Who wants to help me decorate?? (Nursery help needed!)

I am having a really hard time decorating Parker's nursery...a decorator, I'm not! We have the basics done (paint & furniture set up), but that's about it. I am open to any and all suggestions.

If this were your nursery, how would you decorate it?? Product links are always appreciated. :)

The room...
I do have a 4th green bin for the storage unit...my mom has it right now. Oh, and I forgot to put the bed skirt on when I set up the crib.

And a close up on the bedding...I love it!

Happy 2 Month Birthday, Peanut Man!

My (no-so) little peanut is 2 months today! Time has certainly flown by. He weighed in at 9lbs 4oz last Friday...more than double his birth weight. I can't wait to see how much he weighs at his 2 month well visit on Thursday! My guess is 9lbs 13oz. (I'll be sure to update after the appointment.)

Overheard from the Living Room

Mr Jones:
Parker do you want tacos for dinner? Hmmm...do you? I bet in three years you will want tacos for dinner. You bet your buttons you will. You don't have buttons right now, but you will some day. Right now, you just have snaps. But those are almost buttons.

Parker:
*blows raspberries* and pushes again Mr Jones with his legs

Mr Jones:
Where are you going? Trying to walk away? Well, look...you made it over there, but now there's nowhere else to go. Way to exercise those little baby legs.

I love my boys. And I love how much Mr Jones enjoys being a daddy.

House Remodel - Kitchen Before and After

I know I've been delinquent on sharing house remodel pictures (as in not at all...*blush*) so I'm starting with the kitchen, which is by far the biggest transformation.

As I said in another post, the previous owner took the kitchen with her when she left. Literally. She tore out all of the cabinets, appliances, counter tops...oh, and the sink! This was both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because it meant we could choose exactly what we wanted; a curse because kitchens aren't cheap!

Well, the kitchen is finally done. The last piece was our range. Mr Jones wanted a specific (i.e. expensive) range and I didn't want him to have to settle so we used our tax return to buy it.

We love our completed kitchen! :)

Before (taken from dining room):


After:


Before (looking at range area):


After (isn't the range pretty??):


Before (looking fridge area):


After:

2 Years...and Counting

It's hard to believe I've been writing in this blog for over 2 years. It's certainly flown right by!

A lot has happened in those 2 years.

I got married.
We bought a house.
Mr Jones started Grad School...and is now halfway done.

And I had a baby. Parker Curtis Jones was born on April 6, 2011 at 34 weeks 2 days gestation. He weighed 4lbs 9oz and was 18.5" long.


Little did I know, at 34 weeks, this would be my last baby bump picture!


The days leading up to his birth were quite a rollercoaster. I was hospitalized for high blood pressure, tested for pre-eclampsia, diagnosed with pregnancy induced hypertension, and put on bed rest. A week later, I was hospitalized once again to be retested for pre-eclampsia. Well, I never finished that test because my blood work came back indicating I had HELLP syndrome. I was given an hour to prepare for an emergency c-section. Not exactly how I was planning to have a baby!


Despite being almost 6 weeks early, Parker was a rockstar! He spent just over 2 weeks in the special care nursery (never needed to be transported to a NICU) and came home on April 22 weighing 5lbs 4oz.


Life with my little man has been fun...and a bit hectic. He now weighs almost 8lbs. Quite a little chunky monkey (to us)!

I love him...I really do.

Now that Baby Jones is getting bigger, his favorite pastime seems to be shoving a foot...or his butt...up into my ribs. Thankfully he doesn't kick up there (knock on wood!), but the pressure can be quite uncomfortable at times.

A few minutes ago, he pushed harder than usual which caused me to gasp. Mr Jones glanced over and asked if I was ok. Once I told him I was fine, that little man was just being a bit feisty, he said, "Thank you for making our son. My job was easy. Yours really isn't, huh?"

It's the little things that make me melt.

---------------------------------------------------

Update: He just called me little Darth Vader because I am breathing loudly. Charming, isn't he??

