and in the Morrison household, that means it's time for our annual puppy pictures!
It all started last year when there was a bit of a skunk incident (long, stinky story...). So on my trip to the pup store, I decided to punish our four-leggeds by grabbing some Halloween costumes along with the skunk-off. Well it ended up not so much a punishment because the puppies were just delighted to wear their costumes. They were the cutest Batman and Robin in all of Knoxvegas!
This year proved to be just as much fun! Sienna loves to make the same scary face every year. We have the most adorable little Pooh Bear and the saddest little Eeyore in town. I just love these sweet peas:
The pups would like to wish everyone an extra Happy Halloween! And they hope it's not too scary :)
So it's no surprise to most that when it comes to my personal life, I am a TOTAL procrastinator. With the exception of paying my bills on time, I typically wait until the last minute has already passed to get the rest of my life together. Like... I do 8 loads of laundry the morning that I leave town for the week. We paid for two internet services for 13 months just because I dreaded making that phone call to cancel. I honestly use the same bank account I opened IN TEXAS because I haven't had the time in the last 7 years to transfer it. I'm kinda of the opinion that if I work super hard in my career (which I do), that I shouldn't hardly have to do anything once I get home. Look...Josh gets a career woman or a housewife...he ain't getting both.
With that said, I must say that I am sooooo super duper proud of myself when it comes to baby-prep. No, I'm definitely not nesting yet, but it's really actually fun for me to get ready for this baby-thing that's about to change my life so much. I'm blaming the sobriety...
Several weeks ago, before we knew the baby's gender, my sister and mom came in town to help me paint our nursery. Completely dull and boring me insisted on a gray color from the get-go. According to feng-shui, I got this totally wrong and gray is basically the WORST color to raise a baby in, but whatever...I think it turned out great!
We eventually finished out the walls, and I was very pleased with the final product. Because of the white doors and white trim, we also decided that stark white furniture would be the best bet for our Baby-Mo. Again, very gender neutral. In fact, we've already gone to the store and picked it up and put it in the room! Way ahead of schedule. So here's our dresser:
And here's our crib:
We also have this piece that we intend to paint white:
Alright, so maybe Josh has a big project or two to complete in the near future, but I still feel really good about the progress we've made so far. I've even already ordered a light gray rocker that's supposed to arrive in November. It will probably end up being Bubbaloo's 18th bed, but still excited to put it in the nursery.
We've gotten a good head start on the closet. Jace has already worked up quite the wardrobe. Luckily for my pocketbook, Jace is not a girl, so the closet isn't quite filled up yet.
I've also made it a habit to grab a box of diapers every time I go to the grocery store (which is never) and Target. We've got three and a half months to go, and I haven't had my baby shower yet...I think Jace is off to a great start:
We're going with a chevron and elephant theme. Elephants have always been my favorite animal, and sweet Jace is just going to have to learn to love them too:
Now that we know we're having a boy, navy blue accents to come soon!
One of my very favorite presents so far is from my mom. I even remember singing this all time with her when I was little. I can't sing worth a damn, so Jace will just have to learn to read at an early age:
And last but certainly not least:
Talk about the ultimate bedtime story. Bravo to our friend, Dawn, for giving us this gem. Y'all, this book is hilarious...a freaking New York Times Best Seller! And don't think we won't read it to our sweet Jace. Let's just hope his first word isn't four letters :)
Josh and I disagree on a lot of things. For example: how to separate laundry (I don't), what kind of milk to buy (whole-duh), how much spice to put in spaghetti sauce (none), whether or not the dogs should sleep in the bed (absolutely), the best color in the world (brown), etc, etc. However, if there is one thing that we 100% always agree on, it's the people that we choose to surround ourselves with, and let me tell you...we have won the lottery in that regard!
The number of people that came to support us was just overwhelming and wonderful. We maaaybe had to entice most of our guests with lots of alcohol and a little bit of food, but hey...whatever works! We had friends and family show up dressed in either #teampink or #teamblue colors (with a few showing up in #teamvol colors...totally understandable). I have to say, our guests were looking extra festive on Saturday. I was very proud of them.
I have to start with our two biggest supporters: our wonderful pups. Julia wins for the best photo of the weekend with this one:
I mean, seriously?? My heart is just squishing into nothing with this cuteness...
Alright-the rest of the bunch aren't quite so adorable, but we love them anyway:
I take back previous statement. Baby Thomas might be MORE adorable than the pups :)
I'm more than a bit devastated to confess that all of my post-reveal pics were deleted when I finally completed my phone transfer. We took TONS of really great family photos after the reveal, and they're all gone :(
I also had a great one of our friend, Jess, who is expecting a baby girl the day after my due date! Plus a few of my sweet co-workers that made the trek out west. and I can't forget about my cool nephew, Chase, and his friend, Spencer. All totally vanished.
The worst part...I had tons of hilarious late-night photos that are all gone too. Some of y'all are lucky for that though. I'm beginning to think this was an act of sabotage...
I'm thankful for the three family photos that Google+ did manage to back-up. And I'm even more thankful for having sober memories to keep all the other moments that my phone lost.
The grandparents got some good practice holding a baby boy:
These two photos below are my favorites. That's a whole lotta good souls squashed together right there:
And our most festive friend award goes to......
None other than "Crackhead." This may be difficult to believe, but no...he's not an actual crackhead (that we know of). Well done, dude. Well done.
