Ruthie Gail

My older sister Lindsey had another little girl. Her first daughter, Ivey, is almost 2 years old, & I did a post a while back with a few photos I took of her when she came home from the hospital.

Ruthie was born 3 weeks early, & spent her first week of life in the NICU. Gentry & I were able to travel to Memphis to meet her last weekend. She is the tiniest, sweetest little baby, & Lindsey is doing an incredible job as a mother of two. 

The first night we arrived, we went straight to Ryan & Lindsey's house to meet Ruthie & have dinner with everyone. 

Lindsey, me, Ruthie, & Bethany

The next day I took a few photos of Lindsey & her girls. Here are a few of my favorites. 

Ruthie & our girl will be 5 months apart. I can't wait to watch them grow up together.

alli

Nursery Inspiration

We found out last week that we are having a little girl!!

The last post I did was on nursery brainstorming, & many of the rooms looked more suited for a little boy. Now that we know we are having a girl, I have been trying to come up with girl nursery ideas...which is way harder than I thought it would be!

Out of all of the photos I posted previously, I keep coming back to this one, which isn't even a nursery photo.

I love the soft wall color & the neutral fabrics on the larger pieces of furniture. 

We ended up picking up the wooden trundle bed that belonged to my grandmother while we were in Memphis this past weekend. I had forgotten how pretty it is, & am excited about adding it to the nursery. I plan on painting the trundle bed to add a pop of color (probably a gray/blue). 

I would like to do white bedding for both the crib & the trundle, & make khaki-colored bed skirts for both as well. I love the patterns & colors of the pillows in the photo above, & plan on sewing several pillow covers for the trundle bed. I have already been browsing different fabric websites for similar fabrics, & am excited to start pulling swatches for ideas. 

I haven't really started looking into cribs yet, but I do really like this Jenny Lind crib on Amazon.

I am debating whether or not we will need a changing table in the nursery. I know that changing tables are standard accessories for most nurseries, but I have heard of several people who have spare beds in their nurseries & just use changing pads. Has anyone done this instead of a changing table? I would like to avoid having one take up space if at all possible. 

I would love for Gentry to build an armoire for our girl's clothes, similar to the kind we use as our china cabinet in the dining room. It was the first birthday gift Gentry gave me after we got married & I love it! He surprised me with it when I got home from work.

As far as accessories go, I will probably do some paintings for the walls & look for different items at antique stores & flea malls. I love this painting at World Market, & wouldn't mind doing something similar.

At this point, I like to have a basic idea of where I would like to go with the room, similar to what I have done with our kitchen, hearth room & other rooms in our house. 

In the meantime, we could not be more thrilled about our little girl's arrival at the beginning of July, & I am so excited to start getting things ready!

{alli}

nursery brainstorming

With only a week & a half left until we find out if Baby Hill will be a boy or girl, I can't help but think of nursery ideas. We have a spare room directly across the hall from our bedroom that we plan on using for the nursery. Since we already have a guest bedroom in this house, we left this spare room pretty empty to avoid purchasing another bedroom suite. 

I've been pinning a few things on my Pinterest board for kids, & have come across some cute nursery ideas. Without knowing the sex of the baby, I have no idea how we will actually decorate the nursery, but I do love looking at possibilities! 

I love this green baby bed! It would be cute to do if you find a used crib on Craigslist or at a flea mall.

 I also love the simplicity of this antique crib from A Country Farmhouse. The entire nursery is adorable.

 We have been playing around with the idea of putting a twin bed or a trundle bed in the nursery, along with the crib. I'm not sure if it will end up working out or not, but I came across this photo & loved the color scheme. It would be easy to make a twin headboard using a similar fabric, & then using that same fabric for the crib skirt. 

This has been one of my favorite photos of a nursery for a long time. I remember coming across it a couple of years ago when my sister was pregnant & loving it! I love the wooden pallet behind the crib, & the gray crib color. I also really like the light walls & colorful accessories.

 This nursery is definitely more modern than I am usually drawn to, but I really like all the colors.

I love the use of antiques in this nursery.

This last photo is obviously not a nursery, but I love the color scheme. It would be perfect for a boy or a girl, & the mix of fabric patterns & textiles are wonderful.

I am hoping that once we find out boy or girl we can start planning for the nursery. I am not a bed in the bag kind of girl, so I plan on picking out the fabrics & making the bedding & curtains myself. I also want to have time to look for cute accessories like these antique alphabet cards.

{alli}

Life Lately

The last major blog post I did was on our striped dining room walls, posted October 29th. The next day we found out we are pregnant! Baby Hill is due July 6th!! Needless to say, I spent most of November & part of December trying to find the energy to simply clean our house & cook every now & then, so blogging never happened. I managed to try a really good black bean soup recipe that you should all try soon if you haven't yet.

Now that the second trimester has appeared, I've finally gotten back some energy & sat down to download photos from Thanksgiving & Christmas. This post is a quick recap of our 2012 Holiday Season. 

At the very beginning of November we put our tree up, because we couldn't wait any longer!

We spent Thanksgiving in East Tennessee with Gentry's family, then drove across the state to West Tennessee to be with my family. We told our families about the baby over Thanksgiving, & had a great time seeing everyone! 

Skeet shoot

Garrett (G's brother), Ruby (G's grandmother), & Gentry

Sporting her new sun hat!

My siblings: Bethany, me, Grant & Lindsey

Melisa, Grant & Alivia

David & Bethany

Weston

Mom & Alivia

Weston trying a roasted marshmallow

Not sure what to think :)

Lindsey & Ryan

Picked out a tree for mom & dad's house

After Thanksgiving we came back to Louisville & Gentry finished his final exams for his fall classes. It is hard to believe he is already halfway through his M.Div! 

We celebrated my mother-in-law's birthday & did Christmas with Gentry's family the weekend of the 22nd. We love living in the same city as them!

Then we drove to Memphis on December 23rd for Christmas with my family.

Lindsey, Bethany & me

My Mamaw had everyone over on Sunday night for dinner & Christmas with my mom's side of the family.

Aunt Lisa & Alivia

Mom & Papaw

Mom & her parents

The Dodds family: Mamaw, mom, Papaw, Julie & Lisa

We opened gifts at my parents with my siblings & nieces & nephew on Christmas Eve.

Gentry was inducted into the "Dad Robe" club.

We even got a little snow while in Memphis!

 We had a great time with family & friends over the holidays! We find out if Baby Hill will be a boy or a girl on February 13th, & I'm sure I will have some nursery inspiration posts to come! :)

{alli}