Zane's First Christmas

Zane's First Christmas Morning

This Christmas has been a lot of fun with Zane, yet very stressful and odd at the same time. Let me start by saying that I have basically been sick since about December 3, sometimes getting a little better but never fully, and then it hits full strength again. I started with a bacterial upper respiratory infection with a sore throat and some sinus congestion, started feeling better with antibiotics, but then started getting some major head congestion 5 days into the antibiotics. I am pretty sure I caught a virus while still recovering from my infection. Somewhere in there Zane got sick too, I guess about the 17th. With a sick baby and a full time job with no spare time off, it is pretty difficult for a sick Mommy to get enough rest to get better. Zane seems to be feeling better than he did, but he still has a pretty nasty cough. He was out of daycare for an entire week. Since Friday afternoon, I am feeling about as bad as I have at any of the worst points of it this month, with about the worst stuffy nose I have ever had and a lingering cough. All of this made the preparations for Christmas very difficult and stressful for me. We barely managed to get all our Christmas presents bought between last Saturday and Tuesday, the 22nd. It worked to my favor that we are having a pretty scaled down Christmas this year anyway because of our financial constraints from having Zane this year. Despite all of that, we managed to have a great Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with Zane.

On Christmas Eve, I had to work until 2pm (like I said, no spare time off!), then it was a whirlwind of trying to get together last minute presents and wrapping and getting ourselves together to be at Tommy's parents' home before 5pm. Did I mention that it started snowing?! We spent a little time over there as his mother's family, the Wallace clan, began gathering for our traditional Christmas Eve together. Everyone was a bit slower in gathering than usual because of the bizzare snow storm that had hit! We slipped out for a bit in the middle to attend our church's annual Christmas Eve service. Tommy had never been to the Christmas Eve service since he has always been with his family, and I haven't been in 7 years! Pops (my dad) really wanted us to be there because he wanted us to help him light the final advent candle with him as each staff member had lit one candle with their families. It was a wonderful time of reflection and celebration as we considered the significance of Christ's birth in our lives. Zane did great for the lighting of the candle and then fell asleep on Daddy's lap by about the 3rd carol as he had missed his late afternoon nap in all of the running around. It was fun to attend as a family. We are still trying to figure out a way to work this in to our typical Christmas traditions every year (or at least some years). After the service, we returned to Mimi & Papa Bear's house to spend more time with the Wallaces. Zane crashed at about 8:15, so exhausted that he didn't even want to eat his last feeding of the day. We had a good time with the family, watching all the kids play and adoring the new babies that came this year (3 total on that side, Zane, Noah, and Tommy's cousin's baby girl- Aurie). Then, home late to finish wrapping gifts! Did I mention that I didn't get enough sleep this week?

Family Picture on Christmas Eve

Fun Fact- We got engaged in front of this very tree 6 years ago

With snow still covering the ground, this was the first white Christmas in the Metroplex that I ever had. Christmas morning arrived a bit earlier than it has in previous years. Zane woke us up at 6:30am to start the day. Even Zane looks pretty tired in the pictures. After Zane had his breakfast, we opened gifts as a family. It was fun to start a new tradition, gathering around the tree to see what Santa brought and then take turns opening presents. I am sure it will get even more fun in the years to come.

The 3 of us on Christmas morning

After our small family Christmas time, we made a brief stop to see Gigi & Pops (my parents) so that they could see Zane on his first Christmas before they headed to Dripping Springs to see my brother and sister-in-law. They were so happy to see Zane in his cute Santa hat and he took a great interest in their Christmas tree. Then, back to Mimi & Papa Bear's house to open presents with Tommy's immediate family and his dad's side of the family. This was a much smaller gathering than Christmas Eve as Tommy's dad has a smaller family and Tommy's Aunt Nancy was not even there because she was sick. Zane and his cousin Noah had a great time opening presents (rather watching presents being opened) on their first Christmas and then they both went down for a much-needed nap while we ate Christmas lunch. And, at that, the festivities for this weekend were over and we actually had nothing planned and nowhere that we needed to be. Odd, but we have been grateful for some down time.

