hello sweet boy...

At first glance, I love you with a thousand hearts.
-Mihri Hatun


Our hearts expanded again on Friday afternoon as we said hello to our son for the first time. Technology is so amazing. We were able to see him smile, measure his hair (1cm), and repeat many times, "Oh, he has your _________." "Look, his __________ is just like yours!" Bless the ultrasound tech! She was so sweet to us and she "ooohed and ahhhed" right along with us like she'd never seen a cuter fetus. We even left there with 5 movie clips on CD of him waving and moving about. Just as it did with Isabella, the 4D ultrasound drove it home that we are about to be a family of four. We (dad and Tommy) spent the majority of the weekend converting an upstairs room into a nursery. I wanted beadboard and though it looks great, it was far more involved than I thought! Oooops, sorry guys! We will paint this week and then add furniture and bedding and accessories and clothing...and then (in 8 weeks, hopefully)....a sweet baby boy.

We are madly in love already.

love in the obx

Valentine card, 09

Belated, but hope yours was happy!

We spent Valentine's weekend in the Outer Banks with Justin, Libby, Chris, Allison, and the boys. We had a wonderful time. Wade and Isabella are 4 months apart, but the same size. It was fun to see them interact (ie fight over toys). Below, they are both having a little play date in their birthday suits. They will laugh at this photo when they are older.We visited a little nearby city called Manteo and took some photos on the pier. Here is Jack with uncle Justin.

J&L at sunset

The kiddos...Wade is not pleased with the weather. It was very cold on this day and even thought he is from Michigan, he prefers a more balmy climate.

Little Miss "I hate the snow" is fine with the cold...just not the white stuff!

Someone was behind the scenes teasing her with yogurt puffs. You DO NOT mess with her yogurt puffs.

Our home for the weekend. Amazingly beautiful and so different from the houses around here. Each beach house had 3 floors and the main living floor is the top floor....for view purposes, I guess. We loved our room and slept soundly in a very comfortable bed.

The guys watched the kids while the girls went out for manicures/pedicures and shopping all day. When we arrived home, the kids were off to bed and they served us dinner. We each got a card at our place setting.

The food was delish and the company was even better. We played a couple rounds of questions (that the guys loooove) such as what is your most romantic memory? When did you fall in love with me? etc. Always a good time...

Baby Wade..

Ella spending some beloved time with her unky. She thinks he plays kind of rough...but we'll keep him! He makes her laugh with his silly dancing and voices.

Overall...great weekend. Thanks for everything, guys. Can't wait to see everyone again soon. {And...happy Valentine's Day to my Valentine. All my love to you! }

Last week, my dad (who has always been a pillar of strength) had heart surgery. As I sat in an empty hospital room and waited for him to return from the OR, I thought about all that this man means to me.
So much of who I am, dad, comes from you. I am so clearly your child when I am moved by music, or when I am most peaceful under an umbrella on the ocean, or when I am drifting off to sleep in a quiet cove on the lake, or when I am behind the camera taking a close up of my daughter, or when I am cracking a joke, or when I am sleeping with a hand perched on my forehead. I am a part of you and you are a part of me....and I prayed that God would be with you and with the doctors so that you would be back at 100%. God answered my prayers and I feel so incredibly blessed. A girl needs her dad. And a grandchild needs her PopPop. We love you so much.

Thank you to all the friends and family who called/texted/emailed, etc. and offered prayers and well wishes. It meant a lot.

her mother's daughter

With the exception of the possibility of snow days and our little family being snowed in, we aren't big fans of the frigid weather. Sure, it looks nice...but being freezing cold is not really our cup of tea.

We are both far more content to be inside where it is warm....looking out.

spots {&updated: MORE SPOTS!}

The doctor says the only cure for these spots is a pink Pottery Barn Kitchen.

I had big plans last night to meet up with my college girlfriends and their baby girls for a little reunion/girls night. I came home from work and fed Isabella dinner and started to get ready. As I began getting her ready I noticed a couple of "bites" on her leg near her knee. I blew it off and started to change her diaper. Then I noticed a "bite" under her arm. Hmmmm.....but I continued on wondering what in the world could've bitten her in these freezing cold temperatures. Upon further inspection, I found one ear to be bright red. By the time Tommy got home 20 minutes later, I was convinced that we were in the throes of chicken pox. More spots had appeared in the short time frame it took me to call the doctor and do a few google searches on red spots on a 14 month old. The searches turned up all kinds of lovely....and since I had no idea what it was or what I could've possibly been exposed to...I had to cancel our plans. We both got changed into our jammies and moped around for a bit...she with her spots and me with my long face.
By the time bedtime came, there were more spots and they were much bigger. Very un-chicken-pox-like. She was completely normal otherwise.
This morning's trip to the doctor (hello again) revealed an allergy to penicillin (which she had been on to treat the aforementioned double ear infection.) So, the augmentin went in the trash and a bottle of zyrtec moved into the vacant spot.
Annnnnd....we could've gone on with our plans afterall.
And...the pesky rash canceled a photo shoot with her great great grandmother this afternoon, too.

