Food & Family

Last weekend we finally made the trip down to Tennessee to see my family. We've been wanting to get down there for awhile, it'd been so long since we've seen everybody. I got off a couple of hours early on Friday and made the 6 hour drive down. My dad and sister came up and we all stayed with my aunt Ethel. My aunt Glenna also stayed with her--so there was a full house. Friday night, my cousin Holly stopped by for awhile and my cousin Carla, her husband and her twin girls got to come by for a little bit. Her girls are almost 2 years old and this was the first time I met them. Seeing how precious they were definitely got me excited for our twins arrival.

On Saturday, my aunt Georgia and cousin Rene came over and we all had a delicious, home cooked breakfast. Afterward, me, Greg, my dad and Caroline drove to my grandma's and got to see her and my mom. They were having a cookout later on that day, so we we're able to get to see several aunts & uncles on my mom's side as well. Then we left to meet up with my dad's side of the family for dinner. There was a huge group of us, I'm going to list the family members that were able to make it for my memory and also to show just how big my family is. My aunt Ethel & her daughter Holly, my aunt and uncle Glenna and Bob, one of their twin sons, Kevin and his wife Jody and their son, Mason, My aunt Georgia and uncle Bob and 2 of the 3 daughters, Rene and Jennifer and Jennifer's cute little girl, Kendra, My uncle David, my uncle and aunt Pete & Susie and their daughter Heather. And I think that was all, I'm sure I'm forgetting some (hopefully not--I'd feel awful) It was so nice to see everybody and catch up. It'd had been way too long since seeing them. Greg and I have been married 11 years and he actually met people in my family that he's never met. I was so happy to see everybody and it was especially fun getting to meet my cousin's kids that I have never met, I have the cutest little cousins ever.

Unfortunately, we had to leave early Sunday morning. We both had to work Monday, but it was nice to see everybody, even if it was for a short while.

The reason I named this post "food and family" is because I felt like we stuffed ourselves silly the whole weekend. Besides seeing family and catching up--we ate! I'm lucky (my waist is not) that my family can really cook. We arrived Friday night to have fresh cornbread and beans ready to eat the second we walked in the door and homemade fudge for dessert. Saturday morning we had a huge breakfast with eggs, biscuits, homemade sausage gravy, homemade blackberry jam, and donuts. It was all so delicious! I'm going to have to work on my cooking skills before the boys come! I want them to love my cooking as much as I love my parents and the rest of my familys' cooking.

Several of us posing after dinner. The sun was right in our face, not the best location for a picture.

Names & Nurseries

So, we are not sold on the name "Landon". I like it, but neither of us love it. So, we've been throwing around some other names and I have a bad feeling we won't be making a decision anytime soon. & although I'm pretty sure we will, there's a slight chance that we may not go with the name "Carter" either. I have had that name picked out for 9 years! I fell in love with the name when Greg and I started watching ER in our first apartment in Tucson. Noah Wyle's character is named John Carter, but everybody called him "Carter" and I loved it. I decided then and there that would be the name of our first born son. There has never been a question in my mind, it was perfect. It's cute, it's simple, it wasn't common but not too weird. Well, the other night while searching for nursery ideas on HGTV's Rate My Space, it seemed like every other nursery had the name Carter on the wall. I'm really disappointed about this, I love this name and part of the appeal was that it wasn't super common. I can't imagine not using the name now, but I'm going to sit down with some name books and consider all our options before we decide on the names for sure.

The runner up right now for the 2nd name is Anderson. Greg also likes the name Justin, which I like, but don't love. Greg also likes Parker. On my list of names to consider are: Brantely, Brayden (or Braeden), Brandon, Bradley, James, Dylan, Jackson, Harrison, and Sawyer. I guess I'll be spending most of my free time reading name books and going to name websites until we find a few more that Greg and I can agree on.

So, I've been searching for nursery ideas. We're painting the nursery blue and chocolate brown, but I'm not sure how I want to do it. Below are some pictures I found on the internet that will hopefully inspire me.







I only downloaded this one because I liked the black and white pictures in the nursery.








I know I'd like the nursery to be simple and not too "themey" I think it'll be much easier to buy things for the nursery if I'm just looking to match the colors instead of match an entire theme. I also have a tendency to change my mind a lot, so it'll make it cheaper and easier to change out a few things (blankets, mobiles, frames) when I get bored. I know that I want their names in letters over the cribs. I also know that I want to get two black and white canvas pictures, one of each of them and hang them in the room. That's about as far as I've got on the nursery planning. I know I need to step it up, August will be here before we know it.

One last thing. Here's a picture of what my belly looks like now. We've been so lazy about taking pictures and this one is awful. Awful location, awful lighting. But, I wanted to post something, so this will do for now, but it's very motivating for me to take some better ones soon.