Mary Hayes' Nursery

After nine months of dreaming about, planning, and agonizing over what to do with  Mary Hayes' nursery, it is finally finished! I am in love with how it turned out. There are a few tweaks left to be done, but for the most part it is exactly what I wanted. 

(excuse the spacing of the photos and such, I have had so much trouble even getting them posted!)

 

My mom and I (okay, mostly my mom) made the bedding. I found the damask fabric online but was not in love with what they had paired with it.  I found these coordinating fabrics in town and we went from there. I am pleased with the results and love that my mom and I were able to work on this together. 

I love how the monogrammed chair turned out! I went back and forth over whether or not to monogram it, and then what color to do the actual monogram in - but I'm so happy with how it turned out!

The grouping of pictures on this wall are pictures I had in my room when I was a little girl. I can't remember off the top of my head who the artist is. I could go look, but that would require me to walk up the stairs and that isn't happening right now :) The iron stroller and coat rack in her room were also mine when I was a little girl. I love being able to pass these things down to her. 

 I  wanted the room to be sweet and girly without being PINK!  I decided to use pops of pink throughout the room, and I love how this old window turned mirror gives that pop. 

Well blogger is being crazy and won't let me write underneath the pictures posted below,  so I will end the post here. I cannot wait until my daughter is here to enjoy her room.

Merry Christmas!

And her name is...

As soon as we found out we were expecting, I immediately started thinking about names.  Of course at that point we did not know if we were having a boy or a girl so I was thinking about names for both. I would tell Ben the names, and he would give a thumbs up or a thumbs down but I think it was hard for him to really get into it without knowing the gender.  I, however,  was all about finding a great name.

I had no problem coming up with great boy names. I've had one name I've loved for years for a little boy, but a girl name I was coming up short. I really wanted her to have a family name, and while Ben liked the idea of a family name, but it was not a must for him. I was named after both of my grandmothers;  first name after my dad's mom, and middle name after my mom's mom. I may not have always loved my actual name, but I LOVED the heritage and ties that it held.  I wanted this for my daughter.

I made lists of all the family names on both sides, and was not impressed with the girl names we had to choose from.  I mean, some weren't so bad, but I just wasn't inspired.

So after six and half months of countless texts with friends and family members,  trolling baby name books, and so many lengthy conversations, we have chosen, what we think, to be the perfect name for our baby:

Mary Hayes

Mary comes from Ben's side.  Both of his grandmothers, his great grandmother, his aunt, and his sister are all Mary or Mary Something.  So this seemed like a great choice.

Hayes is my mother's maiden name.  I had thought previously that I would save this name for a little boy one day, but after much discussion we decided it was a good girl name too.  

We will call her by her whole name, Mary Hayes.  I am so excited to finally have this decided.  Now I can stop calling her "baby girl" - I'm sure she appreciates it :)  And most importantly, I can start having things monogrammed - no southern girl should be born without a closet full of monogrammed clothing! 

What Will it BEE?! - Gender Reveal

Gender Reveal? What? You mean I haven't blogged yet that Ben and I are expecting?! Well, we are!! Our little babe will be here sometime in December. Our due date is December 24th, but I can honestly say I hope the baby comes early. Who wants to have their birthday on Christmas?!  Regardless of when the baby gets here, we cannot wait!!

Ben and I found out last Monday what we are having and we couldn't wait to share the news with our friends and family. Long before I was expecting I knew I wanted to have a gender reveal party. I always thought they were so cute, and I love an excuse to party.  But after I planned the party, Ben told me that he did not want to find out what the gender was in front of other people. He felt like that was a private moment to be shared with between us, so we went ahead with the party and decided we would just know before hand.

During the ultrasound we asked the tech not to tell or show us the gender, but to put it in  an envelope and seal it up so we couldn't peek! The baby was very healthy and everything about the ultrasound was perfect! Praise the Lord! We met with the doctor after the ultrasound then left to go open the envelope. I thought we would go grab coffee or something to eat and open the envelope there, but as we were walking to the car Ben said "let's just open it in the car - I can't wait!" -  haha, it was so cute. We opened the envelope, cried and laughed, then called our parents to tell them the news!

Okay, now for pictures of the party.  Here is the invitation we mailed out. The colors and theme of the party were bees, yellow and black. 

Since the party was at 6:30 we just had light appetizers and punch. I tried to keep the food yellow and black as well to keep with the theme. I served yellow corn dip served with black (blue?) corn chips, pineapple and black grape skewers, BBQ meatballs, cake, and pineapple-lemonade punch. 

