Beware...

There are tons of pictures on this post.  I feel like I have some catching up to do and what better way than with pictures!

My best friend took me out for my first post baby trip to Katy Perry!  It was awesome!

Mason loves his baths...especially since we got his turtle to keep him nice and warm the whole time!

Do you see the patch of red hair??

Since I didn't make his bottle fast enough, he decided to give himself a Harry Potter scar.

Since we have been walking so much we decided to buy a jogging stroller so we could keep our regular one in good condition.

Mason is loving his swing now!  He will stare up at the mirror and mobile and eventually fall asleep in it.

Since I can have alcohol, I decided what better way to celebrate than at brunch with the sampler!  It had a mimosa, a strawberry/lemonade/champagne, and cranberry juice and champagne.  It was fabulous; however, I didn't finish all three because it was a bit much for this lightweight!

Mason went swimming for the first time!  He loved it!  Sara, my bestie and his godmomma, got a pool, and it was like a giant bathtub so Mason loved sitting and kicking in the water!

Lately, Mason would rather being sitting up or standing than laying down at all.  So, we figured we would give his bumbo a try and he loved it.  He looked around and held his head up so good!

Sleeping in his swing...

Mason smiling at his Daddy!  We love that he smiles for us now...we are completely in love and obsessed!

Sneak Peek...

Mason's nursery is so close to being done!  We have a few things left to finish, but I thought I would give a little sneak peek into some of the things in his room.  I am in love!  It took a while to figure out what I wanted to do and how I wanted it to look, but I am thrilled with the outcome!  Nick actually told me that when I was describing things he was nervous but now that it is all together in the room he loves it.  So, here are a few pictures of some things in the nursery...

Nick putting up some paper lanterns...he was not really seeing my vision until the whole thing was complete.  Now, he loves it and totally trust me when I suggest things!

These are the main fabrics that we are using for his bedding.  My mom is still working on some pieces, so as soon as it is done I will share pictures.  It is going to be gorgeous!

Nick and I decided to make our own 'hanging shelf thing'.  I don't know what to really call it, but he cut the wood, I picked the knobs, and we took his fabrics and had paint made to match.  It is super cute on the wall...promise!

We were at Homegoods and I saw this awesome lantern.  I then decided it would be the perfect light fixture for the room.  Thankfully, Nick's dad is amazing and the two of them were able to transform it into the perfect light fixture for Mason's room.  This is it all lit up in the evening.

And, here it is off during the day.  I swear it makes the room and looks amazing in person. 

The bookshelf that Nick made, and, again, we got paint to match his fabric color.

A couple of prints we made, plus an M that I painted to match his room.  I will have to get a close up pic. of the prints...

Changing table/area/dresser.  The thing on the far left is a lamp that is perfect in his room, and the bulb isn't super bright so we will really use it as a nightlight for when we change or check on him at night.

We can't wait for our little man to arrive!  It is getting more and more exciting each and every day.  Our to-do list of things to get done before Mason arrives is getting shorter and shorter; I feel so accomplished with everything we have checked off.  It gets more real everyday!

Sneak Peek!

Some people have been asking for pictures of the nursery.  Well, it is still a hot mess and no where near complete.  However, here are some pictures of the progress we have made.  It is mostly the furniture because we have decided not to paint the walls or anything like that.  Instead, we are going to have accents on the walls and decorate the room with the colors rather than paint the room.

Here is the crib that we chose…

 

I absolutely love it!!  It is exactly what we wanted and will eventually convert into a toddler bed, twin bed, and full size bed.

Here is the dresser that can also be used for the changing table.  We wanted something that would work and look good when we no longer needed a changing table.  I think this is perfect, and we will put a changing pad on top for now.

We also got a tall 5-drawer dresser…

We originally wanted an armoire, but it just wasn’t happening.  We typically like more antique furniture that we can add our own personal touches too, but with time and me not being able to help we decided this was for the best.  I think all of the furniture is gorgeous and couldn’t be happier though!

