(Finally).... Ta Da!!

Have I kept you in suspense long enough...?

Without further delay, here it is...

In between house hunting and work, Brant has completely torn down and rebuilt the bathroom in my mom's basement (a much welcome change from the outdated early 80's faded blue look it had)

After a few days of hammering, tearing down, chipping away, and hauling away debris, the bathroom looked like this (photos aren't resized and will blow up if you click on 'em):

After 7 weeks of instense internet research, consulting with my uncle the plumber, his pops who is doing a similar bathroom remodel as his place, and (I swear) two daily trips to Home Depot and Lowe's (pretty sure they know Brant by name by now) ... Ta Da!!

The new and amazing basement bathroom! Beautiful floor tile!

And beautiful paint job with the sage green! (One last touch that didn't make in this the above photo is an oval mirror that will hang above this sink.)

The cabinet shelving that he repainted that hangs on the wall to the right of the toilet didn't make it in this shot.

The custom shelves he built between the shower and the wall.

Remember the first two photos of this post? Brant ran into a hurdle (actually, he had a lot of hurdles with this bathroom) and built around the concrete drain to put up the shower.

AMAZING job sweetie! All manual work done by Brant- great, great job!

Oh, and then here's my (much less impressive) ta-da:

A blanket for our baby girl :) My goal was to make this entirely out of materials I already had. A few months ago I had started making an apron with this fabric- I had cut the fabric and started sewing it, but then lost my steam to finish it. Then after we found out we were having a girl, I took the fabric that I had bought for the apron made this quilt instead.

You can tell that I was running out of fabric and had to improvise with a couple of corner squares (and hoping that the flower iron/sew on would cover it up). Then I took some pink satin ribbon I already had and finished the binding. But don't be fooled- I had a lot of help from my mom on the cutting and binding and from borrowed quilting frames courtesy of Ma Harrison- who took some time to help with the tying :)

But for the most exciting ta-da....

We're officially homeowners!!

(That's the key we're both holding)

Last Friday afternoon at precisely 5pm, we signed the last of the papers for this home :)

We have (both) worked (very hard from scratch), saved like crazy fools (since we've been married for the past two years.... call us old fashioned but we're believers in putting down 20% for a home), did (lots) of research on home buying, waited till the best time to buy....and now it's paying off.

We are so excited- this home couldn't be more perfect for us.

Some of our favorite things...

-Located in Newnan, GA (a quick 20 minute interstate drive to the Atlanta airport)

-3 bedroom, 2 full bath (not too big, not too small, and perfect for starting a family)

-2 car garage that is hidden to the house (meaning that looking at the house you can't see the garage door that takes up half of the house.. that was a big one for me)

- built on a .8 acre lot (that's almost a full acre for Brant's garden)

-a cute little shed in the back yard with matching shutters to the home (and a

place for Brant to keep his gardening and other tools)

-Wood fenced in back yard

-Screened in back porch with sun shades (perfect for BBQs and watching thunderstorms pass through)

- Vaulted ceilings with ceiling fans (and an open floor plan)

- built in 2002 (quirks from a brand new home have been worked out and lanscaping done... well, except a few plants in front of the house that need to be pulled out).

We actually have room for entertaining guests now! Come on over everyone :)

Okay Pops- you can breath now. This post is done.

Stay tuned...

I've got some Ta Da! posts comming from both Brant and I tomorrow...

Update: hang tite- I love that Blogger isn't letting me upload photos for the second night in a row ;)

So.

Baby names.

Wait, let me back up.

Up until we found out that we were having a baby girl, the question that I was asked most frequently was "Are you going to find out what it is?" as well as "When do you find out what it is?"

Now that we know the answer to that question, the most frequent question I get is "Have you thought of any names?"

No. Nope. None.

I think that naming a baby is a really big responsibility - so big that we both decided to procrastinate even thinking about it until after we knew what we were having. Now that it's been a few weeks since we found out, we're still procrastinating. And we better get crackin!

Here's the dilemma: choosing a baby name that is unique but not too trendy, that none of your friends/family already have, and that neither you nor your husband associate (especially negatively) with someone they already know.

