Introducing...

...my new little neice, Brooklyn Hope. 

Born Dec. 21st, 5:56 pm.  7lbs, 8oz. and 19.5".

She's healthy and so beautiful!

I'll save the details for Kelly to share on her blog, but here are a couple pictures.

We're still here!

I've been neglecting my blog lately mostly because I have been so sick this pregnancy.  I'm finally feeling much better and have vowed to myself to start doing much better at updating.

The big moving day was October 31st.  Here is Luke his last day at our old house:

We moved to a much smaller house about only 5 miles away.  We are planning on staying here for 2-3 years while we design and build a house we hope to stay put in!

It was bittersweet moving away from the house we took Luke home to, but we're exciting to be moving closer to our goal of building our own house.

In the meantime, so much has happened and I have so few pictures.

Here's one of Luke getting his first haircut.

Big Brother Picture

I failed to mention in my previous post that I'm losing my brain lately too! I guess too much going on.

I meant to post this cute picture that we used to tell my family we're pregnant.

#2

I've been slacking quite a bit from blogging lately. But for good reasons:

We closed on our house last Friday and are renters in this house until we close this Friday on our new home. That means lots of packing and preparing!

I've found it really hard to get anything done because I am tired and so sick.

Why?

Because I'm 8 weeks pregnant!

What better reason to be tired and sick.

We had a sonogram last Friday. Everything looked great and we got to hear the sweetest sound... a strong heartbeat! Praise the Lord!

Looking forward to June 9th, 2010!

(and being settled in a new house)

Here's a picture of our little raspberry:

Pumpkin Patch

Here's our playgroup at the pumpkin patch this year.  Luke is quite the adventurer and ran all over the place.  I can't believe he sat still for this picture.

Luke loves faces, and especially sticking his finger in mouths.

Quite a change from a year ago!

and this picture from last year still cracks me up!

Santa at Phipps

Can you believe this time of year is starting? Here's your reminder for the most popular Santa in Atlanta...

It's October!

I absolutely LOVE fall!  The weather here is beautiful and we've taken advantage of being outside every minute possible.

Here's my recommendations to kick off fall:

Chili

&

Cornbread (you gotta try THIS RECIPE from Paula Deen)

and a Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte!

Sold House and LOTS of rain.

We've been quite busy lately. After our house being on the market for nearly a year, with tons of lookers but no takers, we finally got 2 offers in one day! We negotiated both, worked a deal with one, and got a signed contract. Now comes the month of waiting and inspections, appraisals, etc. Keep us in your prayers that all goes well.

The rain here has been unbelievable! Here are some photos we took.

The ramp to the dock that your normally go down.

Monday morning:

Monday afternoon:

Tuesday morning:

can't even see the ramp

Thursday..wow!

In other news, we've been learning to steer,

learning to use markers,

and had our first goose egg on our head!

Featured!

Here is a special THANK YOU to "Design Dazzle", they featured Luke's nursery on their website HERE! and I think they did a great job!

Busy Week, Busy Boy

We have been super busy this week. I have had to clean my house for showings this week, which is NOT easy with a 13 month old little boy.  Lately, he has entered into this stage where he needs my attention at all times.  If I'm not paying attention to him, he's at my feet whining to get up, see what I'm trying to get done, watch a show with him, play with him, and his favorite thing- go outside.  Which when he points to the door and whispers in my ear, "owsigh, owsigh", who can resist?

Here's some pictures from today.  It was just Luke and me at home today during UGA's first game...

without his play buddy there, he actually sat on the couch with me for about the first 20 minutes. 

and then we had other things to do and play with...

Pumpkin Dress

I don't know if I've mentioned that my niece has a name now!

Brooklyn Hope

Here's her first little dress I made her.  She can't wear it for a year, but I just couldn't resist.

Football Season

Are you ready? Less than 2 weeks to go. I can't wait, partly because that means cooler temperatures are on their way also!

Luke got a new jersey today and we had to try it out...

