The Mural Completed...

...so the mural is done...kinda, I'll explain later. But first off, let me share our inspiration with you all. After Matt shot down my Dr. Seuss idea, on Christmas we set down and explored Pinterest together. He was really loving the tree, nature look and I've always loved the turquoise and white tree that Meredith decorated Lizzy's nursery. So this was the official inspiration we decided on, unfortunately/fortunately this is nursery in Norway which is good because it's not anyone we know but at the same time, the whole blog was in another language so we couldn't read any tips or directions!!!

Another view (note the frames above the crib, will discuss later):

Since we aren't finding out the sex, we both really liked this idea because it wasn't the green or yellow, Winnie the Pooh or anything too cartoonie or babyish. We figured it was better to go with blue because blue is WAY easier to make girlie than pink is to make boyish. Side note: my camera has NO lighting at all, his cousin took some pics which turned out great so I'm hoping I can get a copy of those to share too. So on to the pics, right? Here you go:

Another view, the far right will be over the crib so that's supposed to be the momma bird and there's a

small baby bird in the bird house.

This was my idea and I was really excited about it! On the bottom part of one of the trees, we painted this. It's supposed to look like a carving in the tree. It says A + M for Alyssa plus Matt. We're going to add the baby's first letter of their name once s/he is born after the equals sign and then we put 8.26.11 because that was the day of our transfer. I really love this personal touch. The crib will cover this up so it won't be seen to the visible eye.

Katherine hugging Matthew...it was a LONG weekend. I love sneaking pics like this.

Katherine with her squirrel that she made specially for me because squirrels are the mascot of my sorority.

Matt watching paint dry...seriously. To speed the process along, we brought out the hair dryer.

Jenifer with her owl creation. She said he looked sad and I said, no he looks sleepy which is good because then that will make the baby sleep and not a night owl-ha, ha!!!

The fabulous artists with their finished product!

The view from the doorway:

First off, sorry about all the weird alignment...blogger was being weird. Now to describe why it's not officially done. Well, we don't know if we're having a boy or a girl!!! Right now it looks more boyish, right? Well, if the baby is a girl then we'll be adding pink wings on the birds and the owl will get some painted pink toenails and some long girlie eyelashes. :)

The second inspiration pic had some frames above the crib which we were planning on doing and then adding pink prints if it was a girl or some blue prints for a boy. However, after seeing the mural done and the space of the room, we may not do that due to lack of wall space. We may do it on the wall opposite of the mural above the changing table but that can all be added later. The floor is hardwood so if it's a girl, we're going to get a pink rug and if it's a boy, we're going to have a darker blue rug (we have both pink and blue carpet in our basement right now to make that rug that we got for free-thanks Andy & Julie!).

I was a little worried about doing a mural because you know how you see things online and visualize in your head and then it turns out NOTHING like you expect? Yeah, I had that fear but I have to admit, I absolutely LOVE it especially the couple personal touches that we added. You can't tell in the pics but the trees aren't exactly straight but they were also painting on raised wallpaper so it bleed through a little with the tape. We decided to leave it and let it look more "natural" like tree bark rather than make ourselves crazy trying to straighten it all out! Once we clean up the room, and get the furniture in place, I'll do another post but needless to say, I think it's safe to say the nursery won't be done until AFTER Baby G arrives.

A huge thanks to my painters for their amazing work!!!



Let the Mural Begin!!!

...bright and early this morning, Matt headed out to his cousins' house to pick them up for a fun-filled day of painting! When they got back to the house, they feasted on pancakes, bacon and we tried out the deer sausage we made. It's almost noon and we're all still stuffed!

After breakfast, they got down to business:

Matt said it was like paint by number.

Katherine is the artist in the family and an art major so she's the boss!

I'm trying my best to stay out of the room but I'm so excited for the end product! Luckily, I'm about to go get my haircut and then heading to a bridal shower so hopefully it'll be done when I get back. I'll post the final pics later. 

"Change of Heart" by Jodi Picoult...

...I recently finished "Change of Heart" by Jodi Picoult. This was only my second Picoult book and I was pleasantly happy, read on for my review.

