Hazel's Corner

Well, it's finally done.

Hazel's little corner (of our room).

We are all ready for her!

I tried to get all the little things together that we'll need and put them in her little corner - things we'll need for naptime or night time needs when I don't want to go into her brother and sister's room to rummage around for things.

Sawyer & Aspen picked out a couple of little gifts to give to their new baby sister on her birth day - and this little bear is one of their favorites. It's soooo soft, too. Very sweet!

I found this pretty little frame at TJ Maxx and painted it to help it stand out a bit on our white walls. I'm hoping to get a good picture of our three kiddos together (wish me luck!) to put in this frame :)

I already told you about how I made her crib bedding...

and her butterfly mobile...

so I won't say anything more about them.

I'm not really a fan of those hanging diaper things people sometimes put on cribs...so I created one I DO like. I got this little canvas basket at Target and then used some ribbon to attach it to the crib...inside I put all of the little things we may need for diaper or clothing changes during her siblings naps or when they're already in bed and I don't want to disturb them by rummaging around in their room to find things. I am sure it will come in handy!

A basket full of cozy little blankets...I'll probably throw some burb cloths in there once she arrives - and if she's anything like her sister (who we nicknamed the "queen of spit up") we will need lots! Then again, if she's like her brother (who never spit up) we may not need many at all :)

I also hung up the dress I picked out for her special baby blessing at church. It was the first thing I bought for her once we found out we were having a girl. I just thought it looked fit for a sweet little angel :)  

Aspen is always asking me to blow on the butterflies to "make them fly, Mama!" Sometimes, she tries too but rarely does her little puff of air reach them. 

She's excited to be a BIG sister!

So, there you have it. Hazel's corner. 

I know there are a lot of people in the world who don't have room to design an entire nursery for their babies, and I feel lucky we at least had a few spare feet in our tiny room to make something feel special to welcome and cuddle our new baby. I know a lot of women look at all these beautiful nurseries and would love to have one, but I hope that by sharing Hazel's little corner with you, you may see that it's possible to make something special, even if a tiny corner of your own room is all you have to offer.

Three cheers for small spaces! And beautiful new babies!

Blast from the Past: Up & Down in Venice, CA

Wow, am I on a roll today, or what? 3 blog posts in one day - I'm pretty sure that is record-breaking :)

Tonight my awesome husband took the kids because I'm (can you guess?) not feeling all that well. I had to finish editing a session for a client and I didn't want to be up super late. Anyway, as I'm sitting here waiting for the client's slideshow to upload to my website, I looked at some of our own family archives...and I found these. 

Venice Beach, CA

Sawyer was barely 2 years old

He loved running up and down the little bridges along the canal. 

I love the reminder children constantly give about how the simplest thing can bring such great joy.

And here is one of me and the little lady. She was about 7 months old I think, and such a chunky monkey. It's fun to see that maybe one day again my belly won't be super huge :) This also reminded me that I had just barely got my new camera body and was going to shoot my sister-in-law's wedding. Looking back, I had 2 days of experimenting and then I put on a huge rented lens and went to town at her wedding. A little crazy - luckily the photos turned out great :)  I am shooting another wedding this weekend (crazy, I know - 6 weeks before my due date! I warned them I may be waddling...) I'm glad I know my camera a lot better now! Such good memories...which is one of the reasons I am enraptured with photography - I love how an image can jolt you back in time and bring memories forward feeling so fresh, even if it's been years.

Perfect timing, my slideshow is done and now I can sign off of everything web-related and head to bed. Good night!

Skagit Valley Tulip Festival

This past weekend, we jaunted up to the Tulip Festival in Mount Vernon. It was a perfect Saturday morning filled with sunshine, finally warm weather - so we packed a picnic and thought we'd make a morning of it. It turns out that hundreds if not thousands of other people had the same splendid idea that we did, so we ended up making a full day of it, since it took us 45 minutes to drive north and 2.5 hours to get off the freeway exit and to the fields. I can say I truly enjoyed every minute of it - even being stuck in traffic, we had the windows rolled down and good times going with the kids (they amazingly did awesome considering we moved 2 feet an hour for a few hours...no dvds required! We are old fashioned and sing songs and play "look out the window and what do you see" type of games (cars, colors, letters, animals, etc.) The landscape was of course gorgeous, and because we got back so late we even went out to dinner. The only bummer was that Jacob had a TON of work to do - both for his day job and some freelance, and the traffic sure backed him up in that regard. But what can you do? We just enjoyed the moments - it's a rare treat to spend an entire Saturday just kickin' it together in fields of flowers. 

even though we've seen the tulip fields multiple times, the first step out into the millions of tulips always makes me pause - they are sooooo striking!

