The Nursery

I've always dreamed of what my baby's nursery would look like. Therefore I spent many hours trying to figure out the exact color combination, the perfect bedding, and decorations for my little girl.

Well, after months of research I found the perfect bedding. After hundreds of saved pages and shops on my bookmarks tab on my computer, and endless trips to the baby store to take a look at what they had displayed, I had chosen a set!

I've always wanted to do pink for a girl, and I've always wanted to paint the room two colors with chair rail in between. Lucky for me Ian agreed to put up the chair rail, under one condition, I couldn't do dark pink and light pink as my two colors for the walls. (Apparently that would be too much pink for him).So, after go back and forth, I decided on brown and pink. I thought the colors would really compliment the bedding and furniture.

The furniture was something I had picked out over a year ago. Yes, I was one of those girls that frequented the baby shops without having a child or being pregnant, but I was so excited to eventually have a child, I figured there was no harm in looking. There is (was) a cute baby furniture shop in town, and when I was out running errands I would stop and "browse." I decided on the babydream brand since they had the crib gate, which would allow me to bend over and pick up baby easier (and this type of gate was not recalled with the latest recall back in June). This gate only partially dropped down, which allows short people like me the ability to reach in with ease, safely.

The other big decision was the closet. I told Ian last Christmas, that all I wanted him to get me was a baby closet. (This was before we even knew we were expecting). So he built one! I chose green and white as the color combination since I figured I could reuse the closet accessories if we were having a boy or a girl. I think it turned out perfect.

SO, without any further ado...here are some pictures of our finished nursery. Now, I just need to courage to move baby Sophia from our room to the nursery....

PS. Don't forget to give your 5 daily votes to Sophia http://lifewiththemillikans.blogspot.com/2011/09/top-10-finalist.html

Free 16x20 Poster Print from Walmart

I saw this coupon online that you can print to receive a free 16x20 poster print from Walmart. It looks like a photo enlargement!

You have to upload your photo at Walmart.com and you have to select "for same day service."
Add a 16x20 POSTER print to your cart (I choose Matte finish instead of glossy since I was framing mine).

You also must select to pay at pickup. (because the coupon has to be used when you pay in the store)

Enjoy!



Note: If you have trouble printing from this picture, you can go to this website to print the file from an attachment(this is also a website I find a lot of great deals/coupons/freebies from


http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?t=3308470 (post has been removed)

PS. While you are here, please consider voting for my little *Sophia Millikan* (The baby with the white head band) in a national baby contest. She's made top 10 so far (out of 3,500) and needs your help to make top 5.
You can vote for her 5 times a day at: http://www.facebook.com/MunchkinInc?sk=app_159117397504600

Or, check out my blog post about the contest! Thanks!

Thursday Rant: I need space!

I don't like complaining. I love being a mom, and I dont' mind the extra hassles and new struggles being a mom brings. But, sometimes it's nice to talk about some of those struggles to see if anyone else relates. Plus it allows me to get it off my chest, and laugh about it, so here goes! :)

So, today I took Sophia out to run a couple errands. Mom decode: going to 2-3 stores for an hour or two, and needing about an hour to prepare for the trip. (Bottles, diapers, change of clothes, timing the last feed, getting the stroller ready, etc.)

Well, I had some issues today that I need to rant about! First, I'm in the fitting room at Ross, and out of the 10 fitting rooms,there was one large fitting room, and 9 smaller fitting rooms. Well, some lady all by her lonesome is in the large fitting room, and the 9 other rooms are empty! So, me, and my tugboat stroller, are left waiting for her to finish so I could actually fit my child in the room with me while I changed. So after 10 minutes of waiting I was tired of "talking" to my child "OK Sophia, we have to wait for the big room since we REALLY need it" to which the lady did not take a hint, so eventually I surrendered had to go into a small room and change with the door open with the stroller stuck in the doorway.

