Christmas Cards!

Shutterfly is doing this great promotion for Christmas Cards this year! You can get 50 free by making a blog post and helping them promote their deal!

Taylor and I are going to use a picture from this summer's trip to Africa. Our friend, Drew took the picture and after he did he melancholically said to us, "Man, I want a picture like that with my wife..."

If only Phelpsy were in it. This will be our last Christmas Card with out Baby Bukes! Hard to believe. But, great news is, we now know that I was actually pregnant during this shot! Baby Bukes - quite the adventure traveler!

I like using Shutterfly because of the following three tools they help you create:

Christmas photo cards

birthday invitations

Cards and Stationary

We are still deciding which layout best suits our picture and the little something I want to write on it.

I want to put the few options and ask your opinion, but that would take away the fun of you already knowing what you'll receive in the mail in a few short weeks!

If you want to get this great promotion, just click here! You'll fill out a form online and then receive an email a few days later with instructions on how to get your 50 cards FREE!

Hope this helps your Holiday Budget and you have fun creating your own Christmas Card! Cannot wait to get it in the mail!

Just in case you can't put your finger on it:):) our address is:

Taylor, Sally, Phelps and Baby Bukes Stanfill

6535 Bridgewood Valley Road

Atlanta, GA 30328

(My insert of the address was mostly a joke, but I actually would really LOVE to get YOUR Christmas Card, this year! :)

Bukes and I are pulling out the decorations tonight for DATE NIGHT!

I LOVE THANKSGIVING AND CHRISTMAS!!!!!!

P.S. here are some fun pictures from our Baby Reveal Party with Small Group last Tuesday :) Each person wore what color they thought Baby Bukes was. Then we unzipped our jackets to reveal what color WE were wearing . . .

(yes I realize the amazing face going on here . . . just couldn't contain my excitement!)

Here are all the folks who guessed it right!

We love our friends! Your idea to have this party and followed-through-participation made it SO fun for us! THANK YOU!

Great Weekend!

This weekend Dave and Kate got married! It was filled with family and Grannies and it was a BLAST!

Friday night at the Rehearsal Dinner

Handley Reid Hite with her namesake Handley Wright Underwood

On Saturday Morning we celebrated Daddy. He's been with Federated for 25 years! He was honored last week at the company for his years of service - he was honored on Saturday by his children for his character and integrity - quite a man! We are so proud of him!

Then my roommates came in town and we hung out for the day until it was time for the Wedding!

Baby bump at MONTH 5! It was so fun getting ready with girls in a big bathroom before a "formal" event! We have MISSED each other!

For some reason we started taking pictures like this during rush 1 year - I can imagine it was probably because it expressed what we were feeling during those long torturous days :)

Me, Becca, Holland and Anna

Kate and Dave!

Two of the sweetest people I know

And this picture melted my heart. Taylor hanging out with Anna Beth Wright (youngest of my cousin, George). A preview of what's to come :)

Taylor and I went to bed talking about what an awesome weekend it was! We love our family and we love our friends - truly blessed! Makes going to bed Sunday night harder because the weekend has come to a close.

But so fun to get to have great weekends like that!!

Baby Bukes is a . . .

GIRL!!!!!!

We are having a baby girl!!!!

It was the best day!!!!

8:00 - go to the Dr.

8:30 - have an extra long ultrasound and see the baby moving and living and surviving

8:45 - turn our heads when the technician identified the sex

9:00 - receive the sealed envelope with the gender inside (Bukes takes it at this point so I don't open it!)

9:30 - meet with the Dr. for her to go over everything that was discovered during the ultrasound

10:15 - go to brunch and Buckhead Bakery's Corner Cafe and decide that after we order we'll open the envelope

10:20 - order . . . FINALLY open up that envelope and see "I'm a baby girl!"

(profile picture :)

(my mom bought these shoes when we first found out we were pregnant - she bought this pair if it turned out to be a girl and a blue pair if it turned out to be a boy)

Then we went shopping to find something pink for her! We found a little pink picture frame to put her first picture in!

He even came home before going back to work to put on his pink shirt (the females in his office made this request :)

It was a GREAT day!!!!!

We are so excited! So excited!

That little girl is going to know she is loved, adored, beautiful, pursued and carried by her Savior because of the love, adoration, confirmation and pursuit her sweet Daddy will shower on her! He's going to be the best Daddy to her and I cannot wait!

AHH!!!!! We're having a baby girl!!!!!

and

she and Handley Reid will only be 5 months apart

she and Norah Claire with only be 20 months apart

best buds for life!

