Little Miss A Meets Mr. K

As many of my readers know, there's only been one thing that has caused me great anxiety over the past couple months of my pregnancy, and that is how A is going to react to having K around. Getting used to a bump on mommy's belly is much different than getting used to a new baby brother. At least, in my experience, that's been the case. I remember when my baby brother was born - I was not a happy customer.  And I didn't want that to be the case with A and K. I recently had several friends have their second child, and I was loving all the loving sibling pictures popping up on Facebook of the big brother or sister giving sweet kisses to the new baby. That's what I wanted.

K was born on Sunday morning, and A was coming by to meet him after going to church with her grandparents. All day, I was wondering if she was going to know who he was and how she was going to react. Thus, I could not have been more thrilled when she walked into the room, pointed to the little baby bundle sitting on my lap and squealed "baby Ky-Ky!" After running around and giving everyone else there hugs and kisses, she crawled right up into my lap to explore what this new baby looked like. She very gingerly patted his head, saying, "Nice baby. Good baby." And then, a moment I will never forget that still brings tears to my eyes; she leaned over, kissed his sleepy head and whispered, "lub you, baby Ky-Ky. Night-night."

A few days later, we were letting her touch him for the first time other than the occasional pat on the head. She was gingerly running her little toddler fingers over his mostly nonexistent eyebrows, chubby little cheeks and perfect little mouth. With each facial feature, she said "eyes, cheeks, 'leetle mouf'" etc. But when she got to his nose, she reached out, pinched it and said "BEEP BEEP!" and giggled. I laughed so hard; K was not so much impressed with getting his nose BEEP'ed. We gently informed her between giggles that baby Ky-Ky was not quite old enough to get his nose BEEP'ed because it was a "big girl" thing, and he needed to get a little bit older. She hasn't done it again since, but judging by the look on her face when she's talking to him, she is definitely thinking about it. I'm sure it's only the first of many times she'll annoy him and thus, entertain us to no end.

Now, every time she walks in the door, wakes up from a nap or just feels like making her presence known, she announces, "Mommy, Daddy - I here! Hi, baby Ky-Ky!" At night, when she's giving everyone kisses, she won't go to her room till she's kissed his little head and said, "Night-night, baby Ky-ky. I lub you." Sometimes she'll end with "see dweems" (sweet dreams) or "be good." She never ceases to amaze me with her cuteness and sweetness. I'm sure all this sibling love won't last forever, but I'm certainly enjoying how this has been going so far. I can't wait to see all the new things she's going to teach him :)

TA-DA! He's here! :)

"Hi, bebe! Hi!"

First ever family photo of all 4 of us :)

The Arrival of Mr. K

As many of you may (or may not, who knows?) already know, the long-awaited Mr. K has made his appearance on this earth. His arrival was quite unexpected and quick, so we've needed a couple extra days to settle in and get things done than I had previously planned on, but I'm finally getting the chance to sit down and blog. I'll keep the gruesome details to a minimum... ok, so it really wasn't that gruesome. In fact, things went incredibly smooth, all things considering. I mean, it is labor... I don't think anyone actually enjoys the experience. But really, things couldn't have gone better.

So here's Mr. K's birth story.... We were hanging out with J's brother and sister-in-law on Saturday night. We were going to have one last bonfire before the weather got too cold, drink cider and eat caramel apples. My mom and I had recently spent hours cleaning out and unpacking our basement, so I decided to show off all our hard work to my sister-in-law. While we were standing in admiring the fact that we could see the floor, my water broke. This caught me totally off guard, since with A, my water didn't break until about 1/2 hour before she was born. I ran up to the bathroom to confirm that this was indeed what had happened, and make sure I wasn't actually suffering from acute and severe incontinence. Not surprisingly, it was the former. 

I'm very thankful that our family happened to be there, because it really helped to have someone entertain A while we got everything packed up and ready to go. At this point, we were quite certain we would not be coming back without our 4th member of the family. We had already made arrangements for A to go to my in-laws when I went into labor, and she was dancing all over the house in excitement about heading to Grandma and Papa's house so late at night. All the way over to their house, she was wanting to see a "choo-choo train," and I was praying rather hard, for the first time ever, that she not get her heart's desire. Fortunately, we got her dropped off and to the hospital at about 8:30 pm without any train delays. 