We have our car seat, which we call the "to go box".  It is this really pretty greenish blue with gray.  We decided to go with a Snugride 35, and Nick is already dying to put the base in his car!

 We went with the matching stroller because...A. they match and B. it was the type we wanted (metrolite).  I love them both and it is so exciting/crazy to see them at the house everyday.  Sidebar: It took us longer to put the stroller together than the crib!

Here are the curtains and curtain rod for my little man’s room…

My mom is working on the bedding, and it is going to be gorgeous!  I am so excited!  I will try and snap a picture of our fabrics so that I can share before the final product is done.  We are just about ready to start actually decorating the room.  I can’t wait to meet our boy, but time is flying by!  I can’t believe I am already 6 months pregnant.

Love is in the air...

So, this coming Friday will be the 13th and also marks a year and a half of married life for Nick and I.  This is amazingly awesome because we got married on a Friday the 13th!  Needless to say it is kind of exciting, and is the inspiration for today's post.  Obviously, I love my husband but a few other things I love include:

• Our wedding wall!  We have this weird cut out thing in our house that I had no clue what to do with, and then my best friend, Sara, gave us a sign that inspired everything!  It has all kinds of memories, and serves as a constant reminder of the best day of our lives.

• Going along with the whole wedding thing, I still love our wedding invitations!  We did not go the traditional route, but I still think they are the best thing ever!  I love that we are crying by the box for those who could not attend.  In case you can't tell, the invitations have us on them!  A local artist created them for us after talking to us and learning what our interest were.  Nick has on flip flops, a soccer ball, and a finance book.  I have a camera, paintbrushes, and a book.  Since we like to travel there is a suitcase with stuff about us on it like the UST star, Viva Italia (that is where we honeymooned), a Don't Mess With Texas sticker, etc.  They were amazing and completely us!

 

 

• A more recent love is that I will be teaching in The Heights this year!  There are so many aspects to love about this...I am at one of the best schools in the district, I am a Vanguard teacher so I will be teaching GT and Pre-AP kids, Nick and I can carpool, and the people at this school are incredible, plus, I just adore The Heights!

R2-Sweet Tooth

We have a new addition to the kitchen...

Meet R2-Sweet Tooth!  I think this is the cutest cookie jar ever, I love it.  Nick and I watch Big Bang Theory and once we saw their robot cookie jar we knew we wanted one too.  He is already full of homemade chocolate chip cookies, and looks fabulous in his new home!

Work, work, work...and fabulous furniture!

I know I have been super MIA, but things have been slightly crazy!

So, in May I accepted a job with Houston ISD at one school.  Well, skip to a month and a half later and I still have no contract and am getting nervous.  I decide to go ahead and take interviews instead of turning them down in case something happens with the first school.  I went on an interview for a dream job at an amazing school, and they offered me the job!  Turns out the first principal had offered me a job that didn't really exist yet so it was taking forever because HR was still approving the job.  I felt deceived and worried that the job might not even get the ok, and I really, really wanted the second job.  After much discussion, debate, and prayer I called the first principal, told her thanks but no thanks.  I called the second job and accepted it!  I accepted last Thursday and went to sign my contract last Friday!  I will now be working at a Vanguard school in HISD working with GT and Pre-AP kids teaching English...plus, it is a middle school!!  I am beyond excited!  Well, then the school had me attend a class at Rice University this week to learn more about teaching GT and Pre-AP kids as well as getting certified to teach it too!  It has been crazy and stressful, but I know God totally took care of us and we are beyond grateful for this opportunity.

On a completely different note, Nick and I got a beautiful china cabinet off of Craig's List.  I loved it but wanted to repaint it.  Nick on the other hand loved it!  The people we bought it from had just re-done the whole piece so it didn't need work, I was just not sold on the color.  After much convincing, we decided to leave it alone and make it an accent piece in the formal dining room.  I will tie the color in and make it work for the room. So, here it is...

