Sour Milk . . .

A Place To Lay His Head . . .

When RedDog was born a kind neighbor of the Queen's gave us this bassinet which she no longer needed. He slept in it for about two months and then it went up into our attic, where it has remained for the past six years. The other day I asked the Hubby to retrieve it so I could clean it up and get it ready for our pending arrival.

When he brought it to me, it was not as I remembered it. The great texture of the basket weaved sides was the same, but my mind had repressed the memory of the 70's era "quilted" plastic lining, covered with pastel teddy bears holding balloons. Nevertheless, I wiped it down with a wet rag and placed it in a corner in our room, where it has sat for the past two weeks, taunting me with its tackiness.

Disclaimer: I do not profess to be a sewer of any kind. If I did, it would offend the sensitivities of those who actually can craft beautiful things out of fabric and thread. Instead, I like to call myself a "fauxer" because what I do is fake sewing that usually turns out as passable, but with many glaring errors. The sad truth is that I come from a long line of talented seamstresses. That gene, however, passed me by.

Still, I couldn't stand the pink teddy bears another minute, so I grabbed some fabric from my meager stash in the basement, crafted a little pattern out of a roll of my kids art paper, and actually sewed a slipcover for the bassinet. And I think it turned out quite AWESOME! Now my baby will spend his time napping in style and I can cross another crazy pregnant lady project off my list.

If you look carefully in the above photograph, you can see the results of our recent dining room upheaval. We've needed to replace the very worn 13 year old carpet on the top floor of our house for some time now and decided the best time to do it was before the baby came. This resulted in a week of sheer chaos at our house with every piece of furniture and artwork shoved into the upstairs bathrooms, dining room and office on the main floor.

We lived in the basement for four days, with all three kids sleeping on their mattresses in the play room {what adventure!}.

To add to the madness, the Hubby and I realized the night before the new carpet went in that now was the perfect time to repaint all of the baseboards since we could drip paint on the subfloor with reckless abandon. So we spent a very, very late night putting a bright coat of white paint on all of the baseboards. The Hubby and I work very well together in these types of situations. and enjoyed conversation and laughter while sweating and painting for what seemed like hours. He is a good, good man to humor me in such ways.

I've spent the better part of the last week and a half putting the upstairs back together one room at a time, weeding through and purging any junk along the way. It has been completely therapeutic and totally exhausting. Unfortunately, it has not induced labor.

So that's the anti-climactic big news around here. We now have really beautiful, PLUSH carpeting upstairs. I want to roll around on it and find myself a little obsessive about how fun it is to see vacuum marks on it. It makes me happy to think that our new baby will eventually become mobile on this carpet and earn himself the trademark chappy knees of a crawler.

So Funny . . . And So True!

Not to brag or anything, but one of my greatest strengths is surrounding myself with amazing and talented friends. This handmade gift just arrived from the ever inspiring Jennie Doezie and I can't wait to put it on my new boy and on myself. You'd better believe I'm wearing this IN THE HOSPITAL just in case people forget how hot I am! Thanks for putting a HUGE smile on my face Doezie. You know how to make a girl laugh!

{and yes, the girl screen prints in SILVER ink . . . how cool is that?}

Visit Me Tomorrow for the Dining Room Upheaval Reveal

Crazy Pregnant Lady . . .

What's a girl to do when she's massively pregnant and that baby just isn't coming? A last minute project, of course, because keeping oneself busy is a great way to take the mind off of increased swelling and discomfort!

Disclaimer: If you are highly, or even somewhat opposed to the painting of perfectly good solid wood furniture, I ask that you not judge me. Maybe this post isn't for you. In fact, avert your eyes now and we can still be good friends {wink}.

About twelve years ago when the Hubby and I were naive and my decorating skills were in their infancy, we bought a dresser for Big C's nursery. Not knowing better, I had the dresser stained a lovely mahogany color. I have nothing against mahogany - it just doesn't factor in so well with my decorating style today. Actually, it didn't factor in too well with my decorating style twelve years ago either, and until last week still remained the single solitary piece of mahogany furniture in my life.

