Thankful for Great Friends....and Great Presents, too! (smile)

Another week has passed ridiculously quickly! Everyone told me that as our due date grew closer that time would drag out slower and slower...especially as I'm now more than 9 months pregnant in the hottest of part of the summer. But time has only gone faster now! I absolutely cannot believe that we are only 3 weeks away from our baby girl's due date, that her nursery is all finished and ready for her, blankies are washed and folded, and everything is ready to pack my bag! Not sure why I haven't actually packed it yet, but I'll get around to it. The most fabulous and fun part that has now come and gone: baby shower! 

Kristin, Tanisha, me, Becky & Hope

I've always known I'm very blessed to have the friends I have in my life, but never so much as last Saturday when some of the bestest friends a girl can have gathered to host/attend our baby shower! Hope (college roommate, general BFF, the Rachel to my Monica, or vice versa, depending on the day!), Kristin (another fabulous Belmont bestie), Tanisha (fantastic, dependable, great to have on your side, takes incredible care of those she loves) Becky (one of my preceptors when I became a nurse, polar opposite to me in the best way) and Kimmie (friend, yep, step-daughter but more like sisters because we are SO freakishly alike sometimes) all came together to host the most fabulous baby shower a girl could ever hope to have! The party took place at our house, which I must say is the BEST idea ever as it was soooo nice to just take everything up the stairs to the nursery rather than load a car, unload a car, etc! Plus, this pretty much forced Steve to be there for parts of it (which I know he enjoyed whether he'll actually admit it or not) and even Annabelle's brother in law, Clay, joined in on the fun (not sure he actually had the absolute greatest time ever, but there was food and it was extremely thoughtful of him to come). It was really fantastic to have family friends I've known literally my whole life, high school friends, college friends, friends I met through Steve, family and even my CMC friends whom I truly miss seeing all come together to celebrate the upcoming arrival of our little Annabelle. It's a wonderful feeling in itself to be so excited about our baby girl, but to see so many others excited about her, too, really warms our hearts and brings tears to my eyes sometimes. I know that we are truly blessed to have these people in our lives, and for Annabelle to grow up having them in her life, too. 

Great-Granny, Mommy & Nana (to be)

Adorable gift from Kimmie & Clay

That's all the sentiment for now, my screen is going blurry on me, so I'll skip the rest of what I'm thinking, go with a big THANK YOU to everyone and move on to the photos!

Sweet little dress from
Annabelle's GREAT Granny!

Annabelle's Nana made this GORGEOUS bassinet for her!!!!

The Nursery Is Complete!

This has been maybe the best week I've ever had...ever! It started with Leigh Ann Agee & ended with a fabulous baby shower, but I'll save that for another post as I don't have photos yet!
I finally feel like our sweet baby girl can make her grand entrance as she now has a truly magical place to sleep! There are so many things going on right now that I never, ever in a million years imagined! The biggest is that if anyone had told me last August that in one year we would be only 4 weeks away from the birth of a sweet little baby, I would never have believed it! Sometimes I still have to look down at my ever so round belly just to make sure it's real, and of course other times, she makes her presence known all on her own reminding me just how real this is! Something else that I would have never imagined is that a nursery could be so perfect! And I can't take any credit for it at all! It's hard for some people to believe, but my hubby actually has incredible taste, especially when it comes to his girls. As I said before, his idea for the arrangement of the nursery ended up being perfect (after several of my failed ideas), he actually chose all but one piece of the furniture and, most importantly, he hired Leigh Ann Agee to paint the most beautiful room I've ever seen!!

