Spring has Sprung

To celebrate the arrival of Spring - I decided to change up our table decorations. And thanks to the baby shower that we had here in Chicago this last weekend - I had some beautiful flowers to work with! :) We are thinking "Pink" a lot in our house these days, not only with Spring's arrival but also in anticipation of Lucy's arrival too! :)
Brad bought me a beautiful hanging plant for our patio - it makes everything look so much more cheerful! I love the pink/purple combo that he picked out! Didn't God get creative when designing this plant?
I have also started growing a few flowers of my own, Pansies, Blue Bonnets, Zinnias and Nasturtium along with Rosemary and Parsley. I am hoping that once they grow up a bit, I can transplant them into window boxes or pots on the back patio. :) No green yet - but I'll keep watering them.
How have you seen Spring arrive in your home?

32 Weeks

My tummy keeps getting bigger and bigger! At 32 weeks, Lucy is aprox. 4 lbs and 17 inches long. I'm still feeling great - nothing to complain about. I haven't had too much swelling and have figured out the most comfortable position to get some rest (I have a total of 5 pillows helping me out - but I can catch some zzzz's). The extra calcium I am taking in, 4+ tums a day (to help with heart burn), is helping my nails grow super fast and strong. So far so good with weight gain - a total of 19 lbs to-date. The mid-wives say that is "great" and "right on track" - I am hoping to stay within the 25 lb mark, but we will see. I have been told that the weight just appears out of nowhere in the last months.

Two more months and we can hold Lucy in our arms! (Hopefully she won't be too late :) )

April Showers bring..... June Babies?!?!?!

There is so much to catch up on! I apologize for the lack of personal pictures in this post - I haven't been home long enough in the past week to put pictures from the camera onto the computer. :) I'll update with pictures soon - hopefully. But you will understand our schedules once you finish reading this.

Our lives have been plugging along - we feel like the days are flying by! The numbers on that counter over there, to the left, keep getting smaller and smaller. Lucy is going to be here before we know it. And we are busily preparing for her! I read online today that her fingernails and toenails have fully grown in now - I can't wait to paint her little tootsies and help her feel like a pretty lady. I am feeling and seeing tons of movement now - it is really fun to see my tummy move around... this has been a great source of entertainment. Still feeling really good - I have pregnancy heart-burn pretty bad at night, but its nothing that 4 tums won't help. I have nothing to complain about. I am so thankful for a healthy and comfortable pregnancy!

Work has begun on Lucy's dresser. Brad has been sanding it down and we are so pleased with the quality of the wood under all the old varnish. We did let a mouse in the house:but it is a mouse that I love! :) I have wanted one of these babies since high-school when I first saw a commercial for one. He makes me giddy. He makes the work easier. Brad likes him too. :) So the dresser is looking great - we are still in limbo - to paint or to stain... this is our question.

During a trip to the Home Depot a few weekends ago I thought, "I wonder if they will have any oops paint that will work in Lucy's room?" So we headed to the paint isle and sure enough! there was a gallon of beautiful grey. For $5 - how could we have passed it up?

*And let me just say - I have the bestest husband ever! Have you read the post before this one - he cracks me up. :) It was such an amazing gift to walk in and have work done on Lucy's room that I wasn't expecting. I appreciate him so much!*

We finished painting Lucy's room last weekend and it looks great. I was afraid the color was too yellow-green - greys can be so tricky! But once we our good friend Brandon cut in and hid all the old blue it looked beautiful! We also purchased a rug for the room - it is slowly coming together! Here is a picture of the rug (complements of Home Depot):
Nice, neutral, soft and cushy, it has a nice shag to it. :) I also ordered replacement cushions for our glider rocker - another task crossed off to do list! Here is the fabric we choose:

I really like the neutrality (is that a word?) of this fabric - it will go well in Lucy's room while still looking great in a little brother's room down the road or even the living room. We should receive the cushions in 8-10 weeks - hopefully before Lucy comes.

We still need to 1) finish the dresser, 2) buy blinds, 3) make curtains, 4) finish quilt, 5) buy bookshelf and 6) decorate!. :) Preparation for Lucy, as far as her room is concerned, is put on hold for the month of April because we are busy busy busy. :) We have to get all our traveling in before I am "not allowed to fly" (due to my protruding belly).

