Baby Fuller update!

Here we are at almost 31 weeks. It's going by so fast but still so slow on the days I'm just feeling like a beached whale and it turns into an Olympic sport just to turn over in my bed at night. My doctor told me today-- pregnancy is just one big symptom. It'll be over before I know it. He is right. I need to take these last 9 weeks and enjoy them more than I have the last 30. Easier said than done but I fully plan on giving it my best shot.

Everything is looking great with baby. I've gained 10 pounds--pretty sure 5 of those are in my face haha! He moves like crazy and keeps the weirdest hours. It makes me a little nervous that he will be a night owl. I typically wake up a few times a night. 12ish, and 3ish and go back to sleep around 5 most mornings. I know it's my body trying to prepare me for all those night time feedings I have in my future!

I started Sam in school this week. He will be going a few times a week. I went back and forth a thousand times trying to decide if it was the right choice but I know it will be. He thrives on the interaction with the other kids and I'm happy with the curriculum the school has for him. He's a smart boy--just needs more direction than I know how to give. I plan on starting on the nursery next week while he is in school. I have SO much to do..I'm going to make myself a list here to try to remember everything

1. Replace fan (it's got a terrible skateboard fan that puts out little to no light, it's gotta go!)
2. Clean out all the drawers and replace with little clothes
3. Get his blanket sewn and embroidered.
4. Switch the dressers from our room to his room.
5. Check on the glider at Target for a restock.
6. Start a list of all the little items I need to start picking up (soaps, socks, lotions...etc)
7. Clean the changing table mess (it's just piled high of random stuff)
8. Move bookshelves and replace all the décor
9. Order diaper bag
10. Rearrange the room until I'm happy with the lay out..........the hardest part for me! I rearrange rooms 5 times before I'm happy with them.

all I've done so far is get his crib painted and a crib skirt put on it.

Friday Home Favorites

I think with the weather finally staying consistently warmer I've started getting the itch to decorate my house. You know, open windows, light candles, have a nice breeze blow through, smell flowers--CLEAN all my old junk out. Change up my stale look a little bit. Here are some things I've found and loved lately. (none of these are my pictures ALL are from Pinterest/Instagram)

I saw this sign last night and I can NOT get over how perfect it is and how perfectly this person styled this! I saved it because there's a pretty good chance I'm going to have to try my hand at recreating it.

I'm wanting to have my husband build me these shelves for our kitchen. I have a little skinny table in there to decorate and it's been sitting there super awkwardly for months now, turned into a catch all. I thought these would be adorable above it. Too bad I can't shiplap the kitchen too. But we have a LOT of work to do in the kitchen, so maybe another time.

Love this tray! I saw it on a facebook group I'm in this morning, I had to save it. I want it for my kitchen to put my canisters on. So pretty!

This bedding is something I've started saving up for. I just moved Sam into his big boy room and working on getting him adjusted to that before baby brother gets here. My friends have raved over these beddys and hey if it's something that'll help Sam make his bed I'm ALL in favor of that! Hopefully before baby gets here, I can have it added. I think it's something that will last him a long time. That alone makes it worth the price.

Clearly, I'm really digging the wood and botanical look lately.

Now, if only it was easy as pinning a pin and it showing up in my house!

Baby Fuller

I'm officially 20 weeks (well a little over but close enough) I've been terrible about taking pictures of my growing belly which is REALLY growing. I'm still pretty sick 80% of the time but it's bound to get better eventually.

We also found out what gender this sweet baby is! I had really no intuition either way. Old Wives tales all pointed to girl, Chinese calendar said girl.....enter me panicking thinking how the heck do I be a girl mom, I just sort've figured out how to be a BOY mom. God knew this. Trent was so positive it was a girl that he was trying to prepare me not to cry in the sono room. Now, please know i'd be thrilled with EITHER sex but the thought of something different scared the heck out of me.

The night before our sono I had a dream my first baby dream (finally) of what this little toot was. In my dream he was a little red headed boy! I told Trent as soon as I woke up that I knew finally what it was. Which worried him even more that I was going to be disappointed. So I'm sure you could imagine our surprise when we were in the sono and the tech said "Okay, what do you think you see??" and I practically yelled "ITS A BOY I SEE A BOY...RIGHT?" haha Trent and my sister made her check about 15 times to confirm it was a boy. God knew good and well I couldn't afford the adorable clothing for a girl haha!

So--since I couldn't convince Trent to not find out the sex I did convince him we aren't announcing the name until he's born. Mainly, because before we knew the sex and I was popping off names I got some rude responses on names I truly loved so now everyone can just wait and get at least one surprise out of it. PS Why do people think they get an opinion on what you name your child? Anything other than "oh that's such a sweet name" is not acceptable. I don't care if you don't like it you don't tell the hormonal mother trying to name her precious child the reasons that YOU don't like it. And "Oh that's different" isn't any better. Just hush and tell that momma what a beautiful name and what a beautiful baby it will be. *rant over*

I hadn't felt him move until probably this last week due to where my placenta is. Now I'm feeling him a lot, Trent still hasn't got to feel him. I put a remote on my stomach and just like Sam he tried to kick it off. I also spent all of Sunday finding all of Sam's old baby gear and getting it cleaned up and ready to be stored inside rather than in the attic. I also got his car seat cover in the mail. Sometimes I still feel like I'm jumping the gun doing anything for him even at 20 weeks, I was the same way with Sam. Always just expecting my body to fail us. I'm working on keeping my faith for this sweet boy.

