Day Dreaming

When I day dream, I think about all the great things I will one day be able to accomplish in our backyard. I found the first picture in Southern Living Magazine, and decided that one day my yard will look like this picture.  I first need to line our (new-thank you Rob and Dad) back fence with birch trees, then pick a different type of tree for both side fences (I'm thinking Red Oaks).  This yard in the picture is a perfect rectangle, and our backyard also happens to be a perfect rectangle as well.

Rob is a pretty handy guy when it comes to power tools and building things, so he promised me he would build me that structure to hang 2 swings from.  We have a ridiculous amount of left over brick from the house that I have held on to, and now I have found its new purpose.  The brick patio the pergola will sit on!  I am obviously dreaming of cooler and shadier times for our backyard which has been scorched my the relentless sun around here!  Maybe one day I can have my out of town friends over to enjoy our shaded back yard while we sit, swing, and drink sweet tea.  Who would like to join me?

Groupon Picture Deal

If I haven't mentioned before how much I love Groupons, let me say it now...I love Groupons!  I got a screaming deal on a sitting from a photographer (Skipping Stone Studios), and here are a few of the shots they got!  They don't provide any digital images, so I had to scan them in-so the quality is just so so.  I hope I'm not breaking any copyright issues with publishing their images but I am giving them credit and I did pay for the pictures (Am I doing this right Lisa?).

 The picture above was the only one of all of us that had everyone, including the girls looking at the camera.  Their floor is a weird shade of rust, so the girls almost blend in.

 E was just about to start unraveling so this was the last family shot we got.  I have to say that the family shots turned out ok, but I LOVE the pictures of just E.

 My happy boy with his cute little dimple!

 He looks sooooo much like Rob, I can hardly believe it!

 This last picture of E is sooo him.  When he gets shy he plays with his hands in his lap and he starts to kick one of his legs.  He typically will tuck his chin under, but the photographer caught this moment just before he did.  This boy makes me smile!

We clearly brought the girls, and we were so glad that we did.  They provided the comic relief at the end to get the smiles and laughs out of E when he was so clearly done with taking pictures.  How I wished the pics could have been outside, but when we had them done it was roughly 110 degrees.  Needless to say, we did a studio sitting!  After looking at these pictures it struck me how much my little man has grown!!!

Mommy Wings

So this is a few weeks overdue, but it seems most things on my life are overdue these days.  Rob's sister and brother in law welcomed a beautiful baby boy into their lives.  They waited to find out what the gender was going to be, so he was a VERY fun surprise.  Chris & Megan were both somewhat expecting a girl, and when they announced it was a boy-they were surprised at how surprised they were that it was a boy!  Megan made the comment that she was expecting a 7lb girl, and she got a 9lb boy!

It has been so fun to watch how natural she is as a mom.  She spent the first 5 days at the hospital recovering from the c-section, and now that she is home it is cool to see her really fill the mom shoes.  I forgot how tiring it is being at the hospital, being that the amazing nurses in L&D have to do their job and constantly check on you-it makes it hard to fall into a routine and figure it out on your own.  There is always someone coming in to give you more drugs, take your blood pressure, and also give you their advise for how to do something.  I was tired every time I left the hospital just visiting.  My mother in law was in town for the first 2 weeks to help make that transition home and to take the night shifts so Megan could rest up (as best as any new mom can).

Her little man is as sweet as they come, and she has that new mommy glow.  A glow that is mixture of sleep deprivation and worry that we have all experienced.  I am so excited that she has a boy.  I can only speak from being the mom of a boy, but there is something so sweet about the love that a boy has for his mother.  I am excited that I will have that connection with her in our lives as we raise the cousins together.

So to echo Annie's post from a few months back, Megan has her mommy wings.  Everyday more and more she is realizing that her heart no longer lives inside of her, but now resides in her little man.

Recalculatin

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I had to travel for work not to long ago, and I was issued a GPS that was not updated. My experience driving in the city I did not know well looked a lot like this! I laughed so hard when I saw this commercial again after my GPS snafu!