Rocking Around The Christmas Tree

Whats been Happening

So I am 24 weeks and the belly is ever expanding.

At my Dr. appt a week ago I gained 7 lbs in 1 month eek! But since I was only at 3 lb gain for the first 20 wks I guess its not so bad ( or at least thats what I am gonna tell myself) So Im up to 10lb total this pregnancy. Im hoping to keep it down from my pregnancy with Will but Brooks has gained quite the appetite. And yes you read that right we have decided on a name (old news if your on f book but oh well)

Brooks Edward Bousson

will be here before we know it.

In other news this little guy now loves his soccer ball lol

I had a session at shelby farms the other day when it was finally pretty after all the rain so I took advantage and got some pics of my boy!I am loving the lighting!

The Christmas Tree is up and Will has had a blast with it!

I feel like we have been so busy lately. Im looking forward to some downtime. There are so many things around that house that need to be done. Now that Winter is approaching picture taking will slack off and I plan to kick into high gear on the boys room, play rm etc. We got a new stove which has me itching to redo our kitchen but that task will have to come way after Brooks makes his entrance into the world :)

Hope to have more fun posts coming up soon :)

In no particular order

The Pumpkin Patch 2011

We went to Pridy Farms(sp?) this year to get our annual pumpkins and to be honest I enjoyed it more than driving a million miles to Cedar Hill Farms. I think we will be making this our annual pit stop from now on. Will got a kick out of picking out pumpkins and riding the train and just running around in general. Overall...Success!

As always we have made several trips to the zoo

This was Will in desperate need of a haircut

And of course I had to get some Fall Pics of my little man. If I can ever get around to editing my own pics maybe I can post more lol

A little earlier this fall we tried our hand at soccer...Epic Fail. Will was not a fan and I will leave it at that. The above pic is from the 5 min he actually enjoyed it on the first day lol!

and also a little further back in time we took Will to his first Airshow. Since he loves airplanes. It was miserably hot and we got there way to early so needless to say it wasnt a disaster but if we go next year we will come up with a better game plan. Will did enjoy seeing the panes fly but he fell asleep before he could walk around and see any.

think thats it for now more to come soon!

18 weeks

Ok so first off WOW! I am soo behind on the blogging front that I dont think I will ever catch up but I am going to try. believe it or not I have a sticky note at home on my computer about all the things I want to blog about. But since I am not at home with my computer full of pics I will just have to post and add pics later! I wont spend to much time updating in this post i will just do a preggo update since I have failed miserably at doing so this whole pregnancy!!! Which I guess is only fair to Will since I started trully blogging after his delivery! So as the title states I am 18 wks ( and some odd days)

My Preggo Tid Bits:

How far along- 18weeks

highlight of the week- making it through it without calling the dr or going to the dr! Yes I hate to say it but the contractions have already started and although I asked for my lovely friend procardia we have not been reunited yet. But seeing as how the contractions have been pretty frequent since they started at 17 weeks I am hoping that I will get my meds when I go to the dr on friday! (p.s for anyone who sees the word contractions and freaks-have no fear they dont dilate me they just have a very strong frequent pattern so either way I would rather NOT have them bc they literally take me off my feet!) But really who was I kidding thinking I would have a normal pregnancy?!?! My bebes just dont like my womb hehe!

weight gain- hmmm well this is tricky as I said before my original apt ( that was before my actual 1st appt-are you following?) I was 153 which was like a miracle in the first place. Well my actual 1st appt i was 156 then the following mth I was 157 and then the next appt I was 159. Well then i went 2 weeks ago ( about the contractions) and I was back down to 156 sooo I guess the answer would be none??? But taking note of my current eating habits and lack there of on the exercise front the number may be way up there come the 28th!

cravings/aversions

As I just stated my appetite is NOT lacking thats for sure. Still loving me some caffeine which I know is terrible but I totally break for fountain cokes!!! My taco bell cravings have slowed down. I was on a Lennys kick there for a minute and now pretty much any food will do. the nausea has slacked up so it has definitely allowed for an increased appetite. Nothing really sounds gross I just prefer somethings over others. On a healthy note I am loving some apples!!!!

