Nursery - Almost Finished...

The nursery is on its way to being complete! This weekend we painted the molding and although it was sort of tedious, it came out great - exactly as we had pictured it. Tomorrow we will add the second coat of antique white paint, which will mark the end of the "home improvement" phase of our nursery and prepare us for the part I've been looking forward to for months: getting our furniture delivered and decorating the room with all of the cute accessories that have been taking up temporary residence in our guest room these past few weeks.

Below are some "action shots" of us painting the room. It was an extremely cold and windy February day so we bundled up, cracked the windows for lots of ventilation and worked hard all afternoon.

What an accomplishment it was to see the finished product...and to have no major painting casualties such as spills on the carpet or smudges on the already-painted yellow half of the room. We did, however, nearly have a run-in with a wildly excited Labrador Retriever tail on wet paint when we had a weak moment and let Barney come into the room while the paint was still tacky. Luckily we were able to banish the beast before any damage occured :)! Below are some photos of the "finished" room after the first coat of white paint:

Tomorrow we add the final coat of paint, after which we will be finished for good with painting. Stay tuned for more photos later this week after Bellini delivers our furniture and we begin accessorizing. We expect the entire room to be complete by Friday of this week and are very excited to share the final product with all of you!

Nursery - Painting Begins!

This weekend we began painting the nursery and all of a sudden it seems more like a baby's room than a construction zone! Andrew finished the molding, put up a chair rail, and we placed some wooden pegs just below the chair rail for an added organizational and decorative touch to our custom look (but really as a means to satisfy my sudden nesting instinct!).

We decided to paint the walls a cheery yellow above the molding and will next paint the molding an antique white, to match the rest of the woodwork throughout our house. The yellow half of the room is now finished and looks GREAT with our bedding ensemble and the green and red gingham accents we plan to incorporate throughout the nursery.

Below are some photos of the nursery as big brother Barney poses for the camera after weeks of moping because we wouldn't allow him inside the room while it was under construction! This week we'll mix up our antique white paint for our next step: painting the molding...

Nursery - Work in Progress Continues

We're continuing to work on our nursery and Andrew is making so much progress with the molding. He is nearly finished with it and it looks great. By this coming weekend we should be able to start preparing the room for painting, as he only has a few last pieces to put up and then I just have some wood puttying and spackling to do. Our new impetus for really getting the work done in the room is that Bellini called us yesterday and our furniture has arrived. They will hold it for as long as we need but we are aiming for mid to late February to have everything painted and ready for move in!

Above is Bob Vila in action, securing some of the molding to the wall with one of his *many* power nailers. Below are some views of the room as it is progressing. It's really coming along and should look so nice once it's painted!

Pregnancy Pictures

I was pregnant from June 2005 through March 2006 and it was one of the happiest times of my life. I gained 27 pounds over the course of my pregnancy and although I did not gain an abundance of weight, pregnancy photos is one aspect of the experience that I preferred to avoid. There's just something about seeing yourself 20-something pounds heavier that isn't as appealing to me as it is to others. Nonetheless, I have been asked numerous times for pregnancy photos and so I am posting the few that I do have. Enjoy!

Our alma mater, Lehigh University, has a formal gala every year and in 2005 they had Bernadette Peters perform at the event. As she is one of my favorite performers, we decided to buy tickets and go out for a date night. I actually made my own gown after seeing that formal maternity gowns cost well over $100, so luckily I could put on my seamstress hat and made something suitable. Here we are on our way out. I am 4 months pregnant.

My father-in-law was remarried on New Year's Day 2006 and my new mother-in-law, Cheri, bought me a lovely maternity dress to wear for the occasion. I did opt to wear a shawl over my shoulders out of modesty since I was starting to feel a bit flabby, but at over 6 months pregnant I don't think I looked too bad :).

Finally, my friends and I went out to Lancaster, PA for a girls' shopping day at the end of January 2006 so at the time I was nearly 7 months pregnant. My friend Julie (magenta sweater) was also about 5-1/2 months pregnant at the time.

Front row: Julie, Heather; back row: me, Amy

Now Julia joins us for the photo.

Julie and I sporting our pregnant tummies. Our little ones Ben and Talya are buddies now :).

Liz's Surprise Baby Shower

On Saturday, January 21, 2006 my four friends - Amy Kriebel, Julia Spencer, Heather Ferrence, and Julie Delp - threw me a wonderful baby shower at Amy's house in Harleysville, PA. Approximately 30 of our closeby family members and my girlfriends were able to make it out for the special day. The girls know that I love to read so they gave the shower a "children's book" theme and every guest was asked to bring her favorite childhood book as a wishing well gift. Thank goodness we purchased a bookshelf for the baby's room because we certainly have plenty of books to put in it now. To go along with the theme, the girls made beautiful hand-stamped bookmarks as shower favors for each guest, which had a poem printed on them from "Baby Martin." I may be a bit biased, but it definitely was a perfect shower!

Above is me with all of the girls: (l-r) Julia, Heather, Liz, Amy, and Julie.

And here we all are again with Andrew's step mom, Cheri Martin, and my mom, Lisa Caulfield.

The girls prepared a delicious spread of food and were considerate enough to make items that I was allowed to eat per my diabetic diet!

What a cute cake! I love frogs so the girls got a froggie cake and used a frog motif on some of the shower "extras" as well.

