Being Pregnant

Picture taken at 18 weeks, currently I am 20 weeks, 4 days.

I really like being pregnant. I know a lot of women can't say that and I know in about 15 weeks I will no longer be saying it, but right now I just love it. I love knowing life is growing inside me, I love looking forward to the day I get to meet this sweet little one. I love the extra kindness that strangers show me and I love having a reason for my tummy! I am feeling great right now and feel the baby move all the time. I love having Curtis put his hand on my tummy and patiently wait for a kick, though so far, no luck.

Audrey seems to understand the whole process, but I'm sure it's just a little confusing for Nathan. He now points to my belly and says, "Baby!" and points to his and says, "No, baby!"

Fire!

We had a hillside full of waist high weeds behind our house. They were so ugly, so I got a burn permit and we pulled them up and piled them high. I was going to show Curtis my mad fire making skills. After I went through about 6 matches with no success he got it started with one! After several hours of gathering weeds and junk wood from the woods behind our house (stuff people has hauled back there and left), we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Then I started to fade and Curtis kept going. He said it was actually kind of fun for him. It kept burning into the evening without incident. Now we just need to try to keep the weeds from going back somehow.

A Visit from the Durkees

We just had a wonderful visit from the Durkees. My sister Lynn graduated from BYU this weekend and came all the way from California to walk and receive her diploma. This was a huge achievement for her and we are all very proud. She has three children, works full time, is the leader of a girl scout troop and is the primary president in her ward, just to name a few. I have a hard time reading a book, I can't imagine finishing several classes!

My kids were in heaven playing with their cousins from sunrise to sunset. We did so many fun things, swimming, a picnic, shopping, and going out to eat. This week was surprisingly low stress for me. You would think having five extra people in the house would not be, but Lynn was so easy going and helpful. I almost felt like I was on a vacation.

I did not get any pics, but I know everyone else did. I need to ask them to share with me.

My Baby Room Reveal

I have always wanted to paint and decorate a nursery for a baby. Curtis feels all the walls in the house should be the same color: off white. He has not allowed me to have fun with paint. Well, this time I didn't let him stop me. We still don't know if this baby is a girl or a boy so I chose colors that I felt were neutral and not too babyish. I want the room to grow with the child no matter what gender.

I found a really neat shelf tutorial here and loved the colors too. So I started with that.
Then I really liked a lot of vinyl wall decor that had branches and birds, but I didn't want to pay the high price tag, so I borrowed an overhead projector (thanks Kelsey) and paid 81 cents to make a transparency. I traced this onto the far wall:

Then I saw this tutorial and knew I just had to do it. I originally planned on doing this in my bedroom, but Curtis was not so keen on the idea. I felt it went well with the theme of the room.

From blue tape...

To green trees...

Cool, huh?

I also used freezer paper to cut out the bird shape in the corner of the shelf on the top picture. I just ironed it on the wall and painted over it. The wall was not smooth, so some paint "leaked" around the edges, but at a distance it looks great and won't take much to touch up if I feel like it.

Last Saturday I went shopping with my mom and found all sorts of treasures for the shelf.

and these sweet birds. It has several "hooks",
though I'm not sure what, if anything, to hang on it.

Today I found these frames and printed baby pics off the web,
someday they will be pics of my own baby.

The ribbons are actually taped behind and the frames are hung with screws, I'm so tricky. =)

All I need now is a window treatment of some sort, oh, and finish the two quilts I started.

I really like how it turned out. It makes me smile.
Thank you Curtis for letting me be creative and helping me put up the shelf.