Hoping to be clear skinned and healthy by Monday!
UPDATE: WELL NOW...IT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE THE SPOTS WILL BE GONE BY MONDAY. THEY ARE MULTIPLYING. Please pray that this is only a harmless skin rash. Even though she acts totally normal otherwise, we hate to see her like this.

Dad...feel free to skip this post. I am blocking you from making any smart remarks in the comment section!

I just loved this inauguration. It's the only one that I can recall really watching. I loved their dance to At Last and I couldn't stop smiling as I witnessed the way they looked at each other. I imagine that the presidency takes a serious toll on a marriage and I pray that the Obama family can continue on with the poise and grace that they have shown thus far.

via ACE
Below is an excerpt from an article in The New Yorker that I really enjoyed reading. Barack on his wife, Michelle:
Michelle is a tremendously strong person, and has a very strong sense of herself and who she is and where she comes from. But I also think in her eyes you can see a trace of vulnerability that most people don’t know, because when she’s walking through the world she is this tall, beautiful, confident woman. There is a part of her that is vulnerable and young and sometimes frightened, and I think seeing both of those things is what attracted me to her. And then what sustains our relationship is I’m extremely happy with her, and part of it has to do with the fact that she is at once completely familiar to me, so that I can be myself and she knows me very well and I trust her completely, but at the same time she is also a complete mystery to me in some ways. And there are times when we are lying in bed and I look over and sort of have a start. Because I realize here is this other person who is separate and different and has different memories and backgrounds and thoughts and feelings. It’s that tension between familiarity and mystery that makes for something strong, because, even as you build a life of trust and comfort and mutual support, you retain some sense of surprise or wonder about the other person.
via THE NEW YORKER

Isabella celebrating the inauguration.
This will go in her baby book. No matter how his term in office turns out, this is a very significant time in our country' s history. We would have never made it standing in the Washington Mall in the frigid temps...but we did watch the tivo'd inauguration from our warm and cozy living room. Isabella was so close she could almost touch the man himself.

I feel hopeful and excited about what is to come. And most importantly, I feel blessed to live in a country where the transfer of power is marked by a peaceful celebration. I am excited to have young children in the White House again...and anxious to get to know them as a family.

On a lighter note, I am not hopeful for this season's bachelor Jason Mesnick. Tommy and I think his choices are pretty slim. We have enjoyed watching the episodes so far. The most recent one had us laughing and rewinding and shaking our heads in disbelief! Our pick for the winner.....

is JILLIAN from CANADA. Though we were initially very turned off by her little hot dog diatribe...we think she is the closest thing to a total package. She is able to carry on a witty conversation(which scores major points in our book) and she has avoided the house drama so far...which is refreshing.

(We don't mean to be ugly, but we can't believe Jason hasn't eliminated Megan (the Lacrosse coach whom I am scared of) and the dental hygenist who requires constant attention or she throws up. These two are something else! They do/say something worse each time the camera is on them. While we sincerely like and respect the single mother of Sophia, we just don't feel any chemistry between she and Jason. Which is sad. She's probably make the best mate --long term.

And there you have it....our expert opinions on politics and the bachelor. Two completely important current event topics.

**It should be noted that Tommy isn't really an expert at all. He picked Shayne for the last winner and she left Matt Grant before the final rose had a chance to wilt.

Hope you are keeping your buns warm on this frigid weekend.

Isabella, 14 months, finally too big for sink baths.

We are enjoying a low-key, home bound weekend. Miss Isabella got sick on Thursday and is just now coming out of the fog. Check out these "sick eyes."

She will never be able to fake being sick...her eyes are the obvious sign. They sag and droop and run like crazy. It is pitiful to see. She gave us quite the scare on Thursday night when she spiked a 105.2 fever. We were an inch away from the ER but the fever broke pretty quickly with cool rags, 8 ounces of juice, and some serious prayers. We sat in the living room in near silence...just willing her to cool down. She was so lethargic and her one cheek was even more red than it was earlier in the night (pictured above.) We went to the doctor on Thursday afternoon and she was hysterical as they checked her (I swear, it's in our genes...we don't even like stethoscopes!) She cries so hard that it kills me. I make Tommy hold her as I can barely take it. This time, she acted like the baby scale scared her (she weighs 18 pounds now!) and cried the whole time she was being weighed. She has a double ear infection... the second one she has had in her life and a little worse this time, it seems. Just one more way in which she is Daddy's little clone....as he spent the first year of his life with severe ear infections! As of today, Saturday, she is showing some signs of normalcy. IE...she is back to slinging things off the coffee table, making her usual facial expressions, grabbing the phone out of our hands, etc. Thank God...I'm glad to see her smiling again. Fingers crossed that Tommy and I stay on the up and up. We are both running on little to no sleep (she has "slept" in between us for two nights and I use the term sleep very lightly because there wasn't much sleeping going on.) So, we are enjoying resting and catching up on things that needed to be done around here. We will have to skip church tomorrow (because her cough is still very bad!) so we will have some breakfast and watch on the internet in our PJ's.


