Project Pierce: Mission ALMOST complete

So with these pesky contractions I decided it just may be time to get on the ball and finish what we started.
I think we have it arranged in the most useful fashion although aesthetically I am not completely sold. These rooms just weren't made for cribs but I digress.

So just a few more things in order for it to be totally done and sign off on PP:

• we need 2 more baskets
• a going home outfit
• some sort of stuffed toy for his monthly size comparison picture
• one more curtain panel
• a lamp shade ( we purchased the lamp but can't find a shade)
• I need to order his cross
  
• some shelves and decorator stuff
• wash the baby clothes
• pack a bag for me, Rick, Master P and one to send Bel off to grandma's for a few days
• Freeze a few more dinners so it is easier on Rick ( so far we have chicken spaghetti, a variety of homemade soup, and made from scratch spaghetti sauce~ did I mention I like to cook when I am pregnant)
  
• one last big clean
  
• oh and I think he needs a piggy bank...but that is just one of those things

So here are some pictures!! It is more than I imagined it could be. I had no clear idea of what I wanted this time around so it was a complete surprise when I realized how much I really like it. It looks like a nursery not the crap room it was just a few months ago. It almost even looks like we might be capable of owning another small person very soon...scary scary thought.


Crib with super cute bedding!


My very cool diaper bag...it is camo so perfect for a boy!

His customized frame from www.jessicarobertsdesigns.com! ADORABLE stuff at affordable prices! I am also dropping off ( love to support the local moms) his letters for her to add some pizazz to!! I can't wait to see what she comes up with!

The window wall ( with my out of season curtains) very fun!

Another view....see his BIG letters! That was a Rick request and it turned out super cute! It is a good thing we didn't choose a longer name though:) I'll post an update photo when we get them back from Jessica! I can't wait!

Also check out Jen's AWESOME painting! Rick framed the quote and I think it is adorable! Thanks again Jen...YOU ARE THE BEST! www.smilecustomwalls.com


So we did finally pick a quote. We decided to go with the more truthful than anything else. Without our love he wouldn't be here...so...well it just works. Not a day goes by we don't think about the days we thought we'd never have kids and at those times all we had was each other.

Some people doubt love but not me. I know first hand that sometimes it is all you need to go on...sometimes loving someone is more than enough. I hope I can teach Pierce that...that sometimes loving enough is all you need. So he is here 'all because 2 people fell in love' so many years ago. It started many generations before us and hopefully will continue for many more.

I am glad PP is almost over and REALLY anxious and READY to meet my little man! A few more weeks (I have bow orders to get finished yet and you already saw my to do list to finish PP) but I know they will fly by!

Weekend Recap....

Our weekend was fun and for the most part bel-free. Friday night we had dinner with the Fornof's..Bella was missing Avery and we just happen to like her parents so it all works out in the long run:)

Bunny smile...


Adorable Avery...
The girl entertaining each other...

Saturday was FREEZING! So we wrapped Bel up and took her to Grandmom and Granddad's for a fun night. She had a great parent-free time and entertained her grandparents until they were very tired! A trip to the mall, ride on the carousel, and lots of playtime outside with Granddad and all 3 were tired!

In the mean time Rick and I had a fabulous time shopping and running errands and we even had the luxury of a 4 hour dinner with Frank & Rebecca and Sherri & Chad. So nice! In fact nights like that make me almost miss our kid free days...it is nice to get to have one every once in a while. Frank & Becca just returned from Australia and had so many cool stories to tell..we had a blast!

Sunday Rick and I started the 'spring clean' thing. We didn't get very far but it is now clean enough to have the new cleaning lady come really clean...we will see anyway. That whole nesting thing might click in and I'll be organizing cabinets at 4am...but since I can barely move these days I highly doubt it!
We met the grandparents for dinner and were super excited to get our monkey back. It is so pathetic how much we missed her after just one day...she has us totally snowed:)

She had fun and we got a lot done. We cleaned our closets again, super cleaned the bathrooms and our bedroom including the baseboards ( wow) painted Bels big girl toddler bed (It is a super cute antique bed we found in Poppy's attic. I'll post pictures when we get it in her room) AND we managed to find me a pair of pants that don't need to be tailored ( I refuse to do that to maternity pants..don't they know short people get pregnant too) plus we bought curtains for Prince Charming's room! YAY for clearance...i did not know curtains had seasons. I must be terribly out of style because I do not change my curtains well ever...so he got silk/taffeta curtains and they were CHEAP...so exciting!! Just don't tell him his curtains are 'out of season' please!