We are so excited!!!!

Bella Bows

Mama sent me a picture of me holding Handley Reid when we arrived on Sunday.

But, if you want to see some REALLY great pictures, click here!

JoBeth got a call this week requesting if Handley Reid could model some Bella Bows . . . what a treat!

Enjoy :)

Countdown: 4 Days!

p.s. leave a comment for what you think we're having. Currently we have 2 for a boy and 3 for a girl.

And GREAT news! Bukes just told me he's taking a half day on Tuesday so we can:

8:30 go to our appointment

10:00 go to a Baby Bukes Reveal Brunch Date

11:00 go buy a little cercie for Baby Bukes now that we'll finally know what it is!!

Wednesday Night is Date Night with Bukes

Last night we may have had our most favorite date night yet! (although if you knew my husband you'd realize that next week will end up being the "best date night ever! No, Sal, seriously! This time I mean it!")

We have joined ScoutMob which sends out coupons for local restaurants in Atlanta. Since we've started really loving the tradition of going out to eat on Date Nights we have found great benefits of buying these coupons! Last night's was Varasano's 50% off entire meal! It was PACKED! When we got out of the car to go in the guy who opened the door asked if we had a reservation and mentioned it would probably be an hour wait . . . always a great sign for great food at a great restaurant!

We ran into Justin Runager, an old high school and USC friend, while we were waiting. He appropriately told us it was the "best pizza in Atlanta".

And it was. We love pizza. We love Mellow, we love Hearth, we love Dominos (on a pregnancy perk afternoon we once had McDonald's for lunch and then Dominos for supper - so delicious!), we love Pizza Hut. We used to really love Dijornos, but we had a Dijorno Disaster a few weeks ago that turned us off a bit.

But we now love Varasano's the best! Truly homemade and simple! One of my favorite tastes of the evening was when we sat down and read that the best way to eat the pizza was without fork and knife - to simply fold it over and eat crust to crust . . . you know, it helps enrich the already deliciousness! It also suggested only adding one topping to the pizza to not take away from the already deliciousness.

Of course the best part of the night was when they brought the bill and we only had to pay half :)

Well, actually the best part of the night was being with Bukes. When I said we loved pizza, I meant it. But when I say we really really love Date Nights, I really really mean it! Our favorite night of the week (seriously, I mean it this time)!

Although this has already been a ridiculously long post on a date night-pizza night I will now disclose the story behind "Bukes".

When Taylor and I were dating and hanging out with my sister and Tombo in Abbeville (where Tombo is from) he was giving us some Abbeville-isms. He told us that people in his high school used to call large piles of poop "Bukey". Taylor immediately turned to me and said, "Bukey . . . that sounds like a great nickname for you, Sal! Yes! Bukey, I like that!"

wow, thanks a lot, so romantic

So, from then on my name became "Bukey". I slowly started to call him "Bukey" too and it stuck. Bukey would occasionally get morphed into Bukes. When we would text each other it was easier to type "Boots" rather than "Bukes" so for a while the morphing led to "Boots" then, before I knew it, I was being lovingly called, "Old Leath" (He told me that when he thought of Boots he thought of "old leather boots" but that was too long of a nick name so he shortened it to "Old Leath").

Bukes can also be used in the form of "Bugga Bukes", "Bugga Buka", "Bugga", "Buggity Buggity Bukes", "Bukey Bear" (have you seen the Wendy's commercial where they are in the breakroom and the guy's phone rings with, "My Bukey Bear, my my my my Bukey Bear"?)

So, when we got pregnant we started calling the baby "Baby Stanfill" or "Baby Stany". My mom and Catie mentioned that we could call him/her "Baby Bukes" and of course, it stuck!

Has a nice ring to it and makes an excellent "Baby Bukes Blog" title :)

Countdown: 5 Days!

leave a comment to let me know what you think we're having :)

ps. I took the camera and everything to supper, then realized we forgot to take a picture so we decided we'd take one in the car, then forgot, so we have no picture from the best date night ever - sad

Kiddos

So I wanted to share my other nephew and niece because the are PRECIOUS!!!!

Isaac is 4 and Norah is 15 months. They are Kristian (Taylor's oldest brother) and Kerri's children and even though we both live in Georgia we DO NOT see them enough. I had to get Kerri to email me some recent photos of them - maybe now that I'm trying to make picture taking more of a habit I'll snap some next time we're together (which I hope will be before Thanksgiving, but, who knows!?)

Here they are this summer and in October. How great are they?

Tay Tay and Aunt Sal love you guys and can't wait for your cousin to get here!!!!

