Finally painting room #2: a flashback story

• We moved into our current home on September, 6 2008. Whole house is the same color: a yellowish-cream. Thoughts: really need to paint before baby arrives.

• We sold our old house in Golden Valley on September 18, 2008. Thoughts: Very sad and emotional time, but YIPEE, one less stressor!

• We became new parents on October 6, 2008. Thoughts: she is so cute and we love her instantly. Worried about her lungs.

• Julia spent 7 weeks at Children's hospital and had surgery on November 17, 2008 Thoughts: this parenting stuff is TOUGH. When will she come home?

• New mommy was hospitalized on November 18, 2008 with a blood clot in her leg; released the next day after lots of coaxing with the doctors so mommy could be with baby after surgery. Thoughts: why is this happening all at once? Stupid blood clotting disorders! How am I going to paint with this pain?

• Julia finally came home on November 25, 2008. Thoughts: Yeah! No more driving to the hospital. We finally have our little blessing home! Really need to paint her room.

• Mommy started a new job on January 19, 2009. Thoughts: So excited! Wonder how this full-time working mommy stuff will go?

• Mommy attempted and pass Clinical Nurse Specialist boards on January 30, 2009. Thoughts: WOW! No more studying and will have more time to hopefully paint!

• Finally painted Julia's room some girly colors (pastel purple and green) in August, 2009Thoughts: Now she FINALLY has a room that looks like a kids room

• February 2010: going to get a tranquil spot of our own. Painting our master bedroom a nice calming, soothing mocha/beige color and have cool colors of light blues and browns. Thoughts: it is about time we have a nice relaxing sanctuary after all the stressors! :)

Ok, it was tough, but I am one of those people who wants things done and organized yesterday. Not having our home completely done and painted the way we want drives me crazy some days, but as Mike reminds me (and my mother), it will all get done someday and we just have to take one room at a time. We were just a little busy the past year to even do anything. I already have all the other rooms planned out, including bathrooms and our laundry room! Can't wait till it is all done. Now if only there was more time in a day....

Here is the new bedding for our master bedroom:

The paint color will be similar to the cream/beige color on the bedspread.

I will post before and after pictures of our room and Julia's room once we are done. :)

Valentine's Day and Other Happenings

Here are a bunch of pictures from the past few weeks. It is funny how you take less pictures as a child gets older, but we snapped a few last weekend and for Valentine's day.

Cuddling with Elmo during her afternoon nap

The love bug we made at the Valentine's Day Party at daycare (actually I made it; Julia just wanted to play and run around the room)

Practicing good hand hygiene before eating

Julia's toddler class at daycare

Valentine's Day party activity...cookie decorating

Julia's stylish hair-do. She just finished eating and had been rubbing her hair with applesauce. She looked like a crazy chef in her kitchen!

Don't put those hair pictures on the blog mommy! Too late!

Julia (left) with cousin Ainsley at Grandma and Grandpa Stephany's house

Not sure what we have been doing the past few weeks. Julia and I did take a trip back to Wisconsin to visit Grandma and Grandpa Stephany in Campbellsport and cousin Ainsley and Aunt Heather were there too. Mike stayed at home in Minnesota and had a relaxing weekend without the women at home. Julia has been sick lately, mostly with a bad cold, but she did develop croup also. She is recovering now, but still has a terrible cough at night. Of course, we had to take her to the doctor because of her lung history and everything was just fine. Her lungs sounded good and they put her on an antibiotic. The doctor said that the worst of the croup was probably over since the worst night was a few days ago (I am a bad mommy for not calling sooner I think, but Julia wasn't in any distress, breathing fine, and acting perfectly normal).

Julia is talking more than ever. She says tons of words and we can communicate pretty well with her. Her obsession right now is with Handy Manny and EVERY time we turn on the t.v. (which isn't very often in our house) she says "nana" which means Manny. She grabs the remote and shoves it in our hands in hopes that we will magically put the show on. Of course, we made the mistake of Tivo'ing Handy Manny and putting it on whenever she was cranky or wanted to watch it. Now she thinks we should be able to turn it on all the time, which we can with the saved Tivo'ed shows, but we have had to set limits for her own good (and our own sanity!) :)
If she isn't watching Handy Manny or we won't let her, she always wants to read. If you are sitting on the floor, she will grab a book, plop herself down on your lap, head or any other body part on the ground and say "book", "read". She could read books for hours if you read to her.


Mike and I on the other hand are planning on decorating our master bedroom. We finally finished Julia's room (after a year of living in this house) and made it more girly than just plain yellow walls and few wall hangings. Now it is time to make our room more relaxing. I always wanted a red and gold room and I had that in our old house, but now I would like something a little more calming. We are going to paint the walls a nice mocha/mauve color and have bedding with blue/brown/cream colors. Wall hangings will have the same color palate. Best of all..we are getting a king sized bed!!! I can't wait to have all that sleeping space and it will be nice when a certain little gal wants to join us in bed in the middle of the night.

I am struggling to find that perfect comforter set with just the right colors though...