Fox Hunt

WARNING: This entire post discusses decorations for the baby's nursery. Not things related to the nursery, but all things directly involving decor and planning. You've been warned.

Today we picked up a $20 side table for the recliner in the nursery. I've settled on a color scheme for the room:


So I painted the little table, exciting to be 'doing something' to get ready for the baby. Here's a before and after.


For now, the nursery is still a hodge-podge of what we have so far, strewn together with the items we still don't have places for in the house yet. (Yes, this can be stressful for the anal-retentive side of my personality, which rears its ugly head whenever I step in the room. In fact, even typing about it is irritating me.) So, I've been window shopping online for idea possibilites to recreate our little boy's room.


"Foxes" is the chosen theme for the nursery, so I'm planning on collecting eclectic pictures/paintings/prints like this with red and furry foxes for the room. I also had my mom dig out this guy


from the recesses of our family garage where all my old Beanie Babies are still stored. I just knew they'd come in handy someday! (One down, two hundred and forty two to go...)

Koby's Gram is generously making us a baby quilt and matching curtains for the nursery - I can't wait to see what she creates! Weeeeee.

Dixieland Delight

For Koby's birthday his parents surprised him (us - the perks of being married!) with a trip to Tennessee. It was fun, relaxing, and we are so grateful! It was up to us to decide where we'd go on our little vacation, so we planned the trip to include the following:

MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE We knew we wanted to sample some delicious Memphis barbeque (a bi-product of watching the Food Network 24/7) and I wanted to see Graceland. (If you don't know it, I love Elvis. My first cd was his #1 hits.) So we stayed in Memphis at the historic Peabody Hotel for two nights and visited as many restaurants as we possibly could, stuffing our faces in the true style of the King himself. Included also in the pictures is the 'bump' - AND Koby felt the baby kick for the first time on Monday... exciting for him and gratifying for me (he finally believes me!)










SHILOH, TENNESSEE After our second night's stay in Memphis, we woke up and had a fabulous lunch at Automatic Slim's and then drove to Shiloh, where we visited the Shiloh National Military Park. Koby served as my patient tour guide. It was a beautiful and peaceful place - the photos we took there don't really do it justice.









JACKSON, TENNESSE When we'd finished at Shiloh, we drove on to Jackson, Tennessee where we had reservations to stay at Peaceful Oaks Bed and Breakfast. Koby was extremely skeptical about my insistence that we stay at a B&B, fully expecting a room in a little old lady's house where he imagined the beds to be "lacy and squeaky". He's totally a believer now. The downstairs floor where we stayed was perfect - unlimited coffee and tea, satellite tv, snacks and a full kitchen... comfortable, lace-free beds and books, movies and games to peruse. Oh yeah, and a fishing hole, a sinfully good breakfast and a sweet owner named Johnnie Sampson who is one of those people who becomes a friend in minutes. It was perfection. For dinner that night we drove into the small town of Medina to eat at a local family diner where they had TWENTY ONE FLAVORS OF SOFT-SERVE ICE CREAM. I was sold on this advertisement alone (and I chose Blackberry).









This is the letter we wrote for Johnnie before we left. I made sure to include the fact (and picture) that I caught more fish than Koby!

LYNCHBURG, TENNESSEE The next morning we drove quite a ways to visit Lynchburg, home of the Jack Daniel Distillery. It was surprisingly interesting to learn about the history of the distillery and how the whiskey is made. Things I didn't know: making whiskey SMELLS bad and the difference in the 'quality' of the whiskey is mostly the effect of where it is matured. It's pretty impressive that every bottle of Jack Daniel's whiskey is made in the distillery we saw in a small town smack dab in the middle of a dry county.






Our trip ended in Nashville, although by the time we got there we were both happy to crash in the hotel room and missed out on any St. Patrick's day nightlife downtown. What a great Spring Break! And we still have the weekend to enjoy.

Snips and Snails

It's a BOY!!


Today was our gender revelation party and it was such a blessing. Our family and friends came in from all over Texas to be a part of the moment and it was really special to be able to share it with all of them.

After we gave Elizabeth the card and sonogram picture with the unknown (to us) information sealed inside she baked a cake and dyed the middle of it pink or blue and then iced the outside with deceptive designs so no one could see the center. Everyone showed up to the party wearing their chosen color based on their prediction for the baby - pink meant the wearer thought we'd be welcoming a little girl into the family and blue meant boy. The crowd was pretty anxious to have the secret revealed and so as soon as the final guests arrived there were orders to "Cut the cake!"

We had every body pose for "Team Pink" and "Team Blue" pictures after the cake was cut... Team Pink was even humble enough to pose as losers.




It's so exciting to be able to say "he" or "him" now when we talk about the baby. I feel really happy thinking about how wonderful our family and friends are - can't wait to bring this baby boy into our world! WHAT. A. DAY. Whew!

The first time grandparents!

People posted some name suggestions. Some serious, some not so serious, some just Sirius. (This will only make sense if you know Harry Potter - as soon as my friends got a hold of the suggestion slips the board erupted in Rowling references. And I love it.)