Category: Baby

The other day we asked Grey what he would think if we added a baby to the family. He looked at us so confused and said… “We already have one!” Then he pointed to London and said “She’s over there!”Nevertheless, here we are… adding another baby to the family. We couldn’t be more excited to share that we are expecting our third baby early this spring!  Time is flying by and Jamie is already five and a half months pregnant! Like with our other two kids, we aren’t going to find out the gender until the baby is born, although our parental intuition (which was correct with the other two kids) leads us to believe that it might possibly be a girl. I think it’s safe to say there is a fifty percent chance our guess is accurate! To be honest, we are a bit more curious about what this baby is going to look like… I mean… what are the chances we’ll have another blonde hair blue eyed surprise like our Londy-girl? Genetics are crazy, but those were some deep recessive genes that surfaced last time!

Wether it’s a girl or boy, and blue eyed or brown, one thing that is for certain is that we already love this little one and can’t wait to meet whoever this person is that will be joining our family. Needless to say… we are going to have our hands full!

Thanks for joining us on this journey and following along!

Photos: Kristen Marie Parker

In a couple months Grey will be turning two, and I couldn’t let myself start planning his 2nd birthday party until I finally posted the images from his first birthday party. I’m sure people will think we are the crazy parents who were completely out of control with this party. I’m ok with that. We wanted an epic party for our son, and I make no apologies for that. We are party planners; entertaining and throwing an awesome party is one of the ways we show love to our friends and family.

Jamie came up with the idea to have a cardboard party. We often jokingly refer to our son as “Prince Greyson” and so we thought it would be fun to narrow the theme a bit more and have a cardboard castle party. We used cardboard to make shields, crowns and Erik, the production manager for our business, absolutely killed it with building this castle from empty boxes. Brandy from Marabou Design created several banners. Our friends Jamie and Jordan who own Deru Market brought the fried chicken and waffles, a buffet of food and 5 incredible cakes.  Matthew Land brought his camera and snapped these photos. Jamie and I worked together on the remaining details including baking all of the treats for the dessert table.

As with every party, something doesn’t go as planned. The banner of honeycomb balls that I spent hours hanging up collapsed from the weight on the fishing line I used. I kind of like how it cascaded to the floor, and truth be told, I didn’t have time to fix it. So… I went with it and tucked Grey’s high chair around the honeycombs and it looked like an intention design moment. Sometimes the things that go wrong end up being my favorite part of the party. The plus side to this was that the kids also had easier access to grabbing the honeycombs and they had so much fun playing with them.

Now we face a big dilemma… what do we do for Grey’s 2nd birthday?!

Follow along over the next couple days and we’ll have a few recipes and how-to’s for some of the fun details at the party!

I was advised by multiple people not to invest the time or money into a nursery, because our baby would never know the difference.  Three months into being a father, I can honestly say I’m so glad I ignored the opinions of those people, and I am so thankful we created a space that is just for our baby.  Putting Grey’s nursery together was one of my ways of bonding with our baby before he was born… preparing his room helped me to prepare my heart.  As I painted the walls and hung the drapes I wondered about our child growing within Jamie, day dreamed about who our child would become, and prayed I would be the kind of father our little one deserved. Before Grey ever entered the world, this room was waiting for him and it was filled with hope, peace, purpose and love.

Our nursery is one of our favorite rooms in our home.  The sun streaming in makes the room light and airy, and it just feels like an oasis from the busy world where we can watch Grey roll on the floor, read to him, change those dirty diapers and once he is just a bit older, this room is where we will lay him down to sleep.

Jamie and I worked together on every detail of this room, and had so much fun spending the last part of her pregnancy collaborating together on making it special. Here is a little glimpse into the world we created for Grey.

photography:  Matthew Land Studios

paint color: Glidden ‘Smooth Stone’ (we had the store lightened this color by 50%)

rocker: Nursery Works Empire Rocker 

drapery rods: Home Depot 

curtains: Ikea

crochet blanket and polka dot pillow: Pottery Barn (this is a different blanket, the one we purchased is sold out)

crib, bedding, rug, elephant, giraff, pouf, mounted animal heads, changing table: RH Baby and Child

lamp: Target

custom painted animal artwork: Christiana Hauser