maternity clohes- I am still wearing all my jeans/pants but my shirts are getting a little snug so I have busted out the ruched side maternity tops (I am kinda sorta obsessed with them and couldnt wait to have enough belly to fit into them)

gender- We find out the 28th if we choose to find out then. We have a few secrets up our sleeves about revealing the gender so I guess everyone will have to wait and see. As far as a feeling I have mixed reviews. I originally thought girl but then dreamed I had another boy and now I feel like its a girl again so who knows!! Will continues to say he is having a sister so we will see???

movement- unfortunately NO which makes me super sad, I cannot wait to feel lots of tiny kicks. I felt Will pretty early if I remember correctly like 16-17 weeks but this time I havent been so lucky but hopefully the kicks will come soon.

nursery- this baby and Will are going to be sharing a room ( thanks to our tiny east memphis home and its 3 bedrooms) and with that being said all the furniture I have put in the room is white except for my black crib. So I am now on the hunt for a white ( jenny lind) crib. So if anyone knows where I can find one?! I dont have a particular theme in mind. Will has pottery barn bedding so if its a boy i will get the matching set and if its a girl I will simply use creams and khakis. Im not one much for pink girly fru fru stuff ( to each their own)

I think thats about it. Our big US is the 28th. More importantly than finding out if we are having a boy or girl I cannot wait to see our little nugget on the screen and hopefully see that he/she is perfectly healthy and well on his/her way to having a wonderful entry into this world.

On the agenda for tomm taking pics of my little man is some tall cotton. Maybe I can get a belly shot then. and later in the afternoon its pumpkin patch time with Will, Daddy and Mommy. We have to pick some winners to carve :)

So until I post again...

10 weeks

Yeah so these are not the greatest quality pics ( since I decided they were a must at 9pm at night lol but oh well the husband obliged and Will somewhat cooperated so there you have it a 10 wk photo shoot. Anyhow as the title says I am 10 wks preggo with Baby Boo #2.

I dont feel like looking up everyones cute little run down so I will just wing it :)

wt gain?- Well I was suppose to go to the dr tomm but she is stuck in Maine ( thanks Irene) so now I will have to wait till thursday. I can look at this from 1 of 2 ways I hit my lowest wt to date just prior to getting preggo, I made a quick trip to ob right before my first official appt bc I was super crampy. At that appt I was 153.5. Fast forward 2 weeks to my Official appt and my wt was 156.5 ( 3 lb wt gain but closer to my every day wt-im pretty sure my previous appt was on a good day lol). Last wk I weighed at the gym and I was the same as my official appt so we will see what thursday brings. But I would like to thank cokes and taco bell and nausea (decreasing workouts) for any wt gain that might occur :)

cravings?- see above Cokes and Mexican Food, they have been staple items in the Bousson Household these past few weeks. Other than those it more of a love hate relationship with foods. Nothing sounds good ever but i must snack ever two hrs to keep the vomit away. And in the rare case that something sounds good I proceed to consume it for the following 3-5 meals ( seriously i think I ate tbell 4 meals in a a 2 days period which means all meals but breakfast-GROSS!)

workout?- yeah I am trying to keep it up but the bed is so much more tempting

missing anything?- BREATHING i did not experience this with Will but I have had sinus issues for going on 13 wks now. It started right before I got preggo and hasnt let up. I cannot breathe ever. I even tried the neti pot and lets just say that was an EPIC Fail!

gender?- its obviously way to early for that. We are still discussing if we will be finding out? If we do i believe it will be around Halloween. My original gut feeling was girl but I have since had 2 dreams that I was toting(sp?) around 2 boys. So I guess we will just wait and see

nursery? way to early for this too but I did put the toddler bed back into its crib state and moved it into Wills big boy rm. The kiddos will be sharing a bedroom so that the playroom can stay intact.

