Posted from Wake Forest, North Carolina, United States.

Posted from Raleigh, North Carolina, United States.

Grandpa and Grandma Hayes traveled from Rundu, Namibia, to South Africa to Nigeria to New York to Raleigh to Greensburg, Pennsylvania, to Williamsburg, Virginia, and back to Wake Forest again. Aunty Sally spread her wings and flew from London to RDU and rode the nine hours to Greensburg, then to Williamsburg and left from Richmond, Virginia. Aunty Hannah and Uncle Simon landed in Pittsburgh rode to Greensburg, drove to Williamsburg and left from Richmond like their sister.

Quite the Christmas, Poppy’s first Christmas. Christmas Eve through Boxing Day we spent at Granny and Gramps Mausts’ in Greensburg, all Poppy’s closest family together in one big cozy house for Christmas. Allow me to cite Uncle Simon’s Christmas morning tweet:

@simonhayes2: enjoying the best in American hospitality. Sister Emily did well when she married into the Maust family! Merry Christmas to ya all.

So many people under one roof. So much hospitality. So much love. So much to be thankful for.

Unlike the Wright Brothers, however, Poppy only flies in style. She’s not subject to the normal baggage limits with her “assistance devices” (diaper bag, stroller, car seat, etc). Very sneaky, Pops! She doesn’t have to run to her terminal or gate. Instead she has a dedicated servant (Mummy) who pushes her briskly in her own personal carriage (stroller). She can bring as much food and drink on board as she likes. She boards first. She rides free (until age two). And when she needs the toilet, she doesn’t actually need a toilet, especially not the small, cramped ones people often wait for on a plane. She just goes whenever and wherever she wants and her above-mentioned servant cleans everything up. And she still gets the “complimentary” peanuts (which of course she’s not allowed to eat but that doesn’t matter because she’s content staring at the red packet). How about that action, Wright Brothers?! Boo yah.

Poppy’s personal photographer (Mummy again) snapped nearly 500 pictures, 285 of which have made the final cut and found a home in our photo gallery to document Miss Poppy’s journey to Pennsylvania and Ohio. After meeting her second cousins, great aunties and uncles, great grandma and great grandpa, and numerous passersby at Atlanta, RDU, and Pittsburgh airports, Poppy’s already asking when she can jet set again, possibly to England, Africa or Hawaii. Next year, darling!

About the time we got hungry we headed home to search the cupboards. We were home only long enough to get geared up to set out on the next leg of our Fourth of July journey: The North Carolina Symphony’s free Independence Day concert at the outdoor Booth Amphitheater in Cary (about a 40 min drive west of where we live). We saw online that this concert year after year is acclaimed the best free thing in the area to do on the Fourth. Even better, as the last note of the symphony was sounding, the fireworks began! Check out the two videos below. All in all it was a tiring but exciting day of exploring new things we our new Poppy.

We’ve lived in Wake Forest for almost three years now and we always seem to go to the same places. So why not try somewhere new, right? This afternoon we went for a drive down to Raleigh to visit the Raleigh Rose Garden. Cardinals, chipmunks, squirrels, flies, and two women dressed as belly dancers greeted us upon arrival. It was so hot out that we snapped some photos, hid under some shade, and then swopped out to take more photos. Aside from the random belly dancers doing some sort of photo shoot, the rose garden was exactly what we expected: lots of roses for lots of poses.

I present to you Emily at 38 weeks in 90 degree heat.

View the rest of the pictures we took.

An Angel Named Jessica

22166So where to start.  Nursery furniture an be so expensive new and there was just no way Drew and I could afford it on a student’s budget, so the next option was second hand….still people would ask $100 maybe more, maybe slightly less but when you think about 4-5 pieces of furniture in one room it all adds up to a crazy amount that we just don’t have lying around right now.  Then one day an angel popped onto my computer screen in the form of a facebook message from Jessica (Drew’s lovely cousin who was actually present at our wedding in England, too!).  She was writing to ask if we wanted the crib and changer that her daughter had been using but was now ready to transition into a big girl’s bed so had no need of the nursery furniture anymore!  Oh you could not imagine the relief that swept over my soul when I read that message.  Jessica also graciously wanted to give us a whole bunch of her daughter Lauren’s old clothes which were in fantastic condition and super super cute!!!  I think Jessica may have a special place in my heart, not only for her generosity and kindness but for the fact that she thought of us and realized what a huge blessing giving us all those things would be!  We love you Jessica, all 3 of us!!!

Ikea Mom

With that taken care of we were then able to look at other pieces that would match the color of the crib and changer.  Where to look…IKEA of course!  One of mine and Drew’s favourite stores.  Its not the highest of quality but its cool, funky, affordable and modern.  So with only about 10 Ikea stores in the whole of the USA we had to make some calls!  I found a good 4-drawer dresser on the website and knew that my mother-in-law was going to be visiting a store in Pittsburgh really soon.  So I contacted her and asked her to see what the display one looked like and if she thought it was cute enough for her first grand-daughter’s room, then to go ahead and buy it and we’d pick it up when visiting them next.  So then we had a crib, a changer and a 4-drawer dresser, none of which was actually in our house or in our hands.