This last week we got to stay with three sweet kiddos - Bekah (4), Ben (2) and Judah (10 mo) Naus. Their parents are in our small group and are great friends. Abby and Eric escaped to Cancun (which as Bekah said, "Is a funny name for a place") for a few days and we were engulfed in parenthood. :) After one day with the kids, we both collapsed on the couch and said to each other - "We are so glad our kids will come one at a time!" :) We had so much fun with Bekah, Ben and Judah and walked away with a greater respect for Abby and Eric who seem to have energy in spite of having four kids. :) You grow into parenthood right? :)

We got home last night and stayed there for 12 hours, just enough time to unpack and repack, eat, sleep and shower. :) This afternoon we leave for Michigan to see Brad's family for the weekend. Tomorrow morning we have our first Baby Shower hosted by Aunt Jean (Lori's sister) - I am so excited to see all the ladies, eat some yummy brunch food and be (as one of my favorite blogs said) "the incubator to the guest of honor."

We will come home on Sunday night and have a "normal" week. Thursday (the 15th) our great friends, Linsey and Joel, are coming into town - they are staying with us til Monday morning. I can't wait to give Linsey a huge (although my tummy will be in the way) hug and catch up with my good friend in-person... face-to-face.

We have another Shower here in Chicago on the 17th - hosted by the amazing ladies in Small Group. I feel so blessed to have so many wonderful friends!

The third, and final shower is going to be in Texas at the end of the month. Both of my Grandmas will be there - along with my Mom (soon to be Grammy) and sisters. The sweet ladies in my mom's Sunday School class are hosting this shower for us and I could not be more grateful! I can't wait to spend some time with my family and pour hugs and kisses onto Laura and Anna for a few days! We get to be in Texas for Jana's Graduation party too - parties all around!

So our April is pretty full - or very full. :) I have to keep reminding myself that May comes between April and June and that there is plenty of time to get 100% (or as close to 100%) settled and "nested" before Lucy comes.

I sit today and am amazed at how blessed we are - three showers this month, the ability to go see family, the encouragement of friendship and the miracle of life. God is so good isn't He?

One last thing - Brad and I have made predictions on Lucy's arrival and size (another idea from my favorite blog). :) Would you like to participate in the predicting too? Just comment on the blog or e-mail me.

Brad's Guess: June 5th, 7 lbs 3 oz, 18.3692 inches long. (Gotta love exact measurements!)

Sarah's Guess: June 11th, 7 lbs 9 oz, 20 inches long. (I think it would be really neat if she was born on the 11th - I do love that number. :) )

Surprise!!!

Brad here! Calm down, I know you're excited I blog like once a quarter lately.

So today I decided to do something unexpected, I actualy understood and took a couple of my wife's hints and ACTED ON IT! Amazing, I know. You see for a few weeks, nay months Sarah has been hinting that we were not quite as ready for little Lucy to come as she might like. One of those hints happened to center around the fact that her bedroom had yet to get a color change from blue (a color not really fitting for my little princes) to the extremely girly color of gray (which is after all the new pink. What? You didn't hear, well then you clearly don't read Vogue).

So anyway I cut out of work a half hour early today to rush home and do this:

Pretty nice right?? As you can see not quite done yet, Sarah will probably handle most of the work around the edges as that is NOT my specialty... at all. But I, the discerning, hint picking up on, husband, have gotten most of the work out of the way, and inhaled almost all the toxic fumes that a woman who is with child simple must stay away from (though I really doubt that had we painted the room together it could have possibly depleted the mental facilities of a child comprised of Kidder AND Addington DNA!) So room painted, one project down every day a little closer holding my little girl in my arms! So I think I am deserving of a gold star, don't you?? Here it is!

Nice right? Jealous? Go do something for your wife!

Confessions of a Perfectionist

They say confession is good for the soul...

1. I almost didn't post this because I don't have a picture to show you.

2. I had to stop working on Lucy's quilt over the weekend because I was mad (really) at both the quilt and my sewing machine for not operating as I want. (The quilt is looking good, for my first attempt at quilting "all by myself" - but I want it to be perfect... I am learning as I go.)

