July 4th

Went to the lake to see the family for the long weekend, but made it back in time to see the Rangers beat the Orioles on the 4th.

little g's not so little anymore...he's 2!

Graham had a great birthday party! He absolutely loved the bounce house. So many of our friends and family came, and made us all feel special...thanks. Here are a few pictures from the day.

love this one of Brian...

so cute...happy 2nd birthday sweet boy!

I've made a decision.

I don't know why it was so hard for me to decide, but I'm naturally so indecisive. Anyways...I've changed my mind on the bedding. It's actually not one of the three choices I had previously listed. My crib has really large slats, and I am afraid that you wouldn't be able to see a design on the exterior of the bumpers. Because of this, I've decided on the Harper Bedding from Pottery Barn Kids. It's pretty simple...which is great because I can do so much with it! Jeff likes this bedding best too.

I think I'm going to paint the walls green for some contrast too!

Instead of the bumper in the crib above, I'm going to use this ruffled bumper.

I'm gonna use these bird pillows too! They have so many different color options too!

Baby Girl Bedding

I've been looking online and in a few stores at baby bedding. My mom made Graham's, and it was AMAZING but it was a lot of trouble for her to make. I'm thinking that this time I'm going to buy it instead. I've found several cute ideas at Pottery Barn Kids, but I'm being indecisive. I'm really wanting to incorporate pink into her room...not bright pink though. My furniture is dark brown. Please, let me know what you think of these ideas. Thanks for the help!

Option 1:

Option 2:

Option 3:

Baby No. 2

After a wait of what seemed like forever, Jeff and I found out today that we're expecting a little GIRL! We are so excited that Graham gets to be a big brother of a little sister! She is going to be one loved little girl! I cannot express how blessed we feel...we just love her so much already. Her debut is still set for November 7th!

We decided on a name. Her name will be Eloise Leta Smith. The "El" comes from Jeff's mother Ellen and the "loise" comes from his mother Helen's middle name. Leta is my mother's middle name. It's perfect because three very important women will be apart of her and her name forever! That makes it even more special!

I guess I do not have a mother's intuition because I thought Graham was a girl and Eloise was a boy, but it doesn't matter. What I need now are helpful ideas, bedding ideas, or blogs to help me get her room ready. Fortunately, I've already ordered everything for Graham's room, so I can focus on our little girls room. PLEASE email me with anything...I'd love it!

cake making

So I've been thinking that I might make Graham's birthday cake. Graham has been sick the last few days, so I decided that I was going to try and make my first fondant cake. Disregard that it's only one color (I didn't see the point in making two colors since this was just a test) and that there are stars on top (that's just a cookie cutter that I already had). What do you think? The only thing is I had a hard time rubbing in all of the powered sugar...you can see a few white flecks here and there. Any idea how to completely smooth out the cake and make sure you don't see any of that sugar?

Baby No. 2

I've been slacking on my posts for the last few weeks! Things have been a little crazy because we're pregnant! Baby No. 2 should arrive sometime around Nov. 7th! That means that I'm 11 weeks 2 days! We went to the doctor again today and heard the baby's heart beat. It was 175...which is on the high side! Some people have said that high means girl, but I've got a feeling it's a boy. I could be wrong though because I was positive Graham was a girl...and he's definitely a boy! Jeff thinks it will be a girl. I did that Chinese Baby Calculator when I had Graham and it said boy. I did it again today, and it said girl. We should find out sometime in the middle of June.