Sam likes to look at my belly, he puts his hand on it and kisses it pretty often. He will be a really great big brother. Poor Braxi probably won't know what hit him!!

A sweet reminder I saw on facebook.

Hope everyone has a great day!

Cortney

DIY Faux Shiplap Wall

Like probably 95% of the women in America (or whoever watches HGTV) I, too, want to be JoAnna Gaines! Since that's apparently not an option I went for the next best thing to being her. Having my very own (faux) shiplap wall. Although I'd love to have the real deal, this momma is on a budget and splurging on my design wants isn't an option for us. So I gave myself a 50ish dollar budget and begged my husband to help me do it. Luckily, he was on a long weekend so he was bored out of his mind and all up for a project to keep him busy.

So off to Home Depot we went. I found the thinnest piece of underlayment, it was around 12.00. We had HD cut them down to 6" strips for us. Trent could've done this part but if we could get it done and save ourselves the time, why not!

While they cut those down I went and picked out a paint color for the boards.  I've had several people ask me what color I used. Spun Cotton. (Ignore the purple I was trying to talk my husband into letting me paint our room purple haha--denied!)

Once we got home we sanded down every strip and started deciding how we wanted to place it. We could have done straight strips or cut them and stagger them. I asked my facebook friends which I should do--they unanimously picked to stagger the boards. So we did 1st row long piece, short piece, 2nd row short piece long piece, 3rd row one long piece and just alternated that pattern for it. We secured them with small finishing nails in our staple gun. You can use glue also. We just thought the nails would work best for us. Feel free to do what works best for you! Also, don't forget to space out your strips. We found a nickel worked best for us...that and eye balling it. Some pieces were a little wonky so we just made it work.

Getting closer!

My big helper! He loves this wall, he always comes into our room and says "Momma I built this!" He's soo proud of all his helping.

Okay onto the next step. Once you've gone through picking your board design and securing it to your wall (don't forget your spacer!) Then comes the part that I hated the MOST. PAINTING. Let me tell you right now, this wood is going to DRINK your paint. I ended up doing 4 coats of it before I was happy. It took longer than actually putting the boards up. I used just a regular brush. Nothing fancy. If you could see any of the green wall between I'd just take my brush and push the paint through to the wall to cover it up. Easy fix.

Here's the first two coats.

And for the Grand Finale! Here's the finished product

It turned out exactly how I hoped it would. I still need to find bedding. I'd like to add some gingham into it. I'll post my inspiration picture that I found on pinterest below.

Here's one last look at the before, during and after(until I can find new bedding!)

I hope you all who are also shiplap lovers give it a shot! It's well worth it. It all in all cost us around 50.00 and about a day and a half (that includes 4 coats of paint and getting the room all put back together and all of that with a 3 year old and a pregnant momma) Let me know if you try it or if you have any questions! Not that I'm an expert but I can help with what I know! Have a great day!

Shopping List

* Thin underlayment

*Small finishing nails

*Staple gun/nail gun (we used staple because it's what we own)

*White Paint/Paint brush

*Have Home Depot to cut for you! Ours didn't cost us a thing thankfully!

Simple Steps

*Cut boards

*Sand boards

*Pick out design layout

*Measure/Cut to size for staggering if you choose

*Secure to wall in desired pattern with your choice of nails or glue

*Paint/stain/leave natural--your choice

*admire your hard work and pretend like you're JoAnna Gaines for a little bit!

If I left out something that you notice, let me know--Trying to type this up with my 3 year old running wild!

Cortney

Round 2

Sam has some exciting news to share!

Wild, right? I always thought I was a one and done kind of parent. I love the dynamics of my little family, I'm looking forward to see the changes this little nugget brings and to see Sam slip into the role of a big brother.

I pray he's caring and loving towards the baby. Someday protective and proud to be a big brother. I hope he learns to share haha but more than anything I just hope he loves this baby and knows how much his dad and I love him, that no matter what he's always my baby always the one person in the world who changed my world.

Probably not a popular topic because it's not sunshine and unicorns but I've felt a grieving period since finding out about baby 2. I've been grieving the "loss" of my time with Sam. Of our days of running to town with ease or just going for a drive. Days of spending hours upon hours of just the two of us, no attention struggles--unless you count Braxi! I know everyone says my heart will immediately love two, I look forward to that feeling because at this exact moment I don't know how it's possible, I appreciate knowing that it is indeed not only possible but is exactly what will happen without a second thought. Life will be different and Sam and I will adjust accordingly I'm sure eventually I'll look back and wonder how I did life without the two of them together.

I'm hoping in about 3 weeks we will find out the gender. I had thought about not finding out but Trent laughed that idea right out the window.  We are planners. So far this pregnancy has been the exact opposite of Sam's. I've been sick since week 6 I'm on week 13 now so I hope I'm at the tail end of it. My whole body hurts probably doesn't help that I'm basically at the weight I was when I GAVE BIRTH with Sam haha that's not good yall I'm guessing that's causing all the aches and pains and the headaches are intense. I've pretty much been the whiniest most annoying pregnant person ever. I'm even annoying myself at this point with all my complaining haha I know it'll get better though. I'm hoping to keep up with this one better than I did with Sam's so far, not off to a good start but once I start feeling better I hope to post monthly updates.