34 weeks and a peek into the nursery

Here's the tummy picture of Baby Nolen at 34 weeks! It is an active little baby, just like it's older brother! Kicking, somersaulting, twisting and turning...in what seems like 24/7 movement. Parker wants to "chat with" and feel his little brother or sister move each day. It's sweet to watch him put his little lips and hand up to my tummy to say "hi" to the baby. Parker is going to be such a precious big brother!

Clay and I finished the nursery a couple of weeks ago; it is "Baby ready" stocked with diapers, onesies and lots of love!!! The primary colors are black and cream (looks more white in this picture, but it is a deep cream) and the style is a basic black paired with gingham sheets and a classic, vintage "children at play" toile to compliment.

This is actually the exact nursery bedding and decor that we used in Parker's nursery with the exception of the curtains. (Parker's nursery looked completely different than this though, because it was a larger room that acted as the guest room, nursery and office...definitely a multi-purpose room!)

If not for the help and creativity of Clay's parents and sisters in December 2007, we would not have any of this!!! I was at a complete loss for what I wanted for the nursery bedding and decor; what I had in mind, I couldn't seem to find anywhere. When one of Clay's sisters saw this online and I gave quick approval, the family acted fast to assemble an entire nursery setting before Parker arrived!! It turned out adorable and has proved to be the perfect fit for our home then and now! I am thrilled to be able to use it again for Baby Nolen #2.

The room is a true "nursery size" so there is not much room for anything other than the guest bed and crib, but I love the simple and cozy look of it. Decorative boxes that match the sweet "children's play" toile are stacked at the end of the crib as you walk into the room.

The monogrammed initial set that we used for Parker will be recreated using the new baby's initials once we know what this little one is! The set of three will go directly above the crib just as in Parker's old room in the apartment.

I love the simplicity of the black satin with the vintage "children's play" theme.

On the side wall next to the closet, hangs a frame with pictures of Parker in black and white at one month. I am looking for a similar frame that will go directly beneath it and will hold pictures of the baby at four weeks too.

I have a few other fun things that I would love to display, but I'm not sure what will happen with these just yet, since we don't have a little side table or anything in the room. I'm pondering with the idea of purchasing a miniature black shelf for the wall...it would hold a frame with the little lamb and mother and then I would hang a few small frames, etc. around the shelf in scattered collage form.

Inside the closet: white onesies, gender neutral onesies and gowns and some white/ivory bonnets that were Parker's when he was an infant. Also, the matching toile diaper rack hangs from one of the shelves. I'm not quite sure about the closet situation either. I'm toying with the idea of placing some baskets on the shelves to keep everything neat and in place. They have some cute ones at Target right now that would go great with the "honey" coloring of the crib and the cream decor...the hard part is deciding which ones (there are 2 different styles I have my eye on)...and convincing my hubby that this is a "needed item!" ha! Though the clothes work fine on the wire shelves for now, I know that after this little one is born, we will be adding to its wardrobe and with that comes more to keep in a neat little stack!

(I have also washed, folded and placed in the closet all boy clothes up to six months just in case. :) If we are blessed with a sweet little girl though, I will just pack up the boy things for another time!)

Clay, Parker and I are sooo excited to welcome this baby into the family this fall! I am currently trying to wrap up the remaining house projects before B. Nolen arrives as well as working on getting a few systems in place that will simplify life for awhile during the adjustment period of having not one, but two little ones in the household!

Storytime at the Red Balloon Bookshop, sweet treats at Cafe Latte, and time at home...

Laurie, a girlfriend of mine from church, her sweet baby boy Emmett, and Parker and I visited the Toddler Storytime at The Red Balloon Bookshop in St. Paul last week.

It was especially hot and humid here (for Minne) for a couple of weeks and honestly just too hot some days to get out and play for long...Parker could've played all day if I'd let him; it was his mom that couldn't take the heat and the swollen ankles! ha! Knowing my son wouldn't be content indoors for long periods of time, I planned a couple of fun outings for us...one of them being this storytime. (Thanks, Laurie, for the great suggestion!)

I have never been to a more fun story hour! All of the 20+ kids there enjoyed it. Not only did they read a neat book to the children, but they incorporated education into the entire half hour including a letter of the day (which just happened to be the letter "P"), a number of the day, a traditional nursery rhyme, several songs, and special props that the kids got to help and pretend with after the story was read. The story was a comical one about some animals that went on a picnic one sunny afternoon. When the reading was over, the storytime leader pulled out a large picnic basket and blanket filled with red plates and cups that she passed out to each of the children. Each child called out the different foods and drinks that they thought should be included in the pretend picnic. Parker's choice food was apples.