You wanna piece of me?

Watch out!

Tractors and our Weekend

It's not uncommon for Andy to come home from work hauling some type of man toy equipment behind his truck.  I didn't realize how common it was until he came home Friday with this...

and I never even asked about it. 

Andy couldn't wait to show Luke what he had and let him try it out.

Luke was quite impressed.

The rest of our weekend was pretty laid back.  Luke and I rode with my mom and dad to some outlet stores.  Luke would try and make friends with all the little kids he would see, including these:

He also got some new shoes:

and his first shiner from the lego table:

It actually looks worse in person than in this picture.

Happy Monday!

Hope you all have a great week!

It's a...

My niece is going to be a...

GIRL!

We are so very excited about this news!

I'm thinking cute monograms, pink ruffles, dresses, bloomers, bows, pony tails...

p.s. Kelly tells me she is really close to finally starting her own blog now that she has found out what she is having!

Baskets of Veggies & Bundles of JOY

If you live in the North or West Cobb area, I've got a find for you!

Farmer's Market Baskets

This is a business created by a stay at home mom (of 7!).  She goes to the State Farmer's Market and then sells baskets ready to pick up in our community.

I thought this was a fabulous idea for it's convenience, price, and our family's need to eat more fruits and veggies.

I went to pick up my first basket this week to see what a "Farmer's Market Basket" was all about.  I was so surprised to find my $15 basket full of fresh potatoes, tomatoes, peaches, lettuce, cabbage, carrots, bananas, cucumbers, pineapple, and corn. (I think)

Here's it is:

The owner was super nice and the place was packed full of people getting their baskets.

Check out their website above to see all of the pick up locations.

So after picking up my fruits and veggies, I started preparing them, hoping that I won't let anything go bad.

So what was Luke up to while I was busy in the kitchen?

Figuring out how to climb in and out of the cabinets:

and figuring out how to put on mommy's flip flops:

and many, many, many other things that I did not get a photo of.

And last, but certainly not least for my Friday, we get to find out if Luke's cousin is going to be a GIRL or BOY!!!!! YAY!!!!

I've been waiting for this day for months.

Stay tuned...

Why we Love Alden...

He comes to visit and totally makes Luke's day!

  And he comes bearing gifts...precious drawings he made for Luke.

The drawing above is Luke in this outfit.

Alden is my cousin, Matt's son.  Matt is overseas serving our country right now.  Say a prayer for Matt, can you imagine being away from your son for so long? I sure can't...but thank you Matt and all of our other soldiers for serving!

We love you, Matt

and

We love you, Alden

Weekend at Nanni & Papa's & Lawn Lessons

Happy Tuesday! We just ended a great weekend- with only 1 photo to post...

This is Luke hanging out with Papa on their back deck.

Luke and I spent the weekend with my mom and dad because Andy was away on a guy's weekend at the lake.

We had a great time, Luke was spoiled all weekend of course, and I was spoiled with time to myself!  I ran all kinds of errands and did all kinds of chores, all without a schedule!

I even attempted mowing the lawn for the first time...ever.

I wanted it to be a surprise for Andy when he got home.

It only took about 10 calls to my dad before he said he was heading over to help.

I even did the diagonal lines to make it pretty, not too bad for my first time, right?

It might even look better if I took the picture from the road, but this is a public blog, so you don't get to see my house.

I also went with Kelly to Babies R Us to help get her registry started and look what I found:

It's a Nana Saver.  I had been wondering if anyone else shared my half banana problem. While it still makes the end of the banana brown, it does keep it fresher than just exposing it to air.  And keeps away any fruit flies.  Not bad for $2.99.

It makes me want to try out my friend, Beth's recommendation, the Avo Saver.

Beth, is it weird that we're both so concerned about saving our fruit?

Easy Blueberry Crumb Cobbler

Super EASY and super YUMMY

(and super rich)

All you need is this:

to make this:

You can print the recipe ...here.