29th Birthday

This weekend was my 29th birthday. Last year of my twenties. I was reminded that by Mendy....so nice of her. It really is so crazy because I still feel like high school was yesterday. I do not feel older than 17. I wonder if I will always feel that way? It was a very tame birthday weekend since I am 8 1/2 months pregnant and all...but, I felt so pampered and loved. I had to work on Friday, which is very unusual for me, and when I got home mom and Kinley had a white chocolate Nothing Bundt Cake ready for me, candles and all. I could tell Kinley had been patiently waiting for this all day and as soon as I walked in the door she basically screamed "Happy Birthday" and drug me to the cake to sing and blow out candles. It was a great way to start the weekend.

Then, Ben surprised me with an overnight date night in Dallas on Friday night. Pops and Gram came over to spend the night with Kinley and we headed out. The surprise part was that I had no idea where we were going. We ended up going to the Joule in Dallas! In case you have not yet heard of the Joule....it is pretty swanky. The decor is very contemporary and energized with a real modern art feel. Everything looks like an installation and has meaning to it...all pretty much physics related because, as I understand it, a Joule is a unit of energy in physics. It also has this rooftop infinity pool, the Joule Poule as they call it, that jets out over the sidewalk and street 8 feet so you can see to the street below you. It must be cool because it is where Britney Spears stayed when she came to Dallas not long ago. We ate dinner at the Charlie Palmer, which is the restaurant inside the Joule. It was delicious. The next morning Ben booked me a Prenatal massage, which was so needed and fabulous, and then we headed home. We did not take one picture of our evening together but, here are a few from the Joule website that are great.

Saturday was my actual birthday and after seeing this super sweet post from my besties...we trekked over from Dallas to Ft. Worth and had a fabulous family dinner at Eddie V's. I had never been there and it was truly delicious. I think better than the Charlie Palmer even. We celebrated mine and Alex's birthday, because his was just 2 weeks ago, with our parents and spouses and Franchesca. It was such a fun night.

Mendy and Ben posing together since Alex was sitting by me for dessert.

Overall, I had a wonderful, relaxing birthday weekend and I am so thankful for all the many blessings that God has so generously given me. Thanks so much everybody and especially Ben for making this pregnant girl celebrating the last year of her 20's feel super special. Love you!

Baby Mobile Re-do

I have been slowly but surely working away in Ty's room again...it is almost finished! But, I do have another finished project that I had to post because it was literally the EASIEST thing I have done yet. It took about 5 minutes total. I was lucky to have everything I already needed at home and I just love when you want something to work and it actually does!

I got this fantastic Pottery Barn Kids mobile at Kinley's shower from Natalie. I love the soft butterflies and it went perfect over her crib. But, I did not think it would work for Ty. Haha!

I did not want to go out and spend money on a new mobile or really brainstorm anything creative to sew together either. But, I remembered that Kinley's pack-in-play came with a built in mobile with these little zoo animals that we never actually attached to the pack in play. How cute are they!?

I found them when I was cleaning out our guest room closet, now Ty's, and decided to use some twine to attach them to Kinley's old mobile.

All I did was un-velcro the fabric that was on the mobile and untie the butterflies. Then I tied the animals on with twine. SO easy. I love that it is a little boy-ish and just goes perfect in his crib.

Baby Update - 33 weeks

I had a dr. appt this morning with Martin and I figured it was time for another baby update! Right now I am 33 weeks and counting. I definitely feel bigger this pregnancy than I did with Kinley, no matter what some might say about my pictures. I do get to edit the pics I put on here! But, not today...here is an updated baby bump pic.

See the belly is OUT there! Ty, you are a KICKER! You move and jump around and play all day long. Every doctor or nurse or sonographer that touches my tummy gets to feel you move back. I LOVE it and I know I will miss it when you make your debut.

