Finally...FLORIDA!

Okay, I know it has taken me FOREVER to post about this, but I took literally hundreds of pictures on this trip, so I had to cull through each of those, pick the ones I wanted to post, edit them and load them to Blogger. I have to find a website or something that tells me how to do that faster. It took me so long just to get the pictures on here, then they were in the wrong order and there is no easy way to rearrange them. I'm sure there is a better way, I just don't know it yet. I did fiddle with my blog a little bit and figured out how to make the pictures bigger, and apparently some of them are TOO big. At this point I refuse to fix it. I am DONE with this post!

Anywho...

THIS precious boy...

...did not know who in the heck I was. But aren't those peepers purty?

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Day 1:

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We got to Florida at about 10:30 in the morning. Susan's wretched boss wouldn't let her off of work, so BJ and the kids picked us up at the airport. We had no definite plans for the day, but Jacob was dying to see the ocean for the first time, so we went home and changed clothes, grabbed some sub sandwiches and hit the beach.

This is Jacob going into the water for the first time.

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Sweet, fearless Ava was right behind him.

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She had just turned 2 a few weeks before, but she is a really good swimmer. She usually swims in pools, though. I have to tell you, this girl kills me. She is about the cutest thing you have ever seen in your life, and she is SPUN-KY with a capital S.

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Nothing like her mama, ahem.

"What? There's a camera on me?"

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BJJacob had a great time playing in the water with JacobUncle BJ.

BJ is one of those really great uncles, because he really plays with the kids and seems to enjoy it almost as much as they do!

The color varies on a lot of these pictures because I was experimenting with the white balance settings on my camera to check out the effect. I also experimented some during editing, so I wasn't very consistent.

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What's a day at the beach without being buried in the sand?

Is there anything in the world better than seeing your kid have to throw his head back in laughter because he's having so much fun?

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Of course, Ava had to do it as well...


I think for a 2-year old, she was very tolerant of the sand, but...


...enough is ENOUGH.


Bless it, I just can't stand it. She is just so cute and funny to me!

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Alan spent some time in the water with Jacob, too.

Despite all of my warnings and attempts to put sunscreen on Alan, he burnt to a crisp. Again.

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I played in the water quite a bit myself, and BJ actually took the camera out and took some pictures that *gasp* had me in them! Of course, I'm not about to post pictures of me 7 months pregnant in a bathing suit, but hey, at least there is a digital record somewhere now that I exist and I was on this trip!

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I don't know how I managed to not get a picture of Susan. She got to the beach at about 3:30-ish, and we stayed for a couple more hours, then we went home and grilled some yummy steaks and crashed. I'll wrap up my account of the first day with a couple more pictures of this cutie:

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Day 2:

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On Saturday morning we went over to BJ's parent's house to spend the day swimming in their pool and to celebrate Ava's 2nd birthday. And when I say, "spend the day swimming", I mean that Jacob got in that pool at 11:30 am and didn't come out until about 8:30 pm. He was SO wrinkled and his feet were actually sore from the bottom of the pool the next day.

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He just LOVES swimming:

Can you tell?

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BJ's sister Christina and her husband Frank were there with their beautiful kids as well:

Rebecca, 1 1/2

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Ryan, 3 (I think)

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and

Andrew, 5

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BJ's mother, father and his brother Justin and his wife Kassie were there as well, but I hardly got any pictures of the grown-ups. I did get a couple of shots:

Andrew and Pops (BJ's dad)

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and

Susan and Ava.

That ^^^ is where Tyler gets the purty peepers.
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Ava blowing out her birthday candles.

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And that concludes Day 2 of our trip!

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Day 3:

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On Day 3, BJ and his family rented a boat and we went out and spent a good portion of the day on the water. But before we left the house, I got a chance to take some more pictures:

Ava and Jacob

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Most of the time Jacob is pretty indifferent to Ava. As 1) a little girl, and 2) a much younger little girl, he pretty much has no use for her. He doesn't mind her, but he is not nearly as impressed with her as I am. I think she feels pretty much the same way about him.

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But when it comes to her little brother...

...there's definitely at least some affection. They are too precious!

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I actually took more pictures of Tyler than I have here, but for some reason a disproportionate amount of those turned out blurry. Still learning with this camera. These are a tad blurry too, but he's such a cutie it's easy to see past my photographic shortcomings:

He is an unbelievably sweet baby with a smile that can part clouds, but it seems that most of the time I was shooting him, he was not happy with me.

