Nursery Time

Our home has been under a lot of construction lately.  Danny recently spent 3 1/2 weeks installing bamboo flooring throughout the living room, front room, dining room, kitchen, and hallway.  It looks really really wonderful!  We have rearranged living spaces, and our most recent project has been working on transforming our guest room into Riley's room.  We are close to being completely done and, while I was originally planning to do one big blog reveal, it will still be a while before the final touches come into place, and with nursery picture requests coming from friends, I figured I can share where we're at so far.

So without further ado....Here's our Little Riley Daniel's Room.

 Welcome to Chevy Ave.

Danny did a wonderful job installing the chair rail! 

 Our color palate was inspired by the fabric my mom came across one afternoon at Hobby Lobby.  This will be what she will make the bumper pads out of.  Adorable, right?  I then did my best to match the walls, dressers, and shelves.

Turns out we had enough bamboo flooring left over to get rid of the 25 year old carpet in the nursery.  Can I tell you how THRILLED I was to see that go!?

 

 Our shelves are still a little bare, but we still have time to find classic auto items to fill them.  However, Danny searched for two days online for JUST the right Chevy model to showcase in his little boys room--it's a 1950 Bel-Air.

 He also spent days searching craigslist for a play workbench.  No matter what we had decided on for a nursery theme, I am certain he would have insisted his son have a workbench.

The dresser we found at a yard sale for $7.00.  It was actually the wrong color dark blue, after Danny stripped it for me, I painted it just the right color. Our window treatment is still in the works, but my mom found a coordinating green burlap that she will make into a valance.  It matches the green shelves, chest of drawers (pictured below), and the trucks on the bumper pad fabric.  Can't wait to see it all come together.

 Danny picked out the crib after about a week of researching the best kind.  He did a wonderful job!  The green chest of drawers used to be a mix of red paint and primer.  My mom found it at a yard sale for $3.00.  She has lovingly finished the dust ruffle for us.  It still needs a little adjustment on the front corners, but next to the auto fabric that will line the inside of the crib, it is going to look fantastic!

 On yet another trip to Hobby Lobby, Danny came upon vintage Chevy knobs.  They were too costly to justify all 5 drawers with new ones, but three of them do just the trick to add a little more Chevy Love to his room.

 On the same trip, we saw the cutest jar lamp.  It was $49.99, as cute and perfect as it was, I simply couldn't do it.  A few weeks later I was yard saling with my mom, sisters, and niece.  We always share a list of items with each other that we are on the search for so we can have more eyes on the look out.  I told them I was looking for a good size jar so I could make a lamp to fill with auto nuts and bolts for the nursery.  Kelly not only found the jar, but it was already made into a lamp.  It was the by far the Find of the Day and she had to be sure to bring it in to show Dan her amazing treasure for Riley!  It was at a box sale: $5 for anything that will fit in the box, mom had the most stuff in the box so she decided she would pay for it, so ultimately the jar lamp was free (thanks mom).  It does need a new lamp shade, but it's still a far cry from $49.99 for sure!

 The tins we purchased.  Can you guess where?  Oh my!  You're right!! Hobby Lobby!  The picture frame I got at least 9 years ago when a craft store was closing, hoping one day I'd have a need for it.  It survived as many moves because I just wasn't willing to part with it.  I'm so glad because it was MADE to fit right above my precious boy's crib.

Our nursery is almost done.  Mom is still working on the valance and the bumper pads.  The shelves need to be filled in a little more, but I am so happy with how it has come along so far.  My husband has done a fantastic job installing the floors and chair rails.  He has helped me tremendously and now we are THAT much closer to welcoming home our baby boy.

You Got ALL That For HOW Much?!?

