Since I'm no longer working at home, it seemed like the obvious choice to turn our office into Baby M's room.  I loved my Olive Sawdust walls, but it was time for a change.  Plus, we only have three bedrooms in our house.  

It made zero sense to keep an entire room as an office with a little one on the way.

A few weeks ago, Andrew painted the walls our selected greige color.  Just three of them though as I had different plans for the fourth wall.  We really should have waited to put up the crib until after the painting and construction was finished, but I have a bad case of the nesties.  Two weeks ago I got impatient, and we put up the crib I ordered online from babycribstation.com.  

(I really did help with this, but someone has to take pictures too!)  

This is actually the second time we put the crib together since the first time we put it up in the living room and then couldn't get it through the bedroom doorway.  Oops.  Guess that is what the first child is for - learning from mistakes.  Sorry Pat.

A week goes by and then Andrew regains motivation to tackle the north wall.  I really, REALLY wanted to add grid wainscotting and crown molding to the baby's room so after a bit of convincing to the one who would be doing the work, some sketched out plans, and the first of many trips to Lowe's, things started to take shape.

From what I saw, Andrew started by putting up a very thin backerboard (kind of like plywood, but thinner) to give his 1x4's even more to grip into when he used his new bradnailer to secure them.  Then there was just a ton of measuring and cuts made with the miter saw out in our garage/workshop.  Instead of just using the 1x4's though to create the grid, he also cut very small coved molding to line the insides of each square so the drop off from the 1x4 to the wall would be more gradual.  This took a lot of time and patience, but it makes SUCH a difference.  

I helped fill the nail holes with wood putty, and then Handy Andy primed the wall and painted with our go-to trim color, Cream Delight from Valspar.  

Reinforcements came in on Friday to help install the crown molding (Andrew's dad) and after many delays, final touch-ups on the paint and a good clean-up, the room looks AMAZING! 

I love the subtle difference between the grey and white walls.  I love how dressed up the room is with the new detailed wall and crown.  Andrew did such a great job.  I am so proud of him.  As is the babe.

I am so in love with this space already.  And it will just get better!  Andrew has started working on refinishing our Craig's List dresser/changing table, the chair and ottoman should arrive in a couple of weeks, my mom is plugging away on the curtains, and I have started brainstorming art ideas.

Lots to do...four months to get it done in!

Pat is growing.

Which means the belly is growing.

Whoops.  Wrong belly.

Everyone wanted in on picture action this past Sunday.

Everyone.

And there she is...the bump in all her glory.

Or he.  Time will tell.

I tried to go buy maternity clothes last week, but I walked into the store and just got depressed.  Everything seemed ugly.  

I know it's not, I just don't think I was ready.  

I am going to have to be ready soon though as it's only a (short) matter of time before my clothes don't fit.  I've made it this far with just a belly band purchase, and that has been such a wardrobe saver.  And, I love my belly and disappearing button.  I just haven't embraced the maternity section yet.  I think this is influenced somewhat by the fact that I hate buying clothes this time of year anyways.  I'm pale, and I never really love winter clothes.  So, instead I've been buying accessories.

And lip gloss.

I have never worn color on my lips.  Ever.  

Andrew asked me if I was going to wear lipstick every day now.  

At least that's what he said out loud, but his real question was, why are you wearing that stuff; it's weird.

I'm still getting used to it myself, but lately I'm loving bright red and pink lips.  And stripes.  

And oranges.  And Hildebrand milk.  And dessert.  

And that it's supposed to be 60 on Sunday.

And that we're (Handy Andy) making progress on the babe's room.  And that the babe gave out high-fives on Monday night.  Andrew finally got to feel the baby move!  Oh, it was so special.  

We were watching Real Housewives of Beverly Hills (haha), and the baby was going crazy.  She (it must be a she...she was loving the show) had a party for about an hour.  

Love her.  Or him.  

SO MUCH.

I wonder if when I'm huge I will regret starting these bump pics...

Sometimes Andrew doesn't think I'm doing the bump justice.  He also likes to direct photo shoots so these pictures give him a good opportunity to tell me how to show it at its best angle.  I guess this time I wasn't pushing it out enough...like I could even suck it in at this point.  

So this is what he really thinks it looks like.

It's definitely there.  And we are officially past the halfway point!  

Randoms:

1. Everything is measuring great, looking great, feeling great.  Great!  Let's hope these last 19 and a half weeks go as smoothly as the first 20 and a half.

2. The crib arrived today.  I can't wait to see it set up.  Andrew however can wait to assemble it.  He needs a buddy for all of these projects.  