So it was another full weekend and we are hoping to get more done this week. Finish painting the main parts of his room, finally decide what we want on the walls, and get the crib out of Bel's room and changing table out of my kitchen. Plus I opened my new sewing machine and it is mind boggling. It 'speaks' 16 languages and isn't super nice. I hope to get to actually use it this week...but I have to make bows first...so heres hoping:)

Project Pierce & a 'see you in a year' party!

So Friday started with family dinner at Babe's and the most delicious chicken friend steak I have ever eaten. I must be pregnant because that fried piece of heaven was so yummy I didn't even care that my hips wear growing with each bite...ahh.

Pop & Grandma asked for a Bella weekend and we needed a Bellafree weekend so we could start on Prince Charming's ( now also known as 'Master P' which is what his daddy has been calling him) nursery. So we traded the monster for Lauren because even at 16 she is much more helpful and got to work.

Well after Lauren and I 'motivated' ourselves with a handy dandy pedicure...bliss.

So after a trip to Walmart for staples then home depot for supplies we finally got started on the chaos that was the office/bellabowz headquarters. I so wish we had a real before picture. Just to give you an idea...there was ribbon, ribbon pieces and tulle on every conceivable surface. Not to mention my work table covered in mess/ideas paper etc, Rick's old computer desk, a dresser with TV on top and an overflowing closet of horror. Basically, we had to carefully step to just make it into the room then were trapped by yards of material and tulle and ribbon making exiting very difficult. It was chaos.

It took 4 hours & 3 people to roll & sort the ribbon. That is A LOT of ribbon! It is now tucked away in 4 portable tubs/containers and on my kitchen table so I can finish the orders on my plate currently.

Then my table ( ie: our old kitchen table Simon bit a chunk out of when he was a puppy) moved to the garage and Rick's desk too ( it is a family heirloom). So all that was left is the dresser which will move to Master P's closet for storage and the TV which will end up onCraigslist.

After the cleaning frenzy...goodbye pretty office-y green.

So at 10ish we finally started painting and I had picked the perfect 'blue' to match the bedding. Seriously it was a silver/gray blue. On the paper gorgeous. In the can perfect. On our wall over the lovely office-y green...it turns LAVENDER. No lie. LAVENDER. YIKES!

Too purple for a boy...so we decided it would be the 'primer' color....the bottom is done except for touch up and we have to re-paint the trim white.
and here it is in the sunlight. Still too lavender for my boy but the chocolate looks fabulous. I love the 'idea' of it all just really anxious to get it done before Bella is returned! However...we have a very special party to attend this afternoon so the painting is on hold...perhaps when she goes to sleep tonight we can get started again.

This afternoon we are attending a party for our favorite little man Edward. Edward and his family were apart of our wedding and have always been a part of our family. We love them. 5 years ago Edward was diagnosed with cancer. A rare adult cancer. He had a brain tumor removed and we waited. We watched as this little guy ( who is now 14) went through chemo, radiation, the gamma knife and even clinical trials. He has survived. Only to find out recently the cancer has come back in the form of leukemia. So at 14 he has battled 2 different types of cancer and we've had the privilege of watching him grow and survive and teach us what life is really all about.

They've spent the last few month searching for a bone marrow donor and FINALLY found one. SO on 3/25 he will be receiving this life saving gift. That also means that for an entire year e will need to be in a sterile environment. Which means no contact with us because we own germ caring kidlets under the age of 3. So his parents are throwing a 'see you next year party' for him and we couldn't be more excited to go. We aren't taking Bel because his immune system is still fragile even before treatment and we can't risk making him sick but we're going and so excited. It will be a long hard year for this family but if anyone can survive it is Edward....so pictures from the party soon...and pray for Edward. Pray for strength and courage and hope.

Weekend review...

Since Bel was still recovering we kept the weekend low key and had a really nice time. Nothing was planned and we sort of played it by ear.

Friday Bel was still icky so I canceled my mom's night with my girlfriends and we all stayed home. I felt icky too so it was nice. Like the old married couple we are we watched 20/20. Just ridiculous.

Saturday we played around the house. I got a pedicure and then we went to help Zach celebrate turning 2! Bella had such a great time but you could tell she was not 100%!

Playing with her friends Grant and Nora.

