The Nursery

Well, I know that some of you have been waiting a long time for pictures of the nursery. I am happy to say, it's finally done! After all the improvements that we have made to our house, we just knew that Andrea needed a re-modeled room of her own to welcome her into our family. After a few baby showers it took me a while to get everything situated but it feels so good to have it ready! Here are some "before"s and "after"s of each area.

Looking into the room before....

And after.....

We even changed the carpet, which made a huge difference! When we pulled up the old carpet we were so happy that we had decided to replace it. I think it was original which would be 30 years old.

Towards the window before....

And after.....Then....

And now....
I'm so happy I managed to get Tessy in both pictures, what a funny dog!

As you can tell Ryan did SO mush work putting up the bead board and shelving. He did the routing on all the shelves himself. I love looking at the perfect details of it, he curved each shelf at the end where the curtains and door would have hit, it looks so great! I felt as though I should put some work into the room so I chose to stencil her name on the wall, but it was Ryan's idea to overlap the squares, dang him and his good ideas!

I was also lucky enough to have a baby shower at work last week, I've always loved the people I work with and it was great to have so much support! So between the two showers this baby is ready! I just had to take a picture of her jam-packed closet. Notice the tupperware tubs filled with more clothes, and this picture does not include the drawers on the crib that are stuffed, and the diapers in the hall closet.

So now it's just a waiting game, all the bags are packed, and only 4 more days of work so we are ready! I just cannot believe this day is here! My entire life I have wanted children and to stay at home to raise them... I don't know quite how to react now that it's a reality.

Baby Shower

This Saturday I had my baby shower, it was so wonderful! I had been looking forward to my shower more than I was looking forward to Christmas and it didn't disappoint! Of course the snow had to interfere with our perfect plans... Ryan had been up all Friday night plowing and then was a good enough guy to go make sure all the parents and grandparents driveways were cleared to get to the shower on Saturday morning. He even plowed out the church parking lot, which wasn't his obligation. I know that Kristi, Tara, and John were stressing and I felt so bad!When I first found out I was pregnant the thought of a baby shower occurred to me, and without sisters, I didn't know what might happen. Luckily I have the best friends any girl could ask for, Tara and Kristi were not only willing to throw a shower but just as excited as I was. My sister-in-law Amy also stepped up and wanted to make sure I had some fun games. All three girls did such a wonderful job! The invitations were perfect, the decorations were adorable, the games were so fun, and food was delicious.

I was so happy with the turnout, it was wonderful having so many women I love all in the same place at the same time. And, of course, the most important part is that Andrea has so many great items to welcome her into the world! Thank you for all those that came and to Kristi, Tara, and Amy for all your hard work!

The End is Near!

I always try to convince myself to blog more often, but I haven't felt like anything "significant" has happened. Then I thought I could at least give some updates:

We've ordered new carpet for the nursery, the same carpet we installed two years ago in our front room and hallway. Hopefully this will make our house fill even more complete and to our liking. Once the carpet is in, we'll put up the crib, and I'll finally post pictures of the nursey which I already adore!

I've got 6 weeks left until the baby is scheduled to arrive. Hopefully she doesn't come TOO early because I plan on working 5 more weeks. However, I hope I'm not sitting home for 3 weeks twiddling my thumbs, or rather jumping up and down. We've decided to name her Andrea Lyn... hopefully the "girl" verdict is accurate because we have no back-up boy names.

In everything I've read about pregnancy, I've been told that the 2nd trimester is the easiest, I disagree! The first trimester was definately the worse with the fatigue and sickness. The second trimester had my back aching and I had trouble sleeping. The third trimester has been great (so far) less back pain and I'm sleeping pretty much all night. My only complaint is that I've finally given into using pregnancy as an excuse to eat whatever I want. I'm sure I'll regret this as I'm trying to take the weight off, but I have no longer have will power.

Ryan has been gone a lot more as the snow fall increases, and so I just know I'll go into labor during a snow storm. I have no worries though, that he'll put his work ethic aside and come to my rescue. He really has been extremely supportive through the pregnancy, even though I don't accept help easily. He told his Grandma the other night "she sure doesn't act like a pregnant woman". I've just never liked the idea of feeling helpless, so I try my hardest to ignore this big belly.

It's a Thanksgiving Miracle!

I'm the type of person that likes to always plan things out in my head, I picture exactly how things are going to work. So I had this "timeline" laid out of when things would be done during the pregnancy. That timeline has gone out the window and I blame bead board! Ryan and I are working on the nursery. My "timeline" said it would be done before November, we'll that didn't happen.