Like most showers, much of the time was spent opening all of the beautiful and generous gifts that everyone gave to us. We were fortunate enough to receive so many things that will be useful for us over the next few months, both in decorating the nursery and for when the baby does arrive. Below are some photos that I've prescreened and allowed to be posted on the Internet :) ...and remember that the camera adds ten pounds (at least that is what I'm telling myself!):



My goodness, does someone this little really need all of these things!?! I was completely out of breath after opening some of the larger items, even though I had lots of help.


The ADORABLE froggie chair from Aunt-to-be Maggie will go perfectly in our animal-themed nursery.


So many cute little outfits! Although she wasn't able to be there for the occasion, this one was sent by my good friend, Sandra, in Holland. The baby isn't even born yet and already he has an international wardrobe!


The Alphabet Soup Toddler Quilt is adorable. This is the last item that we needed from the bedding ensemble so now the crib is fully adorned and just awaiting the nursery to be complete.


One of Nana Caulfield's famous gift baskets! It was almost painful to disassemble it since she had it pieced together so perfectly...

Dad-to-be Andrew decided to stay at the baby shower while the two grandpas-to-be and some of the other men went out for dinner. He enjoyed seeing all of the gifts being opened and was a big help moving some of the larger items!

Nursery - Work in Progress

We started to work on our nursery and have made great progress so far. Andrew has been meticulously routing some custom wainscoting (with Pottery Barn Kids as our inspiration) for the bottom half of our walls and is close to halfway finished. We've also installed a white ceiling fan and lighting fixture. Finally, we'll be adding a chair rail above the wainscoting as the finishing touch once all of the molding is in place and then will begin to paint!

Nursery Plans

Starting in January 2006, we will begin converting our messy third-bedroom office into the new baby's nursery. We've purchased some beautiful furniture at Bellini Baby and Teen Furniture and expect it to arrive sometime in February. We do already have our Bellini crib, though, thanks to Nana and Pop Caulfield and their good friends the Ruthmans, so it is set up in our guest room, ready and waiting for the nursery to be complete!

We're going to put up some off-white wainscoting in the room and paint the wall above the molding a shade of yellow. Finally, we are planning to use Pottery Barn Kids' Alphabet Soup bedding, a pattern with animals and letters in various bold colors and fabrics showcased by green and red gingham check accents. It's very cute!

Below are some pictures of the furniture we've ordered and some of our plans for the nursery. We'll update our work-in-progress with some actual photos as we break ground with the remodeling in January!


Above is the architectural plan we drafted for the nursery, showing where the furniture and rug will be positioned (yes, you did read this correctly; we actually DO have an architectural plan and it's to scale too!). It's a bit difficult to decipher, but shows where the crib, dresser, glider/ottoman, bookcase, night stand and rug will go once we finish our remodeling.

Here is the crib that we have, the Nicola model. We have the second darkest shade that Bellini offers, Coffee. It makes a nice contrast to the white background of the Alphabet Soup bedding. Along each side post is some detailed carving, to add some interest to the piece. There is also a full drawer underneath the bed to store linens and towels in.

Kids have a lot of books and toys so we knew that we'd need a bookcase! Here is the one we ordered from the Jessica furniture collection, shown in the color we chose, Coffee.

Our dresser/changing table. We decided to go for a traditional piece that could be used for years to come instead of a standard changing table that we'd only use for a few years. Again, ours isn't white but is the Coffee color.

Our nightstand from the Jessica furniture collection, also ordered in the Coffee color.

The glider that Grandpa Martin bought for us is similar to the one in this photo, except that the wood matches the rest of the furniture and it will have red cushions.

Pottery Barn Kids' Alphabet Soup bedding ensemble that we've chosen. The white carpet and dark furniture in our nursery-to-be offer a nice contrast to the light background of the bedding. We're just disappointed that there is no plaid Labrador Retriever amongst the other animals in the pattern!

Ultrasound Pictures - 19 weeks

Introducing our son! We're taking polls to see who you all think he looks like, Mom or Dad :).

Wow, despite what we've read about the size of the baby by 19 weeks, we couldn't believe that we could actually see fully-developed hands and feet! He's getting so big everyday.

The moment we've been awaiting for over 19 weeks -- finding out the gender of our baby! Everyone thought that we were having a girl so the doctor's "It's a Boy!" came as a surprise, albeit a very happy moment for us both. We've been consumed with blue clothing ever since!

Ultrasound Pictures - 11 weeks

Here's the baby at just over 11 weeks...he's starting to look human even though he's upside down!

Ultrasound Pictures - 6 weeks

Our first visit to Doctor Hoffman's office proved that the three home pregnancy tests weren't lying! Today we saw the baby's heartbeat for the first time and were given the OK to start telling our friends and family the news. Coincidentally we were visiting our parents this weekend so we were able to tell them in person right away. Everyone was so excited when we handed them a "Welcome, Baby" balloon with this ultrasound picture attached to it!

Introduction

Thank you for visiting our blog! 2006 is going to bring many happy changes to our life, beginning on or around March 28 when our first baby is due. We are very excited for this new addition to our two-person-one-dog family and are eager to share our excitement with all of you!

In October 2005 we found out that we will be having a baby boy during one of our ultrasound visits, so we have since been consumed with preparing for our soon-to-be son. Both of our families have had a lot of fun getting ready for the little guy and very soon we will begin work on the nursery we've been talking about for so many months. We've posted pictures from the ultrasounds that we've had throughout the pregnancy; it's amazing how much they have progressed since our initial one at 6 weeks as our little guy continues to grow (and kick his mom more fiercely everyday!).

We hope that you enjoy reading the latest news about the Martin Family; we will continue to update this site frequently so be sure to check back often.