A Family of Three

Okay, so I know I may have lost all credibility in my blogging ability after such a long dry spell but I'm back at it now!  We are officially a family of 3 as of August 16th.  I was working on Jake's birth story and it was taking me way to long and then before I knew it he was a month old, then 2 months old and now almost 3 months old! We've had a whirlwind last month with a 9 day trip to SD and a long weekend with friends at Edisto Island.  I have tons to catch up on here and lots and lots of pictures to share but the weather has been just way too nice to be in the house when I have a few minutes to relax (today is rainy which is why this post is happening)*.  More to come.

*I wrote this one a couple weeks ago but forgot to publish it!  I promise there are more in the works!

The Tail End...

I can confidently say I am very excited I'm approaching the tail end of this pregnancy journey.  It’s really been a great experience.  And now I’m ready for the experience to wrap up and transition to motherhood.  I guess it’s a good thing that women get tired of being pregnant at the end since it actually makes the prospect of labor and birth a welcomed prospect rather than something scary.  You can tell me that I should enjoy these last days/weeks because it’s much easier when the baby is inside than outside, but it really doesn’t change the fact that we can’t wait to meet him!

Showered with Love

All of my wonderful Nashville and Miami based sister-in-laws (5) and mother-in-laws (2) planned and executed an absolutely incredible baby shower for me in July.  They put so much work, time and love it to it.  I’m so lucky to have such wonderful women in my life and unbelievably grateful for them and to be part of their families!  I would write more about the shower, but you’ll be better served by visiting Courtney’s (one of the sister-in-laws) blog post about it here. She’s a master-blogger so I’m totally stealing her masterfully written post rather than doing my own.  Besides, it gives you good reason to check out her blog.  Her cute family is so much fun to read about! 

Maternity Photos

A huge thank you goes out to our friends, Tim and Katie Walsh.  They're in our community group at church and I also work with Tim at Dave Ramsey’s office.  I could go on and on about how much we love this couple and their amazing talents.  One of those talents is photography!  Tim says he’s an amateur, but I think the photos below prove otherwise.  They were so sweet to offer to take some maternity photos for us and I am so glad they did!  I think I was about 35 weeks along in these shots.  The soccer ball shape in these pictures is now very basketball looking. 



Looks like I swallowed a soccer ball!





Family of three




Ultra-sound image from 18 weeks.  Such a cute little profile!




Can you tell we're excited about this baby?




These overalls were Chris' when he was just a wee boy. Can't wait to see our little guy in them!

  Thanks again Tim and Katie for blessing us with these captured memories!  We love you!

Blueberry Pancake Kind of Day

Today is a blueberry pancake kind of day.  We ran like crazy yesterday to get our weekend checklist done. Yes, for those of you wondering, living with my husband we have an actual checklist that is made every Saturday morning and hung on the fridge so we can check things off as we go.  If we happen to do something that is not on the checklist, it gets added and then crossed off. If only all of life was as easy to manage as the weekend checklist!  Anyway, so we ran like crazy yesterday to get everything done and today we have NOTHING left on the checklist except for church this evening. A true day of rest.  I think this is the first time since we've been married that we've had a whole weekend day to do whatever we want!  What makes us savor it even more is that we know these days will become pretty much non-existent once our bundle of joy arrives.  So we're making the most of it. We slept in, made blueberry pancakes and eggs for breakfast, we'll take naps, watch a movie, read a book, write a blog post, go for a walk, all of those gloriously wonderful things that always sound so great, but we rarely stop to do because life gets in the way.  We'll enjoy it today and get geared up for a busy few weeks...the next 5 nights in a row we have evening commitments.  We're packing everything in that we can while it's just the 2 of us...including a blueberry pancake kind of day!

Cloth Diapers

So the world of cloth diapers was a foreign land I'd only heard of in stories.  Then we started planning for a baby.  I figured being a responsible pre-motherhood adult, I should check into it.  Thus began my head-first dive into unknown territory to see what more I could find out. 

Who would've known the vast expanse of mommy bloggers that have an opinion on CDing! (BTW, that is how people in the "know" refer to cloth diapering.  You're welcome.)  Prefolds, All-in-ones (AIO), Pocket, One-Size (OS), cloth inserts, disposable inserts, snaps vs hooks vs velcro etc etc etc.  Enough to make your head spin! 

My take-aways:

1. Cloth diapers have come a long way
2. They definitely cut down on the cost of diapers your baby will wear
3. Get ready to do laundry
4. It's hard to know which brands, variety, type will be best for your baby until you've tried several out.