Aspen was quite interested in the flowers - we had to be careful she didn't pick any to take home with us :)

Sawyer, on the other hand, wasn't as intrigued with the flowers...but he did bring a car along to maneuver through the dirt and fields, which made his day.

We brought some bubbles along and found a big field to blow them in. Lately, the kids insist on blowing the bubbles themselves, which generally results in wet, sticky kids and spilled bubbles, but they really enjoy doing it all themselves (even if there are a lack of bubbles floating in the air).

There are so many different colors, too! I think my favorite are almost always the classic red tulips, though.

Photography 101 - courtesy of Daddy (who brought his own camera along for fun.) I think we may have some budding photographer's in this family!

I guess this is what I look like to my clients (not to mention my own kids who get chased by me and my huge camera probably more than they'd like) :)

Overall, a FABULOUS and BEAUTIFUL day in the fields! If you haven't been yet - there's still a few days left. I think the festival ends the end of this month. If you can go on a weekday, though, I'd advise it :) Oh, and also a good idea to bring some rainboots - we wore sandels because of the sunshine but ended up with pretty muddy feet (not to mention Sawyer's graceful slide through the muddy water which resulted in a very muddy rear end :)

Goats

Here's the proof that we went to Oregon and did something - my sister Jamie sent over a handful of pictures from when we went to visit her at the Goat Farm where she works (thanks, Jamie!)

She let me borrow her camera and I didn't have much time to look at the settings so I totally overexposed and blew out the image of Aspen above - I did my best to salvage fix it by turning it to grey scale :) Grammie got each of the kids a pair of sunglasses because everything was "so bright!" (true sign of being born in Seattle...even on cloudy days they think the sky is too bright!) Thanks, Grammie, for the sunglasses - they love them, and as you know, Aspen kind of has a sunglass obsession so she was thrilled to have "polka dots" to add to her collection...she wore them to church on Sunday :)

The goats were hilarious. The first image, in the barn, when we walked in, all those goats hopped up on their feet and got quiet and looked us up and down like "who are you, what do you want, and are you any fun?" They were bigger than I imagined and just funny little guys. Jamie pointed out a dark one who was HUGELY pregnant and waddling around...and told me she named her "Tysha". I just about wet my pants laughing so hard at that goat!

Okay, short and sweet - thanks again Jamie for sending us a little evidence of our weekend getaway :) Only wish we could visit more often!

Sawyer's Big Boy Bed (it's finally finished!)

Whew! It's finally done. Remember those beds we bought from a guy on Craigslist (I posted the listing pic a few posts back)? Well, after a couple of weeks of sanding, priming, painting, etc. I finally got one finished for Sawyer to use as his real big boy bed. I say real because he had a "biggish boy" bed - but it was a toddler bed. So now he's got the real deal - a twin sized bed. And he's pretty darn happy about it! Which makes me happy, because I've about broken my pregnant lady back working on it for him :)

This morning, we went to pick out a mattress. It didn't take long...and I even bribed them to deliver it today - in fact, we walked into the store around 11am and by 11:45 we were home and they had delivered it! Pretty sweet! (We went to the Savvy Mattress place in Northgate). So I of course got to work disassembling the toddler bed and getting the big bed put together with the slats, and then getting all the bedding on, vacuuming and cleaning etc. It was definitely a workout for me, considering I haven't really worked out at all the entire pregnancy, other than house-type work and a very occasional lap swim. It's a relief to cross this project off my little list of things I wanted to get done before the baby arrives. 

