With the addition of the crib, I feel like the baby's room has taken leaps and bounds!  It will be a fairly neutral nursery since I've decided that painting anything in this house is just too much considering we're only here for 2-2.5 more years and there's just SO much to paint.  So the nursery will be white with accents of color.  

I posted some nursery inspiration images below that I've been looking at and also some items I've decided to purchase.  The room will slowly come together over the next couple months.  

My hope is to just have some fun colored accents. I've purchased plum colored drapes and the bedding I've registered for is a lavender color.  The rug is from Ikea and just kind of goes with everything.  I'm hoping to find a fun colored dresser or maybe even painting one.

I've picked out the three prints below from The Animal Print Shop and hope to order them this month.  I'll hang them over her bed.  

I'm also loving the book ledge idea.  I've registered for a couple from Pottery Barn Kids.

My mom and I are going to try to make our mobile  based on the image below.  I'm excited for our little craft project.  I think I like the below felt colors from Crafty on Etsy.

More to come!

Literally...

I've waited to post this anywhere, and have still yet to post anything on Facebook myself, but wanted to finally say that Jason and I will be adding a new addition to our family this Spring.  Our little girl is due at the end of April and we couldn't be more excited to meet her!

With the recent kicks I've felt, my growing belly, some initial purchases, and some of the super sweet gifts we've received - its starting to feel more and more real!  We built and put together her crib last week and I keep walking by the room and just staring at it.  Its not a fancy crib, but I like just the sight of it.  

We have two names in mind and have pretty much decided on one, but have decided to keep it a secret until we can meet her ourselves.

There won't be any belly photos on here (sorry!) but I thought I'd share some photos (they're mostly iphone shots because they've all been on the fly!) of some of the gifts we've received and things we've bought so far.  While I'm back in the US I'm having two baby showers, one hosted by my best friends and cousins and the other hosted by Jason's mom & sister.  I can't wait to see everyone and celebrate.  

Please keep us in your thoughts in the next couple months that everything keeps going smoothly.  We have no reason to think otherwise, so far everything with the baby has been healthy, but you just never know.  

I'm really looking forward to our new life in 2014!

Also, to my sweet friends - this by no means is all that we've received so far.  We're so lucky to have such good friends that have thought to send us stuff.  I just didn't think to take photos of everything! 

Jason's birthday was last week and as a surprise I booked us a night in Cologne, which is about an hour and a half NW from here.  

We drove up in the afternoon, checked into our hotel and then went exploring.  Our hotel was really nice and the bed was super comfy - a good temporary break from our dusty home!  

Cologne is known for brewing Kolsch style beer.  So I laid out a path of exploring some of the top breweries - Fruh, Peters Brauhaus, Paffgen Kolsch, & Sion.  All within easy walking distance to the city center. The Dom (cathedral) which is in the center of the town, is huge and amazing.  As you can probably tell from the photos above, I was a little obsessed.  Its in the Gothic style and was a great place to hangout and people watch after dinner.  

The next day we checked out the Koln Zoo.  Its one of the largest in Europe, and is known for its collection of Elephants.  Overall it was a cool zoo, but honestly I think the Denver one was better.  It was fun and the weather was nice, although a little expensive (17.50 euro each), it was cool to see once.

They had a display of raccoons, that I thought was pretty funny.  It had a map showing them primarily in North America with pictures of them rooting through trash.  I tried to snap a picture, but it had quite a crowd around it so I couldn't.

Overall it was a great, easy trip that I'd definitely recommend.

My time in Ohio has been very surreal.  What I had originally thought would be a quiet 3 weeks, seems to have ended up quite the opposite (I don't know why this continues to surprise me - what's the definition of insanity?  Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome...)

My time has been filled with seeing friends and family, on both happy and sad terms.  My Grandpa went in for surgery the Monday after I arrived and after a week of ups and downs, he called it quits.  His memorial is on Wednesday here in Ohio.

Overall its been a roller coaster of emotions.  I've enjoyed my time here and will miss those that I never seem to be able to spend enough time with, but I'm ready to move on and join Jason in Germany.  

One more week!