Maternity Pictures

You may remember a few weeks back me mentioning that Bryan & I went to College Station to have maternity pictures taken by Shannon Morton (the wife of a former pastor of ours and the daughter-in-law of a family friend). We really enjoyed our time with her, and the CD of the pictures from that day came in the mail today and they are great! 

There are several pictures I left out - most because Baby's name was in them :) Remind me once she's here to post those because they're really cute too! There were also a couple similar poses, so I just picked my favorites.

Enjoy!

Our first onesie purchase! And our mode of telling my folks we were expecting on Mom's birthday.

I think this might be my very favorite one!

Oh, you know, just lounging around the Home of the 12th Man

Baby Girl Evans, Fightin' Texas Aggie Class of '34

On the field

Kyle Field, A-Whoop!

Just me

She really is in there

Love this one!!

Hiya, fella :)

Children's books

Tiny Feet

Our Aggie Rings - can this much Aggie influence penetrate the womb?

We are so excited to meet you Baby Girl!!

Thank you so much Shannon for capturing this time for us!!!

Ribbon Valence

I didn't want full length curtains for the nursery, nor was I overly impressed with many of the valences I've seen pre-made. I got to thinking ... how cute would it be to just have ribbon hanging instead of a structured valence? Knowing this could look either extra cute or really horrible, I enlisted my Mom's help and we got to work.

First stop: Hobby Lobby of course! If you're going to do this, make sure you hit a 50% Off All Ribbon Week Sale, it really helps keep the price of this project down.

Here's the initial line up of ribbon we were going to use. As with all of the best laid plans, we ended up nixing 2 of them for different reasons. One was just too twisty, even after ironing & starching it could curl up on itself, and the super thin ribbon just wouldn't stay glued in place.

Make sure you measure out the same length of ribbon the entire time. We measured by 18" because the rod was going to be hung slightly higher than the blinds were currently.

Once they're cut, make sure they're in the order you want them in:

Then, carefully, hot glue the ribbon around the curtain rod, keeping in mind the correct side of the ribbon ultimately needs to be showing in front. Here's Mom demonstrating this step:

Then step back & take a look. If your initial response is positive - carry on! Grandma was a huge help by cutting the ribbons while Mom & I glued.

Soon you'll have enough to know if you really like it or not. I loved it!

 

I ran out of the green & blue ribbons we were using, so I'll have to go back and add those in once I have a chance to run to Hobby Lobby and get some more, but that's really easy to do. Here's the result pre-hanging. Once I add the extra blue & green ribbon & Bryan hangs up the rod for me, I think it's going to look really neat! I'll post a picture once we're there.

What do you think?

I know it's not traditional, but I like it.

Thanks for your help Mom & Grandma!

Nursery Shelves

I wanted to put some floating shelves above Baby E's crib. I really couldn't find any that I loved that were ready to go, so we decided to adapt some shelves we found to fit our own needs. After running all over town to different stores, we finally hit the jack pot at Hobby Lobby:

I started off by sanding the flowers and painting them pink while Bryan hung the bigger shelves. (We figured we'd better be sure we really liked them before painting them.)

Here's Bryan hard at work. I'm not sure he appreciated all of my instructions and helpful hints :)

While he continued to hang, and we were pretty positive these shelves would be perfect, I sanded the bigger shelves:

While the puppies took naps and chewed on bones ...

Once the shelves were sanded down and the holes drilled for them to be hung, we spray painted them white, which took about 3 coats.

Once painted, I used the same stencils we used for the nursery tree to decorate the shelves. (The vines weren't used on the tree, but I thought they were perfect):

I added little details, and voila! Extra cute, no?

I also decided to add little "buds" in the same colors as the birds & flowers to the tips of the vines. They stand out more now, I think.

They are now hung up!! Didn't Bryan do an excellent job making sure they are centered and level?

 

Bryan added the little pink flower hooks underneath the side shelves while I started adding items to the shelves.

 

And then ... although you can't see the finished product without me giving away her name ... we hung up the yarn letters I made with ribbon (which actually took me quite a while to attach and tie exactly the same lengths). Here's a preview :)

Not very hard at all - just a little time consuming. Everything is coming together so nicely!

Legacy High School Surprise Shower

Last Wednesday, following the math portion of the SAT, my high school students decided to surprise me with a baby shower!! I love how awesome these teenagers are!

