Kendall is 12 Months Old!

 

Kendall Paige, one year ago today at 12:59PM,  you made your Momma and Daddy parents!  You are twelve months old!

 

You started lots of new tricks this month.  You hold your toy phones you your ear to talk on them.  If you have a rag or wipe you love to wipe the floor with it.  I guess you've seen us clean up a lot of spit up!  You will sit down when we tell you to.  You can wave bye-bye.  And you are starting to mimic us, like when we pop our lips.  You are too smart!

 

   It will probably be a few weeks before you start walking.  You still haven't found your fisherman's legs.

 

You love to climb on anything that you can get onto with your short lil legs!

 

   You are Daddy's play mate.  The two of you have the biggest time.  You love getting down in the floor to play when dad is home.  

 

You are taking 2 bottles a day, one in the morning and one at night.  During the day you will drink at least one sippy cup of whole milk.  

 

You are still the eating champ!  We have to make you stop eating!

 

You still have 8 teeth, 4 on the top and 4 on the bottom. 

 

Your sleep is still also the same--2 naps during the day, and sleeping 12 to 13 hours at night.

 

You are wearing size 18 month clothes.  You are in size 3 diapers, although at night you are wearing a size 4 night-time diaper.  You are wearing some size 2 shoes still, but also some are size 3.  

The past 12 months have been the BEST ever!  We are still so excited that you are our daughter.  God has blessed our family.  It's our privilege that we are going to get to watch you grow up.  It is our prayer that you will the Lord and serve him with your life.  

 

Although this is our last monthly post, I'll still do at least bi-annual post to update your stats!  

Daddy and Momma love you so much!

12 Lessons Learned

Today is my last day with an eleven month old...so sad but so exciting.   I'm sad that the newborn stage is over but excited to see my baby start walking and exploring more.  I'm sad that she won't lay still long enough to snuggle much but excited to hear her talking and expressing herself.  I'm sad that she is becoming more independent but excited to see her start school.  I'm sad that she no longer needs her mom to hold her bottle or cup but excited to see her come to know the Lord.  In all reality we have too many blessings to come to be sad and mourning!  The Lord has sure blessed this family!  But you better believe there are gonna be extra snuggles and rocking time tonight!

Today I thought I'd share 12 things that I've learned this past year....


1.  You can't spoil a newborn, enjoy the snuggling!  I was a little paranoid on this one.  

2.  Having a schedule makes for a happy momma and happy baby.  Everyone will thrive on maintaining a schedule. 

3.  Having a baby = lots of new friends.  Honestly, friends come out of the wood works to adore a baby.  And I'm ok with that.

4.  You will fall in love with your husband all over again.  There is nothing more precious than seeing your man love on your baby.  At first it was cuddling the newborn, now it's crazy loud rough-housing together.  And although the noise can be nerve racking...it's still precious.

5.  Nursing is hard and pumping is yuck! Just being honest here.  I love the experience and would do it all over again in a heart beat but it is still hard and still yuck!

 

6.  Training is hard work!  It's constant.  And then there is the worrying over what she understands, and doesn't understand.  And to be honest once again, it's very unrewarding right now. 

7.  You can multitask more than you ever thought was possible.  Baby in one hand, make a bottle with the other?  No problem!  Change a diaper with one hand, cook supper with the other?...just kidding :)  Teaching taught me to be a multi-tasker...motherhood made me bump it up a notch.
 

8.   Love on moms with new babies or young children.  This can be such a blessing!  I've tried to take meals to new moms several times in the past but I'm determined to do more of that now that I've been on the receiving end.  

9.  Don't get caught up in the Comparison game.  Every baby is different.  It's so easy to get caught up wanting your baby to the best and smartest.  It really doesn't matter who says "momma" first.  Although, Kendall Paige, it's about time!  
 

 

10.  Keep a well stocked diaper bag.   It's really the pits to have a blow out at Wal-mart and not have extra clothes.  I tend to over pack but there have been times I've been without some necessities.

11.  Every milestone is the best and will melt your heart.  Each new thing from rolling over to waving bye bye will turn you to ushy goshy baby moo.  There's nothing like it.  You will be constantly waiting the next great accomplishment!

12.  You can't understand the love of a parent until you become one.   It is the biggest blessing.  It makes you appreciate God's love toward you more. 

 

The Big Nursery Reveal

One might say, "...Stephanie, isn't your daughter turning a year old this week?"

Why yes she is.  Thanks for remembering.  

Then they might follow up with, " ...um Stephanie, Don't you think you are a a little late with showing off the nursery?"

Why yes, yes I am.  That's just how I roll!  So without farther ado, and a year late, my favorite room in the house.  

When thinking about how I wanted the nursery...I knew it was important for me that although I was having a little girl, if there were any boys in the Jones' future, that the room could suit them also.  So we went with gray for our wall color.  I also wanted to use a lot of turquoise...and since baby #1 is a girl...pink accents.  If we are ever blessed with a boy, I will probably switch out the pink for orange. 

 

   Our accent wall with gray stripes.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE how this wall turned out.    Although at one point in the process I was worried about our marriage...but so worth it!

For honestly sake, I just put the bumpers back in the crib.  I'm hoping she'll be a little easier on them then she was being a few months ago.

 

On the next wall:

 

Curtains are from Target.  I bought them shortly after I found out I was expecting.

