Carly's Nursery

 I finally finished Carly's Nursery!

This is the crib I slept in when I was a baby.  It is still in really good condition since it was only used for me and then any guests at our home with babies.  It is cherry wood with lace bedding.

I had some leftover white lace fabric and wanted to use that in her room so I got these 8 x 10 canvas boards and spray painted them watermelon pink which happened to perfectly match the chair fabric and bins in her room.

Nick's sister Allison was so generous and gave us her old super nice glider.  The cushions were actually blue and with her having had 5 kids it looked pretty worn so I bought some fabric on sale at JoAnn's and made slipcovers.  (I still need to make slip covers for the armrest cushions.)

I already had the mirror but it was black so I spray painted that as well as the picture frames (from the dollar store) which I still need to put pictures in.  I made the wreath with some light pink tulle I already had and tied strips of it around an embroidery hoop.

I still had more tulle and lace and I saw this idea on Pinterest.  I have the lights plugged into an outlet that's connected to the light switch so it works perfect for easy low light midnight feedings.  I got the white LED Christmas lights since they are supposed to last 22 years 3 hours/day.  I cut 6 inch squares of tulle and 6x3 inch pieces of lace and then between the lights I tied tulle, lace, tulle.  It is draped around the window and looks adorable whether the the lights are on or off.

I got this dresser on Craigslist a month after we moved in.  The paint was in bad condition and the woman I got it from first told me it was $20 but then wouldn't accept our money so we got it FREE!  People here in Omaha are so nice!  So I sanded the whole thing and then painted it white (I wasn't brave enough to paint it a color).  I tried to clean the pulls but they were too tarnished/rusted.  I didn't plug the holes so if I wanted new ones I was limited to selecting pulls 2.5 inch and apparently that is a thing of the past so I just spray painted them dark walnut.  Although it was fun to do this project, it was harder than I anticipated (sanding) so the next time we need furniture I'll just save up.

I had these pink flowers and soda bottles so I just painted them watermelon pink and then hot glued the lace fabric around it.

I have lots of bows and headbands (thank you mom!) and desperately needed something to organize them so I could see all that I had.  I bought a large picture frame from Good Will and popped out the back and glass and then I painted it white.  I then glued on the ribbon that I already had and screwed in the hooks.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  I wouldn't have been able to have such a nice nursery for Carly without the generosity of family members and random people (dresser lady).  I am truly grateful.  Also, props to Pinterest for all the inspiration!

Halloween 2013

For Halloween Carly was a little Lady Bug.  She didn't mind wearing it or having the hood on her head at all!  Halloween night we had a few couples over for chili and to take pictures of the kiddos.  It was really fun and the babes looked adorable in their costumes.

It was a bit difficult to get all the kids to look at the camera. Parker (8 months) was really happy and accidentally poked Lucy (2 years) in the eye so she was a little sad for a bit and then Carly was a bit overwhelmed by it all and started shaking when the flashes went off so we wrapped up that photo session pretty quick.

Parker, Lucy, and Carly

5 Months

I can't believe how fast time flies by!  Carly is growing up so fast.  I feel like she is learning and doing something new and more advanced each day.  It's so exciting to see what she discovers next!  Here are pictures, videos, and some things that Carly has been up to this past month:

-She goes to sleep in her crib great!  I hum "I am a Child of God" as I swaddle her and carry her to her room, give her a kiss, and lay her down.  She falls asleep within a few minutes while sucking on her binky.

-Carly goes to sleep at about 7:30 each night and wakes up once during the night to eat.  She doesn't really look up at me until I am changing her diaper and although I am so tired and don't want to get her excited I find myself smiling back at her.  It makes her so happy that she starts to kick and arch her back.

-Sleeping other places doesn't really happen except for in the car.  This makes 3 hour church difficult but I have been able to have her sleep for 30 minutes for the past few weeks.

-Carly is now rolling over from her back to her tummy!  When she plays on the floor she lifts her legs in the air and then lets them drop to the side (usually the right) and will play on her side for a bit and then go to her tummy.  She doesn't like being on her tummy that much still so if she can't get to her back again she gets a bit upset.  A few times I have found her sleeping on her side while in her crib.  I'm not sure why but she looks even cuter sleeping on her side than on her back.

