Welcome baby Alana!

Alana Kathryn arrived safely on Thursday, August 14, 2014 at 12:47 pm weighing 6 pounds, 14 ounces and measuring 21 inches long. Shortly after her arrival she was able to nurse and be snuggled and meet her siblings before heading to the nursery for her bath. By the time she was rolling back from her bath, grandparents started rolling in, so the timing worked out nicely.

Will and Maggie just adore her! They both wanted to hold her almost non stop and Maggie just kept giving her kisses and kisses. Jake wasn't as interested the first day, I think at least in part because both grandpas were here to give him attention. :) Friday morning when just he and Daniel came, he was looking in her little crib and saying baby. He's even given her a few pats-- hopefully he'll like her when we get home too. :) We had visitors Friday morning and evening as well. The kids have been able to come everyday to visit but Daniel hasn't been able to spend time with me here like he did with all the others. I've tried to use the extra alone time to rest, but that's not very easy to do in a hospital.So far Alana and I are getting along well, though her second night was rougher than the first- she didn't sleep as well and was fussier. Overall she's a sweet little addition to our family and we're praying our transition home goes smoothly.

Waistline Wednesday

Well, this is it. My first and last Waistline Wednesday post! I haven't taken any belly pictures this pregnancy, mostly out of being busy with the other kids, my mind was simply on other things. There are inevitably pictures of me out there where I'm pregnant, just not the posed belly photos I've done in the past. I used to give my parents a hard time about my sister having an album full of photos and me having like one page for the first several years of my life. It really is just harder to set aside time to do those things when so much else is going on.

We have finished as much of the nursery as possible, but I'd like to add some homemade elements after she arrives. Some things just can't be done ahead of time. So stay tuned for her birth announcement and nursery post. Hopefully I'll get to it quicker than I did Jake's. :)

Back to school!

Boy does summer go fast!! I hate to go all typical parent with "when I was a kid..." but when I was a kid we never went back to school before Labor Day and I like that better. We usually went to school into June but not by much. September in the south is still plenty hot, but August is just too much. We didn't have fall breaks when I was a kid, so I'm sure that's part of it, but even without that, I think they're in school longer now. Maybe they'll graduate smarter than me? We'll see.

I cannot believe my Will is in the first grade!! Oh my goodnes, Kindergarten was tough but now he's moving full steam ahead, school is just going to fly by. Maggie is still in the blended Pre-K class, but I'm letting her stay the full day this year. So a small change. Anyway, here are my cuties:

 I decided to use a "1" this year and Will thought it was very clever, ha!

 sweetheart had to pose with her princess backpack and new Pinkie Pie

Off to school we go! We only need about 5 minutes to drive to school but I left about 20 minutes early to account for traffic and having to walk in. Well, that was not enough, apparently. I had to park so far away that by the time we got into the school I had 4-5 minutes to drop off both kids and their supplies. So I only got a couple pictures of Moosie before rushing down to Will's class.

 Okay, mom, we've done this before, do you have to take so many pictures? 

And yes, I did want to get his hair cut before school because his bangs were getting in his eyes. BUT I did not want that much cut off. Lady butchered his hair. I was terribly upset about it, still am a little. She promised the curls would grow back and fortunately it'll curl a little when I get it wet, but it's not the same. I just hope it grows back as nice as it was before...

Moving things around

I haven't done a single "Waistline Wednesday" this pregnancy, but things have just been crazy! I am quickly approaching my due date and as such we gotta get ready for this new little girl!

As usual, I can never just say "hey let's do this" and do it. I have to think of all the possibilities and weigh them as if the consequences are permanent or have any real eternal value. I mean, some things do, but not when it comes to decorating the house. I'll spare you all the back and forth, but in the end we decided to move Maggie from the toddler bed to a twin bed. We already have the headboard that matches the bedroom set so it just made sense.

Before- a real shot at how messy they were that day. Below, taking

the toddler bed down and out, then cleaning up

 

 She looks so little in this big 'ol bed! Maggie was sooo excited about her princess big girl bed! She insisted on having Rapunzel bedding. Then we found these at Target, several princesses, which is fine, so long as Rapunzel is one of them :). I just love my little girl!

Jake is moving in with Will-- this is something we planned before we even knew about baby #4 because Will really wanted to share with Jake. He just had to get old enough. I'd prefer to wait a couple more months until Jake is 2 and in my mind ready to graduate from the crib, but it is what it is. So Jake will get the toddler bed and baby girl will move into Jake's room- it's the smallest and nursery-sized. If that's a real thing. I don't love how the boys' room looks. It's too crowded and none of the furniture matches. Eventually we'll get a bunk bed and matching bedroom set, but it's not in the budget right now. So I'll just have to grin and bear it. :)

We moved everything around multiple times, but this was the best solution we found. At least for now. We'll have more space once we get the bunk beds. I'm going to re-arrange and/or update the decor too. Bring in some more of Jake so it's not just Will's room. Just gotta find the time. :)

My Craft Room

I'm hesitant to post about this because it's not quite done yet, but projects this large tend to be completed in stages, so there's no telling how long it will take. In fact, we were supposed to start last summer, so there ya go.

I finally converted our dining room into an official craft space back in Birmingham, but we had to take it down a couple months later to put our house on the market. Upon moving to Nashville, I decided to use our master closet as my craft room. Now, don't start feeling sorry for me that my husband has an entire bedroom for his office and I only get a closet. This closet is huge! I'm not really a fashionista, so I couldn't imagine filling this entire thing. It lends plenty of space for an office and what really sealed the deal is there's a window, so it's much more room-like. I have all sorts of plans, but for now I'm writing about the desk because that's the first and most important detail to get this room ready for crafting.

Last year I decided this Ana White corner desk would be perfect for me! I also really want this craft table, but there's just not the room in here. Maybe one day when a kid moves out. :) Anyway, it didn't happen last year so when my birthday rolled around again, it's the only thing I told hubs I wanted. I saved up Christmas and birthday money to buy the supplies and his gift was the actual labor of building the desk.

The first three pieces cut! This was the bulk of the cutting 

and with it the desk is already taking shape!

 Hubs workin' hard...at least this was an excuse to use power tools, right? :)

 Will helping. He fell in love with the measuring tape and went around

measuring everything he could find, it was cute

 structural supports being added

 both boys came out to help :)

 Once the building was complete, I got to work painting, here it is

with the first coat after wood conditioner!

I found a couple filing cabinets at Goodwill for $7 to use as the base instead of building our own, or building cabinets underneath from the original plans. With the desk well underway, I got to work spray painting the filing cabinets in between painting the desk.

 Then came the big day when we moved the desk upstairs! Before 

all this, I went through and did some major de-cluttering of the space

 All put together! And with a cute little accessory to boot :)

Since the highly coveted craft table could not be used in this space, I decided to use my old computer desk as my sewing table. It doesn't offer the room to have a cutting/crafting area and a sewing area like the craft table would, but it's rare I'm cutting and sewing at the same time. Or doing either of those while I'm crafting either, so I'll just have to rotate out.

 Before & After. I debated awhile on what colors to do everything. Initially, I wanted both the desk and sewing table to be white since all my craft storage is. Then I had a brief moment where I considered doing the desk two tone- white table top, filing cabinets black or aqua. In the end, I decided to keep the desk one color to match my storage and give the sewing table a little pop by painting it aqua. I really like how it turned out!! Stay tuned for more pics as I continue to make progress in my "little" craft room! :)