9 days old

At only 9 days old, Lana has successfully stolen both our hearts. Her big yawns, her scrunched faces, her tiny fists and her adorable little noises just make us smile.

So far, one of her favorite activities is falling asleep on Dan's chest. We're learning more about her everyday as she grows and develops.

Introducing Lana Jean Lenssen!

Don't mind me. I'm typing with one hand and holding a hiccuping three-day-old with the other. I have a good feeling that this is a sign of our new lives together. We are home from the hospital, working on getting to know each other and hammering out a sleeping/feeding schedule we can all be happy with (so far, she's a better negotiator than me and Dan combined), but mostly we've been loving on our little daughter, Lana. Trust me, of all the tasks we have to do, loving Lana is by far the easiest.
Lana Jean Lenssen was born on June 18 at 9:36 pm. She weighed 8 lbs 6 oz and is 21.5 inches long. Yup, that's a pretty big baby, but very healthy and well, so I have no complaints. She took her sweet time getting here, but is certainly worth every minute. We had an amazing doctor and nursing staff that helped us both tremendously. Dan has also been wonderful. He helped deliver this wee one and has been a great daddy from the start.
My sister-in-law, Angela, has a great post and pictures on her blog (see her name on the list on the right) and we should have our hospital pics posted soon at www.pullmanhospital.org
I'm sure I'll post more later, as we seem to be taking a bazillion pictures. It just might take me a few tries to get proficient at blogging with one hand.

See our new arrival(s)!

See......they're goats. Sorry, no baby pictures.

No baby news to report, but we do have two new goats out by the barn. We needed something to keep down the tall grass and weeds and goats will serve this purpose well. Dan left this evening planning on just bringing home the male goat, but they threw the older female in for free, so we ended up with two. The male (right) is only about 4 months old. I named him Rowdy. The female is older (2 or 3) and named Stella. The male has been fixed, so no, they're not a breeding pair. We're not necessarily getting into the goat business or anything.

Bits of flair!

Please don't be too disappointed. I know you wanted to read a post that said Baby is Here! But, she isn't here, and it would be cruel of me to lie to you. Today is the official due date, so I guess technically, she's not late until midnight, right? We've still be plugging away on the house and I took some pictures to show off some of the pretty cosmetic things we've been doing.


Metal stars at the end of the hallway.

My scrapbook page "clothesline" in my work room. The wall is painted a blue-grey color called Silvermist (Sherwin Williams Progreen 200). Dan hung a clothesline for me and I really like hanging finished projects up for a while before putting them away in albums. It's also nice to put partially-finished projects up while I'm figuring out how I want to complete them. Notice the layout on the left. It's just waiting for baby girl pictures.

New light fixture in the dining room. I like it a ton better than the retro glass chandelier we had before. This one is sleek and simple and casts a less-harsh light over the eating space.

Yesterday was Flag Day, so we did the patriotic and good thing and put up a flag by the front porch. I've always wanted a small flag pole and I finally live in a house where there's a perfect spot for it.

I really hope the next post is full of new-baby news and excitement. Dan and I are getting anxious for her arrival and I know a bunch of you are too.

Please ignore the baby countdown graphic on the right.....

........because it's accuracy cannot be guaranteed.

I don't know when she's gonna show up. I know it's getting closer, but the good doctor said it'll more likely be later, rather than sooner. That's okay, just because I'm impatient, doesn't mean that she is. Oh, and for the record, Dan has been telling me for months that the baby would come late. Husband, this is not something your should gloat to your pregnant wife about.

Our bedroom...finally functional.....

I didn't think it would take us this long to have a functional, usable master bedroom, after all, it is just a bedroom. It has walls and a floor and a ceiling, what could be so tough about that, right? Well, the painting and unpacking and all that went fairly easily, it was getting the actual bed into said bedroom that was the challenge. I'll get to that in a minute. Here's the "before" picture. The bedroom was three colors. Dark green, light green and a color that looks off-white, but actually is a very, very light pink. This did not mesh with my design plans at all, so it all had to go.