This is me...at 27 weeks pregnant. Does it look like 40 weeks to anyone else? Yes, that is what I thought.

I don't know how this happened. I also don't know how I will add 12 more weeks of growth to this monstrosity! I will, indeed, be as big as a house. I will not be posting photos at that point. No matter how big though, I am always reminded of what a great and wonderful blessing this is. I wouldn't trade it for the world. All the aches and pains (and they are a plenty this second go round) are way overshadowed by the movements and the knowledge that someone is growing in there. It's amazing how God knits a child together (and how he made our skin so stretchy!)
At this time in my pregnancy with Ella I had her nursery nearly finished. I feel bad that we have yet to even start on his nursery! I have some ideas though...and we just have to decide which room we will use. I am hoping to choose furniture by the end of the month.
Nesting seems to me as real a part of pregnancy as a growing belly. The obsessive need to clean, organize, get rid of things, re-do, move around, etc. The urge has arrived and no one is more pleased than Tommy himself. He loves when I start with the crazy ideas and to-do lists. He begrudgingly works through the tasks with one eye on the football game. In addition to nesting, I am having the urge to make things...I am on this handmade kick and I see something everyday that I add to my "want to create" list. Sadly, I am not talking about recipes....more like stuff. I always enjoy being creative...but this is a little over the top. I suddenly have this inflated idea of what I am capable of--as in I am picturing myself rocking by the fireplace hand-embroidering onesies. Probably not going to happen...but it's a happy little thought. I am seeing sweaters at Anthropologie and seriously thinking, "I could make that!" when clearly, I could not even come close. It's baby brain at its worst. Perhaps I will just make the crib. Carpentry seems like a snap!

I am off to watch a riveting episode of 48 Mystery and then to bed...looking forward to sprawling out and sleeping soundly without worrying about the middle section of our "capital H." She will hopefully sleep soundly and fever free up in her room.

Things I love about you right now...

One of the things I scribbled down on my "goals for 09" was to take more candid photos. Each time I get busy with photography, my photo journalism of Isabella's growing up totally suffers. There will be weeks that pass when I forget to pick up the camera and take pictures of the everyday things she does...the imperfect, unposed, low light, spur of the moment shots that will be our favorites to look back on, no doubt. So yesterday, I grabbed the camera and took a series of photos of her...just being her. She isn't dressed up and her nose is mildly flaky due to teething...but the following shots capture her perfectly.
Isabella...
Some things I love about you right now....
~how you will give daddy or me your last cheerio if we pretend to want it.

~how your legs go crazy with excitement to see us at the end of the work day.

~your facial expressions. You have so, so many! Everyone notices them and thinks they are so funny.

~the way you say "uh-oh" as a warning before you do something you know you aren't supposed to.

~the way you are enthralled by daddy's laptop and the way you peek around the screen while he is working on it.

~your dramatic side. Even though we frequently tell you to calm down....I think your fake cry is rather cute. (But I'll never tell you.)

~your dancing. Somehow, some way...you were born with music in your soul and you start bouncing and clapping each time you hear any kind of music.

~your squinty, sleepy eyes in the morning. No matter what, you are always smiling when one of us comes up to get you.

~the way you do the "more, please" sign on speed when we've given you something new and inappropraite like Sprite. (only a taste...shhh)

~the way you shake your head yes or no at random. You have no clue what you are saying (most of the time) and sometimes we use you like a Magic 8 ball...."Isabella, should we go to ________ for dinner?"
"Should we move to a new house?"
"Do you think we will be off school for snow tomorrow?"
We put a lot of stock into which way your head shakes.
Grandma Tuey recently brought you some new clothes and she tried to slip a pair of bright pink, stiff, strawberry shortcake capri pants into the mix. I caught it and said "no, no...no cartoon capris" and she laughed and warned me that it will probably be all you want to wear when you get older. So I did the only logical thing...
I turned to you and asked,
"Isabella, do you like tacky clothes?"
Sadly, you shook your head in a big dramatic
YES.
Oh well.

~the way you grab the remote and hold it high over your head (like you've seen us do many times) and watch the screen to see what happens.

~the way you hum along when I sing "Jesus Loves Me..." to you before bed.

~the way you play with your books and pretend to read them.

