Hester Happenings

We had a little get-together for some friends to welcome baby Naomi. We just wanted to hang out, eat, and enjoy company without the pressures of a shower (with the girly games). I made a few decorations for the party: But the real fun was hanging out with some great friend from near and far: Somehow I missed getting a picture of Brooke, Mark, Rebecca, and Kyle! Sorry guys, we might have to recreate a picture at an upcoming soccer game!! Thank you all for coming, we had a blast! :)

We had some maternity pictures taken. We have a very talented friend in our Sunday School group who is a photographer. She graciously agreed to take some pictures for us. I HIGHLY reccommend her! Here is her website if you would like to check her out: http://www.emilycollinsphotography.com/ This is also my 33 week update...that's right folks! Naomi is the size of a Honeydue melon. I've hit the pregnancy insomnia stage. There have been several nights I'll get up to use the bathroom and can't fall asleep! Oh well, I guess my body is getting ready for caring for a newborn.  Thank you again Emily! The pictures turned out fantastic!!! :)

For Naomi's room I also made a headband holder. I found a candlestick at GoodWill for $1.98. If you look closely you can see it next to the A in the picture below: While the paint was drying I moved onto the next part. I got an empty oatmeal container and covered it in decorative paper.  I then hot glued the oatmeal container to the candle stick.  I think it looks so adorable in the room! The neat thing about this is that I can use the inside to store more hair accessories if I need to! The last part of decorating was the curtain and crib-skirt. Thanks to my wonderful mom these were actually really well sewn! This is my mom working on the curtain: Here is the curtain in the room: Lastly we had to make the crib-skirt. I used an old sheet and cut it to fit under our crib mattress with some overhang. Next my mom started the tedious job of making ruffles. She made a chevron ruffle, followed by 2 pink ruffles, finished off with a chevron ...

Since I was on track out it was time to start decorating Naomi's room. First my wonderful in-laws got us letters and I laid them out. Then with Lauren's help I used sticky notes to determine what colors everything would be. Next I set up in the garage and spray painted. Jeff has officially named me the spray-paint hoarder because of all the different colors of cans I have lined up in the garage now! I put decorative paper on some of the letters. I first traced the letters onto the paper, cut them out, and glued them onto the letters. To finish I sprayed it with clear enamel so the paper would be more sturdy. After everything was dry I took the letters up to the baby room and Jeff helped me hang them on the wall. Here is the finished product: I also made a hair clip holder. First I spray painted an old, gold frame to be a pretty pink. Then I cut and stapled ribbon to the inside back of the frame.  Next I hung it on the wall i...

On our second day in Charleston we visited Magnolia Plantation. This is the house: The really neat part about this house was the gardens around it. There were so many pretty parts! We got to tour the inside of the house, but no pictures were allowed. Needless to say it was gorgeous and had a lot of historical decor in it. We got to learn about the family that owned/owns the house and the history of how the house has changed over the years. We had an hour to kill before our next tour so we went to the petting zoo. A deer walked right up to Jeff and ate out of his hand: Then we took a tour of the whole plantation on a 'trolley'. Our tour guide told us more about the history of the plantation. We actually got to see an alligator! Next Jeff and I walked around downtown and visited some of the shops. For dinner we went to a seafood place named Fish. Jeff got grouper with dumplings and potatoes. Jeff said this was p...