I'm not sure how many are aware just how much my family LOVES to go to yard sales.  We're fans.  We're big fans!  In fact, we love it so much we are willing to leave Paradise at 5:30 in the morning on a Saturday, drive 80 miles, all for the thrill of the hunt, knowing treasures are waiting to be discovered and haggled over.  This morning was a day set aside for just such a trip.  My mom, sister, niece, husband and I set out for Rocklin after my sister received a flyer addressed to a Rocklin resident by "mistake" advertising an entire neighborhood yard sale.  It noted that last year over 300 residents participated.  Why on earth had it been delivered to her?  WHO CARES?!  We were there! Never had the taste of yard sale anticipation been so sweet!

We were on a mission to find our little one as many things for the nursery as possible.  To cut to the chase, once we got home, unloaded, laid out the spoils of the day, we were AMAZED at all the stuff we found:

• Baby Gate
• Radio Flyer Tricycle
• Green & Brown Elephant Stroller with Car Seat Carrier and TWO car bases
• Baby Monitor
• Aveda Bottle Warmer
• Leather Tool Belt that says "Daddy's Little Helper"
• 8 plastic play tools (hand picked by Danny)
• Changing Table Mattress Pad
• Tabletop Swing
• Dresser complete with diamond plated accents to go with the auto themed nursery
• Construction Rug
• Tractor Toy
• Jumparoo
• High Chair
• Slippers
• Tennis Shoes
• Church Shoes
• Jacket
• Bulldog Jammies
• Rocket Jammies
• Dinosaur Onesie
• Hammer Embellished Cargo Pants
• Happy Camper Onsie
• Daddy's Little Boy Onesie
• Handsome 01 Onesie
• Shhhh I'm watching the game with Daddy!! Onesie

How fantastic is all of this?!??

While our little one can't quite ride a tricycle yet, neither one of us could pass up a Radio Flyer for $5!

 I love the elephants!!

 We made sure there were no recalls and that nothing had expired on the car seat and stroller set.  The fact that it came with two bases was amazing and all for $25!!  Seriously!  These retail for like $150.00.  Also, while I am wanting a video baby monitor, my sister pointed out that these are really good for traveling.  Again, I say, "SOLD!"

 You should have seen Danny picking out all these tool toys for our little one.  He was like a little kid getting to...well, pick out new toys!!  The swing was only used three times by the previous baby, the bottle warmer $2, and the tractor toy was FREE!!

 I had initially passed over this Jumparoo, but my sister pointed out that Elizabeth, my niece LOVED hers, and she had recently priced them out on Amazon at $90.  So for $25, this was a GREAT find.  This is why new parents should not shop for new baby without parental supervision!

This was one of my FAVORITE finds!  When I asked the guy what he wanted for it, he replied, "Well, I wanna get at LEAST...sssssseven out of it.  I would say $5, but the extra $2 are for the hours of hard labor of painting and adding the diamond plating I put in."  Um...SOLD!!  And the changing pad was a perfect fit!

 As we went about our traveling from sale to sale, we found this gem with a "FREE" sign on it lying all by its lonesome in a driveway.  Upon closer inspection, it was filthy, came complete with old Cherrios, but nothing a solid sanitary once over...ok, maybe twice over and a new pad won't fix.  Another amazing find!

 5 onsies, two jammies, a pair of pants (the hammer is embroidered on the back pocket!), two pairs of shoes, and some slippers all for $7.00.  Seriously!!

Thus concluded our time yard saling. 

 So how much did ALL of this end up being in the end? 

$96.00 NOT KIDDING!!

Oh My!  Did we ever score BIG!!

From there we ventured on to Hobby Lobby.  The picture is just a taste of this vintage automotive nursery that is to come.

RDK--It stands for Riley Daniel Knopf.

The BIG Reveal....Boy? or Girl?

There are few days in our adult lives that one can genuinely compare to the anticipation of Christmas as a child.  The days leading up to the anticipated day seem to be so long, constantly quelching the fear that Christmas will never ever get here, and the sleepless night before wondering what will be in those beautiful packages under the tree.  For Danny and I, looking forward to learning what our precious little one would be was nothing short of that same anticipation as a child.

