And Christmas Ushers In Our 3rd Trimester...

Wow. What a busy week and a half we've had! The weekend before Christmas, my Dad, Debbie, and Grandma Bennett drove into town from St. Louis. It was a quick weekend, but we were really glad that they made the long trip down. It was the first time we've hosted them at our house or during Christmas. Ed made his first prime rib roast for them and it was excellent.

I managed to only work two days this week (but Ed had to work a half-day on Wednesday - boo). Tuesday night, Ed and I went with Tom, Malinda, and Andy (Ed's Dad, Stepmom, and brother) to see the Lake Lanier Magical Nights of Lights display. I'd never been before and I love seeing Christmas lights, so it was nice of them to invite us to go with them. I felt a little bad for Ed though when we didn't get home until after 2 am and he still had to go into work the next morning.

On Christmas Eve, we drove out to Mary and Rick's house (Ed's Mom and Stepdad) to celebrate the evening with them. We had tasty soup for dinner and Granny's cookies (decorated by his sisters and cousins) for dessert.

Then there was Christmas day... it started with a trip back out to Tom and Malinda's, where we opened presents and ate Tom's omelets for breakfast/brunch. Around 1:30, we drove to Ed's Grandmother and Grandpa Reagin's house, exchanged presents, and feasted on her Feliz Navidad Taco Salad. We were back at Mary and Rick's by 5 pm. James (Ed's stepbrother) made a traditional English Christmas dinner of prime rib, potatoes and parsnips, carrots, asparagus, and Yorkshire pudding. Ed's stepsister Jessica made a cherry and raspberry trifle served with pouring cream for dessert. It was her first time making it and she did a great job.

Needless to say, I was exhausted by 8 pm.

After a day's break for our bellies, we enjoyed another Christmas dinner at Granny and Grandaddy's house. This is my favorite meal of the year. I can't really comment more on that - I love it all, especially the vanilla mousse with raspberry sauce.

Today, we dropped Finn off at our good friends' house. Amy and Griff are graciously dogsitting for us while we're out of town.

Now, I must go to bed. I realize I didn't say anything about Baby Reagin, but I can assure you that she thoroughly enjoyed this Christmas as well. We are now officially in the third trimester. Oh, and after talking to Aunt Carol about it on Saturday night, we actually felt the baby hiccupping for the first time this morning! Our flight leaves for CO tomorrow morning, and I'm sure we will have plenty to blog about after this week, too. Here are a few pictures from our festivities since our last post:

Do we really need a caption here?

The Messick-Tallant side at Christmas on Sat.

The Bennetts at the Reagin's.

The Reagin side on Christmas morning.

TMT Christmas Party 2008!

So, once again, my company Christmas party fell on the same night as Ed's. This year, instead of only going to mine for an hour and then spending the majority of our evening at Ed's party, we opted to stay at my company's event. Well, we were going to try and squeeze in an hour at the end at his, but we didn't end up eating dinner until after 10pm, so it was just better to stay in one place thereafter.

We had a great time. In fact, whether I enjoyed myself or not, Ed had a grand enough time for the both of us. The food was good, the company was even better, and the drinks were free!

It's safe to say that my Sunday was a lot better than his though. But I think that many of my coworkers had the same kind of day as he did...

On to baby-related news: we finally decided on our bedding! We chose a design called Claire Bear by Bananafish. It's adorable - pink and chocolate. I ordered it on Friday and it should come in around the same time as our crib (too bad it probably won't arrive in time for my shower).

Before the Christmas party on Saturday, Ed and I spent 4 hours (that's right, I said 4 hours) registering at Babies R Us. It was very overwhelming and exhausting. Did I mention that we didn't even finish!?! We got to the infant care/breastfeeding section and not only were we out of time, but I couldn't even begin to process all that information after 4 hours of other tedious decisions. I should say it was fun, but maybe scary is a better word for it. We have NO IDEA what we're doing, it seems!

I called Alexis, the best doula I know and my good friend, and she was lovely enough to give me some sage advice. And then bright and early at the crack of 2pm on Sunday, when Ed was ready to leave the house, we went back out again and braved the rest of Babies R Us! I know that technically you're supposed to register at more than one place to give people options, but I'm not sure we can handle another such outing, so Babies R Us may be it. We also checked out some more furniture stores for potential chest of drawers, but we had no such luck. Maybe next time.

As for this weekend, my Dad, Debbie, and Grandma are driving in from MO for a visit. They've never seen our house before, so we're very excited. Plus, we haven't seen them since July, when I was only 2 months pregnant, so we're excited to show off the baby belly.

And on that note, I need to get back to helping Ed get the house ready. Will blog again very soon, I promise. I know that I've slipped a little since the new camera broke (which, by the way, is in the process of getting fixed, so we should have it back really soon).

Offtopic: A little Holiday Cheer!

This video has been making Katie laugh and the Dog Bark for the last few days. I thought I would share it with you just for fun.

My apologies for putting up a non-baby centered post. We will get one up later this weekend (read Sunday night). We are working daily on getting her nursery ready to go!

Watch the whole thing, he gets "better" as he goes. Enjoy!

We Bought a Crib!

Okay, so I know we're behind in our updates, but we have good reason. I am absolutely obsessed now with getting the nursery designed. I have been driving myself and Ed crazy for the last two weeks (at least) trying to decide which crib we wanted to buy (and if I must be honest, the bedding, too).

Well, finally, we picked one. We had narrowed the list and widened it back out again at least three times. Every time someone tried to help, it only made me more uncertain about the decision. It eventually came down to three dropside cribs, which I felt I needed over a stationary one because of my height issue. At the last minute, I almost changed my mind about that, too. But Ed was my rock and held steady.

We ended up driving out to Acworth, which is an hour away from our house and went to this small family-owned store. She offered us the best price we'd seen yet on Ed's favorite crib. And since the other ones I liked were all in off-white colors like antique white and crackled cream (which Ed doesn't like), we went with that one. So we are now the proud owners of a Bonavita Hudson Dropside Crib in Classic White!

Hours later, after driving all over GA attempting to find dressers to match, it occurred to us that we currently have a sanded-down antique dresser taking up space in our garage. So today, we drove to Lowes, bought white paint (which we hope matches well enough), and Ed spent a few hours this afternoon painting away. One more coat, some possible distressing, and a clear coat later, and we'll have our second piece of furniture for little Baby Reagin's room.

The bedding is another beast. It's safe to say that we have it narrowed down to three (or so) options. The woman from the crib store is going to be calling me early this week with some pricing on them, and we hope to have a decision made by mid-week. This means that all we'll have left to do, design-wise, is find a tall dresser, pick paint colors, and paint. Well, there's that other little thing, too... emptying out the 'nursery' and re-inventing our guest bedroom, so we can actually make a room for the baby.

My next step tonight is going to be coming up with a guest list for my first baby shower and figuring out which shower games I'd like to play (and not like to play). So I probably should get on with that task, as it is getting late...

One more thing though: oddly enough, this keeps coming up this week, so I guess I should mention it. For all inquiring minds who want to know... Ed and I do believe that we have settled on a name for our little girl. It's only been a week since we came up with one that we both adore, but ironically enough, we've been asked at least five times since then if she has a name yet. We're sorry to say though that we haven't changed our minds about keeping it a surprise, so you'll just have to wait. Sorry!

Hope everyone has a great week!