The Fun Stuff - Decorating the Nursery!

Today we made our first furniture purchase that we were actually able to take home (the crib and dresser should be here in October and my glider and ottomon should be here this week).  We bought a beautiful five shelf bookshelf from Target (on sale might I add).  It will be a great place to store the baby's toys and books when he's younger and allow mommy to display some adorable findings (like my lamp I found on clearance) and some cute picture frames and such.  I couldn't wait to put the shelf together so we did it today!  It already looks great with the clearance baskets I found.

I have been shopping (not buying) a ton and wish I had a million dollar budget!  Adam's getting a little worried and said to me, "I can't wait to see how much it's going to cost when the baby actually gets here."  I have found some great quotes on etsy that I want to put on the wall and need to find the perfect letters to spell out the baby's name for above the crib (so cliche, I know). 

I can't seem to find the perfect crib set  yet.  I have found 3 that I love but they are all extremely expensive.  I know bumpers are dangerous for babies to sleep with but I can't help but want one for looks (that I will pull out when the baby is in his crib).  I'm looking for gray so if you find the perfect one... send it my way!
Here are my two options so far:

The nursery colors are beige, gray, black, white.  There will be a TINY hint of sports decor!  The furniture is Black!  Can't wait to make some more progress, hopefully this week!

It's a BOY!!!!

On Thursday, August, 25th at 1:00pm we had our gender revealing ultra sound.  I was so nervous all day (not sure why), and couldn't wait to get to there.  I was excited to find out the gender but didn't care if it was a boy or girl (although Adam was rooting for a boy),  I just want a healthy, happy baby.  When the doctor revealed the sex, Adam had the biggest smile on his face (he might have even given a fist pump). 

When we left the office, we both wanted to tell our families and friends so badly but had a surprise waiting for them at 5:30.  It killed us not being able to tell everyone but I had worked hard on creating a surprise and didn't want it to go to waste.  We met my family at 5:30 at Mazatlan in Bonney Lake.  Everyone was anxious to find out but I had to take a poll to see what everyone's guesses were first.  I had crafted mustaches or lips on a stick and everyone there had to choose which one they thought it was.  4 thought it was going to be a boy and 3 thought it was going to be a girl.

Once everyone made their guess, we were going to sit down and eat dinner.... but, everyone was too anxious and wanted to know the gender (and I can't keep a very good secret), so we decided to do the revealing.  I had ordered 12 chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting and a question mark on top.  From the outside, you couldn't see that the inside had either pink or blue frosting in it.  Once everyone bit into their cupcakes... they saw blue frosting... it's a BOY!!!!!

All in all it was a great night and we had so much fun telling our family and friends.  Now we can't wait to work on the nursery!

One House.... 5 Families.... 12 people... Sun River!!!!!

We went on a family vacation to Sun River, Oregon in August and it was AMAZING!!!!  It was the first vacation EVERYONE has been on in years and the first family vacation for Kailey and Ava!  We stayed at a family friend's house and all squeezed into one house (I say squeezed but the house was pretty big)!  The house was right on the golf course and very close to the Village.

We had a blast riding bikes, swimming in the pool (I even went down the big, swirly slide), watching Kailey bounce at the bounce house, going to the stables, cooking family dinners, shopping in the village, watching a high school golf tournament, and watching the boys golf also.

I am a very family oriented person and love nothing more than being with everyone.  Being together in one house meant more to me than anyone will ever know. I am so blessed.

We cannot wait to go back next year, hopefully with Gene and Sue Hahto!

(Sadly, we didn't take any pictures of the fun... next year when the baby is here, we will for sure!)

In Memory of Marian Genevieve Haugen

Marian Genevieve Haugen (June 10, 1918-June 1, 2011)

Last Friday (July 29th) was a very hard day for me and my family.  It was the day we celebrated my Grandma, Marian Genevieve Haugen's, life.  Although my Grandma had passed away in June, we waited to have a funeral so her family from all over could attend.

It was a beautiful Lutheran service and I was honored to read a bible passage that she had chosen herself, Psalm 27.  My sister, Melanie, stood by my side as I read it to our friends and family.  It meant a lot to me to be able to stand in front of everyone and read the passage as I know my Grandma would be proud of me.

I was very close to my Grandma.  I will miss her very much.  I am so honored to have been given her wedding ring which she never took off.

My favorite memories of Grandma:

• Her cheating at Uno and any game we played against each other
• Making lefsa with her (she makes it better than anybody)
• Driving her car and realizing it doesn't go over 35 (because she never drove it over that)
• Using phone books to boost me up in her car when I was too small to see
• Hearing the story of her hanging laundry outside of her house in just her bra (she told my dad it's the same thing as a bathing suit)
• Hearing the word Uff Da
• Signing her guestbook almost every time we went to her house (at her request)
• Staying the night at her house and seeing what she looks like without her dentures in
• Mowing her lawn and seeing her cooking in the kitchen window
• Picking raspberries in her backyard and eating it on top of vanilla ice cream
• Her touching my hair asking if it was wet every time I saw her (back when the crunchy, curly, gelled/moused looked was in)