The Big Girl Room Reveal

Here are some pictures of Brooke's new room! Enjoy!

Just a plain old view of her bed:


When you walk in the room and look to the right, this is what you see:


Here's a close-up of the wall letters that I worked tirelessly to make. Pretty cute, huh? I was proud:-)


This is the wall that is straight ahead when you walk into the room. Notice the pretty flowers that we worked so hard on? I LOVE them!


The room is too big to capture the accent wall in one picture so here's the other half of the wall:


We still have to hang these up. Aren't they adorable???


Again, the room is HUGE so we have these two walls that are still bare:




For one of the walls I'm thinking of getting 4 small white pictures frames and making a frame collage. As for the other wall, I'm not sure. It's hard because the room has so much empty wall space and I am NOT creative. Over time I'm sure I'll think of something. Any ideas?

Alrighty, I'm off to my 31-week appointment. I get to schedule me 3-D ultrasound today AND of course, hear my girl's heartbeat. YAY!!!!

Random Stuff

It's been a couple of days since I've been able to get on here. I really love my blog but when life gets super busy, as it has been over the last couple of days, it gets neglected first. There have been so many cute stories and/or deep, Jillian thoughts (HAHA) that I have wanted to write about but I simply have NOT had the time. Such is life!

First things first... The big-girl-room! Brooke's new room is almost 100% complete and it's been A LOT of work. On Thursday we painted the flowers on the accent wall and it seriously made the whole room come to life. They're GORGEOUS!!! I'm super proud because I even helped, despite the fact that I originally planned on not helping due to my lack of artistic ability. I actually kind of enjoyed myself but don't tell anyone:-) We also bought new curtains and curtains rods but of course there's a story behind this... Brooke's old room had two windows that already had white canvas curtains covering them. Because we wanted to do something different with Adrienne's windows anyways, we took the existing curtains out of the nursery and bought two more sets of identical curtains (to cover the 4 windows in Brooke's room). Anyways, I took the old curtains down to wash them, in case they had dust on them or anything, so I also washed the new ones. I followed the washing instructions on the package, so as to prevent them from shrinking. It wasn't until after I spent my entire night ironing the curtains that we realized they had each shrunk 4 inches. Ridiculous! I had thrown away the original packaging and the receipt so I thought I was stuck but Wal Mart took them back with no questions asked. They have the best return policy! So, all that to say, once I get a few hours to iron the curtains... again.... I'll hang them up and then take pictures to share.

Brooke has been a TOTAL mama's girl lately. I love my girl and it's very flattering that she loves me so much, but she really doesn't want anything to do with anybody else if I'm around. I've always thought of her as a daddy's girl but lately the tables have turned. We went to a ladies get-together at a church member's house and some girls from church were asked to come watch the kids so the moms could enjoy the fellowship. Brooke refused to go with the other kids and screamed every time I encouraged her to go. John's mom was there and Brooke adores her, but she only wanted me. If I went to the bathroom or to get a drink she would scream, "Where's my mommy?" Pitiful! Also, yesterday in Sunday School she was so upset and crying for me that they had to come get me. This is so NOT like my girl but I'm thinking it's just a stage. I'm wondering how much of it is related to all the talk about her sister? I'm not sure but I hope that she resolves this a little bit in the coming weeks. If not, it will just be a lot of work but that's okay!

In other news, we had our van detailed and it looks AWESOME now!! I cannot believe how clean they made it and how they removed all of those nasty smells. It's great because now I don't feel like I'm going to get some horrible disease every time I drive it. Lol! That's always a plus!

Okay, I think I hear Brookie waking up for the day. I went in to check on her at 9:15
and she was still sound asleep so I've been kind of bumming around. Man, that kid can sure sleep lately!

I've Officially Joined the "Club"

What club is that, you may ask? Well friends, I'm the latest inductee into the van-driving-mommy-club. I'm not quite sure how I feel about it just yet but I think that I like it. After all, I have enough room for 6 passengers, a built in TV (which I don't plan on utilizing regularly), a nice CD player, rear-control air/heat, power locks and windows, a remote starter, adjustable pedals (which will enable me to not sit so close to the steering wheel, seeing as how I'm very short), and many other fun little gadgets and compartments. The van is a beautiful shade of robin's egg blue so it actually looks really nice.

