Baby Bedding Part 2

ok. ya'll are just awesome! i think we had something like 42 votes on our little bedding survey! now I know how to get advice from ya'll. don't ask for comments...just do a survey! ;)

but seriously! thank you so much for your feedback!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. I'm sure we'll all have Christmas posts to come (mine a little later than others!). Ours won't be up before the new year, but they'll be up soon after!

I did want to let you know what we decided on bedding. As much as I wanted to make the twins bedding, I just knew we couldn't. And we were looking at spending a small fortune with the fabric we'd chosen. As much as I wanted to just buy it, I just couldnt seem to find the right thing either.

So I got on etsy.com. I'm sure most of you are familiar with that site...all things handmade. The sellers are typically amazing, love what they do, and love to work with their buyers. I found some beautiful custom made bedding sets for around three times what I was willing to (or could) pay.

Until I finally found the greatest fabric with a seller who was reasonable:

And after much deliberation and many emails to my friends Rachel and Mandy, mother-in-law, and mom, we finally came up with a plan!

The girl's crib bumpers will be made from the fabric above. It will be backed in a light pink snuggle fabric to soften things a bit.

We'd plan to also use the fabric below for the 2nd bumper pads, but it has a blueish background, so I opted to stick with the one above for the bumpers. We'll use this one for a changing table cover my mom can make.

And then the crib skirt: instead of using this green stripe fabric as the entire crib skirt, the majority of the skirt will be white with a small 3-4 inch band at the bottom in the coordinating fabric below. This was a great suggestion from my friend Rachel! I think it will also soften things up a bit.

We were also able to order extra fabric. Paul's mom made Addie a beautiful coordinating crib quilt for her bedding, and she's planning to do one for each of the girls! What a special treasure for each of them to have forever! My mom and I plan to use some of the fabric for valences and pillows here and there too.

So that its. Order placed before Christmas! I'm so excited and can't wait to show you the finished product when it arrives.

Now to get the room ready: clean up the Christmas wrapping (done), pack away the books (almost done), reorganize clothes (working on it now), put together the 2nd crib, paint Addie's dresser, take apart Addie's bed, put up her new bed, teach her to sleep in a big girl bed, reassemble Addie's crib in the twin's room, move the changing table and Addie's old dresser, and decorate the twin's room.

Then we'll be all ready for them to arrive...

(Christmas posts and pictures emailed to family to come...I promise!)

Flashback

You might remember this picture of Addie and Abbey from last year. Notice the dress.

Addie wore this dress to the zoo this year (more pictures to come)...as a shirt that happened to almost be too short!

Amazing what a year can do!

Merry Christmas!

...from our family to yours!

(photo and card courtesy of Allison Lewis Photography, Birmingham, Alabama)

Baby Bedding

Originally, my mom and I planned to make the twins bedding for their room. However, after starting curtains (only curtains) for Addie's room, we've decided to just go ahead and buy something. Making two of everything was going to prove to not only be time consuming but overwhelming!

The fabrics that I loved for the girl's room had bold, bright colors. Pinks. Greens. Blues. Bold. I chose bold colors because of what these girls have already been through. They are bold, brave, and fighters. That was my logic at least.

After searching through no less than 40 sites and hundreds of beddings, I came to a very difficult conclusion. Part of my pregnancy symptoms include (in addition to double sneezing throughout the day, wanting to eat like I'm eating for way more than 3, and being very forgetful) being very indecisive! Very indecisive!

My personality is way more "geometric" than flowery (i'm not sure what that says about me), but I liked the flowers in a few of these too.

Lime Green/Hot Pink Flowers
(i love the colors)

Soft Pink Blossom
(sweet but sophisticated)

Lavender/Lime Green
(not pink! and i liked the possibilities of what could be added to this)

Multicolor Geo Circles
(fun! bright but not overboard)

Lime Green/Hot Pink Damask
(again, love the bold colors)

So please help. Just go with your gut and let me know what you like!!! Feel free to leave a comment and let me know why you like (or dislike) what you like (or dislike)! I'm not personally attached to any of them!

Online Surveys & Market Research

Simply Amazing

We went for an 18 week ultrasound today.

Two words: Simply Amazing!

And if you haven't heard already, we confirmed that we're having...

two

sweet

perfect in every way

healthy

baby

GIRLS!

Yes, we are beyond Thrilled. Amazed. Thankful. Joyful. Relieved. Grateful. Excited. Blessed.

No, we haven't figured out how we'll pay for cars or college or weddings, how we'll handle three hormonal girls within two years of one another, or when they'll be allowed to date. Thankfully that is years down the road.

I'm a little more concerned with getting the nursery ready, finishing Addie's big girl room, transitioning her into a big girl bed, potty training, how to carry two infants while supporting their heads in addition to carrying a toddler (bc it will happen!), nursing twins, and how to grocery shop with 2 infants and a toddler. Really. All far more pressing than weddings! :)

Yes, we have names picked out.

But no, we're not sharing until they are born. We'll get enough unsolicited advice about having three girls (we already have!). So I figured that was one less thing we'd (I'd) have to worry about. Once they are born and named, people tend not to be as likely to share thoughts on things that won't be changed!

And the biggest question we're getting: are we disappointed in anyway that we're not having a boy. Absolutely positively not! Our number one prayer for these babies has and continues to be for them to be born healthy and full term! We would not trade having three girls for anything!

