Lil' Deer Baby Shower

It's finally Spring Break and we started it off with our first baby shower. Some of Brian's family and a few of our friends got together and threw us a couples baby shower. The theme was "Lil' Deer" and it was so perfect. Thanks to these wonderful women for putting it together. 

From Left to Right: Libbie, Genece, Kelcie (AKA Kiki), Marci, Brian and I, Emily, Courtney (AKA Aunt Coco) and Nonna. 

The Wicks made all the decorations. 

Here is the invite that was sent out. 

This deer head and name board will go in Zoeys room. Brians uncle George and cousin Kelcie made it. 

This is a deer skull Brian had, and let me decorate it with flowers. My mom and I wnet to michaels and got flowers from the scrapbook section and hot glued them to the skull. 

We had a "Bow Making Station" it was so fun for people to make Miss Zoey a bow for her to wear with all her cute outfits. 

Family Picture with my Mom and Dad. 

Family Picture with Nonna, Brians mom. 

Family Picture with Jojo and Uncle Q.

Aunt Coco.

The Wicks girls, just missing Stacie, she was home with Cash and a stomach bug.

Family picture with Marci and JD. Marci cooked all the food for the shower and it was all so very yummy! 

We opened presents for at least an hour. Miss Zoey got a ton of very cute clothes and and lots of things she needs while she's a baby. 

Here is all her stuff after we opened gifts. My mom is the queen of organization and she got it all organized and ready to go home. Then we continued the organizing at home. 

Brian and I are so blessed to have a group of family and frineds who want to support us and love us during this exciting time. 

Here are the hostess gifts I ordered. I thought they turned out cute :) 

Baby-Que

Brian and I are so excited to have so many friends expecting babies at the same time as us. One of Brians best friends, Chase, who he grew up with, is married and they are expecting a baby 5 weeks before us. Chase and Danielle live in Midland, Texas and we wanted to throw them a couples baby shower so all their friends at home could get together and celebrate this sweet new baby. 

After throwing around a few dates, and realizing our house wouldn't be done in time to be moved in and host a baby shower, we decided on a date and I enlisted the help of one of Danielle's friends from college who lives here now. 

We hosted the shower at Railhead Smokehouse in Willow Park, where we could rent the back room, the  boys could drink beer, and we wouldn't have to cook ! 

We decided to theme it Baby-Que, and I thought it turned out really cute. Lots of friends came and we enjoyed seeing everyone! 

This was the "Diaper Advice" station where people could write advice and funny notes to Chase and Danielle on the butts of the diapers. 

Keili made all the flower arangements for the tabels. 

These were so cute! I thought She did a great job!

This is before they put the food out. I made pin wheels out of scrap paper and put them in assorted tins for other decorations. We also displayed the shower invite here. 

Here is another picture of the pinwheel decorations and we served cakeballs from my mom's at home bakery "Sweet Little Things" instead of having a cake made. They were yummy as always

We had party favors for the girls and boys. Pink nail polish for the women, and cigars for the boys. I ordered custom round labels from "Etsy" 

Here is the gift table with a few gifts. I also made a "Baby-Que" Banner to hang up. 

Railhead has a fire place, so I made a banner with the babies name, Tyler Grace, and decorated a few mason jars. 

I've always wanted to try to make a scrap fabric banner so here is my first try at one. We put it on the buffet. 

Here is the beautiful guest of honor, Danielle, with Keili and I. 

The boys were so much fun, and loved evey second of getting to be togehter. Most of these guys have known eachother since elementary school. I think it is so sweet that they want ot celebrate lifes blessings with each other. 

Brian and I found a picture like this on Pinterest and wanted to have one made like it. We love Chase and Danielle so much and are so excited to be sharing this special time with them. 

The Cone of Shame

After much thought, I finally decided that I wanted to get Lola Grace spayed. I wasn't sure if we wanted to breed her one day, but after a few trips to the ranch… and male dog love interest….I thought it would be better if we just went ahead and got her fixed. I called the vet and let them know I wanted to plan the surgery and they wanted to get her in as soon as possible, because she is older and so big. 

Surgery day came and I completly freeked out! I didn't want to take her and just had a bad feeling about it. From  now on, when I have a bad feeling about something, I will listen to my feelings and not ignore them. 

That day after I dropped her off the office called me several times through out the day to let me know how the procedure went, and that her recovery was going well. I went to get her as soon as they would let me. They told me to keep her still and calm, and to wear the cone of shame. Here are a few pictures from her first night at home.

Playing with toys is a hard job with the cone on.  I would have to give her her bone to chew inside her cone.

 This is her eating… it was so sad. 

Lola was pretty good about staying on her bed and resting most of the time. 

 After the fist day, Brian and I had enough of the cone, and vowed to watch her very closely so we could prevent her from licking her wound. After two days, her surgery site wasn't looking like I thought it should and I brought her up to the vet for a quick look. As, I suspected, it wasn't healing "like it should" and they prescribed our sweet girl an antibiotic and said to continue with lots of rest. Lola was DONE resting and wanted to start playing again. She started getting sick to her stomach and I thought she was acting like she didn't feel very good. She would want to play, but would tire quickly and get sick often. I called the vet and they suggested I give her something to keep her calm. So I had to "Drug" her so she would stay calm. We spent a lot of time cuddling on the couch and on the floor.

