March Madness...a little different this year

March Madness is one of my favorite times of the year, so I have decided to update the blog today instead of Lindsay. Today, millions of people went into work and thought about filling out their brackets or who was their sleeper pick in the tournament. Most years this is all that March Madness would mean to me too, but this year is a lot more special. Instead of filling out brackets, Lindsay and I (with a lot of help from her Mom) are filling out the nursery. We don't care about picking a good sleeper team in the tournament, we're just hoping for a baby that is a good sleeper.

This year will be the most memorable March Madness of my life and not because I'm going to have a perfect bracket or win the $100 from our office pool. This year during March Madness, Lindsay and I will become parents, our parents will become grandparents, our grandparents will become great grandparents and Lindsay even has a great grandmother who will become a great great grandmother. It is a very exciting time for us and we are so blessed to have family and friends as loving and wonderful as we do during this time. Thank you to all of you for your warm wishes, wonderful gifts and just everyone's overall support.

Becoming a father will be a dream come true to me and something that I have always thought of as the greatest experience for a man during his lifetime. Ten years ago, during my high school's "Mr. Menendez" competition, I was asked "Where do you see yourself in ten years?" My response was "I see myself as a father to a son, who is a boy...." Of course I was a bit nervous and the moderator asking the question responded with "Yes Tyler, a son is a boy" which got a good laugh out of the crowd. Being a Dad is something that I have always wanted to do and beginning in the next week or two I'll take my first steps down the path of fatherhood.

I'm sure Lindsay will be updating the blog in the next day or two with more pictures of the nursery. Lindsay and Ellen (Lindsay's mom) did a fabulous job on the room and spent hours this past weekend putting some final touches on it and it looks amazing. This is while Marc (Lindsay's Dad) and I spent a hard weekend at the ACC tournament watching Duke and Carolina battle it out for the ACC championship, which brings me to a story of how March Madness has always been a part of my life since the very beginning.

I was born on March 10, 1984 which was the semi-finals of the ACC tournament. Duke and UNC were playing for a spot in the ACC championship game when I decided it was time to come out. My parents rushed to the hospital and of course like any great man would do, my Dad tried to not only be there for his wife during her time of need, but also pay attention to the basketball score in case she wanted to know who was winning. Well I was born that night, shortly after the game was finished. The game was such a great game, that my Dad wanted to name me after the winning team. Luckily my Mom would never allow that to happen and good thing too, because Duke won the game 77-75 and I'm not sure how I would have turned out if my name was Duke Key.

Nursery Snap Shots

To say that this past week was a productive one would be a HUGE understatement!! We had the nursery painted, furniture delivered and over the weekend, which included a very successful trip to target, we got most of the nugget's room put together. (Talk about a cool reality check...he has a room!) We still have a few things to complete and are really excited about our project for the walls that should be going up this coming weekend. But until it's finished, here are some little peeks to tide you over. :)

The bedding arrived with the furniture and we couldn't wait to get it all put together on the crib!

We filled the nugget's bookcase with all kinds of goodies...

...and of course a little Seminole pride. The pom-pom is from his first game at Doak Campbell Stadium!

I know we will ALL be so grateful for the extra cozy reclining glider.

We got SO lucky on our trip to Target finding all kinds of lime green storage and a great lamp for those dark late night diaper changes!!

And finally, a fun nugget name game! Tyler and I are bursting at the seams after sharing the nugget's name with our families during the baby shower weekend. I'm pretty sure the little guy's name will be flying out before he arrives, but just to keep you wondering a little longer, here's a FUN FACT:

Tyler and I both have the letter "Y" in our first AND last names....and so will the nugget!

Happy Guessing :)

Our Little Family

I am now the proud and overly excited owner of a new iPhone! And it is with my new phone that I captured this little gem while we were upstairs watching a movie one night. Tyler and I were snuggled up watching and since Tess has a new official spot on the couch downstairs, she insisted (with those big brown eyes), that she be allowed to cuddle with us upstairs as well. The only problem is that there is not enough room for all of us on one chair. Tess didn't seem to find the issue with this....she just plopped right down on top of Tyler and made herself quite comfy. :) Moments like this make my heart smile...

