Room update!

With baby Luke's arrival only being a few short weeks away ( a little over 6 to be exact), we have been working on the nursery a little bit each day. To our surprise, at my doctors appointment this week, we found out that we were going to be induced a week early to insure that our favorite doctor would be there to deliver us. With learning this news came the realization that we really needed to put things in high gear and finish up all our loose ends. The nursery has been one of the loose ends I am referring to. For some reason, I have been extremely relaxed about finishing the nursery but hopefully it will not be too much longer till it is complete. Here are a few pics of what we have done so far....

Here is Luke's dresser, laundry basket and book shelf. The dresser is going to have all matching silver nobs. As you can see we are two short ( the bottom two) but will be getting those this weekend. The laundry basket was a wonderful gift from John's aunt. I just love the look of this and know it is something that Luke will be able to keep in his room for a very long time. The bookshelf is from Restoration Hardware just like the laundry basket and I honestly think it may be one of my favorite pieces in the nursery. It is so cute and hung low enough that as Luke grows he will be able to reach and pick out his own books starting at a very early age.
Close up

Here is a picture of everything that is to the right of the book shelf. The chaise lounge was a piece that I debated over for quite some time before deciding to refinish it and put it into the nursery. I had talked to several of my friends who were mom and asked them where they did most of their feeding. The general answer I got was either on the couch or on their bed. With that in mind, I figured that the chaise lounge would be a good asset to have in the nursery. It is extremely comfortable and big enough that if I have to sleep in Luke's room, it would not be a total nightmare. ha. It also was from Restoration Hardware but we had it recovered to match the fabrics in the nursery.

Close up

Here is a picture of Luke's crib. It is by far the most babyish thing in the room but I sill love it. I knew going into designing this room that I was going to stay away from the traditional baby nursery. Not to say that I don't like a traditional baby nursery because I do but I knew I just wanted a room that would be easy to transition into a "big boy" room in a few short years. I know that I am missing out on some of the sweet little things that a traditional nursery has but I was trying to be reasonable and knew that if I had done a sweet baby nursery I would be turning around in just a few short years and redoing the room. So with that being said, I decided to make the bedding sweet and babyish so I could have a little touch of baby.

Here is baby Luke's coat rack / blanket rack. In the Restoration Hardware baby catalogue I fell in love with a coat rack they had in one of the rooms. To my disappointment, it was only a prop and not for sale. John took one look at it and told me not to worry because he could make the same thing. To my surprise, he did! He did such a wonderful job and now it is special because it is made by Luke's daddy! Good job Johnny!

Those are just a few of the updated pictures we have so far. Ill keep posting as week keep working on the room!

xoxo,

Meg

Luke's Knoxville Baby Shower

Wow! There are seriously no words to describe how blessed I am to have such amazing friends and family. This past weekend, my closest friends and sister-in-laws threw me a baby shower for baby Luke. To say it was AMAZING is an understatement! The amount of time and love put into this shower it beyond words! It was honestly the most beautiful baby shower I have ever seen. It looked like something straight out of Southern Living. The details alone were over the top! I keep looking through the pictures telling John that even the pictures don't do justice to just how amazing it really was. From the food to the decor, everything was thought out and perfect! They had all my favorite food and presented it in such a beautiful display. The girls decided to go with a southern living theme capturing all my favorite elements. The table cloth was burlap and every dish was labeled with a little sign that was presented in a moss and dirt filled cup. We drank out of mason jars that were labeled with baby Luke's initials. Below are some pictures that I will describe as we go along....

The sweet door sign that was hand painted by Brie to hang on the front door! It was a replica of the invitation that went out for the shower. It is now hanging on baby Luke's door waiting for his arrival!
These ridiculously cute and tasty Owl cookies were made by my lifelong best friend Morgan. She spend several days hand making and frosting these cookies! They were honestly the most adorable thing I have ever seen. Get ready Mo, the secret is out that you can bake. Luke is going to be spending a lot of time with his Aunt Mo in the kitchen. ha!

Close up of the cookie and it's cute packaging.

This is an example of how all the food was labeled! There were little name tags by each of the dishes at the shower! Too Cute!!

Some of the fun drinks!

The adorable Mason Jars we drank out of! I loved the special touch of adding baby Luke's initials and an owl! I am totally stealing this idea! ha

The fabulous cake! It was not only the cutest thing ever but it also taste amazing!

Part of the table of food.

Part of the shower was devoted to bringing a book to stock baby Luke's library. The girls came up with the awesome idea to place all the books in my new Restoration Hardware book shelf that I got as a present! I loved it!! It looks so cute hanging in Luke's room!

Flowers

Here is a picture of Jayme writing a piece of advice for me to remember as a new mother. I absolutely loved this idea. The girls set up a table with paper and pens and asked for everyone attending the shower to give me advice on becoming a new parent. It was so sweet to read what everyone wrote. They put every ones letters into an adorable album for me to keep as a keepsake. I will treasure it forever!