We were so close.  We made it to our doctor's appointment and had the order for our ultrasound in our hot little hands. We made our appointment and so began our 6 day count down to our sneak peek at one of the most amazing gifts God has ever given us.  We had a slight panic on day 4 when they called to say their OB ultrasound machine was down and we would need to be rescheduled.  Immediately I called the radiology department at the hospital, the department where I got my start at Feather River, and pleaded for any available appointment they might have before Thursday when we'd be leaving for San Francisco.  Wednesday at 5:00?  It'd be cutting it close to our plans for our reveal party with our families, but it worked!  I'LL TAKE IT!

Wednesday finally came.  We weren't the only ones itching to know, my sister Kelly, texted me throughout the day to remind me how much longer we had in the countdown....7 more hours....4 more hours.  Seriously! How adorable is she?  It was finally 4:50; with anticipation we could TASTE, we made our way to the hospital.  This was it.  We were going to find out if we were having a boy or a girl.  

When we arrived my very first question, "Does ultrasound have any ER orders that have come through?"  I know it sounds a bit odd, but I can't tell you how many times I watched pregnant mothers pace that lobby having to wait with VERY full bladders because an ER patient needed to been seen first.  It makes sense that ER patients take priority, and this was the very reason I hadn't schedule my appointment at the hospital in the first place.  The girl replied, "Ya know, she just took an ER patient back."  Of course she did.  It apparently was in the 10% of the things you worry about that ACTUALLY come to pass.  I couldn't help but giggle, she said it'd be 10-15 minutes and then the tech would be there for us. 

An hour had passed.  I did my fair share of pacing the lobby like the women I had seen so many times had done before me.  6:00 came and she was ready for us!  WooHoo!!  I laid on the gurney and in no time my stomach was covered in hot blue goo.  My husband by my side, it was finally Christmas morning.  Quickly she went through the boring measurements, it was clearly NOT her first rodeo.  She was speedy and I was thankful, not so much for the sake of my bladder that she was now pressing on (it was amazing how that SO didn't matter anymore), but we had a gender reveal party to get to!

We soon were at the point where it was time to think "spread eagle" thoughts.  Fear of a non-cooperative little one had plagued my thoughts up until this point.  But I told Danny, "I'm not gettin' off that table until we know confidently what we are having!" But thankfully, we had about 80% cooperation from baby and after a few jiggles of the ultrasound wand and a change or two in its position, we knew.

Tears began to stream.  I looked at Danny and said, "You're going to have a ....."  I can tell you that no matter how I finished that sentence, son or daughter, his reaction would have been the same.  We both wiped tears through the remainder of the appointment discussing the amazing news we just learned and the significant impact it had on how we can continue to plan for our little arrival.  There have been few moments in both of our lives that have been that spectacular....AND BABY'S NOT EVEN HERE YET!  :o)

We finished up and then it was a MAD dash to get some dinner (we were starving) and then the last supplies we would need for the reveal with our family.

Everyone had gathered...we were getting close!

 So Mommy...that's the auntie that's giving me an Alderson cousin?

 

My father-in-law making sure he was all set with his camera.

 I think my mother-in-law was excited!!

I thought it kinda fun to put together a chart of Old Wives Tales pregnancy predictors, not that I put any merit to any of them, but just as a fun way to see if what the Old Wives would say would have been true for us. 

The lips and mustaches are indicators of what each wives tale would have predicted for me. Kinda looks like the Old Wives are thinkin' we'll be having a boy, doesn't it?

We were rapidly losing day light and we had gathered everyone for what only could be described as a one-trick pony show, it was time to let them know, grandson? or granddaughter? nephew? or neice? cousin? or, well, cousin? :o)

The suspense was killing them!! :o)

Just a few (ok, a lot) of pieces of packaging tape until the family knew!

IT'S

A

BOY!!