Photoshoot Sneak Peek

We had our maternity pictures taken by the very sweet and amazingly fabulous Kellie Kano in Greensboro after our Baby Shower Weekend! We met at her studio and drove out to the "middle of nowhere" to shoot before the sun went down. We haven't had any professional pictures taken since our wedding (almost 3 years ago...WOW), but she made it easy to be so comfortable in front of her camera. We can't wait to see and share everything she got....but to tide us over she gave us this sneak peek!

http://plixi.com/p/75714769

Showered with LOVE

Our family and friends poured into Greensboro at the beginning of February for our Baby Shower weekend! We had family dinner at my grandfather's on Friday night and received one of our big ticket registry items...our stroller! I can honestly say that we put more research into this piece of equipment than I think either of us put into our college choices, car purchases or home buying. I must have folded and unfolded, pushed and picked up DOZENS of strollers and car seats....all on top of endless hours of research. There are so many great choices out there, but at the end of the day we felt this little baby would be the best fit for our family. 

THANK YOU Papa and Corky....we know our little nugget will LOVE his Orbit stroller!

After a wonderful Friday night dinner to kickstart the weekend, we picked up friends from the airport and called it a night in preparation for the eventful Saturday ahead. My bests from Florida hadn't seen me in person since October/November, so needless to say they were pretty shocked to see a whole new body (BELLY) greeting them at the airport that night!

We woke up Saturday morning to the smells of monkey bread and breakfast casserole. :) Then our housefull of guests got Baby Shower ready and headed out to celebrate.

The whole Boynton crew made a special appearance....these were some of my favorite books and characters from when I was a kid!

And these were the gifts in place...BEFORE the guests started to arrive! I can definitely say that we are ALL SET and ready for this baby when it comes to STUFF. We are so lucky to have such supportive and generous friends and family...they took care of our entire registry! It took several car loads to get things home and now our dining room is filled from top to bottom. At some point, we're going to have to find a place for it all. :)

Tyler's family came in town from Florida and NYC and some of my family came in from Atlanta and Philly. And my wonderful girlfriends made the trip from Charlotte and even from Florida for the weekend as well. It was so wonderful to be surrounded by so many loved ones!!

Here is a fun picture with some of my favs...and you can also follow this link to see (and POST if you had a camera) some other great shots from the shower: http://babykey.snapfish.com/snapfish

After a great afternoon, we had a delicious Italian dinner back at the house. Tyler and I are so grateful for everything surrounding this new member of our family. We really can't wait to meet him!

Our 2011 Snow Mama

January brought our first and so far only "BIG" snow of the year. We got some serious inches (for NC at least) and enjoyed a couple days of working from home and playing outside with Tess.

It was a really pretty snow!

These will give you an idea of how much snow we actually got...

Tess LOVES being out in the snow. For a dog who usually chooses to spend her days snuggled up in the warm house, she has an unusual desire to frolic through the powder and try to catch snowballs.

We spent most of our afternoon trying to build a pregnant snow mama. :) It was quite a task but here's how she turned out!

Had to grab a picture of both of our bellies...

...and couldn't forget to take one with our first child. :)

Then it was inside to warm up and enjoy some snuggling. Ever since Tyler's busy travel schedule in the fall, Tess has found herself with a permanent spot on our couch. She throws us those big brown eyes until we move our legs off her blanket so she can hang out with us each night.

The Nugget in 3-D

Early in January we got to see our nugget up close and in 3-D! My mom had never seen an ultrasound in person, so she came into town and loved every minute of sitting with Tyler and I as we watched our little guy in action. He seemed a little sleepy at first and was keeping his hands up around his face, but then he really put on a great show for us.

He started by waving HELLO! And if you ask me, it kind of looks like he is trying to do the sign for I LOVE YOU...but that's just one mom-to-be's opinion. :)

Then we got a great shot of his mug once he moved his hands out of the way. My mom thought this image looked incredibly familiar to her...

...and it's a little crazy that this is the picture she had in mind from when I was 2 days old!

The nugget even gave us his best Elvis smirk...

...and showed us how he can already suck on his thumb!

We could not get enough of him and everything he had to show us! It only makes us that much more excited to meet him in March!!