Since John and I got married I have been driving around in a little Nissan Sentra but as of late, there are way too many things wrong with it to list. For instance, it has an exhaust problem that won't allow it to pass inspection (which expires April 1st), it needs a new clutch, new tires, a new catalytic converter (which is VERY pricey), and both bumpers are falling off. I think there are also a few other things that are wrong with it but I've forgotten at this point. John's dad is a mechanic and can fix things very cheaply for us... BUT, if the parts are expensive then it still costs us an arm and a leg. I think the catalytic converter was almost $800 alone. Wow! I must admit that I miss my little stick shift sedan, but I know that it had too many problems to fix.

I really love my van and it drives GREAT but here's the only catch... We bought it from a private owner so the interior is DISGUSTING. The lady had her dogs in there and everything so you can imagine the repercussions of that. It's absolutely filthy. We asked her to take some money off of the price so we could pay for it to be professionally cleaned and she agreed. Thankfully, this Saturday we're dropping it off at a car detailing place and the said that they'll have it looking and smelling new by the time they're done with it. I really look forward to having a nice CLEAN van!

Alrighty, I'm off to church now to cook dinner. That means I get to drive my dirty new van again!! Lol

Funny Times with Brooke

Brooke has been absolutely hilarious lately! Sometimes she's so serious about things that she acts like a 13-year-old and other times she's just plain old goofy. Here's some funny stories for my "records:"

*We were in Michael's the other day and over the loudspeaker someone announced, "Adrienne to the front desk." Brooke looked at John and me and said, "Adrienne? That's not my baby!"

*John asked Brooke if he was her best friend and she said, "No, daddy. My mommy's my best friend."

*Brooke LOVES her baby dolls. She has so many of them but she "tends" to all of them them and treats them like real babies. It's so precious! She pretends to nurse them (LOL), swaddle them, change their diapers, etc... The other day she was pushing them in the stroller and she said, "I'm taking them to the hospital. I'm a good mommy to my babies!"

*In order for us to get on the highway from our house we have to pass a horse farm. If, heaven forbid, Brooke forgets to look at it when we drive by she says, "I forgot, mommy. I forgot to see the horses. Please go back." It's SUCH a pain when she forgets to look at the horses so I always draw a large amount of attention to them so it's impossible for her to forget.

*About 20 minutes after we put Brooke down for her nap yesterday we heard banging over and over again. We thought that maybe she had gotten out of bed or something so John went upstairs to check on her. As it turns out, Curious George had fallen down the side of her bed and each time Brooke tried to grab him she would smack her head on the wall. John said that he listened for a few minutes and whenever she would bang her head she would say, "What's that noise?" When she discovered her daddy was watching she was a bit embarrassed. Lol

*In Sunday School yesterday they were supposed to dip their hands in paint to make hand prints on paper. I was informed that my daughter was petrified of paint and that she wouldn't go near it. Seriously, only MY kid! Haha

*We have a very, very large family between my family and John's family. Brooke has to know where each and every single one of them is at all times so our day if filled with, "Where's Aunt Alison? Where's Grammy? Where's Aunt Sarah?" This process is repeated multiple times per person until Brooke really grasps where they are and we have about 30 people who she asks about. We've tried blanket statements like, "Everyone is at home," but of course that doesn't work.

*For some reason Brooke pronounces her "s" as "f." There's a man in our church named "Scott" and Brooke pointed at him and said, "There's Mr. Fott." I've been trying to use his name as an example of how to properly pronounce the "s" sound so I'll say, "Sssssssssss-cott." Brooke now walks around and says, "Sssssssss-Fott!" Hopefully she'll catch on soon!

*During the church worship service yesterday my dad (the pastor) turned out the lights to put on quick missions video. Brooke, loudly and repeatedly, shouted, "Turn the lights on!" I was sitting up at the piano and many members of the congregation were cracking up. She's not distracting or anything, is she?

*Brooke talks about her sister constantly and the other day she said, "I'm going to be a good big sister to Adrienne." She's so excited!

The list could go on and on if I had the time to remember all of the funny stories from the last couple of weeks. Brooke has really grown up a lot lately and she truly amazes me with how smart and observant she is. I love that girl so very much:-) She is most definitely my sunshine!

Brooke's First Night in her New Room

Last night could not have gone any better!! Because John's parents didn't end up getting the mattresses to our house until a little bit later, after 9, Brooke didn't end up going to sleep until almost 10. We try to stick to a normal bedtime but she really does fine staying up late from time to time because she almost always sleeps for 12 hours a night, regardless of when she goes down.

