Special Deliveries!

I am always excited to see the UPS driver leave the neighborhood on the way home especially when I am expecting packages. Yesterday I received two things that I've been waiting for all week. The rocking chair was sent as a baby gift from my Aunt Jan (my mom's sister). A colleague of hers from work painted and made this beautiful and unique piece of furniture for Emma. The colors go perfectly with the room and I love how her name is painted on the back panel.

The other package is a black and cream toile bassinet that my mom had discovered online last week. Our bedroom is similar to this pattern and we both couldn't get over how well it would coordinate. We definitely did need something to keep in the bedroom for a few months while Emma is still very little. I love it and goes perfectly in the room - it has a shelf underneath for storage and is also sitting on wheels so that I can easily manuever it around the room. Can't wait!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

This will be the first year that Allen and I will be spending the Christmas Holiday in our own home! We will be hosting both our families over the course of the next two weeks. His family will be coming down to spend Christmas with us and then my family will be down to visit for New Year's. We had a good time decorating this year. I took a few pictures of the outside. We ended up adding some icicle lights on the roof line just this weekend - I don't think I have ever seen my husband get so irritated over putting up lights, but it wasn't too bad. The other pictures (sorry if they are a little blurry) that you see are the inside down in our finished basement. We decided to put the tree down there this year because there will be more room with all the family we will have visiting. It's a great family space. We use it as our den essentially, also known as "Allen's Room." This is easy to tell by the constant sight of a Clemson paw everywhere, a small fridgerator in the armoire and the 62" flat screen tv, which I have to admit is pretty amazing to watch football.

More updates to come soon especially as we get closer to Emma's due date!

Emma's Nursery - Final Touches

Her room is finally in it's final stages! Once we got back from VA, Allen and I did a thorough cleaning of the crib and other furniture before putting the new bedding on. I have also spent a lot of time getting things washed and ready for her. The outfit above is what I think we'll be bringing her home in; something warm and cozy for your typical day in January. There are two more things that will need to be added to her room. The first is a ladder that Allen is building and will paint white. It will be used to lean up against the wall and display blankets and quilts that have been made and given to us. The second is the baby quilt that my mom is making with fabrics that will coordinate with the bedding and the curtain she made - it will hang on the wall above her changing table.

The baby shower over Thanksgiving was fantastic - thank you so much for all the lovely gifts; I have had so much fun giving them a place in her room and look forward to using them when she arrives. It was great to see everyone and I am very blessed to have such good friends travel on a very busy holiday weekend to come and see me.

I will be 36 weeks on Friday. I'm thinking that I'm ready to have this baby!

A long overdue update is on the horizon!

I know it's been forever since I've posted and I have a lot to update on about Thanksgiving, the baby shower, Emma's room, Christmas stuff, and more - so I will make it my number 1 objective to get some pictures and updates up on the blog this weekend if not Monday morning at the latest!

Thank you for your patience!

Emma's Nursery - Phase II

My mom has been down visiting for the week while Allen has been out of town. Every time she comes down she pretty much brings her entire sewing room to set up shop on my dining room table! This time her goal was to finish the curtain valance for Emma's Room. We bought the white panels seperately, which she will also be making matching tie-backs for from the material she used in the valance. I want the panels to be pulled back since we have blinds on the window. It came out so adorable! The fabrics she used we picked out together and will also be used in the Alphabet Quilt that she is making for the wall. All of these fabrics also coordinate so well with the materials that are being used to make the bedding for the crib - my aunt is working on that and she'll have that ready for me at Thanksgiving! I am so excited! Mom also brought down the glider chair that my mother-in-law was having reapholstered in a blue minky fabric. It is almost completed. She was able bring down the pad for the back and seat, but both the arm pads and the pillows are still being made. It came out amazing and it's so comfortable. The room is really coming along nicely - I can't wait to see it when it's all done.

