Nursery - Phase I

What do you think? I think we have the sweetest little nursery that is going to calm our sweet baby and help "her" sleep ALL NIGHT LONG!!! The bedding is from Restoration Hardware as is the paint color (Bright Silver Sage). The color looks silvery green at night and silvery blue in the daylight. I absolutely LOVE the color...more than I thought I would! Cuba likes the room too. He thinks the basket of toys are his and he gets his feelings hurt when I tell him "NO". He now just goes in and stares at the toys, but doesn't touch them :) The crib was mine and I LOVE the look. The bookshelf was in Allen's nursery. The dresser/changing table (which I also LOVE) and the night stand came from Woodland Furniture. The extra space beside the bed, next to the closet is where the chair is going. It is also from Woodland, but won't be in until February. I will update nursery pics when we add the chair, pictures on the wall, and a little decorating :). Baby Cravens has a beautiful nursery, but a BARE closet. I guess we will begin working on baby necessities now! Only 2 1/2 months to go!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! Love, Cuba

*Note: Sorry about the tiny pictures...I took them from Mom's camera and can't make them big on my computer...Just squint and maybe you can see :)

Yes, we are the dog people who take their pets to have their picture made with Santa :) While we were home last weekend, Ashley Lane called to let me know that the Vet in Grenada was having Santa pictures on Saturday. So Cuba and I headed up to the clinic Saturday morning while Allen was hunting. Cuba was NOT impressed. Most of the pictures look like he is trying to jump out of poor Santa's lap. This will probably be the first and last time we do doggie pictures with Santa :) This is what Allen came home with the same morning...


I thought Robert and Allen were duck hunting, apparently I was wrong. They were duck AND beaver hunting. I told Robert HE was taking the dead game home with him...we would not be needing it. He gladly took it and told me not to tell Natalie about the beavers. So Natalie, I would stay away from any "strange game stew" Robert cooks for you this week!

One last random thing I will leave you with. Look at what my husband cooked Sunday night. I don't even like ribs and I devoured these!!!

24 1/2 weeks BABY BUMP

I was asked by a couple of far away friends for a picture, so here it is...

I actually think I am bigger than I look in the picture...maybe the dress is slimming? Or it could be the panty hose that I squeezed myself into :) Well anyway, that's Baby C at 5 1/2 months utero. In church this morning, there was a tiny little baby a few rows in front of us. We watched him the entire service as he stretched, grunted and squeaked from his little infant carrier. On our way home Allen said "I still can't believe we are going to have one of those". I think it is just now becoming very real to him. I'm sure it will be even more real after our childbirth 101 class starting in January :) Hope all of you have had a GREAT weekend. We did and have pictures to prove it, but they are on my mom's camera so I will share later!

UPDATE ON BABY CRAVENS

I figure it is about time to update you on the "stats" of Baby Cravens. Disclaimer: I will be using the pronouns "she" and "her" throughout this post. This is no way means that I now that "she" is a "she", but simply because everyone(other than me) thinks "she" is a "he" :)
"SHE" will be 24 weeks (fetus age) as of tomorrow. That means we only have about 16 weeks until we get to meet this sweet baby who kicks and dances all day long! "She" weighs about 1 1/4 pound right now and is about 1 foot long (the size of an ear of corn). As for me, I have felt GREAT this past month! No more food aversions for me, but instead I can eat just about ANYTHING you put in front of me! I am hungry ALL day long :) I think I am finally looking pregnant with this growing belly! I began feeling little flutters of movement at about 17 weeks and those flutters are now flips and flops, punches and kicks that make my entire stomach move in all directions. Baby is the most active at about 5-6 am and 8-9 pm, but I feel "her" all throughout the day. "She" loves music and will dance all around during church worship time and American Idol concerts :) The Doc says everything is looking perfect other than the fact that I am not drinking enough water which is causes several Braxton Hicks contractions throughout the day. I have tried to greatly increase my water intake this past week and have noticed a little decrease in the BHC. I have the glucose screening test in 2 weeks and Allen and I start childbirth classes the beginning of January (he is very excited :)! As for the nursery...well, we have a lot of work to do! We did get the crib bedding in about a month ago and I LOVE it! We are going to use my crib (already checked all the safety regulations and after a few "fixes" it will be perfectly safe), but have not moved it up to Oxford yet. We still have to paint and get a couple pieces of furniture so "she" can have "her" diaper changed by "her" daddy and be rocked to sleep by "her" mommy!