Im sure Im leaving stuff out but its late Im sleepy and the Mexican food I just ate is fighting back so adios amigos :)

Im going to be trying to get back into blogging mode- I have lots to discuss :)

Not as planned

Ok so to be totally honest this blog post is not going to be as I had planned it ( see title). Of course I am referring to my big news that I out of the blue decided to post on fbook on thursday.
Joey, Will and I are adding to the Family. Yup, thats right we are having a BABY!!! My due date is March 21st (although my 2nd US moved me to the 18th-i will more than likely have a repeat c-sec so we just left it at the 21st). We are sooo excited but the truth of the matter is that I have felt like to much poo to do anything much less come up with a cute-sy blog post. If you read Lovefromtexas you might have seen a Big Brother shirt she made and posted welp she made that awesome shirt for Will. And he has already worn it. I posted it on my instagram app but its on my iphone so the pic would be too tiny to view if i uploaded it on here (meanign you will have to wait for a beeter pic lol). We alse have the US pic in which our new bundle of joy looks like a Bubble Guppie-quite cute! I have taken a few "week" pics but even the super photo mom in me couldnt get me out of bed for week 7 or 8 lol so we have 4/5/6 and 9 :)
So as for the background everyone knows that Joey and I had been trying for a few months to get preggers. Well although in the grand scheme of things it was no time to me it seemed to be taking forever!!! Well the first week of July I just felt horrible no tell tell signs of pregnancy but definitely not myself. And since I knew my cycle should be coming i was not so secretly hoping it meant that I was preggers. and by not so secretly i mean i pee'd on a stick daily. But despite my wishful thinking they were all negative. Well the weekend prior to the 4th rolled around and my friend ( who I happen to be on schedule with in the cycle dept. ) told me she had started so i knew mine would be coming anyday especially since all the tests were negative. Well sunday July 3rd it was the weirdest thing Joey and I were laying on the couch and Will came up and pretty much sucker punched me in the stomach ( he didnt do it on purpose i forget now what was going on but it was an accident) Joey instinctivly (sp?) explained to Will that we cant hit mommy's tummy. We both looked at eachother, definitely a weird moment shared by us ha! Well i jumped up and decided to go pee on my last test, I mean after the conversation wouldnt you. Well before my eyes the slightest 2nd line appeared. I took it to Joey and he said there wasnt a line there. And me being me would NEVER go to the garbage can where yesterdays test was still sitting (capped and clean thank you) and grab it to show him how there was definitely a faint line on todays test opposed to that test. We both kinda stood there, which was followed by me getting super excited and running out to be an electronic test to be sure! I came home and immediately went to the potty and after the longest few minutes ever the not so nice electronic test read NOT PREGNANT! thanks for the slap in the face clear blue easy! Needless to say I was sad and Joey was too but all was not lost.
I decided that maybe the test read neg since it was in the afternoon and i used all my concentrated pee on the other test. I know I know I am totally neurotic! Well Monday am ( July 4th) i decided I would waste the remaining peice of my 20 purchase and whip out the other cbe stick. well this time did not dissapoint I indeed was PREGNANT!!! I woke joey up to share the news and we finally got to jump aup and down with excitement that I was indeed preggo with baby #2!!
Since then I have ONLY been to the dr twice ( little joke since it was my home away from home with Will, i freaked over everything). I am 9 weeks along and everything looks great so far. Im still in the first trimester and we know that anything can happen so I just ask for prayers to hit the 1st trimester mark and then of course for a safe healthy pregnancy and delivery.
Pics to come soon!!!!

R&R

Ok so I know I have been MIA ( for those 3 people who even read my blog) but life has just been CRAZY. I have been so busy with photography lately that I havent had time for much else. But I am super glad to say that sat begins VACAY at the beach!!!!!! I am super excited to see how Will takes in the beach this year. He has always enjoyed it but now that he is a toddler and seriously ALL BOY I think it will be that much more fun to watch him. Not to mention I rented not 1 but 2 lenses to take to the beach. So rest a sure that there will be TONS of pics with a fabulous post when I get back!!! Im looking forward to every part of vacay except of course the drive. Will is not the best rider and although leaving at the but crack of dawn would be ideal it just isnt in the cards for us. Joey has to work till 1 sat so we will be leaving after that making it an ALL DAY affair. Thats really all I have to say right now got to get back to editing. 4 more shoots to finish to make my deadline! But here are some pics from the past few years trips!

