You cannot go to the Party...They bring the Party to you!

This past weekend I received the best surprise. After college graduation, I worked for my sorority, Kappa Alpha Theta, as an Educational Leadership Consultant. Little did I know at the time, that my eight beautiful co-workers would become some of my very closest and dearest friends. During our time as consultants we took a "Spring Break" trip to Scottsdale, AZ. We had such a wonderful time and vowed to get together once a year from then on. The girls have since traveled to Jason's and my wedding in 2006, Las Vegas in 2007, and to Jackie and Mike's wedding in 2008.

2007 Scottsdale, AZ Trip

In January, the infamous email chains began with talk of "Spring Break" 2009. I had yet to tell them that I was pregnant, but once a cruise and skiing were suggested, I knew that I would not be attending this years trip. Once I told the girls I was pregnant, they were of course so excited for Jason and me. I did not hear anything else about plans for the 2009 reunion, but honestly did not give it a second thought since I already knew that I would not be going.

Fast forward 4 months...Jason mentioned that I should not make any plans for June 5-7, because he had a weekend get-away planned for the two of us. Now any of you who know my homebody of a husband, truly understand how not like Jason it is to plan a trip. I bugged him for weeks asking him where we were going, what did I need to pack, who would be taking care of Jake? He would not tell me anything!

On Thursday, June 4th, I received an email at work from Jason titled "weekend agenda." I laughed to the point of crying as I read "something fun" and "cute outfit" in regards to what to pack. I should have known something was up!

After work on Friday, Jason and I began driving towards Seattle. He still would not tell me where we were going. When we got to Seattle, he took me downtown to the Edgewater Hotel & Restaurant. He told me we would be having dinner, but our table was not ready yet. We decided to sit in the lounge and wait. The view from the lounge and restaurant was beautiful. While waiting for our table, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around to find my wonderful friends. I was completely shocked and surprised....they were supposed to be off cruising or skiing somewhere!

We did indeed have dinner at the Edgewater Hotel that night. My friends threw Jason and I the most thoughtful baby shower. Not a detail was missed between the favors, custom M&Ms, cupcakes, and gifts. Here are some pictures:

The Group at Dinner

The Favors (the tag says "Lauren's Baby Shower 06/05/2009)

They made me this picture frame using a baby picture of each one of us!

We can officially take Luke home from the hospital: they got us our car seat!

After dinner, Jason went back home and I got to stay the weekend in Seattle with the girls. We had such a wonderful time. I wish I had a picture of us all piled on one bed Friday night as the girls took turns feeling Luke kick and move around my belly. I will always be so thankful that we got to spend this time together! Here are a few more pictures from the weekend:

Rule #1: They give you a robe, you wear it!

Space Needle

Belly Picture at Dinner Saturday Night

To my sweet friends: Ashley, Bricklin, Emily, Erin, Jackie, Jenni, Liz, and Melissa

I cannot thank you enough for this wonderful surprise. I am simply blessed to have such wonderful friends. I am sure that being bikini babes on a cruise or ski bunnies on the slopes would have been much more fun than taking a billion bathroom breaks and ordering shirley temples for your pregnant friend in slightly overcast Seattle! Thanks for being so selfless and chosing to spend your time off throwing me a baby shower instead. I love you all so much (and might or might not be crying as I type this)! Luke cannot wait to meet his eight crazy aunties! I know this...he is one lucky little boy to be loved by all of you!

Show Us Where You Live Friday!

This Friday, Kelly is hosting Show Us Where You Live Friday Dining Rooms. I had such a wonderful time viewing all of the beautiful guest rooms last week, that I definitely wanted to participate again!

There are so many things I love about our dining room...probably because they involve refinishing, refurbishing, and good bargains!

Hope you enjoy the pictures:

Here is a view of the dining room from the living room. I made sure to stage Jake, our goldendoodle, into the picture....have you noticed how every magazine designer room always features a dog these days? The table was my grandparents. When it was given to us, the finish had seen much better days. I will always love our dining room table, because it was the first project Jason and I worked on together as newlyweds! The drapes are also a favorite of mine. They are Pier One drapes; however, I found them at Big Lots for $15 each (they were originally $45 per panel...I just love a great deal).

My very talented Momma crackled the desk above and I think it makes a cute console table.

This chandelier is my pride and joy...and the focal point of the dining room. Above are the before & after pictures. I purchased the chandelier and lampshades for $25 off of craigslist. With a little bit of paint, fabric, trim, and hot glue (and a lot of time and patience)...I think that it turned out to be quite charming. I would love to post pictures of each and every shade (I honestly do not have a favorite); however, that would make this post entirely too long!

I hope that you enjoyed a tour of our dining room...it is definitely not perfect or even close to finished, but there are many aspects that I just love. Please let me know if you have any ideas on how to better the space, I am all ears!

My Husband the Handyman

So I think my husband has been holding out on me the past three years! I just love all things crafty and creative and seem to always have some type of project started. I think that Jason has wanted me to "think" that he does not know how to do certain types of projects...so that I wont overload him with honey-dos.

He recently installed a new ceiling fan in our bedroom. Here are a few pictures:

Can you tell how excited he is?

Wiring like a pro :)

Final Product

I was quite proud of him...and even prouder as we slept soundly beneath our new fan later that night.

Jason has started to work on the antique dresser I purchased off of craigslist for $75! I just love a good deal and after a little research, I think the 9-drawer antique dresser with the matching mirror is quite a steal. Jason began sanding the dresser tonight. A little bit of primer, paint, and new hardware that I have already picked out from Anthropologie, and I think the dresser is going to be perfect in Luke's nursery.


Here a few pictures of Jason and the dresser:

Don't you love the curves of the dresser?