-Carly loves eating!  I started feeding her rice cereal at the end of the month because she was getting a little jealous of Nick and I always eating in front of her and she started waking up twice in the night to eat.  Her first feeding was hilarious!  She was a little confused with the first couple bites but then she realized it was pretty good and was smacking her lips!  Every night when I feed her she gets so excited.  She jabbers and smiles and is really good about opening her mouth when I come close with the spoon and sometimes she will move forward and chomp down on the spoon.  Unfortunately she thinks that it's a good time to try eating her hands and then things get messy.

-She likes to look at her hands.  For a while she looked at her fist but now she will open and close her fingers and rotate wrist and just stare.

-She has always enjoyed her baths but she is starting to get excited and kick while in the tub.  She cries a little after I take her out, probably because she gets cold but she always calms down when I put the baby lotion on her.  It probably feels like a little message.

-When she is tired she rubs her eyes with her hands and rubs her face into my shoulder or chest.

-She likes to eat her fingers.  She doesn't really suck on them but she sticks them in her mouth and drools everywhere.

-She is starting to grab toys and put them in her mouth.

-She will probably be sitting up on her own by Christmas.  She can sit for 5-10 seconds on her own and then starts to lean to one side.

-When rocking Carly before putting her in her crib for the night she likes to makes little sounds to sooth herself.  It is the sweetest sound ever!

-Carly is a talker!  Not as much when we are in public but at home she is vocal and is progressively getting louder.  She often makes somewhat of a roar.  While changing her diaper during her middle of the night feeding she can sometimes get quite loud that I'm afraid she'll wake up Nick.  I try not to react to it but I can't help but smile at her because it is just so darn cute!

-She attended her first service project as a family.  Nick volunteered at ConAgra to bag bread and take it to a homeless shelter.  We tagged along to help him and Carly just chilled in her car seat watching Nick and I bag bread.  The ladies that worked at the company loved her and were so excited to have a baby visit.

-She has a toy bird that squeaks when you squeeze it and when I first started using it to play with her I would squeak it while moving it closer to her until it was in her mouth.  Now whenever I squeak it she opens her mouth right away expecting it to go in but then when I put it in she has a confused and disgusted look. Oops!...but cute!

-I play a game with her where I have her sitting on my knees facing me and I hold her hands and bounce my knees up and down singing William Tell Overture and will randomly let her lean back a little bit and feel like she is falling.  She gets the biggest smile and starts laughing and giggling.  She also really like our "row, row, row your boat" game where we sit facing each other and while holding her hands I pull and push her to the song and at the end I gently let her fall back.

-Every day Nick grabs the guitar and plays and sings for Carly while she sits in her bumbo.  Her favorite is "Here Comes the Sun" and "Blackbird".  With the strum of the very first cord Carly recognizes the song and just lights up.  She gets so excited that she starts to shake.

-Nick occasionally plays the piano and has Carly sit in her highchair and watch.  She of course loves it!

-I have been trying to play the piano everyday so after dinner while Nick studies I pull her over in her highchair to watch and listen to me play.  She doesn't find me as entertaining as her daddy, probably because I play all the slow hymns since they are the easiest but she quiets down if I sing along.

-We discovered that Carly likes listening to us beat box. haha!  She likes it most when Nick beat boxes while bouncing her to the beat and me dancing/bouncing with them.  Kind of weird but it's so fun!

-Another game she enjoys is a mini/safer version of airplane.  I lay on my back and fold my knees up to my chest and lay Carly belly down on my shins with her head poking above my knees.  I hold her hands and I keep my knees bent and lower my feet to the floor and then lift them up to make her go up and down.  She LOVES it!  The other day I had her laughing really hard and smiling so big.  We sure have a blast together.

-So maybe I'm just weird but when Carly starts to fuss I will sing or do anything weird to cheer her up.  A few times the song "La Cucaracha" has come to mind and just recently she thought it was hilarious.