Clowning Around

My dad traveled for business a lot during his time in the insurance field. Each time he returned home, he brought the 3 of us kids something from the road. I don't remember at what point he started getting me clowns - but I have a family of clowns from all over the country. Clown tea sets, clown trolls, clown puppets, tiny clowns, large clowns, adorable clowns, and some very creepy ones too!

On one of his trips, he returned with clown letters that spelled out "Rachel." These little guys were immediately placed on my bedroom door. I love the way the artist painted their outfits and little "personalities."

On a trip home this summer, I was pulling out my clown collection to show Josh, and we stumbled upon these letters. The Monday before we found out we were having a girl and had decided on Ellanore for a name. When we saw the letters, Josh mentioned we could almost spell "Ella" out of "Rachel."

My mom looked very diligently online and found an additional "L" that matches the original set. Ella's nursery is now complete with her name displayed on her door in clown letters from Grandpa and Grandma B!

Lasagna Line

If you know me at all - you know I'm a planner. Maybe even to a fault. I like to have everything in order, if I can feasible control it - I'll give it my best shot! :)

Last night was my first night of cooking dinners for after Ella's arrival. For a little over an hour, my kitchen was a lasagna assembly line. The output - 5 lasagnas (4 for freezing, 1 for dinner tonight).

I do this frequently, and people always ask me about storing and portions, etc. So - just pick your favorite lasagna recipe and with a few modifications you can have meals ready to go! I make my lasagnas in bread loaf pans - they are the perfect size for Josh and me. I get dinner for the 2 of us and then left over lunch for one of us out of each pan. Assemble your lasagnas and then wrap in plastic wrap once and then tinfoil (the acid from the sauce can interact with your tinfoil if they are frozen together).

You don't need to bake the lasagna on this end - b/c everything is already cooked, you are just assembling and will have to bake before you serve, so not cooking now will avoid it drying out if you did cook it twice. 

I do have to admit that I cheat a little - I use the no-boil noodles. They are easy - and fit perfectly into the bread loaf pans! :)

Post Partum Check List

This blog post is mostly for me, just so I remember the list of "must haves" for the next time we have a baby. Josh recently introduced me to the idea of "determining the value of each key stroke." So - why tweet - something that can't be found again 5 years form now, when you can blog and always have access to your thoughts. Why spend individual time trying a colleague when you can put the same information in a video and share it with all your colleagues? So - rather than writing this down and loosing the sheet of paper somewhere, I'm going to create a blog post I'll always be able to find.

These are things I loved having this time around, or wish I would have had:
- Bath towel I don't mind parting with
- Supply of pads
- Witch hazel
- A few pairs of "throw away" underware
- Juice to help you stay hydrated, you will get sick of water
- Ginger Ale
- Tucks pads
- Stool softener
- Nice toilet paper

What are items you would add to this list?

The Bump

Last weekend we had some maternity pictures taken with our awesome and talented friends, Stephen and Whitney. We had so much fun with them at North Park and are excited to share a few shots from the day. Thanks S&W for helping us capture this fun time in our lives! 

Dresser Redo

When I started to make plans for setting up Ella's nursery, I was set on painting her dresser (and Josh was gracious enough to humor me). I did a lot of research online and Pinterest, but was unsuccessful in finding direction for painting an IKEA dresser - so hopefully this helps others.

We painted a white dresser, but I believe this would work with any color.

The biggest issue I faced in redoing the dresser was the glossy paint that IKEA uses to finish their furniture. I couldn't get any paint to stick to the finished dresser front. I tried primers, sealants, and various different paint types. Ultimately, the only thing that worked was lightly sanding the dresser where we wanted to paint. I then added my painted design and used a sealant to get the glossy look back over the entire dresser. I ended up using Martha Stewart's paint line for the dresser.

Thanks to my Uncle Chuck, we were able to add a bright finishing touch to Ella's dresser. We used glass paint to add bright yellow glass drawer knobs - I think it makes the whole piece come together. Thanks Uncle Chuck! 

Note - when you do sand the front of your drawers, do so lightly.  You do not want to remove the color, so in my case - I brushed off the gloss, but the entire drawers remained white.

I suggest painting the drawer fronts before assembling the dresser, however, if you already have your dresser set up, you should still be able to complete your furniture revamp.

Danielle's Shower

I'm sorely late in posting this blog, life has been crazy lately.

Last month, we had a baby shower for my sister-in-law, Danielle. Due to Danielle being on bed rest throughout her pregnancy, we had the added treat of having my new niece, McKenzie, at the shower with us! And as you can see in the picture below - she perfectly matched the theme of the shower. :) [My sister-in-laws from left to right: Danielle, Rachel, and Katie]

We wanted a shower that was going to "fit" Danielle and her personality - and as a Mary Kay consultant - she's never far from the color pink! We decorated the room with black and white with accents of bright pink.

The more we scanned Pinterest - the more we become committed to have all pink, white, and black food. We had strawberry and angel food cake kabobs, pink chocolate covered popcorn, chocolate cupcakes with bright pink frosting, strawberry gooey cookies, pink stuffed oreos, strawberry rice krispie treats, strawberry marshmallow pops, and much more! Here is a look at the food table.

 

To bring together the theme - we used the strawberry marshmallows as holders for the food labels. We used the paper we had created the invitations with as well as the games for the shower. We also made our own serving trays with black and white plates and cups as stands. My mother-in-law also made beautiful poms with tissue paper that really added color and texture to the room - it wouldn't have been complete without her touch! 

My animal baby shower

My wonderful mother recently threw me an adorable baby shower. She is a planning machine, and thinks of absolutely everything, so this blog post won't even begin to do the event justice, but it was such a special day, I wanted to try and share it.

As we were doing the baby gender reveal at the shower, my mom planned a cute animal theme shower. With help from my high school friend, Renee, I created the invites to play on the animal theme.

Mom decorated the room with stuffed animals and yellow and white roses - it was beautiful! She used little animal picture holders for place cards, and had regular and frosted animal crackers as the favors. She used tiny cookie cutters shaped like animals as the "bow" on the favors - as I said, my mom thinks of every detail!

Mom started off the shower with the gender reveal - she read a poem that she had originally found and cross stitched for my father. She changed the words and gender pronouns to be fitting for me and Ella. The poem stats, "I want to be the kind of woman God intended me to be, for she follows me. I want to be the kind of woman I want her to be, for she watches what I do." Her eyes filled with tears, she announced that we were having a little girl!

Playing off the animal theme - we played a game that required the guests to match the name of a given animal to the name of their baby - so Cows were matched with Calves.

The cake was adorable, and once again, had little animals on it - and it was delicious to boot!

I was blessed to celebrate with friends and family and completely overwhelmed by their generosity. I received many wonderful gifts, but was particularly blessed by the homemade gifts and true labor-of-love items we received for our new addition.

My talented Aunt Kathy made Ella a beautiful bear quilt. I love the bright colors!

My cousin Mary made the cutest sweater, hat and bootie set. I just love the coral color - and can't wait to see Ella in these items!

My sweet cousin Annette also made Ella a blanket. It is a beautiful mint color with an adorable heart in the corner - I just love it and the soft yarn it was made with!

Mary Jackson, a sweet lady from my parents church made Ella a grey and yellow blanket (those are the colors I'm going to decorate her nursery in). I love the flannel backing - great for baby snuggling!

Thank you so much to everyone for showering us with love, support, and prayers. Josh and I are so excited to start this next journey of our lives with our little love, Ella Suzanne.