Brother Bear

Georgia Grace has some extra special news to share...

a baby BROTHER is on the way!!!

Yesterday we went for our anatomy scan ultrasound at the 17 week mark which is exactly when we went with Georgia Grace. We didn't do the blood test with her and we opted to not do it again this time-just a personal preference :)

 

Let me begin by saying this pregnancy has been different. It started out feeling the same but took a turn at the end of the first trimester. Marcus says he knew confidently it was a boy the day I ordered a steak in a restaurant. Of our 11 years of dating and almost 5 years of marriage he has never once known me to order a steak. Most days I have bouts of queasiness, nausea and gagging. I rarely vomit but I do everything but that. And that burst of energy you are suppose to get in the 2nd trimester? Never happened ha!

 

So needless to say we weren't shocked by the news but oh so ecstatic! The first time around we waited to find out at the same time as family and friends during our gender reveal party but this time we opted to find out together, just the two of us. When the tech said, "Congratulations, it's a.....boy!" we both just cried. It was one of my favorite moments. I always wanted to give my husband a son and experience the mother-son relationship.

 

Sticking with the theme of the season we kept things simple and came home to tell family the news. We wrapped a blue baby outfit in a gift bag and Georgia Grace opened the gift in front of everyone. Just for fun we had them write "It's a Boy" or "It's a Girl" on a blue or pink paint swatch our paint store gave us. Considering we are in the middle of updating our new house we thought that would be a neat thing to do. Blue won with a landslide :)

 

Right now we're just letting it sink in that we are having a son. We have a short list of names but nothing for sure yet.

And posts about our big girl's birthday coming soon! We've been crazy busy this week so those will come after we get back from the beach!

Happy Halloween and Happy wedding weekend James and Ashley!

 

Georgia Grace's 2nd Birthday Party

This year for Georgia Grace's birthday party we went more simple and low key. It proved to be just as fun and helped keep this super busy mom's sanity. I wanted it to be a fun day for her above all!

 

We had PERFECT weather. It was in the 70's at party time. October birthdays are tricky but so far she has had two great outdoor parties.

 

We did a pumpkin patch theme last year so this year it was more of a fall festival. We had a bouncy house, apple bobbing and a duck pond that actually turned out to just be water tables for the littles ha! There was something for every age.

 

Pink and orange were the main colors with a few accents that I used that were on the invitations. I pretty much just used the invitation (which I thought were so adorable! They were an etsy find) as inspiration for the decorations. I was happy with the final product (Thanks to my mom, mamaws and friend Sophie for help with some of the crafty things!)

 

The party was from 3-5 so we just did finger foods, drinks and cake. My mamaw made her wonderful pimento cheese and we had a fruit and veggie tray because my dietitian side had to come out :) (I wanted to serve milk in one of the drink dispensers and Marcus informed me I was wasting my time ha!)

 

I just used a few baskets we had in storage to hold our paper and plastic products.

 

 

My mother-in-law made adorable fruit and veggie platters with pumpkins as the dip holder! I love what it added to the table.

 

Apple juice, lemonade and water for the babes; coffee option for the adults.

 

My favorite part was the birthday cake. My boss's wife Gina made it for us and it couldn't have been more perfect. I wanted to continue with the simple theme with a special touch and she did just that!

And it tasted as good as it looked. Love love love!

For party favors my friend Alex Trabue made some super cute iced cookies. She also used the invitation as inspiration and coordinated them perfectly!

They were a big hit and made party favors super easy for me.

We had a duck pond (turned splash pool/water table ha!)..

And apple bobbing. The bigger kids enjoyed this more.

And what's a party without the birthday girl?!? She was all smiles. She loves a good party, especially if it's her own :)

 

The birthday beauty checking out her party guests arriving. I found a cute personalized pumpkin dress on Etsy for her to wear and she wore her cowboy boots and a bow of course. She was ready to party!

The bouncy house was the main attraction and even took a tumble when things got rowdy. Sweet Kypton was headed for safety ha! (Everyone was fine, it just leaned to one side and then the other until we could get the air back connected)

We had all the food and some tables and chairs sat up in our detached garage which by the way I am going to love having for entertaining! We just have to keep it clean and not fill it with junk :) As I mentioned the weather was awesome so some people stayed outside. We had haybales to sit on and some just brought their lawn chairs.

