A Stroller for Cameron!

This past weekend, my parents came to visit us!  We had a great time, and the weekend was extra special because it was their 33rd wedding anniversary.  Nathan and I are both so fortunate and blessed that we come from families where marriages last so long, and are a true reflection of the love that God wants us to have for each other.  Nathan's parents just had their 30th anniversary a couple of months ago.  Growing up with such good examples of what marriage is has taught us that love is always something worth holding on to and working for.  Family is number one (after God of course) and we should be working every day to remind each other of that :)

My parents bought us an exciting baby present while they were here though.  We got our stroller and it is adorable. The funny part is that when we pulled it out of the box we had no idea how to open it up.  The instructions that we got were in Spanish, and even though I was pretty knowledgeable of the language in high school, I'm not so much anymore.  After the help of Google and some nice people who had put the instructions online, we were able to get everything together.  I just wanted to share some pictures with you guys this morning.  As you know, I love brown and blue, and that's pretty much an ongoing theme with Cameron's baby stuff, with the exception of the Noah's ark decor in the nursery.  Here's our stroller:

Isn't it cute???  I can't wait until there's actually a baby in there!

A better view of the fabric.

The car seat attached to the base.  I think there's some sort of magical science for actually installing the base in the car.  The good news is that my car has that cool latch system which makes it easier.  But still, the whole installation process is like a foreign language to me.

another view of the car seat

The stroller with the car seat attached.  The good news is that we DO know how to get the car seat off of the base!  Yay for progress!  On second thought, maybe we DO need to go to that parenting class...

Cup holders for Mommy and Daddy...

... and a bit of storage room :)

I just love it.  I am so excited to actually have little Cameron in there!  July can't get here fast enough!  Does anyone else feel like pregnancy lasts an eternity?  Don't get me wrong, I'm loving pregnancy now that I'm past all the sicky stuff.  However, I'm ready to meet my baby!  I find myself walking around the house every day looking at all the baby stuff and I can't wait for him to be here!  

Thanks Mom and Dad for the stroller, I know that Cameron will love it too :)

More Baby Craftiness

I'm excited to share with you, two projects that I've actually been working on for a long time, but didn't finish until this week.  The first project is one that was really simple, just some decoupage letters that I made to go in the nursery.  They spell out baby, and in my humble opinion, I think they are really cute.  I'm planning on making something similar, but much smaller to go on the door with Cameron's name.  Here they are:

The letters are placed above the changing table in the nursery :)

It's hard to see it in great detail, but the letters have things like safety pins and pacifiers on them.

The next thing that I'm excited to share is a baby quilt that I made for Cameron.  This quilt is a funny story.  About a year ago I got the urge to make a quilt.  I found two kinds of fabric and began cutting out squares and sewing them together.  The project was going really well, and I enjoyed making the quilt, but after a while  I just got tired of it.  So all the pieces I had, I put in a box and decided to come back to it later.  Funny story, when I "came back to it" I realized that what I had done so far on the quilt was the perfect size for a baby blanket.  So I simply put some batting and backing on it, and sewed it together. It was really simple.  The funny thing is that I rarely leave a project like that unfinished.  But I'm glad I did or I wouldn't have this adorable quilt to give to Cameron.  The colors are brown and blue and I'm so happy with how it turned out.  Mind you, this is my first time doing anything like this, and I have a lot of room to grow.  I'm pretty good on the sewing machine, but I have a lot more to learn.  Not bad for a first timer though :)

The pictures are just a couple of close ups of the fabric and a picture of the full thing.  I'm really excited about it!  The nursery is really coming together, and it's starting to look like our house is more and more ready for a baby!  :)

Craftiness!

Today I'm excited to share a special project with you.  29 years ago my parents were expecting their first baby, my sister Cassie.  My dad's twin brother, Uncle Dale, made this beautiful cradle and it has become a priceless family heirloom.  My grandmother made some yellow bumper pads to go in the cradle as well.  Over the years they have become worn and the plastic wasn't in great shape.  After being in storage for a long time, I decided it was time to do some work on the cradle.  I cleaned it up, recovered the pads with some adorable Winnie the Pooh fabric, and I am so excited with how it turned out!

This is what the pads looked like before.  They are worn and not in the best shape.  But because my Grandma made them I couldn't bear to part with them.  So I kept them and just recovered them.

For the bottom piece I just made a slip cover pillow case so that it could be removed and washed.

And voila!

Here is the cradle, after a lot of cleaning and pledge-ing with the bottom and the side bumpers in place.

