Already One Month

My perfect daughter is already a month old! Where, oh where did that time go?!?! I just blinked and now she is smiling at me and learning to lift her head off of my shoulder. We went to the doctor on Monday this week and she has gained one pound, 6 ounces since our last visit. Anna is up to 9 pounds, 12 ounces and 22 inches long. Everyone says she still looks little but she seems huge to me. Way too big to be my newborn. I put her in a very cute onsie and pants yesterday to go shopping and the outfit was almost too small for her!! This is the same outfit that I put her in to go to the doctor for the first time just last month! She is starting to fill out some of the 3 month outfits that I have for her and leave behind her newborn stuff. While I am estatic that she is healthy and growing at a normal pace, I am sad that she will very soon want to pull away from me and start to explore things. I know I'm getting ahead of myself and she will need me for many more years to come, but how quickly are those years going to go by? I would swear to myself that it was just yesterday I was jumping up and down and hugging Matt so tight I think he thought I was trying to strangle him because we had just found out I was pregnant. And now I have this amazing little work of living art and she is sprouting up before my very eyes.
How on earth do mothers deal with this???

My Beautiful Anna

My newborn is all of 5 days old and is absolutely perfect. I had a wonderful pregnancy and probably complained way more than I should have.
We went to the hospital Monday night to check in and I was really thinking that they would induce me at that time. But no! They just hooked me up to five different machines just to monitor me and the baby and left me to try and sleep in a strange room. Poor Matt had to try to sleep on this little pull out couch with those awful hospital pillows. Then the doctor comes in at 4:30 a.m. and gives me the medicine to start my contractions. Then throughout the day I met more nurses than I could keep track of. They were all super great and I wish I could have gotten to know them all better.

Then at 3 p.m. Melissa (my nurse at the time) told me I was finally ready to push. My doctor barely got there in time to catch Anna on her way out! She was born at 3:32 p.m. and I don't think I have stopped smiling since. I love her so much and am super happy with my little family.

Anna's very first picture ever!! She's beautiful :-)

Daddy and Daughter in the hospital room.

I have the adoring new mother look on! I think it's funny.

I LOVE FALL!!

I was driving home from work today and I saw some trees that have already changed from green to gold. I LOVE it!!!! I think it is the most beautiful season and I look forward to it all summer long. Here is my top five reasons for why Fall is the best:

1. We have had our windows open and the a/c off for the last 4 days because I don't have allergies in the fall.

2. I can wear jeans without getting hot. This is on the list because I HATE shorts and almost refuse to wear them during the summer.

3. The colors are amazing and different on almost a daily basis.

4. Stores put out Halloween candy at the end of August. Bigger bags for less, there is nothing better!

5. September is the start of my decorating season. From Sep. to April I have decorations that I have been collecting for years and years that I love to put out.

Baby Projects

So I've gone a little crazy on the baby room projects. It's only because I am soooooooooo excited. I have come to realize that the baby is not going to care about all of this for a very long time, so really the nursery is for me. Oh well, I think it is super cute.

I should have done a better close up because there is no way to see the cute little honey bees that made me fall in love with this fabric. The yellow goes so well with the green walls and I added pink lace at the bottom to really give it a girly feel. Now I just need to finish the set for the South windows.

I wanted to find some really cute, classic pooh wall-hangings, but everything was either the modern pooh or way too expensive. So I bought some 8X10 painting canvas and traced these pictures onto them. By no means do they look professional but they turned out pretty good.

This is one of those things that Anna is not going to care about. I took the left-over lace from the bottom of the curtains and hot glued it to this plain white lamp shade.

I need to finish this project but I like the way it is turning out. It's the biggest item I've tried to knit and so far so good. It looks blue but the colors are actually purple, silver, yellow and blue. I might add pink if I get around to it. I've been working on this project the longest, since about the week after we found out we were having a baby.

This was a plain white bear cutout that I painted pink and stenciled on. If I could write straight it would really help!! The Anna turned out way crooked but Matt says it just adds charm. He's sweet:)

Maybe I should cool it after I get all of these done. I just love having something to do!

Our New Place

I'm so excited about our new house. It's been so long since we've had a place that felt like home. While we were staying out in Augusta all of our stuff was stored out in the garage so most of what we were using was borrowed stuff. It will be so super nice to have my kitchen ready when I want to cook, nothing in the bathroom but MY stuff (and Matt's I guess), and the nursery ready and waiting for the baby. Here are some pictures of the house that is now our home:

This is the stuff we've collected for the baby so far. The picture doesn't show it very well but the room is a very pretty green.

This is going to be our music and my craft room. It has these great built in shelves that will hold all my little craft items. The piano will be perfect in there.

This is the kitchen and little eat-in area. It's a really great yellow that's not too bright but still draws the light in.

Best Anniversary EVER!!

Friday the 5th was my 5th Anniversary and it was absolutely wonderful! I took the day off from work and Matt and I got to spend the whole day together. We haven't gotten to just hang out for a while now and it was so super nice. The first thing on our list was my monthly doctors appointment. But this one was special because we got to do a sonogram. The baby was so active and I think she really liked the camera on her. That's right, we found out our baby is a girl!!! YAY! We went a little pink crazy once we got done at the doctors office. We bought little tiny onsies and little booties and a perfect little pink baby book. I can't wait to start entering in all the little bits of information I've been writing down on post-it notes into the baby book. Then we had a wonderful dinner at this great Italian resturant where we decided to stay with the name Anna Grace for our daughter. It's the only girls name that really sounded right to us and we really just love it. It's classic and beautiful and sounds great with our last name. I can't wait to see our daughter. That sounds strange and amazing all at the same time.

The second piece of good news is we got the house in Cheney that I wanted. We moved in some stuff yesterday and the rest of our stuff is going to be moved next weekend. I cannot wait to be in our home getting the nursery ready. I've really missed being able to do all the stupid little things that mean home to me. Such as, doing all of our laundry at the same time. Or, making a special dinner because I want to. I love doing that kind of stuff and in our new place I'll be able to do it all! I'll have my piano there and a little craft area and still plenty of room for our girl to get into trouble. I LOVE IT!!

Baby Stuff

I had NO idea how much stuff there is for a baby. Not all of it is practical or even reasonable but it is advertized as absolutely required. There are some things that I would love to have but I know that the baby really will not miss out if I don't have it. Still, that doesn't stop me from wishing!

There are several items that I've been looking around for and I still cannot seem to find a good deal. Maybe what I consider a good deal is just not out there. I don't feel it's necessary to spend a fortune on things the baby is not going to use for very long. Garage sales have been very good, but we've mainly found clothes and blankets so far. Now I need some of the bigger items like a dresser, maybe even a dresser/changing table. A classic crib that's in good shape would be nice too.

In other news, we have an appointment to see a house in Cheney on Tuesday. Hopefully it is in good shape because it would be so easy to have our home be in Cheney. It's about half way between Matt's job and mine so neither of us would have to drive forever. It's still close to Wichita so getting the shopping done won't be that hard but we won't have to live in Wichita. It really seemed like all of the good neighborhoods were out of range and the ones we could afford were in the worst places. Cheney is super cute and I already know that I want the house there. Positive thinking goes a long way here!