Spring Break Update

So far, David and Gene have accomplished a lot! I'm really thankful for all they are doing this week. We are so blessed to have Gene come up to give David a hand! I think they have fun together too. :)

Can lights in the kitchen are in and the ugly box light is no more:

William's room has been painted and his ceiling fan installed:

 We went with the top color, Greenbriar Beige by Benjamin Moore. It looks great!

Here's David's unique painting approach. :) I'm moving furniture around and then will post some better pictures of William's nursery so far.

The boys have also been working on their biggest project: a built-in to replace the old tv armoire. It's proving to be a bigger task than they first thought! Imagine that. ;)

 Day 1: it begins!

 Day 2: This is the stopping place tonight. Apparently they are getting close to the sanding, caulking, and painting stage. Yay!

Here's an idea of what I've been up to! As the director of design, I've been hard at work making decorative decisions like molding. Here's my choice of knobs for the four cabinets at the bottom of the built-in. I think I have the better job.

Stay tuned for more progress!

Spring Break 2012

David and I have 9 full days without work and we're planning on getting things DONE around the house to prepare for William's arrival in July! Thankfully, Grandpa Gene is coming to give us (ok, mostly David) a hand as we try to tackle:

• a built in to replace the armoire in the living room nook
• paint William's room
• install a fan in William's room
• trim out and put shelving in the master bathroom
• can lights in the kitchen
• additional storage in the bathroom vanities and in the kitchen
• install a new light fixture in the office 

While the guys are busy with their power tools, I am going to be doing some reorganizing:

• cleaning out and finding new homes for stuff in William's closet and the guest bedroom closet
• purging bathroom cabinets of unused items
• figuring out how to magically fluff up towels a la pinterest 
• organizing my crafting supplies in the office

Plus I'm going to try my hand at making a mobile and a lamp for William's nursery!

We've got a TON on our plate; I'll let you know how this all works out! :)

The Boppy Owl

This is a silly nursery purchase, but I got this funny owl cookie jar to hold William's pacifiers:

I'm sort of obsessed with him! :)

William's crib, glider and ottoman, and slipcovers came in last week, so over spring break we are going to paint his room and get his dresser from my parent's "doll house" AKA storage shed. I don't really care much for themes, but I think William's getting a lot of little woodland creatures in his nursery. :)

Boy Oh BOY!

On Monday morning, together with our parents, David and I had an amazing sonogram and learned that, most importantly, Baby Hodum is healthy and perfect, and secondly, that he is a BOY! Everyone is excited to meet little William in July! Here's his sweet little profile!

He's already BIG- he's in the 94th percentile right now and already weighs about a pound at 20 and a half weeks. It sounds like he's going to be a big guy! :)

Also, William's sweet little crib and nursery glider were delivered Monday! We've got some work to do, but it's exciting that we know that we're getting ready for a sweet little boy!

29 Years Today...

It's my 29th birthday today! Hooray! I think I might stop celebrating after this year, however. I'm getting dangerously close to the big 3-0. You know when a big life changer is coming when, among all the wonderful things you've received for your birthday, organizational tools like this set of drawers are super exciting:

Thank you, David!

And I was also thrilled to receive this diaper bag from my parents:

Thank you so much, Mom & Dad! 
Thanks for all the birthday wishes! My 29th year is going to be an amazing one, for sure! :)

PS- David is concerned you will think he only got me drawers for my birthday, and he did NOT. And even if he did, I would be happy. But he got me these beautiful Kendra Scott earrings I have been coveting:

 And something else is on it's way. David is the sweetest!

Nursery Ideas

David and I have been doing some research, planning, designing, and even a little shopping already for Nuggy's little nursery. I must say I think this is probably my favorite part of expecting so far, I am having a blast! A year ago if you told me I would like to look at Pottery Barn Kids catalogs and wandering through Buy Buy Baby would be fun for me, I would have laughed! Pintrest has been a great help as well. Thanks for the invite, Kelly! :)
We've already bought a dresser which we'll use as a changing table, too.  We got it at this great store in Dallas called Nadeau that my parents are in love with (and now so am I)! It has really neat furniture exported from Mexico and refinished. Here's a picture:

And my parents so generously bought us Nuggy's crib and a glider with an ottoman, which will be here on Monday!Thank you so much, what a great blessing!
We are going for soft, serene colors so the nursery is a calming place for both us and the baby. As I've made finds that I really love, I've been putting them together to get an idea of how they would all work.
Here are some things we're liking, if Nuggy is a girl:

And if Nuggy is a boy:

When we have the nursery all set up, I will share, of course! :)

Notes on my first trimester

I wanted to start blogging back in December when we found out, so I could keep a somewhat decent record of this special time. That never happened! So I figure I'll play a little catchup and write down what I remember.
First and foremost, I had some serious morning all-day sickness. Days were few and far between when I wasn't vomiting in the morning and nauseous all day. I'm pretty sure my more observant students figured out what was going on (some before myself, even!) because of my unusual diet of Townhouse crackers, Cheezits, Sprite,  ginger ale, and peppermints.

More Things I Like(d):

• Dole pineapple, orange, and banana juice (I was drinking 2-3 cartons a week at one point! STRANGE)
• Yogurt 
• Mac & cheese
• Mashed potatoes 
• Cheeseburgers
• My favorite meal: scrambled egg whites with cheese, black beans, and spinach salad with Greek feta vinaigrette 
• I really craved Dr. Pepper for some reason 

Things I Could Hardly Stand to Be Near:

• Pizza
• Anything with Italian red sauce- spaghetti, lasagna, etc.
• Chili 
•  Ice cream 
• Too many smells in the grocery store!

In November I really had little to no appetite because I was nauseous all day. This made Thanksgiving really difficult! Luckily, David's dad, Gene, came up for most of the week to help work on our kitchen remodel and put up a new backyard fence. I felt terrible, both sick to my stomach and because I spent most of the week on the couch while the boys worked sooo hard! I'm surprised Gene didn't guess what was going on right then. The worst was our Thanksgiving dinner. Because our oven, stove, and sink were disconnected due to the old countertops being removed and the new ones coming the following week, I was off the hook to cook dinner! So I decided to take the boys to Lawry's Prime Rib. Perfect for everyone! I don't like turkey but love prime rib, and the guys will eat both. Lawry's had a great menu for Thanksgiving dinner. And guess who could hardly eat any of it? This girl. It was a sad day for me!
I went a whole weekend with this terrible smell stuck in my nose, and I thought it was poor David! He's really had to put up with a TON. One night over Christmas break, we went with our friend Chase to the Market Street pasta bar (I believe I ate soup that night) where the guys got pasta they swear is the BEST THING EVER. The smell of it made me sick, and I could barely ride in the same car with this pasta. Even worse, the next day (and after I had made them throw the empty containers outside) I could STILL smell it. Terrible!
For the most part the mutant sense of smell is gone, but I'm still unable to eat pizza, ice cream, and at times the grocery store makes me lose my appetite.

The first trimester was an adventure for sure!