Paint!

After over 2 and a half years of living in our house and knowing that I needed to paint our back bedroom, I finally went and purchased paint for the project last night. Of course, the only reason why I ended up doing it was because we had a $20-off coupon! haha Anything to save money I suppose. In my defense, I could never conjure up enough nerve to actually choose colors - knowing that I once I bought the paint I couldn't change my mind (unless I wanted to waste money - which is a no no).

I decided that painting (or having Sam paint) the back bedroom would be a perfect 'Spring Break' project. I have also decided that I might be able to solicit some help from my mom, as she will be off as well. All I know is that I need to get the room painted - right now it has purple and pink walls and a very pink ceiling. I am actually surprised that I have been able to survive having a room that color in my house for this long! (Of course, it is not really a room that we use at this point.)

Trying to plan ahead a little, I decided on painting the bottom portion of the walls 'Lyndhurst Spring Eve' aka a shade of sage green, the top portion of the walls 'Soft Cream', and the ceiling white (which one would think would be a no-brainer - but I don't think the previous owners of our home admired white ceilings because I the house has none.) I chose the colors so that if the room were to be used as a baby's room, it could accommodate either a boy or a girl. And, until a baby arrives, it can be used as a fairly neutral guest room.

When it's finished I'll post pictures - which will hopefully be in less than a month. (Knowing me though, it end up taking a little longer! :)

New Nephew!!!

I am happy to introduce my new nephew - Jonathan 'Ray' Sparks.

Ray was born on February 7th (1 week ago today) @ 8:12pm. I am hoping that when I have babies someday that my labor goes as smoothly as Nik's. She did not have any pain until they broke her water at 6:00pm and then only pushed for about 10 minutes! She also did it without any pain meds. I am totally impressed!

I am also happy to report that both Hannah and Ross are adjusting to their new baby brother quite well. Hannah's not sure quite what to think, but Ross wants to hold Ray every minute of the day. It is very cute!

On another note, Hannah's 2nd Birthday was on Feb. 2nd and Nikki let me help her Hannah's Birthday Cake again this year. (Last year we made a strawberry shaped cake in honor of Strawberry shortcake - most say it looked more like a pink acorn. Although I kind of agree with them, in my defense, it was the first themed cake I had ever tried to make!) This year Hannah wanted a Nemo cake. Since she loves chocolate, Nik and I decided to make her a chocolate cake with a Nemo on top. The cake actually turned out really well. Hannah kept looking at it and saying "My Nemo! My Nemo!" I swear - that child is absolutely adorable. I do have to say, that even though she loved her cake... she was afraid of the candles. Why, you may ask? Because 'fire burns', of course! We kept telling her that it was okay, but I can understand how the concept of 'fire on a cake not being dangerous vs. fire anywhere being dangerous' would be hard for a 2-year old to grasp.

The Nemo Cake before it was devoured.

Hannah is waiting patiently to eat her cake.