Nursery in the Explorer

22043Being in nursing school really helps me to keep busy and distracted from getting crazy obsessed with baby stuff.  If I were sitting around at home or even doing a day job, I would just go crazy with wanting to buy everything now now now!  So forgetting about the nursery for a while was ok.  Until spring break arrived and we were able to take some time out to travel up to Pennsylvania to visit the in-laws and then take a day trip to Ohio to collect the furniture from Jessica.  Everything went really smoothly and we came driving back from PA with a nursery in the back of our Explorer!  Funnily and kinda freakishly enough on our way up to PA we passed Ikea, right there on the motorway!  So on the way home we stopped in to look around, we just love walking through the rooms imagining what we can do with our own place one day.  Well, while we were there we spotted a cute bookcase in one of the childrens’ rooms and with it being nice and big and under $100 we had to get it!  The funny thing was, as we walked through the rest of Ikea we wondered the whole time whether we had room in the car or not….we were determined to make it fit though.  By the time we got back in to Wake Forest we literally did have the whole nursery in the back of our explorer.  A crib, a changer, a dresser, a rocking chair (that we are borrowing from my in-laws. Matt, Drew and probably Justin too were all rocked and nursed in that rocking chair!) and finally we had a super cute bookshelf too.

Up in No Time

I think we had 75% of the furniture assembled and in position the night we got back from PA, we were so excited.  I moved the fake tree we had in our room into Poppy’s room and put some fairy lights on it to act as a night light.  And then used a shelf I already had that at one point was up in the bathroom but we kept knocking it off the wall so I took it down, now it looks perfect in Poppy’s room above the dresser.

A Match Made in Gingham

22221By the end of my 3 week spring break, we had the whole nursery set up. I also bought the bedding–that took me a long time to decide on and a whole other story!  Bedding can be incredibly expensive!  But with the savings we had made so far we really wanted to go ahead and get Poppy bedding that she would use for a few years.  So we went with a ladybird (for the British) ladybug (for the Americans) theme, with pale pink and apple green color for accents.  I did say I didn’t want to go over the top with pink: I like pink but I think its so typical with babies to just go over the top with the pink, so I wanted to use red seeing as Poppy has the same name as a red flower and apple green is a nice bright colour.   Oh, also while at the Ikea on the way home from PA we bought a lamp for Poppy’s room, I think its so pretty, its soft yet gets pretty bright once the bulb warms up and has these lovely flowers that stand out when the light is on.  The valances over the windows were a bargain, too.  I found them for $1.50 a piece on sale at Walmart, I got four panels to make sure I had enough to go across and I think it looks great with the extra length to be able to make the ruffles.  The green color pretty much matches exactly with the bedding and being gingham, too…..PERFECT MATCH!

Basket Cases

22209The baskets you see around the room are from various places.  The two big baskets on the changer shelves I found at Marshalls for $10 each which I thought was good for nice big baskets.  The three baskets on the wall I got from this big warehouse type place up in PA that we went to while visiting my in-laws. I thought they would be great for storing things like blankets and burp cloths and things you want handy; I think they look great as decoration too.  I added the ribbons which I got from Walmart and took a while to decide whether I should use three different ribbons or all the same or just two…..let me know what you think.

Gifts

22257There is a white basket on the bookshelf which I picked up in a Goodwill for a couple of dollars; works great to keep Poppy’s little toys in.  There are also bits and pieces around the room that are gifts people have already given us.  Drew’s Grandma bought Poppy the pink piggy bank, I think she even put a few pennies in it.  The Paddington Bear with mini passport was given to me years ago by my older sister Sally: I think she wanted me to take him to different places and take a photo of him at major landmarks….maybe we will get to do that with Poppy.  Drew’s Aunt Carol bought us the Anne Geddes baby record book–love it!  Its a very simple, straight forward baby book with cute photos, I’m excited to start writing in it!  The baby shoes also on the bookshelf were worn by Drew when he was a little boy and the Johnson’s baby bath gift set was given to us by a regular customer at the Tea Room.  Drew and I have just been blown away by our regular customers from the Tea Room.  Another couple gave us this BEAUTIFUL pale pink dress, its in one of the photos I took of clothes hanging on the crib, its a traditional style of dress. So precious. She’ll look like an angel in it.  The books on the bookshelf are a combination of books I already had that I’ve collected over the years, I have a few Dr. Seuss books, a mini book called The Queens Knickers and others I have found over the years and loved so much I wanted to buy them.  A whole bunch of the books came from my mother-in-law, some were Drew’s and I think some were Justin’s.  Last but not least there is a photo album on the windowsill with Poppies on the cover, this was given to us by a friend’s Mother who when heard that we had named our baby Poppy saw this gift and had to buy it.

An Adventure

As you can see the construction of our nursery has been an adventure!  We have been so blessed by so many people already and those are only the things you can see in the photos!  That dresser is full of clothes and bits and bobs that people have already given to us. It’s just awesome.  As I write this I feel a little body inside me stretching after a nice long sleep, and we are just so excited to meet her at the right time.

I shall be sure to post an updated photo when the wooden letters arrive!

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Who knew Jefferson had a Coke machine in 1809?