My first creation

Here's the mixer's first cake...

It's a chocolate pound cake! I gave Mike a stack of cake recipes and asked him which one he wanted me to make first. He picked this one. I only had to call my mom twice during the process. It tastes pretty good too!

I really want to make a strawberry cake this weekend, so we will see if I can go two for two!

What a weekend...

I don't think we've had such a busy {and productive} weekend in a very long time! We drove to Birmingham Friday night and spent the night with the Carters. We woke up early Saturday morning. The boys headed to the golf course, and we were inside Babies R Us by 9:45 {the doors open at 9:30.} After some scanner drama, the process went relatively smoothly. Thank you for the suggestions; they were extremely helpful! The car seat decision was a tough one, and I didn't register for a stroller. However, forty-five items and almost 3 hours later, we headed to O'Charley's for lunch. After lunch, we went to The Swanky Stork, where I fell in love with a $60 t-shirt. I figured since I haven't spent much money on clothes {or myself} since I've been pregnant, I could splurge on this cute shirt...

Tatum's wedding was Saturday afternoon at the Botanical Gardens. She looked gorgeous, and everything was perfect. One of my favorite parts... they had five cakes at the reception {one bride's cake and four different groom cakes.}

We drove home listening to Eli Gold in a happy state of shock. We were home in time to watch the crappy third quarter but went to bed excited for the Tide.

Today was SUPER productive, thanks to my sweet family! My parents, Tracy, Travis and Paw Paw came to help us prepare Trent's room. His room is our old office, so we Dad and Travis moved two rooms of furniture {two desks, a huge bookshelf, a treadmill, filing cabinets, a SLEEPER SOFA, and the list goes on.} His room is now empty and waiting for his furniture, which will be delivered as soon as the room is painted. THANK YOU family!! I feel 100 times more prepared; although, I wonder if our house will sell now that we worked so hard. :)

Please say a prayer for Mike in the morning. He has surgery at 9:00. It's not a super serious surgery, but it's still surgery.

Advice?

I am going to Babies R Us {and maybe Target too} to register tomorrow. My friend, Heidi, and I are going together. My mom has been bugging reminding me to register since August 18th when we found out we are having a boy. She has sent me tons of emails recommending different toys, strollers, medical equipment, etc. I think I just used all of our printer ink printing registry checklists. I'm trying to turn these feelings of anxiety into excitement.

I remember registering when we got married. We pretty much just went in, had fun with the scanner and ended up with some great stuff. {Mike managed to scan a basketball and a piece of luggage while I wasn't looking, and he was super excited when he received them both!} Registering for baby isn't quite so easy. SO, I'm soliciting a little help...

If you can think of something that you or your child love, please tell me! And if you know of something that you wished you'd registered for but didn't {or received but never used} please share those things too! Thanks in advance for your help:)

** Following up from previous posts... I ordered the bedding from Javis Davis yesterday! I can't wait to receive it! The sale is still going on, so check it out if you need crib bedding.

Mike brought down the mixer last night, and it looks so pretty on the counter. Thank you all for the recipes. Holly, you need to publish a cake cookbook... I can't wait to make the strawberry cake and the margarita cake!

Confession

I have a confession to make. I have had this in my attic for over four years...

Yes, it's a KitchenAid stand mixer. We received it as a wedding gift (May 1, 2004). I'd forgotten about it until Holly listed it as one of her favorite things. After talking to a few friends, I've decided I want to open use it. Unfortunately, I can't get to it from "my side" of the attic. It will require pulling down the stairs in the garage, climbing up and getting it. I asked Mike if we could make this happen tonight, and he wasn't up for the challenge. Hopefully it will grace my kitchen counter tomorrow. What should I make first?

** After posting this, I read it to Mike, and he reminded me of a story regarding the mixer. A couple of years ago, his mom bought our sister-in-law a mixer for Christmas. She told Mike that Jessica wanted a mixer before she bought one, and Mike offered up our mixer!! Needless to say, after I explained that our mixer was worth hundreds of dollars, Mike decided we'd leave it the attic. He says he still can't believe a mixer can cost so much and looks forward to tasting it's creations!

I changed my mind...

Since the Alabama game didn't require my full attention yesterday, {thank goodness!} I spent hours looking at baby bedding. Originally, I liked this bedding. I still love it, but it's crazy expensive and possibly a little too girly for Trent. So, I solicited help from my sister to design my own bedding. Javis Davis is having a 25% off sale on custom bedding, so we Tracy got to work and designed Trent some bedding. What do you think? I plan on ordering it tomorrow.

It looks yellow in the picture, but here's the main pattern:

While I worked on bedding yesterday, Bailey waited for her daddy to come home from work...

Eventually she got tired of waiting...

Two Cuties

Isn't this picture CUTE?! This is our niece, Hannah, with Bailey. They are so cute and funny together! I used this site to get the pencil look. {http://www.dumpr.net/sketch.php} Give it a try! This was the original picture...



I absolutely love watching them together, and it makes me excited about seeing Trent with Bailey in the future. Hopefully they will be best buds!

Have a great weekend! We will spend most of the weekend watching football. With three great SEC games, what else is there to do?!

Beach/ Babymoon

We had a great time at the beach! It rained for a few minutes Wednesday afternoon, but not a single drop Thursday- Sunday. The wind was crazy, but that was the only reason I was able to sit by the pool for hours each day. Speaking of the pool, two of the four (noticeably) pregnant women at the pool had on bikinis... NO, not me; they looked great, but I haven't worn a bikini since I was 8 weeks pregnant. I told Mike that it might be tankinis for life for me!

