one (big) thing checked off

On President's Day, we rode over to Augusta. Joe needed to visit the food bank our church is partnering with for our Backpack Buddies program, and I had a couple errands to run. We ate lunch at Five Guys. I could eat those fries all day long, but the whole family loves the peanuts. My kids could live off of them.

I picked up these:

Such an overdue item on my to-do list, that actually having them in hand was almost overwhelming. I am so happy with the way they turned out. I did not want them to match exactly, but I did want them to coordinate.

I did the same mats, and the frames, while completely different, both have a champagne finish.

I am glad I went with this frame for Hannah's. I was initially thinking a wider molding, but this one compliments the announcement's background pattern without being over-the-top. And I love how deep it is.

Joseph's is so different from anything I've seen, and if I went off of my snap-judgement when I first got into the store I would have saved myself some time with the second-guessing. It's masculine but works well with the announcement, a good contradiction to Hannah's very feminine frame. I love it.

I hung them next to one another in the hallway outside the kids' bedrooms. Check!

You know how sometimes it just hits you and, all of a sudden, you realize how big your babies are, and that they're not really, well, babies anymore?

Maybe it's looking at the birth announcements. Maybe it's the words and phrases I'm hearing lately or the conversations we're having. Maybe it's capturing everyday moments in pictures like these… But it has certainly hit me. They are growing up…too fast sometimes for my liking.

project: baby book

I finally stopped procrastinating and made my project last week putting together Joseph's baby book. {In fact, I wouldn't let myself blog or do anything else until it was completed.} I might not have been as organized as I was doing the first-born's, and I might not have remembered as many details and dates, but I guess that's what happens with #2.

As you know, when you embark on a project of the sort, a mess is created in the process. My work space was my dining room, with pictures, cards, mementos, and art supplies covering the surface of my table and the surrounding floor. The first couple of days (when given the chance to work) I went through boxes and bins and collected all things Joseph and set up piles by subject (pregnancy, birth, doctor, holidays, etc.).

It was all I could do to try to keep the little ones from taking things from my organized stacks and going through my art bins.

But I got it finished - or pretty close to it. I still have to order some photos for a couple pages.

This book is all about you, sweet boy. I hope you like looking at it one day.

I like the way it turned out.

It was a little too full when I put it together, so I took some cards out. I have it sitting under a dumbbell right now to smush it down a little.

That's Hannah's underneath. They have just about the same number of pages. Didn't really make that a priority, but glad it turned out that way. Joseph's is a little thicker because I'm trying to flatten a Pampers Swaddlers diaper, size newborn. Just couldn't bring myself to throw it away.

And now, on to my next project...

the nursery: part 6

{In case you missed the previous nursery posts, they are here: one, two, three, four, and five.}

Well, this is way overdue. The last nursery post was two and a half months ago. I haven't done much of anything since then, but it has taken a while for me to take pictures and blog about it. I kept putting it on the back burner so I could blog about more current events {when I actually had the time to blog}.

Since Joseph has officially moved in to his room, I thought I should get my act together. After all, I know you can't wait to see how it all came together. Right...? So, without further ado.

I did not want an over-planned space. I was hesitant over any "theme". I really wanted the room to be a collection of things we like, appropriate for a baby, but having the ability to morph into a boy's room when Joseph is a little older. This nursery took almost a year to come together (ideas swimming around in my head for quite a while), but we did move in the middle of it so I'm not going to be too hard on myself. You could say the room has a something-old-something-new-something-borrowed-something-blue theme. I used a mix of old and new, rustic and refined elements, and nautical accents. I like natural textures and a neutral color palette. I found the bedding and worked around it.

Upon walking into the room, this is your view. The door on the right wall is the jack-and-jill bath that connects Hannah's room. The window is on the front side of the house.

The rug is one of my favorite things about the room. It is a Moorish tile rug from Pottery Barn. I don't think they sell it anymore. I fell in love with it years ago. It was in our living room in the last house, but matched the trim on the crib bedding perfectly.

There you see where the oars made their landing. My handy husband hung those up. I wrote about the glider in a previous post. Both that - with new cushions - and the changing table came from Hannah's nursery. I switched the white rattan baskets for natural sea grass ones instead.

The window treatments were done by a church member here who is a seamstress. {Though Ann insists that she is not a professional, I think she did a great job.} I went with a casual, but tailored, pinch-pleat design with a standard rod-and-ring system. Ann tucked drapery pins in the pleats for easy hanging. As for fabric, I chose a natural linen for the body and a slate seersucker for the trim. I asked for the three-inch band of seersucker to be run on the bias (diagonal) along the leading edges.

Due to the bright and hot afternoon sun, I had the panels made with black-out lining. The obvious benefit to that is that the room gets completely dark, unlike Hannah's room which is so bright. Dark room = more sleeping. Theoretically...

That is the mirror I found while at Scott's a couple months ago. It is solid wood, heavy, and I love it. I took my time looking for the right mirror so it was the last thing added to the room. It is exactly what I had envisioned. The two lamps in the room were made by Joe's grandfather, Joseph Alexander Buck, Jr., who also made several other things in our house. Each square on the shaft rotates. I love having original pieces mixed in with store-bought ones. And while we are on that subject, there is the dresser that I gave new life to. I found the little giraffe and cat while traveling years ago. I can't recall where at the moment. My mom might remember. The cross-stitch was a gift and has Joseph's name along with "God will increase" and the Bible verse, "From the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded." {Luke 12:48} Such a good verse... The ship came from my dad's model collection.

