Dear Baby Jackson

Dear Baby Jackson,

Tomorrow is the day we are supposed to find out whether you will be an Aiden or an Abigail, an Isabelle or a Caleb - please, please, please cooperate.  I know this just doesn't seem that important to you, but it is to me and your daddy.  Not because we want you to be one thing or another - we don't -, but because we want to be able to plan for you and make sure that everything is perfect for you when you arrive later this year.  I would hate for you to have a pink and green nursery if you really needed a blue and green one! :)  Thanks so much and we can't wait to see your sweet little outline tomorrow!

Love,

Your mommy & daddy

Boy or Girl - You Decide

Since the big gender reveal is in 2 days (crazy), I thought it would be fun to put up a poll (it's over on the sidebar) to see what you guys think we're having.  Don't worry, after we officially tell our families on Thursday night, I will definitely let everyone else know the official results.

Bump-date

Althought a few days late, here's the latest bump-date.  Baby Jackson is definitely getting bigger!

16 weeks - 6/20/10

P.S. - In case you're counting down (like me), we find out whether baby Jackson is a boy or girl in less than 2 weeks!

Baby Bedding

Because apparently there really are at least 2 people who read this blog (seriously, I'm amazed by this) and they happen to be curious about baby bedding, below is the bedding that I have picked out (and, in the case of the boy bedding, have already bought because I found a deal WAY too good to pass up).  The first is the picture of the bedding I have picked out for if Baby Jackson is a boy.  The second is the bedding if it happens to be a girl.

Image found here

Image found here

Regardless of whether we have a boy or girl, the nursery will be painted some shade of green.  And while the greens in each of these are similar to one another, they are not exactly the same so we'll make that final decision 2 weeks from tomorrow when we find out for sure what we're having. 

We have furniture (kind of)

Clay and I bought the last big piece of furniture for the nursery this weekend (and what some might consider the most important piece) - the glider and ottoman.  Yay!  Now, I've had several people tell me we are doing things really early, but let me just say that I disagree.  For one, I DO NOT plan to be putting together nursery furniture and decorating when I'm 8 months pregnant and so large that I can't see my feet.  Secondly, apparently furniture takes a REALLY long time to come in - everything we've ordered takes at least 10-12 weeks for delivery.  So really, even though we've ordered it all, we won't receive any of it until sometime in August probably (we ordered the crib, changing table, and dresser back at the beginning of May).  If anyone's interested, below are pictures of what we've bought.  In addition to everything below, we also bought the 5 drawer dresser in the same color/collection as the crib and changing table, but I can't find a picture of it online.  We bought the furniture at USA Baby in Franklin and the swivel glider and ottoman at Babies R Us.

Color and Crib(Creations Baby)

Changing Table (Creations Baby) - same color as crib.

Swivel Glider (Babies R Us) - we bought it in a beigy velour (very neutral), not taupe corduroy.

Ottoman (Babies R Us) - same beigy color & fabric as glider.

I can't wait for everything to get here so I can actually start decorating!  August seems so far away...

Our next big purchase is the crib mattress.  Any suggestions on that are greatly welcomed!

Baby Bump

As promised, here are pictures of the growing bump (don't judge, but yes that's the same shirt in 2 different colors - I can't help it, I like what I like and I know when I like it).  :)

8 weeks - April 25, 2010 - I'm sorry, but for some reason I look like I'm 12 in this picture.  Not sure what that's all about.

12 weeks, 2 days - May 25, 2010 - this picture is MUCH better than the first bump pic!

We're Back!

So when I decided to take a blog break because, let's face it, no one really reads this anyways and we're just not that exciting I was just tired and didn't have anything interesting to write about, I did not anticipate that it would turn into a 2 year long blog hiatus. Sorry about that!

Let's see - a lot has happened in the past year and a half - we celebrated our 2 year anniversary (and are about to celebrate #3 - CRAZY), we've been to NC several times to visit my family, we went on our first trip to NYC together (this was my first time EVER and this quite possibly might be my new favorite place in the WHOLE. WIDE. WORLD.), we've watched/been part of several friends' wedding days, we became and aunt and uncle (to the cutest one year-old ever), Clay has fulfilled his life long dream of being a flight medic, I left public accounting and moved onto industry, and lots of other fun stuff that I really can't think of right now because a lot happens in 2 years apparently.