Annabelle's nursery before Leigh Ann

Most everyone is aware of my obsession with Paris; both of us truly adore it there! So, naturally, I wanted Annabelle (now that her arrival is only 4 weeks away, I feel ok using her name, so that's it!) to have a nursery that reflected our favorite place. We initially planned to have an Eiffel Tower above her crib in the distance and to make the whole room look like a Parisian park. Leigh Ann loved the idea, but needed another focal point for the opposite wall, which my genius husband immediately thought should be a carousel as there is a gorgeous one right by the Eiffel Tower, as well as in the Tuileries Gardens & Luxembourg Gardens, which we also love! SO...that was the plan! Right up until Leigh Ann had the idea to do a canvas with the carousel so that one day when we move, we don't have to leave everything about her nursery behind on the walls. Genius!! SO, I then started emailing her some our favorite pics from Paris, and the next thing we know, she has painted a truly incredible oil that Annabelle can have in her room forever (or until she wants boys on the wall instead)! We both are totally in love with the painting and can't believe that she a) painted it from a photo so perfectly without ever visiting Paris or b) has never done oils before! I find it really unfair that one person is allowed SO much talent while I can't even draw a stick man!

Once the oil was finished and we decided where to put it, it was back to the drawing board for the space about the crib. I again started sorting through some of my fav pics of Paris and just let Leigh Ann choose what she felt like painting! I know that her taste far exceeds mine, so we would love anything she decided on! She ended up using a photo of another Parisian park, Place du Vosges, for above the crib. And I love that it's painted from a photo that I took! So I did have a tiny little part in Annabelle's nursery!

The rest of the room, we just asked that she paint whatever she felt like, and we love it all! I was initially totally against any animal that wouldn't be found in a park setting, but Steve & my mom both thought Annabelle needed some sleepy lambs on one wall (we had seen LA's sleepy lambs before), so I finally caved and let her paint the lambs, and I'm so glad I did! They have ended up being one of my favorite parts of the room! It helps that she wrote "bonne nuit" along with the lambs, which means "good night" in French!

So, that's the explanation of this week's painting of the nursery! I'm completely amazed every time I walk in, I feel like I'm seeing something that I haven't noticed before, so I'm just going to post a TON of pics to try to capture it all! Hopefully next weekend, Annabelle's bathroom will be finished, I can't wait to see what she comes up with for it!

I love the music notes!

Leigh Ann likes to paint "critters"!

My favorite is the baby duck at the end!

The sweet pic of Macy in the cabinet was a gift from Leigh Ann! Also an oil!

Annabelle's Nursery, complete with bassinet made by her Nana!

Paint-Beach-Paint-Baby Shower-Paint-Baby Shower-Paint...

We've been working really quite hard lately to get everything together for a sweet baby SAS's nursery. I know, if we weren't such procrastinators, we wouldn't have to be doing so much right here near the end, but, that's just what we do! We were initially supposed to have it all together the beginning of July, but with all of our family visiting and vacay in June, it just didn't happen. So, we moved the muralist to the beginning of August, which should have given us plenty of time...which is why we (my Mom) have been working our little fingers to the bone right up until earlier tonight...but, here's what we've been doing leading up to now!

Nursery Paint: Take 1

We ordered her bedding what seems like ages ago and chose the paint colors for her nursery based on that, carefully matching them to the wall that we so love in the Plaid Rabbit. We bought the paint, taped off the room and Mom started to work on the ceiling a week before vacation and thought she would finish the walls when we all came back home again. Then we decided to get the room crown moulded, which meant she needed to finish the walls ASAP so that the moulding could go on top, so of course my sweet mama worked like mad to get finished before vacation. And then we didn't like the color. At all. Leigh Ann (our sweet, wonderful, talented muralist) came over to look at it just to make sure we had done the right thing and her exact words were "Y'all, this is AWFUL"!!! So....back to the drawing board! But, before we completely started over again: BEACH!