We love it, and as you can see some of our China is already in it.  It is a beautiful antique piece of furniture, and I think it will be gorgeous in our formal dining room.  The goal is to finally get a big table by the end of the year.  It needs to sit at least 8 because just the current immediate family that lives close is 8.  It should really be bigger since we have lots of family, but this will work fabulously!  I can't wait to actually have the formal living/dining area done!

Fourth

Our 4th of July was very low key, and we had family over on the 5th.  Nick and I had my family over to our house on the 5th for grillin' and good times.  We had an excellent time having everyone over to just hang out and relax.  Nick got a grill from my brother and has been dying to use it so we had burgers and these fabulously wonderful jalapenos.

They taste amazing and are incredibly easy to make.  The key is to make sure you scrape out all of the seeds and then rinse the jalapenos so that they are not crazy hot.  Then you fill them with cream cheese, wrap with bacon, and either grill or bake them.  So good and a crowd pleaser!

I also made some patriotic cupcakes!  We found super cute cupcake liners and decorations at Wal-Mart.  The red ones are pinwheels!  How awesome is that?!

In person they were far more blue and red, and much less pink and turquoise.  I promise!  All in all we had a lovely weekend, a fabulous fourth, and wished every week included a three day weekend!

Movie Night!

This past weekend in Houston was full of rain!  The rain was horrible, so many streets and highways were flooded.  Nick and I decided it was best for us to stay in.  This then lead to a practically free date night!  We had our movie night at home...picked a movie from our vast dvd collection, popped popcorn, and bought some candy.  It was perfect!  I highly recommend it as a cheap, wonderful date night.

Happenings...

As usual I have been a slacker when it comes to posting.  Nick and I have kind of been all over the place.  We have had family stuff, friend stuff, and us stuff.  Yesterday was the first time we were actually at home most of the day.  Anyway, here is what is going down at our house...

I had mentioned that I was doing black frames down one of our hallways.  Here are some completed frames, and here is the start of the hallway:

It is still a work in progress, but I love it so far.  I love having old family pictures in the house, and having everyone that we love be in our house is awesome.  I think it makes our house feel like a home!

Then I changed the breakfast table to be more summery, and the best part...it was free!  You can't see how fabulous the place mats are, but trust me!  They are from Target and are so so cute.  The red napkins I had.  The sunflowers are from a garden turned farm just across the street.  They said we could take however many we wanted, and I put them in a Santowski milk bottle.  So lovely!

Santowski Farm

It has been so much fun actually growing our own food!  I think it is ridiculously awesome to eat something that I grew in my backyard.  This has been a good year for our garden, and here is the latest update:

I don't do bell peppers, but Nick loves them!  This plant is crazy, you can see all of the peppers growing everywhere.  It has gotten so heavy that it was falling over.

Nick has been dying to grow even one ear of corn.  Well, we got 6!  He was so excited, and I have to admit it is rather amazing that we actually grew corn.  It's good too!

On another note, I grew some flowers from seeds!  It has been lots of fun watching them grow and bloom.  I promise they look better in person!

Throw some paint on it...

I am by no means an artist!  However, I love to paint.  One day Nick just said here, handed me a canvas, and said just try it.  I love that man, and I have been painting since.  It is a fun hobby, so relaxing, and I thoroughly enjoy it.  Everything I do is completely abstract.  It is a fun way to decorate because I get to use the perfect colors and combinations to match any room.  Here are few of my creations:

This is in our master bathroom.  The next one I did when I lived on the second floor at my apartment complex.  Nick and I had a blast squeezing paint from my balcony onto the canvas on the ground.  It is now in my 'eclectic' laundry room, but was originally in my apartment bedroom.

Here are a couple more that were for Nick's apartment, but are now in the previously mentioned laundry room.

Finally, I am practicing something for my sister-in-law.  I didn't want to actually put it on stretched canvas until I had a chance to figure out what exactly I was doing.  So, here is my spread in the living room...

Painting is definitely a hobby of mine now, and I love it!