So without further ramblings from me...meet our confirmed baby girls:

Baby Girl A

Sweet little hand waving to us!

And I think she's already learned to pout!


Baby Girl B

Sweet little foot!

And I may regret posting this one later. I'm not big on naked baby bottoms in pictures, but there is certainly nothing cuter! When the ultrasound tech discovered this, I could not not share it. Baby B had rolled herself over and stuck her sweet little bottom straight up in the air. Could not resist it! That's her spine along the top and head to the left.


We are absolutely amazed at God's goodness. He continues to provide for and care for our family in so many ways. Without a doubt, we give Him all glory and praise for his provisions for and for the health of these babies!

Give thanks to the God of heaven. His love endures forever. Ps 136:26

I [Heart] Faces: Honorable Mention!

I have entered the I ♥ Faces contest many times and never dreamed this very much beginner/amateur could ever hope to place in the top 10. But check out what I woke up to this rainy Saturday morning!

(click image)

And please make sure to check out this post that tells you how you can help some precious children all the way around the world!

Check It Out: Pearl Ministries

Since today was his first official day on the new job, I feel like I can blog about it. No, I'm not talking about Paul! Our friend's the Lewis' have been carefully listening to God's will for their lives; and they have taken a huge step of faith: Josh has gone on staff full time with Pearl Ministries.

Did you know there are over 147 million orphans worldwide? The main aspect of Pearl Ministries is an orphanage in Uganda called Ranch on Jesus. But I'm not going to waste your time telling you about something Allison knows WAY more about that I do!

So PLEASE head over to Josh and Allison's blog and read about this amazing opportunity that YOU have to help a child literally all the way around the world!

Pearl Ministries is also selling beautiful handmade ornaments at Ornaments4Orphans that benefit these precious children of God. Please make sure to check it out!

{almost} Wordless Wednesday

A little elf "helped" me put lights on the Christmas tree last week. But lights seemed to end up in the strangest of places...

And this was the natural progression of the pictures, honestly.

I ♥ Faces: {Sweet Dreams}

We are so thankful to be sleeping again around here! The I ♥ Faces theme of the week is {Sweet Dreams}. I haven't entered a picture in a long time, but I figured now was as good a time as any...considering we are sleeping and I haven't thrown up in over 10 days! Praise God!

This is our daughter Addie and dog Abbey. It constantly amazes me how patient Abbey is with Addie. This is a perfect example of that!

Make sure to head over to I ♥ Faces and see some other sweet sleeping faces!

And please make sure to check out this post that tells you how you can help some precious children all the way around the world!

Check It Out: Angel Tree

There seems to really be an increased focus on giving this Christmas. I think it's partially because we're so blessed to be surrounded by people who do give to others. I think it's also because giving is way down, and these organizations are desperate to fulfill their primary goal of helping others in need.

I've read a couple of articles recently on making Christmas focused primarily on giving to others and using an advent calendar to come up with ways to give Jesus gifts, because it is His birthday we're celebrating here, right? I don't necessarily agree with everything that was said in each article. We do enjoy Santa and love giving and getting gifts, but we want our children to understand more of what it means to give than to get!

You may remember me posting about a few needs here and here. Since then, Paul and I have come up with a few ideas that our family would like to do. He plans to take Addie to deliver coffee to the gate guards at the air force base where he works on Christmas morning. We're hoping to deliver coffee and bagels to our neighborhood fire station and church office. Again, I don't tell you these things to say look what we're doing. I tell you these things because we want others to get involved! We want others to be blessed by serving. And we want those ever growing needs of precious families around us to be met!

I remember when I was growing up that my mom used to have us pick two angels off the Angel Tree at church. We'd shop for an outfit and a toy for the child and return it to the church for delivery. I'm not sure I completely understood what Angel Tree was, but I do now. And it did teach me a lot about giving to others!

Here's a quick excerpt from their site:

Every child has a story. For 1.5 million American children, that story is filled with the abandonment, loneliness, and shame that comes from having a mom or dad in prison. At Angel Tree, we find ways to reach out to these children, by sharing Christ's love with them at Christmas and by developing year-round relationships. In the end, it's so much more than giving Christmas gifts-it's about restoring families.

As I was listening to the real radio today (because my free Sirius radio has run out), I heard a plea for help from the Angel Tree organization. There are many churches who adopt and commit to sponsoring children, but there are apparently still 50,000 children nationwide who live in rural areas where churches are not sponsoring! That's 50,000 children who might not have a Christmas...at all.

I know. You can say, well it's their parent's fault for landing themself in jail. But...is that the child's fault? Or even the spouses? I seriously doubt it. And is that really the attitude we should have as Christians?

So, I'm asking you to consider visiting their site.

Its way easy to sponsor a child. You can choose the state and the age. You decide how many you'd like to sponsor for a Christmas gift, age appropriate Bible, and a message from their parent who is incarcerated. It was perfect for us because I can't shop right now! I'm so much better, but I still don't have the energy! It's a gift that each of these children more than deserve!

Please consider sharing some ideas your family is doing or has done for others by leaving comments! You can even share them anonymously! I have a feeling another friend might even let me share her post I think she's writing on sponsoring Compassion International Children! It's a wonderful way to share ideas with others, big and small, that cost a little something to nothing at all!

So what are you giving to Jesus for His birthday?