Zane (3 mos) & cousin Noah (2 mos) with Papa Bear

I say odd because we would typically be spending the rest of Christmas day and then a day or two after with my family. That is kind of how we have worked things the last few years. This has been anything but a typical year in my family, however! With everyone having babies, our holidays have been a little off-track. We were not all able to get together at Thanksgiving because my brother, Robin, and his wife, Jill, had just welcomed their 2nd child, Foster, a week before Thanksgiving. They were obviously not ready to make a big trip from Tulsa and we could not all be together there because my other brother, Craig, and his wife, Fallon, could not travel because she was 8 months pregnant. For Christmas, we decided to wait to get together until Fallon has baby Lylah Belle, expected any day now (due Jan. 6). If we had all traveled to the Austin area this weekend, it would have been pretty difficult for Robin & Jill to pack up their preschooler and newborn and make the trip again, not to mention difficult for us with Zane, after she comes, so it may have been months before they were able to make the trip to meet her. So, the Curry family Christmas is on hold for now and we are playing it by ear. I think we are all hopeful (most of all Fallon) that she will come sometime this week so that we can all go out there over New Year's. I am really missing my family right now but I am very excited that next time we are together, we will be 2 larger than we were the last time we were all together (just after Zane was born).

The rest of this weekend has been one of recouperation and enjoying new things. I have designated this weekend as my "sick days" since I haven't been able to take one from work since I first got sick, so I am forcing myself to keep it low key. Zane has received so many presents already! He has been enjoying some of his new toys and taking long naps.

Check out Zane discovering how to work a new toy from MeMaw & Great-Pops (Tommy's grandparents):

View our complete Christmas photo album on Facebook with this link. You do not have to be a facebook member to view it.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2027672&id=152601048&l=3b55efc542

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Crystal

3 Months... A Little Late!

Zane,
You are 3 months old now. Well, you turned three months old last week actually! Mommy is a little behind. You are growing so fast! You are at least 14 lbs now (double your birth weight) and I think about 25 inches long!

This past month we had a great time! You went on your first road trips. First, we went to Cisco, TX to visit your Uncle Craig & Aunt Fallon and help them move. Then, the very next weekend, we traveled to Tulsa, OK to visit Uncle Robin & Aunt Jill and see Emma and meet cousin Foster for the very first time! You were a great traveler for both trips. You slept in the car pretty much the entire drive and never fussed at all. Our trip to Tulsa took quite a bit longer than normal but it wasn't because of anything that you could have helped, besides the diaper blowout all over mommy and the seat. You also had your first Thanksgiving. We spent Thanksgiving with Daddy's family at Mimi & Papa Bear's house. Aunt Tammy & Uncle Cameron were there with Noah, and Great Aunt Lesha and Uncle Chris came with Isabella. It was a fairly small group, but we had a great time eating, playing with you and Noah, and watching football.

Zane with newborn cousin Foster

Mommy had to go back to work at the end of this month. :-( This was very difficult on Mommy, but you have adjusted pretty quickly. You started daycare on the day that you turned 3 months old. Mommy misses you so much during the day but the daycare is good. Your teachers are Miss Angie & Miss Danielle. They do lots of fun things with you and you even finger-painted a snowflake last week!

You are learning more and more every day. You laughed out loud for the first time a few weeks ago while you were with Pops & Gigi. Pops said you really liked the song "Elvira." You talk and coo at us every day, but especially in the evenings right before bed. You have really discovered your hands this month and you love to explore them with your mouth. You are getting so good at grabbing at things. Your favorite thing to do right now is play in your activity gym, batting and grabbing at the toys hanging down in front of you. You also love watching football (seriously!) on TV. You will watch football for long periods of time.

You are on a really good routine now. You eat, then play, then nap in about 3 hour cycles. You have been sleeping great (most of the time). You usually go to bed between 8:30 and 10 and will often sleep straight through until about 2:30 or 3am, when you wake up for a quick snack and then go right back to sleep until about 7am. You are napping much more easily than you used to as well.

We are having so much fun being your Mommy & Daddy. Even though the transition to working full time has been a little hard on all of us, you just go with the flow and adapt to whatever situation we put you in. Our evenings and weekends with you are precious time!

We love you Little Man!!

