Latest Baby Pictures

We got to see the baby again today! We thought this would be our last ultrasound, but the Doctor couldn't get a good enough view of the heart so he offered for us to come back in 4 weeks for another peak, which of course we agreed to.  :)  Once again our little bean was super active and crazy in there, so we didn't get a ton of great pictures but we did get a few keepers.  Hope you enjoy looking at our little guy or girl (and no we didn't find out!!)...

Baby Bilbo's face smiling at usBaby with an open mouth...he/she looked like they were waving at us with their mouth open, (perhaps saying "Hi Mom & Dad!!") but we didn't get a good picture of that.Baby's spine - so cool!!
Precious profile, can't wait to meet this little one!

At long last!

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY back in May we travelled to DC to shoot my friend John's wedding. Because of my headaches it has taken me forever to get all the pictures edited, but I am so thrilled to have them done so I can share them with the bride & groom. There were so many pictures I loved, but I tried to narrow it down to just a few to share here. John & Shannon - I hope you love them as much as we loved taking them!!

The Beautiful BrideThe Handsome GroomJohn & his brother RobWe're Married!I love this picture of Shannon, John & Kristina - priceless!Pretty RingsDancing, Dancing Dancing!Kiss at the end of the RainbowLiving La Vida Loca!The Grand ExitI absolutely love this picture of Mr. & Mrs. Dooley!!Here I am with several of my closest friends from high school, Jennifer, Marleah, new addition Shannon, John, Me, Kristina and Joey (who now goes by Rex. =) It's always so much fun to catch up with these dear friends and now that we're spread across the country, it really takes a special occasion to get as many of us together as possible.

It was such a great trip and the wedding was beautiful. I'm so glad we were able to be a part of their special day!!

Baby Update

I went to the doctor yesterday for my regular 4 week followup. Once again baby & I got a great report. My weight gain and vitals and baby's growth and heartbeat are all right on track - couldn't ask for more than that! We have our mid term ultrasound on Monday and we're looking forward to seeing the baby for what will probably be our last time before we meet in person.

Since my Dr was out on an emergency C-section, I saw the midwife and she couldn't tell me anything in addition to what I'm already doing to help my headaches. (For those curious, what I'm already doing is trying tylenol - which works about as well as taking a tic tac, I've tried a little caffeine a few times, I'm regularly get lots of sleep, I tried chocolate, I'm taking my allergy meds, nothing makes a dent...) It's been almost 4 weeks and while most days it's just a dull ache, it does affect my ability to be on the computer for more than an hour at a time (sometimes less) and some days it's downright debilitating. With lots of photo editing to do from John & Shannon's wedding in May as well as the prospect of trying to sell my photos this has been an issue. I'm hoping to get the wedding pictures done today so I can send them off to J&S...I am thrilled with how well they have come out and I can't wait to share them with them!!

Other than that, we've been working on our registries and organizing all the stuff we already have for our little one. It's exciting to know we'll soon get to use all of this stuff we've been collecting for so long! I've been organizing the house too trying to make room and sense of all of our stuff and purging what I can. I finally sat down a few weeks ago and made a master list of everything that needs to get done before the baby comes (that I know of now anyway!) It could be daunting, but we have plenty of time, so I know we'll get it all done. Next big job is to get the bookshelves installed in the basement. We're hoping to have the contractor do that in July so when David's folks are here in August they can paint them for us. ;) Once those are done we'll be able to move forward with alot of the moving & reorganizing I need to do. Exciting stuff!

Floral Beauty

David and I worked really hard getting our flower beds beautiful last year. Since we did all the work during the summer, most things we planted died as soon as we got them in the ground. I kept all the receipts, but have been thrilled that everything has come up and the flowers are gorgeous. I love driving down our street and pulling up to our house to see all the pretty flowers in the beds. Here are a few shots of the various types of flowers we have out in full bloom this summer. I'm seriously considering selling some of my nature photography. Nearly all the art in our home is art we have created and we have alot of our nature shots blown up and displayed throughout the house. There are lots of logistics to figure out, but I may give it a chance, we'll see. ;) For now, I hope you enjoy the pictures of the lovely floral beauty from our yard.

Busy, Busy, Busy

The last few weeks have been crazy! Lots of travel and good times with close friends, which is wonderful, but certainly makes for a busy time.