Oh yeah, and the biggest change in the past 2 years is that we're going to have a baby. Yes, you read that correctly - Clay and I are going to be responsible for another human being. Baby J (no, we still don't know for sure what Baby J will be - July 8th is the big day for that) is set to make his/her grand entrance into the world around December 5th. However, before that happens we have TONS of things that I have been procrastinating on since we bought our house to accomplish. So, now that our life is exciting again I am fully rested from my blogging break, we should have lots of things to post about. Stay tuned for all of our excitement to come and pictures of the infamous baby bump!

Destin

Last week, we went to Destin with Clay's family and two other families (the McCooks and the Smiths). When all of the kids were little, these three families used to go on vacation together every year and it has been about 15 years since that has happened. So this year, we decided to have a reunion and we all had a great time. There were 13 of us in 1 house together for an entire week and we all made it out safely. :) The first two days we were there it rained so we were all slightly disappointed, but after that it was beautiful for the rest of the week. For the most part, we hung out on the beach or by the pool, but we did go out to dinner and play Putt-Putt as well while we were there. It was very relaxing and something that we hope to continue a little more frequently in the future. Also while we were down there, Clay and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary. We went to dinner at this fabulous little Italian restaurant called Funky's - I highly recommend it! When we got back, we all ate the top layer of our wedding cake which Clay's mom held for us in the van on the entire way to Destin so it wouldn't get smashed. People always tell you how awful there wedding cake was a year later, but let me tell you that ours tasted as if it had been made that morning still. It was so good! Everyone in the house had some with us and I'm slightly upset that I don't get to eat left over wedding cake every year on our anniversary. :)

We also went scuba diving while we were down there. Considering the first place I had ever dove before was one of the top three dive locations in the world, I was slightly spoiled going into this trip. Even so, diving in the gulf was not a good experience for us. The water was very choppy that day and I got sea sick and spent most of the morning hanging over the side of the boat (it was the same boat used in JAWS) feeding the fish. The visibility was very poor (about 10-15 feet when we were told 40-50 feet) and there was a lot of sediment in the water. For the most part, there were only very small fish around the reef we were at (Amberjack Reef - we saw no amberjack). We did see a stingray though. And we did get to use our underwater camera for the first time. I've decided I'm going to stick to diving in the Carribean from now on. However, even with the poor diving trip, we had a great vacation with wonderful family and friends and we can't wait to do it again soon!

Taste of Music City

Again, I'm really behind in the blogging world, but a couple of weeks ago a bunch of us went to Taste of Music City for Stacy's birthday. Mary and Brett even came in town for the occasion. Taste of Music City takes place on the Gateway Bridge downtown. All of the really nice restaurants set up booths with samples of their specialties and it's all you can eat and drink. We had a great time and can't wait until next year! Stacy, we hope you had a fabulous 26th birthday - welcome to being old!

Flower Beds

So this is really delayed, but a few weeks ago Clay and I decided to pull out all of the pine straw from our flower beds in the front and lay down mulch instead. Our house was built in 1999 and I'm pretty sure that every year since then new pine straw was just layed over the old layers. It took us forever, but we are very happy with the end results. Also, while we were pulling out the pine straw from near the front door we came across a slithery little friend. Our conversation went something like this:

• Clay (with the rake in hand, but looking in another direction at an actual worm - not at the rake): Oh look, that's a really big worm.
• Amber (looking at the rake as he's pulling out the pine straw - at the top of my lungs): THAT'S NOT A WORM, IT'S A FREAKING SNAKE!!!

For those who don't know, I am NOT a fan of snakes no matter how small they are. Unfortunately, since I was too busy screaming and running in the opposite direction I was not able to get a picture of the snake.

I forgot to take a before picture, so this is an in-process picture. :)

Clay is just so proud of his finished project!

However, while we were slaving away in our front yard, our neighbors were mowing their backyard and they found a nice little surprise as well. In between their fence and our fence they found a divot in the ground that was home to four newborn moles. Now I realize that moles are VERY bad for our yard, but they have never in a little over two years found their way underneath our fence, so I didn't want to kill them. They were tiny and couldn't have been more than a couple weeks old. Somehow I convinced the neighbor's son to take them out into the woods - I just couldn't justify kiling them. Because they were so young though, they probably died anyways. But they were just so darn cute. See for yourselves!