We had been looking at our local Home Depot for the bead board we wanted for about a month and it was never in stock. So one evening we decided if they didn't have it (again) we would take a drive into Salt Lake. Well, 4 Home Depots later.... we came home with no bead board. So the next week we thought let's try it one more time on our way to pick up some dinner. Of course, the shelf was empty, however there were two new packets waiting to be stocked. Ryan found a worker and explained that "we are not leaving without it". So we waited for them to stock and unwrap it.

Finally our nursery has bead board up! And Ryan has been such a sport hauling the panels in and out to the shop to measure and cut, then putting up base molding to surprise me while I was at work and we finally have everything we need to finish!

And for a quick pregnancy update... here is a picture for those of you who have been asking, 7 months along.

Halloween

My Halloween post is a little behind, I apologize, but better late than never! This year our department was not nearly as enthusiastic as last year. I will blame it on my boss, Stephen, and I'm sure he wouldn't argue. Last year he put a lot of time into making some videos and a website and we still didn't win. So this year, our department decided to be "supportive" and dress up as your typical Halloween characters.

My company goes all out for Halloween; departments start decorating their areas in early October and when Halloween actually comes around, it blows my mind how extreme some people get. This year's contest winners were Most Creative: Crash Test Dummies, Best Theme: 1920s, and Scariest: Scary movie characters. My friend Kristi and I had the pleasure of going to the different branches to take pictures for the contest and I was so impressed. My votes were for the department dressed as "McDonalds" including Ronald, the Hamburglar, and workers. Also, the "Western" with call girls, cowboys, a stick horse corral, and poker table. Here are a few of the photos, unfortunately the McDonalds group is on my boss' camera.

Paws and Fingers

Isn't it great when you find a product that actually works the way it appears on the commercial? For those of you who haven't heard of it, let me tell you how pleased I am with Pedipaws!

Tessy's nails have been a problem for a while now, I used to take her to get her nails cut in the mornings on Tuesdays or Thursdays by a family friend. Well, my work schedule hasn't allowed that for quite some time and Ryan and I were getting fed up with the injuries caused by Tessy stepping on our feet or pushing off of our laps. After seeing the Pedipaws commercial, I thought we might as well give it a try. This tool, which is pretty much a Dremel with a cap on it, files the dog's nails instead of snipping them. The commercial claimed that dogs don't mind at all, but I was skeptical.

After following the instructions on "how to get your dog comfortable with Pedipaws" Tessy was fine with the device after only one sitting. We've used it a few times now and Tessy is so distracted by when she will earn her next treat that she doesn't even worry about the tool, it's been wonderful and I highly recommend it!

On the other hand, Ryan had a run in with a tool that was not so friendly... at work he gently bumped his finger against a hedge trimmer and ended up with 10 stitches on his left "birdie" finger. It's amazing how those 10 stitches can put a man down! Things have slowly improved, but the first days I had to spread cream cheese on his bagel, cut up his quesadilla burger, and help with hygiene issues. But I do enjoy taking care of him and it makes me feel needed when I change his bandages every morning and make sure he takes his anti-biotics.

We're all Making Sacrifices

Well, it's been an interesting month here at the Lee home. A lot of new changes have begun, but not all of them bad. I've been having trouble sleeping, mostly because I don't enjoy sleeping on my left side. So Ryan and I switched sides of the bed, so I face the edge of the bed, and invested in a body pillow. The first night Ryan complained that my side was too hard, and I agreed that his side was too soft. But now, after a week or two of toughing it out I think we both get a pretty full night's sleep.

Tessy is also making adjustments... but even as I type she is wandering around wondering where to lay, let me explain: our "spare bedroom" is now becoming the nursery. We have always had a queen bed in there that we have let Tessy take over. So every morning as I got ready for work she would hop up on the bed, do a little scratching, maybe a little grooming and settle in. We'll our plan is to keep the queen bed in the nursery so I can just sleep in there with the baby during rough nights. I didn't want Tessy germing up the new bed so we thought we would try training her to lay in a dog bed. We started out by just putting the new dog bed on the queen bed to get her used to it, she would lay against it but never in it. Well, now the nursery has been painted and the queen bed is upside down on the floor, and she feels like she has no where to lay. I've tried putting her in her new dog bed but she hops right out. I guess that's what we get for treating her like a princess.

The last adjustment is one that I have really enjoyed! Ryan and I usually spend most of our evenings downstairs watching TV but we both know that upstairs is warmer in the winter. So Ryan's idea of preparing for a baby meant purchasing a TV for upstairs. So the past week I have loved cooking and cleaning with Ryan there to chat with. It's nice having the big living room windows open as well, and not feeling so cramped and cloomy downstairs.