Due Date Pool

Hey everyone! Here is something that I am super excited about...

I have been thinking about a way to get people commenting on here for a while.
I want to know who reads, yo!
So...in an effort to get you all talking I am having a contest.
I am taking bets on when Evie's arrival date will be. I am going with June 1st at 3:00pm...but the person who guesses the right date and time (or the closest to it) will get a beautiful print from Michele Maule (an artist on Etsy). Here is some of her work:Just leave a comment with your vote...and I will let you all know who the winner is when the time comes. I really hope it is me, though, because I have been dying to put a few of these prints in our guest room...they are so beautiful!! Happy guessing!

Mission: Nesting

I have been putting off my urges to work on Evelyn's room with the knowledge that I just had a few weeks left of class and teaching to get through before I could focus completely on getting ready for her. This has resulted in a very, very clean home (whenever I wanted to work on her room I ended up scrubbing floors instead). Well, this weekend the urges got the best of me. Phase one of nesting is complete! Her clothes are washed, her closet is organized, the walls are painted and her rug is down (thank you Lolly!).All of her newborn and 0-3 months outfits are hanging...the rest are organized in bins

I know this shouldn't come as a surprise to me...but this little girls is going to have way too many clothes!

We set up her bouncer and let Bear give it a test-drive...he was not thrilled

Here is her new rug...which will get turned the other direction once her furniture gets here (which should be THURSDAY!)

And a quick shot of her pink walls...we are so happy with how the color came out

It felt so so good to work on her nursery...I was in a wonderful mood all weekend. It probably did not hurt that it has been gorgeous here. Saturday and Sunday saw temperatures in the mid 80's...so we spent a lot of time on the yard. Sunday was my church shower. It was so humbling receiving gifts for our little girl from people whom we had not even met. We have been so so blessed here!

This was the delicious and gorgeous cupcake-cake

And little "E" sugar cookies

I will put more pictures up once we get her furniture set up and in the room...I would be willing to bet that the nursery will be baby-ready by the beginning of next week. Yay!

Love is in The Air

Last weekend Graham and I had the pleasure of shooting Jenn and Rich's engagement session. It was so much fun because these two are super photogenic and very in love. I am excited about their wedding in August. It is gonna be a good time! Here are a few of my shots from the day:

Rich is being very James Dean here...leanin' into his love

Eskimo kisses are the BEST!

The old textile mill where we were had these little jewels of color poppage all over the place...it made for some very cool shots

This one is my favorite favorite!

Be sure to check out Graham's blog for more pictures from this beautiful Connecticut day!

Monsoon

Today a Jumanji-style monsoon came to Coventry. I seriously do not know that I have ever seen it rain so hard in my entire life...it was ridiculous. It also made the long walk from the Communication building back to my car utterly treacherous.

The good part? I find it bizarrely comforting when the weather matches my mood...it is as if someone up there is saying "yeah, that really does suck" or "here, have some sunshine to go with that pep in your step". That monsoon was a complete mirror of how it feels to be inside my head right now: totally overwhelmed and not quite knowing which was is up.

The bad part? The walk back to my car today consisted of my brain telling my swollen-sausage-feet "one in front of the other fellas, one in front of the other" while my uterus screamed at my brain to "PLEASE DEAR GOD STOP!"

Work In Progress

Here are the pictures of the basement from the beginning to end...and by "end" I mean "with carpet" because we have not gotten all of the furniture set up yet. I will post the actual finished product when it is all cleaned up and organized. This basement has added a TON of space to our house...and we are middle-school-girls-at-a-dance giddy over it. Especially Graham because he now has a "movie room"...we watched our first movie down there today. He kept saying "IT'S JUST LIKE A REAL MOVIE THEATER!!"...and I am all "If you love it so much, why don't you marry it?!". He is, as we speak, planning the ceremony.

Workin' the drill back in February...this was the sheet rocking phase

This is after the mudding and painting had been done...

And then the ceiling tiles went up...as did the frame for the screen

Then the CARPET came!!

This one step took the basement from unfinished to finished...it was amazing

And Bear completely approves...he hates the hardwoods and will probably be spending the majority of his time in the basement.
I am never ever ever moving out of this house. Far too much work has been put into it by way too many people...and I just LOVE the place!!

For The Birds

Hey...remember that time I said "I am not one for themes"? Well, I am a dirty, dirty theme-lover now. Seriously. I have gone bird crazy over this little girl. Her bedding has birds on it, the finials on her curtain rod are birds, we have bird houses galore in our house...I can't get enough. I may just come home with a cockatoo one of these days (I actually do linger dangerously long at the lovebird cages at PetsMart when I go to get Bear's food).