There, above the closet doors, is the first oar I found at a yard sale. I intended to paint it so Joseph would have something in his room that I did like Hannah does, but for now it's just a plain old weathered oar. The frame to the right of the closet is a cross-stitch of the Georgia coastline that was done for us as a wedding gift. You can see where the vintage rolling crate ended up. A nursery must also be practical, hence the camera.

I love the bedding.

I found this chair at an antique store in a small town right near us. I knew it was meant to be Joseph's the second I saw it.

As my Dad was downsizing to move out to the Pacific Northwest, he gave a lot of stuff away. I took this framed historic map of the Jamestown/Williamsburg area of Virginia.

And there are those hampers I found at Target. Whites go in one, colors in the other. When they are full, I pick them up by the rope handles and dump the clothes in the washer. Makes doing laundry relatively simple.

The shelf to the right of the crib has some toys and gifts we have received. Finally, I wanted some photographs of Joseph on the wall. I decided to hang the frames directly next to each other so I would have room to add more as time goes by. I also like the aesthetic. The frames are both dark-stained and black-painted wood.

Besides the monitor and necessary pieces of furniture, the most important thing in the room is sitting there on the side table: the iHome. Joseph and Hannah both listen to the ocean as they sleep. Joe and I are strong believers in the benefits of white noise we read about in Happiest Baby on the Block. Since their births, not a day has gone by when we have not used it.

And that's Joseph's room. The photos are darker than I anticipated, but you get the idea. Now...on to the next room. {And it will not be a nursery!}

baptism...belated

It didn't take me this long to get ahold of the pictures, but it has taken quite a while to sit down and blog. And even now I have writer's block. I am having trouble putting into words that day. Here goes my best attempt.

August 28 was Joseph's big day. Everything about the morning was beautiful: the weather, the music, the ceremony, all of it. It was extra special for us, for obvious reasons. Watching Joe baptize our son was a precious moment. For Joe, I know, it was a priviledge - one of the few times where his vocation intersects with his family in a very personal and spiritual way.

Despite my efforts to have a quiet baby, Joseph was not a happy camper. And he certainly didn't like it when Joe laid him back. He wanted to face out and see everyone. Hannah wasn't too happy either. My brother, Will, held her so she could watch. But she didn't understand why Daddy was holding Joseph and not her. She is most definitely a daddy's girl.

Joe used a special baptismal shell, given to Joseph by our friends, Jennifer and Daniel.

Thank you to my cousin Trudie for capturing this:

Joe was carrying Joseph down the aisle. Hannah had her head against mine and we were watching them. A beautiful rendition of Jesus Loves Me was being played on the piano. I felt overwhelmed with love and pride.

The godparents: Will, Jennifer and Daniel

The Brooks family

The Buck family

Joseph Alexander Buck III, IV, and V

The Smith family and the Register girls

Daniel and Leah

Emma and Jackson

Hannah and Uncle Ben

We are thankful for our friends and family who came to Sandersville for the occasion. Thank you to Trudie and Joel for taking pictures, to Mom for the beautiful flowers and cake, and to Joe, Marilyn, Mom, and Trudie for help with the food. It was a wonderful day.

the nursery: part 4

Yes, Joseph is here - has been for almost three months - and his nursery is still not complete, or even close. But I've got an excuse in that we recently moved and he just now got a room! He is still sleeping in our room in his bassinet and perfectly content to stay there. In the mornings, I'll pull him into bed next to me and that is my favorite time of the day. We lay there and snuggle. I nurse him, and then we snuggle some more. But, I know, he needs to move to his own room and so I am trying to pull it together.

Since I wanted to have an idea where we were going to put things (and because I was getting antsy to start Joseph's room) I drew up some layouts before we moved.

Prior to move-in, the church in Sandersville agreed to paint some rooms in the parsonage. {In case you do not know, we live in a church-owned home. There are benefits and drawbacks to this arrangement, but if you are fortunate enough to have a church that is able and willing to meet your needs and wants, it's not so bad.} Anyway, I chose Glidden's Vase Blue, a chambray color, for Joseph's room. I'm in love with it.

I have a few updates since my nursery posts, part 2 and part 3. The crib we picked out was discontinued. A different, but similar, one was ordered last week and will arrive any day.

The new glider cushions arrived and they are on. I took the rug from our living room in the old house and put it in the nursery - it is the same color as the yellow in Joseph's bedding. Yay!

Still need to do something with that dresser...

The side table I am using is the one that was in Hannah's room, a simple white-painted wooden table Joe's grandfather (Joe Buck Jr.) made. During the move, it got beat up a little and the paint was peeling in several places. I pulled off the little bit that was loose in order to sand it down and touch up the paint and it came right off. So now I have this look:

As both my mom and mother-in-law commented, if I had a cow theme going on, this would be great. But I don't. Still, I like the natural wood look better, so when I have some spare time I intend to peel the rest of the paint off. It'll be a long, therapeutic experience I am sure.

For the last several months I've had my eye out for fun additions to the nursery. I've collected as I go, not really having a specific theme in mind just finding things that I like. I'll pull it all together once we have everything in the room.

Back in April, I went to a garage sale on my girl trip to Brunswick/St. Simons and found an old oar. It wasn't exactly for sale (I spotted it in a junk pile in the backyard), but the nice lady sold it to me for a dollar.

A week or so later, I found a pair of handcrafted wooden oars (and met the nice old man who made them) while out exploring with Hannah in Jesup.

I don't know what I'm going to do with this oar collection yet, but I have a couple ideas.

I love this rolling storage crate from Serena and Lily. Mentioned it to my mom, and all of a sudden it's in the mail being delivered to the new house. Backordered for over a month, it arrived this week.

My little assistant.

Update: since starting this post a couple days ago, the crib arrived. Yay for progress!