Couples Night at Prenatal Yoga

I meant to post this last week after Allen and I had attended our first Prenatal Yoga Class together. I started prenatal yoga in my first trimester after discovering an advertisement for it in the doctor's office. There is a local yoga studio in town that is privately owned and even though they have two trained instructors in prenatal yoga, they had only started offering the classes in the beginning of the summer. There are four women in the class, two of which are related to the instructor who also happens to be the studio owner. I have to say that I have never had so much fun attending a class twice a week - it has been one of the best things I could do for my pregnancy. Up until last week, I had been attending the class alone, but since all four of us are all within a few weeks of eachother in our pregnancies (now all in the 3rd trimester), the instructor encouraged us to bring our husbands one evening so that they could see and experience what we had been learning that will better prepare us for labor and delivery. I was a little nervous at first bringing Allen, but we had a great time, I was so proud of him - he was able to see some of the different positions and poses that will help make me more comfortable during labor; the instructor even had the husbands get into those same positions so that they could appreciate how comfortable and relaxing they can be. I would encourage prenatal yoga to any woman during her pregnancy - I have thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to do something for myself, participate in a safe way to exercise, and spend some time with other ladies who are going through the same thing!

Kalea

Even though we are very excited about the birth of our new baby girl in January, we can't forget about our first baby's birthday. Today is Kalea's Birthday - she is two years old! Being the dog lovers that we are, it didn't take long after we finally settled down in North Carolina after the wedding to expand our family and get our first puppy. We found and bought her from a wonderful family who have been golden retriever breeders for several years. Only a couple of weeks after she was born, we were able to choose her from their website and pick her up once she had reached 5 weeks old. It was important to us to choose a name for her that had meaning - Kalea is the Hawaiian word for "golden and sunshine." It couldn't fit her more perfectly! We'll never forget the day we got her - we followed the breeder to the barn where they housed the mom and dad and their new litter of puppies. There were so many of them, it was quite overwhelming, but as soon as the breeder picked her up and handed her to us it was love at first sight! She was absolutely adorable! Since then she has been our pride and joy. I thought I would post some of the first pictures we took of her and then one shortly after she turned a year old. She is most definitely a big part of our family and we are so excited to introduce her to our new little addition when she gets here.

At the breeder's house the night we picked her up.

First night at home playing with dad.

Chewing mommy's shoes - a habit that we broke her of immediately!

Kalea at 1 year - she is truly a daddy's girl!

Election Day!

Allen and I were up at 5am so we had enough time to get ready and head over to the polls that opened at 6:30am. We were the 3rd ones in line at a local fire station that's about 5 minutes from the house. We both commute to work so getting it out of the way this morning was better than having to stand in lines on our way home after a long day.

Don't forget to vote!

A Pregnant Woman and her Cake!

I took this picture from Courtney and Austin's blog who did a very thorough recap of our weekend together in Athens! The highlight was clearly our visit to my favorite restaurant down there, Last Resort - their Red Velvet Cake is seriously AMAZING! When I had gone down to visit Courtney in May we went there for dinner and split a piece, but this time there was no way in hell we were going to share!

I think Allen's highlight was playing the Wii. Allen is truly an XBox fan, but I think there is probably a Wii in our future - thanks Courtney and Austin!

It was certainly a nice little mini-vacation - thanks for the great weekend guys!

October Snow

This is what it looked like outside my front windshield this morning on my way to work...CRAZY! For those of you who may not know, I drive about an hour to work everyday. Our house is in Morganton, NC and I still currently am working in Asheville. The county we live in can be anywhere between 5-10 degrees warmer than Asheville so when I drive over the mountain each day I sometimes feel like I'm entering a whole new world - today it looked like a winter wonderland. So needless to say it was not snowing at our house this morning, but I am enjoying looking out my office window at the snow that is steadily falling.

Counting Down the Days until Thanksgiving Vacation!

Can you tell that I am looking forward to Thanksgiving?

We seriously need a vacation! Between our full-time jobs and working around the house to get things done for Emma, Allen and I are thoroughly looking forward to our almost week-long vacation we are taking for Thanksgiving this year. It will probably be one of the last times we will be home to Northern VA in a while with Emma arriving in January.

We have got a full itinerary planned for the week between enjoying a huge Thanksgiving Feast at Casa Rolland on Thursday, a day long visit at the salon with mom getting completely pampered on Friday, and my baby shower that my mother is throwing for me at her house on Saturday. It is going to be a very small and intimate affair for just family and close friends - check out the AMAZING baby shower invitation below made by the very talented Michelle Hrudowsky. She did a great job - they are so adorable! The shower will have a Christmas/Wintery Theme. I am so excited!