With Love,

Mommy (Crystal)

Loving our Time at Home

Zane is 10 1/2 weeks old now. I cannot believe how fast he is growing and changing. It has been such a blessing to be home with him these past weeks. As I am preparing to start back to work in a little more than a week, I have been thinking back on our time at home and trying not to dwell on the time I will have to spend away from him. I have absolutely loved spending my days with him. Our mornings have been precious as Zane tends to be very happy and easy in the mornings. He smiles and plays with me for a good long while and then goes down for his nap pretty easily without much complaining. We have had a lot of fun going to lunch with friends some days. We've spent some lunches with Mimi- my mother-in-law, Marla. We have had the opportunity to spend some time with some of my friends who are stay-at-home moms with their kiddos and that has been wonderful. It is great to be around other young moms. I am blessed to have a ton of support with my friends and family! We have also been able to spend some time with my sister-in-law Tammy and her baby Noah since she has also been on maternity leave. Through it all, Zane has been so easygoing and ready to go. Of course, we have had our moments when he screamed and screamed in Target until we got in the car and he immediately crashed out, but I would expect no less. I would probably be cranky too if I woke up from a nap and I was in the middle of the clearance section at Target.
I am so glad I was able to take a full 12 weeks off with Zane. I have mixed feelings about returning to work. In a perfect world, I don't know that I would choose to stay home with my kids forever, but I do think I would stay home full time for the first year or so and then maybe go back part-time. But, this is not a perfect world and our current financial situation requires me to have a full time paycheck, so I go back to work the week of Thanksgiving. I am so sad to think that someone else will be sharing the mornings with Zane in a couple of weeks and I will miss so many smiles, but I hope that I will only appreciate those moments even more when they are fewer. I am also a little scared about releasing some of my control over how he spends his day. I may look pretty chill on the outside but on the inside, I am quite a control freak, so this really does terrify me. What if they don't put him down for a nap when I think he should go down? What if they can't get him to sleep? Naps are our biggest struggle right now, so that is probably why my fears are mostly nap related.
The other side of me is just a little bit excited to go back to work. I do love my job and it will be good to be that version of me again, if that makes sense. Being a mommy is amazing, but it will be kind of nice to have one part of my life back to "normal" again. I feel very out of the loop with my co-workers and my job and I am really wondering how my kiddos and families are doing. Being a parent changes everything, so I am sure that I will bring a new perspective to my work and hopefully, that will be a good thing. I know that working again with children with cancer will make me thank God every day for the health of my child and pray every day that he will continue to grow healthy in every way. It will also be nice to have all the unknowns about returning out of the way and to fall into our long-term routine, whatever that will look like. I am sure that Zane will adjust to daycare just fine, but it may take me a while to get used to it. I do think having Zane will motivate me to get out of the office more quickly at the end of the day! I can document tomorrow, I have a baby to take care of now!

One more week at home! So much to do and so many moments to relish and enjoy!

Sorry no pictures in this post, my computer is still broken so I only had a limited amount of time to post from Tommy's work laptop. Next post we will have some pictures of our first road trips (yes, plural!) as we are heading to Cisco tomorrow to help my brother Craig and his wife, Fallon, pack up their house to move. The weekend after that we will be driving all the way to Tulsa to meet our nephew, Foster, who will be born any day between now and Tuesday of next week. Whoo! I am pretty sure we are crazy to do two trips in two weekends, but we will likely be pros at traveling with Zane by the time we are through. Until then!

With Love,

Crystal

2 Months Old

Zane,

You turned 2 months old on Saturday, your first Halloween. You amaze us every day with how quickly you are growing and learning. You are now 11 and a half pounds and 24 inches tall!! You are almost outgrowing your 0-3 month clothing already. You smile so much now and it brightens our hearts every time you do. You like to play laying on your back, kicking your legs and moving your arms, smiling at the things that you see and at Mommy and Daddy's attempts to amuse you. You are starting to get more control of your arms and you can grab soft things now like a burp cloth or shirt next to you on the changing table. You coo and talk to us a lot now too, especially in the evenings before bedtime.