Then, in the next store, Kohls, it was about the time where Sophia was crying and needed to be changed and fed. Off to the bathroom I went. There were 6 regular stalls, and 1 big stall. NONE of the regular stalls were being used, but the big stall was occupied. REALLY...really? Why do people do this? I thought about it, and I guess it's sort of like if you were waiting to get on an airplane, and they said "OK folks, you can choose (for no charge) to sit in First Class, Business, or Coach" Of course you're going to choose First Class right?" Sigh...but really... the toilets ARE THE SAME SIZE. Okay, so you get 2 extra feet of empty space, what are you going to use it for if you are not handicapped, or don't have a large boat like stroller? Are you going to dance around in it?
I need the big stall to fit my stroller in, to use the changing table, so I waited again...
I thought, maybe it IS someone else with a stroller, or maybe a handicapped person (a very legitimate reason to use the large stall), but no, it was a single young (skinny) woman.

Okay, I think I'm done with my Thursday rant. I Marian, will never take the big stall, or the big changing room, when it's just me, by myself. :)

The Rainstorm Portraits

I'm the type of person that if I bring an umbrella out, it wont rain, but if I don't bring an umbrella, I find myself stuck in a rainstorm.
Well, today I was smart, it was ALREADY raining, and I was heading out with Sophia for some quick Sear portraits, meeting up with my parents coming in from out of town. I was going to outsmart my bad rain Karma, and bring an umbrella. Surely it would stop raining once I got in the car but I would have my umbrella!
I venture out with Sophia in tow, and the rain gets stronger and stronger. You would of thought I was driving in a hurricane! Once I get to Sears it's raining so bad, and my appointment was in 5 minutes, I had to think fast.
I parked as close as possible (about 25 feet from the entrance) and thought out my strategy. I somehow had to get myself, my child in her carseat, my stroller (which I would have to uncollapse from the trunk) and my photo props into the mall. Okay, so I knew I wasn't going to make that happen without things getting wet, but hopefully I could control HOW wet they get. First, since I was so close to the entrance, I would get the stroller uncollapsed put the props in it and over to the door of the mall. I knew I couldn't manage snapping my carseated child into the car seat without her gettng soaked, so I figured if I did this fast, and because I was only 25 feet away from her I would be okay. So I held my breath (I don't know why I did that) and jumped out of the car, opened the truck, pulled out the stroller, popped it open, and raced it to the entrace of the mall under the roofed area. Then, I ran back to the car and jumped into the backseat to catch my breath (again, I don't know why I held my breath). When I looked back at my stroller I was in horror, STUPID me forgot to put the brake on and there it went down the ramp, and through the parking lot, into the rainstorm. So much for trying not to get it too wet. I had to chase it, which left me AND the stroller soaked. I then tossed a blanket over my childs carseat and ran her into the mall.

I think only mothers can relate to the effort and exhaustion it takes just to plan for a situation like this. I deal with it everytime I drive anywhere, do I bring JUST the carseat in? Do I bring just the child in with the baby bjourn? Do I bring the whole stroller in? How long am I going to be in the store, does it justify the strength I need to pop open the stroller? Do I even have the strength to pop open the stroller? Ok, I've decided.... I'm going to go home and try this later. STORY OF MY LIFE.

Anyways,the portrait session itself went well! We had some cute pictures taken and Sears did a good job. However, today was officially Sophia's first bad hairday, thanks to the rainstorm, and I have pictures to help me remember! :)

Top 10 Finalist

Out of 3,500 applicants, Sophia was chosen as a top 10 finalist to be a member of the Munchkin Bunch! Now it's up to facebook to select the top 5, and Sophia needs every vote she can get!
If you have a Facebook account please vote! You are allowed to vote for her 5 times per day. Here is the link:

http://www.facebook.com/MunchkinInc?sk=app_159117397504600

You have to allow access to the voting application and like the page for Munchkin, Inc. Then click on her picture, and click vote 5 times. Munchkin, Inc is a popular developer of infant toys and gear such as the Arm & Hammer diaper pail. They also make safety gear, feeding gear, and tons of other useful items for mom and baby.




Please spread the word, and help Sophia make the top 5. Voting ends October 1st! :)