Usually, Aspen naps in her crib in the shared room and Sawyer naps on my bed (often times with me, at least during pregnancy!) but today he was so excited he wanted to nap in his big bed. So, I let him. And wouldn't you know, they were both quiet and went right to sleep (we have tried napping in the same room previously and it didn't work out so well with lots of chattering and toy-sharing going on instead of resting). I'm glad our boy likes his bed. It's nothing super special of course, but it was definitely refurbished with love by his Mama. And the mattress, I have to say, is better than ours. (Ours is a 15-year-old hand-me-down from the family I used to nanny for, it was in their guest room before they adopted sweet Sam into the family) I can't complain too much, as our bed is much better than most of the world population sleeps on at night - but I think next in line for a new bed will be we, the parents :)  Although first we've got to have a baby, pay for some big adventures coming up, and then, buy that good ole' swagger wagon when we finally live in a place where we can park it. Someone once told me that it didn't matter how many kids you have and if your rich or poor, that all they need is love. Well, I get that they need love. But having kids IS expensive! No doubt about it! (On a side note, Hazel will be our most expensive baby...we had an awesome insurance policy that paid 100% for the first two, and after that they did away with the policy and we had to get a different policy we could better afford...so while the first two were essentially "free" - besides the regular monthly premium, little Miss Hazel has already cost $2,000 and that doesn't include the hospital bill! Good thing we are planners - I can't imagine having an unplanned pregnancy, or one with lots of complications - my goodness! Okay, enough about the cost of healthcare...)

Bottom line: Sawyer will be getting a good night's sleep. And I will sleep better with this project now taken care of! Thanks to Jacob for his patience with me as I kill myself finishing many projects that are unessential, but to me, important :)

ps-the slats are working out perfectly, thanks for all those who gave me feedback :)

A post with mostly just pictures

This morning, I pulled out the camera to take a photo to go with my catch-up post on my maternity journal blog (one of my goals to do before baby Hazel comes is design and turn the posts from that blog into a book, at least as far as I can get until she arrives), and Aspen said "take a picture of me, too!" So here's to making up for the post with no pictures yesterday...our silly girly!

thoughtful...

serious...(this one makes me laugh - her eyes are almost the same size as her nose!)

...and she can't help but smile when mommy starts singing "I see London, I see France...I see Aspen's underpants!"  Big smiles!

and then I told her we were done. and she said "no, more pictures!" which is rare - usually she isn't super keen on me taking her picture, but today she was hamming it up - at least it made me happy I wasn't torturing the poor child. Her brother, on the other hand, could've cared less what we were up to. He was busy building robots in the other room. Kids!


Happy Weekend Everyone!

A Post Without Pictures

I very rarely post without pictures, but I'd rather post without pictures and have part of our life documented than not post just because I (oops) forgot my camera on our little road trip last weekend.  Yes, we took our last road trip before our new baby comes to visit family in Bend, Oregon. Jacob took a couple of days off work so we could truly relax and enjoy - it's a 6 hour drive, so just long enough that it makes a short weekend trip feel hectic. So, we got there late late Thursday night and came home late Monday evening. I was thinking through all that I had packed as we were leaving the city, and about the time we hit Portland all of a sudden I remembered I forgot my camera! Blame it on the pregnancy hormones, I almost broke down in tears. I had a special goal to take some pictures of the kids with their grandparents since I almost always forget to when we're all together. I know someday they will cherish having some pics of them, so I had thought I'd make it a priority...and then I forgot the tool. Bummed! But not the end of the world. In fact, my sister let me take a handful with her camera one afternoon while visiting at the goat farm where she works - so once she sends me a few, there will be a little proof we actually took a trip :)   In all honesty, I still feel super crappy so we didn't do a whole lot but just hang out with the fam. My brother and his family recently moved back to Bend, so the kids had a BLAST playing with their cousins, getting reacquainted with Uncle Dan, Aunt Kristen & Aunt Jamie and her boyfriend, Brandon. The weather wasn't as great as we'd hoped for, but it was still decent enough that one evening after a family dinner (delish Salmon, my fave! Thanks, Mom!) all the kiddos were running around playing tag in the backyard with pretty much everyone but me and Kristen (both of us are in the preggo condition). It was so fun to see them free to run around the big yard and just laugh and play with family. A rare treat! We also brought their bikes and Sawyer found a dirt trail to ride his bike in this loop and over a little mound of dirt and he thought it was the best thing ever. Other highlights were seeing all the goats Aunt Jamie works with at the Goat Farm (they milk them and make high end cheeses), and also feeding hay to Grammie's horses. We are so lucky our kids are such great travelers! No DVD player needed in our car ;)  It was a nice visit and I'm glad we were able to go. We're hoping to make it back again one more time this summer when the weather is nicer - let's hope Hazel is as great a traveler as her sibs!