The story of a gliding rocker

Yes, before you start yelling at me, I know I've been MIA for over 2 months. *hang head in shame*

I don't have any specific reason I disappeared (unlike last time when I was trying to keep Baby Jones a secret). I guess I just haven't felt like blogging. That's not to say I haven't thought of dozens of potential topics. I have. Except when I go to write a post, I get brain block and end up closing the window and saying I'll write the post...later. Well, later is now. It's time.

In a previous post, I said I was going to tell the story of our gliding rocker. We got the deal of the century on it (in my opinion, of course!).

One Saturday back in January, Mr Jones and I decided to hit up the local furniture stores to see what kinds of deals we could find on gliders and/or rockers. We only made it to one store.

When we walked into the store, we found out they were having their 100th anniversary celebration (which included pizza and cookies...music to this pregnant girl's ears!! But I digress...). After we gathered our pizza and cookies, we were encouraged to enter our names into their hourly $100 gift certificate drawing (they were drawing the winner in 5 minutes). I never win anything, but figured "why not?" so I jotted down my info and stuffed the slip into the full fishbowl before we wandered off to look at what was available in the clearance section.

A few minutes later, we hear, "And the winner of our last $100 certificate is...Taryn Jones!" I turned to Mr Jones and said, "Wait. Did they seriously just say my name?!?" That pretty much sealed the deal. We were getting our chair there...and we had found the perfect one in the clearance section! We walked out of the store 30 minutes later with a fully upholstered gliding rocker for...drum roll please...$149!

I love it.

Coolest Baby Item Ever!!

Em over at The Cloth Diaper Report blogged about 4Moms MamaRoo yesterday. Ohmygosh! How freakin' cool is it?? I wish they were made for adults. :)

Em is also hosting a giveaway for one of these amazing creations. Head on over to her blog to check it out. :)

Apparently pregnancy has made me fickle

It all started a few months ago when I wanted root beer...more than anything else in the world. It was all I could think about. All I could talk about. I WANTED IT. Mr Jones (being the wonderful husband he is) decided to stop at the grocery store the next night to get me some. All was well until he called me to ask what brand I fancied. I thought about it, opened my mouth, and said, "I want orange pop, not root beer. Buy me orange pop. Pretty, pretty please?"

This was the first, but certainly not the last time I've done an unexpected 180 after I thought I had made up my mind. I've been known to change our dinner plans as we're driving past a restaurant that all of sudden sounded way better than the one we were headed to. Luckily, Mr Jones is very go-with-the-flow and doesn't even bat an eyelash at my fickle-ness.

The newest victim of my change of affection? The crib bedding.

Don't get me wrong, I really appreciate all of your feedback and opinions on which color bumper and skirt I should choose, but I found another set I fell in love with.

Let me introduce The Morning Zoo crib bedding from Land of Nod. What do you think? Will it look ok in the nursery? Please be honest. For the record, I would be getting the animal patterned crib sheet (instead of the solid blue sheet) and the crib skirt.

Decisions, Decisions...and I suck at making them!

Mr Jones and I (mostly I) decided not to register for a full crib bedding set. The cost just didn't make sense for us because we wouldn't use the bumper or the quilt (which would essentially leave us with crib sheets and a crib skirt).

Instead, we went to Babies R Us and picked out a crib sheets that go with the room color (but aren't too matchy-matchy). Plus, the colors go well with the mobile I like.

My dilemma now is deciding which color breathable bumper and which color crib skirt to get. Help?!

For reference, here's a picture of the wall color and gliding rocker we bought yesterday (which is a great story for another day!). The rocker is a light greenish-tan color (kind of hard to tell in the picture).



Also, we are leaning towards an espresso crib (as pictured for the breathable bumpers).

Option #1 (sage breathable bumper and brown crib skirt)




Option #2 (brown breathable bumper and sage crib skirt)




Option #3 (sage breathable bumper and orange crib skirt)




Option #4 (brown breathable bumper and orange crib skirt)