Enticing Miles to give her the ball...

Can you believe he said no?


Playing with the twins in the ball pit...

All lined up like big kids to sing happy birthday and eat cake! So cute!

We had a really fun time and Bella was so tired. She fell asleep immediately in the car. It was 6:30 ish by time we got home and I stupidly thought she'd be out for the night. However, she had other plans. At about 8 she was WIDE awake with no plans of going back to sleep. She was jumping on our bed like a crazy woman so we decided to head to the Fornofs so she could play with Avery and use some pent up energy. It was like all the stored energy from a week of not using it came out in one night and they RAN and JUMPED and PLAYED HARD! So fun!

Sunday we woke up and started Project Pierce (PP) . A short 'sit down' with Rick (hes be procrastinating because it will be much more work than Operation Bella) on how it is driving me NUTS that NOTHING is ready for the boy who will be here in a few short weeks and that if he thought i was crazy now he should see me when I am stressed! So he quickly jumped on board (smart man) and we headed out to find a desk so that PP can officially begin. More on PP and what has to be done in a future post...


So we had lunch at Chipolte and Bella was less than thrilled. she usually loves their rice, beans and guacamole but not this time...



Sweet girl sleeping through IKEA! I cannot tell you how many times we were stopped to be told how cute/sweet/ precious she was. I must say while she is like this, sleeping, holding tight to the ear of her bunny, she is quite precious. However looks can be deceiving:)

Then we headed to IKEA to see what we could find. With Frugal Jen from Frugal Fabulous hanging out in my head I decided to make her proud. so we headed to the As IS section first and found just what we needed. So we got a $300 dollar corner office desk for the bargain price of...drum roll please.... $75! A great deal. We have grand plans for an addition for Ricks office. had we started it when we found out we were pregnant it would be finished by now and off my mind. Since we didn't and I am not one for doing anything half-a$$ so to speak we settled on buying a cheap desk and putting his office in our bedroom for a few months. It isn't a permanent solution but as soon as Pierce gets here the new office project will start! For now we need him out of Pierce's room so we can get going on that!
Bella was less impressed with IKEA than I generally am. We go there probably once every 6 months or so and this is the first time we've purchased anything. It is fun to walk around but generally not my style. Since the ankle is still painful Bella and I spent most of the trip in a chair people watching. Way more interesting than shopping!

So after IKEA I begged Rick to let me go to my favorite mall. Very rarely are we over that direction and I had a gymboree coupon burning a hole in my pocket. ( this mall is the scene of my meltdown) Since Bella had a good nap in the car and at IKEA AND I hadn't set foot in a mall since January ( part of a rick/jenny negotiation to save money for bigger and better things) he obliged and we had a fun time.

These days we don't actually shop but spend most of the time letting Bel play. She loves it and it wears her out!

Having fun playing!

Here is a video of our fast crazy sliding girl. She is quick!



We had a very good, tiring day and all of us were sitting in bed by 8.

Goals for this week...well Tuesday is playgroup and honestly that wipes us both out. Wednesday Bella has her 15month checkup and shots so...she will probably be not so happy. At some point we want to play with Madeline but she is sick too so it may get moved to the following week and then to top it all off..

• Rick must put together new desk and we both have to rearrange and get rid of the clutter in our bedroom/bathroom ( this will probably happen on shot day because because bel likes to sleep)
• move old office junk to new office desk
• finish all my Bellabowz orders from last week and get started on the orders I received today ( 4 tutus and matching hair bows!! YAY...that makes my quota for this week ~ more a goal we have set for Bellabowz to make each week so we can set the $ aside and not have a car payment or upgrade the kind of car when we go car shopping in a few months..i have my eye on a Z4 but since it won't hold 2 car seats I think we are heading into the mommyvan direction..sigh)
• move Bellabowz into storage carts so I can store it in our closet and only get it out on bow making days
• then get started cleaning out Pierce's closet which is now housing crap and clothes for Bella ( seriously you do not want to know about that one...you thought she had a wardrobe for her infant stuff wait until you see her new summer clothes and 2t sized stuff...adorable. And also the reason the not going to the mall thing is part of the bigger car negotiation! because the kidlet needs nothing but every time we go i find a good sale prompting the argument from Rick..if she wont ever get around to wearing it was it really a good deal?)

So we should have a busy week...and weekend. Then Sunday Lauren turns 16 and I will probably spend the day crying. Ugh.