We Be Strollin'

After running errands Friday evening I came home to find a ginormous box from Amazon.  Lo and behold the contents were none other than our jogger stroller!  This excites me to no end.  It is down right silly how much I love this stroller.  Ever since I found out I was pregnant I thought that I wanted a BOB but after some registry issues I decided that the $400+ stroller was not the way to go and started looking for an alternative to the famed, high-priced jogger.  

Hours of research later I discovered the City Mini Jogger.  The price was right and it looked super cool to me.  Done and done, consider it registered.  My sweet mama-in-law (along with my sweet father-in-law) knew how much this little piece of baby-toting equipment meant to me and ordered it!  Don't know what we would do without our precious family.

On to the stroller!  There are a ton of great features to this jogger but my favorites are the fact that you can fold it up with one hand and that it only weighs 17 lbs.  Most of the other joggers are a bit heftier coming in closer to 25 lbs.  Eight pounds doesn't sound like much but I'm sure that when you're hauling that thing in and out of your trunk over and again those pounds add up.  

Some of the other fun features include, the extra large sun shade with two sky lights, the seat reclines to a nearly flat position just by pulling a cord, it has front wheel suspension and not only does it fold with one hand but it folds up pretty flat making it easier to fit it in the trunk of sedan.  

Can you tell that I like it?  Please, don't misunderstand, I still love the BOB and think that it is an amazing stroller but I don't plan on doing a lot of "running" with Baby A, especially not on rough terrain regularly enough to justify the size and price tag.  I'm of the belief that one should only run when being chased by wild dogs.  Just wanted to let you ladies know that there are other options out there.  And they look pretty freaking cool to boot.

If that isn't enough baby stroller talk for one day I will tell you about the umbrella stroller we got.  I totally understand if you're baby geared out, if so, see you tomorrow!  But if you are still with me we went with the Maclaren Volo Stroller.  There are less expensive umbrella strollers out there but I figured we might have two or three more little ones and wanted to get one that would withstand years of use.  My folks were kind enough to get this for us and we are ever so grateful.  This will be great for traveling.
 

Maclaren Volo Stroller Siver Green Stripe

Well, there you go!  Hope everyone has a great weekend and if the weather is as nice where you are go take a stroll.  Thanks, again parents!!!

Game Day Delight

The recent cool front that snapped through Midland has put an excitement for fall, football and family in my little pregnant heart.  I have been anxiously awaiting the restart of school, Halloween decorations in the stores and the reintroduction of the Pumpkin Spice Latte at Starbucks.  The reason for this isn't solely my love all things autumnal but the fast-approaching arrival of our baby girl!  Back in January, October seemed like a lifetime away and it is FINALLY almost here.  I will toast a Pumpkin Spice Latte to that, friends.

Pumpkin Spice Latte Photo provided by www.starbucks.com

 We will be making our first road trip with Baby A to Dallas for Thanksgiving.  For whatever reason I have been planning this trip in my head.  I'm thrilled to introduce A to Dallas and our friends that live there.  The trip will mean more than just turkey eating; there will be an anniversary (our second) and I hope an SMU game.  The Saturday after Turkey Day SMU will be playing Rice at Gerald Ford Stadium and I want to be there...in this outfit from Madewell:

Ray-Ban Small Metal Aviator

Photo Provided by www.ray-ban.com

Dip-Dyed Hoodie

photo provided by www.madewell.com

Madewell Fielder Jacket

photo provided by www.madewell.com

Madewell Typewriter Pant

photo provided by www.madewell.com

Madewell Prairie Boot

photo provided by www.madewell.com

Tory Burch Amanda Tote

photo provided by www.toryburch.com

Depending on how cold it is in November Baby A will be sporting one of these two looks:

Look #1:

BabyGap Cableknit One-Piece

BabyGap Cableknit One-Piece

BabyGap Faux-Fur Cuff Booties

BabyGap Faux Fur Cuff Bootie

Bear w/ Bow Hat

 Look #2:

Burberry Sun Hat

Ralph Lauren Lace-Trim Body Suit

Photo provided by www.laylagrace.com

This might seem like over-kill planning but when you're anxiously awaiting the arrival of a baby you start to wander off the edge of sanity.  The Hubs can dress himself for the game.  He's very stylish on his own.

Behind Closed Doors

Up until last weekend Baby A's nursery closet did not have doors.  This was not a big problem because she has a well-organized and designed closet, however, I wanted it to have doors none-the-less.  What turned this easy breezy project into a two-day undertaking were our less than standard dimensions.  The design that I came up with for her closet required bi-fold doors.  They do come in multiple sizes but none that matched our exact measurements.  

Closet Sans-Doors

So how did we fix it?  By we, I of course mean Pop and Hubs tore out the existing trim and door frame in order to use the stock doors from Lowe's.  This was awesome because it saved us major $$ by not having to special order the doors.  Huzzah!  The only downer to a project like this is that the nursery turned into a disaster zone during construction.  To protect all of Baby A's teeny tiny cute clothes we had to clear them out of the line of destruction.  Creating the fabulous mess seen below.  Being 8.5 months pregnant at the time made me very nervous to have such chaos in the nursery.
 