Red, the raccoon puppet mascot of the store, assisted with the event, to which the kids thought was even more fun. I was amazed at how good each of the toddlers were; hardly any of them budged from their spot for the entire half hour...that is how good this event was! To be able to keep my child still for that period of time takes major creativity and excitement!! I will definitely be going back for future storytimes this fall and winter. Along with weekly storytimes for children of different ages, The Red Balloon Bookshop also hosts Saturday morning storytimes during different weeks of the month that I hope to check out in the future. These typically include the authors themselves who are there to meet and greet and sometimes autograph their books for the children.
In the picture below: Parker is the one in white

After storytime, Laurie and the kids and I walked over to Cafe Latte for a scrumptious lunch and dessert. Along with a delicious chicken and spinach salad sandwich, I enjoyed the traditional Classic Vanilla with Strawberries cheesecake. I even splurged and treated Parker to a chocolate cupcake (since I had long decided I wasn't going to share mine!) To say it was out of this world yummy would be the understatement of the year.  

One thing that Clay and I are so blessed to have is great neighbors. Our friends, Jeff and Heather and their two precious girls, are always welcoming us over to their home and their yard for playtime. On many summer afternoons, the three kids have been round running around in the sprinklers, riding in the jeeps and on their bikes, watering the plants, going through boxes of popsicles, and splashing in the backyard pool. I love watching them play together; it's so cute. Last week, when Clay was gone for awhile, Parker and I took off down the little hill to play in their garage for the afternoon..well, the kiddos played and I plopped myself down in a comfy lawn chair to observe and take pictures. :) The cute thing about this afternoon and this picture is that each time the children went around the house, they would be in a different spot in the pink jeep; it never stayed consistent. "Here they come, and oh look, McKenzie is sitting in Alexia's lap and Parker is beside the girls this time!"

After a pretty busy week, we spent the weekend together as a family at home tackling our chores and tasks, enjoying the simple moments together. Clay and Parker spent hours on "Troublemaker," washing, waxing and detailing the trusty Ford. Clay stayed up late one night replacing spark plugs, distributor caps, ignition wires, the fan belt and a bunch of other things...I personally don't understand any of it, but I have to say after paying someone else to replace the brakes in my car last week, I am thankful that my hubby is good at doing a lot of these things himself. I think it saves us a ton of money....plus, I think he actually really enjoys doing it (which I also don't understand, but will never try to either!)

After finishing his job on the truck, Parker decided his bike needed a wash down...

On a somewhat different note: The nursery is now complete (well, until the baby arrives and we figure out its name!)...diapers are stocked, onesies are folded, crib sheets and bedding are washed and in place, curtains are hung...I am one happy mama every time I look in that room.

Parker's room is almost complete...we're still waiting on some of the backordered bedding to arrive. I can't wait to see the finished look...at least for now! :) I plan to add a little more wall decor in the future, but for the time being, the room will be complete in my book.

I'll be back with some pictures from the nursery and P's room soon! Also, tomorrow I'll post about our adventures at Como Zoo this morning!

P.S. My camera is back and working as of today! Yea!!!

Before & After pictures of the yard

We're still playing in MS...here is a little post I created awhile back that never got shared. I am loving every minute of our crazy busyness here in the South. So far, over 612 pics taken..."fun" truly doesn't describe the last week and a half of our trip. Can't wait to share more warm MS memories soon!

When we moved into our new home at the end of April, the yard needed a lot of tlc. It had been awhile since it had been taken care of, but luckily a lot of the groundwork had already been laid by the owners while living there. We just needed to give it a little fixer-upper! Though it's far from done, we feel as if huge improvements have been made and can truly smile when we pull into the driveway and look at the fruits of our labor.

One of the things we love about our yard is the hostas. There were quite a few already planted all around the house and just in need of sprucing up so that they could bloom. After pulling and digging out the weeds and such, it was amazing to see what could transpire after only a few weeks. Because several of the back hostas were so large, we dug them up, split them in quarters and moved some to the front beds to fill in some gaps. Our neighbors are enjoying the remaining 6 from the separated hostas. :)

This picture below of the "seen-better-days" hostas was taken within 2 weeks of us moving in. The next picture underneath is a more recent one...isn't it amazing what change can take place in under 6 weeks?!

Clay and our neighbor Jeff did a lot of trimming and cutting those first several weeks. (It was so hard to work on unpacking boxes inside because of the beautiful weather outdoors; therefore, we found the larger outdoor tasks to be quite enjoyable and somewhat relaxing.) 

The picture below is just of the branches of 3 front bushes that needed to be pruned desperately. They will be bare this season, but start to really come alive next year!

