Travel Often

“I see my path, but I don’t know where it leads. Not knowing where I’m going is what inspires me to travel it.” — Rosalia de Castro

Love Deeply, but Laugh Along the Way

"Happiness is only real when shared." - Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild

View Marriage as an Adventure

"Love is a flower which turns into fruit at marriage." ~Finnish Proverb

Fuel your body with GOOD (It's the only one you get)

He who has health has hope; and he who has hope has everything. - Arabian Proverb

Open your Soul to Motherhood

A Grand Adventure is About to Begin - Winnie the Pooh

A New Kind of Love is Born

Mothers hold their children's hands for a short while, but their hearts forever.

Monday, January 2, 2012

African-Themed Baby Nursery - Entering Month 7

Week 25

Head to heels, your baby now measures about 13 1/2 inches. Her weight — a pound and a half — isn't much more than an average rutabaga, but she's beginning to exchange her long, lean look for some baby fat. As she does, her wrinkled skin will begin to smooth out and she'll start to look more and more like a newborn. She's also growing more hair — and if you could see it, you'd now be able to discern its color and texture. (babycenter.com)

The Walls Painted in the Nursery - Step One

We all made it through the stomach flu and were able to put the finishing touches on the baby's nursery! My dad kicked off the painting - then was hit with the flu - but somehow managed to get through a lot more than we ever expected. Such a trooper! My dad is awesome.
Grandpa Gary painting the sky, clouds, rolling hills and tree

Then my younger brother Mark came up for Christmas and outlined a bunch of animals for us to fill in and paint. I'm mad I didn't get any photos of him in action since he's such a good artist. (Sorry, we had to erase your angry birds and the picture of Snoopy peeing, Mark...)
Karl (i.e. Dad) painting all the intricate details on his favorite zebra

Karl and I spent the New Year's weekend painting lots of crazy animals and we can finally say the walls are completed! Thanks to my parents, who suggested and bought sticker decals, we used a majority of those as well! And as you can see...there are a variety of animals throughout the room. But I tried (and I mean tried) to refrain myself from making things too busy.
The African jungle on two of the walls in baby's nursery

We tried to make a non-gender specific room as we could. Not too feminine and not too masculine either. I wanted a giraffe in the corner of the room where eventually we can make into a height measuring device. We figure baby won't be hitting three to four feet anytime soon and we will paint this in when our toddler knows what's going on. I always remember how cool I felt when mom and dad would measure me and I started growing taller than my older brother!
Our friendly giraffe (Mark didn't draw this one)

I'm wondering if I should add an elephant somewhere...like a mama and baby marching up the hill? Hmmm. But for now, I'm so loving this room. How can you not be happy when you walk in?
Coolest animals ever! I might have to add some flowers later...and more leaves
Peek a Boo!
Love these little guys around the closet!

Our next step is to get the guest bed out of the room and move the furniture around into the right spots. Right now everything is kind of piled on top of each other. But we're LOVING this room!!

We're so lucky we had some helpers! Thank you!!!!

More to come when more furniture and stuff starts coming in! There will be a completed nursery picture at some point!