1st Baby Shower

Last weekend John and I traveled to the small town where he served as Music Minister while he was in grad school at Baylor. We spent our first 4 years of married life at that church and they will always be so special to us.

We were so blessed by them when they offered to give us a baby shower for Hudson. We were so happy to see so many old friends and loved our short weekend there.





They took unglazed donut holes and put chicken salad in them. Such a cute idea and they were SO good!!



Me and John's mom...




Adorable shark butt swim trunks! We can't wait to take Hudson to the beach this summer!


And this adorable onesie...my friend's mother in law made it. It has a little H on the bow tie! And it's Baylor colors! AND she gave me 2 in 2 different sizes so he can wear it longer...love that!


Glenda (in the zebra top) made this sweet quilt for Hudson.


Me and Candace...


Me, John and Maddox (Candace's son)...


Me and my love!


We are so thankful for all of the wonderful things that Hudson received and can't wait to take him back to meet everyone!

3rd Trimester

I'm linking up with Miscellany Monday!

I've officially been in my 3rd trimester for almost 2 weeks now. That's crazy to me!

I also let my boss know today that after I have the baby I will be staying at home. This is something that has always been a dream of mine and I am so thankful that John is completely supportive and encouraging in this. It will definitely be a change but we are committed to it and I am beyond excited!

We had our 1st baby shower this weekend and it was so much fun. I will have a full recap up soon but we recieved so many wonderful things including lots of clothes and diapers. Baby Hudson is already so loved and blessed!

Next week we have our 3D ultrasound scheduled and we begin our childbirth classes. I am so excited about both because it means we are so close!

I'm really hoping that the next 11 or so weeks are kind, quick and full of nesting. There are so many things I want to get done around the house.

I found out last week that I do have gestational diabetes. Ugh. Although it won't be too bad. I will meet with a dietician today and when I talked to her on the phone last week she was very encouraging and as long as we keep it controlled everything will be fine. Plus, it goes away after I have the baby.
Currently, I'm not experiencing too many pregnancy symptoms. Going to the bathroom much more frequently again. I also think I started feeling some Braxton Hicks contractions this weekend. Nothing too bad though.

Oh and I'm pretty sure Hudson is going to take after his dad and Uncle Mark and be a musician. I'm thinking he will be like Uncle Mark and become a drummer because that's what it felt like he was doing in my belly during my glucose test last week.

Mission Trip to the Valley

Last week and the first part of this week, John was down in the Valley (South Texas by the border for those who might not know where that is) for a mission trip with our church.



They partnered with another local church and a church there in Donna, Texas.



Three churches coming together from 2 very different cultures, working together and praising the same God.



Throughout the week they did several construction projects, had a block party for the neighborhood, 2 days of VBS, concerts every night and building relationships with the people of Donna.



Unfortunately, I was not able to take off any time from work and originally was planning on just going down for the weekend, but after our Dallas trip a few weeks ago, the thought of driving in a car for a weekend trip was not something this preggo wanted to do.



And 4 of my favorite people ever. Jealous that I was not able to be down there.

miscellany monday

*This weekend was pretty low key. The number 1 project was to work in Hudson's room. I wanted to get everything that is his that we have so far and organize it in his room and have only his stuff in his room. Because his room was our catch all room since we bought the house (in May) there were still a few items in the closet that needed to be moved out. I also moved the crib and dresser and I think I like it better in this spot. It's hard because where the only full wall is where the crib is. The other 2 walls have windows and then the 4th wall is the door coming in and his closet. Thoughts? (there is a window to the left of the dresser, oh and ignore the blinds...those are going to be replaced!)



*I was loving that last night it was still light outside around 7:15. Oliver (the dog) loves it because he can play outside longer.

*If Hudson were to come today (I'm only 26 1/2 weeks so hopefully not!) he would have a place to sleep but nothing to wear or any diapers. That stresses me out a little.

*Ever since I got pregnant my breakfast has been pretty much the same thing. 3 egg whites (cooked like a fried egg though, not scrambled), a whole wheat english muffin with light cream cheese and orange juice. The only time I don't have this is when I need to go grocery shopping.

*We only have 6 free weekends between now and when Hudson gets here. That is CRAZY to me!

A Long, Productive Weekend

Since this weekend is already started I figured I should update on our weekend last week.

We spent this past weekend in McKinney visiting my family. We also had a lot of baby shopping planned. I brought my camera but unfortunately did not get a single picture. We were too busy having fun I guess. I hate that though. I'm going to have to get a lot better about taking pictures especially after the little one gets here! So this recap is wordy and probably boring, but is for my memory.

We got to McKinney around lunch time on Thursday and went straight to my parent's house. We brought Oliver along for the ride mostly so that he could play with my parent's dog, Huck. We dropped Oliver off and then went with my mom to Brio's for lunch. (My dad was out of town but got back that night.) Oh yum...love that place. I got the roasted sweet potato and chicken risotto. So good.

We went to a couple of baby boutiques in Allen and downtown McKinney. We saw lots of cute things at both places, but didn't leave with anything. We were looking for specific things for Hudson's nursery...a rug, lamp, things for the walls, a glider and ottoman and dresser. We also went to Target to add a few more things to our registry.