The balloons were out and so was our news. We are having a boy! Looks like the Old Wives were right this time. To be honest, we were both really hoping for a boy, at least for our first child.  My husband from our very first conversation of kids back when we were dating has said he wants at least one boy and one girl, but if he got to choose, he'd like his son first.  My husband has a very protective nature and was already looking out for a potential future daughter by wanting her to have a big brother who could look after her.  Me? I have said for years I would be more than happy in a house full of boys.  Bring on the Tonka trucks, dirt, worms, superhero capes and cowboy boots. 

Sharing the proof of how we knew for certain our baby is a boy.

We had brought a Baskin Robbin's ice cream cake, since out of all the 31 flavors, not a single one of them was blue (lame!), to share with everyone in celebration.  We all ended up with blue teeth and lips.

It then seemed like a great time for Elizabeth how to throw Uncle Jimmy's frisbee.  She LOVED it.  The following are just an excuse for me to show off how cute my mom and niece are! :o)

(This last one is my favorite)

It was so much fun to share our amazing news with our family (and now friends).  

We can't wait to meet our little man!

From This Day Forward...

I know so far I have written exclusively about our fertility and pregnancy journey, but I'm thinking today is an excellent day for a slight detour.  I suppose it's a bit of a prequel if you will.  You see, today is our 3 year anniversary.  Unfortunately, I'm spending the day in bed, in my jammies, Kleenex box and vitamin C close at hand...sick.

But taking nostalgic walks down memory lane don't require proper walking shoes, or even that you get up.  As I sit and reminisce on that amazing day 1,096 days ago, a few things stand out as simply unforgettable.  Every wedding has at least one hiccup, one thing that didn't go as planned and ours was no exception.  We arrived at the churches and yes, I say churches, one where we had the ceremony, and across the street where we had the reception (that one allowed dancing), neither one had power.  Someone had crashed their car into a power pole and rendered the block powerless.  It was weird setting things up in the dark, but we managed.  Didn't turn out too shabby now did it?

Little did I know that the night before, Danny and his best man Tim, and his wife Erin, had an entire conversation mapping out all the things that could go wrong and how we'd manage if we were faced with it.  I was later told that when I had texted him that morning that the churches were without power, that the three of them laughed knowing Dan had a plan: We could get candles and we knew at least a few people who played the piano, it really wasn't a problem.  "We can get married in the dark, this is SO not going to stop me from marrying her today!"

Thankfully we didn't have to send the entire bridal part on a massive search for candles.  The power was restored and the rest of the day was relatively flawless.

We decided for the sake of our guests, we would see one another before the wedding and do pictures.  We are really most sincerely NOT superstitious people, so the whole bad luck to see the bride before the wedding thing, went right out the window.  Our photographer chose a great location in the church for our big reveal.

Ya know what's really fantastic?  He will still look at me like that :o)

Our ceremony wasn't too far off and the best was still yet to come.  I had never felt more beautiful than I did that day.  I was surrounded by 250 of our closest friends and family :o) and after walking down the aisle with my dad, I remember staring at the green carpet with petals all around, thinking, "We are finally here.  All the planning, all the work...we are finally here."

The time finally came for our vows: something that TO THIS DAY people will still talk to me about--not so much mine, but Danny's.  We decided to write our own vows.  I had trimmed mine down thinking Danny wouldn't write as much as I had the potential to (we all know I can go on and on, right dad?), little did I know, he'd be the one responsible for the novel, not me.

My vows:

Danny,

For most of my life I have dreamt of this day.  But never in all my dreaming would I have thought that the quiet guys whose head I used to pat as we passed in the halls at school, would turn out the be the one I would share my life with.  And never in all my dreams did I think I would wake up to find that God has given me more than the man of my dreams.

You love me so completely, I never have to be afraid to be myself or hide my true feelings.  You protect me so fiercely; I never have to wonder if I can trust you with my whole heart.  You are my true love and yours is the heart that completes mine.  You are the one who, from this day on, I share everything with, the good, the bad, the exciting, the scary, the best, and the worst.  From this day on, from here on out, it is no longer me, but us.

