4th of July & Pancakes

Happy Independence Day!!

Yesterday was Independence Day and I woke up with one thing and one thing only on my mind. Not America, not my freedom... no.... that one thing was.....Pancakes. I had to have them. I never want pancakes, but yesterday morning I could not stop thinking about them. I got up and looked in the pantry and *GASP* there was no Bisquik. This is probably because I make pancakes about once a year. Luckily the internet is my BFF and I quickly found an easy recipe and my first time pancakes from scratch turned out wonderfully! The batter made way to much so I made the dogs some extras and made one "MEGA pancake" for Casey to use as a frisbee for the dogs.

Behold MEGA PANCAKE!!!!

BOW to MEGA PANCAKE!!

After "Pancake Mania" we rearranged the guest rooms to consolidate into one room so we will have room in the nursery.

Yesterday afternoon we headed to Chris & Jessica's for their 4th of July block party. Normally we have a 4th of July party at our house, but this year it was nice to have a break. Here is a pic of Casey, myself, and the bump. :)

Nursery: Phase 1

And the color for the nursery is.......... GREY!

I know what you are thinking. Grey/Gray??? For a nursery?? WHY?!!? Aren't nurseries supposed to be painted pastel colors and have cartoon characters in them? For me... no. I want something chic, functional, and a color on which bright colors will pop. Grey is my favorite "color" so it makes perfect sense to me. (Cue Counting Crows jokes... and yes I do feel so symbolic)

On Saturday we had our wonderful friends over to help paint the nursery and to hang out and BBQ. I am SO thankful that everyone helped us out and it's such a relief to have such a major part of the nursery finished this early. Here are some pictures:

Casey already annoyed at me taking pictures.

Chris working hard.

Graham, Amanda, and Mike taking an ice cream cake break.

Nursery: Before

Here are some before pictures of what will be Baby P's nursery. Excuse the mess, it's a mixture of teaching stuff, extra comforters, art supplies, and me cleaning a closet out to start organizing.

Nursery Ideas

Right now I am obsessed with having a super cute, stylish, and functional nursery. Since moving into this house 3 years ago, I haven't really taken the time to fully decorate any one room. It's always been decorated "good enough". I am REALLY looking forward to getting started on the nursery. Hopefully we will paint this weekend... that is IF we can find "the perfect nursery grey".

Yes, I said grey and nursery in the same sentence. Grey/Gray has been my favorite color for the past 4 or 5 years (yeah, yeah, kind of like in that Counting Crow's song) and I can't imagine a better "neutral" backdrop for the colorful ideas I have for this nursery. So yes, the walls will be a beautiful medium grey.

As for the other colors, since we are not planning to find out the sex of Baby Page we will be doing a gender neutral nursery in yellows, turquoise/teals, with splashes of orange or pink depending on whether Baby P is a precious baby girl or a bouncing baby boy. Here are some photos of nurseries I love and am drawing inspiration from.

I want yellow bedding similar to this. We'll probably have to have it custom made on Etsy.

LOVE the color scheme in this sweet nursery. I also love the pinwheels and want to incorporate them somehow.

Love the grey walls with the colorful accents.

This is the color grey that I want. I really like the turquoise dresser.

Baby, Baby, Baby

Here's my first of I'm sure many, belly posts:

12 weeks

Our 12 1/2 appointment with Dr. DenHartog

Baby Page :)

2011: The year of the baby

Holy cow do I have a lot of pregnant friends!

Here is a list of my family and friends (off the top of my head) who are currently pregnant or just gave birth this year:

My favorite cousin Jen (she and I are 2 weeks apart in age): Gave birth to Rylan in April.
Liz Myers Gleason: Twin girls due in July.
Lacy Rieger Akkerman: Baby boy due in August
My cousin Tarah: Baby girl due in September.
Megan Hartwig Williams: Baby girl due in late October/Early November.
Maegan Manning McNeely: Baby boy due in October.
Christy Meyer-Litchfield: Baby ? due in November (Update: BABY BOY!!)
Me: Due in December!

And those are just the girls that I'm close to! It seems like everyone is having babies and what a blessing it is to have so many pregnant friends right now. :)

For the past 5 days I've been in Longview visiting my folks, seeing friends, and I also got the honor of co-hosting my dear friend Lacy's baby shower. Lacy and I have been friends since 3rd grade and I love that we can go months without talking and pick up just like we saw each other yesterday. Luckily we're usually in touch a little more than that. Lacy's baby shower was so cute and she was literally showered with gifts - more presents than I've ever seen at one given time! How wonderful to prepare for the arrival of sweet little Camden Drew Akkerman. :)

Here are some pics from this weekend:

Lacy's cake - it was an "All Star" sports theme - so cute!

Pregnant friends!

Daddy caught me laughing - Abby, Jen, and me after dinner.

Me and Baby Rylan. He was so good, except for right here. He got a little fussy because his bottle wasn't coming fast enough. :)

Me and Ms. Abby, my God daughter. She's so funny!

Happy Birthday Kel

Today we went over to Kelli's house to celebrate her birthday with her family and friends. While this might seem morbid to some, it is what Kel would have wanted. She loved bringing people together which is why I am friends with so many different people that seem to only have one thing in common, we all loved Kelli. On the way to Kelli's, C and I stopped and got some pink balloons to release. Upon releasing them this afternoon, they didn't seem to climb very quickly but did drift west. I decided they were going to the mall, which is exactly what Kelli would have wanted to do today. We miss and love you so much friend. Happy Birthday!

Kel and I on her birthday in 2009, last year she was in Venice for her birthday so we didn't get a pic.

Birthday Kelli! :)

Pink balloons in honor of Kelli