And then, once you do have a name picked out, your faced with another dilemma: Should we tell people what it is when they ask? I'm leaning toward that answer to that being no... and here's why-

(1) Someone else may steal your baby name (not the biggest concern I have because, in reality, I feel for the baby who will have to go their whole lives knowing that the best their parents could do was take someone else's baby name).

(2) If you do tell others the name you've thought of, you run the risk of having to see their reaction. On one hand they may like it- on the other hand they may (unknowingly) make make a face and then proceed to tell you who they know by that name and are you really going to name your kid that? As if naming a baby wasn't a big enough responsibility, I definitely could do without double guessing myself once we actually do decide on one. But once the kid is born and the name is definite all they can do is smile and nod...

We'll come up with one and it will be a good one - but in the meantime I'm not asking for suggestions - mainly because you may have one that we've kind of already thought of (and I don't want you to get the impression that we stole your name!)

So instead, I'm asking how did you (or your parents, friends, etc.) decide on baby names? I'm a believer in having, especially the middle name, some kind of significant meaning (my middle name Diane is after my mom's friend who brought her into the church), but other than that I got nothing :)

(Extendend) Weekend Wrap

It has recently been brought to my attention that my postings have been sporadic lately.

I can't say that I haven't noticed that too... Anyways, here's what we were up to this weekend- its text heavy since I didn't have my camera with me.

Friday evening - Since Brant was going to be on a trip over the weekend, I made plans with Rissa to go to the Women's Expo going on at UVU (meaning a weekend trip out to Utah). Arriving in Salt Lake later than planned on Friday evening, we made a dinner stop at Jason's Deli and then called it a night.

Saturday - after an awesome egg and bacon breakfast cooked by John (thanks for letting me hang out with your wife all weekend, by the way) a quick trip to University Mall to check out baby ideas at all the cute kiosks. And then onto the expo!

I love this expo and have gone the past, I think 4 times in a row (it happens every 6 months). This one was the best one yet- they've gotten big enough to outgrow the McKay center on UVU campus and now have booths outside. The first thing we got before even entering the expo from one of the outside booths was a free key safe lock from one of the booths. We made (free) scrapbooking cards, got (free) massages, got my ring cleaned and shined (for free), lots of (free) food samples, and I picked up a few baby things that I haven't seen out here in Georgia yet (those weren't free...but that's ok!)

Ater getting our fill at the Expo, we hit up Costa Vita for lunch (pork salads are the best) and stopped by the hair stylist I was going to in Utah for me to get a trim up/ thinning haircut.

Back to Rissa's place for an afternoon rest... and then a trip up to Thai Pan Trading for a crash course from Rissa on home decorating (remember this post?). I may have been crazy for attempting to bring home so many breakables, but luckily made it back without breaking anything. And once our home closes on the 24th of this month, I'll actually have some home decor!

Afterwards it was already dark outside, so we started to wind down the evening by heading to Provo to drop off my mission photos to a girl that I found on Craigslist that would scrapbook them for me (I think it's about due time to get that done since I've had a box sitting with them for the past 4 years). I'm excited to see how they turn out.

Back to Rissa's for dinner and an episode of Gilmore Girls. Since Rissa and John moved into the apartment we were living in, they have been able to reap the benefits of the garden Brant planted earlier this year (we don't mind- Brant would much rather have left his garden to friends than if strangers had moved in after us). John went out and picked some peppers and jalepenos for me to take back to Brant. Needless, to say, they were fantastic and Brant was stoked.

Sunday morning - back to the Salt Lake airport by 9am and arrived in Dallas where Brant (who was now done with work) picked me up after 1pm. Too late to make it to church at his folk's ward (I'm not a fan of traveling on Sundays, but this was the best way to plan the trip back with the flight options), the rest of the day was spent showing Brant the loot that I collected from the expo, napping, dinner, and visiting with Ma and Pa Harrison.

Monday morning - Brant had brought the baby blanket with him that I have been working on back home and, after hitting up the fabric store for the right batting, we were able to quickly do the tying on it with his mom's quilting frames. Some more visiting, and then back home to Georgia that evening.

I'll see if I can come up with some entertaining posts...

This is amazing

If any of my friends around here were expecting a baby and were baseball fans, I'd get them this Braves diaper cake in a heart beat.

I can't stop looking at it! And it comes in pink and white too!