Avery's First Day of Preschool

So I have been kind of a spaz about preschool. For some reason it has been a hard decision for me as far as if I should send her or not. I don't feel like I need to send her so she'll have a "leg up" in kindergarten. But at the same time I feel like it would benefit her socially since she's so shy. Another struggle I had was just missing that time with her. I know kindergarten will be here before I know it and time with her at home is fleeting and I selfishly want to enjoy it as much as I can. But with Arden coming, I figured I would turn into a hermit for a while after she's born and I didn't feel like that would be fair to Avery. She is used to us getting out a lot, running errands, doing play dates, etc.

We are already doing Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) one day a week (which I have LOVED and highly recommend), so she goes to the children's program there for two hours on Wednesdays, and all the preschools in my area are at minimum two days a week. So that would be three days a week where we would have to be somewhere and that just seemed like too much. To make a long story really short, one preschool would allow you to split the two days with someone if you found the other person and Avery's friend Abigail's mom felt the same way I did so that's exactly what we were able to do! But instead of them going on separate days, they had more openings for some reason on Mondays, so both the girls are going that day. 

So anyway that LONG explanation is to say she is going to preschool ONE day a week from 9:30-2. I feel good about it and feel like it was a good compromise as far as my struggle with it was concerned. 

She has been SUPER excited about it. We bought her a nap mat and she has wanted to sleep on it for days. (I put it on her bed when she's actually sleeping, not on the floor haha.) Also did anyone notice the dog hair in the background?? Don't judge. I literally vacuum daily but when you have a wolf-like dog, it's really a losing battle. 

We went to Meet the Teacher last week and she didn't want to leave the classroom but wanted to stay and play, so I have been feeling confident and at peace with the decision.

Here are her first day of school pictures (ahh can't believe I'm taking these!) -

I had her do an "interview." Not sure if you can tell, but she was super pumped her friend Abigail was in her class.

Oh and yes she is in the 3 year old class. That is another decision that has been hard for me. The "official" cut off is Sept. 1 (and she didn't turn 3 until the 7th), but preschools are more lax and let me put her in the 3 year old class rather than the 2 year old. After all, she WAS 3 when school started, very verbal and potty trained so I just felt like it would be the best fit. But now I'm a little worried because she will HAVE to wait to start kindergarten because schools ARE very strict on the Sept. 1 cut off (plus I would rather her be a little older when she starts school anyway). So that means if she continues, the year before she starts kindergarten her only option with preschool is to do the kindergarten program, which is 4 days a week, and I just don't really want her gone that much. I guess I don't have to worry about it now and could always have her repeat either 3 or 4 year old preschool. 

Disclaimer: When I was a teacher I told myself I would not be one of "those" parents but as I read back over what I am writing, I totally am one! BUT this is her FIRST time to go to school and she is my first kid so I get a little break right?? If I'm still spazzing like this when she's in 4th grade, someone stage an intervention for me. 

More Pallet Art

Thanks to my dad and father in law, who both gave me pallets, and my neighbor who tore his fence down and gave me access to as much wood as I wanted, I have had plenty of supplies for making pallet art! So that's exactly what I've done...

First, I have definitely needed some decor for the playroom upstairs. We've been here for over a year and I have had NOTHING on the walls. I guess I've just been too focused on downstairs. First I used one piece of wood and made these little guys with the girls' names on each one to display their work. As much as I LOVE Avery's artwork, my fridge can only take so much.

I made another one with Arden's name on it, but obviously she hasn't contributed any work yet :)

There was still one wall that needed something. I like using just a part of a Bible verse. Since I hand-paint the lettering, the fewer words, the better. I can foresee sisters fighting so I thought this phrase was perfect from John 13:34. I am a perfectionist and always critique my work, so if I was to do it over again, I would have done probably one or two less pennants.

Speaking of pennants, I'm kind of obsessed with decorating with them. I've used them on a few things so I should probably stop so it's not overkill. But they're all in different rooms so that's ok right?? For these I just used scrapbook paper.