Here's what we went with. Most of the walls are Macadamia (Sherwin Williams Progreen 200) and the wall with the window is Sturdy Brown (Sherwin Williams Duration Home). It's neutral, with a kick and I love it. Oh yeah, and then there is our bed. Our beautiful, lovely, oh-so-comfortable king-sized bed. Dan and I have been dreaming of this bed since we got married. (We've been getting by with a full-sized.) We actually ordered the reclaimed barnwood bed from Cabela's about 4 months ago. It arrived a week and a half ago. There's a loooong story that involves many phone calls, damaged wood and angry letters, but I don't want to write all that out now. Let me know if you ever want to order anything like this and I'll share our experience, so you might know what to expect. Our mattress was also a headache to get. We were supposed to have delivery in about 10 days, it was more like 3 weeks. Uuuuugh! But anyway. It's all here now and I LOVE IT!!!! I love the reclaimed barnwood and the mattress and the bedding set we've had in storage since our wedding. I was so excited to set everything up this weekend. Dan likes it too, however, his initial response was less excitement and more, "What do we need all these pillows for?" Typical guy, right? Well Dear One, we don't "need" all these pillows, but they are pretty, see?

Here's the brown wall. I have curtains and valences that match our bedding for the window. It all came together as a set. Should I use them? It is all guaranteed to "go" that way, however, do you think it would be too matchy-matchy? Also, what do you think I should do about my dresser? One day we'd love to have all reclaimed barnwood furniture in here, but until then, I need to creatively make do with what I have. I have leftover paint, so I could paint my dresser either Macadamia or Sturdy Brown.

Here's our closet corner. Yes, we have two closets and it is wonderful. In our apartment, we shared one closet that was smaller than either of these.

Okay, so this is the part where I ask for help. What is the room missing? I have a few pictures up, but nothing by the bed. I was thinking of some cool vinyl lettering for above the bed. I was thinking of some neat line from a poem or something sweet like that. Dan was more thinking about lyrics from Barry White songs. I've seen some vinyl lettering that was cheesy, so to those of you who are into that, how do you keep it from being cheesy and sappy? How do you make it more "you" without being too odd? Suggestions and ideas are always welcome!

Just a bathroom....not too exciting

You wouldn't think a little bathroom would take that much time to spruce up. Well, our little master bathroom proved to be just as challenging as any "real" room in the house. First off, 2 of the bathrooms have carpet. Seriously, carpet. Who puts carpet in a bathroom? Apparently the previous owners, that's who. On our list of things to get to is tile flooring for the bathrooms, but until then, well live with the carpet.
So here's the "before" picture. Not too exciting. Just a basic toilet and a blue tile sink and oak vanity. I really like the blue tile and think the oak is fine too. The walls look like they're off-white, but upon further inspection, they were actually a very light pink. It's kind of hard to tell in the picture, but there's definitely a pink-ish hue.


Here's an "in progress" shot. I painted the ceiling and half of the walls with Sherwin Williams Progreen 200 in Macadamia. It's a nice, neutral color, but it's not beige, really, it's not.

The other half of the bathroom was painted in Sturdy Brown (Sherwin Williams Duration Home). It is the darkest paint we used in the whole house, but I love it. I really like the contrast with the Macadamia and I think it goes well with the blue tile and the oak. One tip about using dark paint: It is the least forgiving stuff on the planet. It will show off every imperfection on your wall and if you have a ceiling or floor "accident," it's difficult to immediately fix. That said, I still really like it and will use dark paint again. I played around with the small towel holder pictured. It too was oak (although I'm pretty sure is was that fake oak stuff), but chipped and rough. My friend, Anita (she also has a blog, see her name on the list), suggested that I try to spray paint over some of the uglier accessories that were still functional, just not attractive, so I did. I sprayed this with a bronze metallic paint. I like how it turned out and will probably paint some other accessories this way.