Princess Edie

Over the beautiful - cool weekend, while waiting for OA, we enjoyed just being at home.  Da da got some yard work done, we decorated outside with our Halloween decor, watched some football, jumped in the jump-jump and attended a Princess Party for Edie's friend Ashlynn.  Edie really had a good week at school and home.  She got all good reports from her teachers, therapist and was an Angel at home for us.  I hope this sweet streak continues :)

I can not believe how much Edie has grown.  She was such a sweet girl at the princess party and she had so much fun.  She was SO excited to put on her Princess dress that as soon as we got home from church she wanted to wear it.  Edie has never had any "dress up" clothes, mainly because I did not think she would care anything about it.  But once the dress was on she was ready to go - so we got to the party 15 minutes early.  Luckily Ashlynn only lives two doors down.  I stalled Edie as much as possible, but the Princess was ready!  So I think I know what Santa will be bringing her for Christmas this year.  A Princess needs variety, right? 

Edie was not as clingy to me as she normally is when we are in a large group of people.  She walked right in, hugged Ashlynn's grandmother and made herself at home.  She colored (without eating the crayons), waited her turn to have her makeup applied, sat patiently while reading a story (looking over at me several times grinning ear to ear) and ate her TWO pieces of birthday cake without any help from me.  My baby is growing up and I am SO proud of her!

Owen Anderson Shunnarah

With the addition of O.A. in the coming week I will need to change the blog to "All about Edie and Owen".  Of course I am very excited to finally meet him - but I am also nervous of having a new itty bitty baby in the house.  I am confident that Edie will do well and she will be a great big sister to O.A. my nervousness comes from my ability to care for two babies.....my first love and our first son.  Can I do it?  I know it will not be easy but I know it will be rewarding for all of us. 

I have been working on Owen's room practically all summer it seems.  Picking the paint colors were easy.  I knew I wanted an all white and grey room with touches of blue.  So we chose a soft grey for the walls and a pale blue for the ceiling.  The initial plan was to only have blue on the ceiling and in the bedding and their not be any type of "theme".  I bought the sequin stars several years ago and held on to them for our next baby room.  Those multiplied into more stars and well I guess the room has a "star theme" with more shades of blue than I had anticipated, but it all works.

A few of my favorite pieces in the room is first the painting that Edie did.  I squirted the paint and Edie smeared it asking for more and more and more.  She LOVED painting this picture and the best part of it were the hand prints that she left.  I love how it turned out and I can not wait to make more of this type of art with both of my babies. 

My next favorite is the glider/rocker and ottoman.  This piece was given to me by my sister when Edie was born.  One of my talented neighbors paint and distressed it and another neighbor recovered the cushions in a grey linen and made the sweet pillow.  It turned out perfect and was a great baby gift from the two of them.  Another piece in the room that I thought turned out pretty darn cute is the light fixture.  I got the idea from a fixture I had found long ago but the colors would have never worked.  So I made my own using a painted fixture from Lowe's, hardware cloth and hand carved birds painted silver.

I think the room and all of it's pieces came together well.  It is a very soothing room and I hope Owen loves it.  Who am I kidding....he could care less, the most important part is that I love it!  I can not wait for our baby boy to get here and see it himself!

Milestones

This summer we worked on two BIG milestones - potty training and moving to a big girl bed.  We are pleased to announce that Edie did great with both.  We are still tweaking the potty training part (more to come on that) but as far as the big girl bed goes....she was more than ready for it.  We did have a few nights where she was confused and not sure what to do with herself but after those passed she has been a big girl ever since! 

This bed was given to me by my great grandmother.  We painted the bed white, her room the color "Lettuce Alone" green, hung some hot pink curtains, purchased new bedding and hung lots of ferries from the ceiling.  The room turned out really cute and best of all Edie loves it!  She is now officially a BIG GIRL, not so sure if I am happy or sad about that :(

Small Spaces = Cool Places

One of the projects I worked on over the summer was our laundry room.  Because my office/desk area was previously located in O.A.'s soon to be baby room we had to come up with a new solution.  We did not have a playroom or an extra bedroom to spare, but what we did have was a laundry room.  So we made the most of this small space.  We painted the same color as our dining room, hung a wall of curtains to cover the washer/dryer, purchased a smaller antique desk, hung a pretty awesome light fixture, added a few accessories and ended up with a pretty cool room.  I am still searching for a super skinny storage piece to go between the desk and the wall and I am contemplating on painting the desk white.  But for now - I am happy with the way it all turned out.

p.s.  my photography skills are not the best in these photos.  we got a new camera and i am still learning.  personally i think the room looks better in person :)

Summer 2011

To say we were busy over the summer is an understatement.  Aside from several family trips, parties and holidays we also did some renovations and re-do's at the house, Scott opened his new District office in Prattville and I have been pregnant.  So every time I sat down and thought about all of the blog catching up I had to do - frankly I became overwhelmed and just put it to the side again.  So here I sit today, determined to get our summer blogs complete so we can start fresh because I know there is SO much more to come!

Over the summer we visited Chestnut Bay Resort at Weiss Lake for a mini vacation.  I absolutely LOVED this place.  There was so much for us to do.  It was relaxing and we all had such a good time just being together.  I look forward to this being a new family tradition and returning each year for some good ole' family fun!

Forth of July was a big even in our neighborhood this year.  One of our sweet neighbors hosted a party at their home for the whole neighborhood.  We had tons of food, a jump house and fireworks that night.  We know we live in a great neighborhood with great neighbors but times like these help to remind us of how lucky we are.

For our 6th Anniversary we took a trip to Boston for a long weekend.  We chose Boston because of the cooler weather, the sightseeing and to visit Martha's Vineyard.  We did SO much sight seeing which really took a toll on me, being 7 months pregnant.  I started off strong but by the end of the trip I had elephant kankles and was completely exhausted but it was all worth it.  We had a great time taking tours, eating great food (lots of lobsters), seeing the Boston Red Socks stadium and taking a boat to Martha's Vineyard.  We experienced lots of first and made some really great memories.  It was the perfect Anniversary.

Our last trip for the summer was to PCB baby!  We stayed in a beach side condo which was nice having our room so conveniently located.  Normally we always stay off of the beach and have to haul all of our things to and from.  This trip we made a deal that we would only go if it were easy.  So we got on the beach early and stayed late, we cooked dinner each night and just took it easy.  It was one of the most relaxing beach trips we have taken in a long time and the timing could not have been more perfect.  It was our last trip to the beach as a family of three and we know that next year it will be a whole new experience :)



One of the parties Edie was invited to this summer was for one of her little friends, Anna James.  She had just a few of her friends over for pizza, cupcakes and a visit from Cinderella.  The girls had so much fun dressing up, dancing and having their faces painted.  I thought it was a perfect little girls party, so perfect that we may have to steal the idea for Edie's 4th :)