Must share!

Evie had her first photo shoot today...we got a deal with a photographer wanting to expand her portfolio, so this shoot was free! I think we'll be inviting her back for a paid session to take shots of all 4 of our kids. She was great!

So, she sent me the link to a couple of the shots on her blog. They are so precious. If it's possible, I think these pictures make our girl look even prettier! I can't quit looking at them! Check it out!

Evie's Room

I posted this last month, a few weeks before Evie was born, so I just linked to this post for Kelly's Korner Tour of Homes. Evie is our first girl after three boys and we had the best time fixing up her room. Enjoy!!


Here's the big reveal of Evie's room finally. My mother-in-law helped decorate, add the accessories, and painted the flowers on the wall. My mom bought the bedding and lamp (lamp not shown in the pictures because we hadn't gotten it in yet) and everything else is stuff we already we had (the crib, dresser, mirror) or that we bought cheap from Walmart or IKEA.








This last one's a little blurry because of the weird angle at which I had to take it, but that door you see there is the closet. It turned out really cute.

I'm just so pleased with how it turned out. I find myself in there several times a day just looking at everything and thinking about her and wondering if this beautiful room will match her personality. I can't wait to meet her.

20 days and counting...

I had a focus for this post, but lost track somewhere and so it's all just babble.

I promise that I won't be blogging "all-baby, all-the-time" forever. It's just the biggest thing going on right now in our lives, so it's where most of our focus is. I hope you are patient with me and all my talk of all things Evie.

Anyway, we're in the process of putting all the finishing touches in Evie's room. It should be mostly done by tomorrow morning. I decided this afternoon, that the next thing to do should be to organize all her clothes. Last week (or two weeks ago...or two years ago...I've lost track), when I cleaned out that room to begin with, I just took all the clothes she had and shoved them in her dresser to get them out of the way while we started work on her room. So yesterday (two days ago...?) I put on the first load of Evie clothes to wash. That entire load was nothing but hand me downs. Today, however, if I wanted to keep washing her clothes, I had to start taking tags off. I panicked a bit at the thought of "Yipes, what if we end up bringing home our little Grant, instead of our little Evie?!? What in the world will I do with all these clothes that are brand new, but now have no tags?" Taking off tags makes the whole thing seem more real and like I'm more committed to the idea of having a girl. Nevermind the fact that we just painted the room pink and I've made more bows than she'll have hairs on her head when she's born.

Speaking of bows, I must take some more pictures of what I've been working on. I've finally gotten the hang of one style of bow that I was having trouble with, and they are turning out oh-so-cute. I'm making bows for outfits that she doesn't even have yet, but that I plan on her having. Like a black and hot pink bow for a black and pink Supergirl dress I want to make for her. And today I made two bows with the intention of picking one for her to wear when she gets baptised (unless of course we end up with something that she must have a bonnet for). Those two are particularly precious. Way back when, before I started making bows, I bought a bunch of little tiny baby bows (No hair needed!) off of ebay for her to wear in her first few weeks, especially for pictures in the hospital and for her coming home outfit. Now that I've been dealing with these bigger bows, those little tiny ones just seem incomplete or not enough. But I'm going to try to control myself in the beginning and only use the big bows for when I'm playing dress-up with her, and use the little tiny ones for when we go out or take pictures. We'll see how long that lasts.

And for those of you that care, I'm 34 weeks now and as of today we are 4 weeks from the scheduled Baby Day. I'm actually pretty impressed with how much we've gotten done in a short amount of time. I've been much calmer about what needs to be done this time around. Sweet Hubby, on the other hand? Well, he's the one that insisted on getting her room started and finished and this week he re-lanscaped our yard, and next week he plans on painting the exterior of our house. Meanwhile, I have vague ideas of what I would like to have done before Evie gets here (mainly just things I don't want to have to do AFTER she gets here), but I haven't done anything about them or even really thought through planning to get them done. For some reason, I have it in my head that I need a steam mop before I can really get anything done. As if the dirty floors in my house were my only housekeeping problem.

