a great holiday season!

to say that we are blessed, is an understatement. we had a very merry christmas and enjoyed spending time with our families (and for me, i had a very happy birthday following!)

it was also really fun to open gifts for Sydney. lots of cute outfits and some toys and books.

it might be about time to start getting her nursery put together, just so i have a place to put everything! i have already hung up the outfits she has received so far - they are SO adorable!

Sydney has been very active lately - lots of moving around and kicking. i especially notice it when i switch how i lay at night, or if i lay on my back reclined while watching movies. that's when i can see her moving the most as well!

i am glad that i ordered the owl lamp when i did - i randomly was looking on target's website and noticed that it is now out of stock! after how much time i spent looking, i would have been pretty upset with myself had i not just ordered it.

now fingers crossed the mirror that i want to purchase is still at the store when i go back into town in a few days - if it is i am not taking chances - im just going to purchase it!

xoxo.

kristen, ryan, sydney and brigsby

I teased you once, but I promise not again

we wanted to share nugget's given name with our family before sharing with the world, and Christmas lent us the perfect opportunity to do so! 

how did we tell? we used a die-cut machine at school to cut out the letters of her name, and then mixed them up. we gave each family member a set and told them to unscramble the letters to create her name! 

my brother figured it out first on my side, and my sister-in-law on Ryan's side! must be a sibling thing!

anyways, we went back and forth between a list of names, not really loving any. until Ryan emailed me one day and suggested: Sydney.

I actually had to stop and say it a few times over and over, because I never expected to fall in love with a name so quickly. I mean, you are assigning this little person a name that they will live with for the REST of their life. 

The middle name was also easy. Elizabeth was a given. It is my middle name, my moms, and about 4 others on my moms side. I wanted, and Ryan knew how important it was to me to continue that tradition. 

Do you know too many people with two middle names? I do not so I will say I was hesitant to add one. I was not against using two because of the reasons. Just hesitant. 

A few days before Christmas, Ryan and I determined that her name would be Sydney Elizabeth. And we left it at that. I randomly asked him if he had to name her alone, would he change anything, and he said she would have two middle names. 

I thought about that, and wanted to give that to him.

Christmas morning Ryan opened a frame from me that read:

 Sydney Elizabeth Lynn

He looked at it, and looked at me and asked if I was sure. 

I was positive.

So where does Lynn come from?

Towards the end of October and beginning of November, we experienced the loss of Ryan's mom. It was very unexpected and very hard on the family. Lynn was his mother's middle name. And I wanted to honor that for him just as much as he wanted to honor her and incorporate it.

So in April, we will be welcoming our little girl,

Sydney Elizabeth Lynn

to our family. And we could not be more excited!

with love,

Kristen, Ryan, little nugget/Sydney & Brigsby

Nugget has a name!

However I can not share it with you yet. Im sorry to be a tease.

But to help make you feel better, here is my 23 week belly photo:

we still need to decide if, and/or when, we will tell our families first!

i still am feeling great. my next appointment is the morning of my GOLDEN BIRTHDAY (this gives you 6 more, well 5 more now, days to get me something good).

Then I think the plan is for ryan and i to go out to lunch and to a movie after. We will do a bigger birthday celebration with my family, and his sister joining us, next wednesday at Fogo de Chao downtown for lunch.

I am so excited to get going on nugget's nursery. However i am NOT excited to clean out the closet in there that has worked SO incredibly well for storage for all of the things that we did not want to go through or think about again. And when we clean that out, we also need to clean the computer room closet as that will become our new storage closet and its already full. There you see why I dont want to even start with the closet!

Nugget has been moving around a lot more this week. During the kids lunchtime at work today, she was quite active. Kept me entertained while the kids I watch ate. 

We are very excited to have a full christmas eve and christmas day planned with our families. My moms side of the family will be celebrating at our house this year on christmas eve, and we will join ryan's dad's side of the family at his grandparents house on christmas day. 

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

with love,

kristen, ryan, little nugget and brigsby

22 weeks!

figured that i would start it off with the weekly belly photo.

i am feeling great still and hope to stay that way!

nugget is quite active. ryan felt her kick for the first time on the 13th - the look on his face was priceless! i also saw her kick for the first time the next day while at work - it was really neat not only to feel her kicking, but to see my tummy move where she was kicking!

slowly items for her nursery are coming along ... i received the fabric that my mom will use to sew glider cushion covers in the mail today:

i can not wait to really start putting stuff together!!

with love,

kristen, ryan, little nugget and brigsby

hint hint

xoxo

kristen, ryan, little nugget and brigsby

brigsby wanted to share his new hairdo:

21 weeks!

we had a very nice dinner out tonight with my FIL, his fiance and my SIL (ryan too) for my SIL Kates birthday (which is tomorrow :)

nugget has really started moving - i love being able to feel her now! it is a hard feeling to explain to someone who asks how it feels. but its just simply amazing :)

we have finalized the fabrics that will be used in her nursery. I can not wait to order it! I do have a collage that i made with it all I could share... ;)

here is my 21 week belly photo:

and for good measure - Brigsby wanted to be in the photo as well:

 

with love,

kristen, ryan, little nugget and brigsby

i cant really explain..

how much i love you already. i am so excited to meet you, but need until april of course :) i am enjoying being pregnant and feeling you move! i hope ryan can feel you soon too - i know he would love it just as much as i do.

i completed your toy chest. it was mine as a baby/little girl. it had yellowed over the years so i took a can of good quality spray paint and went at it in thin layers.
here was the start of it, and these photos dont really show how dirty and yellow it was, along with how tarnished the gold hardware was:

and after 2 cans of semi-gloss white spray paint by rust-oleum and one can of metallic paint by rust-oleum, the finished toy chest:

I also learned today, that we will be getting the glider that my great-grandpa made for my parents! He did beautiful woodwork and made beautiful furniture, so I am excited to have a family heirloom in your room. Your grandma Ann is going to be sewing new covers for the padding on the chair so it matches your room.

I can not wait to get going on your room - we have agreed on everything (which was very easy, unlike choosing your name, which we still have not done!) thankfully! I have already found a few accessories that I would like to buy to put in there!

with love little nugget,

kristen, ryan and brigsby