 After the tear-out the boys placed in the new frame and shimmed around it.  Once they mounted the door tracks they finished off their portion of the project and tacked up new trim.

New frame and door track

Freshly tacked and filled trim

Lauren sanding over filled holes and joints

Next came my job - sanding and painting!  The trim and doors were pre-primed (which is rawesome) so all little L has to do is pull out her trusty paint brush and bang it out.  Brush it out?  Whatever, you know what I mean. 

Supplies - most important for this project was the cabinet/door roller

Roll, roll, roll your boat gently down the stream...

There you have it - new doors at last.  Now we only have to go through this process two more times on the master bedroom closets.  Bring it on bi-folds!
What kind of doors do you have on your closet?

A Queen is Only as Powerful as Her Throne

That is to say that we needed a new toilet (or two) in our fabulous first house.  We are pretty sure that the commodes were original to the home born in 1961.  That is one old poo pot.  They were very small, short and used three gallons of water to unsuccessfully flush the toilet.  It's a win-win, right?  Hardly.

                              Master "Before"                        Hall Bath "Before"                              

While Mom and Pop were in town for the baby shower we decided that it would be the perfect time to install the first new toilet.  We started in the hall/guest bathroom.  "Why not begin by replacing the master toilet?" you might ask.  The thought was that with Baby A coming in a few weeks that guests will soon be checking into the Dorffarosa it would be nice if they had use of luxurious new toilet.  

The family took a field trip to Lowe's to find us a new (and much improved) bathroom seat.  We wanted to make sure that we didn't get a bottom-of-the-barrel toilet but there was no need to spend $600 on one either.  We ended up bringing home an American Standard model that features amenities such as:


- Chair height
- Elongated seat
- Water-saving technology (only uses 1.3 gallons of water!)
- EverClean seat and bowl


I might be more excited about this new tinkler than I would be about a new Mercedes.  It is sad but true.  Above is the original "before" from February and here is the more recent "before" from June.

Drum roll, please...Here is the new and much improved bathroom and toilet!  (Insert symbols crashing)  In addition to the new throne you might also notice the new runner.  Thank you, Ikea!

One last time, Before and After!

What have you been waiting to replace in your home?  Would a new kitchen faucet send you into a pleasure frenzy?  Or maybe new windows would blow your skirt up?  Please share what home project you have anxiously awaiting to complete.  Come on, you're among friends. 

It Never Hurts to Shower Twice

Even though the Hubs and I have only lived in Middle Earth for six months some very lovely ladies hosted a baby shower for us. It was beautiful and humbling and there were cake balls. Ohhh the cake balls... Is there anything better than cake shaped into ball-form and then dipped into white chocolate? I submit that there is not- hence, I ate many of them.


The best part of having a little girl is all of the adorable clothes that people can't help but give to her. It is a slippery and dangerously cute slope that my mom, mother-in-law and I have been going down head first. All the better for baby A to poop and vomit on, right? It will be precious, I'm sure.



Besides wee little onesies and cake balls there were fun friends and Oreo pops. They were such a fun idea and were paired perfectly with an over-sized MacKenzie-Childs charger. Thank you, Alison!




You might notice that there are quite a few pregos in this picture. That is because there are a TON of girls pregnant in Midland right now. My hostesses were so generous with their time and talents that it was a pleasure to give them their hostess gifts. I fell in love with these cool little finger bowls from Anthropologie (where else?). My favorite part was how they looked like little nests when they were all wrapped up. Thank you, ladies!


After the shower mom and I headed back to the house to organize all of the baby swag in the nursery. My talented auntie gave me Baby A's bedding - what do y'all think? Some of you have requested nursery updates so here you go!



There have actually been some improvements made since these photos were taken that I will share next week once they are complete. Let's just say that she now has functioning closet doors! I will include a tutorial on how to install said doors and expand a doorway.

A Message from Baby A

Here is an update on the baby front for those interested. We had our last sonogram yesterday and all is well in Babyville! Baby A currently weighs 4lbs 11oz and is on schedule for an October 5th delivery. She has been head down for a while and has been feeling quite punchy lately. I'm pretty sure she is doing some intense calisthenics or possibly Zumba, either way she is getting her cardio in each day.

She was not extremely cooperative for her last photo session but she gave us these couple of glimpses into her world.


The ladies in McKinney also threw me a lovely baby shower a couple of weekends ago. For those interested here you go!

Oh you know there was pie...


Sweet hostesses
Forgive me for how insanely excited I was about getting a Baby Bullet. I hope that it will bring baby A many delicious meals.

Beautiful sister-in-laws!

Adorable mini-Mexi dress from my precious mother-in-law




Thanks to everyone who came to the shower you made baby A feel loved and ready to make her grand appearance soon!