Since I made Arden a sign for her room, I figured Avery needed one as well. I'll be honest - this one was a beating. I originally did it in antique white with black lettering, but it seemed too harsh so I primed it and started over. Her room is white, pink, and green, so I feel like these colors went a lot better. I chose this phrase from Proverbs 31:25. I love both of the verses in the girls' rooms and pray they become a reality in their lives.

Just a reminder this is the one in Arden's room -

And finally the last one. I am done after this because I think I am pushing the limits on how many of these are appropriate for one household. We have had a spot in our master bath that has needed something since we moved in. I chose this phrase from Psalm 118:24. I am not a morning person. I don't know how to emphasize that more. But when you become a parent, you have no choice. So when I am woken up in the morning, I am not happy about starting the day. I thought having this verse would be a good reminder that each day is a gift from God. I'm usually still bitter until I've had my coffee but I'm working on it...

Arden's Nursery

Arden's room is a little narrow, so I wasn't able to really get a picture of the "whole room," but I tried to take pictures of as much of it as I could. The lighting was not good (I just cannot take good pictures indoors), so I tried to edit the photos which sort of makes the colors seem to not match, but I used the exact blue and pink paint on everything so it really does all match, I promise!

I'll start with my favorite. I made this sign out of wood pallets. I just love the verse and pray that it is a constant reminder to her to let herself be defined by God and not by the world's standards. I know as a girl it's tough to compare yourself and not feel as pretty as someone else but I just hope that she finds her identity in the One who created her.

These letters are above her bed. I did the same thing in Avery's room. I bought the unfinished letters at Hobby Lobby, painted them, then hung them with ribbon. 

I searched for nursery bedding for her, but couldn't find any I liked as well as the bedding we used for Avery. I just LOVE it! So maybe that's not the "cool" thing to do, but I reused it. After all, Avery's not using it anymore since she has her big girl bed. It has so many different colors in it, so I just decided to pull out the blue and pink instead of the green and pink that I used for Avery. Full disclosure - I really wanted to get the same bedding for Avery's big girl bed but I figured I should stop myself at some point. It is the Hayley bedding from pottery barn kids. 

I used an old window pane as decor above the dresser. I got the window pane in Canton and painted it blue. I also made the banner to go over it.

Side note - if you are going to paint several items like I did, the best thing to do is go to Sherwin Williams and get a sample. They're cheap and even though I painted a bunch, I've barely used any. I would have had to buy several bottles of craft paint to do the same thing. 

For her trash can, I bought an unfinished wood one at Hobby Lobby and painted it. 

Then of course I had to make a wreath for her! 

Lastly, the curtain. It was my one big splurge. But hey I figured since I made pretty much everything and reused the bedding and crib I could splurge on one thing right?? For Avery we got blackout curtains from pottery barn kids and they were worth every penny. Rustin likes them because of the cost savings from blocking the sun, and I like them because I can make her room SUPER dark for nap time. And let's be honest, nap time is sacred. So anyway I had my heart set on this certain curtain at pbk. It was one of those things I didn't figure we had to have right away so I was going to wait on it. Well when I went to order it, I only saw the white one (and I wanted pink). I talked to an associate and they told me the pink one had been "discontinued and was no longer available online or in stores." I was so mad!! So I scour the internet and find the exact curtain on eBay. It was the only listing for it and I immediately snatched it up. My mom and dad ended up getting that for Arden. I couldn't get the lighting right so the picture's not that great, but here are some of the curtain -

I am really happy with it. It is a very heavy duty curtain, and that window faces east so I needed something to really block the morning sun. Because - can you really put a price on a few extra hours of sleep??

I should also give credit to Rustin. He painted her entire room by himself and did a great job! We used Macadamia by Sherwin Williams.

I hope she likes her room, and we can't wait to bring her home to it!

Herb Garden

I have high hopes of one day "going green." I look enviously at the people who grow most of what they eat and make all their own everything - laundry soap, etc. I always think about it but when it comes down to it, it's just so much easier for me to run and grab whatever I need at the grocery store. Maybe one day when the kiddos are older...

But I would really like to at least have a small garden at some point, but you have to start somewhere so I decided to just do a herb garden in mason jars. Of course I couldn't just use plain mason jars, so I planned to paint them.