Happy Birthday Thomas!

My little brother is 20 years old TODAY! I can't freakin believe it! Just goes to show how fast time flies; and no matter how old he gets, my most vivid memory will be him as a toddler sitting in one of my mom's laundry baskets, thumb in mouth, blankie wrapped around him, watching a Redskins game!

Love you Thomas! Have a great birthday!

29 Weeks!

The pictures were illustrated by my aunt and hung in my childhood bedroom.

We just finished getting the shelf painted and this is where the glider will sit once that is finished.

Canopy crib that was Allen's - still waiting for all the bedding to be finished!

Bookshelf and part of the changing table - Allen did such a beautiful job installing the chair rail all around the room!

29 Weeks!

I know that many of you will be extremely thrilled to see some updated pregnancy pictures - now you can officially STOP harrassing me! I made Allen take some last night on the front porch after we got home from work before it started getting dark out.

So an update...

I'll officially be 29 weeks on Friday and have been doing very well! I have officially been bumped up to seeing my doctor every two weeks now as oppossed to once a month. I am still doing my prenatal yoga classes twice a week, which helps tremendously with my lower back pain and relieving of the daily stress from work. I signed both Allen and I up for Childbirth Classes, which will be on Monday nights for four weeks from 7pm-9pm starting in mid-November. They were highly recommended by the doctor and since they are free and conveniently located at the hospital, we thought it would be a good idea to give them a try - God knows that I will need to have Allen as prepared as possible to get through labor and delivery!

Another amazing burden that has been lifted off our shoulders is finding a safe and affordable daycare center for Emma once I return back to work in early March. The place we decided to go with is about 2 minutes down the road from the house, has a 5-star rating in the state, has a very small and intimate setting, is frequently used by neighboring friends in the community, and could guarentee an opening for March - we're happy campers!

The last few weekends we have had the chance to get some things done around the house, I've done some "fall foods baking" as Allen likes to call it (i.e. pumpkin cookies and zucchini bread), and have spent time watching football. This weekend we are really excited to be taking a little mini-vacation down to Athens, GA to visit Courtney and Austin - I promise to post updates and pictures from our trip!

In addition to posting some pregnancy pictures, I have put a few up of the progress on Emma's room. We have finally gotten some things up on the wall. Her crib will probably be the last thing to complete - my mom and aunt are making all the bedding and the curtains, which will be done by Thanksgiving and we are still waiting for the glider rocking chair that is currently being reappholstered in a fabulous blue minky fabric! I really wanted her room to reflect a cottagy/shabby chic look - of course there will be toile! My mom being the amazing quilter that she is has chosen a beautiful arrangement of fabrics for the bedding and window treatments - I absolutely cannot wait to see the end result. Allen's parents were very generous in giving us the crib that both he and his sister used as infants and their glider. The yellow bookshelf that you'll see was in my bedroom at my parent's house - so really the only new piece of furniture in there is the changing table - I just love that we are able to share and pass down things to Emma that were ours and have been in the family for years.

First Day of Autumn

So today officially marks the First Day of Autumn. For me, this is something to be excited about - I love the fall season and everything about it: harvest scented yankee candles; watching the leaves start to change color; apple & pumpkin picking; the sight of pumpkins, scarecrows, and mums on front porches; opening up the house to feel the fresh cool breeze and much more. Regardless of the fact that I am almost six months pregnant (and have raging hormones), I am ready to say goodbye to icky-sticky, hot, muggy summer weather and put on a comfy sweater!

Allen and I had a pretty decent weekend - one of the first that we have had to ourselves in a while after several visits from friends and family (which by the way, we thoroughly enjoy). It was just nice to have the weekend to get a few things done around the house and enjoy a day out to run some errands and enjoy a lunch date - just the two of us. I have not yet gotten Allen to pull the interior fall decoration boxes out of the attic, but we did work on the getting the outside a little more festive.

9/11: We Will Never Forget...

7 Years Later...