Memorial Day Weekend

We had a great, productive weekend!  (also a bit overwhelming and stressful.... but a lot got done!)
On Saturday morning, we got up and got started getting the house ready. We were waiting for my dad to come over to paint some of the baby's furniture, so I used our waiting time to clean and organize.
There was (and still is!) so much to do. That day we planned to paint the dresser that had been in our guest room since we moved in 6 yrs ago. (It was part of my bedroom set in college). So I had to get the dresser drawers empty. There were just random things in there... basically just a form of storage! So I had to box up some college and photo memorabilia (magazines with my early work ads in them) and put them in the attic. I also had to clean out the guest room closet (all wedding memorabilia) so that I could have that space to store things that could not go up in the attic. (things I want to keep downstairs, like photos and CDs). It was fun going through our wedding memorabilia! I kept A LOT of things from our wedding, and also little details of the planning that went in to the wedding, (receipts, magazine tear sheets, etc). And what hit me the most was that I was clearing out room, making space for all of the new baby things in our life, by going through and packing up our wedding history. The room I was working in surrounded me with boxes of baby clothes I still have to go through. So I was going through happy wedding memories, surrounded by our new baby-centered world. It was just a sweet moment to get to look around and smile on our wedding memories, and the joy of our future child that awaits us all at the same time.
The dresser was all emptied and my dad arrived and he and Stuart took it out in to our yard to get to work! My dad also brought up my childhood bookcase to paint that as well. I remember being in high school, and thinking to myself that it would be neat to use that bookcase again one day in my baby's room. And we are!   :)
There was a lot of work to do (for Dad and Stuart!) on the furniture. They had to sand it all, take off the hardware on the dresser drawers, prime and paint it. We are so blessed that this is what my dad does everyday in his work! So he had any and all tools and paint that we could ever need. He supplied everything! My dad was very very detail-oriented in working on the dresser. He filled in cracks, smoothed out the edges, strengthened the feet of it, and did a superb job painting it and all 9 drawers! Seriously, he did a very time-intensive, expensive paint job that I know Stuart and I would never have been able to do on our own!
The dresser is also the perfect height for a changing table, so I'm very excited that it will have a dual purpose in the room so that we do not have to have tons of furniture in the not-so-large room!
For the drawer pulls on the dresser/changer, I was going to replace them with pulls that look like baseballs. That had been my plan all along. But that morning of painting it, it dawned on me that instead of going to that trouble (and expense!), we could simply just spray paint the current hardware red! I kind of have wanted a vintage look to his nursery, so by keeping this older hardware (it's sort of ornate/vintage looking), it would have that effect in the room. I am not a do-it-yourself-er when it comes to decorating... I usually just purchase what I need... so I was proud of thinking of this simple spray painting solution to getting new hardware! The finished product looks amazing! And by chance, it even kind of looks like a baseball in itself! With the dresser all painted white, with the stark contrast of the red hardware, it looks like a baseball with red laces! I really REALLY love it! I know it will be my favorite furniture piece in the room.
**Lucky for you.. you will have to wait a couple weeks to see pictures! We are going to have a "Baby-que" in about a month, just to have people over to visit, and that will be when we "reveal" the nursery in person. Then I'll post pics of the nursery, all complete after that!
So my dad was here for about 8 hours on Saturday, painting those two pieces of furniture! It was a long day for everyone! While he and Stuart were sanding/painting, I was working in the nursery. The room still had clutter from being used as a storage unit for years, and also just some papers that never got filed away, so I had to clear that out so that we had somewhere to put the dresser when they were done painting! (since the dresser came out of the guest room, we had to switch-er-roo some furniture that was in the nursery that did not belong, to make room for the dresser!)
After putting the dresser in there at night, our house smelled like a paint factory! Not so good for a preggo lady, but we shut the door, and put a rug at the bottom of the door to try and block the smells as much as possible. Now (2 days later), it's not so bad.
On Sunday, we were so beat from the day before that we did not do any cleaning at all. We had some "family" time in the morning, just me, Stuart, and our baby, that was precious. Stuart and I laid down so that he could feel the baby moving all around. He put his arm around my tummy and the baby (when I lay on my side) was squirming everywhere! Stuart got to feel not only kicks but rolls as well! A recent, new act of the baby is no longer just to kick, but to poke a limb out and move it across my belly! And some times my belly will shake so much at once... I don't know what he's doing in there! If he is flipping, or rolling around! It's incredible, to say the least!
The rest of the afternoon, we just had lunch and watched some TV, and I went up in the attic to pull some things down that are going in the baby's room (a baseball decoration that I had in my room as a kid). Then I had to make banana pudding dessert to take to Amy's for their bar-b-que dinner! That was a lot of fun! We stayed at Amy's all night and got home pretty late, but it was fun just hanging out and eating yummy food! Her hubby smoked brisket and sausage, and there were lots of other goodies as well! Fun night!
Today, we were more productive in the baby's room! From my clearing things out on Saturday, our living room had furniture, and a Good Will pile, as well as a pile of boxes that needed to go in the attic. So we cleared out all of that all morning. My family was set to come over for lunch, but my parents arrived this morning. That was nice, because they were able to help us. We had some furniture in our house that we used that was originally my parents furniture, and with the new baby furniture, we no longer had room to use their furniture, so my Dad loaded up his van with those pieces. My dad also helped Stuart move some furniture out of the baby's room that did not belong. So it's exciting that now, in the baby's room, all of the furniture in there..... actually is just for the baby! His room is really so much further along now than it was just a couple days ago. It's been such a process to get the house ready for the baby. There, at one point, were baby things in every room in our house... now it's just in 2 rooms! Still in the guest room is all of the baby clothes that were generously given to us, so now that the dresser is painted and finalized, this next weekend I am going to go through all of those piles of clothes and organize and wash them, and put them away in the drawers where they belong! At the end of the day today, I sat in the baby's room, looking around, and made a list of what all needs to be done. It's basically one page long of a list, but I put all of the details on there, so I feel better, that we made great strides this weekend, and that the rest is all a matter of doing it one bit at a time.
Aaron came over with the girls for lunch. Stuart bar-b-qued chicken legs, and we made baked potatoes and my mom made yummy fruit salad! It was a good family time! We were missing Joel and Nanette, but I do enjoy getting together with any of my family when we can. (It was stressful this morning, since we were not only trying to put some last finishing touches on the baby's room for the day, but also trying to clean and prepare for family coming, but I'm so glad they came!)
I love, love getting to see and play with our nieces. They are so precious, and all the time I think about how they are moving far away this fall. I'm going to miss them so much!
We all took naps after lunch. Since there were 7 of us, we all spread out across the house! I woke up before everyone else, and Stuart was up, in the backyard with the dogs, so I had the idea for he and I to run to Hobby Lobby to frame the Norman Rockwell prints for the baby's room, while everyone was still napping! We found some frames, but some other time this week, I'm going to stop by Michael's to see if I like their frames better. The ones we bought from Hobby Lobby today are rustic wood, and my idea was to stain them the same as the toy box, to have them match that, but I really wanted white frames, so hopefully Michael's will have that.
SUCH a busy weekend, but we needed it. The 3 day weekend was motivating to finally start making a dent in the nursery, and we were not only successful at that, but we got some family time as well!    :)