All the tutorials I found on Pinterest called for chalk paint. Although I love the whole "chalk paint" thing that's popular right now, I do not like the price. So I found some tutorials on how to make your own chalk paint. The only problem was the "recipes" made a TON so I had to scale it down quite a bit. So I don't know if something got lost in my math or what, but it did NOT turn out well.

Then a friend of mine told me she just used acrylic paint - two coats and sand at the end - so I thought I'd give it a try. It turned out great! I have a chalk paint mason jar I bought in Canton a while back and I can't tell the difference between that one and the acrylic ones I did.

Next I got chalkboard stickers at Hobby Lobby and tied twine around the top. The mason jars are done, but not sure if anything will grow. If nothing else, they make for cute, cheap decor!

"Antiquing" in Wichita Falls

I had to have a "talk" with my mom about not telling me about the cool antique shops downtown :) I had no idea they were down there! I don't like antique stores that sell actual antiques that are super expensive. I like shabby chic/vintage "junk" and there were several stores with exactly that. My favorite was Alley Cat Vintage Mercantile. There was a TON of stuff there! I thought I would have to come back to be able to look at everything since I didn't think Avery could make it that long, but they have three cats that live in the store so she had a blast walking around trying to find them and petting them. I didn't end up getting anything there but plan to make it a regular stop when I'm in town.

We ventured down a few doors to another store. Avery found a stuffed Simba that my mom got her (and has not let out of her sight since), and I found another copy of As You Like It for $1. (I explained why I'm collecting these for Arden in this post.) 

At a different store I found an old Baptist Hymnal for $1 which was exactly what I needed for my project...

I bought this at another store in WF - Aint That Shabby for $10.

I knew it needed something and thought a pennant banner would be perfect. I was going to use just old book pages, but when I found the hymnal, I liked that idea even better. I went through and picked out pages of my favorite hymns to use for the pennants and made the banner.

I still had the rest of the hymnal though so I decided to tear the cover off and make a book stack. I got this idea from a friend from church. She explains the how-to on her blog.

I'm excited about my purchases and am glad I am getting some projects done because I know in about two months I will be out of commission for a while!

The Name #2

For all of you who are reading this in a hurry and don't want the back story, I'll go ahead and spill. The name we decided on is Arden Grace Andrews. 

Now for those of you, like me, who are nosy and want to know more I'll tell you how we came up with the name in probably WAY too much detail. First of all it was so...stinkin'....hard this time. We had the same issues we had with naming Avery, which I wrote about here, along with many others.

First of all, I realized I just like boy names better. There are very few girl names I like. Which I guess is part of the reason I tend to lean toward unisex names (Avery's first and middle are unisex). I also love the idea of last names as first names. Almost all of the boy names I liked were "last names."

So anyway compounded with only liking a few names, Rustin didn't like those same few names, and I didn't like the few names he liked!

Another problem with naming kids is technology. First Facebook - before Facebook I would have no idea what the people I haven't talked to since high school named their kids, but now, because of it, I know what (seemingly) every person I have ever talked to in my life named their kids. So when you're trying to pick a unique name and you know three people who already used it (even if you're not in contact with them) it sort of ruins it. So we have that problem not only with my circle of friends, but also Rustin's.

Then there's google. For example, one of our names was Addison Andrews. Upon googling it, I found a porn star convicted of murder, a penthouse model, and a girl's Facebook profile which listed her job at some strip club.

So to say our choices were limited is an understatement. Oh and we weren't tied to the idea of sticking with an A, but that just happened to be what all the girl names we liked started with. (None of the boy names I liked started with an A, so if she would have been a boy we wouldn't have stuck with it.)

So on to Arden... The first time I heard the name was at church when the pastor used this article in his sermon. I just really liked the name. It was always my front runner.

I like it because it is unique and not too "girly" (like I said, I like unisex names). Apparently it was a popular boy name in the early 1900s. And I wish I could say that I was such a literature buff that I already knew this, but I found it out during research. In Shakespeare's play As You Like It, the setting is the Forest of Arden, which is rumored to be named after his mother - Mary Arden. (See - love last name first names.) It was also a real forest in England. I thought it would be cool to collect vintage copies of the book for her. So far I have one. If any of you garage-salers stumble across it, pick one up for me!