And then, as though the Universe knew just how much my head had gone...well...to the birds...it sent me these Pajamas for Easter. I am going to blend right in with Evie's room. Graham may not even be able to see me...these PJ's are like awesome, fashion-friendly camouflage. And one day I may even be able to button all of the buttons on the cute top...oh joy!! It's the little things in life. Really it is.

Hippity Hoppity...

Evie's first Easter has been quite eventful. After a day FULL of shopping she now has curtains, a diaper pail, and about 17 different types of pacifiers to choose from (I did not even know that many kinds even existed...but they do. I also did not know that babies were picky about which ones they would suck...but they are).

Her Lolly and Pop-pop left this morning bright and early after two solid weeks of work. The basement is so close to being done and we are extremely thankful for all of the hours that David and Debbie spent down there sheet-rocking, mudding, painting, trimming, and ceiling...ing.

And, to top it all off...she is 33 weeks old now!!

Here is what little Evelyn Grey looks like now-a-days:Bear looks at me, increasingly more often, with his big brown eyes and I swear that I can almost hear him say "My life is about to be verrrrrry different...and I am noooooot pleased."

I hope that everyone has a blessed Sunday and that Mr. Bunny is very good to you all!! Happy Easter. It is so amazing to celebrate the day that death was overcome.

The bunny cake pictured above was made by Debbie Scobey. She takes orders. Not really.
We ate the bow-tie for breakfast this morning and are going to share the rest of it with our friends Carl and Brittney after an Easter dinner tonight.

Good Friday

On this day that means so much to so many, I hope that we are all able to celebrate forgiveness, love, mercy, and grace.

“Love builds up the broken wall
and straightens the crooked path.
Love keeps the stars in the firmament
and imposes rhythm on the ocean tides.
Each of us is created of it
and, i suspect,
each of us was created for it”
- Maya Angelou

Prego Pictures

Last Friday Graham and I had the EXTREME honor of doing a maternity shoot with Carla Ten Eyck. It was the most fun day...and I felt like a princess....and now we have all of these amazing pictures to show Evie when she is older.


Check out Carla's blog for some more shots...and while you are there check out Graham's post (he was a guest blogger on her website last weekend). I cannot believe that we are only EIGHT weeks away from having this little girl. Did I mention that her nursery is painted?? Well, HER NURSERY IS PAINTED!!! We are almost ready. I have never been more excited about anything.

I wanna be a part of it...

Last weekend we took the train into Manhattan to see my Mom and Papa, who were in town because my little brother was singing at Carnegie Hall. Yeah...that Carnegie Hall. It was a pretty amazing opportunity that he got through his school's honor choir. If I were him I would start every anecdote from this point forward with "that reminds me of the time I sang at Carnegie Hall".

The trip was a whirlwind...but so much fun. It was like an extreme, two-day-long double date complete with a lot of amazing food. Seriously. Amazing. Food.

Here I am with Mom and Papa at Anthropologie...where I will one day soon be able to shop again. Yay!!

The view from our hotel room (Central Park is back there somewhere...look closely)

Some crazy people outside of Radio City Music Hall

Two thumbs up for weekend excursions!! This week has been really busy, too. Graham's parents are in town helping us finish the basement and get Evie's nursery painted. Our house is such a wreck that our dog is convinced that we are moving again. A ginormous "extreme home makeover" post is on it's way in a short while.

April Showers...

bring May babies? I guess we will have to wait and see. This shower actually took place in March...but I have been procrastinating and have not put up pictures from it yet. On our way back from the beach Graham and I had a stay-over in Atlanta, where our home church threw us a beautiful baby shower.Gifts galore!

Little girls can never have too many adorable outfits!!

A diaper cake made by Rachel (whose creativity never ceases to amaze me!)

My best friend Faith with all of the presents...old habits die hard because Faith (who was my Maid of Honor 3 years ago) ended up with list making duties...she is awesome

There were also some particularly meaningful gifts. This was Graham's sister's dress when she was a baby...so Evie will get to wear it just like her aunt did (they are expecting, too...so if they find out they are having a girl we will have to be sure to pass it back to them).
This is from Graham's mom and it is what Evelyn will be wearing home from the hospital. You cannot see it very well, but it is covered with birds and nests. It is one of my favorite things that she has.