Emily Turns 30!

Emily is one of my dear friends from college who I don't get to see near enough. We had so much fun this weekend celebrating her big 30 birthday bash! Em was a little under the weather though -- a stomach bug of sorts -- which isn't any fun when it's your b'day! We had a great time at dinner and then headed to Edmond to Nothing But Class for a fun-filled night of hilariousness as we all attempted to learn some pretty sweet routines! I'm sure I would have had all the moves down -- HA!! -- but for my state of being! Being almost 7 months pregnant made things a little more difficult, to say the least, but still a really fun time. And, I had to miss out on enjoying Em's famous margaritas -- bummer! Here's a few pics of our crew. Good times were had by all. Happy Birthday Em!

Brides of North Texas - Launch Party!

So, it's been about a couple of months since the launch party for the inaugural issue Brides of North Texas magazine! What an amazing night! Many of you know that we've been working on this project for over a year and it was so great to see the culmination of it all come together. We've partnered with some of DFW's best wedding pros and thanks to their incredible talent, the magazine is drop dead gorgeous and the best resource any North Texas bride could have! This premier issue also features about 100 pages of North Texas weddings (in addition to all kinds of other awesome editorial content) and gives brides a priceless glimpse inside each wedding to see all of the beautiful details and the wedding pros who made it all happen. Probably the most memorable moment from the night was sharing a toast with the crowd as the highly-anticipated magazines were passed around to everyone.

Here's some of my favorite pics from the evening - captured by Stella Shot Me! The launch was held at the NYLO Hotel in Las Colinas, which just opened several months ago as well, and sponsored by Ciroc vodka. We were so thankful to have the support of so many wonderful people in the industry, not to mention our friends and family who have supported us every step of the way!

Kami (my business partner) and I are so ecstatic about what's ahead for Brides of North Texas and couldn't have asked for a better launch! Cheers!

More Nursery Items

Just thought I'd share a few more pics of items to fill the nursery. We are in the process of putting it all together now but the room is definitely still under construction. Kyle has even gone to great lengths to add crown molding to the nursery (in addition to the rest of the entire house that didn't have it). Kyle's also been busy scraping the popcorn off the remaining ceilings in the house that had it. Amazing how one room (or a baby) will spur on so many home improvement projects. He's got a lot on his plate, for sure! I guess there's hardly a chance of us getting to these things once baby Kate arrives, so we're trying to be productive now! I just wish I could help out more with the projects! it's all kinda exciting!

In any event, here's the glider we chose in a mint green, soft plush material -- it also has a matching ottoman. The crib is one of of my favorites! It's really going to be beautiful and a focal in the room with the fabulous bedding that's on it's way! Hooray! Since we're expecting a little girl, the chandelier was a must, right??? We're also using an old antique dresser that we own for the changing table and it's also in the antique white color.

I know we've really only shown bits and pieces of everything, so we'll definitely post pics of the nursery coming together very, very, very soon.

Feels like Winter!

So today is technically the first day of Spring but it sure feels like Winter! Unbelievable! Here's a few pics of the snowfall we've been getting all day and it's still coming down! Yesterday, we had 70+ degree weather and today is snowy and freezing outside...only in Oklahoma! I couldn't be more ready for Spring to arrive!

Kyle and I are just hanging out at the house and doing all sorts of projects that are on the to-do list to get done before Kate's arrival. The nursery is coming together - slowly but surely (I'll post pics soon) and there's tons of other home improvement projects that we've decided to tackle! Feeling lots of movement from Kate today which is crazy weird but fun! She moves around quite a bit and usually wakes me up in the morning with her movements.

Oh...and speaking of Winter (and since I feel the need to play a little catch up on life's happenings since I just started this blog), I've posted one more random pic from our company's holiday party! I"m so proud of our crew and think we make an incredible team! This is everyone that works to make Brides of Oklahoma and Brides of North Texas what it is -- and, their spouses! There's one new person missing - Gerardo (our web and software developer) -- but he wasn't with us over the holidays! From left to right, Kami (my business partner) and her husband Eric, me and Kyle, Alli (mag editor and bride editorial director) and her husband Brian, Carri (sales and production executive) and her significant other Spencer, Meagan (TX sales executive) and her significant other Jason. We all went to eat at one of our favorite restaurants, Iron Starr, and then had King's Limousine (one of our awesome partners) take us around town to look at Christmas lights! Cheers and please bring on Spring!!!!

