Organization?

I thought that if I was going to share our journey through moving, decorating, and organizing our new home then I should probably have a more organized plan instead of jumping around so much.

My plan is to share before and after pictures of each room.

I will always link any additional posts on the house through the posts  so you can reflect if there is more than one parts. I know the two girls' rooms, playroom, and craft room will have multiple parts as there is a lot I want to do to them.

I will start out by sharing you the amount of rooms to get an idea of how it will flow.

I plan to do the basic parts of the house first, then start the official decorating in A's room, then the playroom, then Baby E's room.

The layout of our house has these rooms:

Upstairs:

Entry Way
Living Room
Dining Room/Kitchen #1
Baby E's Room
A's Room
-- First thoughts and ideas
Parent's Room
Bathroom #1

Downstairs:

Kitchen #2
Laundry Room (probably no post on this)
Extra Room #1/Bathroom #2 - used as a "dressing room"
Extra Room #2 - used as an office/playroom
Extra Room #3 - used as a craft room/pantry/storage
Downstairs Entry (not sure about a post on this)
Garage

So of course, I started with some basic ideas for A's room, so I linked it above. I will do the same for each room as I do this.

We officially move in on Monday, so I may not have internet for a bit. During that time I will be working in the house and taking pictures/videos along the way! :)

Soon I will have another series started on our preparation for the holidays. This will mostly be focused on Christmas, but I may do something for Thanksgiving as well. This will be more for A in understanding and enjoying this holiday season!

Inspiration for A's Big Girl Room

So I wanted to do a progress series of our new house. I did a preview video of the house - a basic walk through  once we decided on the house. There were still things in it from the landlord and it was somewhat of a mess, but it was worth it. We showed it to our family and close friends and shared our ideas of what we visioned the house to look like.

There are two large bedrooms. One is the master bedroom that does not have wardrobes in it. In Italy, the houses do not have built in closets. Instead they use wardrobes. The other bedroom, which is meant for a child does have two large wardrobes. One of them is for hanging clothes and the other is shelves for folding and organizing.

Of course, no doubt we thought the master bedroom would be ours because we have a lot of bedroom furniture. Well, Baby A actually has just as much now that she has a big girl bed. Her bed is smaller, but her end table, chest of drawers, and long drawers with mirror are just as big as ours or bigger. We decided that since the two babies will have little hang up clothes that she can have the one with no wardrobe and we can hang up her clothes elsewhere. There are tons of options for this.

As soon as I knew she would be getting a big girl bedroom set, I began searching for bedding. Her bed is a twin size bed, so I went through so many different websites to find the perfect one. I knew I wanted something with paisley or damask. I found the perfect paisley set at Pottery Barn Kids.

The bedding is absolutely perfect. It fits her personality perfectly. She's soft, laid back, independent, and easy going. I knew I didn't want any characters or animals or anything like that because I wanted to make her feel big and grown up. But I also want to keep the room fun and exciting. After all, she is still a toddler.

I will get to the inspiration parts of it at the end of this post. What I wish I could do, what will most likely be done, and so forth. Right now, it's a guessing game until we actually get our things in there and set up.

I decided nothing hanging on the walls or as little as possible. I knew I wanted it to be elegant and classy - but still fun.

I thought over her bed I would put her name. I found 4 wall decals that I really like, and I am still having a hard time deciding which one I prefer. Any suggestions? Here they are:

A little backdrop on these. Before I knew we were having another girl, I decided that A's room would be very elegant and classy. I thought I would incorporate the damask wall decals in order to achieve that. However, after researching options for Baby E's room I decided that she will have the damask theme. I have pulled the damask wall decals out to save for her room for options. So 1, 2, or 3? I have them listed in the order that I like them, but I need more opinions!

I plan on having two canvas's hanging on each side. One of her newborn picture, then we will get another with her two year pictures.

Next comes the thought of a girly, yet "grown up" quote for her room. I thought I would put this over her vanity if I ever got her one, or just on a blank wall. Here are some that I found:

I originally really, really, really liked the first one. I was in love with it. But then I felt like it may be too much and too big. So I went back on the hunt for another one, and I felt the second one fit more of A's style since she is her own little girl. So tom-boyish, yet so girly. A good mix of both and still beautiful. Again, undecided.