Another view of the cradle

... and a close up of Winnie the Pooh.  I purchased this Pooh the day that I found out I was pregnant.  He's actually a rattle, and he is just adorable.  Winnie the Pooh has always been my favorite Disney character, so I'm excited to share him with Cameron too!

I am so happy with how it turned out.  I'm glad to have the opportunity to help make something that my grandmother and my uncle both contributed to.  I cannot wait for Cameron to use it, and I look forward to passing it on to my own grandchildren one day.   :)

It's a boy!!

I haven't posted in a while, and there is a lot to catch you up on.  I'll keep this first post short though.  We found out that we are having a boy!  So Cameron Wesley Wittman will be joining the family in July.  I cannot wait to meet my beautiful little boy.  Right now he is a dancing machine. He is always moving and rolling around.  I am so in love already!  Here is a picture from our ultrasound:

Isn't he perfect?

Since we found out we are having a boy, we finally did our baby registries.  We are registered at Babies R' Us and Target.  You can just click on the store names, and I have our registries linked there.  Most of our stuff is at Babies R' Us, but we have a lot of clothes on our Target registry as well.  Stay tuned for more updates coming soon!  :) 

The Nursery...

This week I indulged in something for myself, and of course, used the fact that we have a baby on the way as an excuse.  I got a really nice DSLR camera because I wanted something good and dependable for all the pictures that we are going to be taking  in a few months.  In all honesty, I have no clue how to use it, but I'm working on it.  :)

All that to say, I thought it would be a good time to share some pictures of what we have done with the nursery so far.  I posted a picture before of the crib, but I wanted to show a little bit more.  I have some DIY projects that I have been working on that will be added over time.  I also will be showing off the cradle that my Uncle Dale made for my sister when she was born.  But for today, I'll be showing just what I have so far, and I'm looking forward to sharing more later on.

This first picture is our adorable little mobile that we got to match the rest of the Noah's ark stuff that we got for Christmas.  I absolutely love it!  The animals are precious!

The crib and the Noah's ark wall hanging

Again we have the crib and the changing table.  The boxes are some cute little things that I found at Target about a month ago.  You can't see it in the picture but on the side of the changing table is a diaper stacker.  We are going to use the plastic boxes for wipes, and other things to try to keep the room as neat as possible.

I have always loved Winnie the Pooh.  This was the first thing that I bought when we found out that we were pregnant :).  Right now we have it sitting on the bookshelf in the room, but I can't wait for the baby to be able to play with it.

sooo... here is the nerdy side.  Ha!  You thought it was the dark side didn't you?  But you were Wrong!  Actually this doesn't belong in the nursery at all, but for some reason it is in there right now.  And I know what you're thinking.  NO this is not Nathan's.  It belongs to me.  And as much as I love my baby, I will not be sharing this.  However, it's really stinking cute and I love it!

These are some things that my Momma got for the baby's room.  One thing that I really want is books, and lots of them.  When we were kids my mom would read to us all the time, and I loved it.  So we are trying to start a collection of children's books.  So far we have ... 3.  This is especially sad because we are book people... I mean we have shelves upon shelves upon shelves of books in our house... so our baby needs some too!

The valance that matches the bedding...

Another view from the mobile... the curtain in the background is the front of the closet, and of course you can see the bookshelf too.  The bookshelf is extra special because it is from the bed set I had in my room when I was a little girl.  The closet had sliding doors on it, but I took them off so that we could fit a long dresser inside.  The room is sort of small so we didn't have a lot of wall space to fit the dresser, but we needed the extra storage.  The curtain is nice because it still ties in with the rest of the decor and matches the colors of the room.

As I mentioned before, we still have a lot to do, but I think we are making pretty good progress :).  I can't wait for baby showers and all that fun stuff so we can really have the room equipped and ready to go.  I am so excited to actually have our baby in this room.  It's going to be amazing.

We find out on February 17th what we are having!  So stay tuned for all the fun and exciting news, as well as nursery updates!  :)

Excited for 2011 :)

It's hard to believe that it's New Year's Eve already.  In just a few short hours we will be sitting in front of the tv watching the ball drop as we enter another year.  New Year's Eve has always been one of my favorite holidays, but this year it is even more special.  2011 means a lot of milestones, and not just any milestones, but life changing milestones.  

I turn 26 this year, which means that I am leaving my mid 20's and approaching the dreaded 30.  While this of all my milestones is the least exciting, it's also another year of life that God has blessed me with and I am truly grateful for that.

This year Nathan and I celebrate our 2 year anniversary.  It's hard to believe how fast it has gone by already.  I guess time really does fly when you are having fun!

I get to celebrate my first mother's day this year, and Nathan gets to celebrate his first father's day.  Although little baby Wittman isn't due until after both of these days, we feel that they are worth celebrating anyway, and that is a really exciting thought.

