.My Heart is FULL--Life Update.

Life has been lovely lately.

I am 34 weeks along in my pregnancy and though I am severely uncomfortable, I am happy and really enjoying life.

 Adam snapped these photos of me and Penelope at 34 weeks before my Lynchburg baby shower. I am looking a bit tired and the truth is simple--I am tired, but it's a good tired. I love how much I look like my mother in these photos. Oh how I wonder who my little girl will look like..

(Black maternity dress and red necklace from Target)

My pregnancy sickness has thankfully gotten better during my third trimester. My body is still struggling with migraines, constipation, heartburn, and now discomforts but overall I have improved tremendously.

Little Penelope has been quite the mover! I find myself just sitting or laying down holding my shirt up simply staring at my belly. Watching her roll around and seeing my stomach contort has been an exciting (and a little creepy--in a good way!) time for me. Adam has his hands on my belly all the time and adores feeling Penny move. His smile when she gives him a big kick or roll melts my heart. He is so in love with his baby girl. We are starting to play the 'guess the body part game' with each other since Penny is doing some major growing. It is almost impossible to know for sure what we are feeling but its fun to gather from seeing and touching the different shapes. Lately we have been feeling a large circular thing pushing up and can only imagine it is her head or bottom. On the right side of my stomach Penny has continually poked out a small pointy body part which we are thinking is an elbow, foot, or knee. It truly is a unique experience, one Adam and I will never forget.

My energy these days feels as if it has been sucked dry and it's actually okay. I am no longer nannying (will write a whole post on that one day soon) so my only 'job' during the day is to rest, eat, and remember to feed and take out our dog! To say it has been nice is a major understatement.

Adam and I have been visiting with friends and family again now that my body and pregnancy have been treating me better. It has been such a simple joy to laugh again with loved ones.

The past two weeks in particular have been grand. Adam and I travelled to NJ to attend my first baby shower thrown by my mother and sister-in-law Kim. It was a wonderful shower and was fun to show off my baby belly (it is no longer a 'bump') to my relatives. I had my aunts and cousins laughing so hard when discussing other pregnancy 'bumps' that have developed...two large ones ;) You see, my whole life I always wanted larger breasts and my relatives (who ALL have them) told me consistently through the years I was lucky I did not. Welp, when they saw me and my new pregnancy body they about died! I finally have large breasts and they were right--I hate them! Oh how I love the ladies in my family and our ability to laugh together.

The baby shower hosts, my mother Cindy and sister-in-law Kim.

(Chevron maternity dress and jean jacket from Old Navy)

Two of my best friends, Caitlin and Lauren.

 My mom and aunts who attended the shower.

The rest of our weekend in NJ was a relaxing time filled with tons of food, sweets (thanks for that Mom), friends, and family. I soaked up my time with my nieces and second cousins and loved knowing the next time we would all be together, Penny would be with us! I cannot wait to introduce Penelope to her family, they all love her so much already! She is one blessed little girl..

When Adam and I came home we were greeted by his sister Naomi from MN! We started the week off with a birthday celebration for my father-in-law at Red Lobster. The rest of the week was filled with family visits, late night talks, lunches out, game nights, and even a pedicure for this momma to be (a big thanks to my mother-in-law and sister-in-law). Our week wrapped up on a high note with another baby shower thrown my mother-in-law, sister-in-law, and two of my girlfriends. The baby shower was absolutely beautiful. It was such a fun mix of women who attended--my girlfriends, family members, babies, and my mother-in-law's friends from church. I was truly surprised and delighted by the turn out and love shown to Adam, myself, and baby Penny.

Two of the baby shower hosts, my mother-in-law Wendy and sister-in-law Naomi.

 The other two hosts, dear friends Hannah and Mandy.

Myself and Penny posing with Adam's sister, grandmother, and mother. 

Memorial day was celebrated with great friends and new friends. We attended a barbecue at our friends house and it was extra special because the man of the hour, Daniel, returned home after months away training at Fort Benning. It was great to have him home! Adam and I then drove to Smith Mountain Lake to hop on a boat with friends who were celebrating their one year anniversary. We had a blast cruising around the lake and I must say, Penny enjoyed her first boat ride. Our night ended at Adam's parent's house where we stayed until 1am just hanging out, talking, and laughing with his family. It was hard saying goodbye to his sister but exciting knowing the next time we would see her she would meet and hold her little niece!

The Lord has blessed Adam and I with friends we consider family and with two families who willingly make sacrifices for us because they love us. It brings tears into my eyes thinking about bringing our baby girl into this world..into our world..a world filled with love.

We have been blown away by the generous gifts given to us for Penny's arrival and feel extremely fortunate to welcome her into a home that is prepared for her. Thank you to my family and friends who hosted the baby showers and thank you to everyone who attended and 'showered' us with precious, beautiful, practical gifts. We will think of each of you as we use your special gift with our daughter.

This is why my heart is FULL. Life has been good lately, so very good.