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We got on the boat before lunch and traveled to a beach, where we anchored near the shore and put up canopies. Then we grilled out with a portable grill and hung out on the beach most of the day.

My little Yankee boy wasn't really used to the heat, but he was fine since we were in water pretty much the whole time.

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This time around he and Andrew decided to try to build a sandcastle.

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Jacob also found some weird-looking creature, which we were told by the natives was a sea urchin:*

After playing for a little while longer, we got back to the boat and headed back to Naples. When we got back to the house, Susan got really sick and went to bed with a bug. At that point we were all pretty exhausted anyway, and we had to leave for the airport the next morning by 6:15 am, so I doubt we would have had an all-night gab session anyway!

We had SUCH a wonderful time. I love being in Florida with the beautiful weather and water, and I love seeing my sister and her family, so it really couldn't have been better (except for Susan getting sick--wouldn't wish that on her again!). We can't wait to do it again.

3-D Ultrasound, Take Two: Carter at 32 Weeks

We went back to have a another 3-D ultrasound done last week, and Carter cooperated a little bit more this time. They were able to get a few shots of his face, but it is a little bit smooshed looking because I am getting farther along and there is less amniotic fluid, which apparently makes it harder to get a clear shot. Still fun to kind of see what he will look like, though! I do love the last picture with the little smile.

The ultrasound tech said he is (or was right at 32 weeks when we had the ultrasound) 5 pounds, 2 ounces, with a margin of error of 6 ounces. He is measuring 2 weeks ahead on everything except for head circumference, which is measuring 4 weeks ahead. I'm still holding out hope that I won't have to have another C-section, but everytime I have another ultrasound that hope fades a little bit. The doctor said that because he measured so large this time that I will have another ultrasound at 37 weeks to see how big he is and whether they think they should get him out of there early. I would be so disappointed, but I'm just trying to focus on the fact that I would get to see him a couple of weeks early.

Can you guess...

...where we went this past weekend?




I have SO many great pictures to share that it is going to take me a little while to do a post about our Florida trip. Needless to say, though, we had a GREAT time! I'll try to have it up as soon as possible!

Busy Weekend

Ashley and Avery

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This new camera is too much fun! I haven't quite gotten it down pat, but I am really enjoying learning how to use this thing. I didn't have a really good reason to put that picture at the top of this post, but a sweet picture of a mama and her baby gets me every time. Anyway, on to the post! A couple of weeks ago, Alan's parents, Cathy and Gary (otherwise known as Maw and Paw) came up to visit. I am one of those lucky girls who has in-laws that I can not only tolerate, but who I would gladly welcome to move into our basement if they would show the slightest inclination of wanting to do so. So in other words, I was so excited that they were coming to visit. It was a very short trip--they got here Saturday morning and left Sunday morning--but we had a very full day and had a great time. The day started on Saturday morning when they arrived at Ashley and Matt's house. We headed over there and spent some time playing with this precious girl:

The hair hasn't calmed down a bit!

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I feel like I can just hear her thinking, "What are you doing???"

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Next, we went and watched Jacob play in his soccer game, which his team won. It was a beautiful day, perfect weather for the game. This is Michigan, so I had sat shivering through most of his games before this one.

I didn't get the exact moment when he scored his goal, but this is close!

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After that, we went back to our house to rest for a bit, because Paw Avery needed a nap.

Avery and Paw

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Next, we headed out to Jacob's basketball game.

Here he is making his move.

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Here are Maw, Ashley and Avery.

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This was Avery's first basketball game. With this family, it definitely won't be her last.

Maw, Jacob and Paw.

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Jacob wasn't particularly happy because this was the first game they had lost all season.

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After the game, we went back to our house to spend some time together. We had put a pork loin on to smoke before we left for the ballgame, so we had some good old-fashioned pulled-pork BBQ to eat for supper. Anybody that knows us knows that THIS...

...is how we feel about good pulled-pork BBQ.

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So we sat around and ate, talked, loved on each other...

Avery with her Daddy Matt

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...played some basketball...

Ashley

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...loved on each other some more...

Avery and Paw

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...ate and ate and ate, and loved each other some more.

Maw and Avery

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Okay, okay, I know those pictures only show various people loving on Avery, but a baby is just a camera magnet and it was the first time I was around her since I got my camera. I will try to take more pictures of everyone else next time. Which I hope is soon!