~the way you so often creep into my thoughts when I am busy doing other things.

~your laugh. your precious little laugh.

~how you switch paci's very decidely even though they are all the exact same.

In short, I love everything about you.
But you probably already knew that.

random thoughts scattered throughout so many photos

Happy New Year!
In general, I need to be shoved like dead weight into anything new or different....so New Years is always melancholy for me. I always like the old year and hate to see it end...2008 was great for our family. We were extremely blessed in many ways. However, with the arrival of our baby boy...2009 is sure to be great in many ways, too. I guess my favorite part of looking toward a New Year is the list making. No resolutions for us really (not that we don't need them) but we try to go out to dinner and make a list of goals and things we'd like to do. Some of them we accomplish, some we don't. It's fun to make the list and also fun to go back over last year's list to see which things we did/didn't do. Tommy's are generally business related and mine are generally home/photography/creative related. Together, we come up with some marriage and parenting related goals. Some are very small (paint the foyer) and some are much bigger (get up one hour earlier in the morning) That, in case you were wondering, would be a huge accomplishment for the two of us. We might even get crazy and try to make it into our seats at church without missing all of the singing! Anyway, I am looking forward to some changes in my photography business, completing some creative projects that are on my list, becoming a stay at home mother of two, etc. We are also planning to take a trip without the kiddo(s). Yikes! I have yet to spend ONE NIGHT away from baby girl!
Here are some photos from several different Christmas celebrations...

Uncle Jus reading the Christmas story to Isabella. Notice the colorful things on her back? Tell ya later...

Ready to open some gifts on Christmas morning....(these are very out of order)

Doing her favorite thing....climbing on me.

Me...reading my stocking note from Thomas.

Isabella checking out a stocking stuffer... a big girl toothbrush!
How did Santa know that she would cut SEVEN teeth at once this holiday season?

More fun looking at the stocking stuff!

Her "very, very excited, I can't believe it" face! She really liked this gift....a Weeble Castle.

She had opened all of her gifts and is making the "more" sign. Spoiled much?

A Little Tikes Blackberry. (She quickly tossed it aside and crawled after the real thing!)

I love this face. So, so sweet.

Daddy assisting with the opening....

Again, the colorful "things" on her back. I can explain...they are actually thong underwear that my mom purchased (they were on sale, I needed some new ones, I know..TMI) for me and they turned out to be Isabella's most favorite part of Christmas. She continually put them on her back like a backback and crawled around the house. We would take them off and she would find them and put them on again. Though it is tacky, it was hysterical....and they were brand new...so we let her enjoy a few days of it. It is certainly something I will be documenting in her baby book. They have since been put away and she is not at all pleased.

Getting a kiss from dada at Meme's house.

Acting silly with momma...

Entertaining everyone...

Tommy's grandma gave her a baby doll and the only part she cared about was the baby's bottle...I think it made her miss her bottle. She kept trying to drink the fake milk.

Check out her paci in the above shot!

Tired eyes, Christmas Eve...

Looking at all her new books at Meme's house.

Milk mouth....

Pepper...enjoying the Christmas chaos...

Opening her gift from Ansleigh....good thing it wasn't breakable.

And a few other random thoughts...
You simply must go see Marley and Me (and/or read the book) Tommy and I saw it and were both sobbing in the theatre. It was fantastic! It was also the first movie we'd seen at the theatre in THREE YEARS! Isn't that crazy? We aren't huge movie goers and usually wait to see things on DVD.
Speaking of movies....we watched several others during our time off work. Below are our reviews...
Dan In Real Life= Pretty good. Tommy liked it more than I did.
88 minutes= Pretty good. I accidentally fell asleep at the very end. Al Pacino rarely disappoints.
Traitor= Not so good.
Love Actually (We were sooooo looking forward to this as we had heard great reviews!) = We both hated it!
The Women= Seriously? The worst movie we've seen since Dr. T and the Women.
Marley and Me was so great that it made up for all the sub par choices, though. We are also looking forward to seeing Nights In Rodanthe when it comes out on DVD in February.

Hmmmm...what else?
Isabella is cruising the furniture and clearing all surfaces. Our coffee table officially looks like it just got delivered from the store. We emptied the drawers, shelves, top....everything is gone! No more throwing things off for us to pick up! She also has quite a mouthful of teeth...and they all came in at once. Her hair is growing, too....we might just force it into some pigtails just to show it off.
Baby boy Floyd is growing, growing, growing....He is moving all the time and it is a feeling that I will always cherish. Each time I feel him, I have to smile. I always think the same thought, "Hi there." We will soon need to schedule our 3D ultrasound. That is exciting.

Better get to bed...students return tomorrow and I am supposed to be working on that 09 goal of getting up earlier. Perhaps I'll start next week?

All the best to you and yours in two thousand and nine.