 

Birthday girl was doing flips before the end of the party! She loved it and her white-turned-black socks were proof.

 

Even the "big kids" got to jump-she played ring around the rosie with Aunt Paigey, Uncle Eric and Sophie once everybody had left.

Georgia Grace opened her gifts like a boss. She wanted to remove every little piece of paper from the package. And then she personally thanked the gift giver by name. I know I'm biased but it was the most precious thing! I was a proud mommy.

Piece by piece.....:)

She made it through every gift before running away!

 

Her friend Aiden gave her money in a balloon and he showed us how to open it with a fork ha! It was a crowd pleaser.

Everybody knows how much she loves Frozen so she got a lot of pieces to add  to her collection.

Frozen frenzy!

She opened a cherry chair from the Givens's that Chris had made her with wood that was left in our garage by the previous owners. Such a thoughtful gift! And he's been working for us at our house every night so I don't know how he found the time, he amazes me!

 

And then it was time to blow out the candles! Seeing "2" on top of the cake just doesn't seem possible. The fastest, sweetest, most fun two years of our lives no doubt.

 

Time to eat cake!

 

Then it was time for her gift from Mommy and Daddy...

a powered riding toy!

 

It's a Mercedes SUV I found on target.com. We knew we wanted a two seater so she could haul brother/sister around and this was our favorite one we found.

Once she learned how to push the gas she took off and made lap after lap! Initially she just pressed the gas, laid back and waved at everyone :) The steering wheel was just an optional thing.

But then she decided it would be a good idea to steer too. And flash adorable grins at everyone.

 

My favorite picture from the day. This captures her personality perfectly.

 I didn't think it through when I put her in a dress for her party that involved a bouncy house ha! Oh well she's far from modest and didn't let a little panty flashing slow her down.

 

It was such a fun day. I was able to enjoy the party more this year and watch her interact with her friends and have fun. It was a sweet celebration for our sweet baby girl!

Thanks again to all our family and friends who came and made the day extra special. It means more than you'll ever know!

 

Weekend

What a fun weekend we have had! It was so much fun I haven't found the time to upload all of my party pictures so just a brief update today and a full party post this week. She had so much fun at her party, we couldn't have asked for a better day or people to share the day with!

 

Friday night we got the weekend started with a hayride at the "twin's" house. Erica and Kypton are fellow AKK buddies and they have been so sweet to "baby Georgia". I think she will always be baby Georgia to them :) We had a great time visiting with friends and getting a break from house updates. I'm so glad they invited us. 

 

Saturday we headed to Lexington for a great SEC matchup. The undefeated #1 in the nation Miss. State Bulldogs came to town and we were hoping to see a big upset or at least a good game :) We met our friend Pat and his wife and tailgated with them for a bit before the game. She is 8 months pregnant so we had lots of baby talk. It was a perfect fall day for football.

 

We bought the tickets long before we knew we would be buying and updating a house right now ha! But I'm still glad we took the day to have fun. We had to sell our Keeneland tickets since it ended up being a day game which was a bummer but CBS picked up the game so that was good.

 

We had awesome seats right by the UK tunnel. It was such an exciting game from start to finish. Even though we didn't win I was a proud fan. The stadium was packed and it was such a great atmosphere.

 

And then Sunday was the big day! We chose to have her party on a Sunday this year because everyone seems to be less busy on Sundays than Saturdays (at least that's the case for us). She had lots of sweet family and friends that came and I'm so thankful for all of them. It means so much to know how many people love your baby. She embraced all aspects of partying this year-opening gifts (and personally thanking each person ha!), jumping in the bouncy house, blowing out the candles. I was so proud of my almost two year old. Her maturity was very evident. More pictures to come!

 

Happy Monday! We celebrate her actual birthday this week and then we are off to the beach. And hopefully when we return we will be ready to move in to our new house. We are busy but blessed.

Friday Favorites

We've had another busy week coordinating house projects, party prepping and furniture shopping. This week:

 

• The house is getting completely painted. So far we love every room!
• We finished the gravel in the landscape
• The carpet in the upstairs bedrooms is being installed today
• We bought our bedroom furniture!
• We finally chose our granite slab and it will be installed next week
• We picked out the hardwood for the upstairs hallway and our master closet. We couldn't get our identical wood until December so we compromised with a style that is very similar.
• New appliances are being delivered today!