We asked everyone to wear PINK if they thought it was a girl and BLUE if they thought it was a BOY. Ben and I wore yellow since we knew what it was and didn't want to give it away!

Somehow the night went by and Ben and I never took a picture together - But anyway, in order to reveal the gender I wanted to do something different than cutting a cake or biting into cupcakes. Since Ben and I already knew the gender, I tried to think of something a little more fun.  I found a BumbleBee pinata and stuffed it full of Hershey bars. I intended to color the HE in Hershey blue if the baby was a boy, or the SHE in Hershey pink of the baby was a girl, but the color kept rubbing off so I had to come up with another plan.  My 12 year old cousin hit the pinata first, and after two hits it split right open. I didn't get to take many pictures because he opened it so quickly.

 You can see people running to the candy once it all fell out. And what did the candy show?!

IT'S A GIRL! We are so excited!!! I cannot wait to meet our sweet little DAUGHTER!!

Life and its curveballs

It's been almost two months since I have updated my blog. Life has been a complete whirlwind but blessed and amazing at the same time.

In April I had my 28th birthday. Ben was so sweet and celebrated my "birthday week" by bringing me flowers on Monday, taking me out for a drink on Tuesday, taking me to get frozen yogurt on Wednesday, and arranging for all my friends to celebrate my day with us on Thursday at the opening game for the Memphis Redbirds.  Baseball may not sound like the ideal way to celebrate your birthday, but I really just wanted to be with friends and they have a big grassy hill that you can sit on and watch the game. The weather could not have been more perfect and the girls had a great time visiting while the men watched the game.  On Saturday he took me to a really nice dinner at Restaurant Iris.  It is in the heart of midtown and had delicious cajun/southern food.  I had the shrimp and grits, and Ben had the filet stuffed with blue cheese and wrapped in bacon. We also stuffed ourselves on appetizers and desserts. It was a great day and I'm so thankful for my husband who made it extra special.

At this point in the game I honestly can't even remember what else we did in April. I guess that's why I should be better at blogging, huh?

I finished graduate school last week, and had my graduation this past weekend. Both of our families were able to come up - all 15 of them! - and we had a great time!

I know this post was short and sweet, but I will try my best to do better now that I'm done with school.

Neglecting....again

Hi friends -

I just wanted to write a quick note and say that yes, I've been neglecting the ol' blog again. I've been so busy with writing my thesis for my Masters degree and still feel as though I'm no where close being done!  Sadly, I feel guilty everytime I sit at the computer and do anything other than work on said thesis.

This past week I had three friends tell me ( at different times) that they have been checking my blog but haven't seen any updates. I'M SO SORRY!! I opened my google reader today for the first time in about three or four weeks and I had 978 unread post. I am about to just mark them all as read because it is giving me major anxiety to know they are sitting there waiting to be read!

I will try to carve some time out in the next few days to write a good, LONG (I know you're excited), post about what has been going on over in the Chip's world.... but sadly it isn't all that exciting.

Much love! - M

Celebrating One Year!

As I wrote about yesterday, this weekend we celebrated our one year anniversary.  We kept our celebrations fairly low-key yesterday since we are going on an anniversary trip next weekend. 

We have been going 90 to nothing for the past few weeks so we decided would sleep in on Sunday and just have a lazy day - we slept late, then went and had a late breakfast at The Arcade on South Main. After breakfast we headed out east to get our wedding cake from my aunt's freezer. She had graciously been storing it for us for the past year.

That afternoon we just treated the day like a normal Sunday afternoon and did some laundry, and projects around the house. We watched a movie and played with the dog, and Ben surprised me with two little happys. We had agreed that we would wait and give each other our gifts on our trip next weekend, so it was a fun little surprise to get these little gifts. He gave me the DVD combo-pack of Father of the Bride, and Father of the Bride, part two. I love those movies and did not have them - love it! He also gave me the new Weight Watchers cookbook. He made sure to preface the gift by saying "Don't take this as me saying you're fat, I just thought you'd like it since you're doing weight watchers right now" - haha, he knows me too well. 

Later that night we went back out and had a nice dinner at Automatic Slims - mmm it was delicious! Ben had scallops and I had the salmon.

 

After dinner we went and had a drink at the Peabody Hotel, then came home to see if the cake was going to be edible....

 

 

 

And surprisingly, it was really good! So kudos to my aunt for doing an awesome job freezing it! It tasted exactly the way it did one year ago! 

