Painting the nursery....green!!

After all the shopping excitment on Friday, the baby fun continued on Saturday. I was completely prepared to pay the guys that painted the rest of our house to also paint the nursery. But our neighbor and good friend Jenny requested that we not have the painters do it...apparently she considers painting therapy and persuaded me to let her paint the nursery. So, Jenny and I had 3 hours of therapy on Saturday afternoon....

Clearly Jenny was enjoying her work and we were careful not to let Jay observe her unorthodox painting style!

Jenny was the brains and the detail work and I was just the cheap labor. The color is Lime Granita...
Sitting down on the job! Oh and please be sure to notice there are no pictures of Jay painting. He enjoys it even less than I do and managed to check in just about the time we finished up :-) But I should give him credit, he was doing plenty of work in other parts of the house!

Taking a cookie and coffee break after the first coat before doing the final touch up. Notice when cookies are involved, Jay mysteriouly appears. And Shauna was gracious enough to come down and put some cookies in the oven for us...and much like Jay, manage to avoid all the manual labor :-) But the cookies definitely hit the spot! Oh and maybe you can tell in this photo...the kitchen is now green, that work was done by the professionals!!

Jay comes to survey the finished project and to help us clean up.

Of course Scout had to get in on the action...he is making sure that the nursery is comfy enough for his little sister!

Baby Girl Johns' dresser and hutch...

And her crib!! We plan to do some design work on the walls in some fun accent colors. Ok, maybe I should say, Jenny plans to do some design work :-)

Mama to be at 21 weeks...

So...the fun begins, here is a shot of a very happy Mama Laura in her frist day to work in a maternity outfit!!
Jay and I spent the day in Sugarland on Friday so I could expand my maternity wardrobe and so we could study the aisles at Babies R Us...needless to say, we were completely lost!!
No pregnant photos are complete without the profile shot!! That's my baby girl in there!

New Bedroom Color

Jay and I had the house painted recently and after MUCH debate we did manage to pick new colors for our room and the kitchen. Here is a shot of the gray we chose for our room...

Christi's Baby Shower in Baton Rouge

What a wonderful weekend in March. Four old friends picking up right where they left off and celebrating the soon to be newest addition to the brood...little Ila Roberts. We started off with a day in the "Big Easy".

Cafe Du Monde was of course a crucial stop so we could enjoy some beignets!


Cruisin' Bourbon Street...


Laura heard country music, so of course we had to stop...but no one would have guessed Heather would turn out to be the real cowgirl :-)


The baby shower was at Another Broken Egg Cafe in Baton Rouge, pancakes as big as a pizza!




There was food, and gifts...


And of course a VERY big cake!
One last dinner together at Christi's favorite place, we even let the Roberts boys crash our party :-)

Sissy visits Texas!

Sissy is living proof that you are only as old as you think you are!! She and mom made a trip down in January to visit for the weekend. While she was here she spent some time spoiling Scout and enjoying the Texas cusine. Chicken Fried Steak to be exact!! Oh and did I mention we even talked her into her first manicure in a VERY long time! Hurry back Sis!

Posing for Christmas Card Photos...

Our good friend Julie was kind enough to do a "photo session" of my family..to help us get some good photos for our Christmas cards. We all agreed that working with a large dog who only likes to play and not pose...was similar to working with small children. But we still had a good time. Julie is turning into a GREAT little photograher...she even managed to make me not hate every photo of myself and that takes real talent. So again, a big THANKS Julie!!

Aww... I LOVE my family!!

Strolling on the beach

Scout didn't understand the whole looking at the camera thing...

Now this is more like it...let's play ball...

Goofing around...

Awww...what a pretty boy!!

Throw the ball already!!

Small Group Christmas Party

Jay and I hosted a Christmas Party for our small group. We had friends from our Church small group and also other friends from the neighborhood. We must have had 25 people in our home...it was definitely a first, but such a nice evening. I can only imagine if they hadn't all gotten babysitters!!

The Mama's to be

Brian, Brad and Matthew try to stay warm :-) Apparently those southern boys are soft!

John and Tiffany
A full house

Amanda and Brad

Brooke gets some practice with little Wyatt

Nathan and Mary, our small group leader and hosts!

John and Shauna Grantham

The Johns'

Snow in Clute!!

OK, so my pictures aren't very good. It was hard to take photos of the snow in the dark, but at least you can see from the photos that it was actually snowing. It actually snowed on my 33rd birthday!! Since it has only snowed here one other time in like the past 15 years...of course that also made Houston traffic VERY special as well!!!

Thanksgiving at the Johns'

This year we hosted friends for Thanksgiving. Wes and Jenny came over and another friend from work, Johnny, joined us as well. My second turkey solo! Jay did the carving honors. I even ventured into homemade rolls, homemade pumpkin pie and a sweet potato and apple stuffing. I was pretty nervous on Wednesday as I seemingly destroyed my kitchen with flour and veggies...but I just kept talking to Nanu, asking her to guide my hands and to help me do it just the way she would have. Much to my surprise, my angel must have been with me because everything turned out very well. Jay even really seemed to enjoy the pumpkin pie and stufing, which beforehand he would have sworn he didn't like!! Jenny even used Nanu's squash casserole recipe...I am sure she was somewhere smiling down on us all. I even broke out my holiday china for the very first time and used Nanu's handmade placemats...I was very excited!! Here are some photos from our little holiday in Clute :-)

Trick or Treat

OK, so it has been a terribly long time since I have updated my blog...given that I am posting this 2 months late. But I have a good excuse...our home PC bonked and I only recently got it fixed. But now we are up and running again, so let the updates pour forth.

The weekend of Halloween, my good friend Christi came over from Louisiana to visit. Our good friends Wes and Jenny also came over on Friday night and we all braved the mosquitoes to hand out candy. It seems everyone in south texas converges on our neighborhood on Halloween, so it looks like a block party...complete with police and everything!

Here are the lovely ladies handing out candy....

Christi hung out in Clute the rest of the weekend and we headed up to Houston on Saturday for an early dinner and a Carrie Underwood and Little Big Town Concert. Jay was kind enough to take a pretty show photo for us....