Here is a sneak peek at our front entry. You can see we have put moulding in the entry, Marcus' study (left) and dining room (right). The entry is completely finished with paint so you can get an idea of what the main living areas will look like. More on paint colors soon :)

 

And here is our new king bed! We had almost bought a bedroom set at another furniture store but we just didn't pull the trigger on it. I had reservations. We went to Sprintz in Nashville to look at sofas and sectionals when I saw this and fell in love. Marcus instantly did too. He wanted panels, I wanted some curvature. Marcus requested once we had a house big enough that we have a king size bed. We have slept in a full size bed for five years now and he's ready for the upgrade! I am too. Can't wait to crawl into it!!

 

Two very random things that I wanted to note. I decided to start Georgia Grace on a children's vitamin. I grew up taking them and was an overall healthy child so I thought it would be a good addition to her diet. And since I'm still having an issue swallowing my prenatal vitamin some mornings I bought myself some too for those days it's the only option. She LOVES them and we say everytime we give one to her "one a day" so now she says that :)

 

And just a sweet picture to end the week on. This is how I feel after a long, tiring week! But no rest for the weary. We have a big weekend full of hayrides, a trip to Lexington for the UK game and the big birthday bash!!

 

See you Monday!

Monday Catch Up

Every October seems to be jam packed busy for us. The next two weeks are full to the brim and the next two Saturdays we will be out of town so we had a working Saturday. A working Friday and Saturday, and Sunday was all about choosing paint colors. We are eager to enjoy the fruits of our labor someday very soon! 

We do have an extra pair of hands helping us around the house. Her specialty has been riding in wheel barrows, strolling appliance manuals all over the kitchen floor and writing on the door and wall with a pen and highlighter. :/ It's a good thing we are getting new paint this week!

 

Moulding started going up this weekend. We will have it in the entry, dining room and study. I'm so thankful for family and friends who can do this for us. They are saving us a fortune and doing an excellent job!
 

Gravel for the landscaping was delivered Saturday. And it appears 10 1/2 ton will only get us about half of what we need. Unbelievable! Our landscaping is huge. I'm glad we are spending more money now to save in the future. And low maintenance is the name of the game!
 

I have to brag on my Papaw for just a second. What other 76 year old do you know that cuts down trees and splits wood all in a days work? He did this on Saturday. He is ironman! He splits and sells wood and raises cattle now that he is retired. I bet he could work circles around most 30 year old men! I'm proud of him.

In the midst of remodeling the house I found a free minute to take my first official belly bump picture. I was 15 weeks on Wednesday so I'm almost 16 now. Also, it's very appropriate I am wearing yoga pants and a maternity tshirt in my first bump pic since that's what you can find me in the second I get home each day. Notice my dirty shins from sitting on the floor measuring for moulding. It will all be worth to have a new, bigger home to bring this sweet baby home to.
 

I mentioned we were working on paint colors this weekend. We had a hard time making choices and I would still say a few rooms are subject to change but we had help from our good friend Sarah on our common living area paint color. This is her beautiful home-doesn't it look straight out of Pottery Barn? She has shared all her paint colors with me and we are going to use this color as our main color. It is "Bamboo" by Porter Paints. I'll do a full post devoted to paint soon.

 

This week we went to a cross-country meet to support some of Marcus's students and my old runners. It was a perfect afternoon for it, a little cool but sunny. She loved watching the runners and says she wants to be a runner someday. Mommy sure hopes so!

Our cousin Keagen celebrated his 10th birthday this weekend with a basketball party at the gym. GGH was the only girl at the party under the age of 16 :) She was in her comfort zone though surrounded by boys and attention.
 

I put her in a MJ dress and she just looked so big in it. Back to the smocking and onesie pajamas, I'm not ready! :(

 

Here's a few bonus pictures from the past few weeks that haven't made there way on to the blog yet-

Sweet girl napping at AKK on her Olaf pillow. Naptime has been a hard transition for her. She doesn't particularly like napping and doesn't require as much sleep as some children so that is a rough combo sometimes. But on another note I could sit and watch her sleep forever. I think she has the best profile!

 

Love that smile! I asked them why it was so big with squinty eyes and they said she was tickled :) A happy baby equals a happy mommy.