(linking maternity dresses up here)

.Our first official IKEA Hack.

I know, I know..

..it's been done, but that didn't stop us from trying it! 

Adam and I completed an IKEA RAST Hack! 

We started with this little gem:

And we ended with this little beauty:

I have had this design in mind for months and finally took action on our last Ikea venture, when we purchased two of these end tables at $34.99 each.

Unfortunately for me, being pregnant meant I would not be able to stain and paint the wood like I had hoped. Luckily for me, after sharing my idea with Adam he gladly accepted the task of stainer and painter--what a guy ;)

The brand and name of wood stain we used is Home Depot's Behr Natural Sequoia. I wanted the stain to match our dining chairs and must say I impressed myself by eyeballing the perfect shade. We bought 1 quart and have plenty of stain leftover for future projects. I forget the exact total but it was around $15.00 for the stain. We also selected 1 quart of Behr's Ultra White High Gloss for the drawers. The paint came to $14.00. Our last purchase from Home Depot were new knobs for the drawers. I cannot find the exact ones of their website but each knob came to $2.17. I had originally picked out beautiful vibrant knobs from Anthropologie but could not bring myself to spending over $100 for the hardware since it defeated the purpose of making over the guest bedroom on a budget.

The rough final cost for our two IKEA RAST Hacks: $125.00

Adam and I feel pretty good about our furniture makeover and think the two end tables really add personality as well as function to our guest bedroom. We also love the view from the hallway of our dining chairs and the end tables--the colors really lead your eye from room to room.

I had a little fun trying my hand at staging and styling the end tables, take a look:

 To view these little beauties in our "new" guest bedroom click here.

Thanks for reading!

(linking up to some of these great parties)

.Guest Bedroom Makeover REVEAL.

As promised...a house post for you! 

You were probably thinking Adam and I had been working on Penny's nursery--nope! We decided since she will be sleeping next to me for the first few months in a moses basket we will have plenty of time to prepare the nursery after her arrival. Our priority went to making over the guest bedroom. We are anticipating many visits this summer with loved ones from all over and wanted them to have a room to feel 'at home' during their stay. This poor room has stayed the same for almost two years and lacked some serious personality for our guests. 

Just take a look at this sad before picture:

This room makeover was truly a team effort and I am so thankful for my sweet husband putting up with me and my 'nesting' instincts. This may sound silly but I actually felt like I was a host or designer on an HGTV show and Adam was my carpenter/painter/handy man/on call man. It was fun and if you didn't know..my husband, well..

He's a keeper.

Adam and I make a great painting pair. Even at 32 weeks pregnant I was still able to tape off the entire room and cut in for my man! Believe me when I say I was done for the rest of the day after that. Adam then rolled on two coats of Benjamin Moore's Rodeo. We matched the paint color, which is a nice warm gray, to a subtle color found in the new duvet cover. Thankfully the trim was freshly painted two years ago when we bought the house so it saved us a lot of time and back ache. It's a rather tricky thing to capture the true color in pictures but I think these photos are pretty accurate:

 To furnish the room we used our old queen size bed from our first duplex, an upholstered bench we purchased as newlyweds, owl lamps from our bedroom, a large round mirror from our first dining room, curtains and curtain rod from our duplex, two new end tables from Ikea, and a DIY wooden hook rack as well as a DIY headboard. 

It felt really good to 'shop our house' and use what we had and I must say, it made the hubs a happy camper :) 

The new items we purchased for the room were two end tables, a Pottery Barn duvet cover (which was sold to me for only $40 in perfect condition!), bamboo roman shades, two pillow shams with matching bedskirt, two throw pillows, knobs for the end tables and closet doors, hooks for the wooden rack, two small throw rugs, and fabric and foam for the headboard. 

More decorating and accessorizing could have been done but I wanted to keep the room feeling calm and simple knowing our guests bring their luggage, coats, etc with them when they stay. 

Now on to the REVEAL pictures!

This room really came together nicely and without any stress. It was fun playing around with new colors and different wood stains. Next week I will share posts with you about the end table makeovers and my attempt at staging/styling them. I am also hoping to have tutorials written on how to make the chunky wooden hook rack as well as the headboard. Thanks again for taking the time to read this post, I'd love to hear what you think about our guest bedroom makeover.

Anyone else recently do a makeover? Share your link below!

Happy Living--Happy Room Makeovers

and remember

--Little Things Bring Smiles--

(linking to some of these wonderful parties)

.House Posts in the Works.

I am in my 32nd week of pregnancy and finding true what "they" say about the nesting period.

I am in it..
..this means Adam is also in it.
Oh marriage, you're pretty fantastic.

House projects actually began a few months ago with a few minor changes here and there but now things have evolved onto a much larger scale.

It's been awesome.

My blogging has definitely taken a back seat but once I have lovely 'after' photos to share with you I will be back. Keep your eyes open in the next week or so and thanks again for sticking around even though I've been missing!

And get this..
..only 8 more weeks until we meet Penny! Come on July 7th!