The Baby Registry

Kyle and I created a baby registry recently and got acquainted with the world of Babies R Us. I don't think either one of us had stepped foot in the store prior to setting this bad boy up and neither one of us knew what should or shouldn't be on a baby registry -- but fear not, they had some nice people in the store that gave us a checklist, let us explore and answered all sorts of questions. So, for all of you baby pros out there, let us know if we're missing any crucial or essential items. I think we've got a good mix going but I already had one friend look over it just quickly and she said there's no way you'll survive with just two pacifiers...so now we're registered for eight...is that enough??? Let us know what else needs tweeked!

I've pulled a few of our registry items to share but to get the full scoop you'll have to check our registry out online at Babies R Us.

The Name Game

Drum roll .... we've picked a name... Kate Corinne Murphy! Well, I guess it's already been announced on the blog but no one knows the story behind the name game and how it came to be! Kyle and I spent weeks talking about names and had lots of names we loved for girls! We actually refused to talk about boy names until we found out for sure whether a boy was in order. We couldn't agree on any names for boys, so thankfully, we didn't have to endure that challenge.

Our top three girl names were Kate, Claire and Olivia (probably in that order), but for some reason, we both kept coming back to the name "Kate" and loved it so much! The middle name Corinne is a family name -- it's actually in both of our families and so we knew we wanted to use the name Corinne as a middle name. Corinne is my late great grandmother's name and it's also Kyle's late great grandmother's name. I remember my great grandmother so well and have some of the fondest memories of her. She was so full of life and fun to be around even as she grew older. I can only hope Kate will have as much love for life as my great grandmother.

We also tossed around the idea of spelling Kate with a "C" but couldn't fall in love with that idea. We wanted to keep it true to the classic spelling and we steered away from Katherine or something a little more formal because we love the shorter version, Kate. So, that's the story behind the name...not too exciting but wanted to share!

Baby Kate at 20 Weeks

We had our 20 week visit to see the doctor just a few weeks ago, and at this visit, the doctor was going to give us the verdict on whether we were going to have a little girl or a little boy. Funny story...at about 16 weeks (too early to really know), our doctor took a peek to see if he could tell. He actually told us he was 75% sure it was a boy. Ha! Boy, was he wrong. The 3D ultra-sound at our 20 week visit reveals clearly that we are expecting a little girl. I'm not a doctor but I knew as soon as we could see some of the images that there were no boy parts to be found.

Looking back on it, I think to myself now wait a minute...the doctor had a 50% chance of guessing right to begin with, so giving us a "I'm 75% sure" really doesn't amount to very much, does it?!?! Of course, we didn't paint the nursery or do anything drastic at the 16-week mark, but I did get myself in a state of mind that I was going to have a boy and started wondering what in the world I was going to do?! Girls are easy...I know (or think I know) exactly what you'd do to entertain them, how you would dress them, songs you sing, Disney movies you watch, princess dresses you buy, yada yada yada. A boy is another story...I only had questions about whether it was ok to do certain things, ok to dress him certain ways...you get the idea.

So, with a little girl on the way, I rest a little easier. Although to be our first, it didn't really matter boy or girl. We would have been overjoyed with either.

Now, bring on the princess dresses and movies, frills, hair bows, fairy tales, patti cakes, and everything else that's sugar and spice and everything nice.

The Beginnings of the Nursery

So, it's a girl!!! Which simply means the nursery ideas are endless and honestly, I was overwhelmed with the amount of choices, designs, patterns, themes, etc. But finally...after browsing hundreds of web sites and boutiques, I found a look I loved and Kyle loved too! We also found an amazing web site - http://www.modpeapod.com/ - for custom bedding. Tracy with Mod Pea Pod does amazing work and you'll love her price point. If you know anyone searching for baby bedding, definitely pass this site on to them!!

The bumper will be made out of the paisley and polka dot pattern with a stripe ruffle and aqua grograin ribbon crib-tie, bow accents. The crib sheet will be in a pattern similar to the coral polka dot pattern and the full crib skirt will be the striped pattern with polka dot ruffle. It also comes with a coordinating baby blanket which has a lot of the ultra-soft, white minky fabric.

I love the aqua color and we're contemplating painting the walls a soft, pale aqua with some type of pattern. For furniture, we've ordered an antique white crib and we're planning to use an antique white claw-foot dresser that we already own as a changing table. Still have plenty of decisions to make but feel so much better now that we've decided on the bedding!