Weekending

This weekend we stayed fairly close to home, which was nice. I love spending time fluffing my house.

Saturday was spent at a baby shower, where I realized how very little time I've had in the past two months without caring for at least one child. That's not a complaint; it's just an observation. I really enjoyed the time with my friends, of course!

We spent Saturday evening with our monthly supper club friends and had a wonderful visit dining outside on a perfect April evening. The weather has been so incredibly mild, but the temperatures perked up here this weekend and gave us a great Texas spring weekend. And since this is in fact, Texas, after two days of spring, tomorrow will probably be summer.

After waking from his nap on Saturday afternoon, Jack wanted a tent. So Jack got a tent! It made for a very sweet memory.


I hope you have a wonderful week!

Lately Around the Gentry Home

We haven't been up to much around here except more adjusting to a family of four, which in our 7th week got really, really fun!

Annabelle started smiling intentionally and cooing last week, which is awesome. I can tell she's been wanting to for a while because when I talked to her, she moved her mouth a lot. It was just a matter of time before noise followed. The first time was when she saw herself in the mirror at GAP. I couldn't stop laughing--just too funny! She loves talking to the baby in the mirror.

Big brother Jack has turned into a SUPER big brother. Everywhere we go, he tells people about "baby sister Aaabelle." He won't go to bed without giving her a kiss on the cheek first. It's adorable. He's my great helper, too.

All of these are iPhone pics with mostly moving targets, so please pardon the quality.


Our church hosted Gary Thomas, the author of Sacred Marriage, for a marriage conference a few weekends ago. If you've ever read that book, you can imagine how great it was to hear Gary in person. It's based on the premise that marriage was created to make us holy, rather than make us happy. I think our kids had fun in the nursery too, or at least Jack did! On the way home Friday night, we stopped for ice cream. A hit, of course.

I bought the book Sacred Parenting from Gary's merch table. If I ever make it through it, I'll post a review here.

Even though today is a ridiculously cold day for Texas in April, on the warmer days we've been getting out to the park most mornings that Jack doesn't go to MDO. We bought a BOB duallie which arrived last week (Amazon had the best deal), so I'm looking forward to consistent warmer weather to exercise with my babies in tow.

I love this boy so much!

And here is my little princess before her first day of Sunday school. She's wearing her Beaufort Bonnet and is just about to fit into it!

Getting out and about with two small children is slowly getting easier. I'm thankful that Jack has MDO on Tuesday and Thursday because from the get-go, it's forced me to get up, put myself together, and load them up to be somewhere on time.

Right now the kids are napping at the same time. Jack wakes up a little early, so I'm trying to institute "quiet time" where he either naps or plays in his room. I know a ton of mommies out there have done this successfully, so I'm curious to know how you approached it.

Inquiring minds want to know!

Fitting Into My Bridesmaid Dress

Last wedding related post for now!

Listen, I was going to fit into "a" dress, even if I had to call and beg the manufacturer to overnight me a larger size to the tune of an insane amount of money.

Fortunately, that wasn't the case, and with a little magic (i.e. a seamstress) and some weight loss (thanks to a stomach bug that caused me to lose 20 pounds in two days), the one I ordered worked just fine. So many people asked me how on earth I ordered a dress while pregnant and had it come so close to actually fitting well. I was measured for the dress at 5 or 6 months along, and since I wasn't nursing, I figured it would be fairly close. I was right.

But I was sweating it, from the time I got home from the hospital with the miss priss!

Somehow I managed to go the whole weekend without getting a picture taken with the bride, outside of her professional pics. I didn't even get a pic with our other college roommate who lives in Florida, thus it is a rare treat to hang out with her!

After realizing about three quarters of the way through the reception that I didn't have a picture of us, I dragged her into the photo booth. Let it be said that I am a terrible photo booth participant. I can never think of anything cute to do, so I already know how lame I look.

And in the top strip, try explaining a photo booth on the fly to a 2 year old. He's never been around a camera that someone wasn't holding. But by the end, he was in good spirits! Such a sweetie.