In conclusion, dear friends, we are going to take the trip to the land of CDing with our little guy.  I don't have the details figured out (I mean who really ever does in life?) but I am excited to learn more!  And don't worry, we'll keep some disposables around so if fate would have you watching our sweet man and cloth diapers freak you out, no fear!  Now on to bottles, carriers, vaccines, pediatricians....goodness we have a lot to learn about.

Update:  From the time I started this post until I got around to publishing it, I've made some more progress on determining how to tackle the start of this CDing adventure.  If you're interested in learning more or seeing what we're going with, check out http://www.cottonbabies.com/.  I'll let you know in 6 months how it's working out!

Favorite Picture, Favorite Man

I think it's fairly typical for most wives to treasure their wedding pictures as their favorite moments captured in time.  I would agree that our wedding pictures are some of the most special shots we have and I do love them.  Crazy as it may seem, this distant shot is my favorite picture of Chris and I.  It was taken just after he finished his first 1/2 marathon.  We'd spent countless hours on the phone together in the previous months and while it was only the second time I'd been down to Nashville to visit, we both knew there was something pretty special going on.  One of Chris' family members (BW?) snapped this shot of us and I just think it is such a sweet moment that was captured.  That was a little over 4 years ago.  Now, we're married and expecting our first child to arrive in this world in just a few short months.  Now, I get to hug this man every day.  I'm so thankful to be his wife, his best friend, his partner in life.  We make a pretty great team. What a privilege and a joy!  Happy Anniversary, Baby!  I Love You!


Here's another shot from the first time I came to visit Chris in Nashville.  Such a fun, sweet time to look back on!

Baby Bump

For all two of you who know this blog exists, here's a baby bump pic from our trip to Seaside in May.  It's bigger than this now, so I'll have to update again soon, but this will have to do for now.  Over and out.

Isaac & Ella

I couldn't leave you with just one picture of these sweet babies.  My brother, Luke, and his wife Naomi are incredible parents and have some awfully cute kids!  It's crazy to think we have 10 neices and nephews with these guys added in to the mix.  It will be so fun to have so many cousins running around for our boy to grow up with!  We hate that we can't see these cuties or our sweet nephew Charlie in Miami nearly as much as we'd like to.  Thank goodness for the technology that can keep us up to date with pictures!  Here are a few from our Easter trip to SD.

How I spent much of my time on Easter Sunday.  Nothing sweeter than a sleeping baby to snuggle with!

Amazing how different twins can look and act!

                      

Isaac profile...I can't figure out how to flip it!




Isaac and Ella w/ their cousin-to-be inbetween :)



Firsts

This is the year of many firsts for the White House.  If this is your first time reading this blog,  congratualtions!  I hope it's not your last.  But I wouldn't blame you if it was.  My ability to captivate an audience with prose is untested. However, if you enjoy typos, random thoughts and run on sentences, we can become fast friends. 

I find it only fitting to start this first blog with a list of other firsts from this year.  We'll make it a theme. 

1. We found out I'm pregnant (well technically this happened last calendar year, but it was in this rolling 12 month period, so we'll count it)
2. We set up Skype
3. We got to see our new nephew in Miami over Skype
4. Grandma Gering came to visit Nashville
5. We put our house on the market
6. We started Bradley Method birthing classes
7. I ate kale for the first time
8. We had a contract on our house
9. We found out our baby is a boy
10. Our buyer walked away from the contract on our house
11. We watched birthing videos in Bradley class
12. We held our twin niece and nephew in SD
13. I ate more kale.  Like, a lot.  It's supposed to be good for the baby.
14. I researched cloth diapers.  And breast pumps.  And a lot of other stuff that had never entered my realm of thought 4 months ago.
15. We practiced contractions in Bradley class. 
16. For the sake of brevity, let me just list that each Bradley class has contained mutliple firsts.  Amen. 
17. We (and by 'we' I mean 'I') freaked out about not being prepared for a baby.
18. We (and by 'we' I mean 'Chris') came up with a plan for getting all of the tasks done we need to to be as prepared as we can be.
19. We took our house off the market (see #18 for reason why)
20. I started a blog

This is could be continued on well past #50...maybe even #75, but I heard once that the key to a good blog is making it  "skim-able."  I think I've already exceeded the skim-able limit so I'll quit while I'm behind. Thanks for playing.   I'll leave you with a picture of my good-lookin' husband with the sweet twins in SD.

                                               Chris w/ Isaac & Ella at 3mo.