And for a closing thought, I know I must be getting close to baby day because I'm getting to the point in my pregnancy when I'm easily annoyed. The ones in my life that I love most are wearing on my nerves....and I know logically that it's not their fault and they're doing things that they ALWAYS do, but hormonally I want to yell at them for breathing too loudly, or chewing too loudly, or for sitting funny on the couch, or for asking too many questions, etc, etc. Today, I had to keep my tone in check when I told Stephen to quit making me think. The words were out of my mouth before I realized how ridiculous they were. And I said them just a mere few hours after telling him that he can always ask me anything. *sigh* I hope that I can not be such an ogre after the baby's born.

Sneak peek

It's not done, yet, but here's what's been happening in Evie's room this week.




More pics to come when it gets finished next week.

System shock

You'd think that knowing for 3 months that we're having a girl that I would get used to the idea. And for a while, I think I am used to the idea, then something happens and I'm suddenly smacked with "Oh.my.word. We're having a girl." Today, Sweet Hubby's working in what's going to be Evie's room. This morning, it was a MESS. Just stuff everywhere, no organization, MESSY. I finally got in there and sorted stuff out (we sold some furniture out of there this weekend) and cleaned it up. I hung up some of her clothes in the closet and then a little while later, went back into the closet to put something in there, and the sight of pink frilly things hanging up in the closet made me do a double take. I don't think I'm going to get used to the idea until she's here and we've experienced what it's like to have a little girl in the house. All of her stuff still seems out of place.

Right now, her room is blue. By the end of the day, it will be a pale shade of pink ("Apple Blossom" to be exact). Now that will be a shock.

When we get the room all finished and put together, I'll post pics. It's going to be precious, thanks to my mom and mother-in-law.

Somebody stop me!!

I've picked up a new hobby.

Bows.

I decided the other day that I would try to make most of Evie's bows (and believe me, I plan on putting a bow on her every chance I get). Some of the bows that I looked at to buy were $5 or $6 each, and I just have a hard time spending that much on a baby/toddler accessory. So I searched the internet for how to make them (you'd be surprised at how little instruction there is on the internet...these bow-making ladies keep their secrets close) and dug out some ribbon. I made the first one and was hooked. Hobby Lobby had their ribbon by the spool on sale, so I went and bought some cute ribbon yesterday. And I haven't quit making bows since. Well, except to eat and help the kids with their handwriting.

So. Here's what I've done so far (I apologize for the quality of the pictures...they aren't good which is sad because I think it takes away from how cute the bows are):



This one was the hardest, but turned out the best and one of my favorites:



This is definitely my favorite...must find an outfit to match it for Evie:



This one is cute...picture doesn't do it justice (it looks lopsided or uneven, I think it's just the angle of the bow and my awful picture taking skills):



A fun one, really cute ribbon:



This is the very first one I did, it matches one of my favorite outfits of Evie's perfectly:



Just another cute one with cute ribbon:



The first one I did in this particular bow-style...I don't like it, probably won't ever use it:


Surprisingly, I really enjoy doing this and it doesn't take me long to crank them out. I can't wait to go get my hands on more ribbon! However, starting out this new hobby makes me wonder if all the bow-making mommies and professional bow-makers have any fingerprints left. I've burned and poked myself so much that I'm surprised I'm still able to type!

I also bought a bunch of little tiny "no hair needed" bows for Evie's first few weeks. And I got an awesome deal on headbands that you can use with interchangeable bows. I think I might be a little out of control....

The Genevieve Collection

So our little girl is already starting to have a better wardrobe than her mama. I figured that would happen eventually (it wouldn't be too hard to accomplish), I just didn't anticipate it would happen so soon. So here's what she has so far (I apologize for the poor quality of the pictures).





Here's what she's coming home from the hospital in that her daddy bought her:


And just for fun, here are two more pairs of shoes (I still didn't get one cute pair of shoes in this shot, but they're pictured in the first picture in top left corner):


Believe it or not, only the shoes and 3 of the outfits and the onesie are the only things that were bought brand new. We found a baby resale shop that has amazing clothes at even more amazing prices. Several of the things still had brand new tags and we haven't bought anything from there for more than $6.

And just for fun, here's a belly pic (where I have a really strange look on my face...I was focusing on trying to get a good shot...still don't think I accomplished it).

21 weeks