Movin' On Up

I am excited, today is an big day!  We cleared out the guest room to get ready for an extra bedroom. We had to move the bookshelves into the dining room which I'm not thrilled about. The room is really small as it is, and it's my only kid-free formal room left.  But we have absolutely no room for them anywhere else (trust me, I was brainstorming about any other possible options). We could have moved them into the bonus room, but it would have taken up a ton of space and I really want that to be a fun (and safe) space for the girls to play.
There is a saying that goes something like:" without kids my house would have nice things and always be clean, but my heart would be empty". There will be plenty of time to have a nice "adult home" where everything is just so, but for now it's a kid-friendly home with lots of love. And I wouldn't want it any other way.

Last night Matt and I cleared out the rest of the stuff--we put the bed in the corner of the bonus room (we did still want there to be a bed/sleeping option for guests). Luckily the room is so big that the bed didn't even put a dent in it, so there's still plenty of room to play. And I'm sure at some point the bed will even be used for forts or pillow fights too.

We had debated whether or not to move Ashley or keep her in her current room. It's the smaller of the two rooms, but it's painted and all set up with the comforts of what she knows. She's not currently at the age where the size will matter. However, we opted to move her afterall. We think our plan is to stay in this house for at least a few more years. So when we started doing the math, she will be the first to grow into a "big girl" bed which eventually converts to a full size, and her current room is def too small for that. Plus she doesn't care now, but in a few years she may and it's only fair that since she's older that she should get the bigger room. So, our big girl Ashley gets to move into her "big girl" room, and Emily will move into Ashley's old room.

The rooms were painted today. I'm so excited! We are definitely going with the bedding set that I posted on here for Emily's room. I started a baby registry at Pottery Barn Kids (and Babies R Us) with the bedding stuff, and we have officially painted the walls based on that set so it's a done deal. Yay. I can't wait to start getting it ready.

I also wanted to do the switch kind of early because having a new baby will be a lot of change and adjustment for Ashley as it is, and I didn't want Ashley to have one more thing to have to adjust to later. I figure if we did it early on, she wouldn't even associate the change with the baby and will be already comfortable and transitioned way before she even comes.

                                          Putting her new room together

Ashley's first night sleeping in her "big girl room"

                                         Sneak peak of the color of Emily's room

The latest

Just updating on the latest. Grandma left yesterday morning. She ended up staying an extra week after we got back to so we could spend some time with her, and also so she could help while we had appointments and errands to run. Below are some pictures we took together before she left.

Mom and I went up to the outlets to pick up a few new outfits for Emily. Given the timeframe, she will be able to wear all or most of Ashley's clothes, but we wanted her to have a few new things of her own as well. Since they are so close in age, a lot of the styles were still the same (or almost identical) to what we had for Ashley, so we didn't find a whole lot of new stuff. Above are a couple of pics.

While she was here, I also had the opportunity to go out to a few fabric stores. Since I had Ashley's bedding handmade by grandmom, I thought I may want to do Emily's room handmade as well (if grandmom was even up to it, or if I found someone if she wasn't). However, I went to 4 or 5 different fabric stores, and I really didn't see anything that I loved. I did find one, but Matt felt it was a little too "grown up" looking (which is was, but it was pretty). So I am thinking this time we are leaning toward getting an actual baby bedding set this time. But maybe if grandmom is still up for it, we can at least do other finishing touches homemade, such as the curtains and reupholster the glider/rocking chair. Matt and I both really like our friends Jen and Jim's set that they have for their daughter Emma. It's bold and bright/fun, which is a nice contrast to Ashley's which is pastels and more dainty.

Here is a link for the sneak peak. (We would just get the bumper, sheet, and crib skirt--no blanket or pillow sham). I was thinking of buying a few extra sheets to use to make matching valence for curtains and reupholster rocker with.

http://www.potterybarnkids.com/products/paisley-pop-nursery-bedding/?pkey=bgirls-nursery-bedding

We also have started clearing out the guest room to start making room for the baby. It will be fun to get her room ready over the next weeks.

As far as Ashley goes, she seems to be going through a talking spurt. She was already doing very well, but she has been babbling/talking A LOT recently, as well as coming up with more words. Most words are pretty clear. She's even saying more 2 word sentences.

