Getting Ready for Baby Brother

So I am obviously behind once again in updating this blog.  I planned to make this post before baby brother was born.... but that didn't happen.  Anyway, here goes.  I will slowly but surely get this blog back up to date.

We worked hard to change our guest room (code for junk room) into a nursery.  Teddy, of course, wanted to help.  Here are some "before" shots of the room. 

First Shae painted the room.  Then I added a brown border:

We finally got all of the old furniture moved out.  Then the fun began.   

First I added stars:

And some animals:

Teddy was excited to help:

More fun for Shae; he got to assemble the crib:

Finally we got all of the furniture in and I really got to have fun.  Here are some "after" shots of the room:

Shae painted this shelf for me, and then I added stars and a lion to it.  Also, you can't really see in the picture, but my mom made us a gorgeous needle point blanket with jungle animals on it.  It matches perfectly, and at the bottom has a mom lion with her cub:

Teddy's favorite part of the nursery, by far, are the lion curtain tie backs.  He also helped Shae assemble the bookshelf under the window:

Close up of above the crib:

I used scrapbook paper to make his name.  Then I had fun adding the wording.  I am not sure if you can read it above.  It says: "In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight."  We are hoping by writing these words on his wall, baby brother will actually sleep well!

 My attempt at a painting is below:

Teddy loves baby brother's room. Maybe because it is new, or because he helped decorate it, or for some other reason, but often when Teddy is quiet and I realize I am not sure where he is- I can find him in Leo's room.   This is what I find:

He is rocking his baby "Herbert" in the chair.  He also loves to give her bottles, and put her in the crib.  He is practicing to be a great big brother!

I wanted to take a few pictures of Teddy and my belly while I was pregnant.  Good thing we took these on August 3rd before Teddy went to bed.  Who knew the next day my belly would be shrinking!

More July Fun

Here is my attempt to catch the blog up with the rest of our summer fun this month!  

Teddy and Violet are SO cute when they play together.  We went out to celebrate Jenn's birthday:

MMMMM that sure is a big bowl of cake and ice cream:

Cousins coloring:

I did cake pops for my neighbor's first birthday and determined it is time for me to take a break until after this baby comes.  Spending hours in the kitchen in July in Atlanta when you are pregnant is just not a good combination.  But the cupcake cake pops turned out cute:

And my taste tester approved:

Since cousin Maverick came, we have had many of our baby gear out.  Teddy has enjoyed putting his "friends" in the bouncy chair and swing:

We celebrated Teddy's friend Lane's second birthday up at the lake.  It was lots of fun:

Violet, Aunt Jenn, and Uncle Hal came to swim with us on a Sunday.  Teddy and Violet had tons of fun together:

Another fun thing Teddy has discovered is building "forts" with our couch cushions.  Lucky for him, he has an engineer daddy who enjoys it as well. 

I am not sure who had more fun:

When it is way too hot to go outside, we can always go to CatchAir. He loved shooting baskets:

Teddy and our friend Nicole:

When we got home, Teddy put his hand on the side of Daddy's car.  Hmmmm, it may be time to wash it:

Violet turned 3 in July and we had a blast at her party:

Excited to go celebrate:

Teddy followed Violet around the entire party.  They jumped:

Hula Hooped:

Played in the house:

And of course ate:

Since I have been in the third trimester, Shae has taken on the bath duties full time.  I wondered what they talk about sometimes during bath time.  Check out this video, it gives you a hint:

Leave it to Shae to teach Teddy about waste water treatment plants!
We had a "Muppets and Popcorn Night" one weekend.  We even let Teddy have popcorn downstairs in the living room!

I think he liked it!

I think I mentioned in an earlier post that Teddy loves country music.  Here he is singing one of his "new" favorites.... 

We have also been spending a lot of time working on baby brother's new room (pictures to come soon).  Teddy LOVES to play in baby brother's room and has been very helpful:

It has been a hot month here in Atlanta.... 

Teddy loves to eat his cereal in the bowl Grandma Suzie gave him!  And he asked for his Cubs bib the other day.  As soon as I put it on him, he broke out singing:

(I guess he thinks the cubs need a few extra swings at the ball before they are out).

Hope you all are enjoying your summer!

Fourth of July

Anyone who knows me well knows that I LOVE the Fourth of July.  Having Teddy around only makes celebrating even more fun.  Of course you have to start with a flag cake:

What a cute helper!

Delicious:

I did the flag cake, but Teddy did all the cupcakes:

At the end I said to Teddy, "Isn't it fun helping to cook?" and he answered, "No, I just like helping eat the cake."

For over 30 years, my family has had a tradition to go watch the fire works at Will Park.  Somewhere in the late 90's my mom also started buying the Old Navy flag shirts for us to wear.  Here's our happy little family before we headed out for fireworks:

My dad typically goes to the park around 2 pm and scouts out a great spot.  He then either works on his taxes or reads a book.  When I was younger and they had an extra vehicle, he used to park one car the night before, to ensure we got a good spot!  

Although the park is extremely crowded, we usually can find my dad pretty easily...

Teddy and his cousins with treats from Grandma:

The entire Frediani/Gibson/Hoschek crew:

Poor Teddy... his parents wouldn't let him hold a sparkler:

Luckily Grandma also brought glow sticks:

Cousins:

And finally... showtime:

Happy Fourth of July!