Drum roll please!

I've tossed around a million ways of doing this, but I decided that simplicity is the best route. With that being said ...

We're having a baby!!!

That's right! Little baby Hannigan will be making his or her way into the world in April! Scott and I are overjoyed and have been bursting at the seams wanting to tell everyone. It's such a difficult secret to keep! I'm currently 9 weeks along and have felt pretty nauseous and very sleepy for the most part. (The first sign that something was amiss was my dozing off at work.)

We found out in the best possible way. We were in Nashville for my birthday weekend. I didn't think I was, but Scott kept telling me, "I think you are. I think you are. I've always said I'd know when you were." I was floored when I saw that little plus sign. After months of only negative results, I was shocked to see that those things could actually make a plus sign, too! It was definitely the best birthday present I've ever received!

I am so amazed at God's timing and so thankful for this blessing. I know he will guide us on the journey ahead. I marvel at His power when I think about how we come into this world. He’s stitched each of us together and made you uniquely, wonderfully, specially you. He has given this little olive-sized individual growing inside of me such careful thought and planning. His love is truly breathtaking.

Our first ultrasound was Monday when we got our first peek at our little one and that beautiful heartbeat!

Our little peanut! 

The top part is baby's head. The bottom part, the booty. The dark spot is the heart. We could see little arm nubbies waving, too.

Our family is quite excited as well. My sister found shirts for everyone and, as you can see, she's taking her promotion very seriously.

We still have a few weeks to find out the gender, so take a moment to venture a guess in the right side bar. Winner gets diaper duty!

Scott and I are thrilled about what the next seven months hold and can't wait to share them with you!

Fair-y tale

Last Thursday night, Scott and I went to the fair with Rusty and Cassie. I'd never been to the fair, so I was excited to see what all the hubbub was about. We weren't there to ride the ferris wheel or eat various meats on sticks, but to do what Scott and I do best — model. OK, so that last part is said sarcastically, but we were there to serve as models for Cassie against the fair's bright, blinking lights.

If you know anything about Cassie, you know she takes awesome pictures. I'm a big fan. if you want to see more of her amazing pictures from last week, click on over to her blog. Believe me. It won't disappoint.

Substitute speaker

This week has been kind of a slow, dull week with not a lot of blogging inspiration to turn into those wonderful posts you've come to expect from me (ha. ha.). So, I thought I'd let someone else do the speaking for me today. I'm always pinning quotes on Pinterest, so I thought I'd collect some of my favorites and share them with you today. 

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What are some of your favorite quotes? Feel free to leave them in the comments. I love a good quote.

His and hers: Coffee table books

On our coffee table, Scott and I have each picked out a coffee table book to add to the pile of magazines and other knick knacks that are drawn to that space during the week.

Scott's addition to the table is Jimmy Fallon's Thank You Notes. Each Friday on his show, Jimmy "catches up with his correspondence" and writes thank you notes to various things, and this book is a collection of those. Such recipients include the Dog Snuggie ("Thank you, Dog Snuggie, for allowing us to embarrass animals in a way I never imagined possible. You did it. Thanks for that."), slow walking families ("Thank you, slow walking family in front of me on the sidewalk. No, please, take your time. And definitely spread out, too, so you create a barricade of idiots. I am so thankful that you forced me to walk in the street and risk getting hit by a car in order to pass you so I could resume walking at a normal human pace."), and preseason football ("Thank you, preseason football, for having all the excitement, commercials, and time-outs of the regular season, but with none of it mattering. I appreciate it. Thank you."). 

My contribution is Boo: The Life of the World's Cutest Dog. In this book, Boo dresses up, plays hide and seek, and eats chips and salsa with his friend, Buddy. Boo and I have a lot in common. We each have adorable faces placed on disproportionately large heads. What's not to love, right? And while Scott and I aren't dog people (a terrible thing to announce to the world, I know), this book brings all the joys of dogs (their adorableness) without the hassle of them (the eating, pooping, yipping, etc.). 