The next few hours are rather boring... I checked into triage, they confirmed I was in fact in active labor, they blessed me with the modern miracle of an epidural, my parents arrived and... we waited. A lot. Everyone else slept at some point during the night, but the epidural had made me so itchy that I couldn't relax. And I was very excited about getting to meet my baby boy. The waiting is the hardest part. You feel like you've been waiting for 9 months, and then you're just sitting there, waiting again, knowing the end is so close and you're going to get to meet your little one so soon. Each hour feels like an extra trimester. 

Finally, at about 6am it was time to push. Again, no gruesome details, but you know how it goes. The nurses kept trying to get me to wait to push because my Dr wasn't there yet (she was delivering a baby in the next room over,) but I knew he was getting impatient and was going to come ASAP. Sure enough, after only 15 minutes of pushing, at 6:32 am, Kylar Joshua Wardell was born. He's a lil' dude - 6 lbs. 8 oz. (the same exact weight as his big sister!) and either 20.5 or 19 inches long... the hospital and pediatrician disagreed, so we'll stick with 20.5 for now, since that's official. Either way, he's perfect. I couldn't be more blessed with a beautiful, healthy baby boy.

Mr. K was able to meet most of his in-state family that day, including his big sister, but that's another post all together. Here are some of the pictures from one of the best days of my life :)

First picture on the outside :) Such a calm little boy!

Daddy holding his little man for the first time <3

First family picture (minus A-bug.) I love how
he's peering over the blanket here.

Snuggling with my boy. And
sleeping... one of the only times lol.

Kylar's Nursery Pictures.... Almost Done!

I can't believe we're almost done with Kylar's nursery. There were days right after we moved in when I would see the gigantic holes in the walls and the nasty floor and think, "This is never going to happen." But now, after hours and hours of hard work from countless friends who helped mud over the holes and paint over the nasty color, from my hubby and daddy who installed the gorgeous floor and my father-in-law who worked on the trim and sub-flooring .... after all that, it's finally looking like the picture I had in my mind.

All we have left to do is install his shelves, hang up the wall art and get the curtains up. His dresser is full of his newborn-sized clothing, his closet is also full of toys and clothes and his crib is all ready with bumper pads and sheets. I can't wait for this little guy to make his appearance :)

I'm waiting on the cushion for the rocker, still. It was out of
stock when I picked up the chair. As you can see, the curtain
rod is up, but it was the wrong size, so my mom is making a
new one out of a difference branch (Pinterest idea here!) so
I'm waiting to put the curtains up.

All of Kylar's little froggies I've been collecting since we found
out we were having a boy. I really love the eclectic look of them :)

This was Aria's wooden dresser that we re-painted and
added new nobs to. I love the way it turned out. I also
love the way the bright green rug looks with the dark floors :)

Let's not forget what it looked like before.... and this was
AFTER all the holes had been patched! lol

My inspiration picture.... not bad, if I say so myself! :)

Kylar's Nursery Project: Painted Stripes

A lot of the ideas I used for the kid's rooms in the new house came from Pinterest - I claim no originality. I really loved the clean, simple, calmness that gray stripes on a white wall provided, so I wanted to give it a shot on a couple walls for K's nursery. Here was my inspiration picture: 

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I loved how the walls remained neutral, and the pops of color came from the curtains and rug. I also loved the animal accents, but wanted to stick with a single animal. I chose frogs; they seemed like a great baby boy theme that he could also grow into as he got older. As you could see in my last post, it also made for a very cute shower theme :) I decided to keep all the furniture neutral as well with a white metal crib, a white wood changing table/dresser combo and a black chair. I'm still looking for another smaller side table to go next to the chair. At the time I'm writing this, the dresser is not completely re-assembled, so I don't have a completely updated picture. When we're done setting everything up, I'll post one. 

For this post, I just wanted to do a step by step of the painted gray stripes. If you've read any of my other posts, you know that all our walls had to painted about 5 times to get a decent starting surface. We used Kilz primer and Olympic Premium Ultra-White Zero-VOC paint, which I loved working with. The bright white gave it an extra clean feeling, which I was striving for.  

Painting one of the many coats of white onto the walls.

Next, came all the taping. This was the tricky part. I wanted exactly 12" stripes on the walls, so I had to be very careful how I taped everything off. When doing this, you need to measure 12" from inside the tape for the colored stripes, but only 10" from inside the tape for the white stripes if you're using 1" painter's tape. If you're using a different width for whatever reason, you'll have to take the extra width into account. This will make your stripes not look even when you're done taping, but the end result will be even.

