Oh Baby!

Just a quick update...we have started working on a blog for the baby. A bit early, sure, but hey- we're excited and want to share every little baby step of the journey with anyone who is interested in listening, so- why not?

The url is: http://babyblayne.blogspot.com

We hope you enjoy!

You know what they say...

...new house, new baby.

Well, we're no one to buck the system, so as many of you know, we are preparing to follow suit. Yes, it's true, we have been allowed to reproduce! Here are some of the 20 week photos of our little baby. For those of us who are unfamiliar with these alien photographs, this is a profile shot with the head to the left of the picture.











Here she is proclaiming her gender. That's right, she, a little baby girl. If you click on the photograph to enlarge it, there is an arrow that apparently points to something (or at least the lack of something) that confirms the double x chromosome.











Our baby girl has now been cooking for officially 22 weeks and is planned to make her debut in early May; the 9th to be exact. We are super excited for her arrival. Be on the look out for a new blog in the next couple of weeks with Baby Miller as the center of attention.

A Very Merry Christmas & An Exciting New Year

Here the boys are posing to wish everyone a very late, but none the less merry Christmas and a happy New Year. And...it gives us the opportunity to show off our beautiful Christmas tree.















We were very busy preparing for our annual trip to the not-so-snow-covered North and our own Christmas celebrations got somewhat rushed. I actually went by myself to pick out the tree and then left it up to Ian to get it decorated. We did manage to have it completed a few days before the long drive, but plan to keep it up for a while to enjoy it.















We (the boys especially) had a wonderful and safe trip this year and enjoyed every minute that we got to spend with family and friends. It was -as always- a whirlwind tour and we did miss seeing some very good friends, but are looking forward to making up for it during our visit this coming February.

Christmas in Texas

Here, you can catch a glimpse into Christmas in Texas...or at least the decorations for such. You can also check out the harth which matches the kitchen tile and granite. Again, we did smaller travertine inserts on the diagonal for accents (harder to see here, but you can almost make one out on the left side toward the middle).















Ian did an awesome job fabricating this keystone piece to offset the top of the fireplace. The 'V' actually protudes about 1/2 an inch out from the other tile and is then beveled back in to match the travertine which gives it a nice distinct look. A new trim piece finishes it nicely.















One more full view of the wintery scene...

Busy, busy

Despite our lack of updating the blog, we have been quite busy. Here is a very dark shot of the finished kitchen. We ended up just using the travertine with a smaller accent piece of the same material set on a diagonal. We also did an insert above the stove with the same travertine on the diagonal. Details are below...














If you look closely, you can see the detail piece we added for some variation in the design. Like I said before, it is just a smaller version of the same stuff set on an angle. And further down you can see the picture frame and inserts we did above the stove.