baby update:

On a completely different note, I had my 32 week check up today. I think I mentioned it before, but I keep measuring "small" - as in more like 29 weeks. I didn't gain any weight in the past 3 weeks. So...most likely Hazel is just going to be a tiny baby - I mean, Sawyer was a 5-lber and Aspen was a 6-lber so I guess that is to be expected. Next visit they will see how things are going and if she's still 3 weeks behind then they might consider doing an ultrasound to check for growth restriction (less than the 10th percentile for size). We had to do that with Sawyer at 37 weeks and learned he was perfectly healthy and just very small. So, no one is too concerned since I just tend to have very small babies. No complaints! Of course, being me and being a mom, I do tend to worry a bit - I just hope she is growing healthy and well and I don't care what size she is as long as she's just plain healthy and happy. I actually really love the teeny tiny babes...they stay little just a little longer, and don't grow out of their clothes as fast (Aspen still wears a sweater that is 6-12 months and I'm sure it will fit for another year!) Anyway, that's the start of the baby updates. I'm a little behind on my other pregnancy journal/blog because I need to get a couple of pictures up...but hanging in there. Seriously, just hanging in there...trying to be positive but hating that I'm still so sick and tired. But we're getting closer! 

Latest Project (Before...)

The past week my hands have been tied up with yet another project...(blame it on the nesting bug). Sawyer has had a toddler-sized bed but now that he's coming up here on 4 in a few months (FOUR years OLD!) we decided it was time for him to have a "real" big boy bed. So, after scouring over craigslist every now and then, I finally found these wooden bed frames. They came in a pair, which is alright with me, since we know we will have two girls - so maybe down the road they can have matching beds in their rooms? Or maybe we'll get lucky and have another baby boy be the caboose to our little family train, so the boys could have matching beds? (one at a time, right?) Either way, it was a pretty good deal - we got both for $150. 

Next step was for me to fill, sand, prime, prime, paint and paint. I have one more coat of paint to do (decided to do white for now, but later on may do the other one a midnight blue or black when Sawyer ever has his own boy room :) Anyway, my hands and muscles have been busy working on this. I'm so glad to be almost done with it - it's looking so good! I will be glad to park in the garage again, too :)

Next week we will go mattress shopping (second hand bed frame is fine but we will splurge on an excellent new mattress for the boy!) and then we'll put some bedding on (for now, my hand-me-down chambray bedding from my college years, and a new duvet I got months ago at Ikea when I had the idea of a big boy bed). 

My mom wanted to see what the beds looked like, as we were talking this morning on the phone and I was trying to describe the detail. So, here you go ;)  We are excited to be taking one last road trip coming up really soon, before we need to stick closer to home and wait for our new baby girl to make her grand appearance. Her little corner is almost done as well :) I'll be excited to post some pics of our boy with his new bed just as soon as it's done and I have the chance. Wish me luck!

PS - The man who sold these to us also gave us slats to use since Sawyer is small. He said we could skip the box spring until he gets a little taller if we use slats - anyone have experience with this? Do you think slats are fine or should we just get a box spring along with the mattress? 