Mommy and Daddy found a book that helped us learn how to help you fall asleep on your own better and you have been doing so well! Since we moved you from the bassinet in our room to the crib in your room a couple of weeks ago, you have really thrived in sleeping at night. You are learning quickly to fall asleep on your own without much fuss at all at night. You have even given Mommy a couple of nights where you slept 6 or 7 hours straight. Daytime naps in your crib are quite a different story, but you are fussing about them less and less. We are on a good routine now where you eat and then we play and then you take a nap and then we start over every 2 1/2 to 3 hours during the day. This has been going really well for you and Mommy, besides your hesitation with naps.

We absolutely adore you and love every day with you, Little Man!

Learning and Growing

3 more weeks have gone by with no post! Our computer was in the shop for a few weeks and now that we have it back, it broke again. Who would have thought. I can do Facebook and Gmail from my phone, but blogging is pretty limited to an actual computer. We have been loving our little man this month. He is getting so big and strong. He started smiling a couple of weeks ago and melts our hearts every time we get that big smile looking up at us. Playing with him in the mornings is my favorite part of every day. Here are a couple of pictures and a video from our last couple of weeks.

Might not look like much, but he sure is amazing to us! I wanted to share a video of him playing and cooing at Tommy's parents' house. He is busy busy all the time.

The big news of the month is that our nephew, Noah Michael Torok, was born to Tommy's sister and brother-in-law, Tammy and Cameron, on October 3. Here is a little video of Zane and Noah's first meeting. The week Noah was born, Zane weighed in at 8 lbs, 9 oz. Noah was 8 lbs, 10 oz at birth! We are anticipating that these boys will get into a lot of mischief together. Now we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of cousin Foster (to my brother Robin and his wife Jill) in November, and cousin Lylah to arrive in December/January to my brother Craig and his wife Fallon. What a great year!

Crystal

1 Month Old

My friend Shea does a blog for each time that her baby turns another month old. I think that is a great idea, so I have decided to copy her idea. Hope you don't mind Shea!

Zane, you are 1 month old already! We can't believe how quickly the time has gone or how much you have grown already! You are weighing in at 8 lbs, 8.5 oz now, almost a pound and a half heavier than your birthweight of 7 lbs, 2 oz. You are starting to outgrow some of your newborn clothes now, and I have been having some fun trying your 0-3 month outfits on you to see which ones are starting to fit.

You are spending more time awake now and Daddy and I have fun with that. You have several periods a day that you are awake and happy. You spend your time staring at us and everything around you, soaking everything in. You've started to coo at us, but mostly you just grunt. :-)

You still like to have your hands in your face and you still put them in your mouth some, but you really like your pacifier now. Sometimes you suck it so hard that you push it right out. You've started looking for it when you lose it now and you get frustrated when you can't get your hands to cooperate and bring it to your mouth.

You sleep pretty well.... sometimes. We had one all-nighter with you when you just decided you didn't like sleep anymore, or at least not sleep in your own bassinet instead of in our arms. You are definitely a night owl, but no one is surprised about that considering your parents. Your schedule would be great if we were still in college and could sleep all morning. For a while you liked to be awake from about 9pm to 11 or 12. You are getting a little better about going to sleep earlier. We are pretty excited if you are asleep before 10:45 or 11, but you sleep pretty well through the night, waking up to eat a couple of times and usually going back to sleep within 30 minutes after you finish eating.

You have had a busy first month, meeting so many people that care about you. Your Gigi and Pops (my parents) have hardly been able to go more than a day without seeing you. Your Mimi and Papa Bear (Tommy's parents) have been spending a lot of time with you too. All of your aunts and uncles made a special point to come visit you in the first week of your life. You have been to church a few times already now and everybody thinks you are precious. We have heard "Look at all that hair!" about a thousand times. Lots of friends have come to visit you at home as well. In the first 2 weeks of your life, I think you had at least one visitor every day. Popular guy already!

As much as you have grown and changed in the past month, we are excited to see what the next month will hold. We love you so much already and we are enjoying getting to know you. We love our little man!!

Both pictures on this post were taken yesterday when Zane celebrated 1 month of life!

With love,

Crystal

Zane's First Weeks

I can't believe Zane is already 3 1/2 weeks old! The time is flying by and he is already growing and changing before our eyes.

Here are a few things we have learned in the past 25 days:

1. It turns out we CAN still function on the amount of sleep we got in college.

2. Always take the opportunity for a nap or shower when it arises. You can never assume that another opportunity will come that day.

