great deal!

Today I decided I'd go find a store that my friend and co-worker, Shannon, had mentioned. It's called Children's Orchard and it sells gently used children's items and clothing. I looked it up online and was pleasantly surprised that I had not only found the address, but stumbled upon a major sale! Today (because the one location is closing) I took advatange of the "fill-a-bag" for $5.oo sale!

Needless to say, I bought a lot of baby clothes that are in like new condition AND maternity tops and shorts as well!

I figured out that all 39 items would have cost $114.oo at the normal price and I got them for $10.0o! That's only 39 cents an item!! Even if we don't use them for Brett, I can sell them on ebay or give them to someone else who needs them. What a bargain!

It was craz-i-ness! Pregnant mothers, mothers with children, grandmothers, and day care workers were all there snatching up clothes as fast as they could! What madness but what fun!

Here are some of the items I came away with!

snips and snails

Snips and snails and puppy dog tails

That's what little boys are made of.

Cute denim hat found at Babies 'R' Us with a little snail.

I couldn't resist it!

B is for. . .

B is for baby, of course...

(a wooden B that is resting on the crib rail

for now until I can find where I want to hang it)
and blanket...

(This is the very neatly- made, reversible blanket that Nana Patti crocheted for her soon-to-be grandson.)

and blocks...

but it's also for our baby-to-be's name.

B is for :

Choosing a name was hard in some ways and simple in some others. I've had a baby name book for a long time for writing purposes...to come up with names for creative writing pieces. I am not one of those girls who has had a baby name picked out since 7th grade. I think I've always wanted to wait until I was pregnant to decide upon a name with my hubby instead of having a preconceived idea of what I wanted in a name. We also bought another baby name book in Barnes & Noble before Christmas. What an undertaking to choose a name that will stick with a person for life!

There are tons and tons of names out there. To keep in manageable, we picked a few letters a night and started going through some names. Nothing was really jumping out at us, but we kept coming back to one name even before we got to the B section of the book (we were skipping around, looking at different letters). The name was Brett. Since Don is a Packers' fan and I have become one, too, we began joking around about calling him Brett Favre Johnson when people asked what we were going to name him. The Brett part we kept coming back to. We really liked it! So, after reading through lists of names, and eliminating names (We are both teachers, so there were some names that we've had in the past that we would or would not ever name our kids.), we ended up deciding upon Brett! We have chosen Michael as the middle name...Grandpa-to-be Ross' first name and a solid Catholic name that Don also liked.

• It doesn't have any nicknames.
• The syllables sound good with our last name.
• It doesn't have any weird rhymes.
• It sounds like a good, solid masculine name.
• Neither of us have had a Brett in our classes during our years of teaching...no negative or positive associations with it via past classroom experiences.
• In the baby book, we also found it under a list of "blonde" male names. Ironically, Shannon is listed under "blonde" female names. Who ever knew I'd fit the blonde list...or that there was even a blonde list of names! Maybe Brett will be a little blondie, too.
• Most people we've tried it out on have liked it, too! (unless they are not Green Bay Packers...or Jets Fans..hee hee)

catching up

Just a few pictures I wanted to post on here.



Christmas gifts that "Nana" Patti made for our little guy-to-be

We love the hand-knit sweaters, matching hat, and booties and the crocheted (reversible) afghan! So lovingly made!

inspiration

Hmm...I came across this post on Ali Edwards' blog site. I used the same type of Chinese paper lanterns at our wedding renewal this summer...may have to incorporate some small ones in our house somewhere, since they were neutral in color. Also, I was looking at the antique baby scale in the photo. I think we have the same one or one that's very similar in my closet back home in Michigan! That might make a cute decorative piece in our nursery, too.

Ali Edwards (known in the scrapbooking world) is expecting a baby girl and just recently posted a "tour" of the nursery here.

http://aliedwards.typepad.com/_a_/2009/01/around-the-room-baby-a.html

comparison

I will post a comparison picture in the same outfit. Wow! I didn't realize how much I've sprouted since before Christmas...but I have!

catching up. . .

A belated Merry Christmas and a peek at this year's Christmas card...

We took a photo at Mt. Charleston when there was snow in November. The inside revealed a short newsletter and message and announced our news of expecting our little guy in April.


We flew to Michigan to see family from December 18th through the 23rd. Now that the holidays are behind us and we are back into the work routine once again, I'll be posting more and catching up on everything that has happened since the last post.



We were scheduled to leave here around 10pm and didn't leave until 12:30 a.m. due to weather delays. Don even had a snow day - no school - on the 17th! That hasn't happened here in Las Vegas in a long, long time. I think they said it had been 30 years! Our part of the valley did not see much snow, but other parts did. I was able to get some pictures of the snow, though, since I was out and about when it first started to fall.



(Not a sight you see every day - snow on palm trees!)

Jason's Deli - Summerlin - Snow with palm trees. I'll try to figure out how to get this video to appear vertically.
At least it appeared.

We arrived in Detroit and hit bad weather conditions that made our normally 3 to 4 hour trip a 7 hour trip!

We were still able to get together with my friend Erica and her family at our favorite pizza place, Spanky's...with the BEST breadsticks ever! Erica and I compared "baby bumps" and got our pictures taken together. (Sidenote: We JUST found out that our friend, Danielle, is expecting her second child in June of this year. So exciting! Can't wait to get all three babies together next year - how fun! An April baby, May baby, and a June baby!)

On Saturday, we celebrated with my immediate family in the morning and had Ross Family Christmas in the afternoon. They surprised us with a baby shower after we had celebrated Christmas. Out of hiding came two large boxes and out of the boxes came gifts and all the baby shower essentials...games and decorations planned by cousins Angie and Stephie. There was a yummy cake as well! (Thanks for all the great Christmas and baby gifts! Our little guy is going to be so well dressed! Lots of cute outfits!! Lots and lots of cute baby items, including Winnie-the-Pooh items, keepsakes, toys and books. So fun!)

On Sunday, we went to church and then ended up relaxing because the weather was not cooperative enough to meet Don's dad at the Mackinaw Bridge.


To be continued...