The Good, the Bad, the Shocking, the Sad

We had our 20 week sonogram yesterday and we have some news to share...

First, the Good...

Everything looked good on the sonogram, at least preliminarily! We won't have the final report for a few days, but both the sonogram technician and our doctor said everything looked good.

Thank you, thank you, thank you Jesus!

Sweet Feet

(I will confess that I asked the sonogram tech to take a closer look at the feet because I truly thought I counted SIX toes on one foot!)

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Next, the Bad...

a) I gained 7 pounds in ONE MONTH! Yikes!

I did the calculation on where that might put me for a total weight at the end of this pregnancy and it was a scary thought... I can't imagine what a scary sight it might be!

b) The sonogram gave me a due date that is 7 days later than what I thought the due date was. Because I feel like I've been pregnant forever, 7 more days feels like a LOT!

Next, the Shocking...

We are having a.....

GIRL!

You might recall from previous posts that our OB was definitive and adament in his predication that this baby was, without a doubt, a BOY! Despite my own instincts, I convinced myself (and our sweet Noah) that this baby was going to be a BOY. Truly, I was SHOCKED to see the "three white lines" indicating the baby is, in fact, a GIRL! And the sonogram technician said she had no doubt about it :)

Next, the Sad...

As excited as I was to hear that we are having a girl, in that moment, I would've given anything for the news to be have been different...

just so I didn't have to see the saddest face I have EVER seen on my sweet Noah!

He was so absolutely sure that he was going to have a little brother and had even been talking about names for his brother...

When she sonogram tech gave us the news, I looked at my sweet son and I almost cried. His face fell, turned bright red, and his eyes welled with tears. I think he was in shock because he didn't say anything for about a minute. And then, in the sweetest, sadddest voice, he said...

"But I wanted it to be a boy."

Bless his sweet heart!

By the end of the appointment, he had recovered a bit. But truthfully, I don't think I've ever seen him as sad as he was in that moment.

Thank goodness that a call to PaPa gave way to a plan to get together to watch the Jayhawks play in their first basketball game that night... that cheered him up!

We are so thankful for the good and shocking report and are anxious to get through the remainder of this waiting period, which by the way, is expected to end on...

March 27, 2010!

That was Noah's original due date in my 1st pregnancy too :)

Updated! My Halloween Pumpkins

Halloween 2009

The Farmer & His Piggy

Noah: The Farmer

Emmie Kate: The Piggy

The Rear Views:

The Holtzman Family

Looking Back...

Halloween 2008

KU Football Player & Cheerleader

Halloween 2007

Old Fashioned Golfer

Halloween 2006

Bob the Builder

(an unhappy one!)

Halloween 2005

My Sweet Pea

Happy Halloween to you & your Pumpkins!

I Guess the Important Things are Sinking In

I had one of those days today...

the kind that just exhaust you and drain you emotionally and physically.

In the midst of a lot of frustration and exhaustion with Noah, a conversation occurred that was just too cute not to record and remember.

Let me set the stage...

I had just made a fresh pot of macaroni for lunch.

Sweet Sissy is always so willing and ready to share things with her brother. He, on the other hand, not only doesn't share anything with her, but also doesn't accept her offers to "help" and share with him.

So, today Sweet Sissy first got a bowl out and gave it to me, saying "That's Bubby's". I filled it with macaroni. She then handed me a pink bowl for herself and I filled it with macaroni.

Noah, in the state of sassy-ness he was in, walked by the counter, grabbed the bowl off of the counter as he proclaimed in a "not nice at all" tone...

"I don't want that bowl"!

And you can probably guess what happened...

The macaroni went flying all over the floor!

Despite my internal desire to "lose it", I stayed calm and told him that he would have to clean up the mess.

Well, after about 10-15 minutes of crying while cleaning up his mess, noodle by noodle... each with a new square of paper towel, the following exchange took place...

Noah: "I wish I didn't live here."

Me: "Really? Is there another place you would like to live where you would be loved as much as Mommy & Daddy love you?"

Noah: "Yes, there is."

Me: "Ok, well tell me where it is and I'll drop you off there."

Noah: Tears followed by... "But I don't want you to drop me off there."

