After a true Labor Day, we have a nursery!

Labor Day weekend was extremely busy in the Parsons household. After the football game Saturday, we started our preparation for the painting, construction, and decoration of Haley's room.

Mike began the weekend project with a little sanding of the walls. I was the site supervisor of this project, pointing out all of the holes that needed filling prior to our sanding experience.

Next came the cleaning of the baseboards which was a necessity after living in the house for 6 years!

Then, he started trimming out the baseboards and around all of the windows and doors. He later even steam cleaned the carpet which was really nice!
Then the fun part (at least for those who were viewing and not painting) was the rolling of the walls. It was so fun to see the paint go up. We had a little stress at the end of the project as Mike was wiping the inside of the paint can clean to get enough paint to finish the walls. I know I am very cheap, but we really wanted to only have to buy one gallon!
Andy came to visit us Saturday night. His big project was removing the packaging from the crib and dresser whcih came in shipping boxes. I helped as best I could and couldn't wait for the big reveal. The only thing that you could really see was the dresser which was assembled. The crib was in about 5 different boxes so you couldn't tell a whole lot about it. Andy also helped move out the couch from the room on Sunday. I was excited to get it out of the house and the buyer was pleased to have a nice pull out sofa...a true win-win!
After the room was all painted, we began the crib construction. This was definitely a two person job!
It actually didn't take as long as we thought and I was so happy to be able to help out on something in the room!
Did I mention we had a site supervisor the entire time we were working on the project? Taz kept us on task and pointed out any mistakes from his secure place on the floor.

Yeah! A crib!! After selecting our mattress a few days before, we were anxious to get it in and put the bedding in for the final touches.


We were so excited to get the bedding in for our baby girl!

Here are a couple of views up close. The large stuffed bear was my "Boo Boo". The smaller one was Mike's stuffed bear growing up. The hound dog was also mine. It was really neat to put some of our things in her room!

Mike moved the dresser into the room to its final resting place. We are now just waiting on the hutch to arrive so that we can finish assembling it.

The room was finally complete (well, of course we have more decorating to do, but the hard part is over)!
Mike couldn't resist taking a photo of what Haley's view will be of her new crib and bedding!

And finally, the two proud (and very tired) parents at the conclusion of our Labor Day weekend...

Our first football game of the year to watch the #1 team in the Nation!

What a fun day on Friday! I was the official assistant photographer to RBM Photography at the First Friday breakfast featuring Coach Mark Richt. I thought he was only coming to talk to the group, but realized upon arriving that he was there signing autographs and taking photos. So, of course I had to get my photo with him. He is such a nice guy! My day continued to prove a lot of fun as I went to the luncheon with Mark Richt's wife, Kathryn. The best part of that portion of the day was that I got to go in the suite that UGA VII would be sleeping in that night. We got there before the crowd so we had a private tour! It was a lot of fun!



Saturday morning began fairly early so that we could get a parking spot. We got lucky that there was a spot at Four Towers so that we could take the bus to the stadium and have a ride back (well, that was the plan). We tailgated with some friends and then headed to the bus. I had my bag packed full of bananas, grapes, pop tarts, and was concealing some water bottles. As we entered the gates, the security guards gave me a hard time about all of the food and asked was I diabetic. I looked at my belly and back up at him and replied, "No, I am pregnant". They finally let us in and we were off to the game. As we inched our way through all of the intoxicated, sweaty people, we finally made our way to our seats, way down on row 23. We cheered on the dogs and Haley kicked as it got loud in the stadium.


My trusty fan was no match to the 96 degree heat that was bearing down on us, but I still managed to fake a smile for the photo. In the end, we made it to halftime which I thought was quite an accomplishment and then began our walk back to the car (did I mention earlier that our original plan was to take the bus back for this 2.5 mile walk uphill?) It was really tough and I made it most of the way before giving up and taking Mike up on his offer to go get the car and pick me up. I am glad the Bulldogs won, but it was a rough day in the heat for a pregnant person!

Month Six and Counting!

I thought you all would enjoy some updated photos of my growing tummy! These were taken right as I was entering the sixth month.


I love these profile pictures. We are going to keep taking those to show the progression!


It is hard not to think about the arrival of little Haley these days. She is so active in my tummy and we have so many exciting things to be thankful about. We are so excited to work on the nursery this weekend. December, please come soon!!