I can't even emphasize enough how truly lucky we are to have such wonderful people in our lives (even you, Crackhead). We are so appreciative of the support, the laughs, and the fabulous times that our friends and family share with us.
Thanks to everybody that came out last weekend. Y'all truly overflow our hearts with happiness :)
Let me just start off by stating the obvious: I have the best sister in the history of mankind.
I'm not here to get into too much sappy detail on how much I love her. Look, I don't want to cramp my style, we both get weirded out by mushy stuff, and we don't even hardly hug each other. Simply put, I just love her to pieces, and I can't imagine the hell I would be living if it weren't for her guidance (no offense mom and dad - y'all did good too!). She's been there for me through all the downs in my life...and even more important to me, she's been there to celebrate every single one of the ups! Not only has she been there to celebrate, she's PLANNED all of the occasions. For example, Josh and I would probably have one of those lifetime engagement type deals if it weren't for her wedding-planning expertise. Like literally, we'd be too lazy to even do a drive-thru wedding in Gatlinburg.
Kara is like a fine wine, she just gets better at party-planning with age. Despite the fact that she works full-time, has two children that play a gazillion sports, and has a needy wonderful and darling husband, she was more than eager to somehow fit gender-reveal party-planner into her busy schedule. It was by far her latest and greatest event.
We started off bright and early looking fresh faced and beautiful in our PJs by doing some arts and crafts. This is something that I do NOT excel at, but I wasn't hungover...so I really tried this time.
No, she's not my younger sister...
Notice how big sis is working on her second pumpkin, and little sis has not even started on her first...
Finally to work.
I spent the rest of the day playing Farmville 2 scrubbing my house clean while my sister and mom ran errands. The crazy part...mom had NO clue about the gender this whole time. Like I said before...Kara knew for FIVE weeks without disclosing even the smallest hint.
Poor Mom was really rooting for a girl :)
Prepping the reveal-box. As evidenced by my garage, please note that my "nesting" phase of pregnancy has not quite kicked in yet.
Kara, Joan, and the pups do some last minute food-prep.
The house might have needed a liiiiittle more cleaning than we had planned, so we were still putting up decorations as guests were arriving. And I maaaay have put our guests to a little bit of work too, but it all turned out SO stinking cute. 99.999% of these ideas below came from my sister. Please enjoy and feel free to steal any or all ideas:
and last but not least...Josh shows off his "Modern Family" style shirt. No worries...he eventually rolled up his sleeves.
Kara's hours upon hours of selfless work surely did not go unnoticed. I mean...she made our house look like a freaking Pinterest showcase. We're so blessed to have her and her family in our lives, and we can't express our appreciation for all that they do for us.
Thanks again, Kara. Virtual hug for you...they're much less awkward than the real kind :)
So it's no secret that I'm a huge fan of the hyperbole, but I swear on everything...I really, honestly, truly got to experience the most exciting moment of my life on Saturday. Like...it was better than any vacation, athletic event, academic achievement, paycheck, alcoholic beverage (seriously!), or hell...even better than my wedding day! My gender reveal was hands-down the happiest and giddiest I've ever felt in my life.
The video speaks for itself:
The video may not be viewable depending on your device, but let me describe:
1. Chubby and extremely competitive preggers opens black box with husband.
2. Blue balloons fly out of box.
3. Loud cheers from crowd.
4. Preggers does ridiculously embarrassing and uncoordinated dance, jump, and clap for several seconds while husband is laughing with at her.
5. Drunken patron yells out "the pencil test!" several times.
6. Husband tries to hug and pick up fat preggers, but only manages to get her about an inch or so off ground.
7. End video.
It's hard to believe that I was ever a cheerleader in high school. Josh and I have watched this video probably 100+ times, and we die laughing every time at my ridiculousness. Seriously, I look like a fat kid that just spotted three dozen cupcakes. If this is what my happy looks like, I might just go into a permanent state of depression to spare myself any future embarrassment.
Here are some much more presentable still-shots of the special moment:
Seriously though, I'm really super excited about having a boy. I mean...I can't cook, dance, sew, clean, dance, sing, dance, organize, do my hair, or even dance. I have NOTHING to offer a daughter. The only girly thing about me is my stupid obsession with awful TV shows like Real Housewives and The Hills. No poor girl deserves to be raised in that kind of world. Since I can remember, I've always wanted a sweet son that I can play in the dirt with.
The real hero during this entire occasion has been my amazing sister who has kept Baby Mo's gender a secret for FIVE WEEKS (more on her awesomeness in later posts this week). Not to burst my sister's bubble, but I actually knew the gender since July 11th (9 weeks preggers) when one of my Kentucky retailers did the "pencil-test" on me. Our best friend, Pete, was there as a witness. Apparently, the pencil test has yet to be proven wrong in Kentucky. It's basically better than science, and it's the main reason I've been #teamblue since the beginning:
oh how I miss those thinner days :)
Saturday was such a wonderful success. In fact, I'll be blogging more details about this special day all week. I have HUGE thanks to give out to my sister for putting this all together and especially for knowing how to keep her mouth shut. Not to get all sappy, but we will never be able to repay her for the happiness we felt during that moment and the memories we will always have.
Jace Dwight Morrison - we pray for your health, we love you so much already, and we can't wait to hold you in our arms soon :)