Easter

Our Easter Weekend was a busy one. Busy, yet relaxing at the same time. I was purely exhausted by Sunday night and fell asleep before the kids did (this happens often when I'm pregnant). Saturday, I had two photo shoots, which was a lot since I've been taking things a lot slower. Both turned out to be lovely - a beautiful newborn baby boy and a fun couple from Portland (what a nice pat on the back!) came up, who are expecting their first baby just a couple of weeks after Hazel's due date. AND the weather was AMAZING! Spring is finally here and the sun and warmth came with it. It truly made my heart sing! Jacob did fun things with the kids while I was at work (so glad we live within walking distance to the library and awesome park and playground!) and he even did some yard work. He also made us dinner - all weekend (which he also likes to do, and I like it, too :)  So, Saturday was so busy we didn't make it to any Easter Egg Hunts or the like, but we did have a good day getting some important things done as well as relaxing a bit and just playing with the kids. (Friday night we also had a fun family date night, it really kick-started a great weekend!)

On Sunday, we of course all got up and got ready for church. Aspen was a trooper and let me put the sponge curlers in her hair after her bath on Saturday night, and I was curious if she'd make it through the night with them in. A few times she said "my hair is too tight" so I "fixed" it a bit and was hoping once she fell asleep it would be okay. She did really well - though I don't think I'll torture her again that way for some time :)  I told Jacob how I always thought it was uncomfortable when I was little, and he was like "then why are you having her do it?" Good point. Anyway, she did take out a few during the night, but oh well. It was pretty funky and crazy curly! Once dolled up in her dress and little clip, she got a lot of "Shirley Temple" comments at church. She is our little doll :)  Of course there were Easter goodies - although we didn't do much candy. We did fresh fruit and a bit of chocolate, and then the kids got some fun new books and toys (a real porcelain tea set! We had a tea party today for lunch!) 

Our church service was lovely and I was especially touched by one of the talks in which the speaker directed her message to the children (how often does that happen?) I loved it. And of course, we are all children at heart, so it really touched me as well. I could barely hold it together when the primary children sang "Gethsemane". Sawyer was supposed to go up and sing, too...but he got stage fright and wouldn't budge from my lap. I'm not really supposed to carry him around (and having him cling to my legs while standing in front of a bunch of people where my dress might accidentally come up, too, I didn't want to risk it) and Jacob had taken Aspen to the bathroom, so we just sat. He loves his Sunbeams teachers (I do too, they are awesome!) and it really really touched me when he said "Do you see Randy up there?" and I did. And I also saw that Randy looked right at Sawyer and smiled. Sawyer of course felt special for a tiny moment when he felt a little small, not wanting to join the crowd. I'm not sure if it's the pregnancy hormones because I'm just emotional a lot, easily touched - but especially when someone goes out of their way just a bit to smile at your child and make them feel special, it sure goes a long long way.

We picked up the kids from Primary and Nursery and they both got cupcakes (Sawyer's teachers were nice enough to save one for Aspen). The kids got all messy but I told Jacob I really wanted to take some pictures of them after church. Maybe I should have listened to Jacob when he reminded me that it was lunch time and nap time and it probably wouldn't be the ideal time...but stubborn me said, "let's just stop by the park anyway". So, we did. And the sun was out and it was gorgeous. The kids didn't want to cooperate to get their pictures taken, so I just got some candid ones of them while we were spending some time next to the duck pond, playing in the little flowers that were covering the grass. We played in the grass, helped spread dandylion seeds around the park, and threw plenty of rocks into the duck pond (the ducks think we're throwing food so they always come over to see the kids). We spent a good hour just being there together enjoying a glorious Easter Sunday. 

We had lunch and naps and then we had an Easter Feast prepared by Jacob. We discovered that Aspen LOVES Artichokes just about as much as her Mama. We discovered that the kids LOVE the little music box (egg shaped globe) that has an Easter scene and plays "here comes Peter Cottontail". "Again!" I wound it up soooo many times. And for some reason the tune reminded Aspen of "I am a Child of God" because she would often start singing those words to go with the music box. After our lovely dinner and Strawberry Shortcake, we went back to the park and had a little Easter Egg Hunt, just us. The kids were ecstatic and so excited. We all fell into bed after that, it had been a busy and fun weekend. I am so grateful for my little family, and that we love to be together. I hope you all had a wonderful Easter Weekend as well - and amongst all the other fun things, somehow your heart was touched by pondering our Savior's atoning sacrifice, death, and resurrection. He lives!