11 months old

Little Anna Banana turned 11 months old yesterday. She is quite the little tornado these days, crawling all over the place and getting into everything. She really likes to help herself to cereal in the pantry, pull all the kitchen towels out of the drawer, throw every magazine off the coffee table, get into Eli's dog bowl, dump every toy and book out of her closet, pull Catherine's clothes down in her closet, and anything else she can think of. And she's so cute when she does it that at times it's hard to teach her not to. She has learned the word "no" and can actually shake her head "yes" and "no". One day I told her "No" when she kept throwing her food and cup down at dinner and she looked at me and shook her head yes. I had to turn away and laugh.

Okay, so she has her eyes closed in this picture, but it lets you see how incredibly long her eyelashes are. They're gorgeous and people comment on them all the time.

With her favorite green blanket and two fingers in her mouth. This pretty much sums up her day.
At 11 months, she weighs a little over 18lbs and is 29 inches long. She has gotten somewhat picky about what to eat. Her favorites are applesauce, cereal, oatmeal, sweet potatoes, chicken nuggets, and crackers. She can pull up on everything and crawl all over the place (hence the previous mentioned tornado). She loves Catherine and Will crazily and laughs at them all the time. Jay is teaching her to give high-fives and she likes to wave bye-bye. It's a lot of fun to see her little personality developing. She has been sick a lot this past month. She got a bad cold that developed into an ear infection. She's still on antibiotics but feels much better now. I can't believe it will be her birthday in just 4 short weeks. Happy 11 months Anna!

"I not tired"

2pm: "I not tired. I not need a nap. I really really not."

4pm: Drooling on the couch.

Creation Sings

"Creation sings the Father's song

He calls the sun to wake the dawn

and run the chorus of day,

till evening falls in crimson rays

His fingerprints on flakes of snow,

His breath upon the spinning globe

He charts the eagle's flight;

commands the newborn baby's cry

Hallelujah!

Let all creation stand and sing

Hallelujah!

Fill the earth with songs of worship;

Tell the wonders of creation's King."

The beautiful weather we've had the past week and the first signs of spring are enough to keep me singing throughout the day. All day yesterday my heart kept singing the chorus above, even when I wasn't thinking about it. I love to see creation stand and sing and remind us to worship our Creator!

Bedroom Options

After re-doing the bathroom, I wanted to update the bedroom some too. It is being painted a tan color next week to coordinate with the tile (the largest of the color swatches painted on the wall by the window). I also wanted to update the bedding and curtains. We've been using my quilt from college and the curtains from the people who lived here before us. But now I'm having a hard time deciding which bedroom option I like.

My initial bedroom idea that gave me my inspiration colors for the bathroom were the curtains below (Vanessa blue from Pottery Barn). It's the same blue background as the bathroom walls with a tan/orange/reddish floral pattern. I've always liked these curtains. I also picked up the matching shams (although you can't really see them very well in this pic) and was thinking of leaving the rest of the bedding a calm ivory with blue accents, maybe even throw in a little orange or something. So that was my plan.

But then I went to the PB Outlet last week and they happened to have a quilt there that I really like too in the same blue color. They also had the blue silk dupioni drapes (some of which I've always wanted). So I got this whole ensemble too.
Now I have two complete sets and have to decide what to keep and what to return. The lady at the PB store says you usually want your pattern on the bed and to keep the curtains simpler since the bed is the first thing you see when you walk in. In that regard, I agree that the 2nd option probably looks better. But I really like the fabric of the first option, so I keep just changing them back and forth to try and decide which to keep. Any opinions?

Bathroom Reveal Part 2

Here's the rest of the bathroom reveal.

Before: The vanities were white (badly painted white with lots of scuffs and scratches) and the carpet from the bedroom continued through the vanities and into the closet. The walls were beige. It was okay, but definitely lacked some personality.

After: Lots more personality! The blue/green walls are one of my favorite colors. The tiles goes through the entire area. I painted the bathroom cabinets brown and we had the mirrors framed and painted the same brown. I love it and still get excited every time I walk in there!

Bathroom Reveal Part 1

The bathroom is so close to being finished that I can't wait to start sharing some pics! The only things we're lacking are a shower door and dimmer switches on the lights. And I need to make up my mind about some bathmats. By Thursday, we'll be showering in there and moving back out of the guest bathroom. Yeah!