And one more picture, just because I think he's so cute :) 

One year ago today

On this day, last year, Ben and I got married. Wow, where does time go? It honestly feels like we have only been married six months, MAX! I guess it's true what they say - time flies when you're having fun!

 

This first year of marriage has been fun, challenging, exciting, and vast array of other emotions. God has been so good to us and provided for us over and over again. My job situation has changed several times in our one year of marriage, and money has been tight from time to time, but God never fails! Right when I would start worrying or wondering what was next, God would open a door and drop exactly what we needed right into our laps.  He truly is SO GOOD! I'm honestly thankful for the challenges we experiences this year, because it forced us to draw closer and rely on each other, and the Lord.

We have spent time decorating our home and getting just like I want we like it, we have traveled, celebrated with friends as they got married, celebrated with friends as they had babies,  had arguments about where we would spend the holidays, celebrated birthdays, found a church home that we love, and spent time thinking and dreaming about future and what all is to come in the next 60 years of our lives.

 

I am so blessed to have married you, Ben. You are my knight in shining armor, my sun when the skies are cloudy - you are what makes my days complete.  Thank you for loving me when I'm not easy to love and for giving me the reality checks I so often need.  Thank you for standing beside me and encouraging me in all that I do. You're an amazing husband and I'm so thankful for you.  I'm looking forward to a lifetime of joy and happiness, with you - my husband. 

Happy Birthday KayKay!

This past weekend I went home to Alabama to celebrate my mom's birthday. This was the first year in many years that all the kids have been able to come home for either of my parent's birthdays - when we are all together things get loud and busy, but that's exactly how I like things! Ben wasn't able to come home with me because I stayed until Monday and he had to work. My 14 year old cousin, MM, went with me so I didn't have to make the six hour drive by myself.

We got in late Friday night, and by the time we woke up Saturday morning everyone had made it to town.  First thing that morning we had a big breakfast, then we went outside to enjoy the amazing 70 degree weather!

The boys went out and did a little target practice

While the girls played on the swing and talked. I love how N, my nephew, pretends to be shy :) 

After that we went down to the park for a picnic. The boys played with some remote control boats, while the girls enjoyed the warm sun.

That night, we all went to a resturant in town and had a birthday dinner for mom. My SIL, D, and I went to a little early and dressed up the tables with candles and flowers - mom said it was one of the best birthdays she had in a long time - it was nice to have everyone all together. 

 

 

Happy Birthday, Mom! We love you!

Happy Valentine's.... a little late

Well, I know I'm two days late posting about Valentine's but I thought better late than never, huh?

Neither Ben nor I are very big into Valentine's, but in the past we've usually done the whole dinner, flowers, cards, candy, gifts, etc. This year, with our Anniversary two weeks later we decided to keep it really simple.  We had plans to go to a friends for dinner and such, but I came home from work Monday and I was getting really sick. All I wanted to do was put on my pj's and lay on the couch.  Ben was super sweet and got take out for us for dinner - he tried to make it a little special, even as he forced Gatorade down my throat.

Since we were keeping things simple I had a few cards hiding around for Ben to find throughout the day, I made him cupcakes, and I gave him a book of coupons for things like "One night of uninterrupted control of the TV remote" etc...  I had great plans of making chocolate covered strawberries, but I only got as far as washing the strawberries before I had to go lay down. Sorry, honey!

Ben gave me a few cards (and even got one for me from Mosby!), some candy and he bought me this mirror I've been wanting for sometime - I love it so much and cannot wait to get it hung!

We got a few other valentine "happies" from our parents - we are so blessed! 

I'm sorry don't have any pictures of our day, I just didn't have it in me to grab the camera.  I hope you all had a very special love day :)

"Your hair needs it's own Zip Code!"

Last night a friend of ours threw a little party. He called this party "Whiskey and Windsuits." This friend loves to throw costume parties and this one was certainly a blast! I don't drink whiskey but I can certainly rock a windsuit!

After scouring a friends closet we came up with some pretty awesome outfits - then, way too much blush, eye shadow, a can of hairspray and a few hours in hot rollers later, we were ready to party!

He had this party in his basement, just as I can imagine a party back in the day may have taken place!

We danced to some great 80's music... footloose!

Some of these pictures crack me up, because they look like we are straight out of 1992!

well, minus my addidas workout pants - those were Ben's from high school. I couldn't find any windsuit pants to match my jacket.

Of course Ben wore orange - are we surprised?  Yea, I didn't think so

We all decided that while windsuits really are so comfy and warm - flattering they are not! It's funny though how you put someone in a costume and they start acting crazy!