We did have a little scare with you a couple weeks back when the sonographer at Martin's office saw a small, possible cyst in your tear duct on the 31 week sonogram. Martin and his nurses were AMAZING and got me in to see a perinatal specialist right away, Dr. Papa, and she was THE BEST. They did the most in depth sonogram I have ever had in my entire life...like 45 minutes on the machine. She did confirm that there is a teensy-tiny lacrimal duct cyst that even though they are rare..are NOTHING to worry a bit about. Yours is so small that they expect not to see it at all when you are born, that it will not affect you, and that it will reverse itself. We are going back in a couple of weeks to try to take a look again to ensure it is not growing. Our prayer is that it will continue to stay the same size or reverse itself before you are born! We will just keep praying every day for a perfectly healthy baby boy. They also looked at your little heart, brain, limbs, tummy, and boy you just look perfect! But, they all say to watch out because you will be a big boy! You are measuring ahead (like over 2 weeks ahead) on every level. We were instructed to enroll you in sports!

Also, at our appointment today we, tentatively, scheduled your arrival date....September 14th! So, exactly 6 weeks from today you could be here with us! We can't wait.

On other baby news, your second (or third...not sure how you do those) cousin was born this weekend! Austin James Holmes. He was 7 lbs 7 oz and just too perfect for words. Cary and Chris are smitten already and so am I. How fun that you will have a boy cousin just 6 weeks apart from you! I love it!

Speaking of Austin...did you guys remember that Blake Shelton sings "Austin." I just love that song and totally forgot...but, was reminded when Ben and I went to see Blake Shelton and Brad Paisley this past weekend! I bought tickets for Ben for his birthday in April. Even though it was 103 degrees and I am 8 months pregnant...I LOVED every second of it. Such a fun date night.

Now you are updated on our lives....so excited for the next 6 weeks!

Sea Life Aquarium

Last week Ben and I took Kinley on a weeknight to the new Grapevine Sea Life Aquarium. We had tried to go on a Saturday not too long ago and the line just to buy a ticket was hours long. The exhibit just opened in mid-July so it is still all the rage around here. The weeknight option was way better and we walked right up and in. It really was so cool once you got in there. There are TONS of fish and very tailored to children. How cute is this daddy / daughter duo!

Pros and cons:

Pros:

• Children 2 and under are free (Kinley!)
• There are TONS of fish to look at and lots of cool things for kids to do (i.e. the 360 degree water tunnel, getting to touch starfish and crabs, climbing through exhibits like the sting rays and feeling like you are in the tank, getting to stand on glass aquariums and see fish swim under your feet)
• There are lots of sharks, especially in the "Shark Walk" and the 360 degree tunnel and Kinley LOVED that
• It can take as little or as much time as you want to go through (took us about an hour)
• There is a play area for kids at the end with tunnels and slides

Cons:

• Adult tickets are not cheap ($20.56 after tax at the door, $17.48 if you buy online ahead of time)
• Everything costs something (i.e. a map through the aquarium costs $4 at the door but, you can print one off at home here, you must have socks for the play area...which they sell, you have to walk through the gift store to get out and that can be a trap...stay strong!)
• They advertise more sea life on their website than we actually saw (i.e. sea turtles and octopus) so, don't talk those up to your kiddos
• You cannot use your flash on your camera to take any pictures and it is pretty dark in there...so that is why the pics are not too great.

Overall, we all really enjoyed going and Ben and I thought it was definitely worth it for the first time. We would not have thought that if we had to wait in a long line to buy a ticket or fight a crowd to see the exhibit. We also probably will not go back for a while...maybe a once a year thing.

Kinley giving a cheese before we walked in and had to turn our flash off....she looks so big to me in this picture!

Picture Frame Re-Purposing with a Great Helper

When we were projecting for Kinley's Big Girl room, I decided to repurpose some picture frames that we had around the house.

I had this fabulous yellow and white striped frame that I got at Canton one time. I love the yellow and white stripes but, I thought that horizontal yellows stripes would not look great against the vertical pink stripes so, we painted it white. Kinley was a great help. She loves when I have painting projects.

We left the yellow middle trim and then I sanded it down to distress it a little. I love how it turned out in her wall collage.

We did pretty much the same thing to this overly pink frame. I loved the pink sparkly and structural center but there was just too much pink! This one is on her dresser.

