one more try...

I'm not sure why it isn't working, so I'm going to try to paste the link in here a different way...

http://www.olivekids.com/toddlerbedding.html

Toddler Bedding

For some reason, the link I included for the toddler bedding didn't work. I'm going to try again.

Organizing Frenzy!!!

Nesting season in my pregnancy has hit! I'm going nuts trying to get many things accomplished before our baby arrives in a few months. Today I was cleaning the back closet by our garage and putting all kinds of things in order. One thing I'm really excited about is that I took an over the door pocket shoe holder and placed it on the door to our laundry room, which is right by our garage door entry, and now it houses some of our shoes as well as hats & mittens & other random things. I love it and it has cleared a LOT of clutter from the closet & the floor! And the other great thing is that I already had the shoe holder from my grad. school days. I'm glad I hung onto it! Something which I'm slightly embarassed to say is that I still had several boxes with 3 ring binders full of notes and papers from college and grad. school, and I have been going through and keeping only the few things which might be of use to me in my teaching now. That has eliminated a LOT of paper clutter, for which I'm thankful! It was a lot of fun going back and reading some of my papers from college, because they sort of give a glimpse into that stage of my life and what I was thinking about, dreaming about and living. I loved college and grad. school and I'm thankful that I had such wonderful teachers and opportunities to learn and grow.

Another fun thing is that we're getting ready to decorate a "big girl room" for Kristi, and I'm so excited about it. I have spent many hours looking for just the right toddler bedding and bed, and contemplating whether or not to keep her in the crib and get another crib for the next baby...or put her in the toddler bed...or just put her on a twin size mattress on the floor...but I really feel like we're doing the right thing to try the toddler bed. She'll be two in May, and I want to get her transitioned before Baby Boy comes into our world in July. So, we're hoping to get all painted and decorated in her room in the next few weeks and start the transition. The toddler bedding that I found for Kristi is just adorable, and it has a tea party theme. We're planning on putting polka dots and tea pots painted on the wall here and there to make it more whimsical and inviting in her room! And I'm hoping to sew some curtains too. Here's the link for bedding, and this company has so many awesome things to choose from that are not "character" related... which I think is really cool.

Erik is busily scraping wallpaper goop from our kitchen and we're hoping to paint the kitchen soon too! Exciting times for decorating are here. He is such an amazingly resourceful, talented and helpful man, and I'm very thankful for him!!!

Oh, and Baby Boy seems to be doing fine in my tummy. Kristiana has been saying "Baby Brudder in Mama's tummy" and then she comes up and kisses me and pats my belly. It is very cute.

Blessings to you all.

Raspberry Lip and Other Adventures...

Wowsers, I haven't posted in a very long time, but there are a lot of great reasons for that! Life has been so full and busy and I'm thankful for the things that have happened. Erik & I had the wonderful opportunity to take a long weekend vacation to Charleston, South Carolina the last few days of February and first few days of March. It was just great to be together and to see a lovely old city with so much history! The weather was AMAZING for us...sunny every day and it got up to 65 degrees, which felt so nice! When we left Minnesota, it had been only about 13 degrees, so it was a huge shock to our systems to be in the warmth. We saw Fort Sumter where the Civil War began, we walked along the beach on the little coastal islands where we saw two washed up jellyfish & some dolphins swimming in the wake of a huge freight ship, we went for a carriage ride in old Charleston and learned a bunch of historical and fun trivia and saw gorgeous old homes and other establishments, we walked through the famous Charleston market and saw ladies weaving sweet grass baskets, we went to the beautiful Magnolia Plantation & Gardens where we toured the plantation house and then also saw the gardens and swamp area that are now maintained the by Audubon Society...and I think we saw probably 5 alligators, which was great! I had never seen alligators and really really wanted to, so that was a fun highlight for me. While we were at the plantation garden place we met the wife of Kevin Costner's photo stand in, and they are a really neat Christian family. There were some connections that Erik was able to make with them from his past, and that was cool. Didn't get to meet the photo stand-in guy though because he was off working on a new Kevin film in the Charleston area. I'll have to see it now! We also ate at a bunch of amazing restaurants and each probably gained 5 pounds over the weekend. I felt like a beached whale when we were flying home that Sunday! The food was AMAZING! We had some good southern favorites like fried green tomatoes & crab cakes, and I also had some fresh North Carolina stream trout - that was incredible. One of the restaurants we ate at was called "High Cotton" and it was really fancy. Good thing we went there for lunch and not dinner, because I don't think we would've had the appropriate attire for dinner. If you have seen the film "The Notebook" there is a dining room restaurant scene that was filmed in that restaurant. Now I'll have to watch that again too. All in all, it was a fantastic weekend. We felt so footloose and fancy free, and decided that it would be fun to have this "babymoon" before our little baby boy comes in July. Thanks to my parents for watching Little Bug while we were gone. She had such a great time over there and we felt so content knowing that she was being well cared for.

About the raspberry lip, that was today's adventure! Kristi & I were downstairs and as we were getting ready to come back up, she fell and landed her cute little mouth on the hard cement floor, causing her to bite her lip pretty hard. There was blood everywhere, and I didn't know what to do! We've never had an incident like that. So, I called calm & collected Daddy & asked him, and he said (while daughter is screaming in the background), "just put a cool washcloth in her mouth & maybe have her suck on an ice cube, or put the ice cube inside the washcloth." So, I did that, and it really helped. I tried giving her a popsicle but she didn't want it because it was "too cold." Anyway, her teeth are still intact, and her raspberry lip is puffy and there, but she's doing okay. A little Tylenol & some teething gel spread on her lip did the trick and she's outside playing in the snow right now with Daddy.

Well, enough of my adventures for one day. I'll try to post some pictures soon. Blessings to all of you.