Flashback Friday {Nursery Tour}

Our baby girl is 7 weeks old now and doing great! I feel like all I'm doing is taking care of her. I'm not sure how I did it all when her brothers were younger. At one point I had a baby, a toddler and a preschooler, plus I was doing home projects and blogging about them!

My favorite project of all time is my third son's nursery. (That's him in the picture with Jocelyn.) The window wall reveal post has gotten over 38,000 hits in the last 4 years! Since I'm still super proud of this room, I thought I'd share the tour with you today. Enjoy!

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Welcome to our nursery!

The first thing you'll notice when you enter the room is this big window framed with blue silk curtains and chippy barnboards. You can read about it here.

In front of the window I added a child-sized rocker with a basket of books. Perfect for entertaining big brothers!

To the right of the window is a tall chest of drawers that was recently featured at Better After! So proud of that!

Here is my post about this dresser's amazing transformation.

I love the look of green plants in every room; not only do they add some fresh green to a room, they're good for the air! Yes, that's my middle son in the frame. I need to print some current pictures!

Next to the dresser is my favorite chair. I've had it forever and it rocks and swivels, so it's perfect for nursing and rocking Baby. I've included a small table for my Bible and water, or my laptop so I can try to catch up with my favorite blogs.

 Above the chair is a gallery wall. You can read more about it here.

Baby's crib is next to my chair. It used to be plain wood, but I painted it and installed the board and batten right before Baby was born... and never blogged about it! I will milk this nursery for as many posts as I can do a before-and-after post soon.

No crib is complete without a mobile! Here is what I created (and here is where you can read more about it).

The door to the hall is at the foot of the crib. Besides painting it white, I've done nothing to it, so there's no picture except the glimpse you get of it next to the closet. Here is a post about the closet.

 I added the sign today and thought I'd skip a tutorial cuz everyone has fancy vinyl machines... Not me! This is my trusty sharpie marker and kindergarten teacher skills!

My older boys (ages 2 and 4) love to play in this little nook.

Of course they prefer the bedspread-turned-curtain down so they can hide!

Next to the closet is this vanity I redid, also featured at Better After and blogged about here. You won't believe the before pictures of it! Now it has been reinvented as a changing table. I bet it never saw that one coming! (Looks like a need a bigger basket for Baby's laundry so it will hide the cords!)

I made this sweet little banner using a receiving blanket.

Hope you enjoyed the tour. Thanks for visiting!

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So what do you think? I just love that room. I'm curious how it would have evolved if we had stayed in that house. I know I'm not over board and batten and can't wait to buy our own home again so I can add more!

Have a great weekend!

Project #walk365 {November}

This post is so late that I almost skipped it, but I want it here for posterity. So here goes!

In January of 2015 I set a goal to walk 365 miles during the year. I meant it as a goal to walk every day, and for the first half of the year I did just that.

During the second half of the year walking daily wasn't as easy to do, so I upped the miles on the days I did walk (usually two miles per day). I made my 365-mile goal on my birthday in early October, despite a hot summer, a cross-country move, and being pregnant!

But November. November was hard! It was the last month of my pregnancy and as you can see by the pictures, we started to get snow! I cut back my miles to only 5 a week, and tried to get out as much as I could.

I did ok in the rain and slush and cold, but around Thanksgiving we had ice. I walked two more times and threw in the towel! Walking on ice at 38 weeks? No thanks! My total miles logged for #walk365 was 413.

Overall, I'm super proud of myself! I think walking made a huge difference in my pregnancy. Most of the time I felt pretty good and my weight gain stayed in the healthy range.

My goal for 2016 is to walk 500 miles. I know it's not a big difference from 2015's 413, but we're nearly a month into the year and I've walked less than 1 mile!* I'm still recovering from a c-section, I have a newborn, and it's cold and snowy outside, so I'm not going to worry about it yet! With those things in mind, I think #walk500 is a great goal.

*I purposefully go on a walk or log mileage on my treadmill. I use Runkeeper and only log these intentional miles, not the daily mileage I might get around the house or running errands. I think that's great too, but wanted to clarify what "counts" for me.

If you want to walk with me, you know, virtually, I'll be using the hashtag #walk500 or you can follow me on Instagram. I'm gibsongirl726.

Thanks for reading!

Pregnancy #4: 40 Weeks & Summary

Ok, this is the last of these pregnancy posts! This was a fun little marker for me to do each week.

The weather turned cold in November, so week 37 is the last one shot outside. I also had to start going to the hospital each week for non-stress tests given my "advanced maternal age".

By week 38 I had cut back to walking only half a mile 5 times a week, and it took me half an hour to do! I stopped walking right after Thanksgiving because we had so much snow and the roads were even icy. I just didn't want to risk falling!

I had some anxiety during this pregnancy, something I've never struggled with before. I know some of it was over the planned c-section and I worried that by week 39 I'd be a mess! Thankfully, my stress seemed to go down as the date approached, and I was fairly calm going to the hospital and heading for surgery. I plan to do a full birth story at some point, but not here or now.

Technically this was 39 weeks 5 days, and Jocelyn was born 39 weeks 6 days. I made sure to get the Christmas tree decorated before the baby, but we really kept Christmas simple this year.

So to recap, here's a look back at weeks 18-40!

Thanks for coming along with me on this journey! Here's to NOT being pregnant anymore!

Life Lately: January 2016

Well hello there! I really disappeared! Again. For two months.

But I'm back now and have high hopes for my blog this year. More of that later; for now I'd like to catch the blog up on the last few weeks of 2015.

November was the last month of my pregnancy. I finally really started to slow down. I kept walking (post to come)

and kept up my healthy habits and doctor appointments and non-stress tests for the baby and posting weekly pictures of my ever-growing tummy (post to come).

And then on November 30, our daughter was born!

Jocelyn's birth was a planned c-section and everything went fine. The whole thing was bigger and scarier and has taken longer to heal than I had thought, and it's been harder to adjust to having a newborn again. I'll write up her birth story for posterity, eventually.

Jocelyn, 5 Days Old

I do think that things are returning to normal, or becoming our new normal as we adjust to being a family of 6. The boys are such good big brothers! They are just enamored with their baby sister, and have been very loving and helpful.

We had three simple Christmas celebrations, one with each of the Grandmas who came to meet Jocelyn and help out during those tough first weeks. We also celebrated with just our family on Christmas Day.

This winter in Northern Idaho has been very snowy, but coming from almost 10 years in the Midwest, it's also pretty and warm(er)!

In the Midwest, snow is usually accompanied by wind, and after the snow stops falling there is more wind, and it's just so cold! Here there's no wind and temperatures seem to stick to around 30, so the snow sticks to trees and fences and the roads stay clear. Much better!

 So Merry Christmas from our family to yours, and Happy New Year!

 Thanks for reading my blog!

Introducing Our Baby Girl

Jocelyn Elyse was born on November 30, 2015.

Everything went according to plan and she is absolutely perfect.

We are thrilled that she has joined our family, and have had so much fun getting to know her during the last 6 weeks.

Life seems to be slipping into a new normal as Jocelyn is starting to sleep better and I'm finally feeling better. We're looking forward to what 2016 has in store for our family of six!