It's beginning to look alot like CHRISTMAS!!!

The tree is up, Cuba's stocking is hung, and we are LOVING being so close to home this Christmas season! Since I don't anticipate many visitors this season (but would LOVE them) here is a peak of our little humble abode...




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Guess who also LOVES this time of year?.?.?.

He loves it for a few other reasons than the pictures above. This weekend he is hoping to fill our freezer with several of these...

and maybe even one of these...


Hope you are all enjoying this Christmas season as much as we are!!!

Bad Puppy!!!

Yesterday afternoon, I walked in the house to find the Christmas presents that were under the tree unwrapped.

The Evidence:

The Suspect:


Our sweet puppy has turned into somewhat of a handful these past few days. Today, Allen and I walked in from dinner to find all the magazines in the house in the middle of the den floor and shredded. Maybe he is going through adolescents? Maybe he knows a baby is coming and he is already seeking attention? :)

Sorry for the lack of posts lately...I am hoping the Christmas spirit will inspire me to post more! Also, we are slowly starting the baby's room, so I will definitely keep you updated on the transformation!

IT'S A..........

Only our doctor knows :) Allen and I went to the dr 2 weeks ago and surprisingly, the doc was able to tell the sex of the baby! It was the hardest thing in the world to say, "No thanks, we'll wait" when we were asked if we wanted to know what it was :) Our baby has grown SO much! He/she was kicking, punching, and squirming throughout the entire ultrasound. I'm afraid we are going to have a very active baby :) We go for our big scan next Wednesday. Here is a picture of little baby (Allen thinks he/she looks like an alien, I think little baby looks more like a jackolantern).


In other news... Allen will be running the NYC marathon on Sunday! He has trained so hard and I am so proud of him! We leave Thursday and will get to celebrate our 1 year anniversary a week early while in the big apple. Allen tells me almost everyday that he hopes our baby loves to run like he does. I think this little foot looks like a runner's foot! What do you think? :)

Cuba's new backyard...part 2

The last post I told you all about how wonderful our new backyard is and how much Allen and I (and Cuba) love it. Well, I take it all back. Yesterday afternoon, after a week of rain, I took Cuba out to play in our "great backyard". After playing for about 5 minutes, I walk over to little Cuba to nudge him away from a mud hole he found. That's when I decided not only do I not love our backyard anymore...I ABSOLUTELY HATE it! Inches from my foot and Cuba's little nose was a rather large SNAKE....Make that a water moccasin! I screamed and ran faster than I have ever run in my life. Thank goodness Cuba thought it was a game and playfully ran after me. Allen was inside and I think he thought somebody was after me. He went out to check out the situation telling me the whole time he was sure it was just a king snake. After "checking it out" for a several seconds, he changed his mind about the whole innocent king snake thing. He went to borrow the neighbors hoe and returned with not only the hoe, but also the neighbor who verified Allen's conclusion that it was indeed a water moccasin. Seconds later, the snake's head was chopped off and his body was thrown over the fence....YUCK! Therefore, until the rain stops and the grass can be cut as short as possible, Cuba and I will take his potty breaks out in the street!

Cuba's new backyard!!!

Here are a couple pictures to show you how much Cuba LOVES his new backyard!!! He loves it so much and the grass (which he eats) that he threw up grass all day long yesterday...LOTS of fun...especially when you have carpet throughout the house :)

"Every good and perfect gift comes from above" James 1:17

It is finally time for us to make this announcement to the blog world. Allen and I are THRILLED to tell you that we are expecting Baby Cravens to arrive the end of March!!! We cannot explain how excited we are about this little baby! We are almost 11 weeks along and saw a strong heartbeat a little over 3 weeks ago. I have been feeling not so great since about week 6, but know that ii will be well worth it come March 31st!
Other news....we are moved in and settled in Oxford! We absolutely love our new house as does Cuba! Allen is doing great at his knew job and really likes all the guys he works with. I just found out today (officially) that I will be working part time at an outpatient clinic seeing pediatrics. It is a GREAT job and Allen and I feel like God has does more than provide for us. We feel so unbelievably blessed!!!