One big difference between this beach trip and past beach trips: I didn't spend much time or money shopping. All of my favorite outlet stores (J Crew, Banana Republic, Ann Taylor, etc) are out of the question right now. I did manage to find a cute gown for Trent. Mike was not a fan. I tried to explain how easy it would be to change him in the gown, but I don't think he's buying it yet. I give him one middle of the night diaper change to change his mind...

Here are a few pictures from our trip:


He asked if I minded if he wore the bib... I told him I loved the idea, since he'd spilt coffee down his shirt earlier that day and refused to change:)

Yes, we spent most of our time eating various foods in various places.

This is the only picture of the two of us... I guess in a way, I did wear a bikini!

Beach Bound

Because Hurricane Ike is heading this way...

We are going here tomorrow...

Although, we were going here if Ike was heading towards Florida (thank you Mindy!)...

There's nothing like waiting until the last possible minute to make a decision! After looking into Las Vegas, Chicago, and multiple places in Georgia, we decided (yesterday) to cancel our trip to Sandestin and go to the Ritz Carlton, Reynolds Plantation on Lake Oconee. Now, one day later, we changed our minds again. I was never this indecisive before pregnancy. Mike's always been the careful thinker, and I was the quick, impulsive decision-maker. Not anymore...

I guess this is our "Baby Moon." I used to laugh at that term, but after seeing Baby Moon packages offered by many resorts, I realize they are more common than I thought. Luckily, we have a travel card to pay for this baby moon. Maybe the "push present" is something I should look into as well:)

After I posted Saturday night, Mike felt Trent kick for the first time! I've been feeling him for a little over a week now, and it was fun for Mike to feel him too. According to my books, he's about 10 inches long now, so we should be feeling lots of movements.

Lastly, can anyone make Trent one of these? I absolutely love it, and I can't sew or smock. Isn't it adorable?

*Disclaimer: Yes, I found this outfit on another blog. I hope I'm not doing anything illegal!

Getting Bigger

I had to post both of these pictures because I really think I look bigger from the left side! These were taken last night. Tomorrow will be 21 weeks. This week, a lady in one of the offices I call on asked if I'm sure I'm not having twins! Umm... that would be negative.

Thanks for the camera suggestions! I ordered a new one this week. I used American Express points, so it was free! I got the Canon Powershot SD870. My mom let me borrow hers to see if I liked it, and it was great. I still may get a nice, larger camera after Christmas. I'm trying to decide between the Nikon D40 or D60 or the Canon Rebel. I've heard great things about both; they're pretty pricey, so I'm going to spend some more time researching them.

Mike and I are supposed to go to the beach next week, and I'm getting nervous about the weather- and Hurricane Ike. We don't leave until Wednesday. We've decided that if the weather looks horrible for Destin, we may cancel early next week and go somewhere else. The problem is deciding where else to go. We must go next week, because the travel card we're using expires at the end of September. If anyone has been anywhere great (within driving distance), please let us know! We want to relax, eat, shop (maybe that's just me), Mike would love to play golf, and we're planning on spending four nights. Any ideas?

I better end this post. I convinced Mike to pay $30 for the Alabama game, and I've been on the computer since it started:)

Diaper Bag Deal and a New Camera

I can't believe this is my third post in five days! I am on a roll! I'm not promising to keep it up, but it is fun.

I'm excited because I found this great diaper bag...

... for HALF OFF! I saw it online and was about to order it from the site. I saw the SALE tab and clicked on it, only to see my bag for 50% off. The site explained that the sale bags have minor flaws, so I called to ask about these flaws. The nice sales representative explained that they may have slight fabric discoloration in the POCKETS of the bag. I'm sure there will be dirty clothes and spilled bottles in this bag's future, so some slight color discoloration nobody can see doesn't scare me:)


On a not-so-fun note, my camera broke last night. I would blame Mike, since he dropped it; but he would probably turn it on me, since I handed him an open camera while he had Oreos in both hands. Heidi, that is why you never got a belly shot last night. So, now I have to buy a new camera. Any suggestions?

Big Dogs and the only bad thing about Google Reader

I hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend! We spent the weekend at the lake with our friends, Brock and Trista. It was great to get away and relax.

I actually wrote this post yesterday, but I noticed it needed some proofing (yes, I'm crazy like that), so I went back and saved it. I forgot that Google Reader would still send it. So, for those of you that are reading this for the second time, I apologize. I still believe that Google Reader is one of the best inventions ever for blog lovers!

Since the blog has been Trent-focused lately, I thought I'd spice it up with a funny story from the weekend. Meet our dog friends... (I really wish I could remember their names, but I can't, and Mike can't either)

These dogs live two houses down from my parents' lake house. Mike and I met one of them one day while we were walking Bailey. They are double her size but super friendly.

This weekend, we decided that Brock and Trista needed to meet our dog friends. We were on our way home from lunch Sunday, so we drove to the dogs' house. We didn't see them, so we rolled down the windows, whistled and called them. They quickly answered our calls and ran to the car. All four of us got out, pet them and admired their size. Just as I got out my camera to take a few pictures, their owners drove up (which explains why Mike's head is turned in the picture). Can you imagine driving up to your house and seeing four adults (you don't know!) petting and photographing your dogs?!

The owners were very nice, although they did explain that they'd had a few of these same kind of dogs over the past 5 years, and one "got taken." Good thing we decided to stick around and introduce ourselves instead of following our first instinct- get in the car quickly and drive away!!

Mike and I are supposed to go to the beach next week. We're hoping that hurricane Ike doesn't ruin our trip. I guess that's what we get for planning a beach trip during hurricane season:)