Nursery Prep has begun!

We are now in full "nursery" preparation swing and Matt is chomping at the bit to get the room ready. This was supposed to be a project that would last the entire month of January, but it has now turned into one that must be completed within the next 7 days.

We picked out the paint the other day after purchasing the nursery furniture. We are going with a tan/brown/sage green color scheme with accents of blue. Pictures below of the crib as well as the color of paint which is title "sensational sand". We wanted to keep it neutral because we know we are planning to sell the house within the next 24 months and want to keep it simple. We are also decorating with jungle animals such as monkeys & lions. I've never been one for trains, planes, etc and neither Matt nor I are really into sports except for our favorite teams, and who can resist a cute little monkey?!

I'll be taking some before, during & after pics tomorrow of the painting, and then of the Pergo installation on Saturday. Also just got the phone call that the furniture is ALL in already - its only been two days!!! Maybe I won't tell Matt so we can slow this process down a bit...I'm getting a bit of anxiety :)

LBC's story

Ok, so I'm just on a posting roll today. I can promise that it won't keep up at this pace, but feel I have some "catching up" to do...I am also procrastinating from finishing my task of taking down the Christmas ornaments, so the distraction is quite welcome!

Matt & I were married on 8/16/08 on the, in my opinion, most beautiful day that has ever been. We had some help from a my sister Jessica, my special red-headed angel, who was taken from us only 3 months prior to the wedding. She was supposed to be my maid of honor along with my twin sister Kayla, and I know that the cloudless sky and the beaming radiant sunshine that day was her way of letting us know she was there even though I couldn't see her beautiful face.

We knew that we wanted to have a family, we just didn't know when. So, several months after the wedding we had to put our beloved dog Jake - a 15 year old golden retriever whom we adopted several years before - to sleep the week of Thanksgiving. We knew we wanted a puppy before a baby, and contacted a breeder of goldens who we had received rave reviews on. On January 2nd, we drove out near Ohio with my mom and chose our handsome little furball, Archie. My mom also adopted his cute sister, Lily, whom we affectionately call "LilZilla".

On April 29th, the date that marked one year exactly since the passing of my sister, we were at a celebration of her life at my parents home and I spent the entire evening holding David, the adorable two month old son of my friend Allyson and grandson to my mom's dear friend Lori. Matt watched me the entire evening and on the way home said "you're ready for a baby, aren't you". I questioned where that came from because I hadn't mentioned anything about a baby, but he said he could see it in my eyes and that he was ready as well. So that night, amidst the sadness of remembering the loss of my amazing sister, we decided that we would grow our little family.

Fast forward a few months to August 2nd - I woke up at my sister & brother in laws house very early in the morning and "peed on a stick" anxious to know if this would be the month we would get pregnant. Sure enough, a very very faint pink line showed up where it was supposed to! I had to rub my eyes several times to believe it, and then threw all grandiose ideas of how I would tell Matt out the window as I ran into the bedroom, leaped onto the bed and woke him up to make him confirm that there was in fact two lines! Sure enough, there was!

We had the pregnancy confirmed with an ultrasound on 8/27 and was given a due date of April 13, 2010 - my 27th birthday!! Around the same time, I had horrible morning sickness set in, and proceeded to begin vomiting every single day, after every time I ate, for the next several months. On November 11, 2009, we surprised our family and snuck to an ultrasound appointment to find out that we were having a boy! Everyone else thought we weren't finding out until November 20th, so it was a fun surprise that Matt and I were able to share together.

On November 17th, our sweet LBC decided that he would throw some fun into the mix, and I ended up in the emergency room having a gallbladder attack - within 36 hours, I was admitted to the hospital and on the 19th at 8:30pm I was in surgery to have my gallbladder removed. I then received a luxurious all inclusive one week's stay at Harrisburg Hospital as my pregnant body slowly recovered from the surgery. Unfortunately after the organ removal, I am still experiencing nausea & vomiting, but thank god for pharmaceuticals, as it is now controllable with my purse full of medication that helps to keep my relatively vomit free on a daily basis.

Now I sit here on December 29th, and see only a bright future ahead for us. The furniture for the nursery was ordered yesterday, the paint has been bought and we are full steam ahead in preparation for LBC's arrival...and for the first time in my life I plan to not procrastinate and be ready for him whenever he decides to make his appearance. I'll attach some of the ultrasound pics to catch you up on the last several months.

xo,
Lindsay

Archie

Since the expansion of our family started with the infamous Archie (sorry to our three kitties, we love you, but you don't really count because you never leave the house), I thought I should share some photos of our adorable "child" throughout the first year of his life. He has brought us so much joy...I can't wait to see how great he is when LBC is born!

And so this begins..

I love reading blogs, even those of complete strangers, but have never thought of myself to be a "blogger". I'm lucky that I remember to brush my teeth everyday at this point, nevermind update a blog on a regular basis.

As most of you even reading this will know, my husband Matt & I are expecting our first baby in a couple of months, so I figured that since I can't have a "get fit" New Year's Resolution this year (note to self - always be pregnant during the New Years Resolution making time..), I would try my hand at blogging and see how that goes.

And so..a Dog, a Baby and now a Blog is born. Our 1 year old Golden Retriever Archie has been the "baby" in our lives for the last 12 months and we have spent numerous hours doting over him and we got pretty luck that he turned out so great, so we thought we'd give the baby thing a try. I'll post the whole "baby story" later, but we are now a bit over 6 months pregnant and anxiously awaiting the arrival of Archie's new baby brother, affectionately known as "LBC" (Little Baby Coulter).

So, happy reading - I promise to try and keep up on this and post pictures as often as possible.

Much love,
Lindsay