The Kitchen

We had our kitchen renovation back in August, but since Weslyn has come into our lives I haven't had the chance to take any after shots. I've been too preoccupied taking pictures of the baby. You know how it goes. Anyway, here is the new kitchen. 

Before

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After

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After

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Thankful.

We certainly had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. It's always great to be in Tallahassee and see family and friends.  To start the morning off Lynn, Weslyn and I did the Tallahassee Turkey Trot. It was a ton of fun!

She beat us by a few feet. Pretty good for her first 5k!

My talented sister took some great pictures of us this year. She definitely needs to quit the whole lawyer thing and take up photography.

It was wonderful to be with family to celebrate the holiday. Everyone had a great time!

Great to see some Graves from Atlanta and NC.

You'll notice there are TWO red heads in the family now!

We wrapped up the weekend with a Noles victory over the Gators. GO SEMINOLES! Great way to end a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend.

Approaching Milestones

Weslyn has been a "mover" ever since she came home from the hospital. She refuses to be swaddled and has been picking up her head since day 5. I see some rolling around in her near future. I better rest while I can because something tells me this girl is going to be on the move in no time!

Happy Halloween!

Halloween was a great success this year. We had a great time hanging out with family and passing out candy to the kiddos. Lawton had a wonderful dressing up as a scarecrow and scaring the kiddos. See below:

Lawton making his friend "George the scarecrow"

He really went all out to  make him look life like!

Pretty good, huh?

In case you can't tell, Lawton is on the right.

As you probably guessed, when children walked up to ring the doorbell Lawton would move toward them...scaring the living daylight out of some of the little ones. He had to shake hands with one little boy to show he was just pretending and not really a mean scarecrow. He really had a great time.

Weslyn had a great time too. She greeted some neighbors in this cute little number Gigi made for her.

Thanks, Gigi!

All in all it was a great night! Hope you all had a great Halloween too!

8 weeks

I can't believe our little one is 8 weeks old today. Here's some favorites so far..

taking a bottle for the first time. Looks like dad had the magic touch.

napping with momma

hanging out with her brother

picking up her head. Such a strong girl!

taking a paci. Thank. the. Lord.

Gotta love that smile...

Fast Asleep.

These days Weslyn spends most of her day sleeping. It's quite the treat when she's awake so I try to capture it on camera as much as possible. I have to do it fast though because she can fall asleep pretty quickly...

Awake, looking around...

Getting a little tired...

Fading fast...

And she's out. It's tiring being a newborn. 

Introducing...

We would like to introduce our daughter, Weslyn Elizabeth Graves. She was born on Friday, Sept. 2, 2011 at 3:15am. 8 lbs 15 ounces, 21.5 inches. She's perfect in every way. Our family couldn't be more excited to have her.

My labor began Thursday evening. I was having contractions on and off during the days before, which prepared me for the big event on Friday morning. Around 9:30pm the contractions were close and intense enough to start timing. Lawton was an incredible coach throughout the entire process; I truly couldn't have done it without him. We walked the hall of our house for a couple hours while Kobe watched us with a close eye:) By midnight it was time to go to the hospital. The 20 minute drive to St. Luke's Hospital wasn't as bad as I had imagined. I was able to breathe through each contraction and stay calm...for the most part. When we got to the hospital the contractions were more intense and so was the pain. I remember feeling like I couldn't do it. I couldn't handle the pain. Lawton encouraged me and kept telling me, "You are doing it and you're doing a great job." My labor progressed quickly going from 6 cm dilated to 9 cm in about an hour. The nurses and midwife were encouraging as well and stuck with me the whole time. By 2am we were in the home stretch. I was exhausted, falling asleep between the pushing and contractions. It went by quickly though and at 3:15am our Weslyn was born. A head full of hair just like her parents. She is now 1 week old and we are continuing to adjust to life with a baby. Kobe has kept a close eye on her and is already comfortable around her...even through the crying and funny smells. Everyday it gets easier and hard to imagine life without her. We can't wait for more friends and family to meet our new addition to the Graves Yard.

Starting to feel the need to nest

37 and 1/2 weeks along now and I'm ready to organize this house from head to toe. Not just organize, but get renovations finished and things looking pretty:) We're in the middle of our kitchen renovation right now and the house is a total wreck. Tomorrow they are putting in the countertops and doing the backsplash. We picked out a faucet, sink and hardware, so now we just need to pick out lighting.

Kitchen lighting: I love this one. 

I searched for a while to figure out what kind of fixture it's called. 