 Our friend JT brought her a toy to chew on during her recovery. I took Lola to the vet again on Monday, after I worried all day at work about her. The vet said that she was having a hard recovery, was swollen, and had an infection. The antibiotics were probably the cause of her upset stomach, so they gave me something to add to her food. Here is a picture of her scar three days after surgery. It did not look good, and my momma bear claws were out and ready to dig into the vet if they didn't get her well soon.

I went back for another visit on Tuesday, and they assured me that her scar was starting to heal and the antibiotics were working. I "voiced" my concerns with the office, and the vet set up another appointment for us on Friday. Luckily by then her scar was looking much better and she was feeling more like herself. The vet said she could have gotten her scar infected in a number of different ways, or she could have had a reaction to the glue they put on the scars after surgery. I will NEVER get another dog fixed while pregnant. Brian will have to make that call and take care of everything. Talk about an emotional week for this momma to be! 

After two weeks of rest and recovery, Lola is back to her self and you can barely see her scar. Here she is fetching a stick in her new backyard. We can't wait to be here, especially so she can have a place to run and play whenever she wants to be outside. 

127 Tankersley Lane

Well a lot has been happening out at our house. We have a fireplace insert, walls, electric wiring, the plumbing is ruffed in, and much more that is above and beyond what I know about building a house. My favorite thing since my last post, was going around the house with our electrician, Walter, who is one of B's work friends, telling him where I wanted plugs and lights.

Here are the stairs that lead to the loft. I plan on making the loft a craft room/play room combo.

Here is the front of the house. 

Another shot from further away.

The loft! I really think this is going to be my favorite room in the house. I want to put all my craft stuff on the wall with the window and have a small work table. Then I would like to put an L-shaped bed/sofa combo closer to the stairs to allow for guest sleeping and eventually have a play area for our kids. 

Our garage is on the side of the house, the painters came out on a Saturday to paint the trim on the outside. 

Here is Walter wiring up some lights in the living room. Our ceilings are raised in the living room and we plan on putting beams up. You can see the start of a fire place in the background. 

This is Zoey's room. 

It's hard to see in the picture but this is the guest bath. 

Here is the other guest room, hopefully we will have another nugget in the future to live here!

Here is another one of the living room. 

This is the office. We plan on making it Brian's trophy room where he can hang all his deer and duck mounts. It also has raised ceilings. I think this will be his favorite space. 

This is where the kitchen will be. 

Out master bed room. 

Brian's closet. 

My closet!

Our walk in shower. 

Over the next few weeks we will have shingles, insulation, and sheet rock. I think they are planning on staining the floor soon as well. We think we will be moving in at the end of March. I can't wait to be in our home!!! 

Baby B is a Girl

Just in time for Christmas Brian and I were finally 20 weeks pregnant and could finially find out the gender of our sweet baby. We had scheduled our appointment first thing Tuesday morning and all of the grandparents were going to join us…. then came the ICE! We had a severe ice storm (I guess thats what you would call it) Thursday that lasted well into the next week. My Doctor's office was closed Thursday, Friday, Monday…. Oh how I was worried for Tuesday morning. I finally got a phone call from a nurse that was able to drive in and check messages call to say they were planning on opening on time first thing the morning. Whew!

Next came my parents two hour dirve from East Texas…. Well, it took them FIVE HOURS to get here monday night. Luckily, my parents were commited to being there with us for this special day and braved the traffic and left over ice to spend the day with me.

We all arrived on time Tuesday morning at 8:10 bright eyed and bushy tailed to get the news we have all been anxiously awaiting. They called us back to a large room with a table for me and three or four large flat screen tv's displayed around the room to ensure all got see our sweet baby. I climbed up on the stage… well table and everyone sat around the room. I got all ready and the sonogropher got to work. She took her time looking at the babies heart, head size, and finally asked Brian what he was looking so intently for.

His reply "I'm looking for his penis!"

Her reply, "Well I'm sorry but your baby doesn't have a penis, because your baby is a girl!"

The whole room got quiet… I laughed and paused… "Wait, WHAT!!!!!"

For 20 weeks, I had been told by anyone and everyone that my baby was going to be a boy (except my Grammy) for whatever old wives tale they believed in. I truely believed that we were going to have a boy, I even had all the boy nursery ideas finalized and ready to start. We hadn't picked out a girl name, and all I knew was I liked purple and grey for a girls nursery. I was so suprised and excited I couldn't stand it.

When the room caught their breaths and came to terms with what was going on, there were mixed emotions by all, some grieving the loss of more "Bensmiller Men" and some so excited for a girl that they practilly had their credit cards out ready to buy bows and dresses. I was more interested in looking at my baby GIRL move around and see that all her parts were developing on track and healthy.

When we finished up we took pictures and celebrated among ourselves. My poor husband kept turning different shades of red and then white and didn't know what to think. He is going to be an amazing dad, but was concerned about what the heck you do with girls. He will learn that they can fish, hunt, and play sports just as much as boys can.

We celebrated again that night with more friends at a local mexican food place and are so excited to be getting closer to the arrival of our sweet baby. We finally decided on a name "Zoey Catherine" so we can stop calling her  "Baby B" and start calling her by her name. Miss Zoey had a great Christmas, and already has enough clothes to get her through the summer!

Brian and I holding up our pictures of our baby girl.

Brian's face is a little red here, he's still in shock!

The whole crew! Big Pappy, Jojo, Mimi, Pops, Nonna, and Us!