Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Eden's Room: Chapter 4


We are back with another update on the nursery! This time we were tackling the crib, which I would say was the most important aspect of the entire room considering we would like our daughter to have a bed and not sleep on the floor. Our crib was actually a gift from my dear sweet mom and dad. We LOVE it! Picking the crib was no simple task, which I am sure any parent can attest to. We knew we wanted a modern crib, mostly white, non drop side, solid wood, and non-toxic paint. We also knew we wanted something under $300. Well, we got lucky and found one at none other than WalMart (or Wally Word according to my family). The price? $299.88, a whole 12 cents below our budget! We couldn't believe our luck finding something that met every single one of our criteria at such a low price. Thank you WalMart for your ever popular rollbacks! Before you see the end result, I figured I would throw in a couple pictures of the crib installation...


Putting together the crib was so easy! We were so pleased with the ease of instructions and the final result. Now all we need is a crib mattress and some bedding and our girl is set. 

Oh and you may have noticed the hole in the wall in the second picture. Well, let's just say that 80 year old houses sometimes like to house mold. We were not happy campers when we found that, but don't you fret, that mold has been shown the door. Mold is not a welcome guest at the Crain household. 

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An addition to Chapter 3 where I promised some information on paint. For the nursery we decided to branch off from our usual No-Voc Olympic paint to try Sherwin Williams No-Voc Harmony paint. The reason? We honestly had not been all that impressed with the Olympic paint after using it twice in our house. Sorry Olympic, maybe next time. I have to say that we were quite pleased with the Sherwin Williams paint! It was still a tad thin, but we always do two coats no matter what so it didn't bother us too much. The wall color is Quench Blue and the ceiling and closet color is Timid Blue. Both turned out very well and we are just pleased as punch knowing that our daughter will be breathing clean air and not fumes. Oh and I almost forgot the best part! We happened to see that Sherwin Williams was having a 25% off sale on all paints (this is actually what prompted us to use their paint in the first place) so we didn't even have to pay full price. SCORE!

So, that is our latest update on Eden's room. However, I have a secret. Since then we have finished a dresser/changing table redo and installed a new lighting fixture. More to come on that one later!

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Gender Reveal Housewarming Party: The Invite

Thanks to a friendly commenter, I realized I never posted the invitation for the gender reveal party. Silly, pregnant, ditzy me!


FRONT

BACK


Since we were combining a housewarming party with a gender reveal party we wanted to come up with a creative little jingle to make it all come together. Just in case you can't read it on your screen, here is what the invitation said:

Boy or girl, what will it be?
If you want to know, showing up will be key.
We'll have food, drinks, and sweets,
And our new house you will meet.
So come one, come all, to the greatest gender reveal
Housewarming party of all!

Cheesy, maybe, but I still think it got the point across. One funny thing is that I didn't notice until today while I was taking pictures of the invite that I put in the wrong zip code for our house. WHOOPS! Glad all of our family and friends made it here without too much trouble. 

Well, there is the invite to our party that was an entire month ago. Better late than never right...isn't that how it is supposed to work? Either way we still remember that party and are still so glad that we have all those memories to share with Eden. Speaking of which, we will get to tell her all about it in just 15 short weeks! Time is going so quickly these days...


**If you missed the party reveal, don't fret, check it out right here

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

24 Weeks

Okay the title is a bit of a lie as I am actually 25 weeks today, but I am just now getting to my 24 week post. You all are just going to have to get over it, I am busy.

Here is that 24 week photo you all are waiting for, the one where I look like I swallowed a basketball...good thing I like basketball!


So, let's see...what changes do we have these days. I had my first case of swollen feet. Wow, I see why they recommend wearing flip flops during pregnancy. I honestly couldn't get my feet into my shoes. My feet looked like Fred Flintstones! I can now see her moving around in my belly which is semi alien like, but kind of fun at the same time. Oh, and she moves even more than she did before...and I used to think that was a lot. I'm still completely on target for weight gain which makes me quite happy. I am measuring small, but I have been the whole time so no concern there. I have been dealing with some pretty sharp pains on my right side so I have had to have a few tests and had an upper abdominal ultrasound a few days ago. Haven't heard anything yet so we are assuming no news is good news. We have another ultrasound coming up which will be fun because her features will be much more prominent, but the true reason why we have it scheduled is to find out if we will be scheduling a C-section or not. We have discovered that Eden LOVES music. She moves and kicks like crazy during worship at church and wouldn't take a rest during a dance performance I attended last weekend.

