So You're Not Going To Find Out

Are you going to find out the sex of the baby?

I have heard this countless times through my pregnancy this far and at first I just went with it. When I got the question I just said yes but after giving it more thought this past week I will have a different answer from now on.

You may have realized that in my last bumpdate we are no longer finding out the gender. Jesse and I have decided to wait until the baby is here. This might be crazy especially with all the modern day technology...you can find out as early as 14 weeks! But for Jesse and I we are excited for the surprise.

To further explain, here is some of our reasoning behind the madness.

1. Although ultrasounds have come a looong way...3D anyone? They one we would get is your standard office ultrasound and I just don't think I could fully trust it. I know a few people personally and recently that have been told its a boy but have a girl or vice versa.

2. The surprise of it. I know it will be worth the wait!

3. We didn't plan to tell the names so why not the gender too?!

4. I do love me some pretty pink tutus or handsome sweater vest but would prefer not to get an overload of crazy pink or blue things. I'm a gender neutral type of girl

5. We will get what we need.

I couldn't be more excited about our decision and cant wait until May to meet our little one!

Big News!

What if I told you in this picture that we are a family of three...well its true. We are adding on to the family and although in my monthly goals for September I wanted a four-leg furry friend to add to our family, God had a bigger plan. On September 5th our lives changed...we found out we are PREGNANT!! We are beyond blessed and excited.

You may have noticed its been a little quiet around here and that's because I have been super tired. I thankfully haven't had any morning sickness but exhaustion and hunger has gotten the best of me this past month.

We had our first ultrasound yesterday. It was surreal to see our baby up on the screen moving around. I am 9 weeks and am due May 12, 2014!

The Big Reveal!

Our living room painting update is officially finished. Notice I said painting update. Our living room is nowhere near complete there is some serious decorating that is going to need to happen but painting the walls provided a huge update in its self...drum roll please...

Ta-Da! We have our self a new fresh living room. Big difference right?

You can see the process of the living room here, here and here.

Living Room Part 3: Baseboards

The last step to our living room project was the baseboards. Our hope is to paint all trim and doors white throughout the whole house but for starters we just did the living room. At first we thought it would be a challenge to paint baseboards next to carpet but ended up being very easy.

With light sanding first, we started out with a clear plastic drop cloth. Then cut in 6-8 inch strips. Take a putty knife and push the plastic under the baseboard.

I went along after Jesse tucked the plastic under the baseboard and taped the plastic to pull it tighter. This helped keep the plastic out of the way when painting.

It was super simple and a lot less of a headache than expected. Stay tuned for the before and after on Monday:)

Living Room Part 1: How To Paint Wood Paneling
Living Room Part 2: Painting The Walls

Living Room Part 2: Painting The Walls

After we primed everything we needed too it was time to paint. I was so excited to finally get color up on the walls and see it come together. 

I took on the fire place and painted two coats on it. It was kinda my little project. While I did that Jesse was off taping and trimming. I helped with the walls but he did it for the most part. I was too short for the job! ha!

One day I even came home to this...Hey at least he is having fun right?!

For our first time painting it wasn't terrible although at points I honestly thought it wasn't going to end. We used Behr for all the paint. Its not Benjamin Moore but it is good quality over some other box store paint options so we went with it. 

Living Room Part 1: How To Paint Wood Paneling

Living Room Part 1: How To Paint Wood Paneling

Lets take a trip down memory lane back a few months ago...in the house tour. Remember this dated and dark living room? Well I sure do and I'm beyond excited its gone! Spoiler alert. 

I am so thankful we tackled this painting job while we were still on the honeymoon phase of our house. It was a three week long project and after working all day it was the last thing we wanted to do but we keep chugging and made it through. Whew! At least the hardest room is done painting wise. 

This will be several parts so stay tuned this week. 

First we primed the paneling and brick. We felt it was necessary to paint the brick too because there isn't a ton of light in the lower level and we really wanted to brighten everything up. 

We primed it with kills complete oil based primer and boy did we learn a few lessons with oil based paint. 

1. Its almost impossible to get out of a paint brush so don't use your nicest one. Get a junky one and throw it away when you are finished.

2. Kills complete stinks! 

The good thing about oil based paint and why we used it is because it helps cover up stained wood and wood grain as well as sealing the pores of the brick. Both of which we needed it for. Overall though it wasn't a bad experience we just learned a lot and had countless trips to Home Depot. 

What were some of the hardest projects you've done in your home?

House Warming Party

This past weekend we had our first big party in our new home. After much contemplation we decided we would host a house warming party for friends and family. Although there was a lot of prep work involved it turned out to be a blast!

I wanted it to be very casual nothing over the top so we decided to grill out. Being new home owners and not have a ton of money we chose hot dogs only because they are much cheeper than hambergurs. But to spice up the hot dogs I turned it in to a hot dog bar. I am not a cook so I made the menu easy.

We had:

Hot dog bar:
  BBQ bacon
  Chili dog
  All American
Watermelon
Loaded potato salad
Veggie
Baked beans

Because I'm not a cook and didn't want to try a new recipe on my guest for the first time I asked my mom to make the loaded potato salad. Boy was that a hit!

I have seen on pinterest the idea of putting paper down and then writing with sharpie to label all your dishes. I just loved the idea and knew I had to do it. It was super inexpensive and cheep... which I love! Thanks to my sister for doing all the awesome writing. 

Overall it was a hit and everyone had a great time. Did you have a house warming party in your new home?