Baby Gage

I drove north to meet Baby Gage a few weeks ago, and now that the announcements have been mailed out, I get to share all the pictures here on the ol' blog.

First, I loved this one of sweet, little (but not so little, if you check out his birth weight below) Gage in his nursery lying in his crib. His nursery was awesome! His mama, Sara, knows how to decorate! Her whole house was inspirational actually!

Baby Gage slept for us a little at the beginning and then not some much until we went outside and he was out! And his birth announcement, which might be my favorite yet! (See Tina Parker's My Lil Creations)

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Thanks so much, Sara and Carl! Hope you invite me back soon, with or without my camera!!

P.S. Can I just say, I love big babies. I was a big baby myself at 9 lbs, 15 oz. and my first, Presley was a shocking (to me anyway) 9 lbs, 2 oz . I layed off the sweets during my second pregnancy and Teagan was 8 lbs 14 oz (saved myself 4 oz, whoohoo).

Willa and Dovie's Nursery - guest post

I would like to introduce my sister, Alison (a.k.a. Willa and Dovie's Mama), who is the guest author of this post. There's always more to the story than just what you see in pictures, and this was a fun way to get to share both! Not to mention, my family has been known to leave out nary a detail. So without further ado...

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I’m soo very excited to get to write a guest post on Taylor’s blog! We’ve been looking so forward to the nursery pictures, and when I saw them I knew I had to add my two cents and share the story of this awesome room.

Welcome to Willa and Dovie’s room! This room is so special because it truly embodies the spirit of family and community. Like most people, we procrastinated finishing (some might say starting) their room until it became apparent that the babies weren’t going to wait much longer to come into this world. Let me back up and say that shortly after me becoming pregnant, Jay ripped all the paneling and trim off the walls leaving the bare planks. He also spent months pouring over magazines and scouring the internet for nursery ideas. I remember once even pulling over at a drapery shop so he could take a picture of a canopy that caught his eye. We had all the ideas in the world, but the room literally looked like a construction zone about a month before the babies were born.

I guess it’s been about a year ago now that we got started. The work began and everyone pitched in. My brothers-in-law framed and sheet rocked one wall and hand-cut all the pickets. (My sister, Kenzie, painted them all pink – there had to be over 100 pickets.) They helped Jay nail down the floor and wire cable line and electrical line in the attic. Jay’s brother came to help him cut and hang trim. Jay painted for days and days, ruining almost every article of clothing he owned. All this time I was stuck on the couch – a very hard spot for someone as controlling knowledgeable as myself. Then, about six weeks early, my water broke in the middle of the night. While Jay and I were at the hospital, our family came over to work all day and finish up construction. They even sent me a phone picture to show me all the progress.

Another person so instrumental in the creation of the girls’ room is my sweet friend who made all of their bedding. We gave her the material and a picture of something we found on the internet and she created this stunning, timeless, unbelievably beautiful bedding. It’s made of pink Dupioni silk and covered in embroidered organza. It makes me so happy to think that they spend every night and take every nap nestled into the cocoons of love that she made for them.

One of Jay’s favorite items is the digital photo frame between their cribs. He matted and framed a flat-screen television, hung it on the wall, and wired it to a DVD player in the closet. The girls like to look at pictures of their family and friends when they’re laying down for a nap. Technically, it could even play movies if we watched TV in our bedrooms, but we don’t.

One of my favorite parts of the nursery is the tree on the wall. Hung on its branches are some words that we think are important for the girls to learn as they grow and mature. The words we have on the tree right now are grace, non-resistance, loving kindness, individuality, and compassion. The word tree is a work-in-progress and we will add many more words as they become appropriate.

Every day when I walk into Willa and Dovie’s room and see the culmination of everyone’s hard work, I am constantly reminded of the love and anticipation and excitement and JOY that we all felt while preparing a space for these precious girls.

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Click here to view a slideshow of more nursery pictures.

Madden at 9 months

My nephew, Madden, is now 9 months old and we took some pictures of him in his room to document the nursery (although he's never spent a night in there - it must run in the family)!! His daddy is from Houston and loves baseball and specifically the Houston Astros. So that's the theme for his room!

Madden is just about to take off crawling. He gets around pretty good with an army crawl, but just now getting his knees underneath him.

Chloe, now it's your turn for pictures!!