Let the fun begin!

To my husband: I love you honey...thanks for following along with all of my crazy ideas!

Please Be My Guest....

Tomorrow is the "Guest Room" edition of "Show Us Where You Live Friday" on Kelly's Korner Blog. Kelly is the oh-so cute mom of a precious little girl named Harper. If you have not ever taken the time to read her story, you should! Kelly is so great to share stories about her family and faith. Definitely a must read!

Our guest room is tiny! I could try and "cute" it up by saying how "cozy" it is, but the simple truth is that it is just plain small. As you will see in the following pictures, I have not done much to help it with the huge wrought-iron sleigh bed that takes up much of the room....however, I just love it and am not ready to let go.

This picture is a view of the room from the hallway...and pretty much captures it all. When I was in high school, I found a picture of a wrought-iron sleigh bed in a home decorating magazine and was instantly in love. However, the bed was extremely expensive. My wonderful mom is from this tiny town (Bowie, TX) and happened to know of this great store called "The Back Forty." They make all sorts of beautiful furniture, garden planters, and accessories. They were more than happy to make this sleigh bed for me, and later on even made a gorgeous candle light wrought-iron cross that we used as the main focal point for our wedding!


Here is another view of the room...can you tell it is tiny?!? You may not be able to tell, but the lampshade is made up of fake flowers that I hot glued on to a very worn out shade. I have always been thrifty and tackled this project when I was in high school. Back then my room was painted red, which really made all of the other colors stand out.

Here is a close-up of the bedding. It is a "flea market" quilt from Anthropologie...one of my very favorite stores. I have had this bedding since I was in college, but still love all of the wonderful colors. I would love to match it with a beautiful pair of black & white toile drapes one of these days!

I only have the two "lady" paintings as art on the wall, and have never gotten around to painting this room. Please let me know if you have any suggestions on how to make it more "cozy!"

It has been confirmed....

We are so thrilled to be having a little boy. Neither Jason or I had a preference, so it was simply music to our ears for the ultrasound to show a healthy and growing little boy. He is constantly on the go, despite the obvious limitations of my small belly! The ultrasound tech was quite impressed by how he seemed to move into the perfect position exactly when she was ready to snap each picture. I, of course, let her know that I had given the baby a little pep talk on the way to our appointment about how great it would be if he/she would cooperate :)

Here is a picture of his profile: If you look closely, you can see his little hand by his head. Although he was constantly in motion, he always seemed to return to this position.

I have started to work on his nursery and recently received the fabric swatches I ordered from this cute website: www.polkatotdesigns.com. I had no idea that four little pieces of fabric could be quite so exciting. I was in love the moment I opened the envelope!

Here is a picture of the fabrics:

I do not think I could possibly plan a nursery without a little bit of toile! Thank heavens they make it in a manly blue and brown.

We are so blessed that Jason's Aunt Carol has offered to make the baby bedding. She is super creative and amazing with a sewing machine. It makes me so happy to know that our little one will be surrounded by things made with such love. Thanks again, Carol! We love you!

P.S. We are still working on the perfect name...I will be sure to post once the final decision has been made.

Baby Bump

My belly has slowly been expanding until just last week. I finally look pregnant...tiny...but pregnant! I am still able to wear all of my regular clothes with minor adjustments. A rubber band through the loophole of my jeans, the bella band, and empire waist tops make up my current wardrobe. I did slip into my pink maternity Juicy sweats on Easter (thanks to a sweet friend of my momma's). I just could not wait any longer and they were oh so comfortable.

Here is a peek at what they look like:

Here is a picture of my belly at 13 weeks:

And here is my belly today at 19 1/2 weeks:

Jason and I are extremely excited about our upcoming ultrasound on Monday, April 20th. I am already having a hard time sleeping at night...I cannot wait until we know whether the precious little one growing inside of me is a girl or boy.

More updates to come soon. I already have some of the furniture for the nursery (thanks to my family and a kind man named Bill from Federal Way-more to come on this). I also have my eye on several fabric options!

First things first....

Jason and I have lived in Lacey, WA for almost 3 years now. We relocated here shortly after our wedding (July 2006) for Jason's job. We quickly moved into a cute rental and I loved being a housewife. While Jason was at work, I would organize, decorate, and of course watch a little HGTV. Although we were miles away from family and friends, we were happy to just be newlyweds and truly enjoyed this season of our lives. Despite our marital bliss, as time went on we knew we needed good friends and a church home. With a whole lot of prayer and patience, in a matter of weeks I found a job, we met our best friends, and they introduced us to the church we attend today. God is so good!

My bestie Alyson

Of course, the next logical step in our married life was to get a dog! We researched and researched to find the perfect fit for our family. Thanks to a little input from my mom we decided to look at Goldendoodles (mostly for the non-shedding). I stumbled across Jake, formerly known as "Zendo", on a breeders website in Spokane, WA. I instantly fell in love with this furry, stuffed animal like dog and knew that he was the one. After convincing Jason that he could indeed own a "goldendoodle", we called to inquire about Zendo. We learned that he was a 6 month old, potty trained reject who had lived for a short time with a family in Seattle. According to this family he was "born under the wrong astrological sign." Crazy! So, we took a gamble and the very next day, Zendo/Jake flew to Seattle to live with us. He has seriously been the perfect dog...we love and spoil him way too much!

His first night at his new home!

Our latest adventure here in Washington was to buy our first home. We purchased our home in July 2008 and have been slowly making it our own ever since. I am extremley excited to start working on the nursery here in a couple of months.

Our first home!

Just thought I would give everyone a little glimpse into what the Johnson Family has been up to the past couple of years. Looking forward to posting many more updates soon!