Brie and Jayme writing their letters of advice

Jayme, Brooke, Christen and Brie

Stacy and Lynn

Morgan, Me, Brie, Megan and Lindsey

Johns Aunts and cousins.

Me and Bev

My dad and Crawford both made an appearance towards the end of the shower. I don't think my dad wanted to give him back to Christen. He was in love! ha

Some of my sweet friends at the shower

Some of the hostesses

Christen, me and Mo

Grammy, Sheryl, me and MOM

Sheryl, me and my mom

This is a picture of Jayme, Annie and Christen passing out the adorable little ice cream treats to everyone who was watching me open my presents. I mean seriously, how cute is that! Not only did we have cake and cookies, we had little ice cream treats as well! Love it!

Annie, Kelly, Ashley and Lynn

Annie, Kelly and Johns cousin Madelyn

Some of my favorite Moms in Knoxville!

Lily, Lynn, Me, Claire, Emily and Lucy

My mom and John's Aunt Joan

Lindsey, me and Megan

My girls! Lucy and Lily!

As you can probably see from the pictures, I am one lucky girl! I was truly taken aback by all the love my friends and family showed me the whole weekend. It started off by friends coming in far and wide just to spend time with me and ended with an amazing shower. I don't think they will ever truly know how much they mean to me and what a wonderful time I had but hopefully after reading this they will. Luke is so lucky to have so many people in his life to love on him! I am so excited for him to come and meet each and every one of you! I love you all!

xoxo,

Meghan

29 weeks/ Hank's Baptism/ Nursery Progress

Wow, I guess it has been a little while since I have last posted a blog. To catch you up, I finally passed my sugar test so I do not have gestational diabetes! Thank goodness! It took the whole 3 hours to pass it but never the less, I passed! The past couple of weeks have been crazy around the Taylor household. We have been working like crazy on the house to try and get everything in order before our little man arrives. I have a baby shower with all my best friends in two weeks and can not wait to see everyone and have everyone around for a weekend! With that being said, it gives John and I plenty of motivation to get our house in order. We have been working on finishing the rest of the basement (from when it flooded) and kinda putting together Luke's room. Luke's room has been a little harder to get together because I want to wait to get all the pieces in before I put anything on the walls. So far, we have the room painted, put the crib up, put the bedding in and put the rug down. We also have a dresser in there as well as a changing table. I am still waiting on my chase lounge to come in as well as a few other pieces that I want from Restoration Hardware and hopefully the Sugarboo dog painting. I have been extremely hesitant to hang anything on the walls until I have all the furniture in and know exactly where I want things to go. This weekend we celebrated baby Hank's baptism! It was such a sweet time and we all really enjoyed watching Hank on his big day. He wore an outfit that Sheryl made him and he looked absolutely presious! During the service, he was an angel! He sat so quiet and calm and didnt cry a bit!

Matt, Kel and Hank



Hudson, Kel and Hank

This picture of Hudson and Brody was taken on the way back from church. These two little boys are absolutely hilarious. They rode from church to Hanks baptism lunch with John and I and decided that it was way too hot outside to wear their church clothes! They told us that they were sweating to death and didnt want to get their clothes dirty, so off went the clothes! Haha I guess I will have some good training for when Luke tells me the same things!





This evening Matt, Kelly and Hank stopped by to see Luke's room and this is a picture of Hank playing with the jumparoo! He was the perfect model for us to see how everything worked! Luckily, we picked a good toy because Hank seemed to love it! Having Hank up in Luke's room made me so excited for the future. Hank and Luke will only be 9 months apart so I am certain that these two will spend many hours together playing in this room and having slumber parties. We are so blessed to have so many cousins but I am especially excited to see the sweet friendship these two little guys will have being so close in age!

Here is a picture of Luke's Crib and changing table. Obviously, the changing table doesn't quite have everything it needs yet (ie: the changing pad, more baskets, etc) but you get the point so far. I spoke with Sheryl yesterday about possibly lining the baskets in a fun fabric to match the room and also make the baskets a little softer.

Close up of the crib

Close up of the bumper and also Luke's friends who are waiting on him!

Here last but not least, is the shocker of all shockers! ha! Here is what 5' tall looks like at 29 weeks pregnant! Crazy right! I honestly dont know how I am going to get any bigger and how my body is going to be able to handle it! If I am being completely honest, I dont know if I am going to enjoy the last 11 weeks very much. I am already at the point where my body doesnt feel good and I just cant get comfortable. I am just having to remind myself that I am going to get a wonderful present out of this and that I will be back to normal one day! ha. Lets hope its sooner than later! Look back for more room updates soon! xoxo