The end is near

The first quadrant is done! 12 squares by 12 squares sewn together and pressed. I am so excited! I needed to get this together to motivate me to finish up the last of it (21 by 21 squares) and it is working. My goal is to have it done by the end of next week, before we head out to see my parents in Michigan after Easter. I have also gotten the sashing material for the quilt top I made over the retreat, so hopefully that will get cut and sewn on over this weekend too. :)

But of course, we are making sure to spend lots of time out in the sun and getting some exercise.

And watching for the first daffodil to bloom...almost here!

Art for Timothy

I found these awesome Eric Carle alphabet flash cards last year while we were still living in St. Louis and knew that I wanted to hang them on the wall. When we moved here, the nursery was just too small and I had other things to hang up anyway. Now that we have been working on his new room, I thought they would be perfect. I am still thinking of adding 3" letters next hanging off next to each card...unfortunately the letters on the cards are on the opposite side.

We also found these awesome stickers at Menards that are different color circles and the border on the wall was born...5 packs of stickers later. :)

A couple of months after finding the alphabet letters, we found matching number flash cards...

Alert : Cute baby clothes

Over the weekend, Jared and I went out to Spearfish to getaway from the home renovations and Lent and to do some shopping, doctor appointments, and see family. This post is dedicated to just one specific part of the shopping...baby clothes! :) We forgot the camera or I would also have posts of Timothy playing with his cousin Cole and entertaining the entire dinner table with his antics...

Anyway, my mother-in-law and I spent some time on Friday hitting a couple of consignment shops and a garage sale on Saturday. We completely outfitted the baby for the entire summer, plus a few older outfits, for about $40. We also have a couple of sets of pj's, a couple of onesies, and a cute 4th of July outfit that we already picked up through various sources. I also know there are gender neutral clothing (especially pajamas) in the basement, I just need to dig out the buckets and go through them.

I think we did very well. :)

5 one piece dresses, 2 hats, 5 onesies, and a pair of shorts

2 two-piece outfits, 3 dresses with matching bottoms, a pair of capris, a tank top onesie, and a pair of pajamas

Clothes for later: leggings and hoodie, 2 tanks for next year, a dress and sweater, and another pair of pajamas

forget the pan...

going for the kitty

all done!

The dresser was finished up today with the help of 75 degree weather! It spent a good part of the morning and most of the afternoon out in the sun getting a couple of coats of varnish and some new hardware. I put some fresh contact paper in the drawers and she is officially ready to go.

before

after

Of course the room she is going to sit in isn't ready, but it will be soon. Jared also got some good sanding in on the drywall repairs and is currently painting the ceiling. Tomorrow he is hoping to get a good coat on the walls. I am hoping by next weekend I will be posting some finished pictures of that as well. My pantry was finished last night, so projects are really cruising to completion around here. I wish I could say the same to my star quilt...half way done!

Don't get me wrong...once the guest room/office is finished, we will get that furniture all moved in and settled and then work on the old guest room will begin to transform it into Timothy's new room. And then when we get that done, we are going to freshen up the nursery before the baby gets here. And there is a closet in the living room that is going to get a set of shelves. And when I am saying "we" in conjunction with all of these projects, it really means Jared does most of the work and I come in to fluff it up at the end. :)

I guess that is one of the bonuses for being pregnant during home improvement projects...

Speaking of which, we went to Sioux Falls yesterday to meet with Timothy's pediatric cardiologist about his little sister. If an older sibling was born with a heart defect then the hospital has a standard procedure to check during any pregnancy to see if there are any issues. So we experienced our first fetal echocardiogram, which is pretty cool to think that they could look at our baby's heart while still in the womb with just ultrasound equipment. The conclusion is that her heart looks perfectly developed and we should have no concern. Yay!

Jared posing just like Norm Abram :)

Working away

I am so glad that my husband has something to work on that isn't church related. It is even better that he has SEVERAL projects going on that help him relax and get away from the office for a little bit. And we get to benefit from his hard work too! :)

Tonight started with a little bit of last minute sanding in the pantry.

And then the paint went up!

I am hoping tomorrow or Saturday the baseboards will go in with our shelving units so that I can unpack my pantry into its new location! We have appointments early in Sioux Falls tomorrow, so we will see how the carpenter is feeling after 6 hours of driving with an early morning to boot...

Then, he went to just finish up sanding the dresser in the basement (a project he started late last summer) and he ending up putting the stain on it! I am really looking forward to taking the final pictures of it because it is just beautiful. You can definitely tell that it is an old dresser, with a couple of deep scratches and all, but once he got the old, sticky stain off of it and gave it a good sanding, the grain has really popped with the stain. I'll take some better pictures when it is done and in natural lighting so I can hopefully capture its beauty...a little hard to do at night, in the basement.