revisiting potty training

Ok so whats a mom to do. Poor Will wants to potty train ( I think) but he just doesnt fully get the concept. Im totally ok with diapers I mean theres no rush i heard when boys are ready they will do it. After our unsuccessful attempt a few weeks ago i didnt think much of it but now he asks for big boy pants and will say pee pee or poo poo but when you sit him on the pot nothing so after about 5 minutes of sitting there we will pull our big boy pants up and then not 1 min later we have an accident. do any mommys out there have any pointers? He actually did pee pee in the potty yesterday once and poo poo today but i think that poo was a fluke seeing as he had already started in his diaper and said poo poo so i yanked it off and put him on the pot. Weve tried treats and toys and those dont seem to work so Im at a loss as to what to offer for an incentive?

Yipee Skippy

Ok so anyone who knows me knows I LOVE to take pics. Well my neighbor sent me a link not to long ago about a lens rental company located here in memphis. Has anyone ever heard of it lensrentals.com? Well after much debate i have decided to rent a lens for my upcoming beach vacay ( 1 week and counting) I havent totally decided on what lens to rent but the prices are really reasonable and you simply get it in the mail and then send it back when your rental period is done. I will let you know more about the process after I complete it but woo hoo can we say the luxury of a mega expensive lens without having to shell out all that money. Although I know all to well that if the lens is as wonderful as I think it is gonna be it is only gonna be a matter of time before I want it for myself lol. Better start saving now-add it to the list of things to save for!

More Remodel ( are you sick of it yet?)

So above are some of the before pics of the dining rm

and here is a sneak peek of my next project- oh yes there will be distressing

but i will wait till the end to just do one post. So you dont have to read about it EVERY DAY!

I am obsessed with the outcome of my furniture! LOVE IT!

Im glad I changed up the top color bc i think it tones down the chairs nicely. I mean yes they are still loud but I think it fits!

more details.

So once the walls are painted and everything is decorated i will prob post a pic on here but for now I am done. I really enjoyed this project and it really hasnt taken to much time. When i mentioned the "wash" mixture not going on well and I didnt know if it was bc i used spray paint well that is not the case I think it was just too watery bc i added less water to the mixture for the top of the table and it turned out beautifully. I do feel sorry for the hubby though bc this totally makes me want to makeover the whole house lol! We may not be able to move but we sure can decorate :)

Other Dining Room Inspirations

I intend on using the martha stewart tobacco leaf paint to repaint the dining room and then I hope to get these drapes from pottery barn ( Vanessa Printed Blue). See post of chairs below- does this match ?

DIY Kitchen Table & chairs *UPDATED*

So I am not sure if I have posted anything about this so here goes. A month or so ago i decided to revamp my dining room. I have the typical Bartlett dining rm lol....A nice shade of RED. And that was all fine and good 5 years ago when I did it ( and when it was in style). These days its all about light shabby chic colors. And to be honest that is way more up my alley now. Well attempt one was a huge Fail!
I painted he chair a general white color ( something villa) and then I was going to rub a brown stain over it to enhance the sanded areas going for the whole distressed look. As you can see it just didnt work out. I bout a water based stain and well I had a major blonde moment and slapped in on a cloth and rubbed it on the furniture (instead of diluting it with water ) So instead of the shabby chic look I got the it looks like my son took a poo on my white chair look.

and since then the chair has just stayed outside and no further work has been done....Until today. Here is the current status of the icky chair
it is a VERY (too too too) Tiffany Blue. A total extremem of what I was going for although it is a vast improvement from its previous state. So after goodling for a bit I found this tutorial

and I plan to get started right away. We actually went to a friends new home last night and they got some furniture from I O metro. It was totally along the lines of what I was originally going for so it resparked my excitement for the project! I hope it turns out then it will be on to painting the red walls and hanging some fun drapes and i have the perfect ones from pottery barn on my want list.

Well thats it for now gotta let the paint dry. I am only going one chair first incase i screw it up again lol.

*UPDATE*

here is the completed chair

( the color is way more vivd outside than when you bring it indoors.)