I wish I had gotten a picture of this front flower bed before we started doing work on it. The whole thing was covered in weeds, branches, ground cover, grass...basically, it was scary enough that one might be afraid to go near it for fear of a snake or swampy character leaping out at them. Once again, the potential was amazing, it just needed a little work. We sprayed, dug, pulled, planted...this was about midway through the process....starting to look much better.

I took this picture of the bed below the other day...it's not something you would see out of Southern Living or Beautiful Homes and Gardens, but definately easier on the eyes than what we started with!! We're happy and proud of it! We planted 3 new hostas from the back and will leave it as is for this year. (We are planning on adding 1-2 more lilies here, but I'm not sure when we'll get around to doing that) We decided to stick with pure greenery this season for several reasons: A. Low cost  B. Simplicity

...we did have a house that needed to be unpacked sometime in the near future! I had to laugh because my two boys would find the most interesting things that "needed to be taken care of right away" in the yard and would disappear for hours. Clay and Parker would come back up for sandwich lunches and then head back out to play! Thank goodness for rainy days; I was starting to worry after a few weeks that we would never finish the inside! ha ha!

We love our yard and our outdoor space. What makes it even more special and fun is watching Parker as he excitedly runs outdoors every chance he gets. He thinks we have the biggest backyard in the world as he believes that the 3 neighbors' homes to the left of us are all his for play and enjoyment too! ;) They wouldn't dare tell him otherwise. :) I love our neighbors.

The move was so worth it.

Progress around the home & "Being a Mary vs. Martha"

A couple of nights ago we finished up unpacking the last bulk of boxes. Yea! We have a handful of boxes still sitting around needing attention, but I should be able to tackle these in an afternoon. All the large wall items are hung, but I have at least 60+ frames in need of attention. I am really looking forward to hanging my frames & wall decor! Sadly enough, I actually get giddy just thinking about it. :)

Last Saturday was a rainy day, so I actually rejoiced because that meant we could tackle the basement. Since moving in, we have wanted to play outside as much as possible & get some yard work done (I'll show some pics soon!); therefore, the inside of the house has been put off a bit due to gorgeous weather. :) We did get everything organized & unpacked in the basement with the exception of my scrapbooking stuff. I will look forward to gradually getting to that over the next several weeks. There are some pictures that are calling my name in need of printing & scrapping/hanging.

Monday night we decided to have a watermelon social at our place for a few of the neighbors. It was a beautiful day so we were looking forward to sitting out on the deck & enjoying the delicious weather. Well, about halfway through our dinner, Clay, Parker & I had to grab our plates & run inside to miss the buckets of water pouring from the sky...random. We weren't sure whether or not the neighbors would show up or not with the change, but low & behold they were knocking on our doors at 7:15 ready for a party. I have to tell you that I was highly embarassed by the way our kitchen & living area looked. Stuff sitting out, candles not lit...see, I hadn't planned on people actually coming in & wanting a tour of the place with the original plan being that the party was going to be outdoors. Now, I know we have just moved & all, but I was beyond mortified. I actually told my mom that night that I would rather have someone walk in on me in my underwear than to walk in & have the garbage sitting out in the kitchen, a warm candle not lit & stuff sitting around waiting to be put away. Call it ocd, call it nesting, call it whatever you want to, but that has got to be one of my biggest pet peeves. (I'm going to regret admitting all of this later! ha!) Anyway, I sucked it up when I saw how happy Clay & everyone else was & decided not to stress over those little details...well, at least not while the company was in the house.

We recently had a message in our Sunday School class about "Mary & Martha." (Luke 10:38-42) It was the perfect lesson for me that week. (I think I could stand to hear it a time or two more!) Less than two weeks before the move my dear husband made the comment, "Baby, we haven't had anyone over for supper in awhile. Let's invite one of the couples from church over in the next week or so." (Now, please keep in mind that by this time, our kitchen table was packed up along with over 3/4 of our home.) I looked at him in wide-eyed disbelief & replied, "What did you have in mind? Having a pow wow over a pizza box in the middle of the living room floor?!" I nipped that suggestion in the bud quickly much to his dismay...the next Sunday was the lesson on being a Martha or Mary. I couldn't help but laugh when most of the husbands in the room (including mine) glanced over at their wives to raise their eyebrows as if to say with one look, "See, I told you so."

Growing up, our family always had people stopping by the house to say hello, play, etc. I remember my mom having candles lit & creating such a warm environment for our guests. Now, the house was rarely in perfect order with everything that was going on in everyday lives; however, she always made people feel welcome & comfortable when they walked through the door. My mom is definitely a "Mary." I pray often that I will develop more of the "Mary" mentality...you see it's a lot easier to do when life is calm & a little quieter...I can do that part. It's more of a challenge when your life gets turned upside down & twisted around; that's when the test stands strongest.