On June 3, David's folks came back through ATL after meeting Grady, our newest nephew in Colorado. It was a brief visit, but good to see them.

Saturday, June 6, the Baby's Room was having a big sale and we got our Britax car seat for a steal - woohoo! This is actually a gift from my Dad & Stepmom (thanks so much!!), but I was able to get a much better deal here than they would have been able to in WV. Saturday is also the day that I finally caught up on all my scrapbooking. 2 weeks of marathon scrapping to catch up the nearly 1 1/2 years worth of scrapbooking that I was behind. It is such a sense of accomplishment to be 100% current on the scrapbooking...now I just need to start on the baby's book!

On June 7, I headed to Clarksville, TN for several days with Lacey and the kiddos. I didn't take any pics with my camera, but took some with Lacey's. I'll need to get her to send me the pictures. Highlights of the trip (besides obviously getting to spend time with 4 of my favorite people) were:

• Watching Jake go down their inflatable water slide, he's so funny
• Trekking out to Patty's Settlement for a beautiful morning with the kids and a nice lunch at Patty's restaurant
• Lacey & I getting some girly time alone that included breakfast at Waffle house - don't judge...it was yummy!!
• Ainsley painting the wall with pink icing - long story. Lacey will post it and pictures on her blog soon

It was so nice to get out there to visit with her one last time before Ryan comes home and hopefully make that time go by quickly for her. The last few weeks are always the hardest (I say from my limited experience from when David deployed...which was all before our wedding!) so I'm glad I was able to get up there to hang out.

I got home from that trip on Thursday June 11, just before dinner, and had just enough time to do laundry and repack before leaving the next afternoon for Greenville, SC to visit with our dear friends the Carpenters. It was such a nice, relaxing visit. Somehow I once again didn't take any pictures, but that's ok. ;) Saturday morning we hit the outdoor market in downtown which was great fun and we got some yummy fruit. Then we had "the best pizza in Greenville" at Barleys Tap Room, and it was quite good as well. They boys took the kiddos home after lunch and Court & I ran around for some girly time which was great. We repaid them that night by hanging at home while the boys went out for ice cream and to work on Cory's portfolio. Sunday before we headed home we went to Red Robin for lunch and it was so tasty. Man I wish there was one closer to us! It was such a great weekend, but I was pooped after all that travelling. We were both asleep by about 9:00 Sunday night and slept clear through til morning.

This week I've just been playing catch up. I finally sat down and made a master list of everything that needs to happen before the baby comes. Thankfully, I'm not overwhelmed by this list. David's folks are going to come up for several days in Aug and will be our designated painters so that takes a huge chunk off our shoulders. For everything else I am just going to pluck away at the list. I still have 22ish weeks to go, so I feel like I still have plenty of time to get everything done if I am diligent and try to do something every day. We'll see how it goes.

Mae's 3rd Birthday

Still playing catch up, but making progress! On May 8, we headed up to Dayton, TN to our sister Carol's place to celebrate our niece Mae's 3rd birthday. As always it was a blast to be with the Clarks & David's folks, and we had a great time. Here's a few of the highlights:

Anne playing with beadsUncle David tickling Wilson, who's loving it! ;)Birthday girl and her Tinkerbell CakeMae riding her new bike - such a big girl!Mae (and the boys - LOL) loved this princess umbrellaStylin' in her new glassesAnne enthralled with the process of opening presentsI just liked this picture. ;)Tinkerbell! We found this Fairy Village on clearance at Target last fall and saved it for Mae's birthday - she loved it! It even had a wand that made Tinkerbell fly. Too cool.

Avi Moon

In fulfilling my promise, here is the first catch-up blog post.

So way back in April I made a trip over to Jackson, AL to visit with my friend Marleah and take some pictures of her daughter Avi. Avi is such a sweetie. I managed to get a few non-distracted moments with her in her grandmothers' garden. It was a beautiful day and I so enjoyed getting to visit with Leah & Avi and see their new home. We even got to squeeze in lunch with her hubby Randy, whom I also love, which was a treat. Hopefully we can get them up here soon for a game night. ;) In the mean time, here are some pictures of Avi in the garden.

Feeding the goldfish with Grandpa's help

More to come this week as I make my way through my to do list!