The Great Outdoors

With this beautiful February weather we have been having, we've been spending a lot of our time outdoors. Preston loves to toddle around the backyard and swing on the swing set. Brian grilled burgers the other night, and Preston enjoyed his first burger with daddy. He loved it! 

He's walking so well now. Outside is great practice because he is learning to step up/down and watch where he is walking. He normally just barrels through whatever is in his path, but he is showing great improvement.

He cannot get enough of the swing. He screams and laughs with delight. I think he'll be in it a lot this Spring and Summer.

Brian got on next to him, and Preston just died laughing.

Feeling the grass beneath his Toms :)

Oy. This is what he does when I say "Ok, time to go inside!" He pitches such a fit. He wants to be outside all the time. Even when the weather is bad, he always cries and reaches in the direction of the swing set until we get in the back door. It hurts my heart, but sorry Preston, if it's pouring rain, we can't go swing. :( Any other time, we stop and swing. Life is short!

Sunday, after going to church and playing in the backyard, P took a long nap and when he got up, we took him to the zoo! 

Dinos are coming to the zoo in March. We can't wait. See how excited!

It was the first time we've been to the zoo since he started walking, and he walked all around the different exhibits. We are still working on him following paths, or staying with us, but I often remind myself that he is a little boy and he may never follow the path or stay with us :) After the zoo, our little family of three went to Central BBQ and had a true Memphis dinner. Brian said he wanted to bottle him up to keep him the way he is now. Me too, but I can't help but be excited for whatever tomorrow might bring. Days like today are the ones I dreamed of when I was pregnant. Parenting is so worth the work. Wouldn't trade it for anything!

For the first time ever...

Preston, by his own choice, hugged me. Without any prompt from me. Best part? It was Valentine's Day.

We were in the playroom, and he came up to me with his favorite dinosaur book and sat in my lap. I opened up the pages, and started reading. Then, he took his little arms and wrapped them around my waist, and laid his head on my chest. He stayed like that for 20 whole minutes. That is a lifetime in Preston's world.

Best Valentine's ever.

I try to keep up with developmental milestones in terms of walking, talking, eating, etc. But these are the milestones that blow me away the most. The fact that he is developing socially and emotionally is so fascinating to me.

Such a sweet boy who loves his mama. :)

In case you noticed, yes, those are labradors on his pajamas.

House Update: The Foyer

I have been meaning to do this post for my friends who have asked for it, but I'm finally getting a moment to sit down and update about something other than Preston. While this blog may not always show it, we do have more going on than just living vicariously through our child. :)

The biggest being our house. I'll leave out the fact that we have a hole in our living room ceiling right now, an "out of order" bathroom that will soon be demolished, and an oven that caught on fire last night (yes, flames that required a fire extinguisher to put them out. Thank goodness we actually keep one in our kitchen!) We curse our house regularly, but we always make up with it pretty quickly, because we have space, nice neighbors, and a great location.

Anyway, the foyer. The subject of our foyer was a rough one for a while. It was quite possibly the ugliest foyer we had ever seen in our lifetime. I am also pretty sure it was the reason our house was on the market for 9 months before Brian and I were crazy enough to buy it. Many people looked at our house when it was for sale. We have talked to some of those people, and they would always say, "Now, that was the house with the awful foyer, right?" And we would answer with, "Yep." It was stuck in 1964.

Previous owners stuff

Front door and high ceilings.

Stairwell

Still with previous owners stuff.

Upstairs. P's bedroom on left, ours on right.

Other side of upstairs hallway. Guest room, hall bath and office on this side.

It was bad. The wallpaper that went sky-high, the mustard trim and wainscoting, the vast size of the foyer that encompassed two hallways upstairs and downstairs. You can see the foyer from just about every single room of the house.

The foyer was SO dark. The best way to describe it was that everything was just yellow. The ceiling was painted an off-white. There is also no natural sunlight in the foyer. In thinking about remodeling, we knew we wanted it to feel lighter, brighter, and bring it into this millennium.

So, first we hired a contractor. While we usually do projects on our own, we were both a little nervous about the ladders/scaffolding that stripping the walls would take. Plus, we knew it would take us forever. In the quotes we received, they all told us about a week. That was a big factor for us, since we knew it was going to be a messy project. Our contractor, Dustin, was great and his team did an awesome job.

Stripping the paper was the hardest part. Poor guys. They were dying. At this point, we were so happy we paid people to do this project!

Were the walls prepped before the paper was put on? Of course not!

The stripping of the paper made a huge mess. We literally had to deep clean every room of our house 3 or 4 times to get all of the dust up. The guys had to put two skim coats to prep the walls for painting.

Close-up of the wallpaper. I know, we were CRAZY to want to take this down ;)

Suddenly, the foyer started coming into this century. We would come home from work and be so excited!

Now that's more like it!

For the trim, we matched the rest of the house with Benjamin Moore White Dove. The walls are Benjamin Moore Tapestry Beige. I wanted a light linen color that would blend with the rest of our neutrals. This was the perfect choice! We are so pleased with it. We also painted the ceiling a bright white to make it seem lighter. Painting the ceiling made a huge difference.

**Tip for the walls: Brian's aunt is an interior designer and she gave us this tip. We painted the walls one solid color, but above the chair rail, we painted an eggshell finish and below we painted a semi-gloss finish. It gives such a nice effect to the walls, and makes the bottom portion stand out just a touch. LOVE that tip!