Me: "But you just told me there was a place you could live where you would be loved as much as Mommy and Daddy love you. Where is that place?"

Noah: More tears, a sad and scared look in his eyes, followed by... "Well, it's Heaven! But I don't want to go there today! I want to wait until I am old."

I couldn't help, but smile!

He was right... Heaven is the only place he could live where he would be loved as much as we love him.

I guess the important stuff is sinking in!

Fall Decor and a Few More

Welcome!

Last week, Kelly did a Fall Decor tour and as usual, I had lots of fun seeing the ideas from other people's homes. It inspired me to finish up my fall decorating once and for all!

I am proud to say that I did not buy one new thing for my Fall decor this year!

And...

I didn't even use half of the decor I already have!

This is quite an accomplishment for me because Fall is my absolute favorite season and I usually can't get out of Hobby Lobby without buying something new and putting a pumpkin or a leaf in virtually every nook and cranny in my house!

Anyway, less decorated than it normally is, I thought I'd share what Fall looks like around our house this year...

Enjoy!

The front of the house with a few yellow leaves remaining on the tree

Our front porch

Fall is my favorite time for porch decorating!

Vance loathes the hay bail, but I love it!

I also adore weird and funky pumpkins... the more misshapen and odd, the better!

Our whole porch area

I usually go a bit overboard with my mums in the Fall!

This year, however, due to the pregnancy debilitation I keep referring to, I sent my lovely husband to purchase the mums. He can home with just 2 baskets! Admittedly, they are large baskets, but if I had gone shopping myself, there would be several more baskets of mums!

I love this 3 tiered planter from Southern Living at HOME!

The pansies are fading, but the pumpkins have been there since early September!

PaPa and Noah carved these cute pumpkins.

Unfortunately, they did them a tad early and they are no longer in existence due to the enormous amounts of MOLD that took residence inside of them!

They have been replaced with a Princess & a Pirate that Nonny did with them a few days ago!

More kid pumpkins!

The little ones are the ones that they painted on our (camera-less) trip to the Pumpkin Patch.

Bucket in front of the fireplace

Close up of some of the Hearth Room Mantel

I didn't change the decor... just added some accent leaves and berries to it.

I did change out the contents of the hurricane...
at least on this side of the mantel.


The Hearth Room Mantel

Now, on this side of the mantel, I did not change out the contents of the hurricane.


Why?


Because I decorated it as you see it last Fall and never changed it back!


I have to admit though, using nuts is one of my favorite, inexpensive ways to decorate for Fall (or maybe even year round!)


Little side table in the Hearth Room

Kitchen Table tray

Another way to use my aforementioned love of nuts during the Fall!

OK, so I forgot.

I did buy one new thing this year...

I love these pomegranates from Pottery Barn.

I don't think I will technically count them as a Fall decor purchase though because I think I will leave them out year round... the color matches my decor perfectly!

The Dining Room Buffet

I love using the candlesticks as pedestals for the funky pumpkins.

I also change out the "filler" for my glass dome depending on the season. The gourds and fun shaped pumpkins are a perfect "filler" for the Fall.

Everything else is just accented with leaves and a few small pumpkins.

The Dining Room Table

I purchased those ceramic pumpkins several years ago after Halloween when they were 75% off at Hobby Lobby! I love them!

The little pumpkin filler in the hurricanes is from at least 3 years ago! It is still one of my favorite hurricane fillers though!

My Chandelier Accents

We just added these cute little Firefly Lanterns to the Southern Living at HOME line and they are so much fun! I decided to try hanging them from the chandelier in the Dining Room to spruce it up a bit... now I just need to add 2 more of them!

The Thrifty Decor Chick always takes great pictures with her candles actually lit!

So I thought I'd give it a try too!

And now for a Few More...

My two little pumpkins admiring their baby pumpkins from the patch

Can you tell Emmie is NOT a fan of looking at the camera?!

An almost perfect shot!

Gorgeous Fall color... even in Emmie's outfit!

I love the wonder children find in the simple things!

And one last cute grin to leave you with!

Happy Fall!

Green with Delight!

Back in the summer days...

the days when I was productive and not taking daily naps...