I am super excited about this transformation and it was super easy to do! I am not good at tutorials and I didnt take any pics with my good camera bc my hands were quite dirty so bare with me if your interested I will do my best to explain. I changed up a few things in the tutorial but overall got the effect I was looking for.

The tiffany blue color I used was actually spray paint ( in aqua) vs. painting all theses chairs with a brush or roller. This table was given to us for free when we moved in our home and I had in my head that if the project went south I would just buy a table and chairs thus leading me towards the spray paint. With a 2 yr old it is impossible to find time to do anything much less hand paint stuff. The spray paint worked very well overall. There is one chair that doesnt look as "smooth" as the others. I have not completed that chair yet so I just plan to sand it more than the others when I reach that step. Oh and fyi one can of spray paint covered one whole chair and the legs of another so it went a pretty long way.

Now onto the "washing" colors. the tutorial says to use 3 colors where I had only planned on using two. So I had to rack my brain as to what color I wanted to add in the mix. I decided on Martha Stewarts A Winter Day. This is the bluish-gray color I painted my bedroom for those who remember. I wasnt sure how it would look on top of the aqua but I was looking to tone down the brightness and thought for sure between this color and white I could make it happen. I am not a math person so when it said to come up with a 70-30 ration of paint to water i just made sure i had more water than paint. I thought it was too thick but when i went to roll it on it just didnt do the trick for me! It was very water and did not cover like another layer of paint ( see pics in the tutorial) I got a little worried. I dont know if it didnt cover as well bc i used spray paint vs flat paint or if my mixture was off. I decided to make the best of it and I grabbed a sponge from the kitchen (unused of course) and sponged the mixture over the chair.

With the watered down paint being gray i thought it would be gray over the aqua...wrong! It actually was this color i cant really describe it was kinda peachy and really pretty! I rubbed it in with the sponge repeatedly just bc it was so watery ( again remember my goal was lighting that electric blue as much as possible). And since i thought it was too watery i did a couple coats.

After this dried it was time to do the same with the white paint. I just used a sample can i dot a while back something villa. nothing special just a plain white ( a lot of people use antique white i may do this next time). I tried to make this mixture a little richer ( less water ) I really wanted this step to be a tone down process for the chair. Again I used the sponge bc the roller wasnt going to "coat" the chair ( i intend on doing this on another project that I will take more time with so i will post wether the spray paint or the mixture made the difference). I was able to achieve what i was going for with the white wash. The chairs were definitely more muted.

After they dried it was time to sand. I am always so nervous with this step bc I am so scared I will screw what ive already done up. But with this project I found the more you sand the better things look. I didnt have an orbital sander like the tutorial used but in all honesty even if i did I dont think I would have used it bc i was too afraid I would make "swirls". I used a mouse sander instead ( its what my neighbor had and let me borrow). It looks like an iron which helped me get in the nooks of the chair. I started with 100 grain even though it says use 250-350. All i had was the 100 grain and I was too impatient. Again I like the look. I am toying with the idea of getting the 250 today since I have to get more to complete the chairs anyways but again that little nervous voice in my head may make me think otherwise.

So there you have it, in the end I am super happy with what I have done. One difference I noticed is that with chair number one it had a coat of white paint and stain on it so when i sanded it the brown of the wood didnt show through as the other chair that i just painted aqua from its original form ( no white base). I like it better without the white base coat bc you can see the black come through so I am glad i got lazy with the primer. The one chair isnt too different that it will look funny i just like the other better. My dilemma now is the table. I had originally planned on doing the whole thing the aqua color but even muted it is very loud!. And this may be bc my walls are still red and not a neutral color. Does anyone have any suggestions? The legs of the table are black and the top is just plain wood. I am thinking of doing legs aqua and maybe the top a light tan-ish color with the gray and white wash over it with a less water mixture? Does that sound silly- Opinions please :) I have come so far I dont want to screw up now!

Nap Time

I love my little man every second of every day but there is something to be said about watching little ones sleep. They are so peaceful! I usually nap with him but i had lots to get done today so while taking a break from editing i snuck in a shot a few pics of him snoozing. LOVE it!