3. Makeup? Just be glad that I got deodorant on and brushed my teeth today. The priorities are a bit different.

4. Maternity leave is not a time to complete household projects. "I'll be home for 12 weeks. I can get that closet cleaned out." Ha! It's a good day if I get a shower and one load of laundry done. Hence why I haven't been blogging much.

5. "Dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge." Urine is not the only thing that can be projectile.

6. Zane- "Mom and Dad, thanks so much for putting a fresh diaper on me. I was just waiting for that so that I could poopy. Oh, did you think I was done? Oops, guess we need yet another diaper." I think our grand record is 4 fresh diapers in one diaper change session....

7. Swaddling works wonders, while it lasts.... He started kicking out a week ago.

8. Quiet alert time is the most precious time. Naptime is right after that.

9. There is always someone who is willing to hold the baby.....

10. He is worth it all.... the pregnancy miseries, the labor and delivery, the loss of sleep, the hard days, and the complete upheaval of life as we formerly knew it.

We love our little man so much! Here are a few pictures of him since we brought him home.

Zane's first bath. He hated it so much that he peed directly on Daddy!

Hanging out with Uncle Robin. Robin & Jill and Craig & Fallon all came to visit the weekend after he was born.

Aunt Fallon and cousin Emma getting to know him.

Stretch!

The Hawaiian outfit we put him in for our friend's beach-themed anniversary party. It was kind of big.... but precious. Check out the flip flops! They make his feet look so tiny!

Tall and skinny boy! Takes after his Daddy in that respect for sure.


I wanted to share this video too. Those of you that know Tommy will appreciate this. He insisted on buying a book about "kid-versions" of superheroes for Zane so he could start teaching him about the superheroes. Male-bonding time....

That is all for now. If Zane will let me, I will try to keep the blog regularly updated with more pictures.

With Love,

Crystal

Zane has arrived!

I hope everyone will forgive me for being a little behind on the blog. As most of you already know, our little Zane Curry Williamson arrived on Monday, August 31 (my dad's birthday!) at 1:18pm. He weighed 7 lbs, 2 oz., and he was 19 1/4 in.

I actually got up Saturday morning feeling "weird." It was hard to explain, but I kind of felt like my blood pressure was high. I haven't had any problems with my blood pressure throughout the pregnancy or anything but I was a little nervous about it so we found somewhere to check it and it was just borderline high but nothing to call the doctor about. That continued off and on throughout the day. We were ready to get this baby coming and everybody was pulling for him to come on Dad's birthday, so we did a little walking on Saturday and ate Mexican food. By Saturday evening, I started having some contractions but still pretty far apart and a little inconsistent. I was able to sleep pretty well that night despite the contractions. On Sunday, I continued having contractions and by mid-afternoon they were about 4-6 minutes apart. We decided to go ahead and call the doctor. My doctor was not on call for the weekend :-( , but the doctor that I spoke with said that I could probably wait a little until they were more intense since this was my first baby. We headed up to the hospital about an hour later, but of course the contractions slowed down some once we got there. They ended up sending us home but the nurse said that I was in the early stages of labor and that she would expect me to have him within 24-36 hours. Meanwhile, dad had everyone at church (including Ms. Mozelle, who ranks right up there with Elijah in the prayer area) praying that the baby would come on his birthday- Monday. The prayers apparently worked, because my contractions backed off to every 7-9 minutes for most of the night, but they definitely increased in intensity. I didn't sleep more than 2 hours total Sunday night. By morning, the contractions started coming closer together again and by morning, they were 4-6 minutes apart again but much more intense.

We got to the hospital about 7am. They admitted me for sure this time and the timing was perfect because my doctor was back on call and it was dad's birthday! I got my epidural pretty quick, which was good because I was in a whole lot of pain by that point. After my epidural, I felt great! I was chatting with Tommy's parents and my parents and the other friends and family members that were visiting. I hadn't progressed very much in the first few hours there and the doctor came back in at about 12:30 to check me. With everyone waiting in the hall, the doctor discovered that I was fully progressed and ready to start pushing. Tommy had to pass everyone's purses out the door as we tried to come to grips with the reality that we were about to have a baby. Just about 30 minutes of pushing later, Zane was here.