Thursday night we met my family for dinner at Sauce in downtown McKinney. It was me, John, my parents, my brother and his girlfriend Betsy and Whitney got to come also. Unfortunately her hubby was out of town so he couldn't join us but we all had a great time. It was our first time meeting Mark's girlfriend and we loved her so much.

Friday my mom and I were back out shopping again. Mom just got a new MacBook Pro so John stayed home to get it set up for her and then met us later. We went to Lone Star Baby where I found our stroller. John and I had originally thought we wanted another stroller, but we decided against it for a few reasons. I was so glad to find one that I love.

Mom and I had a yummy lunch at Gloria's (one of my faves!) and then went to Pottery Barn Kids where we did most of our damage. :) We got curtains (which ended up being a disaster), letters to spell out his name above the crib, and a lamp. By this point John was able to meet up with us so he and I went to Buy Buy Baby to pick out our glider and ottoman (we used 2 20% off coupons and saved a ton!).

Here is our glider...imagine it in white though. The ottoman matches, but an ottoman is an ottoman.

Friday night mom cooked dinner at home and Mark, Betsy and my sister came back over for dinner and games. 

Saturday we went to one last baby store before going to Grapevine to see Whitney and Jonathan's new apartment. I say new because we havne't seen it yet but they've been there since June. At the baby store we got 3 painted canvases for the wall in his room and a rug that I am so excited about! I can't wait for everything to come in so we can see it all together. 

We had lunch in downtown Grapevine and then went to Whitney's BFF's bakery for cupcakes and the best cake ball I've ever had in my life. Unfortunately due to our long drive back to Victoria we had to get on the road but we had the best time with my family. 

We stopped at Ikea in Round Rock to get Hudson's dresser and then had impromptu dinner with John's dad, stepmom, sister, aunt and uncle at Threadgill's. I'll share more pictures soon of Hudson's nursery so far. We are getting close!

Curtain Disaster = Pregnant Meltdown

Let me start by saying, I have not experienced pregnancy brain like most of my pregnant friends did. I have one thing in mind that could be classified as pregnancy brain. But also as trying to get 100 things done at once. So whatever.

I have however, had CRAZY pregnancy meltdowns complete with ugly crying and irrational thoughts. My poor husband. John has been amazing through each one.

Last night was probably the worst one. While we were in McKinney last weekend doing baby shopping we got curtains from PB Kids. They are simple blue curtain panels.

So last night we were hanging them and once we got 2 of the panels on one of the windows I told John, "Um, babe. They are crooked. You hung them crooked."

He showed me that in fact they were hung perfectly level so then I realized that the curtains were about 2 inches different in length. So I checked the packaging and they both said 84". I checked the tags on the actual curtains and they both said 84". Then I noticed a smaller tag underneath the main tag. One curtain said "10/2010" and the other said "3/2008."

My interpretation was that one was manufactured 3 years ago and the other just a few months ago. So I checked our other 2 panels we had for the other window and there was one of each to match the 2 dates we already had.

We removed the newer panel from the curtain rod, added the 3 year old panel and then there was about a 1" difference! I was so angry.

I was stressing out because not only were they uneven panels, but I was starting to second guess the color that we chose. The walls of his room are painted a very light airy blue color and these panels were a darker light blue. Make sense? They match the bedding perfectly but once they were on the wall, I didn't like the blue on blue.

So I emailed my mom and told her what happened and she emailed back right away and said she would call the next day and have them measure them outside the package and she would go and pick them up.

I emailed her right back and told her not to do that because I wasn't sure about the color anymore. By this point I'm starting to ugly cry.

Long story longer, as John was trying to talk me down from my crazy, hormonal preggo meltdown I was snowballing. It went from not knowing what to do about the curtains, to not sure if we had the furniture in the right place in his room (super easy fix), and we didn't have anywhere to put his books or toys yet.

My crazy, hormonal preggo meltdown lasted about 2 hours. I was red, splotchy, swollen and woke up this morning swollen and with a headache.

It was so bad and ugly.

At one point last night John leaned over to my belly and said, "Stop doing this to her!"

On a positive note, we now know what we are going to do about the curtains and I'll share pictures of what we've done in his room so far soon.

Adventures in Registering

Last night we went to Target to register. I have my first shower later this month and knew invitations would be going out soon. Target would be listed as a place we were registered so we had to get on that.

Before we registered at Babies R Us in December our last experience with registering was about 6 years ago when we were creating our wedding registry. Things are totally different this time around.

First of all, a baby registry is very different from a wedding registry – duh. Two, our relationship is very different. We communicate so much better now. When we registered at Target for our wedding registry there were a few arguments. It was stressful. Last night, not a single argument. I won’t say that it wasn’t stressful or overwhelming because let’s face it, we have no idea what kind of diapers, bottles, pacifiers, baby shampoo, diaper rash ointment, etc. will be the best fit for our son. We registered for things that I had read about and they had great reviews or went off of recommendations from friends.

One thing we did NOT register for...


We decided to take a quick break and tested out patio furniture.



Where's Waldo, I mean John?


Then last night after we got home I asked on facebook (one of my sources for baby research) how many diapers he will go through and was SHOCKED when I heard things from 9 to millions a day. I am pretty sure I will be wiping a bum pretty much non-stop.

Anyway, we had so much fun picking out things for Hudson. And just like when we were doing our wedding registry, John was the designated gun shooter.