Eeee!!! I am just so proud of the work Jared has put into it. I think the plan is to put a couple of coats of satin poly on it and some fresh knobs to finish it off. I am thinking that it will end up as a side table in the new guest room and have space in it for guests to use and a couple of drawers for my sewing supplies since that will also be the sewing room and home office. Not too bad for paying only a penny for it at a garage sale. :) Hopefully those pictures will be coming soon!

15 months

I still can't believe that you are one year old already and that was three months ago!

Mommy and Daddy love you lots!

Discovery/sensory bottles

I have recently come across several websites and blogs dedicated to keeping young children busy and learning all at the same time (thanks to pinterest and my sister-in-law Michelle). :) So I decided to make a few things for Timothy to play with that would be fun and we could work on his fine motor skills.

The first thing I made was a set of discovery/sensory bottles. I used this website for my "recipes" and am really happy with how they turned out. I took the advice of the blogger and used gatorade bottles because they are a heavier plastic. I have also hot glued them all shut and will wrap the lids in electrical tape too, I just need to go to the hardware store and pick some up. Timothy has experienced most of them and has been shaking, rolling, and observing them up close. Success! :)

L to R:

buttons in water and light corn syrup...the syrup slows the buttons down and they float

half colored water and half veggie oil. Makes awesome waves!

pipe cleaner pieces...wave a magnet along the bottle and it picks up the pieces inside.

toothpicks and rice...sounds like rain!

L to R:

bubble bottle...colored water and a few drops of dish soap.

water and yarn...simple, but very cool.

pom poms...thats it! It makes a quiet shaker to go with the rain bottle above.

hair gel with sequins and glitter...I think I may have to use a looser gel, it doesn't move like I was expecting it to.

Another post will come next week with some more of our new toys. :)

24 weeks!

For all you asking for a bump picture:

I am feeling great, other than just being tired now and then, and everything is going well. We have ultrasound pictures to post, but our scanner is not working right now, so hopefully we can get those up soon.

We have another ultrasound scheduled for this coming Friday in Sioux Falls so they can make sure everything is okay with her heart. (It is standard procedure apparently when a sibling has a heart defect) We are looking forward to seeing her again and experiencing a fetal echocardiogram with the same cardiologist that Timothy sees. Then I see my doctor here in town and Timothy gets his 15 month check-up the week after. Time is flying!

Quilting Retreat

While the boys were having fun in construction land, the girls were busy in sewing world. Friday night my mother-in-law, Kris, and I headed to my quilters' guild annual retreat at a local hunting lodge. I was quite amused over the tables of women quilting and scrapbooking and just overhead hung all kinds of taxidermic animals too numerous to count. I even took a picture with my phone, but I must not have saved it because I can't find it...so you'll just have to use your imagination. Make sure to include two mountain goats launching themselves out of the top of a huge, stone fireplace, okay? :)

Anyway, Kris was amazing and while I sat at my machine sewing pieces, she ironed all of my seams and lined up the pieces on the table for me. I was really flying through my quilt! We also chatted with the other ladies and generally had a good time.

Saturday Kris stayed with Timothy so that I could go and spend the day sewing. I was able to finish all 16 squares for my hourglass quilt and put them all together. Now all I need is a field trip to Rapid City to pick out my border, binding, and backing fabrics...

I was also able to crank out a couple of these diaper changing pads for my sister and I. (another pinterest project that was free because the fabric was in my stash!) I have a heavy canvas on the outside and a lightweight flannel on the inside and I am happy with how they turned out. The pattern is here.

After coming home for dinner to check out the project at home and have dinner with Jared's parents before they took off, I went back for a little longer and cranked out 15 more stars for my wonky star quilt! 35 done, 62 to go....

Making a mess, part 2

Here is the construction update from this past weekend at our house. Jared's parents came over for the weekend and in the span of two days, the men accomplished everything they planned to convert 2 small rooms back into one larger room with a pantry in the corner.

Friday:

Move the washer and dryer downstairs. This included rewiring for the dryer and adding the venting back in.

Knock down wall.

Switch the door off of the kitchen to swing out instead of swinging in.

Frame in pantry.

Drywall pantry.

Install light in the pantry. This was the laundry room light that they moved over about 4 feet.

Move electrical outlet from the center of the wall they took down to the new pantry wall (facing into the bedroom/office).

Saturday:

Install cat door into the basement door. Move kitty litter and food downstairs. Yay!

Repair a couple of holes in the wall with drywall.

Fill in where the dryer vent was.

Tape and first coat of drywall mud on all of the seams.

Go out for dinner.

What a job! Timothy, in the meantime, watched with lots of concern and curiosity and played with grandma. :)

I spent Saturday at a quilting retreat. More on that in a later post. :) Great job boys!

Making a mess

I thought you might enjoy these photos of Timothy eating/playing with chocolate pudding. I particularly enjoyed how he licked his lips clean, but left all of the pudding around his lips intact. :)