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....

Woohoo New York

So I am late - it is 7:30 and we should be driving to Dallas...but I'm not b/c my husband gave up on me and is getting gas in the truck. But I'm ready now and am waiting for him! ha!

So, I can't take my computer to NY b/c Keith says I'll end up working. You won't hear from me all week. I promise. I will however take lots of pictures (especially ones of Joey) and update everything as soon as we get back.

And wanted to say thanks to the cutest nephew ever for the gift card to Motherhood Maternity - thanks to him (and his Mom) I will be traveling in style, with pedicured toes! :)

Thanks Logan!!

NEW YORK here we come!!

Name That Snake

I hate snakes. They give me the creeps. So last night, after our friends left I was enjoying my nightly glass of apple juice while Keith straightened up the living room and the dogs were going absolutely bonkers outside. I thought they were barking at the dog in the other yard - so I stuck my head out the door and hollered at them to come inside. Chuy made a huge production of going all the way around the rock pit to come inside, while Whitey Tighty and Shea barked furiously at something in the rocks. Yelling at Keith to come get his children who would not listen to me, I started to go outside - then I saw it. I wasn't sure what it was, but I knew it was alive, it was wild and sure didn't belong in my yard! Keith was right behind me, and he quickly realized it was a snake. WT was irate! I'd never heard him bark that much! It took about 3 minutes to get him inside, then Keith attacked the snake with the only tool we had handy - a metal rake! ha! Ever try to cut off a snakes head with a metal rake in a rock pit? It isn't easy. I went and got a shovel, and Keith eventually won the battle and the snake lost. I think it is just a grass snake - but I don't know and I'm certainly not going to go look all over the internet trying to compare pictures of snakes - talk about nightmares! So, I took pictures, and maybe you guys can tell me what kind of snake this is....beware - these aren't pretty!

I think that the snake was at least two feet long. See our box? How do you dispose of a dead snake when you live in the city limits? Why, you put it in two grocery bags, tied tight (he could come back to life you know) and put those inside a box, fasten the box closed and throw it in the outside trash bin. Keith will have to take the trash out this week!


Okay - if you aren't much for snakes or blood - stop looking now. We were trying to get a picture of the coloring of the snake - he had black and yellow on him. His underside was solid white/cream.

I took this picture for my Grandma - she always says you can tell if a snake is poisonous by the shape of it's head. Well - the head is kind of demolished, but if you look really close, you can see that his face was rounded, not pointed. The head is in the top part of the picture laying on top of it's body. I couldn't remember if she said rounded was good or bad.

Okay - so what kind of snake is this?! Any guesses?

The Week in a Glance

Well, the last two weeks seem to have flown by. If things keep going this fast, we are going to have a baby before we know it! I can't believe it has already been 17 weeks. Although, I am glad to be in the second trimester officially. The nausea has gotten a lot better. It still hits me sometimes, but it is not near as bad as it was in the beginning. Keith is very grateful - as he actually got a cooked dinner this week and it was even CHICKEN!! ha! It took all day long for me to cook that chicken, but I got it done and Keith liked it so much he even ate the leftovers!

We have been trying to work in the yard these past few weeks while we can. The backyard has been a mess - but slowly we are getting things together....slowly. I think this will be a project that continues into next year since it requires some money that we aren't quite ready to spend just yet. We have put in the "poor man's" sprinkler system in the front yard. It is a really cool thing actually. It is called Watering Made Easy. Basically you bury this pop up sprinkler in the yard and hook the hose up to it. If you have a timer on your faucet, you don't have to worry about turning the water on and off. We had it last year and worked pretty well. So we got another to get better coverage. Since the front yard is what ppl see first of our house, we thought it should at least be green this year. I'm not doing flowers this year, since Keith is in charge of mowing and weed eating. I figure about the time I'd have to be pulling out weeds, I'd be too big to comfortably do so. So we are shooting for a green yard this year! :)

We have big plans for the house as you know. We did find a guy we really like who does hardwood floors. We checked out three places so far, and Floor Max in Tyler is by far our favorite. The guy was honest and had the best price. Can't beat that. So now we have to pick which floor we want. We are going with hand scraped planks for sure - but it is the color that is hard. Small group is at our house tonite, so I am hoping to get some insight from them.

Such has been our last few weeks. We did go to the doctor today. Heard the baby's heart beat, 156, which is good. I measured at 18 inches, not sure what that meant, as it looked like he simply laid a tape measure vertically on my stomach and came up with a number. I'm sure it means something. Next month we find out what the baby is! So cast your vote now!! We are going to put up a poll for the name of the baby as soon as we know what it is. We have a few names picked out already.

We are also taking labor volunteers for help with all that we have got to get done before the baby gets here...any takers?!