Now, here it is, with our stuff moved back in!

My friend Sarah Ella is making me a frame to go on this wall. 

Gallery wall along the upstairs hallway.

Our paint colors worked! It is so much brighter. In total, the painters had to paint 11 doors (front and back, including trim) and two large closets in addition to the walls. Worth every penny. Painting over those dark mustard doors is a nightmare.

I think my favorite though might be the upstairs hallway. We did a gallery wall of white Ikea frames, and I LOVE it. We are still working on filling it with fun things. I am glad that our marriage survived the hanging of so many frames ;) Thanks Brian for fulfilling my design dreams!!!

Slowly, but surely this house is coming together!

Love, Love Me Do!

I love my husband. Like, a whole lot. Yesterday was his birthday. He turned 29. His parents treated us to a Grizzlies game, and a dinner on Beale Street before the game. His dad was able to get suite tickets. It was so fun, and Brian enjoyed it so much. Preston was also very generous to his daddy. He wanted to get him something they could enjoy together, so he got the whole family a Memphis Zoo membership! A dinosaur exhibit is coming this Spring and Summer, and since P is obsessed with dinos, he really wanted to make sure we went as much as possible. Daddy (Brian) was really excited. Here's to your last birthday in the 20's, dear!

In the spirit of Valentine's Day, I thought I would take a little trip down memory lane. My friends are doing this cute little questionnaire, so I thought I would participate too. Might be kind of corny, but whatever! I didn't do all the questions, because some where a little TOO ridiculous, so I picked a few.


1. How long have you and your significant other been together?
A little over 8 years total, which feels like a long time, but really it has flown by.


2. How did you meet? {What's your "love" story?}
We met in high school. I was a junior and he was a senior. We kind of liked each other, but he was headed off to UGA and I had another year of school. We went to a dance together, and enjoyed a nice friendship, but that was about it. After he left for school, I didn't see him or hear from him until I was a freshman in college. I randomly ran into him in Florida, then in Knoxville, and then in Memphis within the span of about a year. Brian's best friend Robert became my good friend in college. I mentioned to him that I always thought Brian was cute, and Robert kind of helped set us up while we were both home from college for Christmas break in 2003. We went on our first date, and literally, on our first date, we knew this was it. In fact, I remember telling each other on our first date, that this was the best date we had ever been on. We dated long distance with me in Knoxville and Brian in Athens for two years, then another year of me in Knoxville and Brian in Memphis. Then, I moved back home to Memphis after I graduated, we got engaged and the rest is history!

Bama/Georgia game 2008

Bahama cruise 2006

Georgia/Tennessee Game Day 2005

Formal 2005

Graduation weekend at Sassy Ann's in Knoxville 2006

On the beach at night in Charleston, SC 2007

3. If married, how long have you been married?
Three and a half years. June 28 will be our fourth anniversary.


4. If you are married, where did you get married at? Big or small wedding? 
We got married at St. Mary's Catholic Church in downtown Memphis. We had a full Mass, much to the dismay of lots of our friends ;) There were around 250 people there. The reception was at Central Station. There are so many things I could say about our wedding, but the #1 thing is thank goodness for my mom, who is extremely detail-oriented and has fabulous taste! It was the perfect day.

5. Do you have any nick-names that you call one another?
I'm not really a nickname person, so I don't really have for Brian other than "B" which I call him a lot. Brian has about 1,000 nicknames for me. Some of them are Carmelki, Carmello, and Cams. 


6. Name 3 things you love most about your honey.
1. His loyalty
2. Sense of humor
3. His ability to not sweat the small stuff


7. Tell us how he proposed?
It was a random Friday after work (August 3, 2007), and I walked in the front door of his house. There were flowers and I saw our dog, Brother, run up to me. He was wearing a shirt that said "Will you marry me?" Of course I laughed and yelled "No way!" which is not the best thing to yell before a proposal. Anyway, Brian came around the corner, got down on one knee, said a lot of really sweet things, and crying ensued. We went to my parents house immediately after, and they took a video of us and pictures. Then we went to dinner at Spindini. 

8. Tell us one thing you'd like to do with your significant other one day.
Grow old together. That's probably really weird to say, but when we talk about "our dreams", it is truly to grow old together. We talk about how we want to have our house paid off, be able to take some serious trips, and if we're lucky, actually be able to retire at a decent age when we still have our health. I can't imagine ever REALLY retiring, because working makes me feel good, but maybe Brian can talk me into one day. :)


9. Give us one piece of advice of keeping a relationship strong and full of love.
Marriage is never 50/50. Sometimes it's 60/40, 90/10, or 20/80. Sometimes Brian is the better spouse, and sometimes I am the better spouse. Being there for each other through the tough times, carrying the load for the other when it gets hard, is one of the best things a spouse can do. It is selflessness and sacrifice that makes marriage work, in my opinion.


10. Show us a picture of what love means to you. (There is no way I could only pick one!)

When we first saw each other on our wedding day

P was 1 week old. It had finally registered that we created this perfect little person, and we just couldn't get enough of our little family. Such a sweet time. Brian holding my hand in one and his son in the other. This picture means so much to me, and will always be one of my favorites. Even though, I still have a swollen, pregnancy face :)

I love you, Brian! Happy birthday, valentine!