floors go.

I've recently developed an aversion to hot dogs. This includes corn dogs. No matter the brand, they all taste awful to me. I'm drinking plenty of milk, though, which is good...but I still find strange, because I've always hated milk.

Time for a list update.

Food Aversions.
-chicken
-hot dogs and corn dogs
-homemade pizza (sorry, Scott)

Cravings.
-tacos
-milk
-sugar cookies
-cereal
-cheeseburgers
-soup
-peanut butter and jelly
-apples

Christmas cookies!

This is the result of our very first Christmas cookie bake. I've made my fair share of chocolate chip cookies (from scratch, thank you very much!), but I've never attempted sugar cookies...and I've never, ever decorated cookies. Thanks to recommendations of Martha Stewart's sugar cookie recipe, and to googling a simple icing recipe from allrecipes.com, we were set.

10:30 A.M. Jamie gladly wore an apron and helped me push a chair to the counter, so he could properly help out. The kitchenaid mixer provided some entertainment.

This is his "cheese" face. Funnily enough, he claimed that we were making cheese. I suppose it looked like a big bowl of cream cheese in the mixer. Jamie helped with the measuring spoons and cups. Not too much flour ended up the floor. This was a big success. We made the dough and according to the directions, I put it in the fridge for an hour.

We took a break for a Cookie Monster dvd (appropriate, huh?) and before we knew it...

11:30/12:00 P.M. We rolled out the dough, cut circles with our cups, and waited patiently for our cookies to bake. As soon as the first tray was set out to cool on the table, Jamie wasted no time. He hurried to scoot down from his chair, claiming that he was done and was going to eat cookies. I reminded him that we still had work to do, and did my best to keep him from eating up all of our hard work, especially before they had a chance to be iced.

After the cookies were baked, we took a break for lunch and Jamie went down for his nap. In the meantime, I made the icing. This involved food coloring, so it was probably best that I took care of this part by myself. The icing wasn't difficult, thanks to my mixer. Whenever I try out different recipes, I'm always very thankful to have the mixer do the work for me. Very thankful.

5:00 P.M. It ended up taking awhile to get to decorating, as we had to leave for my 30 week prenatal checkup. Once we got home, I washed Jamie up, put another apron on him and let him loose with the cookies. I made his own personal cup of sprinkles, which mostly ended up in his mouth, on the way to the cookies.

All in all, our project turned out quite well. We were pleased with the end result, and we "cheers-ed" with cookies. As soon as Scott walked in the door, Jamie was excited to show him our cookies.

I think we'll have to do this every year. Or possibly again in a week, when we eat up our cookie stash.