as he grows...

So I've been taking pictures of Carson every month with our dog, Riley, to document his growth. About half the time as I'm taking the picture, Riley yawns. It looks like she's growling and baring her teeth and I think it's pretty funny. Here they are...

1 week

4 months

5 months

6 months

 7 months

Cowboy Baby Shower

Well, it's kinda sad that the only reason I'm blogging is so Mom and I can post these pics to pinterest. :)

A few weeks ago, we threw Jessie and Mr. Baby Doll a cowboy themed shower. Since I'm in Nashville and felt bad about not being able to help with cleaning and cooking, I did the paper decorations.

I made these name tags for the drinks and found these paper straws on Etsy before finding out they're sold at the Cottage Collective. Darn! I tied the name tags on with ribbon and twine. Dad punched holes in the jar lids and paper circles and...Viola!!

The table turned out great. Mom made bierocks and we had a veggie tray and apples and chips and salsa. A simple cowboy lunch.

Mom found that awesome board above the mantle back behind their creek!! She took the painting out of the frame (another Cottage Collective find) and made such a cute mantle. I made the sign out of scrapbook paper.

We had a little photobooth set up for everyone to take pictures and props for them to choose from. The sign says, "Mosey on over and get your mug shot taken".

We had everyone leave Jessie some advice, prayers or encouragement. 

I printed out iron-on transfers and everyone chose one or two to iron onto a burp rag. 

This is Aaron's brand.

We decided to make trail mix for the party favors. Mom made an awesome blend! 

Gigi and I tied all the labels on afternoon. It's a little hard to read but it says, "Happy Trails to you 'til we meet again, keep smilin' until then."

Say what??

Ok, so this will probably be old news to those of you who have had babies before, but this is a new experience for me so let me vent/share. I am ever amazed at the things people will ask you or inform you about your pregnancy. Let me give you a sample with my inner thoughts included. Most of these came from people at work.

So how much weight have you gained? (Uhhhh...how is that any of your business?)

Your boobs are gonna get HUGE!! (Thaaaaaanks, just what I want to hear.)

You're getting fat! (Yeah, it's called growing a human.)

I never see you eat, how come you never eat? (Well, considering you don't see me every waking minute, you probably don't. Would you like me to keep a running tab and email you daily?)

Asked 500 bazillion times a day: How do you feel? (FINE!!! Ugh, stop asking.)

Same guy every time I see him in the break room: Bet you're ready to have that baby huh? (Bout the same as last time I saw you...yesterday. If I see him in there, I usually walk on by now.)

So what are you having?
A boy.
Is that a good thing? (How is a healthy baby a bad thing? Seriously?)

Ok, that's all for now. I'll leave you with a preggo pic. Just and I went out for our 6!! year anniversary and I had him take a pic.

What have we been up to?

Well since I haven't posted in eons, I'd thought I'd try to give you a quick update...

Obviously, I'm pregnant (YAY!!) and we found out on the 11th that we're having a BOY and we couldn't be more excited! Yes, we have a name and no, we're not sharing yet. :) Yes, I'm feeling fine and no, you can't touch my belly.

Let's back up a bit though. Over spring break my parents made their usual trip down. They are a-mazing! They got so much work done for us. Landscaping and cleaning and odd jobs and buying me clothes :). They helped get my garden ready, cleaned out our flower beds, cleaned out our pond (a huge job), ripped out bushes and monkey grass. I mean ridiculous. It was great to have them here.

I've been working around the yard as much as possible and although, I do get tired quicker than usual, I've made some progress. I planted our vegetable garden along with a few flowers here and there, ripped out a little 2 brick high divider "wall" along the driveway and with the help of Justin have been slowly trying to get our flower beds in the front in working condition.

Justin is still traveling with David Nail and working quite a bit around town. He also been working in the studio a lot! He's played on Gospel singer, Mandisa's new album (everyone go buy it!) and recorded a track that will be on the next Footloose movie. Pretty awesome!

My wonderful Grandpa Elliott passed away on Easter Sunday night and so we headed home for the memorial service. It was so nice to see family, even if it was unfortunate circumstances. He suffered from Alzheimer's so we are so thankful he's not suffering anymore.

I also decided to tackle re-doing the bathroom since the nursery is still full of guitar gear, I though it would be a good project for me to keep busy. :) Anyway, the bathroom has bead board halfway up the wall and then regular drywall the rest of the way up. Well due to many factors, I decided to cut the bead board down about 4 inches and put up new trim at the top. I also wanted to sand down all the trim around the door and the baseboards and the remaining bead board because it was all a goopy mess. Well that of course, took much longer than planned and I can say I made a HUGE mess and was covered in dust for two solid days? Yeah, I was. Well the sanding and putty-ing is finally finished and I'm ready to paint, but BIG problem...we found MOLD!!! AHHHH! So frustrating. So Justin is going to try to replace the drywall where we found it because we're 99% sure it cam from a leak in the shower head and has seeped through the sheetrock. FUN! not. Plus, that's the only bathroom with a shower, so I showered at a friends last night and we'll see how long it takes to fix this issue. And maybe, if you're lucky, and I'm feeling generous. I'll post some before and after pics when the whole thing is done. :)

Ok that's it for now, I think you're all caught up.

