Baby Prep

Jordan and his guns!

Jordan has been working so hard on getting our nursery baby ready! It was a pretty boring room, and from the beginning before I knew what kind of theme, paint color, etc I wanted for the room, I knew I wanted a chair rail and maybe some wainscoting. So my wonderful husband had to get started on building it! I am against buying things straight off the rack apparently, so we had to "create" our own chair rail. So many things in the store are too traditional, or too ornate, or too frumpy for a nursery. We like simple, clean lines, so thats what I was going for. Easier said than done. But this is what we came up with! We still need to paint the new chair rail all white, and what is below it white also, but its coming together! The color on the top half of the walls I am still not sure about, so I've got to test out some paint colors once it gets a little nicer and we can have the windows open to air out the house when we are painting!

Our animals "helping" out

One of the best days so far in this baby prep is when we got our furniture delivery! Our animals were all about "helping" out when we got the furniture and couldn't stand to be out of the room as we were figuring out where to put it! I'm sure we are going to change it all about 90 times before the baby comes, but for now, we are just going to keep it where it is and see how we like it! Jordan had a fun time putting together the crib! It is so much better in person, in our house than it was in the store! I absolutely love the clean lines and simplicity of it! It will be perfect for a little boy or a little girl and that makes me so incredibly happy!

Our beautiful crib! 

There are so many more things to think about when it comes to getting a nursery set up and ready for a baby. I'm probably over-thinking it all, because after all, its just a baby's room, right? With all these perfect pinterest nurseries and blogs about how to make the best, most chic baby room around, its hard to keep up - especially when you don't know if you're having a boy or a girl! Its even more frustrating that all the stores sell stupid, tacky, themed bedding sets. I mean, people actually buy this crap! There are some seriously hideous themes, and the sad thing is, there are people that think they are cute! I don't want a specific theme and that makes it 100x more difficult to find things I like. I'm finding myself piecing together parts of different sets to make a simple and clean baby room! I have to keep telling myself that all this stuff won't really matter, but I still want it to be perfect and put together and wonderful for our sweet baby!

Its time for me to just take a deep breath, relax, and go with what is simple and easy to put together and make our baby's room perfect. It may not be "pinterest perfect" but who really cares? I don't have to prove anything to anybody, and my baby won't ever know a difference!

Quick Florida Vacay

So I decided a few weeks ago to go to Florida. By myself. Well, not completely. I'd be traveling by myself down there, but staying with my grandparents who live just south of Tampa. It was just before college spring breaks were starting and it was probably going to be tough to get on flights. If I could make it down there, I just needed to rent a car. And let me tell you - those car rental places are not stupid. They totally jack up their prices in prime areas in prime times. I ended up finding a good deal on a car and that sealed the deal for me - I was heading to Florida!

Baby and me by the "famous" tree

My grandparents live just east of Bradenton, Fl in Ellenton. Its a nice little community and they live in a retirement park with lots of other people their age. They are complete socialites. I was able to do lots of fun things in my 3 days in Florida. We always go to breakfast on the beach on Holmes Beach on Anna Marie Island. Its a cute little cafe, right on the beach, and they have all you can eat pancakes. Yummy!!! I have to go there every time I go to visit. Every year we have gone, we always take pictures in this tree. I'm not even sure what its called, but its a cool tree in the parking lot and my grandpa always makes us stop and pose for pictures under the tree. I had to take a "baby bump" picture of me and the baby under the tree. I don't have much of a bump here, but I know that someday our little baby will pose under that same tree! It was so absolutely wonderful, I don't think I've ever had better weather down there. 85 degrees with a great breeze of the gulf and abundant sunshine! I relaxed on the beach all day Friday. What a perfect day.

Foggy sunset on the gulf! 

I spent all day Saturday enjoying the pool at my granparent's place. I knew the beach was going to be a little crazy on a Saturday, and the pool was just wonderful because I could actually swim. The gulf was quite chilly and I only stuck my toes in to say that I stuck my toes in! Saturday night for dinner we went back to Anna Marie Island and ate at the Beach House, another restaurant right on the gulf. The sunset started out perfect and then the sea fog rolled in. I must say, out of all my years visiting them, I have never had a sunset ruined by fog. But there's always a first for everything, right? Again, I couldn't resist another baby bump picture right on the gulf with the waves. Here we are at 18 weeks, slowly but surely, we are getting more noticeable!

I really loved going to Florida, even it was only for 3 days, and I had to travel by myself. I just love being able to pick up and go places just because I feel like it. I know things will be different when the baby comes, but I really hope that we can still have spontaneous trips and go places with our sweet babe. I just feel like time can goes so fast and there are so many opportunities we pass up every day. I don't want to pass up too many opportunities. We are lucky to have travel benefits and if things fall into place and travel can happen, I want to try and do it - no matter what. I know priorities will change and our kids will have activities, and we are going to be plenty busy running off to all those things, but I really want them to have that same care-free and spontaneous aura about them. Life is too short to always be planned and serious right?