Shoal Bay East, Anguilla

A few years ago, Mom, Dad, Steve & I all went to Anguilla for a vacay and we all completely fell in love with the beautiful little island. When trying to decide where we wanted to go for our "last holiday", I thought it should be somewhere that's kind of more difficult to get to, that we'd be less likely to take on once the baby arrived, and since we love Anguilla, and it's a pain to get there, that's what we chose! And naturally, Mom & Dad weren't going to let us go without them as they loved it there so much the first time. So, the third week of July, off we went! I was a bit nervous about the journey as it meant a nearly 4 hour flight at 31 weeks pregnant and I just knew there was no way I'd be comfy on the plane, but thank the Lord  for US Air preferred status, we were all upgraded to business class and all my worries about the travel disappeared. I guess I should have been nervous about the 45 minute boat ride we had to take from St Martin across open water to Anguilla...in a 28 foot boat...in a downpour...with ocean swells bigger than the boat...that, only a few hours later became a tropical storm! But, we made it and by the next morning, the weather was sunny and perfect and stayed that way for the next 9 days for us! We stayed in a gorgeous little villa on the beach at Mead's Bay where we spent all day, every day alternating between beach chair, sea and pool. We celebrated Mom's birthday with couples massages on our patio overlooking the Caribbean, had some of the most wonderful meals ever and just had a very peaceful, relaxing time! Thankfully the boat ride back to St Martin was completely uneventful and we were all upgraded again! I had been a bit nervous that SAS would decide to come while we on a tiny island with only very basic medical care, but obviously that was not the case! Thank you, sweet baby girl for staying put!

Mom's Birthday at The Straw Hat

It was nice to come back home from vacation and still have a few days that Steve didn't have to work. That meant we could just relax together and spend some time shopping for our sweet girl. One of our new favorite places has become a little shop on the square in Franklin called It's Vintage, Baby. We went in one afternoon just to look around and ended up coming away with basically her entire layette! I of course had to immediately wash and iron all of the tiny little adorable pieces and they are now all in little rows in her cabinet just waiting for her!

The weekend after we returned home, we were given a lovely baby shower at the church where I grew up which put us much closer to being ready for her arrival! Finally, we have diapers! I had bought 2 packs, but that was all. It's just a lot more fun to buy cute stuff! That same night, we celebrated my great-grandmother MawMaw Fisher's  97th birthday. What a day!!!


Once the vacation and first baby shower were over, back to the painting! Mom spent all one day this week repainting the ceiling and walls of the nursery only to have us decide that we no longer like the color of the trim (remember, the crown moulding has just been installed and painted). She kind of gave us an evil look when we mentioned painting all the trim in the nursery and bathroom pink, so Steve called some painter friends of his and they came out the next 3 nights to take care of it for us! I think they thought we were a bit nuts for wanting every surface in her little room pink, but that is actually what Leigh Ann suggested from the beginning, we were just a bit hesitant. Once they had it finished, I think they loved it as much as we do! And that's what we did all last week!

Aunt Glynda, Mom, Me, Tiffany & Kayla

On Saturday, my wonderful Aunt Glynda and cousins Tiffany & Kayla hosted a fabulous baby shower for little SAS and me. It was really nice to get together with the family that, as Tiffany said, we just don't get to see enough! Everyone was so sweet & generous and we are now another step closer to being ready for her. She received her most special gift so far today: a pink baby afghan made by MawMaw Fisher! She had help from four other people to complete the project, so our sweet little girl will have something that five people in her family worked on for her! How special! On top of the wonderful gifts, we had a really delicious lunch and (insert shameless plug here) adorable cupcakes made by Kayla (http://sweetness-cupcakes.blogspot.com/)! Thank you everyone for such a special day!

Steve's baby teddy bear on MawMaw's afghan

As the title of this blog is "Paint-Beach-Paint-Baby Shower-Paint-Baby Shower-Paint..." obviously there's one more thing missing...another day of painting! Mom came home with me after the baby shower to finish getting everything together so that the muralist can come first thing Monday to do the walls! I can't believe she's been so willing to spend sooooo much time on a ladder with a roller in hand, but I guess that just show's that a Nana will do anything for little SAS! As will a Daddy & a Grandpop who spent their day today assembling her crib, hanging her chandelier, unassembling the crib because I thought the mattress was too low, reassembling it, which left the mattress too high, and doing all one more time, leaving the mattress in the perfect spot! We then spent what felt like hours putting her bedding on and tying all the little bows. At this point, I wasn't entirely sure I liked the placement of her furniture, so then Daddy & Steve patiently moved everything from place to place to place.

