Showers galore

No, I'm not talking about the weather but of my recent baby showers! Not too many people are blessed with a baby shower when they are pregnant with their second child but I was not only lucky enough to have one but TWO baby showers for this precious baby boy! It was such a nice treat to open those BLUE presents!! With Merrin, we did not find out what we were having so most of my gifts were yellow and green or baby necessities and although they were much appreciated, it was lots of fun this time opening those precious baby blues!

My thoughtful mother-n-law threw a shower luncheon at her house a few weeks ago and close family and friends of family attended. It was a wonderful shower and I loved being surrounded by my loved ones. My mother-n-law has been such a blessing in my life and a wonderful Christian influence. I truly thank her for all the love and support she gives me. I couldn't have been blessed more when I married Keith and gained a second family!

Another blessing in my life are my wonderful friends! Kim, Liz, Tammy and Blair threw me an amazing shower full of love and I can't thank them enough for all they do for me. They have been my confidants and my mentors over the years and have certainly helped me enter into mommy hood! I can't ever thank them enough but I will certainly try! My very best friend from college was able to make it from out of town and it was icing on the cake to be able to spend some time with her. Thank you Rachel! I love you guys!!

Beauty and the Beast

I'll let you figure out which one is which...

Our little mess

Progress has definitely been made! Here are some recent pics of the house which is still barely habitable. A few weeks ago I would have imagined posting a blog with cute pics of baby boy's "finished" nursery but instead, here is a pic of what our nursery currently looks like as well as Merrin's big girl room...

I think a small amount of panic is starting to settle in. With a tentative planned induction about three weeks away, I'm not so certain we will be 100% ready for this baby boy but I guess that's life! I of course will be praying for a nice clean house to bring this baby home to but if not, it will all be in God's hands.

What were we thinking?

Being the smart and intelligent people that Keith and I are, we decided two weeks after Christmas to begin construction on a home remodel project. Not only did we start this project 5 weeks before this baby is due to arrive BUT also just a few weeks before the busiest time of Keith's job (also evidence that Keith and I are not the sharpest tools in the shed as this will be the second baby born into our family in the middle of tax season)! What can I say, we like to live on the wild side!

I digress...this all started about a year ago when Keith and I were trying to decide how long we wanted to stay in our current home. We never really reached a decision but all we knew is that we were soon to outgrow our home and didn't want to be forced to move before we were ready, both financially and emotionally. Then the market took a nose dive and we knew we couldn't move even if we wanted to so we started looking around at what we could do to our current home to gain some extra space. Keith's first thought was to add on to the back but that can get kind of pricey and we just weren't sure we wanted to spend a fortune when we probably won't stay in this house forever SO (pat myself on the back) I came up with an alternative solution. We decided to take our 2-story front room and basically slice it in half horizontally. Its called a "floor over" in the building world which basically means that instead of stepping through our front door and seeing a 2-story great room, you now will see a regular 8 ft. ceiling room and upstairs you will have a nice bonus room/extra bedroom. Not only will this little remodel push us over the 2000 sq. ft. threshold but it will also let us be able to list our house as a 4 bedroom when we go to resale as opposed to a 3 bedroom. We feel pretty blessed to be able to do this remodel and ironically enough, its partially thanks to our plummeting economy and even greater plummeting interest rates but ultimately the thanks goes to God! Now...our prayer is that this project will be completed before baby boy decides to arrive! We have complete faith in our contractor but just in case I don't think I'll hold my breath. We've taken some pictures along the way and I am sure there will be more to come. You can click HERE to see the progress thus far! Also if anyone needs a good contractor we have an EXCELLENT one to recommend! Although I feel blessed and am excited about this remodel, it has definitely not come without any inconveniences. Poor Merrin has been displaced from her "world" as she knows it and I honestly don't know when things will resume back to normal, especially with a baby brother on the way. All I can do is pray for her and hope that she will be as resilient as people say kids can be. I'm sure I'll keep you all updated so this is To Be Continued...

Dancing Queen

Here is Merrin getting her New Year's grove on...please excuse the quality of the video, Merrin had smudged the lens on the camera! Hopefully you can still make out her finest dance moves...I think she does a shuffle, step-ball-change at one point!

Progress Report...

I am happy to report that Merrin is officially crib free! Although my Sweet is not the best sleeper in the world, she still prefers her "big bed" over her crib. I've asked her on several occasions if she wants to sleep in her crib and she immediately yells "NO" and gets this look on her face like "I can't believe you even asked that!" Nighttime seems to be the best for Merrin. After a little whining and fussing she drifts off to sleep and is sleeping through the night without getting out of bed to come find us. Nap time however still proves to be a challenge. Ever since Merrin was about 17 months old she has typically put up a small fight before nap time but since she was in her crib it didn't really matter. Now, on the other hand, its a bit more challenging because she can get in and out of her bed. Yesterday she got down and started playing with toys instead of napping so after about 30 minutes we had to go in and remove her toys. Today she acted as if she was very excited about her nap. She even took her "baby" in her room to go "nite nite" with her. She climbed up in bed and acted as if she was all ready but after having to put her back in bed three different times, she started to not like "nite nite" anymore. She is now snoozing away...which I guess isn't too bad considering this process started at 1:00 and its now only 1:37 but still...please pray that Merrin will continue to transition smoothly and that her nap times will improve over time (for my sake as well as hers). Thankfully nighttime is not a problem, otherwise I don't know how I would function!
I sure do love my "big-little girl" and am proud of her although I think she'll always be my "baby"!!! Merrin below at 8 weeks old...