Just for a reminder, here's the before photo: Lovely typical 1980's white tile, with some blue accents tiles and lots of cracks and chips, and a leaky shower door. The shower itself was so plain that I forgot to even take a picture of it. And let's remember why we started this whole project. The shower pan and liner until the tiles was leaking into the ceiling downstairs.

And here's the after! Beautiful tile, some really fun paint, even a new toilet (the tall kind for Jay). This picture also shows the least expensive of my updates--the cabinet above the toilet. It has a clear door on it that always bothered me because who really wants to look at boxes of feminine products? I contemplated buying a different cabinet, but didn't want to spend $ on it. Then I looked for storage baskets to put things inside, but couldn't' find any narrow and tall enough. So I finally decided to put some scrapbook paper inside the clear glass, and viola! You can't see through it any more.
One of Jay's favorite features is that they moved the shower head up a couple of inches for him. We also have 2 shelves for bath products and a seat so I can prop up my leg to shave.
Here's even the shower floor:
I'll post more pics of the rest of the bathroom soon. I feel like I'm ready to go on a vacation in my own bathroom!

My Little Sweet Potato

Our little Anna's favorite food to eat these days is sweet potatoes. I'll dice 2 or 3 sweet potatoes and roast them in the oven to make them soft and perfectly bite-sized for her. The other day I did this and when she saw me take them out of the oven, she started jumping up and down, kicking her legs, and shrieking. That girl loves some sweet potatoes!

Here's the sweetness herself with some gorgeous sunshine on a winter day

She wanted to check out the goods. (don't worry, they had cooled off by now, and no I don't just let her hang out on the island by herself) and do notice that she has her green lovey blanket with her. she takes this everywhere.
then she just sat there and ate sweet potatoes right off the baking pan until I finally took her down so her little tummy wouldn't explode!

Fashion Conundrum

So what do you do when your skinny daughter's pants all look like capris

in the middle of winter?

You buy her cute tall boots of course!

10 months old!

Anna is 10 monthd old! --well, almost 10 1/2, i'm a little behind on this post! Her personality is really starting to shine, and we love watching her, playing with her, and laughing with her. We are so thankful for her every day!

She now weighs a little over 18 lbs (22%) and is 29 inches long (75-80%). She is thoroughly attached to her little green blanket and takes it with her everywhere. She is exploring new foods to eat: blueberries, strawberries, chicken, peas, and cream corn are some of her current favorites. She doesn't want any baby food or pureed food, except applesauce. She is great at playing peek-a-boo all by herself. She likes to pull Catherine and Will's hair. She still wants to be carried around most of the day, and is finally sleeping all night long (usually 7pm to 8am). She talks and babbles and squeals a lot.

I can't believe that in a matter of WEEKS it will be her birthday. By the 3rd baby, you really start to realize how quickly the baby stage passes. It's bittersweet. I love watching her grow and learn and already look forward to hearing her have conversations with Catherine and Will, but at the same time I don't want her to get any bigger :) We love you, Anna Banana!

Bathroom Progress

When we moved into our house, we said that we would like to eventually update the master bathroom. You know, we were thinking in 5+ years or so. Then in the fall, we discovered that the tile in the master shower was leaking into the ceiling downstairs. So we bumped up that redo a good bit sooner. We've been lucky to have a guest bathroom downstairs to use while we got ready for the updates. We're not doing a complete makeover: we're leaving cabinets, countertops, the bathtub, and some lights and fixtures. We are redoing all tile in the shower, taking out carpet in front of the vanities and in the closet to put tile there too, painting, new shower fixtures, toilet, some new light fixtures, mirror frames, new towel bars, etc. We're really excited about the updates and can't wait to be able to shower in here soon.

Here's a demo in progress picture. This is about 1/2 of the tile and debris they removed from this little shower and toilet room. I couldn't believe how much stuff came out of this little space.

The shower all cleaned out. And one of Jay's favorite parts, they moved the shower head up a couple of inches taller for him!

I'm only giving you a sneak peek at the tile in there until it's completely done. This is one of my favorite parts--the mosaic tile trim for the shower.
I can't wait until it's all done (hopefully by the end of next week or so) and then I''ll post some more before and after pictures.