Saturday, January 19, 2008

Family Baby Shower











My mom and Aunt Betsy threw me such a wonderful family baby shower! Aunt Betsy is so creative and the whole thing was super cute. Even the invitations were adorable. I wish I could post one on the blog! I had a great time and just had to go back and post some photos of the day. Unfortunately my camera was running out of batteries so I was only able to take a few pictures. One of the funnier moments of the shower was when Aunt Betsy presented me with a "baby toolbelt" for Ryan. Included in the belt was a wooden spoon similar to the ones Tim, Jamie, Kelli and I were spanked with as kids. Aunt Betsy told the story of when I was little and Uncle Allen loaded up a tool belt with a variety of wooden spoons. When he walked into the room showcasing his new tools I ran out of the room screaming.

Friday, January 18, 2008

The Nursery

As most of our friends and family know, getting the nursery ready was one insane experience. First Ryan and I decided to paint it a nice soft yellow. We went to Home Depot and had them color match 3 gallons of paint to the yellow Pottery Barn Kids gift tags. Thinking we had the perfect color picked out, we went ahead and primed over the extremely dark blue walls that the previous owners of our house had painted the room. It took several days and three coats of primer before we were ready to start putting color on the walls. We were so excited to see the finished product. Uncle Allen had offered to come help us put up crown moulding, a chair rail, and to case the window on the 18th of January so Ryan and I were racing against the clock, trying to get the paint on the walls before he arrived. It was Sunday of the weekend before the 18th that we starting painting the walls yellow. As soon as the first brush strokes hit the wall, I started crying, upset that the color looked NOTHING like I'd expected. Ryan convinced me to wait until the whole wall was finished before making a judgment on what it would look like. We painted the whole wall and then both agreed it was a hideous shade of mustard yellow. In a panic, we raced back to Home Depot and picked up more primer and a light shade of pink. We ended up re-priming the one wall we'd painted yellow, and then painting another wall our new pink color. As soon as that color was on the wall, I was upset that it looked more white than pink. Ryan, clearly not happy, went back to Home Depot and picked a color two shades darker. However, after just a few brush strokes, we realized that color was too pink. Once again, we went back to Home Depot to pick up the color in between. We then painted the entire nursery the newest pink color and as soon as the sun went down, realized it looked pepto bismol pink. I was a stressed out mess and emailed Jamie the next day complaining about how we needed to hire painters to come that week because we were out of time. She immediately broke then news to Ryan and I that we are both color blind and then calmed me down by offering to handle it. She then easily picked the pink shade the nursery would be. After work that week, she and Ryan re-painted the whole nursery once more (at which point Ryan claimed we were losing square footage)! Thanks to Jamie and Ryan both, the walls looked great and were ready for Uncle Al. Yes, I was suprised that Ryan and I were still married despite the hours he spent painting and re-painting the room, and the hundreds of dollars we spent on the 10 or 15 gallons of paint we now have in the garage... ;) Anyone looking for yellow or pink paint?

Uncle Al helps us out



We are so greatful to Uncle Allen for helping us with our nursery!

Priming the Walls




I did wear a mask for most of the time!

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Baby Girl Banda


We just found out our baby is a girl last Friday. Ryan and I couldn't be happier. We feel so much closer to her now that we know she's a girl and can feel her kicking. The doctors say she's perfect which is such a relief and a blessing. Her weight last week was 9 ounces. Needless to say, I've gained more weight than that!

Friday, June 29, 2007

The Big Annoucement






I had to go back and post these photos from the night we told our parents we were expecting Madison. Of course, at the time I was only 2 weeks pregnant and we had no idea that Madison was Madison or even that she was a girl. To fake them out, we bought champagne and claimed we were toasting to another completed semester of grad school for Ryan. I made a toast to him finishing his classes and then he added "and to the new Grandparents." My mom basically fell into her chair shocked and so excited by the news. Ryan's mom looked at me and asked, "can you hurry up?" because she couldn't wait to meet her new grandchild. We laughed the other day about how the moment had finally come.