Baby Levi's Shower

In September,  W will have a new little friend to play with in Hattiesburg! Mitch & Amy Jaegar (a couple on our staff team) are due with a little man named Levi Harvey. We really can't wait to meet him and I have high hopes that he and Wilson will love each other. We already love him and had the joy of throwing a party in his honor (and in Mitch & Amy's honor, too!) 

What started out as a taco bar in my head ended up being a full blown Mexican fiesta in our backyard. Minus the mariachi band... and the sombreros.... but it was still pretty close. The weather was PERFECT.

We thought we'd be nice and let Amy take the first swing on the pinata. She took a second to feel around and then WHAM. She decapitated it in one swing.

Andrew has started a hashtag called #thingsamyhasdecapitated. We are a little concerned for their dogs.

Levi, I think your athletic genes are good to go!

After dinner we played a fun game and then opened gifts. Baby gifts are my favorite!

The hostesses and Amy...

Amy and Mitch... what a joy to have you two in Hattiesburg with us! We have loved having another married couple on our team, and now how fun it will be to share parenting joys and pains as well! We love you guys and can't wait to meet that little man!! 

Peyton's Bridal Shower

We are in a season of showering. Lots of marriages and lots of babies and both of those things make me really happy for the people that I love!

In March we (me and some sweet friends) hosted a bridal shower for Peyton. Peyton and Andrew (Wenz) are two of our most favorite people in the world. Wenz is an intern with us, but he and Andrew go way back to our first year at Auburn on staff (he was a student involved with Crusade there). I knew Peyton when she was a student at Auburn, though not well, and she came to Hattiesburg last year to go to grad school (Thank you Jesus! What a blessing!)

Me, Peyton, Amy & Claire

She moved in to be roomies with Claire, almost immediately started dating Wenz... and even more quickly became one of my favorite friends. The exciting news is that she and Wenz will be here through December and are planning to join staff with Cru in January.

That makes me and my Andrew happy (I always have to say my Andrew when I talk to Peyton and I kind of love that), but it also makes Wilson happy because you can't even imagine how much he loves "Wenz" and "Moose." When their Save the Date arrived in the mail he begged to sleep with it. And I let him. You can't make these things up.

The shower was so much fun, and I hope Peyton felt really loved. Because she is.

A fun game that Claire orchestrated!

Peyton with her mom and sister

It was her birthday the day before, so we had to celebrate that, too!

Peyton, you are an answer to prayer. A sweet friend who loves others so well. Your excitement for life and for the goodness of God spurs me on to treasure the gospel. I already can see how my marriage with my Andrew is going to benefit from watching your marriage with your Andrew. You two are a blessing to us. We love you! Can't wait to celebrate BIG in 23 days!

A sneak peek

Just a few glimpses into Wilson's room...


My sweet friend Kelsey custom painted this for Wilson. Samford is very proud that his profile made center stage.








These are some of the fabrics we will be using.

Note that we are still in the process... and in just a few weeks we will be headed here:

Jackson Hole, Wyoming! More on this to come... but the trip is making me feel a sense of urgency to get as much done as I can on Wilson's pad!

Pink or Red?

In two weeks we will know whether I am making these red sailboat curtains or pink peony curtains. What's your guess?

Getting behind in posts is overwhelming. Africa feels like it was three years ago! Since we've been stateside, here are a few things that we've enjoyed:

Time at the lake... we especially love when we get to enjoy it with family. (My parents even got to come for the 4th of July!)






Speaking of my parents... we also got to make an ATL trip with them, so of course we checked out the Varsity's greasy burgers!


It was so sad to be away from our "son," Samford, this summer.... so we've enjoyed being around him again. He always provides a good laugh with his vibrant personality.


And finally, the thing I've enjoyed most is just being in our home! The older I get, the more of a homebody I become. This probably has a lot to do with the fact that we basically left our house as soon as we moved in. I realize that I neglected to put any finished pictures of our home on the blog... so here's a few:


This is our entry.... I have to brag on my hubby. He is an INCREDIBLE craftsman. I showed him a picture of a table I liked in Pottery Barn and he put this together from scratch. How lucky am I?! I also should add that I've been wanting a bonsai tree a couple years now... guess how long this one lasted with my any-shade-but-green thumb? A whopping two weeks.


We are already enjoying hosting in this room... I love the feeling of "home."


In case anyone who read my short-lived design blog wondered what happened with my beloved iron horse... he received the place of honor in our living room right smack dab on the coffee table. I love him even more today than the day I bought him.

Well, that's all for now folks! Tomorrow morning we are headed onto campus! First day of class is finally here! We'll be handing out Crusade cups with the football schedule to advertise for our ministry and hopefully get to meet some students. I love the fall! We wait in high expectation of what the Lord will do this year. I pray I am faithful to document it on this blog.

Design Blog

I've (Elizabeth) started my own design blog! I couldn't stand the tension of wanting to blog about designing our new home and talking about our lives on this blog... so I decided the best thing to do would be to create a separate blog. I will try not to neglect this one!

You can view it here. Hope you're having a splendid day!

I love prints!

I should be sleeping right now, but I'm up looking at fabrics! I've had such a rough time working with paint colors for our home (I went totally neutral). Therefore, I keep telling myself that I'll make up for it in the curtains! I know for a fact that I want tan linen curtains in the living room... but I want prints everywhere else! Here are some that I have found:

For the dining room:

(I found this at Hancock's 40% off!

For our master bath (possibly)... the walls are grayish blue:


The rest are just ideas for laundry room and possible back-ups for master bath. I really want the laundry room to be a fun room with a lively print. (Something that makes me want to be in there! The walls are a sage color):





This also means that I'm going to have to pull my sewing machine back out. I can't wait to learn more tricks on it... the most complicated thing I've done yet was an apron for Madelyn's birthday last year:


Hopefully this new place (and a place to sew besides my kitchen table!) will make me more motivated to do projects. I think I may make a sewing nook in our office. I can hardly wait.