A Pottery Date

A few weeks ago we got a Groupon deal for a paint your own pottery place. So today we had a little pottery date. This was Burke's first time to paint pottery. (I am really thankful that Burke will do things like this with me because I know he would have rather been throwing the football at the park.....love him....) Burke picked a hippo bank to paint for Marin and I chose a pumpkin for Halloween (have I mentioned I'm excited about fall???). Here are some "action" shots...

The artist at work...on his 18th coat...

Gloppy the Hippo Bank

Love the goggles and love Marin's name....


And the pumpkin almost complete...

Trick or Treat!

We go back in a week to get the glazed, shiny pieces!

Then we ate lunch at a cute little cafe in a fun part of town. The weather was PERFECT so we sat outside! Again, I am so excited about fall in Chicago. It was delicious, but I ate too much and Marin didn't like it.

Shutterfly Site

I have added wedding and pregnancy pictures to a Shutterfly site so those that want copies of some of the pictures can order them there. You can pick the pictures and sizes you want and they will mail the prints to your house. (This is mainly for a grandmother that has been bugging me non-stop for copies of pictures...cough, cough.....)

Here is our site: http://thebrednichfamily.shutterfly.com/

Things that made me smile today...

1. Burke.
We've been married for 2 months now. Love him, love him.

Bad picture...we were on our way to the gym. Trust me, we look worse after the gym.


2. This beautiful thing came in the mail today!! I am so very happy to be finished with graduate classes. I just have Capstone left to do and I get a diploma in December!


3. Our Chicago magazine came in the mail and I loved the cover. I am so excited about Fall!

Marin's Room...In Progress....

So all the pregnancy emails and updates say that I need to start the nursery in the 2nd trimester when I have energy and feel better. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. I wish. But since I am not setting up a classroom or library right now (boohoo), I have started decorated Marin's room. Here is a preview...

First, the rocking horse her daddy got for her....


The polka dot fabric is going to be a "Wall Book Sling". I found the how to instructions in the August Family Fun magazine. It will be a sling that mounts on the wall with curtain rods to hold books.

The striped and floral fabric has become the crib skirt. Pictures below...

The rug we found on SALE!!! It matches all the colors perfectly,

Here is the crib we put together in the living room to give us more space...only it didn't fit through the door of her bedroom so we had to take it apart and put it back together. But it's cute (and was on SALE). I made the crib skirt with the floral and striped fabric alternating. The Marin picture will be framed with a white frame and hung above her crib.

Closeup of the floral crib skirt. Loved that fabric!!

Close up of the striped fabric on the sides....

With her monogrammed blanket (thank you Maye Maye) and matching Boppy pillow.

A close up of the name picture with Amanda Jones inspiration:

I had an old window frame that I wanted to do something with so I used our pregnancy pictures to frame inside it. I will eventually change the pictures to 5x7 size so that it covers most of the window with only a small strip of the pink showing in each pane. Burke picked out the M....

And the teacher in me couldn't resist the ABC picture I found at Target. I loved all the colors too! It will hang above the fabric book sling once it's made....

I have a few more sewing projects left to do but it is coming together!!

Pregnancy Pictures

My dad got us a photography session for our baby gift. You can see more pictures on Oksana Joye's website. She did such an amazing job and I am so happy to have these pictures for Marin.

This is Burke's favorite...

Love this picture!

In this picture, I am pretty sure Burke is making fun of me for something.

Love this one...

Thanks Dad for the pictures!

Love the pink flowers...

Love this one too!

And this one....

Alabama Baby Shower

Burke and I had our first baby shower in Huntsville, AL. My sweet friend, Jennifer, was so kind to host and it was a lot of fun! It was so great to see friends that I haven't seen in so long!

Here are some pictures....


The photographer of the event....Jessica Porter Smith!

Here are a few of the gifts. Marin got so much stuff!! She got 7 newborn outfits, 10 3-6 month outfits, 4 6-9 month outfits, and then 6 of MY outfits that I wore as a baby! Plus monogrammed blankets, bibs, cute socks, a bouncy rocker, a door jumper thing, diapers, wipes, a breast pump.....

