The wait is over!

We are so thrilled to welcome our third precious baby into the world, Owen Daniel Hershberger!

7 pounds 4 ounces, 20.75 inches, 14 inch head, born at 12:22 am on June 14

Of course we are already in love and think he is pretty wonderful. Here are a few photos of his first hours of life. I wrote out the details of his birth after the photos if you’re interested.

For those of you interested in more details about his birth, here you go.
The morning of the 13th I had my 39 week check up and I was dilated to 3 cm. By mid morning I started having mild contractions, but tried not to get too excited, but that afternoon they were consistently 5 minutes apart.
My mom showed up around 4:00 to watch the girls and after my third walk of the day, and some dinner, Dustin and I decided to head to the hospital. I felt weird going in because my contractions still weren’t very strong.
At 7:00 Dustin and I were walking around the hospital hoping to help things progress. At 8:30 my water broke and then things really got going. It’s crazy how you forget just how much those contractions hurt. Ouch!
Around 10:00 I got an epidural and was able to get a little rest. (I know there are differing opinions about epidurals, but I know it is the right decision for me. What an amazing difference if makes.)
Shortly before midnight I was completely dilated and the Dr was called. After about 10 minutes of pushing Owen was born!
We are both doing great and very excited to head home tomorrow and start being a family of 5.

A new cabinet for the bathroom

I’ve had this cabinet sitting in the basement for over a year and I decided it was finally time to paint it and hang it up. I used white spray paint and then sanded it off to give it distressed look.

Here it is hanging in the girls bathroom. By the way, I’m still in love with this shower curtain. 🙂

39 weeks and still waiting

I’m so ready to meet this little guy! Everything is still going well and my body is getting ready to have this baby. I go to bed every night thinking “this is going to be the night!”, but so far we are still waiting. With the temperature going into the 90’s this weekend I’ve been spending most of my time inside with the AC on and fans blowing on me. Even with that I’m still hot. 🙂
It’s so fun to think that in the next week we should be holding a new little baby!

One last baby project, a carseat canopy

I don’t remember seeing these when the girls were born, but now I am seeing carseat canopies all over the place. I decided that they seemed like a great idea and I needed to make one for this little guy. I looked up some simple tutorials online, and here’s what I ended up with.

Pretty cute right? I love when I see practical ideas that are easy to make for myself.

Ok baby, you can come now!

A fresh new look

We’ve been busy the last couple months refreshing our entryway, dining room, living room and upstairs hallway. While I still need to make some finishing touches like curtains and hanging things back on the walls, the major part of this project is over….thank goodness. I LOVE how it all turned out! As always, I’m terible about remembering to take before pictures. I just get so excited about starting a project that I forget to take pictures. I managed to find a few taken from other times.

Dustin completely rebuilt our front closet and turned it into a “mudroom”.

When we moved in we painted this whole area a gray/green color. I liked it at first, but it started to feel sad and I needed a change. We decided to go with Benjamin Moore Shaker Beige for our new color. It still has a little gray in it, but it feels so much fresher! We also painted all the trim, except for the banister, white to match what we’ve done in other rooms of the house. I don’t feel like these pictures do any justice to how great everything turned out. But here are some before and after shots.

Garage Sale Successes

I have always LOVED going to garage sales. My mom I used to have so much fun going to them together when I was growing up and now I love going to them with the girls. We’ve been having some pretty good success so far this summer. Today was no exception. For just around $40, here’s what we found:

-I’ve been looking for some cute old suitcases to store dress up clothes or doll toys in, at $1 each these beauties are perfect!
-I’ve been looking for a new angel food cake pan because the hole in the top of mine isn’t big enough to fit on a bottle. Not only is this one the right size, but its made in the USA too! Got to love that!
-Two pairs of Robeeze shoes for our little man. They are in perfect condition too!
-The little glass jar has a metal cover with holes in it that I think will be just perfect for little flowers.
-The tarnished silver basket is hopefully going to work as a photo prop along with this:

-You’ll have to stay tuned to see if it all works out. I figured, if I don’t use it I might be able to cash it in for its value in silver right?
-The vintage sheets were $0.50 and they have a really fun pattern. I’m not totally sure what they’ll be turned into yet.
-The two cute old white vintage linens are for decorating, and the old frame will be getting a new photo to put in it.
-How could I pass up that super cute white chair?! So great for the deck and as a photo prop.
-And of course, the little tikes car. I’ve been wanting to get one of these for years and I finally caved. The girls love it of course!

What a fun morning!

Succulents!

I’ve never been very good at taking care of plants, but I love having them around the house and outside. They make me feel happy. I have somehow managed to keep a ficus tree alive for over 6 years and I have a plant my mom gave me a few years ago that can go weeks and weeks without water and needs very little attention. Everything else I’ve gotten has ended up dead.

I may have found a new plant love….succulents! From everything I hear they are very hardy and almost indestructible. We shall see :). Dustin and the girls got me these fun succulents for mothers day. Aren’t they the cutest little plants! I love them!

Our Summer Fun List for 2012

It’s been such a nice spring that we are already thinking about our summer plans. Last year we made a list of things we wanted to do during the summer and it was so much fun we decided to do it again. We kept some things and added new ones. Of course the biggest event of our summer will be welcoming this baby in about 6 weeks!
What things do you want to do this summer?

Homemade laundry detergent….batch #2

I’m making my second batch of laundry detergent today. I made my first one last fall and just now need to make another. I was a little hesitant that it would get my clothes clean, but it has worked fabulously! I use this recipe.

I’m also trying a homemade version of oxyclean this time. (That’s what the hydrogen peroxide is for.). We’ll see how it works.

After a half hours work, and a super small investment, I have a batch of laundry detergent that should last several months, and hopefully a stain fighter to boot!

33 weeks

It’s been a few weeks since our last update, but things are still going well. Thankfully these last few weeks have gone by quickly and I hope they continue to. I’m ready to be done with this pregnancy….soon. This little boy has some powerful kicks, much stronger than the girl’s ever were. And some of them really hurt! I’ve also been having some bad back pain, no doubt due to lifting two kiddos all day, and doing a major house project.
I plan to post some pictures soon, but over the last month we turned our front closet into a “mud room”, and painted all the trim and walls in our entryway, dining room, living room, and upstairs hallway. Doesn’t that sound like what every mama in her third trimester should be doing? I’m crazy like that!