Baby & Baby Room Preparations...

Ok, to start, the two pictures below are of the previous "Office". You will not speak of this room again. I was obviously used as storage for the past year (ahem)... or so. Here is the before, the after was not taken yet but it is now "The Guest Room".

(all pictures can be clicked to view larger)

Here is one 'before' shot of the old "Guest Room" which is clean compared to the former office. ( I show the before to give an idea of all the work that went into this weekend extravaganza. Michael is cringing right now that I'm showing these pictures of our dirty rooms. sorry honey!)

Ok, Here is where the transformation begins to becoming a baby room. I don't have time to paint the room yet and haven't bought it even (I'll wait till when and IF my sister Ashley comes with my mom to help me). I paused before opening the crib box so you could see my 'excitement' of putting the room together alone (that's right, feel sorry for me people!;)...). I'm pretty impressed with this since I had no make up on...I'm laying on the box and am displaying tools to look more realistic. lol!

FINISHED PRODUCT! Success! Doesn't the crib look great? I'm not talking about the bedding, it's fine for now. I just bought cheap bedding at IKEA (Stacey, I can't believe you AND your husband have never heard of this before... i would be a bad friend if I didn't' steer you in the right direction, get ready to fall in love... http://www.ikea.com/) to tide me over. My friend and client "Kristyn G" has long told me she'd help me with some custom stuff so I will likely take her up on it in the next month. Get ready to be impressed when that happens! Anyway the "mobile" is actually a Capiz Shell Wind chime I bought last year in Gulf Shores Alabama and plan to look for another when we're there THIS Thanksgiving. I love it and can't wait for the walls to be painted so you can actually see it in contrast. Now, these puppet looking stuffed animals are AWESOME! I bought them about... 9 years ago, I think through Pottery Barn Kids. They each have story's on their back sides, in accordance to their Fairy Tale or Children's Rhyme. I know, cool huh!?

Next what we have is Grannies antique dresser that I love! It is definitely a work in progress as to what is on it but to the left, you see the blanket and sweet Raggedy Ann Doll. It is where a Changing Pad will go if i get one (wink. wink.). Of course the entire top will be covered with a cloth before we put a baby or real stuff on it, but, you get the idea. The middle picture is of a tile I made from a craft project we did at church. It reads: BE: Grateful, Humble, Still, Prayerful, True, Clean, Smart, Positive, Involved. I can only hope. ;). Featured in the picture to the right is my Grandmother, Grace Anna Isaacson Holmstrom's, 1952 printing of "A Mother's Encyclopedia" In Six Volumes. I was compiled and edited by the Editors of Parents' Magazine (first copyright was in 1933). I made away with this little treasure by shear luck of dusting off a shelf and saying, "Mom, this is so great! Can I please have these?" Thanks to a mother who isn't highly attached to 'things', I took the goods and ran as soon as she said yes. (that's how you survive in our big family. "Kill or be Killed, Survival of the Fittest..." you get the point) Here my children will now be blessed with the outspoken words of the then Editors of Parents' Magazine. Ahh, the honest days and simpler times... ;). Oh, and don't you just LOVE the little mice, holding up the books?! I found them at a boutique called "Yours Truly" by Tangerine Salon and Spa on Thompson Lane in Murfreesboro. They sometimes have sweet odds and ends like this there.

Below are featured some of the many current gifts and I'm sure many more to come from Grandma Jennie. She gave us another hand crocheted blanket from her mother Zelma (Grannie) who passed away in May (sorry if I'm wrong on that) 6 years ago. It will be featured alone in a later post. Grannie made them when she was feeling well and I'm sure planned all along to have us be given them, when we were blessed with our children. Thank you Grannie, we love you. In this picture you will see, Jennie gave Evan a toy phone, no doubt to encourage him to call his Grandmother waaaay more than her son Michael. ;) You're welcome Jennie. he he.

Last but certainly not least is our gift from Evans Uncle Matt that wants to be sure his nephew is decked out in the finest of outfits for the great hockey team The NASHVILLE PREDATORS!!!!!!! Thank you Matt. WE LOVE IT!

Lastly, (Kathy, I hope you are satisfied with this post. lol) So many of you have asked about a shower, and I'm very excited about that! I will tell you that I am having a 'small private' shower this coming Friday and a friend and my sister are scheming some Virtual Shower idea for California Family and Friends but as for here, we have PENCILED, Friday November 7th for an Open House at our Church on E. Clark Blvd (by Leaf Ave) from 6-9pm. It's come and go, visit style, permitting we are back from Atlanta. An official date and time will be announced later and an Invitation will be posted on this blog. We are not ashamed to say, we are registered at Target and Babies R Us. We welcome your gifts and need them! Adoption is not free so we love and appreciate all gifts you bring, including, just YOU! If Evan is healthy enough, he will be at the open house but we will see.... Ahhh... I'm so tired, whatever time this says it's posted at is when I STARTED typing. It is now 1:34am and I MUST go to bed!!!! Evan will be here soon and I've gotta get some rest! Thank you everyone, we feel so humbled that you care about us and Evan and want to share this with us. We are grateful and CANNOT wait for you to meet him. xoxo

p.s. thank you stephen, liz and hayden for coming over tonight. it felt great to share our preparations with friends! oooo, so exciting......:)