These are the more specifics that I have for A's room. I plan on taking pictures before and after it is set up to share. The rest of my thoughts and decor will be done in a combine post for both of the girls' room (A and Baby E).  

Fall Inspiration {Tutus}

As most of you know, I recently started up a page for all my creations. I have come across some adorable thoughts, so to google I go for images. I rarely use someone else's tutorial because I like to look at the pictures and get inspired with my own creativity and call it mine.

With Fall here and Halloween soon arriving, everything is covered in the fall colors, flowers, scents, and so forth. With that, I have thought of some adorable ideas for tutus (and other DIY's). I thought I would share some of the pictures here.

This post will be of things I could see putting Baby A or any other adorable little girl in for a pumpkin patch or fall pictures. I'll do another one of costumes I have thought of.

All pictures were found from google.

Scarecrow:

Turkey:

Pumpkins:

Candy Corns:

Fall Colors:

I can't wait to get moved in so I can start making more things!

Baby A is a Big Girl:

Once we found out we were pregnant again, we knew we needed to start working on transitioning Baby A to a big girl bed. A big girl bed and a new sibling meant it was time for her to become a big girl - on her own time of course.

Through all this transitioning with the PCS, she has naturally settled into new ways. All for the best, too. She sleeps in large beds without railings (pillows stuffed around her) and all by herself. She's always slept by herself, but never in a big bed by herself. She decided she was too big for the bottle and now only drinks from a sippy cup. Then she began starting to only lay down on the side of us to fall asleep instead of having to be rocked.

All of this was so wonderful because -
1. It was time for her to give up the crib. I never planned on moving her out so early, but I did plan on having a baby again this soon. After we thought about it, I had decided that I really didn't want two cribs in the house with Baby A being so close to two years old when this baby is born. With that said, we invested in her a new bedroom set before we PCS'd so we would have it to set up for her in her new room in our new house.

2. I never thought about weaning her off a bottle. She never took a bottle her first year since I nursed her until she weaned. When she weaned, we started giving her cow's milk. I thought it was normal for children to take a bottle until they were 2. I know some babies who never take bottles because they are never interested and some who take a bottle until they are 3. Once I got pregnant, I knew it would be nice to have her off the bottle but I wasn't going to push it. Especially with all the new transitions and moving. It was just easier to give her what she knew rather than try and take it away when there was so much going on. Well while we were home on vacation, she decided she just didn't need it anymore. One day she stopped taking it and never went back.

3. She use to always be rocked to sleep. I always had my recliner in her bedroom because it was where I nursed. It was nice and convenient since I never had her in our room with us except for the first week and a half when she was born. It was nice because I could fall asleep with her when I needed and sleep with her in her own room if I wanted. It was great. I knew I needed to put the recliner in the new baby's room. So during our time traveling and moving, we were without a recliner in her room. With that said, she has now learned to just lay down and fall asleep. I never ever thought it would happen this soon.

So here we are with moving her up into being a big sister. Not because we forced it on her, but because one day she just decided herself. Now she is interested in the toilet and has sat on it several times since we have arrived here in Italy. Of course, I never dreamed she would be potty trained before 2 so I am definitely not pushing it. She lets us know when she wants to sit on the potty and that is that. Some days she is more interested than others... and some days she isn't interested at all.

Next we can move on to the inspiration and ideas of her new big girl room!

Ultrasound Confirms....

It's a Girl!!

While we were home, we did an ultrasound so our families could be involved in this pregnancy. I surprised both of our parents with an appointment for an ultrasound. We went to the ultrasound, and I was about 15 weeks pregnant. The lady who did the ultrasound said she was about 85% sure it was a girl, but she said with the way the baby was positioned we may want to double check later on. Since I knew I would have another scan for the anatomy, I was ok with that. We chose our name and announced it.

Here we are 6 weeks later, and the anatomy scan confirmed it is indeed a girl! She does already have a name, and it looks like she will now become Baby E! Would anyone like to do a name guessing game? I could give a $20 gift card to the winner. I would need to come up with hints or a rhyme to do this. Let me know!!

I'm not sure I ever told Baby A's name, so if I didn't then maybe I can do something for her's too!

I just wanted to make the official announcement. I will be doing posts on Baby A's big girl room inspiration and Baby E's nursey. As well as things of our new house and so on and so forth. I can't wait to get back into the swing of things!! :)