Ok as if I haven't rambled enough, I'll move on to the middle name which was almost as hard as the first name. I really wanted a classic, girly middle name to complement her first name. Rustin wanted it to be one syllable, and neither of us wanted it to start with an A. So in case you haven't looked into it I'll tell you, there's not that many girl names that are just one syllable.

Grace has always been my top pick and was what we were going between for Avery's middle name. Rustin liked it but then started hearing it "everywhere" (two people) and was worried it was too common. After months of trying to figure it out (the same agonizing way we did the first name) we finally landed on Grace. I love its' classic feel (I used to love Grace Kelly) and also, most importantly, the biblical significance of God's amazing grace.

We can't wait to meet you, Arden Grace!

My {Tentative} Birth Plan

So I wasn't really that happy with how things went during Avery's birth. I wrote about some of it on this post but there was some I left out. It was just incredibly uncomfortable laboring at the hospital. They had me hooked up to machines to monitor Avery's heartbeat. Well whenever I would roll over on my side to sleep, right when I would drift off they would come in and wake me up because the machines couldn't pick up her heartbeat. So I didn't sleep at all that night. Plus they wouldn't let me eat anything and then pumped me full of pain meds (because they wouldn't check me to see if I was ready for my epidural, which I clearly was). Needless to say after not eating for almost 24 hours, getting medicine in my system I don't react to well anyway, and then oh yeah - BIRTHING A CHILD - I felt horrible!

Brutal honesty here - before I had her I sort of judged the moms who wanted to go all natural. First of all, all of them who I knew who said they were going to ended up getting an epidural anyway. Plus it seemed like they toted it like some badge of honor, but it's not like my husband goes to the dentist and gets a root canal without anesthesia. It just seemed like they wanted to be able to say they did it and for the life of me, I didn't see how that was worth it.

Ok ok if you're mad at me, this is the part where I eat my words. After having Avery I totally get why someone would want to go natural. So I actually thought about having her at a birthing center. Well that ended quickly when I found out insurance wouldn't cover ANY it. I can't say I'm to the point where I think I can go natural this time (although I pretty much did - not meaning to - the first time) but I am going to do things differently.

First, I plan to labor at home as long as possible. This is of course assuming I don't have to be induced or anything like that this time. Love technology because apparently they have apps that will time your contractions for you, so I'll be able to tell when it's time. Rustin says he doesn't want to be "that guy" delivering a baby on the side of the road, but the hospital is about 4 miles from us, so I'm not too worried.

When I start feeling the contractions I am going to EAT. Now I know it's not a good idea to scarf down a whole pizza, but I'm going to eat something. Probably peaches. If you don't know, that has been my pregnancy craving and I eat them all the time.

Another thing I was incredibly unhappy with at the other hospital (we are delivering at different hospital this time) is I feel like they didn't listen to me. I really wanted to breastfeed. So I didn't want her to have a pacifier or bottle and I wanted to feed her every 2 hours. Well they wanted to take her to the nursery so I could "get some sleep." I was so out of it I said ok but asked them to bring her back in 2 hours. Well I woke up in a panic, looked at the clock and it had been way over 2 hours. I called the nursery and they said "oh yeah she was hungry so we just gave her a bottle." Grrrrrrr. The hospital we are delivering at this time is much more "mom/baby" friendly and prefers the baby to stay in the room.

Aside from the epidural (which let's be honest, is probably still going to happen) I'm going to make it very clear I don't want any pain meds except ibuprofen. I just can't tolerate them. I am also going to have my anti-nausea medicine on hand. Last time I had to wait while trying NOT to throw up for them to call my dr to get the ok to give it to me.

As I write all of this I am reminded of this verse: The heart of a man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps. Proverbs 16:9
I may have all these plans, but I still know nothing may go as I "want" it to. I may have to be induced again or I may have to have a c-section. Praying against those but know I can't control it. At the end of the day if a healthy baby girl is what I get at the end then it doesn't really matter.