He has a full head of light brown hair and dark blue eyes for now. Dad was elated that Zane came on his birthday! I don't think he stopped smiling for a few days. Everything has gone very smoothly and both he and I have been very healthy so far. I will do another post soon about his first couple of weeks. We are so proud of our little man!!

I am including a couple of pictures of the day of his birth, but click on this link to view a full album of pictures from his birth up to a few days ago. It is on Facebook but you do not have to be a member to view the album with this link.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2025253&id=152601047&l=2f504a34b4

I am limited on what pictures I can include right now because all of the pictures are on Tommy's computer or the flash drive that he left at my parents' house. Here are a few that Tommy emailed me to include today.




Check out the album for more. I will post again soon about his first few weeks.

With love,

Crystal

Patience, patience.....

I am 38 weeks and 2 days pregnant now, meaning that little Zane is full term and could come at any point now. A couple of weeks ago, I was really freaking out about how quickly he could be here and I was frantic to try to finish everything. Now, we pretty much have everything done and ready and we are just waiting. Neither me or Tommy are very good at just waiting. Part of the reason that I end up being late all the time is because if I have a few minutes, I want to do just one more thing which typically makes me run late. I also hate getting places early and then having to sit around. Tommy just gets bored and feels like he should be doing something fun instead of waiting. I think he is even more ready than I am at this point mostly out of sheer boredom..... He told me yesterday that he almost sent me a text message from work saying, "Can you go into labor now? I'm bored." He didn't send it, but that's where he is mentally. It's kind of like the last couple of weeks before your wedding when all the major stuff is pretty much done and you are just ready to be done with it all and be married already. The only difference is that we don't have a specific date to wait for. Everyday we wake up and wonder, "Will today be the day?" and then we go to bed a little disappointed when nothing has happened. It is really difficult to be simultaneously mentally prepared to have a baby any day but also be prepared for another 2+ weeks of pregnancy, especially at this point in the pregnancy. I am feeling pretty good most of the time, but I am quite ready to be done with this part. Funny how you think you are going to be scared about labor and all that it entails, but really I am just so ready to see my little boy that I don't really care what I will have to endure in the short run to be able to see him. Labor is just a temporary means to an end.

Everything has been going well and I am feeling pretty good most of the time. My doctor was slightly concerned at my appointment last week because of the way he was measuring but when they did a sonogram, he looked fine and he is all the right size but just has a slightly smaller abdomen than most. They think he will probably just be tall and skinny, but who is really surprised about that? Have you seen Tommy? They are watching us a little more closely now but everything is still looking fine. We will go back to the doctor on Monday. Every time we go to the doctor now, we are basically ready to be admitted to the hospital. On Wednesday this week, we had the car packed and everything just in case. We are taking the "Be prepared" approach.

Personally, Tommy and I are rooting for any day now, but my dad is pulling for Monday so that he can share his birthday with Zane. So, cross your fingers and send some good "go into labor" vibes our way this weekend. Please be praying for a safe delivery and a healthy baby boy!!

With love,

Crystal

And the Countdown Begins....

Okay, okay, I freely admit that I have sorely failed at doing my job of updating the blog over the last (eesh) couple of months. I have a whole list of excuses that I will try not to spend all my time on (*Tommy hogging the Internet connection on his video games* Ahem, I mean...... I didn't say anything.... ) :-). Regardless, we have been very busy trying to get ready for Zane and keep up with our busy lives this summer. I was also a little hesitant to post for a while because I lost our brand new camera and I was really pretty depressed about it and just didn't want to post much without having many pictures to go along with it. Lame excuse, I know, but it contributed. Thanks to the generosity of our family, we have a new camera now so that we can take lots of great pictures and videos of Zane after he arrives.

It is a bit of a daunting task to try to quickly summarize the last 2 months in one post, but I will do my best to just give the highlights. I will make a bigger photo album on facebook (soon I promise!) to include more of the great pictures from along the way.

The dogs are trying to adjust. They like to hide under the crib!

My good friend Amy got to visit briefly in July. I was 31 weeks here.

We finally got the room arranged so that we could fit all the furniture. This was a challenge!

