Opinions PLEASE!

I have found the most beautiful fabric (Lily & Will by Bunny Hill) for baby boy's room! I am going to make bumpers, a dust ruffle, and a couple of fitted sheets myself (Lord willing). But I DESPISE making choices about what fabric to go where! We are in a rental so I can't paint walls or really even do window treatments. I could probably do a valance but it's the bedding I'm concerned about right now. I need some suggestions. I have looked at this fabric until my eyes crossed.

Here is the bedding from the designer herself. My faves are the brown and blue damask on the valance, the bunnies, and the stripe in the bedskirt. I really want to use these 3 somewhere in the bedding. However, I really feel like the skirt is too light compared to the bunnies on top and I do know that I want the bunnies on the outside of the bumper. This combo has the blue with brown dots on the inside bumper.

Here are the new aqua and yellow colors just to give another look of it all together. See how light the skirts look compared to the bumper! Does this even matter? Am I going crazy?

So here's what I was thinking: Bunnies on outside bumper, stripe on inside, brown on blue damask for the skirt (this is what is questionable. will this be too dark? too busy? i LOVE it though.), something ivory for the sheet (like the brown baby's breath on ivory or the blue swirls on ivory above), and fat cording and big ties maybe in the brown-on-brown dots above. Or would solid chocolate look better like in the full set photos? I would really like it to all come from the website linked above. She has the best prices and since I live in rural AR (and am 6 months pregnant), I do not feel like driving all over America searching for the perfect solid chocolate brown.

I am sure that I could pick any combo and it would look FINE, but I would like a few opinions, so if you have time, please let me know what your favorite combination is!

Hours of Entertainment

Who would have thought that I would be so lucky to have a baby boy due less than one week after his cousin's (my sister's son) 2nd birthday? That means ALL cousin Mark's clothes up to 24 months, changing pad covers, blankets, etc. are available for my usage and the clothes will be the right size for the right season! My mom went through them recently and had 2 Rubbermaids and 2 large space saver bags full of baby boy stuff (not to mention brand new things she had been hoarding until we could pick them up). We brought them back from Dothan last weekend and it didn't take long for Little Miss Mommy to find them and get busy! Sipsey is going to be a wonderful big sister! However, I predict a few meltdowns over her being told that she can't do it ALL (or that she's going to break his legs and arms manhandling them into his outfits)!

Our den looked like this from Monday until Thursday. I finally bought some Dreft so now they are so fresh and so clean. Let's see if I can keep her out of his dresser!

The babies big enough for newborn and 3 month clothing endured many wardrobe changes. Everything had to match perfectly!

German Heritage Festival

Our town was settled by Germans and named after Stuttgart, Germany. Each May, there is a German Heritage Festival held by the Museum of the Arkansas Grand Prairie featuring German foods, beer, and wine, Polka music, and games for kids, and the museum is open to learn more history of the area. We took Sipsey this year and had a lot of fun! The museum reminds me of Landmark Park in Dothan but on a much, much smaller scale. I'm just thankful there are events and activities to keep us busy here!

Ring toss. She actually got one!



Balloon pop. Notice the stick passing hands.



Pick-a-duck.



Fun prizes.



Polka! Who else is thinking of Steve Urkel right now?



The area Humane Society was there. Sipsey was very gentle with the kitties until she raised that white sign and slammed it down against the cage. Moving right along...



The puppies were super sweet. They came over from their snooze spot in the shade to play with Sipsey.



Learning in the old schoolhouse.



Preaching in the old Lutheran church. She seriously started telling Bible stories.



Adorable little farmhouse.



This here is the belly. If you plan on seeing me soon, please don't gasp when you see it live and in person! It has most definitely popped out there! Baby doesn't have a finalized name yet (ahem, Margaret :) ) but we are much closer to one at this point than we were with Sipsey. Hopefully we will decide soon!

A little Monday morning craft

Sipsey came to me in my room this morning at 7:56 and proclaimed, "Mommy, there is something I want to make RIGHT NOW. Let me show it to you." I thought she may be referring to the blueberry muffin mix in the pantry. However, she returned with the book Olivia that we checked out at the library last week turned to this page:

I read it to her last night and explained that Olivia has a little brother just like she would really soon and asked if she wanted to scare her little brother like Olivia. She answered with an emphatic yes! So, this morning, we made the scary monster mask so Sipsey could, according to her, "scare baby brother in your tummy!" After all, who could wait 3.5 months to make such a fun mask?

Unlike me, it looks like Sipsey will hold her pen the "correct" way, for whatever it's worth. I guess no daily torture from her 3rd grade teacher possibly makes it worth it. My way is far superior. :)

This entertained us for a whole 20 minutes! I thought some other mamas want to try it with their little ones. As soon as she put it on and scared me, we were on to the next activity.

The Plains

Have you heard of Auburn University's Project Uplift? It is much like Big Brothers Big Sisters of America but it is a local agency serving Lee County, AL. When I was a sophomore, I was paired with a little girl, who was 6 at the time and spent time with her playing, exploring, doing school work, etc. during the week when I had free time. Her little brother was 4 then and was too young for the program, but as soon as he turned 5, he became "mine" too! I kept in touch with them after graduating and even brought them to stay with us in Birmingham in 2007 when I was pregnant with Sipsey. They had also come home with me to Dothan twice while I was still in school. When we lived in Birmingham, I thought we were just too busy to visit them in Auburn or to bring them back to B'ham. Then we moved to Arkansas, and I realized how silly that was. It had been weighing heavy on my heart to visit them, so that's exactly what I did. In March, I decided to make a trip to Dothan and it was my priority to visit them on a Saturday while I was "in the neighborhood" (2.5 hours away!). "A" is 15 now and "J" is 13!!! We had wonderful day in Auburn and I will always make visiting them a priority . If you attend Auburn or know someone who does, I encourage you to learn more about Project Uplift and become a volunteer!

We picked them up in the morning and took a little tour of the city. First stop was the house where I lived junior year where the kids spent a lot of time with me.




Next stop was the trailer where Ben and I lived as newlyweds for 9 months before moving to Birmingham. Our trailer has since been removed and this brand spankin' new beauty replaced it.




After a delicious lunch at Olive Garden (A's choice), we had a little photo shoot in front of Samford Hall.









The poisoned Toomer's trees that will not be there when Sipsey attends AU!





























We played for awhile at Hickory Dickory Park where I used to take A and J to play when they were little. Now they were playing with my little one!














So sweet!




We left the park when the bottom dropped out of the sky and drove around the city a little more reminiscing. This beautiful rainbow appeared on the way to an early dinner.




We ended the day with dinner at Mikata (J's choice) which was still as popular now as it was when I was in school.