She continues to be so sweet and loving, always waving hi and bye, blowing kisses, giving hugs, etc. She just makes my heart smile!

Here are also a couple of pics of her....from when she and daddy were watching cartoons together the other morning, to her "helping us" empty out bookshelves to move to another room, to a couple randoms.

It's a GIRL!!!

We went for our "big ultrasound" today. I was getting so excited for it. We went in and the ultrasound tech looked over everything--heart chambers, brain, bones, spinal cord, stomach, kidneys, etc. As she went through every part and told us that everything looked good, I thanked God each time.
Then she gave us the news. She told us that we were having a girl. We are so happy and excited. I was pretty shocked. When I was pregnant with Ashley, I had a feeling that I was having a girl the whole time. This time, for some reason I had the feeling I was carrying a boy--perhaps I was persuaded by Dr. Burton's opinion a little, and also this pregnancy has been different. Although the past couple of days, I did wonder if maybe we'd go in and have a "surprise" and be told it was a girl. We are thrilled though. It just makes it all seem more real knowing that there is a little girl growing inside me. And it will be so sweet to watch two little sisters playing together.

So I still don't know if it's 100% set in stone, but I am pretty sure we are going with Emily. I think we are still playing around with the middle name. We like the sentiment behind Denine, and combining two grandmothers names, but not sure if we like it...will keep you posted.

Here is a pic of Emily waving to her big sister Ashley!

Here are the pics of our little girl!

20 Weeks, 1/2 Way There!

Wow, I am 20 weeks pregnant today--1/2 way there!! I cannot believe that how fast the first 20 weeks flew, and in another 20 our baby will be here. Crazy!

All in all I am feeling pretty good. The nausea is completely gone (hallelujah). I still get tired and nap most days. I have a feeling I probably will this whole pregnancy between being pregnant and chasing after a 1 1/2 year old. Other than that I feel pretty good. I get headaches sometimes, and my sciatica kicks in every now and then, but other than that I can't complain.

Speaking of other babies, Ashley just turned 18 months on July 4th. I also cannot believe my first "baby" is a year and a half already. She is just pure joy. She is a happy and sweet little girl. She is happy, bright, resilient, etc. In fact, Matt and I recently went away for a week without her and she did great!

Matt's old high school friend, Ryan, was getting married in Mexico. Matt was in the wedding party. So we went to an all inclusive resort called Sandos Play Carr in Playa Carmen, Mexico. The trip was fun. The resort itself wasn't too fabulous. It looked really nice and exotic in pictures, but there were a lot of behind the scenes stuff--there wasn't AC in a lot of the places and restaurants, we started off with a ghetto room but upgraded to a nice one, but both had beds as hard as bricks, there was a lot of buffet food which was ok, the place wasn't organized, and the Internet was on and off the whole time (which was nice in a way to get away from the distraction of Internet, but annoying when we were trying to skype with Ashley to check in). But aside from those complaints, the wedding ceremony was absolutely gorgeous, it was soooo nice to not have to cook, clean, or do anything for a week, so nice to sit and relax on the beach, and we also went on a few fun excursions. We went snorkeling one day to three different spots--one in a cave, one where they had zip lining (I couldn't do that since I was pregnant but I relaxed in a hammock), and then part of the ocean. We saw really cool fish. Then the next day (which happened to be our 6 year anniversary), we went to Chichen Itza, or the Mayan ruins, which happens to be one of the 7 wonders of the world. It was my favorite part. We drove through a lot of Mexico so you could see different areas safely with a tour guide, and the place itself was amazing. It was fun to get a tour and learn more about the history. There were also really cool animals right on the resort--an animal they call the Coati, monkeys, donkeys, cats, etc. Matt and I also got a refresher course on our Spanish.
We split the trip up--part of it was doing wedding stuff, time with Matt's friends mixed with time to ourselves, but then the last 2 1/2 days we had completely to ourselves which was nice. I would have preferred longer to ourselves, especially since we don't get too much quality alone time these days, but it was still nice. I had a great time with Matt.
While we were away, grandma came to stay with her, and Aunt Kristyn came for a few days too. She did great the whole time. She had a couple moments, but all in all she did fantastic.

Here are some pics from the trip and last week's pregnancy shots.