Summary: "One moment June Nealon was happily looking forward to years full of laughter and adventure with her family, and the next, she was staring into a future that was as empty as her heart. Now her life is a waiting game. Waiting for time to heal her wounds, waiting for justice. In short, waiting for a miracle to happen.

For Shay Bourne, life holds no more surprises. The world has given him nothing, and he has nothing to offer the world. In a heartbeat, though, something happens that changes everything for him. Now, he has one last chance for salvation, and it lies with June's eleven-year-old daughter, Claire. But between Shay and Claire stretches an ocean of bitter regrets, past crimes, and the rage of a mother who has lost her child."

Review: Shay has been convicted of the murder of June's daughter and husband. He's been given the death sentence. While on death row, he learns that June's other daughter, Claire, needs a heart transplant and he's made up his mind to donate his heart after he's executed. However, June must first accept his heart and his lawyer must fight for him to be able to die in a manner to still be able to donate his organs. When this becomes public and many other things that happen, many people begin to think he's the Messiah.

This book, as the other Picoult book I read, was written from many perspectives...June, Shay's priest, his lawyer, his neighbor in jail. I really enjoyed this book and I like the different perspectives because you don't get tired of the same person telling the story and you get to hear all sides. However, with so many different narrators, there was also a lot of side stories going on. When I tried to tell my mom about the book, especially how people think he's the Messiah, she said, "Wow! Seems like there's a lot going on," which there was! As with the other Picoult book I read, I felt like she spent a lot of time on what she felt was an important part of the story but in my mind, I was more interested in other areas that she didn't spend as much time discussing. There was supposed to be a big "twist" towards the end of the book but it was pretty obvious and hinted at throughout the book. Once the twist was brought out, not a lot happened with it either which I think was the point. I really enjoyed the book and couldn't wait to continue reading it. However, towards the end, I was just ready to get to the verdict and find out what was going to happen!

What is your favorite Jodi Picoult book?

Valentine's Day Recap...

...I hope you all had a great Valentine's Day whether you had someone to celebrate with or not, I hope you all felt loved! I know that I sure did. Here in STL, it snowed...a lot on Monday night. I had to work until 10pm and when I got home around 10:30, Matt was out pushing snow. I snuck the pups upstairs to keep me warm and fell asleep. Mattie got home around 3am and when I got up to let the doggies out, I was surprised to see this on the table:

As a real fat girl, I only noticed the card and chocolates. It wasn't until second glance that I realized the beautiful roses!

I headed to work after that and felt the love there when a couple of my part-time staff brought me MORE chocolate to snack on. Woohoo! After I got off work, I ran around to use some coupons and score some sweet baby wipes and diaper deals. When I got home, Mattie and I got ready and headed out to our annual trip to Shogun-mmm! I had Matt snap a belly shot before we left so I could show you all. So here is Baby G and I at 27 weeks:

After dinner, we came home for dessert. Get your head out of the gutter! I had stopped and picked up a s'more pizza from Papa Murphy's....mmm!!! Before we got home though, we stopped at the grocery store because you can't have s'more pizza without milk...and I also picked up some more wipes! I'm addicted to deals!!! Overall, it was a great Valentine's Day and crazy to think that next year, we'll have an almost 9 month old baby!



We Have a Crib!!!

...yes, the crib is put together minus a matteress but otherwise, we have a crib! This was Haley's old crib and it will turn into a toddler bed. I'm happy to say that we did this in less than an hour and we didn't even yell at each other! My job was just to hold the pieces while he screwed them in. Here is Matt deciding which side goes where:

Shad snuck up from downstairs so he came in to sniff around:

Woohoo-finished product!!!

You can't tell but the wall is painted a very light blue. His cousin is coming this weekend to paint the mural. Hopefully, he'll have the dresser together by then. It's coming together my friends!!!

Freezer FINALLY Full...in February!!!

...well, here it is mid-February (what!?! Where has the time gone???) and we FINALLY got Matt's deer (from November) all butchered and the freezer filled. I kept complaining long enough that he finally just did it! I hadn't bought meat at the store in forever and spending $10/week on ground beef was really screwing up my budget!

