Happy New Year!

I'm just getting around to posting pictures of our New Year's beach trip...which at this point seems like it was about a month ago! We spend every New Years with our good friends the Maryanskis...this was our 8th year in a row so I guess you could call it a tradition!

This year we celebrated with a beautiful weekend in Ocean Isle Beach...the weather was amazing and felt more like May than late December. It was very relaxing...except when Roper and Leah were tormenting each other! Those two are like oil and water. We all joked that they will probably end up having crushes on each other one day!

And the reason it seems so long ago is that as soon as we got home from the beach on New Year's Day, Graem packed up and headed to Orlando for a full week. His trip was primarily for work, but when the Gamecocks were selected for the Capital One Bowl, he extended his trip on the front end by a couple of nights so he could make it to the game. I'm so glad he got to go to the game, but I will be honest and say it might have been the longest week of my life!

Graem used to travel all the time for work, so when this trip came up, I thought "no big deal, I'm an old pro at this." HA. It was a little different this time...
I'm 7 months pregnant.
I have a 4 year old and a 2 year old.
It is really exhausting to get two young boys fed, bathed & ready for bed by 8:00 by yourself when you are 7 months pregnant.
We just recently moved the 2 year old to a "big boy" bed and he is still learning that he can't get out of bed 56 times after we put him down...extending bedtime from our normal 8:00 to as late as 9:30.
He is also still learning that 5:30 AM is not an appropriate time to come downstairs or start jumping on his brother's bed, screaming "Wake up, Bubba! Wake up, Bubba!"
It is really hard to get my 7-months pregnant self and two young boys dressed, fed & out the door in the morning without the help of Graem. Thank goodness I did not have to do this every day {at least the "out the door" part...I did manage to make sure we were all fed & dressed each day}.
All three of us were fighting colds {and exhaustion} last week.

So...I spent most of the week in survival mode and I have never been happier to see my husband than when we picked him up from the airport on Friday night! It is funny how a little perspective can make you appreciate someone even more than you already did!

Okay, on to the pictures from the beach...


The progression of these next two pictures cracks me up. Baby Allyson is such a content little chunk, particularly when she is eating...








It is so funny how Mason can be so much like his Daddy. He loves to be on a mission...and his mission during this walk was to collect as many sticks as possible.




I had some fun with these pictures I took with my iPhone...thanks to Heidi for recommending the BeFunky app...after tinkering with my pictures it let me upload them directly to my Flickr account!



Our angels making sand angels...






One of the neatest things about Ocean Isle is that it faces south, unlike most of the beaches on our coast. Which means it gets a beautiful sunset on the western side of the island...

Ta Da...Our Finished Kitchen!

I first posted about our kitchen renovation waaayyy back in June!! The renovation began in July...with a couple of update posts later in July and then in August. I was starting to wonder if I would ever post the "final" pictures! Maybe you were wondering the same thing! :)

Everything was pretty much complete in August, with the exception of 2 things: a new kitchen table and a light fixture for over the table. We found a table that we love at the Pottery Barn outlet in Gaffney over Labor Day weekend. I convinced Graem to take a detour through Gaffney on our way home from the football game in Charlotte (haha, not really "on the way" at all). It was just what we were looking for -- dark wood (to contrast with our new lighter cabinets), oval, and a good size for the space. Unfortunately it would not fit in our car. So I headed back up on Monday in the truck, which turned out to our advantage because they had tagged our table as a Labor Day doorbuster! That kind of stuff never happens to me! I brought it home and it sat in our garage waiting to be assembled for...a while.

I was indecisive on a light fixture...the hardware on our cabinets is dark, almost black, and the metal on the light fixture above our sink is gray. I finally settled on a simple chandelier...the clincher was the name -- the Graham chandelier. :) It's not as dark as our hardware but it works.

The week before Christmas I finally conceded that the kitchen will never be 100% done (sorry, Graem). Our house is a work in progress. I just dropped off some prints to be framed last week which will hang on the wall beside our kitchen table. Point being, I better go ahead and post these pictures because if I wait for everything to be perfect I will be waiting forever!



























{I had originally planned to use shades on the bulbs, but I've decided I like the bare look. I want to switch the bulbs out for some round bulbs, like these.}




For our backsplash we used subway tile in a herringbone pattern behind the cooktop stove...


...and the standard pattern (I think its called railroad...or maybe train track) everywhere else...