We eventually settled on where everything should live. I promised Steve this is where I would mention that it's all exactly where he thought it should be in the first place and if I'd just listened to him, everyone would have been saved a lot of furniture moving! It's a bit annoying that his taste is better than mine some (most) of the time!!! And of course while I supervised the movement of furniture, my wonderful Mom spent one last evening painting the walls and ceiling of the bathroom. It's taken a lot of time, batting of eyelashes, and redoing of things, but finally her nursery is all put together!!! After next week, the walls will be completely finished and it will all be ready for her! Well, at least it will be after we get the windows covered to suit us! Having the walls, ceiling and trim all pink left us hating the cream colored blinds in her room, so we've now decided to have pink plantation shutters, but we still have 6 whole weeks until her due date, which should be plenty of time...

Kick, kick...Nudge, nudge...Stitch, stitch!

So we are now at 30 weeks, and still not prepared! But, we are getting closer!!! I was talking to Hope (one of my long standing BFF's, met the day we moved in together Freshman year @Belmont) last week and telling her all about the fun stuff we've been gathering together for little SAS. I was feeling quite proud of myself until she asked if we had any of the "necessities". Of course I thought we did, as I gushed about last time, we have furniture, clothes, etc! She kind of laughed at me and asked about onesies, blankets, diapers... Sadly the answer was no, no & no! So, then we started gathering some of the less fun but still ridiculously-cute-because-they're-so-small items like the onesies and diapers! And even some diaper cream & wipes, too. But of all the "necessities" we've acquired lately, I've totally fallen in love with something I never imagined: the burp cloth. I know,  I can't believe it, either! And thanks to my oh so incredibly full of surprises hubby, she'll never have a boring one! 

Since almost the moment we knew we were pregnant, I've been on and on (and on) about wanting an embroidery machine so that I can put a monogram on any and everything possible for baby! Once we found out we were having a girl, that desire multiplied by about a million. Then there was the whole A.S.S. debacle, but obviously we got that one sorted out...SO one day last week I opened up the front door to take Macy out and VOILA...the embroidery machine fairy had made a stop (was probably more like a guy in a truck wearing brown shorts & knee socks, but whatever) and the rest is now really cute, personalized history and our sweet little SAS will spit up on the cutest of cute cloths. And onesies. And gowns. And whatever else I can think of to stick her name or initials on!

The last thing we've been working on this week is arranging and painting her nursery! Everything is here except for the crib, so we've been moving furniture all around to make sure we get it all just where we want it! The room already looks crazy different than when we started, and we (actually Mom) has only gotten the ceiling painted so far. I'm so excited to see the way it all turns out, I hope she loves it as much as I think I will! We only have about another month until it's totally finished, but of course I'm taking photos along the way of the changes! 

More important than all that we've doing is all that she's been doing! I can't believe that she's now nearly 3 pounds and more than 15 inches long...although it definitely feels like she's every bit of that and even more! I love that she now seems to have a sleep/wake pattern, which I very much hope she continues as it seems to be right on target with mine, and I really love watching what Kimmie calls the "lava lamp" belly! According to todays email, she can now taste, see, hear and touch everything around her...not that that's very much yet! I'm constantly amazed at the little miracle that kicks and nudges her way through the day and even more thankful than I ever imagined for it!

Hello, Third Trimester...Please Slow Down...Mommy is a Procrastinator!