This dresser resides in my bedroom as my bedside table, holding my "delicates", pajamas and swim/workout wear {right now a distant memory in the fit department}. With our entire upstairs in upheaval anyway, and no baby making a showing any time soon, I decided it was now time to address the dresser problem - and to do it at little to no cost.

The Hubby graciously carried the dresser to our back deck {while shaking his head and thinking, "Crazy, crazy pregnant lady"} where I attacked it on a balmy 75 degree day with a cool breeze. I rummaged through our existing paint stash and found the perfect shade of creamy white. After a good sanding, two coats of primer and two coats of paint, here are the results:

{Eight knobs at $2.40 each, available at Target}

Even though I'm crazy, I gotta tell you, this project with its $20 price tag, was hugely satisfying. Now, what's next?

Hello, My Name Is . . .

{This looks like me . . . about three and a half months ago!

Photo courtesy of Google Images}

Were you like me many years ago, scribbling out a little list of baby names in a journal or on a scrap of paper somewhere, determined that your future husband would sign off on it immediately and that would be that? Mine were silly names - names I don't even like now. Obviously they are not the names I've given my children. The Hubby came to our marriage with his own idea for baby names, but after discussing it with his wise spouse, he realized it was a dumb idea and we moved on.

There are so many different approaches to naming babies - each approach as unique as the tiny individuals who will bear these names for their entire lives. Many people I know have chosen one of the following options when selecting a baby's name {see if you can find your approach in here somewhere}:

consulting baby name books

checking out the multiple baby name sites on the internet

choosing names based on their meaning

giving a scriptural name

giving an historical name

giving a nature inspired name

making up a name that no one has ever heard of before

taking a common name and tweaking the spelling to make it different

combining two names to form a new name {blasted Renesmee!}

choosing names that all begin with the same letter

picking a name for no other reason than liking it.

I'm sure I've missed a few approaches. Our approach {not listed above} stems from wanting to instill in our children a desire to follow in the footsteps of noble ancestors who have come before them in their genealogical line. We have chosen to give each of our children a family name in the hopes that they will not only be inspired by their ancestors, but also do their best to live up to and honor the name they've been given.

Big C is named Robert Christopher after my father-in-law Bob and my older brother Chris, two men we admire and love.

Hannie B is named Hannah Kate after Hannah Shipley, a several times great grandma of mine and Mormon pioneer who died crossing the plains with her husband in search of a place where she could worship God without persecution.

RedDog is named Soren Wilson after a Scandinavian great, great grandfather and the Hubby's cherished grandfather, both stalwart righteous men.

As for Baby X, well, his name is chosen and waiting for him to arrive. It spoke to both the husband and I as we searched our family records and studied the stories of lives lived. It carries the history of our pioneer ancestors in its thirteen letters, as well as pays tribute to one of my own family members.

I'm excited to "reveal" it in the coming weeks. We have all become very fond of uttering it while rubbing my belly and if the leaping in my womb is any indication, he is ready to come and bear it proudly.

I am no expert on naming babies. I have only one very opinionated piece of advice to give to others on this topic, and that is to remember that this is the name your child will bear his or her whole life long, so give it some thought!

How do you choose your baby's names?

Patriotic Yumminess . . .

Just a few shots from our weekend . . .

Carnations ala Eddie Ross . . .

Deliciously patriotic cupcakes . . .

And an outtake from the Cool Family photo shoot yesterday . . . {"What?" the Hubby says, "Smooching you is really cool."} Enjoy the full belly!

Tomorrow: How we choose our children's names

Cool Like That . . .

It only took seven tries to get the Hubby to act cool enough for this little tribute to our cool country, the U.S. of A! We've had a fun, patriotic weekend with family, friends and fireworks. Now we're all sitting around {me with my fatso feet up} wondering if this will be the last picture we take together as a family of five. Only time, and some serious praying/pleading, will tell!

Here's hoping your holiday was great!

ps. I would NEVER strategically place a child in front of my huge belly to make me look smaller . . . NEVER!

pps. Look at my tough/cool RedDog! Hilarious.