3. I had a dream last night that I had the baby, but I couldn't remember anything about the delivery.  And the baby that everyone was telling me was ours didn't look like our baby.  It had very deep brown eyes, and I kept saying they were pretty, but the baby couldn't be ours as we can only have blue eyed babies.  (True - it's science.)  I was certain the baby they were trying to pass off as ours was a boy, but they said it was a girl.  This is the second dream I've had where the baby is a girl...

4. On top of having weird dreams, I also cry at everything.  Remember that day I left Franklin out in the rain all day during my first day at my new job?  SOBBED for a good 30 minutes when I got home.  It was a good ugly cry where I kept repeating, "you're okay, you're okay."  To the dog, not to myself.  Yikes.  I cried twice while watching Casper during Halloween.  I cried during the Boys & Girls Club Christmas Party for the kids when Santa showed up.  That was awkward.  I cry reading mommy blogs like every day.  I cried at the last K-State football game.  I have a feeling there will be many, many more sentences that start with "I cried..." during the next few months.

5.  I was so bloated after dinner last night I swore my belly button was going to pop out.  I could feel it stretching.  I'm not ready for that.  Also, if hearing about bloating makes you uncomfortable you should probably stop reading this blog as it's bound to get worse before things get better.

And 6.  Andrew has started calling the baby Pat.  Works for a boy or a girl.  Awesome.

Our poor, poor child.  

This is what you're coming into.  

You've been warned.

I had the most relaxing Christmas break.  I had big intentions of accomplishing big things since I haven't been at work since Thursday, December 22nd, like organizing our new guest bed/office combo, dusting the blinds (because let's be honest - that was on the list of to do's before we hosted Thanksgiving and that didn't happen), updating my website, etc.

Well.

What really happened was I slept in till 9:30 every morning, with Franklin cuddled up to me on the bed.  Fed him, fed myself, took us both for a walk, showered and then got ready for my (half) day.

I did get caught up on laundry, cleaning and email.  I cooked homemade meals.  Andrew and I toured three daycares.  I updated my website.
I semi-organized the guest bed/office.  I took down and put away the Christmas decor.

My blinds have still not been dusted.

But, I was feeling decent about my semi-accomplishments, as I strolled into work this morning thinking my time off hadn't been a total waste.  Then my boss told me we don't have to actually be back at work until tomorrow.  Oh.

Well, I'm housewifing it up again.

First I took a nap though.  

Then I ate lunch, made a homemade chocolate cake, cleaned the house, got caught up on laundry and am starting dinner in a bit.

I'm still not going to dust the blinds. 

Our Christmas weekend started north-bound on the interstate before the sun came up yesterday morning and ended south-bound on the interstate in the dark this evening about an hour ago.  After 10 hours in the car, and not enough sleep, we are all (Andrew, Franklin and I) exhausted.

Happy, but tired.

So glad we could spend Christmas with both of our families - both sets of parents, all siblings, all spouses, all nieces and nephews.  

Our time with everyone was short, but worth it.  

A year from now our little one will have joined the crew and will already be six months old at Christmas.  

I can't even fathom.

We are so blessed.

My bed awaits...

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Well, let's be honest.

I've been thinking about this baby's room long before our baby was even a baby-in-the-making.

And knowing that the gender would be kept secret until the peanut's debut, obviously I had to think of something that would work for a girl or a boy.  I already had some ideas in mind, but also have been scouring Pinterest in secret, but completely missing the point of Pinterest - saving things I like to my own personal file on my desktop so as not to give anything away before we announced our news.
I should eventually pin everything I saved...

Until then, I whipped up a mood board for Baby M's room (formerly known as the office.)

Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

About two and a half months ago, we traveled to Springfield, Missouri for family photos.  You can imagine how excited Andrew was for this trip.  Franklin, on the other hand, was psyched.  

But, not as much as me.

I'm embarrassed to say how long it had been since Andrew and I had our photos professionally done.  Really embarrassed.  Needless to say, I no longer feel like a hypocrite and am so, so happy with our photos from Katie Day.

The best part was that we got to include both our babies.  Baby Franklin and baby-on-the-way.

I wanted to share some of my favorites since our Christmas cards have been sent.

And, doesn't Franklin just look like the happiest dog in the world?  He doesn't know what's coming.

Okay, so those are most of my favorites, not some.

And, I love, love, love them.

But, not as much as the photo shoot we had this morning.

We had the gender reveal sonogram today without the reveal.  They can show you so much!  The normal black and white picture you're used to at all different angles - feet, hands, spine, profile, etc.

But, they also do 3D versions at the doctor's office now.  And live video.  For free.  Andrew was a happy man.

It was so amazing seeing that little peanut flail around.  He or she would not move her hands away from his/her face.  And, it was so incredible seeing Andrew's reaction too.  I forget how different this experience is for him right now since he isn't able to feel anything yet.  

In his words, "things just got real."

Goodnight little baby, sleep tight.