I had a lot of fun looking through people's homes on Kelly's Home Tour. After posting pictures of my own office, I realized how drab and blah it looked compared to some of the more vibrant home offices I saw on the home tour.

So...

I embarked on a project to give my home office a face lift... with ideas completely inspired by other people's blogs!

And here are the results.

I have to say, I love the way it turned out... I'm simply Green with Delight!

Before shot looking in to the office nook

After shot!

As you can see, I painted the walls a fun, perky, bright green!
I love the way the green pops against the black furniture.


Another after shot looking in to the nook

Before shot of the library shelves

(Boy, I wish I were as handy as the Thrifty Decor Chick! She did a post on how to make these shelves on your own. I, unfortunately, actually bought the Ballard ones. But she shows you how to get the same look for a quarter of the cost! Check it out here")

After shot of the library shelves

I have always loved black and white toile, so I decided to add in more accessories in black/white toile with a few green accessories to give it a pop!

So much more fun!

Before shot of the shelves and ledge accessories

After shot of the same location

I rearranged what I was already using and added more green accessories.

Before shot of the desk and window area

After shot of the same area

Isn't that so much better?!

I moved the lamp from the ledge to the desk and added some tassels to the bottom of it.

I made the valence/garland to dress up the window (more on that later).

Everything else, other than a few rearranged green accessories, is the same. But for some reason, I just think it is so much more fun!

Before shot of the window... BORING!

After shot of the window!

The Nester makes these fun garlands and has displayed them in all kinds of places in her home. I saw that she once used one to hang in front of her kitchen window and I thought it looked so cute! So I decided to give it a try!

The best part about this project is that it involved absolutely NO sewing (which I absolutely have no idea how to do!).

I chose a bunch of black/white fabrics, ribbons, trims, etc. and just started cutting and tying. It was easy and only took a few hours once I had all the fabric cut. I love the way it turned out! I added the green/black wall plaques at the top because my swag ended up being a little longer than I had planned. I actually love this "garland" concept so much, I made one as a runner for a table in the basement too!

As a matter of fact, my mom and her friend (who find it odd that I read blogs about people I don't know) have both made similar garlands for rooms in their home! Give it a try!

Before shot of the bulletin board wall

After shot of the same area

This mirror was about to go in a garage sale, but I found a perfect home for it on the tiny wall adjacent to the bulletin board wall. It works perfectly with a few green accents from Hobby Lobby!

A few more green accessories

And all of this makes me...

Green with Delight!

Now, if only it would inspire me to actually get my work done on a more timely basis!

A Fun Fall Football Day...

Saturday, October 24th

KU v. OU

Lawrence, Kansas

It was a gorgeous Fall Day filled with family, fall beauty, football, frills, food, fun, and friends!

Oh... and maybe a few frowns at the end of the game!

Enjoy!

*************

Family

The Holtzmans

Emmie & PaPa

Fall Colors

Emmie in gorgeous Fall leaves

A look at Potters Lake from our tail gating spot

Gorgeous KU Campus

KU Red Roofed Buildings Amidst Fall Colors



Football

Emmie & PaPa

A Throw by Noah

My Jayhawk Princess with her pink football

Father & Daughter

Frills!

Emily Kate modeling her frilly KU outfit & bow!

Food

Burgers, Brats, Beer & More

Fascination...

with the Band

with the puddle of water & "helicopter" leaves

Fun!

This faces sums it all up!

Fun with Bean Bags

And most importantly...

Friends!

New Ones

Noah & his new friend, Matthew

Old Ones

Daddy & his childhoold friends

Chad, Vance, Roz, Grant, Jimmie, Sean

Noah & Grant

My Blog Inspired Playroom Makeover

Well...


Back in the days of summer, long before the onset of pregnancy debilitation, I was rather productive!


After looking at so many fun decorating ideas on blog sites, I decided to give my playroom a blog-inspired makeover! This translated into many weeks of dipping my fingers in modge podge and cutting up millions of pieces of scrapbook paper... all in an attempt to get that darling "Pottery Barn Playroom" I've always dreamed about... without the Pottery Barn price tag!


I thought I'd share the before and after makeover pictures because I am really happy with how it turned out!