A couple of my students told me they needed a ride to Kyle's house (which I would NEVER do in public school, but at Legacy I don't have a problem with it - especially since all of their parents told me it was okay). This was their way of getting me over to his house to surprise me.

They started by mixing up some punch:

 

And we stood around and visited for quite a while:

 Rebecca made and decorated a cake (so cute!):

We continued visiting and eating:

 

They each had a gift for the little one - including diapers, wipes, rattles, dolls, etc.

Very sweet!

Thank you so much to the 9th & 10th graders that put this on!!! I'm so blessed to be your teacher!

Baby's 1st "Swim"

 

I had been told that the most glorious feeling when you're 8 months pregnant is swimming. Those that told me so - you were correct. 

The water is still chilly, but boy is it worth it!

Goose observed from someone's lap, and Maverick of course joined us - he doesn't care if the water is cold or not :)

 

I think Baby E liked it too, because she didn't kick or move or anything the entire time. Just peacefully floated along I guess :)

 

Here's a 32(?) week pregnant swim suit belly for ya ...

First boat ride of the season

Some of you may remember one of last year's first boat rides of the season ... does this tiny puppy in yellow look familiar? This was during Bryan's 24th Birthday Party.

But now Maverick's much bigger and has a sister along for the ride too! Maverick outgrew his tiny life vest, so now Goose wears that one:

 

And Maverick got a new one a size bigger:

 

I think Maverick REALLLLY wanted to jump out of the boat into the lake the entire time we were out there. Thankfully the life vests come with handles perfect for lifting dogs out of the water OR keeping them in the boat. 

 

Both dogs actually followed me off the boat onto the board too, which impressed me. I think Mom may have some pictures of that?? 

Way to go pups! And thanks for taking us for a spin, Dad!

LPCA Race for Education 2012

I mentioned in my earlier post about Legacy's annual Race for Education. This is one of the school's primary fundraisers. All of the student's accept pledges for completing the 5K - and then the school spices it up by awarding 1st, 2nd, & 3rd place and so on. This year RFE was held at Burrough's Park which is really a perfect place for this size and type of event. Lapping the big pond 4 times makes up 5k, and provides pretty scenery while you go too :) Plus there was a place for the Dad's to grill, picnic tables to eat at, and plenty of playgrounds for the teeny tiny ones present. 

First, the warm-up :) I loved watching one of the Legacy Mom's (who owns a Gold's Gym) lead an aerobic warm-up/class. The littler kiddos especially enjoyed this, which was so fun to watch. 

The race was then divided in half. First, all of the kids and teachers from 5th - 10th grade ran/walked while all the little kids spread out and gave high fives and cheered. Once they were done, the little ones (Pre-K - 4th grade students & teachers) had their turn. I probably don't need to point out that there were many, many more scraped knees and tears from the 2nd group :)

And they're off!

I admit, I walked. These days running really doesn't feel like an option.

There were plenty of Momma's with their smaller children in strollers too. It really was a huge family day!

Our principal, Audra May, is a runner. She runs marathons, half marathons, and shorter races pretty regularly. The goal for most of the students was to beat her time, because anyone who beat her time could silly-string her at the end :) The kids LOVED it!! But I don't have a picture .... doh!

Once all of the races were finished, the smaller kids had lunch while the big kids played games like tug of war, tire roll, sack race, bean-bag toss, etc. I was in charge of the Three Legged Race. I have to admit, watching the kids do this was probably the highlight of the day for me! It was hysterical. 

Many of the guys thought diving would save them some time.

Faster, faster!

 

After the big kids rotated through their events, the little ones took their turns. I didn't manage a station this time, just walked around helping with little bo-bos and wiping away tears as well as laughing plenty at the little ones getting into sack races and tug of war. 

At the end of the day was the teacher tug of war, which I was not allowed to participate in, per my superior's instructions. It was probably for the best because there was a lot of falling over and trampling involved, and I'm not sure my 34 week old fetus would appreciate other teachers landing on top of her.

Technically the day ended with an award ceremony, but I was so hot and tired by point, I made my escape a little early and joined Mom's Book Group for lunch. 

Next year I'll have a better idea of what to expect - and I'll bring my own kiddo along to walk the 5K!

Way to go Legacy - I'd call the event a success!