[ we're ready for you, sweet laidey ]

I went to search for a new song for this post... and my jaw dropped when I found this precious song!

Family Tree

Last night while everyone was asleep 

I looked out my window, up through the trees 

The sky was so big and covered in stars 

I knew a baby brother or sister soon would be ours 

Hey Ho, our family of three 

Is growing beyond my mommy, daddy, and me 

Hey Ho, just how will it be 

When we add another branch to our family tree 

I’ll be the protector, so strong and wise 

I’ll be the cheerleader always by his side 

This cute, little baby will soon enough see 

No one could love him any more or better than me 

I’ll teach him all the things I’ve learned along the way 

I’ll help him blow out the candles on his first birthday 

We’ll grow up together, side by side 

Take care of one another - full of love, full of pride

-Frances England

Adelaide's Nursery

Oh Little Laidey, 

Your room is all ready and we are even more ready to see you! Daddy and I made nearly everything for your room and we had so much fun doing it. Thinking of and trying to imagine what it would be like to have you there with us while we crafted each decoration. We chose Candlelight Yellow for your walls and it ended up be the perfect blend of bright, but softest yellow we could imagine. Just want we wanted for our little Adelaide. 

Hard to believe that we've gone from this...

To this! (View exactly between the two rooms and underneath the door frame)

Look to the left and you see brother's room, look to the right and you see sister's room...

(See the cutest little boy?)

This fabric was a tablecloth that I found on clearance at Joann's to make a new slipcover for Breck's old bumper pad. It was our inspiration. We created everything and every color off of this fabric...

Ruffled crib skirt that I made from three very different, but coordinating fabrics with the bumper pad.

The finished product! I'm in love! Love. Love. Love!!!

I love to just rock in here and imagine... imagine life with you, sweet girl. 

I revamped your big brother's old mobile that had bright primary colors, and replaced it with these beauties. So it's a handmade mobile, but it still has a working motor that moves it and plays music!

The painting reads: "You are only new to this world, so take my hand and we'll tip-toe to the edge & there we shall look at how beautiful it all is until you are ready to take flight."

Baby, when I first saw this quote, I immediately thought of you and knew we had to incorporate it somehow in your new room!

Shoes! You have sweeter shoes than your Momma now! Your Aunt Holly got you these precious lavender ones! Can't wait to slip them all onto your little feet, after we paint your toenails, of course!

..........................................................................................................................................

Baby Sprinkle

We even had a little "sprinkle" for you! Miss B threw a little shower with our friends so that you could have some things all your own. We had such a great time celebrating the anticipation of you, in the presence of our friends! They all brought you such cute outfits! I think you'll love them! Miss B sure knows how to throw a cute get-together! She thinks through all the details and everything is always as cute as a button! The menu was: Sloppy Joes (with Bambi meat!), grilled corn on the cob, and potato salad! It was delish! I loved the wording Miss B put on the invitations and I will be printing off an invitation for your baby book for sure! Here's what they said:

A little birdie is here to say... 

that Little Miss Laidey is on her way!

She'll be here soon - in a blink!

Come celebrate and bring plenty of pink!

Big brother Breck has lots to share,

This is just a "sprinkle" to show we care!

So bring the littles, the daddies too...

Help us sprinkle the Buckingham crew!

Miss Laura, Miss B, Momma, and Aunt Krystal!

Miss B even had Rootbeer bottles that said "Amber is about to 'pop'! Let's 'root' her on!"

Sweet soon-to-be-big-brother had a grand old time with all of is friends there to play with! His cheeks were rosy and he was quite sticky by the end of the night! :)

Breck's face was irresistible while he was munching on his corn! He didn't hold back at all! :)

Momma caught Daddy and Breck making shadow puppets at the end of the night... :)

I can hardly believe that here we are... waiting for your arrival any day now, and it literally seems like just yesterday we found out about you! Time has gone too fast, but I've loved every minute with you inside of me! I'm not quite ready to share you yet and lose the feeling of your moments inside of me, but the excitement of seeing you is almost overpowering those hesitations! We welcome you, sweet girl! Any time you're ready... we can't wait to love you tangibly!