I finally graduate from Duke this year.  I have been in school my entire life and as much as I love to learn, and as much as I am going to miss school, I am really ready to be done.  This is a huge one for me.  I will leave DUKE UNIVERSITY with a Masters Degree, and that is one of the greatest goals that I could hope to accomplish.

This year I also have commissioning interviews that I will hopefully pass in March.  If I pass this means getting through the first step of the ordination process and serving in a full time appointment somewhere (after maternity leave of course).

And of course, I saved the best for last... our baby.  It is hard to believe that in just a few short months we will be holding our baby.  I can't wait to find out what we are having and to start calling our baby by name instead of just "baby".  This is the most amazing gift I could ever ask for and I cannot wait to meet this amazing child that has been a part of me for the past few months.  We have a few names picked out.  Actually if I'm completely honest, I've had the girl name picked out since I was 7 years old.  If we have a girl her name will be Makayla, and yes the inspiration is from Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman.  Although, in the show it is spelled Michaela, but I like our way better.  If we have a boy the name will be Cameron Wesley.  You guessed it, Cameron after Cameron Indoor, and Wesley for John and Charles.  We don't have a middle name picked out for Makayla yet, but we have tossed around the idea of Grace as a middle name.

2011 is going to be a fantastic year.  I can't wait to see all the other joys that this year has in store for us.  God has blessed us and we have a lot to look forward to.  Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we go through this journey together.  It certainly is an exciting time and we can't wait to share it with all of you :)

Second Trimester!

A couple of weeks ago we entered the second trimester of our pregnancy!  This is exciting news for many reasons, one of which includes the fact that the risk of miscarriage drops dramatically and we are in line for a safe and healthy baby.  With the second trimester has come something new, something that I had forgotten existed.  It's this little thing called.... wait for it... energy.  Now, I am by no means bouncing off the walls, but I have had this unquenchable desire to clean and to decorate and to cook!  I thought that all of this nesting stuff happened later in pregnancy, but it seems to be here now.

On Black Friday this year we bought a crib even though we were really early in our pregnancy, because Target had a special deal where if you purchased the crib you got the matching changing table for free.  Of course, I'm not one to pass up a deal like that, so we made the purchase!  However, I have been letting the crib sit in the box for the past month, intentionally not opening it because I KNEW that I would get baby nursery fever and start wanting to decorate.   Well, this week it happened.  I bought the bedding that I wanted from Babies R' Us and yesterday Nathan and I put the crib together.  Originally my idea was to go with a blue and brown theme, and while that will still be present somewhat, we also don't know whether we are having a boy or a girl yet, and I would hate to go overboard with the blue and brown if we are having a girl.  So we picked something a little more neutral, a Noah's ark theme.  It still has the blue and the brown going on, and as I get further into decorating there will be more blue and brown touches here and there, but the overall idea is focused on Noah's Ark.

I love our crib because it is a convertible one, which means that it turns into a toddler bed and eventually into a full size bed.  The color is perfect with the bedding that we got.  I'll have to post an updated picture eventually that shows more of the nursery.  It's a very small room, though perfect for a baby, so it's going to take some work to make final arrangements.  The bumper pads have little animals on them.  After I took this picture I turned the front one around so that you could see the animals from the outside.  They were much too cute to hide inside the crib.

We won't find out what we are having until February and the suspense is killing me!  I want to know so bad!  Nathan and I both think that we are having a boy, but then again, there's really no telling, and in all honesty we would both be really happy no matter how everything turns out.  Having a baby is such a gift from God.  It's hard to believe how far we have come already, although we still have a long way to go.  The pregnancy process (morning sickness aside) has been a really cool and fun experience.  I can't wait to have baby showers and all of the fun things that come with pregnancy.   We are going to start working on a registry soon.  Most likely we will register at Target and at Babies R' Us.  Our only problem with finding out what we are having is that we don't want all pink gifts if it's a girl, or all blue gifts if it's a boy.  I hate the idea that girls have to be dressed in all pink.  Granted, I love pink.  But if I have a daughter I don't want to treat her like an oversized pepto bismol bottle.

My only real complaint about pregnancy so far is having to take those prenatal vitamins. They are seriously the most ginormous disgusting pills in the world, and you have to go through it every single day.  I am glad that they make things like that to help keep you and the baby healthy during pregnancy.  But my goodness, with all the technology in the world it seems like they could do SOMETHING to make those things less disgusting!

Anyway, I am looking forward to more decorating and more preparations, and most of all meeting our baby! It's becoming more and more real every day :)