Today, I make this vow, to both you and to the Lord, that I will love you always.  I will choose to love you even if I don’t feel lovingly or your words or actions are less than lovely.  I will never set my love for you on a sliding scale.  I promise I will always stand beside you, partner with you, share the weight of your burdens, and rejoice in your successes.  I promise I will always respect and honor you as we walk together seeking God’s will for our life together.  All this I promise you until Christ takes us home, because this promise I make today, I make forever.

From the day you came back into my life, I was no longer able to picture my life without you and I find such amazing peace in knowing that I will not ever have to be without you in my life.  I love you so much.

Danny was next, and in just a moment, you will understand my immense relief that I got to go first.  In what world would I have been able to follow this?

Lisa, 

Standing here with you today, I am again in awe of God’s love for me.  That God loves me so much that he has brought such an amazing woman into my life.  Every time I look into your eyes, I am reminded that God is a God of second chances.  So many times I’ve prayed and cried and asked the Lord, when?  When would my time come?  When would I meet my other half?  I had no idea how much God would rock my world when I met you again.  It just seems like a miracle to me that he could take such a strong, confident, caring, wonderful woman like you, and have her fall in love with a knuckle head like me.

Lisa, you have been many things to me in the past 16 months.  You have been my playmate when it came to being tickled, you have been my rock and strength when I didn’t have any left during my heart attack.  You have been my prayer warrior when I was downtrodden.  You have been my cheerleader when I needed encouragement.  You have been my partner in rejoicing in triumphs.  You are my life.  You are my love.  You are my best friend.  And today, you will be my wife.

Lisa, I want you, and the whole world to know that I pledge my life to you today.  Never again to be just my own life, but our life together.  Because without you, I am incomplete.  God made you to be the other half of me, just as He made me to be the other half of you.

We both have been so blessed to have come from families that have been such a great example of what a Godly marriage should be.  Our families may have their quirks, but honey, so will we.  They have taught us so many valuable lessons in their triumphs, struggles, and failures.  I have no doubt that the many things they have passed on to us will help us succeed in this marriage.  And I know that we will succeed.  There is no Plan B.  No back up plan when things get rough.  No Opt Out clause.  I love you, and I will choose to love you even when I don’t feel like it.  So even if things get hard, I will be right here next to you, on my knees before God.

Lisa,

From this day forward,

I promise to respect you; by the way I speak to you, about you, and the way I treat you.

I promise to love you unconditionally, no matter what obstacles may lay ahead.

I promise to protect you over myself both physically and emotionally.

I promise to always be faithful to you, physically, mentally, and emotionally.

I can not promise that we will always be happy, but I promise that our Father gives joy abundantly.

I can not promise that we won’t disagree, and be unhappy with each other, but I promise that when those times come, we will pray that God would give us attitudes of compromise and submission.

I promise to honor the role God has given to me to lead us in our marriage.

I promise to never abuse this role, and make you feel like you have to submit to me always.

I promise that I will always have an attitude of mutual submission to you, because love never puts itself first.

I promise all these things to you from this day forward, until the Lord takes us home.

Looking back on that beautiful day, I can't help but laugh that he was prepared with a plan in case we faced some unforeseen disaster.  I can't help but smile when I am reminded just how important a look can make me feel, be it when I feel I look the best I ever have, or on days like today when I'm sick lying in bed.  And I can't help but be so thankful of the immense gift God has given me in a man who would write and speak such tender vows promising a life that won't be perfect, but one that will always be grounded on Christ and the love we choose to have for each other.  I guess today I am just reminded and still ever thankful for the amazing blessing God has given me in the man He has chosen to be my husband, my best friend, my partner in all things--tickle fights or otherwise, and now the newest adventure, the father of my children. 

Happy Anniversary to the one who is more than the man of my dreams!