Your turn! What's on your coffee table? 

Crochet show and tell

After I sold my summer textbooks back to Amazon, I spent part of my credit on this crochet book. I'd stumbled upon it in my search for free amigurmi patterns, but after looking through it online knew it was worth the price. I mean, "seriously cute" is in the title. They're not mucking about with the cuteness factor.

As a result, I've been crocheting a lot lately, which has filled my need for adorable animals and gifts with which to bribe children to love me. It's a win/win, really.

Here are a few of my recently completely projects.

The puppy dog is for a little girl in our home Bible study. She loves to act like a dog, crawling around on the floor, barking, rolling over, etc. I figured she needed a puppy pal. I did change him up a little bit, though. The book called for nubby-like ears similar to the legs, but it came off looking more like a reindeer than a puppy. So I made the elephant ears instead to give him sweet floppy ears instead. I like how they came out a lot better. 

The lion is for our friends' brand new baby boy. Every boy needs a lion to go on adventures with, right? In the process of making the lion, he was one-eyed for a long time. I'd run out of black yarn. I thought he might look good with an eye patch though. 

Right now I'm in the middle of a making a monkey. The building stages of making an animal is funny because during the process it looks like some kind of massacre with legs and heads and stuffing strewn about. But it all comes together in the end. 

This hat is for the baby boy, too, but the pattern isn't from the book. I had a baby beanie hat I built this pattern from, adding the bill, leather buttoned strap and colored trim. I used the same basket weave stitch I did for the bear hat only this time I did it all over the hat. I think it's perfect for a dapper little man.

I knew I'd done well when Scott was extra impressed with the hat. The Scott stamp of approval is a hard one to get.

House in progress: New living room seating

Since Scott's graduation, we've kind of toned down on the house a bit. I guess when the threat of your whole family coming to see your house is looming, you have a little more of a fire underneath you to get things done. The office is still not up to picture-taking standards, and the guest bedroom is serving as a catch all for anything we don't want to deal with at the moment. We have, however, made an unexpected change.

Wednesday night, Scott and I were sitting down to eat dinner at the dinner table in the living room. (One of my goals when we moved into this house was to eat dinner at the table and not on the couch. We've improved to eating there about 60 percent of the time, but sometimes the couch and TV wins.) When Scott went to pop up the footrest on his recliner, it was accompanied by a terrible metallic screech. He closed it back with another screech and a clang. When he looked underneath the chair, a large metal piece and several screws and springs were there to greet him. His man chair was dead.

Friday night we went to a local furniture store to see what they had to offer. There was football to be watched the next day, and you can't watch football without a man chair. Scott found quite a few that fit the bill but landed on one in particular. He then began to convince me that we really needed the leather couch that went with it.

Scott's always been down on our couch. He says the color is too rusty, the shape too modern, the vibe too 70s and what have you. But I've always loved that couch. He's got his man chair, and I have my couch. It's my napping companion and is the cushiest couch you'll ever sit on.

But Scott won the couch battle after he had me sit on the one in the store. It was quite comfy and not quite the cold leather I was anticipating.

The pair were dropped off just in time for kick off on Saturday.

Here's the living room before:

This picture was taken once we got everything set up after moving in. I failed to get a proper before shot before the new stuff came. The chair got hauled off, and the couch is now in the office to give me a proper grad school reading space other than the bed. I'll probably fail asleep reading there, too, though.

And here is the living room after:

Both ends of the couch recline, so Scott and I can easily both be comfortable on the couch, with him sitting on the end with his feet up and my head in his lap laying the other way. And as for the couch's nap-ability? It passed my battery of tests on Saturday and Sunday, so it gets my stamp of approval. Now to find some throw pillows that pass the nap test.

Sick days

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While I was laying on my couch yesterday, bemoaning my puny condition, I realized that my sick day routine now still looks a lot like my sick days in high school. The only way to feel better is curling up on the couch or in your bed and hosting your own sick day movie marathon, getting up only to rummage through the kitchen for bland foods to eat (Uncle Ben's microwavable rice and lunchbox-sized applesauce cups were on yesterday's menu).