This week we entered the THIRD TRIMESTER! And I cannot believe it! As I've said before, time is just going much too quickly for us. Sometimes I feel a bit like an oddball because it seems that most people at this point are ready to be finished with this pregnancy business and just wanting to meet their adorable little baby. Not me! Not that I can't wait to meet her and see her little face and play with her little toes, I'm just not finished with being pregnant yet! I've completely loved (almost) every moment of this time. I love her little kicks. I love trying to guess if she's going to have my eyes or Steve's nose. I even love the way I feel...so far! And besides all that, we're not even close to being prepared for her arrival!

It's so hard for me to imagine that one sweet little girl needs so much stuff to get her started, not least of all, a name! We've known pretty much all along what we wanted her first name to be, hard part over, right? WRONG!! As it turns out, we couldn't really agree on anything for her middle name. There was just one that we both really really loved, but, alas, that would make her initials A.S.S. And we almost decided to just ignore that and go with it anyway, as everyone told us no one would notice, she's our baby, etc. Of course we ran the name by Kimmie (who was one of the one's who told us to ignore what others said) and her new hubby Clay, who pretty much sealed the deal with her name. I can't remember exactly word for word how he responded, but it was very similar to the way I worried the average 8 year old boy would act! He immediately pointed out that maybe she could have a backpack someday with her initials on it. And that wouldn't it be cool for her to walk down the halls of school with A.S.S. on her back. I think he even volunteered to buy it for her...SOOOO back to the drawing board! We have now decided that we'll use the same two names that have always been our favorites, we'll just reverse them! So, now Steve & I are going to have a little S.A.S. Which she's pretty much destined to be anyway with us as her parents, so we might as well call a spade a spade!

     


Now that the name issue has been solved (as long as we don't change our minds...again) we figured it was time to get on with finding the rest of her furniture. Up until this week, our poor little SAS only had a diaper bag, a changing table and a chest for her nursery. She of course has plenty of clothes to nearly fill the drawers, several tiny little things in her closet, more pairs of shoes than a small country (priorities), and we had actually ordered her crib linens, but no crib to put them on, no chair for me to rock her in, not even a light for her room! Those who know us really well know that we both love to shop, actually you probably don't have to know us that well to know that, but whatever. I am, however, known as a "stalker" or  "lurker"...I like to have what I want, and find it at a deal! Amazing how things work out...
We had at least chosen the crib, but since everywhere we looked at it said "ships in 2-3 days" we hadn't actually ordered it yet. Of course this week, when I decide to order it, it's on backorder. Until mid-September. Well, great! This meant that I had to resort to my usual methods of stalking and combing the internet like mad to find what I want, which I did. AND, on this obscure website, it was 25% off for 2 days only. It will be here in about 4 weeks. Score one for me. Next on our list was a chair for the nursery. We have looked all around for what we envisioned in our heads, with the help of the internet, for the perfect glider, but we couldn't find what we wanted anywhere. Not even at Plaid Rabbit (our favorite store as of about 6 months ago). So, I was nearly resigned to having to order one online, which I wasn't crazy about since we couldn't test-sit first, but we just couldn't find what we wanted! A few days ago, I emailed the designer of my "ultimate chair" just to see if there might be some little place I didn't know about nearby that would have one of their chairs so I might have some idea of what it would be like. Little did we know there's an adorable little place in Franklin called It's Vintage, Baby, but there is. And today, we went in. Would you believe that they had the exact chair of my dreams. Steve loved it. They are moving at the end of the month and don't want to move furniture. "If you would like to have this very chair, we'll knock 20% off"...why yes, yes we would like to have that very chair! So, as of today, sweet little SAS has a nice little setup for her nursery! Moral of the story, procrastination pays! Or at least gets a discount!

Now, if we can just get her Nana to paint every surface of her nursery pink, we'll be in business and ready for her arrival! Once we get her a mattress that is...and a car seat...and diapers...hmmmm.

It's June already???