Mothers' Day 2010, continued...

I was already in shock after seeing the camera that I wanted so badly, but then I saw this perfect card that Jacob had made for me:

How cute is that? He is SUCH a great kid. When it said, "Check your e-mail," I assumed that he had done another artistic-type thing on the computer and had e-mailed it, but I was wrong. When I checked my e-mail, this is what I found:

Alan, Jacob and I are going to visit my sister Susan and her family in Florida for 3 days! I am BEYOND excited about this. I miss Susan, BJ and their babies SO much I can't stand it, and come on, we're talking about FLORIDA! I am ever so much more impressed with Florida since we moved to Michigan. It was 46 degrees and rainy all day here today, and all I could think about was our upcoming trip. Also, Jacob has never seen the ocean, so I really look forward to getting to take him to the beach. SO excited.

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Did I not tell you have the best husband and son EVER?

Mothers' Day 2010

See this guy?

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And this guy?

Best husband and son EVER. They were the best husband and son ever before today, but today they REALLY outdid themselves.

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First of all, the first thing I saw when I walked into the kitchen this morning was the camera that I have been coveting and saving for for about a year. I had only saved about half of the money I needed, and I was worried I wouldn't be able to scrounge up the rest of it before Carter is born. Turns out, Alan had been saving, too, just so he could help me out buying it. He not only did that, but he bought me a zoom lens and a camera bag, too! I am LOVING it, as you may or may not be able to tell by the pictures above. But that wasn't even the best part--I'm out of time now, though, so I'll have to share the rest as soon as I get a chance to upload a few more pictures!

Carter at 29 Weeks, 2 Days

We finally came up with a name, but we still haven't settled on a middle name. It is funny, because I look back at our list of names early on in the pregnancy and we considered the name Carter but I scratched it off the list pretty early. After looking at tens of thousands of names, we came back around to it and decided we really like it. So, Carter it is! Any suggestions for a middle name would be greatly appreciated!

Yesterday we went to have a 3-D (or is it 4-D?) ultrasound performed. Unfortunately, Hank decided to be stubborn, and this is pretty much the extent of what we saw:

He kept both hands covering his face the entire time. We have ONE shot where you can see a profile of his eyes and nose, and he is covering up only his mouth with his upper arm, but it is kind of like one of those optical illusions where you either see the old woman or the young woman--I think I would have to point everything out to you for you to see it. Here it is:

I can see his precious little fat cheeks and little nose, can you? The ultrasound estimated his current weight as 3 pounds, 11 ounces, or 2 weeks ahead. He is pretty much measuring 2 weeks ahead on everything except head circumference, which is measuring 3 weeks ahead--lucky me. Jacob's head was in the 95th percentile when he was born--hence the C-section. :( Anyway, we are supposed to go back sometime next week for another 3D/4D ultrasound to try to see his face again. We got another good 2-D profile shot. Precious boy. *Sigh*.

No Words Necessary--starring Ava and Tyler

As promised...

...here are some updated pictures of my adorable niece,Avery Ann. She is a little bit over 2 months old now, and she is just TOO cute. She has the sweetest smile, and her hair is just AWESOME!

Look at that sweet smile, and that HAIR!

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She has SUCH a sweet face.

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Ashley sent this to me by e-mail, saying,

"We got our hair did to go to the dr yesterday!!!!" Love it.

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With all the pregnancy hormones, this one is about enough to make me cry!

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What do you think? Does she already look like she's going to be trouble?

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I am SO thankful to have Ashley, Matt and Avery in Michigan with us for at least another year while Ashley finishes her residency at the local hospital (as CHIEF resident, by the way, no big thang...). I'm afraid that they are going to scoot right back down South as soon as she is done, though, and I can't say that I blame them!

Basketball Fever

Jacob has been playing basketball in various leagues since he was 4, but last summer was the first time he really started taking it seriously and practicing, and started taking an interest in watching it on tv. I know he realizes how much Alan enjoys it, and you can tell Jacob really wants to make him proud by being good at it. They have really enjoyed playing together. This video is of Alan playing a game with Jacob last summer on the lower goal.

This year Jacob practices on a 10-foot goal (but still plays on an 8-foot goal in his league), and it is amazing how much he has improved. Alan is his coach. I'll have to get some new video and put it on here to compare.