My little model...

Sophia had her 6 day old photoshoot yesterday...

The girl I worked with at the United Way is an aspiring photog and offered to come over and snap some shots for practice. I took these photos with my camera... unfortunatly, I didn't even think to start using it until the very end of the shoot. I can't wait to see the shots that she got. Sophia's Pappa is going to get some 'normal' baby pictures this weekend...

Baby Rustad...

Our little girl came to us amost a week early...

Sophia Arianna Rustad
Born May 26th, at 9:17 pm.
8 lbs .09 oz., 20 in.

Life is good!

Baby Rustad's Room

Just so everybody is aware, we don't know if we're having a little boy or a little girl... don't let the pink fool you.

We don't have any "hunches", nor do we care.

But, we will know in a week or so!

I just really wanted to make this mobile... and pink looked so good with the wallcolor. If baby Rustad turns out to be a little boy, all the pink will come down.

Below is the diaper cake from my shower a few weekends back. It is super cute!

I got the idea to make this mobile after looking around on Etsy for one.

The punch came from Michaels. While I was there I got sheets of scrapbook paper in different shades of pink.

Then, I glued fishing line between two butterfly cutouts, and bent the wings of the top butterfly to make the butterflies look 3D. I did this ALOT!

A couple wreath frames from Michaels. (12 & 15 in.)

Along with some leftover tulle from our wedding...

Then, I just fished the butterfly lines through the hoops and tied the strings off.

Super Easy!

And, it is way bigger than anything I had found to buy.

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On another note. Here is a shot of me and my Kyisha enjoying our new "cuddler" chair... big round bellies and all!

Happy Mothers Day

Mom...
You are all things loving, patient, and kind...

You have always been there for me...Thank you for caring.

Thank you for putting up with me when I really wasn't so nice to you.

And most of all, thank you for the stability of our family.


Through the years you have shown me what a mother is... what mothers do.

And now that I am about to become a mother myself, I thank you for being such a good role model...
I can only hope to be as good of a mother as you were to us.

Happy Mother's Day!

Thank you for everything that you have done, and everything you continue to do!

3 more weeks!!!

It's hard to believe that it has been over 1/2 a year since my last post. I guess that there is just not that much to report during winter in Manitoba... except cold, cold and more cold. And wind.

But, now that spring is starting it's sprung I'm much more in the mood to go out and do stuff... Not to mention that our family has a very special arrival at the end of the month. And, things need preparing.

So, below are pictures of what I have done in my nursery so far.


Here are some "before" pictures of the room. Although, the room won't be entirely finished until I discover if I should accent with pink butterflies or colorful monsters!

I painted the walls a really nice smokey bluish turquoise color. I figure that this is a color that will look good with red's, oranges and greens or pink -- whatever our little baby Rustad turns out to be...

Ryan already has his night vision camera set up over where the crib will be going. He is going to be a really attentive father.
We have a little screen that we can watch the camera's feed from in our bedroom.

I looked all over for the perfect dresser. One that was tall and wide enough to be a change table, but had enough drawers to house essentials through childhood.
I couldn't really find anything online, but I discovered this dresser at a local thrift shop for $50. It is the right size, has plenty of drawers and is super super sturdy. It will take a good climbing if it has to.

I found the crib on our local online classifieds for $30. It was in really good shape, turns into a toddler bed, and it had the spindles that I had to have.

Of course, the dresser and crib would need to be refinished. I had my heart set on painting the crib bright red... but then, I let my heart get the better of me and decided to go with a bright glossy white. I decided that if baby turns out to be a little girl, she absolutely will have pink in her room!

And, white will go with ANYTHING I decide to do.
I had to sand down the entire crib, spindle by spindle. Then apply a coat of primer, followed by 2-3 coats of semi-gloss... which still wasn't enough paint. So, I got a few cans of spray paint and finished off the job.

...And, I couldn't be happier!

The same process went for the dresser as well... except I was able to use our electric sander on it. But it took coat after coat of paint as well.

Then, when I replaced the handles I discovered that the holes already in the dresser are all the wrong distance apart for ANY handles that I could buy at the store. So, I had to search for a handle that would be forgiving, and would cover up an extra large hole. Then, I had to re-drill all of the holes a little bit wider on the inside, which brought the holes closer together so the new handles would fit.

All in all, a whole lotta work for an 8 month pregnant woman. My body just doesn't move around like it used to, which makes every job that much more difficult and time consuming. Imagine me, 8 months pregnant, crawling in and out under the crib to paint the inside then the outside of each spindly side of that damn crib! Each time! ... all while wearing a giant, plastic, filtered, fumigating mask.

All in all, I spent around $80 on paint, and $20 on handles. Which would make my grand total for the crib and dresser around $180.

Not bad, considering the crib I almost got was $270, and the dresser I was about to get (that I didn't even really like) cost around $400.

Be in touch. I'll make another post once the bedding gets here!

Funsize?

I just opened my first pack of stolen candy, and would like to know what is so fun about getting 3 peanut m&m's. There is nothing fun about that. They should call it StingySize...

What a waste of packaging. I swear that last year these packs had at least 5, maybe 6.

The world is really starting to go downhill... And to think, I'm going to have to raise a child in it.

The grass really is greener on the other side...

As most of you know, our September was spent building fence. What we thought would be a project for the long weekend drug on and on and on and on....

After we figured out where the fenceposts were going to go, we rented an auger to drill the holes. We were going to have our landscaper do it for us with his little excavator, but he said that we would have to wait for the ground to dry out... and we couldn't wait! Our fence material, by this time, was already sitting in a mudpuddle.

I couldn't believe how burly the thing was! it was unreal. I ended up having to sit on the handlebars as we worked it, just to get it to go into the ground. We were trying to drill 4' deep through wet clay. The damn auger kept getting stuck in the ground... it was the most painful thing I have done. My body was so exhausted that I could have almost cried. This took us 2 days to do our 28 holes.

But, once that was done, things only got better. That is, after the blisters on our hands healed up and the burns on my arms.... and after we had enough rest that we could move....

Throughout the rest of the process, nothing could possibly be as horrible as having to auger all those holes. And, this was enough to get us through to the end.

Slowly the fence began to take shape.

One by one the rails and fence boards went on...

Through the rain and the cold...

Then, Ryan masoned the two front corners of the fence to look like rock columns.

The columns are done from the same rock as the front of our house, and they look really good.

And, finally, we are done! Our fence has no gate, which is great for the dogs.

And now, the grass really is greener on the other side...of our fence, that is. Because, now, our beautiful new back yard is full of yellow dead spots.