Checking things off the list...

We made some real progress in the past week. Not only did Mike finish the attic (see post below), we had a fun time registering at Babies R Us and Target last weekend. It took a long time considering we entered the store at 10:15 and didn't leave until 1:10! It was a nice treat though when they gave me a white rose when I was exiting that we got to enjoy. It was a lot more work than I thought it would be, but we are pleased with our selections. Target was much quicker since we had already had a practice run. We were only in there 45 minutes.

Last night, we travelled to Norcross to Georgia Baby and Kids to look at nursery furniture. The crib we previously picked out was recalled, so we were back to square one. We are so happy for that little blessing though because we are much happier with our new set. I am ordering it today and everything except the hutch is in stock so we can pick up when we like. Plus, I sold the sofa that was in Haley's room yesterday so we will be getting it out of there in the next week. Bedding has been ordered online, so hopefully we will be pleased with it and can move forward with picking out a color for the wall and painting Labor Day weekend. Sorry, no pictures of our crib set this time...I am keeping you all in suspense until we get it in the room!

Off to Bainbridge for the weekend. Mom and dad are excited to see me and my rapidly growing belly!

We have shelves!!! And an empty room!!!

PROGRESS!! Mike worked really hard last week getting our attic organized so that we could move our boxes of stuff from Haley's room up to it to make space. This is what the attic looked like before...


During the construction process:

Mike and his trusty drill..


Our wonderful neighbors let us borrow their table saw which made the process much quicker (and cheaper!):


Mike stayed really busy with the project for an entire week working after getting home from an 8 hour day to get the shelves built--




Yeah!! Here are the final results!!


We are so happy that Haley's room is finally empty (well, except the couch that we need to get rid of) and that most of the items that we were getting rid of have either been sold or donated to Goodwill. We can't wait to get to the fun part of decorating her room soon now!

Haley's Room Disaster and a Sweet Surprise from a Friend

We are making progress in Haley's room this week. This weekend we got the closet cleaned out and are proud to say that only her belongings reside there now. We also got the computer armoire moved and have boxed almost everything to go in the attic. Who knew that designing one room would lead us to have to do not only that room, but the guest room, the hall closet (and eventually the kitchen and bath to make room, but let's not go there yet). Mike started in the attic last night building shelves that will house our many papers, holiday decor, etc. He is doing such a good job and I am so thankful that he is so helpful! We can see the end in sight now with a few more hours of hard work. Then we can move on to the fun part of actually getting furniture, painting, and decorating the nursery. Thought you all would appreciate a photo of the madness that was Haley's room (a clean, ready to be moved into photo will come soon)...


On a separate note, I got a sweet little surprise from a very good friend of mine late last week. I get weekly emails about what the baby is the size of each week so that you can put it into perspective. Last week it said she was the size (in length) of a carrot. So, my friend Blane surprised me with this precious little box in the mail...

It's a Girl!! A Little Haley!

There were a lot of surprised people who found out we are having a baby girl this week! The ladies in the doctor's office thought we were throwing a party when we erupted with screams as the ultrasound technician announced we were having a girl. Although those picking "girl" had a significant increase in the last week before the ultrasound, the "boys" still were in the lead. Only two family members, my dad and Andy, were the ones who got it right!

It was so much fun getting to see Baby Haley again. She was very active moving around and it was really sweet to see her keep her little hands near her face as we watched her on the ultrasound. At one point, she event started touching her face! It was so amazing to see.

Mike is a super proud daddy already. He even announced that he will wear pink for what I believe is the first time in his life on the day she is born. Suddenly, all of the pink Georgia stuff is cute to him too. It is so wonderful seeing him so happy.

We were so glad that my mom and pops (Mike's dad) could be there with us for the ultrasound. I was sad my dad and Mom Judy were not able to be with us. Mom Judy plans to come for the 3D ultrasound in September though, so that will be fun!

In all the madness of the week, I even managed to pull one over on the daddy-to-be by throwing him a surprise birthday party Saturday. Even though our birthday was Sunday, I thought Saturday might surprise him and boy did we surprise him! It was fun planning it and seeing everyone as we celebrated his big 3-0!

Exciting times ahead and we prepare for little Haley's arrival!!