Nursery Pictures

At long last, here are the pictures of our nursery. We are so proud of how it turned out, and owe many thanks to Grammy and Granddaddy Ludwig for all of their help with painting, electrical, hanging things, etc. We hope you love it!

Please meet the newest member of our family:

Our dear friend Dawn gave this to us this weekend. She is the mom of three sweet children, and this bear has held a special place in their home. Once a month, she took a picture of each child with the bear to gauge their growth - and now we plan on doing the same!

Aaron has named the bear Patrick Ewing, after the former basketball player. We think the bear is about as tall as the real guy! When I drove home with it Saturday night, I got a lot of strange looks!

Thanks to Dawn and her family for this special gift. We can't wait for the Nugget to meet Patrick Ewing!

Crisis Averted

This is the nursery furniture that we've picked out:


Aaron's parents offered (before we were even married, LOL) to buy the crib when we have a baby. I fell in love with this furniture, and as icing on the cake, it is affordable! At our last Babies R Us visit, we were given two 15% off coupons, and we thought they would go to perfect use toward the crib and dresser (which Grammy Ludwig is very generously buying).

Grandma Pennington was going to buy the crib today. She called last night to see if the crib was in stock, or if we would just order it. They politely informed her that OUR.FURNITURE.HAS.BEEN.DISCONTINUED. Not only that, but there are no more cribs in their warehouse or floor models at any of the stores in our area. Can you feel my heart start to race? The pregnancy hormone tears start to fall? Good, we're on the same page.

Immediately, I started searching websites for something similar (and not thousands of dollars). Nothing. NOTHING. It all looked like rickety crap. :(

Enter Miss Heather. We were instant messaging and she started finding other Babies R Us stores such as Omaha, Lincoln, Bentonville, and Wichita. If any of these locations had my furniture, it would be a perfect opportunity to road trip!

Omaha: nothing. Lincoln: nothing. Bentonville: nothing. Wichita: more than 300 in stock.
Hold the phone...more than 300?! And they can transfer it to our Babies R Us within two weeks at no additional cost?! SOLD!

So crisis averted...I can now breathe normally and the Nugget will not be born with high blood pressure:)

Thanks so much to Heather for her resourcefulness...Grandma Pennington for providing a place for the Nugget to sleep...and Grammy Ludwig for providing a changing table/dresser to store all of the sweet clothing we're already receiving!!!

Unbelievably Blessed

There are so many reasons why I feel so very blessed to be able to make a living doing what I love and what I feel I was born to do. Every day, I wonder how I got so lucky and why I deserve such a wonderful life.

Especially days like Wednesday, when Mackenzie and Grayson walked into piano lessons with this:

The card attached reads:

Amy - Congratulations! I am so excited for you. this chair was painted by a friend of mine in New Orleans when I was expecting Grayson. I've given away all of my baby things but just wasn't ready to part with the chair. When I saw the colors in your baby blanket, which you are knitting, I instantly thought of the chair. I'd be honored if you would put it in your baby's room. I couldn't think of a better family to leave it with. You've touched our lives in many ways. Much love, Leslie

Wow. What an amazing gift from an amazing family whom I deeply cherish!