I will also say that you should use either a ruler that's exactly 12" or a yardstick to measure the stripes. You'll also want to measure several times down the wall, not just at the top and bottom, or your stripes will most likely bow. This will be incredibly obvious after painting and even more difficult to fix. 

Next is a step I didn't actually do in this room, but I did in A's room, and I wished I had done it in K's as well. If you take your white (or base color of your choice) and paint the edges of your tape, it will keep the accent color from leaking under your tape. Because, let's face it, even the best painter's tape is going to leak through. We didn't have any major leaks that are in obvious places, but A's room's stripes ended up a lot cleaner. 

My wonderful hubby reaching the tops of the stripes.
I couldn't climb up the stool anymore with my
swollen ankles :) I also HIGHLY recommend this
paint pad kind of thing over a roller for this project.
Sorry I don't have a more specific name for it, but
you can get them at any major HI store.

Finally, don't wait too long to pull off the tape; you'll run the risk of peeling the paint off with the tape. I pulled the tape off the morning after I finished the touch-ups, and didn't have any peeling issues whatsoever. I really love the way it turned out :) Here's a pic in the daylight with the crib, and one with the trim I picked out as well as the finished laminate floors, which I LOVE. The lime green material in the first pic is going to be the curtains. Like I said, more pics will be uploaded as I finish putting everything together. 

My mom found this fabulous crib at
a garage sale for only $15. I'm thrilled :)

If you love this flooring as much as I
do, you can get it at Lowe's. The brand
is Swiftlock Plus. (The "plus" is very
important, I have been told.)
It's part of their in-stock inventory, and it's
called Hand Scraped Chestnut Hickory.

Baby Shower for Kylar

I will say up front that I can take exactly zero credit for all the adorable ideas and decorations that were at Kylar's shower. I have some truly wonderful friends who did a ton of work, and it was an adorable shower. I just wanted to post some pictures and give these wonderful people some credit. 

The adorable diaper cake made by Sarah

I loved these centerpieces, and the yummy candy in
 the cute little boxes was definitely a bonus :)

The cupcakes were beautiful AND yummy!
Thanks to Kara B for these :)

Katie made these adorable candle holders

I still don't know who did this, but if it was
you, please take credit. It's too cute to be anonymous.

I loved how even the punch was green.
All the green looked awesome with the
gray tablecloths. 

The food was straight up delicious.
Thanks to Carolyn A for the awesome
baked potato bar, AMAZING chili
and all the extras!

My amazing friends and family who planned this party:
Allie W, Me, Kara B, Katie S
(also thanks to Kristen J and Sand J, who sadly didn't make the picture)

Kylar's Nursery Inspiration

I'm so excited about decorating another nursery, you have no idea! I have spent literally hours on Pinterest and other idea boards to get inspiration for Kylar's room. Right now, I think we're going to do white and bright gray stripes, green accents and frogs. There are so many great color combinations out there for baby rooms, it was hard to pick just one, but I figured this one won't look so "baby-ish" quite so soon, and what little boy doesn't love frogs? 

So here are some of the pictures I'm using as inspiration for his room. I can't wait to move and get started on decorating it!

 I really love this bed set, just wish it had
less brown and more gray.
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I would love to do this but with spray-painted
gray frames and different sized green letters.
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I really want to make this pillow, I just
have ZERO sewing skills. Mom?
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I strongly desire this rocker.
How cute is it?!
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This is the idea behind the stripes and
color accents.
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I'm thinking dark gray letter K with
light gray dragonflies instead of brown.
(ps - this lady has more awesome vinyls on her Etsy)
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Family and some maternity shots

Time for a Boy! (Gender Reveal Party)

I realized that it's been so long since I updated, that I hadn't even posted that we are having a BOY in October! We found out right at 18 weeks, but held out on telling anyone till about a week later, when we told family and close friends at a small gender reveal party. I guess it wasn't a huge surprise, since everyone had been hoping for a boy and I had previously mentioned that my motherly instincts told me it was a boy. I don't think anyone was disappointed - I know Josh certainly isn't! :)

The blue cheesecake filling for the chocolate cupcakes
(recipe available for those who want it.)

My blue toenails :)

Party favors! Courtesy of  a Pinterest idea.

Can't wait to love on the little guy going to wear this onesie <3

Aria was more interested in her new sand box at Grandma's house

Pink and blue white-chocolate-covered strawberries :)

Pretty covered pretzels, thanks to my mom

Mimi and Grandma were very excited about having a grandson