3. I have picked up knitting again - but I am finding that I need a lot of practice for it to look nice. I am loosing steam and motivation.

4. I stress if my house is not clean - it is usually tidy, items put away ect. But if it is not "clean" (by my standards) I can't sit still.

5. I like to know what my future holds. I have always been a planner (and I married one too) - I like to know what my day/week/month/year is going to look like. If there is "fuzzyness" in the plans, or a "black hole" after a certain date - I don't like it. In the past months, God has been clearly calling both Brad and I to trust Him with decisions that will impact the next few years of our life. It is scary. It is confusing. It has grown our faith. This lesson is not over yet - we are still learning.

6. I used to try to control my spiritual life and I failed miserably. God, ever patient with me, has brought me on a journey, teaching me that I can not "perfect my salvation" - an amazing grace filled, Spirit begun work (Galatians 3:3). He will bring my salvation to completion, not in my timing, but "on the day of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:6). There seems to be a fine line between super-action and passivity in the Christian walk and I don't want to be on ether side of that spectrum. My goal is to live a life that is both full of faith (trusting that God will do and act in his timing) and faithfulness (taking action, acting in obedience) - much like the old Hymn, "Trust and obey, for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus." There really is "nothing new under the sun" (Ecclesiastes 1:9), others have walked this road before me and God's faithfulness has sustained them too.

I am learning how to give myself "grace" (aka. permission to fail and/or permission not to have the end result turn out perfectly) with the petty, everyday things in life. I am learning how to trust the Lord, waiting on His timing, and walk in obedience to the life He has called me to.

Are you a perfectionist too? Has it spilled into your spiritual life? Are the lessons God has been teaching us/me lessons God has taught/is teaching you?

I know how.... but wish I was better...

Ok, so I know how to knit - no where near as well as I know how to crochet - but there are times I wish I was better at it.

For example, when Brad and I were perusing the shelves at JoAnn, looking for yarn for Lucy's blanket, he kept seeing samples of yarn that were "worked up" already into squares and saying "I like this, can you do this?" I had to respond, 99% of the time, "Well, I can use that yarn, but it won't look exactly like that because that is knit and I crochet."

My Grandma Chisholm taught me how to knit when I was young - in fact I knew how to knit before I knew how to crochet. For some reason, though, it never caught on.

But projects like this, make me want to knit. Real bad.
Go to: http://www.soulemama.com/soulemama/2010/03/a-february-girl.html to see more beautiful pictures of this sweater.

Maybe I'll pick knitting up again after I finish Lucy's quilt... :)

Before and After - Great Grandma's Vanity Stool

I must begin this post with a disclaimer: this project was done pre-pregnancy and so none of the spray paint fumes hurt our Little One. :)

I can not tell you how much I love taking something that is special, unique, perhaps even inherited and turning it into something that works in our living space. We have done this with a trunk from my great great grandparents (I think that is the right number of greats) by using it as a side table in our Living Room. Having pieces of the past that have been updated is part of carrying on a legacy and it gives so much character to your home. I was, then, thrilled when I saw this little vanity stool in the stuff that had been cleaned out of my Great Grandpa Ivance's home. I had been looking a little plant stand, and this vanity stool fit the bill perfectly.

With a little lovin' it was transformed into a chic, modern, dramatic vanity stool. :) All it took was a little spray paint (which I had leftover from this project) - so it was a free makeover! :)

And here is my entry way, happy and content now that the plant has some height. :) I must let you know, I am not usually a fan of fake plants.... fake flowers, sometimes - when done well - but not fake plants. When thinking about buying a plant for this space last summer I stepped outside my door and was hit with a wall of heat. It dawned on me that our stairwell is not heated or air conditioned and that it would not be kind to a plant to put it out in this harsh environment. So, I decided to see what kind of fake foliage was out there these days and I found a nice selection at Target. The selection was made even nicer by the nice clearance section where I found the plant below (originally $39!, on sale for $8.99. SCORE!). The plant is much happier now that it can sit up off the ground, thanks to the newly purposed vanity stool. And the space itself looks so much more proportionate and welcoming to those coming up the stairs to our home.

Welcome!