The Other Side wall:

And the last wall:

    The Closet door is on this wall...which I should have closed for the picture. 

Now for the details:

   Love our Rocking chair.  It was a gift from my dad.  It's right by the window, so the natural light makes for great pictures!   (You probably recognize it from 90% of our pics).  We also love rocking our little girl (when she'll sit still for long enough).  I keep a basket of books squished in between the crib and chair.  We try to read everyday, it's a great snuggly place!

 The shelf was a 50% off Hobby Lobby find.  That's Kendall's Ultrasound in the small frame.  I need to put a picture in the other frame.  And there's a couple of birds nesting here.  

 I bought the monogram off of Etsy.  It was natural wood.   I painted it a couple of times before I found the paint shades I liked best.

  

 This cute lil chair is a gift from Poppy.  It's a recent add to the room.  He found the chair and we picked out fabric to have it recovered in.  Super cute!

 I made the growth chart.  Michael had to saw off the 1 ft mark because of where the stud was, and the receptacle.  I'm good with that though.

 Kendall's first height check :)

Girl has a lot of hair bows.  The bigger patterned bows are out in the room on this picture frame organizer.  
    The rest of the bows are inside her closet door on these ribbon holders.  I received one as a baby shower gift and made the other 3.   I really like them for keeping her bows organized.  :)

Speaking of her closet...When we first moved in, we removed all the shelving to paint, and since we weren't using this room, we never replaced it.  So it was a blank canvas.  A tiny small canvas, but still blank.  Michael did a great job designing it, so we get the most bang for our buck!  Although it may have to be rearranged in the future, it works great for a nursery.  It's way more organized than these pictures make it look.

 

   In the middle we have 3 small adjustable shelves.  Her stretching headbands are in the pink Kendall Basket, and the other tubs have hard headbands, hats, and random baby stuff.  I have a few hooks under the shelves for jewelry and what-nots. The giraffe thingy is a hamper.  It doesn't really match but it's shut up in the closet and so practical.

 On the left side is her hanging clothes.  2 racks...the top is dressy clothes, and bottom is more causal.

 Under the hanging clothes are almost always 2 totes.  One for the size clothes she is currently in (18months) and the other for the next size up (24 months).  The rest of the totes are in the storage shed.   This system works great for us, other than Michael stressing about how much room the baby's stuff is taking up in the shed.  Someone please tell me that boys are less high-maintenance.  

 Another thing that's so great about the closet is Michael designed the rods to be adjustable.  I tried to get a picture of each side since seeing it in a picture is easier to understand than me trying to explain.  This has already come in handy as she's grown.  I think I have have a total of 5 wooden rods, but with the totes at the bottom, I don't use them all.

 Side note:  Girls marry a handy-man!  It's awesome!


The right side of the closet is floor to ceiling shelves.  Extra diapers and wipes are on the floor, bags on the bottom shelf.

 Awww look at that cute lil hand.  ALWAYS on Momma's heals!

Blankets on the 2nd shelf.  She got tons of blankets as gifts.  We have 2 in her crib, all these, and a drawer full of more receiving blanket type.  They have come in super handy.  

 The electrical looking box goes with the house alarm.

And the top 2 shelves are random baby stuff that have no other place to go. 

 See the I really did just put the bumpers back on the crib, they were in the closet.

 The chest of drawers holds her sleepers, onesies, shoes, socks, tights, leggings, receiving blankets, and a few other things.  On top is her wipes, humidifier, sound machine, piggy bank, and a framed picture we received as a gift. 

    We were told not to get a changing table, that we wouldn't use it.  We use it ALL.THE.TIME.  It's the only place we change her diaper at home.  The baskets came from Lowes.  I looked and looked for some I liked.  I think Michael spotted these at his home away from home.  They hold her diapers, diaper saks, air freshener, lotion, and other random stuff we use alot.  We chose not to get a diaper genie.  We accumulate a lot of trash so we just put dirty diapers in our household garbage and really stinky ones in disposable diaper saks.  It really has worked great for us.  The small garbage can is for random junk.  It takes awhile to fill it up.  The drawers in her changing table hold bibs, burp clothes, towels, rags, sheets, changing pad covers and other like stuff.

  I couldn't find any bible verse art that I loved that matched her room so I painted one.  Best of all I painted it over an old canvas picture I had in my room as a teenager...read--free.  It's Psalm 91:4.  A verse that I love but also goes along with the subtle bird theme.
 

 The Rocking Chair was Michael's as a boy.  I love sentimental pieces.  It might one day get painted white.  The diapers in the floor were placed there by Kendall Paige, along with the puff container you can see in the corner of the picture.  This wall also has the door to the hallway.  

    One last angle.  On top of the curtain rod is her video monitor.  Another gift from my dad, which I love!  She's slept in her nursery since she was a little over 2 months.  I love being able to see her!   And the book she drug out during this photo shoot. 

I ordered the crib (which is convertible), chest of drawers and changing table from Walmart.  They have the same furniture at BabiesRUs for a couple hundred dollars more.  The chest of drawers and changing table are the same brand and style.  All three pieces along with the shelf have the beveled (I think that's what it's called) wood look:

 So there you have it.  More than you ever cared to know about Kendall's nursery.  If you made it this far, thanks for hanging in there!  This was way longer than I thought it'd be...I realize I won't be featured in any home decorating magazines but I do adore this room.  It's everything I wanted and loved for this space.