A Monogram Shower for the Bride

Instead of a lingerie shower the night before her wedding, we opted to throw a monogram shower for my sweet friend. I had several people ask me what a monogram shower is. It's exactly what the name implies--you give the honoree a monogrammed gift. We included an enclosure card with the invitation demonstrating the bride and groom and couple's monograms.


Our invitation suite, designed by Anna Hatcher Designs. I can't say enough about how great she was to work with, and how quickly she completed my order and provided feedback on what she thought would look best. Great customer service.


We held the shower immediately following the rehearsal dinner in downtown Fort Worth, so everyone had just eaten. Based on this, it made sense to only provide a small amount of food and drink. We had punch and petit fours.

I found the green tray at Hobby Lobby and used my Silhouette to cut the couple's monogram out of vinyl. It just so happens that the bride's personal monogram is also their couple's monogram, so everything she has can perform double duty!

I also purchased one of those Anchor Hocking glass jars from Wal-mart and etched their monogram in it using etching cream. You can barely see that in the picture, but it was used for the flower arrangement. It will be something practical and cute to use in their home in the future.


Everything was hot pink and green, although my camera made it look a little red. One of the other hostesses (my other college roomie!) ordered these cute monogram napkins, and the petit fours came from a Fort Worth mainstay, Blue Bonnet Bakery. YUM.


The bride's sister-in-law made this cute banner with her Silhouette, using elements of our invitation. I think it turned out perfectly!


Our sweet bride and her mother!

I loved the monogram shower theme and hope to throw one again someday! This would be perfect for showering a mother having a second or third child, who has all the gear she needs but would love personalized things for her new baby. But I loved it for a wedding shower. Our bride received a monogrammed Vera Bradley bag, towels, a beautiful table runner, linen napkins, coasters, and I gave her a monogrammed necklace out of tortoise shell.

It was such a fun night, and I think she loved it!

Glimpse of Our Monday

This past weekend, we married off my college roommate/BFF. All day yesterday, I had an emotional hangover (not to be confused with a real hangover, which I did not have), partially because of feeling all the emotions and partially because everyone in my house under the age of 3 and I have some sort of early spring cold. And partially because I am an exhausted new mother.

For all those reasons, I decided to give myself a little grace today on getting it together since I'm still trying to figure out how to get myself, a toddler, and a newborn ready and out the door in less than 2 two hours.

So I cut my to-do list in half.

Somehow I managed a great amount of productivity, minus grooming myself, anyway. We grocery shopped (all 3 of us), went to the cleaners, the park, played with sidewalk chalk, and I managed to cook dinner for the first time in months. And also? I picked up my camera for the first time in ages that wasn't a holiday.


My sweet Annabelle after I gave up trying to do The Shred at 7:30 am, because being stared at
by two wide-eyed little kids while huffing and puffing through jumping jacks is a bit unnerving.


My handsome Jack with his brand new blue "lashlight,"
a treasure we found at "malmart" today.
It was a good mom day.

I'm praying for many more to come, and hopefully I'll at least have on mascara for a few of them.

(Feel free to leave your best advice on getting out the door quickly in the comments. The best I can come up with is to just sleep in the car so you're already there in the morning.)

He is Risen!

I absolutely should be washing bottles and then getting myself to bed, but I had a spare moment to think about getting some pics off of my camera, so here I am. I really don't know how the hours in the day pass so quickly.

We spent Easter Sunday here in Fort Worth after a busy Saturday hunting Easter eggs and a quick trip to my hometown for lunch at the farm. When we got out of our car for the church egg hunt, Jack said, "Golf balls!" He was a little disappointed when he realized they were eggs.

Annabelle did great on her first long-ish car ride to the farm with the exception of one crying jag about 20 minutes before we got there. She actually took her paci for a while to calm herself down for a few minutes. She only takes the paci when she wants to take the paci, otherwise she gags and makes frowny faces like it is the most detestable thing she has ever experienced. (I've tried more than one kind.) This is a girl who came out of the womb with her own opinions.

My dad made a joke to the effect that she comes by it honest. I have no idea what he means.


"Quit touching my foot!" "Quit touching your sister."
Sissy wore her Beaufort Bonnet to church and slept through most of the service.

And then we alllll rested that afternoon. Amen.