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!