I honestly cannot believe how fast time is flying right now!! It seems like just a few weeks ago that it was January, and now it's June!! The last few weeks have been absolutely packed with fun & happy times, and considering there's been a bridal shower, family visit, wedding, two birthdays and a vacation since my last blog, I thought it was maybe time for a little update!!

Two weeks ago, our family in England started arriving for something we've all been waiting quite a long time for: Kimmie's wedding!! Steve's sister, Ali, & her family (Rob, Josh & Jazzi) arrived on Tuesday morning before the wedding and his brother, Graham, along with Lyn, arrived late the following night. Somehow in the few days they were in town before the wedding, we managed to play at the pool, hit Green Hills, the Hill Center & Cool Springs for shopping, enjoy Kimmie's rehearsal & dinner AND have a big Southern style family BBQ!! Oh, and Jazzi & I joined Kimmie and her maid of honor for a mani-pedi, too! What a busy busy busy few days!!!

The most exciting part of the last few weeks was something that we've all been waiting for nearly two years: Kimmie & Clay's wedding! After months of planning with Kimmie, on Friday, May 28 the wedding day finally arrived!! It was an absolutely beautiful day, right up until time for us to leave the salon when it started pouring with rain...all afternoon until about an hour before the ceremony in the garden of Belle Meade Plantation! We all kept our fingers crossed and thankfully it cleared up long enough for their garden wedding ceremony and time for the guests to make it inside the Carriage House for the reception! Close call, but it all turned out beautifully!! She was the most beautiful bride I've ever seen and, if I do say so myself, we planned a fantastic wedding and reception! The Italian buffet was yummy, the cake was spectacular, flowers & band couldn't have been better, and to top it all off, a photobooth kept everyone busy and having a great time!! Congrats to Kimmie & Clay, I know they'll have a very long and happy life together!!

After a very late night at the wedding, everyone in the Sperring house woke up early on Saturday for our journey to Isle of Palms, SC to spend the week together in a beach house! We spent the WHOLE day on Saturday in the car, which is something I haven't done for many years now and have certainly never done while 6 months pregnant, so

I was thrilled when we finally arrived that night! I must say the drive wasn't nearly as bad as I expected, just wouldn't want to it often! Our house was interesting, to say the least, full of quirky larger-than-life pirates, hula girls and movie star figures, but with a fantastic ocean front pool and huge balconies, so we all really had a great time! We spent the week lounging on the beach, having water fights in the pool and generally just having fun together! Steve & I both celebrated our birthdays while we were there, and he gave me one of the most thoughtful presents ever: a Tiffany key locket to put sweet Baby Girl S's pic in once she arrives! It has two sides, so there'll be room for either a pic of Steve or one of Macy, too, just haven't decided which yet!! A carriage ride with everyone through Charleston and some fantastic meals topped off our wonderful week at the beach!

The Sperring Family @Hank's for Steve's Birthday

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that everything came and went so incredibly quickly! It just seems crazy that we planned and planned and waited and waited for the wedding and everyone's visit, and now, it's all over! We usually only get to spend a few days at a time with our family in England a couple of times a year, so to have nearly 2 weeks together really was fantastic, but that makes it that much more depressing now that they've gone! And I think even Baby Girl might be having withdrawals from her cousin Jazzi, as she spent lots of the week poking my belly and telling her to wake up so she could watch her kick! There are just no words to describe how wonderful it all has been!

So, that's about it for what we've been doing lately, but I think that's more than enough! Now we just have to get busy with the next big project: nursery! I kind of had a bit of a panic today when I realized that we have less than 15 weeks to get everything done and ready for our Baby Girl's arrival...but I have no doubt once September comes, it will all be absolutely perfect and we'll be more than ready...I hope!!

Lyn, Mom, Me, Ali & Jazzi

And, a HUGE thanks to Stephanie & Amy at True Bliss Events for making Kimmie's wedding day so perfect!!