This is a "Before" Shot

I had moved an armoir into the playroom so the movie-watching could be contained in that room, and I had purchased the white shelves and toy baskets. That's all that I had done. I was listening to the advice of friends who have many children and said...

"Don't spend any money on the playroom. The kids will just destroy it!"

I just couldn't listen any longer...

the unfinished look of the playroom was driving me NUTS!

And this is an "After" Shot of approximately the same area of the room!

Ahhh! So much better!

I got those cute oversized metal flowers at Hobby Lobby when they were closing out their gardening stuff... they look so cute and cheery atop the armoir!

"Before" shot of the Window Wall

(in terribly bad lighting!)

"After Shot" of the "Window Wall"


The walls were already painted a shade of yellow. I found two fabrics for the curtains that had lots of bright colors... both boy and girl colors! That was the inspiration for the rest of the room... lots of fun, bright colors!

As I mentioned, I already had the shelves. But given their short stature, I felt like I needed something to hang above them.


So I created (with more modge podge & scrapbook paper!) these canvas prints that were very inexpensive and large enough to fill the space. I ended up making an "N" in the middle of the blue/orange canvas on the "boy side" for Noah's toys and an "E" in the middle of the pink/green canvas on the "girl side" for Emily's toys.


Don't ask me what I'll do now that I'm going to have more than just an "N" and an "E"!
Poor 3rd child... I'll have to find a "side" for him/her too!


Here is a closer shot of the "wall art" I created!

I used a blank canvas and "modge podged" scrapbook paper to it.

The middle portion is made out of an 8*10 frame. I took the glass out, modge podged a patchwork on a cardboard frame matte, spray painted the letters, hot glued it all together, hung it from the ribbon, and got the three dimensional finish to the "wall art"!

A look at the "E" girl side of the wall!

This a "Before" shot of the back wall.

My #1 irritation about this room has always been the eye sore (i.e. fuse box) in the semi-center of that wall! It had to be covered up... that was my main goal!

And here is the "After" Shot!

The Art Wall

Inspired by my need to cover up that ugly box, I decided to turn the entire wall into an "Art Wall" filled with bulletin boards for hanging priceless preschool artwork and marker boards adhered to the walls for creativity. We used to have several easels with marker boards, but they took up so much space. So I decided to use marker boards on the wall instead. They are easily accessible (in fact, a little too accessible for a certain almost 2 year old!) and take up no space!

I love how it turned out! And it's freed up a lot of clutter on my refrigerator too!

A close up of the letters (more on those later) and the bulletin boards.

I painstakingly covered the wood frames with scrapbook paper and modge podge and the cut out the circles for accents and used modge podge (surprise!) to adhere them to the corkboard.

I had 2 of these star "quilt holders" that I was not using anymore, so I decided to use them as clips to hold the little buckets on each side of the marker board.

What's inside the buckets?

Well, currently NOTHING! They were intended to hold the dry-erase markers and erasers, but given a little "incident" involving that same almost 2 year old, they no longer reside there! Maybe someday!

This is a "Before" shot of an old narrow wooden table that I had. I purchased it for an entry way at a raw wood store when Vance and I were living in an apartment while he was in graduate school. I was about to put it in a garage sale, when a blog inspired me to turn it into something else...

An Art Table!

I sawed off the legs to make it a kid -friendly height, spray painted it and you guessed it...

modge podged the circles to the top for decoration!

(Emily already ripped one of those "decorations" off! What was it my friends told me about kids destroying playrooms?!)

The two little chairs were my mom's from when she was a little girl. They resided in her storage room until we dug them up and spray painted them to look new!

(New, until that same little almost 2 year old took a crayon and added her own "decoration" to the "new" chairs... sigh!)

A "Before" shot of the armoir wall

The "After" shot of the same wall!

Ahhh! So much more FUN!

I love having the armoir in the playroom because it is the perfect spot for housing all the kid DVD's, but I hated how I had two unused little corners on either side of the armoir.

So, with the help of another little table that was in the garage sale stack, some more modge podge, scrapbook paper, a cutesy lamp from Hobby Lobby, and Emily's comfy armchair....

We now having a sweet little Reading Corner!

A close up of the letters!