Different

I've been doing a lot of thinking about Baby Bukes. Truly, this weekend of seeing Handley Reid and her parents in the hospital has mesmerized Taylor and me. . . it just can't seem to sink in what it's actually going to be like to hold our baby.

We felt like we were both in somewhat of a haze as we tried to take it all in. But like many things in life, nothing can fully prepare you for something until you go through it.

My aunt Peggy (mother of the namesake, Handley) asked me how Sunday was. She said, "Did you get nervous holding Handley Reid--knowing there is a baby inside of you!!?? My sister Ginny will never forget the look on my face when I went to visit her in the hospital when Daniel was born...knowing my baby was due about 5 weeks later...Deer in the headlights!"

I think it might be safe to say that Taylor and I both were a deer in the headlights on Sunday. It was different this time - different than when Isaac and Norah were born.

Different than when Beau was born.

Different, because, YES, there is a baby inside of me!!! Different because I'm going to give birth to him/her. Different because we won't just be visiting a new family member of a sibling. Different because when we leave the hospital, we'll be taking that tiny person HOME with us. We will be holding our own child . . .

still can't seem to take it in

but I can't wait

Countdown: 7 Days!

p.s. Taylor is going to be the best Dad - a thought that sometimes brings tender tears to my eyes

Handley Reid Hite

Handley Reid Hite is here! She was born at 1:35am on November 7, her due date! We went to visit JoBeth, Tombo, Beau and Handley Reid today and everyone was doing great. Such an exciting time and quite surreal thinking that 5 months from today it could be us in that hospital room holding our precious little bit! WOW!

I love her already. She's got chubby little cheeks and rolls on her arms and legs. She makes sweet little noises when you hold her and her skin is what they mean when they say, "smoother than a baby's bottom" (I don't know if "they" say it, but Alfalfa does on Little Rascals and it's one of my favorite lines).

Hoping to maybe go back this weekend to be Aunt Sal!

Countdown for Tay and me:

9 more days until we find out!

Fun Ideas

So, my super, fun, creative friend, Aubs, has moved to CA and is working with an Interior Design Business.

Aubs and her hubby Lockwood

We were talking the other day and she gave me a few blogs to check out for ideas about nurseries - since, you know, I'll be having a baby soon! She's offered to make a special visit before s/he arrives to help me cost effectively create a nook nursery! Here is one of the ideas we both really liked! I do realize this is gender specific to a girl (did I mention I have a strange feeling we are having a girl?), so, there will be more boy ideas to come. But, just had to post this one because it got me REALLY excited about the reality that SOON there will be a BABY to put down to sleep!

The ceiling puffs are what got my heart! I LOVE them! And, she said she could totally help pull that off - easily! I also love the stool and rocking chair patterns - Getting excited about the thought of mixing up the details while keeping the majority of the room plain and simple (because when you have mostly plain and simple, how can you not throw in ceiling puffs to add some AWESOMENESS!)

We find out SO soon! November 16th! Let's do a countdown:

Only 13 days left!

AND, my sister is due with her Baby girl, Handley Reid Hite, on Sunday - so, we're expecting a call at anytime now! I'll keep you updated.

Getaway

This weekend Taylor and I went to a wedding at Chateau Elan in Braselton, GA for Brett and Christine Connor. We drove up early Saturday morning and spent the day outside walking around the "nature trail" and having a delicious lunch. We caught the USC and UGA games with some lazy naps in between before we headed to the ceremony.

We had a great evening with dear friends, Matt and Melissa Tinknell and Anthony and Ashley (soon to be) McEver. Taylor lived with Matt and Anthony his sophomore year of college in the Sig Ep house - they are ultimate "frat bros for life".

Sunday we took our time getting home with a stop at Bass Pro Shops for the Bukes . . . truly a giddy little boy!

The weekend was refreshing, rejuvenating, bonding and a reminder of just how important taking a getaway with your spouse is - even when you don't have kids yet :). I love this man!

Halloween was quite low key. We had officially ZERO trick or treaters and we were even at a real house, not our basement. It made me sad to say the least: I had a dream that we had so many trick or treaters we ran out of candy. . . I mean seriously, it's not that big of a deal - I don't know why I wanted to have them so bad!

Maybe because little people dressed in costumes is the most precious thing in the world? I agree with Jobeth when she said last year, "I think there should be more required days during the year that kids dress in full costume."

So - in that case I'll leave you 2 years worth of my nephew, Beau, dressed up for halloween:

Year 1 - Dragon

Year 2 - Hamburger