We had a great baby shower from our church in July. (I'm 32 weeks here)

Our friend Christi made this for us. Isn't it cute!

Smallz made himself comfortable with all of the stuff we got at our church shower.

We did a few maternity pictures in July as well. I was 32 weeks. Our friend Landon did a fabulous job!

My Grandmom finished the t-shirt quilt she made for me of all my sorority shirts from college and brought it in July. I love it!

We had a great time at the lake with my family in July. Here is my niece Emma making friends with 2nd cousin Carson.

We have already had a busy month of August as well. My co-workers threw me a shower at work, but unfortunately I do not have any pictures of that one yet. I will have to get my friend Donna to send me the ones that she took. I didn't want to risk taking even my old camera because the camera that I mentioned before that I lost, yeah, I lost it at work...

Some of our college friends threw us a fun shower last weekend. We had a great time reuniting with lots of friends and family. Tommy entertained the men with video games upstairs.

My wonderful hostesses

My friend Jacque got to be here for the shower from North Carolina. Unfortunately I didn't get any posed pictures with her. But here she is next to me!

Tommy's sister, Tammy, is only 4 weeks behind me. We are looking forward to Zane having a great time with his cousin Noah! We are 35 and 31 weeks here.

Whew! I think those are the main highlights of the last couple of months. Zane's room is just about ready. We just need to hang things on the wall. I will definitely post with the finished product. I am 36 weeks now and we are realizing every day that he will be here very soon. This is both exciting and terrifying! We have just about everything we need (and so much more), aside from a couple of trips to Babies R Us and Target. I am feeling okay most of the time, just tired and getting a little fed up with having this big belly and all the pregnancy woes. I plan to keep working until I deliver or Labor Day weekend, whichever comes first, as long as I continue without any major problems. It will be such a relief to be done with pregnancy, although I know that caring for a newborn will be a whole new adventure in itself. We can't wait to meet our little boy and start getting to know him! I will make a point to keep the blog better updated now, I promise!

With Love & Anticipation!

Crystal

Zane's Room

I finally have a few minutes to update and show you guys the progress we have made with the room. We took a leap and decided on the red paint for the room and we absolutely love it!! We also got the crib all put together so it is really beginning to look like a baby's room. To show you how far we have come, I am posting the very honest before pictures of this room. Before we did anything, this was the catch-all junk room in our house....


It doesn't even look like the same room anymore. With a lot of help from some friends, we installed a ceiling fan and got the room all painted.

How many men does it take to screw in a lightbulb.... er, install a fan? We've even got an Aggie in there. Thanks Andy & Brooks! Tommy's parents were a great help too!


Andy also stuck around and helped us tape the room to get ready for paint.


Our friends Mike Taylor and Mike Reed helped Tommy do most of the painting. They were both lifesavers!!

Tommy posing with walls almost done. Just lacking one coat of red!

And now for the finished walls!!

We think the red turned out great!! I will post pictures of the crib in a separate post because I am out of time. Off we go again!

Love,

Crystal

Paint Problems

We have yet to decide on a paint color for the nursery. So I need some help from some of my more design inclined friends, or really anyone.... It has been harder than we thought to find a shade of blue that we both like on the wall and that matches/coordinates with the blue in the bedding. The blue in the bedding is almost a denim blue, which looks like a gray blue on the wall and that looks a little depressing to Tommy. We are still considering blue at this point, but I decided to think outside the box today. Up to this point, I have been trying to avoid very dark or bold colors since our bedding is so colorful and bright, but I am willing to consider anything at this point. My friend Nikki and I picked up a stack of paint swatches tonight in a variety of colors and ideas. Tommy and I are both kind of liking the concept of painting red on the bottom and painting the top a creamish-tan. (We already have a chairrail in the room). I really feel like the red would grow with Zane as we go from baby room to toddler room in a few years. My only concern is that it might come across as too much with the bright bedding. I am rationalizing however that with the furniture and everything, much of the red will be covered so maybe it wouldn't be too much. Please tell me what you think!!

Let us know what you think. If you have additional suggestions, we will take them. We are trying to avoid green because we already have another bedroom in the house painted green as well as the bathroom. I am also stearing away from yellow because I don't think that would grow up with him very well. But, I am still open to suggestions!

Thanks,

Crystal