All in all our baby girl is doing so well. Some days I cannot wait to hold her in my arms, and some days I just feel fear. I know that God is giving us this little girl because he knows we can handle it, but it sure seems scary sometimes! Thankfully Josh and Bella both seem at ease with the idea of having a little baby around at all times so they keep me feeling confident. It also helped to cause me a little more anxiety when we took the tour of the hospital where she will be born. It's a beautiful building, but it is so hard to comprehend that we will be there in just a few short months. Wow.

Well, we should have quite a bit more information for all of you baby followers out there after our 28 week appointment. It is going to be a pretty big appointment for us so I will be sure to keep you all informed!

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Eden's Room: Chapter 3



You are all way too anxious to see the nursery colors so without further adieu, here is a sneak peak into the room...


I will provide details on the paint after this weekend once the crib is up! Yes, the crib has been sitting in a box for a week and it is driving me bananas. Thankfully we will have time on Saturday to put it up and we are like two giddy school children getting ready for summer break. Oh wow, summer break. Wish I had one of those. Anyway, I will hopefully have some better light to work with this weekend so that I can get some better photos of the room. Be back soon!

Three Years and Still Loving You

Three years ago today a man and a woman set out on a new journey together as best friends and partners.



June 8, 2007 is a day that means so much to Josh and I. While there have been many hard days in our marriage, we wouldn't trade them for anything. I know we both can say that we are best friends and that, to us, has been the biggest part of our marriage. We are quite inseparable. Even when we are having "one of those days" we still cannot go too far from one another. Our wedding day was not perfect, but it was exactly what we wanted. We are so thankful for the family and friends who had stood by us even though our relationship was less than ordinary. We met the first day of our junior year at Corban College (now University!) in Theology and pretty much never were apart after that. Four out of our six classes were together, it was virtually impossible to not be together. I can't imagine what life would be like if I had not listened to God when he guided me back to Corban. Thank you Josh for asking me to be your wife!

In dedication to our third year of marriage, here are some photos from our big day.



A big thank you to all of our family and friends who have supported us through our journey! We love you all!

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Eden's Room: Chapter 2



It's time for another chapter of Eden's Room. A couple of weeks ago, Josh and I made a calendar from May-September so that we could plan out each of the things on our to-do list for her nursery. I would like to say we have months to get her room done, but unfortunately due to the fact that Josh and I only have Saturday's together and every weekend in July is filled with events, well we only had June to really get it done. Oh and if you are wondering, the reason August is not in the equation is because I have a compulsive disorder when it comes to planning, I wanted her room to be done AT LEAST a month in advance. Josh wants it to be done early so he doesn't have to take care of me when I have a nervous breakdown. The good news is, since we do not have air conditioning in our house, having her room done before the real heat hits is going to be so nice. Plus I have plenty of other projects in mind in preparation for her arrival so it will give me plenty of time to get it all done.

With last weekend being a three day weekend for us, we were set on getting a lot done. One of our big projects was installing crown molding and painting all of our trim. The task seemed easy in theory, but let me be the first to say it was the hardest work we had done in awhile. Our trim was oil based (that's all they really used 80 years ago) and without checking we were assuming it was also lead paint. Both of these pose just a bit of a problem, especially for child bearing folks like myself. So how did we make lead based oil paint disappear without causing any health issues for our future love child? Just takes an extra step...really!

In order to paint the No VOC, low odor latex paint that we had chosen for our nursery we had to prime over the yellowed oil based trim paint. To do this we picked up the Zero VOC, low odor Kilz water based primer at Home Depot. Now, ordinarily you would want to lightly sand the oil based paint before priming, however due to our lead concerns we skipped this step and just used the primer right over the oil paint. I should say Josh also went through with mineral spirits and wiped down all the trim to clean it up beforehand.

Once the trim was all primed, we then took the Sherwin Williams Harmony stock paint in semi-gloss (Harmony is also No VOC and low odor) and painted over all the surfaces. We swear by using the stock paint, it is such a perfectly bright white and really freshens up a room!

 The closet all primed and painted

Once all the surfaces had been primed and painted we were ready to put up the crown molding. My dad actually joined us for this part of the project and helped to get all the pieces cut at a 45 degree angle. Having 80 year old walls and ceilings meant not so perfect lines, but nothing a little caulk couldn't fix. Once again, the change was so refreshing. What was up before was not actually crown molding, was very thin, and did not meet up with the ceiling. The new crown molding was much thicker, was flush with the ceiling, and matched the era of the house much more than the previous one. Don't believe me? Look at the difference below.

Old Crown Molding

New Crown Molding

I have a photo of a before and after of the trim, but you will have to wait to see it because it gives away this weeks project. Let me tell you, this week's project was BIG. Well, big in the fact that it absolutely made the room. More about that later...

**For all of you on pregnancy safety watch, I do wear a respirator mask while painting and again we do use all zero VOC and low odor paint. Trust me, Eden is quite safe during the whole process!