4 Years + 9 Months = Happy Family

First, a few updates about the nursery. I have been working to put the finishing touches on the room. One of the last things I did was work on the curtains. I already had khaki curtains in the room, but they needed a bit of something special. The bed set that I purchased came with a bed skirt (which did not work with our crib), so I decided to take it apart and use it to help out the curtains a bit. I think the final product is super cute.

My last art project was really to tie the room together. I wanted to use a set of vinyl letters that my Dad had put in my Christmas stocking about 5 years ago. So, I painted a large canvas the same color as the smaller ones and cut out butterflies using some of the same patterns as the other animals. There is an open space on the bottom right in which I plan on putting mountable photograph corners, so that a picture could be easily placed and changed based on a current family dream. The first one I want to put there will be one of our first as a family.

Now, something super fun.... the 23rd of July was our 4th wedding anniversary. To celebrate the day, our friend Katie Ford came over and held a photoshoot with myself, Joe, and my 38-week pregnant belly. It was a lot of fun. Joe and I had been worried that we did not have enough belly shots, so this really solved that problem. We had planned on having an outdoor shoot, but considering the lovely heat wave going on, we moved the shoot inside. I love the way the pictures turned out. Some of them are serious, but most of them are silly which is more our style. Enjoy!

"but the trees have risen one more time"

Amber and I have been away from blogging for a little while because we have been so busy with baby-related things. A few weeks ago, we put vinyl trees up on the big wall in Emma's room. As the pictures will show, this was a time-consuming effort, but it was certainly worth the work. The trunk, branches, leaves, birds, and owls were all separate, so it meant cutting out each piece individually and putting them in just the right space.

Here was the wall just when we were getting started:

We used painter's tape to lay everything out on the wall the way we wanted it to look. The vinyl tree trunks proved to be the most difficult because each trunk came in two pieces, but most of them didn't match up perfectly. Thankfully, I was able to cut them to make them match up and appear seamless:

Eventually, all of the trees were done and it looked like wintertime:

The leaves were time-consuming, but Amber was able to tell me where they looked good, and the manufacturer gave guidelines for leaf placement, so they became pretty fun to put on the wall. Finally, we put the birds and one owl up on the wall. We debated putting more than one owl, but Emma's room already has a few owls here and there, so we thought we should probably chill with the owls. Besides, I kind of like this one guy, he seems like the sheriff of the room.

Our final, finished product, looks like this:

It has been so much fun to prepare this room for our daughter and we are looking forward to spending the next few weeks relaxing and awaiting her arrival.

The title for this post comes from a poem by W.S. Merwin called, "Rain at Night." It ends with the lines:

but the trees have risen one more time

and the night wind makes them sound

like the sea that is yet unknown

the black clouds race over the moon

the rain is falling on the last place

I hope that in future years she finds this room just the kind of unique, exceptional place described in the lines above.