The Nursery

      As I cleaned out little items in the nursery and put them into Kaitlyn's box, I knew I would want pictures of her nursery. Inevitably (and God willing), it will have to change soon to prepare for our next kiddo.

Kaitlyn's nursery from the hallway

      Like I said, its full of all the things that we should have been using every day: the carseat haphazardly stuck in the crib, the jogging stroller blocking the way to the glider, things stacked on top of the changing pad. Before Alex had deployed, he had painted that far wall a camel color because we were only about 7 weeks along when he left and we didn't know her gender yet. A nice tan could have gone either way as far as decorating: adding pink for a girl or adding blue or teal for a boy. You can see Kaitlyn's memory box right there in the center of the room, just waiting to be filled with the things that will always be just hers and no one else's. 

      My cousin Holly had really helped me get everything ready for K's arrival. She called me one day from Oklahoma and said, "You have to go to Hobby Lobby! They are having a sale on all of their wall decor!" Off I went, and this is one of the things I bought that day. Its more pastel than any of the other pinks in K's room, but I loved that it was vintage chic and matched her crib. Her nursery theme was pink safari, so there is a little wall hanging with a giraffe on it down there by the window. 

        I painted these letters from Hobby Lobby and picked out cheetah print ribbon to hang them with. I was SO excited when I found the lampshade at World Market because that coral color is also something K would have really liked. There's a picture of the two of us on the wall, and my plan was to have pictures of our whole extended family up on that wall so that Kaitlyn would be surrounded by her family. I think it's funny I had all these plans and even though Kaitlyn's arrival was planned I didn't finish everything before she got here (way to go, me!).

       One of the final touches that was made by Holly and her husband Jonathan. Isn't it just fabulous?? I don't even know where to begin... Holly had picked out a lot of the little hair clips, but I also had bought quite a few of them because I just couldn't resist. I knew that girl was going to come out with a full head of hair (and I was totally right!) even though my mom warned me not to overdo it on the clips because she might be bald the first few years of her life. We also had a plethora of headbands just in case. I love the one on the far end, that flower would have been bigger than he whole face, but nobody would have mistakes her for a boy! That is also a Jenny present :-) There are only two things I packed away from this board: the pink bow in the upper middle that has the initial "K" on it, and the headband hanging third from the left. That was the fabulous vintage looking headband that Jenny had given her. Everything else I think I will be okay to use if God gives us another girl (oh please, please, please! I have way too much cute girl stuff...).

      We talked about what to do with all the mess in the middle of the nursery: the two strollers and the bassinet, specifically. Alex had thought that maybe we should get a storage locker for that stuff so it would be out of the way but there when we were ready for it, and I really didn't like the idea of that stuff being out of the house. I know its silly, but I felt like if we put it somewhere outside of the house that means that it will be even longer before we are able to use it again (I just shrugged at my use of the word "again"... We didn't use it yet so there can't be an "again"). Anyways, Alex decided we should build out the attic into some storage area, so we are adding that on the list of "to dos" for the future so that we can keep the strollers and big items still in the house. We want to claim that promise that God is going to provide us with another child sooner rather than later. We know he has good things planned for us.