The Nursery

I had thought about how I would decorate the nursery for a long time. Even before we found out we were expecting I would see pictures of other people's nurseries and get ideas. Since our wedding I have had a love for pink and green. Growing up my favorite color was purple, but once I started planning our wedding and registering I kept picking out green things, so I guess that is a close second to purple.

So when Matt and I found out we were having a girl I knew I wanted to do a pink and green theme. We kept going back and forth on whether to paint the room a light pink or green. After going back and forth we decided we didn't want it to be so much pink, so we would paint it a light green and have lots of pink accents. I searched online and in many baby stores to find the bedding.

I had seen a nursery done with bedding from Pottery Barn Kids, and I remembered it being different shades of pinks and greens with some white as well. I searched their site and found that they still carried the bedding and decided that was the one I really liked.

We went to look for baby furniture within the first couple of weeks after finding out the gender. With the pink and green color scheme I thought white/off white furniture would go really well.

After going to 4-5 baby furniture stores in the area we ended up back at the first place that we looked, and purchased the set that we originally looked at.

We had an old glider and ottoman we had bought at a garage sale, and as a gift to us Matt's parents had it re-covered with brand new cushions. The glider was ready just in time for my Atlanta shower and I used it to sit in and open my gifts. We had a white bookshelf that was in our guest room and got paint to match the antique white furniture, and painted it so it would fit in well. After adding wall decals above the dresser, and many other accessories the nursery was finished! We were very pleased with the final result.

Sandra and Seth's Wedding

Sandra and Seth were married on October, 2, 2010 at Ridge Valley Farms in Maryville, TN. They had an outdoor ceremony under a pretty white gazebo and the weather was perfect. The place they were married was so pretty and the reception was held in this indoor converted barn and had huge windows throughout. It was all very pretty and the colors were green, navy and yellow, something different that I had not seen before.

One of the things that Matt and I thought was so cool was the groom's cake. Now Matt and I have been to about 30+ weddings together and seen so many different styles of cakes, but Seth's grooms cake was definitely the most creative. Seth and Sandra are veterinarian's and Seth works with pigs. So his cake was a pig cake with red velvet in the center!

After the wedding Sandra and Seth enjoyed a honeymoon in Costa Rica!

catching up

So it's been oh about 8 months or so since i have added anything to the blog, and I figured I would try to get caught up on some things.

here is a list of things that I'll try to catch up on:

Snow

Auburn visit with Roomies

Small Group annual get together

NYC!

Oh yeah, and We're Expecting!!

Dusty's wedding

Beach Trip

Indy Trip

Courtney's wedding

Sandra's wedding

and All things baby...

Courtney and Stephen's Wedding

Courtney and Stephen were married on August 21, 2010, at Callenwolde, in Atlanta. It is a tudor style mansion, that is a fine arts center, and a very pretty location for their wedding.

The colors were deep red and purples, and had an Italian theme as Courtney has a love for Italy.

It was fun for the 4 of us- old college roommates- to all be back together again. Our other Auburn friend Lauren came as well, so that was nice for all us to get to hang out and catch up.

The food was great and lots of dancing at the reception. After the wedding Stephen and Courtney headed to where else- Italy, for their honeymoon.

Half Way Mark

I reached the half way mark, 20 weeks! Here are some pictures of me during this second trimester. This was definitely the best trimester as I was feeling very good and not in the uncomfortable phase. I really grew a lot between week 15-20, as you can see in the pictures.

Megan and Wes' Wedding

Over 4th of July Matt and I headed up to Indianapolis, for Matt's cousin Megan's wedding. We headed up a couple of days before the wedding which allowed for some extra time to hang out with Matt's extended family.

We don't get to see Matt's extended family very much so it was nice to have everyone together.

It was quite rare as every member of his moms family was able to be there, including all 16 cousins and little cousin Lauren. I am not sure if we have all been together at one time, since Matt and I started dating.

The rehearsal dinner was held at the home of a friend of the family, in their backyard, which sits right on a lake with gorgeous landscaping. It was very laid back and all of the family was invited.

Megan and Wes were married at the Indianapolis Children's Museum, which made for a very neat venue. They had a large ballroom type setting and this even allowed for the guest to walk around and look at some of the displays, including this huge blown-glass sculpture.

It was a fun time and a good trip.

It's a Girl!

Matt and I decided we wanted to try to find out the gender of the baby a little earlier than we would at my dr.'s office. They will not do the gender ultrasound until 20 weeks, so we decided it would be neat to have a 3D/4D ultrasound done. I had seen pictures of those types of ultrasounds and some where when the baby came out he/she looked almost exactly like the ultrasound had shown. I found a place where we could have the u/s done and they would also allow family members in the room, and I thought that would be really neat to have them there.