Love, Mommy and Daddy!

[ well, hello big babies! ]

Half & Half. 

For the past year and a half Breck has had this massive bedroom to himself. And it is plenty big enough that we were planning on having him share it with his new sissy. We had discussed building a wall smack dab in the middle (because it's just THAT big of a room, that cutting it in half still leaves two good size bedrooms.), or just toughing it out and getting through combining both babies' sleeping patterns in one room. The whole idea of having no sound barrier between the two babies, quite frankly, made me pretty nervous; but I tried to hide it and something inside of me kept feeling this need or pressure to be tough,  to figure it out, and make it work. Well, thank goodness for a seriously hard-working father-in-law and a mother-in-law who's little pep-talk - convinced us to just wave the white flag of surrender to being tough, and just build the darn wall! They helped us realize it wouldn't take much material or money at all to get it done. So thankful for supportive in-laws... they are always there to help and give input, but never cross any lines. There have been several times we've benefited from them giving us some wise input. And this was one instance! So Poppa and Daddy started working about 9:00am a few Saturdays ago and had the wall built (minus mud and paint) by 4:00pm!!!! Poppa had it wired, outlets working, and everything! I couldn't believe it! It totally inspired me to whip up something myself. So this week... I finished sewing the bumper pad slipcover, and the crib bedskirt for Adelaide's side of the room! Breck's baby crib has literally been taken over by something seriously girly and ruffled. I couldn't have done it without Daddy's help calculating all of the measurements though! He was a huge help! I'll put "finished" pictures up of the walls when they are complete with a couple of fresh coats of sky blue and candlelight yellow.

Here they are... hard at work. The bones of the wall just went up!

Insulation for extra sound proofing!? Yes, please!

My Big Boy

So since there is a doorway inside the room now, we had to put the crib in Adelaide's room before the wall went up, or else we'd be taking apart a crib in Breck's room in order to move it ten feet and through a door way into the nursery. We'd planned that Breck would transition to a toddler bed once Laidey was here, but I had the thought... why wait until she's here? ...When that alone will be a big enough change for Breck. He doesn't need the change of losing his crib, sleeping in a different bed, at the same time he's figuring out why there is another baby Mommy and Daddy are loving on. So, we decided to just transition him now, get him used to it for a few months before she's even here. Grammy and Poppa were going to let us borrow their super cute toddler bed for Breck. I love how the mattress is the exact same as his crib... so his sheets and bedskirt fit perfectly on his new bed! We didn't plan what night we would switch him (which I think was a good thing), it was just kind of a spur of the moment conversation that went like this... Wanna go get the toddler bed from your parents house and try it? Sure... let's do it! We played up the words "big boy bed" to Breck and exaggerated it quite a bit, so he would catch on that it was a good and positive thing. I, of course, had to get pictures... just in case that was the first night it happened. First night in a big boy bed meant no more nights in a baby crib, even though he's still my baby. The very first night I stayed right outside the door and watched him until he fell asleep. I left his glowworm in the bed with him, so he would think that was fun to have some light in there whenever he wanted it. He played a few songs on his glowworm, and looked around the room a few times while the little glowworm face illuminated the room. He was quiet for some time, but then let out quite the heartbreaking whimper, and I was in his room laying in the bed beside him in a second. It was a sweet cuddle moment we shared then. He was laying on his back, with his right arm under my head and playing with my hair, while he used his left arm to hold my arm around his body. If I moved an inch even to shift my weight around, he would squeeze me tighter and pull my arm closer around his body. It was so precious! We giggled and talked for a few minutes and then I hummed to him. Even now, he's fine if we just walk out of the room, but he does think it's pretty cool that we can lay by him. Every time we lay him down he'll say Awh, awh, aawh. and gently pat the bed right next to him to say Lay by me Mommy! Melts. My. Heart! We still can't believe how well he has transitioned. He literally hasn't acted any differently about it than when we'd put him to bed in a crib. So far, so good!

