Paint-Beach-Paint-Baby Shower-Paint-Baby Shower-Paint...

We've been working really quite hard lately to get everything together for a sweet baby SAS's nursery. I know, if we weren't such procrastinators, we wouldn't have to be doing so much right here near the end, but, that's just what we do! We were initially supposed to have it all together the beginning of July, but with all of our family visiting and vacay in June, it just didn't happen. So, we moved the muralist to the beginning of August, which should have given us plenty of time...which is why we (my Mom) have been working our little fingers to the bone right up until earlier tonight...but, here's what we've been doing leading up to now!

Nursery Paint: Take 1

We ordered her bedding what seems like ages ago and chose the paint colors for her nursery based on that, carefully matching them to the wall that we so love in the Plaid Rabbit. We bought the paint, taped off the room and Mom started to work on the ceiling a week before vacation and thought she would finish the walls when we all came back home again. Then we decided to get the room crown moulded, which meant she needed to finish the walls ASAP so that the moulding could go on top, so of course my sweet mama worked like mad to get finished before vacation. And then we didn't like the color. At all. Leigh Ann (our sweet, wonderful, talented muralist) came over to look at it just to make sure we had done the right thing and her exact words were "Y'all, this is AWFUL"!!! So....back to the drawing board! But, before we completely started over again: BEACH!

Shoal Bay East, Anguilla

A few years ago, Mom, Dad, Steve & I all went to Anguilla for a vacay and we all completely fell in love with the beautiful little island. When trying to decide where we wanted to go for our "last holiday", I thought it should be somewhere that's kind of more difficult to get to, that we'd be less likely to take on once the baby arrived, and since we love Anguilla, and it's a pain to get there, that's what we chose! And naturally, Mom & Dad weren't going to let us go without them as they loved it there so much the first time. So, the third week of July, off we went! I was a bit nervous about the journey as it meant a nearly 4 hour flight at 31 weeks pregnant and I just knew there was no way I'd be comfy on the plane, but thank the Lord  for US Air preferred status, we were all upgraded to business class and all my worries about the travel disappeared. I guess I should have been nervous about the 45 minute boat ride we had to take from St Martin across open water to Anguilla...in a 28 foot boat...in a downpour...with ocean swells bigger than the boat...that, only a few hours later became a tropical storm! But, we made it and by the next morning, the weather was sunny and perfect and stayed that way for the next 9 days for us! We stayed in a gorgeous little villa on the beach at Mead's Bay where we spent all day, every day alternating between beach chair, sea and pool. We celebrated Mom's birthday with couples massages on our patio overlooking the Caribbean, had some of the most wonderful meals ever and just had a very peaceful, relaxing time! Thankfully the boat ride back to St Martin was completely uneventful and we were all upgraded again! I had been a bit nervous that SAS would decide to come while we on a tiny island with only very basic medical care, but obviously that was not the case! Thank you, sweet baby girl for staying put!

Mom's Birthday at The Straw Hat

It was nice to come back home from vacation and still have a few days that Steve didn't have to work. That meant we could just relax together and spend some time shopping for our sweet girl. One of our new favorite places has become a little shop on the square in Franklin called It's Vintage, Baby. We went in one afternoon just to look around and ended up coming away with basically her entire layette! I of course had to immediately wash and iron all of the tiny little adorable pieces and they are now all in little rows in her cabinet just waiting for her!

The weekend after we returned home, we were given a lovely baby shower at the church where I grew up which put us much closer to being ready for her arrival! Finally, we have diapers! I had bought 2 packs, but that was all. It's just a lot more fun to buy cute stuff! That same night, we celebrated my great-grandmother MawMaw Fisher's  97th birthday. What a day!!!


Once the vacation and first baby shower were over, back to the painting! Mom spent all one day this week repainting the ceiling and walls of the nursery only to have us decide that we no longer like the color of the trim (remember, the crown moulding has just been installed and painted). She kind of gave us an evil look when we mentioned painting all the trim in the nursery and bathroom pink, so Steve called some painter friends of his and they came out the next 3 nights to take care of it for us! I think they thought we were a bit nuts for wanting every surface in her little room pink, but that is actually what Leigh Ann suggested from the beginning, we were just a bit hesitant. Once they had it finished, I think they loved it as much as we do! And that's what we did all last week!

Aunt Glynda, Mom, Me, Tiffany & Kayla

On Saturday, my wonderful Aunt Glynda and cousins Tiffany & Kayla hosted a fabulous baby shower for little SAS and me. It was really nice to get together with the family that, as Tiffany said, we just don't get to see enough! Everyone was so sweet & generous and we are now another step closer to being ready for her. She received her most special gift so far today: a pink baby afghan made by MawMaw Fisher! She had help from four other people to complete the project, so our sweet little girl will have something that five people in her family worked on for her! How special! On top of the wonderful gifts, we had a really delicious lunch and (insert shameless plug here) adorable cupcakes made by Kayla (http://sweetness-cupcakes.blogspot.com/)! Thank you everyone for such a special day!

Steve's baby teddy bear on MawMaw's afghan

As the title of this blog is "Paint-Beach-Paint-Baby Shower-Paint-Baby Shower-Paint..." obviously there's one more thing missing...another day of painting! Mom came home with me after the baby shower to finish getting everything together so that the muralist can come first thing Monday to do the walls! I can't believe she's been so willing to spend sooooo much time on a ladder with a roller in hand, but I guess that just show's that a Nana will do anything for little SAS! As will a Daddy & a Grandpop who spent their day today assembling her crib, hanging her chandelier, unassembling the crib because I thought the mattress was too low, reassembling it, which left the mattress too high, and doing all one more time, leaving the mattress in the perfect spot! We then spent what felt like hours putting her bedding on and tying all the little bows. At this point, I wasn't entirely sure I liked the placement of her furniture, so then Daddy & Steve patiently moved everything from place to place to place.

We eventually settled on where everything should live. I promised Steve this is where I would mention that it's all exactly where he thought it should be in the first place and if I'd just listened to him, everyone would have been saved a lot of furniture moving! It's a bit annoying that his taste is better than mine some (most) of the time!!! And of course while I supervised the movement of furniture, my wonderful Mom spent one last evening painting the walls and ceiling of the bathroom. It's taken a lot of time, batting of eyelashes, and redoing of things, but finally her nursery is all put together!!! After next week, the walls will be completely finished and it will all be ready for her! Well, at least it will be after we get the windows covered to suit us! Having the walls, ceiling and trim all pink left us hating the cream colored blinds in her room, so we've now decided to have pink plantation shutters, but we still have 6 whole weeks until her due date, which should be plenty of time...