Finally, Amber Got Married

Yep, that's right - one of my best friends from college finally got married. I say that only because she and Arjet have been dating for longer than Keith and I have known eachother! Yes, the girl that came to ACU proclaiming "I will never get married" tied the knot this weekend back at in her home state of California. It was beautiful. My mom made the journey with me, and we had a blast together. It was actually quite a relaxing trip. I was suppose to have been a bridesmaid, but the fabric for my dress never came in so it didn't work out. But I was there, and that's what counts. We had lots of fun, here are some pictures from the weekend:

At the lingerie party

Jessica, Misty (Amber's sister), me, Amber, Dyan, & Jennifer

The bridal party -

Can you imagine the backdrop of your wedding being the beach and ocean?!

It was beautiful!

Sisters - Misty & Amber
With the bride

They're Married! Mr. & Mrs. Arjet Skenduli

The Wedding Party

I like this picture - she looks so relieved to have survived the ceremony!

For the girl that would never get married, she sure has been blessed with a wonderful husband and had a beautiful wedding. Can you imagine that she says she'll never have kids? I'm pretty sure God has a sense of humor and He'll surprise her on that one too one day!

Kitchen and Dining Room - DONE!

I was determined to finish and clean the kitchen and dining room today - and I'm exhausted. But I did finish - woohoo! Below are our before and after pics - we took care of the wallpaper as soon as we moved in, but just this past weekend we got the crown molding up (to match the living room) and painted the ceiling as well. Finally got everything dusted off, from having the floors put in and uncovered all sorts of things. Let us know what you think...two more rooms done!

Dining Room Before We Moved In

Dining Room After

View of Kitchen Before
A little different view - but here is an after.
View from Dining Room Before
View After: The before shoot does not show the border and wallpaper that we took down.

Nothing dramatic - but definitely glad the yellow wallpaper is gone! One day we plan on getting new counter tops and new flooring in here - but it is down on the list. Apparently we have a nursery to decorate first! :)

Master Bedroom - Finished!!

First and foremost - if you voted for "other" on the color of the nursery furniture - tell us what you want it to be! :)

And finally - some house pictures. Our bedroom has been finished for two weeks, but I haven't gotten around to making the bed to take the final pictures. We also just finished the baseboards and crown molding this weekend - but before we post pictures, I must clean up the house a bit! So more photos to come - we can see the end in sight (at least for two more rooms). Tell us what you all think of our bedroom!

The Before - this is what the bedroom looked like with the previous owners of our house.

The "Between" - waiting for the new carpet. View from hallway.

The After - Notice the new crown molding (compliments of Terry & Keith!)

View from hallway also.

Shea helped me take pictures - the hallway is on the right.

View from opposite side of the room - notice the crown, the angles were a challenge! Don't they look great?

Renovations

Well, if you have been waiting for pictures of the house - I don't have them yet. We just now agreed on the furniture arrangement in the living room. This weekend we are finishing the baseboards and putting the crown molding up in the dining room and kitchen. Then, finally then, we will have some pictures to show you. The floors look really good - plus we got a rug last weekened - so we are almost all grown up....

Then, it is on to a nursery - we are going for a Classic Winnie the Pooh Nursery. I've always liked pooh - but the more recent one is a little too bright. I like the pastel colors in the Classic Pooh. So if anyone has any pictures - or suggestions of a Classic Pooh nursery, send them our way. I don't want to overdue the Pooh theme - just kind of have Pooh as an accent. Keith's main concern is that everyone know that this is a girl's nursery! With this in mind - we have a new poll - what color should our "refurbished" nursery furniture be?

• Black - easier to clean and looks clean, but it is a little more masculine.
• Off White/Cream - more girly, but will show dirt more

What do you guys think?

The Yarn Video

How cool is this? My little bro put this together for us - it is a video from this wkd when we told our parents that we were having a girl. Enjoy! He did an awesome job!

We are having...

We had a really busy weekend - and I, actually my little brother, is going to put a video together of how we told our parents about the sex of the baby - but in the mean time, I don't want to keep everyone waiting as you all have waited long enough. So here is the story in pictures, video to come in a few days...

Letter to Pa & G-Ma (Pappy and GG got one too)

Pa & G-ma reading their letter
GG & Pappy reading the letter

This is what they opened the door to! Pink and Blue Ribbon Everywhere!

The yarn leads to letters, that would spell out the baby's name.

Pa & G-ma are such good sports!

(Chuy and WT are helping)

Pappy and GG working hard!

All the yarn is up - now to figure out the name...

