Nathan & Fiona, Kaisa & Everett – Family Blog

Last March, I was wanting another baby really badly and trying desperately to convince Nathan. On our Anniversary, he agreed that we could sign up for Aflac that month and then when the baby was born, he would get to use the extra money for a new computer. I thought that sounded fine, and the next week I was off to the Aflac office.

To my surprise, we got pregnant right off the bat in late April/early May and this presented a bit of a problem…Aflac has a “10 month” clause for pregnancy. If the baby is born less than 10 months after you sign up, they don’t pay. Well, my Aflac date was January 28th, and my due date was February 5th. We were cutting it close! I decided to keep Aflac and risk it.

So…today being January 29th…I am thrilled to know that we will be getting back over $3000 when we have this baby!! Yay!!!

Unfortunately, Nathan probably won’t be getting his computer. His company decided to switch insurance companies in the middle of the pregnancy, forcing us to pay two $1000 deductibles, and another 20% on top of that (we no longer have 100% after deductible coverage). Thanks a lot, OrangeSoda!

So hopefully we come out even.

Several months ago, my sweet mother-in-law found a deal at a garage sale…a double stroller with infant carrier for $10!  I told her to grab it for me and ever since then its been sitting in my garage waiting for baby #2.  I noticed that it was missing the child tray on front, and needed new front wheels, so I ordered the parts and they came in today.  I pulled the system out, cleaned it, and then Kaisa and I tried it out!

Kaisa loves sitting in the front seat.  She didn’t want me to take her out!  It was really cute.  We even got her dolly and put her in the carrier, pretending that she was the new baby.  Here are some pictures.

Here's Kaisa's dolly in the carrier

Enjoying a Snack in her Seat!

We can’t wait for baby to arrive!  Only a few more days!!

It’s done! Today I officially finished Kaisa’s big girl room, although she’s been sleeping in it successfully for over a week now.

I was pleasantly surprised how easy the transition to a “big girl bed” was for Kaisa. We finished the furniture while she was asleep one night, so the next day for nap time I took her to her new room and we read some stories on her bed. Then, we pretended like we were sleeping on the bed. Then I told her she needed to lie down and take her nap in her new bed. I tucked her in under the covers, and left the room. I heard her cry a little so I went in and she had gotten out of bed. I put her back in and laid down by her for a little bit, then left again. A couple of minutes later she was out of bed again, so I went back in and silently put her back down and tucked her in. That was that…she went right to sleep.

That evening, she only got out of bed once and after I put her back in, she was out. She will occasionally get out of bed once or twice still, and each time she does we go in and silently put her back in and she always stays. We’ve even moved her toys and books in there (although toys get put away in the closet) and she is still sleeping like a pro. And she hasn’t fallen out once! I am so impressed with her!

So…here are the pictures! I am REALLY excited about how this room turned out. It’s the sort of modern-kid-chic we were going for, and I’m really loving the colors. Without further ado, Kaisa’s room!

Notice her name up above!

I used some fabric I found for the wall hangings and just wrapped it around three 15″ square boards. We ordered the owl wall decal from www.DaliDecals.com. It was super easy and took about 15 minutes to apply. I am thinking about adding a few more decals on some of the other walls with animals and alphabet letters as well.  The bed, chair, and book/toy shelf are from IKEA (as well as a dresser that is not pictured).  The bedding is from Overstock.com and the curtains are from Walmart.  We spent less that $500 total on this room, including paint.  :)

For those who didn’t see it air (including myself, because they didn’t tell me!) here is the KUTV Get Gephardt clip featuring yours truly!  I think they did a pretty good job of covering everything, except that it was not a door-to-door salesman, it was a phone salesman who I allowed to come over by appointment.  :) Tip: you may have to watch this in internet explorer, it’s not working for me in firefox.

I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays as much as I did!  Here is a recap on ours before I go back to real life.

For Christmas this year, Nathan and I decided that we wanted to be in our own home with just our family for the first time.  It’s hard to believe, but every year since we’ve been married, we were at another person’s house on Christmas.  Crazy!  All in all it was a big success, and we loved watching Kaisa come down and get excited about opening stockings and presents.

Kaisa on her slide

Kaisa opening her stocking

Nathan and I decided a few weeks ago that we wanted to make Kaisa a play kitchen for Christmas.  We went to Ikea in the scratch and dent section, and within 15 minutes or so had picked up all the pieces we needed from the scrap wood and other miscellaneous items.  Everything you see on it is  from Ikea except the faucet (a pipe from a plumbing supply store), the hinges, and the vinyl (I used my cricut and vinyl sheets to make the stove top, oven front, and dial decals).  We are very proud of it, and so far Kaisa has had lots of fun with it!  She got some play food and dishes and a shopping cart for Christmas as well, so she’s got plenty to keep her busy for a while!

Washing her hands

Kaisa's Kitchen

Pushing her shopping cart

After we opened presents at our house, we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa Judd’s for the day.  There, Kaisa got spoiled even more (as did Nathan and I).  We had fun playing games (I got Rock Band for Wii!) and enjoying good food while watching the snow fall outside (though the drive home was nasty!)  I was grateful for a white Christmas this year.

Kaisa was afraid of her pony, dad tried to help her warm up to it.

On New Year’s Eve, Nathan and I and some other friends on our street hosted a big multi-house bash.  We stayed up eating tons of food, playing Guitar Hero and Rock Band, and counted down to the new year with Martinelli’s and smoke bombs.  Then we played more games.  I pooped out about 2am, but I think it was nearly 8am before Nathan climbed into bed next to me!  Crazy boy!

Since then, I have been in full nesting/baby-mode.  I have about 1 month left and I’m getting antsy to get Kaisa’s big girl room done and get her sleeping in there before baby boy comes.  We picked paint and painted her room this weekend, after helping my sister move out of it.  It looks really cute…now we just need to make another trip to Ikea to pick out furniture and then it’s time to move everything over!  If anyone has any tips for the crib-to-bed transition, I’d love to hear them!  I’ll post pics when we finish her room.  :)