Word on the Street

As I was re-organizing Casey's drawers and closets this week to make room for her new Christmas clothes, it became apparent that word on the street is there are a few themes in Casey's life. 

Here is a little hint: 

When we started planning her nursery, Brian's biggest stipulation was he wanted monkeys in the room, so we decided on this wall decal:

  

Knowing that by throwing in a few monkeys I would stand a much better chance of getting to choose the rest of the decor without much objection from him, I was happy to comply! Well, from the looks of things below, he really showed me  :)

 So a couple of monkeys on the wall quickly evolved into a full blown "monkey theme" (I'm still convinced he must have sent out a PSA that Miss Casey would welcome all monkey paraphernalia!).  And before you become concerned about my spending habits (although Brian would probably tell you I do have a bit of a "shopping problem"), I can assure you that most of the things above were gifts from our incredibly generous and amazing friends and family.



And because a girl can't have just one theme, a ladybug wardrobe has also emerged. This theme evolved because my nickname for Casey has been "Doodlebug" from the time I found out we were expecting a girl. (Can you tell which items are a bit harder to find?)

And then walking down the aisles of Target one day we found the perfect compromise to tie our themes together:

The Doodlemonkey!!!!

So a few days before Christmas, our "themes" sparked an idea for a challenge (and my husband never backs down from a challenge).  We were already searching for the perfect ornament for Casey's first Christmas, when I suggested it would be fun if every year we each looked for an ornament to represent our "themes."

Here we have the 2011 editions.  (I think we did pretty good for our first attempts...although we may need to start looking now for next year as this is one tough challenge!)

And because we over-do everything, we also found a couple other ornaments (the carriage for baby's first Christmas and the Scrub-wearing snowman to represent her hospital stay).  The two adorable ones in the back were Christmas presents from family.  I think it is safe to say Casey's ornament collection is off to a good start.

Oh and just for fun, the former fashion design major in me noticed that there must be a cupcake trend in baby clothes this season because she seems to have quite a collection (we could also make a case that she has giraffe and elephant themes going as well, but quite frankly nap time was over I was just ready to get everything back into the closet and drawers so I will save those for another day!)

Well that turned into quite a long post!  Look for a post with her weekly update and pictures later this weekend!