Still working!

It's a Girl!

Yep - we are having a precious baby girl. Her name is Carli Lynn. She is being named after her two grandpa's (Carlis Dwayne and Terry Lynn). I'm thinking they will spoil her rotten! We have actual video of the fun of the yarn maze - and we'll post it later.

In the mean time, I'll post some before and after pics of the house. The wood floors are down and thanks to Terry & Tessie spending their whole wkd working with us, we got crown molding and base boards done in our bedroom, as well as painted our bathroom. They also helped us put together the entertainment center and tile around the fireplace! We all worked so hard, and the house is starting to look all grown up!! ha!

This weekend was also the weekend of my Grandparents 60th wedding anniversary. The majority of my aunts, uncles, parents, brothers and cousins all surprised them at church Sunday morning. They renewed their vows and as a gift the family gave them new wedding bands. I was able to meet them in Jacksonville for lunch. It is always so much fun when the whole family gets together. I'm pretty sure Grandma smiled all day long!

What a busy, great weekend!

I Know Something You Don't Know!

Yes, that was the text message Keith sent to our parents after our doctor's appointment this morning. Ha! We did find out the gender of the baby - but are lips are sealed for another two days...in the mean time - below are some pictures of the destruction of our house! They started the floors today. Here is what we had to do before they could get started...we will post the after pictures on Friday - we hope!

The office - full to the brim - our bed & sofa table are hiding behind the mattress.

Guest Room, behind the box springs is a bed full of stuff too!

Our Dining Room - full of living room furniture!


Can you see our dining room table on the back porch?

Our bedroom - no carpet or baseboards.

No more tile! View from Living Room into what will be my new office.

Empty Living Room - Carpet to be moved to our bedroom

Wedding Shower & Mother's Day

This past weekend Mom, Grandma, Pawpaw & I all headed up to Dallas to go to Amber & Arjet's wedding shower. We met up with Uncle Danny, ate some really good homecooking at "Babes" (if you haven't tried it you should!) and then went out to the park for the shower. We had a lot of fun, I don't think any of us have gotten to see Amber & Arjet for that length of time in a long while! They got lots of good gifts, and we all got to catch up on what was going on in each other's lives. Hard to believe that in less than a month they are getting married!!!

Hostesses with Amber

Sunday was Mother's Day. Since we were in Dallas, we went to church with Uncle Danny. He had picked up corsages for Mom and Grandma and suprised me with one too! So, we head to church and guess who surprised everyone in the parking lot? Anthony! He had driven all night so he could be at church with Mom and Grandma on Mother's Day. They were both so surprised and happy! Anthony was exhausted from driving 10 hrs all night, but it was so worth it!

Aunt Carolyn & Uncle Johnny and Amber & Arjet all came to church too. So we had a regular mini family reunion! It was a good day!

On a more personal note, thanks to all my friends who wished me a happy Mother's Day - kind of weird for me to get cards! ha! Kind of funny to give my Mom a card and she gives me one too! Ashley sent me a Mother's Day card and little gift all the way from Hawaii and Tessie sent me one too from Amarillo. They were both unexpected surprises and made my day! Thank you so much!

This week we find out what the gender of the baby is, actually tomorrow. So if you haven't put in your vote, time is running out! We won't be letting anyone know what the gender is, until after Saturday morning when we get to tell the grandparents all in person.

Tomorrow we are also getting our wood floors put in - woohoo!! Our house is in major destruction mode right now - poor Chuy is beside himself because things are just not right in his little mind. Terry, Tessie and Kevin are all coming this wkd to help us put things back together.

Great weekend, busy-chaotic week, and another great weekend to come!

The Virtue of Patience

Okay, okay - so I'm 20 weeks along and for those of you I don't see every day and have constantly been asking for a "bump" picture - I finally have come through for you! ha! You can't really tell I have a bump if I wear my regular T-shirts, but with the maternity shirts, you can kind of see it. I'm carrying the baby kind of high - so maybe it is a girl! :)

20 Weeks Along

Our Family Vacation

Okay - so I thought it would be easier to show you all our trip - so I did the video below. It rained a lot while we were there, but we still had a really good time. We especially liked Baltimore - plus I really liked the Broadway show, Wicked. We walked a lot, and saw a lot - and got really good at the Subway system! Watch the video bel0w - it was a great trip!

Our Trip

Yes - I know we have been home two days and no posts? Actually, I am working on a slide show to post that tells about our trip! We had a blast, saw three ball parks and walked a whole lot! Stay tuned....