The most adorable dad and gift tracker...he was so sweet to come!

Some family photos...

A few of the other guests....

We had a wonderful time and are so thankful for all the gifts, friends, and family!

The Blessing of a Skinned Knee

My friend Amanda and I are starting a blogging book club. I am very excited because Amanda is the mother of two adorable little girls and I know I will learn a lot from her (especially since I am still a little shocked and terrified about being the mother to a little girl). Amanda and I taught at GAC together and she is one of those people that is calm, reserved, and always thinks before she speaks. I have been extremely jealous of these qualities of hers for years and am so lucky to have her as a friend. :o)

We've decided to read at our own pace and blog about the parts we liked the most each Friday. Obviously, I am behind. But the book we are reading is called The Blessing of a Skinned Knee by Wendy Mogel. I'm not the best at reading parenting books because I just feel like there are 800 trillion opinions out there and you can make yourself crazy. But this book caught my attention because it is a mixture of pyschology and Jewish teachings. I know I am not Jewish but I read a different book a few years ago...Mudhouse Sabbath and loved it. Look it up and read it sometime. So anyways, there are a lot of Jewish principles that I really appreciate and respect so the book got me curious.

I have read the first two chapters so far and really enjoy it. The first chapter is about the blessing of acceptance. Its all about accepting your children for exactly who they are. It sounds like such a simple concept but I know there is more to it than that simply from sitting in hundreds of parent teacher conferences. Here are my favorite points....

• "Why are parents so anxious to be raising perfect children? The answer is twofold: pride and fear of the future." I think once Marin blesses our home and begins to have her own experiences, fear of the future will most definitely make a presence in her mommy. I'm realizing (especially after remembering those parent teacher conferences...) that this may take a lot of work and practice...
• The whole section on "ordinary holiness " on page 49. I loved the title and idea of ordinary holiness. She wrote about the holy places, holy objects, holy food of Judaism and they are simple, ordinary things. "Holy food? Challah, a plain egg bread." She continued by applying the principle to parenting by saying "the very democractic system gives a special grace to every child and stunning glory to his name."
• Instead of focusing on report cards and extracurricular activities, "if she senses that you respect her for the qualities for which she's been naturally endowed, she'll gain the confidence to truly shine..."

Again, it all seemed simple when I read it but I know that once Marin is here, I will need to be reminded to simply let her be herself...to have her own interests, hobbies, style, loves...and to appreciate all of them because it is what will make her Marin.

Shocked!

We had our 20 week appointment today. Halfway! Everything looks great. Our baby has a big head...99 percentile. Burke finds this very amusing. But we secretly were going to find out the gender but not tell anyone. We are mean. But that's when we were certain it was a boy. We both have boys in our family. So you can imagine our surprise when she told us....it's a....

GIRL!!!

Total shock. Here is a picture of Miss Marin Jordan all snuggled away...

She wasn't cooperative again this time. She was all stretched out and didn't want to move. But here is a sweet profile picture of her.

And the shot of the day....

This is a 3D picture of Marin. The 3D pictures were a bit creepy. But here she is with her hand by her ear. I love that you can see her little fingers!

We are very shocked. Burke is already budgeting for a wedding now. Yikes. But we are so very happy! Can't wait to meet you, Marin!

And a few more sewing projects.

A little airplane bib (even though Burke's not the biggest fan of the plane stuff).

And a boppy pillow cover with the brown polka dot fabric. Maybe I will put a hot pink M on the center now. :o)

Baby Sewing Project

Burke and I completed another sewing project today. We finished the curtain for the baby's "wardrobe". We've turned the $10 bookshelf into some storage for the baby since I have to use the closet. Burke added some crown molding around the edges to make it look a little nicer and we both made the curtain today. We love the new sewing machine!

Once the baby is born, we will add a hot pink border or a bright blue border.

We hung a tension rod inside to hold some clothes.

We (I) couldn't resist these cute onsies....

Little Baby, slowly but surely we will be ready for you when you get here!