Normally, this process takes about 4-5 hours out at the farm but we also normally have 5 people working and are butchering two deer. This time around, it still probably took us 4-5 hours but it was only 3 people and one deer. Back in December, SIL came over one night to help. Her and DH cut everything off the bone. Then a couple Saturdays ago, she came over and helped us grind the meat into what I like to call "burger" AKA ground venison. Here is the start of the process, luckily, being pregnant, I didn't have to actually touch any raw meat, I was the wrapper:

This year, we tried something new since we were around civilization and better able to prepare. I bought a pork butt and we mixed it with some of the deer. Then we added some salt, pepper, rosemary and, umm....some other seasoning I can't remember. We mixed it all together in an effort to make breakfast sausage. I was very pleased with the end result of the whole process:

On the left is all the "burger" and on the right is all the steaks we cut out and the sausage that we made. This will definitely keep our tummies full until next November when deer season rolls around again. Thank you Mattie for getting us a deer and thanks SIL for helping us with this whole process!

A Post about the Puppies...

...I wanted to do a post with our plans of what we are going to do with Em Dog and Shad once the baby arrives. So let me recap our pups for you, explain our situation and then give you our reasoning. Here it goes...

First off, we have two LARGE dogs. Shadow, a 100 pound black lab and Emma, a 60 pound whatever you want her to be (seriously, everyone who sees her has an opinion what she is!). These two are like my children. Emma has been around longer than Matt. Notice, I say MY, not our. I'm the major dog lover in the family. I always grew up with large inside dogs; Matt grew up with large outside dogs. Being that Emma was around before Matt, there wasn't much discussion as to whether the dogs would be inside or out.

I love having them in the house especially when Matt is gone hunting or working late, they make me feel safe and ALWAYS make me feel loved. Sometimes I think they can read my emotions and feelings better than Matt! However, there is some drawbacks...they shed...a lot...year round. They also bark at every person, animal or strange sound that goes by the house. Plus our house is not huge, it's a one-story ranch and with large dogs, at times, we can all be walking on each other.

Shadow actually came from a home that had 2 small children. The little girl learned how to walk with him because she'd stand up and hold on to him until she was ready to take those first few steps. He's so funny because it's like he knows how to act around different people. If an adult comes to our house, he's a jumper but if my niece or a small child comes over then he's gentle...still in their face but just out of curiosity. My niece always spends a week with us each summer and Shad always sleeps in bed with her.

With Emma, children or adults, if you're a stranger then you're going to stay a stranger. Someone comes in the house, she barks and runs to the other room. If you stick around for awhile, she'll eventually come out and visit. She let's my niece pet her and lay with her but she's a momma's girl and would much rather be with me than anyone else (Matt is a close second).

As stated above, I'm also a HUGE dog lover! I refuse to be one of those moms that has a child and then the dogs get no attention. That's why I REALLY want new carpet in the basement so we can spend time with them in the evening (the carpet now is thin and gross and been there FOREVER). We kennel them during the day while at work and I do NOT want to keep them "locked up" (meaning not in their cage but still just in the basement with no contact) all night too.

So our decision to move the dogs downstairs to our basement was a reluctant one on my part but a no brainer to Matt. I know it'll make Matt happier and I know it's best for the baby with the dog hair and noise plus it'll hopefully keep our upstairs (where people actually see!) cleaner which is good since I know having a baby limits your time to do daily tasks like vacuuming, dusting, etc...

I also want our baby to grow up with dogs and have that love for dogs, the friendship (I know that sounds silly but those of you with pups know what I mean), and not fearing dogs. I also wanted to transition the dogs before the babies get here so they don't resent the baby if we did it when s/he arrives. I have a feeling that Baby G and I will be spending most of my maternity leave downstairs with the pups (it's SOOO much cooler there in the basement) or taking walks with them (one at a time!) if the weather permits (MO summers get pretty toasty!).

I really didn't do any research on this topic. I wasn't told to seperate the dogs or anything. Matt and I just made the best decision for our family. It was more or less based off how we know our puppies and their behavior. I think every family has to make the right decision for their family and you're the one that knows your pets best.

Now before you go feeling sorry for the dogs, as I type this post, Shadow is sprawled out over the couch in the basement while Emma is curled up next to him!