Our last frame project I did for Ty's room. I bought these graphic prints from The Little Rice on Etsy a couple weeks ago. They are super simple and I wish I had just made them myself because it is just a black clip art image printed on dictionary paper. But, I don't really have an aged dictionary in great shape just hanging around...so, I am happy with the purchases!

I decided I wanted to hang them in Ty's room but since everything in there is white and brown so far I thought I needed a pop of color. So, I went to Hobby Lobby and got some custom mats cut in a chocolate brown. Then I bought some standard, boring frames and decided to spray paint them. I primed them with a spray primer first and then sprayed them with Krylon Satin Pistachio.

I think the finished product turned out great and I can't wait to hang them in his room!

Kinley's Big Girl Room

I am super excited to finally have Kinley's big girl room done! It has been many weeks of thinking/organizing/project-ing to finally feel finished with her room. She has been sleeping in her big girl bed for about a month now and it truly has been a breeze and totally life-changing for her. She LOVES her bed. My goal was to make her room feel that way for her too and I think I did it. She loves it and wants to show it to everyone. It is so cute. It really feels like a big girl room and not a baby room anymore and it is a little sad but I loved working on it and am thrilled she likes the finished project.

To start off...I did not want to have to re-paint Kinley's room because she has these fabulous striped walls {that I did not do...they were already here when we moved in} and I just love them. Here is an old grainy scanned pic of me preggo with Kinley in her nursery for a little before pic. {on a side note that feels like yesterday and I can't believe I am about to do that again}.

So, my goal was to keep the nursery walls and "big girl" it up a little. Here's the after...

My inspiration came when I finally found this bedspread online at Target. I fell in love with it. I had been dying for a new color {not pink} and a new fun pattern {not striped}. I felt like this one hit the mark.

This is pretty much what Kinley thinks of her bed. It is a BIG big-girl bed. We had a queen in our guest room {soon to be Ty's room} so we just used that instead of storing it and buying a twin or toddler bed. She loves it...lots of relaxing, good sleeping and jumping up and down.

I hung her initials over the bed that we had over her crib.

A few weeks ago Ben and I bought and put together this chest from ikea. I love it. It is huge and holds almost all Kinley's clothes. We put the entire thing together in one evening and my favorite thing is the yellow striped lined drawers. No one sees it, but so cute!

The mirror is one I bought at Marshalls a couple years ago for our guest room. I was excited to use it again. The chandelier is one we got before Kinley was born for her nursery from Pottery Barn Kids. At Ben's insistence we moved it from the corner it was previously in so that it wouldn't be over her bed. I am glad we did because I like that you can see it right when you walk in the room.

A necessity in our rooms is blackout curtains. My first sewing project ever was to sew some material onto pre-made blackout curtains for Kinley's nursery. It was so fun to learn to sew with Jen but they ended up about ten inches too short and I have hated them ever since. I found this fabulous fabric at Joanns for 40% off and made some adjustments to my previous curtains. I made the length correct, added a 4" hem, exchanged the rod and clips and viola....new blackout curtains that I love!

The wall collage was the last thing I did. A huge thanks to katie grant who helped me for hours to decide how i should organize all this into one collage. What I was missing was a great center focal point for the wall and I found a fantastic mirror at Marshalls that just hit the spot. I love the color and shape and I just knew I wanted a wall collage centered around it.

I hung this canvas that I painted in college over the mirror. I painted this scripture from Psalm 139 when I was going through a huge self-image and eating disorder struggle. I always want Kinley to remember that she is beautiful because God made her that way and that He alone is the maker of all beautiful things.

Everything else that makes up the collage I just had around my house in different places. The painted K my friend Lauryn transformed for Kinley's K is for Kinley 1st Birthday Party. The crosses are some I got when she was born. The princess crown frame I got in college from my sweet roomie/bestie Lindsay Barry. The boxes I bought at a vintage store in Lansing, MI when we lived there for baseball. I love that it is a hodge-podge of things I have collected over time.

Overall, I think the room turned out great. I hope Kinley feels comfortable and safe in this room and knows how loved she is. She is our big girl now and is so soon to be a big sister. I know she will be amazing.