I am really enjoying everything about our {mostly} new kitchen. I feel like there are so many things I agonized over...the hardware, the backsplash, the granite, the lighting, the paint colors...but everything really came together. I have always dreamed of building a house...well, you know, not actually building one but paying someone to build one for me. But after going through this kitchen re-do I'm not sure I could handle all the decisions that would have to be made!

Christmas Day in N.A.

After Graem and I got married, we began the tradition of spending Christmas Eve with the Roper family on the farm and Christmas Day with the Clark family in North Augusta. I am so thankful that our families are close enough for us to spend time with both of them during the holidays (and the rest of the year, for that matter). Now that we have children, I truly appreciate that we established a tradition before they were born which allows us to spend the night at home on Christmas Eve, so that the children will always wake up in our home on Christmas morning.

This year in particular was exhausting for me...the preparation of getting the presents purchased & wrapped, the food cooked, burning up I-26 and I-20...but I know that when we look back on the Christmas of 2011 we will not remember those details, but instead will remember the good times we spent with our loved ones. Worth it, for sure!

Here are a few pictures from Christmas Day with the Clarks...I have just recently started using the external flash for my camera and I was disappointed with the exposure on these pictures...I need to tinker with the flash a little more. It was a birthday gift, and considering my birthday was back in March, it was about time I figured out how to use my new flash! I'm sure I'll get better with practice. :)





{M&R forced their way into the picture with Brian & Trish}


Yes, Roper is wearing rainboots. He pitched a royal fit about having to wear overalls...he wanted to wear pants like his brother. He was not a happy camper. The rainboots were a peace offering...I packed his bucks to change into but they never made it on his feet. Oh well! It rained all day so at least his bucks didn't get ruined in the mud.

All I Want for Christmas...

The boys were delighted that Santa granted their Christmas wishes of headlamps, Razor scooters and flashlights.

Christmas Cowboys

Another title for this post might be, "What does it take to get 3 boys to look at the camera (smiling optional)?"

My mother gave her grandsons cute cowboy hats for Christmas and really wanted a good picture of the three of them in front of her tree with their hats on.











At least I got a pretty good one of M & R.

Now & Then

This is the third year in a row of getting a picture of the boys' in their Christmas pajamas...

2011:


2010:


2009:

Update on Baby

Time has been ticking right along and much to my amazement I am now in my third trimester! It really hit home this morning...I had an OB check-up...the one with the dreaded glucola test...and afterwards they wanted to book all the rest of my appointments through my due date, starting with an appointment in two weeks. I can't believe I'm already at the point where I have appointments every other week. For so long, March seemed forever away...and now it is just around the corner! This third baby boy is going to be here before we know it!

We settled on a name...if you know us it won't surprise you that it's another family name. Some people say that family names are traditional...some say that they are unoriginal. Both arguments may be true, but the reason we prefer family names is because they mean something. And our families have pretty good names. :) We are using both of our mother's maiden names...Duncan McKendree. McKendree was also my middle name...which I hated for most of my life...until I got married and dropped it, and all of a sudden it made me sad to get rid of it. So I'm glad to pass it down, and hopefully baby Duncan won't hate it like I did!

I haven't even started on the nursery yet. The first step will be to get Roper out of the crib and into his big bed so that we can move the crib back to the nursery. My mother is coming down one day next week to help me with that. A few weeks ago Mason told Roper that baby Duncan was going to take his crib, and Roper started bawling! Hopefully once he realizes he has a big boy bed to sleep in he won't be so upset about it. I have a set of twin beds for the {big} boys' room, and I'm anxious to get it all set up!

I have shopped a little for nursery bedding...I've looked at catalogs and checked out some local shops. Back in 2009 I ordered the bedding for Mason & Roper's room from Javis Davis & was beyond pleased with how it turned out, but sadly, they have gone out of business. I found a shop on Etsy that carries some nice bedding. Quite honestly, I've been disappointed with what's out there. I was expecting to find more of a selection on Etsy. Maybe I'm missing something? I'm over the "cutesy" stuff...I don't want a theme or motif...I just want something different and a little modern without looking too bold or harsh. Please send me ideas if you have any!

Here are some of the fabrics I like in the one Etsy shop that I found...I should be receiving swatches of these and a few more any day now. I didn't search out a gray & yellow color scheme, I just really like this one fabric with the animals on it & then tried to pick others that I thought would complement it. What do y'all think?



















I tried to put these all together in a collage for better viewing, but I couldn't figure out how to do that on Flickr {sorry}.

Here is an example using different fabrics, just to help you visualize how she puts the coordinating fabrics together into bedding...


Here is the link to the Etsy site.