32 weeks and counting!

So, we went to the Doctor's office today for what seems like one of a trillion doctors appointments. I think that after this I will have gotten over my white coat syndrome.. Anyway, we had another ultrasound and everything is looking good! Unfortunately, Fatima is so good at making a baby that our 32 week old son is 5 pounds 4 ounces, putting him on track for delivery of about 8-9 pounds. Needless to say, she is not looking forward to having to deliver that much child! Here are some pictures from todays ultrasound.

Not sure if I mentioned this but our doctor, Doctor King, is moving to St Louis and therefore will not be around for the delivery. So, we are mostly seeing the other three doctors in the practice. We really like 2 of the doctors, Dr. Chen and Dr. Hikemein. The other doctor, Dr. Beyer isn't very personable and always seems to be mad or upset about something. So I guess we have a 66.6% chance of having a doctor deliver Ethan that we like.. Keep your fingers crossed!

On another note, I have decided that I am going to do a virtual tour of the nursery once we have all the furniture in place and everything hung up on the wall. I found this website that explains how to do it. You basically create a panoramic photo by stitching together a bunch of pictures then use a utility on MAC to turn it into a video! Once everything is done I will post it.

Mural Finished!

So, I finished the mural today and really think it turned out pretty good! The leaves are a bit on the light side but I think they might be ok. If I am not satisfied over the next few days I might go and get a darker green to go over them with. We will keep you posted on that. Anyways, without further a due here is the finished product!

I'm very proud of how this turned out. It has been so long since I have attempted anything so creative.. So, for all you out there that might want to try this in the future let me give you a play by play on how we accomplished it.

1. Find/draw something that you want to use as your mural on a piece paper. You can find something on the internet and print it out, free hand something on paper (if you are that good you might be beyond what I am explaining here), or use a computer program like Adobe Illustrator.
2. Take that piece of paper and draw grid lines both horizontally and vertically to give you manageable areas on the wall that you can draw out. I did mine in 1 inch x 1 inch sections which corresponded to 1 foot x 1 foot sections on the wall.
3. Next draw out you grid lines on the wall that correspond to the sheet with your sample picture/drawing from step 1. I used a 4 foot level to help me draw the grid on the wall.
4. Get what you need to draw/paint/etc.. I purchased 4 different paints, 2 from the art store in the acrylic paint section and 2 from Home Depot (play with the sheen a little if you want to provide more depth, I used a shinier paint for the leaves). I also got some pencils and small paint containers so it would be easier to manage on a ladder. I also purchase flat tip brushes to help with the precision I need to achieve in order to stay in the lines of my mural.
5. Draw out you mural with a pencil. Do one squarer at a time to keep the job manageable.
6. Paint! Advice: Use the right brush for the job! if you need to paint something small use a small brush and if you need to paint something big (like the trunk of a tree) use a bigger brush!
7. Touch up. You might need to go back and touch up from erasing grid lines or going outside the lines of your mural. This will make the whole mural look that much better.
8. Your Done! Enjoy!

The Mural part 2

So we have started to paint the mural in the Nursery. So far so good! I picked up a few supplies like a 4 foot level, pencil, paint (acrylic from the art store and interior paint from Home Depot). The I started by drawing a grid on the wall, 1' by 1', to help with drawing out the picture. After I was finished drawing out the picture I started to paint the monkey:

The monkey turned out really good as you can see! Next we started working on the tree, which due to the intricacies associated with all the tips of the branches and the fact that due to the paint on the wall we had to do at least two coats, this took a considerable amount of time. In the end though I think it turned out really good!

We have the leaves and some touch up wall paint to get rid of the grid lines but then we will be done! I will keep you posted!

Update to Nursery Mural

So I think I have decided to attempt a mural on my own with out a stencil. Here is a picture of what I am going to do. I put it on a back ground color that is similar to that of the nursery. Let me know what you think:

I found this website that explains how to successfully accomplish this task. So, here goes nothing! I will post a pic when it's done. We hope to do it this weekend! By the way, we have another OB appointment tomorrow, so we will let you all know how it goes!

Diaper Genie: Check!

We went to the Baby Superstore (aka Babys-R-Us) and got a few things to spruce up the nursery on Sunday. We went with the thought that we would get the dresser ordered and maybe the Diaper Genie and a few other misc items. Well, that didn't happen! We ended up getting just about everything we needed to decorate the room and a few other random items. We left with a new crib set and matching clock, light switch plate, hamper, mobile, valence, changing pad cover, and something else that I am forgetting I am sure. We also got a bath, changing pad, and some other misc things. Here is a quick picture of the nursery so far.

As you can see by the letters on the shelf above the crib we have settled on a name, Ethan Vincent Lake!  We have also decided to do a mural on the wall to the right of the crib of a tree with a boy hanging from a branch. Here is an example of what we want to do! As you can see I think the Monkey theme is working nicely! Let us know what you think or if there is anything you think might look nice as well!