Evidently it's called a schoolhouse ceiling light.

 

Here's the light I found that I love. The price is a little steep at $80...

  

After more research I found this one. Only $25 at Lowes. It will probably 

work better anyway since the ceiling in our kitchen is a bit low.

After the kitchen is complete I will feel much better and not as frantic about the house being "incomplete" before the baby arrives. Tomorrow we're going to clean from top to bottom, organize all other areas of the house and hang more pictures. That will help make the house to feel more like our home. Here are some other ideas that have been floating around in my head lately:

Framed fabric. I think this would look great in the living room.

Definitely not this color, but I do enjoy the design.

I've realized our coffee table weighs a lot and takes up too much space. 

We're going to trade it out for something more functional like this.

The only problem is I want to have something more colorful. So hopefully my 

oh-so-creative MIL will help me make slipcovers:

http://www.designsponge.com/2010/03/sewing-101-ottoman-slip-cover.html

 We'll see how much we get done in the next couple of weeks. Hopefully we can get a good head start this weekend! Wish us luck:)

Nursery

The last few months have flown by. We've moved into the new house, started renovations, and pretty much finished the nursery. Once we know the gender we'll decorate the walls of baby Graves' room a little more. Here are a few photos of the nursery so far:

 

Glider was a gift from Grandma and Grandpa.

Curtains made by Gigi.

The crib was passed down to us from cousin Chesson. Crib skirt made by Gigi.

 The Winnie the Pooh characters were mine but now I'm passing them down to baby Graves. The photo on the second shelf is Lawton when he was a little one. :)

Gift from Corbin & Byerly. My favorite part of the whole room:)

21 weeks

I know it's been quite a while since we've posted a bump picture, but the last 9-10 weeks haven't been as exciting as the weeks are now. Here's 21 weeks:

I've been feeling really great. Walking every day with Kobe and exercising a lot more. Lawton and I started taking a birth class last week. It's been...interesting, but for the most part it's been educational. It's getting us more and more excited about the arrival of baby Graves!

Our house is currently in the closing process. Just a couple more weeks and we will be homeowners! YAY! Big thanks to our realtor Jamie Goodroe for all her hard work.

12 weeks

This week we had a pretty exciting week. I had a doctor's appointment on Friday and we heard the heartbeat! It was amazing. I could have sat there and listened to it all day.

We also found a house we're putting an offer on! It's only a few miles away from where we are now, so the move would be pretty easy. It's all brick 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. The only downside is that is has a pool that needs some work. We actually don't want a pool (yet) so we would probably have the pool removed. It's a good thing we've made some good friends at church who have the proper equipment to remove something like a pool. We'll see what happens. Should have some more news soon on the house!

For now here's the 12 week photo:

August 23, 2011

Our family is expecting a new addition in August, and no it's not another puppy:) Kobe will be the only puppy in our family for a while. Baby Graves is due August 23, 2011. I'm about 12 weeks along now. Here is my belly photo from 11 weeks. I would have put up the 10 week photo, but it doesn't look any different from this one. Not much going on, but hopefully my next photo will be a little more exciting!

2011 Trips

We are very excited about 2011 in our house. We've had A LOT going on recently and are excited for what's to come. One thing we're excited about in particular are all the trips. Here's a list of what's on the calendar so far:

Weddings:

Palazzo Lavaca in Austin, TX

Our friends Hayden and Sean (who went viral: see here) are getting hitched this April here. We're psyched about spending time with old friends and sight seeing in Austin. I'll be celebrating this occasion early at the bride's bachelorette party in New Orleans!

The Warehouse in Tallahassee, FL

Our friends Matthew and Rachel are getting hitched this May in a place that's dear to our hearts, Tallahassee. We met Matthew at our church and became BFF4L right away. Lawton is in the wedding and also gets to go on a bachelor weekend. Look out! We're so excited about going back to Tally to celebrate this amazing couple's life together!

Cliffs at Glassy in Landrum, SC

One of my dear friends from high school, Grace, is getting married here this July. We're so excited for the happy couple and can't wait to celebrate!

We have a couple more wedding here in Jax that we're excited about too! Congrats to Whitaker & Heather and Kim & Mike!

Family Vacations:

Hood River, Oregon

We're pumped about going to see the Chambers family in May! We've recently been planning this trip and can't wait to hang out with family!

And of course we're always excited about seeing our Graves family in Raleigh. Not sure where the destination will be yet, but we'll be seeing one another for sure! You have to make sure you see this family every few months with kids as cute as these:

Here we come 2011!