It was completely dark in his room, so we used my old camera and a flash to get the next two pictures of his first nights sleep as a big boy! 

This is exactly what he looked like when I went to get him up the next morning! 

Within the past week or two Breck has just seemed to blossom into this little mini person, who is doing new things every day and becoming all grown up at the same time. All in one day, he: Slept in his big boy bed. He went to his "normal" poo spot (just behind the couch), did his thing, and then came and communicated to me that he had gone poo in his diaper. He was patting his diaper and saying Awh, awh, aawh. He also put his shoes on by himself (they were backwards, and it made me laugh!). He slipped them on, turned around with the biggest smile to make eye contact with me and started clapping! It was precious! A lot of new things all in one day!

Crappy photo courtesy of my phone... still get the idea though!

So with all of this "big boy stuff" popping up all over the place, Breck and I had the chance to get away on a little date night while Daddy was gone one night. We did another "big boy" thing to enjoy. We packed a picnic dinner and headed to the airport viewing area. Breck's big boy obsession with airplanes was sure to be satisfied with a dinner so up close and personal to them. He was so in awe that he barely ate any dinner!

Mom! Please get out of my way so I can see the airplane! 

My favorites...

My Growing Girl.

And little miss Adelaide is growing, and scooching, and moving all crazy in there and making it known she is growing lately too! Seems like it was all of the sudden, around thirty weeks, that she began making rather large movements and more frequently for sure. Little girl is head down, her back is on my left side, her little toosh at the top of my belly, and feet on my right side. At least that's where she was at during my appointment yesterday.  I'm thirty-three weeks this week and only gained eleven pounds. By this time with Breck, I had gained WAY more than that... probably twenty five pounds. So thankful I'm not doing that again! Over the past few weeks I have had a very low iron deficiency and I was having absolutely no energy as a result. Now that I've gotten my iron back up, I'm feeling much better! Certainly tired at times though... I notice a huge difference being thirty-three weeks pregnant, in the middle of summer instead of winter, and chasing around an eighteen month old and hauling him up and down the stairs! She is so, so, so, so very low compared to Breck! Funny how one person can carry two babies so very differently! I've been cranking out some little hair accessories for sweet miss. It's hard to stop when accessorizing is so much easier for little girls! I can't wait to have her here, but at the same time, I've been a little misty-eyed over the fact that this pregnancy is going too very fast. So much so that I feel like I haven't been able to focus on the pregnancy as much as I did with Breck. And that makes me sad! But I'll just be cherishing these last few weeks and loving every move I feel her make inside of me! What a little miracle she is! 

Ok, I got so sick of the teal maternity shirt, that I had to switch it up! I know I said I was going to stand in the same spot with the same outfit, but it's been so stinking hot this summer, that I can't remember the last time I put jeans and that teal maternity top on! It was probably my twenty-four week picture, actually! I can't stand the thought of putting jeans on... makes me hot to think about it! I've been living in skirts and dresses this summer! Thank goodness for a little color and lots of freckles! Fat just looks a little bit more acceptable when it's tan! 

(Just a side note: I'm a bit behind on pictures... I'm technically 33 weeks this week, and my most recent picture is 30 weeks.)

Left: 30 weeks with Adelaide, Right: 30 weeks with Breck (in New York

And the progression of this pregnancy,... (Love that you can see my photog in the mirror!)

Ps. Oh by the way, the boy can whistle. It's been official for about a month now, but it took Momma's friend, Miss B, coming over for a pool date to get it documented on video! Thanks Miss B for this video and the cute underwater baby legs pictures!!!!

Sweet, Mr. J!