Anyways, when we had everything all together and assembled we tucked Brooke in and she had the world's biggest smile on her face. She looked so proud and happy to be in her new bed and it was just really special! We laid in her bed for a few minutes and read her a bedtime story. After saying prayers and singing a few songs, we left the room and the princess was sound asleep. It was a restless night for me because every time she coughed or I heard a noise I would run to check on her, but we didn't end up hearing from her until 10 this morning. WOW! What was really nice is that when she woke up she didn't get out of bed, she just waited there and sang and played with her dolls. I was relieved that she didn't take advantage of her freedom and roam the house!

So yes, all of that anxiety and fear about Brooke's first night in her new room was all for nothing. It turned out to be totally fine and the fact that Brooke is so excited made it that much more amazing! When we finish hanging up pictures and wall window treatments I'll post the pictures.

Real quick, on a totally unrelated note, here is an actual conversation that I had with a Taco Bell employee this afternoon... (Mind you, she was not a teenager, she was an grown adult)

Lady: Are you pregnant?
Me: Yes.
Lady: How far along are you?
Me: I am a little over 29 weeks now.
Lady: Wow, you're just starting out. You have a long way to go!
Me: No, actually I only have about 10 weeks left. The human gestation period is only 40 weeks.
Lady: Oh. Really? That's cool then.
****Awkward silence as I wait for our order****
Me: (Mind you, I can't stand uncomfortable moments of silence so I always have to open my big mouth and interject totally non-relevent dialogue.) If I was this big and just starting my pregnancy out I would...
Lady: Shoot yourself?

WHAT IS THIS WORLD COMING TO???????????????????? I'm not sure if I am more amazed at her lack of social tact or the fact that she has absolutely NO idea how long the human gestation period is. Seriously??? I'm BLOWN AWAY! Lol

Unexpected Emotions

All this talk about the big-girl-room has been pretty exciting. In fact, so exciting that I haven't sat down and really thought about what all of it means. As I put Brooke to sleep in her crib last night and rocked her while I quietly prayed over her, it hit me... Things will be never be just like that again. Tonight she'll be transitioned into a big bed and she'll be in a brand new room, leaving the glider and all other things "baby" behind in the nursery for Adrienne.

I put my girl down to bed last night and though she was happy, I left her room and shed a few tears. How could it be that my baby is now really a big girl? When she was first born, 2 seemed so old and nobody could have warned me that this day was coming so very quickly. I cannot believe how quickly the days filled with cooing, nursing, and crawling turned into days filled with conversations, temper tantrums, and independence. In so many ways Brooke will always be my baby and I'll always see her as such, but when it boils down to it, she really is a big girl.

I know that after this transitional stage is over that things will soon feel "normal" again, and I'm holding out for that day. It also helps to know that our empty nursery will soon be filled with another precious life that God has entrusted into our care. Nonetheless, change is so hard, isn't it?

Wish us luck tonight! Hoepfully tomorrow I'll find time to update on how the big girl princess did in her new room.

The Big-Girl-Room in Progress

Over the last couple of days my dad and my aunt (from out of town) have been painting Brooke's new room in preparation for the furniture to arrive. When they finished painting on Tuesday I was elated over how beautiful the room looked and I couldn't wait until the furniture arrived. Well, a few minutes ago the delivery men dropped off and assembled Brooke's furniture and it's absolutely gorgeous! After all of that looking around and indecisiveness about what furniture to get, I feel like we made the right choice!

We painted 3 of the walls a bright, buttery yellow and we have a light blue accent wall that John's aunt is painting acrylic flowers on next week. It looks great now but those flowers are really going to add a very special touch! The sheets have flowers on them and John's aunt is using a projector so she can trace them on the wall... That way we'll be able to replicate them!

We're going to Sam's Club to pick up the mattresses tomorrow night so unfortunately I can't make the bed or anything until then. We'll save a bunch of money by getting the mattresses there so I guess one more night won't kill me! Apart from that, I just need to get some window treatments and a few little pictures for the walls and the big-girl-room will officially be complete! Once this project is done we'll be able to move on to Adrienne's room.

Brooke is SO EXCITED about her new room! She's been napping for a while so she hasn't actually seen the furniture, but she's been in her new room an awful lot just scoping it out. She walks in and she says, "My big girl room! NOT Adrienne's!" I'm a little anxious to see how she'll do in her new bed but I'm hoping that the transition won't be too tough. We bought a rail for the side of her bed so I'm not really too worried about her falling out, just that she'll use her new found freedom to escape.

Once we're completely done with the room I'll post pictures. Until then, use your imagination! Lol