With all that being said, though our house was nowhere near perfect condition, it was a fun evening with new friends...imagine that! ;) ...by the way, the watermelon was delish. 

Memories from our Home 2006-2010

"My first home as a blushing bride

Far from my home, Clay at my side.

Plans and dreams begin to unfold

and soon there's a precious baby to hold.

And now we move on with memories in tow

We have a new home, a new place to go.

God, continue to guide us; lead us in your way.

Please bless our home and family this brand new day."

Poem written by Terry Jones (Rassie or "Raddy") on April 25, 2010
Above: When arriving to our first apt in Apple Valley right after the honeymoon, Clay had adorned the bed with rose petals & leaves to surprise me. The bedroom furniture, which we had picked out prior to the wedding on a quick trip up North, had been delivered just before the wedding in December. It was one of the few things we actually had in the apt for the first month we lived here until we had a chance to move everything else up from MS.

Above: Picture taken outside our bedroom window the day Parker was born; large icicles were common outside our windows on the fourth floor
Below: Welcome home sign made by Rassie & placed outside our door to welcome Parker home for the first time! Picture taken outside our apt complex during one of our many walks

Some fun summer days spent out by the pool

Discovering the magic of Christmas

A moment out on our balcony

Waving to the cars & people below from our balcony (an everyday morning ritual for quite some time!)

Lots of playtime in the living room

Taking a walk to our nearby park

Bird out on our balcony early one morning (we rarely had birds perch up here, so this was a sight to capture)

Winter sunrise view from our balcony...we will miss the beautiful views from our 4th floor balcony

So many memories were made from January 2006 to today in our home...starting with our first apt 402 then on to 423. People say that the place you bring your babies home to will always hold a place in your heart; I understand that now. I am thankful for the wonderful and happy memories in this place these last 4 1/2 years.

our last day in Apt 423

For the past 2 months, packing little bits of our house here & there has taken up "naptime," (most freetimes) & a couple of Saturday mornings. Over the last 3-4 weeks, the house has been completely consumed with boxes...& the brown yuckiness is starting to take a toll on me. :) I have found myself drawn to organizational sites, magazines...basically, anything bright, orderly & inspiring that I can think about & visualize!

Luckily, we move tomorrow, so the inspiration can really kick in & take action soon! The moving truck is arriving at 8am & we are ready for them! Thanks to my husband, who is Mr. Prepared & Ready-Well-in-Advance-for-Anything, our house & storage room are packed (and actually packed in a very organized manner thanks to him!) & ready for the move!
...it makes me laugh when I look back on my move home from college & then our move from MS up here. I literally had my things in tote bags & garbage bags to load into the big moving van. ha! I didn't know any better; I can't imagine how frustrated Clay was loading that truck for his unorganized, newlywed!

Parker has even gotten into the moving process. The other night he wanted to pack his last box of toys all by himself. What a little helper he is!

For the last couple of weeks, the entrance to our apt has basically looked like this, minus one row of boxes & adding back in the kitchen table. Meals have been eaten on the floor for the last several days. It has led to fun memories though! Picnics at parks & even picnics on our living room floor has caused a little excitement in the household...at least from the toddler's standpoint.
Aunt Lacey, aka CiCi, flew in this past week to play with Parker. :) We really enjoyed the visit & were thankful for the extra helping hands! Lacey is not used to the crazy "always-a-toddler-at-your-feet" daily lifestyle that we live, so I was impressed at her endurance & bouncy attitude through each of the activities & challenges that kept us busy each hour...I will admit though that I was happy when a couple of nights I wasn't the only one going to bed early. :) Thank you for coming to play CiCi! We love you!
I've been pretty impressed with mine & Clay's attitude throughout most of this moving process (I am aware it's not over yet...but still, I feel as if a lot of the work is already done!) We have managed to get through it so far without too many disagreements, which is honestly a miracle when you put two opinionated people like us in a room together for too long to work on a project such as this. :)

I will say this as a warning to husbands out there: If you ask your wife if there is anything else from a particular kitchen cabinet (a month away from the move) that can be packed & she says, "No" please take her word for it. For instance, if you are just needing one more little thing to place in a spot to finish out a perfect box & decide that she really doesn't need that food chopper for the next month, be aware when she looks for it 2 days later you will be the one doing the chopping of the vegetables for the next month...or at least until she gets her food chopper back. :)

And with that, I am off to enjoy the rest of our last day/night in Apartment 423.