These turned out so cute, but almost made me crazy! They are three dimensional cardboard letters that you get at Hobby Lobby... very cheap! I cut strips of scrapbook paper to wrap them top to bottom and side to side... with modge podge!

It took for-E-V-E-R!

My fingernails had modge podge permanently adhered underneath them for weeks! They turned out really cute though and if you don't count your time investment, they were super cheap!

I thought the armoir needed a bit of jazzing up, so I made the little ribbon accents to go around all of the door knobs.

I turned the other side of the armoir into a little dress up corner for Emily. There are hooks beneath the "PLAY" lettering to hold dress up clothes, purses, jewelry etc.

This is the back wall of the playroom that is still unfinished.

I'm waiting to finish it for a Christmas morning surprise...

I'm planning to make it into a wall that houses a wooden kitchen/store set. I'll make more lettering and signs to match (if I can talk myself into more modge podge!) the other lettering in the room!

And just in case you were wondering...

The answer is NO!

It rarely looks like this!

Most days, it looks like this...

And this...

And this...

And after the very first time we had a play date party in the playroom and Emily decided to color the walls and marker boards with a permanent purple glitter pen, I was asking myself why I didn't listen to those friends of mine!

But even though I had to spend several hours cleaning the carpet, walls, and marker boards with rubbing alcohol, I'm still glad I decided to do it!

It is so much happier and fun and the kids play in there ALL the time!

Hope you enjoyed!

Spiritual Thoughts of a 4 Year Old

Noah has become very interested in his bible stories and the topic of heaven.

In imitation of his Nonny, he holds "bible studies" in our home and has even begun to memorize the books of the bible.

As we were having one of said "bible studies" last night, I was asking him some "review questions" on the book of Exodus. In response to me asking Noah what happened when God's people got hungry in the dessert, the following conversation took place:

Noah: "God gave them little pieces of bread to eat from heaven."

Me: "That's right!"

Noah: "Is that all God gave them?"

Me: "Yes, God provided everything that they needed."

Noah: "But why didn't he give them some hamburgers or something else too?"

I got a laugh out of that one :)

We've been talking a lot about heaven as we do our "bible studies" too. It is a difficult concept for Noah to understand and he has obvious questions about the concept of going to heaven.

After talking one evening about his Grandpa Bob and his Grandma Bert who live in heaven, the following conversation took place as I tucked him into bed...

Noah: "Mom, you don't go to heaven until you're really old, right?"

Me: "Well, we hope so. But sometimes young people, even children, go to heaven."

Noah: "So when you are about 30, you get to go to heaven?"

Me: laughing... "I hope not! Because Mommy is already older than 30!"

After a some additional discussion about heaven, I tucked him to bed. About 15 minutes later, I heard the pitter patter of 4 year old feet coming my way. My immediate response was to sternly tell him to get back in bed, but he interrupted me saying...

Noah: "But mom, I have to ask you something important."

Me: "OK, what is it?"

Noah: "How do you get to heaven."

Me: "Well, you have to love Jesus and try to follow his rules...."

I followed by a lot of other desperate attempts to explain salvation to a 4 year old, when I was interrupted by...

Noah: "But mom, I mean HOW do you get to heaven! Do you walk there or what?"

Me: After a brief attempt to explain body and soul, I finally gave up and just said "It's a miracle"

He was satisfied enough to go on back to bed!

I'm going to have to beef up on my ability to answer the spiritual thoughts of a 4 year old!

You Know You've Been Complaining Too Much...

WHEN...

Your 4 year old son exclaims...

"I'm so exhausted, I can't function!"

True Story.

It just happened.

Lesson Learned!

A Prediction

I had my 2nd OB appointment yesterday.

My OB is so laid back, he rarely offers any information unless I specifically ask him.

After finding the baby's heartbeat with the doppler, he casually walked over to my chart, started to write, and offered up the first piece of information he has ever voluntarily offered...

"Looks like you better pick out a boy's name!"

What?! I couldn't believe it!

I responded by telling him that I was leaning more towards a girl based on my symptoms. Once again, he offered his prediction...

"Nope! This one's a boy!"

We won't officially find out for 2 more months, but something tells me that if he offered this up, he's probably right!