Friday a thief, Sunday a King

We sang this song for the first time in church a few weeks ago and I love it!

Though the Earth cried out for blood

Satisfied her hunger was

Her billows calmed on raging seas

for the souls on men she craved

Sun and moon from balcony

Turned their head in disbelief

Their precious Love would taste the sting

disfigured and disdained

On Friday a thief

On Sunday a King

Laid down in grief

But awoke with keys

Of Hell on that day

The first born of the slain

The Man Jesus Christ

Laid death in his grave

So three days in darkness slept

The Morning Sun of righteousness

But rose to shame the throes of death

And over turn his rule

Now daughters and the sons of men

Would pay not their dues again

The debt of blood they owed was rent

When the day rolled a new

On Friday a thief

On Sunday a King

Laid down in grief

But awoke holding keys

To Hell on that day

The first born of the slain

The Man Jesus Christ

Laid death in his grave

He has cheated

Hell and seated

Us above the fall

In desperate places

He paid our wages

One time once and for all

When's that BABY due?

OCTOBER 1ST!!!! I'm blaming my lack of blogging on this little one. :) He/she makes momma tired. I wouldn't trade it for the world.

utter failure

Ok...so I've completely gotten off track with taking pictures everyday. Once I miss a few days, it's hard to get back into it. I'm obviously such a great photog.

We've been fairly busy around here taking advantage of the nice weather. I promise I'll post some pics of that soon. Like maybe even tomorrow. :)

catch up

Feb 8:
I finally finished the pillow sham to go with the bed spread. Now if I could only find the motivation to finish the other one.

Feb 9:
The drive home from HELL! I left work at 4:00 and didn't get home til the time on the microwave. (It usually takes 30-40 minutes depending on how congested the highway is.) It snowed about 3 inches in an hour or so. It was really cold so it immediately stuck to the roads. Cue all of Nashville to completely lose their minds and all decide to leave work at the same time. The streets were a little slick, but nothing to freak out about. There are 13,000 people who work at Vanderbilt and I'm convinced they all left work at the same time. It literally took me an hour to go less than half a mile. I was beyond frustrated to say the least.

Feb 10:
They have snacks in the break room at work. Today I had fun playing Cheez-it scrabble with myself. Yes, I'm a huge nerd.

Feb 11:
Justin got back from a short run to California Friday. He took this picture of the sunset from up in the air. Did you know that Southwest paints their planes blue, red and yellow to mimic the sunset? Ya learn somethin new every day!

Feb 12:
I'm on a committee at work that hosts parties and plans luncheons and things. I'm in charge of our Valentine's Day party, so I started making sugar cookies today. We'll see if I have time to decorate them as complicated as I usually do. My guess is no.

Feb 13:
I think they turned out well.

Feb 14:
I was so surprised to see these waiting for me when I got back from lunch on Valentine's Day. Justin very rarely gets me flowers and never on V-Day. The card says, "bet you thought this would never happen..." Perfect! I love them-and him.

Feb 15:
I was so productive over my lunch break today. I filled up with gas. Refilled my empty windshield washer fluid and washed the car. Doesn't Pete look so shiny and clean?

Feb 16:
Today I was out running errands with one of the best co-pilots around.

quick trip

feb 3
I found this bone for Riley at Walgreen's for only $2! She was so in love with it, she growled at Justin when he tried to take it away. Big mistake! She got in big trouble.



feb 4
I was in the den making birthday cards and Riley wanted me to pay attention to her and not my paper, so she crawled into my lap. Silly girl!



feb 5
Saturday our small group from church volunteered to do some painting at a local middle school. Afterward we had a chili dinner at our house. This little guy wanted to help me cook.



feb 6
Justin's great Grandma passed away on Wednesday at 91 years of age. She was ready to go and we're happy she's not in pain anymore. We drove to Topeka on Sunday and made it in time to hit up Justin's favorite restaurant there. I was pretty much totally grossed out, but the things we do for love-right?


feb 7
After the service on Monday we headed back to Nashville. We were in the car for longer than we were actually there which made for a very long trip, but it was good to see extended family that we hadn't seen for a long time! This is Grandpa Carson with all his grandkids minus one.

goofball

January 30:
Sunday, we finished staining the floor. It still needs to be sealed, but for now it looks pretty cool. It's also very slippery...perfect for dancing like no one's taking pictures. :)

January 31:
Monday after my volleyball game, Justin made me a super yummy dinner. Steak, potatoes, zucchini and squash!

February 1:
Last week I bought these beautiful flowers at Trader Joe's. They STILL look awesome!

February 2:
Today is my brother's birthday. He is an amazing man. He's a great father, a hard worker, and a guy after God's heart. I took this one last year when he and Dad came out to frame the studio.