My parents and Matt's parents and sister went along with us.
We had talked about first just the two of us being in the room, when we found out the gender, then having our families come in and find out. The nurse started the u/s and searching for about 15 min. but the babies was so low and turned over where all you could see was a great shot of the spine. She said she wasn't sure if she would be able to find out or not. So we decided to go ahead and bring our families in at that point, and she would keep looking. After much pushing and moving on my belly she was able to see what she needed to see. We finally heard the words, "It's a girl! " My guess had been right, it was mother's intuition.
After we found out pink gifts were already waiting to be given, from our families. Her first of many pink outfits. We went out to eat afterwards to celebrate.
Little did they know we had the name already picked out and we had typed it up and hidden it in an envelope. We revealed the name and everyone was excited to find out. It was a great day!

Meredith's baby shower

Myself, my mother-in-law Pam, and sister-in-law Alison flew up to Michigan for Matt's cousin Meredith's baby shower. We don't get to see Matt's extended family much so it was nice to be together for a little while. What was neat was that there were 4 of us in the family that were all pregnant at the same time. Two due in August, one in November and me in December.

Here are some pictures from the shower:

Watch Me Grow!

The first trimester flew by and I wasn't too sick, thank goodness! The first couple of weeks after we found out I didn't feel great, and was nauseous off and on throughout the day. By the end of the first trimester I felt back to normal and the bump was really starting to grow.

Beach Trip

Over Memorial Day we took our annual trip to Panama City Beach. It is a yearly tradition for our family. We have been going ever since Tyler and I were very little. This was also Kayden's first beach trip- well sort of :)

We had a great time just relaxing and sittin' on the beach. We had our usual dinner out and a round of putt putt- also a tradition of ours. This year we made it down to Captain Anderson's marina and watched the boats come in from their daily fishing trips, and unload their catch.

It was a good trip and I can't wait for next year to bring Kayden to the beach for the first time!

Goin' to the Chapel

Dusty and Brian got married on May 15th at Rosewood. Rosewood is a big antebellum type home, with very pretty grounds. They got married in the outdoor space under the canopy and everything turned out so nice.

It was a fun day spent getting ready and hanging out with Dusty and the other bridesmaids. Dusty had someone come to do our make-up which was a nice treat.

We took pictures before the ceremony and there were so many great spots for outdoor pictures.

The reception was great with lots of good food, and a fun time hanging out with our old group and catching up. After the reception it was off to St. Lucia for the newlyweds!

Wedding Festivities

April was a busy month for wedding festivities. Dusty had her bridal tea and bachelorette party both in April. It was fun to get together with the girls and have some time to hang out and catch up. The night of the bachelorette party I shared the news that I was pregnant. It was fun to have my closest friends together to be able to tell them at the same time. It just happened to work out well that we were all going to be together for the party the same weekend that we started sharing the news with extended family and friends.

Surprise!

Matt and I got the best news of our lives on April 9, 2010.

We had just returned home from our trip to NYC the day before.

The last couple of days of the trip I had felt sort of strange, but didn't really suspect anything.

I was feeling a little bit nauseous and if I didn't eat right when I got hungry then I felt worse.

Again, I didn't think too much about it. We went to bed pretty early, as Matt was going with his dad to the Master's the next day. He was also feeling a little under the weather due to allergies caused by the full fledged onset of spring.

I woke up about 5:00 in the morning, and something in my head told me to take a pregnancy test. I had one at home and went and found it and took it. Matt was still sound asleep in the bed and had no idea.

I waited the few minutes and couldn't believe what I saw when I picked up the test, it was positive, I was pregnant!

I really did not believe it at first, and thought it must be a false positive. I decided I had to wake Matt up to have him take a look at it to confirm. Poor guy had taken allergy meds and was so out of it. I took him in the bathroom, showed him the test and asked him if I was reading it right. He was still half asleep, gave this big grin and gave me a hug. He could barely keep his eyes open and headed back to bed. Not the most fun, creative way to tell him, but i just couldn't wait until later in the morning. I got up when the store opened and went and bought another test to confirm, and again positive!

When Matt woke up we were both still trying to let it sink in. I called the Dr. to see if I could be seen that day, and we were in luck, they had an opening. We went to the Dr. and they did a test and the Dr. decided to do an ultrasound. Wow, what a moment, he scrolled over the tiny little spot on the screen, and said "there's your baby!", I was about 6 1/2 weeks along.

We were excited, surprised and every other emotion you feel in that moment. We couldn't wait to share the news with our families!

NYC!

Matt and I have discussed and said this is the best trip we have taken together, with the exception of Jamaica.

Neither of us had ever been to NYC before, and had always wanted to go. After seeing much of NYC in various movies and hearing stories of other people who had been, I knew I wanted to go someday. We decided to go over Matt's spring break and planned the trip in just a couple of months.

I had a long list of all of the sites I wanted to see, so we planned out the days so we could try to fit in as much as we could. We were able to see all of the big landmarks and most things on our list. It was an incredible trip with so many lasting memories. It was a trip we will not soon forget.

Little did we know that we would get a big surprise when we got back. :)

Snow 2010

At the beginning of 2010 we had snow several times. Once in January, and in February we got several inches of snow. Macie loved playing in the snow and we took her out on several walks.

When it snowed in Feb. we ventured down to the Greenway to take a walk. It was so pretty with all of the trees covered in sparkly white crystals.

Here are some pictures from the January snow:

and the snow in February: