Snow Day

While most of Northern Nevada enjoyed a snow day last Friday, I drove to work in this. Pretty awesome.
I passed more than a few vehicles spinning their wheels. It's moments like this I love old Blue Thunder.

Love,
Talley

Say Hello to my Little Friend

This little beauty is moving into my kitchen TODAY and I could not be more excited.  Let me paint you a picture: I load the dishwasher. I run the dishwasher. I open the dishwasher after a finished cycle and find...Clean Dishes!  (insert applause)

Yes indeed.  It's going to be a dream - come - true.

Christmas is for the Birds and other tree goodness

I knew it was love when I gave up the fight to have a color themed Christmas tree.  MC is such a Christmas fanatic, that it was just one less struggle I had to deal with.  So for the last four years, I have had a tree that boasts every colored ornament out there along with tinsel.  For laughs, our first Christmas together we purchased a bird with wild blue feathers that we could attach to the tree.  Every year since we have picked out a bird tree ornament.  Wonder what we will end up with this year?  (See birds of Christmas's Past below)

The original Blue Beast

Bird on Branch 

Flatty Sparkles, the cheaper choice

Even though I still daydream about one with pear green, gold and mercury glass ornaments, I've grown to love the colorful mess that is our Christmas tree.  Every year when we put up the last ornament and stand back for a look we say..."well this has to be our most beautiful tree yet!" Also, with all those bright colors and lights, Kellan cannot get enough of it!

Got out of tinsel again this year.  I feel accomplished somehow.  Oh, and please don't get me started on our exterior Christmas lights, thats a whole seperate beautiful disaster.

Speaking of Mr. Kellan...

He Hates Tummy Time :O)

Happy Holidays,

Nat

Photo Session

We got our first pictures as a family taken in early November with talented Mr. and Mrs. Lemaire.  It was a perfect fall day, falling leaves, warm sun, crisp air.  I love fall.  I made the mistake of thinking a bulky coat would be slimming and that a charcoal grey shirt on the "king of spitup" would be a good idea, but for the most part, i'm happy with how they turned out. Below are a couple keepers...but my favorites are in with our super duper talented friends at Furious Creative to be turned in what will surely be awesome holiday cards.

My son has his daddy's brilliant blue eyes...Lucky Little Duck.  Gah, I can't get enough of that guy.  Such a dollface.

 



Change

Tis the season for change.  First comes baby, then comes new job?  Yikes, seems like I have the order screwed up a bit.  But the offer and experience is too good to pass up, so my 4 years in the thankless world of advertising comes to an end next Tuesday.  I'm thankful for the experience...it was there that I met my husband, made friendships that will last a lifetime, and gained the knowlegde and work ethic that i needed to land me my sweet new gig.  Life will change for the better very soon.  I feel like i'm moving up in the world.  How blessed am I?

Nursery

From the moment we bought our house, we knew what room would be the nursery.  It had been the babies room for the previous owners, what we didnt know was that just three days after moving into the house, we would find out I was pregnant.  This somewhat shortend the deadline to turn the room from a blue-floral wallpaper mess, into what I like to call...a sweet simple neutral nursery.  Of course my being pregnant, created a shortage of help for MC, but with a little help from Grandpa Dennis, and lots of advise from my design guru (B.F.), we made it happen.

Ironically, aside from the upstairs bathroom, it's the only room in the house that has been re-done to our liking.  Too bad we dont even use it.  At least when Kellan is ready to make the move upstairs, his room will be ready for him!

Before:

After:

Love,
Mommy

Maternity Shoot Update

A few weeks ago MC and I had a mini-maternity session.  We got our pictures back today and I've had fun going through them all!  Below are some of my favorites (in addition to the ones featured in my sneak peeks!) from the two very talented ladies! They did a great job hiding the fact that we were in the midst of a major wind storm!  PS.  I think my Baby Daddy is smokin hot.

**Photo credits: Melissa Vossler Photography and Eden Rose Photography

Our Anniversary

Happy Anniversary to my love.  One year ago yesterday I walked down the aisle to you and promised to love you forever.  Didn't know it was possible to love you more, but I do.  Thank you for believing in "Us" as much as I do.

I love you my Sweet Bean.  Let's go back to Maui!

xoxo

Maternity Shoot

Last Friday MC and I were lucky to have a Mini-Session with Melissa Vossler and Eden Thome, two very talented photographers and sweet gals in the Reno-Tahoe area.  The session was a quick 20 minutes and I'm glad because I don't have the wall space necessary to display all of their awesomeness.

Sneak Peeks Below!

(Photo Courtesy of Eden Rose Photograpghy)

(Photo Courtesy of Melissa Vossler Photography)

It's the Little Things

With about 5 weeks left in my pregnancy, it would be an understatement to say that swimsuit shopping is not something I have been looking forward to.  But with the forecast calling for decent weather this Memorial Day weekend, and summertime in the very near future, shopping had to be done.  I'm thrilled to say that I actually found a couple options that made me feel "as cute as possible" and I didn't have to break the bank for it.

For a mere $4.98 I got this blue halter top in a size i've never had to purchase before. 

For $8.95 I got this little tankini.  I've never been a fan of the tankini, but i must admit I like it for several reasons, one being it hides my baby back fat and two I like the way it shows off my belly.  Plus, after Bean arrives, I figure this little number will hide some of that post-baby awesomeness that your belly goes through.  Hopefully, the polka-dots create enough confusion and disorientation to the eyes, moving them in every direction but my mid-section. Yay!  Not to mention the top provides easy access to my ummm "baby bottles".

Both of the above mentioned will pair well with the basic black bottoms I purchased for $7.49 in a size that seems to limit the amount of "muffin-top" action that happens with most bottom dwelling articles of clothing I put on lately.

Am I ready to hit the beach or what?   Mentally no, but I could definately put in a few sunny hours on the private dock and that is a beautiful thing.

Wishing you all a happy and safe Memorial Day!

Baby Shower Weekend

A small collage of my recent Baby Shower Weekend in which all my sisters and wonderful Momma drove up from So Cal and flew in from the Mid West to throw Baby Bean a lovely shower!  It was so awesome to have our home filled with family. There was no shortage of laughter and the typical mayhem that ensues when One Momma, Five Sisters and one Grand Daughter are under the same roof!  MC spent most of the weekend golfing, (can't blame him) while Mewker Mew hung around like one of the ladies!


Special thanks to everyone who made it out to the shower.  We got some wonderful gifts all which will be put to good use once Bean drop arrives!

Upstairs Bath Remodel

One bathroom down, a whole house to go!

We finally just about finished our upstairs bathroom min-remodel, and just in time for 5 house guests!  I have to say that i'm really happy with the way it turned out.  MC is my hero for pulling it off! Between my back and the growing bean, I had to sit out on a lot of the fun.

Had I remembered to take better before shot, you would see a space that had been painted 5 different colors by 2 teenagers and then topped off with a lazy coat of white prior to our purchase of the home, yellow standard oak cabinets, a large flat vanity mirror and the traditional hideous row of vanity lights.

We worked on a tight budget and didn't change as much as we would have liked.  Our inital plan was to just give everything a fresh coat of paint, but I really lucked out that MC broke the giant mirror over the vanity so we were able to spruce up the space with 2 separate mirrors and individual vanity lights.  I think this made the biggest difference! In trying to keep with the theme of the house, we chose a soft grey brown for the walls, cream with aged nickel pulls for the cabinets, and white accents for the rest. It sort of fell into a bright beachy theme but it seems to work well for the the space. And its gender neutral so it will work as our son's bathroom as well as the main guest bathroom.

This is my only before pic.  At this point MC had already painted the walls, doors and ceiling, and we had already primered the cabinets.  The mirror pictured was not used.

And here are my after shots!  I'm really happy with the way the cabinets turned out.  We were scared to paint them, i've had some sticky luck with this in the past, but the key was to give them ample drying time before re-hanging everything.

We are lucky to have tall ceilings, so I used a 96" White Waffel Shower curtain, I love how it draws the eye up and away from the remaining ugly lanolium floors and dated vinyl shower insert. 

Just need to add a few more decorative touches and some hooks in the water closet and we can completely mark this room off the list.

One of these days I will have a better camera to capture our Labor's of Love.  Until then...

Enjoy!

xoxo