I watch all the same movies on my sick days. Then, it was "Moulin Rouge," "Pretty in Pink" and "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" (all on VHS, too). Now it's "Breakfast at Tiffany's," "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" and a Beatles movie of my choosing (yesterday it was "Yellow Submarine"). These are the movies that Scott refuses to watch with me. He doesn't know their timeless joy. (I blame "Ferris" for my longstanding crush on Matthew Broderick.)

I think the comfort in having sick day movies is that you don't have to be completely conscious to enjoy them. The delirium of your fever or unfocusing eyes brought on by cold medicine don't interfere with the plot that you already know by heart. And they always make me feel better, too — definitely better than depressing daytime TV with their "go to college in your pj's" or "sell your kidneys for quick cash" commercials. If I was Dr. Jennifer Hannigan, I'd recommend three cc's of DVDs — stat! — then call me in the morning.

What is your sick day routine?

College game day

Giddy with the excitement of two children on Christmas eve, Scott and I just couldn't take it any longer and made the trip to Fayetteville Friday night. We had been waiting for the first kick off since January, and the time had finally come!

Saturday was full of the game day traditions we'd come to love last year and miss during the off season. We hit up our favorite bookstore as well as some really neat shops in downtown Fayetteville. If you've ever found yourself lacking in Razorback apparel, that is definitely the place to go. Plus, there was a speciality knitting and crochet shop there, too! I was in heaven.

For lunch, we went to the Catfish Hole, a favorite restaurant for all things Southern and fried. It was a special occasion, though, as they were hosting basketball coach Mike Anderson and a potential future Razorback basketball player. The enthusiasm of the announcer was pretty entertaining. It was like a religious revival. The former assistant coach of our national championship winning days come home to restore the glory to Bud Walton Arena! Can I get an amen?!

We also got our picture with Mike Anderson, not before I made a fool out of myself trying to shake his hand with the hand I was also holding my sucker with. This one definitely gets to go on the bookshelf next to the one of D.J.!

Afterward, it was game time! We walloped the other team (as to be expected) and had a great time in our old seats just like old times. There was lots of woo pig-ing and finger wiggling, plus a couple of amazing punt returns by Joe Adams. Will this season be our championship year? If everyone we play is like Missouri State, I don't see why not! (We're not that lucky though.)

It's almost here!

Tomorrow kicks of the Razorback football season, and I know we're all thinking the same thing — what will I wear?! Yes, this is the ever-important question I'm faced with every game day. I used to be a jeans and Arkansas T-shirt girl — that is, until we went to Ole Miss. You see, Ole Miss fans show up, sartorially speaking, for football games. No T-shirts, here. The guys are decked out in their Southern preppy finery, with button-up shirts, khakis, sweaters and loafers accompanying their "Hoddy Toddy" styrofoam cups. And the girls are in skirts or dresses and heels. I felt like quite the shlub in my jeans and hoodie.

Since then, I've vowed to no longer feel shlub-like on game day. I've taken a cue from the Old Miss fans and from the Arkansas sorority girls (just fashion-wise, not morally) and put together a chart of what to wear throughout the season, inspired by this post, from accessories, dresses, tops and bottoms, outerwear, and the all-important shoes.

{Row 1: sunglasses, necklace, sunscreen, pearls, koozie, scarf, gloves, tights, thermos, blanket// Row 2: dress 1, dress 2, dress 3, dress 4// Row 3: sleeveless top, red striped top, white sweater, red sweater// Row 4: striped cardigan, drape-front jacket, red jacket, black coat// Row 5: red skirt, red belt, red shorts, khaki shorts, jeans, red pants// Row 6: sandals, TOMS, ballet flats, boots}

So, what's your game day dress approach? As I was hemming and hawing through my closet as to what to wear tomorrow, Scott reminded me that it is a football game and not a fashion show, but he is the one bringing several outfits to choose from.