Thursday, September 6, 2012

How Wonderful Life Is

... now she's in the world!

Meet our beautiful little girl:


Evangeline Ruth Smith

Born August 27, 2012
2:03 pm
7 lbs 13.7 oz.
20 inches long



Wednesday, August 22, 2012

A Bit of Catch-Up



It's done! Hot diggity dog! I wish I could say that all I've done this whole time since my last post is relax and work on the nursery, but it just wouldn't be true. I've been worrying (my Dad is sick and has surgery scheduled for Aug. 27th... but that's a whole 'nother story), working, cooking, puking, sleeping, eating, going to baby showers (I have wonderful friends and family), sleeping, and eating again. Sometimes I even eat while I should be sleeping. This baby likes to eat! And why shouldn't she? She's my child after all...


Anyway, back to the nursery and what's been going on since we last spoke (just roll with it...). How about I just show you?

Our friend Crystal Harper took some beautiful maternity photos for us. She's just started her photography business and I was quite impressed with the photos she took. Here are some of my favorites...
Oh the places we'll go...

There I am! In all of my fat glory.

In front of our house :)

We also opted for a 3-D Ultrasound (even though our doctor's office doesn't do them) because our mommies made a special trip all the way down to Georgia so that they could see her live on the big screen. Those things are incredible! Things I learned: my baby likes to suck on her toes and I have "excellent fluid." Not sure what the latter meant, but I took it as a compliment! Hah.



There she is! :) I love that she's smiling in the second one. It makes me smile! Dang... I can't wait to meet this kid! And considering my due date is next week, it shouldn't be long! Woot!

Now, onto the nursery! My Mom just left today (sigh...) to head back to Tennessee. For the whole week, though, we've been organizing the nursery! I have no clue what I would have done without her... she's so clever and has so many great decorating ideas! She's especially good at making things look fabulous on a budget... just what we need! So, here is Baby Girl Smith's (name to be announced later...) room:

If you walked into the master bedroom and turned left into the nursery, this is what you would see:



The settee will be a perfect place to relax with Baby Girl Smith (there is a hint as to what her name will be in the photo if you look for it...)! We got a skinny bookshelf for extra storage and such, which is working quite well. How could you look at this room and not be cheerful? That was the point! We want it to be a very happy place!

And speaking of happy...

We can't wait for her arrival! 

Now, if you were to look to the left, here is what you would see:


We've got some decorative items in the bigger bookshelf, but the baskets are holding burp cloths, bibs, blankets, and toys. So, we definitely have some storage options there. Also, since we have no closet in the room, but plenty of clothes, Ryan put up a tension rod between the wall and the bookshelf so that we could hang some of her cute little clothes.



There's my diaper bag (not an actual diaper bag, but it should work quite well! I love the pattern on it and think it will hold lots of baby goodies! Plus, it's made of recycled water bottles!) on top of the "dresser" (my nightstand from before that we moved into the nursery). It all fits so perfectly!

Ok, so now, let's pretend you looked to the right of the settee instead of to the left. This is what you would see:



There's the skinny bookshelf that we bought for storage (and, well, books). And there's the changing table! This is a new purchase, and one that I'm quite excited about. I'm not really sure where I was planning on changing her before, but I feel so much better now knowing that I have one! (Plus, it was only $79.99 from Baby Depot!)



There's the "hamper" (the big red tub) and the Diaper Genie all ready for dirty things to go into! :) And here is the changing table in all of its glory:



Oh how organization makes me happy. This room certainly won't continue to look like this, but knowing that it looks like this now, puts me at ease. The top shelf of the changing table is ready for all the adorable and colorful cloth diapers (some gently used ones that a friend is sending me and some that we'll purchase later once we know what we want). I also have a bunch of cloth wipes (some purchased and some handmade by Mom and myself) in the pink plastic bin that are ready for a dirty bottom! :) The bottom shelf has a big basket that I'm putting handmade waterproof changing pads in for now. Eventually, I'll probably keep other cloth diapering supplies in it (i.e. inserts, doublers, prefolds, etc.). Then, on the left are some newborn and size 1 disposable diapers that we'll use for the first month when there is LOTS of poo and we'll probably be too tired to do laundry every other day! I also have a wet/dry bag handing on the side of the changing table that will be ready to fill with dirty cloth diapers when the time comes!



To the right of the changing table is a cute little table with some bath goodies underneath it in a caddy (that will be moved to the bathroom when she comes home with us...):


And where is this baby going to sleep? In the pack n' play right next to our bed! :) 




I can't believe everything is set up and ready to go! The next blog post I do will probably be pictures of Baby Girl Smith! HOLY MOLEY! :) So exciting. Thanks for checking out the nursery! Hope you enjoyed the pictures!

~ Mari

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Seafood & Sandcastles: Our Trip to Destin, FL

The view from our Majestic Sun unit
I can't even tell you the last time that Ryan and I went to the beach... felt the sand between our toes and got some much-needed sun. It's been a while. So, when our good friends, Justin & Marli said they were taking a vacation to Destin with their sweet little girl, Presli, we jumped at the chance to join them! We just got back and boy, do we wish we were still there! The weather and the company were perfect. :)

The Majestic Sun - where we stayed.
DAY ONE:
There's Ryan - blowing bubbles with Presli on the balcony.
Ahhhh.... the beach :)

We ate a delicious lunch (fried oyster & shrimp po' boys, seafood nachos, and a blackened amberjack sandwich) at The Back Porch - right on the water. Perfection! :)

Here is the view from our table:



And who would eat right on the beach without taking a stroll through the surf?


Time for a bit of BABY SHOPPING! I had not purchased one item of baby clothing for Baby Girl Smith... and I thought it was about time! So, Marli and I went to the outlets and she bought clothes for Presli and Baby Paxtin while I was overwhelmed by all the baby girls stuff...

Presli was a bit overwhelmed as well...

Oh dear... I knew this would happen!
Then it was off to the beach for some lounging and sand castle building! Ryan and I took a lesson from a guy at Frito Lay and so we came prepared! We had an assortment of equipment and tools ready to make a kick-ass castle. Ryan and Justin did all the hard manual labor...


It's a tough job...

Adding some details...
Loving the staircase!

Not a bad place to be hanging out...
If you can't take the heat...
It's getting fancy!

Ta dah!

The finished product! 
Time to go in and get some rest for tomorrow's castle!
DAY TWO:
Another day... another adorable outfit!

We set up camp in the same spot this time... and made another sand castle!
This one got more attention than the last one...

We think the stone work really added something extra...

And there we are with our creations! (the sand castle and the fetus... lol)


Any excuse to show off that bump!

Add caption

We even signed our creation!
For dinner we went to Dewey Destin - another local seafood spot on the water. Before dinner, Ryan and I took a walk down to the dock and we met a very tame blue heron...



There's the restaurant!

The perfect sunset!
 DAY THREE:


We had a very fancy lunch of hot dogs and friend okra... ;)
For our third and final day (boooo), we decided the beach was the place to spend it. So, we set up our little camp again and went to work!

Sand Castle #3 

Someone got a bit sleepy after playing in the sand!

Can you even take how precious she is?
With Presli sleeping, the boys got to work!
We didn't think the bridge would hold, but Ryan proved us wrong!


We decided we definitely got better with practice...




With our final sand masterpiece!
We had a great time and were sad to leave the beach and our friends...



Thanks for looking! :)

~ Mari