The story of maternity pics

I just got the AMAZING pictures from our maternity session and posted some to facebook so I thought I would back up and retell that story. My too sweet sister and brother-in-law (Kimber and Jeff) got us a session with a photographer for Christmas. Laura Squire is Kimber's good friend and photographer extraordinaire. Check her out at http://laurasquirephotography.com/. She's actually based out of Dallas but has family in the area so we met up on Mother's Day weekend. Here are a few of the photos!

We did an early morning photo shoot in Castroville and then headed back to SA. Jim had intentions of going into work... he had already had a long, stressful week, full of late nights at the office. 5 minutes from our house we got rear-ended on the highway. Poor Jim's truck, and we're still dealing with insurance. The impact really wasn't that bad but immediately I wanted to cry because I knew we would need to go to the hospital and get checked out to make sure everything was ok with the baby. and we all know how well my last hospital stay went over with me. Long story short, we went to the hospital and got monitored for a few hours. Since we were there and the accident was someone else's fault I told the nurse we should do a sonogram to make sure everything was ok ;) she thought I was joking, darn!

The moral of this whole story hit me later that day. Both times I had gone to the hospital thus far in this pregnancy it was after one or both of us had had a very taxing week and were doing too much with work and not enough for our family. I asked Jim Cody if he thought maybe this was God's dramatic way of getting our attention and reminding us what really matters. We agreed it was.... and that we'd prefer not to have to go back to the hospital until we get to come home with our sweet girl.

Taytum's Room

I've been wanting to post pictures of Taytum's room and haven't had the chance. Really, I'm just avoiding doing my last grad school assignment that's due tomorrow. I'm so pleased with how well the room turned out!!!!

The rocking chair was Jim's when he was a baby. His dad made it and carved "Welch" into the top. The picture behind the rocking chair is special to us because it was painted by Jim's grandmother, Sandra Warnke. Their family is so unbelievably talented! I found the curtains on amazon and the lamp at Hobby Lobby. We already had the little shelf, I just had to find a new home for the books we had on it and add the baskets. 

The rug is from Home Depot. My mom and dad got us the crib. The crib skirt is left over burlap from our wedding. That project was way more involved than I had anticipated, thank goodness for my mom's help. I think my back is still hurting from that day. My aunt had found the big W and I found the other letters, which are burlap in the center, at Hobby Lobby. The mobile is an idea I stole from pinterest. I did not want bumpers on the crib because I'm terrified of her suffocating for the sake of a cuteness. We do have a cow print blanket coming from Mamaw that will accent the room as well (but it prob won't get used until she's older).

This wall was the biggest project. We already had the long mirror with the dark stain. I just bought new handles for it. I looped ribbon around the handles for a place to hang all Taytum's bows. I'm sure that will only last until she learns to pull on things. My mom had the white mirror and the hook on the right. I found the other mirrors at Hobby Lobby. Have I mentioned that everything from Hobby Lobby was half off? I really did try and decorate on a budget!!! 

 

Well, except for the dresser (there's the before and after pictures above). The intention was to save money by getting a dresser on craiglist and having Jim refinish it. That's sort of what happened except for the saving money part. BUT it's now an original! I knew Jim was not a fan of stripping all the old stain off and he kept asking me if I wanted to change it more and sending me pictures from Pinterest. I could tell he wanted to put more of his personal creative stamp on it. Putting his own creative touch on it also required him to buy more tools, go figure. So he ended up replacing the top and we made it curvy (not sure if you can tell from the picture). He re-stained the drawers and put new hardware on the inside to make them slide better. and I found new pulls at Home Depot and Hobby Lobby. Did I also mention both stores are within a mile of our house. Possibly not a good thing. 

And now the room sits and waits for Taytum Belle to make her appearance... she still has more baking to do though!