Lonestar Lagniappe

HI!!! My baby is almost 11 months old - what?!?  We have been very busy over here with welcoming, adjusting to, and entertaining Mr. Cutie.  I hope to give a quick blog on his arrival into this great big world soon...but who knows.  I haven't written in almost 1 year ( oops! ), so it might take me a while to get back into the groove.  I still also need to give a renovation update including: Master Bathroom, Hall Bathroom, Guest Room, Play Room...sheesh.  I will get to that one day.  For now, Pumpkin Patch! Y'all, I don't think Mr. Cutie has ever been in grass before, and today he was crawling around in it like it was his favorite thing!  Well, the grass and the dirt which he was eating.  So fun.  The friends I went with all had girls, and for the most part they just sat and looked pretty.  Cooper was all over the place and it took me 238 pictures ( yes, you read that right ) to get like 10 acceptable pictures.  It was a gorgeou...

Hi All! I can't believe my due date is just 11 days away!  We are so ready to meet this little fellow (and I'm so ready to feel 'normal' again, though that may take a while).  For now, I am keeping myself busy by what I think is what they call nesting.   For all I know W may just have been praying extra hard that I would clean the house and keep up with the laundry before baby.  ;) OK, on to the reason you clicked over...to see the nursery!  It has been a labor of love and has pushed my creativity (see previous post ), but we are so happy with the way it has turned out!  As of now, it is about 90% complete (I still need to paint the double doors [ they are an ugly yellow ] and install blinds and we still need to install the closet doors).  BUT -- all of that can be done later.  I finished the most important parts (to me), and we have all of the necessities to begin life as a family of 3. So, here is a tour of our nursery!  ( Side ...

I love decorating.  I love changing up old spaces.  I love making new spaces feel like 'home'.  It is part of my creative nature and how I express myself, and usually I can tell you my exact vision for a room after being in it for less than 2 seconds.  That is how it has been with our entire house reno...I know what I want it to look like (and thankfully, W and I have agreed on everything!).  Not so with the nursery. In the early stages of pregnancy, I was so antsy to get started decorating and designing the room our baby will spend a lot of time in and around.  I spent countless hours browsing online (Pinterest) and sitting in the empty nursery space seeing if I could get the 'vibe' of what I wanted...and yet - nothing.   Talk about frustrating!  For someone who is so decisive and loves decorating, I hit a major creative wall.  That said, once we found our gorgeous crib + dresser, I had a better handle on what I wanted it to look lik...

It's that time again...time for another quick bump update!  As of today, I am 21 weeks and 4 days.  Holy Moly.  I can't believe I am already 1/2 way through this...awesome!  (BTW, I hope to be posting a reno update on the guest bedroom and a nursery inspiration update this week...we will see if that actually happens ;)) Speaking of the guest room, it flooded in the great Memorial Day Flood of 2015 and we were forced to order new carpet.  That means we had to completely disassemble the guest room and put all the furniture somewhere while we were waiting for carpet.  Most of the stuff went into what will be the nursery for storage, so we have been delayed in thinking about what we want the nursery to look like for about a month.  Now that we have the carpet in and the room put back together, we are starting to work on the nursery.  What a chore.  I am usually so decisive and know exactly what I want.  Not so here...and it's frustrating....

Eeek !  The news is finally out!  I am pregnant and we are expecting our little bouncing bundle in November 2015.  It feels like it took a lifetime to get here, but that's a blog post for a different time... For now, you will have to settle for my 'weekly bump' pics.  I don't intent to take a picture every week, and honestly, I'm still waiting for there to be a cute bump and not just a bloat that looks like I ate a few too many hamburgers ( but let's be honest, that's probably true! ).  I also don't intend to give too much information about my symptoms or pregnancy.  I have read far too many blogs with TMI and I don't want to be that girl.  Let's keep it classy, shall we?   Mmmkay, thanks .  ;) Here are a few pics for the time being!  I will be 14 weeks tomorrow and seem to be feeling better daily.  Bring on trimester two. So, there you have it!  Please keep us in your prayers as we prepar...

I hope everyone had a great day celebrating Easter and the resurrection of our Lord!  We usually would all go to my mom and dad's house and have a nice lunch, but this year after church, we did something a little different and went to our family ranch - Five Oaks Ranch.  We had a nice pot-luck picnic.  The weather was great - mid 70's and slightly windy - so it wasn't too hot! After our lunch, the grands had a little easter egg hunt ( of which I have no pics, oops! ) and then we  went by the oak tree that we named the place after, our Five Oaks tree, and took some family pictures.  See below!   W and I headed to Easter service. The whole gang in front of our Five Oaks tree! (L-R) Janel, Joanna, Jason, Jonah; Curt and Laura; Me and W; Lana, Libby, Justin As my mom would say #grandsaregrand ( yes, she know how to hashtag... ) The original 5 Kates (L-R): Me, Mom, Dad, Jason, Justin our beautiful oak tree Five Oaks Ranch I'm...